Springtime Dandelion Greens! Food From Your Yard

Here's a springtime money and health hack for you! Eat dandelion greens! Dandelion greens in early spring are good and good for you. Here is an article on how to find and use dandelion greens:

http://www.moneycrashers.com/eating-dandelions-health-benefits-leaves-greens-roots-flowers/

 Dandelions have calcium, iron, Vitamin C and Vitamin A and Vitamin K.  Here are some dandelion green nutrition facts: http://foodfacts.mercola.com/dandelion-greens.html Dandelions are great for your eyes, containing both zeaxanthin and lutein.

A couple of rules:

• Make sure you know what you are picking! Use online resources so you can compare and know for sure. If you are not certain of what you are picking, take them to your local extension office for verification before consuming.
• Make sure they are not covered with pesticides or other pollutants. 
• Remember you are responsible for what you eat. Safety first! Never put anything into your mouth when foraging unless you are sure you know what you have. This goes for all foods you pick. 

You can cook dandelion greens in a few ways. You can saute them in a pan like in this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/222744/dandelion-greens-with-a-kick/

I like to take a few like this, and just throw them into a smoothie!

Food right from your yard! Now that is frugality!

Happy Savings!

Dehydrating Foods

When we were camping, I found these amazing Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms! (Take care if you don't know anything about mushrooms! Some are poisonous!) Chicken of the Woods mushrooms are very good so I put these into a few baggies and took them home. A few years ago, I bought this dehydrator at a garage sale and just now got around to trying it out. So, after eating fresh mushrooms to our hearts content, I dehydrated the rest. 

It took a lot of mushrooms to make this pint jar! However, now, all winter when I want some mushrooms to put in soups or casseroles, I can grab this jar!

Since the mushroom project was so successful, I decided to dehydrate some raspberries this year. I usually freeze all the raspberries and make jam or juice them. My husband loves raspberries so he is using these on cereal and ice cream. 

I was concerned about any moisture left in the berries and mushrooms and so I dug some moisture "soakers" out of some supplements I had and put them into the jars. I'm sure a few grains of rice would work just as well but you would want to be careful not to get them into your cereal and break a tooth! THAT wouldn't be frugal. ;)

A dehydrator is not needed for dehydrating. Some people dehydrate in the sun or in their ovens. Here is an article on dehydrating: http://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/dehydrate-food-without-dehydrator-0161531/

 Happy Savings! 

Food in Your Yard! Fried Dandelion Heads!

I have never had fried dandelion heads until just the other day, but I will certainly be having them again in the future! Who would have guessed that this humble yard weed would taste so good??

I found this Appalachian recipe for fried dandelions: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/214172/fried-dandelions-appalachian-style/

First, after rinsing, they are soaked in eggs. 

 
Flour, salt and pepper are mixed and used to coat the dandelion heads. Then they are fried in butter.

 
I am very impressed with this recipe and idea I have never heard of before! I had this idea that if I soaked some in pickle juice, they would taste better, so I made some of each. The ones just as the recipe described were better than the pickle soaked ones. The pickle soaked ones are on the left and the regular ones are on the right.

 This is a very inexpensive dish! Just a little time, some eggs, flour and butter. (Make sure your yard is not chemically treated before you try this!)

Happy Savings!

Dandelion Greens for Dinner!

I haven't done much with dandelion greens in the past besides throw a few into a salad. Tonight, I tried a dandelion green side dish! I liked it. It isn't something I would want all the time but it was pretty good and it did hit the spot tonight! 

First, I picked the greens. 

                                                                                                                                                 
Then, they had to be soaked in salt water for 10 minutes.

    Next, they had to be boiled. I also sauteed the onion mixture as the greens boiled.

Then, I sauteed all the ingredients together! 

This is certainly a frugal dish! Since we don't use any chemicals on our lawn, I just picked them right outside our backdoor! Here is the recipe if you wish to try it! http://allrecipes.com/recipe/222744/dandelion-greens-with-a-kick/

Here are the nutrition facts for dandelion greens: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2857/2

Happy Savings!

Venison Stew with Cheese and Buns, Pickles and Caramel Brownies for About .45 a Serving

Sometimes I feel kind of bad making blog posts about these extremely frugal meals because I know not everyone has the resources I have. I hope though, that it can inspire frugal meals that you can do within your own resources. 

Tonight I made Venison Stew with buns, pickles and caramel brownies for about .45 a serving! This is not unusual for me because of the way we choose to live and the resources around me. 

First of all, a couple of nights ago I made a 3 lb venison roast. We harvest and butcher our own venison, so the venison cost was negligible. With this roast, I made potatoes that we harvest from a field in this area after they get done harvesting. We get enough for all winter every year and so I have more potatoes than I can use! In addition, my Dad gave me some garden carrots that I also made in this roast. The only things I paid for were the minced garlic and the green onion. So, we ate that for two meals. There was plenty of roast left, so I decided to make a stew with it. 

With the roast, I served these marked down buns from Wal-Mart. I heated them up and slathered butter on them and heated them some more until the butter looked good and slightly bubbly. The buns were .09 a serving.

In this stew, besides the venison, potatoes and carrots, which I paid nothing for, I added some fiddleheads that I foraged last spring. I also added some garlic, barley, wild rice, dried mushrooms, celery flakes and a few other spices which I guess to have added up to make the stew about .06 a serving. There are about 10 servings so we ate well tonight and will also eat well tomorrow.

 I bought shredded cheese on ad match at Wal-mart for .99 for 8 oz. This made each serving of cheese .12.

 I served the stew and buns with garden pickles and the cost of those is negligible.

For dessert, I made caramel brownies. I paid .99 for the box of brownies on sale and when I added up the rest of the ingredients and added homemade caramel topping, the cost per serving for the brownies is about .17 a serving. 

I also have a bit of roast left which will be enough to make roast beef sandwiches for about two days of eating plus scraps for the cat, who loves venison scraps, especially in the winter!

Any situation we find ourselves in, we can be creative with our resources. It's fun and it saves $$$!

Happy Savings! 

Berry Dessert for .17 a Serving!

Yes, this scrumptious berry dessert is only .17 a serving here in my household! It's berry season where I live. I went out and picked these lovely black caps yesterday so the berries were absolutely free (except for my time). I got about 2 pints. It makes me feel good to know that these were not planted nor cultivated nor transported so there were no fossil fuels used in the making of these berries!

 Then I found a nice deal on some loaf cake a while back and put it in the freezer. I got this out to use with the berries. It was marked down twice (original price was $3.48). I paid $1.36.

If I had bought 2 pints of these berries at perhaps $4.99/pint (I think they are usually packaged in 6 oz containers for about $2.99 or $3.99 so this is a guess) that would be $9.98 for the berries and then $3.48 for the cake for a total of $13.46 which comes to $1.68/serving. That's a a difference of $12.20 or $1.51/serving saved! It took me about an hour to pick the berries so I made $12.20/hr for my time (and in finding the cake on sale).

Happy Savings!

Foraging for Fiddleheads

In my area, it's fiddlehead season! I picked these in the photo a couple of days ago. These taste like a cross between asparagus and green beans and are quite good! Some are poisonous so you have to make sure to pick the right kind!

Here is a how to on fiddleheads!

http://fearlesseating.net/fiddleheads/

Happy Savings!

Making Maple Syrup

A few years ago, I started making maple syrup from my own back acres. We have a very rudimentary system, but it works for simple home use. Here in the photo below, I am starting to trek out.

Inside this sled, I have what I need. Drill, containers, hoses and rubber mallet. I pull the sled along as I go.

Here's the trail.

Last fall, I looked for maple tress and put small orange flags by the maples so I knew where to find them.

7/16th's drill bit fit the hose ends I bought on ebay so I drill a hole low on the tree.

After the hole is drilled, I whack the hose end in with a rubber mallet.

Then I attach a container to the other end for sap collection.

The trial left by the sled is great for remembering where to go next time I come out!

 After all the collecting, we have to boil it down. Every year, we never know how much sap we are going to get but you have to collect 40 gallons of sap that boil down to 1 gallon of syrup. Yes, you read that right! We do the boiling outside on a barrel stove my husband made. I don't have a picture of that right now.

We had so much syrup a couple years ago, I didn't collect last year and we still have some left! I have more than what is below, but took this as a sample picture. I found a lot of prices for maple syrup online but it's safe to say $20.00-$25.00 for a quart.

I use maple syrup in smoothies and on pancakes and I make berry syrup with the berries on our property.

Happy savings!

The Big Glean

Every year in this area there are a number of large potato fields that are harvested. They only take the largest potatoes and leave behind the smaller ones. Many people in the area go and harvest the smaller ones left behind. As you can see from the photo, these are not tiny potatoes, they are reasonably sized for eating. My husband and I went out and it took us one hour to pick these up. I did not weigh them all but I did weigh one 5 gallon bucket full at 35 lbs. The tubs have maybe two of the pails worth in them so lets say 7 five gallon bucket pails. That is 245 lbs of potatoes! Right now, I have seen russets go for about $1.97 for 10 lbs. or .20/ lb. so that's about $49.00 of potatoes. Take out about $2 for gas and it comes to about $47.00. It took my husband and I an hour to gather these so that is about $23.50/hour. We will use these all winter long plus I will give some to my parents and other relatives/friends who want some. I keep them covered in the garage and some of them might freeze but the ones closer to the house are usually good. I will end up throwing a few out at the end of the winter no doubt.

Beyond potatoes I do think about sustainability. According to this article, it says we spend 10 energy calories producing one calorie of food.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2011/08/11/10-calories-in-1-calorie-out-the-energy-we-spend-on-food/

Not only am I saving money by doing this, but I feel I am being a responsible citizen. I hate seeing this energy go to waste. These potatoes were planted, grown and harvested with oil. It makes me feel good to glean it off the land and put it to good use.

Not Just Frugality, but Sustainability: Almost Free Meal and Enough for Leftovers

Okay, please don't get discouraged. Not all of my food blogs will be on foraged, hunted and gardened food, but this one is. One thing I have noticed is that in being frugal, you very often end up helping the environment, without even really trying. Now, you may not be much of an environmentalist and that's okay by me. I'm more frugal than I am environmental. However, even though I started with frugality, I ended up patting myself on the back for being a good citizen and practicing sustainability.

Now, you may not see any importance in sustainability. Many people don't. I didn't either until I read a few books on the subject. Did you know that some say we spend about 10 calories in fossil fuels for every calorie produced? That's an incredible number. And completely non-sustainable. Sometimes when people use the word sustainability, you may envision some tree-huggers living in the woods and having ragged clothes and living in a commune, but we need to all care about this, we all need to care about sustainability. Spending 10 calories in energy for every calorie we consume is ridiculous; just think if you did that personally. You would die in short order. We use fossil fuels like there is no tomorrow. If you have never read on the subject, here is an article that goes over some of it:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2011/08/11/10-calories-in-1-calorie-out-the-energy-we-spend-on-food/

Our food is amazingly connected to oil. We plow our fields with tractors which use oil, we transport food with trucks and boats and cars which use oil. Oil is a finite resource. It seems ridiculous that we are trying to squeeze oil now out of shale. Anyway, I said all that to say this: the food in the above picture did use a little oil. My husband tilled the ground with gasoline and I tilled in between rows with a tiller and that took gas. I used no fertilizers or anything like that. I did cook it on an electric stove. So, I don't know how many energy calories this took to grow and cook per calorie produced, but I'd venture to guess it is much better than the 10:1 ratio of the food in the stores. Let's add to that that most of it was fresh picked and cooked this very day, so it is packed with nutrients.

We have clockwise from top left:
1. Garden green beans.
2. Garden mashed potatoes.
3. Vegetable medley from the garden of okra, squash and tomatoes.
4. Venison hunted and processed by my husband and I and Hen of the Woods mushrooms foraged by me.

So, not only was this meal almost free for us (aside from freezer storage for the venison and mushrooms and electricity to cook it and gasoline to till it and butter and spices to cook it in) but it is very sustainable. It is also very nutritious. There are also enough leftovers for lunch for one for the meat and veggies and leftovers for 4 on the potatoes (which I will cook up with something tomorrow night).

So, almost free for us and much, much less costly for the world at large. :)

There's Food in Them Thar Woods!!

Now I am going to make a total disclaimer here. I barely know anything about mushrooms. If you are wanting to do mushrooming, don't take my advice. Look at books or online for information regarding mushrooms because if you follow my advice you might end up sick or dead. Okay? Now that we got that out of the way, more about my Hen of the Woods. ;)

I was very excited the other day as I found my first ever Hen of the Woods mushroom (Maitake). I started mushrooming a couple years ago. My Dad and I went for a walk in the woods and he told me about puff balls. Puff balls are in the last picture. Most people know what puff balls are. If you pick them before they turn to puff, they are edible. They are pretty good but not nearly as good as Chicken of the Woods and Hen of the Woods (My husband is waiting for the Rooster of the Woods, but I don't think they exist.)

I was working at the library at the time I started mushrooming and so I checked out a full color book on mushrooming in Wisconsin. I brought it home, looked it over and, excited, went out into the woods and brought a small basket of different mushrooms home. I opened the book happy with myself. Wouldn't you know, not one mushroom in my basket matched a picture in that book. Okay, that was frustrating. So next I did some online research. I found Chicken of the Woods and Hen of the Woods online.

Later I was in the woods as saw my first Chicken. It was beautiful but I was scared as this was my first ever potential chicken and I wanted to make sure I was for sure correct about what I was looking at. But I had to go to work and when I got out there a day or two later, the mushroom was past it's prime and definitely not good for eating. Sad, since I was sure this was a chicken.

Later that fall, I found another Chicken. Chickens are not Hens. Confusing, I know. This was definitely a Chicken because it was orangish. I brought it home and it was the best mushroom we have ever tasted.

So to the other day. I had never seen a Hen of the Woods before. I was walking around and spotted it and thought "I think I have found a Hen!" I wasn't sure though so I went home and researched. I went through the checklist a couple of times to make sure it was the right kind of mushroom. 1. Brownish gray. CHECK! 2. Matched photos. CHECK! 3. Base of an oak tree. CHECK! 4. Porous underside, not gills. CHECK!

Awesome! So, I cut it at the base as it said in the videos and put it in a bowl. I was very glad because a lot of bugs crawled out. It put it upside down in the rain for a while and shook it. I took a very small piece, cooked it and ate it. 5. No death or stomach ache. CHECK! So, time to feed it to the Fam.

It is very, very good. I read online that per pound, this type of mushroom fresh goes for about $18.00 a lb! Mine was about 5 lbs so that's $90.00 worth of Hen or $60.00 an hour.

It took a long time to clean it and process it (an hour plus 1/2 hour hunting) but I feel it was well worth it. I froze what I didn't think we could eat fresh as I hear it makes a great cream of mushroom soup. Also, I can see it in spaghetti and a lot of other dishes as well.

So, don't take my advice on mushrooming. You're on your own on this one. :) But sometimes life is a risk and you are glad you took it.