How much of our families' food can we produce ourselves?

Peace years ago finding a tomato

As I was reading sicilian sisters grow blog their subtitle title struck me. For the first time in my short gardening career I am feeling pressured by that question, how much of my family's food can I produce. In the past it was a good amount during late spring and summer. Fantabulous! No pressure! No expectations! But as more stuff began to grow people began to think I knew/know what I am doing... HAHAHAHAAAAA. No one seems to believe that I am just playing. This is an on-going science project. It helps that we homeschool, every school has a lab right?

This is an experiment we did about 2 years ago to see if we could grow starts successfully early in milk cartons. They worked. Mini-individual greenhouses. Oh and self watering. my fav.

Really folks, It really is All Praises Due To Allah. Yes, I go through reading bouts to try to enhance what I am observing or to try new techniques but ... . I don't want to say that I know nothing but it sure feels that way a lot of the time. Not to mention I am a visual learner whose memory fades at times. You know those big boards you see on crime shows that the police use to chart crimes. The one that comes to my mind is the one in The Usual Suspects (used to be my favorite movie). I know I need one of those. I think that would def up my game. Inshallah, one day. In the meantime I will continue to doodle on scratch pieces of paper, bottom of cardboard boxes and in my gardening journal in hopes to one day get better organized and not walk around asking, have you all seen that cardboard box with the writing on the bottom. Secretly hoping they didn't mistake it for trash and recycle it. 

One garden station sketched out. yes bottom of cardboard.

my gardening journal with scratch paper stuck inside and articles I found interesting.

Inside of a box with a sketch of another garden area. also holding some seeds and bulbs for me.

Anyway, back to what I was trying to say. So yes, there is pressure from the outside.  
But

A friend just gifted us this jar of honey.

then there is this internal pressure building from myself and the family. Homegrown food taste so good we have to grow our own. We can't go through green bean season with no homegrown green beans. That is the only way we really like them. (Really, I tried to sneak some green beans from a regular grocery store and I noticed the difference. I tried to slip it by the fam and they quickly were saying, "Sumthin Sumthin Just Ain't Right!"   Though I was impressed with their heightened senses IT ADDS PRESSURE! (huge smile) Not to mention all the reports and stuff you read about with food produced by the corporate food industry. Not appetizing, to say the least. We have to do for self.

I have also read Novella's book on how she went 30 days on stuff only she grew and I think foraged. I wanna do that! (Thinking of altering to things me and friends have grown :))

Then there was some documentary I watched and a lady in it said that she only ate vegetables from plants she has grown for the last 10+ years. HEY, I wanna be like that.

Basically, I/we have high expectations so although I am having big fun and learning a lot the pressure is on. And the burning question for me too is how much of my family's food can I (with God's help of course) produce ourselves?

Took a trip down memory lane. You can tell this was years ago by ages of children: