If we didn’t eat it fresh from the garden, we canned it.
Beans, corn, pumpkin, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and the wild black raspberries and mulberry.
We also shop the sales...and rarely eat out anymore
We live on a farm, so it would be a SIN to NOT take advantage of all the money-saving things we can do around here, when it comes to feeding ourselves.
*Grow a Food Garden. 16 raised beds and a greenhouse. Eat our fill and can, dehydrate and freeze the rest. I can keep fresh salad greens going until November in the unheated greenhouse, under cover. A second ‘Big Garden’ that will be converted to raised beds when the price of lumber comes back down. Right now we grow potatoes, corn and winter squash in there. It’s a mess and always a ‘treasure hunt,’ LOL!
*Fruit trees and small fruits. We have Peaches, Cherries, Apples, Pears, Grapes & Raspberries.
*Hunt & Fish - pretty much free protein! We butcher our own venison and clean our own fish. I LOVE Fish Tacos. I could live on them, LOL! Beau also hunts bear, elk and moose, though that’s not as reliable as raising a steer.
*Raise chickens for eggs and meat.
*Raise a beef steer we get FOR FREE from the neighbor who has a dairy (he rents our production land for dairy crops) and needs to cull out the boys. Takes 15 months to finish one. Raised on hay and grain in the winter, and grazed on grass all spring, summer and fall. Cheap to raise. Breaks down to about $3.50/pound for all cuts when butchered. (We take them to ‘The Spa.’)
Forage. Mushrooms; Morel and Golden Oyster. Mulberries, Black Cap Raspberries, Blackberries and Elderberries.
I’ll do a separate post on how I save $$$ in the kitchen and on other groceries we buy.