I made a beef stew the other day because it’s winter and snowing. During Fall and Winter I want comfort foods and I just love soups and thick hearty stews that make the house smell wonderful. Beef stew is one of the hearty meals. There are tons of ways to make it with whatever you happen to have on hand but the basic recipe is beef and a broth gravy.
Homemade Beef Stew
We eat more low carb in my household but sometime I do love adding potatoes to the stew to make it, well, more like Grandma use to make it. We also grow potatoes on the farm so I need to use them up in dishes over the Fall, Winter, and Spring.
Well I don’t think I took a few things into consideration as I planned out my Farm to Table 365 Challenge for this year. What would that be you ask????? The family! Sometimes I get super excited to try some new Challenge and love working towards bettering our savings or paying off the house faster, but totally forget life and this house is not just about me.
Last week Hubby and DD both went to normal stores and picked up things I had not planned nor did we really need. Hubby was insistent on having Brunswick stew this week and having his diet soda. He doesn’t ask for tons so its fine by me to have to adjust for him when needed. That’s life after all right? Ebbs and flows. Of course, I originally felt a bit upset, but then I thought about it. Did I even ask them if they wanted to do this? Did I just assume they would follow my lead and eat what I gave them? Where they excited about it? Did I even mention it to DD? Ummm, nope! Was it even something they wanted to do? What about the fact that they make their own foods a lot. DD is 19 and in college, so she makes most of her own breakfast, lunch and dinners separate from us. She still uses some of our foods but will buy her own main food. Hubby eats Breakfast most mornings where I do not. I don’t get hungry until 10-11 am so eat my first meal usually then. He likes his breakfast , lunch, and dinner. We have always eating breakfast, lunch and dinner as a family for the 28 years but now with all the kids grown up and most moved out of the house, schedules have changed. I never accounted for that.
So I decided to adjust the goal a bit. I will still try my best to stay Farm to table, on my side, but will allow minor store runs to help with the budget and the families spur of the moment dinner wants. I have also decided to reduce my original food budget of $125 = $500 monthly to only $200. I know it’s a huge decrease and a totally outrageous amount if you knew what my last few years food totals looked liked, but this way Hubby and DD can include some items they enjoy into the mix. I will moving any special dinner my hubby wants that I have not plan for the week into our Date night or Entertainment budget instead.
With all the food we still have already bought from the Farm Stores and everything Hubby and DD bought picked up at Costco and the other stores this last week, we should be good for groceries this week. Cross your fingers!
Because of the extra spending, I do plan to reduce the spending over the next few months on food even more to make up for this month. I want to see if I can even out the whole year to total $200 monthly. Only time will tell but no matter what happens it has to be better than the last few years.
What I (or family) spent on food for week #3?
Costco – $106.57, Aldi – $13.13, Weis – $35.01
Total’s: 154.71
Week #1 = $30.89
Week #2 = $156.97
Week #3 = 154.71
Total spent this month = $342.57
Here are a few meals I made last week:
Italian Sausages (Costco)
BBQ Beef ribs & Asparagus (Costco)
Cheesy Spaghetti Squash Casserole (Farm store and our Farm)
I don’t know about you but when I final settle down from all the Thanksgiving through Christmas Holiday craziness, I start to get excited about the garden. January is a time to reflect on the past year and dream about the new year. I know I am strange but when February 14th rolls around I think Spring, warmer weather, flowers and gardens. So at the end of January I feel compelled to start thinking about the garden and order new seeds.
I sat down this past week and planned out the Potager garden as well as the market garden for this year.
2022 Market Garden
2022 Potager Garden
I took out all my old seeds to see what I still had on hand and what I would need to buy. Originally I didn’t have a set budget for anything. I just bought a ton of seeds from my favorite seed company, Baker Creek Seeds https://www.rareseeds.com/.
Baker Creek Seeds
But when I received them a light bulb went off in my head. I was super excited to see the beauty of all the seeds in front of me but wondered, am I jut spending to spend? It sure is fun to look through the seed catalog and dream, then get caught up in buying as much seed packets as I can. Well this year I wanted things to be different in my life so why not make things different in all aspects of my life sense gardening is a big part of what we do on the farm.
As I sat there staring at packets It dawned on me that I didn’t even know how much I spent on the 22 packages of seeds I bought. So I looked at the receipt $63.75. I bought tons of seeds that should provide enough food for us for the year. Or at least that’s the plan. I really want to save money on the garden this year and use all that we have and can grow. So I was thinking of a budget for the garden this year, which I have never done before. I just dropped my food budget down to $200 a month, thanks to Mavis Butterfield’s inspirational post of $100 monthly food budget https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/, so why not add a budget for the garden as well. A $100 sounded good at first but then I decided sense I have a $200 food budget we should start there. I know I am going to buy new blueberry bushes which will be most of the budget but with $100 for the year that would probably only buy maybe one bush. With $200 maybe 3. So that’s the set budget.
Potager Garden
Similar Potager Garden
Now this amount wont include the bricks & box woods for around the Potager garden (because these should have been in last year) but I included the seeds I just bought and bushes, plants or fruit trees for the year.
Last year I came across a few quiche recipes from Martha Stewart. I don’t know about you but I love quiche. It’s even better when you can use your own eggs from you chickens and your own veggies from your garden. Making a quiche is very simple, flavorful, and a good way to use up meats or veggies from your frig.
One of Martha’s, quiches stood out to me. Asparagus, Leek and Gruyere Quiche, oh my. I decided to run to the store and buy some leeks and Gruyere cheese. I don’t remember ever buying or even tasting Gruyere cheese before. I wanted to use up some asparagus I had in the frig so bought the rest of the ingredients and thought I would give it a try. Now, a year later, this is one of our families favorites. Over the year I have tweaked the recipe to make it more Low Carb to fit our way of eating (crust out of almond flour). I have added ham, taken out the asparagus, when I don’t have any in the garden, and adjusted the crust recipe. A basic quiche recipe is very forgiving; add what you like, whip up some eggs and bake. Yum!
So if you would like to try this wonderful quiche, I have linked the original recipe along with a video. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
I told you yesterday how hubby and I ran to Paige’s Pit Stop and a new to us farm store. Well super cute is what I have to say. We bought a few items from the new to us farm store, pork wine cheese being one of them. How cool is that? Who doesn’t love pork wine cheese. This was an adorable little farm store. Farms around here have these cute farm stores they place on their property for people to just stop by and buy items from them. They usually are on the honor system meaning you total up what you bought either pay cash or check and go home with all your treasures. I love it! No pressure and how things used to be. I hope it stays that way because the thought of going to Walmart shopping, or any store really, that has tons of people with attitudes bumping into you doesn’t sound like fun to me. I mean who wouldn’t want to shop when you have views like this?
They had a great selection of foods including cream from South Mountain Creamery. We plan to take a trip to the creamery later this Spring but I just love the old fashion glass bottles.
Hubby and I ran out to Paige’s Pit Stop for a few things.
After we left Paige’s we decided to run to another Farm store down the street to see what they had. Hubby found this one while driving to a friends house and remembered while we were getting back in the car. I wanted to scout things out to see if they had different items that we might need or want. And they did. They carried a few of the same things but I was excited to see they had pork wine cheese. We love pork wine cheese and now I know where we can buy it from. Yippy!!!!! I did end up running back to Paige’s one more time to get some extra cream for our coffee and cream soups we will be making over the next few weeks. DD came with me and ended up buying a big blueberry muffin as well.
What I spent on food for week #2?
Paige’s Pit Stop – $115.10, Spring House Farm – $23.96, Paige’s Pit Stop – $17.91
Well throwing out a question to you to see if anybody else is like me. Do you like your frig stocked to the brim or more on the empty side like I do? I know it’s crazy but I love seeing my refrigerator empty. We keep most of our food in the freezer, freeze dried or canned so when I see my frig almost empty I smile. I love it because I know I am not wasting food. There is so much waste out there but I dont think people see it. I usually will have some leftovers from the day before that we will eat for breakfast, lunch or even dinner plus some condiments but for the most part the frig is bare, unless I have some fruit and veggies from the garden in the drawers. But starting the new year after the Holiday’s is another story in itself.
As I looked back on the Thanksgiving and Christmas with all the company we had and all the family that stayed over, I was wondering if we could have done things a bit different and saved money over spend it on items that just ended up in compost or given to the chickens. Hubby always says the Holiday’s are about good food and family, but does the good foods have to be so much? Can’t we just have one dessert and not five? Plus when everybody else brings stuff it just fills up the frig and nobody takes any items back home with them. Let me give you some examples.
My MIL doesn’t like cream or even almond milk for her coffee, which is perfectly fine. She always brings a small container of skim milk or milk for her coffee. I dont care but when they leave they leave not only all the food leftovers they brought for the dinners but the container of skim milk. I dont normally drink shim milk but wont let it go to waste so I use it up. I addition to that, my SIL and some of her family, needs to eat gluten free. She always makes the foods that her family loves and brings tons of items to share. this year we had a lot of different dishes of stuffing, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, 2 containers of gravy, rolls, bacon Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, tons of different gluten free breads, snacks, crackers, and many desserts and chocolates. I mean tons of food. Most of it was not touched for days. I usually make a cheesecake but decided this year to make mini ones. Not one person touched them because there was 5 other dessert options including a huge apple cake my neighbor brought over to us. I did freeze the cheesecakes for later so that was fine but hubby ended up eating the whole apple cake. Hummmm. Not the best diet at all. Having one or two days of treats is one thing ,but with all that stuff in the house it was like a 2 week feeding frenzy and I didn’t like it.
This year I think I am going to change things up. I plan to make sure I know exactly what people will be bringing and only make a few things so we aren’t living off of pies and cakes for two weeks. Not healthy!
So now that 2 weeks are under our belts and we have finally gotten the frig back close to where I like it, the question to posed. How many of you like it empty or full?
Hubby and I bought our house 7 years ago. It was a fixer upper for sure. We have spent the first years adding a chicken coop, fencing, replacing the roof, replacing appliances, replacing the hot water heater, knocking down walls, adding molding, repainting, adding a garden etc. I will post about a lot of this later, but for now one of the “not completed project” will soon be done.
We have a full bathroom in place of a powder room on the first floor. Our (now) library use to be a 5th bedroom hence the full bathroom on our first floor. We made the 5th bedroom into a formal library and knocked out closets and opened the wall from the living room into the bedroom/library. Anyway, the old full bath was ugly and very dated. Useful and worked, just needed some TLC. Originally I was going to take out the shower and relocate the toilet and sink and make it into just a 2 piece powder room. After much back and forth with hubby, and with all the other major remodels that needs to be done, we decided to keep the 3 piece bath and just remodel it as it stands. We decided to fix this bath up in stages to make things easier. We pay cash for all the remodels and most everything, so stages is the way to go when remodeling. Plus we had, as you can see from the list above, other huge expenses (roof) that took up tons of money, so we didn’t have much money leftover to work with.
After about a month in the house, the kids bathroom upstairs started to leak into the powder room from the ceiling, ugh…. We soon found out that we did not just have one leak but we had two , the sink faucet and the shower. The sink was a two bowl sink so we just shut of the valve to the sink that was leaking and told the kids to use only the other one. We also not only shut off the shower valve but we ripped the whole shower and tub out and took it all to the dump. Without an shower we told the kids to use the powder room shower instead until we could get the kids bath remolded. 7 years later the kids bath is still not remodeled. Like I said, major issues with expenses have come up and that always seem to move to the top of the repair list (the roof). Last year the powder room shower started leaking into the basement. Not just a bit, but a lot. We now have everyone including guests, using the only shower that doesn’t leak, the Master bathroom. We need to work on these bathrooms ASAP.
Hubby and I decided to call in a contractor to do part of the work. I wanted a window in the powder room shower area and a new window in the kids bath along with moving the plumbing in the kids bath. I will post about that later. We called a friend contractor for bids and told him to get started. We are waiting for window and should start construction soon. In the mean time over the last few years we have started fixing the powder room up in stages.
Original 1st floor bathroom
Stage one – We painted the powder room and replaced the sink. The old sink was ugly. Walking through Home Depot one day we spotted a sink/vanity that we fell in love with. It was just $299 for the sink cabinet, stink top and mirror. We said that’s it. Unfortunately, it was the floor model and they had none left in stock. We asked if we could buy the floor model and they agreed. So excited we brought the vanity home and installed it that day.
Stage two – We ripped out the old shower. This powder room had an old plastic weird sized shower. Hubby ripped out the old plastic ugly thing and framed the floor to get ready for tile. We then pulled out the old vanity along with the toilet and ripped up the old flooring. I didn’t 100% dislike the floor but wanted it all fresh and new. We received a bunch of free tile from our sweet neighbor including the grout. It was a beautiful tile and we had enough to do not only the powder room but the laundry room and still have enough left over for something else. More about the laundry room make over later. So we put down the new tile replace the old toilet with a new one, paneled the wall in a ship lap, put back the newer vanity and I repainted a lighter tan wall color and white on the ship lap. Now all we need is the window and then we can finish the shower, move onto the ceiling and call it a day. So exciting. The contractor is scheduled for February so we are waiting patiently.
I will take complete photos as soon as the window shower and ceiling goes in in the next 2 months. It is a night and day transformation!
This is the tile hubby and I picked for the shower base and the walls.
We haven’t really ever worked on a fall garden but last year I decided we should give it a shot. We live in an area at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Being at the base of a mountain we typically have a bit of different weather, even within 20 miles from us. Storms can roll right over us or we will get hit by snow, frost, rain or whatever while the rest of the area is dry. With this highly volatile weather, it makes gardening a bit of a challenge. But I wanted to give a Fall garden a chance so I planted 3 farm rows of carrots. We have two garden areas, one is a beautiful Potager garden and the other is a big 60’x60′ Market garden. I planted the carrots in our Market garden to see if I could get any before the elements took over.
Well we got busy with the Holidays and while the carrot patch was in the back of my mind all the time, I did nothing but check on them a few times. I planted 3 different types of long term storage types (sorry I dont have the kinds) just to be sure I would have some thing. After leaving them on their own through the fall and into the winter with snow with multiple frosts, I decided to do something. Sitting on the couch watching Youtube videos on gardening one day, I jumped up and said I wonder if there are still any carrots to be harvested. I thought it was such a waste for me to have spent the money on seeds and the time to plant them and not even try to harvest. So I went out in the cold for 2 half hours and dug up 2 rows (third one didn’t make it) of carrots. Wow low and behold some made it. One row had 2/3rds to harvest and the other only 1/2 row. I figured that was better than nothing so digging I went. They were small and close together, as I never thinned them out, but I got a good bit of small to medium carrots to use for food. I was super happy and know now I need to sow the seeds earlier in the season to get bigger carrots. Then I should have a bumper crop. Especially sense they seem to be so forgiving and hardy even through the cold.
I also decided to try an experiment. I took the very small carrots and transplanted them to pots that I placed in my family room. My family room has mostly all windows and we have a wood burning stove so it stays warm and gets lots of sun. We will see if I can grow a few more before Spring. If not, no biggy but if I can that would be great.
Sense I got a bee in my bonnet, I also transplanted green onion and planted 4 lettuce seeds. Again I dont know if they will grow but its worth a try sense I am craving salads these days:)
Have you had a Fall garden? Have you tried to grow produce inside the house? Curious mind would like to know!
On Tuesday, hubby and I decided to run to one of our local farm shops, Paige’s Pit Stop. We have been here a few times in the past but now will be making this one of our main stops on our Farm to Table 365 adventure this year. We really didn’t need much of anything, except for cream, but bought a bunch of stuff anyway. My food budget this year is $300 monthly buying local only. We actually stopped by two Farm stores that day, but will post about the other one next week. Super cute.
We called to make sure they were open because the last time I drove by they were closed. During the winter season even for farm store things slow down and they take some well needed time off. Paige lives right next door to the Farm store and has place a sign on the front door for Winter, that all you need to do is call her if she is not there and she will walk right over. How convenient is that?
Paige’s carries Local Meats, Local Honey, Fresh Fruit, Fresh Veggies, Baked Goods, Pies, Pot Pies, Jams, Pickles, Salsa, Soup mixes, Honey sticks, Ice cream, Cheeses, Cream, Chips, Queso, Seasonal Items, like Pumpkins and Christmas and tons more, including a few none local items.
Farm store interior – Photo by Rey LopezPaige – Photo by Rey Lopez
Hubby and I got to spend about 30 minute’s talking with Paige all about whhat she had in the store. Can you believe she even carries coffee from a local vendor? As I looked around, and I mean I really looked at everything, so I knew what she carried for future visit’s. Hubby said I really think we can do this Farm to Table 365. She carries most everything we need.
I mean it’s January and she even had some fruit and veggies still. I will end up going back for apples and cream next week:)
So if you are in the area and want a full range of wonderful Local foods from Farms around Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania then Paige has what you are looking for. And yes all these States are Local around here.
