Passing on traditional skills like foraging, cooking from scratch and living well on less
This article was originally published in Daryl’s Cooking with Kids column at examiner.com in September, 2013. Some links are affiliate links, meaning we get a small commission on purchases made through our links. Making fresh applesauce is something every kid should get to do. We are lucky enough to know several people with apple trees, […]
I have experience with pressure canning but I’m always happy to find new recipes and learn more. When I got an opportunity to read a temporary digital Advanced Reader Copy of the new book, Modern Pressure Canning by Amelia Jeanroy, I was happy to check it out. While this book has basic information to get […]
Lots of fruits and vegetables are in season in February, and it’s still also possible to eat local foods with a little bit of creativity. Why eat foods that are in season? It pays to eat foods that are in season — to help save money, to help the environment, to get the freshest […]
Here’s an easy way to dramatically lower your grocery costs and still eat well. At the start of each week (or whenever your local stores change their sales), check out the sales flyers for any grocery stores near you. Only check for grocery items that you either use regularly or would use if they were […]
Sure, you can go buy those orange cans of pumpkin puree at the grocery store, but making homemade pumpkin puree is so much more satisfying! It’s also much easier than you might think. Best of all, this time of year it’s incredibly cheap, even if you didn’t grow your own pumpkins. My kitchen table is […]
Daryl and I have been faithfully checking our elder patches for the past few weeks and he brought home a bag of our first elderberry bounty for the year this week. This particular clump of elders is bordering a nursing home that has given us permission to pick their pears and elderberries. He harvested them […]
I’ll mostly be focusing on 10 main ways to save money on healthy and organic foods in the FYFO-100 series (Feed Your Family Organic for $100 (or less!)). Everybody has different circumstances, so different strategies will be better for different families. You do not need to do all or even most of these to save […]
Today’s foraging report: It’s raining, so we have a very short window for picking but we’re showing a friend how to can tonight, so we needed pears. We picked two kinds at Talcot and one at GS, so I thought since we had them on hand I’d do a comparison. In the back […]
The pears are DONE. Between my parents’ house and my secret spot, we ended up with 11 gallons of pear halves. The first 5 were turned into 15 quarts of sauce, and I see a similar fate for the others when Alicia gets home. Now to start picking some more. Please follow and like us:
11 pints and 3 quarts of applesauce canned, and pears getting prepped. We should have 6 quarts of halves in syrup. Please follow and like us:
Another non-foraging day of foraging. I picked many elderberries and prepped them (elderberry wine is on the slate this year), didn’t get to ask about a pear tree (but will), didn’t get around to asking about an apple tree (but will), and got some free roadside tomatoes. Also prepped a bunch of pears for canning, […]
Talcot pear, Jeffers Apple, GS pear. The Talcot pears have a “bite” to them that makes them not great for eating, but wonderful for canning. The Jeffers apples are wonderfully mild, and the GS pears are great for eating, not so much for canning. Please follow and like us:
Foraging today: we finally picked apples from the Jeffers tree (about half a bag, I need a better picker), we prepped and canned 7 quarts of pears, and we’re off to get more. A slow day. Jeffers apples: full red when ripe, soft white flesh, I’d say sauce and cider. And eating, of course. […]
Many foragy things going on today. I prepped and cut enough pears for 10 quarts to be canned (and they are), and then we got out the juicer. The results of the juice experiments: Chipotle apples: incredibly tart Sam’s Club apples: green juice, very tart LP crab apples- kind of tart, nice flavor, pink juice […]
It was back to the foraging today. I picked a bag of GS pears for a friend, and 2 bags of Robin apples for us. For 10 minutes of picking, we ended up with 7 quarts of beautiful pink applesauce (6 canned, one for eating). Please follow and like us:
So far today we’ve bagged up over a gallon of frozen chopped pears from the GS tree, and I’ve chopped and frozen another gallon plus of Sam’s Club apples (they’re tart, they’ll work great in bread). I’ve also peeled and prepped enough Talcot pears to make 8 quarts and a hair left over. Time to […]
1) The Windom hospital cut down its apple trees! I’m really sad, those were wonderful Red Baron apples. I mean, I still have too many to pick and process, but I liked those apples. 2) They *do* still have pear trees, though. Two different kinds – the larger ones (almost all gone) have […]