For much of the year I adhere to a relatively strict $60/week grocery budget. In general I stay within this budget even on the weeks when I need to stock up on toilet paper or cat litter, and in the fall a significant amount of the budget gets used for stocking up on things we’ll want in the winter when the budget goes down to $10/week . (Fall is also when baking supplies like flour and chocolate chips hit rock bottom prices—I bought enough flour last fall that I shouldn’t need to buy it again until August, even though I make all my own pasta and tortillas and a significant portion of our bread.) So if I’m only spending $60/week on groceries, what do I buy? What could possibly stretch far enough to feed a family of six on only $60? Let’s start with this qualifier—I have a freezer full of homegrown meat. I’ve got pounds of ground beef from a dairy cow that had milk fever a couple years ago (make a mental note to talk with your local dairy farmer). I’ve got probably a pig an
Oh, my goodness, can it be that time of year again? I'm afraid so, everybody! I've got almost a dozen flats of planted seeds, the very first pepper plants are poking up their shy cotyledons, and pretty soon I'll be planting my flat on onion seeds as well! (I usually end up planting some sets but my goal is to be able to rely on seeds entirely one of these years... given that it's March, this won't be the year either, but a girl can dream!) Seed shopping might be the most fun part of gardening. I know very few people who would put up a determined resistance to that assertion. I mean, sure, eating what you planted is fun too, but that fun is spread across the growing season and interspersed with a ton of hard work; but seed shopping? looking at dozens of pretty pictures, reading dozens of cute and interesting descriptions, drawing garden layout sheets with your favorite pens on your favorite graph paper? That wins. Hands down. Now if you've been blessed with