Foraging

Due to the bizarro weather we’ve had around here lately, Mother Nature is all out of whack. Estimates on crop losses from the orchards around here are around 90%. Other edibles that aren’t as sensitive to frosts are ahead of schedule. Take morels for example.

My usual “window” for foraging morels runs somewhere from the 21st of April to Memorial Day. This year, hubby and I started finding those elusive fungi the last week in March. These photos are actually from the first three weeks of April. We did pretty well for a while, and I did dry some to use throughout the winter, but the season that started three weeks early seems to have dried up three weeks early as well. When I went searching on Mother’s Day 2012, I found only one, and that was an accident. It had been kicked over by someone or something and dried out long before I stumbled upon it.

Despite the fact that I didn’t find any morels on this year’s hike, I didn’t come home empty-handed. Dylan and I ran into my friend Stephanie and her kids. They were looking for ramps, so we joined them. Dylan and I came home with a mesh produce bag filled with ramps (or wild leeks). I’ve used some of them in cooking since then, but my real goal was to can them. More precisely, to pickle them.

If you can find them, pickled ramps can be quite pricey. I’ve made them before and everyone that’s ever tried them loves them. However, I’ve become quite a hoarder. I dole them out sparingly to friends and family members that will appreciate them as much as I do. When we open a jar, it is hard not to eat the entire thing. Once all the delicious ramps have been devoured from the pickling brine, I add it to BBQ sauces, marinades and dressings; the flavor is exquisite.

From the bag Dylan and I brought home, I managed to can five half-pint jars. This isn’t enough for me to check #58 off of my 101 in 1001, but it is a good start. It also gets me 1.25 quarts closer to my pickle goal for #53!

For the recipe, check out my Jerked Onion recipe from the Can Jam and substitute whole ramps for the cut onions, or click here for a printable version: Jerk Pickled Ramps Printable Recipe

 

 

Why Resale Shopping is Better Than Retail Shopping

I have shopped at resale stores for years. Goodwill is one of my “must stops” when I actually drive around, but there are a few others in town that I frequent and several others that I visit once in awhile.

There are lots of reasons I love resale shopping. First of all, it is much cheaper than retail shopping. Jean Jacket? $7. You can find all kinds of goodies for a fraction of their retail price. Sometimes resale shops even take “leftovers” from retail shops. I got a brand new, still-in-the-box deep fryer for $10.

But, “brand new, still-in-the-box” is not what I look for at resale stores. In fact, not having to deal with all the packaging that accompanies new merchandise is one of the things I love most about resale shopping. Have you seen all the plastic, styrofoam and even twist-ties that come on new stuff? The box is often twice the size of the coontents because of all the extra crap they cram in there. When you shop resale you don’t have to dispose of even more waste. Even though I recycle when I buy new, not everyone does. Resale reduces waste.

Haggling is acceptable. Now, you can’t get out of control with the haggling, but the staff at resale shops usually appreciates it when you let them know if a price is out of line. They want to sell their stuff and won’t if the price isn’t good. Most of my canning jars came from Goodwill. Sometimes when I go in there the jars are marked $.99 each. I won’t buy jars for that price; I can buy them new for less than that. But, if you tell the cashier what the jars retail for new, they’ll mark them down. I’ll buy quite a few jars at fifty cents apiece, but I’ll clean them out if they are a quarter each.

Lots of things that seem like a good idea but take up a lot of space can be found at resale shops for a reasonable price. I buy a LOT of housewares at resale shops. For example:

New pitcher for the ancient Osterizer blender that I dropped and broke. (BTW, if you drop your favorite glass blender pitcher on the floor and it breaks, you can screw a standard-mouthed mason jar onto the base as a temporary fix. Screwing a canning jar to the blades also works if you want to make individual smoothies in different flavors or want to premix a bunch for storage.)
Ice cream maker
Bread machine for school
Fermenting crock
Super-deluxe, stainless-steel colander that I use for everything
Drinking glasses
Jelly/cheese straining bag (So, it’s really a cotton pillowcase, but whatever.)

Many resale shops offer you a discount on a future purchase when you donate your old stuff. Cleaned out your closet? Take the old stuff to a resale shop. Somebody will probably love your “old” outfits and you could get 10% off your next purchase.

Lots of thrift stores benefit charities. Women’s Resource Center benefits battered women and their children. Goodwill helps people find jobs. Shopping resale benefits people in your community.

Today the reason I love resale shopping is this beautiful Weck canning jar. I have been wanting to try Weck Jars for a while now, but they are quite pricey. This 1 Liter, BPA-free jar cost me $5. It was probably too much since it rivals the actual retail price of the jar and was most of the money I had left from my March allowance, but I can try it out and see how it works before I invest a fortune on more fancy-shmancy canning jars. If I don’t like it for canning, I can always store dried beans or coffee or something in it.

Spending Diet; How’d the first month go?

When I decided to start the spending diet, I didn’t really discuss it, I just implemented it. So imagine Mr. Hippie’s surprise to learn that he had essentially been cut off.  He got paid on the second, so we went out, ran errands, and did a little grocery shopping.  We also withdrew enough cash to cover our “allowances” for the month.  He was excited to have cash in hand since that isn’t something we normally do. I think he was also working under the assumption that this allowance would be happening every time he got paid. This was particularly enticing since January is a three pay-period month for him. Now picture his shock and sadness when he realized that this money had to last him all month.  Despite his reluctance, the plan seems to be working so far.

The biggest part of the plan is to reduce extra spending, but another aspect is to try and find ways to increase your income.  One of the things I have been doing to raise a little extra money is make these cute skate-wheel bags.

Storage bag for roller/skateboard skate wheels.

I’ve been selling them to other derby girls and hope to get some listed on etsy soon. Hubby assumed that I was doing it to raise extra “allowance” for myself.  He was a little surprised when he learned I plan to contribute the profits back to the general fund to pay down our debt but I think he was relieved that I wasn’t just trying to raise a whole bunch of extra money for myself.

How I spent my January allowance:

• $35 ~ Derby dues.  This is an automatic withdrawl from my checking account, so I will only be taking $65 cash each month for my allowance.
• $10 ~ 2012 wall calendar and a start on my Christmas shopping for next year.  Gifts are wants, not needs, so my gifting needs to come from my allowance.  However, both items were half off, so I felt the expense was worth it.
• $15 ~ “gifted” to my husband.  He has been wanting a big ticket item for a while. He got some money for Christmas and had allowance money in hand, so decided the time to splurge was now.  He was a little short.  I was going to loan him the money until February but decided that since:
  A. The spending diet was my idea and
  B. He had no idea he was going on a diet, it would be nice of me to cover his overage.
  Besides, he sprung for his item the first week of January and still spent NO MORE MONEY all month.  It was worth $15 to me for him to buy-in to the plan; it will be a savings in the long run.
• $4 ~ “Brunch” with my son.  I received a $10 gift certificate to a local restaurant for Christmas from one of my students. Adam was at work and Gwen was at a friend’s, so I decided to take Dylan to breakfast with the gift certificate.  There was a slight overage and I needed to leave a tip, so I sprung the four bucks to spend a nice morning with my son. I wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t had the certificate, but the money was well spent; the breakfast sandwich was big enough to provide him with a lunch as well. Plus, we talked about the spending diet while we were out, so hopefully he is learning good financial habits.
• $6 ~ Beer. One of the things my husband likes to spend his allowance on is beer. I myself will not spring for a case of beer because I can’t stomach the idea of spending that much of my allowance on it.  However, I do enjoy a beer from time to time so I pay him a dollar every time I take one of his. He is the clear winner here because the beers actually only cost about $0.75 each and he gets to keep all deposit money to use in the future but I do take free sips of his beers from time to time.
• $5 ~Crafting Supplies. I needed some ribbon, velcro and a fat quarter to complete a project. If I sell the stuff on Etsy, I will repay myself for the expenses but for now, these items were a want.

Not bad. At the end of the month I still had $25 left even after “giving away” part of my money. I know I have some expenses coming up that will put me over some months allowances, so having a cushion feels good.

Dairy Queen Part 3 (Or, How to Make Cultured Buttermilk)

I’ve been making yogurt for a long time now. It’s pretty easy and I have a system. So, every five or six days I start a new quart. I’ve also dabbled in cheeses, and even made my own butter. Until recently, however, I’ve had no need or desire to make butermilk.  Then hubby introduced me to chipotle ranch dressing and my love affair with buttermilk began. We had the buttermilk in the fridge for the dressing, but I started using it for other things: biscuits, pancakes, stroganoff and other cream sauces. What started out as a ranch dressing habit soon turned into an expensive butermilk addiction. I had to take action.

Enter: Homemade Buttermilk, a How-To

Warm about three cups of milk to 85°.

Stir about a cup of cultured butermilk into the warmed milk.

Let rest, covered, on the counter or other suitable warm-ish place overnight.

Once the buttermilk has cultured, store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks (if it lasts that long).

Expensive!

Culturing buttermilk is super easy and saves a ton of money.  Good quality buttermilk costs $4.99 a quart while unhomogenized milk from the same dairy costs only $3.49 a half gallon. So, for $3.49 I can make what would cost me $10 to buy.

The Spending Diet

A spending diet.  That’s what I’m going on for the new year.

Financially speaking, 2011 wasn’t the best year for us. We’ve never been wealthy, but most of the time we managed to get by on what we had.  If you read my post about modifying my 101, or this one, you know that as a Christmas gift from his boss, Mr. Hippie got laid off indefinitely for the Christmas 0f 2010.  He was unemployed until April of 2011 so finances were tight around here. Mr. Hippie did find a job last April, but his hourly rate is only 60% of his old rate.  Add to that the fact that he’s only working about 85% of his old hours and you start to see the big picture.

I took a second job from April-June of last year and then all summer, the kids and I added an extra child to our family which added some extra money to our budget, but made doing some ”summer things” more difficult. When school resumed, the extra child no longer needed to spend her days with us, so my extra cash-flow dried up. Add to that a school-employee pay freeze and an increase in both our insurance premiums and our deductible amounts and things are tighter than they’ve ever been.

I have a bad habit of using credit cards to make ends meet when we can’t afford things.  Most of the time, the things are things we actually need like groceries, or gas for the car, but sometimes, they are wants.  Because of this habit and some poor choices we made years ago, Hubby and I have a lot of debt.  Add to that a mortgage that we can’t refinance because the market crashed and our house isn’t worth what we owe on it, and things are pretty grim.

Enter the spending diet. A couple of days ago I popped over to squirrels in wren’s nest and saw her post about resolutions. One of hers, like many peoples’ is to get rid of her credit card debt.   She referenced And Then She Saved.  I checked it out.  I decided right away that I wasn’t ready for a spending fast; primarily because of derby. A fast would mean NO spending which would mean no dues, no bus fare to away bouts, no equipment. . . No derby would make #62 a lot more difficult.  Running helps, but practice three nights a week is a commitment not only to myself and my health but to a whole army of other girls that depend on me; it keeps me accountable.

So, hubby and I started our diet on Monday.  He and I were both given our allowance for the month in cash.  I don’t expect him to keep track of his expenditures, but when he’s out of money, he’s out of money.  As for me, I actually think $100 a month is a lot.  I’ll let you know when it runs out and I change my mind.

The Spending Diet will probably change our lives.  Hopefully for the better.  I think it will be tough in the short-term, but in the long run we’ll all be happier.  Plus, #s 84, 85, 86 and 87 seem a lot more feasible now.

Goodbye, 2011

2011 was a difficult year both for my family and for this blog.  If you are/were a regular reader, you noticed I wasn’t around much. I hope to change that this year.  Because I didn’t write many posts last year, I wasn’t surprised that most of the top posts last year were older posts.

As a farewell to the year gone by I present:

The Top Five Posts of 2011

1. Brined Pork Roast
2. Homemade Fabric Softener
3. Homemade Laundry Detergent
4. Building A Rabbit Hutch
5. Crusty Round Loaves of Homemade Bread

I am surprised that the Brined Pork Roast recipe was number one. Especially because in my opinion, this recipe is much tastier.

I get lots of searches for green cleaning recipes. Pinterest has been especially helpful in promoting them. I’m glad people are being greener and I’ll try to post some more green cleaning recipes this year.

I am excited to see the rabbit hutch plans make the list.  I wonder if that is because more people are interested in rabbits for meat, or if pet owners just need plans? Regardless, I hope to post more rabbit updates soon. Until then, if you’re looking for rabbit information, check out On Breeding Like Rabbits.

Happy New Year,

Angela

Homemade Scouring Powder

Green cleaning is something that many companies are trying to market.  A lot of it is just “greenwashing”.  Making your own earth-friendly cleaners is cheaper, better for the environment than many of the “green” cleaners for sale, and doesn’t take very long.  This recipe is more of a non-recipe than a real recipe but I’ve decided to share my super simple Sink Scrub recipe.

While I call it “Sink Scrub”, it can be used to safely scrub most surfaces: countertops, toilets, bathtubs, the top of your stove or inside of your refrigerator.  Pretty much anywhere you would use “Comet” or other commercial scouring powders is a good place to use this scrub.

Sink Scrub

Sink Scrub

Ingredients:

1. Borax
2. Baking Soda
3. Essential oil (optional)

Directions:

1. Assemble your ingredients.
2. Find a container with a shaker top.  An old giant-sized spice container works well.  An empty parmesan cheese container would also work.
3. Dump or scoop equal parts baking soda and Borax into your shaker.  (I used to measure but now I just do it by eye).
4. Add essential oil (optional) Teatree oil has antiseptic properties and makes a nice addition.  Lately I have been adding wintergreen.  It has a nice fresh, clean scent but doesn’t come off too “minty”.  A blend works too.  In my spice container shaker I add about 20 drops of oil.
5. Cover and shake well.

That’s it.  Easy-peasy.  You may want to make one for the kitchen and one for the bath.

If you like this, you may want to check out my recipe for homemade laundry detergent as well.

 

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

The start of a new year is always a time for reflection on the past, and hope for the opportunities yet to come.  This year my family starts with some setbacks, but I am optimistic that the future will be bright despite the hurdles before us.

Although this blog was “born” in 2009, last year was my first full year blogging.  Sometimes I did a better job than others.  Posting regularly was a challenge for me at times but I hope to have a better go of it this year.  I’m not going to resolve to post daily or even weekly, but I think that posting more frequently is a good goal, as ambiguous as it is.  Challenges like the Spice Rack Challenge with its required monthly posts and the Dark Days Challenge with bi-monthly posts until April will help me stay motivated, but so will various things on my 101 in 1001 list (which I fully intend to complete).

But, as a farewell to the year gone by I present:

The Top Ten Posts of 2010

1. Homemade Fabric Softener
2. 28 Day Challenge Final Results
3. June Can Jam~ Herbed Strawberry-Balsamic Jam
4. Crusty Round Loaves of Homemade Bread
5. How I Made Homemade Soap (and Didn’t Screw it up)
6. Lavender’s Blue . . . (April Can Jam)
7. How to Make Your Own Soap (Concluded)
8. Homemade Laundry Detergent
9. Everything but Apple Jacks?
10. Can Jam Challenge Round Three ~ Jerked Onion

I was surprised that some of the posts made the list, but in general I wasn’t.  This blog is (mostly) about me getting back to slower times, cooking and cleaning in a way that is more sustainable.  So I shouldn’t be surprised that most of the posts on the list are in that vein: recipes for homemade food, instructions for preserving your harvests and recipes for cleaning in a more gentle manner. 

And, I was glad to see my three favorite canning recipes make the list!

Happy New Year,

Angela

August Can Jam ~ Tomatoes Three Ways

Tomatoes.  There is something about a ripe tomato that simply screams, “Summer!”   Unfortunately, tomato season doesn’t last forever.  Unless, of course, you buy mealy, flavorless, South American tomatoes all winter but that is an entirely different post.  Today we’re talking about preserving the fresh, local bounty that is right outside our doors.  

I planted tomatoes this year, but my uncooperative plants have thus far yielded me only 4-5 tomatoes a day.  This is perfect to keep us in fresh tomatoes for lunch, dinner and small batches of salsa to snack on, but not enough for preserving.  Maybe I’ll have to try this method next year.  Enter, the Farmers’ Market.  Dylan and I walked down to the market this morning to pick up some tomatoes for The Jam.  Even though I knew I was going to buy large quantities of tomatoes, I still didn’t have the sense to bring the wagon with me.  I proceeded to buy a half bushel of tomatoes, a peck of apples, six ears of corn, two giant green peppers, five onions and . . . 

A cantaloupe. 

Fortunately I had Dylan to help me drag the stuff  back home.   We stopped for breaks many times. 

The tomatoes were the best score of my summer market season so far.  I paid $3 for a half bushel of tomatoes!!!  They were seconds, perfect for canning.  She made me promise to use them that day so that they wouldn’t spoil and many of them had blemishes, but none of them were bad and I can’t beat the savings; quarts of tomatoes were $4 or more. 

I promised I’d process the tomatoes today, so I did.  Here you go: 

Round 1: Salsa 

At a jar a week, I only need about 46 more.

• 16 cups peeled tomatoes
• 2 medium onions
• 3 cups chopped bell pepper
• hot peppers, minced; I used a blend. 
  

  These chilies made a VERY mild salsa.

  Several of my own Bolivian rainbow chilies and a couple of mystery peppers from the Farmers’ Market.  I seeded the mystery peppers, but left the seeds in the little peppers 

• 7 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 T. cumin
• scant 1/4 C. salt
• 1 1/2 cups lemon and/or lime juice

Prepare your jars and boiling water bath.
Chop the onions and bell peppers.  Squeeze most of the water and some of the seeds out of the tomatoes before chopping them.  I used a food processor to mince the garlic and peppers, but I chopped everything else by hand. 
Dump it all into a big pot and bring to a boil. 
Simmer until it reaches a consistency you like. 
Ladle salsa into hot, sterile jars; add lids and process thirty minutes. 

This recipe made ten pints plus a little bowl for us to eat right away. 

Round 2: Sauce 

The sauce isn't really this yellow, it's actually a lovely orange.

• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3/4 C. carrot, chopped
• 1 C. celery leaves and all, chopped
• 1/4 C. parsley, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 C. chopped fresh basil*
• 7 lbs. peeled tomatoes, chopped
• 2 T. honey
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 T. lemon juice per pint

Prepare your jars and boiling water bath.
In a large pot, saute onion, carrot, celery and parsley in a little water.
Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
Increase heat to medium high; add garlic and saute for one minute.
Add tomatoes, honey and basil.  *The basil can be left out if you want a more neutral (read: not Italian) sauce.
Salt and pepper to taste.
If you are going to use this as a pasta sauce, it is fine in its chunky state, but I like to use mine for pasta AND pizza, so I puree mine for a smoother consistency.  If you have a stick blender, run it through the sauce to smooth it out.  If, like me, your stick blender is dead, dump the sauce in batches into your blender and puree until smooth.  Return the sauce to the pan and bring to a boil.
Ladle sauce and 2 tablespoons* lemon juice into hot, sterile pint jars; add lids and process thirty-five minutes. 

*If you use larger or smaller jars, adjust the amount of lemon juice you add to each jar; the acid is necessary for food safety during storage. 

This recipe made four pints. 

Round 3: Ketchup 

One tiny jar.

Disclaimer:  I have never made ketchup before.  The other recipes are tried-and-true, but the ketchup is an experiment. 

Remember this book? 

Cool, huh? Don't you just want to run out and make a gelatin mold?

It has several ketchup recipes in it, but we are canning tomatoes, so I modified the straight-up Tomato Ketchup recipe.  The most difficult thing was adjusting the seasonings; it’s hard to divide fractions of teaspoons.

• 2 lbs. peeled tomatoes
• 1/2 meduim onion, chopped
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/4 C.  vinegar
• 5 cloves
• 4 allspice
• 1/4 tsp. celery seeds
• 1/4 tsp, cracked cinnamon stick
• 2 T. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt

When the ingredient listing on the ketchup label says, "spices" this is what they mean.

Prepare your jars and boiling water bath.
Put vinegar and spices into a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil and turn off heat.
Put tomatoes, onions and cayenne into saucepan. Use this to chop up the tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Dust off your food mill.  Run the tomato mixture through the food mill and return to the pot.  Add sugar and simmer until volume is reduced by half.  It takes about an hour and a half.
Strain vinegar to remove spices.  Add salt to vinegar and add to tomato mixture.  Boil, uncovered, until thick.  Again, the cooking takes a long time; about another hour but I didn’t boil it on high because I didn’t want to burn it.
Pour into hot jars and process 15 minutes. 

This made one, 8 oz. jar.  I haven’t tried it yet, but if it is good, I’ll make some more. 

Oh, and the chickens LOVE canning season.

Nibbler

Last week I introduced you to our new doe rabbit, Fiona, and told you about my hare-brained scheme (Yeah, I really just said that.) to start raising meat rabbits.  I can’t raise cattle in town.  At present, I can’t even have a goat, but I can have rabbits because they can be raised in small, urban spaces and are considered pets by most people.  

I can, and will continue to buy sustainably raised meat products from farmers I know and trust, but raising my own meat rabbits is financially a better option for me.    Besides, rabbits are greener; they are very efficient converters of plant biomass into meat.  If you don’t believe me, read this research paper by Wayne Cook from the Warner College of Natural Resources of Colorado State University.  It’s really long and unless you’re versed in the science, probably difficult to read so I’ll just share this statement:

“Calculations for comparisons among herbivores show that rabbits can utilize the herbage biomass potential better than sheep or cattle and sheep are considered more efficient than cattle.  (The data) shows that rabbits are about 2.2 times more efficient than sheep and about 2.8 times more efficient than cattle.”

So, even though I don’t have space for sheep or cattle, I can cleanly, humanely and efficiently produce my own meat.  Rabbit meat production doesn’t require much space or equipment and the start-up costs are minimal.  I’ve done my research.  I know there are breeds of rabbits more suited to meat production based on their size, body shapes and growth patterns.  Fiona, our doe, is a Palomino rabbit.  Palominos are considered a good breed for meat production.

Our new buck.

This is Nibbler.  Nibbler is a 9-week old buck that we purchased at the fair last Wednesday and picked up yesterday.  The kids selected him.  I like that he looks like a wild rabbit.  My only criteria for rabbit selection other than suitability for meat production was that we couldn’t have any of those zombie-eyed albino rabbits.  I’ll be honest, they creep me out. 

Nibbler is a mutt, but he is a blend of several varieties of rabbits that are of a good size and shape for meat production.  Not all the breeds in his gene-pool were on the “preferred” list for meat production, but most of them were and his parents were of a good size (9-11 pounds).  I’m not raising pet rabbits, so I don’t need pedigrees.  By diversifying my gene pool, I will actually end up with heartier stock not prone to genetic defects common in straight-breed rabbits.

When we started with chickens I didn’t keep excellent records of our costs because saving money on eggs wasn’t my goal.  However, I want to show that rabbits are affordable, sustainable meat that anyone inclined to could raise.  We won’t have any meat from our pair for a while because they are young, but I will keep you updated on the expenses as we move forward in this venture.  Check back soon for a post about rabbit housing!