Whether you have pears trees, buy in bulk , or find a great price locally, freeze drying pears is a great way to preserve the harvest. Today I’m sharing not only how to freeze dry pears, but also my freeze drying routine/schedule, and how eat freeze dried pears. Freeze Dried foods has a longer shelf life than canned or fermented foods – lasting up to 30 years, so it is a great way to preserve food seasonally, financially speaking, and for the highest nutritional value.
This sourdough pizza discard recipe is an un-recipe; more like a method and you just take it and run with it! Honestly, if this is on the menu, I purposely feed my sourdough to accommodate growing children ’round here. This pizza was born out of a no-food-in-the-fridge what can I make, kinda lunch. It was a huge hit, so it’s become an easy, quick staple lunch; just like my snack tray lunches.
I like to use my cast iron pan and homemade tallow or lard when making sourdough pizza because I personally like to pop it into the oven after I add the toppings. This sourdough pizza has a soft texture and the tallow (or lard) will give the outside a little crunch. The oven is optional, but you will want a pan with a lid to make sure the cheese melts before serving.
We eat apples all year, but there is nothing like a fresh apple picked from the tree! If you are looking for a way to buy in bulk and process apples this year (and you have a freeze dryer) freeze drying apples is a wonderful way to preserve apples when they taste the freshest.
I have been buying freeze dried snack for years as an alternative to processed baby snacks, but since investing in a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer now the whole family can enjoy a variety of freeze dried snacks! We did a family experiment freeze drying a different variety of apple on each of the freeze dryer trays during our first run to see what our favorite varieties were. I’ll share below how each of the apples rated!
I will also share links to the tools I use and how to keep them fresh in the pantry.
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The rising food costs and trying to move back into an “ingredient-based” pantry I have been paying more attention on where to get the best prices. Not only have I found grocery items, but some of my household items are available and less expensive through Azure Standard. On top of the prices, buying in bulk (a larger quantity or in multiples of 3) has help build my pantry storage up little by little without overspending.
Azure Standard has been around for decades, but the company has grown a lot in the last couple of years when people really started to look into bulk buying, me included!. They are a co-op based out of Oregon, but have routes throughout the United States they drive every month; this makes bulk buying Non-GMO and organic products more widely available to everyone.
Changing things like shopping once or twice a month versus weekly shopping trip helps too. Paying more attention to which the biggest area (meat, produce, dairy, etc) has been a big help when trying to manage food inflation also! Bulk buying has never made more sense than it does in these times and Azure Standard makes the process easy.
Buying meat in bulk from a butcher is more cost effective as long as you have the freezer space to do so. This last time I bulk ordered meat I requested to have some of the extra fat packaged up. The butcher adds some fat to the ground pork, but otherwise it would either go to waste or they would use if to make and resell lard in their shop own shop.
We have bought meat in bulk for YEARS, but until recently we had never known to request the fat to make our own lard (and tallow– from beef)!
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One of our favorite things about Fall is apple picking! The orchard we have went to for years closed this year, but I was able to find some Cortland apples. It’s not nearly enough to stock up for the winter, but we are enjoying one of my children’s favorite snacks: Apple Nachos!
I feel like the last two years we have been playing dodgeball, ducking and hiding, just trying to stay in the game — that’s how I’ve felt running my home the last 2 years when it comes to meals. In this post I am sharing how I changed my grocery shopping habits in 2022.
We are supposed to be back to “normal” now, but with inflation and craziness continuing to happen I just want the “dodgeball game” to end.
We are currently a family of 8! We welcomed our 6th child early this spring, and I don’t know if it was the fear compilation of the last two years while grocery shopping or simply my ever-changing hormones, but I started to feel super defeated. One of our largest expenses, food, has gotten way out of hand this year.
I really had to sit and review my menu plans and grocery receipts to look at inflation, what I’m buying and realized it wasn’t necessarily me letting grocery shopping slide, inflation is happening — but I decided something had to change. So here is how I started changing my grocery habits in going into the second half of 2022:
Strawberries are favorite around here and once we start to enjoy all the fresh garden grown produce -it’s all we want! I am always itching to find different ways to enjoy the fresh produce as long as we can without getting tired of it. Being able to create freezer friendly recipes to keep fresh produce for later is a way to enjoy the summer fresh taste of strawberries and other fruit.
My family enjoys making strawberry jam, and way before I had the knowledge to can or the space to preserve in a large quantities, I would make everything freezer friendly. I may have started making strawberry jam freezer friendly as my only means to store, but it’s still a favorite for all types of summer fruit.
(more…)My goal with this website is to encourage you to learn a variety of homemaking skills!
Do you enjoy spending time in the kitchen with new recipes? Do you meal prep so you can save a ton of time with your busy weekly schedule? Do you cook just so you can eat?
A big part of money saving in the kitchen is meal planning, but I also know it feels a little “plain jane” sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be – it’s time to learn some tips and get creative. I’m someone who enjoys being in the kitchen cooking but is actively searching for ways to save money with the recent spike in food inflation. No matter where on the scale you land, these meal planning and money saving tips will help.
It’s been three months since making New Year’s Resolutions. By now statistics say that many people have already given up on their resolutions for the year and by the end of the year only about 8% actually keep their New Year’s Resolution. I wanted to check in with you and see how you are doing?!
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