Back to Basics

That has been the underlying principle of the summer for us. Don't get me wrong, this is a normal thing for us simply for a sustainability and health stand-point. We also never have a large budget. Brad and I were students for a long time, he still is, and I spend most of my year focused on the homestead and growing as much as possible of what we eat. We take turns working to keep the bills paid but the focus is always on family, home(stead), and school. We prefer it this way. This, rather than unnecessary luxuries (along with the bills and debt they require) is what makes us happy. That being said, we are on an even tighter budget than usual. Brad normally works in an office during his off time from school. The further he gets in school the less time he has to work and starting next month he will have a teaching assistant-ship in grad school meaning he will have a full time paying position plus school. I am very proud! He has had to settle for working whenever he can at office this summer though since he won't be back full-time anytime soon. We are grateful for this, but money is tight. He is also working doing  odd-jobs (mostly computer work) when he can. Have I mentioned that I have a brilliant husband? Mostly he is staying home and checking things off of the massive to-do list that has managed to accumulate over time when he is busy at school. Brad is my best friend and I am loving having him home so much! I'm going to miss him when he has to go back to school next month.

Our modest home and car are paid for so that is hugely helpful. It is still nerve-wracking knowing that we still have bills and money going out with very little coming in. Lets be honest though. The beginning of the school year is always stressful money-wise. Especially since Keegan's (and now Liam's) birthday falls at the same time. We always manage somehow though. Everything always works out. We just have to work at it.

My job has been mainly to keep the gardens going, keep the yard cared for, keep the house functioning, canning and preserving like crazy, and cooking from scratch with as many things from our homestead as possible. The last one alone seems like a full-time job sometimes. A very rewarding job though that saves us a ridiculous amount of money. And despite being low on money, we have been eating very well. This past week we have dined on pizza, lasagna, and calzones from scratch. The cheeses were bought in bulk so they were much cheaper. I make all of our bread, including pizza crust, and the cost of flour (even good flour) is much cheaper than the prepackaged or fast food version. All of the sauce and toppings (minus pepperoni which we love and splurge on) were grown or at least picked and processed by us including sausage from our pigs. Other favorites are spaghetti, tacos, or beef with white gravy over rice, all from our family's (FIL) grass-fed beef or our sausage, sauteed with our own peppers and onions, homemade salsa or tomato sauce, and very few other basic ingredients (tortilla shells, some spices, pasta, rice). Our link sausage has been the center of many meals as well. Usually sauteed with onions and peppers and served along side green beans and potatoes, freshly sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, or some other veggies that we have grown here.

We have also been having wonderful breakfasts and desserts. I lump them together because I usually make them at the same time, in the middle of the day when it is too hot to do anything outside, and then put them up for later.We have had lots of fresh bread and biscuits with home-made jam, blueberry or pumpkin pancakes with homemade strawberry or blueberry syrup (homemade thinly gelled "oops" jam). Blueberry, pumpkin, and banana breads with our berries or left over fruit that needed to be used up. Blueberry and lemon meringue pies from our berries, eggs, and left-over lemon juice from canning. Basically, what-ever I can pull together with very little outside input from very basic ingredients. I am proud of some of the things I have been concocting and have getting to the point where most of the time I have very little use for a recipe. I used to be a very un-practiced and just plain bad cook. Now I feel like I can manage most anything with minimal instruction. It is a good feeling.

The main things that we have been having to purchase outside of our little bubble are:
- Canning jars
- cheeses
- milk
- butter
- yogurt
- flour
- oats
- rice
- sugar
- green and mint tea
- spices (salt, pepper, garlic, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, cinnamon)
- peanut butter
- honey
- tortilla chips
- lemon juice
- vinegar
- Olive oil
- Dog food


I list these things because I want to try to start reducing having to buy even most of these things. Canning jars are simply a good investment. I will be using them for years to come. I keep trying to convince Brad to let me have a dairy cow. That alone would cut our grocery money output by at least 1/3. Dairy is expensive (and highly processed, possessing tons of hormones and antibiotics, and from very cruel sources unless purchased from a local grass-fed dairy-i.e. even more expensive). Brad isn't giving any on that front so far. I need to talk to my father in-law about him possibly financing a share of a cow-share project if I do all of the dairy product processing work. I know I can figure out how to make soft cheeses, yogurt, and butter fairly easily. Harder cheeses will be more of a challenge, but we don't use them nearly as often anyway. I have already talked to him about wheat and think it is a definite possibility. I am willing to try oats as well. I don't think rice or sugar are a possibility in our area and I would just prefer to buy them.

I am already starting on the mint tea project! I have my mint starts growing happily under my light in the kitchen. I'm just waiting for them to get big enough to be comfortable planting them. I know from experience that they grow like wild fire and will take over any area they are planted in so I am hopeful that they will do well. I have been looking into green tea but it will be a much bigger project. It is the majority of what we drink here though (other than water). Some of the spices I will just have to buy, but I do plan to try garlic again this year (we use it in EVERYTHING) and purchase chili and cayenne pepper seeds this year as they are also often used spices. Especially chili power as we eat a ton of tacos and in the winter months chili is one of our favorites. peanut butter is a no-brainer. I should be making my own. Our area is known for peanuts and I have no excuse.

Honey is something else I need to get with my FIL about. Have I mentioned that he is my enabler and biggest supporter in all farmstead related en-devours? Brad jokes sometimes that he is worried that he must have married a long lost cousin or something. His (FIL) dad raised honey-bees so he knows quite a bit about it. I have already been seriously looking into it and have already decided where I want the hives. I just need to get the hives, equipment, and bees. That is where money comes in and I haven't made it further than that. I need to focus more on making this a reality. This will also cut down on the amount of sugar we use for baking, preserving, and such. I think I would rarely, if ever, use sugar if I had enough honey around.

Lemon juice is usually only used during canning season, but I do already have lemon and grapefruit tree root-stock growing in my kitchen. They are about a year old and need to be re-potted. I am hoping to graft good fruit varieties onto them once they are big enough. Hopefully by then I will have a greenhouse to put them in. My citrus trees died down to the root-stock last year because of the heavy frosts. I plant to graft onto those as well if they make it through this winter. The vinegar is very heavily used here. I use it not only for canning and cooking, but for cleaning. I keep a spray bottle of vinegar on my kitchen counter at all times to sanitize things. When paired with baking soda is does many other amazing things too (like unstop drains and scrub build up). I haven't done much research on making my own though. Perhaps in the future, but it is something that would probably be more easily bought.

I have indian flint corn growing in my garden right now that is supposed to be amazing ground up and cooked with. Hopefully it will do well. I plan to use it mainly for animal feed (one of our biggest expenses) but also try making corn flour out of it. Homemade tortillas and chips may be in our future. Most of this years crop (if it makes) will go for seed for a much bigger crop next year though. Finally, olive oil. I plan to cut way down on the use of this soon. Rendered lard from our pigs will replace it. Combining that with butter from our own cow or cow sharing would almost completely erase our need for it.  As for dog food. The dogs get supplemented with organ meat from all of the animals we process. They also eat scraps as we throw no food scraps away... ever (mostly meant for the chickens or compost pile... bread, veggie scraps, and such), and as much as I try to prevent it they get into the chicken feed every chance they get. They really eat very little when it comes to actual store bought food, but we could do better and it is something to work towards.

Many of these things may not happen until long in the future, but I have high hopes that they will happen. It is inspiring to look at this and see how close we are to needing almost nothing in terms of food from outside our little bubble. Amazing really. It makes me want to try that much harder to make it a reality. With hard work and determination anything really is possible. What a beautiful world we live in.