goddess of thrift

Thrift and Saving Seed Potatoes

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, so now it's time in my Zone 6A garden to plant peas and potatoes.  When I see the price of seed potatoes in catalogs and garden centers -- ranging from $3.95/lb. to $10.95/lb. -- yikes!!! -- I have trouble understanding why anyone would purchase seed potatoes after their first year of gardening.

Saving seed potatoes is amazingly easy.  When I harvest potatoes in the fall, I set aside any which would be too small to scrub or peel, typically golf-ball-sized or smaller.  After washing off the soil and letting them dry for a few days outdoors, I simply sort them by variety, place them in brown paper bags, and either put them in my unheated (but never freezing) cellar or one of the vegetable drawers in my refrigerator. 

The following spring, I check the saved potatoes about 2 weeks before planting.  If they haven't already begun to sprout, I place them on a tray near a window and allow the exposure to light to help them sprout.   I then plant the potatoes whole in my garden, in a bed enriched with compost.  Refer to any good gardening book at the library for growing instructions, or check for directions on-line.

Most supermarket potatoes have been treated with an anti-sprouting medium, but organically grown potatoes from the grocery will sprout as easily as those you save, if you get them in the fall and over-winter them as above.  They will probably be cheaper than seed you purchase in the spring, especially if you find some which have been marked down.  Once you experience the flavor of home-grown potatoes, and see how easy they are to grow, you'll want to raise them yourself from now on.

--Susan Rodebush  ©  2010

All materials in this blog are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission.

On Contempt for Wealth . . .

"Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean riches possessed by other men."

--Charles Caleb Colton

Thrifty Garden Tip

If your garden's soil is too alkaline for acid-loving plants like rhododendrons or blueberries, lower your soil pH by adding used coffee grounds.  Just apply a 1/2" layer around each plant and scratch them into the soil.  You're not a coffee drinker?  You can obtain a large batch of used coffee grounds free from your local Starbucks -- they save their grounds for gardeners.

Some common garden vegetables which prefer neutral to slightly-acid soil are:  beans, carrots, corn, cucumbers, peas, peppers, radishes, summer squash and tomatoes.

--Susan Rodebush  © 2010

All materials in this blog are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission.

On Creating a Meaningful Legacy . . .

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."

--Pericles

Thrift and Bunny Blitzkrieg

As I water my tender, young broccoli seedlings, which will be ready for the garden in a few weeks, I'm gearing up for war.  Every spring since I started gardening at our current home, I have done battle with the rabbits.  And, every spring, my garden has experienced some form of vegetable casualty.  I have to grudgingly admit that, thus far, the rabbits have won.

The first year it was the bell pepper plants.  I didn't think rabbits even liked pepper plants; perhaps the bunnies in my neighborhood have less-than-discriminating taste.  The following year, I placed hardware-cloth cages around my pepper plants, and instead they ate my broccoli plants.  Last year, I enclosed the broccoli in chicken wire, and they chewed my swiss chard down to the ground, then dined on my sugar snap peas.

I have at times engaged in chemical warfare by sprinkling my garden beds with blood meal, the scent of which supposedly repels rabbits.  I'm pretty sure they've obtained some form of bunny gas masks, or maybe they just hold their breath while eating.  So, this year, I'm pulling out all the stops.

My arsenal of bunny repellents might include the following, supposedly-effective rabbit deterrents:  old music and computer cd's hanging from strings (their reflections are supposed to frighten critters); a mulch of human hair, obtained from a local barbershop; various sprays concocted of soapy water with hot pepper sauce, vinegar, onion and/or garlic added; bars of strong-smelling soap skewered on sticks in the planting area; a scattering of mothballs around the plants; pieces of old garden hose laid on the ground to look like snakes; a double row of onions planted around each bed; fox or coyote urine sprayed around the plants and, of course, a 2-foot fence around the entire garden with an additional 8"--10" of the fencing buried below ground.  All of these suggestions come in the form of military intelligence gleaned from other victims of rabbit attack.  (Images from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" immediately come to mind.)

Each of these alleged rabbit repellents comes with certain problems:  creating fence-type barriers is work.  Sprays, mothballs and blood meal have to be reapplied after it rains, and putting bars of soap on sticks or cd's on strings creates the potential for me to be permanently labeled as the "neighborhood crazy lady" (a title I may very well have already earned.)  But, regardless of the potential cost or risk, I am determined to emerge victorious with my vegetable seedlings intact.  This, after all, is war.  This year, bunnies . . . you're going down!  In a few weeks, I'll post an update from the front. . .

--Susan Rodebush  ©  2010

All materials in this blog are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission.

On the Problem with Saving Time . . .

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save."

--Will Rogers

Crab Baguette Sandwiches

While I don't observe meatless Fridays during Lent, many do.  Whether or not you are abstaining from meat, these sandwiches make a quick and delicious meal, especially when served with a dark green, leafy salad.  I generally purchase Imitation Crab for no more than $1.00/8 oz. package, and buy baguette loaves at Aldi when they have been marked down to $.69/12-oz. loaf.  Both items store well in the freezer until needed.

For each sandwich, spread:

--softened butter on

--1/3 loaf of a multi-grain baguette, split sandwich-style

Sprinkle with:

--garlic powder

--salt (optional -- not necessary if you used salted butter)

Spread in a thin layer:

--shredded Mozzarella cheese

Top with:

--1/3 8-oz. package Chunk or Flake-style Imitation Crab*

--additional Mozzarella cheese

Bake sandwiches open-faced on a foil-lined cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for 7 -- 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and just beginning to brown.  Cool slightly and serve.

*Store-brand tip:  As with many store-brands, Meijer brand imitation crab is identical to that packaged under a National Brand label; in this case, Louis Kemp.

--Susan Rodebush  ©  2010

All materials in this blog are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission.

Thrift and Purchasing . . . Coupons?

Okay, admittedly, I am not a techno-wizard, which comes as no surprise to those who know me.  Having a little internet savvy, however, can be a huge money-saving tool.  I won't bore you with a list of many of the things you can do and learn on-line, but I will tell you about one internet tool I've recently started using to save substantial money on groceries -- purchasing manufacturer's coupons.

Now, before you tell me you don't have time to deal with coupons, let me say that I seldom buy national brands, and therefore seldom use grocery coupons.  But by finding coupons for those few brands I do use, I can realize substantial savings.

My most recent coupon purchase was for Celestial Seasonings Teas, which I use to make Fruity Lemonade (refer to my May 1, 2009 post in the 'Make It, Cook It' category for the recipe.)  The herbal teas typically sell for upwards of $2.50 for a box of 20 teabags, but Meijer recently did a temporary price reduction to $2.19/box.  By going on-line to Ebay and searching for "Celestial Seasonings Tea Coupons" I was able to find and purchase, among several dozen listings, a lot of 20-$1.00 off coupons for a total of $1.80, which included shipping.  So, by making that one purchase on-line, I can purchase my tea at Meijer for a net price of $1.28 per box.  The "best before" date on this tea is January 2012, so I'm confident I'll use twenty packages in the next twenty-two months.  The lot of coupons I purchased expires April 10th, 2010, giving me 6 weeks to procure my tea.

I like purchasing coupons on Ebay because the competition on that site keeps prices low, and their search feature makes it easy to find specific items.  You will find a number of on-line "coupon clipping services" . . . a Google search will readily turn up several.  There are all types and values of coupons available, but I especially prefer to find coupons for items which meet three criteria:  1]  they have a reasonably long shelf life (how long does deodorant keep?) 2]  there is not a comparable store brand of the item which I could purchase for around the same price, and 3] the coupon yields enough savings to warrant the cost of its purchase and the time I spend doing the search.

If you have access to an unlimited number of manufacturer's coupon inserts from the Sunday newspaper, then you'll never need to purchase coupons.  I don't, and for me, my tea coupons saved me a total of $18.20, and also the time of purchasing and recycling newspapers, clipping and filing coupons, and updating and maintaining a coupon file.  Could this be one of those rare occasions where it's actually true that "the more you spend, the more you save"?  Okay, maybe just this once . . .

--Susan Rodebush  ©  2010

All materials in this blog are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission.

On Building a Reputation . . .

"All my life, I always wanted to be somebody.  Now I see that I should have been more specific." 

--Jane Wagner