Anti-Inflammatory April Update 2: Cauliflower Stem Soup Recipe

 So, it's going really well.  Guts are sorting themselves out.  Arthritis less annoying, still there, I mean, it's not a miracle cure but I did a whole workout at the gym with weights this morning without thinking about my arthritic knee or my owie toe (pro tip--do NOT drop logs on the joint between your big toe and your foot and then ignore it because it doesn't bruise.  Damaged all the tendons/ligaments which froze up and now I'm like 3 months in to trying to get the mobility back to what it was.).  The toe mobility is coming along, I suspect the lower inflammation level is helping.  Maybe it is placebo effect and I don't care.

Also, not as itchy.  I have the driest skin on the planet according to a healthcare provider and it is often itchy.  Less so now.

I've made my own chocolate treats like mochas with dehydrated coconut milk powder, just coconut bits, home brewed coffee (drinking 1/2 as much as before...2 cups per day rather than 4), and cocoa powder.  No sweetener.  It's quite good.  So that helps with the skipping candy bars at the store even when on super sale.  I stocked up on cocoa powder just for this.

The chickens are laying well now so eating more eggs.  Some people find them inflammatory but I seem to do fine on them.

Eating a tiny bit of whole wheat organic flour.  About a cup a week cooked into things like chocolate service berry bannock made with no-sodium baking soda or no-sodium baking powder.  I have a bit of vanilla extract, organic real stuff, if I want to kick it up but so far haven't bothered.

Having banana eggs or just eggs and anti-inflammatory spice mix for breakfast most days.  

To support my good diet, I'm buying more produce, while keeping it frugal.   Last Saturday I had to be in town for a thing so I combined that with my grocery run and laundry duties to minimize trips.   

I got organic purple and green cauliflower heads, one each, for $1.50 each!  Since they each weighed over 1.5lbs, I hit my "Dollar a pound all year round" (that's a Jeff Yeager guideline for saving $$ on groceries...buy what is cheap and use it all).

I made a critical error when cooking up the first head, the green cauliflower.  I cut out the stem and leaves and put it in the chicken bucket (a pan that holds food scraps that the chickens can eat...then I add water and let it cook on the wood stove if that stove is going, because chickens don't eat raw onions).  OOPS!  I Don't keep that pan clean enough for human consumption of contents so...darn it!

I had forgotten that the stems are fine diced up small and put in soup or mashed potatoes or whatever!  Even fried up.  Same with the leaves and the ribs from the leaves!  It was like 1/2 the weight of the cauliflower.  

SO, yesterday I had the purple cauliflower florets for lunch with some boiled eggs and a dressing made from the dregs of fancy mustard, vinegar and olive oil.  It was good.  

I KEPT the stem and leaves in a bag and took them home.  Last night I diced them up into a pan.  There was about 1.5 cups of usable food.  The chickens just got those dry hard nubbins from where there were cuts/trims.  I added water, a chopped onion, a couple of carrots (saved the top bits to regrow the greens in little cups of water because that is fun and carrot tops are my go-to version of parsley), a 1/4 cup of dry green split peas.  This is my first attempt at cooking split peas. Seasonings: marjoram, thyme, fennel (the stuff I have the most of...that's how I chose)  We'll see at lunch today how it is.

Brought it to a boil and simmered it until I got sick of simmering it.  No, I did not fry the onion. I could have but then everything I own stinks of fried onion. It's in a jar in the work fridge.  Most of it.  There was like 3/4 of a cup of soup that would not fit in the jar so that's at the house (which was 34degs F when I lift this morning, basically the whole place is a fridge today) waiting to become tomato soup tonight.  I'll add more water and a can of (low sodium) tomato paste.  Again, tomatoes inflammatory to some but I do well on them.  That usually makes a decent tomato soup.  Pepper and vinegar can fix most crappy soups.

Lesson:  cook up the stems.  If you want, you can peel them.  The peel is usually the hard, fibrous, bitter part.  ALSO full of vitamins and whatnot.  I left it on this time.  Of course I wash my veg too.  If I don't care for the skin in this soup, I might leave it out next time.

My groceries, being INGREDIENTS and PRODUCE was cheap!  I threw in some probiotics which were on a rare 20% off sale and might encourage the guts to improve.  My Dr. (jesus I'm old...I still BLOG and I quote my Dr...) approves of them.  Also stocked up on the powdered coconut milk.  It was on the same 20% off sale and I don't tend to binge use it if I stock up.  Unlike nuts and dried fruit...I don't dare have a back stock of nuts, nut butter or dried fruit because apparently that is my kryptonite.  I just eat the entire stock way to fast and throw my guts out of whack.  

Groceries, for 2 weeks plus some restocking, was about 27$.  That is being used with my pantry staples like the flour, cocoa, coffee, tea, and fresh eggs.  I spend about an hour in the evening making something for the next few days lunches if need be.  That keeps me from spending that evening sitting in a chair spiraling down a youtube rat hole.  And of course it saves me running to the store for something for those lunches which happened now and then before.  

Anti-Inflammatory April

 I totes made that up.  But I'm doing it.

Sugar and crap food binging, even just eating, is expensive up front and in the long run.

Up front because sugar and crap is a bad deal.  Maybe I can get more calories per dollar, but my arthritis/bursitis flair up and my guts rebel which is annoying and costs, time, productivity and $$ in the form of diarrhea meds, probiotics, and the the like.

Up front, sugar and crap food have no real food benefit so should probably be under the "entertainment" line in the budget, or a new line called "self-sabotage"...actually, I might do that.  It might work!

Anyway, I plan to eat whole foods, cook from scratch, largely with ingredients I have with infusions of  some fresh fruit and veg.

To prep, I went to the local grocery store today and bought a farewell candy bar (a big one), along with some good fruit and veg at good deals. Apples for 89cents/lb.   Cantaloupe for 79cents/lb.  There weren't any over ripe bananas (25cents/lb) but I have a few in the work freezer and can check back. Also a few garlic  bulbs at $5.99/lb.  Not super cheap but good and help with bland veg. 1 package of organic celery hearts for $1.89, there is 1.5lbs in the bag.  It didn't hit my $1/lb target but it is pretty close and the full amount in the package is edible.  With cantaloupe I don't eat the skin or guts (I do eat the seeds and the worms eat the skin and guts).  With apples I eat all but the stem and seeds which go in the wormery.  With celery though, usually the butt end is dirt and the tops are past it so there is trimming.  The bill for everything was about 9$.  2$ of that was the candy bar.  I got about 6.5lbs of veg and fruit for 7$, 2$ for the candy bar.  At the local store there is no tax, elsewhere in Idaho there would have been 6% added to the total so I can pay a bit more locally and save the tax and the gas $$ since I walk from my office to the store.

Tonight I am making a Lentil Quinoa Pilaf for tomorrow.  I sweated an onion in a tablespoon of coconut oil, added 2 carrots, some sweet pear herb leaves (no idea if that's a good idea but I did it), and it's boiling now with a quarter cup of dry lentils in it.  I didn't even sort them to see if there was a rock.  I like to live on the edge.  In a minute, I add a half cup of quinoa and let it finish up, then pack it in my 3 tier tiffin and put it on the porchfridge to cool.  Done and done.

At work for breakfast I have a banana thawing to make banana eggs for breakfast with a tablespoon of my anti-inflammatory spice mix.  Turmeric, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  The balance is a bit turmericky this time but it's still good.

I have plenty of tea and coffee (no sugar, no additives, no milk, I take it all straight) and water to drink.

Some people say coffee is inflammatory, others say not.  I figure without the sugar and keeping the amount reasonable (with the price of beans going up I am cutting back on coffee even homemade, 2T of ground coffee perday, I can rebrew it as many times as I like) it has not bothered me in the past.

I know this is also going to save me $$ because cooking at home from scratch and from what I have always does.  Inflation on basics has been not too bad so I'm fine, but this will help free up $$ for other life goals as well.  April always has some expenses in it.  A couple of annual bills are due and I do save for them each month, but still hate to see the big amounts leave all at once.

No-Spend February Informed Pantry Stock List

 It is time to start restocking the pantry.   The no-spend month was handy in getting through the stuff I don't eat, as well as noticing what types of foods I get for free or onsite and hence, they will not be on the top of the restock list, but instead on a sort of watch list in case the supply should change.

Things I get, or can get, onsite or through my own efforts:

Meat  By helping people butcher, I have a pretty good supply of meat and I gain skills...oh so slowly do I gain skills.   I will add the hunting rider to the fishing license mentioned below.  I can get small game or big game here on the property.  I can also butcher out my chickens as they get past being decent layers or I get sick of the cock duet in the mornings.  The 2 roosters are on notice every day they start the concert before 4am which is now every dam day.

Eggs More free hens should 

Fish. I'm going to go get a fishing license with the "stuff for land" or "household" budget line(s) this month.  If I actually fish this year (AHEM Sara W!!  You have been warned), that will pay for itself AND provide recreation and nature break thinking time.

Legumes.  I managed to grow a very few lentils and garbanzos last year.  Critters got them before I did but with more effort, I could make it happen I think.  The Siberian Pea shrubs are starting to put out pods and those are an edible legume.   I might be able to harvest some this year.

Camelina seeds.  They are a protein boost with omega-3, fiber and they can be gelled into fake eggs like flax seeds.  EASY to grow, harvest, clean and store.  I kept plenty for seed.

Greens 9months of the year.  Need to work harder on this and I am getting a jump on it now.  My Good King Henry is up but got frozen in the bad weather.  Might begin being harvestable in April.  Same with some wild greens like nettles, dandelion leaves, and fern heads.   If I plant radish seeds this weekend, the sprouting kind (the radish is edible but not delicious but the greens are excellent if you like strong flavors on the bitter side) I could have greens in a few weeks.   I have kale coming up in the mini greenhouse.  I have some kale that has been alive through 2 winters now.  It doesn't put out a ton of leaves, but one takes what one can get.  Lovage...god the lovage!  Both a green and a seasoning.  I moved as much of the roots as I could get out of the raised bed yesterday over to the big in-ground garden and planted what might be 3 large clumps.   The rest of the root bits I plan on potting up and maybe selling or giving away.  IF I am diligent and dry some of the greens, I might be able to stretch the supply into winter.  If I get enough sprouting seeds off radish plants, that would nearly get me greens independence.

Garlic.  I am still eating on last years' sad harvest (critters got most of it) and what the community teaching garden was giving away.  Of course I forgot to plant any last fall, middle of the house build and whatnot, until a sudden really hard freeze and then gave up.  Still for the past month or more I've saved a clove off the heads that had stored well and yesterday I stuck them in the mini greenhouse.  Why not?  Might work.  I've had a few this past week that were starting to grow in the storage bag so I put a few of those in as well and planted on in a little pot in the wee shed.  The spider plant former pot occupant froze to death a few weeks ago.  Oops...

Flavoring agents.  I've managed to collect dill.  Could have collected and dried lovage leaves, chives, sage, thyme (multiple kinds), oregano, tarragon, horseradish, onions (walking onions mysteriously appear and disappear in the garden...I did plant them but where do they go sometimes?), garlic, mint (various types).

Herbal teas.  I have wild roses, pine and fir trees, hops, mints, raspberries, and much much more that I could have been gathering leaves and petals off of to dry for winter teas.  I'm testing chicory to see if I want to grow that as a coffee substitute or coffee stretcher...so far, it makes me poop to  much to want to have all the time but might be worth it as a medicinal.

Berries.   Still have a TON of service berries, elderberries, and oregon grapes perserved in vinegar (partly because I had access to so much other fruit all winter this time).  I also have blueberries from the you-pick and I might even have some of my friend's blackberries in vinegar.  My berry bushes didn't put out enough to preserve, the planted bushes.  BUT they are doing better since the move to a new garden.  We'll see...   Service berries are pretty reliable.  If I drive or walk 5 miles to the state park up the road, I should be able to get huckleberries now and then.  I think I've found a spot to put my honeyberry shrubs and they are even bearing in their sad undersized pots.  The hens picked them clean the day before I had about 2 cups coming ready to harvest.  My blueberries have never been happy and my wild raspberries are meager.  I could work harder with the pin cherries on the lower part of the property and try working with the ash berries (those orange danglers on ash trees are edible), as well as haw apples (the fruit of the hawthorn).  My aronia berries and chokecherries are coming along a bit but are not happy.  The gooseberries and currants put out 1or 2 berries a year so far...hope springs eternal.

Apples.  I get bucket tons off the deer poop apple trees.  Plenty.  Need to work on more preserving them with drying, canning, and a root cellar some day.

Water. I have a well. 

Mushrooms.  Not many, just a few.   I am trying to learn more about identification so I will have more species that I can harvest and eat. 

Potatoes grow but are hard to preserve without a root cellar.

Beets also grew well in the big garden and were a good source of greens as well as roots.

Oddly, I suck at squash but am going to keep trying.   I have a ghost pumpkin in the small garden rotting away with some sheep poo on it.  Here's hoping it turns into a nice pumpkin patch this year!!

So, that's a great deal!

Things usually/often included in 2nd Harvest distribution locally:

Canned fruit, some fresh fruit 

Canned veg, some fresh veg

Canned beans

Pasta

Rice

Bread

Those have come, in the past few months, in large enough quantities to become part of the pantry stock.  Recently the canned items have been no-added-sugar and no-added salt versions (mostly) which work in my preferred diet.  

I'm learning to pace myself with the canned goods...eat the fresh fruit and veg early on because it's usually a tad bruised or near the expiration date.

Occasionally there are windfalls like the 10lb bag of all purpose flour I got 10 months back or the 6lbs of red meat that we got last week.  Those can't be counted on but are lovely when they happen.  The usual animal proteins are dairy and/or super salty processed meat.  I can't eat those and stay healthy due to personal problems.   The amount of pasta lately has been bonkers so that is getting shared out and when people quit accepting it, I put back 2lbs of angel hair to make up for the chickens.  They love it.

Things that are currently hard to produce and hence could be purchased as pantry stock:

Grain.  I like me some grain!  I might be able to get buckwheat to go but don't have the brain space to figure it out.  I've planted it and it came up and flowered and put out seeds. I didn't figure out an easy/doable hand harvesting method.  Once I do, then there is the cleaning and getting the hulls off and etc.   I might try wheat and wild rice.  I've tried quinoa (yes, I know it's not a real grain)  (neither is buckwheat smarty pants) but didn't get a harvestable amount.  Will try again.

Nuts.  I've planted chestnuts, hazelnuts, english walnuts, butternuts, horse chestnuts (don't eat those....make soap).  So far all but 1 hazelnut tree have died.  A chestnut might be powering back from roots.  We'll see.  I really want nuts (heh heh).   Good protein and an oil source.  BUT I can grow sunflower seeds so once I get that going, I may need/want fewer nuts.

Oil...the meats I can get easily are pretty much super lean.   Even the chickens because they are layers butchered in old age or roosters, they are not fatty.   The elk a friend gave me (thanks Rik!!) was amazing and lean.   Same with the ducks I've butchered with a friend. More fat on the ducks.  Since we're canning, we've been taking it off.  I might ask for some to render into cooking fat next time.  Nut oil (heh heh heh) would be handy.  It magically appears when you try to make nut butter.  Instead of mixing it in, pour it off and cook with it.  For now, I've been buying various oils. Coconut oil is the easiest to store, hardest to spill and I prefer it to the others when I use it as skin lotion.  I may not want to smell like olive oil or canola all day and they go off flavor in the freeze/thaw/overheat cycle of my home.

Spices.  Many herbs I can grow.  If I get a greenhouse going maybe hot peppers will make it, or thai peppers as a house plant.  Many spices like cinnamon won't.  Nutmeg is from Madagascar so I don't believe it's going to make it in north Idaho.  Mustard seeds...the debate is still alive on this one! Not growable in the quantities I need for making mustard for others, but maybe enough to make for me.  I will run a test.

Cocoa/Chocolate.   That's not going to grow here but I am going to continue to love it.  That will be purchased as needed/wanted/possible.

Coffee.  That isn't going to grow here.   I'm working my way toward lower consumption and finding ways to stretch it.  Right now I reuse the grounds.  If I start with all fresh grounds and make a french press, pour over or percolated version, then for the 2nd press/pour/perc  I add about 1/2 the original amount or less of fresh grounds.  It's not going to win coffee awards, but it cuts the amount of coffee grounds per 2 cups by 1/4.     That's about a week's worth per month.  Every 4th month is free!  (sort of).  Cutting back on the number of cups per day also helps.  I've been filling in with my back stock of tea and will keep doing that until the tea is gone.

Tea.  Herbal teas yes.   Green or Black tea...nope.  Not able to grow that here.  Hopefully I can mostly transition to growable or gatherable tea types (nettle, mint, raspberry) eventually.   They don't have caffeine so I'll have to watch and see if coffee intake increases when the G/B teas run out.

Sweeteners.  I keep trying to grow stevia as a houseplant!  So far, no go.   Honey is a theoretical possibility but I have failed for several years to get a harvestable amount and currently do not have bees.  I have been cutting back on  sweetener so that will be the biggest help.  If I keep making kombucha I will buy sugar for it.  If I eventually get a honey source going then I can try to move the mother over to that.   Sometimes sugar is also helpful in a liquid to turn into vinegar.  Honey vinegar is delicious but without my own honey it can be spendy.

Sourers.   I can brew vinegar and the pineapple scrap vinegar I brewed is AMAZINGLY delicious.  For reals!  I will keep trying with the vinegars.  Eventually maybe press apple cider and vinegar some of that.   Other sours...I have started a perennial sorrel in the garden and learned to pick sheep sorrel.  Nice sour for salads and whatnot.  Hmmm...I wonder if it is still sour if I dry it!  Lemons are not going to grow here outside. Perhaps a tree when I get a house.

OK!  Time to inventory my seeds while enjoying a cup of pantry stock tea!

No Food-Spend February Update 2

 It's going fine.  Amazingly fine.  Like beyond fine.

Today's menu, I was "working from home" (I did do a virtual meeting so some work.  Also took comptime): 

Breakfast: Brown Rice Pancake thingies.  I like to add eggs to left overs and make them into breakfast.  I made brown rice (free, 2nd harvest) yesterday and added powdered eggs (gift so...free) because the hens are not having it right now, coffee from the free crap at work, cinnamon (1cent), nutmeg (1cent) and water (free).   Total:  2cents

Lunch:  Noodle soup with lentils.   1 onion (free 2nd harvest), a 1/4cup scoop of dried veg from the food co-op (about 5cents), spaghetti for the noodles (free, 2nd harvest), dried mushrooms (gift), vinegar (pineapple vinegar I made myself from pineapple skin and core and a bit of sugar...maybe 1cent for the sugar), black pepper (1cent), spice mix (gift, free), coconut oil (1cent), 1/4c red lentils (more expensive...like a dime).           Total: 18cents

Snack:  Rooibos Tea (gift...thanks Chris!),  Tiny cocoa pancakes (Apparently I felt like making pancakes today)  Flour (free, 2nd harvest), powdered eggs (free), baking cocoa 1T (2cents maybe...it was on sale), baking powder 1/2tsp (1cent), coconut oil (1 cent)          Total: 4cents.

Supper: Spaghetti with cracked pepper and a pinch of salt (surprisingly delicious and I'd just had my snack so it wasn't much).   Spaghetti (free, 2nd harvest), peppercorns (1cent), salt (less than 1 cent but we'll call it a penny).      Total: 2 cents

Total for the day: 26cents.   Just over 2 bits    

Yesterday I had apples as well, 2nd harvest.  I brought home enough for a couple of days but they are sweet like candy and I ate them all the first day.  Oh well.  

I shoveled snow for 2 hours or so yesterday and an hour today.   We have a total of 11 inches on the ground as of an hour ago.  NUTS.  Before the storm, no snow  Zero.  Zip . Nada  It DUMPED in 2 days.   I shoveled in 2 shifts today but can still feel it in my back.   Time for more yoga to keep that moving.   The shoulders are a bit wonky as well.  Anyway, as a result of all the shoveling, and the effort of walking through a foot of snow, I got some serious exercise and probably ate more than usual.  I've been avoiding having a snack most days, instead just lovely tea.

I meant to bring home some meat in jars or frozen elk (YUM! Thanks Rik) but forgot.  Hopefully I will remember it for the weekend along with some of the canned veggies from 2nd harvest.  The fresh onions and apples were a real treat.   

IF you haven't tried roasting onions instead of frying them, you are missing out.  I am roasting mine inside the woodstove, but an oven will work as well.   DO NOT roast them in the microwave at work.  They taste delicious but people were p.o'd at me for WEEKS.  The weeks it took for the smell to dissipate.

I'm working on a post about woodstove cookery when it's not a cookstove.   Hopefully post that later this week.   (see...I learned from the youtubers to tease a future episode).

101 Money Saving Ideas: Numbers 42-59

To review:  Totally bogarting this series idea from Centsible Living with Money Mom on the youtubes.  She's awesome!  Watch her.

42 A dollar a pound, all year round.  This was part of hint #32 and I want to expand on it again because it really works. It's a food purchasing GOAL but not a hard line. So, what can you get this week at the local grocery stores for 1$/lb or less?  USUALLY potatoes, onions and bananas are available year round so those can be staples. All are flexible.  E.g. my favorite soup is potatoes and an onion.  About 4 medium to large potatoes and 1 medium to large onion.  Dice them up, add 4-5 cups of water.  Boil until tender. Eat.  It's super good when sick or tired or sick and tired (so basically every day for me since I find my fellow humans exhausting).  Change it up with spices, a diced boiled egg, drop a raw beaten egg in there and bring to the boil while stirring to make potato egg drop soup.  A bit of lemon juice, lime juice or vinegar in your bowl just before you eat it will make this incredibly delicious.  Mexican spices, Italian, whatever you have, poultry seasoning you can never seem to use up, a knob of ginger diced up ...ANYTHING is good in here.  Maybe not sugar but who knows.
The left overs turn into mashed potatoes eventually.

What else is 1$/lb or less this week?
24oz loaf of bread for 99cents...that's under 1$/lb
Pasta is right at 1$/lb and as a dried product, cooked up it is even a better savings.
Remember that principle with dried beans too if you have a way to cook them!  1lb of dry beans will make 2-4 lbs of cooked.  Canned beans are often 1$/lb but not nearly as good a deal as the dried.  If you don't have good cooking facilities, canned are the better deal.
Frozen veggies, 99cents/lb
2 jumbo cantaloupes for 5$...WEIGH them.  You're bound to find a couple that are 2.5lbs or more making them 1$/lb or less.  I'm almost ready to start carrying a little hanging scale and old onion bag so I can weigh at the Grocery Outlet and etc where fruit and veg is all by the piece or bag.
You may notice I left out all sugary drinks.  Those are never a deal even at under 1$/lb because they are not nutritious.  But if you must drink them (and sometimes I must), then pay less.
You probably won't find coffee and spices this low so techniques on those later in the list (probably)

43  No Plastic Days.  Just TRY to spend money without acquiring plastic!  You may not spend at all or you may spend less.  Be mindful of packaging and of the plastic coated receipt paper!   Once in a while I shop online but that is just acquiring the plastic later.  Also, usually can't check mail on a "no plastic day" because of those damn little windows in the envelopes.  Those CAN just be open without plastic like they used to be or your address could be on the envelope...like the old days.  If only.  I spend time when watching a movie or youtubes tearing those damn things out so I can burn or recycle the envelope  Aggravating.

44  Write a letter.  Sure, the stamp costs you something, but it takes up time you might be spending or online shopping, and you get ZERO targeted ads based on handwritten letters.  Your emails, facebooks, texts and cell phone calls are scanned and you get targeted ads.  If you manage to turn off the snooping on your own email/phone, etc, likely the person on the receiving end did not.  And you get targeted ads.  Try even talking by someone's smart phone. I like to say things like "Nutterbutter ice cream sandwich" or "artisan" and watch the ads roll in next time I'm on the internet.  Creepy man.  Targeted ads are more effective, that's why they do them.  So get targeted for things you don't use, at least. And at best, avoid being targeted.   People also love getting letters. 

45  Review your insurance(s).  I try to do this once a year or so and see if there are savings, if a rate deal has been dropped (e.g. I need to take another cheap defensive driving course in order to get money off my car insurance).  Call the insurance agency, not just email and online.  Get someone on the phone.  It shocks them.  They might drop it a few dollars.  Maybe get some easy online quotes and see if you can get something cheaper.

46  Can you consolidate some of your items/tasks/bills and save $$?  You never know.  A few years back I reorganized, culled and consolidated 2 storage units into 1 slightly larger than the previous "big" unit (heh heh) which save 50$/month.  I'm going to try another cull to see if I can minimize it again and maybe get down a size again...though I like the location.  But you say...why have a storage unit?  Get rid of that sh*t! Well, yes, ideally (see #47) I would do that.  But alas, living in 135sq feet and wanting my furniture for the house being built as we type, I have it in storage.  I am a genetic hoarder so have to downsize in phases.  That's what works for me,

47  Get rid of crap in storage units.  This saves you the storage costs.  If you are lucky, you can sell some of your crap and/or share it out to people who will appreciate and use it.  In #46 I get defensive about why I am keeping my crap in storage.  And another thing...about a 5'x5' portion, 11' tall, of the storage is "live" storage where I keep things like off season clothes, extra food storage containers, a gift bin so I can buy gifts when they are on sale.  The stuff outside that goes through periodic culls.  I'm working on it.  #genetichoarder!

48  Drink Tap Water.  Guess what is in those bottles and gallons of water you buy...TAP WATER.  Maybe it's spring water and maybe it comes from somewhere with "springs" in the name.  Much of the time it's tap water.  It's EXPENSIVE.  Drink tap water.  I bring tap water from work to my house because I haven't bothered to get the well tested (house! HA!  I flatter the shed sometimes).  It's not hard.  You fill about 1 gallon a day and bring it home for drinking and cooking.  Live on the streets?  Well, then you have bigger issues.  Chlorine in your water?  Air it out a bit or get a filter pitcher AT A THRIFT STORE.  I also generally found the filters, still packaged, at thrift stores.  Also, lots of people drink chlorine water.  Maybe work with your town if you don't want it in there.
So, how much is it to drink bottled water which is total BS on so many levels....at least refill the goddamn bottle.
1 qt of bottled water is about $1.50, maybe a buck.  I get a gallon of distilled (for the solar batteries) for a dollar or so.  We'll be nice and say 1$/day for buying bottled water.   Cost of municipal tap water per gallon?  $0.002  on average.  That's 2 onehundredths of a cent per gallon for well water?  I spent 19,000 or so on the well and solar to run it (but the solar does more).  I use about 500gallons a week in the summer when watering the garden.  Less in the winter or rainy season.  So, let's call it 250gallons a week...250/7 = 35/day.   I've used the well for 5 years and 6 months or so... 19000/5.5years = $3555 per year/365 9.45/day cost for 35 gallons.  9.45/35 =   $0.27per gallon!!! Already cheaper than buying water!! Woot woot!   It gets cheaper every time I use it.  I don't waste it to drive down the cost. I 'm very frugal with my water usage.  Aquafers are precious resources and one does not save money by wasting water.

49  Change clothes when you get home.  I hate doing this but I try.  Right now it's so HOT that I change into thin pants and tissue thin shirts before working around the property after work. Easier to wash those.  I keep "work pants" hanging on a hook all year round.  Those get washed less and are sacrificial pants.  They are meant to be worn out and stained and grubbed up.  Changing out of "office worthy" pants and shirts saves those.  It means I've been wearing the same jeans to work for years and my office shirts last for years too.  Boring, but cheap! 

50  The clothes/fabric use chain.  When clothes DO wear out and are not shareable, tradeable, donateable, then what?  For me, they get torn into rags.  Seams on jeans and the waste band are usually strong even after the fabric rots.  I use them to tie up stuff in the garden.  Since I wear 100% cotton most of the time, or 100% wool/linen/natural if at all possible, these things decompose into the soil eventually rather than being there as plastic bits forever (functionally forever...who knows when that sh*t goes away?).   The main body of the clothes get used as wash clothes or reusable rags until they are so bad they become a 1 use rag to be trashed.  These are good for engine oil checking.  Or for wiping up greasy spills and then being used to start fires (in the woodstove...not just random locations).  Elastic off bras and undies has various uses as well...tie up tomatoes etc.  But, has to be gathered up as it won't decompose in a reasonable amount of time.  I keep a bag on a shelf near the other cleaning products for clothes that need to be rags now.  I fish in there for what I need when I run out of wash clothes, or am crafting, or need to start a fire and paper isn't cutting it to get the kindling going.

51  Do something while you stare at the TV/Computer/Whatever.  Watching a movie or show or random youtubes?  Do something.  Lately I've been folding boxes for mustard samples. You probably don't need to do that, but maybe you have mending or you like to knit.  I like to darn socks while I watch a movie or listen to a book.  Don't have any that need darning right now but I do need mustard sample boxes.  In fact, I'm blogging this during a work webinar.  Maybe I shouldn't but the webinar has repetitive bits so when something is being repeated, I type.  Then tune back in when it's new info.

52  Sell something you like to make/do.  This is new to me, but I'm testing it out.  I like to make mustard so I started selling it.  I'm tracking the money to see if the cost/benefit works out in my favor. It takes time and space, 2 things I don't have lots of to spare.  But, I like doing it.  And so far the mustard is selling at a local farmers market.  I'm just above break-even right now and had to do a price adjustment so we'll see.  Some people cook meals for those without time or space, others do sewing alterations, manual labor, or whatever.  It doesn't hurt and might be worth a try.

53  Keep Long Term Goals In Mind.  These would be financial related mostly.  Like I want to retire some day.  Every day I spend half what I earn, I earn a day of NOT WORKING because I have that amount of money saved (hopefully with interest) to pay for that day of retirement.  This is above and beyond my retirement fund and Social Security.  Another goal is having a house, garden and land the way I want.  I hasn't been super cheap getting toward that and compromises have and continue to be made, but if I keep going the way I'm going, I will get there debt free.  When I was trying to buy land I had a cost per square foot so before I spent $$ on something, I figured out how many square feet of land I could buy instead.  It wasn't totally accurate but it helped keep the spending down.

54  Gratitude moments.  I take a moment now and then when I get discouraged with the thrift and just want a giant expensive meal out or a 7$ iced coffee on a no spend day.  I use that moment to think through things in my personal life that I am grateful for.  Many of them end up having to do with being debt free and having my spending mostly under control.  Like I'm always grateful for being debt free.  A bad day at work is less bad when you know you COULD stomp out in a huff and not come back and still not lose your home.  So far that has meant I did not have to stomp out because I had a better perspective on things.  It keeps me on track.

55  Everything is a choice.  You are not a victim of your debt, your costs, your job, people/charities begging you for money, any loans you've given.  Everything you've done, including inhaling, was a choice.  So, move on.  Make a new choice.  Choose to pay the debt off.  Choose to forgive the loans you handed out unwisely or to openly ask for the money back or to sue the bastards.  Do it.  Choose to learn boundaries and enforce them with money.

56  Free Fruit!  Nice segue.  Or not.  Fruit is getting ripe right now.  Time to put the apple picker in the car and the eyes peeled for random fruit trees along the road, in people's yards, in parks.  Always ask if the tree looks like someone owns it or in a town park.  And be mindful of pesticide and herbicides that might be on them.  People spit pits out windows for generations so lots of apples and pears along highways, old RR beds, trails.  Many are delicious.  Some are crap.  Taste them if you feel comfortable.  If it looks like the area has been sprayed (lots of dead veg and/or few bugs) then I pass it up.  But often I pick them.  You get pesticides on grocery fruit too.  Wash it.  Make your own choices (see #55).  A friend has a cherry tree and calls people to pick each year.  I go and I share out the fruit and eat some.  Spent yesterday evening picking serviceberries (which are late this year) and eating them.  Some went into vinegar which will preserve them and flavor the vinegar.  I'll get more for several evenings in a row here.  Other berries are getting ripe.  Pick them.  When someone offers you their home grown fruit say yes, and thank you and enjoy and share something back sometime.

57  Free meat!  I help a friend butcher chickens and ducks and will help her butcher whatever comes up next.  I learn something and always get a bit of free meat with the new skills.  Sometimes I invest in meat with her, like when she bought ducks so grow and butcher.  I paid in for some of the ducks and helped with the meat production.  That wasn't free, but was cheap.  Some people grab roadkill. I haven't yet, but I'm all for it and someday hope to run across a fresh kill when I have my knife and something to put it in.

58  Free veg!  It's zucchini time here.  When someone asks if I want some, I say yes and take it.  Fry it, eat it raw, dry it, bake it, put it in soup.  It's good food.  Eat it.  If you have a freezer, shred it and freeze it.  Drying is my favorite because it becomes differently delicious in soups later.  Also just eating it as dried chips is good.  Don't forget mushrooms and other wild food you can gather beyond the berries noted above.  I know mushrooms aren't really veg but I didn't want to do another entry on this.  Enough already.

59  Grow some flavor.  A pot of herbs or an herb garden, some onions, garlic, peppers, or other flavory things in the garden or a pot will help with all that free zucchini.  And with flavoring that potato soup or other cheap food soups.  Herbs and spices are expensive, buy some seeds or learn to start them from cutting.  I hear you can root bits of basil from plant cuttings.  Maybe.  I have thyme, chives, tarragon, oregano, fennel, horseradish, radishes, 2 types of sage...no 3 types of sage, garlic, walking onions, sorrel (wild and garden), and probably more that I'm not thinking of.   Those all really help when I am grabbing a handful of greens to fry up or make salad.  Grab the herbs or garlic tops or an onion leaf (are the green things on onions leaves?  Blades?)  Anyway, it's cheap and healthy.  I have so much thyme I can dry it for the winter and have tasty soup all year. 

ANOTHER Chicken

Apparently there are lots of a--hole chickens in the world.
I helped at the community garden on Saturday, installing bees there.  Love the bees!

A chicken, they have like 100 chickens and give the eggs to those accessing the local food distribution systems like Second Harvest and sell them at 3$ a dozen to the rest of us.

ANYWAY, so the garden boss and I are installing bees and one chicken keeps getting out of the chicken run and into the garden.   The garden boss is threatening to kill it so I say "If she lays, I'll take her"...I had brought my chicken carrier made from an old bee box.   She offered a rooster too but I didn't want to stuff them both in the box.  The rooster is HUGE.

Within minutes of putting her in the run with Brittany and Suzanne, this new hen has a mouth full of feathers and is randomly beating the other two up.  Then she's out and running onto my porch and messing around in the garden.

She's tough and mean so I named her "T-Bone".  She's the head prisoner in the chicken run.  Suzanne continues to be mellow and so far today hasn't bothered to get out.   Brittany is constantly out, but easy to catch.  T-Bone is also easy to catch, but more likely to hide and spending too much time on the porch.  I will warn her that one chicken turd on the porch and I'll be having soup, same day.

The garden boss sent me home with veg that was past human consumption ...except for 2 romaine lettuce heads that were find for human consumption, so I ate those.   Greens, pears, a couple of sweet peppers.  All with lots of mold.  They were from the Second Harvest delivery.  Some were past it on arrival and some just didn't make it to the next distribution date.  The distribution center is on the same lot as the garden and they share staff/storage.   To maintain social distance fewer people can come for food at once and they can no longer tour the building picking what they want.  So, some of the fresh isn't making it.  I think the staff will find ways to sort this out.   When stuff arrives rotten, there isn't hope, and with fewer staff on hand at once (to maintain distance), it's hard to get it boxed up ahead of people coming.  The usual system is people come in and pick what they want, but now it's all car delivery.  Most other food distributions have gone to pre-boxed stuff and if people get say lettuce and hate lettuce, well, throw it out or compost it or give it away.  It might not all get eaten but it will have more of a shot!

I fed the slightly moldy veg to the hens.  They have some wheat berries, are eating worms and things.  I threw in a dead mouse I'd trapped in the garden.  And I have some cheapo bulk oatmeal to get through until I see if they are going to need real feed. 

I got 2 eggs yesterday!  Had them for breakfast today.  Nice!  If the shells get weak I'll go for some pre-fab feed, but they are free ranging so should get plenty of whatever they need.   Lord knows if they eat gophers or mice they will end up fat!

So, off to start on the upgraded coop and to fence off the raised beds that already have stuff planted in them.  And figure out something to keep the hens out of the enclosed porch bit.  I am not capable of making a screen door....but I'm going to try!

Happy Earth Day!!!!

For reals.  Happy EarthDay!
I'm celebrating with a couple dozen new plants to plant from realfoodgardens.blogspot.com!!
Thank you to them for the lovely plants.  The owners threw in an extra berry start AND a jug of soapwort laundry soap (well, everything-soap).  That more than covered the price of admission (meaning gas to get up there an back).

Here's the plant list I went to pick up:
10 hops 

2 black aronia 

1 wallis cherry 

4 Black jewel raspberry 

4 Oak leaf blackberry   

2 Chokecherry  

The berries are nice and thorny and HUGE.  I added a soapwort plant while I was there and while I think it might be tacky to point out the actual price for the lot, it is also about the only way to show how thrifty it is: 80$ and I came home with 25 plant starts.  The 23 listed above plus an extra berry and a soapwort.  Most of the berry/tree starts had to be bent over to get them in the subaru.  These are not tiny plants.  They are nice big plants in pots.

Excellent way to honor Earth Day.  Use a bit of fossil fuel for a permanent food (human, animal, bee, worms, etc) source.

Tiny Car Pantry

Faithful readers (of which I assume there are none) will remember that I had mice in the car last year.  Followed by at least one dead mouse in the car which stunk.  I never found the carcass.

And yet!  I have NOT learned my lesson.  I am in the car a minimum of an hour per day on weekdays, and often that much on the weekend.  Many weekdays I also drive another hour or more during work.   Lots of car time.  I end up eating in there and since I don't live in a town, I shop when I am in a town.  That is often in the middle of a work day or during a full day of errands.  Food will be in the car for extended periods.

When I had the mouse/mice last year, I eventually found a stash of almonds in the spare tire compartment. I didn't remember having almonds in the car!  Cripes.  I later found part of a bag that must have fallen out of a grocery bad or off the seat when I was snacking. 

My hope is that with the tiny car pantry I can at least keep full track of the food and keep it mouse proof.  If the little bastards MUST come in the car, and I'm sure they must, at least they will have to leave to find sustenance.

I should have taken a picture but I didn't.
At a thrift store (obviously) I came across a lovely BIG metal tin with a tight fitting an hinged (hence can't pop off and roam away to parts unknown) lid.  It is about 8"x12"x5" with a domed lid. When I do a shop, I put the shelf stable car lunch ingredients in there.  Right now there are 3 small boxes of Lara Bars (cashew and some lemon), a tin of sardines, some high-end onion crackers that come in a box that will fit in the tiny car pantry, fig bars, a package of dried figs, a plastic spoon and fork and for no apparent reason, a hotel size hand lotion.   All the food was on a SUPER sale.  Normally it would be a jar of nuts.  Sometimes there is a bit of fresh fruit, apples or oranges, in there but with the current freeze/thaw weather that's a bad idea.

I think it also saves me a bit of cash because I can eat before I go into the grocery store.  I had been going in too hungry and indeed, one ends up buying too much when shopping hungry.  It's prevented me from stopping at cafes and coffee huts too.  When I get hungry, I can have a Lara bar and make it until I'm back that the office or home.

It's also winter so never a bad idea to have food in the car in case one gets stuck.

The tiny car pantry now lives in the back of the car now.  It used to live in the passenger seat but I ended up just eating what was in there because it was there.  That does not save money or make sense.  It's been a life saver on driving trips too!  The snacks are already in the car.

What Pear Is This???

I took this to my local nursery and they thought maybe ussurian pear...but the internet says those are yucky tasting. These were DELICIOUS! (sweet yellow flesh).  About 1-2" in diameter.
The farmer selling them said the tree was on the property when they got there.  No idea what it is.  I need to quiz him about thorns/no-thorns and a few other things.  And I saved some seeds.  Hope to get them going.  I may send some to my god son and see if he can get them going.  Divide and conquer.

Flavor: Sweet like candy (that said, I've been avoiding added sugar so may not taste as sweet to someone who just drank a pepsi and had cap'n crunch for breakfast).  Mealy but not very mealy.  Pale yellow flesh, not white. Most of them had a pink blush on one side.  some did not.  Didn't keep long.  Ripened over 2-3 days. 

EVEN MORE TINY FOOD!

So I'm walking around the Moscow Idaho Farmers Market this morning and there are MORE of those tiny wee plums.  This farmer has them in yellow AND purple.  I bought a pound of the purple...and am saving every seed because day-yum are they cute.  And yummy.

Also more tiny eggs.  I saw a carton of VERY wee eggs at a stall where I thought I was buying one just the plums but next to the cash station was a carton of tiny eggs in dark rich earth tones: olive drab, dark khaki, grey-green.  Stunning.  A bit shiny even.  I asked if they were bantams...no.....
PHEASANT!!!  So I had to buy those.  I mean what if I never saw them again?  I asked how much a pheasant would lay and they said not all year, they are winding down for the winter.  So I was glad I got them.

Here they are














 I got tiny artisanal bread too.  Rustic rolls from a local bakery that uses local wheat and makes sourdoughs.  The salt in the bread won't be local sadly.
I decided to make local tiny toad in a hole by slicing the rolls and cutting out the centers of the slices.  Even the oil is fairly local.  Camelina oil from about 200 miles away (I admit, I do also own coconut oil, not local)
















And the flip-side.  I put on some non-local salt and pepper.  













The pheasant eggs are very rich.  The yolks take up the lion's share of the egg and are thick and creamy.  Really delicious.  The flavor is enhanced by the overwhelming cuteness of the tiny egg.

The shells on the bantams are sort of thin compared to a regular chicken egg (well, a regular free range local chicken egg).  The shells on the pheasant eggs are clearly meant to take a bit of punishment.  Thick and sturdy with a hardy membrane on the inside.  It is so tempting to use some tiny eggs, bantams since they have more white, to make a tiny angel food and cook it in a tiny oven.  But, I DO have a life to lead and there is only so much time for cute.

There WAS enough time to boil up the remaining bantam eggs. I ate two and I'm hoping to turn a couple into miniature deviled eggs.  And of course I must take tiny eggs, tiny plums, and tiny pears for my lunch this week. I think I have tiny cutlery to go with them.

Fresh, Local, Seasonal...AND TINY!!!

I like tiny things.  Tiny games stuck to the ends of writing implements.  Tiny versions of watches, dice, office supplies, notebooks, appliances...living arrangements...

Imagine my delight when I found ALL of this at the week Plummer, Idaho Farmers Market:

 Bantam chicken eggs!  I had a 4 egg omelette this morning with baby beet greens.  I didn't think to take a picture of the baby beet greens, but trust me...tiny and hilarious.
I may have to boil a few of them just so I can make tiny deviled eggs.  AND I wish wish wish I had some rye bread to make tiny toad in a hole....I may look for a rye roll or any small roll at the Moscow farmers market just so I can do that.  I need MORE TINY EGGS.  The week before the same vendor sold me some of her regular chicken eggs and those are so huge I thought every one of them must have a double yolk.  For the record, none of them did.














 TINY PLUMS!!!! I have been just sucking these down like candy.  They are the size of tart cherries.  About half the size of Rainier cherries.  And super sweet.  Every pit is sacred.  They are in a jar, open jar, by my desk drying out. Cut AND delicious.  What more is there in life?














Those are PEARS!  Super sweet candy-like pears.  I think they might be Sekel pears.  I'm not sure.  I will take either a pear or a picture of the pear to the local tree nursery and say "I MUST HAVE THIS IN TREE FORM".  A few years ago I made pears, giant ones, dipped in dark chocolate.  Just take a whole fresh pear.  Wash it and maker sure it is totally dry.  Melt some dark chocolate.  Dip the butt end of the pear in said chocolate and set on wax paper (I had the wax paper over a muffin tin so the pears could sit in the muffin divots) to cool and harden.  You can also set them on some crushed nuts for extra flavor.  Anyway, for some reason it is the perfect food.  I'm thinking if I don't eat all of these first, I will dip them in chocolate and have tiny chocolate pears.  I could transport them in an egg carton.
 Of course I'm saving the seeds, though I doubt they will come true.  Worth a shot though just to see if the tiny-feature comes through in the next generation.

Right now I'm mooching a shower and couch space from friends (THANK YOU) and stealing their wifi while they are gone.  As much as I love my wee cabin (imagine my delight at eating tiny food in my tiny shed), I needed a SHOWER.  The gym where I usually shower is closed for a week and it's been chilly and cloudy so the solar shower is on the fritz. 

Bee-autiful

I'll try to stop with the bee puns, but it's just so easy (see..I didn't say "bee-asy" and I totally could have).

I have an invertebrate ecologist friend...well, his wife and I are on the radio together, and so I know him.  It's not like we hang out on Saturday nights.  Is that what friends do?  I don't know.  Can't be bothered with humans.  Too much fun with the bees.

ANYWAY (any-bee?), he came up and took some boudoir photos of the bees while I was feeding them and inspecting the hives a few weeks back.  Here are some highlights in no particular order:

 Using the hive tool (like a tiny flat crowbar) to remove a frame.  I think you can click on the photos for biggification, but I'm not sure and in trying to check that out, only some of them biggified. 

The frame.  The bees are doing a good job!

 Another Frame.  Another good job.  The black bit where the bees aren't is the foundation that is already in the frame.  It is plastic (sigh...I would like to avoid plastic but decided not to complicate my life the first year so just take it and say thank you and learn to work without foundation in the future) with a layer of beeswax on it.  The wax is imprinted with hexagons to inspire the bees to build comb.  Or to make sure they don't screw it up.

Taking out another frame.  Like my bee ensemble?  I went with just the pith helmet (which is hard plastic and doesn't fit that well) and a net veil (which is strange and exposes the back of my neck sometimes but I'll get used to wearing it), a light t-shirt (which I have swapped out for a white button down shirt (from thrift, obviously).  That shirt works better because it is huge and I can put it on over whatever else I'm wearing, and I can turn up the collar and button it tight, with my pony tail or braid inside the collar.  This is a bit gaggy, but means the veil stays down over the collar.  With the old system of t-shirt and veil, I had one bee get up inside the mesh by my face.  I chased her out but clearly she was not amused, neither was I.

The bees!  And you can see the frame feeder.  It is the black bit I'm pulling out. Fill  1/2 to 3/4 full of 1:1 sugar water until the bees have enough real nectar to survive.  Since this is a totally new hive, both hives, with no comb built upon arrival, the advice is to feed lots. Next year when the bees have the left over comb from this year, they may not need to be fed so much for so long. 

Another frame.  Nice shot Tim!  (Photographer: Tim Hatten of Invertebrate Ecology).  Shows the burr comb...those lumps.  At least I hope it's burr comb and not new queen cells.  I'd hate to have a coup my first season of bee keeping. 

And let's close with a nice close up of the bees.

No, how about a view of the beeyard as the closing shot:

Bee yard...now with more finger!  (Sorry Tim, couldn't help myself).  You can also see the gallon jug (heh heh...I said "jug") with the sugar water feed, and the yellow hive tool I forgot to pick up.  Thank goodness it's yellow or it would be lost by now.  The bees face east for the morning sun to wake them up.  I stacked those cinder blocks myself.  One of my more successful construction projects.  If you ignore how the one hive lists to one side.  You can see one of my apple trees in the background...just below the finger.  The flowers are on hawthorns.  Bees seem to love hawthorns.

Thank you VERY MUCH to Tim and his Mrs. for coming up for the photo shoot.  Nice to have a professional bugman in one's circle of acquaintances.

Added Sugar Rant part Deux

That's "part 2" for those who don't speak paristalk.

Anyway, interesting results so far with the added sugar avoidance experiment.
First, I feel better so I'm continuing on with it.  My cousin is also continuing on so we send each other supportive texts which helps.  At least it helps me.

The thing is, I've lost weight even though I've kept the calorie intake up, even with extra exercise because it's summer and I'm planting stuff and doing stuff, I'm eating plenty of calories.  I use an app for that (I know...odd for someone who doesn't have a smart phone.  I have a used ipod and my sister loaded the free version of "loseit" which I've used for years to track calories eaten and expended each day.  It works for me.  Boring for others.
The point here is that according to the app, I'm consuming enough calories to support 5lbs more than I weigh.  What gives?

I don't mind, though I don't want to get any thinner.  I'm still above what the old charts say I should weigh, but I'm as thin as I care to be.

I wonder how much is the sugar and how much might be added muscle mass from working out, digging holes, and living on a hill with no road (I have calves that could crack walnuts) that I climb multiple times a day.

I climbed that hill last year and didn't lose weight. Something is going on with the lower added sugar intake.  I end up eating fewer grain products just because so many of them have added sugar, but last week and this I have gotten locally produced (and delicious) breads that are just flour, water, salt and yeast.  No sugar/honey/whatever.  And I've added a brand of crackers where I've found a few different options with no added sugar.  Sardines are better on crackers.  Since adding in those grains, I lost another pound.

My fiber intake is in the same range as before, maybe 5-10 grams more a day but no where near vegan levels.  I eat plenty of fruit so it's not that there is NO sugar (that would not even be smart).

And I'm not a complete purist with the no added sugar.  There was a day where a woman was getting offended because I didn't want a stupid popsicle.  It only had 40 calories so even if it was mostly sugar, it wasn't much.  And I was hot.  So I ate one to shut her up and to be polite.  I've had a BLT too and I'm sure the bacon and bread at the restaurant had a bit of sugar.  And of course, when I spilled some runny honey from the bee hive on my glove while working the hives, I licked it off before it became a giant sticky mass.  You can't really leave the bees mid-hive-working to go wash a glove.  Easier to lick it and finish the job. I'm sure there have been other slip-ups too.

So what gives with the loss of tonnage?
Anymore and I'll need new bras and pants. Annoying. It doesn't do the neck wattle any favors either.

Oh well. I don't have a mirror up at my place so I don't have to look at it.

Current Plant Sources

 I said I'd review the two places I've gotten most of my plants.  I like local folks and I like people who really KNOW the plants.  That said, if anyone wants to give me free plants I will love them and be ever grateful no matter where they came from.


Here are the two places I've gotten most of my orchard and ground cover plants for the land
Fiddler's Ridge

Real Food Gardens (at least that's the name of their blog)

We'll start with Fiddler's Ridge.  Potlatch, ID.
They are super close to where I live (like 10 miles which in north Idaho qualifies as next door neighbors).
They don't seem to have a website and the facebook is pretty out of date.  These are my kind of people.  (I know...ironic since I have a blog.)


ANYWAY: They are awesome and during planting season they have an outpost location in Moscow, ID in the parking lot of the old Tidyman's.  If are within range of Moscow, you already know where that is.  If you aren't in driving range, then you don't need to know where that is because you aren't coming.  Shop local.

These folks KNOW the area, the climate, the soils, and of course the plants.  They are extremely helpful with what will most likely grow in your location, if you are from the area.  They've helped me out with proper plants.  I dropped some change their in fall 2015 and they gave me flat after flat of ground cover (various thyme, sedum, catmint, buckwheat, etc), about a dozen fern bush (hadn't ever heard of that), chokecherries, a currant, and a rabbit brush.  ALL that they sold me lived through the winter.  And they gave me one heck of a deal on everything.
The year before, I think or maybe spring 2015, I got gooseberry, currants, hazelnut, currant, blueberry, and a variety of other things.  The summer of 2015 was absolutely BRUTAL and I had no well.  Tried hand carrying water but alas, some of the plants didn't make it.  The currants from that year DID come back!  Not a leaf on them in 2015, but this year 2 or 3 of the 5 (I thought I bought 6 but can't find one.  Sometimes the deer help me with orchard planning) are showing leaves on new shoots from the roots.  WOW.
A blueberry I got from them and stuck in a container for lack of knowing where to put it is doing great.

This year I've gotten a variety of raspberries (10 starts in all), 2 blueberries, different varieties, and a bush cherry start.  All are doing wonderfully.  If I get the well going properly, we'll be in business.

The advice they give is priceless.  And the plants are super healthy.  I've also bought various soil amendments there and because both owners know right where my land is, they know what I'm coping with soil-(or lack there of)-wise.  This year they are also helping me choose things the bees will love.

The one thing Fiddler's Ridge didn't have that I really really really really wanted was fruiting quince.  I like to rock it odd-school (not a typo).  Some day I hope to market things that are just a bit off the norm.  Everyone has jam and apple cider and apple butter and the usual on sale at the farmers markets around here.  So I'm going for niche markets that probably don't exist in my imaginary future food sales business.  I also like odd things.

I searched the usual outlets for fruiting quince, local garden centers, nurseries.  Nothing.  I turned to the internet but most of the fruiting quince starts would be shipped from Florida or southern California.  Yeah.  Like that's going to work.  Quince interests me because it's tough.  I didn't want a version that I'd have to coddle and try to acclimate to the area.  I want to stick it in a hole and leave it. (That didn't sound good).

In desperation I typed "quince" into a craigslist search and 2 ads popped up.  I sent inquiries.  One had grown their own.  One was shipping in starts and potting them up.  Guess which I chose.  Yep.  Growing from seed in the region.

The place is Real Food Gardens.  It is near Hauser Lake, Idaho.  Bit of a drive from here but the prices are crazy low so compensates for the price of gas.  I've made 3 trips and sent multiple others up to them. I know one woman did go and got nice starts.   These folks are lovely and amazing and start their own plants.  We also seem to be on a page about getting out of the rat race and the like.  Alas, I'm still rat racing but planning for the day when I can step off the wheel and just enjoy my place and my plants.

They have an extremely wide variety of options.  I didn't even get to the herbs and other "garden" type plants.  Too busy getting trees and berries in this year.  Many tree/shrub starts are only 5$.  Their website gives the rates and availability as well as excellent descriptions of the varieties.  Their soil is very different from mine, but they are in a chilly location so that's a good thing to have in common.  With the low prices, I can do some test runs.  I plan to report back to them which things seem to thrive in my heavy soils.

This couple also is happy to share their extensive expertise.

Holy Orchard, Batman!

Or I could have called it "The Accidental Orchard"
Or "What Am I Thinking"
Or "Good Lord I Hope the Well Pump Gets Fixed Before All the Trees Die"

Anyway, I was talking to my gramma (I'd say "Hi Gramma" but seriously, a 95 year old woman without a computer is NOT going to read this and could give zero craps about a shout out on the internet), and she asked what I'd been planting and I offered to write up a list.  While doing that, I realized I hadn't made an overall list before so best to get on that and make a copy before I sent it.

Here it is, along with a very very bad sketch map of what is where.  If you click on them for biggification, you can read any portions of the pictures that the internet is hiding from you for reasons I don't understand.

 

 Is it any wonder I have developed a creepy "Madonna" vein in my left arm?  You know, the icky sticky outy steroid-addled-weightlifter type vein also seen on the aging and underweight singer, Madonna

 

For the record, my arms are not that gross and my boobs do not look like creepy welded on orange-halves.   

Anyway, I've been driving a shovel quite a bit lately.  FINALLY those months of archaeology fieldwork have come in handy.  I can quickly dig a very tidy hole in the ground.  I'm getting better at stuffing a tree in it.  Or a raspberry, or etc.

Did a few minutes of online research today about where to put the remaining trees.  The mulberries will probably go west of the cabin site near the aronia berries.  I'd like them a west and a bit north to shade the west side of the future imaginary slightly larger cabin, but we run into hose length issues.

The lindens probably down in a low area with more soil than the hill sides and more moisture.  Will be a pain in the butt for a few years while I have to water (no hose will reach, dipping buckets from the creek or walking buckets down from the max reach of the hose will be the options), but after that, the trees should be happy and self-supporting.  I may have a couple of these trees already.  Need to check out a tree identification key.  I'm assuming the library has that.  These trees have edible leaves that make a spinach or lettuce substitute.  Nice. 

I'll be getting fruit, greens and protein from trees.  The Siberian Pea shrubs are nitrogen fixing and put out a peapod like thing which you can eat like a peapod and if you let them mature, the seeds can be used like lentils.  The leaves are nitrogen rich and can be spread around nitrogen weak areas.  I may want more of these.

The ginkos aren't picky about where to live and grow.  This is actually making it harder to decide what to do.  Do I stick them up the hill for a spectacular attractive display from the road?  And years of carrying water UPHILL until they are established?  Put them in the wooded area by the creek so that as the other trees die off, these will be established and filling in?  Or down in the lower area with the good soil near the lindens (which are also called basswoods...I remember the basswood from our house on 4th avenue...the one that pruned itself on to the suburban)?

With the chestnuts (heh heh...I said "nuts") and a couple of other things I reviewed what the tree/shrub wanted in an environment, because I never have ALL of that in one spot, how big it will want to grow, and that sort of thing, then picked one up and carried it around a bit until I hit a spot that seemed like a good compromise.  I have decided to call this "Tree witching" (like water witching) and that it makes me a tree whisperer.  But I shan't advertise my services until it's clear that I'm successful in finding just the right spot.

The next steps are:  GET MORE HOSE!  Good hose, preferably drinking water quality as I'm sick of pouring icky chemicals on the planet and down my gullet.  Most garden hoses are full of toxins that are released especially when hot, like say while out in the sun and full of water.  Barf.  I probably have hose poisoning from my childhood when we drank out of them all the time.  I bet we had to do that because Sher wouldn't let our filthy butts in the house (Hi Sher!).

I'm at the LIMIT of what I can hope to keep watered and take care of for now.  So, I'm declaring a tree/shrub moratorium until late fall.  By then I should know what seems to be doing well, what needs replaced, and have some idea of what I'd like more of.  I will also know if I can care for any more in year 2.  

Already I'm noticing a few stupid choices.  I THOUGHT I had planned the open route down the hill from the cabin site, and the imaginary future cabin site, and kept it clear of the orchard plants.   But then this morning I walked to and then got in the car, parked at the creek at the bottom of the hill east of the cabin, the hill with many many of these orchard plants.  On the walk I thought "why did I plant the THORNY black berries right in my walking path?"...those may need to move.  We'll see.  Once in the car, I looked back up at the cabin and CRAP!  A plum is right in the path for deliveries of things like wood, dirt, supplies for the future imaginary cabin.  These things may need to move.  We'll try it through the summer and see how it goes.

The location of the spigot turned out to be more important than I had realized.  It's in a pretty good spot so it's workable, but I do need more hose.  I want to leave lengths of hose strung to the far flung areas and just haul the shorter bit connecting to the spigot around to hook them up for watering.  I will need to water for a year or two.  If this summer is as hot as last (Sweet Bee-sus* let's hope not!), I will be watering one area or another or multiples every evening. 

Let me also thank Sweet Bee-sus* for my realization a few years back that I had to get in better shape if I was going to make a go of this off-grid nonsense.  I lost some tonnage, not a huge amount but every pound off the butt is a pound of water (which is about a pint) or whatever that I can now haul around.  Obviously there is a lower limit to this metric and I'm nowhere near it but do not plan on losing any more weight.  

Then a year and a half ago or so, I decided to fix the bum arm and build some muscle.  Been working out since then (which may have contributed to the icky madonna vein, see above).  It's been worth it.  I made at least 10 trips up and down the central hill yesterday, most of them hauling a plant, a hose, and/or water in a bucket, and once my composting toilet bucket, and I was able to get up today without more than the usual amount of groaning.

So, that is where I'm at right now.   The next blog entry will review the places I've been getting most of the plants.  Both are awesome.  (Crap...now I've ruined the ending!)

*Bee-sus is a reference to a text exchange amongst friends and family (not that I'm not friends with my family) about my bees when I got them.  See this entry for an explanation: 

In the Bee-ginning, There Was the Pun, and the Pun Was Bad

No offense is intended, it's just that since getting that hilarious text, I have this cartoon character of "Bee-sus" in my head.  A shout out to the contributor of that pun!  Hi Cupcakes...you know who you are.

Added Sugar Rant

OK, tiny rant.

I'm diet conscious, though not doing a great job of regulating things right now.
STILL...I see that I should limit my "added sugars" to 6 teaspoons a day.
Fine.  But unless I'm the only adding these, and using a teaspoon measure, that doesn't help me.

On food labels sugar is listed in GRAMS, not teaspoons.  While, yes, it is easier for me to picture teaspoons, I doubt it is for people who don't cook much.  JUST TELL ME HOW MANY GRAMS!!!

Cripes.

So, I googled it.
A teaspoon of sugar is 4 grams.
That means 24 grams of added sugar, or less, is best.  It has to do with insulin resistance, satiety, diabetes, obesity, etc.  So it's fairly important.

Unfortunately, food labels do not require the added sugars to be listed separately and hence people think the naturally occurring sugars in things like beans and carrots and sweet potatoes are the same.  Yes, they are sugars, but since they come in a giant fiber filled package compared to straight sugar added (and by "sugar" I include all the forms from cane sugar, beet sugar, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, maltose, dextrose, sucrose...most of your "...ose" ingredients.  Find a list and learn it) to a processed food.

Like I bet that ALL of the sugars in a cola are added since the other primary ingredient would be water.  No sugar in "water" until it is put in.

I think the best way for me to learn to limit added sugars is to eat actual food.  Like produce, meat, dry beans, nuts, fish, and grains bought as grains and flour.  I'm not saying I'll NEVER eat processed food etc or that I can hit that 24 grams of added sugars or less every day, but it's a good target.

I've been off target on my eating since last fall and need a reset.  Might as well do it now.
It's a simpler way to eat and if it  helps my health, then it is definitely cost effective.

A good movie about this, though they don't make clear the grams of sugar per teaspoon, is "Fed Up" which I recently watched.  Here's the trailer:

Local / Organic Produce vs Bountiful Baskets

So, last Saturday was the first farmers market of the season here.  I was super excited.  Partly for the donuts from King Oliver's Donuts.  They are super fresh, delicious, and the young people who sell them are hilarious.  I'll be stuffing a donut in my face and the young man is telling me to enjoy it and have a good day.  Don't talk to me...I'm eating.

ALSO excited for fresh local produce!  Got some good deals and a few treats.  Then I supplemented with a few things from the Food Coop which is handily less than a block away. I tried to get roughly the same amount of fruit and veg as was in the Organic Bountiful Basket.  Partly because it was plenty but  wasted none, so not too much.  Partly to make for a decent comparison.  

So, here's what I got:

Farmers Market  (local and all "organic" even if not certified as such)

Greens                                7oz         $3.50

Kale                                    8oz         2.00

Spaghetti Squash               7lb 9oz    4.00  (that was just 2 squash!)

Potatoes                             2lb8oz      2.50

Garlic                                 7oz         1.00

Farmers Market Total:  11lb 7oz   $13.00   $1.14/lb

Co-op  (not local, but organic)

Carrots                 5lb                          4.99

Onion                   1lb 13oz                3.54

Tangerines          14oz                       1.28

Grapefruit           2lb8oz                   3.43

Co-op Total:       10lb 3oz                $13.24                   $1.30/lb

The overall TOTAL:  21lb1oz of fruit/veg for $26.24            $1.21/lb

That is pretty good!   I did learn from the Bountiful Baskets to get a better variety than I would have previously.  One disappointment with the Organic BB was the lack of aromatics (onions and garlic).  I eat those everyday so I had to go buy those in addition to the BB.  Since I can't get organic locally, that was a challenge.  I do have garlic powder and dried onion, but to make a decent soup or omelet or stirfry or etc I really need the fresh product.

The Organic BB cost me $1.76 per pound (assuming no "first basket fee")

The Conventional BB cost me $0.78 per pound

This cost me $1.21 per pound and allowed me to support local producers and a local business. 

Obviously it is appropriate to compare it to the Organic BB so it saved me $0.54/lb.  That's pretty good.    (It is $0.43/lb more than the conventional BB.)  

So far the quality of everything has been amazingly good.  Comparable to the quality of the food in the Organic BB.  Granted there are no strawberries or asparagus, but those aren't ready locally yet so there you are.  I still have some strawberry shrub that I made last year and I put that in some gelatin.  Not as good as fresh strawberries but oh well.  Sometimes I also have it in some stevia-based ginger ale or water.  It's still delicious and since it's made with my own home-brewed honey vinegar (from local honey), it's full of probiotics.

Anyway, I guess the upshot is: I can indeed do better with the local/organic when the farmers market is going.   It may not be possible to do better, or get local, in the middle of winter so I may still do the occasional Organic BB in the winter months.

Additional savings:  Since I have not needed to go to the store for onions/garlic, I have not had the opportunity to impulse shop. 

One challenge I'm having is that I'm out of my freezer stash of meat.  I got lovely local eggs at the farmers market (jumbo size...truly huge) so I'm not lacking protein, but I suspect I'll be tempted to have more lunches out just to get a burger or BLT or something.   I also like some decent meat in my soups.  I got a bit of chicken at the co-op, but it's already gone.  Tried to make bone broth with the bones...but it tastes like crap so won't be eating that.  I wanted to buy some local meat from the vendors, but 6-12$/lb for ground or other low rent cuts is just too damn much for my blood.  Nothing but the chicken was on a decent sale at the co-op.  Oh well.  I have plenty of nuts, beans, lentils, seeds and eggs that I'm not lacking protein, it's just that the soups are not as delicious as with a nice bit of beef or pork or chicken.