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.

I feel like there are some area in which I’ve really come a long way, and then others where I haven’t even scratched the surface.

I’ve started actually cooking recipes from scratch from my many, many cookbooks just recently. That was definitely on my “meant to do but never do” list for ages. I also used to kill anything that grew in dirt. I actually have harvested quite a bit of fresh homegrown organic tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.

I now currently have a pretty awesome fall and winter garden going, and I have so many pumpkins emerging in my front yard it will be a challenge to use them all. I have been teaching my kids about the importance of these issues, including a fun visit to a local orchard to pick our own apples and pumpkins.

I definitely have focused a lot more on buying local food products, as well as making my own food from scratch much more often and buying far less prepackaged foods.

But then there are also so many things I haven’t gotten to, or haven’t mastered like I had hoped. I have purchased graham flour and even a very cute set of animal cracker presses to make my own healthier, homemade snack cookies for the kids. All of that has just sat in the pantry.

I have, however, finally nailed down my three primary Sustainable KJitchen Project Challenges. I am betting many of you have similar challenges, so I will address each one and the solutions that have worked or that I plan to try.

Sustainable Kitchen Project Challenge #1: Time

This has to be, by far, the biggest challenge for me. I constantly feel like I’m fighting to steal a few moments to do something related to this project. In some ways, those stolen moments work out. I come to get antsy each afternoon to go tend to my garden, even though it’s just a couple minutes’ time of rushed watering and picking. Shoot, my whole fall/winter garden was planted pretty much in spurts of weeding and tossing out seeds.

I’ve got a plan to improve this situation. I plan to have one day a week set aside for food. I am hoping even if I just dedicate naptime once a week to baking bread or making a stockpile from scratch of a food I buy prepared now or canning something from the garden, this will eventually make a huge difference. We’ll see if I can actually stick to this.

Sustainable Kitchen Project Challenge #2: Money

Right from the beginning, I learned something. Having a sustainable kitchen doesn’t come without a price, especially at the front end. In many cases, it does pay off in the long run by saving on the expense for buying produce or buying pricy packaged foods. But it would be very easy to spend way more on going sustainable than you spend just buying items at the store.

A couple ways I have solved this is to simply go with the cheapest route, not the easiest or coolest. I almost always start from seed for the vegetables, for example. Then if they don’t make it, I’m only out a couple bucks. Also, as I go through this process, in many ways being sustainable means reducing your dependence on buying things.

For example, once I get some nice compost I won’t need to spend so much money on organic vegetable garden dirt. I am spending money buying canning jars, but I can reuse those. I am also taking one project on at a time. Instead of spending a fortune buying gear and supplies and ingredients for everything I want to try making, I do a little at a time.

I also go vintage when I can. I have found some pretty cool finds, from vintage cookbooks to kitchen gadgets to furniture (do you know about the coolness that is the early 20th century Hoosier cabinet?… I am in a quest to find the perfect one right now). Thrift stores, antiques dealers and Goodwill shops are all great places to forage for nice kitchen supples, and it is supporting the sustainability notion by recycling instead of consuming new products.

Sustainable Kitchen Challenge #3: Space

This is another truly pesky one. My kitchen is way smaller than I’d like. I have almost no counter space. That means even when I have the time and money challenges conquered above, I have no good place to work so I avoid it. I have gone on a mildly psychotic binge of buying cheap baskets and bins to try to get better organized, and my next step is to get above-mentioned Hoosier.

These are kitchen cabinets that are designed to be baking centers, and I hope to make this cabinet my cooking from scratch epicenter. They even have these amazing bins for flour that lead below to a sifter. You can find them in antiques stores for anywhere from $200 to $1,200 (and I’m sure even higher). It’s certainly not cheap, but it’s an awful lot cheaper than buying new built-in kitchen cabinets and counter! And no new trees need to be sacrificed for the cause.

So those are the challenges I have faced. I am still working towards Sustainable Kitchen bliss. I have lots of work left to do. I hope next year that I can post a killer, cool picture like this amazing canning mania pantry photo.

And I’d love to hear from you. What challenges do you have to pursuing your kitchen goals? What solutions have you found? And are you up to join me in the challenge? If so, I will let you know when I get my page with cool SKP badge posted.

_{Photo of girls picking apples, © Kelby Carr, photo of Hoosier cabinet, public domain photo at Wikipedia.}

Even though cupcakes aren’t a healthy option for kids, I figured making them ourselves instead of buying them at the store is in keeping with my Sustainable Kitchen Project. Plus, the cupcake pan made teeny tiny cupcakes, so that is in keeping of my feeling that it’s OK to indulge in moderation. Plus, it just looked like fun.

The kit itself was actually impressive for something from the cheapo shelves at the bookstore. It came with a cupcake baking pan that surprised me with its weight and quality. It came with a little chef’s apron (actually too small to fit my 5-year-old, but a perfect fit for my 2-year-old daughter). It came with icing piping kit that is actually pretty flimsy, but that my 5-year-old thought was pretty cool.

The best thing about it was, in fact, the cupcake baking and decorating cookbook. It has an impressive range of photo illustrated instructions and recipes ranging from choco-peanut butter cupcakes on the bad-but-so-good side and Zippy Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes as one of the great healthy cupcake alternatives. The book also has a kickstand so you can prop it up on the counter!

I was impressed with this product and would love to tell you where to find it. I just spent 20 minutes scouring the web to find this thing for nothing, so it must be discontinued. The cookbook mentions Flying Frog Publishing, which I also can’t find online. But just FYI if you see this on the cheapo shelf of your own local bookstore and want to buy it.

So we set out to make the cupcakes. My daughter chose the white cupcakes simply because there were instructions on using food color. We bought some fun neon food colors. To be more sustainable, I decided to use manual beaters to make the cupcakes. All I have to say on that point is power is a good thing. I felt good about using something that didn’t require power, but my wrists weren’t thanking me during or afterwards.

I also never realized quite how many steps are involved in making a basic cupcake, but it was a whole lot of fun. Between preparing the batter for the cupcakes, then cooking them, and then making the icing, and then cleanup, it really is a commitment of a good, solid hour. It never got boring, though.

My daughter lobbied pretty hard to making the cupcakes pink, but I vetoed it because our lone boy always gets subjected to girlie stuff. I thought we’d make it a little less girlie and we went with purple icing, and a purple-blue cake.

The icing, too, didn’t turn out so hot. It tasted great, but I think my substitution of banana extract may have curdled the icing. I’m really not sure, but it definitely would not go smooth no matter how much we mixed. But in the end it didn’t matter.

After all that work, we each got one miniature blue and purple cupcake with a hint of banana flavor. The kids were all abuzz about our little cupcake snack. It was fun, and I felt good about making it from scratch instead of snatching it off a shelf at the grocery store.

Of course, we won’t be making cupcakes daily. Or weekly for that matter. At least we know we can do it ourselves.

[flickr album=72157606130046492 num=29]

Tomatoes. Tomatoes that I grew on my own. This may not sound amazing, but considering my brown thumb, this is nothing short of miraculous.

It’s funny the simple pleasures for a foodie mom like myself, too. It’s amazing that I found the time to grow these tomatoes, and it’s amazing they grew. It’s amazing that I could walk over and pick four fire engine red tomatoes from my own garden.

I looked at my special little tomatoes and pondered what to do with them. There really wasn’t enough to make something for the whole family. Each tomato was maybe one to two inches around. I could smell the tomato awesomeness just oozing from them. I also have so much basil growing, I don’t even know what to do with it. So it clicked. It was time to make bruschetta. Brilliant.

I should also specify that I decide to make brushetta for me, and just for me, and not for anyone else. It isn’t very often a mom can do something completely and utterly selfish. We’re constantly thinking of the kids first. But I had this gift, and it was just enough for one.

I waited for the kids to go down for nap. Then I did it. I diced the tomatoes. I grabbed a couple of the little dices just to get a pure taste of the tomatoes. It was so amazing, I had to take a sample to my husband. I had to bug him to try it (“This is what home grown tomatoes taste like, honey!”), and even he (the lover of all things pizza and burger) was impressed with the flavor.

I chopped some basil, then let them marinate in some organic extra virgin olive oil. I then tossed in some crumbled feta cheese and sprinkled a little sea salt, and served it over toasts.

Then I sat back, relaxed, and tasted. Unbelievable.

So even though it took hours of effort, and it cost money for my raised bed, and I had to encounter all sorts of Homeric-like challenges (well, bugs, dirt and the threat of frost), it was all worth it.

This is the ultimate local food. Forget farm to table, this is yard to table. Delicious!

[flickr album=72157605674414589 num=7]

When we lived in Nice, France, we shopped at a local market almost every day. In fact, we didn’t even own a car there. That meant the most we could ever buy is what we could carry (and not much since we had a 1-year-old with us). We would usually hit the big Cours Selaya Flower Market and buy just enough produce to last a couple days.

We couldn’t even do the big, mondo, semi-ridiculous grocery store expedition where you load up on a month’s supply of things that are frozen, boxed, canned, jarred and came from the other side of the globe.

We also always had the best local food, because in France it was so easy to do so. Want bread? Go to the bakery around the corner. Sweet tooth? Hit a local pastry shop or chocolaterie. Meat comes from the local butcher, and cheese from one of the amazing, divine corner cheese shops.

So this morning wasn’t quite at that level, of course. I’m not in France anymore. But I am in Asheville, and food was a major reason I wanted to move here (a.k.a. Foodtopia) when we returned from France and found ourselves unhappy in Northwest Indiana near Chicago (too flat, and way too cold).

We went to the new Asheville City Market. It’s kind of interesting they even need another market (we have like 45 in the region), but it actually is the only one conveniently located downtown. And it seems to have attracted many vendors. There was a mix of produce, plants, cheeses, meats, local trout, fresh baked breads and pastries, and local-made jams and jellies. In a word, it’s divine. And it was a little like being back in the South of France.

And it’s another check off of my Sustainable Kitchen Project although this, like everything on the list, is something I want to do regularly (at least weekly). We’ll see if I can stick to that.

We made some great purchases, and I spent about $50. I got some grass-fed pastured lamb and pork from Hickory Nut Gap Farm, and some unbelievably delicious goat cheese from Spinning Spider Creamery (the hardest decision of the day, as I wanted pretty much every variety she had). In fact, I’m nibbling on crackers topped with the Provence Chevre right now as I type.

We got some local lettuce (a cool and interesting speckled Romaine variety), plump asparagus, and apple butter.

The kids had a wonderful time and, in an almost unheard-of first, not a one had a melt-down. For morning snack, my husband, oldest daughter and I had chocolate croissants from a local baker, and the twins enjoyed these adorable star-shaped mini croissants filled with rhubarb and goat cheese.

Here are some pictures, including close-ups of my mouth-watering local food purchases:

[flickr album=72157604985143593 num=22]

Also, over the years, the blackness of my thumb seems to be getting slightly less overbearing. It used to be, I would walk past a plant and it would die on sight. Then I could count on maybe 5 percent of plants in my presence to survive.

I keep trying. Plants keep giving their lives for the cause. I keep getting just a little bit better.

A big part of the problem is that planting and growing things requires a couple traits I just don’t have. One, you need to take time to study how to do it right. Umm, yeah. If I buy something and I can’t figure it out without consulting the instructions, it’s going back to the store. (Actually, it’s going to sit on a shelf forever because who the hell has time to return things? Seriously). It also takes following directions very closely. Oh, and a third trait. It takes patience.

Well, I’m more a wing it, figure it out, and eyeball it type of person.

Yet the miraculous has happened. My husband got involved. See he’s good at all those icky things like concentration. (Shudder). He set up a cool shelf system with lights (he even said something about the lights being the right something or other. I don’t know. I lost interest).

Anyway, it worked. I have so many seedlings I don’t know what to do with them.

So it was time to start my garden. I went outside with shovel in hand to dig me up a garden. I figured that would take, say, 5 minutes of digging and ta-da, a garden plot. I inserted shovel into grass. And pushed. Um, it didn’t even go into the ground. WTF? Raised bed. That was my decision.

So thus started the Google search. One of my Type-A Mom editors had this perfect article for me on her About.com Organic Gardening site, “How to Make a Raised Bed Garden.”

I’ll save you the grueling details, but we decided to use stones around the edges and created this nice-looking, fine-looking, totally-kick-ass raised organic vegetable garden (that cost about $100 for rocks and organic dirt. yep.):

We planted a couple of early girl tomatoes that came in these cool biodegradable pots that you can plant right with the tomato:

And check this out! We already have the tiniest, cutest little tomatoes. How freakin’ adorable are these? Yeah, you will probably have to squint:

Now, the next problem. What the hell do I do with all these other veggie seedlings? Seriously?

I’m thinking I need, oh, about 10 more raised beds. Anyone care to send a donation to my Paypal account? I’m kidding. Sort of.

So, I was armed with a big bag of organic oranges, and this cool new-old kitchen gadget. I was pretty optimistic about the results. Here’s how it all went down:

It started with a bag of oranges…

Then lots and lots and lots of cutting, deseeding, etc. to get the good orange juiciness pieces…

Then stuffing lots of orange juice pieces into the electric juicer. It’s a little time-consuming, but definitely easy…

I’m feeling pretty good. It looks good, it smells good. I’m done. That wasn’t so tough. Now, for the reward for all this time, expense and effort…

Umm…. WTF? Seriously? All that work for 12 ounces of juice? A whole BAG of oranges results in 12 ounces? What a rip! And now look at all this stuff I have to clean up…

In all fairness, that 12 ounces of orange juice tasted very fresh (although a little bitter). But I couldn’t help thinking Tropicana really should start charging more for a carton of OJ. If you figure an hourly rate at $50, or even $25, I spent a good hour between preparation, juicing and clean-up. Plus, the expense of the whole bag of oranges (I think it was around $3).

Still, I am not ready to give up on juicing. But the stars are no longer in my eyes. I have a big book on juicing that came with my juicer. I might skim that or something. I also like the idea of making juices with multiple fruits and vegetables. I also think it probably makes sense to make a huge batch of juice at once to maximize the time spent, particularly cleaning all the little parts. I’ll keep you guys posted next time I play with my juicer to see if I get better return on investment.

Have any of you guys made your own juice? Did I do something wrong here? Let me know any tips you might have, or link to anything you’ve written on juicing!

Next in the Sustainable Kitchen Project, I’ll share some of the details (woes and wonders) of starting my first organic vegetable garden. Who knew creating a basic pile of dirt on a big 1-acre lot could be such a pain in the ass?

In my kitchen, I have gadgets for making yogurt, juice, pasta, even sausage. I have a bread maker missing just one piece. Besides that, I have the knowledge (or the ability to Google and find out) to make any number of things from scratch. I have plenty of land to grow my own stuff, and I live in Asheville, NC where it is super easy to find cool locally grown produce.

Yet, my gadgets and cookbooks are gathering dust. I still hit the Super-Walmart so I can super consume. I spend $200-plus at least once a week on groceries. And I do still, sometimes (although definitely less and less often as I am at home more), give my children processed, packaged crap. OK, I said it. I may be a foodie mom, but I am a real mom. I am buying things in extra packaging for extra money and being totally non-green when I could just make and store things at home. Criticize away, if you must.

I blame life and having lots of work and having three kids and all of that. But when my twins were babies, I was working full-time and making homemade baby food and pumping milk for them to have at daycare. It wasn’t easy, and I was pretty much psychotically exhausted. But it should be even easier now, much easier. So I clearly CAN do it.

So I’ve decided I will create this public Sustainable Kitchen Project as a way to motivate myself, to keep myself honest, to connect with other moms who want a more self-sustaining kitchen, and to track my progress. I’ve already started in a few ways, and I’ll post about these very soon. For example, we are starting an organic vegetable garden. Here is a lettuce seedling I’ve started:

And I made orange juice this week:

Here are just some of the things I want to do as part of my Sustainable Kitchen Project. Hey, are there some I am not thinking to list? Let me know…

• Grow herbs, vegetables and fruit
• Make juices, teas and sodas
• Make yogurt
• Make pasta
• Bake breads
• Start a compost
• Buy more local produce and products
• Learn to preserve items when they are local and fresh with freezing, canning, etc.
• Make jams and other condiments
• Make butter
• Make beer and wine
• Make cheese (can that be done at home? that would be coool!)

I know I’m forgetting some. I’ll also keep track of the grocery bill, and any other side effects and impacts of the project.

Wish me luck with my self-sustaining kitchen!