You want to see what's growing under my lights this fall?

I didn't get to planting buckets of salad greens for the light garden in time this fall. Instead, I pulled some herbs and one pot of lettuce indoors to grow during the very coldest part of fall and winter.

Top shelf, the big pot of lettuce. I have yet to harvest any. Perhaps in a week or two, we'll do taco salads with this lettuce.

Middle shelf, I have the herb pots from our grill station, the rosemary, sage, and thyme. I wasn't sure how these thin can pots would do for insulating plant roots in sub-freezing temps. In hopes of keeping these three herbs alive for a second season, I've moved them indoors under the lights. As soon as the temps moderate from this cold snap, I'll move them back to the deck during daytime.

On the bottom shelf I have the cilantro that has been waiting for me to use it in salsa. I didn't have the motivation or energy to make a large batch of salsa earlier. I usually make 2 or 3 batches of salsa using the recipe in this post in August or September, using cilantro from my garden. Fortunately, I planted this cilantro in a pot. It was easy to move under lights that way. I had noticed that it was about to flower, so I knew I had to make a batch of salsa right away. This morning I went to Walmart to pick up milk, eggs, carrots, and bananas, so I also bought 5 large jalapeño peppers.

Oh man, the salsa smells so good. The batch made just just under 8 pints. I'll need to do one more batch in a week or two, when the cilantro has had a chance to grow more leaves. 15 to 16 pints of salsa should do for us until next summer.

So, that's what's growing under the lights this fall. After we use the lettuce, the cilantro bolts, and I move the pots of herbs back out to the deck, I'll give the lights a rest until late January when I start seeds for next spring and summer's garden.

Travel back in time with this vintage grocery shopping film

Hi friends,

While I was recovering last week, I watched some fun, vintage instructional videos on the roku. I wanted to share them with you, as I suspect many of you enjoy these as well. Here's the first one. Click on the title below or the photo above:

Home Management: Buying Food, 1950

While some of the advice really doesn't apply to us these days, others hit on some thoughts we've exchanged here, especially the truth that buying more than your household can use may cost more through waste than buying smaller quantities, even if the unit cost is much lower in the large size. Another, impulse buying can wreck a budget. The exception is if you find a deal on something while shopping, this type of impulse buying can save substantially.

Anyway, I thought these films were not only entertaining, but interesting to see how government agencies and universities played a role in "educating" the citizenry on how to shop, budget, make-do, plant gardens, etc. Today, we mostly get this sort of information presented in video form through private and commercial websites. I was curious how and where the vintage films were presented to the public. In my brief digging online, it appears that there were large collections of educational and instructional films held by universities. They were rented out (for a small fee) to schools, universities, colleges, clubs/lodges/organizations, commercial enterprises, and public libraries. Some instructional films were specific to an industry and served as employee training films. Many others enjoyed much broader audiences, such as this grocery shopping film. Most likely this particular film was used in university-level Home Economics courses, as well as community women's clubs as a sort of educational entertainment program. 

This one is an 11-minute film. If you have some time, you might enjoy it. I find these sorts of films to not only be a source of entertainment, but also inspiration to stay on the sensible, frugal path.

For friends in the US, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving. For friends outside the US, I'll be back on Monday, and hope you have a lovely weekend.