The Beginning and the Rules

After little deliberation and even less thinking, my wife and I decided to begin a journey and a blog. For one year we will live by a few simple rules regarding our food. This idea came to both of us at the same time: in our hot tub, drinking Gin Bucks and waiting for our store-bought frozen lasagna to get done.

Our biggest rule, rule number 1: The following seven (7) rules will apply for 1 year.

Rule 2: ZERO food may be purchased from a grocery store. No food that passes our lips from this point on (after our lasagna and what we bought at the grocery store today, or have in the cupboard already) will be from a grocery store.

FYI: We did not prepare for this journey. We have some things that will last a year in our pantry already that we will eat or cook with from time to time, but we in no way stocked up for this. Chicken stock will come from a chicken carcass that is what'll remain form our farm-bought chicken.

Rule 3: Only items that are non-food, like beverages and household cleaners and shampoos and various and sundry other items may come from a grocery store. This only applies to beverages that are not produced locally or by a farm (i.e. milk is NOT to come from a grocery store, but Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice cocktail may).

Rule 4: Effort must be made to source all grocery (food or otherwise) items locally and/or from a farm. In other words, we will search for locally made milk, olive oil, cranberry juice, soap, tooth paste, etc. Since we can't spend all day every day on the internet or in a library some items may be brought to our attention by others, or after some time of us buying them from a grocery store. The intent here is to work diligently toward finding equivalents to what we have bought in the past from a grocery store at a farm or a local producer knowing full well it'll take time to find and to get. So if we end up buying SOMETHING at a grocery store that we later find is available at a farm or farmers market or from a local producer, we'll let you know that we did and that we'll purchase it there going forward.

Rule 5: The grocery list and costs for food items must be posted at least monthly. We will make every effort to post weekly, or when we go to a farm or market, but we want to give ourselves an out just in case we don't feel like it.

Rule 6: Both of us will hunt, fish, slaughter, grow, harvest and produce as much food as we can with literally zero preparation (except our already built home garden) than we have done already. In other words, I will take a basic hunter's course when I can and get a hunting license. The both of us will go fishing from time to time. We will (and already do) grow vegetables and fruits in our garden. We will (and already do) gather eggs from the chickens we keep in our backyard.

Rule 7: We both must blog about our adventures at least once each week other than to post our grocery bill and neither may read the other's blog (or tell what they are going to write about) until after both are posted that week. This is to encourage us to both write weekly and to not sway the other to write or not to write about a particular event. Some blogs of our may be about the same event, but from different perspectives.

Rule 8: It is not imperative to turn down food purchased by others from a grocery store, but we may not ASK for it. In other words, we may from time to time go to a party and eat a chip or fifty. We might go to a pot luck or to dinner at a friend's house and we will not turn down their hospitality. What we must not do for one year is ask our friends to buy us stuff at a grocery store to get around our rules.

We hope you enjoy reading about our journey as much as we are about to enjoy living it.

Mike and Trisa