Modern urban homesteading in Western New York utilizing an organic intensive raised bed gardening technique, vertical & gorilla gardening, foraging, gleaning, and bartering as alternatives to traditional/modern rual homesteading methods on less than 1/14 of an acre.
Learning nonelectric homesteading skills as a family.
One too many vintage issues of MEN magazine crossed with MacGyver type mentality done on the cheap.
Unable to buy the 50 pounds of Organic Red Winter Wheat Berries that I posted about a few days ago because it's no longer in stock. Next best price is 25 pound bag or 92¢ per pound an increase of almost 20¢ from the deal I posted about.
That's what happens to procrastinators, they loose out.
Clicked on the icon for Amazon to notify me when the 50 pound bag of Great River is in stock.
We have enough wheat berries (non-organic) in the short term pantry to hold us over for the year. And another two years worth in the long term preps.
In the meantime I ordered
Subscribe & Save - $21.16 for 11 & 1/4 pounds (12¢ per once) of organic steel cut oats a.k.a. Irish or Scottish depending on who's doing the cooking. Woodsrunner is of Scottish decent & I'm half Irish. Normally the Puerto Rican in me cooks Farina for breakfast. With Winter around the corner I think having a bowl of hearty oatmeal topped with my home canned applesauce then sprinkled with nutmeg would set us straight.
Yes, I fully realize that I can't get any more boring than ordering oatmeal with my free money. What can I say knowing I have a stocked pantry makes me happy.
Knowing that I'm prepping for free makes me extremely happy.
I have just under $42 in my Amazon account than you very much to Swagbucks. And it's burning a hole in my virtual pocket so to speak. It's the hunt or shopping on Amazon for the best bargains, the most bang for my buck from the perspective of a fugal homesteader. Liken it to hanging out all morning @ your favorite thrift store on half off day. You never know what deals await with the click of a mouse.
For the last few weeks I have been doing Amazon searches coffee, whole bean to be exact because it stores better than ground (once the bean is crushed there's a finite shelf life). Today was suppose to be the day that I do an order of my favorite beverage. It's kinda like wine shopping for me. The research is almost as much as the drinking.
Then I got to thinking ... yeah I know but this is one is a reality.
I can barter for for coffee.
I can't always barter for pantry staples like wheat. While I have just about enough wheat to last us for the coming year the general rule if prepping is to have @ least 3 yearsworth of supplies. Be it batteries or bread or the means to make bread which for us is wheat berries.
So this is what I have come up with -
I can't touch this price locally thru my usual sources (restaurant supply store) and since I all I have in my pocket to spend are my Amazon gift cards I think that this is a pretty good deal.
I'm open to suggestions people.
I haven't clicked on the subscribe & save button yet.
It's 50 lbs. for $38.30 or 77¢ per pound. No shipping & handling fee.
For those of you who can't or don't grind your grain here is an equally good deal $24.45 or 8¢ per once organic bread flour whole wheat - four 5 lbs. bags = 20 lbs. (subscribe & save) -
ETA: my barter buddy source for locally grown wheat dried up.
Changed the recipe by adding minced garlic, finely diced onion, sage, & whole fennel seeds. The garlic & sage I added to both the cooking water for the beans and in the final dish. Also instead of using lima beans I substituted lentils because I had prepped them in abundance a few years ago before I realized that we don't particularly care for lentils. I also added the whole beaten egg to the lentils directly rather than using the egg for dipping. I should have mashed the beans up more thoroughly next time I'll run them threw the electric mixer or a sieve as the directions told me to. Using a table fork wasn't the way to go.
I think that frying the Mock Sausage in lard helped with the illusion of this being a breakfast sausage. All total I only used a tablespoon of lard (my free lard).
It certainly resembles sausage and according to my teenage daughter it smelled like it. Next time I will go a bit heavier with the herbs & seasonings and use the given amount of salt that was called for in the recipe.
Also I will try making this with powdered eggs.
Not bad all in all especially since we haven't been able to afford breakfast sausage in a month of Sundays.
Now of course I'm wondering if I can make an Italian Mock Sausage for pasta night.
Cart is still in the front yard takes two people to move it around now very heavy. We move it back & forth from the front walk to the grass. As you can see some of the tomatoes are starting to ripen.
My first ever Burpee Long Keepers. Can't wait to taste them.
Few months ago Hubby & my oldest daughter pitched in together to get me a kindle. Apprently I had mentioned a few times how a friend had one. Hadn't really realized that I had but Woodsrunner is really good @ picking out a gift for people because he listens & observes. Yeah I know unique & a bit scary.
He was right of course because I love my Kindle.
I can sit in my kitchen or on my couch, or out on the patio and wander through the biggest book store in the world. Granted not every title is in Kindle format but enough to keep me busy. I can use the extremely helpful sample feature to actually read sample portion of the book.
Another great thing about Kindle is Amazon's free Kindle section on their website. I had to look around but one of the free books I found pretty appropriate in our current economic times. Ever feel like your doing battle when it comes to cooking on a budget ?
Here's my no sew, re-purposed, stylish suede combination Kindle/notepad/pen holder bought @ a tag sale for 50¢ but I used my soda can $ which make it's free.
Don't under estimate the power of empty soda cans & bottles paired up with second hand sales.
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The leather shoe lace & beige beads I had scavenged off of other items found in my sewing stash. I think that both came from my son's day as a Boy Scout. I was hoping to find a closure from an old purse but no luck for now this works.
Hard to see but since I wasn't in a sewing mood I just attached the leather lace with a tiny gold toned safety pin, scavenged off of who knows what and tossed into my sewing box.
Self adhesive hook & loop squares came in to the home in a box of stuffs passed on by an acquaintance.
The note pad came from my insurance agent who was moving her office from one downtown building to another and had a box of office supplies she wanted gone.
Pen is a gift from our gun smith.
Thirtyfivebyninety (pelenaka) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
I recommend & review products personally (that I have bought on Amazon) or currently use in our daily life here on our urban homestead. If I'm recommending a product it is because Amazon has the best price. I strive to purchase only American made products.
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