Fall has arrived...

Today is the first full day of fall and I am so happy. I LOVE this time of year. I can tell by some of the blogs that I read it is a favorite for many. It hasn't cooled off much here yet, we're still high 70's during the day and low 60's at night but you can tell it is fall. The air seems cleaner, crisper, and the colors are beginning to change from that vibrant summer green to the browns, yellows and deep greens of fall. I heard on the news today that our peak fall colors will be the second or third week of October and that it should be a pretty good year for it since we have had so much rain.

During the years we lived in South Florida, aside from family, I missed fall and winter more than anything.

I love fall colors, the cool crisp air, the long nights, the fuzzy warm socks, the soups and chili, the breads baking in the oven, long nights...I could go on and on.

One thing I have noticed here in our area is the amount of festivals that they have during this time of year. Who picks the names I'm not sure, but they all have to do with food. We have the Harvest festival, the Sweetcorn/Watermelon festival, the Apple n Pork festival, the Pumpkin festival, the Apple festival...I'm sure I am forgetting some but you get the drift. I love these festivals. Walking around out in the cool air, checking out area crafters and eating a plate of ribbon fries, drinking a hot apple cider is a great way to spend a fall Saturday afternoon for me.

Stocking up on supplies

Since I spent 21 years living in Florida and seeing for myself how quickly gas, supplies and food are sold out in the event of an approaching hurricane I always was pretty well stocked up on things that we needed.

After moving here to the midwest though I guess I must have felt a little less threatened and slid off track a bit. The last few months I have been slowly stocking up the pantry on the things that we use on a regular basis and I have learned a few things along the way.

I am saving a lot of money by purchasing extras when they are on sale instead of having to pay full price when we have run out and need an item.

I am making less trips to the store and saving time and money by doing that.

I feel safer knowing that if we get the flu or a snow storm that keeps us in the house for a few weeks we have everything that we need to get through it.

Keeping a list of the things you have is a good idea so that you know when you run out of things.

And the most important lesson is...

You can NEVER have enough toilet paper. We ran out the other day and I had to hear from dear hubby that he doesn't understand why we have 50 cans of soup in the cabinet but NO TOILET PAPER. oops...

Rhonda from Down to Earth started this challenge.
She wrote..."I am going to challenge everyone here to eat one meal a week that is either organic or local or free range and pasture fed."
I encourage you to pop over to her blog to read the entire post.

This is a topic that I am very passionate about.

My husband and I have been slowly making changes to get all chemicals and preservatives out of our lives and I think this challenge will be fun.

It amazes me that even though we live here in the "heartland", it is very challenging to find local good quality meat and dairy in our area. I have been searching to find local organic but am having a hard time. Right now we get our grass fed beef when we visit my Mom's town which is about 100 miles away. We take a cooler and stock up. We don't drink milk so that isn't an issue but I would love to have some local cheese, a good source for seafood and organic chicken.

So I started my part of this challenge last night. We had meatloaf...made with grass fed beef and all of my home grown veggies and herbs, organic mashed potatoes, local corn on the cob and home made bread. It was delicious.