Posted on 04/19/2020 5:06:23 AM PDT by blam
Are those the hang on the wall kind or the ‘bag in the floor’ kind?
Root pouches are just fabric containers made from recycled water bottles...they just sit on the ground or any other flat surface...great for decks, if you stuck in a condo or apartment.
I remember Rolling Stores from my summer visits to my grandparents cotton farm in rural Alabama. The store seemed to have everything and would take anything in payment. My grandmother would trade chicken eggs for coffee, pickles for spices, etc.(sometimes live chickens)
The driver always gave us kids some hard candy because we would always be on the lookout for him and run tell grandma.
The Rollin' Store would sell the things bartered from my grandma on down the road to someone else. What a life.
Ah. I’ll keep an eye out for those.
Continuing with ways to stretch the food you already have.
When opening canned veggies, pour the liquid into a freezer container. Same with cooked fresh vegetables.
Free vegetable stock. Keep adding veg liquid to the container. Eventually you’ll have enough stock for soup or use it however you wish. Green beans, corn and carrots work well in the same container. Pea liquid can be kept in a separate container to add as the liquid to dried pea soup. Beet liquid can be used as the liquid in a chocolate cake batter.
Pickle juice (any pickled veggie liquid) can be used as seasoning and liquid in a pork roast. Pour a cup or two into a crockpot along with a pork roast and a couple of sliced onions, yum (the pickling liquid will probably be enough salt so you don’t need to add any). Or use it as the vinegar when cleaning the kitchen and bathroom sink pipes.
Boil meat bones in water for more free stock. Freeze for later use. In fact, save and freeze all meat liquid rather than pouring down the sink.
When cooked meats chill, the fat rises and congeals on the top. Keep adding that fat to a freezer container. Use it in cooking. It saves a trip to the germy grocery store when needing lard for making tamales and adds more flavor. Run the harder fat portion from a pork shoulder roast (that you are making those tamales from!) through a food processor to mushy it up enough. Yeah, yeah, people think fat is horrible, whatever.
Don’t toss that chicken skin. Bake them into chicharrones.
Use those little bits of leftovers all week on a Saturday night homemade pizza. Or freeze them for a soup or casserole.
Toss those carrot tops into most any dish.
If you see your fresh produce going bad before you can use it, freeze it immediately.
Eggs can be frozen raw. Thaw at room temperature to maintain the texture. They can be frozen in a scrambled mix. They can be poured into ice cube trays either whole or separated by yolks and whites whichever way you’ll use them later.
Ice trays are handy for freezing little portions. Measure the size of yours. Many hold about 2 Tablespoons. If you’re into homemade yogurt, that’s one measurement of frozen starter. Perfect size to portion out that half used can of tomato paste, etc.
There was a discussion on FR recently on saving onion skins to boil and use in soups. Strained, of course.
Those who purchase fresh produce with the tops on (beets, radishes, carrots, celery, etc.), for goodness sake, eat the tops.
When cutting up celery, save the ugly white parts and leaves. Chop them up and freeze them for later use in soups, casseroles or the holiday dressing. Our only grocer is bad about not stocking celery during the holiday season so that frozen celery is one less worry.
Some people buy fresh broccoli and throw out the stems. NO! Use a peeler to cut off the outside tough part of the stems. Cut up the tender inner part of the stems and cook with the flowerettes.
Give the dog the cores of cauliflower and cabbage. He might enjoy it and adds something fresh to his diet.
Of course, many times water can be substituted for milk.
Think about what ingredients can be substituted in recipes with what you already have on hand or what you don’t want to use up during these times. Whatever it takes not to make a trip to the germy grocery store. Can you get by with not so much cheese in the mac ‘n cheese? Can you make a carrot/canned pineapple/raisin salad instead of having a lettuce salad when lettuce can’t be washed?
Koolaid tastes much better with half the sugar. The kids might have a little fun making koolaid popcicles saving a trip to the infected store for ice cream or paying $13 for Pelosi ice cream.
The only seeds that I’ve found that are hybrid that are great for taste is Heinz variety sauce tomatoes.
Greenhouse Megastore carries them in sizes ranging from one gallon to 600 gallons.
Kiddo’s preschool class grew peanuts (oh, the horrors!) in styrofoam cups. We grew peanuts in the garden for years from those 4 little plants.
Avoid Amazon like the plague.
I still have some of the seeds you sent me, a few years ago, in my freezer. They're there with my mom's old favorites.
When my kiddos were little, I took watermelons, washed, and cut into sections. Put those in ziploc bags and froze them. Perfect frozen treats. Put kiddo on plastic dropcloth with big bowl, spoon and it was at least 30 minutes of entertainment. When done, pick kiddo up and plop kiddo into the bath.
Watermelons are ‘free’ if you grow them yourself.
You answered your own question. You got free containers once from the grocery bakery so....
Yippee.
I grow those squash every year and cook them for my family. Also feed extras + unneeded seeds to my poultry in the winter. I’ve read squash/pumpkin seeds are natural poultry dewormers.
LOL.
600 gallons.
I love greenhouse megastore.
I have BB sized tomatoes already.
Make your own starter. That stuff never runs out and only gets better.
That was the original chain distribution :".. from my grandma on down the road to someone else. "
Barter allowed you and your family to replace your surplus, and distribute it to others who had a shortage.
The vendor who operated the 'rolling store' knew that the candy for kids was a good investment for continued sales and advertising.
The system provided good nutrition, and the vendor always made a little profit in the transactions, enough to keep going from year to year,
and served as a good neighborhood communication, and sometimes a neighborhood rumor system.
Seeds/toilet paper shortages go together if you think about it. If you buy lots of seeds, eat a lot of food and you need a lot of toilet paper. If only people would stop eating until this period of forced house arrest is over we wouldn’t have these kind of problems!
My mom would sometimes make picked watermelon rind, during 'hard times'
and would then package them up with a ribbon topped 2 pint jar, and distribute them as 'Christmas Presents'.
There were times that that's all she could afford, and they were warmly received and served in the cold and snowy season.
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