Hello lovelies! I had a good week and I'm excited to tell you about some of the things I did to be thrifty.
1. Harvested green beans, raspberries and cucumbers from the garden. I also found a few things on my foraging list: red clover, mullein, and elderberries. The elderberries aren't ripe yet, but it seems like there is such a short window of time between when they ripen and when the birds eat them. I wanted to at least know their location (about a mile away from our house) beforehand. I did find two decent sized patches on a local public trail. I hope there will be enough for me and any other foragers. 2. I used our dehydrator to dry some frozen vegetables from the freezer. This year I'm trying to strike a better balance between frozen, dried, canned, and "cold storage" foods. In the past I've leaned heavily on frozen foods rather than canned or dried. With things so uncertain in our world, I don't think there's any guarantee that our electricity gets cut off (or service is spotty, etc.) or the freezer breaks and we can't find the right part to fix it. Already freezers AND canning lids are in short supply, so drying seemed to be the next step. I was happy with how easily the frozen mixed vegetables dried in the dehydrator. I'm just now finishing up some parsnips from the freezer, and later today I will do some frozen corn. 3. Along with dehydrating, I also ordered more fermenting supplies this week and will be fermenting more vegetables. I did some sauerkraut earlier this year, and it turned out amazing. This week I repackaged it into one jar, added a glass weight and an airlock lid, and put it in our basement. I hope it will do well there. Our basement is 60-70 degrees right now and our fridge was between 40 and 50, so I'm not sure what will happen. My pantry list says that I need something like 30 lbs. of carrots to last a winter, and I feel like splitting that amount four different ways (canned, dried, fermented, cold storage) will be more achievable and healthy than trying to preserve ALL of them the same way. 4. I also canned some meat that was in our freezer, again diversifying the stash. I am going to can more of it, as well as dry some, this coming week. 5. I got a free, new-to-us piano! We had been needing one for a good six months or so, and I finally got around to looking for one in the last couple of weeks. This one (pictured above) is in good condition for a free piano. It needs a good tuning, but all of the keys work well and the exterior looks very nice. 6. I used a digital credit from Amazon to buy the song "Dawn" from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice soundtrack. I'm really hoping to learn the song by the end of the year. It is so hard to find time to practice, especially with children wanting to bang on the piano beside me every time I sit down. But I would love to be able to play this beautiful piece, and I know it's within my skill level. Hearing the piece will help me learn it faster. The song cost $1.29, so with the credit I was able to buy it for $0.39. I already have the sheet music. 7. I continued working through the Fascinating Womanhood course that I started last week. I am doing one lesson per week, and the course is 23 lessons long. It takes me about three afternoons, one hour per day, to get the course work done and journal. I am still really enjoying it and I feel like it is keeping me motivated on days when I'm "not feeling it". Well, that is about it for this week! I hope you are having fun being thrifty and keeping your homes! ~Prudence~
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About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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