Work smarter, not harder

This has been a mantra of a good friend to me for many years. She's the queen of finding simpler, better ways to do anything. I thought of this this morning.

There's a reason "picking low-hanging fruit" is a synonym for taking the easy route. I've harvested all of the low-hanging unripe figs from our trees already. They were easy. Now I'm left with figs 10 feet or more above my head. Even on a ladder, picking those figs would be a difficult job.

I usually prune fruit trees in winter, after the leaves have fallen. Today I decided to do the winter fig tree pruning and harvest the high figs all at one time. Smarter, right?

Fortunately, unripe figs are firm, like the texture of cork. After cutting the branches off, I easily plucked off the figs.

I filled a salad spinner filled with those figs, enough to work with this morning.

One full salad spinner makes 2 quarts of preserved, sweetened unripe figs.

When I can, I double up my jobs, sometimes combining two jobs into one or sometimes making twice or more of the same recipe. If I have two occasions for which I need to contribute cookies, I make a double batch and freeze one half. In fall, knowing I will be baking a lot of pies between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, I make a 5-pie batch of pastry and freeze it all in rounds. 

If I had picked figs directly off the tree this morning, with the plan to prune branches after the leaves fall, I likely would have spent the same amount of time climbing a ladder and picking one by one, moving the ladder, picking more, moving the ladder again, etc. as I did sawing and quickly plucking figs off the fallen branches. And now I don't need to prune this tree in winter.

What are some ways you've found to work smarter and not harder?

My Cavewoman Brain Surfaces Again

Remember in 2020, when everyone was hoarding everything? I couldn't find yeast in my local stores for months. I'm convinced that someone, somewhere had a spare room filled with bags of yeast.

When people are stressed, they (we) do strange things, like buy a lifetime supply of bleach. Uncertainty breeds anticipatory feelings of scarcity.

A week ago I wrote about my big stock-up shopping trip at WinCo, mentioning how I went over my allotted cash. It was a generous amount of cash I'd packed with me. So, I was genuinely surprised when the cash register subtotal was ticking higher than was comfortable for me.

Since then, I've thought about why I spent so much, or should I say, why I bought so much. I bought 4 pints of fresh-ground peanut butter, 2 gallons of milk, 2 dozen eggs, 2 types of breakfast sausage, 2 whole chickens, a flat of canned vegetables, and many more items in larger than normal (for me) amounts.

I think it has hit me that for the time being I'm just not going to be able to get to WinCo as often as usual. I went once in August, once in September, and now so far, just once in October. I think I was having some feelings of impending scarcity, that I wouldn't be able to get to the grocery store for several more weeks. And I really didn't want to run out of any of our favorites. While my situation isn't a crisis, it still triggered the cavewoman need to store up lots of wooly mammoth for the winter.

So here we sit, with enough food to last several weeks. It actually feels strange to not need to run out to the store to buy more of almost everything for a while. We'll run out of bananas, but the rest is well-stocked.

Who needs four pints of freshly-ground peanut butter? What was I thinking? The fortunate thing in all of this is I didn't buy much that was perishable or couldn't be stored in some way to prolong shelf-life. I froze a few quarts of the 2 gallons of milk. The meat all went into the freezer. The small amount of produce I bought was all long-keepers. And we'll eventually use all of the peanut butter.

I've had issues with food scarcity thoughts in the past. One of my daughters deals with these thoughts on a regular basis. 2020 certainly didn't help for either one of us. The mind reacts strangely to various triggers. Being too busy to go to WinCo happened to be my recent trigger causing overbuying of food. I think it helps to identify the "why" of some of our shopping or spending, particularly when it doesn't make sense for our usual selves. It helps in providing some self-compassion for a one-off over-spending. And it can help guide us when future circumstances are similar and could potentially derail our normal behavior.

Did 2020 grocery shopping have any lasting impact on how you shop now? Have you ever lived through a period of food scarcity, real or imagined? How did that change your  grocery shopping?

A very tiny dental tip -- 5 to 7 inches worth of tiny

You know how when you run out of dental floss there's always that last bit that's too short to use to floss your entire mouth of teeth? Those pieces are often in 5, 6, 7 or 8-inch lengths.

I bag them up to use when I can't brush, but I have something stuck. I keep the bag in my purse. When we picnic or have a meal or snack elsewhere, I can discreetly take care of matters and use one of those short lengths of floss. If I'm at home and I have something stuck, but it's not time to do a whole flossing, I can reach into my purse and grab a short strand of floss to do the job.

Anyway, a family member was asking if I had a use for those short ends of the floss roll. I thought I'd share, here, too, in case you find yourself with a too short length of floss just as you're running out.

Do you do anything with those short lengths?

Late season garden bonus

At this time in the season I find myself scavenging for those little bits of veggies in the garden to add to our meals, especially the ones that wouldn't store well after picking, survive a light freeze, or there just isn't enough of any one bit to try and store -- veggies like rogue watercress, nasturtium leaves, tiny green tomatoes, tiny green beans, and tiny cucumbers. Our growing season is coming to an end. There are some veggies that will keep in the garden at their current size and stage, such as heads of cabbage, kale, beets, and turnips. I'm leaving them as in in the garden to harvest as we need them in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

What I wanted to show you today is the bonus cabbage leaves that we get a month or two after harvesting the original heads. So, I harvested the cabbage head from this plant in July. I didn't pull up the plant, but instead I allowed the base of the stem and root to stay in the garden. It received water from rainfall and when I watered other plants in this bed. 

From the base of the harvested main cabbage plant grow several (3 or 4) mini cabbage plants. If our growing season was long enough, I would actually have small heads of cabbage growing in another month. If I was able to get a second harvest of cabbage heads, I would remove all but one of these bunches of leaves, giving that head a good chance at developing into an additional head of cabbage.

The trick to getting regrowth on the stem is to leave a couple of large leaves at the base of the harvested plant. These leaves are often tough and scraggly-looking -- no problem choosing to leave those on the plant. 

As it is for me, with a shorter growing season, I leave all the developing bunches of leaves on the stem. Sometime in October I cut those bunches as needed then shred as I would mature heads, to use as cooked greens or in salads. 

Here you can see the color contrast between those dark baby clusters of leaves and shredded cabbage from the inner part of a mature head. As far as using in cooking, the new clusters are much like outer cabbage leaves of a mature head, a little bit tougher than the center of a head, but good for stuffing (if large enough) or shredded in cooking or salads.

I have a few of these clusters of baby cabbage leaves on other stems left to harvest. I'll use those leaves in salads over the next couple of weeks -- a late season cabbage bonus.

This is meaningful work

I never had a big career. I had jobs before I was married, but I have mostly been a homemaker all of these years. Many people in my circle had meaningful careers -- my brother, my sister, my father, both of my grandmothers. My husband has worked in cancer research for the last 20 years. I'd say that's meaningful work. Many researchers and medical personnel are doing very meaningful work.

But there are more types of meaningful work. The family who raises cattle to sell to us in the form of beef is doing very meaningful work, in my opinion. The men who pick up our garbage every week have meaningful jobs. My friend who is a teacher in the public school system, here, is daily doing meaningful work. There's a long list of types of public work that are meaningful.

What about the work that outsiders never see?

I stayed up at nights when my babies had croup. I cuddled my toddlers when teething pain seemed to overwhelm them. I taught all three how to read and write. I'd say that was meaningful work. 

Today I was digging potatoes. My trowel scooped up dirt to reveal purple and red beauties hidden beneath the surface of one of the beds. I piled them into a box and watched the amount grow. I had a moment when I thought, "now this is meaningful work, too." Growing food and cooking for my family has been meaningful work. Providing a warm and welcoming home for family to return to every night is meaningful work. That's not to say that women who choose to have careers aren't also doing meaningful work. Nor does it suggest that career women can't make their homes a welcoming refuge from the world for their families. Both ways are meaningful.

What made me think about this today? I had a long phone meeting this morning, fielding retirement-related advice for my husband. The advisor asked about my work history. I felt I had the need to explain how my life as a homemaker has been a meaningful one. I didn't over explain, but I did feel like I needed to compensate and be the most articulate version of myself. I know I've been valuable to my family, but I often think others don't see it. Meaningful work has many faces.

Some day in the future, my mind won't work as well as it does now. But I'll still be able to plant and dig potatoes, albeit more slowly than now and with stiffened joints. I'll still have meaningful work.

What Is the Most Embarrassing Money Mistake You've Made Recently?

I'll share mine, here, and you can share yours in the comments.

Mine:

I finally made it to WinCo this morning. I had a long, long list, all of my shopping bags (so I would't have to pay for bags), and $180 in cash. WinCo is a cash or debit card only. I don't have a debit card. So I brought cash. I don't normally bring that much with me, as I don't normally spend that much in one shopping trip. In fact, my last big stock-up at WinCo was about $140, a month ago.

I got everything on my list, as well as a couple of treats for my husband. My shopping cart was very full. I laid it all out on the conveyor belt and the checkout began. I was combination bagging my own groceries (it's a bag your own place) and keeping an eye on the cash register subtotal.

When I saw the subtotal was nearing $170 and there was still a lot of stuff to be checked out, I began to sweat. I had to tell the check-out clerk that I had just $180 cash and I would need to put some things back.  She was very nice, but the people in line behind me were a bit annoyed, as I (fast as I could) decided what to put back. A stock person came and picked up a couple of the large price items to put back. Then I checked my purse again and found another $20. Okay, so now I was up to $200 in cash. So I was able to put the whole chicken back into my bag. The two other items that were put back were now gone. 

At the end of the checkout (with me apologizing profusely to the clerk and other people in line), I actually still had $20 leftover. I took my groceries out to the car, loaded up the trunk, then went back into the store to see how I could buy the last 2 items on my list. As it turned out, I didn't have enough money to buy the largest sizes of both items. But by downsizing one item to the medium size, I could buy the largest of the other. I did skip the clerk-operated checkout and went to self-checkout. I didn't want to see the clerk again.

Anyway, having to put back some items at the check out is one of the more embarrassing things that can happen at the grocery store. There's that feeling that everyone is thinking you're poor as dirt.

Next time I go to WinCo, I'll bring way, way, way more than I think I will need.

Your turn -- what embarrassing money mistake have you made recently or ever?

Our changing food choices

As we get older, doesn't it seem like we need to work harder to maintain good health?

This has been a process for my family, taking place over several years. All of the fruits and vegetables that we eat are not only to save money or crowd out other foods. We've made a deliberate move to obtain our vitamins and minerals primarily through the foods we eat.

Years ago, we took once per day type vitamins to ensure we were covering our bases with nutrients. At that time, we typically had 3 to 4 servings of produce each day. That's how my family ate as I was growing up. And we all took a vitamin pill each day.

The problem I see with relying on a vitamin pill is there may be other nutrients that the pill lacks but that would be found in whole foods. In addition, some experts believe that food sources of nutrients may be better absorbed by the body than those in supplement form.

I do take a couple of supplements, Vitamin D with K and B-Complex, plus a couple of supplements that target specific needs. However, in general, we try to maximize our consumption of nutrient-dense foods while minimizing the weaker foods. 

You may have noticed on last night's dinner plate I had 3 servings of vegetables/fruits, a kale and cranberry salad, roasted pumpkin cubes, and fresh tomato wedges. Earlier in the day I had a smoothie that had 2 servings of fruits/vegetables for breakfast and a garden salad plus fresh fruit with my lunch. That brought me up to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables for the day. That's about where we like to be with our produce consumption. To get there, I do rely on some fruit/vegetable powders in my smoothies, hence the purchase of greens powder on my shopping for the month.

There was a study published about a year ago by the NIH that found a decline in nutritional value for many foods over the past several decades, due to farming practices, selection of cultivars, and reduced nutritional and microbial content of soils. This is a global problem and not one solely in the US or the West.

This means today's populations should be eating more of the nutrient-dense foods than previously customary to maintain good health.

Variety and quality in meat and poultry cuts

It's not just fruits and vegetables, but my husband and I are also focusing on high quality protein, good fats, and whole grains or other complex carbohydrate foods. 

I've talked about our beef deliveries direct from a rancher. Not only does this financially help an individual and his family and keep a family-owned ranch in business, but I believe the meat may be more nutritious than what I might have bought at the supermarket. Factory-farmed animals often are solely grain-fed and confined on tightly packed lots. This type of farming reduces mineral and amino acid content of the meat and changes the ratio of omega-3s to omega-6s. 

In addition, when I would previously buy meat at the store, I would only buy what was least expensive, which tended to be either ground or specific cuts, over and over. By buying our beef as we do, we get a variety of cuts, some with bones and some with more fat than others. I used to only buy boneless beef. Now, with receiving beef with the bones, I use the bones to make broth, yielding even more nutrients for our consumption. I also render any fatty portions to use in cooking later. Years ago, I was particularly interested in the zinc and iron content of beef and was surprised to find that different cuts contained different amounts of those minerals.

I've also returned to buying whole chickens instead of parts or boneless/skinless. Like with the beef, different parts of the chicken contain different levels of some nutrients, so having a whole chicken forces us to eat both dark and light meat. I also use the bones from the whole bird to make chicken stock. You know what I never buy any more? Beef or chicken bouillon cubes or powder. 

While I miss the more convenient chicken parts or boneless/skinless pieces compared to whole, this trade off for nutrients is important for my family. I've mentioned that we found a grocery store chicken that we really like, Just Bare. For the time being, we feel this is a good compromise for quality vs price. The chickens are raised without use of antibiotics and are not kept in cages. We found the cooked texture and taste to be better for this brand compared to the cheaper brands in the store.

Diversifying fats and introducing new ones

As for changing the fats that we consume, the last couple of Christmases I've requested bottles of olive oil or avocado oil as gifts. We are trying to use more of those oils for salads and some cooking. We have significantly reduced our use of all-purpose vegetable oils, which are heavily processed. We used to go through a gallon of the cheapest vegetable oil every two months. With our change in the fats that we use in cooking and baking, this last gallon of vegetable oil has lasted for 3 months so far, and is still going strong. I've mentioned many times that we use "rescued" meat fat, saved from the meat that we buy. We also use coconut oil, butter, and the above mentioned avocado and olive oils. 

I'm old enough to remember when butter was considered bad and margarine was the "savior" spreadable fat. My parents tried for years to get my grandmother to give up her butter. And then in the 90s, it became known that trans fats were actually the bad ones. I also remember coconut oil being a villain in the fat world. And now that thinking has been reversed. So my family's decision has been to use a wide variety of natural oils and fats in our diet and diversify our risks, so to speak. 

This fall I plan on clarifying some of the beef fat I've saved in the freezer. I'll try baking with this in pie pastry. I've clarified bacon fat for pie pastry with good results, so I'm hopeful that beef fat will also make a good pie crust. Clarifying animal fat is simply a process of boiling fat in water, chilling, then removing the fat. This reduces the meaty flavor of the fat and makes it suitable, flavor wise, for baking. It also removes any browned herb or meat bits from the fat. I'll let you know what we think of using clarified beef fat in baking.

So, when you see my family making purchasing choices for more expensive groceries than we used to (and driving our grocery spending up), it's a deliberate attempt to maintain good health through improved nutrition as we get older. 

Have you made any nutrition-based food changes over the years? Do you think better nutrition can lead to healthier aging?

Sept. 2025: Another Month of Few Grocery Trips

late September flowers

Last month when this happened, it was the deck railing paint job that was keeping me from shopping. This month it has been the harvest. Every day I tell myself I'll try to work a grocery trip in the next day, but the work comes before shopping. We can always eat from what we have on hand, but I can't harvest and process the plums, apples, pears, green figs etc after they've fallen and been pecked at by squirrels, rabbits, and birds.

Once again, it's been about 4 weeks since I went to WinCo last. In between that visit and now I popped out to Walmart for the necessities, then down the road to the restaurant supply. 

Our refrigerator shelves look a bit bare. But we're still eating well. The thing that is allowing us to go so long between grocery shopping trips is our garden. 

A typical meal at our house uses a lot of garden produce.
Tonight we had garden pumpkin cubes, roasted, garden kale salad,
garden fresh tomatoes, plus stuffing topped with chicken and gravy

I've thought about going to WinCo after dinner. But that's a sketchy area after dark. In fact, most of my area is a sketchy area after dark these days. My daughter-in-law warned about evenings in the parking lot at one store. My husband doesn't like me or our daughters going to another grocery store after dark. It's just sketch, sketch, sketch in the parking lots of the bargain grocery stores after dark these days. I could go to a more upscale grocery store in the community adjacent to us. But that would cost extra for the basics.

Desserts usually contain something from the garden, too.
Tonight we had spiced fig bread, using unripe green figs.

Anyway, all that to say that I did the one big stock-up at WinCo the first week of September (blogged about here), spending $125.73. And then not until the 22nd did I go shopping again, Walmart and the restaurant supply. Walmart for milk, instant coffee, instant decaf, 1 dozen eggs, 1.5 lbs jalapẽnos, 1 can of frozen apple juice concentrate (to mix with homemade crabapple juice for spiced cider), a mega pack of chocolate chips, and a handful of bananas, spending $39.93. The restaurant supply for canned tomatoes for making salsa before the garden cilantro bolts. I bought a case of 6 #10 cans, spending $21.49. My total in-person spending for September $187.15. My big stock-up shopping list keeps growing. I had hoped to go to WinCo today, but the green figs need harvesting and processing. Maybe tomorrow . . .

I will add that my low spending doesn't reflect all we actually spend, as in August I paid for our latest beef delivery. I get deliveries every 3 months. So I need to add $119.66 each month to my local spending, bringing September's spending up to $306.81. On top of this, we use a greens powder (that I order online when running low and I find a stellar coupon code) in smoothies everyday, adding about $65. So, about $371.81 for food for my family for the month. I still think that's a very low spend for 4 adults who are eating at home or making food to take almost every meal of each day. In comparison, the thrifty food plan put out by the USDA suggests $1003.10. I'm doing good.

So, another month with very few grocery trips. Will October be any different? I'm done with the plums and almost all of the apples. I still have crabapples, late pears, potatoes, carrots, celery, and unripe figs to deal with, But maybe this next month wont' be so crazy.

South of the Border Flavor on a Budget: Making Inexpensive Salsa With Canned Tomatoes

I've been so blessed. I had a moment yesterday when I realized I'd been complaining about all of the preserving and harvest work that I'm doing, even if the complaining was only in my head. Yet in reality, I am profoundly grateful for all of God's provisions. I am so blessed. I am always provided for. I apologize for any complaining you've had to hear from me. I am a work in progress, but I am actively trying to see how blessed I am.

cost: about 70 cents a jar

Following that thought, I want to show what blessings I had this past weekend. I made our year's salsa, 17 pints of salsa, using the garden cilantro that was ready for harvest.

You should know that you don't have to have a large garden to make your own salsa and do it on a budget. In fact, the only homegrown ingredients used in this double batch of salsa were oregano and cilantro, both foods that are either common to most kitchens or easily purchased. The store-bought ingredients included canned tomatoes, fresh onions, salt, white vinegar, chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and fresh jalapẽno peppers. Almost everything in my salsa was purchased. You'll notice I used canned tomatoes, a cost-effective version of tomatoes at 56 cents/lb for me. As a bonus, canned tomatoes are less mess/work compared to peeling fresh tomatoes.

My cost was around 70 cents per pint, including new lids. Of course, I'm careful to source my ingredients and canning supplies frugally. My lids were clearance from a couple of years ago. My canned tomatoes were bought in institutional-size cans (#10 cans -- 102 oz -- from a restaurant supply) bought in a case of 6 (best price per can as a case). I used 2 of those large cans of tomatoes for a double batch of salsa and will be using the rest throughout the year. Just an FYI, leftover opened canned tomatoes can be frozen and then used in cooking at a later time. So as I open these large cans, I divide the leftovers into quart freezer containers, to thaw and cook with another day. My price per #10 can was $3.59 each, or 3.5 cents per ounce. I pay attention to getting the tomatoes inexpensively, as they're the one ingredient called for in the greatest quantity in my recipe. 

Before I ever set out to make my own salsa, I calculated the cost per pint and compared it to the cost for me to purchase salsa. Right now, my local budget option is Walmart Great Value jarred salsa at $1.98/pint. I saved about $1.30 per jar, or about $22 total, by making my own using this easy recipe.

Here's the recipe I've used annually for a couple of decades. It's my husband's favorite salsa, as it has a lot of flavor and not just heat.

Easy Tomato Salsa Using Canned Tomatoes (yield just over 8 pints)

• 1  102 oz. can whole, peeled tomatoes with liquid (#10 can), or about 3 quarts  tomatoes, chopped, with juice/liquid
• 1  1/2 large onions, chopped
• 5-10 jalapẽnos, seeded and minced (this batch I used 5 somewhat large jalapẽnos)
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3/4 cup  white vinegar
• 1  1/2 tablespoons pickling or kosher salt
• 3 cloves garlic, or 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon to 1  1/2 tablespoons dried red chili flakes (according to taste -- I use 1 teaspoon for a mild salsa)
• 1  1/2 tablespoons dried, crushed oregano
• 2  1/4 tablespoons chili powder

If you want a slightly thicker salsa, add a tablespoon of canned tomato paste to the ingredients.

Chop whole tomatoes (I use my food processor for this, about 2 cups at a time).

Dump tomatoes and their liquid into a large stainless (or other non-reactive) stock pot. Chop onions and add to stockpot. 

Seed and mince jalapeños and chop cilantro, then add to tomatoes and onions. Stir in vinegar and dry seasonings. Allow to stand for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, sterilize jars.

Back to the stove. Bring the stockpot to a boil while stirring, using hood fan. Simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off stove, fill jars, then seal and process for 30 minutes. And that's it.

Canning can sometimes be a cost-saver if you obtain ingredients at a good price. If a recipe is simple enough, it's worth it to estimate the cost to purchase needed ingredients and compare with buying a ready-made product. For me, homemade salsa from purchased ingredients is one of those food items that helps stretch my grocery budget. 

Do you can or preserve anything for which you need to buy all or most of the ingredients? Does this turn out to be a cost-saver, or do you like to home-can this food for other reasons? 

Would you like to see what a year in my gardening calendar looks like?

Many here already keep a garden. Some don't, either by choice or constraints. But some here may be wondering what the work actually looks like on a year by year basis.

After a light winter, my gardening year begins in March.

March 

• start seeds indoors under lights
• make plans for where each variety will be planted
• prepare soil in beds
• harvest watercress and last season's kale

April 

• continue starting seeds indoors
• harden off some plants outdoors on deck during daytime
• transplant lettuce seedlings to container garden on deck
• later in month remove last year's kale
• plant out some plants (tomatoes outdoors under a poly tunnel, Cole crop plants in open garden)
• direct seed carrots, turnips, beets, and radish
• plant potatoes
• harvest this last year's kale, free-seeded watercress, and perennial sorrel

May 

• begin harvest rhubarb and salad greens
• plant out cool weather plants early in month, warm weather plants at end of month
• thin radishes
• begin more salad greens under lights to replace spent plants later
• hill up potatoes as they grow
• harvest and dry thyme, oregano, sage
• make chive blossom vinegar

June 

• finish transplanting warm weather plants if May was too cool
• direct seed green beans around the 1st
• thin carrots, turnips, beets (thinnings can be used in cooking)
• harvest salad greens beginning around the 1st
• later in month harvest kale, strawberries, rhubarb, radishes
• add supports to tomato plants
• mulch berry canes
• hill up potato plants
• chop and freeze chives

July

• harvest currants, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cabbage, Swiss chard, turnips, beets, salad greens, rhubarb
• replant lettuce container garden
• very end of month harvest early apples
• harvest and dry second batch of thyme, oregano, and sage
• make currant jelly
• freeze excess cherries, raspberries, and blueberries

August 

• main harvest of early apples, early pears, figs, blackberries, blueberries
• continue harvesting of garden
• tomatoes and peppers begin to ripen for use 
• replace spent lettuce in container garden with fall radish greens and cilantro for salsa
• make rosemary vinegar
• wash empty flats that go to light garden

September 

• begin indoor salad garden in containers under lights late in month
• harvest plums, fall raspberries, late pears at end of month
• harvest garden
• preserve produce
• end of month bring in pumpkins and squash if ready
• dig garlic
• harvest third batch of thyme, oregano and sage
• chop and freeze basil and rosemary

October

• harvest late pears around 1st
• bring in remaining tomatoes, squash, peppers
• harvest crabapples and cranberries (if any), unripe figs, potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, cabbage, celery and bring indoors
• preserve produce
• around 1st plant garlic
• chop and freeze rosemary, tops of turnips, beets, carrots, and celery
• mid to late-month move pumpkins, squash, potatoes to cool storage, onions to fridge
• make pickle relishes from small green tomatoes
• can unripe figs in syrup
• make crabapple sauce and juice for freezer

November 

• around 1st harvest all Brussel sprout leaves and Swiss chard to chop and freeze
• continue harvesting kale as wanted
• tend indoor light garden for salad greens

December

• tend indoor light garden for salad greens
• grow lentil sprouts in jars on counter

January 

• rest from garden
• shop thrift stores for canning jars
• tend indoor light garden for salad greens, allow to die off at end of month
• grow lentil sprouts in jars on counter

February 

• choose seeds
• make plans
• order new canning lids
• prune fruit trees
• clean up the light garden
• brush out seed starting pots and cells

My heaviest work months are August, September, and October for both harvesting and preserving. Spring months comes in second as I dig and prepare the soil. It's difficult to travel more than 2 or 3 days at a time from Mid-March through mid-October, as the garden needs watering, tending or harvesting. I've done it before, but it's difficult. 

In 2013 we took a 9 day trip at the end of September and it was a rush to harvest all the plums and tomatoes. I was picking the day before our trip and we packed whatever fruit wouldn't keep for a week with us (driving trip). 

Early in the season (March, April, May) so many plants are still in flats under lights or on the deck that watering needs are a challenge to traveling. In early May 2022 we drove to Arizona to see my step-mom and were gone a week. I put all of the plants on the deck, hoping they would catch rainfall for watering. It poured rain while we were gone and some plants suffered from chlorosis (overwatering). The answer to wanting or needing to travel during the early months of the season is to have someone come and water while we're away. There's a brief window of about a week or two in late August where a week of travel is do-able, if I have someone to water outdoors. This is also the time of year I typically choose to do an outdoor painting job, as the harvest isn't heavy yet.

In fall, the floor near the door to the deck is littered with pumpkin, squash, garlic, potatoes, and onions, as they cure. The dining room table is covered with ripening tomatoes, the fridge drawers are bursting with produce, the dehydrator runs daily, and my canning equipment is permanently on the stove and countertop, My canning jars begin to fill up and the space where they are kept begins to look empty. 

If it sounds like a lot of work, it is, and I moan and groan about it at times. However, and this is a big however, it's so worth it. The real worth is not in the financial savings, although we appreciate that aspect. No, the real worth is in the improved health we have. The outdoor work combined with eating more and better produce I think really makes a difference. Our produce is all organically-raised, typically of older varieties that can contain more nutrition (as they're not bred for transportation or long storage), and we eat most of it fresher than if I were buying produce from a supermarket. Because we grow so much, we eat more servings of fruits and vegetables every day, pushing less nutritious foods out of our daily meals and snacks. That doesn't even touch on how our garden provides food security for us. 

I do need to add that even in the harvest season, there are produce items we do buy, either because we don't grow enough due to space of a particular item (fresh carrots and beet powder) or I don't grow it at all (such as wheat grass and algae in a greens powder). And of course, when I have other stuff going on in summer, in some years I haven't gotten to absolutely everything on the calendar. For example, I may only harvest and dry 1 batch of herbs. Or, as in this year when I had a minor procedure in June, I may miss cutting and freezing chives.

Anyway, that's what a year of my gardening calendar looks like.

Wishing you all a peace-filled weekend!

What's 1 Small Frugal Thing You Do?

So, this may sound a bit oddball, but I learned this camping when I was young -- camp toast.

When I make an egg for myself or a family member, I use the remaining fat in the pan from cooking the egg (bacon grease, butter-oil mixture or ham fat) to toast bread and "butter" my toast. I drop a slice of bread into the hot pan and push it around the pan to catch all of the remaining fat. The pan and the stove top still have residual heat, so it even uses less energy to toast my bread this way, although I'll leave the stove on for a minute or two longer to continue the heat high enough to toast bread. When the toast is done, it's already "buttered" and just needs a bit of jam. The bonus is I use far less dish soap to then clean the pan. 

Save butter, save energy, save dish soap.

What small frugal thing do you do that may not be something "normies" do?

Our "Lighter" Apple Pie

This is how we've been making apple pies this summer and now fall. I love crispy and flakey pie crust, so I don't want to give it up altogether.  My husband loves a traditional apple pie. So, we've compromised -- a top crust-only apple pie. 

I use a deep dish pie plate, butter it well so the apple mixture doesn't stick, then I pile in the spiced and sweetened apple slices. Finally, I top the apples with a single layer of pastry, sealing it to the edge of the dish, and bake.

As you can imagine, slices of top crust-only apple pie don't come out neatly with a pie server. Instead, I cut the crust for each slice with a knife and scoop out crust slices and apples with a large serving spoon. It works. A little messy, but it works. And we all get what we want.

Covid, Asian Pear Bounty, and Too Much Pickling Spice

One of my daughters came down with Covid for the first time this last week after just one day in the classroom as a sub. She's doing fine. We're all taking turns delivering meals and beverages to her door until we're sure she can't pass it on to the rest of us. What I'm very glad of is that I had several quarts of chicken stock in the freezer. I made two large batches of chicken noodle soup for her, which she really appreciated.

Early Saturday, my neighbor knocked on the door with what we thought was a request for help with a tree. Part of her Asian pear tree had come down. My neighbor is older and lives alone. We all try to look out for each other. The three of us that aren't sick grabbed our work gloves and headed over to her property. As it turned out, she just wanted us to collect the Asian pears that had fallen onto her driveway and take them home to cook them into something. There were 3 flats of Asian pears that had fallen, and this was after she had collected a bunch to give to another neighbor. We also helped pull the large branches off her driveway and to a back area of her property, so she could get her car out if needed. 

Anyway, the daughter who has not been sick worked with me for 3 hours on Saturday washing, peeling, chopping, slicing, and trimming these pears so I could process them. All had some level of bruising, so it was imperative that we deal with them promptly. With the pears I made unsweetened pear sauce for the freezer, ginger-pear butter, dried thin slices of Asian pears for snacking, small dices of peeled Asian pears to freeze for adding to gingerbread cake, and large chunks with peel on to freeze for cobblers and crisps.  What I didn't know was that cooked Asian pears turn pink. The other thing I didn't know was how juicy Asian pears are. It seemed like forever for the sauce and butter to cook down. The sauce and butter turned out delicious. I brought some of what I made over to my generous neighbor. When I bake a pear and gingerbread cake later this week, I'll bring some of that over to her as well.

I inadvertently ended up with more pickling spices than I could use in a dozen seasons of pickle-making. Earlier this month at WinCo, I was buying bulk spices. I had used all of my pickling spices in last year's pickle relish. So I knew I needed more for this year. The bulk bin for spices is the type of dispenser where you pull a lever and out it pours. I wasn't paying attention and before I knew it, I had a full bag of whole spices. There's no way to put the excess spices back into the dispenser, so I bought them. 

Here's what I discovered. A spoonful of pickling spices adds nice flavor to chicken stock. I cooked the stock alone with the spices for an hour then strained them out before adding vegetables and noodles. I also imagine a spoonful of pickling spices could be tied up in a piece of muslin and cooked with the stock and additions, removing the spice-filled cloth just before serving. At least I now know going through this entire bag of pickling spice will be a do-able thing, and they won't go to waste. Next time, I'll pay attention when dispensing spices!

One more thing -- happy autumn everyone! How was your weekend?

Our Evolving Food Garden

On Wednesday, Kris asked in the comments if our apple trees were here when we bought our house or if we planted them. I replied that we planted the trees. I thought some of you might be interested in what we've added to our property, and in what kind of time frame that all took place.

When we moved in to this house, there were wild plums, wild blackberries, small woodland strawberries, and 1 non-bearing cherry tree. So not very much. It was our intent to plant a yard that would feed us at least partially each year. We continue to work on that goal, each year assessing what went well, what failed and then tweaking what we do.

Here's what we planted and an approximate timeline.

Buying our house was a stretch for our means, but not out of the realm of possibility. However, we needed to focus most of our surplus finances into meaningful repairs of our house. That first winter we replaced an all-electric forced air furnace with a natural gas one. Our heating bills plummeted from $250 per month to $60 per month. We also began replacing old windows with new double-paned, gas-filled ones. All this to say, we didn't have a lot of spare cash to make improvements to our landscape.

We moved into our house in late July, so it was too late to plant a garden. However, we began an open compost pile at the back of our property (up against the woods) right away. We couldn't even afford to purchase a compost bin at that time. Instead, we dug a hole and layered it with kitchen and garden refuse and nearby soil. We kept the top of the composting material covered with soil to minimize critter invasion and odors.

The following spring we began digging a garden space into the lawn behind the garage, improving the soil with that compost we'd begun the previous late summer. I didn't know what would grow well in our garden, so I tried many different types of seeds. It turned out that kale, tomatoes, greens beans, and peas did very well. What an odd assortment, right? Some cool weather veggies and some hot weather ones. We also bought some raspberry canes, 3 blueberry bushes, a bundle of strawberry plants, and 3 rhubarb starts. The raspberry canes didn't survive, but we still have those original rhubarb plants, blueberry bushes, and descendants of the strawberry plants.

Later that spring, our county held an eco-friendly gardening fair and sold simple compost bins for $10 each. My husband came home with one, and we continued to compost, but in a more civilized-appearing way -- neighbor approved.

For the next 5 years, I continued to focus my food gardening on vegetables that I could start from inexpensive seed packets. I began adding vegetables to parts of the yard that were not part of the vegetable garden proper. We grew artichokes for a few years in one of the ornamental garden beds.  And I added some asparagus to an ornamental and perennial bed in the front yard. When the artichokes eventually died out, the original 3 blueberry bushes and the rhubarb plants were moved into that ornamental area where they could benefit from a sunnier exposure. I also divided the rhubarb plants, giving us 6 plants for our harvests. (One rhubarb plant would die out on us years later.)

By year 6 on the property we could finally afford to buy a few fruit trees. We chose 4 apple trees, one a red apple for fresh eating (our early apple), one a green apple for baking, one a russet apple for fresh eating and cooking (our applesauce apple), and a pippin apple known for long-keeping. The pippin died out after about 5 years, but we still have the other 3. We're not sure if we'll replace that 4th apple tree. If we do, it will be another long-keeping apple to store for late winter fresh eating, a time of year when we tend to purchase apples regularly for fresh eating.

Also in year 6, my husband and I built permanent raised beds for our garden, using 8 X 16 concrete blocks. Initially, we used gravel for walkways between the beds. Over the course of a couple of years, my husband and I would replace the gravel with brick walkways. We also bought red and black currant bushes and cranberry plants. The red and black currant bushes still produce, but the cranberries nearly died out, due to crowding. For several years in a row, we harvested about 3 quarts of fresh cranberries every fall. I was able to rescue a couple of tiny cranberry vines and moved them to a spot where I can keep a better eye on them. They're doing well so far. My hope is to take cuttings off these vines in a couple of years and devote a sunny bed just to cranberries.

In year 7, we bought a second cherry tree, hoping to coax the original cherry tree to actually bear fruit. The original cherry was labeled and in looking up that variety, I found that it was partially self-pollinating -- evidently not enough to actually produce fruit in our yard, though. So I ordered another different self-pollinating cherry tree and we planted it about 20 feet away from the original one. This tree would ultimately be dug up in a few years and moved to a better location. It was still small enough to dig its entire, or most of, root ball and it survived the move very well. Both of our cherries trees now produce for us, some years providing enough cherries for freezing to use in pies. We also bought an evergreen huckleberry bush. It produces abundantly, but we mostly leave those to the birds. I have made jelly a few years with some of the berries, though.

In year 8, we developed 2 more areas of the yard and planted an Italian prune plum tree in one area and 2 pear trees and 1 crabapple tree in the other. The plum tree is so prolific. For the most part, when I've chosen varieties of anything, I've looked for ones that are labeled as prolific. The initial 2 pears trees did really well from about year 4 on, then seemed to be prone to several issues. One disease is known as pear rust. It became so bad for our pear trees that they would drop all of their leaves by mid-summer each year. It turned out we were harboring the other host shrub for pear rust, which is what this fungus needs to complete its life-cycle, juniper bushes. My husband removed the junipers -- they're just ornamentals, and we weren't fond of their prickliness -- and the pear rust began to lessen. A couple of years ago we added wood chips to the base of our pear trees as well as blueberry bushes and both types really began to thrive. We harvested our first big crop from this years' pears since the early years of these trees.  

Also later that summer, one of my neighbors gave me some raspberry plants she had dug up from her own garden. This variety had done well for her, so I was hopeful for our garden as well. Within a couple of years we had a huge raspberry patch that we would need to control ourselves.

In year 10, I bought 5 more blueberry bushes and 1 ever-bearing raspberry plant. The raspberry plants from the neighbor were July bearing only. The ever-bearing raspberries would provide an earlier summer crop as well as a light fall crop. I also bought 2 fig trees, which I grew in pots for many years. They only did so-so in pots.

In year 12, we dug up half of the raspberries and contained the rest in raised beds that my husband and son built from wood and metal brackets, placing them in a side area of our yard adjacent to our vegetable garden. Over the course of a few years, they would build 9 of these beds. I would eventually add potatoes to what I grow each year, using a couple of these beds, and move most of the strawberry plants to these beds. We still have the woodland strawberries in an ornamental part of the property to supplement our cultivated strawberries.

In year 14, we replaced our back deck and planted 2 more pear trees and some grape vines just off the deck. The grapes really need a structure to climb on, up and out of the shade of the pears. They did well initially, then the pear trees grew tall and wide. These pear trees, like their 2 siblings in the front yard, suffered from severe pear rust for several years. This year they really made a comeback. The pear rust is practically gone and all four trees (2 from year 8, 2 from year 14) produced pears this year, a first for one of the trees. With our pear trees, we chose 2 early season (ripening in August) and 2 late season (ripening in late September to early October).

I also bought 4 trough planters for the deck that spring. We've grown herbs and vegetables in these planters each year. Three of the troughs are still on the deck. But I moved 1 down to the garden area for better sun. I'll be moving 1 or 2 of the deck troughs down to garden level later this fall or early next spring. Those pear trees now shade the deck too much for most vegetables and herbs. We also moved the potted figs into the ground adjacent to the east end of our new deck. The figs have taken off and need a good pruning every other year. 

In 2020, like half the country, I was at home almost all of the time and put my work efforts into growing even more on our property. I repurposed our portable greenhouse shelving into a space to grow lettuce in spring and summer on the deck. I planted several hanging baskets on the south side of our house with greens and herbs that would be suitable for salads. 

2021 to now. I expanded our grow lights in the house in 2021 and began growing additional greens indoors each winter. My husband and I also started planning a new garden site on the property, a pumpkin patch next to the driveway but out of sight from the street. We had a load of compost delivered to this area in winter of 2022. We've experimented with types of vegetables that can be grown in this spot and don't attract critter pests (squirrels and rabbits). We've grown tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, corn, pumpkins, summer squash, green beans, and fall turnips in this area over the past 3 years. As it has turned out, sunflowers and corn are a no-go for us, even with fencing all around. This year I planted tomatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and greens beans in the patch. We continue to improve this soil every year. It was practically dead soil when we first began growing here. It's getting better.

Going forward, we plan to expand the pumpkin patch area and add some attractive landscape features in this space. Right now, it's just a bare patch of ground sitting on the north side of a native growth (evergreens) area in the center of the circular drive. We may add a large apple tree in this spot with a bench beneath for sitting, as well as stepping stones throughout the garden patch and a low, raised cottage stone wall to hold in the soil and provide a neater appearance.

We also have one last spot in the garden to be developed. It lies between the driveway and the wooden raised beds. My hope/dream is to add a garden house to this spot, with a small patio in front and two beds for perennial and evergreen herbs. The garden house would provide winter storage for patio furniture and large sunny windows for starting or overwintering plants. It's possible we could have a small cellar accessed through this garden house, for cool storage of apples, cabbage, pears, squash, pumpkins, and carrots.

As noted at the top of this post, we began with 1 cherry tree, blackberry canes, woodland strawberries and wild plums. Here's what we have now and how we use the fruits:

3 semi-dwarf apple trees (fresh, baking, dried, sauce)
1 crabapple tree (jelly, juice, sauce)
1 plum tree (dried, fresh, baking, jam)
2 semi-dwarf cherry trees (fresh, baking, preserves)
4 semi-dwarf pear trees (fresh, sauce)
2 fig trees (fresh, canned)
multiple red and black currant bushes (jelly and tea)
2 cranberry vines (currently bringing back into production, previously I used them in baking and sauce)
8 blueberry bushes (fresh, smoothies, baking, jam)
5 rhubarb plants (fresh, baking, dried, jam)
raspberry canes (fresh, jam)
blackberry canes (fresh, smoothies, baking, jam)

grape vines (not productive with grapes currently, but I use the leaves for stuffed grape leaves)
cultivated and woodland strawberries (fresh)

1 evergreen huckleberry bush (jelly)
various vegetable and herb beds, patches, troughs, and pots

It's taken us 30 years to get to this point. We continue to work on soil and plant health. When our last 2 kids move into their own homes, I imagine my husband and I could provide most of our fruits and vegetables (with exception to citrus, melons, the occasional peach or nectarine, and vegetables that don't grow well here) for about 9 months of the year. If we don't stay in this house, we will leave a nice edible legacy to a new family.

Have a blessed weekend, friends.

Expanding Dehydrating Capacity With What I Have and How This Could Apply to You

My suggestions below are only for dehydrating plant foods and not meats.

My 1995 dehydrator originally came with 4 racks. A few years ago I bought 2 additional racks on ebay to expand capacity. Six racks do the job for me when I'm doing herbs or smaller amounts of fruits or vegetables. However, when I'm dehydrating fruit in late summer, I really need more capacity. I achieve this by using one of my ovens in addition to the dehydrator. 

Dehydrating foods require different temps depending on what they are. Recommended temperatures:

• herbs -- 95 degrees F
• mushrooms -- 100 degrees F
• vegetables -- 115 to 130 degrees F
• fruits/fruit leather -- 125 to 135 degrees F

Two options with using your oven to dehydrate herbs and foods 

1) What's the lowest setting that your oven uses with its element? I have two large ovens, one as part of the range/stove and the other, a wall oven. My wall oven can only go as low as 170 degrees F. But my oven as part of my range can go as low as 100 degrees F. I also have a small countertop oven (a toaster oven) that can heat as low as 90 degrees F. It's much smaller, so would have less capacity, but it could be used in a pinch. Just saying, in case the only oven you have that heats low enough is a countertop oven. You could do small amounts of fruits, fruit leather, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, etc.

2) The second option works best with herbs or mushrooms, but you can test to see if the light provides enough heat for vegetables or fruit. Some oven lights do warm the oven to higher temps than others. You will need to check the temperature of your oven, using a non-instant read meat thermometer (old-style, mercury in the tube), a non-instant candy thermometer, or an oven thermometer. Turn the light on for your oven, place the thermometer in the middle of the center rack inside the oven, close the door, and wait 30 minutes. 

If your oven warms to a high enough temp with just the light, dehydrate herbs/foods by leaving in the oven (on metal cooling racks, like cookie racks, set on top of a sheet pan) with the light on and the door closed. If the temp is slightly too high, you can leave the light on with items inside and something to keep the door from closing completely, like a wooden spoon or silicone oven mitt or potholder stuck into the opening of the door, allowing a small crack in the opening, enough to vent and allow some warmth to escape.

Tips for using your oven

It's important to place your fruits/veggies on racks on top of a metal tray to create some air circulation around the foods. If your oven also has the convection option, use it. If your racks have slots that are too far apart (food will fall between as it dries), line the rack with parchment paper. The foods will still benefit from air circulation on the parchment. Check foods and turn over once an hour until done. Don't crowd racks used in the oven. If you can, crack the oven door to allow greater air circulation.

You can fudge on the temperatures by about 10 degrees higher than stated ideal. However, anything warmer than 140 degrees F will basically cook the foods and not dehydrate them.

This is how I've been dehydrating plums and apples this month, using my oven in addition to the dehydrator. I've expanded my capacity by about 3 to 4 dehydrator-size trays, without purchasing additional trays. As I said above, it's only a few weeks out of the year that I need extra dehydrating capacity, so it makes sense to find other ways to do this using what I have. 

One p.s., if you want to try dehydrating herbs, fruits, veggies in your car parked in the sun on a sunny day, check the temperature of your car's interior as discussed above for checking your oven temp with the light. Crack windows to both allow air circulation as well as adjust interior temp.

Open-Face Plum Pie

My mother particularly enjoyed plums. The only type of jam she ever made was plum jam. We didn't have fruit trees, so she, my sister and I would go to a nearby market and buy plums in summer. I can still picture the brown paper bag laying on the kitchen counter with purple plums spilling out, as she worked to pit and chop all of the plums needed for a batch of jam.

This is her recipe for an open-face plum pie. It's super simple, which makes it appealing for me at this busy time of the year.

Open-Face Plum Pie

Ingredients:

9-inch unbaked pie shell

enough plums to fill the pie shell, a couple of pounds (I used about 40 small plums for this pie)

2 tablespoons of flour

1/4 to 1/2 cup of granulated sugar (amount depending on sweetness of plums, I prefer 1/2 cup)

1  1/2 teaspoons orange zest (nice for flavor, but I often leave it out)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Wash, pit and quarter plums. Toss cut plums with the flour. Arrange plums in a tight circular pattern. Repeat in layers until the pie shell is filled. Sprinkle all over with the orange zest then sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake another 45 minutes.

Cool and allow to stand several hours or overnight to allow the juices to thicken and set.

I baked this pie yesterday afternoon, then served it tonight. So good. So juicy. And so pretty in a simple way. Took me back to my mother's kitchen table.

My Apple Program

crabapples a month from harvest

We have 1 crabapple tree and 3 large apple trees. I use the crabapples to make jelly, juice for spiced cider, and applesauce. The crabapples ripen in October. We still have some crabapple juice and crabapple sauce in the freezer. The sauce is astringent, so I mix it with plain applesauce as I serve it. I'll use the last of the crabapple juice in a hot spiced apple cider some chilly day later this month. And we'll continue to eat the crabapple sauce both as sauce and baked into bar cookies and snack cakes for the next several weeks. I harvest about 10 pounds of crabapples each year and make about 4 quarts of juice and about 12 pints of sauce with those.

With the large apples, I have 1 early season, 1 mid-season, and 1 late season apple tree. I harvest anywhere from 30 to 70 pounds of the large apples each year.

one of two full produce drawers of early apples still to enjoy 

The early apples are red over green, crisp and sweet, and seem to miss the apple moths plus are mostly immune to apple scab. They make great fresh eating apples. They're also super productive. I begin harvesting these around the first of August. Early apples don't tend to keep as long as later apples. So these begin to go wrinkly in about 2 months after harvest, even stored in a refrigerator. We use the early apples for fresh eating (as is and in salads) throughout August and September. I also bake a few into pies, if we're in the mood. When these early apples become less appetizing due to aging, I slice them thin (1/4-inch) and dehydrate them to have as snacking dried apples in winter and spring.

just starting to harvest the russet apples

Right now I'm at the beginning of harvesting the mid-season apples. These are a russet apple, tan over green. They have a wonderful flavor, almost spicy. This tree is moderately productive. If in good condition they make excellent fresh eating apples, especially with a bit of cheese. And they're long-keepers, lasting until late January. The downside to these apples is they blossom and develop just as the apple moths are in the area (we don't spray) and they have some susceptibility to diseases. So as I harvest these, I inspect them thoroughly and separate the ones I believe are free of apple maggots and don't look to have scab or other issues from the ones that most definitely look to have issues. The good ones get put aside for eating when the red over green ones are gone (first of October-ish), and the poor ones are cut up and trimmed of really bad damage and made into applesauce. I made 8 quarts of applesauce over the weekend and have enough of these apples still on the tree to make another 6 to 8 quarts, for a total of 14 to 16 quarts of applesauce.

the cooking apples still have 2 or 3 weeks until ready to harvest

The late apples are green cooking apples. They're crisp, large, and tart. These ripen late in September to early October. They mostly avoid the apple moths and only have a small issue with apple scab. They're also good keeping apples, lasting until late January to early February in the fridge. The tree would be more productive if it was in a better spot in the yard. Still, we harvest about 10 pounds of green apples in a normal year. I use these in mid-winter to make baked apples.

I didn't mention that I also pick up any apples that have dropped early or knocked off the trees by critters and chop these up for the freezer. I use these frozen apple chunks in sauteed apples all winter, spring, and into early summer.

We try to use every apple. If apples get bruised, I cut off the bruises and chop the apples for the freezer. If apples have maggot trails, I cut the worst of the trails out and use the rest of the apple in sauce. If the apples begin to go soft and wrinkly, I slice thin and dehydrate them, after all the wrinkly-apple stage is simply the beginning of the natural dehydration process. If apples are astringent (like crabs), I process the apples in someway and blend with non-astringent apples, spice them (as in cider), or bake them as sauce in applesauce bars. And the good ones we use for fresh eating, pies, and baked apples.

What I'm saying is that we have apples from our 4 trees in some form year round, fresh, sauce, juice, dried, and frozen. And that's my "apple program" for my household.

I hope you all had a good weekend. Peace to you.