Chapter 1 - Introduction

We all want to eat better, eat safer, and just plain eat. Food is important to all of us for obvious reasons. Even for picky people, eating is an essential act of Life.

We have many different ways we can choose to eat.

•We can load up on the pre-packaged, processed, and already prepared foods offered at assorted specialty food bars found at most upscale grocery stores.
•We can live off of take-out and restaurant foods - and if done right, this can be a cheaper alternative than keeping a kitchen, but it isn't always a healthy choice.
•We can cook our own home grown food from scratch - nice, but not viable with much of today's lifestyle needs.
•We can use a combination of any of the above and invent a few new ways to eat.

No matter what lifestyle we lead, at some point, we use our kitchens. Maybe it's to reheat pizza or make some microwave popcorn or brew a pot of coffee. If, in your need to eat, you've decided you want to eat in an environmentally, economically, and sustaining style, a Resilient Permaculture Kitchen might interest you.

This kind of kitchen is not a cheap way to do things, not at first, although, given time, it often proves to be a time and money-saver. If your reason for considering this as a way to save money, then forget it because it won't happen. Modern kitchens require remodeling to reach that goal, some less than others. Unless you have a home where you have a "gourmet" kitchen, you probably have a standard kitchen with a range that combines stovetop and oven, a largish refrigerator, a single or double sink and faucet, cabinets, at least one countertop, and probably a microwave. You may also have a dishwasher, depending on the age of your home and previous residents. A few kitchens also have the washer and dryer in them. If you're lucky, you may have a pantry to work with as well.

Modern kitchens don't give a lot of consideration to food storage. Thanks to the “Just In Time” mentality of our society, the presumption is that modern families would/should shop on a weekly or even a daily basis for their food. The refrigerator would hold mostly condiments, leftovers, snacks, and a few perishables. A great many foods that shouldn't be stored in a refrigerator are kept there because there really isn't anywhere else to keep them in a modern kitchen.

So, that's what we're looking at, and where we'll start. The first step is to determine why you want a do this. These are some of the reasons:

1.to eat better
2.to save time and effort in food preparation
3.to support your local economy
4.to enjoy a wider range of foods
5.to be able to eat even in the event of a disaster
6.to save money in the long run

 
Once you know what you want to do with your kitchen, there are some things you need to do to organize yourself before you organize the kitchen. Converting your kitchen to a kitchen isn't going to happen overnight. It won't happen in a week or a month, either. Done right, expect it to take you at least eighteen months, and possibly longer. It will, naturally enough, take less time if you are building a new house and take permaculture into consideration when you build the kitchen. It will also take less time if you have enough money and hire professionals to do most of the work. But if you're remodeling an existing kitchen yourself on a budget, expect it to take at least a year and a half.

Step One - The Food Diary

If you're like most people today, you have food that's taking on a life of its own in the depths of your refrigerator. Your potatoes sprout no matter what you do to save them. You also have boxes or cans of food in your cabinets that have been there for more than 2 years, and some may be so old you can't remember buying it. We aren't going to worry about that yet.

What we want from the food diary is a record of everything you and your family actually eats – NOT portions. Portions aren't important because this isn't a weight loss diary or a nutrition diary, it's just a record of what you really eat. You need to know how much variety you have in your diet. And you don't need to write down each ingredient for each and every meal. The name of the dish is sufficient at this point, and if you eat the dish more than once, say pizza or oatmeal, just put a tally mark beside the first entry of it. Don't neglect beverages – a can of coke or cup of coffee counts. As does the glass of water from the faucet. It also includes food you eat outside of the home….that Big Mac or that veggie wrap.

It does not matter how you tally it up throughout the year - a computer spreadsheet, a little spiral bound notebook in your briefcase or pocket, 3X5 cards. You need to know exactly what you’re eating habits are so you can either build your kitchen around them, OR alter your eating habits and then build the kitchen around them.

Building the kitchen first is a waste of time and money. You want a kitchen that conforms to your needs, not one to which you must bend. That's what permaculture is about - putting things together so they work intuitively together, supporting the activities of each part so the whole functions smoothly and in a way that is pleasing and efficient.

So, anyone who wants to build a Resilient Permaculture Kitchen, that's your first assignment:

If you feel a food diary doesn't feel like you're doing enough, don’t fret. There are a lot of other things you'll need to do to prepare yourself for this kind of kitchen. The food diary is just the first step towards designing the kitchen.

End Chapter 1