Peaches!

It's that time of year again when my favorite variety of peaches is ripe.  At our local peach farm, the Ruby Prince variety is in season.  So we all went down there and gathered the culls (the rejects) and came home with a pile of peaches, about 125 pounds!  The culls are only $5 for a 25 pound box.  So it is easy to get a lot, maybe too much?

 We got those 3 boxes plus 2 containers.  Here we are scalding the peaches to remove the skins, then cutting them off of the pit. 

 It is a messy, sticky, time-consuming job.  All of the family pitched in to help!  We put the peaches in water with citric acid, lemon juice, to keep them from turning brown.  Thankfully, Julia took some pictures.  My hands were way too sticky to pick up my camera.  She was a great help too, you just can't see her in these pictures. 

 Then I made peach jam.  I also canned peaches for desserts and smoothies.  Some peaches went into the freezer but most were canned.  This in only half of the peaches.  The rest are waiting in the outside frig to be made into tasty jam. 

I really love making our own jam.  I don't buy any jam from the store but make all of our own every year.  It is a lot of hard work but the benefits last all year long! 

What have you been up to lately?  Please feel free to leave a comment, I would enjoy hearing from you!

Garbage....er...Extra-ordinary Soup!

Learning how to save money or how to be a better steward of what I do have is a constant pursuit of mine.  Recently, my sweet friend, Danna, lent me her copy of Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half with America's Cheapest Family®.  It was a great book and I learned so much.  There is no way I can implement all of the ideas at once but I am doing what I can. 

One great idea was called Garbage Soup.  After we tried it, Julia aptly named it Extra-ordinary Soup.  She named it that because you take ordinary leftovers and save them in a jar in the freezer.  When you have enough, you make it into soup, possibly adding some fresh onion and celery or whatever you have on hand and it becomes extra-ordinary!  If you don't generate any leftover dripping from meat for broth, you could use bouillion.  I really like it because it tastes great but also because we won't waste those little bits of leftovers anymore!

This is the second jar of leftover we have accumulated since I read the neat tip. 

 It's about time to make that good soup!

You can learn more about the authors, Steve and Annette Economides, on their website, America's Cheapest Family.

You can also learn the benefits of homemade broth from an older post that I did here.   The link for the Broth is Beautiful article has moved to here.



 Happy cooking,

Personal! For Ladies Only!!

OK, don't say I didn't warn you.  Actually, the title is rather silly because probably only women read my blog anyway!  But I wanted to give fair warning so after you read this post you won't say, "Why didn't you tell me this was personal?"

During a season of thoughtful frugality, I was thinking on how to save money.  I was trying to think outside the box of normal savings.  A faint memory came floating through my brain.  I had seen these little things on Etsy and had briefly considered them then.  But nothing came of it until this moment.  It wasn't going to be a huge savings but it was the principle of the thing.  Cloth panty shields/menstrual pads! 

Before you say, EEWWWW!!, please hear me out.  I did some research on how to make them myself and therefore being extra frugal.  I had some flannel in my fabric stash.  So after reading HERE (I like her layered idea even if she is a little pin crazy!) and this LINK to many patterns, I decided to give it a try.

So I made one.

I tried it on. 

It was awesome!

Seriously, I was hooked, completely convinced!  It was so soft and comfortable.  I just knew that I had to make some to use all the time. 

So I did even more research and found out about a relatively new fabric called PUL.  It stands for Polyurethane Laminate.  It is a waterproof fabric but feels like thin knit, with stretch to it.  Fabric.com has it for $7.98 and right now they have a sale of at least 15% off (more if you spend more).  It is 60" wide so unless you are making a lot you won't need much.  I bought some so I would know the pads were waterproof. 

I used the disposable pad I had been using as a pattern and just made up my own pattern.  Then I used a layer of PUL and 4 layers of flannel.  You could use an old towel for the terry cloth if you wanted it more absorbent.  I use a basic snap on the "wings" and it works fine and stays in place.  If you want more info, or a copy of my patterns, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.  :) 

Just throw them in with your regular wash cycles and they clean up beautifully!
Please read what the Hillbilly Housewife has to say about how to use these for your cycle.  She explains it so well, I don't need to repeat it.  Click HERE. 

Here are some I made.

So now you may think I am crazy.   But if you sew, try them yourself.  You may be pleasantly surprised at how nice they are and wonder along with me why you didn't do it sooner!! 

P.S. If you already use these, drop me a line and let me know what you think of them.  :)

Happy sewing and saving,

Quick, Easy and Frugal Mittens

The weather has been very cold here lately.  It seems to have been cold EVERYWHERE!  The gloves and mittens have mysteriously disappeared, too!  We had some in the fall.  Enough for everyone.  Since my gloves got passed down to a child, I decided to make some more. 

I had this cashmere sweater that I had found at a thrift store in Michigan last winter.  I had already made some leggings from the sleeves so I cut out some mittens from the body of the sweater.   Using my sewing machine, I stitched these up in no time. 

You could use an old sweater.  If it is wool, it could be felted first.  Just make a pattern from your own hand.  Remember to add enough for a seam allowance and room for that seam allowance in the thumb, especially.  Otherwise it will be too tight.  Have fun!  Let me know if you make some.  It would be fun to see your creations, too!!

Have a great day!

Frugal Friday: Can Up Your Frugal Foods.

My frugal tip is to can your foods that you get on sale. Last week at our local grocery store, London broil roasts were on sale. That is our favorite cut of beef and I only buy it on sale. My extra freezer is not very large so I decided to try canning the meat. It worked!

Let me explain, I just learned to waterbath can only 3 years ago. Last summer I did a little side job of sewing and earned enough money to buy a pressure canner. Oooh, now I was in the big league! I had never done any pressure canning so I got out the instructions and worked my way through.

It was great! I got over my fears of something blowing up (I've heard horror stories!). I really like homemade soup so now I make up a big batch and can it.

Some of you veteran canners may be saying, "But of course! I've done that forever!". Well, it is a thrill for a newbie.

Now I can store meat and soups for a year and free up my freezer for other things. This week's sale was chicken so Monday I'll be canning up the birds.

A tip that worked for me was to cook the meat in the crockpot and then immediately can it when it was cooked. I started it early so it was cooked by early afternoon. It made the beef so tender that way.

If you have never tried canning, check it out! You may actually fall in love with it like I have.

Happy cooking,

Gloria

Frugal Friday: Freecycle

My frugal tip for this Friday is the Freecycle. Have you heard of it? I just recently found out about it. It is a website that sponsored by local citizens in the effort to recycle by sharing things with others for FREE! Yes, I said, FREE! There seems to be one in every city. I live in a very rural area with a small town and we have one. Just Google "Freecycle" and see if there is one near you.

I shared some clothes we had outgrown and the recipients were so grateful. I felt I had done a good deed for someone, instead of just dropping them off at a thrift shop.

Have fun sharing!

Gloria
Check out the other lovely ladies at Biblical Womanhood for their frugal tips!