Eat Locally Part 4 - what is around my house

I have locally grown food around my house. Literally, they are around my house. I have potted organic herbs around the deck and front door to find the sun for them. I bought most of the seedlings last year from the Gardens of Babylon, Farmers Market, 900 8th Ave North, Nashville, TN 615-244-8949 and I raised them with organic fertilizer, and left them to fend for themselves all winter long. These plants are so hearty, that they decided to come back for me. I can use these fresh herbs for my Eat Locally challenge. I also have dried a bunch of herbs this winter, and I will use those too.

I have fresh parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme as my potted herbs. Isn't that a song?

I have ton of oregano, so I plan on using my oregano as a flavoring to bake a chicken. I am not sure how to run the stats on these herbs because they have been paid for last year, and I have been eating them all year long. I am going to say this:

Lannae's herbs =$0.00
Lannae's herbs Distance from Nashville: 0 miles

I still have 2 quarts of blueberries in my freezer. If I can't get local strawberries as my fruit for the week, I will be looking to be creative with the blueberries. Perhaps blueberry rice pudding, or just eating frozen berries like m&ms? Anyway, the berries are from an organic blueberry orchard in my super secret blueberry place in Franklin. I haven't decided if I need to dip into these little blue gems yet, but if I have to dive into them to supplement my fruit intake, I will make sure I add the cost to the tally. Untiil then, $0, and Franklin Super Secret blueberry orchard is about 20 miles from the center of Nashville.

The other things I have at home are honey and wine. The honey is dark wildflower honey from Goodlettsville, TN. I have about 1/2 quart left and I plan on using that as my sweeting agent instead of sugar. I use it in everything.

Tennessee USA Honey Farm Honey 1/2 quart: $7.89/2 = $3.95
Goodlettsville, TN Distance from Nashville: 15 miles

The wine, well, we make our own wine. We have had 3 vintages of Merlot, Shirah and Barbera. The grapes came from Napa, but they were brought here to be made into wineby a collective of about 50 people. We get together every September with Ernesto and friends to crush grapes, pick out stems, ferment, eat potluck yummies, and sing songs made famous by Sinatra. The equipment we use is Ernesto's Italian grandfather's equipment. It is made of old hard wood and cast iron. It is a great time to share this experience with new and old friends. I love making wine because this is what communities and families used to do in Europe, they would come together for the harvest and make something that comes from their hearts and hands. It is amazing to me that it takes about 50 lbs of grapes to make a dozen bottles of wine. Our last year, our collective had 10,000 lbs of grapes, which translates to about 2400 bottles of wine living all over the greater Nashville area. At my house, we have called ourselves the Llama Winery. For our wine, we have aged all our wines for over 1 year with a variety of American, Hungarian, and French toasted oak. The French oak has provided our wine with a very special quality that I love. Anyway, with the equipment, disinfectants, oak and cost of grapes, it averages out to be about $7 per bottle for us. This is the wine I will be using for the week. This wine is as local as it gets, and the stats on wine are these:

Llama Wine varietal undecided until I uncork it: $7
Llama Winery Distance from Nashville: 0 miles

Total to date: $34.14

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