Frugal Friday: Grow it!

Sad to say, if you follow the futures market, prices are going to jump this summer. 

They have a few simple reasons:

world wide severe crop destroying weather with massive flooding, droughts,

freezes and tornados this spring. Rising gas prices. Supply and demand.

The fact that we are competing with animals and fuel for our grain supply.

Grain has gone up and will continue to do so, so has corn.

This is fed to a lot of animals we eat - and that price will go up too.

The items that use grain will go up: think cereals, crackers, breads.

When the price of animals go up, so does dairy.

Think about it:  the dairy is feed the same higher priced feed, resulting in a more expensive end product. (sigh)

That means milk, eggs, butter, cheese and yogurt.

Now comes produce. Freezes late in the spring hurt crops in Florida, Mexico, etc.

Tomatoes were hit hard!

You will see less and less of them when you go out to eat -

restaurants are removing them from menu items and making them an additional charge.

Think canned/jar pasta sauces, tomato juice, tomato sauce/paste, pizza sauce, even salsa!

 That is just ONE item - there are several more.

(sigh)

THIS is something we can work with!

What you spend on produce can change quickly if you simply

pop a few plants into the ground.

It can be as simple as a container garden,

where you only fill a few pots with plants.

This saves you a LOT of labor, is easy to manage, and still lets you eat fresh!

We have a few different kinds of tomato plants,

chives, oregano, and basil planted this year.

There will be mini tomatoes for eating, larger ones for sauces,

and medium ones for salsa! 

There is nothing like a goat cheese omelette with some

fresh minced chives on a lazy Saturday morning!

I will also be making and freezing Pesto

to use with all the FREE pasta I keep getting.

Switching to a non-tomato sauce will help.

If you have followed for a while, you know we have several kinds of fruit planted:

Rhubarb, cherries, apples, crab apples, mulberries, and berries.

This lets me make jam for about $.10 a jar,

instead of paying almost $4 a jar at the store.

My challenge to you: get a few pots, and fill them with something you LOVE.

Maybe it's green beans? How about a mini salsa garden?

Seriously, a little work now, could really save you later.

Blessings -

Dannelle