As spring arrives, I’ve been thinking over the past year since I started my personal Sustainable Kitchen Project. I actually accomplished quite a bit considering the hectic pace of a busy mom. It dawned on me maybe many of us can support each other by my inviting all of you to participate in the Sustainable Kitchen Project.

Here was my original to-do list with my comments as to status in italics:

• Grow herbs, vegetables and fruit (done! maybe not well, but I did do it)
• Make juices, teas and sodas ( made orange juice once… wasn’t impressed with results, but I do still need to make another go at it)
• Make yogurt (well, I have bought plain yogurt as starter several times and let it go bad… does that count for anything? I am very excited to try out a cool crock pot yogurt recipe I just learned about, though).
• Make pasta (no, but I did buy some amazing locally made pasta like a killer ravioli at the Asheville Downtown Farmers Market).
• Bake breads (I have tried this one over and over and over again… my bread is still pretty awful, but seems to be slowly improving).
• Start a compost (well, I have a discreet wooded area of my yard where I have randomly added compost ingredients… I am not sure if it will turn into compost or not. I’ll let you know when I start gardening this year! I did see a cool compost bin at Sam’s Club for $50 that I might buy)
• Buy more local produce and products (This I definitely feel like I did very well. We bought at some of the local farmers markets on several occasions, and I have gone out of my way to buy things that are locally grown and made).
• Learn to preserve items when they are local and fresh with freezing, canning, etc. (I actually made my first go at canning this year and was surprised at just how simple it was. This coming year I hope to have more homegrown produce to can and get much more time to try this).
• Make jams and other condiments (I made apple butter that rocked, with locally grown apples we picked together as a family, and then canned in my first attempt at canning. This was probably the best example, the time I was proudest, of my Sustainable Kitchen Project attempts. That’s because it had the full circle from being local to making the apple butter from scratch to canning it myself. Next time, maybe it will be with apples I grow, too!)
• Make butter (on my to-do list… but I did buy some marbles finally to follow a cool project to let my kids make the butter themselves)
• Make beer and wine (I have made beer years ago, but haven’t tried the wine. I did buy a couple grape plants that have wine grapes, so this could happen this year from grapes I grow myself!)
• Make cheese (can that be done at home? that would be coool!) (still on my to-do list, but this one actually sounds kind of easy so I may do it very soon)

So as you can see, I did actually try several new things and I at least learned more about many of the things on my list. I was kind of impressed with myself, just because it sure didn’t feel to me like I accomplished much on this front.

So here is how to participate. I have created a fancy badge so you can show off your commitment to a more sustainable kitchen:

Copy this code and insert into your sidebar:
<a href=”http://kelbycarr.com/join-the-sustainable-kitchen-project”> <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-227″ title=”sustainablekitchenprojectbadge”
src=”http://kelbycarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/sustainablekitchenprojectbadge.jpg”
alt=”" hspace=”5″ width=”180″ height=”136″ align=”left” /> </a>

Then do the following:

1. In your Sustainable Kitchen Project post, make your own to-do list of all the things you’ve been meaning to do in your kitchen to be more sustainable but haven’t.
2. Add posts as you try things on your to-do list, especially with pictures to help others learn.
3. Upload pictures to the Sustainable Kitchen Project Flickr Pool.
4. Add the following code at the end of any Sustainable Kitchen Project post: <a href=”http://kelbycarr.com/join-the-sustainable-kitchen-project”>Join the Sustainable Kitchen Project</a>
5. Leave a comment here (preferably right after you post about your project, since CommentLuv will automatically pull the link) to point us to your personal project. Be sure to include a link to your main post.