A note about my freezer and pantry and $100 grocery challenge

Yesterday I posted about my challenge to spend only $100 in January on groceries for my family of 5. I just wanted to expand on that a bit. I'm hoping to keep my spending down in January to jumpstart our debt payoff for the year, but also to eat up some of what is in my pantry/freezer so I'll know what I'm running low on for this gardening season and to be able to defrost my small chest freezer as it's time!

1. We live in an area where I have Sam's Club, Kroger and Walmart available. I prefer not to go to Walmart as it is in an area of town further from my home, it's always super crowded and it's kind of shady. I do go to Sam's Club sometimes but do the majority of my weekly shopping at Kroger.

2. We eat meat, mainly venison (deer meat ) and fish that we catch ourselves. We also occasionally get a wild boar and make sausage from that. I do buy turkey bacon and chicken sometimes, but we don't have any at the moment and I don't see myself buying any during January and my low spend challenge.

3. We were gifted a turkey at Christmas from a man in our church, and although we typically don't buy a turkey, we may smoke it during January and enjoy turkey this month.

4. I can and freeze a lot from our garden during the year. I have a pantry full of pickles, relish, jelly etc. It's hard to make a meal though with pickles and jam/jelly even though they are nice. I can other items as well like pasta sauce, green beans, soup etc. but am running low of most of those. I'm sure I'll use those items up during the month.

5. We have blackberry and blueberry bushes and along with eating them fresh last spring/summer and canning some, I have quite a few berries frozen. I'll use that for just eating plain, muffins, smoothies popsicles etc.

6. We have chickens so will have a supply of fresh eggs all month.

I need your help- Rhubarb issues- any thoughts?

Well not issues really- but Rhubarb is out of my wheel house and not super common around here. I'm not sure what to do with this. I planted a small pot of it last spring. I didn't harvest it last fall, but I'm not sure what to do about it.

As you can see it's very bright and green and growing!

What's going on top here? 

On the top right you can see the "original" stalk, the center left are some of the newer smaller stalks. 

So should I transplant into a garden bed? Into a bigger container? Will it spread if I leave it here? Any tips or advice on what to do? I would love to harvest some rhubarb this fall for some pies, jam and jellies!

Spring Around the Homestead Part 3: The GARDEN

Don't forget to check out the previous two posts examining what's going on right now.

Part 1: Blooms and Flowers
Part 2: Animals

And now- lets see what is going on around the garden!

A row of about 35 cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers. 

A bit sad- but a few little asparagus babies coming up. I've not been super lucky with these. 

More cabbages. 

Some green onions. 

Tilled and about ready for some corn to be planted .

 In the next week or so I'll be putting in corn, lettuce blends, kale, more onions, radishes and beets.

What do you all have going on right now? Have you started planting yet?

My visit to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds!

It's my favorite time of year ( outside of Christmas) :) - that's right. Garden time! We took a quick trip up to Mansfield, MO to Baker Creek Seed Company to get some of my favorite seeds.

It's such a fun little place to shop- and we try to venture that way in Spring.

This year I'm doing the basics, so far I've got cabbage, green onions, sweet onions and broccoli going! It won't be long until some of the other goodies I picked up will go into the ground. Look at the goodies for this year from Baker Creek!

YAY! Later in the season I'll buy some seedlings from a local greenhouse and I would like to pick up a few more blueberries if I can find some that fit within our budget!

I'm super excited to start getting some fresh fruits and veggies. I'm hoping to can and freeze a lot this year as well. I can almost taste a fresh cucumber, chilled with just a tiny bit of ground pepper on it. A nice crisp salad of mixed greens with a home made dressing.. Oh my- like I said, my favorite time of year.


What all have you gotten into the ground so far? What are you looking forward to most this gardening season?


Excited to say this post was featured on a great blog I love to follow!

Harvesting around the homestead today: May 30th

The song that comes to mind is " Thank you Lord, for your Blessings on me". 

We are beginning to see some color on our tomatoes so it shouldn't be long on those and we have lots of little peppers. We continue to get 7-8 eggs per day and today I harvested more broccoli and our first zucchinni and poblano pepper. I also got a nice green onion from the garden today.

I would estimate that if I bought these items from town ( organic and free range) I would have paid about $2.50 for the 8 eggs, maybe $3.50 for the broccoli, .20 cents for the onion and lets just say another .50 cents for the pepper and zucchini. That is about $7.00 give or take just today from our garden. Again, Thank you Lord, for your blessing on me!

I'll saute the broccoli, pepper, onion and zucchini up tonight for supper and will boil the eggs for the kids probably for snacks. Or we eat eggs about every morning for breakfast so they may end up in the breakfast plate.

We have one of our chickens trying to set, and she has several eggs under her. This is her first time though and she keeps changing nests so we will see what happens.

I also have one rabbit that should have been bred a while back, although she hasn't started building her nest yet, so it may not have taken.... I'll keep you updated.

Happy Homesteading Y'all!

Check in: How is this Homesteading thing going anyhow?

I've been blogging for a while ( not always super faithful but you know....) and I thought it would be good to see how things are coming along around the place...

Things that are going really good:
We'll start with the positive and see what good progress we have been making as a family.

1. We are living pretty simply. We have one TV in the house and only have Netflix. We watch on average less than one hour a day of TV and go many days without turning the sucker on. Since before we had kids my husband and I had a super expensive cable package and it seemed all we did was watch TV, I would say this is a definite plus in our home.

2. I've gotten really good at meal planning and keeping our groceries under control. I've been making our own bread, rolls and pizza crusts and planning accordingly for the things we need at the store. I know what I'm harvesting for the week and what I have canned or frozen so I can make a pretty good list. There are many weeks where we don't go to the store at all, and even more weeks where the only place I go is the Farmer's Market.

3. We love our chickens. The kids love 'em, my husband and I love 'em and they are keeping us stocked with eggs. They are fun, not too much trouble and we enjoy the eggs.

4. I've gotten good at canning!! That doesn't mean that I've canned all we needed for a year or anything like that, but I've gotten good at it. I know what to do and how to do it.


5. There are some things in the garden that we grow plenty of, at least for the last few years. Those items are muscadines, grapes, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. I've got all of those that I want.....

Things that are going okay:

There are also some things that are going good, not amazingly well, but I'm still pretty proud of.

1. Our gardens in general are doing well. Above I listed the things that we really have way too much of, enough to share, and even sell a bit. There are some other things though that we have just enough of. A little bit to share, and can even. Those items are squash, zucchinni, okra, cabbages, kale, lettuces, broccoli. corn and potatoes ( both sweet and white). We also normally ( some years are better than others) get enough pecans from our trees.

2. We ( as a family) are reading a lot and that makes me happy. Every Tuesday we head to the library for books. Even my husband is in on the action when he has time. All three of my children really enjoy reading and I of course do myself. I'm pleased with this aspect of our homesteading quest.

3. Our diets are good. You may recall that my profession is a Registered Dietitian and I am working on my PhD and even though we have always eaten pretty well, I can say that I'm pleased with the way we eat. We have lots of water bottles, we pack lunches and snacks when we travel, and I cook a lot. Are we 100% organic? No. I don't have a desire to be honestly. We aren't vegetarians or paleo or anything like that, but I am impressed with myself when I open up our pantries or the fridge or freezers. My kids aren't picky and we eat a variety of really delicious food.

4. We are watching our trash production. We use reusable items like dish clothes, napkins, even feminine items, as well as reusing what we can, recycling and donating or consigning items that no longer fit us.

5.We are composting! Not only do we have rabbit manure and grass clippings and leaves, but we compost our broccoli stems and apple cores and just all those little knick knacks from the kitchen. Our composting is coming in handy.

6. We have one bee hive and have done well with them I think. We should be ready to harvest our honey here in a few months.

Things that I'd like to work on:

1. We have plenty of pears and muscadines, but I'd like more fruit!! I always have enough blueberries, blackberries and strawberries for a few desserts a year and for us to snack on, and occasionally enough to freeze a bit or make some jam, but right now I'm getting our berries, apples and peaches from the farmer's markets or pick your own type places. I'd like to add more fruit to our homestead. 

2. I'd also like more corn and peas to add to our pantry and freezers. We eat a lot of corn, and I do put up quite a bit, but I think adding a few more rows of each would be helpful. 

3. I'd like to start making soap. I have plenty of herbs that I could dry and I bought a book off of Amazon about how to make cold press soap, but that's been it. I'd like to start experimenting with making our own soap. 

4. Last year I put up a ton of delicious pizza sauce, pasta sauce and salsa, this year I'd like to try my hand at vegetable soup. Last year I would just get a jar of stewed tomatoes and add frozen veggies and stuff to it, but those big quart jars of veggie soup I remember from my childhood are just calling my name. 

5. I'd like to try cheese making. I don't have a place to get good fresh milk right now, but I'm sure if I looked a little harder I could find someone local to get some milk from. I know you can make cheese from grocery store milk, but I would like some from a local farmer. 

If you've read this far. Bless you :). 

What are some things you are doing super well with on your homestead? What are some things you could work on?

What's growing around the homestead?

We have a total of three gardens that we tend each year. The one below is one of our newer ones, we've been gardening this spot for about 4 years. 

It has lots of cabbage, broccoli, green onions , corn, squash, peas, beans, zucchini, watermelon and cantoloupes. 

It won't be long before we'll be digging some nice potatoes and we are already harvesting broccoli and cabbages. 

This is garden number two and is our "main" garden. It has the stuff we'll pick almost daily and it has tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, corn, beans, squash, zucchinni, blueberries, radishes, onions and is framed by the muscadine and concord grapes. 

It won't be long before we have blueberries to snack on. 

Some tomatoes peaking through. 

Baby zucchinni!

Grape vines

A teeny tiny apple that will be yummy soon. 

 And this is garden three. Here are our cucumbers, a few more melons and a few blackberries. 

We also have a small plot of strawberries that are doing pretty good this year, not enough to can but enough to eat. And we have a large bed of asparagus and several random  herb containers and gardens. I hope everyone else is off to a beautiful, productive gardening season!

Happy Homesteading!!!!!!!

Of Chickens and Pears...

Just wanted to update you all on our chickens. And I just added pears in there also, because they are about ready to start chowing down on.

Chickens:
So we have 8 adult chickens, of various breeds. My daughters will show some in the fair. The hens are giving us about 6 eggs a day. Thanks girls!

The little ones are heritage bantam breeds and we may try to start selling some eggs for folks to hatch. Or we probably won't, but they are super fun to play with. They have a small run that we can move around, with an enclosed roost and nesting boxes, but then during the day when we are home we let them out to free range. Chickens are fun. If you are thinking, should I get chickens? I would say YES!

You do need to have a place for them, and they need to be free from predators, but honestly a few hens don't even take that much feed. They love watermelon rinds and greens and things like that also.

We have two large pear trees on our property. Every year they bless us with beautiful fruit. I normally can some preserves and pie filling, and we just eat a lot of fresh pears. I also make cobblers and crumbles and sweet bread ( oh my) . They look to be on par to deliver again.

 What's going on in your neck of the woods? Are you seeing the signs of Fall? ( To me pears signify the approaching Fall season).

What's going on around the homestead?

It's HOT here. Like many days over 100 degrees, plus our humidity.

We still have some peppers. Not as many as we seem to normally do, but plenty.

Tomatoes are slowing down. I've put up quite a bit of pasta sauce, pizza sauce and salsa, but again, not as much as we seem to normally have. Lots of little guys still, but the bigger ones are dying.

Still getting squash. Plenty for a mess for supper, and some to share. I love squash. I just sautee it in a skillet with olive oil with a little onion. Look at those beautiful squash flowers.

Now to my pride and joy. My muscadines and grapes. These will be ready within the week.
We have the normal white ones, and then we have purple Concord Grapes, which are perfect for jelly. All of them are really great for jelly, and I try to put up as much as I can. It seems to be a little later this year coming on, and since I start back to work soon, I'll stay busy. But maybe I can get some in before school starts back.

 They are huge! And so sweet. They do have a seed in them, and the white ones skins are a bit tough, but the purple are just perfect.

The muscadines and grapes just do well for us. We live in Zone 7, and just look at these. So they are in a funny L shape. The right of the picture, then it stretches way back and goes across the entire back of the photo. We always have tons and tons. I put up jelly and juice, others buy them from us to make wine. We don't drink, but apparently nothing beats muscadine wine?

I'm wishing you all a happy harvest and hopefully you are staying cool!

Garden Still going strong!

So it's hot here! I mean really hot. And while the cucumbers, blackberries and blueberries are about finished, we still have lots of life left in our garden. Below is our cantaloupe patch. These are huge. I mean ginormous! And we've had a few already and they are quite good. We just eat these. I don't put them up or freeze them or anything. Sometimes if we have any that I've cut and are pretty ripe, I'll throw them in my smoothie bucket, but for the most part we just devour them.

 

Our watermelons are growing well too. Here is a pretty one camouflaged in the vine, but you can tell it's beautiful, and will just be wonderful. We have 3 different kinds planted and I expect at least 30 good melons. We'll eat them a lot, share them and maybe even trade a few.

Below are my famous muscadine vines. They run in kind of a weird L shape along the perimeter of the main garden. They are huge. I mean honestly we have way too many, but we aren't going to cut them down. Some along the back there are concord grapes, but most are muscadines ( which to you non-southerners are just a type of grapes)

 Here is kind of the under shot side of the trellis. If you look close you can see the green fruit just waiting to ripen. Lots of sweet juice and jelly in my future....

 I'm getting a few tomatoes. I've made one batch of hot salsa, and we are eating 1-2 everyday, but for the most part they are still coming on and are green. I expect many more tomatoes and hopefully lots more salsa, ketchup, pasta sauce, pizza sauce etc in my future.

These are the little tommy toes that we just snack on. And put them on salads and such. Good stuff.

We also are getting okra, corn, squash, zucchini, eggplant, purple hull peas, lima beans, green beans, new potatoes and peppers and cucumbers still. We are getting about 6 eggs a day as well from our chickens, so we are pretty much good on eggs. We are in the height ( and the heat) of the season and I'm proud to be able to grow our food and cook good food for my family!

What do you all have going on? Outlook for your garden pretty good?