Hello there! I'm glad you stopped by. For those of you who don't know, every Thursday I do a recap on thrifty projects and activities that I've completed over the last week. Usually I try to think of at least five things, more or less. Here are this week's thrifty things:
1. Packaged cured garlic for storage in our garage. I dug up the garlic several months ago; for this step, I basically clipped the long tops and scraggly roots, while peeling away any clumps of dirt. Then I reused a clean produce bag (pictured above) for storage. This is not my first year growing garlic, but it was my first year properly storing it. I learned this year, for example, that when you refrigerate garlic it is more likely to sprout. A sprouting head of garlic in my fridge proves this point. LOL! 2. Harvested from the farm/garden: cucumbers, three types of beans and eggs. I also picked the first couple of ripe tomatoes this week! I will have to take a picture of some of them, as they are a beautiful heirloom variety. 2. Worked on off-grid cooking skills. Mainly using a campfire and/or rocket stove with cast iron. I have a long way to go with this, but our family had a good time around the fire and afterward admiring the beautiful night sky. This is something that, while technically a "survival skill", is also a good candidate for family tradition. 3. Food preservation: froze and dried beans from the garden, dried zucchini from a family member, dried a single drop apple (the first one of the year!) and also some colorful bell peppers that I bought on sale for $0.25 each. A fabulous deal! I also did a little bit of canning: pork loin, bacon and sausage purchased inexpensively at Walmart and Aldi. I am finally feeling a little better about our canned meat supply now, since we have at least three month's worth of shelf-stable meat on hand. 4. Line-dried a few loads of laundry. 5. Continued listening to the audio book The Accidental Presidents while weeding in my strawberry patch. One interesting tidbit that I learned about was the Panic of 1893... eerily similar to what is going on today with unemployment, food shortages, etc. A Youtube search for the same event led me to a lecture on that topic and then another lecture on Grover Cleveland. After listening to all this, I came away renewed and refreshed that there is nothing new under the sun. That is all for this week! I hope you all have a fun and highly productive weekend. God bless, ~Prudence~
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It's been a whirlwind of activity since last Thursday when I posted. My husband and I attended a conference all day Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I sat at a local farmers market. That night my grandpa died. Sunday was a day of rest, despite the piles of dishes and laundry that had been mounting since mid-week. On Monday I cleaned it all up, plus harvested beans and cucumbers from the garden, and then managed to freeze several quart bags of beans. Tuesday was the visitation for my grandpa, and I spent all morning making two flower arrangements to go beside the casket. Wednesday was the funeral and funeral dinner, and we finally got home around 4:00 pm. I spent the rest of the day cleaning up or resting my weary body on the couch. And that brings me to... today. Thursday. Despite all that transpired over the last week, I do have a few thrifty things to share. 1. Earned $44.00 net profit at the farmers market. Truth be told, I was really there for political activism. But I thought I might get more people coming by my booth if I put some farm-y products out. So I took several dozen eggs from our chickens (and honestly, I DID need to sell those as well), some maple syrup and soap that I had made, plus an arrangement of basil and sage bunches. I only sold one bunch of basil, but did sell all of the eggs I brought as well as several jars of maple syrup and bars of soap. And I collected 14 signatures for a petition I was circulating, so... I think it was a success. 2. Picked at least 10 cucumbers and froze 5 quart bags of beans. 3. Used leftover flowers from the funeral arrangements to make several arrangements for our home (you can see one at the top of this post). I gave one of them away. 4. Found some clearance items at a local grocery store. Slivered almonds were $3.20/lb., sold in tiny packages for $0.50. They were very near the "best by" date, so I put most of them in the freezer. We also found brown bananas deeply discounted and some bacon for $3.00 per pound. Normally bacon in our area is $3.50 per pound, so that was a slight savings. 5. Visited our local nursery and bought rosemary and lavender plants for $1.50 per piece. I got two rosemary plants to make winter topiaries with (one for me and one for a Christmas gift) and six lavender plants to start a little lavender bed. Not only that, but they were giving one free echinacea plant per customer! I already planned on buying echinacea at some point this year, so that was a wonderful freebie. While I was there, I also looked at some additions to my cut flower garden. In particular I saw some lisianthus and crocosmia that I really liked. All of the plants are either 25% off or buy one get one free, so I will probably go back when I have more time and trunk space (I had just picked up groceries and chicken feed, so I didn't have a lot of room for plants). Well, that is all for today! Hopefully this coming week will not be quite as busy and draining as the last one was. ~Prudence~ Hello everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful week so far. Here are some thrifty things I've done since writing last:
1. The garden is producing like crazy! I'm picking three different types of beans and cucumbers. On the very cusp of ripening are tomatoes, apples, pears and even some ornamental gourds. 2. I made lacto-fermented pickles. They turned out great with just a salt brine. Next time I will try to add some dill (if I can find any volunteers in the garden) and they will be even better. I managed to find ONE half-gallon mason jar this week, so I will be making more pickles and storing them in the basement right away, rather than letting them ferment in the kitchen and moving to the refrigerator. I think the cooler temp in the basement will slow down the fermentation a lot, so the pickles will last longer down there. That being said, I still want to clear out some room in the fridge to store some lacto-fermented vegetables on a permanent basis. 3. I foraged more mullein and red clover this week to add to my herbal apothecary. 4. I used some old chocolate squares (drinking chocolate) that we had from visiting the Dominican Republic several years ago. The weather has finally taken a cold turn, so the hot chocolate was very good despite its age. 5. I mended a pair of shorts for Hubby and a pair of jeans for our toddler. Normally I use an iron-on patch and then hand sew around the iron-on patch to repair holes. However, after I had repaired the toddler jeans in this manner, I discovered a new way to repair the holes. My teenage brother has taken to buying and wearing military surplus clothing, and his pants and shirts are repaired in a faster, cheaper manner. First, a similar or identical swatch of fabric is cut for the patch. Then the patch is set on the backside of the hole, and simply stitched across many times over. No ironing or hand-sewing needed, plus the patch is less prone to tearing on the edges. I tried this method to fix Hubby's shorts, and I believe it produced a stronger repair in far less time than an iron-on patch. Well, that is all I have for this week. Have a wonderful weekend! ~Prudence~ |
About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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