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Stretching the Food Dollar
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Lindsey is working on it and it should be ready to go in the next days. I have given some headings and ideas for moderating etc., so with any luck ladies we should be able to get going with this in the very near future. It is pretty exciting and hopefully in time it will be a one stop shop for ideas. Some of the headings will likely be empty until someone puts some ideas in, but that is ok, the headings will help jump start our thoughts and then hopefully the ideas will flow and the categories will fill up. Linda
Grandmothers Knew Best….I’d say “Mothers Knew Best” (like “Mom Knows Best”), but by the time my mom was a mom the prepackaged way of life was already upon us, no offense, of course.
What a wonderful resource this will be:)
That depends on your age I guess – I am now in my 50s so I was born in the 1950s and life in England back then was very much the old fashioned and traditional way. I was late getting married, and late having children so my memories stretch back most likely far further back than most of you on this forum. So yes my Mother did know best, and I think because of World War II, we were a little behind in the prepackaged world and shopping malls were a long time coming to England – I was pretty much grown up when they started – and we still have town centers even now. However, back growing up we had the butcher, baker and shops like that – and in our village the grocer came once a week, mum would give him her list on Friday, he would deliver on Monday and then came again on Friday. The milkman delivered milk and cream to the house daily, still does if you want them too, and eggs came from the local farm and veg and fruit from the garden. So much of the skill has been lost and I am ashamed to say I did not learn as much as I should have from her – I did learn to cook and bake from scratch, and basic sewing – but there was a lot more I should have done. So I guess some mothers and some grandmothers knew best – but now we need to know, and that will hopefully be our focus – I know we all have something to share – and I am so looking forward to it all. Yoiu are right it will be a wonderful resource. Linda
Linabean: Perhaps you could ask your hubby to build some “garden boxes” for you. We have a yard, but it is easier for me to grow things in boxes because of all the stooping etc. The boxes are 4 x 4 or 4 x 6 make out of scrap lumber and are 6 inches high. You’d be surprised at what you can grow in them: I have grown tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, onions, beets, peas, rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, bell peppers, serrano peppers, poblano peppers and I can’t remember what else. Go to the library and get the book “Square Foot Gardening” we used his ideas, but used cheaper wood (Home Depot scraps). Since there is nothing in the garden beds perhaps you can buy fruit trees and leave them in the container or buy bigger containers and place them in the beds. They would only make a dent in the ground and you can take them with you when you leave. I grow blueberries and grapes (new) in a container and we now have a small fig tree and I also have a bay tree in a container! Oh yes, my husband also built small tables to put the garden boxes on so they wouldn’t kill the grass the tables are not solid, they more like an outline of a table without the solid table and we put two boxes on each table. You all could figure it out, we used old folding tables at one time too for container gardening.
Hi ladies,
My Internet is still down as of tonight. I’m still typing everything from my phone.
We had a big snow a couple of weeks ago. Our neighbor’s elm tree fell over into our yard, bringing our Internet cable down with it. Fortunately, the cable was long enough that it did not affect our Internet service; we just had a wire strung across the ground in the backyard. Well, AT&T finally made it out yesterday and was supposed to simply re-hang the wire to get it off the ground. Instead, they completely removed the wire, thus leaving us with no Internet. Thus the reason for all the phone posting. Thus the reason the blog is not up and running yet.
Please accept my apologies. 😉
Once our Internet is back, I’ll have the blog set up in no time. Until then, I ask for your patience and prayers for this problem to be corrected quickly. I know we are all excited to get started!
Blessings,
Lindsey
Lindsey – don’t worry at all – this has moved forward really fast and I am sure we can all wait and be patient. I know you will get to it when you can – so please don’t give it another thought until your internet is fixed. So sorry that you are having these problems though – no fun that. Take care – bless you -Linda
Yes, Lindsey, don’t worry about us! We’re just happy you are willing to do it. Little though I know about Internet type stuff, I thought it would be a couple months to get a blog together!!!!!
Linda: I, too, believe the Lord is calling all of us to be better stewards. A couple of years ago a woman friend of mine suggested that we start a “Depression Homemakers” group to exchange recipes, talk about saving money and all sorts of things like that. The women were too busy doing other things to get it off the ground so I was quite disappointed. I don’t know that many women here in Houston, but I would love to start a group like that. That’s why I am so glad you brought this up!!
I would love to have a group like that here in my town too – but I also don’t know that many people – it always seems like people are too busy, too wrapped up and not interested in anything other than their work or fun stuff. As a homeschool mom of older girls who are nearly done homeschooling (and would be if it were not for illness and other things requiring us to take longer than average to finish high school) -I don’t fit into the local groups and my neighbors look at homeschooling as odd – so we just plug along as best we can. I love this group for that reason anyway, hopefully we will get a group going locally one day, and in the meantime we will have this new blog to share.
cherylramirez: Thanks for the ideas!
I will be talking to my hubby about that soon. We live in central Alberta so it’s pretty cold right now but this is something that we could start planning and saving for come spring, possibly! I have been speaking to my dh about this thread and we are going to be sitting down and reading through it together and discussing some of the things that we can start doing right away as well as some of the things that we can start working towards. So Exciting! -Miranda
Miranda that is fantastic, if we can get our hubbies on board with what we are trying to do, it will be a lot easier, and our hubbies like us to be good stewards so they can help a lot. You are a step ahead already, maybe he will have some good ideas for us. I second the raised beds for gardening, they are easier on your back and you can grow a lot in a small space – I did it in England. I was at the store today, and the meat counter really depressed me – even ground beef is getting super high and who knows where it will end. Our gas prices have gone up in a week as well – it was $2.75 and is now $2.99 so I will watch that – it is getting harder already, so we need to make our money count. Linda
I’ve been watching some youtube videos on dehydrating. Go to youtube and search for dehydrate2store. Fantastic! She has a website by the same name. I have a dehydrator but I’ve been wanting an Excaliber for a long time. May be time to take the plunge…
I have been loking at the Excaliber as well, but I have read you can have some problems with humidity and noise in a small place with the bigger dehydrators – so I need to look into that a bit – I don’t want a mold problem in the house. Anyone any knowledge on this? Linda
I have the Excalibur; the nine tray one. I got the big one because I grow herbs, dry fruit for snacking and cereal making when fruit is in season, lettuce and kale chips (what to do with all that extra greenery that’s hard to preserve, like lettuce or get wild dandelion? Make chips!) and I incubate my yogurt year round and rise bread in it in the summer. That’s just what I do-there’s much more it can do in the future as I learn more.
It has a definite noise to it, but nothing that you can’t get used to and I am noise sensitive. It kind of blends in with the background; it’s not as loud as my Nutrimill! As for mold, all dry foods can become moldy if they aren’t dried fully and stored properly; especially down here in the South where we are. So it behooves me to make sure I educate myself on proper drying and storing for different foods. I think my having a food saver helps in this regard, too, but not absolutely necessary. I got the food saver b/c I was disgusted with the amount of good food that had to be thrown out last Winter after getting freezer burn.
In addition to the manual that comes with it, that has many instructions for various ways to use it, there is a book that is recommended, too, which I will eventually get, but for now, the book that came with it is suffiecient until I get into more drying recipes. Here’s a good article:http://www.greensmoothie.com/dhd/faq.html
I’ve been very content with mine. Shop around for the best price as there are variances, plus you’ll want free shipping definitely.
Rachel
Thanks Rachel that is all very helpful – I think it could be an excellent thing, because waste is something I want to avoid at all costs. I will look into it and read the article. Sounds like it has many uses which is really important. I guess I could use it in my basement and then the noise would not be an issue at all. Thanks again. Linda
I will be talking to my hubby about that soon. We live in central Alberta so it’s pretty cold right now but this is something that we could start planning and saving for come spring, possibly! I have been speaking to my dh about this thread and we are going to be sitting down and reading through it together and discussing some of the things that we can start doing right away as well as some of the things that we can start working towards. So Exciting! 
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