It's 84.3 degrees fahrenheit right now at 19:21 hours. I'm not kidding. I just did the celsius fahrenheit conversion and I'm so sorry I did. No wonder I had so much trouble today as I worked in the garden and greenhouse and every other thing I did out there. Rasping Baasha's back hooves, that was exhausting. Transplanting herbs and tomatoes, ugh. I wanted to get my mower out under the pasture fenceline again but I was pouring sweat from just picking manure.
The vegetable garden is up in the air this year. I don't know what the problem is, but half the seeds didn't sprout, and a multitude of tomatoes sprouted even though I did not plant them. I planted about 4 tomatoes, and I have at least 12 out there. WTH. Also, no beans at all grew, it's very disappointing. But we're already eating snap peas and sometimes I pull up a carrot for Baasha.
As an experiment, I planted two zucchini babies outside, and one in the greenhouse. Well Mr. Inside has zucchini already, and the two poor ones outside are just starting to get their grown-up leaves. You can see the two tiny zuccini plants in the photo.My mother in law gave me blueberries and I'm so happy - I've wanted blueberries for so long. They got a place of honor in our garden and I tend to them every day, willing them to grow.
I had this crazy idea to plant a row of corn in the greenhouse - we only usually use half of it so why not plant corn on the other side? I would love to have corn on the cob. It's a rarity in Germany- and when the tiny cobs show up in stores, they are so expensive I do not buy them. Corn on the cob is an American thing. (I don't have pics of the corn yet but here you can see the big zucchini and the total chaos that was the greenhouse before yesterday, when I transplanted and organized a bit.)
I've harvested all my radishes - these are some sort of weird monster radish - no idea what kind grows like this. I made garlic grilled radishes (mediocre) and radish greens soup (also mediocre). Baasha enjoyed them too - greens and all.
I had to refill this little pond cuz we haven't had significant rain since 2009. I'm wondering if I can put some little feeder goldfish in here - people put them in horse troughs, and they seem to do fine, so maybe I can have fish here. Did you know it's illegal in Germany to keep a goldfish in a goldfish bowl? It has been deemed animal cruelty. The pet store had the law printed out on the fish tanks and I was thinking, "Do they mean without water? Cuz with no water, that would be cruel..."
I made Irish Stew. I'm really focusing on reducing our monthly grocery bill. They say you should shop less often to save money but I have a hard time planning in advance. Also, there are no Targets or Walmarts or Costcos so buying in bulk is not an option. I keep track and I shop every 2-3 days. I should try to stretch that to 3-4, I guess.
Anyone have tips for saving $..I mean €? I already buy staples and not prepared foods - and I only see the inside of a restaurant once or maybe twice per month (a big change from my old lifestyle). Did you know a cube of butter costs 1,05€ and a liter of milk costs only ,50€? WTH is that about? I'd like to get our food expense down to 200€ per month, if possible. (That includes paper items, cleaning/hygiene items, and the weekly carrot supply for Baasha.)
We worked in the garden at 10 pm last night - can you believe that is possible? I love living at this latitude, it gets dark at 11. But this weather! I prefer the 60s and 70s, so I will try to avoid that C->F converter: )
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9 comments:
Corn here is awful. I wouldn't even feed it to animals!
You could make a decent gratin with the radish. I've done it a few times with the big white daikons, sliced in discs and put in a baking dish with potato slices, covered in cheese and broth. I have a recipe here somewhere.
We cut down our food bill drastically when I taught myself asian cooking. I started with Indian, which is almost impossible to screw up, and slowly branched out to Thai and Chinese. If you're lucky enough to have a decent Asian store nearby, you will be astounded at the better produce selection and prices. Plus we feel much better when we eat asian (curries, rice, lentils, soups, comparatively little fat) as opposed to heavy German or western cooking with tons of potatoes, cheese, bread, red meat, etc. Try kuechengoetter (dot) de for ideas.
It's been in the 80's here this week, also, but today the infamous Ellensburg wind has kicked in--wind speeds in the mid-20 mph, with gusts up to 58! It's already 70 right now (10AM) but was about the same as you last evening.
Your greenhouse looks lovely! Not disorganized, just green and growing! I have a brown thumb, so you're way ahead of me!
I'm wondering if your volunteer tomatoes are just left from some of last year's that fell and you didn't bother harvesting them? Or maybe some seeds in your compost that went in after the pile was no longer hot enough to kill them? Don't know...
The exception to saving money by not shopping often is shopping for fresh vegetables almost every day--at a fruit or farmer's market, if possible (rather than the grocery story). Our grocery bill goes down dramatically in summer when the fresh markets are open.
My staples for "eating cheap" are potatoes, eggs, cheese, rice, and sometimes pasta. Add fresh veggies to that, and it's all good. Now, if you got yourself a chicken ...
I'm jealous of your zukes!
Im so loving the weather! the corn is expensive here too...unless you buy the canned stuff. Im going to ask a farmer this year if I can buy a few ears off of him.
It's harder to stretch the budget sometimes here..there is no bulk bying. I've finally gotten to the point now where we do one big shopping trip on saturdays and we only need to pick up milk and bread througout the week.
I've learned to make everthing from scratch. You can make tortillas now..you can make wraps,quesadillas,chips,all kinds of things. We do salads,sandwiches,seriously there is alot u can do. Since it's just the two of you,you should look up cooking for 2 recipes and see what u can find. Our biggest spending item is meat..it's expensive here so I've learned how to stretch everything and do meatless options throught the week.
Trade ya- temps here have been 110* for the past month. It hits the 80's over night. Sonny is NOT impressed, and has requested a geographical change.
Love the greenhouse!!! You sure keep everything looking amazing Lytha. Way to go!
As to the groceries.... I'm feeding four. I buy in bulk whenever possible. Stock up on non-perishables like pastas, beans, etc. Gardens are taking off, so fresh produce helps. We more or less "perimeter shop"- I make lots of foods from scratch. (Thank God for the bread machine!)
Kiss Baasha from me. Must quit trying to catch up now---- BAD storm rolling in.
Another thought about buying in bulk...
Have you ever thought about approaching one of the local grocers to see if they would give you a break in price by buying certain items by the case? I think that's basically what got Costco going...
What a beautiful greenhouse garden. You have quite the green thumb.
It's been hot here, but nothing out of the ordinary. What little grass we have is crispy. The rest is just loose sand.
Our grocery bill is also higher than I'd like. The challenge we face is working full time with an hour's commute each way. We don't have the time nor the motivation to do a lot of food preparation. I guess that's something I can look forward to if I ever actually get to retire.
That said, we do like all sorts of legumes, which are so nutritious and inexpensive. Black beans and pinto beans - YUM.
We buy at the German equivalent of Costco: Selgros. You might want to see if you have a Metro around if you don't have one of those? Every month or so we buy the huge TP packs, get our cleaning products in commercial sizes and load up on other things (including produce) in large quantities. Makes a uge difference. So does sussing out what you use a lot of (for us, yogurt) and ensuring you buy those products at the cheapes place.
It's a relief to buy in a decent size and not waste packaging as well as money.
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