Frugal First Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome to Frugal First Friday! This is a monthly 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 on the first Friday of each month, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course. 

There has been talk about releasing these posts in print format.  In case that turns out to be worth pursuing, please note: if you comment on this or any future Frugal First Friday post, you are giving permission for that comment to be included in print or other editions. This means, for those of you into the legalese, that by posting something in the comment thread you are granting me non-exclusive reprint rights to your comment, and permitting me to transfer those to a publisher or other venue. Your contribution will have your name or internet handle attached, your choice. 

I also have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed. One change from the earlier frame is that if you produce goods or services yourself, and would like to let readers know about them, you may post one (1) (yes, just one) comment per month letting people know, with a link to your website or other contact info. The other rules ought to be familiar by now. 

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

Rule #4: 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!  

Comments

Food Chain Taintology

[(Anonymous)]

These two questions are only indirectly about frugality, so may not pass inspection and will be fed to Fido. However, I have nowhere else to bring up the issues, so here goes. (reposted as suggested)

1) Persistent pesticides being found in commercial compost and potting soil, perhaps even affecting soil amendments from local farm operations. There was some talk about this lately but I do not recollect which forum. If it was here, maybe the Original Poster can repeat which brands or types of persistent chemicals one needs to look out for? I have a very limited budget and would prefer to get the best, safest product for the community garden and home use.

2) GMO ingredients in food products given but not purchased.
I check the labels and do not buy anything GMO'd for my own use. But I received a package of snack food (unopened) and only later saw the GMO badge of shame on it. I do not plan to eat it myself, but thought I might give it to the wild critters on a cold rainy day as better than nothing since I can no longer afford to buy bird seed.

I did a divination and got the answer as I Ching no.22:The image of Grace. Thus does the superior man proceed When clearing up current affairs. But he dare not decide controversial issues in this way.

So the I Ching declines to influence my decision one way or any two others. Do people here have strong opinions on this topic? I would appreciate any thinking on the subject to help me decide.

So far I lean towards the notion that if wild things can thrive in the vicinity of Chernobyl, then they might not be too harmed by GMO'd foods in the short run. Also if I just throw the food 'away' well, there is no 'away' -- it will go into the food chain one way or another. So there might as well be some caloric benefit to vertebrates on a cold wet day. There might be less harm done that way than feeding GMOs to the microscopic soil critters? I see no value at all in letting the stuff rot inside its plastic bag. Opinions yea nay or meh all welcome.

Dilemma Emma

Brine Pickled Green Tomatos - Preserve unripe tomatos outside the fridge!

[(Anonymous)]

A year ago I had a lot of fresh tomatoes on my hand, and asked here for advice. I got a lot of helpful tips, but wanted to share my experience trying to pickle tomatoes. First, I tried pickling ripe red tomatoes. This works, but over a short time the tomatoes will disintegrate in the jar.

Turns out, it's best to use green tomatoes. I mean, tomatoes a little before they become ripe and change color from green to red. If you grow your own, you can just pick some early. If you are in good terms with a tomato farmer, most commercial operations end up discarding quite a bit of green tomatoes as waiting for everything to ripen is often not economical. I saved green tomatoes from just 4 rows (not even full rows actually), and was able to pickle enough for a year, and I did not even need to waste fridge space, this stuff keeps just fine outside of the fridge, and I live in a hot mediterranean climate.


The method is similar to pickling cucumbers. You can wash the tomatoes (if they were sprayed) and poke some holes with a spoon in each one to let the brine inside. For brine, use a teaspoon of sea salt (kosher salt) per cup. It's best if you have just enough to cover them. For seasoning, you could use coriander, parsley, dill of any other herbs you have on hand and seem appropriate. Cumin seeds, Sichuan Peppers, Mustard Seeds, and Caraway are great. And do not forget garlic, you can preserve some garlic as a bonus, and it adds a ton of flavor. Hot peppers are also welcome. Whatever you have on hand really, and there is no such thing as too much, which is why I did not write a formal recipe.

The tomatoes will float, so put a generous layer of olive oil on top, this will also add flavor. Any other oil will also work but olive oil will taste the best. This step's purpose is to add a protective layer and force the tomatoes down. Leave some headroom, the rule of thumb is 1/3 of the jar should be empty, but unlike other fermentation recipes, here you can get away with a lot less, as there are not a lot of gasses released.

This should be ready in a month or two, wait until the green goes from light to more of a dark army green. One last thought, I know conventional wisdom says unripe tomatoes are poison. It seems fermentation negates that, as I have eaten quite a lot of those in the past year and I am still alive.

This year I am going to try preserving red tomatoes into a fermented sauce. Last year I made fermented tomato salsa, which lasted for quite a bit, but ran into the same problem I had with pickling whole red tomatoes, they disintegrate over time. If anyone's interested in the fermented salsa let me know and I will write more about that in a replay.

I hope this will be of value to people. I barely bought any fresh tomatoes from the store this past year thanks to this.