Buy that chest freezer

Don't feed the tigers

I always thought I would be one of those moms to get up early and make my kids a warm and healthy breakfast before they got ready for school. HA.

Now that school has started, our household reality looks pretty different from my idealized dreams. Most days, it starts off with me screaming, "WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES?!!?!? WE NEEDED TO LEAVE 10 MINUTES AGO!!!" on the way out the door.

Breakfast is either a granola bar, pop tart, toaster pancakes, or even sausages thrown into the backseat, not entirely unlike the videos I've seen of zookeepers feeding tigers.

This morning, I tossed a baggie full of breakfast sausages to the older son, with the instruction to share with his younger brother. Only after all the links disappeared did I learn ::surprise surprise:: that they were not shared equally. The baby needed more food.

After dropping off the older one, the baby and I stopped in the McDonald's drive-thru to ensure he was heading off to school with a full tummy. I figured a hash brown would be the perfect supplement to the sausage scraps his older brother deigned to give him.

Photo by Jurij Kenda on Unsplash

I don't venture through the McDonald's line often, but I was wholly unprepared for what I saw when I looked at the prices. We mostly cook at home, and although I've seen the spikes in ingredient costs and inputs for the animals here on the farm, I haven't seen anything like what was reflected in those neon flashing signs.

From what I remember, a hash brown was under a dollar, and I figured it was probably now a full dollar with recent food cost increases. No. A single hash brown cost us $2.19, before tax.

It looks like I'm about to be the cliché, "No, we have food at home," Mom from now on.

Will the dollar-plus difference break our family? Fortunately, no. But, for many, driving up and seeing that a small snack for their child is more than double what they expected to pay is the difference between their child going to school with a grumbling belly or not.

I promised when I started this newsletter that it would be a departure from politics, and I'll stand by that, so please forgive that I'm about to link to a piece in "Colorado Politics." That said, read this piece in Colorado Politics by Rachel Gabel about the rising cost of beef and the likelihood it will continue that way.

We all can and will argue about the origins and solutions to these struggles in the public square, but when it's close to home, the policy debates seem less important than feeding your children.

So, here's my appeal: if you've been on the fence about getting a chest freezer - do it. Do it now.

A well-stocked freezer in your garage helps to insulate against the natural sine waves of food price fluctuations and availability. It's a relatively cheap and widely accessible way to store a large amount of food for a long time.

• Got a friend who wants to sell an extra quarter beef? You can partake if you have a freezer.

• Did you find frozen veggies on killer sale? Stick those suckers in the freezer.

• You made a huge, delicious meal, but you can't finish it? Freezer.

If we learned anything from the stress or the seemingly random shortages over the last few years, Grandma was onto something when she lectured us with her, "Waste not, want not."

The other day I cleaned out our freezer, took every leftover and indistinguishable package, threw them all in the crock pot, covered them with broth, and made what we lovingly refer to as "everything that's freezer-burned in the house" soup.

I'm fairly sure some corned beef hash, chicken breast pieces, random vegetables, ground deer, tater tots, quinoa, rice, and about a thousand green beans all went into the slow cooker.

It was a throwback to the days when most kitchens would have a large pot on the back burner of the stove that contained an ever-evolving concoction of whatever savory meat or vegetable was available at the moment.

I felt vindicated when one of the boys told me mine was "the best soup he ever had." He's only five, so he hasn't had enough soups for that to be a huge compliment, but I'll take it nonetheless.

One of the perspective changes I've had since moving to an urban farm and growing, gathering, and milking much of my own food is a new sense of how precious each bite is, not just monetarily but also in terms of work and time. Part of appreciating food is in finding ways not to waste it and preserve it for the future.

So, if you don't have a freezer yet, get one. And if you're feeding the tiger babies, dole out those sausages one at a time.

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First off, thank you for reading. I really appreciate it. If you’re so inclined, please share it with your friends and followers.

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Finally, one of my biggest struggles is just HITTING THE PUBLISH BUTTON on stuff, so I started a little audio update to what’s going on here on a separate channel called “Notes from the Urban Farm,” where I’m literally just going to say what is happening here with minimal editing.

My friend, Emily gave some great advice this week, “The key to success is just being cringe.” So, if you’re interested to be on the audio list when I update about trees and bugs and chicks and goats - join that one, too!

I’m doing an “Ask Me Anything” to wrap up the month (and our first year!!!!) so if you have any questions, I’ve gathered several but would love a few more; comment below.

Love you, mean it!!!

<3, K