Ditching the Regular Grocery...

**peanut** · 09-15-2011, 06:03 PM

You know, Angel, I think your FIL is very lucky to be living with you and your DH!

DH and I bought a 25 lb. box of peaches today. that should give us enough peaches for the winter...I hope. Shouldn't be ready to can till the weekend.

Today I've been baking for a bake sale this weekend - bran muffins and date squares so far...

What doesn't get sold, goes in our freezer.

**HappyMama** · 09-19-2011, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by peanut

You know, Angel, I think your FIL is very lucky to be living with you and your DH!

DH and I bought a 25 lb. box of peaches today. that should give us enough peaches for the winter...I hope. Shouldn't be ready to can till the weekend.

Today I've been baking for a bake sale this weekend - bran muffins and date squares so far...

What doesn't get sold, goes in our freezer.

Thank you so much Peanut. You are so kind!

You have done so much work this yr. in canning and stocking up , ,I am so impressed. Hope you enjoy your peaches.

Finished more pumpkin puree, more hot sauce from the recipe I put up here.

Going to start more of my herbs, and windowsill gardening for winter.

Blessings all!

**HappyMama** · 09-19-2011, 11:40 AM

Decided to use today to get my homemade pepperoni, salami , veggie burgers, and onions for onion soups this winter ready for the freezer.

**daylily** · 09-19-2011, 11:56 AM

Do you make vegan pepperoni and salami?

**HappyMama** · 09-19-2011, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by daylily

Do you make vegan pepperoni and salami?

Yes Daylily,

I do both vegan and regular as I have family members that like both.

What have you been up to ? What corn do you use for corn grinding? I have dried sweet and organic heriloom popcorn etc. but I want to buy blue corn.

**daylily** · 09-20-2011, 06:06 AM

Good morning!
Yesterday we canned 11 qts of mustard greens, dried zucchini, and picked apples.

The corn we grow is a yellow dent corn and a white dent corn. We make cornbread and grits from the yellow and use the white for making hominy and tortillas. We've made both from the yellow too and may change to growing only the yellow.

I've been thinking of posting a list here of all the things we don't buy from the grocery store. when I have time.....

I make things from gluten and soy too but never tried pepperoni or salami. Do you have recipes you can share or links to them? If you are saving the recipes for your book, I understand!

**HappyMama** · 09-20-2011, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by daylily

Good morning!
Yesterday we canned 11 qts of mustard greens, dried zucchini, and picked apples.

The corn we grow is a yellow dent corn and a white dent corn. We make cornbread and grits from the yellow and use the white for making hominy and tortillas. We've made both from the yellow too and may change to growing only the yellow.

I've been thinking of posting a list here of all the things we don't buy from the grocery store. when I have time.....

I make things from gluten and soy too but never tried pepperoni or salami. Do you have recipes you can share or links to them? If you are saving the recipes for your book, I understand!

You have been so busy! I would love if you would post what you don't buy , it would be so fun to compare lists

We try to make as much as we can as well. Boy it saves on time, money and health , doesn't it? I will try to post my in the next few days as well. Have a productive day!

Yes would be glad to share recipes. Love sharing and receiving knowledge it makes this journey so fun instead of dreary.

**HappyMama** · 09-20-2011, 12:12 PM

Daylily ,

will pm you with your request.

Think you will like .

At the risk of boring anyone, or looking like I am talking to myself.....hehe. Just wanted to see if anyone else did the same thing as us. I know this is more of a lifestyle or as some say homesteading thing. Not really anything to do with my book which is more of a journey, but there is no sense me journaling to myself on here as my bff put....LOL She stopped in and thinks that is what I am doing at this point. Gotta love honest friends. Though I do look forward to your list and all that you are doing, or anyone else that has any thoughts or input would love to read. Hugs and Blessings!

**zakity** · 09-20-2011, 02:59 PM

I love reading about all that you do. It fascinates me.

Oh yeah, I canned 22 quarts of jam yesterday. They were the leftovers of last year's frozen berries.

**BeachFun** · 09-20-2011, 03:38 PM

HappyMama, I would love the salami and pepperoni recipes. Would you please post them?

thanks

**Uniwolf** · 09-20-2011, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by sinopa27

I have never heard of a produce auction and now I want to go to one. I am going to be doing some online searching on this!

I am with you there sinopa27, I had never heard of one until now. I wanna find one

**peanut** · 09-20-2011, 03:56 PM

There are none near me. Closest one appears to be in Ontario?

**daylily** · 09-20-2011, 06:48 PM

HappyMama, great! I will look forward to the recipes. I'll be working on my don't buy list too as I have time.

Drying cabbage today.

No produce auctions near us either. We do have a wholesale produce market about 70 miles from us and not far from DH's mom. Also his cousin has a little store and buys wholesale produce. She sometimes calls me when she gets a good deal on stuff. Like back in the winter we got cases of 94 avocados for $6.0per case!!!!! I pureed and froze a bunch and we ate a lot too.

**l8eebugg** · 09-20-2011, 08:28 PM

I thought I was doing so good...I'm exhausted just reading what you have done. One question..how do you support the vertical?
I tried what I thought was a great idea using iron bed posts. Peas went way past them. So-o..how did you do it. What held the fruit or vegetables on?
thanks so much for sharing.

**daylily** · 09-20-2011, 08:43 PM

Fruits that we don't buy from the grocery store

Apples- we have several trees and also get apples from an orchard. We can applesauce and apple slices; dry apples and keep some in the cellar to eat fresh. We can apple juice.

Nectarines/peaches-we buy 2 bins (18 to 20 bushels each) every summer. We sell some to family and friends by the bushel. We can, freeze and dry nectarines. We have two peach trees that usually have fruit on them. We eat them fresh in season. I put about 1/2 bushel in a refrigerator crisper drawer in August and they keep about a month or until we eat them all.

Pears- We have a tree and DH's cousin has a tree. We can and dry them plus now the nectarines are out of the fridge so we fill the drawer with pears. Sometimes two crisper drawers.

Blackberries-We just started a patch this spring. We don't care for frozen ones but I will can some when ours start bearing.

Blueberries- We have 21 mature bushes and just planted 92 more this spring. We can, freeze and dry them and eat them fresh in season.

Gooseberries We have several bushes and planted about 30 more this spring. We can them and eat them fresh. We have frozen them but didn't like them. Dried, they can be used in place of cranberries in muffins, etc.

Strawberries- We started a patch this spring. We go to a PYO and pick several gallons to freeze and dry.

[/B]Melons[/B] We try to grow them every summer. This summer they have done great. We grew Black Tail Mountain watermelon and Ambrosia cantaloupe.

Oranges/Grapefruit We buy these by the case through a church school fund raising program. I budget for a case of each from Nov-Feb.

Grapes- we have American types concord, a pink one and a white one. we eat them in season and can juice.

Hardy kiwis- we eat these fresh. They keep for many weeks in the fridge.

Bananas we sometimes buy from the grocery store. We prefer to buy them by the 40 lb box wholesale. We freeze and dry what we can't eat fresh.

We have 4 plum trees that usually get frost killed and don't have fruit. This year 3 of them had some fruit and it was good.

We very rarely buy canned pineapple. We basically eat what we grow or can buy in bulk. We don't usually buy fruit out of season because of the cost. We tend to have most everything we like anyway. I may have forgotten some fruits; can't think of anymore right now. Oh, we get American persimmons from DH's sister and freeze them whole. they're great to just get out and "gnaw" on while still frozen

We buy dried fruits from a co-op such as figs, raisins, sometimes papaya , mango, and pineapple but lately they are so expensive that we've been rationing what we have left.

That's all I can think of right now.

Sometimes DH will buy plums or some fruit if he's out and can't make it home for a meal.