The February NO-SHOP challenge - Eating from the Larder for a Month.

Can I feed us for a month from the food we have in the cupbards, freezer, and fridge?

I have set myself a February challenge.  The garden is still producing a generous quantity of winter vegetables – parsnips, celeriac, kale, cabbages, sprouting broccoli Swiss Chard, leeks, celery, turnips, and assorted mustard and oriental greens.  The garden had also stocked the cupboards with a few kilos of dried peas, beans, and tomatoes, and the freezer still has a supply of green beans, beetroot, ratatouille, blackberries, stewed apples, and plenty of assorted frozen meats.  I have half a dozen pumpkins still ‘sunning’ themselves on  the dining room doorsill, and garlic plaits hanging in the kitchen.

In addition to this bounty there is the usual assortment of baking items (flour, rolled oats, sugar, dried fruits, nuts), and a small supply of butter, cheese and eggs in the fridge.

Plenty of herbs, spices, and essences hang out in small shelves beside the boiler, and I cleared out the dry stores cupboard and found tins of fruit, tomatoes, corn, and tuna, and loads of rice, noodles cornmeal, pasta, couscous, and bulghar wheat. (Unfortunately – for my challenge - we are trying to reduce consumption of ‘beige’ processed carbs.  It just means that I will have to be more creative with everything else.)

My makeshift larder (on top of the cupboards) has jam, chutney, and jars and jars of pickled beetroot.  We still have about 10kg of unsold honey from our bees too.

“So,” I told myself, “I wonder if it is possible to make meals for a month without going food shopping.  February is a short month so it seemed a good candidate and on Saturday morning my project got under way.

Now to complicate this – I am only at home 2 days a week.  5 days a week I live a makeshift life-style on a small yacht (moored close to my work) so as to avoid the drag of commuting.  It does mean however that I really need to plan the meals ahead and make things that are transportable – and easily reheated in the microwave.

This week’s meals are 2 or more repeats and combinations of the following:

Breakfasts are porridge or porridge (and maybe some porridge for a change)….

Lunch and dinner could be:
- portions from the leftovers of a huge chilli con carne which we had for dinner on Saturday night, with roasted celeriac and steamed kale;
- parsnip, roasted garlic, and ginger soup, accompanied by polenta baked with Swiss chard, dried tomatoes and grated cheese
- Succotash, and a salad based on Chinese mustard greens,
- fresh turnips (which I love to eat raw, savouring their crisp winter sweetness)
- a supply of individual steamed puddings from my ‘Easy Steamed Pudding’ recipe.

Mr B has by now discovered the handwritten list of ‘contents’ stuck to the fridge door indicating what I have left behind.  He isn’t compelled to participate in my February challenge and can jolly well buy whatever he wants to feed himself on, but as February is a low point in his financial year (the off-season of his employment) he quite welcomes a fridge stocked with ‘heat and eat’ meals.  He likes eggs more than I do so he has also got some mini ham and veg quiches to add variety to his menus.

What am I going to miss?  Fresh carrots definitely.  I love fresh raw carrots at this time of year.  I cannot grow carrots to save myself so you will not have seen them in the garden list at the start of this spiel.

Onions will run out and that is a real concern.  I use them in everything savoury.  The ones I grew were used up weeks ago, so we have only one bin full (maybe 2 kg) of bought ones between us and very challenging (boring?)  meals…..

What else?  I don’t eat them but I suspect eggs will run out within a week or so, and that will put the cobblers on a few things that have an egg in them as binder – and Mr B’s mini quiches.

Cheese will have to be rationed, but I think I can make 1 kg of that last a month.

What will be left over? 

- Pork.  We put a whole pig in the freezer last Summer and still have several roasting joints left.  We could eat pork every weekend, and cold pork in every possible way during the weeks but the word ‘BORING’ comes quickly to mind.
- Pumpkins and garlic
- Jams, Chutneys, and mustards (there really is jam for England in the larder)
- Beige food (rice, noodles, pasta, in particular)
- Vinegar, olive oil, and honey
- Teabags (I hope.  If teabags run out the challenge is forfeit, we will just have to go to the shops then)..