Post Christmas Frugal Ideas

 Now is the time to think ahead to next Christmas.  Go to your local fabric store to buy yard pieces of Christmas themed fabric.  It is greatly marked down in price after Christmas.  I really enjoy using Christmas fabric in place of paper for wrapping presents.

Two of my favorite ways of using fabric for wrapping was covered in past blog posts.  “Fabric Gift Bags” from 2010 and “Gift Wrapping With Furoshiki” from 2011.

We have been using the same fabric gift wrapping for over 12 years and it still looks great.  If it does get soiled, then it’s easily washable. 

Try this idea for your family.  It’s fun, creative and frugal.

God bless,

Pam

Merry Christmas 🎄

 

Frugal Christmas Gifts: Meal Planner

 I am the first to admit that planning meals can be a challenge for me.  I never know if I will feel well enough (rheumatoid arthritis) to cook a full meal.  We keep certain staples in our kitchen for simple meals in case I am not well.

A meal planner is a great tool and I especially like one that doesn’t lock me into a certain date, but can be utilized whenever we need it during the week.

My husband does most of the grocery shopping, so the accompanying grocery list is a must.

Good for young people just starting out or us older folks learning to adjust to new challenges.

God bless,

Pam

Frugal Christmas Gifts: Japanese Hand Hoe

 From now on I’m going to recommend gifts that you can get quickly, usually from Amazon.

This hand hoe is, by far, my favorite gardening tool.  I use it every day and it only requires occasional sharpening and oiling for maintenance.

It is lightweight and sturdy.  And since I usually garden sitting, due to my arthritis, this length of handle works well for me.  Your favorite gardener will thank you.

God bless,

Pam

Frugal Christmas Gifts: Mushroom Kits

 As you can tell from recent posts I have been exploring growing mushrooms at home.  It’s a great deal of fun and I think it would be a great gift for the gardener in your life or as an learning experience for children.

There are many different mushroom spawn suppliers online, but experienced mushroom growers I know recommended Northspore and I have been very happy with them.  We have enjoyed eating mushrooms that aren’t available in our local grocery stores.  I’ve especially enjoyed making recipes with lions mane mushrooms; they are an excellent replacement for crabmeat.

In their Christmas gift section of the Northspore website are Spray and Grow Kits for beginners, Spray and Grow Kits with an accompanying children's book and some very cute mushroom Christmas ornaments.

I was given a coupon code by Northspore to share with you:  FRUGALMENNONITE

God bless,

Pam

Frugal Christmas Gifts: Loops Earplugs

 If you have someone in your life with a sensitivity to sounds these earplugs are an attractive, affordable, and effective option.  They come in different colors and strengths; from high noise blocking for sleep to partial noise blocking for everyday activities.

Loops come in a variety of colors and they look like jewelry, not earplugs, so you won’t be hesitant to wear them in public.

I have misophonia and it can negatively affect my ability to enjoy myself if my trigger noises are present.  But I have been able to handle my misophonia much better since I have purchased these earplugs.  Loops come with several different sized ear plugs and a small carrying case.  Right now they are having a buy three get one free sale.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Nematodes #3

 One of the best ways to fight nematode root knot is by applying beneficial nematodes to your garden soil twice a year.  Specific beneficial nematodes affect specific pests, such as fleas, grubs, tics and harmful nematodes.  Because of this I apply a three part nematode mix from Nature’s Good Guys.

The nematodes will arrive in a cool pack.  Remove the package of nematodes from the pack and immediately place in your refrigerator.  It’s important to keep them cool and apply them within a couple of weeks.

I apply them twice a year, spring and fall.  Mix the nematodes with water and place in a sprayer or watering can.  Pull your mulch to the side and apply the nematodes directly to the soil.  Then water the garden well to move the nematodes deeper into the soil.  Reapply your mulch and it’s that easy!

I have seen a big difference in the health of my plants since I’ve started actively been treating the garden with beneficial nematodes.

My upcoming posts are going to cover frugal Christmas gifts.  I’ve been experimenting with different ideas for gifts and look forward to sharing them with you.

God bless,

Pam

Happy Thanksgiving!

 I hope you are having a blessed Thanksgiving.  I scaled my Thanksgiving menu back and it made the day much more enjoyable.

Cornish game hens, green bean casserole (with some okra from the garden), cornbread stuffing, and homemade cranberry sauce.

God bless,

Pam

Mushrooms Are Thriving!

 Yesterday I was planting collards and mustard greens in the garden I had seeded with oyster mushrooms.  Every time I pulled the mulch aside I discovered a thriving network of mycelium.  There was even a baby mushroom, albeit very beaten up by Hurricane Nicole.

I am thrilled and very surprised by how easy it is to incorporate mushrooms into the garden; not only to eat, but to overall increase the health of the plants and the soil.

Later I was walking by the mushroom bed I started for shiitake mushrooms and saw a yellow oyster mushroom peaking out.  I had attempted to grow yellow oysters inside without success, so I threw the leftover spawn into the old mushroom bed.  Surprise!

I am like a little child when it comes to these mushrooms.  I think that by experimenting with something new it has added a fresh excitement for gardening and dispelled the ennui that comes from repetitive tasks.  So, try something new in the garden this year.

God bless,

Pam

P.S. I order my mushroom spawn from Northspore.  Use this link and use my coupon code: FRUGALMENNONITE for a discount.

The Frugal Garden: Nematodes #2

 Due to my ongoing fascination with fungi, I was thrilled to learn that seeding a garden with Wine Cap or Oyster mushrooms can make your garden plants resistant to root knot nematodes.  Here is a YouTube link to a video from Northspore about growing mushrooms in your garden.

I was advised to keep the Wine Cap mushrooms and Oyster mushrooms separate from each other.  I have two vegetable gardens, so I dedicated each to a separate type of mushroom.

The larger garden (above) is dedicated to the Wine Cap mushrooms.

And the small garden (above) is dedicated to the Oyster mushrooms.

It very easy to do.  First I raked back the mulch, broke up the bags of spawn, scattered the spawn throughout the garden, then recovered the garden with the mulch.

The large garden is usually mulched with pine straw, which works well in Florida, because our soil can be very alkaline.  If your soil isn’t alkaline just use regular straw.  The small garden is mulched with a layer of wood chips, then a layer of pine straw.  It also has decomposing oak roots from some oaks my neighbor had removed.

A couple of weeks after spreading the mushroom spawn I pulled back the mulch in the small garden and was quite happy to see that the Oyster spawn was already spreading.

You can purchase these mushroom spawns from Northspore.  Use the coupon code:  FRUGALMENNONITE  to get a discount.

I’ll keep you updated on the mushroom bed progress.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Nematodes #1

 Have you ever had a plant in your garden suddenly start to decline, then die?  Then when you pull up the plant it’s roots are gnarled and bumpy.  You are probably dealing with root knot nematodes.

Nematodes are a tiny worm like creature that can do incredible damage, and are prevalent here in Florida. Fortunately, there are ways to limit the damage they can do.

The first line of defense is solarization.  Several weeks before planting your garden cover the dirt with plastic, weigh it down and leave it.  The sun will kill the nematodes off, but the beneficial worms will just dig deeper and return when you remove the plastic.  In colder climates this has the added benefit of warming the soil and quick starting seed germination.

There is quite a debate on whether to use black plastic or clear plastic.  I use a dark colored tarp that I can use to cover other things in case of a tropical storm.  I’m not sure that the color even matters, so use what you have at hand.

There are two other methods that I use to control nematodes and I will cover them in future posts.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Bits and Bobs

 I wanted to share a few ideas from trying to garden during our ridiculously hot Florida summers.  This year I tried out shade cloth for the first time.  You can buy shade cloth in different strengths; the one I chose was 40% sun protection (like sunscreen).

I purchased some small hoops and placed the shade cloth over a raised garden and over a regular garden row.  It did extend the season by a month for pak choi and bok choi.  The down side is that the cloth kept out pollinators, but the slugs loved the shady environment.

My Seminole pumpkins did well.  I’ve been planting them along fences, shrubs and wherever I can find a bit of space.  Then we do our best to encourage the vines to stay out of high traffic areas, but where there is adequate sun.  When they are ripe they are a buff color and the flavor is strong and sweet.  They are a really good choice for areas that are too hot and humid for regular pumpkins.

Before you move into your down season (summer for me) mulch like your life depends on it.  The mulch protects the garden soil and the beneficial organisms within it.  I prefer straw type mulches, but anything you can obtain can be used.  My area does provide free mulch piles in our county parks, but I won’t use it in my vegetable gardens because I don’t know if they are contaminated with insecticide or, even worse, weed killer.

Hurricane Ian came through south of me.  I only lost a few plants, but some people lost their entire gardens (or worse their homes).  Don’t allow setbacks and losses in the garden discourage you.  Every year every gardener faces failure.  Think of failure as a learning experience and an opportunity to try new things in your garden.  The most successful gardeners look hopefully to the future.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Shiitake Experiment

 I plan on expanding my gardens to include mushrooms.  I’m going to try several different methods over the next few months to see which types of mushrooms and which method works best for my environment.

Mushroom mycelium are the fine rootlike structures that fungus use to decompose dead organic material for nutrition.  They form a symbiotic relationship with plants, allowing plants to access those nutrients and water.  Mycelium can help protect plants from diseases.  Scientists have discovered that mycelium can act similar to nerve cells, producing electrical impulses that allow plants to communicate in a very basic way. It is a fascinating discovery and I recommend reading anything by Paul Stamets.

My favorite and most used mushroom is shiitake.  I use them to add that umami flavor to many dishes.  Shiitake grow on decomposing wood, and since I don’t have any hardwood logs available, I decided to see if they would grow on wood mulch.

First I spread some old wood mulch on the ground in an area that is partially shaded.  Unfortunately the photo I took of the shiitake spawn I bought from Northspore  didn’t get saved, but the next step was to spread the spawn over the mulch.  I did several layers of mulch and spawn.  I then covered the entire area with a light layer of pine straw.

On dry days I give the area a light mist of water.  Now I wait to see if this is a success.

I highly recommend that you check out the Northspore  website for more information.  They have a very informative blog and videos on growing mushrooms at home.  They have kindly given me a coupon code to receive a discount on their site:  FRUGALMENNONITE.

Our brutally hot summer has slowed the garden to a halt, but I have started my seeds for the Fall garden and I look forward to more temperate weather.  In Florida we garden all year round, but Fall, Winter and Spring are our main seasons.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Raised Beds

 I have recently been trying out using a raised garden bed.  I am thinking ahead to the future and how to continue gardening as I age.  So I ordered a tall (waist height for me) Birdies raised bed from Epic Gardening.  I chose this type of raised bed because it can be configured several different ways and the materials should hold up to the Florida weather.

They come delivered in a flat pack and heavy box.  I assembled the bed by myself using the tool that was included in the box.  It took a half day, but only because I took my time and didn’t rush.

Next came filling it.  Based on the size of the raised bed, there was no way I could fill it up completely with garden soil.  I decided to use the lasagna method by adding different layers of materials.  The first layer was large pieces of wood from pruning trees and shrubs.  The second layer was smaller trimmings.  Third we’re several layers of flattened cardboard boxes.  The fourth layer was grass clippings.  The last layer was garden soil mix with perlite or vermiculite and fertilizer.

It’s interesting that I still have the same weed and insect problems with this raised bed as I do in my regular gardens, but it’s much easier for me to access for planting and weeding.  

I’ll keep using it and will let you know my thoughts on this type of garden bed.

Another seller of this type of garden bed is Vego.  Shop around for sales as these beds are pricey.

God bless Pm

The Frugal Garden: Potatoes in Pots

 If you live in an area with poor soil or extreme weather try growing potatoes in pots.  You can control the soil quality, move the pots before inclement weather and the potatoes are much easier to harvest.

I used fabric pots this year, but I’m transitioning to recycled plastic trugs.  The sides of the fabric pots tend to collapse and make watering tricky; however, they fold flat and are easy to store.  The fabric pots and trugs are around 11 gallons, enough to hold three potato plants.

Place several inches of soil into the pots and plant two or three seed potatoes.  After they sprout and start growing add more soil into the pot, leaving a couple of inches of plant showing.  Keep adding soil as the plants grow, which encourages more root growth resulting in more potatoes.

When the plants begin to die back it’s time to harvest.  Dump the pots out and just pick up the potatoes from the soil.  Much easier than digging the potatoes out and possibly damaging the potatoes with your fork or shovel.

Next season I’m going to buy organic potatoes at the store rather than ordering seed potatoes.  I haven’t been impressed by the quality of the seed potatoes available in my area.

We had boiled potatoes with butter, salt and pepper for supper.  Yum!

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Mulberries

 Two years ago I decided to order mulberry seedlings from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  They were as big as my thumb, but grew quickly with me transplanting them to bigger and bigger pots.  After a couple of months they were ready to transplant into the ground.  Here’s my biggest tree:

It’s as tall as the roof of my one story house and has been producing berries since late April.  The first year we only got a handful of small berries, but this year the berries are larger, prolific, and are very sweet.  These are dwarf, everbearing mulberries.

The berries look pretty when they are growing.

But wait until they are black to harvest, then they are at their best.  They should fall off into your hand with the slightest touch.  If we had more trees we would lay tarps down under them and give the branches a shake to knock them down.  However, I enjoy going out in the dusk sun and picking the berries for tomorrow’s breakfast.  It’s feels very meditative to me and clears my mind of the day’s troubles.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Dooryard Garden Update

 A Dooryard garden is an easily accessible garden space, just outside a doorway, for easy harvesting of herbs, flowers and sometimes vegetables.  Mine is by my front door, so I work to keep it visually pleasing.

I keep a seed starting area inside my house and every week I replace dying plants with new seedlings.  If I do have a blank area, I keep a variety of attractive pots planted and move them into the empty space.

Here are my dooryard garden at the beginning of the growing season and now when most of the plants are maturing.

Experiment with the plants that you use for cooking and with your favorite flowers.  Two of the larger pots contain hot peppers, one yellow and one red.  Both are attractive and tasty.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Kitchen: Beans and Greens II

 Earlier this week we were expecting storms, so we harvested our collard greens and mustard greens.  Now remember that I live in Florida, so our growing season is Fall, Winter and early Spring.  Collards taste better after a little cold weather making early Spring a good time to harvest.

I soaked the greens in lightly soapy water, then soak them and rinse in cold water.  In the meantime I have lightly salted water boiling in a large pot.  I cut out the tough ribs and cut the greens into manageable pieces.  Put the greens in the boiling water and blanch for three to five minutes.  This neutralizes the enzymes that can effect the quality of the greens.  Pack the greens into freezer safe containers and freeze.

Today I made beans and greens using collard greens and dried white kidney beans.

INGREDIENTS 

1 cup dried beans soaked in water overnight

2 or 3 cups frozen collard greens 

1 smoked ham hock or 1 Tbsp. ham soup base

3 finely minced garlic cloves or 1 Tbsp. garlic soup base.

4 cups water

2 bay leaves

Black pepper to taste

Salt to taste ( I didn’t need to add any)

1 Tbsp. vinegar if you feel it needs it at the end of cooking

Place all ingredients, except salt and vinegar, in an electric or regular pressure cooker.  Cook on high for 45 minutes or, if you like very soft beans, 1 hour.  After cooking taste for salt or vinegar.  Adding these two ingredients before cooking will result in tough beans.

Serve with corn bread or soda crackers.  Enjoy!

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Kitchen: Oil Hardener

 Putting cooking oil down the drain can damage septic systems, government sewer systems, and the pipes in your home.  I don’t know why I never heard of oil hardeners, but they have been available in Asia for years.

Once you are done cooking you add the hardening powder to hot oil, stir until dissolved and when the oil cools it hardens.

At that point just scoop the hardened oil out of the pan with a spatula and put it in your trash.  Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and wash as usual.

An added bonus is that the hardener is a natural substance derived from oil and is not harmful to the environment.  It’s made cleaning up much easier than when I was saving containers to dispose of oil rather than recycling them.

God bless,

Pam

Pav Bhaji, a Frugal Recipe

 You know that time of the year when the tomatoes from the garden won’t stop.  This vegetable stew with slightly sweet dinner rolls to sop up the juices is a perfect way to use up tomatoes and any spare vegetables you have lying around.  

I got this recipe from Indian Healthy Recipes and I adjusted it for my family’s taste.  The Pav Bhaji spice mix that I have includes the hot chili, so I didn’t add more.

The dinner rolls are fromSally’s Baking Addiction and this is one of my favorite dinner roll recipes.  This recipe calls for whole milk which I didn’t have on hand, so I added a tablespoon of dried milk to the low fat milk I did have.

Pav Bhaji is a popular street food in Mumbai, India.  Vendors pride themselves on how much butter they use but I was conservative (stingy?) and only used a couple of tablespoons.  Enjoy!

God bless,

Pam

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The Tomatoes are Better Than Ever

 Growing tomatoes in Florida is difficult.  In fact, gardening in Florida is a challenge.  Hot, humid weather with voracious insects and small hungry mammals. “I’m talking about you, squirrels.”  People move here full of confidence in their gardening abilities and within a year they are crying on the local gardening group.

Then we explain that gardening in Florida is like living in Australia; you must garden in the winter.  Basically, our gardening is done from September to May.  In the summer we are limited to okra, cowpeas, and sweet potatoes.

As an example, tomatoes won’t set fruit until nighttime temperatures are under 75F.  If by some miracle you have healthy tomato plants in the summer, they won’t produce fruit.  They have become an ornamental shrub.

So it is with much happiness that I show off today’s tomato harvest.

God bless,

Pam

Well, it’s been a wild two years!

Despite two years of Covid, Dear Daughter starting college, husband having two heart attacks and no longer working, I am in a good place. Probably happier and healthier (physically and mentally) than I've been for quite a while. 

 Dear Daughter has started her junior year at college, husband has taken up kayaking, and when Covid came to be I morphed from being an average gardener to transitioning into being focused on learning more about food production, year round gardening,Florida native plants,and creating a quarter of an acre outside sanctuary. Truly, without my garden, it would have been hard to get through the last two years. 

Change is hard for people, but the garden kept me grounded, focused on creating something of real worth, and exercising my body in a productive way. The garden gave me a purpose. I'm looking forward to sharing my life with people again and discussing these challenging times with you.

 God bless, Pam