About Our Year of Plenty

We are a family in Spokane, Washington engaged in a year long experiment in consumption. This blog is an attempt to chronicle what we are learning along the way.

Our Basic Rules of Consumption:

• Buy used products.
- Preferably from one household to another

• Make the product or grow the food item.
- Raw materials should preferably be local
- There is some flexibility with the sourcing of raw materials necessary to make the finished product

• Buy from a local producer, manufacturer or grower.
- Local is defined as generally coming from Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.
- In order to be a qualified manufacturer or grower we must as a family visit/tour the location of manufacturing and meet the people who are making the goods at least once during the year. We will do our best to learn about their way of life, hopes, dreams, and challenges.
- This means that there are some products and food items that will be limited seasonally or not available at all.

• Buy products from producers/growers/manufacturers in an international region that is selected by the family based on the strategic nature of the products available, the needs of the people, and the practicality of visiting as a family.
- Throughout the year we will learn about the region and the people who live there, their way of life, the economics of their lives, and how our consumption impacts them positively and negatively.
- We will make a trip as a family to this region at the end of the year to meet the people that have been making the products and growing them.
- We will adopt a project to support in that community that will better the lives the people – for example, providing water, assisting addressing local public health need, or a mission partnership.

We chose Thailand as our international link.

Other considerations:
• We’re allowed to use everything that is in the house and yard as of the beginning of January 1, 2008.
• We will do our best to minimize the consumption of electricity, water, and fuel.
• We will seek to minimize waste products going to the dump by composting everything possible and recycling everything possible.
• We will dine out only at local restaurants and coffee shops. No large national or regional chain establishments.
• When eating with others at a party or public event there is flexibility.

Purpose:
• Step back from the massive consuming passions around us that lead us to want the new and the next thing. We find that too often we are led to believe that our hope and joy can be found in these items.

• Minimize contribution to the cultural assumption that all things are disposable, and that once they have lost the shine of newness they have outlived their usefulness.

• To valuate things in ways other than dollars. To form a new economy of consumable goods in our lives anchored in caring relationships with people we know.

• To integrate our lives and find more joy in the everyday.

• To better shape and raise our children as children of the Kingdom of God.

Comments

[Phoenix Moomaw]

I want to know what foods you are growing now. When can we come see you guys!! I wish we lived closer to each other!! Talk to you soon!

PHX

[Nancy Goodwin]

Phoenix,
We would LOVE to have you visit us! Right now nothing is growing except our compost pile.:-) We are going to try to plant our tomatoes from seed this weekend. Craig has quite a system set up in the basement where he grows the plants under flourescent lights, then he brings them to the greenhouse. So if you visit us, you might want to come closer to Summer because right now the only vegetables we eat are carrots, potatoes, squash, onions, garlic and alfalfa sprouts. (We found alfalfa sprouts grown in Moyie Idaho. The girls love them!)
God bless you Phoenix! Say hi to Mom and Dad!

[Jacque Hendrix]

Your quest sounds fun and challenging. I look forward to following via your pages.

Jacque

[Kathryn LaPointe]

Hi Spokavores! Finally got around to visiting this page. Awesome adventure you are on; truly inspiring as we prepare to move back to the suburbs. I'll have a lot of alone time in the next few months to live vicariously through your blog since my main gardening man is moving to San Diego without me. Love to all of you.

[tish grier]

Hi! just wanted to pass along the link to your page on Placeblogger

http://placeblogger.com/placeblog/year-of-plenty

We're delighted that you stopped by and added your unique and wonderful site to ours. Please contact me if you've any questions.

Tish Grier
Chief Community Officer
Placeblogger.com

[Susan]

I just finished reading the Inlander's story on your family's quest to decrease your comsumption and buy local. I don't think your family looks weird; in fact, I think you are doing a wonderful thing! What a lesson for your children, not to mention other Spokane families with young children. How did our lives get so out of balance that we lost sight of what really good food tastes like? I applaud your efforts and I will continue to read your blog. I wish you all the best in your experiment!

Susan

[Alicia]

I just got done reading your article in the Spokesman and was looking up Behms Valley creamery and stumbled across your page. What you are doing is GREAT and I think you are great inspiration for many people who are trying to adapt to and adopt using local products rather than products from all over the world. I have three young girls and it is great to see that you are able to implement this plan with your children and really follow through and figure out how to get around obstacles together! Thanks for the inspiration!!

[Mike Kincaid]

Y'all are an inspiration. How cool to try new things...like local restaurants, and cheese, and homemade ice cream made with honey. And to take a timeout from our culture of consumption--neat!

I do have to admit though, I have a bit of garden envy...our little garden in Texas is pretty darn small...but we have harvested a bunch of strawberries...and our first cucumber is growing. But that doesn't sound anywhere near as cool as Craig's combination basement-greenhouse-garden! : )

Thanks for sharing your journey --

Mike

[Joy]

Excellent! Keep up the good work! The best way to localize our economy in Spokane is by creating a demand. So, thank you for taking action and creating this great resource. I will be referring to it often!

[Andrew]

I think it's really great what you guys are doing. My wife and I are in the early stages of trying to decide what something like this could look like for us. It's really encouraging to see a whole family committed to addressing consumption issues together. I think you guys have a great approach!

[ally brakebush]

hi aunt nancy!
what u guys are doing is really amazing, But it seems soo hard! I wish we can come down again and visit your gadern! My mom and I had so much fun with you! Keep up the good work! Hope to seen you soon!

_
Ally

[nancy goodwin]

Ally,
So good to hear from you! Don't think what we're doing is too hard. Craig and I and the girls were able to drink bubble tea (boba) today, so it can't be THAT hard! Wish you guys could come up again and walk the garden labyrinth with us. It's quite an adventure in our back yard these days! I don't know if I'll get a chance to see you when I come out in June, but have a great last couple of weeks of school. I'm sure you're excited for Summer! Love you Ally!
Nancy

[Kristin]

I love this blog! I find it so refreshing and inspiring! You are providing so many great resources; I can hardly wait to try them all out!

[Maureen Farmer]

I am a master gardener and my profession is programmer/project manager. This spring, I taught myself the PHP programming language to improve my professional skill set. To practice, I created The Farmer’s Garden website. The site, www.thefarmersgarden.com is a place where people can post free classifieds to sell, trade or give away their surplus backyard garden produce.

I launched my site in May 2009 and it is nationwide. I think it is a great resource for members of your community. It is very easy to grow more produce than you and your family can use. Why not share your local, fresh and delicious vegetables, fruit, berries, etc. with others?

Registration is free and required to post a classified. Registration is not required to search the classifieds. Can you please provide a link to my site, www.thefarmersgarden.com on your site?

Thank you.