Food Shopping

THis is a very interesting topic. I am much like HilltopDaisy (Hi Daisy and welcome back!) in my habits. Except I am not a vegetarian. Time is a big factor for me - being on my own and keeping up the place and working doesn't leave much time for cooking/canning.

My long term goal is to work less than full time in 4 years. I was just thinking about how to accomplish that and prepare. Food is a big part.

Right now I don't have time to do all of the canning, preserving and cooking from scratch, but I can refine my gardening skills - even if its fed to neighbors,co-workers or chickens. I did plant blueberries and have fruit trees already. I have chickens, turkeys and ducks and plan to butcher some of those for my use. I've only been here a year so there is lots of "setting up" that I need to do and I am focusing on that now.

I want to get into the habit of shopping once a month and then as I get things set up start working in more cooking from scratch. I am going to build more pantry space in my tiny kitchen this winter. I also want to set up an outside stove for canning because my kitchen is very small and it would be much cooler to cook outdoors - has anyone done that?

It's a challenge cooking for one anyhow, but makes for an interesting puzzle.

Thanks everyone for great ideas!

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ok, when i lived in north dakota, on a farmi referred to fondly and the middle of F%^%G nowhere
i bought

some meat,
flour,
some of our cornmeal (i did grind some as well),
cereal,
coffee,
sugar,
crackers,
frozen veggies when on sale ( they actually are less than home produced)
chocolate chips,
baking powder/soda ,
most of our dried beans
rice
pasta
some cheeses
convience foods, chips, soda,hotdogs

produced on farm
chicken ,
eggs,
goat milk,
,goat meat
pork, beef,
garden veggies,
and
hunted pheasent,
deer,
duck

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Good timber does not grow with ease,
the stronger the wind the stronger the trees.

I also am a one-person household, and have a very small farm stand.
I grow for the stand, but decided this year to focus on also
filling my pantry which was greatly neglected last year. So far,
I have frozen blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb.
Unfortunately, a cold spell caused all fruit trees not to bear this
year, so I bought peaches from another farmers market vendor.
I also freeze veggies that are my standards: beans, broccoli, peppers,
and a few zucchini, some for bread.
I have garlic, potatoes and a few winter squash which I'll store
in my "mud room" which stays about 50 degrees over the winter.
In my greenhouse, which is mostly unheated in winter, I have
chard, spinach and lettuces which I can harvest a couple times a week.
I've also dried basil, and will do a couple other herbs before frost.
I have chickens which supply eggs, and buy pastured chickens
from the farmers market. Last year I bought a lamb and froze it.
I have also purchased some ham steaks from another vendor, and
don't eat beef.
Other staples, flour, sugar, salt, milk, butter, bread (but hoping to make
more of my own this winter), orange juice, olive oil, vinegar, and
similar items are purchased, often on sale, at the local store. I
don't buy much in the way of junk food, except pop corn to pop
myself. And I love bagels, so buy day old bagels at half price,
and toast them for breakfast.
Of course, I buy a lot of cat, dog and chicken food which totally
wrecks my budget. I don't have any budget for entertainment,
however, so the animals serve that purpose!
We're all trying to do better, but will probably run out of time (age).
Ann

If you have alot of Jalapenos, you might want to try making some Jalapeno mustard. It's wonderful but you have to like hot mustard. You can also substitute banana peppers and that makes a milder mustard. I give alot away as gifts and people always ask for more. I'm including the recipe below, if you're interested.

Leay




Jalepeno Mustard




Ingredients:



1/2 qt. Prepared Mustard

1/2 qt. (2 cups) Cider Vinegar

2 Tbsp. Cornstarch

3 Cup Sugar

20-25 Jalepeno Peppers (Chopped very fine)

"REMOVE SEEDS OR MUSTARD WILL BE VERY HOT"

"Double the Cornstarch to make the mustard a better consistancy"




Combine Mustard, 3 Cups Vinegar, Sugar, and Peppers in a 4qt.Dutch Oven.



Bring to a Boil over Medium Heat, (stirring almost constantly).



Mix Cornstarch with remaining 1 Cup of Vinegar.



Slowly Stir into Mustard Mixture until thickened.



Remove from Heat and Seal in Hot Jars.

In past 26 years, this is the first that husband and I haven't grown a garden. We both still work 40+ hrs week, and now that we're getting older, we find time to do the fun stuff, like play golf and visit with family and friends, rather than work like we used to. We still buy produce, meat, eggs, veggies from farms around us, and we still have our own apple and pearapple trees, we buy and put up berries and peaches. My mom and aunts, who are 89, 86, 76, and 72 all still grow their own gardens and get together every week and can or freeze and they always have plenty for us. They picked, cut off cob, and froze 58 quarts of corn last Saturday just from one garden. We have friends that hunt and fish and we usually buy from them. We always have a country ham or two somewhere around. It's just the two of us, and we just don't buy much food from the grocery. What we do buy is stuff like dog/cat food, paper products, some cleaning products, but we use coupons and go to a double coupon grocery to help cut this cost. Some friends and I used to make the Friendship bread every week, at least. I do miss having this around as it's the best bread ever. I've even forgotten how we made the starter, but do remember it had the mashed potato flakes in it.