A Month of Scratch Cooking

 July I did an experiment...or as Gramma would have called it...did nothing at all.

Nowadays cooking everything I ate from scratch ingredients myself for an entire month is not the norm.

By "ingredients" I mean no premixes (no "cake mix" "pancake mix" etc)flavored coffee, bag-o-salad,  prepped veggies from the store...whole veg and fruit YES, cut veg and fruit NO.

There were 2 exception meals.  I was invited to join friends in a meal made my a visitor from out of state.  They actually made almost everything from ingredients!  I had a few store bought pickles and some pimento stuffed olives.  The main dishes were bean soup from dry beans and chili with meat.  I had quite a bit of chili.  It was great!  I skipped the crackers and bread.

Fortunately I like making mustard so I had that as a condiment.  Along with all the flavored vinegars I make.  I needed to buy some kombucha from the folks who supply me with kombucha vinegar for free.  SO...I re-brewed the kombucha with berries and mango skins.  It re-fermented and we called it good. 

The other exception meal was a pre-committed meal at a work event my department was hosting.  It would be odd to cater a meal and refuse to eat it!  We catered in bbq pork sliders, raw veggies with dip (they were cut and I ate them but I skipped the "ranch"...I hate "ranch" so that was an easy miss).  We also had some coleslaw and another salad.  No pastries or cookies which was a choice by someone else, though I validate it in general.  The sliders were good! 

I definitely appreciated the meals I didn't cook and clean up from more than usual.

It was easy.  I just needed to think through the next day at some point of an evening.  If I had a field day coming up,  I made sure I had a "grab n go" option ready for the morning.  Mostly this was nuts and whole fruit or clean whole veg.   A few times it was boiled eggs and salad in one of my thrifted tiffins (those metal multi-tiered lunch carriers popular in India).  It gets lots of use and even more this month!  One person traveling with me was so impressed he kept asking about the tiffin.  I had a spare, also thrifted, that I use very little so I gave it to him the next day. 

Salad in a mason jar with nuts and chia seeds for protein is another good option.

I've been doing my own salad dressings for years so that's easy.  Just throw vinegar and oil and whatever herbs/spices are handy, bit of fresh ground pepper.  A dollop of my homemade mustard if I'm feeling fancy.  I'm not much on sweetening them.  All about the savory salads.

Once the serviceberries were coming on, a handful of those went in pretty much everything. 

I am growing greens so actually went the whole month just eating my own greens.  The bugs destroyed all but one kind this week so greens options are getting a bit thin.  

For meat/eggs....lots of my friend's free range eggs that she lets me "u-pick" without washing or refrigerating.  I ran out late last week and got a bit creative over the weekend.  At work we had canned a goat and no one seemed to want it so I've been eating up the goat meat to free up the jars.  We also got free salmon at work and I took one, cleaned it and am keeping it in the work freezer (a tiny one).  I took a piece home now and then to thaw and cook.

I have a fishing license and could have made more use of that or any use, if things got thin.  I also have good sources of frozen, local free range meat at a couple of farmers markets.

On days I was home, or going to be home in the late afternoon rather than not until late evening, I set up my simple solar cooker so lunch or dinner would be ready.  Even used it for late morning coffee sometimes but that's normal.  A new favorite meal is solar cooked quinoa and lentils with dried tomato and some herbs and a handful of service berries.  When it is done cooking, I thrown on vinegar, oil, pepper and a bit of salt.

Normally I don't add salt because any food not prepped at home is incredibly SALTY which bloats me up like a tic,  My sodium intake was consistently low to the point that on hot sweaty days, I actually included some salt to compensate.

Another result: I saved a boatload of money!  Came in at about half my usual food spend, which is groceries and all meals out and coffee out. So that helps.  I've cut back on meals out, coffee out is rare now, but I do buy pre-made bread at farmers markets and etc.

One factor in the low food bill is that my serviceberry bushes were bonkers so I ate a TON and have 7 or 8 quarts in kombucha vinegar to keep for the off season.  Critters were eating the free potatoes I planted so I harvested those and ate them.  Then all the canning at work resulted in quite a bit of free protein.  I have had coffee in stock and got a gift of another pound of coffee so didn't need to even buy coffee beans.

Still...what I did buy is clearly cheaper than prepared food.  For example, today I restocked with some ingredients, keep the habits going, and spent:  20$ for 4doz eggs and 8.50$ for a weeks worth of veggies.  

I expect another 30$ this week to stock up my coffee, grains, and dry beans/lentils because those are all pretty tapped out. 

I learned that having nuts on hand keeps me from running to the store for fieldwork lunches when I have low supplies of grab-n-go food.   Nuts or seeds and an apple or orange can get me through a day.

There is likely more but I'm supposed to be focused on a webinar...

Pantry ReStock Blow Out...OOOPS. BUT one big benefit to the 2months of eating from the pantry

 So apparently I lack focus (yes, not a surprise to anyone who has met me).  Sometimes it looks like I have focus because the distractions are all inside my head.  My affect free expression may not change.

BUT, distracted get I do (and I don't even LIKE star wars crap, yet the yoda comes out).

So, haven't been in a grocery store or market in AGES.   Haven't even gone through the food bits of salvage stores like Ross Dress For Less.  

My skillz are RUSTY.  I had a list with me.   Divided into "now" stuff and "stock up" stuff.  Well, NO WHERE on there was "cheap maple nut clusters" but they were on sale for 50cents at Ross (or maybe Marhsalls, whatever).  And then I ate them.  10 servings of not good nut candy clusters.  Like gross sweet.  I did plan to buy the Honey Mama chocolates at Grocery Outlet.  DID NOT plan on eating all of them while I drove home.   Did plan on checking out the winter market down in Moscow.  Planned on 1 cookie.  Had 1 normal cookie (excellent).  BUT there was a young super cute couple selling TINY COOKIES and MINIATURE donuts and cinnamon rolls.  So, there you go.  I had to have those.  3$.  Damn.  

I also got quinoa which was the cheap "grain" (yes, it is not a real grain it's a brassica seed yada yada yada).  Made pilaf this AM with some elk steak (from a friend...wow was it good) to have for M, T, W lunches.  BUT ate it for breakfast and lunch today already.

Thank goodness I got distracted and didn't buy the whole wheat sourdough loaf!  I have eaten 4 days of food/calories in 1.5 days.  AND I have a bday to hit this afternoon.  Dammit.

Food is so good!

Still, I have had a breakthrough on the coffee. I was early (yeah, always) and the cheapo grocery wasn't open yet.  AND I had forgotten my coffee on my porch and NOT walked back up the snowy hill to get it.  I have a coffee-out budget this month and used 6$ of it for a coconut milk latte and 1$ for the tip.  Well...won't happen again.  The first time I had this particular latte, a dirty chai with a shot of huckleberry syrup...the "sasquatch" it was amazeballs.  About 50% of the time since then it has been really good.  50% of the time...not great but good.   This time!  BARF!  SO SWEET.  Probably a bit too much huckleberry syrup plus I had had only honey and maple syrup for the past several weeks since running out of sugar.  Also, some stevia.  I have made all but ONE coffee at home.  That other coffee was an americano on a preplanned coffee date with a friend's son (to check up on him in his new town, not a blind date.  No one get their hopes up...talking to you MOM).  That was fine. Strong, dark and bitter...like me. (heh heh).  This time. GROSS.  I respect that the prices have gone up in the 2months I have been out of coffee circulation and I always tip.  However, even at the old price of 4.50$, this would not have been worth it.  I am going to help the coffee huts in the region with their staffing issue by not going there anymore.  Maybe the occassional americano, straight espresso shot, or drip when a social obligation is easier to deal with that way, but mostly just no.  Not good enough.  

Most of the beans I have at home are really good, gifts from the holidays!  Thanks all!! and even the lesser beans/roasts I have now learned how to prepare.  Like today, old fashioned perculator on good beans, boiled until it was tar made an excellent fake espresso.  I added powdered coconut milk and a bit of stevia and vanilla extract.  Whole thing cost me maybe 90cents (most of that was the coconut milk powder...spendy but awesome). $6.10 savings off the poor quality dirty chai...even though I like saying "dirty chai."  I can brew a chai with coconut milk or nut milk (even cheaper when I have nuts (heh heh)), add flavor and stevia if it needs it.  If I am paying for the coffee it is under a quarter a cup (I re-use grounds...more anon on that), like well under.  And I get what I want.  As my taste preferences have shifted to include strong sours and bitters, and less standard sugar sweeteners, and certainly less high fructose corn syrup (which I bet was in the huckleberry syrup) I get less tolerant of the sicky sweet coffee things. David Sedaris (heart emoji here) calls those "liquid snickers bars" and he's right.

I was down to about 10$/month on coffees out on average, including vacations.  I expect that it will start averaging 3$/month.  7x12=84$/year savings.  Not huge, but it is a thing!  1/10th of a window for the future house.  

My tolerance for candy is also less high ...I think we have a term for that...ah yes, "lower."

While I ate all that crap, I didn't like it.  I was distracted.  I made coconut oil coconut fat bombs with peppermint flavor last week with what I had in the pantry and they were FAB!  Fatty, fibery, and good.  NO sweetener in there at all.  Just coconut oil melted, desiccated coconut that was about 2 years beyond the "best by" date but not rancid, and a bit of peppermint emulsion I bought at least 4 years ago.  The "best by" date has faded and I can't read it.  I also binge ate those, but with fewer negative gut and budget repercussions.  Next I am going to try replicating the Honey Mama style chocolate.  Which is really cocoa treats per their information.  No cocoa butter so not officially chocolate.  They use coconut oil, excellent cocoa powder, and some honey along with various flavors and it is ASTOUNDINGLY good.  NOT over sweet.  Tasty, rich and doesn't make one more hungry like sugar/fructose syrup can do.  I'm wondering how it would go with maple syrup thought I did not find any maple syrup in the budget this round.  I will pay more for local or traceable and packed in glass. The only reasonable deal with in plastic and not made by a traceable farm

Pantry Challenge: The End of the End

 OK, there may be a final final final end of the end report if I manage to do a proper inventory.

I had a bauble on Jan 30th.  I had packed some lovely soup for lunch (smoked duck, gingered carrots, garlic cloves, can of tomatoes, dried mushrooms, dried thyme leaves and rosemary saved from my garden, onion granules, and a low sodium bouillon cube along with some cracked pepper and a bit of vinegar because that perks stuff up and I needed to empty the jar...a quart jar with a table spoon of service berry vinegar in it is a waste of tiny space).   Anyway, it was great.  And the thermos SEALED to the point I could not open it.  I couldn't open it with two people trying at the same time (one holds it and one tries to crank the lid...nothing).  I tried banging on it, warming it, etc.  Stuck.   Yesterday I found someone incredibly strong and we got it open.  But on Sunday...no lunch and I was away from home.  I cracked!  Got a coffee and a cookie (bad idea...made me hungrier).  So, a burger and tots as a major treat.  Threw my sodium level above the OK range...dang it!!

Anyway, today is a make up day.  Sunday night I made a rye berry and lentil pilaf with some onion powder, a bouillon cube, various other flavors, lentils and a can of artichoke hearts (thanks Chris!) and it is delicious.   I have a serving of soup left and most of the pilaf.  That and the eggs I had for breakfast will keep me going at least today.  Possibly tomorrow.

ALSO finally got my radish seeds for sprouts going and have nearly 1.5pints of sprouts ready.  Still have tons of seeds.  Sprouting at the office where it is reasonably warm and the temperature is fairly steady worked.  Sprouting at home did not work.  Dang it all.  But now I know.  And I will put those in the soup today, or half of them.  It's a lot.

I should do a follow up on this...like my new favorite recipes.  And how I will change my pantry stock staples (more whole grains please!!).

Anyway: what I know I have left;

3 pints chicken broth (home canned)

2 pints duck meat (seriously)

1 smoked duck carcass that I can't even deal with so it might go to the chickens.  It's frozen in a bag in a tin on the porch so it will be fine for days yet, but I just have SO MUCH food and we had a hell of a time plucking the damn ducks that there are some feathers on the skin...maybe I can peel it and give the hide to the chickens and boil up the bones...that might work.  I do like duck bone broth and the residual smoke flavor comes through.

Gelatin:  this is a great thing to have!  Just this AM I decided to add 2T to my 2 eggs and anti-inflammatory spice mix breakfast (done in a microwave but highly edible).  It boosts protein rather than getting all calories from fat when the veg runs low, and is easier on my guts.  Also my hair and nails are fantastic.  Just mix the dry powder into the dry ingredients, and continue as usual.  I've also used it to beef up the protein in muffins and to compensate for lacking 1 egg (when I didn't want to open a new bag of powdered egg which also works well in baked goods and pancakes).  The texture is different but fine.  The eggs this morning fluffed up in volume to about 3x the usual and yet, still low sodium and lots of protein per calorie.

2+lbs coffee left.  Holiday gifts increased the supply.

Plenty of tea.

Plenty of herbs/spices/salt

Got pepper corns for christmas (Thanks Chris) so plenty of those left.  

A quart of cranberry juice (unsweetened) 

1.5quarts of berries preserved in vinegar

Plenty of vinegar 

Getting 2 eggs per day on average (once in a while 1 or 3) and so that's all fine

About a half a cup of lentils left,

A pint of dry garbanzos 

A half pint of dry peruana beans

A half cup of chicos

Small bag freeze dried corn

Small bag freeze dried blueberries

1-2lbs whole wheat flour

Bit of coconut flour

1 cup almond flour

3/4 quart vital wheat gluten

small bag psyllium husk

1 pint camelina seeds (those are pretty good in a keto-ish skillet bread that you then use for a fried egg sandwich with homemade mustard)

1/2pint gingered carrots...frozen

1/2 hand ginger

TONS of ingredients for the anti-inflammatory spice mix (turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg...sometimes ground ginger)

1 little can of tomato paste

1/2 bag dried mushrooms

2 small bags dried chilis

1 cup dried veggie soup mix

1.5 bags powdered egg

3/4 bag powdered coconut milk

Plenty of stevia

1/2 bottle olive oil

1/4 lb coconut oil

4oz baking cocoa

plenty of leavening (baking soda, baking powder, yeast)

squash seeds (saved from squash...some will go to the chickens because I am not going to get them eaten)

1 qt of beet kvass

1/2 jar olives (thanks Chris!!  Might have some with lunch)

1.5 rolls TP

There are probably other things of note that I am forgetting.

So, tons of calories left, tons of vitamins and protein left.  If I needed to, I could easily go another month and not starve or have any negative health effects. I could run out of fat for frying if I weren't careful.  I am totally out of sugar/honey/maple syrup (well, I have some maple water in the syrup bottle to get the last of the sweetness out) so my sweet tooth would suffer.  

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 27 Days

 After today, just 4 days to go on the pantry challenge.

Right now I am cooking up the final squash in the work microwave.  ALSO found a tiny, mostly dried up garlic head, like 3-4 cloves, in the bottom drawer of the work fridge.  I know it is mine because I am the only one who uses the drawer and I'm the only one with fresh veg, and I'm the only one who would have a garlic head with dirt on it rather than shiny store bought garlic.

I'm thinking of throwing tomatoes on some of the squash for lunch (this is breakfast time, the microwave is free now).  With some spicy garlic seasoning and maybe an egg on the side.  Or not.

Looks like I will get 4 small portions or 3 good sized ones.  We'll see.  

The radish sprouts are finally going !   Warmer at the office than home so they are doing better.  Might take them home for the weekend if they are far enough along.

I got an invite to a friend's house on Saturday to help with farm chores and see the baby lambs.   The friend is a feeder so I will eat what is served.  

For the rest of this week and the weekend, I'm taking home the smoked duck, some service berries in vinegar, and maybe something else.

I FINALLY used the out of date desiccated coconut I had gotten at ross dress for less ages ago.  I mixed it into melted coconut oil and threw in a bit of peppermint emulsion I have had for literally years.  Put it in a bee-themed silicone cake mold (thanks pam) that works also as a chocolate/candy mold.  I put a tiny bit of stevia in the mix but I don't think it was needed.  Had one with my coffee.  I wonder if it counts as a fat bomb?  Anyway, will finally just eat that stupid coconut.

I might also bring the last of my maple syrup home for the weekend.  It is major delicious.

I am totally out of nuts!  Ate up the walnuts a few days ago when I was too lazy to cook.  Also had some in pancakes which was really nice with the maple syrup.  

Still have plenty of dried mushrooms, beans, lentils, a cup or so of rye berries and some chicos.  I have a half cup of chicos soaking so I can hopefully have duck with them for lunch tomorrow.  They take to long to cook to have for supper tonight.  I'd be up until midnight.  So, cook them up, put them out in a tin overnight to freeze (helps soften beans so I think it might work on chicos) and then spice up and stew again with duck or beans for a meal.

I am still amazed how long the pantry stock is lasting.  Even with the meals out, I have plenty of protein, nutritious veg/fruit options left.  Also whole wheat flour, leavening, coconut and almond flour and various things to throw in to make keto style meals.  With the sprouts on line now, also some fresh green things.

The TP is getting low.  Partly because I have lots of stock and haven't been scrimping.  I think I am lowish on hand sanitizer at home but I prefer to use soap and water so using that has just been laziness.

I'm working a list for a gradual resupply with more of the things I will truly eat up so there isn't as much stuff hanging around super long term.  I think I will also keep posting a penciled list of things to eat up over my cooking/prep area.  I don't' always eat them on the assigned week, but faster than if I just leave them jammed in the back of the pantry stock.  Also, dividing up the big packages and portioning them out by a week's supply worked well.  Made for a more useful active pantry right by the food prep area and a more manageable inventory of the longer term storage locations.

A close out inventory should prove interesting.

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 21 Days

 So far so good!

Someone brought me store bought bread yesterday, and food freely given by people who don't know what I am up to is inside the "ok" category per the rules I set up.  Anyone trying to give me stuff through pity or sabotage...that is outside the "ok" category.

So I ate some.  I hadn't had industrially processed carbs since an xmas dinner before xmas.  Turns out...I do not digest them nearly as well as whole grains well cooked/soaked.  Good to know.  Also, the bread was not particularly delicious, threw my sodium intake off, and I look like a puff ball today.  Totally not worth it.  I will try a little of the long ferment sourdough I can get at a local farmers market, but I think store bread type products are just not doing it.   I have the no-sodium baking powder and baking soda as well as yeast and the whole wheat, plain flour and keto-ish breads I've made with those, even with additional wheat gluten for texture, have been fine with my guts.  Again, excellent info.  Store bread is BS for my GI.  Like dairy...I might eat some breads now and then, but it will have to be worth it not crap.

Alright, as for the regular pantry challenge.  There are 10days left after today and I am clearly not going to clean out the supplies.  I will have protein (beans, lentils, duck meat, maybe tuna) left.  Grains, probably the whole wheat flour, left.  I won't get through the camelina seeds, the vinegar preserved berries, spices/herbs, coffee, tea, vinegar (still literal gallons), cocoa, possibly not the keto-flours, definitely not the vital wheat gluten.  Plenty of gelatin (I use it as a protein supplement, egg replacement in some recipes, and to thicken things).  Someone at work...and old lady...needed honey to make herbal medicines and casually said "do you have any honey?"...then STARED AT ME POINTEDLY.  I couldn't lie and said yes.  She stood there until I handed it over.  So...I will be out of sweeteners other than stevia.  Will need a bit of sugar to keep the kombucha mother going.

I will eat up the squash and I might go for the smoked duck this weekend.  Also hitting a jar of that chicken broth.  I think an egg drop soup made with that and some hot and sour spices and the dried veggies/mushrooms I have will be quite nice.  I plan to get onions, garlic and carrots once off the pantry challenge though I have granulated onion and garlic which is fine and can still do sprouts for fresh veggies and have a few frozen carrot slices.  I do want some fermented ginger carrots going again because they are delicious and keep their crunchy texture.  That really improves soups made with dried veggie mix.

At thrift yesterday (was in town to re-up the building permit) and got a norpro spaetzle cutter for 94cents!  It would have been a buck but I'm old and it was 10% off for the 55 and up crowd that day so whoohoo!  I have a spaetzle shaker with a squeezy lid too, also from thrift, obviously.

Once I go back to stores, I might put semolina flour on the "if it is on super sale" list because I think that is the better flour for those noodles.

I could easily go a few more weeks or a month on what I have and it would not be an issue as far as nutrition or calories.   NUTS.  I had no idea I had that much food.  Good to know. 

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 16 Days

Going well!   

Had strawberry pancakes made with whole wheat flour, strawberry powder (thanks Pam), and an egg with maple syrup.  WOW was that delicious.  Also coffee and rooibos tea (thanks Chris).  

Lunch yesterday and today is/was duck soup.  Like actual soup made with duck meat, not a movie with the Marx Bro's.  I added my last fresh onion and the last of the non-frozen fermented ginger carrots along with some dried mushrooms (thanks Sher).  Really really good.  Yesterday I made some whole wheat flour dumplings to go with the soup.   Since I would be out and about today, radio show day and laundry day, I made some bread things to go with: almond and coconut flours with psyllium husk and camelina seeds.  Egg and fake (low sodium) baking soda for leavening.  Quite good!  I fried them up last night in the last of a jar of coconut oil.  I have another jar.  I supplemented breakfast with some walnuts.  I have about a pound of those left.  

I have more soup for supper or for tomorrow.  Probably for supper.  I don't work tomorrow so will have time to make beans or something.  I meant to bring home smoked salmon, lunches midweek were smoked salmon and some muffins made in the work toaster oven.  Anyway, forgot the salmon in the office freezer so I have that to eat.  I am thinking it would make a killer pilaf with the rye berries.  It is a low sodium brined fish smoked by a colleague (thanks!) and given to me.  

While I can see some definite gaps in the pantry now, I'm not in any danger of starving any time soon.  The radish seeds I tried to sprout said no...too cold at the wee shed.  Need to move the sprout factory to the office.  I am down to a few cloves of garlic, most of a hand of ginger, and a decent sized pumpkin and those sproutable seeds for "fresh" veg.   Still have dried peppers, dried mushrooms (I know they aren't really a vegetable, neither is a squash if we are playing that game), dried veggie soup mix and a can of artichoke hearts (thanks Chris!).  Plenty of beans which may or may not be a veg depending on your biases.

For proteins I have dried beans and lentils, gelatin, smoked salmon, smoked duck, a big can of tuna, and a couple of jars of duck as well as walnuts, pine nuts, eggs from the chickens and 1 3/4 bags of dried eggs (thanks Cindy).  Like I said, not starving.  Oh, and vital wheat gluten which is both protein and flour-like.  Also camelina seeds...are they a protein?  A superfood?  Something just to get stuck in my teeth?

Still have rye berries, whole wheat flour, almond flour, coconut flour, and that vital wheat gluten.

I'd like to use up the arrow root.  Maybe a pudding with coconut milk?  I have a bag of that left.

Also have tons of spices and dried herbs.  I'll parcel out the squash hopefully between this week and next and then we're done.   

Plenty of coffee, tea, cocoa, coconut oil and olive oil.   I've been using a vinaigrette I got for xmas (thanks Cindy!) for making baking soda leavened whole wheat quick breads at work.  It is really good!  I still have plenty of yeast as well.

My grocery list for the after challenge times is more refined.  Like I eat dried fruit too fast so less of that.  Also nuts in the shell go slowly, nuts out of the shell I eat too fast.  Nutbutters rarely make it into a sandwich much less a recipe.  I just eat them on a spoon which is stupid and pointless.  And expensive.

Tart jams go slowly as well.  Other stuff goes better if I portion it out by week's worth rather than looking at the whole giant quantity.  That's just a pantry reorganization issue for effective use of what I've got.

It is still strange to just skip grocery stores.

I was chagrined today to see the tiny free pantry I usually contribute to when I do groceries, is totally empty!  Usually it has stuff in it.  It is at a church and this is Sunday for pity's sake!  Put your canned goods where your mouth is people!  

OK, time to prep the radio show some more.  Enough bloggery.

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 10 Days

 I can see a dent in the pantry!  I no longer am overwhelmed with overstock.

Making a list of what to try to get through last week really helped.  I didn't get through everything on the list, but did move the items to the most convenient spot to grab and that worked.  Got done with many partial jars/bags of things and that makes space so I can see what I have.

I've gotten quite enamored with the pilafs.  Will focus more on whole grains when I go back to the store...whenever that might be!  I'm low on fruit....so I thought.  Then I found the 2nd jar of no-sugar cranberry juice AND a jar of the failed jelly cranberry sauce I made...still not thickening but probably still delicious.   Then there is the 2.5 quarts of berries in vinegar.  I dip a few berries out to throw in breads now and then.  I used some of the strawberry powdered I've had for ages (thanks Pam) in a keto-ish bannock (skillet quick bread) and it was good as well. 

I cracked open the final 5lb bag of flour and have some quick bread (made with a really yummy blackberry vinaigrette a friend gave me) going in the work toaster oven.  It smells good.   I was supposed to have a field trip for work today but we'll see.  It is Monday and I'm the only one without kids in the office.   Mondays are usually a tad chaotic for families.  Still have part of a pound of coconut flour, a quart jar full of almond flour, another of vital wheat gluten.  Plenty of "faking powder" and "faking soda" (the sodium free versions of the "baking" products) and enough yeast to get me through the apocalypse.  About a pint of rye berries (yum).  And camelina seeds that I really should start eating more of.

Anyway, got here and remembered the field trip so figured if I bake up some savory quick bread and take the last can of tuna (not counting the 2 from xmas...thanks Chris!!) it will be a decent lunch.

I am low on fresh veg.  Still have one small onion, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, a hand of ginger, and a medium size squash/pumpkin.

I do have a can of tomatoes and a can of tomato paste which I count as veggies. Along with the can of artichoke hearts and jar of olives from xmas (thanks again Chris!!).  I have kept a bag of dried mixed veggie soup base for when the variety of fresh veggies dwindled and started some radish sprouts for more fresh.  Also have broccoli seeds and alfalfa seeds. And a few fermented ginger carrots left as well. Plenty of veg then really.   And then there are the dried hot peppers.   They add some texture and flavor to almost anything.

The chickens, pretty sure it is Helen and Beatrice, are cranking out 2 eggs most days.  That helps keep the protein supply up.   

Also have 2 jars of duck, a smoked duck, 8 portions of smoked salmon, about 3-4 cups of lentils, a pint of dry garbanzos (maybe 2?), a pint of dry peruana beans, those 2 big cans of tuna, a can of garbanzos and a jar of home canned garbanzos, 2 cans of sardines, 4 pints of chicken stock (bone broth if you are a hipster), and 2 bags of dried egg which are about 10 large eggs equivalent each.   Jesus!   Too much protein??  Oh, and 1.2 lbs of beef based gelatine which is basically pure protein.  And 2lbs of walnuts (like in a bag, not in the shells).

The neighbor gave me 8 eggs but I didn't get them eaten because I have so much and they are SO poopy I am not able to wash them well.  So, they are getting boiled up and fed to my hens now and then.  I am grateful and if it had been warm enough to try to wash them outside, and the woodstove/chimney was not on the blink this weekend, I would have dealt with them better.  Next time?

Have a bag of dried mushrooms that make for some umami in soups and pilafs.  

Enough herbs and spices for the next apocalypse as well.

In other news: 

I did force the chickens out of the coop for an hour this weekend so I could get all the poop out.  The weather warmed up a bit and after a rain the snow was crusty and more solid under the snow shoes.   Still can't get to the utility sled...stupid mistake.  So, I used the empty bedding bag I'd stuffed in the pallet wall of the coop in case I needed it, and loaded it with poopy bedding several times while the chickens whined outside.  It was 35 degrees and SUNNY.  They were FINE.  It took about 4 trips to haul bags over to the terrace garden. The snow is a few feet deep there so it will have plenty of space to leach and rot before it hits the ground and I haven't planted/prepped that bed yet.  I think the woodchip bedding will be good for the super clay "soil."  ("Soil" because really...it is just clay.)   

As I was walking on snow shoes with a recycled bag full of poopy chicken bedding, I thought about that ph.d. I have.  It did get me the job that lets me afford the place where I am doing all this so I guess...but the reality was not the picture I had in my head during graduate school.  I do like this life better than the one I pictured and tried out (being a professor was not a good fit for me), but fewer turd bags on my back would be fine.

The chickens rushed back in when I re-opened their door.   They were all fluffing around in the new non-pooped bedding.  By this morning...crap everywhere.   Assholes!

Anyway, the pantry challenge.  It is going really well.  Clearly.  I've started a list of things I enjoy eating/using/cooking with so I can focus better and not just buy what is cheap.  Also, things that I will just eat up rather than pace myself.  E.g....anything sweet and easy to eat like dried figs and raisins.   Honey in the cold weather is harder to get through so that is lasting.  Coconut oil is easier to deal with in the winter than olive oil.   And I really like working with cocoa and super dark chocolate.  You can make many delicious things.  I got so much coffee as gifts, all amazingly good stuff, that I am not putting that on the list for a while.

Pantry Challenge 1 Month Plus 3 Days Update

 I think that is 34 days.  I didn't want to do math.

SO....still doing well with the pantry stock.

I went through everything at the office and the wee shed, my two food storage locations.

Made a list with amounts, but I didn't weigh things just put about how much there was because I know what 1 bag of powdered egg looks like and how far it goes.

THEN, I had to reorganize it by type of thing like "Meat/Fish/Poultry" and "Grains"

FINALLY, I figured out and wrote a shorter list to post on the wall, of what I would like to finish up in the first portion of January.   I want to use up the tail ends of things that are just a bit in a jar or bag and are taking up room, or that weren't stored where I could see them and are hence overstocked.  Also so I don't end up the last week of January with 5lbs of whole wheat flour and 2 dried figs...space the proteins/veg/fruit/grains out over the month.

I appear to be a bit low on fruit but otherwise things are holding up.

This gave me a dozen things to work into recipes and so far so good!

For New Year's Eve and Day I made a salmon and rye berry pilaf.  And it was goooooood...

((I really want to throw in a This Is Spinal Tap clip here but there isn't one handy.  Just know, that was a reference to a hilarious bit.))

Used some brown rice (Thanks Chris) an my failed cranberry buckwheat honey jam to make a rice pudding which was really good.  The jam was delicious, but did not set up.  I used the last bit of the last jar in some muffins.  Those were not great texturewise but did taste fine.  I didn't have any liquid fat and couldn't get the coconut oil to melt and mix in because the flour was so cold.   Anyway, lumpy muffins...my new stripper name and signature baked good.

I may not get through the entire pantry this month!   Could possibly go through February but the fruit and veg would get low. 

I used up the last of some fake egg product I had had for years.   I also noticed that I need to eat more REAL eggs!  Still getting 2 most days...way to go ladies!  4 of the 6 hens are on break but 2 are soldiering through winter putting out product.  One idiot, Gertrude, of course, decided to do the other half of her molt now.  Not a good idea to generate bald patches midwinter but she's an odd one.

The chickens have refused to go outside in the snow for 2 or 3 weeks now.   I shoved them a flat spot and the rooster, Houdini, poked his head out the door and said, "Oh HELL no" and went back to eating me out of house and home and crapping on everything in the coop.  Still, he's a calm rooster.  So far (knock on wood) has  not crapped on me when I go in to put up the food or water or check for eggs.  

Right now I have 27 inches of snow on the ground.  Or I did yesterday.  That is not a drift, that is just the regular snow and the bottom inch or 2 are compacted so more than that has fallen.  Nice fluffy stuff.

Nice fluffy stuff that is NOW blowing all over the tristate area because...wind storm.

Anyway, pantry challenge: I like it and think I can shift my shopping to more pantry use if I am diligent with the cooking.

As a side benefit I am ending up as an accidental 2MAD type person with an incipient fasting period each day. It's just easier to have a breakfast of eggs or whatever, then eat a giant lunch, like 1000 calories, of pilaf or whatever I cooked up.  Trying to store stuff is a pain.  Right now I have the porch-fridge/freezer, but you never know if it will freeze overnight or get too warm if the sun hits it in the morning.  So, easier to eat it up.  I keep wanting to get out a bigger pan and make one giant stew or something, but then, gotta store it.   Now that I am back at the office (we had 10 days off over the holidays) I can bring servings in here to the fridge so we'll see if the 2MAD keeps working or not.

A side effect of the pantry challenge and the "no spend on clothes in 2022" is that I REALLY don't need to shop.  I went to a thrift store hoping for some old brushes to make into a boot scraper and non-glass mason-jar size things to use as chicken waterers in winter (glass is scary in a freeze-thaw cycle), and frames for some art I was given.  Found 1 frame.  Then, headed to the clothes for my habitual "is there a decent pair of all cotton jeans" and other clothing basics.  Remembered that nope.  Not doing that this year.  Only needed 10 min in the thrift store.  I was at loose ends.  Didn't need groceries.

I did need some chicken bedding so I went and got that at the hardware store (bag of wood chips works best and us great in the garden after it rots with the poo).  Then....

I don't spend much time shopping compared to many americans, but now, even less.  I used some of the time to sort crap out at my storage unit and found the owner of the storage place there panicking because, like EVERY winter when we get snow, the roof leaks all over hell.  He thought it was fixed.  I think that taking gutters on and off and resealing around the AC unit will NOT WORK.  There is zero roof overhang on a heated metal building with little insulation.  It is a flat roof.  Until he puts a peaked or seriously sloped shed roof on there, insulates it and adds enough overhang to get the snow/water/ice to fall away from the building...and then fixes the slope on the paved driveway/parking areas, well, he's going to have a water issue.  My unit stays dry and I have everything up on pallets and plastic on the pallets.  I might go throw some plastic over the contents as well but so far the water stops at the hallway.  I didn't tell him to change then design of the building and the lot, not in the middle of a crisis where he is trying to mop up a small lake with a single shop vac...another time.

Pantry Challenge Day 29 Update

 OK...I ran out of solar a couple of times (my fault...too much internet surfing and youtubing on cloudy days) and with the home computer battery having crapped the bed a while back, it won't stay on unless plugged in and drawing power.  

Anyway, had some pantry triumphs over the xmas.

For dinner on the day, I made duck braised in cranberry sauce (which was supposed to be jelly made from no sugar cranberry juice bought on super sale with some buckwheat honey (the sweetener of the month) and some pomona brand pectin).  The jelly didn't set up and is quite tart, which I like.  So I braised a half pint of my home jarred duck in a bit of that failed delicious jelly. It was AMAZING.  Side dishes were roasted squash (a hybrid something random from my garden that looked like a pumpkin and had innards like a spaghetti squash..yes, I saved the seeds to roast later and to replant because it was a) delicious and b) ripened up in poor storage conditions) and a roasted onion.  Both roasted inside the woodstove.

I was SWEATING from keeping the stove hot enough all day to bake this cake...

It is a honey based cake with apple sauce (buckwheat honey, and a can of apple sauce from the pantry) and spices.  I had clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg all of which were called for. It was AMAZING.  I had dried figs that I forgot to stir in, and they were supposed to be raisins but I was out of raisins.  So, chopped up figs and threw them on top of the layer pans.   It was amazing.  I will be making it again but maybe 1/4 recipe.  this was a half and it was still a ton of cake.  It was pretty dense in the middle which might be due to the baking at a lower temp than I really wanted (see above...SWEATING) trying to keep the coleman stovetop camp oven thingy hot.  If I make a smaller version I can do it in the cast iron dutch oven and it will be easier.

I packed up a slice of cake for the neighbor because it was A LOT.  She returned a huge slice of pecan pie her daughter made and some penuche. I  had never had penuche. It was delicious and more dairy than I should have and I'm a bit snotty.

Anyway, over ate and it was excellent.  Made a coconut milk (powdered coconut milk in the pantry) mocha (cocoa in the pantry) and opened a buttload of treats from various relatives.

I am in town today, this is the office computer, office closed for the week! (we get crazy amounts of time off at full pay) to pick up yet another package.  As much as I love sugary treats, if there aren't any in there, that will be fine.

One Aunt sent a ton of good food for meals and snacks, and another sent chocolates.   Good people.  I got coffee and cookie packs from another friend, every more coffee and chocolate from yet another friend (people know me??), smoked duck from yet another.

I am rolling in good food.

Just did a formal inventory of the office pantry and will take inventory at home as well to restart January.

I won a 5$ coffee shop gift certificate on a radio show on Sunday, more to do with "exclusive listenership" than with my brains or speed dialing abilities, and hope to share that with a friend's grown kid on Sunday.  

I still have one xmas meal out to buy someone as planned, but otherwise, I think things are winding down.

I have 21" of snow, the bottom 1-2" is compacted ice so the total total that fell is more, on the ground at the homesite right now.  Bit sick of it, but it is super pretty.

It was cloudy 5 days running, zero solar gain on the batteries, and that is partly why I ran out of power.  Also, the batteries are getting old, and they are outside and the temp overnight was about 10F.  It will be colder tonight and tomorrow night, maybe also Friday night.  Then rewarming toward freezing during the day and 20s over night.  That is easier on the batteries.

OK, off to pick up that last box as the post office lady will be reopening post lunch now.

More, anon!

Pantry Challenge Day 22 Update

 As expected, holiday gifts and requisite dinners out are contributing to the ease of the project.

Friends are dropping off treats to the point I over eat massively.  Even fasted yesterday to correct a sugar binge from overindulgence in treats.  Too much sugary stuff!!!!  Delicious, but too sugary.

Then, another friend who is not aware of my experiment took me to lunch.  Not going would be rude so I went and said thank you and enjoyed my meal.  

An Aunt (THANKS!) sent a box with a few wrapped xmas gifts and a ton of really nice food!  Just had a bit of the pre-cooked basmati rice with breakfast.  So convenient, healthy and delicious.  

Perhaps the funnest thing in there is peppercorns!   We all know I was low on those when I started the experiment.  So those are especially welcome and will easily get me through January.

Honestly, so many calories of stuff have come in that I've shared some stuff back out to others.  Also, a few things were just too salty or made of dairy (not from the Aunt!  Her stuff is all still with me).   Another friend contributed peanuts and some almond butter from our trip to 2nd harvest.  How fun and delicious.  I could make fried rice with peanuts and the basmati.  I wonder if I can make like a peanut sauce with the almond butter.  I think some jarred chicken with peanut (almond) sauce w2ould be a reasonable flavor match for satay.   

Which points out my favorite part of a pantry challenge.  It spurs creativity.  I haven't even started my sprouts yet.  Jeez.  Must get on that.  Clearly I am not hurting for veggies.  During the restaurant trips I am trying to get lean burgers in lettuce wraps with side salads so I'm getting more of my veg at restaurants.

One jar of fermented carrots wasn't doing well so I refocused and froze them in portions.  Will add to soups later.  Or a pilaf.

Day 17 and All Is Well with the Pantry Challenge...Except

 It gets boring especially when I forget to make something interesting in the evening for lunch the next day.

Hence, today's lunch:  A can of sardines with the last hot sauce packet, a can of pinto beans, NOT gelatin in a mason jar (I forgot to add vinegared berries or sugar and it tastes so bad I am giving it to the chickens...they can turn it into eggs and meat which will be edible), and a microwave spice bread (2 eggs, 1/2c flour and some spices...we'll see if that worked here shortly) and water.

If I'd remembered to make a pilaf or dumplings yesterday I would have had something delicious.

That said, Pantry Challenge has been going great.

Had Pantry lunch with a friend.  I made a variation of the pilaf from the last post, using home canned chicken.  She asked what broth I had used...water.  The elderly laying hen has lots of flavor even after being canned without bones.  Added some spices/herbs from the pantry too.  She brought a cobbler made from things in her pantry, though she is not doing a pantry challenge she was up for a pantry lunch.  And she's an excellent cook so that helps.  We split it with a coworker.  

This is all good practice for the potential situation calling for true pantry living with limited restock options.  I wonder if the folks who buy those sealed buckets of "SHTF" (the last 3 letters are for "hits the fan"), breakdown of society type scenarios actually try to eat what they get in there and live on it.  Last one I looked at gave each person 1000-1400 calories a day for 3 months for some ungodly price and was made mostly of corn/soy derivatives (textured veggie protein, sweetened junk food dehydrated to dust, super processed whatever).  Living under human power, even making the hot water for these icky meals in a solar cooker, would require more calories per day than they provide and the vitamins and fat were lacking.  Also....last time I had a dehydrated camp meal, a very expensive one, it tasted like crap. 

I'm learning to stock more fruit type things, that I have enough coffee in stock at current purchase rates, and that I rely a great deal on grains for my total daily calories.   Also noticing that it's easier to spread the various supplies out when I do not plan to replenish.  I'm only overconsuming dried fruit and sugars (sweet tooth be damned).  Also noting the quick ferments, like gingered carrots and small batches of sauerkraut are very nice to have.  Quick favor additions.   I'm eating more mustard and spices in an effort to make basically the same scrambled eggs a bit different each day.

I got the spiced bread out of the microwave.  It was fine! I put a bit of coconut oil on it and tried to pretend it was butter...it wasn't butter but it wasn't bad.  Noted!

Day 12 Pantry Challenge Update

Well, it turns out I should not be left alone with nuts (heh heh).  Ate the rest of the Dec. ration of walnuts.  Dang it!  AND broke into the Larabars which I meant to save until January. Didn't eat all of them, but more than I wanted to.  It's the deliciousness.  I'm a victim of deliciousness.

So, I did notice that I'm not going through the cocoa powder (baking, not icky instant gross "hot chocolate" mix...barf).   Had cocoa eggs this morning.  Less delicious, more anti-inflammatory.   And lots of coffee.  Have plenty.  Had tea yesterday and will try to keep up with that.

We're mid storm, actually ending in a few hours.  I shoveled the car out, parked by the highway, yesterday.  4 inches of light snow.  But then it was going to turn to drizzle so better to get ahead. NOW there is 6 inches of HEAVY snow. It was 32 degs and snowing so really big pretty flakes that make for sucky shoveling.  It's going to warm up in a bit so heading out soon for more shoveling.

Anyway, back to the pantry challenge.  

I think I achieved peak frugality yesterday.  I was reading (re-reading of course) a volume of the Tightwad Gazette, the thrifty/frugal bible...get it, while eating a pilaf I made with what I had on hand, using a recipe from the TG, a recipe I hadn't used before.   It was DELICIOUS.

Here is the recipe and how I did it:

2 T oil

1 small onion diced up

3 cloves garlic smashed or diced

1/2 C left over meat or cooked beans or canned meat/fish

1 C grain

2 C water or broth...liquid

1/2 C other vegetable

Seasonings as you like.

In a sauce pan that will fit the entire recipe with room to boil/simmer, heat the oil up on medium.

Put in the onion and garlic (if you don't have them, use dry powder or whatever like chives/leeks/shallots/onion flakes/garlic salt (easy on the salt though)

Fry that until it smells good.  Add meat (not canned tuna or other canned fish...ooo...I have smoked salmon at work...that would be delicious) and then the grain.

Fry a couple minutes, then add the liquid and "other vegetable" and if you are using canned fish, add it.  You can add the fish liquid or not, whatever you like.

Add seasonings.

Bring to a boil.  Turn down to a simmer.  Put the lid on.  It is done when the liquid is absorbed.   

Adjust salt/pepper as needed (protip:  if you put in too much salt and have a potato, slice up the WASHED potato and throw a few slices in for a minute or two and pull them out.  They will pick up some of the salt). 

I used an onion, garlic cloves, a can of tuna, rye berries, water, fermented ginger carrots (only other fresh-ish veg in the house, could used dried and add it with the liquid).  Did not add tuna water.   Added thyme and rosemary from my garden and an indoor potted plant at the office, and cracked pepper.  The tuna was salty enough and I'm watching sodium levels so didn't add any.

It was delicious!  Better than a casserole because no oven needed and no thickener like cream of crap soup which I just don't like even in the vegan versions without the dairy.  If I could handle dairy and had butter, I think frying the stuff in that would be excellent.

There was also some walnut dust in it.  Since I'd just finished the walnuts in jar, I rinsed it with the water going into the pilaf to get the couple of tablespoons of walnut dust out of the jar and not waste it.

I'm going to try it with beans one of these days.  I think hot in a thermos it would be a good food for lunches when I am working outside.

Today I need to get out the week's ration of raisins but might do it right before bed so I don't just eat them all...hopefully!   I  have figs for January.  

Pantry Challenge Day 9 Update

 So, my cooking skillz...are adequate.  It's the rationing skills!  I lost an onion!  It rotted.  Must have had a damp spot. 

Now I am being more diligent on checking the fresh and just eating it.  I might dice up any onions that I haven't eaten and put them in the work freezer next week.  there are only 4 or 5 left.  3 squash. One is tiny.

And one fresh carrot.  I have just over 2quarts fermenting carrots which will stay crunchy and fresh-ish, though they are a tad salty an the rest of this experiment has lead to complete success in keeping my sodium intake at and below the target.  The target number is entirely personal and experimental so I am not going to share it.  Once you do that people have opinions in which I am not interested.

ANYWAY...found the ginger which ferments with the carrots and I'd bought extra so have that to spice up soups and tea and whatnot.  Maybe even try a honey based ginger bready/cake thingy with fresh ginger.

I had sorted out a week's worth of raisin ration as well.  Then I ate it all by Tuesday.  Maybe I will make it to Wednesday next week!  Overdid the walnuts too.  They are delicious.

I used the peruana beans from a previous trip to Santa Fe last evening, with one onion and a buttload of spices to make a bean stew.   REALLY nice, lacks salt (see above keeping sodium numbers low...) so I added a dash of vinegar and it perked up.  Will try more cayenne and cumin next time.  Still really good.  For a bit of heartiness beyond the beans I added in some keto bread that was not great.  It was much better as a fake soup cracker substance.  I have a bit of both left for dinner tonight.

The coffee and tea are holding up well.  I appear to be too lazy to do much with the honey so plenty of that!  I was planning on that as the main sweetener this month and saving the maple syrup for January.  Instead I appear to be eating the white sugar which is supposed to be for the kombucha.  Anyway, it isn't causing a lack of anything and the kombucha will survive either way.

Cooking in the evening when I have the woodstove on is alright.  Something to do.  Mostly soups and some of these experimental breads.  Tonight I'm thinking of trying some coconut oil and baking cocoa chocolates. I have 10 or 11oz of dark chocolate to make treats (like adding nuts and stuff....heh heh...nuts) but once I open it I am A) committed to using it up and 2) likely to eat it all in 2 days (or one).

The hens have put out 2 eggs a day for 3 days!!!  It was 1 egg a day.  I think Porky, the Barred Rock, is back on line.  It's a big light pinky beige egg and I am pretty sure that is her.  I think one of the 2 young hens is trying to start as well.  I've seen 3 TINY eggs.   The one I got before it broke or was pecked, had no yolk but a weird brown scab looking thing.  I picked that out. Anyway, I had done my meat/eggs ration intention based on 1 egg a day so this gives me a buffer if they suddenly stop.  Also have the dried egg.

Speaking of rationing what you've got and using basic ingredients to cook (that 2nd part was subtext, stick with me here), this youtube channel is very helpful:

Utility Jude's Wartime Cookery

It's is a little show the woman put out during covid explaining and re-enacting the rationing and some recipes in the UK during WWII.  I've done a couple of the recipes because they are just basic plans with the assumption that you will need to skimp and substitute on things.  Much better than the detailed "start with a cake mix" or "use top sirloin" type crap recipes.  Lots of the prepper and "survivalist" cooking youtubes work with unrealistic expectations and high priced freeze dried and other nonsense foods.

I've also nearly switched to 2 meals a day with maybe something small in the evening as I'm cooking, mostly tasting the recipe or eating what doesn't fit in the container I'm going to put on the porch-fridge (that's just the porch in winter...sometimes it is the porch freezer).

It's just easier when you are cooking from scratch for 1 and you don't have a regular kitchen and fridge.  Prep and dishes are more awkward and cooking takes time out of what little daylight I have here in the winter.  I'd been toying with intermittent fasting and this just seems to lead to it. I like to have breakfast, but today it was lunch first as I wasn't hungry and was running late to work (early for work, too late to bother cooking a breakfast in the micro or toaster oven, but I did have my coffee).  

Cooking once or twice a day means fewer decisions, less crap to snack on, and less calculating what is in stock and what is low or out.  

I have successfully planned lunches and invited a work colleague who is cash strapped, to a pantry lunch next week.  We'll each cook our own and just eat together at a conference room at work, or each make part of the meal to share.  I could do a pretty mean chicken soup.

Eating from the pantry also influenced my order for lunch at the dept xmas get-together.  I had a lettuce wrapped burger and a salad...I thought there would be pie.  Skipping the bun and fries kept the sodium levels in check, and getting lettuce wrap and salad maximized the fresh veg so I could skip eating my own fresh stuff that day.  I haven't dipped into the sprouting seeds yet.  Probably later this month.  I do like something fresh each day.   

I should do a post on what I am doing on the cheap/free to see if more chickens will lay in the winter.  If I get 3 eggs a day I will have plenty to share which is always nice.  Maybe with a picture of the sad new coop.

Pantry Challenge Day 6 Update

 Well, it's early in day 6 so I can only update really through day 5.  Whatever.

It was the weekend and I had errands including trips to stores that sell food because I'm giving candy bags at the office for xmas and I needed split peas and lentils for the chickens.  I didn't buy any groceries for me, no snack, no kombucha or coffee, nothing.

I brought bread I made (heavy heavy texture, great flavor though...more anon), a mix of walnuts and raisins, and coffee with extra hot water and grounds so I could make a 2nd cup in the travel french press (reusing the old grounds with juts a teaspoon of new ones to freshen it up a bit...it's not fabulous but it's drinkable and hot so good enough).  And water, of course.   Next time I will bring more snacks as I was pretty gnoshy by the time I got home.

The rough bit was heading to a christmas market to pick up something I'd pre-ordered from a vendor.  She was also selling honey, pickled garlic, jams, and other delicious tidbits.  As were many other vendors.  I got nothing.  Just what I ordered.   Which is extremely cute.

Then I bagged it.  I like the antique/thrift store in that town but it was PACKED and it is a county with one of the lowest vaccine rates in Idaho AND one of the lowest mask rates.  I have my vaccines and the booster.  Still.  It was crowded and I didn't see either thing on my list (thrift and antique store hand tools are better and cheaper than new often).  Hence, I bagged it and went home.  OH! I did stop at another place, a friend's house, to buy some chicken feed and drop off a holiday gift.

This exercise has me inspired to parcel out my food.  I got out the raisin ration for the week, and the walnuts for the rest of December, which I think I might go through a tad fast.  I need to put a few back for the holiday meals.  Nuts make bread better. Also pancakes.

I'm also remembering to cook in the evening.  Stuff doesn't last as long as I think.  I made some biscuits last night and boiled up some rye berries so I have the base for some meals this week.  BUT I ate all the biscuits for breakfast today.  I was hungry.  Oops!  I can make more.  Plenty of flour for the rest of the month though I will be putting some of the wheat flour back for the holiday and trying to eat more of the almond flour.  Learning to use the vital wheat gluten too.  First I learned NOT to overdo it...holy gas batman!  (TMI??)

I've been trying to cut sodium in take all of 2021 and like MOST THINGS I know that doing it myself is best.  Cook your own food and you  wont' have a sodium issue.  It works.  DAMMIT.  

Big successes...chicken soup from the home canned chicken with spaetzles.  I don't have much veg to I boosted the soup with just onions and herbs including thyme from my garden.  Really good.  Quickly put half outside on the porch fridge so I wouldn't eat it all at once.  The spaetzles came out pretty good with a bit of nutmeg in them.  Tasty.   The no-sodium baking powder and an egg for leavening and protein boost.  

The yeast bread I did like a refrigerator dough since it is chilly at my house.  And my flour is all whole what so I threw in a bit of vital wheat gluten.  Let it sit over night then backed some up in a little jerry-rigged oven on top of the woodstove.  The oven worked, but the bread was heavy.  I don't mind since I like heavy breads but it isn't what I was shooting for.  Added more flour to the remaining dough and kneaded a bit (all in a giant jar so there isn't flour in every cranny of the wee shed).  Let that sit overnight to rise.  I was still heavy but really tasty from the long rise.  

The biscuits for today where spiced heavily and just flour, gluten, and the no sodium baking powder (which I call "faking powder").  They rose OK, and were delicious with a tablespoon of the coconut yogurt I had on the porch fridge.  I brought that to work to have with breakfasts this week.  

Chickens still putting out an egg most days!  That's good.  I got 2 eggs one day including a TINY one so I think one of the new ladies is trying to start laying.  When I remember, I put a light on them in the morning.  If I was more consistent I might get Gertrude laying again.  For now, Helen is laying and someone else might be trying.  For the last several days I've cooked up the lentils with some cayenne.  They need the lentils for the protein boost, just a tablespoon or so per chicken, and the cayenne might help make them lay.  I'm only half trying on getting them to lay, just playing.  They earn the rest through the winter and with out 8hours of daylight right now, most chickens won't put out eggs.  Just not enough light to trigger them.  

I got 2 orders for mustard, delivered one Saturday, she met me at the market I needed to hit so that was handy, and one more that I am working on.  Should be able to deliver that later this week.  People are ordering by the quart!  Jeez.  The pending order was for red wine vinegar and yellow mustard seed.  I was 2 cups short on vinegar!  I have 4 gallons of vinegar but not that kind.  So, I picked up just a small bottle.  Will have a half cup or so left.  Darn.  I might combine it with some other scraps of vinegar and make something for me.  I do have some more seeds so I might as well mix up some mustard to eat on the meats and fish I have left.  It's all in the pantry so ...it's fair game.

I found my pectin and a good recipe for making cranberry jelly from bottled cranberry juice (which I have) and honey (which I have), so I'm hoping to get to that but the though of spilling cranberry juice or worse, hot honeyed/sticky cranberry juice in the wee shed has put me off..  Maybe if I tarp the entire floor??

Sorted the office food stock a bit today.  Had to bring in jars of stuff because the place might freeze hard this week while I'm at work.  Can't have busted jars for a) the mess and clean up hassle without indoor plumbing and 2) the food loss.

Per my sister's (Hi!) recommendation I am listening to "Moon of the Crusted Snow" by Waubgeshig Rice.  The reader has the right accent, the one the characters would have, so it's really fun to listen too.  The story centers around a complete break down of "supply chains" and "communication networks" so people are reliant on what they have and what they can do.   Really a fun listen and inspiring for the pantry challenge and trying to grow a bit in winter, e.g. the sprouts I will start and the carrot tops (parsley substitute) I'm regrowing from the top nubs of 2nd Harvest carrots.  Quite nice.

I'm also watching some youtubes about ration cooking in the UK during WWII.  The supplies are reasonably similar.  Heavy on wheat flour, light on meat and fresh eggs.  Since I have powdered egg, like they did, quite a few of the recipes work for me.  I'll throw links in a blog post maybe for the most useful videos/recipes.

Pantry Challenge So Far, and I Forgot a Thing...

 I forgot another person who will need a meal treat for the holiday/her birthday!  We've done it for 20 years so, I will make an attempt to combine that with the already noted 1 meal out, but unlikely I can pull that off. 

Day 1 of the pantry challenge went fine.

Sardines for lunch (right from the can!  ew but I was headed to the field and in a hurry).  Eggy whole wheat flour skillet bread for breakfast.  It was supposed to be pancakes but they got puffy so they were skillet breads.

I made a couple of other things that were even less creative and interesting.

I figured out about how to divide the stock between December and January so I have some meat and veg left later in the game.  And thought through holiday meal options.  The ones at home.  I have so much to work with that treats are no problem.  Clearly I overstocked on that sort of thing.

It does make it easier NOT to eat the canned/packaged stuff right away.  That will last.  The carrots will make it another week or two, but not likely through January since I have no root cellar.  Same with the onions.  The squash might.  But, I will be working to keep an eye on the fresh and eat it as it gets to the end of good.  Also will get sprouts going as the other fresh food runs low.

I discovered another jar of coconut oil, 15fl oz, and 2 jars of 100% cranberry juice that I had spaced.  Those will be handy for xmas.  I have maple syrup that should go well with the cranberry juice to make a nice sauce for duck.  I've fermented some of the carrots with ginger which is a good tart side as well.  Hopefully will have an onion to roast because those are delicious and cook inside the woodstove.  And I have a little tiny squash that I can stuff with raisins or figs and walnuts and roast up with a bit of maple syrup or honey.  And if I get on the stick, a fresh batch of kombucha will be ready to flavor up.  Also have makings for hot chocolate or a mocha with coconut milk (powdered coconut milk is the bomb to have around), as well as german style pancakes for breakfast.  I reviewed the menu so I remember not to eat up the things I need for that meal.

A friend gave me 2 bags of powdered egg a week ago and that really helps.  If the chickens stop laying, I can still make most things.  Fried egg is a loser from powdered, but baking and pancakes work fine.

I also have gelatine...maybe a cranberry jello mold?  Or a coconut milk based pudding.

Pantry Challenge December and January!

 I couldn't come up with a clever name for the pantry challenge so I tried to punch it up with an exclamation point.  My writing is not good today.

Anywho...I have a butt ton of food.  Lots of protein and carbs, some veg and fruit (especially dried fruit), a giant dark chocolate bar that I can dress up by melting in some nuts and maybe even coffee beans.  Enough coffee and tea to get me through the next apocalypse.

Hence...a pantry challenge.

I do need to take one person out for a holiday meal because that is what works for us.  Aside from that and when people randomly hand me stuff, like the lovely neighbor who dropped off turkey, potatoes and gravy Sunday afternoon, I shall eat from the pantry and the eggs the hens may or may not produce.   

A few of my go-to recipes, like banana eggs for breakfast, will run out, which will make me come up with some other options.  Always good.

I think making the coffee last will also motivate me to get back to tea rather than a 2nd cup of coffee.  (...ok, 3rd and 4th cups of coffee) (don't judge me).

Pantry challenges always improve my meals, cooking and health (like limiting sodium).  The only thing I might not have plenty of is peppercorns.  How incredibly bougie is that??  

I never did a total pantry inventory so maybe this will motivate me to do that.  Or not.  

I may well have enough TP to get through January if  I am clean but judicious with the use.

We'll see how it goes!  At least I should waste less food!  I'm already thinking of how to ration the squash and onions and carrots (the "Fresh") and when to start sprouting seeds for greens.  

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?

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!