Just curious who else is living super frugal

[Summerlove]

Your simply wrong. Yes many other countries ban GMO but here in the free U S A you are not allowed to know if a crop is GMO or not. If it is not labeled certified organic or is not a crop yet approved to be genetically modified assume it is GMO. For example, 90% of US soybean products are GMO.

Many of you watch the state controlled media so your information is censored (like the communist news network and faux news). Do your own research. Think.

Certified organic can still contain GMO. Corn and sobean are the most common GMO crop.

 

[Spikes Chooks]

So, question about frugality and gardening ... to my way of thinking it is much more frugal for me to have plants that produce well and provide food for our family that we will eat. Others seem to have the opinion that only growing heirloom seeds is the way to be frugal because they can save the seed for the next year. My experience with heirlooms hasn't been great though. They are usually harder to germinate, harder to keep up with, they don't produce as well, and the bugs and diseases just seem to eat them alive from one day to the next - none of which makes for a bountiful harvest of food on my table. I also seem to get stuck with "heirloom" seeds that don't actually produce what they are supposed to produce even though they come from a company that is supposedly completely heirloom. Personally I can't see what's wrong with growing hybrids and think in the course of being frugal it's a good deal to have actual food at the end of the growing season rather than just more seeds. But I'm wondering what other people's experiences are on this thread.

Good question, I don't think anyone should need to be too hardline about it. It terms of value for money, it also varies across plants and needs. Experiment and see what works for you. Here, I just couldn't get heirloom broccoli to grow from seed, but I can from seedlings so I don't bother sowing anymore. Two years ago I let cut and grow lettuce go to seed and have loads of supply left, still viable. But I won't bother with letting Rocket go to seed again, it just took up the space I wanted for such a long time, so I'll buy the cheapest seed (which may or may not be heirloom). Watermelon and Rockmelon take too long from seed here and I want to eat some in summer, not just autumn, so I buy 6 seedlings and sow some from heritage seed as well, for longer time eating. You're right that it is important to balance the need for food v seed - if you have a small garden, the ground is occupied for some time waiting for seed to mature, when you could have had another crop in.

It sounds like you also have had a bad run on heritage seeds - my experience is opposite to yours, I have found better germination and produce quantities. However in the second year it drops markedly, so I try to buy heritage seeds only when I can get through most of it in a year or it is a lot cheaper than seedlings (not just a little). Maybe you should try another supplier of heritage seeds, perhaps you used a supplier with stock older than it should be.

 

[Mattemma]

I have liked(in the past) seed from Bountiful gardens,Dianne Seeds,seed savers,and Sandhill.

I recently bought dh some steak for on the road.NY strip(whatever that is) at $2.88 a pound.It was a big cost at $49.97,but I got 20 good sized/no fat steaks out of it at about $2.50 a piece.Sure beats him buying a meal at $15,and getting meat it takes a hundred chews to swallow!.

 

[Totalcolour]

I

how can u all buy veggies and fruits without feeling/seeing/smelling them? that drove me nuts when i was visiting my sister in newton boston; i wanted to make an all israeli type dinner so we went shopping. it drove me nuts that all the veggies and stuff were wrapped up in nylon, even the organic veggies were all lined up wrapped up , same size same shape. here we will often take a grape to taste before purchase.

I prefer fresh fruits and veggies, but I prefer to buy foods that haven't been handled by someone else! I see so many people in stores touch, squeeze, sniffing (spreading germs) foods, then putting them back! How gross!

 

[nok13]

and how exactly do u think the fruits or veggies that ;u eat got to the store? all the immigrant workers who stand in lines in packing houses sorting and packaging fruit; picked from the tree , thrown in a big container, brought to a packing house, sorted, bagged/packaged, flung in to a truck or ship, sent off to an other store, repackaged, shelved...

only this past year did we move to machines for harvesting some kinds of grapes; also the cherries. our apples are hand picked, by us, by thai workers, by students in between semesters... the apples are packaged and shipped to europe. we have organic pears, same thing.
our wines are internationally know boutique wines, grown in our vineyards, picked and processed by thai workers, beduin workers,and now, sudan and bengali workers are starting to come over as migrant workers, and students, and our own teenagers, on work breaks.
when i lived in the states, in massachussetts, all the apple pickers were jamaicans. that was 30 !years ago at least.
I worked picking apples a couple seasons. trust me, u dont want to know where our hands were : bathrooms are the fields, water for drinking in big cooler/5 liter jerry cans, and the trees and apples alwasy have this white dust on them from teh august and september dust storms before picking.
carrots and other root vegetables were in the dark ground before u got to eat them. along with worms, beetles, and wild animals and birds peeing and walking around int he fields.
btw, rice? always always wash your rice (hong kong friends told me also, but i realized it when in thailand and saw hubby's village rice mill , the rice was spread out on the ground to dry before packaging and everyone was hawking and spitting and smoking home rolled cigarettes and throwing them on the ground where the rice was. and thailand is a main exporter of jasmine (mali) rice. my hong kong friends told me also to wash tea leaves with boiling water for a minute and then rinse before using, because of the way the leaves are picked and packaged. (chemicals? being handled? not sure)

the money u touch, the doorknob of a store, the buttons on a public computer, twice as disgusting. at least fruit gets washed or peeled or boiled before eating.
and i wont even begin to talk about what happens in kitchens...

the complaints i hear from practically everyone who travels to the states from here, including my kids, is the 'plasticization' of food; bread (they had a run in with white bread from a supermarket) has no flavour or texture, fruits are tastelss but beautiful, veggies are huge in size but lacking taste, have no flaws, like plastic, and its impossible to know what lyou are buying except by eye alone.
gross generalazations but i went nuts trying to find one place to buy stuff that i could touch, smell, feel, and even taste (with permission)/ obviously all fruit and veggies get washed before eating, so what does it matter if someone picked it (and moments before that picked his nose) or someone 'squeezed' it in the store?

 

[Totalcolour]

>>>>>so what does it matter if someone picked it >>>>>>> or someone 'squeezed' it in the store?

I grant you everything you said above. HOWEVER, squeezing fruit damages the flesh and it begins the bruising process immediately. Yes, I wash my fruits/veggies before eating them, but I still prefer them handled as little as possible by others.

I get my stuff locally - minimally handled/processed. I'm one of the lucky ones who can find it and afford it.

 

[Totalcolour]

Quote:

Well, I only eat local stuff, picked and packed by the farmer.

Quote:
our wines are internationally know boutique wines, grown in our vineyards, picked and processed by thai workers, beduin workers,and now, sudan and bengali workers are starting to come over as migrant workers, and students, and our own teenagers, on work breaks.

Since I also make my own wine, I know that the fermentation process will kill of pretty much all bacteria.
Quote: Easy enough to wash the dust off
Quote: And we wash all our root vegetables. Nothing wrong with worms, beetles etc, I've eaten them myself in Hong Kong. And when wild animals pee in the fields, it is filtered by the earth!
Quote: I ALWAYS wash my hands after handling money, same with doorknobs other than my own, and I never have used a public computer.
Quote: Well, since I'm living frugally, I make my own bread (can't remember the last commercial loaf I bought) using a fermented culture that is years old (no additional yeast)
We can't live in a totally "sanitized" environment. But we can cut down the ways which we pollute the things around us. And I stand by my words, I don't want unnecessary handling of my food, that could do further damage beyond what has already been done to it.

 

[galanie]

Personally I'd rather have every migrant worker and housewife in Texas handle my food than have it wrapped in cellophane. Often that is the cause of premature rotting from lack of air flow. Stuff washes. And/or you cook it. All I know is, I almost never get sick. I supposed it's like using hand sanitizers. Other than this being a waste of money from a frugal persons' standpoint, people line up on both sides and I suppose no one is wrong, we just all have opinions.

 

[Totalcolour]

nok13

check back to post
post #2214 of 2217

you will see that I was simply stating my preference for "unhandled" fruit and vegetables. So I'm not sure what brought on the response that followed.

There are many places around the world where food is mistreated, and certainly not safe to eat "as is"; I have lived in some of those countries; I know what goes on. Now that I live in the U.S., I prefer to buy my foods from local vendors that I know have good farming practices.

Much of your reply is addressed to totally different issues. Doorknobs:, yes they may be dirty, but then I'm not eating them, same with money and public computer keyboards. And what has the taste of commercial bread got to do with squeezing fruit? And you won't talk about what goes on in kitchens? Whose kitchens? What has anyone's kitchens got to do with this subject?

Well, you have your preferences, and I have mine, so let's move on.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Hi. I just found this thread and will be reading up for more ideas. So far I coupon, buy used whenever possible, try to only grocery shop once a month and cloth diaper my son. Wish I had a green thumb but between my ability to make a garden feel unloved and living in the high desert, I am SOL on gardening. DH tries though. And, of course, the chickens. I would really love to get into canning eventually.