SPROUTS!

Just a quick post, today... I just had to give a little update on our indoor gardening project! 

A few days ago, I filled up the flat bin with some rocks (for drainage) and some of that homemade potting soil I was telling you about. I planted one side with spinach seeds and one side with arugula seeds. 

This morning I noticed:

SPROUTS!

See those little green spots in there? Such a cool thing to have brand new things growing while the regular summer garden is winding down. I'm looking forward to planting some indoor potatoes this weekend, and will also be getting our coldframe up on our bed of hardy greens out in the main garden. So far I am having a grand ol' time with this project!

Indoor Gardening (and Homemade Potting Soil!)

Remember when I told you about how we were doing Winter Gardening this year? WELL... we've been doing lots of stuff to get ready! One of the things we've been doing is setting up an indoor garden area in our basement. We plan to try indoor potatoes (again) as well as growing a variety of greens. We also plan to use this area to start seeds for next year's crop in the late winter/early spring. We haven't actually planted anything yet, but I do want to share a little "sneak peak" at how it's coming along. Before I show you pictures, though, I do want to issue a warning. These are not "Pinterest Worthy" pictures. This area is not pretty. It is functional, but not pretty. We are using stuff we have, so things are not all matchy and nice.

We purchased a grow light at Home Depot, to provide adequate light.
The orange buckets on either side of the desk will be used for potatoes,
and the plastic tub on top will be for growing greens. Inside the
 desk, we have a plastic bin in which seeds and such are stored.
  Under the desk,we have a watering can, and a big bucket of potting soil.

Inside the seed storage bin: seeds, markers, peat pots, trowel.

Light!

We chose this location, as it's a spot we can block off from the cats, who view all such things as there personal playground. We have a small finished area of our basement which contains a TV room and a small kitchen area, which seemed a nice, out-of-the-way location which is still easily accessible.

About our bucket of potting soil...  I knew I'd be using a lot this year, since I plan to do lots of container gardening, so I started looking into ways to save some cash on potting soil. I found out that it's actually really easy to make your own, and way cheaper than the stuff you buy pre-mixed. I measured my ingredients with an old almond milk carton and mixed it up in the bucket. Here is the recipe I used:

1-1/2 gallons peat moss
1/2 gallon perlite
1/2 gallon manure or compost
1 cup sand
3/4 cup organic fertilizer

This makes about half a bucket of soil. You can double the recipe, but I find it easier to mix in smaller batches, so I mixed up one batch, then another, then put them together.

This is sort of a basic, all-purpose potting soil. If you want to get really fancy, you can find a lot of other recipes which are good for specific planting purposes such as seed starting or for particular plants.

I am hoping to get things planted this coming week, and will update. If anyone else out there is trying winter gardening, I'd love to here your experiences!

Master Shopping List

I'm constantly looking for ways to live a greener, simpler and more frugal (frugaler?) life. One of the tools I've come up with recently to help me toward this goal is my Master Shopping List. It's something I've been working on for quite some time, and I've finally got it down to a system that really works for me.

Now before I tell you about this, let me just say that I have tried several phone apps for this purpose, but none of them have worked well for me. I have a way of doing things, and none of the apps were a good fit. I know several people who use grocery apps and are very happy with them, but they really just don't work as well for me. I found that having a physical list works better for me, so I created a printed out master list to take with me on my errands.

Prior to creating my Master List, I would sit down each Thursday and make my menu plan for the week (I still do that part) and then I would write up a shopping list of all the things I needed to make that week's dinners, along with any staples we needed. I realized I was spending a lot of time writing the same things over and over each week, as, like most families, we do have a good many items that we purchase every (or almost every) week. I decided it might be easier to type up a Master List of all the things we buy regularly, and then just have space to add special items I need to buy on occasion. I put the list in a plastic page protector, so I can cross items off with a dry erase marker, then wipe it clean for the following week. I put my list on a cute little clip board, which fits easily in my purse.

I do my grocery shopping at three different stores each week, as I've figured out over time that this is the best way to stretch my grocery buck. I am fortunate to live in an area where all the stores I shop at are close by and en route to places I end up in my day-to-day travels, so shopping at three different stores isn't all that inconvenient for me. (I understand that this might not work for everyone... back when my kids were little, and errands where a bit more of a project, I did one-stop shopping once a week at one store, as the convenience factor outweighed the extra expense.) Since I shop in several places, I set my list up by store, with a post-it note, if needed, to add any additional items. I wanted something small, that I could slip ealiy into my bag, so I formatted the list to fit on a half-sheet of paper, which fits perfectly on the small memo-sized clipboard I picked up from the clearance bin at Staples.

This Master List saves me oodles of time, and it saves paper, as I'm not writing up a whole new list each week. My whole shopping routine just feels much more streamlined and efficient now.

Next post: a little update on our Winter Gardening! In addition to preparing for a cold frame, we've also set up a little indoor gardening area. Pics and details, soon!

Homemade Almond Butter

I absolutely love almond butter. I eat it on apples, with bananas, in cookies and sometimes I even have some on  toast. I think of almond butter as being like peanut butter's sophisticated cousin. (though don't get me wrong... I love peanut butter, too!)

Today I was in the mood for some almond butter, but there was none to be found in our fridge. I did have some raw almonds, so I decided to try to make some. I am so glad I did. Not only is it crazy easy to make nut butter, it's also cheaper. Store-bought almond butter is about $8 for a 12-oz jar, or about $.67 per ounce. The almond butter I made today cost about $.46 per ounce. Cost will, of course, vary depending on where you buy your nuts. I paid $6.29/lb, which I think is about average.

There is no recipe, as such, as turning those almonds into almond butter doesn't take much. All you need is your almonds and a food processor. If you want to get fancy, you can roast and salt your almonds first, but I'm an almond butter purist, so I just used mine as-is. Dump your almonds into your food processor and start 'er up. Stop now and then to scrape down the sides, then keep going.

After a few moments, your almonds will look like this:

It may seem impossible that this somewhat powdery meal textured stuff could ever be almond butter, but trust me, it will. Patience! Keep processing, and scraping, processing and scraping. Soon it will start to clump together a bit, like this:

Keep going! You're almost there. Just keep processing and scraping until it's creamy. When it looks good, try out some of your homemade almondy deliciousness, then put the rest in a jar in the fridge and use within a couple of weeks. 

Yum!

Planning our Four Season Garden

This is the time of year when the garden starts winding down. We just picked the last of our green beans, dug up the last batch of potatoes and picked the last cucumber. Earlier in the month we brought in the last of the zucchini and summer squash. While we still have quite a bit left to harvest (like tomatoes, carrots, beets, some late lettuce and other hardy greens) it's time to start clearing away the faded plants and start prepping the beds for a winter's rest.

We have a lot to do this year, to be prepared for next spring. Some of our raised beds are finishing their 6th year in use, and need to be rebuilt. We also have to take some steps to replenish the soil for next year. We'll do this by tilling the soil and planting some winter rye in the beds as a winter cover crop.

But there will be one bed that we will not be tucking in for the winter. We're going to try an

stack of old windows, just waiting
to be turned into a coldframe.

experiment this year... Winter gardening! We're going to reserve one bed to build a cold frame around, and we're going to try growing some hardy crops, like kale, cabbage and collards. I've been planning to do this for years, but just haven't gotten around to it! We have a whole stack of old windows in our garage that we're going to use to build the cold frame. It will be interesting to see how this experiment goes, as The Farmer's Almanac is predicting another really cold winter. With that forecast in mind, we may not keep it going through the whole winter, but I will be happy to just extend our growing season as long as possible.

In addition to the winter bed we'll have outside, we're also going to try to grow some things indoors, as well. We're planning to repeat our past Indoor Potato Experiment, though hoping for more success this time. I'm also trying to start a windowsill herb garden, though the cats seem determined to have their way with it.

I'm plan to have most of our set-up done in the coming weeks, before the first frost sets in. I'll be posting pics and updates on this project, so stay tuned!

Totally Indulgent Vegan Pumpkin Bread

Last post I gushed on about my love of pumpkin. What better way to indulge in this delicious Autumn flavor than with some warm, sweet, moist and delicious pumpkin bread?

My favorite recipe for pumpkin bread is not exactly "health food" as it does contain a good amount of sugar, but for a special treat this time of year it's just perfect. I use white whole wheat flour, but if you prefer to avoid wheat you could try substituting the gluten-free flour of your choice.

Totally Indulgent Vegan Pumpkin Bread

1-3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pureed fresh pumpkin
3/4 cup raw sugar (I usually use either turbinado or sucanat)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup almond milk (or any non-dairy milk)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, spice and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add in the oil and milk and stir until well combined. Add in the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Don't over mix. It will be a pretty thick batter. Scrape it into your prepared loaf pan, and smooth it out a bit with a spatula. If you want, you can sprinkle the top with a tiny bit of sugar. Bake in the center of the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out cleanish, (as in, no wet batter, just moist crumbs)

This batter can also be used to make pumpkin muffins! Just spoon into muffin tins (3/4 full) and bake 15-20 minutes, for standard sized muffins.

PumpkinsPumpkinsPumpkins!

Tis the Season for ALL Things Pumpkin. Everywhere you look, you'll find pumpkins spice this and pumpkin that. Even things that ought never be pumpkin flavored are jumping on the pumpkin wagon (Pumpkin spice GUM?!?)

While I would agree with those who say that folks do get carried away with Pumpkin Everything there IS a pretty good reason to get psyched about Pumpkin this time of year. Pumpkins are in season, cheap, plentiful and, when done right, absolutely delicious. Here are a few of my favorite ways to do pumpkin:

Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin Bread/muffins
Pumpkin butter
Pumpkin spice oatmeal
Pumpkin pancakes
Pumpkin ravioli

When pumpkin is in season, I usually get one or two pumpkins each week, and roast, puree and freeze them in pint jars. Then, whenever I need pumpkin for a recipe, I can just pull out a jar and thaw. While this is definitely a bit more work than just buying canned pumpkin, fresh pumpkin tastes so much better, and you'll save a ton of money prepping your own. As an example: a 14 to 15 oz can of pumpkin costs upwards of $3 or more for the organic brands. Today I cooked up two good-sized organic sugar pumpkins, which I paid $5 for. I ended up with two and a half quarts of pureed pumpkin, which is roughly the same as 5 or 6 cans. Such a bargain!

Coming soon... I'll be sharing a few more recipes of what to do with all this delicious in-season pumpkin!

Soon-to-be Pumpkin Bread