Thank you, @Mossy. Most of what I post making are my dad’s meals. My own meals are rather basic, since finding Dr. Vickor’s work on trauma and doing the local food challenge. As much as I’m a foodie, I enjoy the simplicity. It takes me only an hour to prep my meals for the week, which consists of chopping veggies, pan-searing 1.5 lb of sea scallops, soft-boiling and peeling 2 dozen eggs, boiling 2 lb of mushrooms for broth, roasting 3 sheet pans of potatoes and squash, simmering a large pot of corn chowder and berries for compôte, and transferring yogurt to a 2 liter jar fitted with a nut milk bag so it can strain in the fridge until it’s as thick as quark. The rest of my diet is locally and regionally produced skyr, honey, herbal teas and apple cider. My meals throughout the week take no more than 5 minutes to heat up, giving me time regularly for morning hikes and come spring, lunches at the lake near my house.
I can understand the inconvenience, sure, and yard work is still a good way to connect with nature. There are mountains 5 minutes from my house, but I’ve been mainly going on the trail on my family’s property that leads right to the town lake and on the rail trail a minute away because it’s well-maintained for my dad to accompany me to decompress, especially while going through his cancer treatments. Regarding your compost—there are elevated compost tumblers that should keep the cats out? Or…if you do decide to start a garden, there’s always a keyhole garden where a simple cage for compost is placed in the center of a notched garden bed to feed the garden, and that should prevent contamination? Combine it with the German horticultural technique (hügelkultur) of using decaying logs, branches and trimmings for a mounded garden bed, and your garden should be quite productive. Both work well for container gardens, too.
Haha…well, it is nice to receive packages. Just think how nice it would be for him to receive a surprise package containing steel wire mesh, wire cutters, pliers, work gloves and instructions on how to build a compost cage. He overcomes his boredom and you overcome your cat contamination problem.
