Once again I find myself staring in the fresh face of a new year, filled with hope, excitement, and a modicum of fear.  I’ve never been one to bravely tackle adventures, even when they are of my own design.  Before I get too swept away in plans for the new, I thought I should take a moment to properly reflect on the old.

As you may or may not remember, I made a very specific New Years resolution for 2009.  My goal was to eat lower on the food chain, eat vegetarian meals when dining out, and limit my household to one whole chicken a week plus local fish when available.  I’d like to say that I met my goals with the greatest of ease, and passed my self-imposed test with flying colors, but I would be lying.  It wasn’t easy, and I wasn’t always successful. I would grade myself an A for home cooked dinners – all poultry was sourced from Womach Ranch Farms, including the Thanksgiving turkey, and we ate significantly less than my 1 bird per week allowance – perhaps by as much as half.  I’ll take a B for dining out – three or four poor choices for the whole year is not too shabby.  Lunch is where I struggled – a C minus at best.  I didn’t say a word as Phil brought deli sliced free-range turkey/chicken lunchmeat into the house on a regular basis, and I occasionally joined him in a quick sandwich.  In total I personally slipped less two dozen times for the year, but that is still two dozen times too many.  All told I would grade myself a B minus.  A passing grade for sure, but with plenty of room for improvement.

I plan to continue and hopefully improve upon last years resolution in 2010.  I cannot deny Phil his sandwiches – he never promised to stick to my arbitrary standards, but I will no longer join him for the sake of convenience or laziness.  I intend to allow myself meat only when it is pastured raised and locally sourced, and average out my meat consumption to not more than once per week, fish included.  I aim to apply the pasture raised/locally sourced standard to all of my eggs this year.  Additionally I plan to go one step further toward self-sufficiency and locavorism by becoming a food grower myself.

Which leads me to the part about slightly intimidating adventures…I have officially moved into that house in South Park, and have come face to face with new possibilities and obstacles. The small box that I was so excited about appears to be placed in an area of the yard that is perpetually in the shadow of the house, so my dreams of a 4×4 little garden plot, have turned into visions of a self contained open air compost pile.  The landlord still isn’t keen to have me rip up all of the grass that he just reseeded, and what’s more, he expects us to water it (a bill that we are responsible for).  So…this year I am going to try my hand at composting and/or vermiculture, attempt to devise a low tech/poor man’s version of a greywater system to water the hateful grass, build a few stationary planter boxes to place on the concrete parts of the yard that do get sunshine, and concoct a system of moveable containers for the yard, so as not to kill the bloody grass with stationary boxes or beds.

I want to prove both to myself and to all those naysayers out there that a locavore lifestyle can be adopted by people with limited space and limited funds, and is not just a luxury to be afforded by the privileged few.  Where there is a will there is a way, and I owe it to myself and to you, to give it an honest try.