Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday!  This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which have changed as we've proceeded. (As things have settled down to a nice steady conversational pace, for example, I've deleted the rules about only one tip per person per week and about limiting the length of comments; I was worried early on about people flooding the forum with too much too fast, but I think we're past that risk.)

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

When life gives you lemons...

[(Anonymous)]

at the supermarket they have a section for fresh produce that has reached it's sell by date,
I've been buying the small net bags of half a dozen lemons that are starting to look a little sad,
£0.23p for five or six lemons, who could resist!

if they're unwaxed I'll wash them and grate off any nice looking zest, then halve them, squeeze them, put the juice and zest in a jam jar, add an equal amount of sugar, pop on the lid, give it a shake, leave it to stand a while, give another shake, citrus fruit juice will dissolve sugar really easily, I end up with a syrup I use as a concentrate to add to water to make a 'squash' drink, a jam jar's worth lasts me several days,

if you want to embellish your lemon squash, once diluted in the glass give it a few drops of Angostura Bitters,
it's supposed to be good for the digestion,

I know, all that white sugar, well I know what's in my squash, have you read the label on bought bottled squash concentrates lately, certainly here in the UK the authorities have a bug bear about sugar and if a bottle says "no added sugar" when you look at the label it's got a cocktail of artificial sweeteners instead,

it was the use of lemon juice that allowed the Royal Navy to combat scurvy amongst their crews, they planted lemon groves in Sicily specially to supply the Navy, you have to wonder how much of a role the humble lemon played in making Britain a maritime Empire back in those days,

lime juice came at a later date when someone at the Admiralty signed a supply contract with a plantation owner in the Caribbean, but lime juice has only half the vitamin C content of lemons.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[(Anonymous)]

I've read, once, that while the English navy was fighting scurvy with citrus, the Germans fought it with fermented cabbage. Hence: "limeys" and "krauts"!

I've found that my home-made sauerkraut keeps for months on a cool, dark shelf in the basement, and I expect that cabbage will be more widely available than citrus in the distant future.

According to academic research, though, the vitamin-C content of sauerkraut can vary widely: 5.8 - 52 mg/100g.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6625831/

Lathechuck

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[jenniferkobernik]

Pine needle tea and cleavers (the weed) are also good sources of vitamin C, with pine needles of course being easy to find in winter. Not as tasty as kraut or lemons imo however.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[ecosophia]

I should put a word in here for kimchi, the Korean version of sauerkraut. It's easy to make, it keeps for months, and it's very, very rich in vitamin C. Also tasty...

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[michele7]

The Internet has a plethora of kimchi recipes. I have made typical Chinese cabbage kimchi, daikon radish kimchi, garlic chives kimchi and cucumber kimchi. Did you find a sale on green onions? Make green onion kimchi. Do a search for (vegetable name) kimchi and there most likely is a recipe for it. Also kimchi can be added to your morning scrambled eggs or grilled cheese sandwiches. I recently drained some and chopped it fine as a filling for a "roll your own sushi" party. It can be added to soups as a flavor enhancer. My children throw it into fried rice. Kimchi is amazing! (Can you tell I'm a kimchi fan? lol)

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[ecosophia]

There's a pleasant little Korean grocery an easy walk from my apartment, and it sells varieties of kimchi I'd never heard of before. The kind I usually make includes Napa cabbage, daikon, carrot, and green onion, and it's a constant presence in my fridge and my meals -- but at some point I'm going to try some of the other varieties.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[slclaire]

My husband Mike made enough kimchi from this year's crop of daikon radishes from my garden to fill a gallon jar. He used a recipe from the internet that included green onions, apples, and one or two other ingredients that I don't remember. He eats more of it than I do, usually buying it from the local Korean groceries, so I was happy to grow enough big daikons for him to make that much kimchi.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[michele7]

I grew a mid size daikon this year and got 2 quarts of daikon kimchi. Just enough for me. (Normally I share with my adult children, but not this time.) If you have garden space or a deep flower box, you can grow daikon. They come in a range of sizes. There is even a round softball size variety. I have even used red radishes in place of daikon in my kimchi.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[methylethyl]

That is good to hear! I planted what I thought were ordinary red radishes over the winter (it's the only time they grow here), and have harvested all but one-- it had got so crazy huge I just needed to see what it would do! It's still out there, root looks about the size of a lumpy softball, and I'm hoping it will go to seed so I can save the seeds for another go: at that size, they'd be worth pickling. Right now it's pretending to be an attractive foliage plant in the flowerbed.

But I had never actually pickled red radishes, only daikons with carrots, so I'm thrilled to read they are ok pickles.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[(Anonymous)]

In Seoul I had a delicious combination I never would have expected to be good - kimchi mandu, which are kimchi-filled dumplings. The kimchi used in them was the typical reddish Kim hum dominated by Napa cabbage.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[temporaryreality]

We go through our homemade kimchi fast but when we have some (usually storebought) that’s been fermenting a long time and we’ve slowed down our consumption of it, we make savory kimchi pancakes: add an egg or two to the chopped kimchi remains (juice included) and then enough flour of choice to make it batter consistency. Fry on a griddle and there you go - a nice snack or meal accompaniment, and room in the fridge to boot!

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[milkyway1]

Hm. I‘m wondering if that would work out with sauerkraut, too. It sounds… weird, but sometimes the weird combos are the most excellent.

Milkyway

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[methylethyl]

Went to a restaurant with a Korean coworker-- who insisted I try the kimchi soup. Never would have thought any kind of pickled vegetable would make a good soup ingredient, but it was one of the best things I've ever eaten.

What *can't* you do with kimchi??

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[michele7]

Apparently everything because I randomly googled "kimchi ice cream" and found a recipe. Kimchi soup is really delicious, but you can also just add kimchi to leftover chicken soup to give it a flavor and probiotic boost.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[baconrolypoly]

You kindly let me have your kimchi recipe last year and the results are very good indeed, thank you. It's similar to the one I've used in the past, though that one used dried shrimp which we didn't like and we both prefer kimchi without it.

Kimchi noodles are a tasty quick meal. Chop and fry a few veg of your choice, with finely sliced ginger and garlic, mix in some kimchi and serve over noodles with a little sesame oil.

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[(Anonymous)]

my mother says that during WW2 she and her siblings would go out picking rosehips from the wild dog roses in the hedgerows, in the autumn, her mother who was the District Nurse would make rosehip syrup from them,
I read somewhere the government at the time commissioned some research into the best source of vitamin C in Britain and rosehips came out top, beating blackcurrants,

I've never tried saurkraut, I'm rather into pickled beetroot at the moment, I've no idea of how healthy it is, but it is tasty!

Re: When life gives you lemons...

[(Anonymous)]

I make rosehip syrup and Jelly most years when the crop of wild roses is good. It was a staple for Vitamin C in the old west. It's tasty - tastes a lot like apricot to me.