Food for a Year: June 17-July 1

On Cairncest Farm in Plainfield, two brothers, Edmund and Garth Brown, have resolved to eat only what they raise/grow/forage/hunt themselves for an entire year. Edible Finger Lakes is carrying biweekly updates from the Brown brothers as they embark on this food journey.

Food for a Year: May 17-June 1

When I embarked on my home-grown food challenge I anticipated there would be a low point in the variety of foods I could eat at some point in the spring. Back in January when I first started I thought that the nadir would strike sometime in May. Well, it turns out I was off base by a month and the barest shelves showed themselves in June. I estimate I consumed greater than 90 percent of the month’s calories in the form of rutabaga and pork. Of course I had salads and other cooked greens from the garden, but the substantially calorific roots have not sized up yet. By the end of June I’d eaten exactly three baby beets, one turnip and three small carrots from this year’s plantings. Otherwise my root staples still come from the root cellar in the form of rutabaga.

Despite the monotony of eating the same thing over and over again I’m actually not tuckered out on either pork or rutabaga. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well the brassicas kept in the cellar. The temperature inside the cellar climbed well above optimal storage temperature in the end of April, and the rutabagas are only just beginning to show that they’d prefer cooler temps to keep their quality. I only need them to keep a few more weeks and then I’ll have early potatoes, summer squash and other fresh goodies. –Edmund 

Brothers Edmund and Garth Brown are owner-operators of Cairncrest Farm in Plainfield, New York. They produce and sell grass-fed beef and pastured pork. They blog about their 2015 homegrown challenge here.

Read the last Food for a Year post here.

Photo by Normandy Alden