ecosophia | Frugal Friday

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 may change further as we proceed.

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.

Rule #5: don't post LLM ("AI") generated content, and don't bring up the subject unless you're running a homemade LLM program on your own homebuilt, steam-powered server farm.

With that said, have at it!

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: David Bowie, "Heroes"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mistyfriday

August is the month where school supplies go on sale. It's good time to stock up on journaling supplies and any other office supplies you may need.

From: (Anonymous)

American hybrid chestnuts a group of cultivars that show a combination of the American and Chinese chestnut characteristics. Developed by Dr Robert Dunstan and Earl Douglass. The tress will make nuts in 2-4 years. Few pest problems my first trees are over 30 years old. Would plant 2 maybe 4 trees if you have room. Love stuffing made using chestnuts an soup made with chestnuts and Seminole pumpkin squash. Tress are planted in the spring and can be found in stores all over the US and Canada. Blueberry

From: (Anonymous)

After all the Christmas songs about chestnuts I had no idea what to expect. They are a fun tree to have but the spikes around the nuts are no joke! They are nothing like other nut trees, are much more like potatoes in taste and very perishable. We have chestnut weevils so basically have to collect them and process them the day they fall or open for good nuts. Any days that I don't we let the goats or other animals around to clean up and minimize future weevils. Our trees are still pretty small, I can only imagine the amount of mast that was produced in forests full of those mature trees.

I have grown hybrids from Badgerset that have done very well in Virginia piedmont zone and also have one tree of unknown origin (it was here when I moved in). Unfortunately Bedgerset the company had challenges and is no longer operating but looks like they might be available at the link below. They were sold out for 2024 but I assume they still have access to the source.

https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/badgersett-chestnut-seeds?_pos=7&_sid=c7fa62212&_ss=r

From: (Anonymous)

I have noticed a couple of chestnut trees in my neighborhood recently-- I want one! I did not think they grew this far south, but while not huge, the trees seem well established and definitely producing chestnuts.

From: (Anonymous)

My trees were purchased from a nursery in Alachua county Florida. Search American hybrid chestnuts. The same county as coffee and covid. Blueberry

From: (Anonymous)

I have a chinese chestnut, but the squirrels get everyone. There is a larger Italian chestnut in the neighborhood, I want to try and find seedling in neighbors yards this fall, if I can I want more chestnuts in the unused part of the yard so that I eventually get more than the squirrels can use and can harvest some. I think they could be shelled and dried and last longer

atmospheric River

From:

teresa_from_hershey

What is local shopping?
To me, it's shopping at the stores in your community that are as close to my house as I can get.

They may be chain stores! If I can get what I need at the supermarket in town, that's within 10 minutes of my house, then that's local.

I normally get my groceries at Giant. They're a regional chain based in Carlisle, PA, across the river. There are two Giants that are feasable.

The first is in Hershey, within 2 miles of my house. It's smaller, older, and does not have gas pumps. I go there.

The second is about 10 miles away. It's much larger, has a larger selection of goods, and it has gas pumps for when I redeem my gas points for discount gas. I ONLY shop at this Giant when I need to fill my car's gas tank.

This Giant is NOT local. It is more local than driving across the river to the Wegmans, which some people around here do.

Local means knowing what is available within a chosen radius such as five miles (or a 10 mile diameter circle) and sticking to it. Your radius may be larger than mine, depending on where you live.

What is local to you?

From:

kayr

I have at least 5 grocery stores with in 2-3 miles of my house including my favorite overstock/freight damage store. Costco has a smaller store also within that radius, but it is my last choice of places to shop. My favorite grocery store (includes gas pumps you can use your discount points on) remodeled to include a large meat processing facility that will supply all of their stores with packaged meat. They did the same thing with their store produced bread a few years ago. I guess it is more efficient for them but it makes the store smaller and some of the items I want require me to go to a bigger store to find.

Around here the "Buy Local First" campaign was promoted by some of the organizers of the largest local farmers market (all the local FMs are out of my 2-3 mile radius unfortunately) and it included a challenge to source all of your food from with in a 150-200mile radius. This was something of a fun exercise and I was able to do quite well and source just about all my food within that area. I have noticed that my favorite grocery store(a local, family run chain) uses flour from a local flour mill for their bread, but I don't know where the wheat comes from. A lot of it could be local as hard red wheat is grown around here, but to get enough, they may go out of state.

It is a fun challenge to try and "Buy Local First" just wish it could also be applied to clothing and fabric.

Edited Date: 2025-08-23 03:15 pm (UTC)

From: (Anonymous)

We are, sadly, in a place where despite being *in the city*, there's almost nothing within 3 miles. The ultimate triumph of zoning laws or something. We are constantly juggling this question-- where is our money best spent? I'm not a fan of the Dollar General, but it's the closest, and we go there for the occasional between-trips milk and bananas. Next-closest is an upscale grocery where we can't really afford to shop, but again are willing to go to, if we only need a few things, or if we need very particular things only they carry. They are employee-owned, and a regional chain, and more local than most. But also too expensive for the bulk of our needs. Sometimes have a good sale.

Everything else is far, so we try to wait until we have a long list, and then stock up when we do go.

On the question of local...

We try to run the logic on where the money goes, after it leaves our hands. There's a hierarchy. If we order it from Big Muddy River or other internet conglomerate, the only local person getting paid from that is the delivery driver. If it's Mart of Walls, most of the money is going to corporate in Arkansas, and probably to causes we would not like, if we knew about them. But compared to online, more of the money is going to the store employees, local taxes, etc. So it's marginally better and if we can get the same thing at WM we get it there rather than online. Quality is a problem though. Posh regional chain grocery is one better.

Top of the list are the local thrift shops. Not for grocery obviously, but for everything else: that's most of our clothes and housewares. Pretty close to ALL money spent there, stays in the area (we are not talking about Goodwill here, but rather local church-run charities). We also make forays into local estate sales, yard sales, and junk shops, and I'd rate those very similar on the "where does the money go" with the exception that, I know the pro estate sale companies get a lot of the money from those. It is what it is. Still rates better than giving the same money to MallWart for a lower-quality (shovel, mixing bowl, ironing board, sweater). The secondhand market in all forms also avoids the nasty problems of buying from corporations that are actively working against the interests of your family, community, and humanity.

One thing we have been meaning to investigate, but haven't yet, is the very large local weekend flea market.

From: (Anonymous)

There now three of the $ chains near where I live, which are $General, a few remaining Family$s and $Tree. Of those, the closest to me is a $General. For me, it has two things going for it. $Gen. does hire from the neighborhood. As in, you don't have to be cheerleader/student body pres./mayor's wife to get a job there. I do pay attention to hiring practices. $store employees are all black, brown and white, English speaking mostly but not exclusively young folks from nearby. The other thing is that $Gen does stock the Daisy brand of cottage cheese and sour cream, the only brand of reasonably priced dairy products which does not include unnecessary chemical ingredients. (Yes, I know carrageenan is a "natural" product. So is cocaine. I don't care to ingest either one.) $Tree only locates in the more upscale neighborhoods. There is one near the library I use. No dairy at all, but they seem to have become the overstock outlet for Muir Glen organic tomato products.

BTW, $Tree sells plastic sheets in their housewares department, possibly intended for cutting surfaces, which make good sewing and quilting templates.

What I can't grow myself or find at a farmer's market I mostly buy at Aldis because it is clean, well organized stores and, again, local from the neighborhood hiring. Also, Aldis is in walking distance. I don't like carrying bags of groceries on and off buses. There is also a locally managed discount grocery which is fun to browse through from time to time for the odd item I would not normally be able to afford.

From: (Anonymous)

There are 2 small towns about 6 miles away, each down a different road from here. 6 miles but 2400ft elevation change over the 6 miles, so no bicycling it. Town #1 has a Safeway ( regular grocery store, I find it expensive) and a local natural foods store ( some of the bulk stuff is reasonable-ish, produce is good) I do not normally buy food at either; the parking lot there is where the monthy Azure standard truck drop off is, this I order bulk food from; a post office; public library; autoparts store; drug store; lumber yard; 2 laundromats; 3 gas stations; various restaurants; a thrift store run by the orthodox church; 3 churches; a fire station; a larger non-profit resource center for helping people fill out forms, find help, food distributions, shower/laundry by appointment; etc... So for town #1 I get the Azure Standard bulk dropoff, sometimes lumber or gasoline, the post office and library. I also pass thru this town most often on the way to the larger small city ( another 5 or 6 miles) where I have medical appointments and there are other stores. Town #2 has a great hardware store, that also has some lumber, although this store is not as great as it used to be, they are reducing what they carry. Traditionally, this has been the best place to buy items to fix whatever has just broken in the house; there is a grocery store I almost never stop into; a post office; a feed/homesteading store, this also has reduced alot of the homesteading items it used to carry and upped the gift items; a good italian bakery/gelato/pizza; an expensive gas station; a fire station; a couple churches; a smaller, separate local non-profit for services/food for people in need or after disaster. I mostly go to this town when I need to run to the hardware store, and get a pastry while out there. Both have public parks with playgrounds and river access to re-create. The third local town to me, also about 6 miles in a total opposite direction is hardly a town, slow down on the coastal highway, It has 3 eateries, a teeny post office inside a small convenience store, it is getting a sherrifs "resource center" with a part time staff; 1 church; a teeny non-profit resource center

SO the first 2 towns I might "run into" for unschedualled needs. But mostly I combine trips and as I am presently going to weekly accupuncture I try and plan ahead and run all needed errands at once.

Atmospheric River

From:

charlieobert

Here in Minneapolis I am quite fortunate. The main thoroughfare near me is like some streets I recall seeing years ago in Chicago where there are a cluster of markets of different nationalities.

My closest and main store is a good coop (organic produce!), and right next to it is a large Middle Eastern market that has good meats and cheeses. A little further away is a Korean grocery (seaweed! and kimchi!) and an Indian market (yogurt, bitter melon, spices), plus some Mexican markets. Fortunately none of those are big chain stores.

There are problems with Minneapolis but availability of good food locally isn't one of them.

From:

hippieviking

It's a grab bag. Our biggest spend is food, by far. We also purchase a fair amount of building supplies for projects around the house such as an enclosure right now for our meat chicken operation and lumber for a cow shelter. Then we have the category of "stuff" a relatively small category for us but significant enough to be included in our discretionary spending.

For food we raise our own steers, meat chickens, egg chickens, and, occasionally, sheep. We feed the cows and sheep hay that I buy by the 1000lb round bale from a former local dairy farmer and supplement them with rolled grain that we buy from another former local dairy farmer by the 1500lb tote. The chickens we free range, feed our own kitchen scraps, and feed whole grains we buy in the same large totes from the grain guy.

We have a large garden but haven't been able to keep up this year so we have been getting a farmshare from a local organic veggie farm. We also have several dozen very old fruit trees from the original homestead that was on the site of our house. From those we take cherries, apples, pears, plums, crabapples, and quince as well as we pick blackberries from our thicket of "invasive" Himalayan blackberry bushes. We also get sour cherries and apples from the other section of the old orchard that is on a neighbor's property.

For other fruit we go to a local you pick and pick it ourselves. My wife and I over the course of this summer with our kids in tow a couple of times put about 150lbs of strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries for the winter.

For dairy we buy milk 11 gallons at a time on a punchcard from our local raw milk dairy and we buy vanilla ice cream from them in those big tubs that you'd get served out of at a shop (the ice cream comes from a different creamery in another county). We also get calves from them.

For grain that we consume we buy some whole wheat flour from a farm and mill that in the town down the road about 15 miles away. We buy it in bulk and have to go pick it up a couple times a year.

I try to combine trips to pick up the grain with picking up loads of offcuts from a guy running a small sawmill in that same area. We use the offcuts for firewood which is our primary winter heat source.

To fill in the gaps for other food items we have a couple sources. We order from Azure Standard (not local) and pick up the delivery in town every couple of months. We also pass through the regionally owned and longtime local outlet country grocery. I will occasionally buy vegetables there and always peruse their section of produce that they are selling at reduced price. Other gaps we fill in with Costco, mostly for a handful of bulk items that are much cheaper there such as coffee, rice, sugar, and white flour.

For building supplies I tend to get lumber from the local lumber yard down the road which stocks supplies that are far higher quality than Home Depot, our only other "local" lumber option. Auto and machine parts I get from a local store that's been around for ever, with better service and a better selection than any of the chain stores. For other building supplies or repair supplies it often ends up being Home Depot because there either aren't other options or the local places have prices that are 3x what they are in Home Depot, often for the same item.

The stuff category, which is pretty small for us, we often end up getting from the lazy river. I'd much prefer that weren't the case but it is what it is. Out here we either can't get the item were looking for or we can but we'd just be buying it at Walmart anyway.

HV

From:

ecosophia

For me it's a very mixed bag. There's a lovely little Korean grocery an easy walk from my apartment, where I spend around a third of my grocery budget; there are also Portuguese and Brazilian groceries nearby which get smaller shares. There's a chain grocery a longer walk away which gets some of the rest, and there's also a Family Dollar a block from my place which also gets some -- it's the main source of groceries for a lot of elderly people on this end of East Providence, and it also hires local people.

One bit of irony that's come out of my trip to New York City this weekend -- I'm in Penn Station right now, waiting for the train home -- is that it's extremely easy to shop locally in a really big city. My walks through the city took me through the Union Square Market, one of the biggest farmers markets I've ever seen, which is bursting at the seams with produce from farms close to the city. Little groceries are everywhere, and many of them have fresh produce from local farms and other products from local firms. I take a certain wry amusement in the fact that this vast and crowded city is also utterly walkable, convenient for low-tech lifestyles, and packed with local products and services!

From:

teresa_from_hershey

Yes!

If I want to keep my shopping within a 3 mile radius, on MY schedule, I limit myself.

Of our four "farmer's markets," one is Thursday afternoon only and out of my way.
The second is Saturday morning only at Chocolate Town square and is mostly craft vendors and so forth.
The third is in the downtown Fresh Market, on Friday and Saturday only, and it's mostly high-end artisanal food stuffs and crafts, with some produce.
The fourth is seven days a week, on the way home from Giant, and whoever owns it jobs their produce from a wide area. You can't tell me that their bananas are grown locally in central PA. Good peaches, apples, cantaloupe, corn, and tomatoes, though! But I don't know how local their growers really are.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

I mentioned my schedule and forgot to say why I don't visit Saturday farmer's markets like everyone else.

We do events on Saturday. Prep starts Friday. Recovery is Sunday or even Monday.

Thus, I do the bulk of my errands on Wednesday.

From:

jenniferkobernik

For me, local means I know the people who own the store.

From: (Anonymous)

The natural food store in town 1 by me has a local owner, they own 2 grocery stores in the area, and I know the manager and produce manager, and our sons went to school together and were friends in elementary school. I know they are very careful on sourcing. It is a place I shop, but I just dont shop often. I bought beautiful local grown organic strawberried there for a family get together last month. And realy the prices on most things are not bad compared to the other stores in our area, I just dont buy much in general.

Atmospheric River

From: (Anonymous)

This chain is bittersweet for me. Buying local was a low-key religion for me for the last few decades. Veggies, meat, fruit, milk, cheese, thrift, anything I could get. For me, local was about 50 miles and those farms would cover a significant portion of my diet even a few grains if I wanted to be a little less than frugal and support them as specialty producers.

In 2021, I decided not to receive an untested medication that everyone around me did decide to take in our blue area. I found myself barred from entering locally owned businesses. The owners of many businesses happily went on the record in the local news to berate people like me. Just a few months ago, in 2025!, someone recommended a locally owned ice cream that grew their own fruit and in looking at their website to find out their flavors they proudly stated on their About page that they believed people like me (who believe in not taking certain medications) should literally k*ll ourselves. An ice cream company!

So I now find buying local to be a bit of a minefield. No amount of forgiveness (or quality ingredients) will make me feel ok giving money to a company that proudly hates me or feels the need to constantly tell me what I should believe.

So I find that whenever I go to buy something, I check out their website and if there's too many political virtue signals, either direction mind you, I pass. I've been rebuilding what buying local is and who I go to. I wish politics could stay out of it and we could just do transactions based on our shared commitment to local economy.

I used to believe local would save us, now, for me, it's not true. I don't love the big companies but I feel no shame in buying from them, like I used to, since I can't trust some of the people around me even to this day. It's been a constant source of sadness over the last four years to pull back from farmers and merchants one by one but I can't value local for the sake of local when it's gone that extreme.

From:

kayr

I am very sorry to hear your story. I don't blame you for not sharing your hard won resources with such local companies. I never encountered that in my area and I enjoyed the "hunt" for local food or goods. I hope you will be able to find local companies that are non-political.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

Good heavens.

They're making it very clear that they don't want your money.
So don't give it to them.

I can't understand this mindset.
Why do you want to drive away customers, especially loyal ones?

From: (Anonymous)

I can relate to this comment.

I heard a lot about the importance of buying local, and from local bookshops, back when the Borders and Barnes & Noble mega chains became the big thing, and of course, amazon. But I am sorry to say that at that time, in the city where I was living, the locally owned bookshop was not worthy of my business. I don't want to get into the ugly details; suffice to say, I didn't need to reach for my Kleenex box when they got crushed to itty gooey grey whiney bits by those chains and by amazon.

Same story with some of my previously beloved local restaurants after Jab Crow. The memories of their management's idiotic self-important virtue signaling and their demanding vaxx docs to dine in wrecks my appetite. I won't set foot in them again.

All things equal, I do prefer to give my business to local family-owned businesses. I salute entreprenurial spirit and local tax revenue!! However the cultures of individual families vary, as they always have and no doubt always will. Some business families— like some individuals who happen to be proprietors of businesses— are great, upstanding, hardworking people, but some turn out to be slovely fraudsters and on top of that, useful idiot fascists.

Right now I am fortunate to have a local family-owned hardware store that offers a reasonably good selection of items and offers excellent service. I am delighted to give them my business, and I much prefer them to the big box chainstore.

From:

slclaire

If you're in the southern part of the range of pawpaws, start watching for them to ripen. The first two ripe fruits have fallen from my trees (St. Louis, MO).

From: (Anonymous)

Perennial onions that produce a cluster of bulbs at ground level from a single planted bulb. They can be grown in pots. A 12oz drink cup will hold a single bulb and give you nice green onion tops. Quart containers will hold 2 to 3 bulbs placed on a window sill in the winter for for more nice green tops. Look around for ones that grow in your area. Depending on were you live planting outside will be spring or in warm areas planing in the fall grown over winter. Blueberry

From: (Anonymous)

Around here, that is what we call them. I think they also call them potato onions (not sure why). Local seed houses typically market the bulbs as perennial green onions. However, rumour has it that multipliers were the original onion used by homesteaders before they developed globe onions for industrial agriculture.

I'm not much of a fan of green onions myself. If you leave the multiplier onion patch in the ground year-round, the bulbs will eventually shrink to next to nothing in size -- even smaller than true green onions. I learned this from practical experience.

However, if you treat your multipliers like hardneck garlic and harvest the bulbs in late August, allow them to cure and plant them again in mid to late Fall (October for me), you will get a robust crop of decent-sized bulbs every year (although, not as big as a globe onion). Yes, multiplier onions will overwinter as well as hardneck garlic will. You can also plant the bulbs in early Spring if preferred.

Multiplier onions have the longest storage period I've ever seen for onions. I've had bulbs last for a year and a half (or more) in storage. However, they don't usually last that long for me because they have to be the tastiest onions I've ever had. They have a flavor a lot like shallots. I generally cannot stand raw onion, but multipliers aren't so bad.

Caldathras

From: (Anonymous)

Sorry did not say I dig them up at the end of the growing season. Potato an onion soup great lunch in the fall. Blueberry

From: (Anonymous)

My youngest and I made katsup. Since our tomato plants haven't delivered anywhere near the required poundage we bought most of the tomatoes, this was decidedly not frugal, but . . . I figure that learning at ten how to can is very nearly priceless education, because we don't know when the economics of it will change. At some point it will become impossible to ship from the factory, maybe not in my lifetime, maybe not even in hers . . . but she knows how now.
(I could have taught her on something else, but this child loves katsup and she was focused and paying attention.)
Of course, home made katsup has far less sugar than boughten, so it might be more frugal on the health end of matters. Though the overall price is probably about $2.50/16oz jar, plus about an hour of labor per jar (teaching a ten year old is not a very efficient way to do anything, after all).

BoysMom

From:

kayr

I also make my own katsup and I would love to see your recipe if you care to share. I too will have to buy tomatoes this year as my mistakes in the garden this year have caught up with me and I won't have enough of my own. Here is the recipe I use from the book "Better then Store Bought" by Helen Witty and Elizabeth Schneider Colchie.

Tomato Katchup (this is how the authors spell it)

Enough ripe, meaty tomatoes, cut up and cooked to make 4qts of cooked tomatoes. I use what ever the garden provides.

Add 1 1/2 cups chopped onion, 1/2 cup of sweet red pepper, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2T of salt and 2 cups of vinegar. You can combine this step with the first one if you like. Different types of vinegar give different flavors, choose your favorite.

Bring this all to a boil and when all the vegetables are soft, run them through your strainer to just get the pulp.

While that is going on make a packet of spices in a metal tea ball or loose woven cloth of:
1T mustard seed
1T whole allspice
1 stick cinnamon (about two inches broken up)
1T whole black pepper
1 bay leaf
1t whole cloves (I don't like clove, so don't use it. Your tastes may vary)
2T coriander seeds
1/4t celery seed
1/4t hot red pepper flakes (if you like)

Once you have made your bundle of spices add it to the tomato pulp and then add 1/4 c granulated sugar and
1/2c dark brown sugar. Cook down until it starts to thicken. Taste to see if there is enough salt and/or sugar for your palate and if the spices are strong enough for you. Add more salt or sugar if you need to and continue to cook down with the spices if you want them stronger. You can pull them out anytime you wish at this point. Once the katchup has cooked down to your desired thickness, put it in jars to process for about 10 minutes to seal.

This recipe makes the best most richly flavored katchup in the world, far superior to store bought stuff and worth the effort.

Edited Date: 2025-08-23 03:50 pm (UTC)

From: (Anonymous)

That looks amazing!
We just used the one off the Ball website as two of my canning cookbooks have wandered off. Again.
My family reads cookbooks for fun and planning and doesn't always put them away.

BoysMom

From: (Anonymous)

That's wonderful! You should get a blue ribbon for teaching a kid about canning. It's going to be an important life skill in her future.

From:

linden_matryoshka

Here is a cabbage pirozhki recipe that has been a perennial party favorite and drawn praises from friends and strangers alike at numerous potlucks. It is a quintessential Russian food - austere, dirt cheap, yet delicious.
Ingredients for puff pastry:
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1.25 cup of very cold butter cut into cubes
- 0.5 cup of very water
Ingredients for cabbage filling:
- 1 small head of cabbage
- 1 small bunch of fresh dill or parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
- about 2 oz of butter (don't be stingy - it's better with butter)
Additional Ingredient
- 1 small egg
Method - dough
- Sprinkle salt into the flour and give it a few swirls with a large spoon
- Add butter cubes; mix well with your hands
- Add water and form a homogenized dough
- Let it rest in a covered bowl
Method - filling
- Shred the cabbage
- Chop dill and set aside
- Blanch shredded cabbage for about 5 min and drain
- Put butter, dill, salt, and pepper into the cabbage while it's still hot and mix well
Assembly
- Roll the dough so you get a sheet a few mm thick
- Make rounds. I use a glass 4 inches in diameter
- Put approximately 2 tbsp of filling on each round
- Close the pirozhki by pinching the dough across the circumference, making half-moons
- Beat well 1 egg
- Brush egg mixture on top of your half-moons to cover the surface
Baking
- 375F
- 45 min
Your house will smell heavenly for hours!
Inna

From: (Anonymous)

Others can chime in with your uses, but, I just accidently found out one great use. Pickling brine is very heavy vinegar, so just leave the pot out, no lid. This then does spiritual cleansing of the house, or at least that area of the house. It took most of a week before it had evaporated and I needed to then clean out the pot. If your house is less hot than mine, or more humid, it should last longer. ( my house interior has been low of 78'F in the morning to 88'F by evening, no humidity).

Anyway, I could tell it had a good effect. SO, dont just pour it out, let it do some work for you.

Atmospheric River

From: (Anonymous)

Atmospheric River— thank you for this!

From: (Anonymous)

A reminder that Cooling the back of your neck will make your whole body feel much cooler. Get a cloth wet and apply to the back of your neck to cool down.

Before bed, take a quick shower and having been cooled down with a bunch of wet hair keeps you cool enough to fall asleep ( I do have long hair)

In the winter, it works too, you wear a turtle neck or wrap a scarf around your neck, making the back of the neck warmer.

Atmospheric River

From:

open_space

More specifically, the two soft spots to the side of the spine in the neck are very sensitive to this and applying cold water there will wake you up and cool you down fast. This is how Sadhguru kept us awake for hours during meditation. It works!

I hadn't thought of using it for the inverse. I don't know when I will need to keep myself warm instead of cool next, but I will definitely try it then! Thank you :-)

From: (Anonymous)

Hello, Mr Greer.
I'm Horzabky, and I've found only this channel to contact you. I tried to post a comment this evening on Ecosophia as Horzabky (my usual handle) and I noticed that I was blocked ("A potentially unsafe operation has been detected in your request to this site")
Is this an error?

From:

ecosophia

How odd -- I find no trace of that on the site. Please try to repost it and let me know here when you've done so, so I can see what I can figure out.

From: (Anonymous)

I'd like to put in a good word for pegboard. If anyone here wants to know that looks like:

How to Install Pegboard | Ask This Old House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLwOGZGy-B0

I wish I'd started using pegboard sooner. Usually people use it in their garage for their tools. Julia Child famously used pegboard in her kitchen for her kitchen tools. Me, I use it for tools & such in my garage and also on the back wall of my mop and broom closet.

As I see it, pegboard has saved me both money and time.

Firstly, with pegboard, I don't need so many shelves. (Money-saving there.)

Secondly, I see what I have, so I don't buy things I already have (either because I couldn't find them or forgot that I have them).

Thirdly, I can grab things quickly, and put things back where they belong quickly as well.

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