Hello everyone! I've had a great week so far. We celebrated my birthday, which is always fun. 1. I recieved a gift certificate to our local nursery, and used it to buy a goji berry bush (25% off!), as well as six packets of seed that I'll be able to use next year, or even possibly this winter. There was still $4.00 left on the card after I was done. When we were at the nursery I saw exactly two citrus plants with blossoms that I badly wanted, but they were $40.00 each and my gift card was only for $29.00. I have tried growing smaller citrus trees at home, but have never been able to get them to blossom, and to date they have all died. 2. I went to a produce auction and was able to purchase 15 butternut squash for $0.60 each. The normal price around here is usually about $2.00 per squash. Looking back, I probably should have bought more squash of different varieties, as it will store easy and was very cheap. I did grow butternut squash this year, but it was not even half the amount that I bought, plus my homegrown squash turned out very small. 3. We had a hard frost over the weekend, and I was able to cover most of my delicate plants and thus preserve them. That will allow me to harvest several more peppers and tomatoes. 4. I used some birthday money to buy the book pictured above; Merchant of Sonoma. I paid a couple of dollars more at the WS outlet store than I would have on Amazon, but I've been wanting to read this particular book for several years and never have because I couldn't find it for free. My birthday was a good excuse to buy it. I've only had the book for a few days now, and I'm almost done with it. The hardback format and thick paper makes it look like a long read, but it's not. Each chapter usually includes some pictures and recipes, which also pad out the story. It is very interesting and a good book overall. I don't think Williams-Sonoma is now what it once was, simply because of globalization and the prevalence of factory-produced goods. I've owned some good WS merchandise and some bad WS merchandise. Some was used and some was purchased at the outlet store, which is typically about 40% off sticker price. Obviously shopping at the outlet store is not the same experience as shopping at their regular retail stores. The displays aren't nearly as nice, which (according to the book) was one of the huge elements that set WS apart from other kitchenware stores. The other thing that set them apart was their high-quality products. As I mentioned before, though, globalization has changed much of that; individuals can now buy things straight from France rather than retailers going on buying trips and then shipping everything back to the U.S. and selling it through a store. One thing I still like about WS though is their style; simple, classic design elements. Of course they do sell some "gaudy" holiday plates, napkins, etc. But the non-themed items are usually something I would love to have in my kitchen. 5. I added some things to our emergency supplies/pantry. I'm now into planning for January-March of 2021, so I bought things that I thought might sell out again; toilet paper, ramen, canned meats. I also bought some seeds and elephant garlic for the garden. I've heard that there may be a shortage on seeds due to inclement weather, wildfires, and more people gardening, so I've been trying to buy now rather than in January. Some other things I bought were an emergency candle, eye drops, petroleum jelly, thread and glow sticks. This is my third pack of glow sticks that I've bought from the Dollar Tree. While not as good as a flashlight, they don't require batteries and make a good "night light" or safe light source for children during a power outage. 6. Our city had their annual "junk days", where people put their junk out on the curb. Pickers and passers-by can look through everything and take it, if they want to, and after a week the garbage company will haul everything away. I found several useful things: -A rocking chair for our porch. It will need to be painted and fixed up a bit with new dowels, some pillows, etc., but I think it was a great deal, for being free. -A child-sized armchair. I cleaned it up already, and now it just needs some more stuffing and a paint job to be usable. -Several pots and hanging baskets that I will use for my indoor winter garden this year. -A few local history books, in addition to a book on cutting gardens and another thick book about plant propagation. 7. I've begun planning for a winter garden in our basement, and set up a produce storage area in our garage. You can see my storage area below: The tall shelving unit is actually a repurposed fodder tray unit, which is why the shelving is tiltled a bit. The smaller shelf is one that I found at junk days (it has all of my $0.60 squashes on it). Here are some of the ways I plan on using this area:
-Winter storage for garlic, onions, potatoes, and other things. I may also put hickory nuts or dry beans (still in the shell) here. -Ripening area for tomatoes and pears. Rather than canning my 5 gallons+ of pears, I've chosen to only can some, and keep the rest in the refrigerator. When I want to use some, I will bring them out into the garage to ripen, and then use them fresh. I just fill like this is a better use of my time than canning all of them, plus fresh pears don't have the added sugar and limited use that canned pears do. Plus, this method of "preservation" won't require any canning lids! My hope, ultimately, is that this storage area will allow me to spend more time gardening and less time preserving and eating mushy preserved food. This year has been ideal to work toward that goal, since additional freezers and canning lids are hard to come by. I will talk about the winter garden more next week, after I make some needed purchases and get started with some of the plants. Have a blessed week! ~Prudence~
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Hi everyone! Here are some thrifty things I did this week:
1. Made a sourdough starter. I have tried making these in the past, but was never diligent enough to follow it through to completion. Basically, this is what you do: Day 1: Mix 1 cup water with 1 cup flour. Cover with a cheesecloth. Days 2-5: Discard (i.e. save in a jar for other purposes) half of the starter. Add another cup of flour and another cup of water. Mix together, cover with a cheesecloth. Days 6-7: Discard and feed two times per day. After the last feeding on day 7, store your starter in the fridge. 2. Made an arrangement for our kitchen table. I used free flowers and greenery from our home: forsythia, willow branches, daffodils and tulips. 3. Line-dried all of our laundry last week. I have two drying racks that I keep indoors (or outside on our covered porch) to air-dry clothes. I figure it costs about $0.50 per load to dry, so I can save a couple of dollars every week by using the drying racks. 4. Made crackers, crepes and pizza crust with discarded sourdough starter. In the past I've only tried (and failed at) making bread loaves with sourdough. This time I'm starting our with easier recipes, and after some practice most have turned out excellent. I'm using recipes from this website. In the midst of a yeast shortage, I've still been able to make plenty of bread products this way. 5. Harvested spinach and parsnips from the garden. Those were both overwintered from last year. The only new produce we have ready is rhubarb, but I haven't picked any yet. 6. Lastly, we were able to acquire about 6 months' worth of venison for our freezer. This will be so helpful if there is a meat shortage in the near future. I canned some of the stew meat to put in our basement food storage, and the rest (3 large roasts and 50+ lbs. of ground meat) we put in the freezer. After counting all costs, we figure that the price was about $0.17 per pound. I also canned some chicken breasts that I bought for $1.60 per pound. In addition to what I already had in our food storage, I estimate that we have enough canned meat to last one month. I would be more comfortable with a 3-month supply, but we do still have a lot of meat in the freezer. Blessings, ~Prudence~ |
About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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