April is the cruellest month.

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain. -T.S. Eliot, the first lines of "The Waste Land"

When Rash and I originally had the idea for this project we though a season would be the perfect length of time. We couldn't commit to a whole year (although, we flirt with the idea periodically) and we felt it would be a cop out to just do the summer, so we decided to try Spring. Our plan was to start in March giving us the taste of the crueler late winter (greens and meat) into the beginning of the bounty of summer (tomatoes, et al). Well, March got a little busy for us and so we've started in April instead.

In addition to our first farm trip, we were gifted 60 lbs of venison by my uncle and cousin, both avid hunters. This was a Christmas present, of sorts, and later they also gave us about 5 lbs of quail. The meat has been residing in our freezer since early January, just waiting for the first days of the project. With the broccoli from our farm trip cut up, blanched, and frozen, and ziploc bags full of diced strawberries, we're just about out of freezer space. Might want to invest in a chest freezer if you're planning this kind of diet.

The first day...
Breakfast of, well, strawberries. We didn't get any dairy or eggs until the 3rd day.

Lunch - a salad of hydroponic lettuce with goat cheese from Belle Chevre (purchased at our local health food market although a trip to Belle Chevre is forthcoming), peanuts, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner - grilled ribeye steak, roasted sweet potatoes with rosemary from our garden, and turnip greens.

So far so good! Later meals in the week included venison tenderloin with sweet potatoes au gratin, sausage and boiled cabbage, grilled habanero cheese and cornbread sandwiches, broccoli soup with sweet potato fries, and some really killer sweet potato chips.