Bargain Bulletin: Stock Up on Pantry Supplies

In previous posts, I have commented that the best way to save grocery money is not to clip coupons, but to cook from whole foods and basic ingredients, which rarely go on sale or are subject to coupons. 

The exception to this is baking supplies, which tend to go on sale around the major "cooking holidays," like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.  Since Easter is upon us, it is time to check your store for specials on flour, powdered sugar, brown sugar, yeast, and spices.  Many of these will be displayed on the end caps of the aisles.  I tend to buy store brands of most things, but if you prefer brand name spices (which I do for ones I don't grow), there is usually a coupon or two to be had in the weeks leading up to the holidays.  Since these baking supplies tend to keep for months or longer, this is a smart time to pick up an extra bag of brown sugar or an extra jar of yeast.

The Analysis

Fast:  Obviously, it takes no more time to buy an item on sale than it does to buy one full price.  I'll give you that it takes a few extra second to carry that second bag of brown sugar to the cart and then in from the car....

Cheap:  Stocking up on basic supplies when they go on predictable sales is an easy and smart money management technique.

Good:  Having the right cooking supplies on hand, purchased at a good price, is a great incentive to cook more of your own meals and treats at home.

Fixing My Mistakes

Oops

I once cherished (and accidentally got published in Reader's Digest, but that's another story) a quote that said, "Practice doesn't make perfect, nor is it supposed to. Practice is about increasing your repertoire of ways to recover from your mistakes."  Nowhere is this as true as in homemaking.

See the above towel.  When DH and I were first married, I got distracted doing laundry, and I bleached a towel that should not have been bleached.  I then retired the towel to dirty jobs like highlighting hair, which means that over the years it has taken additional bleach damage.  The results you see above.

Now, the obvious choice is to turn the towel into rags, but I thought I'd see what I could salvage.  I was able to cut seven 12"x12" wash cloths out of the good parts of the towel, still leaving several cleaning rags.  

 

The raw edges I finished by turning them under a half an inch and sewing with a zig-sag stitch.  Note that not all edges of a cloth need to be finished; the ones that originally were the bottom and sides of the towel are fine as they are.

Did I need to do this?  No.  However, I took some pleasure in saving an item that I had destroyed with my carelessness.  And, when you look at it, I saved a little money:

The Analysis:

Fast:  I tend to sew simple things as thought breaks while I work, so putting these cloths on the pile to be finished didn't really take much additional time out of my schedule.

Cheap:  The least expensive wash cloth of any significant weight I can find in the store is $1, and I have seen heavy ones go for as much as $5 a piece.  Since I was able to get seven cloths out of my destroyed towel, I in effect created $7 worth of value.  I doubt the original towel cost more than $7 (9 years ago at a discount department store), so I have either saved money I would otherwise have spent on new washcloths, or at minimum I have preserved the value of the original towel.

Good:  This one comes down to a philosophy of waste.  If you look at your mistakes and think "how can I recover from that and respect the resource given to me," then you will over time save money and cultivate a more respectful attitude toward the things you work so hard to buy.

Hang Out That Laundry!

I promised I was going to be less of a wimp about hanging my laundry outside this year, and here is the proof.  With a temp of 55 degrees here in Ohio (albeit headed for the upper 60s today), I have hung the first load of laundry of the year outside.  Normally, I don't start until the temp hits 65.

Avoiding your clothes drier is one of the best ways to save electricity and money.  That appliance, love it though we do in January, is an energy-hog.  Every load you dry outside or on a drying rack is money that goes straight to your bottom line.

I love the picture above, snapped moments before this post.  I love the juxtaposition of the sunny day and clothes line with the fleece pillowcases still warming our bed at night and the leftover autumn leaves on the ground. 

Have you started hanging clothes outside this year?

The Analysis:

Fast:  Hanging clothes takes more time than dumping them in the drier, but when it is warmer, I think of it as my time to relax and get a little Vitamin D from the sun.

Cheap:  Can't get any cheaper than free!  (OK, you do have the start-up cost of a clothes line, but everyone should be able to find at least a piece of twine to string between two trees.)

Good:  Hanging clothes outside is one of my great pleasures, and I'm so happy to be back out there.  The cost and resource savings are almost beside the point for me.

Berries and Cream Smoothie

Why, no, I don't polish the spots off my crystal -- why do you ask?

Back on the sustainability track this week, it is time to make smoothies!

Now, I know that a traditional smoothie is made with yogurt, ice cubes, and unsugared berries.  It is very virtuous.  I also know that I don't like yogurt, and I have a freezer full of strawberries (preserved with sugar) from last year that need to start vacating to make room for this year's crop.  So I devised this quick and easy smoothie:

1 quart berries, thawed (sugared if you prefer or have preserved them that way)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (I like the Trader Joe's version, from horomone-free milk and pasturized but not ultrapasturized)

Place in blender and blend.  Makes 2.5 large servings (the half serving is pictured above!)

The Analysis:

Fast:  If you remember to thaw your berries, this takes only a few seconds in the blender to make a couple of day's worth of smoothie for one person, or an excellent huge serving of berries for each of two people.

Cheap:  The whipping cream was $2.49 for a pint, so $0.62 for a half cup.  That means the entire recipe comes in at less than $1.00, figure by guess-timating the amount of sugar and you-pick berries I added.  That means you can have a good snack or a reasonable meal substitute for less than $0.50.

Good:  This is an easy way to get a lot of fruit, some protein from the dairy, and enough fat to aid your body's absorption of the vitamins.  Plus, more freezer space for this year's berries!

Falling Short of the Goal

Last week was a decidedly iffy week on the sustainability front, as you may have guessed from the presence of just one blog post.  So, let's look at how I did:

The Good:

• I baked two loaves of bread.
• I did all the week's laundry with my homemade laundry soap.
• I sewed five new wash cloths from some terry cloth I found in the remnant bin at my favorite fabric store.
• I heated the house with passive solar heat and good "window management" (that is, opening and closing curtains) for at least 48 total hours.
• I nursed some baby tomato seedlings to life (Mortgage Lifters -- let's hope they live up to their name!) and repotted a few pepper seedlings.
• I actually remembered to turn off the power supply to the in-house DSL network on Friday night, so I wasn't drawing unused power all weekend.

The Bad:

• I made two trips to the grocery that should have been rolled into one.  In my defense, I had some horrible Midwestern sinus thing going on, and one trip was just to get some OTC medication to get me through, while the next night I actually got supplies and did my banking run.
• I forgot to throw my lingerie bag of used-but-reusable make-up wipes in the laundry, so if I don't find a load for them in the next two days, I'm back to cotton balls until I do.
• I bumped the heat up a few degrees when the cold weather came back.  (See above-mentioned horrible Midwestern sinus thing.)
• I let a pint of blueberries die of neglect.

So how did I do?  On the one hand, I hate that I dropped a few balls in there.  But mostly, I'm proud that I have systems in place that get me through when my attention is divided.  On balance, even with a rough week, I think I did more good for budget and planet than I did bad.  That's the most any of us can do.

Passive Solar Heat

Let That Sunshine In!

March is finally here; it couldn't come soon enough for me.  After enduring a Midwestern winter, these first warm days in the 50s are a blessing. 

They are also a golden opportunity to heat your house with an energy source you don't have to pay for:  solar.  Even without expensive collectors and arrays, you can heat your house with passive solar energy, just by opening curtains and blinds on east-facing windows in the morning, and south- and west-facing windows in the afternoon.  (I find the north-facing windows never collect that much sun, but that may have something to do with the construction/positioning of our house.)

Even with temps in the upper 40s at the start of the week, I was able to heat my house up to 64 degrees with passive solar yesterday, which is a degree above the 63 degree set point of my thermostat for daytime.  I expect today, with temps in the upper 50s, the sun will warm the house even more.  I will start turning the heat off during the day and just using it to "catch" the house at night so nothing freezes (including me).

The Analysis

Fast:  Can't get much faster than opening those curtains!

Cheap:  Every degree you heat your house by passive solar is one you don't pay for from the gas or electric company.  In my part of Ohio, this is the official start of three months of spring savings on power bills, which will probably end in June when I finally cave in on using the A/C.

Good:  Nothing prettier or nicer than a warm, bright house on a spring day, particularly when you don't have to pay for it!

Homemade Egg Noodles

Homemade Egg Noodles

If you have a good source of farm-raised, pastured eggs, one of the best ways of showing them off is by making homemade egg noodles.

We often think of homemade pasta as a time-intensive process that includes a lot of mess and a lot of rolling equipment to clean.  In reality, most "peasant" cultures have developed quick ways of making pasta; it really should be considered a quick staple rather than an occasional treat.

To make homemade pasta you will need:

"Equal amounts" flour and eggs.  That is, if you have three eggs, you need to use three cups of flour

Pinch of salt

Water as needed

Place the flour in a bowl and make a well in the center; crack the eggs into the well, and add the salt.  Mix with water as needed to make a thick paste (the genesis of the word "pasta").

If you are pressed for time, you can then take this mixture by rounded spoonfuls and drop into a pot of boiling water; when the dumplings float, they are cooked.  Or, if you have a little more time, you can roll the dough out into a sheet about a half an inch thick and cut into your desired shape with a pizza cutter or knife.

In the image at the top of the post, you will see that I cut my pasta dough into rectangles and then twisted it to make bow-ties.  I had a lot of time on my hands that day, and the whole project still took only 45 minutes.  When I am pressed, I will just cut the rectangles and be done.

Cook the fresh pasta in salted boiling water until it floats; you will need to cook much less pasta than you normally do store-bought pasta, as this is denser and more filling.  If you have cut your noodles thin enough, you can dry them by leaving them sitting out in on a cookie sheet.

The Analysis

Fast:  It takes less time to make noodles than you think; remember, "peasant" food is nothing if not efficient to make.

Cheap:  Most of your cost comes from the eggs; since my pastured eggs are nearly 30 cents a piece, this batch of pasta came in at less than $1.75, and the batch generated at least four servings.

Good:  Don't cover these up with heavy sauce; I like to have my homemade egg noodles with pasture butter and home grown sage.  Yum.

Let's Compost! Pt. I

For me, the epitome of "Fast, Cheap, and Good" might be composting.  It is quick and easy to toss your organic waste into a compost pile, it certainly costs nothing, and it keeps waste out of the landfills while generating beautiful humus for your garden.

For the novice composter, however, composting appears to be a difficult chore.  Our culture simply doesn't teach us to compost, and marketers have rushed into the void with tons of products meant to "get you started." 

This year, I'd like you to consider redirecting some of your waste to compost; to help, this is the first in a series on how to compost.  I'll start with some frequently asked questions:

Is composting difficult?
No.  Remember, much of human history has been lived without a weekly trash pick-up.  Communities regularly put their waste into piles; archeologists love this kind of thing.  What we are going to do is use a natural decomposition process to take care of organic waste, which will result in fewer beads and pottery shards for future archeologists, but might keep the planet around long enough for future excavations.

Does compost smell bad?
Yes and no.  Part of the misunderstanding about compost comes from the fact that we use the word "compost" to mean three separate phases of the project.  Let me break these down and give each its own term:

"Raw compost" is your table scraps, egg shells, and the like.  If you let this sit around in your compost container in the house, it will indeed mold and smell bad.  A little fireplace wood ash in the bottom of your container will control the odor, but it really needs to go out on the pile to start breaking down.

"Working compost" is the material in your pile.  This is the stuff from your household compost bucket, plus dirt, grass clippings, fallen leaves, and the like.  Earthworms and certain soil bacteria love this, and as they munch away, they assist the process of decomposition.  If your compost pile smells, it is probably because you have too much "green matter" (generally from raw compost) and too little "brown matter" (like leaves, grass, and dirt).  If your working compost pile smells, you need to stir it with a pitchfork and add a little brown matter to the top.  Easy.

"Finished compost" is humus, the dark brown dirt that can be used as potting soil or as garden fertilizer.  One of the ways you know it is finished is by the smell -- it smells of life, freshness, and Spring.  It is truly one of my favorite scents.

Do I need an expensive container?
No.  Garden retailers have devised a number of products for compost creation, most of which are unnecessary.  One of these is the rotating plastic drum that is supposed to generate finished compost in two to six weeks.  Who needs their compost that fast?  A large-scale gardener might, but then that person will need a lot more finished compost than can be created in that drum.

There is one circumstance in which a commercial compost drum might be useful:  If you are composting in an urban environment or one in which you have absolutely no land (like an apartment or a condo with restrictive common space regulations), you may only be able to compost in a container.  Otherwise, you should try to put your compost in contact with the ground.

Do I need compost additives?
Again, compost additives, like live earthworms and bacteria innoculant, are useful only for container composting.  Even then, a few shovels of "live" dirt (that is, not the sterilized stuff sold as potting soil) and a few earthworms (which I would be tempted to buy cheap at a bait shop) will do the trick. 

Are my neighbors going to complain?
If you are worried about the neighbors, your job is either to educate them or to make sure they never know you are composting.  If you choose the latter, you may want to enclose your pile in a frame made of picket fence panels rather than the chicken wire that folks like me use.  You can use the same set of construction instructions one would use to make an enclosure for an air conditioner compressor, only be sure to use fence panels with openings that will let in rain and air.  Monitor your pile closely for any odor that indicates you need more brown matter, and your neighbors shouldn't even know unless they come over and lift the lid.

Will I attract critters?
I will confess that I sometimes leave strawberry trimmings on the top of the pile to feed the rabbits that inhabit my property.  (Then I complain mightily a month later when they have stayed around to eat my tomatoes.)  Small herbivores shouldn't be much of a concern for you, but if you are concerned about larger animals, be certain that you always mix the raw compost into the working pile very well.

I hope this makes you think a little about starting your own composting operation; we will consider the how-tos in a future post.  Readers, let me know:  do you currently compost?  Are you considering it for this year?

Homemade Laundry Soap

The ingredients for savings!

Making your own laundry soap sounds like one of those hard-core cheap-o things to do that only the fanatics among us would attempt.  Once I started making my own, however, I found that it is amazingly easy, astoundingly cheap, and cleans my laundry better than store-bought detergents.

You will need:

One bar pink Zote soap.  This is a laundry soap formulated for easy grating and good cleaning and brightening.

1 1/2 cup baking soda

1 1/2 cup borax

(Note:  These amounts will make enough to fill an old one quart yogurt container, which is where I store my soap.)

Grate a third of a bar of Zote into a bowl (I have an old plastic bowl that was retired to the laundry for just this purpose, which is what you see below.  No artificial "stunt photography" here!)

Zote is a very soft soap that grates easily with a vegetable grater.  Keep the bar well wrapped so it doesn't dry out between uses, as the harder soap is more difficult to grate.

Add baking soda and borax, and mix.  Store.

You will use only about a tablespoon per load, so this stuff lasts forever.  Experiment until you find the right amount for your washer, but don't overdo.  Excess soap will lay in the soap tray if you overload it.

I started using this just on towels, then moved on to underwear, jeans, and finally all of my laundry.  (Full disclosure:  I "treat" my black laundry to a special dark fabrics detergent, even though I've never noticed my homemade soap causing any fading.)  Hubby notes that workout clothes washed in the homemade variety don't smell "sour" after wearing, like they do with commercial detergents.  Plus, I think the clothes look cleaner, and they definitely smell outdoor clean without having a perfume smell.

The Analysis

Fast:  It takes about 10-15 minutes to make a batch of laundry soap.  Not a big investment in time to save a lot of money!

Cheap:  I knew this was inexpensive, but I didn't realize how cheap until I did the math:

      Zote:  One bar is $0.99, so a third of a bar is $0.33.

      Baking Soda:  A 64 oz box is $1.99, so a cup and a half is $0.37.

      Borax:  A 76 oz box of 20 Mule Team Borax is $3.99, so a cup and a half is $0.63.

Total:  $1.33 for a full quart container of laundry soap. 

Good:  Cleaner, better smelling clothes, no detergents in the waste water stream, no big empty plastic bottles in the landfill (recycle those cardboard baking soda and borax boxes). 

Cheesy Potato Soup

My food photography skills fail me on this one, but this is the best shot I have of a cheap and hearty meal that has become a weekend staple around my house:  Cheesy Potato Soup.

Including a vegetarian meal at least once a week is a quick way to reduce your food bills while upping your consumption of veggies.  This soup is hearty, satisfying, and will have you warmed up in no time after a day of shoveling snow.  (My thanks to "sal" on Allrecipes.com, who wrote the recipe that served as the inspiration for this version.)

Cheesy Potato Soup

2 T butter (Pasture butter if you can find it.)

1 c diced onions (From the root cellar if you have thought ahead.)

2 1/2 c diced potatoes, unpeeled (From the root cellar; I like the yellow potatoes if you are making a purchase.)

3 c chicken broth (Organic free range is nice.)

1 c heavy cream (Organic, again)

2 c shredded cheddar cheese

1 T dill weed (Dried from the summer makes it free.)

1/8 t ground cayenne pepper (Ditto on dried from summer.)

A few grinds of salt and pepper

In a large saucepan, saute onions in the butter until they are translucent.  Stir in potatoes and broth and let cook until potatoes are softened.

When potatoes are softened to your liking, add cream, spices, and cheese.  Cook until cheese is melted.  If you are using dill you dried yourself, you will see it "bloom" open, adding a lovely green speckle against the pale yellow of the soup.

Makes 4 servings.  Maybe 3 if you have been shoveling.

The Analysis

Fast:  This takes at most 45 minutes to prep and cook.  Not as fast as a can of soup, but darn quick in the homemade soup world.

Cheap:  This recipe, like many others, is scalable by budget.  Using organic free range broth and organic cream will drive up the price a bit, but these are choices I make because I am not happy with how CAFO animals are treated, and the organic options are at least some better.  On the other hand, relying on home-dried spices and cellared root vegetables will keep the price low. 

Good:  Much heartier and healthier than the glop from a can.

Philosophy 101: Recharacterizing Waste

Is it waste or abundance?

This morning, I enjoyed some strawberry flavoring in my coffee, a wonderfully summery treat in the middle of February.  My treat made me think about how much sustainability depends on recharacterizing waste.

Last summer, my husband and I made our annual journey to the pick-your-own strawberry farm, then spent the rest of the day (and night) freezing strawberries and making jam and preserves.  Preserves, by their nature, create a lot of liquid, so after I canned the whole fruit preserves, I was left with a pot of strawberry syrup.

My first instinct was to throw it away; it was the by-product of preserves, not the product I was aiming for, so it must be waste.  But then I thought better:  this stuff wasn't waste.  It was ice cream topping.  It was coffee flavoring.  It was a valuable product all its own.  I canned two or three pints, and I enjoyed some today, a delicious abundance in a time of year that can feel very sparse and limited.

We need to do the same thing with all of our processes to lead a sustainable life.  Rather than immediately consider something waste, we should ask ourselves what it becomes next.  Holey towels become dust rags; old clothes become quilt pieces; poultry bones and pieces become stock.  And yes, the leavings from canning can become flavorings, toppings, and other treats.  In the process, our lives become filled with abundance, because we have limited our waste. 

What "waste" can you find value in today?

The Analysis

Fast:  Changing your way of thinking may take time, but many forms of "waste" take less time to recharacterize than they do to dispose of.  I can go through the hassel of taking fireplace ashes to my weekly trash can, or I can use them to line my compost bucket, reducing any food scrap odor and providing important nitrogen to my compost pile.  The result is the best fertilizer on earth.

Cheap:  Turning waste into abundance is always a financial win.  It has the added benefit of reducing the amount of first-use "stuff" you have to buy, too.  I'm certainly not buying strawberry coffee flavoring this year.

Good:  A life with less waste and more abundance; quite good.

Sprouting Peppers and Hopes for Spring

Brrr

Right now, the view above is the only one I can see out my front door.  Luckily, I have a better view inside:

That's better!

The pepper seeds I planted around Groundhog Day started uncoiling their little white backs out of the soil after just 7 days; by Valentine's Day, I had a full tray of little seedlings, each with their bright green first pair of leaves unfolded to the light.  So, it is time to give them something to reach for.

Many seed-starting handbooks (and virtually all gardening catalogs) will start you salivating over "seedling condominiums," these sets of shelves with adjustable banks of grow lights suspended overhead.  They are lovely, and they will set you back somewhere around $200-$300.  If you are going into commercial seedling production, this may be a reasonable capital expenditure.  I, however, just want a nice cheap supply of peppers and salsa next summer and winter.

So, I took an old desk lamp, and I inserted a $3 grow bulb in it.  The bulb will provide the correct spectrum of light for the peppers to grow, and you are only out the cost of the bulb.  (Sorry, a traditional fluorescent or incandescent bulb won't do it, because it won't throw the correct parts of the light spectrum for the plants.)

The low-cost grow light.

The drawback of this approach is that you will need to shift the light during the day so each pot of seedlings gets direct light.  They like to have at least 14 hours of light, so it helps to have your seedlings in a high-traffic area (remember, mine are still in the kitchen) so you will nudge the light whenever you pass.  However, this system has worked very well for me for years. 

We won't need to do anything else to the peppers until we see a first set of "true" leaves, which should be in a couple of weeks.  Until then, just turn that light on in the morning and let them grow!

The Analysis

Fast:  You can pick up a grow bulb at any hardware store or greenhouse, or most grocers.  I know you have an old desk lamp sitting around, or some other lamp with a goose-type neck that will shine down on your peppers.

Cheap:  I haven't purchased a grow bulb since last year, but I usually purchase one a year at about $3.  As you will see, this ultimately becomes part of an array of lights and windows for seedling growth, so it works out to be a good deal, and much better than those seedling condos.

Good:  Peppers are still the goal here, and we're one step closer to salsa!

Note:  If you do not have an outdoor greenhouse or sunroom and are in zone 5 or north, you can still grow peppers with us here at FC&G.  Start your seeds now, and you will be about 2 weeks behind me, or just perfect for "adult" plants ready to set out on the first of June.

Cutting Costs with Coupons -- Carefully

If one of your primary motivations for embracing sustainability is saving money (and good for you, if so), then you will have found numerous books and blogs advising you to clip coupons.  If you watch daytime television, you have no doubt flipped on a show featuring some consumer who has managed to get her weekly groceries for free thanks to some fortuitous combination of coupons, coupon doubling, store sales, and rebates. 

If you are like me, after you deal with your feelings of coupon inadequacy, you start wondering what this woman is feeding her family.  If I actually could pull off a stunt like this, something tells me I would have a cart full of Go-Gurt and Pop-Tarts, plus 117 packages of disposable razors.  You will notice that the best sales always come on items that are full of HFCS, are overly processed, or are headed for a landfill after use.

Processed food and consumer product companies know that the small sales promotion known as a coupon will bring in those of us trying to save money; they hope it will gain them a convert to their product.  But be aware, they don't really want to let you have something for nothing.

Last night, I made my way out during Snowmageddon for an appointment, and along the way I stopped at the grocery.  (Names omitted to protect the guilty.)  I had in my hands a recent sales promotion for a premium brand of coffee offering a "free pound of coffee, up to $4.00."  Naturally, this is something I wanted to take advantage of.

Well, the store didn't post the price per pound, and I wasn't as vigilant as I should have been.  (This is thanks in part to the 20 minutes I spent digging my car out of the snow drift I call a driveway, but I digress.)  The end result was that I wound up with a pound of coffee listed at $7 and change per pound, for which I had a $4 coupon.  Still a respectable discount, but nothing to write home about price-wise.

My lesson?  If you are going to play the coupon game, remember that the deck is stacked in favor of the house, and it takes a great deal of planning to truly score a coupon deal.  I can't grow coffee, and I will drink this, so it is a fairly cheap lesson.  Had I purchased a food I could grow or make for myself and had a similar situation occur, I would be extremely angry.

The Analysis

Fast:  Coupons require time to clip, organize, and coordinate with your grocery list and store sales.  Only clip coupons for items and specific brands you would buy anyway, at full price. 

Cheap:  Not necessarily.  It is not at all out of the question for there to be a temporary price hike, either by the manufacturer or the store, that offsets your coupon.  Again, a coupon is only a deal if you would have purchased the item anyway.  If the coupon is the deciding factor, put the item back.

Good:  Make it your goal to try to restrict the food portions of your grocery list to the elements of food, rather than processed food, and you will see that your food bill goes down and that there are very few coupons available for you anyway.  Coupons for flour, spices, meat, and veggies are few and far between.

Fast food at its best!

Ode to the Pastured Egg, or, Cookies Like Grandma Made

Behold, the pastured egg!

I have recently lucked into a regular supply of pastured eggs, thanks to the efforts of a colleague who regularly visits a local farm.  (Thank you to the Egg Man, if he is reading this!)  I have to say, this has made a tremendous and unexpected improvement in our diet.

Pastured eggs are eggs from hens that have been fed primarily by grazing a pasture -- that is, they eat mostly grass and insects.  Even though they often require some additional feed during the winter, this is still a huge improvement over CAFO (concentrated animal feed operation) eggs, which come from hens that are kept in cages and fed mostly corn and antibiotics. 

Pastured eggs contain higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which we are learning are essential to heart health and mood stabilization. You will also just instinctively feel these eggs are healthier for you when you see how strong the shell is, how viscous the whites, how orange the "yellows."  These are clearly eggs intended to nurture a chick to hatching, and they must be better for a human along the way.  As it turns out, humans may need to consume a certain amount of grass and bugs, and it is more pleasant to get them by way of a chicken or cow. 

(For a much more complete explanation of CAFO operations and the benefits of food from animals left to live as God intended, read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.  Check here to buy on Amazon.com.)

Of course, a dozen pastured eggs for two people each week is a bit of a challenge, so I have been doing more baking and slipping an extra egg in whereever I can.  One of the best uses for these eggs is cookies, and I propose you make them a lot more like Grandma or Great-Grandma used to.

Take the traditional Toll House cookie recipe.  Most of us are accustomed to a product made with margarine, white flour, and CAFO eggs, and we get a light cookie that is pretty tasty and that we can eat 14 of in a sitting. 

But Grandma didn't have any of this.  For one thing, she didn't have margarine, so substitute butter.  If you do just this step, your cookies may be a bit oily; in this case, it is a lesson in tweaking the entire system, not simply one input.  So, move on to substitute pastured eggs, a cup of light whole wheat flour for one of the cups of bleached white flour, and turbinado sugar for the refined white sugar.  Bingo, you have a rich, satisfying cookie that has a depth of flavor you wouldn't expect from a simple chocolate chip cookie.  You will be consuming better fats, more complex sugars, and whole grains, and you will probably eat about two before you are satisfied. 

It is a wonderful way to celebrate my supply of pastured eggs.

The Analysis

Fast:  Getting a supply of pastured eggs may take some time.  You are pretty much at the mercy of a local farmer or a small enough grocery to buy local.  However, putting a pastured egg into a recipe certainly takes no extra time.

Cheap:  Yes and no.  I pay $3.50 a dozen for these eggs, which works out to about 29 cents an egg.  This is way more than the CAFO eggs in the store, which I can often get for 99 cents a dozen.  However, I think if I figured things out based on nutrient density or lack of antibiotic contamination or the like, the pastured eggs would win.

Good:  This is why you buy pastured eggs.  When you taste the difference they make in recipes, you won't see this as a place to economize.

More Projects from the Remnant Rack: Fleece Pillowcases

In the winter, I sew and do textile crafts for relaxation; in the summer, I garden.  So, it seems I am doing a lot of remant projects these days, as I wait to get back out in that garden.

In a previous post, I talked about the wonders of the remant rack of your local fabric store.  Another easy project to undertake is the fleece pillowcase.  It requires only two seams and a hem, so it is very easy to complete if you have a sewing machine, and it is oh-so soft and cozy on a winter night.

For this project, I lucked into a beautiful piece of remnant fleece that was a yard and quarter long, but you really only need a scrap that is two-thirds of a yard in length.  Most fleece comes in 58 inch widths, so that is perfect for covering a standard pillow.

Step 1:  Cut your fabric.

Leave the 58 inch "width" intact and cut the "length" of the remnant.  I cut mine to about 21 inches; you may wish to cut yours a little longer if you have extra-puffy pillows, as this measurement will make the width of the pillowcase.  Don't go too far overboard, though, because too much fabric will make a baggy pillowcase.

Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, so the 58 inch side of the fabric (which is the width of the fleece on the bolt, but is the length of the pillowcase; this is confusing to read but will make more sense with a piece of fabric in your hand) is doubled.  Make sure right sides of the fabric are together.  You will see that the part that will become the bottom edge of the pillowcase is already made by the fold; you just have two side seams to do in order to make a bag, which is all a pillowcase really is.

Step 2:  Sew up side seams.

Sew each side seam with 3/8 inch seam allowance.  This isn't set in stone; it is just a sewing convention I was taught.  More or less seam allowance will make the pillowcase tighter or looser, so here is where you can make up for a mistake in cutting if needed.  Lock in your stitches at the top and bottom of the seam.

Step 3:  Sew the hem.

Fold the raw edges of the opening down an inch.  Make sure you are folding toward the wrong side of the fabric, which should still be the side of the fabric you see.  Since fleece doesn't fray, you don't have to fold in twice as you would with other fabrics.  Sew the hem with a zig-zag stitch. 

Step 4:  Turn the pillowcase right side out.

You are done!

The Analysis

Fast:  This project routinely takes me a half an hour; it may take you a bit longer if you are a novice sewer. 

Cheap:  Definitely.  Take advantage of that remnant bin.  I got a yard and a quarter of this fabric for $4.63, and I used about two-thirds of a yard.  That works out to $2.44 for fabric costs.  Throw a few cents on for thread, and you arrive at $2.50.  You cannot buy a standard pillowcase in any fabric for that amount.

Good:  My hubby raves about these in the winter months; they are so soft and warm.  I think they are one of those little touches that make it that much easier to turn down the heat at night and cozy up, listening to the sweet sound of the heat not running and money not being spent.

Groundhog Day: Time to Plant Peppers

Whether or not your local groundhog saw his shadow this morning, we know spring is coming:  it is time to plant our pepper seeds!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I start my seeds on Groundhog Day because I'm in the lower part of zone 5 and I have a greenhouse that protects fragile plants during the sometimes up-and-down months of April and May.  If that last sentence is all Greek to you, don't worry:  If you reside somewhere that the traditional advice is to plant flowers outdoors on Mother's Day, start your peppers now.  If tender plants go out later, delay a bit.  If they go out earlier, then get moving!

I have made two changes to my seed-starting routine this year:

1. I used to use the expandable peat pellets that fit neatly into the little plastic "greenhouse" tray.  However, while the pellets are very convenient, I don't believe the claim that the fine mesh netting over the peat pellet is biodegradable; I've pulled those nets intact out of the ground at the end of a growing season, still clinging onto tomato roots.  Instead, I am using the Burpee PotMaker http://www.burpee.com/product/seed+starting/potmaker-+1+potmaker.do, a cute little device that allows you to make seed starter pots from newspaper, which is certainly compostable.  A little pricy, but I probably buy $10 worth of peat pellets each year, so this will pay for itself in two years.
2. Consequently, I am now using potting soil to start the seeds.  I'm convinced the little darlings will enjoy the nutrients in the potting soil more than they do the peat and will be healthier as a result.  We will see.

Ultimately, I made my pots, filled them with potting soil, and put in a few pepper seeds.  A few peppers will grow together as if they are a single plant, so five seeds in a pot isn't silly.  We won't be doing this when we get to tomatoes and zucchini.  Cover the seeds with a quarter to a half inch of soil, and cover the seeds with something that will hold in moisture.  I am using a plastic "greenhouse," but others have a lot of success with boxes covered with plastic wrap.

Now for one of my secret techniques:  While most garden supply stores will sell you heat mats to sit your seedlings on (and not a bad concept, because peppers, especially, like warm feet while they grow), I do the cheap version and sit mine on the counter over the dishwasher.  The heat from the dishwasher makes the peppers warm enough to grow.

For those worried about grow lights and things of that nature, you won't really need to provide any artificial light until the seedlings sprout, so we will cover that in about two weeks, when those little green hairpins that are pepper plants start uncoiling out of the soil.

The Analysis

Fast:  Hubby and I made the pots and planted the peppers in about an hour.  We won't need to do much other than check the dampness of the soil for quite some time.

Cheap:  The PotMaker set me back a bit this year ($19.95), but I think it will be a reasonable investment to reduce environmental impact.  I promise myself every year that this fall I will bring in a container of humus from the compost pile to use for seed starting so I don't wind up paying $2.99 for 20 lbs. of dirt (who pays for dirt, for crying out loud?), and this year I renew that pledge.  Someone yell at me in November to go out there and sift out some humus, OK?

Good:  Things growing in February; very good indeed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Gardens!

Pick a peck of peppers...

I miss my garden.  By the end of January every year, I would pay significant amounts of money for an afternoon spent with dirt between my toes, a hoe in my hand, and sun on my shoulders.  Luckily, if I can't have that, I can at least have the beginnings.  It is time to start seedlings!

Growing an edible plant is one of the best hedges against economic misfortune one can undertake, at least in terms of percentage return on investment.  The other day, I saw a 3 oz. jar of basil pesto in the grocery for $3.39, or $1.13 an ounce.  Last year, I grew 2 basil plants that yeilded enough basil for me to put up 14 8-oz. jars of pesto, or 112 total ounces of pesto, not counting the basil I ate on sandwiches, in salads, and in fish marinades.  I did contribute some olive oil to the pesto (I freeze just the basil and oil, adding salt and cheese when I prep my meal), but I got over 37 times as much pesto out of plants whose seeds cost about the same amount as that one expensive jar of store pesto.  Try making your mutual funds give you that kind of return.

I'm a serious gardener, but anyone (even if you have no land) can grow at least one edible plant this year.  If you really want to see a significant ROI from a plant you can enjoy for months, I recommend you grow peppers.

I call peppers my "big babies."  I start them on Groundhog Day (because I have a greenhouse and can put them outside earlier; if you don't, aim for Valentine's Day for seed-starting), and I keep them under grow lights in the house for months, slowly moving them to bigger and bigger pots until I finally move them into the big outdoor containers in which they will give me pounds of peppers for a small initial investment.  As this year goes on, we'll follow that process in these posts, but trust me, it is inexpensive and easy.

For right now, if you want to join me (and you are in growing zone 5/6 or north), go ahead and pick your peppers.  I like to grow mild chiles, because they have more flavor than green bell peppers and are fairly expensive to purchase, even from farmer's markets.  This year I picked these varieties from Burpee:

Salsa Delight, $3.95 for a seed pack:  My favorite pepper, these go straight into salsa, chili sauce, and fish and pasta dishes.  They bear well and freeze beautifully, as do all peppers.

Big Daddy, $4.75:  I tend to grow lots of experiments, and this is one for 2010.  Supposedly a big, sweet Marconi pepper, I'm hoping for peppers that are good for stuffing and grilling.

Bananarama, $4.95:  Banana peppers are fabulous frozen, which makes them so easy to throw on veggie pizzas over the winter with sun dried tomatoes and cheese.

Hot Zavory, $4.95:  One of Burpee's experiments for the year, this is supposedly a mild habanero.  We'll see.  Given that I can get peppers to produce every molecule of the spicy compound capsaicin that their DNA allows, I give even odds that by August these will be too hot to touch.  If not, they could be a lot of fun.

Paprika, free:  I saved paprika seeds last year, which is the only way I will grow paprika from now on.  I found the process of drying and grinding the peppers to be too laborious, but I'm willing to eat them fresh.

There you go.  We'll follow the process as time goes on, but for $18.60, we should be able to mess with peppers from the first of February to the first of November if not longer.  Just over $2 a month for a lot of pleasure.

The Analysis

Fast:  No.  Remember, I'm starting these things in February in hopes of eating some peppers on the Fourth of July.  Then again, it isn't like I actively have to do much with them, just give them time to grow.

Cheap:  Investment up front.  $18.60 is actually pretty expensive for seeds, but I wanted these particular varieties.  I'll still get my money back and more from the harvest, and the seeds are certainly cheaper than the antidepressants I would be taking otherwise to get through the winter without something green and growing.  (You can do better price-wise on pepper seeds at your local hardware store, as long as you are flexible about variety.)

Good:  Oh, just wait until that first batch of salsa this summer!

Projects from the Remnant Rack: Ersatz Cotton Balls

No, they aren't disposable.

Hi, my name is Jennifer, and I have a fleece addiction.

Let me back up a bit.  In previous posts, I talked about finding sustainable replacements for the kind of disposable items that are so annoying to pay for.  For me, one of these is cotton balls.

I know, I know.  They aren't that expensive.  But cotton balls are one of those inherently disposable items that slowly leach money from your wallet while they add to the landfill.  So, since I use cotton balls primarily as makeup removers, enter the ersatz cotton ball.

This requires another slight digression:  I love the remnant fabric bin at my local fabric store, and winter is the time that this bin is filled with fleece.  After everyone spent Christmas making homemade Snuggies, that bin is full of mis-cuts, unwanted yardage, and the ends of bolts.  So, if you aren't ultra-picky about the patterns you buy (and make no mistake, there are some cute ones and some wonderful solids in there), you can usually pick up fleece remnants ranging up to a yard and a half in length, all for 50 to 70 percent off.

I have been raiding the remnant bin for months to find pieces with which to make fleece socks, so I happened to have some white fleece ends left over, but any color would do.  Simply cut your fleece remnant into 2"x2" squares, and there you have it -- make up remover pads, otherwise known as ersatz cotton balls.  Fleece doesn't fray, so you don't have to worry about hemming, which makes this a fine no-sew project.

Yep, it's that easy!

I hang a mesh laundry bag on the back of the bathroom door, and when I have a reasonable bag full of dirties, I toss them in the white load.  I don't up the amount of detergent I use, and the weight of these is so negligible that I don't think my machine is adding more than a few cents extra water.  In the summer, I'll be hanging that mesh bag out on the clothes line to dry, so they will dry for free.  Best of all, I can use these again and again.

The Analysis

Fast:  I think it took me 10 minutes to make a jar full of ersatz cotton balls, enough to last me a while.  On a busy grocery day, it could take me that long to slog my way down the make-up aisle to get cotton balls.

Cheap:  I raided my own fleece stash and used pieces too small for anything else, but assuming you buy light-colored fleece for this project, you should be able to make all you need for about a quarter of a yard.  If you get your yardage from the remnant bin, you should not be spending more than 50 to 75 cents.

The closest analog to these is disposable make-up remover pads, which Rite-Aid has for $1.69 for 80; jumbo cotton balls should come in for about the same price for 100.  Assuming four to five purchases of each over the course of a year, you will spend $8.45 on your makeup remover pads if you buy the disposable, compared to about 75 cents for the reusable kind.  That leave $7.70 of pure savings, plus the warm fuzzy of knowing you didn't contribute these bits to the landfill.

Good:  I would say these are just as soft or softer than cotton balls, and they remove makeup just as well.

Product Showcase: Pepsi Throwback

Welcome back to the 1970s

I have been reticient so far in this column to plug any specific product, but a few product selections out there really have improved my "fast, cheap, and good quotient."  One that is right on the border, though, is Pepsi Throwback.

In about the mid-1970s, soft drink manufactureres began using high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to flavor their drinks.  It was purely an economic choice; HFCS is produced domestically from mass-grown corn (often, from corn that has been genetically modified in some way, but that is another kettle of worms), while natural sugar is often an import from areas tropical enough to grow sugar cane, hence subject to tarriffs.  HFCS also tends to extend the shelf life of some products, an additional economic boon for food manufacturers.

HFCS is a combination of fructose and glucose in certain proportions to each other; the most common is HFCS 55, which is 55% fructose.  And it has set off a firestorm of controversy.

The corn growers' industry has gone as far as to take out advertising promoting the acceptability of HFCS, and you know what?  They are right about some things.  It originates in corn, so it is "natural."  It is calorically equivalent to many other sweeteners, so by virtue of calories alone, it shouldn't change your weight.  And yes, like everything, a little bit probably won't kill you.

On the other hand, HFCS is a sweetener that is blended by man, and as such we cannot assume that our bodies can naturally handle it.  Sweetness typically is a sign to our bodies that a food is safe; the fructose in a blueberry tells us it is ripe, full of vitamins and antioxidants, and ready to eat.  There is a reason that we love maple sugar but don't eat maple leaves.  The further we get from foods we could have eaten 10,000 years ago, the more we are playing guessing games with our own bodies.

In the case of HFCS, who knows how our bodies handle it?  I know I have experimented, and if I hold my diet constant and substitute only one HFCS soda for an equivalent natural sugar soda, I gain noticeable fat in places I don't expect to find it, like my back.  If I switch back to the natural sugar soda (same caffeine, same calories, same caramel coloring), it goes away.  That's just me; we have no longitudinal studies.

Or do we?  Since the 1970s, we have been conducting an experiment on our population, changing the diet to include HFCS, saturated fat, and fast food, and the lifestyle to include more time in front of the TV and computer and less outside getting exercise and Vitamin D.  Our obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rates are through the roof.  It is a jumbled mess, but addresssing some of these areas has to help.

This brings me to Pepsi Throwback.  It is made with natural sugar, just as it was in the 1970s, avoiding the HFCS.  I find that the mouthfeel is less cloying, and it is less likely to leave that overly-sweet residue in your mouth.  I like the taste better. 

It is offered in three varieties:  Pepsi Throwback, Mountain Dew Throwback, and Heritage Dr. Pepper.  As an History of Advertising instructor, I appreciate the vintage designs, especially the "10, 2, and 4" campaign on Dr. Pepper.

And it is only available through the end of February.  If your budget includes an occasional soda pop purchase, and you want to send a message to the big conglomerates that consumers want options about what they put in their bodies other than "HFCS or abstinence," you may want to pick up a pack. 

The Analysis:

Fast:  Yes, it is just as fast to pick up a 12-pack of Throwback as it is the standard Pepsi sitting beside it.

Cheap:  No.  Last night, I paid $4.58 for a 12-pack, which is 38 cents a can.  If you can hold out for a "3 for $11" special, it brings it down to under 31 cents a can.  Don't start buying this product if you are needing to make big cuts in your budget, and don't pass up more nutritious foods so you can "vote" for Throwback.  This only works if you substitute Throwback for a normal soda pop purchase, and then make it an occasional treat and not your beverage of choice.

Good:  A qualified "yes."  A can of carbonated sugar may never be the best thing you can do for yourself or for sustainability.  But sometimes "better than usual" is a step in the right direction.