Slow Fashion October

 OK, I know if my sister happens on this she will question the term "fashion" in anything I write.  I don't have any fashion sense at all.  Which, for slow fashion October, works perfect in reducing clothing waste.

I watched a youtube...which I do too much of late.  But then I fact checked this one and it was correct.  Dang it!

I had heard the term "fast fashion" but since I have no fashion interest and am of an age where "fast" is moot, I ignored it and filed it under run of the mill consumerist BS that was probably wasteful.

But...I had no idea HOW wasteful.  Wow.

Here's a link to the youtube:  https://youtu.be/F6R_WTDdx7I

And here's a link with some background on slow fashion October:

https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/slow-fashion-karen-templer/

Interesting stuff.

I no clue how many clothes people in 1st world countries have!  Good lord.  Throwing out over 80lbs per year in the US????   I don't have 80lbs of clothes.  Probably 50 to 60lbs.  About 20lbs of that is boots.  I should count my garments.  It's not a small number.   But clearly I am behind most of the US population.

Anyway, according to various studies you can link through the above links, in the US in 1990 80-90% of the clothes Americans bought were made in America.  After NAFTA (which for the record I thought was BS when it was put in place...different rant) jobs in the textile industry moved to other countries where people are paid less.  Less than a living wage.  And human rights are violated in the sweat shops.  But it's cheap!!  

What percentage is now made in America???  2.5% roughly.  That's a loss.  Big loss. I have trouble finding clothes made in  the USA.  Even my hippie dippie zero drop shoes from a company based in Portland OR...the actual shoes are made in china.  The company claims they couldn't find a manufacturer in the US.  ONE of my pairs of boots IS made entirely in the US.  Actually, the leather may have been tanned overseas.  Apparently that's a thing we do.  Ship hides overseas for tanning and have them shipped back to make stuff out of the hides.  That is BONKERS.  Anyway, I traded a pair of boots with a friend.  The boots I got from him didn't fit me super well but better than the ones I gave him (which passed on to a dude who was fixing his roof and I think that dude is actually wearing them).  I traded that 2nd pair of boots to a neighbor who gave me a pair of used White's Boots!  Hand made in Spokane, WA.  So not only in the US, but in the same region as me.  Nice.  I'm working on learning to wear heavy boots again.  They are awesome.   

The other garment I have that I know was made in the US is a t-shirt I bought this year.  One of the first "new" items, like actually new from a retail store, I've purchased in ages (other than sox, undies and some shoes) at full price.  I paid a higher price because it is made in the USA.  Also, because the design on it is the bomb.

Of my used items, the vast majority are made elsewhere.

Now for another factoid...apparently we wear our clothes a few times and throw them out as "old".  The studies claim people in the 1st world chuck the clothes (or forget them but don't chuck them) after an AVERAGE of 7 WEARINGS!!!  WHAT!!!  I wore the aforementioned t-shirt 3 times the week I got it and 2 times the next week. It's already over 7 wearings.   The sweatshirt I have on was purchased used, then a couple of pieces of a previous sweatshirt (That I wore until it fell off me in shreds) are applique'd on it (thanks Anne!!).  My "good" black t-shirt with long sleeves that I wear under button downs and sweaters was purchased new but at a deep discount (5$) literally years ago.  Like 5 or 6 years ago.  In Portland at Powells Books.  It made its first outing of the season this week and I noticed that the cuffs are so worn they are splitting into two unrelated layers instead of a coherent folded over ribbed edge.  I will keep wearing it until it is in tatters. It won't even be demoted to non-office wear yet.

The shirt I wore with it, an orange button down REI fishing shirt with vented pits...love the vented pits, I bought at a thrift store a few years ago and wear about once a week 6 months of the year. 

I wear my jeans (which I get in the 100% cotton version because 1) better quality 2) don't stretch out and make it look like I crapped my pants, 3) without the plastic stretch crap in them I can use the scraps of wornout jeans in the garden as weed mat or tomato ties and it will just dissolve into the soil eventually) until they fall off of me in shreds.  Then they are diced up for the rag bag.  Then end up as kindling or in the garden.  I haven't bought jeans new in probably a decade or more.  I've tried to buy all cotton workpants new but I can't find any that fit because only a few brands do all cotton anymore, and then pretty much only in men's sizes and then they don't carry a long inseam with the waist size I need.  So, I comb the thrift stores and try to have 3 jeans and a few workpants in active rotation and a few in backstock for when something falls off me in shreds.

I wear my bras and undies until I can't figure out which hole is for a limb and which is for the torso.  Sox get mended (and are cotton or wool, but sadly rarely 100% cotton or wool because that is almost not a thing anymore...I keep looking) until there is more darn than sock.  Then they go in the rag bag.  Sock tops are great for lots of things and the feet make reasonable cleaning mitts.

More factoids...cost per wear.   With fast fashion, even a dress at 30$ that is worn the average 7 times, that's about $4.28 per wearing.  If you are a chump and buy one that says "dry clean only" (and extra chump points if you take that on faith rather than trying to wash it by hand and block it) then it will be "cheaper" to throw it out rather than clean it and wear it.   If you are me, you didn't pay $4.28 to start with!  I might pay 10$ for jeans if they are all cotton and fit really well and have lots of wear left and the pockets are actually deep enough to put sh*t in.  Then I wear them ...let's see....a pair lasts 1-2 years for me, and I have 3 pairs in rotation at a time.  So...1/3 of a year I'm wearing each pair.   That's 122 wearings (roughly) per year per pair...but I do wear chore pants on the weekend usually so we'll call it 100 wearings per pair per year.  Even if a pair only lasts the one year, that's 4cents a wearing.  Since I usually wear a pair of jeans for a week and then put them in the wash (they go in sooner if they get sweaty or grubby), I spend less on laundry than most.  Less washing makes clothes last longer and puts less microplastic waste in the water ways.

There are more horrifying factoids like how much fast fashion is thrown out before anyone even buys it!  It is produced, shipped, put up on display, and thrown out!  Wasted clothing, resources, effort.  And still the companies selling this crap make money hand over fist.  So how much is thrown out?  60%  MOST of it.  Cripes.  You can read 20 of the more horrifying factoids here:

https://goodonyou.eco/fast-fashion-facts/

How to reduce clothing waste at the consumer end:

-Inventory what you have.   You will be surprised.

-Don't buy crappy clothes.   They don't last.  Buy clothes that last.  You can do this new or used.  

-If possible, buy clothes produced in a first world nation.  

-If you can, buy local.  

-If you can, make your own!  (I can't sew clothes or knit or crochet.  I am hoping to learn to weave.)

-Buy natural fibers (thereby not contributing to microplastic waste AND enhancing recycling/reusing options)

-Wash judiciously.  I have written about doing laundry well, also do it infrequently.  A good airing is the old febreeze (don't use febreeze). 

-Use the dryer sparingly!  Line drying is better or hanging on hangers or a drying rack.  The sun kills germs for free.  Dryers are hard on clothes and all the "lint" is what used to be the fabric in your clothes.

-Wear what you already own.  Go shopping in the dresser, closet, wherever you keep clothes.  Try them all on.  If something feels good, fits right, looks decent and suits the tasks you expect to do in it, keep it.  If not, donate it or do a clothing swap with friends and neighbors.  Everyone brings clothes that are in good shape and fresh washed, but they don't want anymore.  Best to sort them by garment type and/or size.  Put the clothes around a room, then people can pick what they want.  Try it on, take it to a relative/friend it might fit or work for.   After that, check with a shelter or other social service agency to see if they an use any of it.  

-Try new combinations of what you own.   We get in ruts.

-Remember that people are so worried about themselves they really don't give a crap what you are wearing.  In 2014/2015 I blogged about wearing the same 5 sweaters to work everyday for a month.  It turned into a winter's worth of wearing those sweaters because it was comfy, easy, simplified my morning.  I had a few choices, but not dozens.   And, since I wore an undershirt with the sweater, I washed them once at the start of the season and once at the end of the season.  See above "launder judiciously."

-Borrow clothes if you need a specialty item.  Like a party or wedding or something.  See if you can borrow an item. 

-Thrift and redonate for a special occasion item if you can't borrow something or wear something you already own.  I've done this for the odd wedding.  Like one in the summer when it was SUPER hot and all my "formal" clothes (you know, the ones without holes) are for cooler weather.  So I ran to a thrift store and got a doable linen outfit and sandals for about 10$, wore it, washed it, and redonated it.  

-Change your clothes before you do dirty chores.   Change into older stuff that you are wearing out.  

-Learn to mend clothes.  Good brands of shirts with buttons give you a couple of spare buttons.  They are sewn to the inside of one of the side seams or hooked to the tag at the top along the neckline.  Keep those.  Really good quality clothes come with a bit of spare thread too.  Keep that as well.   Designate a box or drawer for mending thing and put the buttons in there.  When one pops off, watch a youtube and learn how to sew it back on.  (Get your sewing kit at thrift and get cotton, linen or silk thread...polyester and nylon thread are crap.)

-Pick styles and colors and things that YOU like, not what is in fashion at the moment.  Like broom skirts in shades of mustard and puce?  Knock yourself out.  No one really cares.  

-When shopping new or used, check the seams, washing instructions (only chumps buy "dry clean only"), and fabric content.  Pull on the fabric a bit and see if it is sturdy.   Anything weak, frayed or hard to wash isn't worth it. 

-Be willing to reformat a garment to get more wear.  I mentioned my tendency to wear through the cuffs on t-shirts above.  I also wearout the cuffs on sweatshirts.  By the time the cuffs are work to tatters, the shirt is generally too raggedy to wear to work anyway and is a chore shirt or pajamas.  So, cut the cuffs off.  You still have over 90% of the shirt and it is still wearable.  You can cut the sleeves off a hooded sweatshirt when they get too worn and frayed and wear it as a work smock (with cozy hood) for dirty chores like butchering.

There's more but this is a good spot to stop.  

Food Waste In America

 So, I thought the main issue with food waste in the US was at the production and processing phases.  I watched a documentary on the youtubes (forgot which one...it was running in the background while I was doing something) 40% happens at HOME after we pay for it and bring it to the house with the intention of eating it.  CRIPES!!!!  That means 40% of the average American grocery (the food bits, not the TP which is no longer wasted EVER) is wasted as well as the food.

Cutting food waste, any waste but today is the food waste rant, is cutting the budget so you have that $$ to spend on sh*t you enjoy.  Sh*t like not working forever because you have enough savings to retire early.

So, I am refocused on cutting food waste.  I don't waste a ton.  I even have started choosing squash not only for flavor but for meat to hide ratio...though I need some hide for the worm bin and the chickens.  

Actual methods to cut waste:

1) Know how to store food.   There are guides all over the internet.  Do a search and print out a couple.  Put them on the door of the fridge and/or pantry or wherever you will see it.  Maybe next to the toilet so you can grab it and read it when your phone runs out of batteries and you can't text people while you poo.  Also, if you write the date you opened something on the package, and do so BIG, you'll know at a glance what is getting to more than a week or two out and should be eaten ASAP.  Finally, smell stuff.  Learn what it smells like when it's good.  When it smells different (and is covered with what I like to call "advanced composting substance"), time to compost it.  

2) Know how to cook.  You don't have to be a chef, just learn that to make soup you start by chopping and frying an onion.  To make eggs, you start with eggs and a pan of water or a skillet.  To make a stir fry, start with hot oil and chopped ingredients...and remember to STIR.  One of my old roommates remembered the fry part, but not the STIR part and we had an almost-fire with the grease.  Stir it.   If you want a roast or a roasted something like chicken, turn on the oven and make sure the meat is thawed.  Know that hard veggies take longer to cook than floppy veggies.  Cut the big ones smaller or start them cooking earlier.  A good place to start is at the library with a SIMPLE cookbook.  Or some youtubes if you have free internet access.  

3) Buy what you actually eat, not aspirational things like "I WILL switch directly from cap'n crunch just berries to plain dry oats with bitter melon".  If you eat cap'n crunch, well, you're wasting money but at least you're not also wasting the nuclear power plant by-product I suspect is the main ingredient in that crap'n crunch (which is delicious).

4) Eat what you bought.  Go through the fridge and cupboard BEFORE you go shopping.  Figure out a few things you can make, that you will actually eat, from what you have.  Make at least one of them and put it in the front of the fridge or wherever it will be OK and you will see it.  If you see it, you will eat it. 

5) Use up as much of the meat/fruit/veg/whatever as you can.  Limit the amount you peel, scrap, cut and chuck, even into the compost.  

Have you noticed how you didn't have to  buy anything to do those things?  

Here are a few concrete ways to avoid food waste on specific items.

Let's start with squash and melons.  SAVE THE DAMN SEEDS.  I keep a few to plant but MOSTLY I toast and eat them.  If you run a wood stove, throw a handful on top and eat them.  Put them on salad, on soup, in that trail mix you made or the homemade granola/protein bars.  I don't bother shelling the seeds, eat the shell and all.  So far no digestive issues with that.  Once dry, they save for ages in a jar.

How to save the damn squash/melon seeds:

Gut the squash (pumpkin, butternut, zucchini, cantaloupe, whatever) using your favorite method.  Put the guts in a bowl that will hold twice the volume of the guts (approximately, use the bowl you have, pans count as bowls).  Put water in until the guts are covered.  Do whatever you're doing with the squash/melon.  Come back a while later, same day, next day...not much more than that.  Stick your hands in there and squeeze the seeds to separate them from the guts, not to break the seeds.   Pull out the guts and seeds separately.  The guts go to chickens or compost.  The seeds to out on paper or a kitchen towel to dry.  I like a towel because the seeds don't have to be turned to avoid paper stickage.

Let them get SUPER dry.  Takes a day or two.  If you have a garden area, save a couple of seeds to plant.  The rest, you can put in a jar as is if they are really dry.  Or, toast right away, let them cool, and then put in a jar with a tight lid.  If you put them in hot, there will be condensation and mold.  Eat.

You can toast them in an oven, on top of a woodstove, in a dry skillet over low heat.  You'll know they are toasted when they look a bit brownish and smell good.  And a few will pop open.

People pay a mint for pumpkin seeds at the store.  Pumpkins are squash.  It's all seeds.  All are delicious and nutritious.

Perhaps potatoes, carrots, apples and other peelable things with edible peels are next.  DO NOT PEEL THEM.  Wash them.  Use a veggie scrubber. This is the same as your dish scrubber but new.  When it won't work on veggies anymore, then it's a dish scrubber.  (when it won't work on dishes...floor, then toilet, then trash).  Or, use a clean dish cloth.  or the edge of a spoon, back of a knife...or...wait for it...YOUR HANDS.  Yes, you can rub the dirt off potatoes with your hands.  Carrots don't have skin so you're just peeling off perfectly good carrot.  I scrub them and if they are pretty grubby, use the back of a knife to scrape off the dirty bit with minimal carrot loss.  I do this outside (because carrot bits go all over) and the chickens think it's raining treats.  Apples...the peels do not interfere with apple enjoyment.  Same with pears.  If you making apple sauce or butter (or pear sauce/butter), you can dice small and enjoy the red or green flecks in the final product, or use a stick blender if you already own it and do the dicing later.  Obviously any cores/seeds go in compost or to the chickens or out for birds to eat.  If you insist on peeling apples, sprinkle the inside of the peel bits with cinnamon and bake them along with the pie or whatever it is you peeled the apples for.  Or add them to a squash soup that you are going to blenderize with the blender you already own (stick, regular, food processor).  If you really really MUST peel that damn potato, at least put some seasoning on the peel and bake it like chips.  People pay good money for potato skins at restaurants.

And now, meat stuff.  Buy the right meat.  You can't use stew meat in a fast cooked dish because stew meat is tough.  Yes, it is cheap, but it needs long slow wet cooking to be decent.  If you insist on it for a non-stew dish, you'll need to chop it to a pulp, at which point, just buy the burger.  Buy only what you need.  Freeze it, fridge it, or cook it asap.  If you cook it and don't eat it, chop it up and freeze it in the soup container (see below).  Or freeze it in single portions and LABEL IT.  Put the purchase date and the freeze/fridge/cook date on it.  Labeling is your friend.   When you cut the fat off pork, that's good for frying stuff.  If you don't like the fat, don't bring it home.  Buy a leaner cut.  When you fry meat, save the grease.  You can cook in bacon grease, duck fat, beef grease, almost any grease.  If you don't want to eat it, and it's not tooooo salty, there are recipes for suet type bird food blocks you can make with it.  If you still don't want to do that, rethink how much grease and fat you are bringing into the house.    Save the bones!  Bird carcasses like chicken and turkey are great for soup base.  Put those either in water and boil up right away, or in the freezer to flavor up the scrap soup you're going to have in a bit.  To save waste on a bird carcass:  eat the skin.  If you hate the skin, why did you bring it home?  If you must have the skin and not eat it, dice it up and bake it hard as pet treats.  OK, back to the carcass:  wash your hands and use them to pick off every bit of meat from those bones.  Save that separate from the bones.   Use the bones to make a simple broth by boiling them up.  If you have something in the oven, put the bones in a pan, with a bit of that skin you don't want to eat, that can go in the oven, cover with water and let it go for as long as you can.  You can do it on top of the stove, in a crock pot, pressure cooker whatever.  The basic thing is bones + water + heat + time.  People pay good money for bone broth.  It is the juice from boiling bones.  Don't be frightened when you take it out, let it cool, remove the bones (you can compost them now or even....throw them out if you must...burying them in the garden provides years of minerals to your plants so maybe do that) and chill the broth.  It will thicken.  That's the collagen people are paying money for in powders and bone broths.  It's good for you.  You may not have to buy all that glucosamine anymore if you use this in your scrap soup.

What's this soup container and scrap soup we've been reading so much about lately (in this very blog post)?  It's what you think it is.  If you have a fridge and/or freezer, then get a container...one that you already own.  Perhaps a margarine tub or ice cream bucket or peanut butter jar.  If you have a family of 20, a big container or a few containers is good.  If you live alone, then a container that holds a few cups (I was going to say a pint but do non-canners even know what that is outside hipster beer bars?)   Make sure the container is clean, still has structural integrity, and a tight fitting lid.  If you are a canner, a large mouth pint or quart jar will work.  I avoid metal as some things going in will be acidic but you do you. Find an obvious spot in the fridge or freezer to put the container.  Easy to access daily.  

How to use it:  put food scraps in it after meals.  Have a bit more chopped onion than you need? Put it in the soup container.  Find one lone garlic clove starting to get soft?  Take the paper skin off and put the clove in the container.  Bit of left over salad with no dressing?  Into the container.  Bit of left over salad with dressing?  Rinse the dressing off (in the collander you already own or just in the bowl and then drain by holding the salad in the bowl with your hand) and put it into the container. You rinse off the dressing because ranch does not go with everything.  If it's a vinaigrette, you might leave it.  Don't worry, even lettuce is fine in soup.  Don't put cheese or big hunks of pure fat or egg in the container.  These don't freeze well and interfere with soup texture. Bits of bacon, that last pork chop no one ate...dice those up and put them in the container. Three pieces of salami?  Go ahead, put it in the container.  Zucchini boat to far?  Chop and put in the container.  Did you make spaghetti and there is like a half serving of sauce and 10 noodles left?  Those go in the container.  Apples and pears do ok in most soups.  So a slice or two of those will be fine.  Left over rice and other grains...same thing.  When the container is full, look at it.  If there is no onion or garlic or chives or other oniony/garlicy/chive thing in there, you MIGHT want to fry a bit of one of those in the soup pan before you dump the container contents in.  Or not.  Just dump the container contents into a pan big enough to hold them, about an hour before you want to eat.  Add water ...or some of that delicious bone broth you made...or both.  And that last tablespoon of tomato paste you just noticed in a can at the back of the fridge.  Bring to a boil, lower the temp to a simmer.  Put a lid on it.  Let it simmer until it is time to eat.  It will work great in a crock pot or in a pan in the oven if you are making biscuits to go with it. 

Taste it.  If it is bland, put some in a bowl and try a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice if you have it.  It will perk up anything.  Add salt, pepper, spices to taste. Usually whatever you threw in the container has enough seasoning to see you through.

Once you sort the seasonings out, put it in bowls and enjoy. 

101 Dishes I Can Cook Entirely From Ingredients On-Hand

 This is an exercise for me.   Partly because I usually do this in the notes app on the discarded phone from my sister (thanks!) that I took a simcard out of and use as a glorified notebook and wifi device.  But then I butt-deleted the entire notes app.  CRIPES!!!!  Still, you have to admit I have a talented butt to do such a complex operation.

And I've gotten in the habit of grabbing things to eat when I'm out and about.  That isn't frugal and isn't appreciating what I have already!   Most of what I have will store for ages, but not forever (the honey being a major exception) and what is the point of a garden if I don't eat/share/use the produce?

Anywhoooo, here are things I can make entirely from my current pantry stock and crap that is around the property waiting to be picked, or in the case of eggs...waiting to be laid (heh heh..aren't we all).

1  Garbanzo soup with onion, garlic, greens and wheat berries

2 Pinto bean soup

3 Lentil Soup

4 Peruana Soup (some of those beans I grew myself!)

5 Random Bean Soup (from beans I grew from a free bean soup mix...chucked the salty-ass yucky spice pack.

6 Lentil Soup.   Lots of soup. To go in these I have tarragon, chives, garlic, greens, lovage, 2 kinds of thyme, 2 kinds of sage, wormwood, greens (3 or 4 kinds), squash, and eggs all from the property.  (if I can find the lentils I KNOW I bought...probably in the bin I didn't check yet)

7 Pumpkin Soup.  Made this yesterday with a random type of winter squash from a friend.

8 Walnut squash loaf

9 Fancy salad with greens and nuts

10 Sprout salad (have sprouting seeds to save and use in the winter when fresh produce is at a premium)

11 Bread.  I have whole wheat flour as well as a grinder and rye berries and wheat berries.

12 Coconut Milk hot chocolate!  I have 2 bags of dehydrated coconut milk.  And cocoa powder.

13 Walnut clusters.  Walnuts and dark chocolate from the pantry.

14 Breakfast wheat berry porridge with walnuts and raisins.

15 Keto-ish raisin bread with almond and coconut flour

16 Apple pannekoeken (which is my pretend german-ish pancake using any of the above noted flours and eggs)

17 Raised yeast bread.

18 Bannock bread with my new and just tested no-salt baking powder!  LOW SODIUM bread...yay.  Also have no-sodium baking soda that I haven't tested yet.   They are calcium and magnesium based so they also up the mineral intake.  

19 Chicken soup...those baby roosters and the elderly non-layers with some onion from the pantry and various seasonings from the garden and maybe some egg noodles.

20 Salmon burgers from canned salmon, fresh eggs, and a flour and psyllium husk as binder

21 Gelatine desserts from the last of the pound of gelatine (protein supplement) I bought a few years ago.

22 Tuna on toast from the canned tuna in the stash.

23 Sardines on homemade crackers from the pantry stash.

24 Tea

25 Coffee

26 Almond milk from the almond flour

27 Peanut butter sandwiches

28 Peanut sauce for a nice curry type dish over rye berries

29 Sauerkraut on Sardine Sandwich (hobo rueben?)

30 Skillet pizza with crust from one of the flours, sauce of the salsa I made from farmers market produce, topped with tuna (no cheese because I don't do that...I made this for lunch and it was super good)

31 Tuna burgers

32 Tuna casserole with a can of tuna, some wheat berries, homemade white sauce (non-dairy) as a binder, a few dried mushrooms, some garlic, spices, and a few dried mushrooms

33 Atole (a cornmeal mush type drink)

34 Cornbread

35 Chocolate pudding from coconut milk, gelatine and cocoa powder.  I think I'm out of cornstarch

36 Camelina seed pudding (I grew the camelina seeds!!  Yay.)

37 Chicos and beans.   Chicos are a roasted corn that is then dried.  It is delicious.  I have some New Mexico chili powder to season it.

38 Vinaigrette...this should be like 20 entries because I have 7 or 8 types of vinegar (malt, apple cider, kombucha (2 kinds of that), pineapple (made that myself), red wine, white wine, and vinegars infused with berries of various sorts.  

39 Mustard vinaigrette...because I make my own mustard.

40 Chicken casserole from the bland canned chicken and rice soup.  I'll thicken it a bit with a white sauce and add dried mushrooms and some seasonings for flavor (which the soup lacks).

41 Sardines in red sauce over zucchini noodles.  I have a zucc or two left in the garden. I've been trying to let them get super ripe so I can keep the seeds.  Plenty of garlic makes the sardines a bit more anchovy-ish and tasty.

42  Scrambled eggs with greens in them.

43  Eggs and salsa

44 Egg drop soup from salsa and extra onions and spices in the "broth"...which I plan to make for lunch

45 Anti-inflammatory egg thing.  I've been making this.  I made a spice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and turmeric.  A tablespoon of that and a beaten egg kind of makes a curry flavored pancake.

46 Pancakes and Maple Syrup!  I got some maple syrup free for attending a conference (along with some other amazing gifts)

47 Pancakes and honey

48 Apple stuffed mini pumpkin with local buckwheat honey.  I got the apples off a tree on my property and the mini pumpkin from the garden.

49 Cinderella squash soup.  I bought a GIANT Cinderella Squash at the farmers market.  It had the shortest growing season...like 85 days.  So plan to save the seeds.  I will add apples or pears and onion to it and blenderize the soup.   I suspect there will be too much so...

50 Cinderella squash bread 

51 Squash muffins

52 Squash pancakes

53 Biscuits

54 Bannock bread

55 Rye berry tabouli

56 Wheat berry and lentil hot dish

57 Chocolate Wacky cake using honey or maple syrup as sweetener and vinegar and the no-salt baking soda as leavening.

58 Whole wheat crackers in a skillet...might turn into flat bread if it won't crisp up.

59 Popped wheat berries by toasting in a skillet

60 Kombucha (I have a mother and a bit of white sugar at the office and black tea so I can make this all winter and flavor with various dried or vinegar preserved berries and whatever else)

61 Fennel hash because I got fennel at a farmers market

62 Tomato soup from canned tomato paste

63 Veggie Soup from my low sodium veggie broth cubes and the carrots, onions, garlic and greens.

64 Apple sauce from my apples with cinnamon, nutmeg and the raspberry honey

65 Honey cake...I have 3 or 4 kinds of honey.

66 Olive oil spice cake from the olive oil I got from that above mentioned conference.

67 Walnut loaf with the walnuts and grain berries, camelina seeds, and maybe eggs as a binder.  As long as one of the blenders holds up!

68 Pasta and pine nuts if I make pasta from the flour.

69 Toasted pine nuts (more realistic...because they are untoasted in the shell which makes them basically rocks)

70 Peanut butter muffins

71 Peanut soup with chicken (from one of those little roosters or non-layers)

72 Beet hash with beets out of the kvass I have brewing...unless that blew up.

73 Zucchini pickles.  I fermented a zucchini in  brine a few weeks ago and LOVE it.  Good sour pickles so I plan to make more.

74 Celery with peanut butter and raisins.  Still have celery from the farmers market.

75 Tuna loaf.

76 Eggs on toast

77 Toad in the hole...if I make bread from the flour and then manage not to just eat the whole loaf.

78 Wheatberry salad with beets and greens and fennel-turnip-cabbage-kraut (which I made last week and is DELICIOUS)

79 Tuna Noodle casserole if I make egg noodles from the flour and some of my eggs.

80 Ever more muffins

81 Scrambled eggs with kraut

82 Coffee cake...from actual left over coffee.  It's like a mocha flavor

83 Spice cake like a wacky cake but spices instead of cocoa powder

84 Almonds with greens, beans and rye berries. Cook the berries, toss into frying greens and beans, then put the almonds on for the last few minutes.  Hearty and good.

85 Tomato bread with the canned tomato paste

86 Wasabi toasted garbanzos...because I have dried garbanzos.  Cook those up.  Drain well, and put in a dry skillet to toast, then toss with a bit of wasabi powder and keep as a snack or to-go lunch protein

87 Coconut cake!  With the coconut flour

88 Fancy chocolates with nuts and raisins by melting coconut oil, mixing in baking cocoa, and adding the fancies then pouring in the silicon mold my sister sent years ago.  This is a winter thing when I can use the porch as a fridge to chill the mix in the mold.   They are really good.  Don't need sweetener but I have the various things including stevia and a bit of erythritol (which I must use super sparingly)

89 Chocolate chip cookies if I crunch up one of the dark chocolate bars.

90 Peanut butter honey cookies (yum...really must do this one...might be a good way to use up the powdered egg or egg substitute that needs to be used up)

91 Spice cookies

92 Breakfast cookies with some of the various proteins like nuts and gelatine in with the whole wheat flour and powdered egg with no or little sweetener

93 Bean burgers

94 Bean loaf

95 Pinto bean brownies (I love bean brownies but have to limit their production because cocoa kicks up the gas factor to weaponizable levels)

96 Egg sandwich.  Dang!  Why was this not higher on the list...an egg sandwich with my homemade bread, homemade mustard, homemade kraut on the side, and eggs from my chickens.  How has this not been a staple?  If I add some of my tarragon and thyme or pair it with the fennel kraut...yum!

97 Almond and coconut flour pancakes.  These are so hearty and with the anti-inflammatory spice mix they make a good sweet or savory side dish to most anything especially homemade apple sauce or soup

98 Savory stuffed pumpkin with wheat or rye berries, seasonings, and maybe beans.

99 Leftovers in eggs...this is a frequent meal.  So far almost everything is good fried in an egg.

100 Leftover soup...which is left overs in a pan with a broth cube (my low sodium veggie broth cubes are my go to) if you have it, or fry an onion or garlic or chives if you don't.  Or just add water or tomato sauce or whatever you have.  Even a can of cheap veggies with the juice.  Or grind up some flax/camelina type seeds for a thicker texture and a bit of umami in the broth.  Other nuts or seeds toasted do wonders for adding flavor.  Also, those magical dried mushrooms...not to be confused with dried magic mushrooms!  Just dried mushrooms add amazing flavor.  Must tell Mom I'm low on dried goods.

101  Breakfast/Protein bars from the various flours, cooked beans or ground and toasted nuts, the raisins, and whatever comes to hand to use as a binder...eggs, peanut butter, bit of the gelatine powder.

I could go on...and on.

I have been watching and listening to various frugal youtubes and reading frugal tips.   

Attitude is key and this is to reset my attitude that I want to eat grab-n-go food.  It's NUTS with the amount of food I have in the house and on the land.   CRAZY amounts of food.  I didn't scratch the surface of sandwiches...I mean all of those beans can make sandwich spreads and then add some kraut or sprouts or both for a crunchy veggie element and it's really good.  

I also have that beet kvass at the office.   It's my first try at that and fermented really nicely.  I have seen recipes that throw it in soups at the end to perk them up and add probiotics.  I wonder if beet kvass and kraut in a soup cancel each other out?

And then there are the options for making more vinegars from the apple scraps when I add those to things.  I usually leave the peels on, but the cores come out.   And of course once it has vinegared I give the fruit mush to the chickens.

I'm also expecting canned and smoked chicken and duck meat coming in during October so...perhaps I need to STOP stockpiling the proteins.

What was I saying about going on and on?

Thrifty Mistake and "What would you do?" response

 Firstly, I am having a disorganized day.   Went to the mondo hardware this morning (local owner, not big box), and FORGOT to load half my prepaid order because I got over excited about the 6' long "scraps" in the free bin (which I scouted before I placed and paid for the lumber package up front so I could save $$).   The dude at the exit gate who checks what you got asked if I wanted to go back in and get the rest of the order.  DOH!   Yes please.   He had just cut off a finger joint so I don't think he judged me for being a tad stupid.  The finger was all bandaged up.  I told him if the attempt to sew it back on didn't take, he'd look like a shop teacher.  Fortunately, he laughed.

Second.  I've been watching the "what would you do" frugal vids on the youtubes.

The game is that there are a few ingredients and no money, no resources to go get food.   Then, make meals for 1-7 days for 1 person or a family.   Basically a food is running out scenario.

I've had those days.  Talking to a cousin  I found out that when the family of siblings were all kids, our gramma stopped by to find that the only food in the house was bread with mouse holes in it.  Gramma got mad and told the mom to always let Gram know when the kids were hungry.  The dad at the time was in the hospital with pneumonia so out of work for a few weeks or more.   

I had some lean times in college grad school.  I don't remember any food insecure times as a kid but I remember going to the town where both gramma's were once when my father was on strike for a while.  Mom gardened, froze food, and shopped well.   My father fished and hunted and occasionally an animal may or may not have been butchered in the basement at night (lived in town). I don't think you can prosecute the deceased for poaching or bogarting roadkill.

What I did in college/grad school when money was so low I couldn't get more food...and I thought I had no right to the public food pantry (I did, I was genuinely broke) was stretch what I had.

By my senior year I was getting better at it.  I had learned to make sourdough starter and bread.  At one point I was down to a few dollars, and 2 new jobs so 6 weeks to eat before a paycheck showed up (2 week pay period but pay delayed a month after the end of the pay period...the 80s were not a peak time for the low paid worker).

I assessed what I had.  Then went to the store.  I remember getting a big bag of flour and another of sugar, and some tomato sauce or paste in cans.  I could get more calories per dollar that way.  I managed a pound or two of ground beef.  Took it home.  Started the sourdough.  Divided the meat into small baggies to spread the protein out.  I had some condiments and spices and baking cocoa.  And no doubt pasta and spaghetti sauce (I didn't know how to make it myself yet...DOH!)

I remember the landlord coming in to fix something and seeing me eat pasta sauce by dipping bread in it (delicious fresh baked bread at least...)

I could make a "sauce" of baking cocoa and sugar as well.  More bread dipping.

The meat was fried in crumbles and I could make 1-2 sandwiches with one little baggie.  The next day I would fry bread in the left over burger grease (probably supplemented with cheap veg oil from the cupboard).  

NOT the most nutritious but I made it.  I knew it was short term and fortunately that turned out to be true.  One major injury and it could have been permanent.

So, that's what I'd do.

During 'Rona Round 1, i.e. 2020, I would take a few things out of pantry stock and eat on them for however long to use them up.  Handy.  Sort of the marathon version of 'what would you do.'

Key to that is taking a pantry inventory which I need to do. I started one the other day, but I fell asleep. 

Happy Birthday Lily!

 Lily Tomlin turns 82 today.  I want to be her someday.