Urban Sustainability

A friend asked me recently if I had accomplished my goal last year. I'm not sure what that was exactly, but I guess I was trying to see if I could grow enough veggies to get through the winter. I said no, but I still have a freezer full of veggies. So, I got pretty close- I did buy some things- potatoes for instance- but I cut down alot on the amount of overall produce from the grocery store. It's hard though. I don't know if it is possible (at least for me) to be entirely self sufficient in NYC. Maybe if I wasn't working I could commit enough time to it. It is a quandry for the average person in the city. At least in Manhattan there are farmer's markets. We only have a few pitiful grocery stores that sell shrinkwrapped and styrofoamed vegetables shipped in from Mexico and Argentina. I'm so tired at the end of the day that I have to admit that frozen pizza and mac and cheese are sometimes the dinners of choice.

I'm trying to gear up for this years garden. If there wasn't a foot of snow on the ground I'd go put my peas in. I can't quite decide what to plant this year. Henry would like it if I planted only purple vegetables. Which could be fun. Or I could go for just the basic survival foods like potatoes and beans and do alot of them. Sounds kind of boring though. I suppose I could do purple potatoes and beans...