Tip #22 - Buy a farm share

It's that time of year when you can juuuuuuust about smell spring in the air, but there's still snow on the ground. That time of year when the days are getting longer but still not long enough. That time of year when you start thinking about how nice it will be when fresh fruit and vegetables start growing again.

For those of us who aren't lucky enough to be able to "grow our own" for reasons of time, money, or simple lack of garden space, a great alternative is to buy a farm share or participate in a community farming association.  Community Supported Agriculture programmes are available in several countries and regions. Just google "CSA [your area]" to find one near you. By doing this, I've found CSA farms in many Canadian provinces and US states, as well as in England.

Here's the basic principle:
A farmer sells a certain number of "shares" to individuals in the community.
Individuals purchase these shares in late winter or early spring (aka NOW), providing farmers with starter income for the upcoming season.
The farmer then provides its shareholders with weekly or bi-weekly 'baskets' of produce from the farm throughout the production season. Shareholders usually have to pick up their shares at a pre-determined location.

However, if the farm has a good season, shareholders can make gains too, as the equivalent cost of the produce is higher than the initial cost of the share.

So you're supporting local farmers, and getting discounted produce at the same time. Oh, and did I mention that these farms often use organic methods, and many are actually certified organic? Sounds like win-win-win to me!

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a gamble. If there is a poor harvesting season, or if the farmer is unable to maintain the farm for whatever reason, you may not receive your food. Read the terms and conditions of the shares closely before you buy to make sure you understand the potential risks.

Look around to find a farm which suits your needs. There are certified organic farms, there are some which allow you to substitute fresh produce with preserves, there are some which provide smaller baskets, or more flexibility, or who offer home delivery. Some also provide meat or eggs. Also consider the growing period - some farms grow produce with a smaller harvesting window, so will provide you with fewer baskets through the summer, whereas others will continue into the fall.

This year, I'm splitting a farm share with a friend. Each share should be enough to satisfy both of us and then some. We're getting 23 weeks' worth of baskets, starting in May. You can be sure there will be photos in good time! I can't wait!

Recipe: Gigantor pot of pasta sauce

Mmmm pasta. Food of the gods and the budget-conscious.

But what to put on those wiggly or fun-shaped noodles? Store-bought pasta sauces can be really expensive, and the cheap-o alternatives can be questionably tasteless or full of salt. Blegh.

And you definitely don't want to make fresh sauce each time you want pasta. Even for a big family, that can be a huge headache.

So here's the solution, which is also a family recipe. I'm naming it the Gigantor pot of pasta sauce. It's pretty darn big.

Ingredients

olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (or more if you like extra garlicky sauce!)
2-ish pounds of lean ground beef (or other meat; get whatever's on sale, special, or reduced for quick sale)
2 large jars of plane jane spaghetti sauce (I used ones that are 700mL)
1 tin (540mL) of Lentils
1tsp Marmite*
1 sachet or cube Beef bouillon
3 bay leaves
Ground pepper/sea salt to taste

Instructions

1. Sauté the onions and garlic in a large dollop of oil until soft and translucent
2. Add beef. Attack the beef with a wooden spoon while it cooks, continuously breaking it up and turning it over until there's no pink left.
3. Add the spaghetti sauce, lentils, Marmite, bouillon, and bay leaves. Swirl a little water inside the sauce jars to make sure all the delicious saucy goodness is in your pot.
4. Bring to a boil, then lower the temperature and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir every so often to make sure everything's combining.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste - you may want to add a bit of sugar as well if the tomato taste is too strong. Remove bay leaves.
6. Enjoy!
7. Realize you have REDICULOUS amounts of leftovers, excavate all your freezer containers. Portion out and freeze.


Let's put it this way. When I cooked this two weeks go, I ended up with 6 Tupperware sack pots, and 2 soup containers, in addition to what I was eating. That's roughly 10 individaul servings. For less than $10, since I bought the beef when it was reduced for quick sale. I still have two pots left.

That's a whole lot of pasta sauce!

Side note: if you don't feel up to boiling water and making some pasta, this sauce also tastes great on a microwaved baked potato. Cover it with cheddar cheese for some added inexpensive deliciousness.

Side note 2 (18/2/13): I made more sauce today, and added in some bacon and a spare red pepper I had leftover in the fridge. Thrown in whatever you have on hand to bulk it out - don't waste good food!

*Marmite is, in my opinion, disgusting on it's own. It's like salted tar. But it's like magic beef sauce when used with mince.

Tip #20 - Cook in bulk, freeze in portions

I started a crazy budget plan last week. When I first planned it out I was positive the hardest category would be the food. I mean, $35/week for food? That's not a whole lot, right? Boy was I wrong.

Though I have gone over my weekly food limit for both weeks, that was mainly due to my stocking my cupboards with staples, spices, etc. In fact, I'll probably only spend about $15 next week, and that's partly because butter is on sale and I plan to stock up.

The way I've managed this is by first buying and cooking in bulk. I'm not talking about bulk in the normal sense - there are no 5kg bags of pasta or rice in my cupboards. But for my only mouth to feed, I certainly don't need 3kg of ground beef. But it was on sale, so I bought it. And then froze it in two 1.5kg batches. I also bought a whole chicken (also on sale - see how this works?) and froze it.

The next step is to cook in bulk. I'll make portions big enough for an entire family, even though it's just me eating. I take what I want for my meal, then separate the rest into freezer containers. This way, my food stays fresh, and future preparation takes all of three minutes.

In the past two weeks I've made:

- A giant pot of pasta sauce (9 servings)
- A shepherd's pie (4 servings)
- Squash soup (5 servings)
- Carrot soup (5 servings)
- Whole chicken (1 serving + 2 pots of leftovers)
- Chicken and vegetable soup (5 servings, from various leftovers)
- 2 loaves of bread (1 frozen)
- 2L of granola (this is about what I'll eat in a week and a half; no freezing required, but is possible)

I'll also admit to the fact that I also have frozen perogies as a lazy-day meal.

My normal shopping day is Saturday (only 2 days away), yet my freezer is full, and so is my fridge. So I will likely not need to buy anything aside from my butter this week. And maybe treat myself to some pickles. I know, I'm pretty intense.

This trend may change eventually. I may find that, one day, $35 is just not enough to feed me for the week. But for now, I'm buying in bulk, cooking in bulk, and freezing in portions.


Extra added bonus time: home-cooked food has made me feel incredibly full. I'm eating less by volume than I normally would. If I had a set of scales, I'd guess I'm probably losing weight too. So I'm saving money and taking care of my body too!

Tip #14 - Eat less meat

I'm not a vegetarian, and I can eat platefulls of baked or roasted ham or bacon. But with the price of meat so high, and set to increase in Canada next year, it may be worth finding some alternatives.

Anyone who has a vegetarian friend has probably seen the meat substitute products, usually made from ground mushrooms or soya, but these too can be very expensive. I also find them hit-and-miss - some aren't bad, but some just have a strange aftertaste or texture.

So I'm going to put in a plug for that most basic of protein, the one we sing about, the one which makes family gatherings that little bit more odorous.

Beans.

Canned, dried, fresh, it doesn't matter. Beans are incredibly good value for their weight and volume, and they're packed with nutrients like protein and iron. They're a good source of complex carbohydrates and fiber as well, so can act as both a veg and a meat substitute. And they're just so cheap!

I tend to have several different cans of beans in my cupboard for when I want to bulk something out. So I'll add chickpeas to curries, or pinto beans to tacos (this is relatively new), or lentils to shepherd's pie or bolognese sauce.

Lentils are especially good for bulking out ground beef-based meals. If you add a can of lentils to a pot of shepherd's pie filling or spaghetti sauce, you can cut out the equivalent volume of ground beef. And, it hides the lentils for picky eaters! I never spotted them in my Mum's cooking until I was much older and able to appreciate them more.

If, unlike me, you're a meat and two veg cook (I'm a one-pot cook so the beans trick works well for me), you can cut down on your meat bill by only buying what's on sale or special (i.e. going off that day), in bulk, and freezing it until you are ready to eat it. Freezerbags are great for this - you can freeze individual chicken breasts or steaks out of a value pack, or stick a whole chicken in one. Just make sure that you take the freezing into account when you cook, and make sure you consume the products within about a month!

Finally, a trick for you turkey or ham lovers. The week after Thanksgiving or Christmas, go to your supermarket, and buy one or two frozen turkeys or hams. They and their leftovers will last for a good long time and are at huge markdown! It's like the adult equivalent of buying marked down halloween or easter candy.

Recipe: Squash soup

I've got a quick, easy, and inexpensive autumn recipe for you today.  It's adapted from the amazing cookbook Simply in Season, which I was given as a (very) early Christmas present this year.  I've put what I paid beside each ingredient to show just how inexpensive this soup is!  (Though of course prices will vary by region or country, and I did luck out with getting some of the items for free).

Ingredients:
1 acorn squash (99cents - can be substituted for any form of squash)
2 onions (20cents)
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger (about 20cents - I bought a bigger one than needed)
2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (FREE! - rescued from a friend who wouldn't be able to finish them; whatever's cheapest/whatever you have lying around)
1L Chicken or Vegetable broth (FREE! - my Dad "didn't know what to do with it"; Can be boxed, home-made, bouillon, whatever)
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

Cooking instructions:
1. Cut out the flesh of your chosen squash, and microwave for about 5 minutes, or until soft and squidgey.
2. Add a smidge of olive oil to a large pot, and add the ginger and onions.  Fry until onions are soft and just a wee bit brown.
3. Add microwaved squash, apples and broth
4. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the apples are squidgey.
5. Blend until smooth. Season to taste.

That's it! Delicious, nutricious, quick, and inexpensive.

As a bonus and way to cut down on food waste, you can also save the squash seeds to roast with some olive oil and salt (or other seasoning - get creative!) as a tasty snack!

Turkey day dress(ing) rehearsal

It’s Thanksgiving in Canada!  The time of year where we say thank you for everything we have by wasting money and food.  The post-Thanksgiving food-related financial depression is only beaten by the post-Christmas one.  So here’s an idea: treat Thanksgiving as a rehearsal for Christmas.

This isn't really a tip, it's more of a suggestion because I haven't actually done this myself.  But I think it just might work and might save you a load of money.

 

Traditional Thanksgiving and traditional Christmas meals in Canada are very similar: giant turkeys, sweet potatoes, roast potatoes, roast veg, cranberry jelly, stuffing, gravy, Brussels sprouts, pumpkin pie, the list of “requirements” just goes on and on.  I put “requirements” in parentheses, because it’s important to question whether they are indeed requirements.  Is it important to have a giant turkey for just five people?  Is it important to have a whole bowl full Brussels sprouts on the table if only one person eats them?

With Thanksgiving so soon, it’s probably too late to change the preparations now.  But you have a great chance to learn from any mistakes made this time around and apply the learning to Christmas.  I’ve made an equation for you.  I call it the Turkey equation.  

 

L = (T - Te) / n , where  Te = T - Tl

L = leftovers (in kg or whichever unit is most appropriate)

T = Turkey (in kg - can be replaced by any other food item, in whichever unit is most appropriate)

Te = Turkey eaten (can equally be replaced by any other food item)

Tl = Turkey left (can still be replaced by any other food item)

n = number of people eating.

The idea is to bring L as close to 0 as possible.  Unless you’re absolutely madly in love with Turkey leftovers sandwiches, and can eat them for the rest of your life, in which case your goal is probably to maximise L for those items but minimize it for others. 

Example 1.  Say you have 24 Brussels sprouts (T = 24), and only your great aunt Agnes likes to eat them (n = 1).  But great aunt Agnes is 94 and has the stomach the size of a quarter, so can only manage 2 of them (Te = 2).  You’re left with L = 22.  Problem!  We want to minimize this!   

Solution: make fewer Brussels sprouts.  Perhaps present them on an individual plate for great aunt Agnes, all pretty and garnished, so she feels special and included.  Maybe include an extra one for each child under 18, so you can threaten to make them eat them. 

Example 2.  You have a 60 lb turkey.  You have 50 guests over, which you would think would mean the 60 lb bird would be perfect for.  But 25 of them have become vegetarian over the past year, and suddenly your n is cut in half, leaving you with masses and masses of leftover turkey. 

Solution: Rethink your Christmas needs.  You’ll need to get a smaller turkey and provide a vegetarian alternative.  It’s too late for Thanksgiving – but don’t throw away that turkey!  Make turkey pasta sauces, turkey casserole, turkey soup, turkey stir fry, and freeze them for consumption over the next month.  But save some for sandwiches.

Example 3. You are super-thrifty and only bought one can of cranberry jelly because traditionally your family doesn’t use much of it.  But this year your two kids taste cranberry jelly and suddenly decide they like it and could pretty much eat it with a spoon.  That leaves you with L = -1; in other words, you’re missing a can.

Solution: Canned cranberry jelly doesn’t go off, so make sure you have an extra one available.  Only open one at first, but keep the others close by, just in case jelly lovers come over for dinner.  If they don’t, you can save them for next year.  It’s a better solution than opening two and dumping one and a half at the end.

So, by calculating your equations carefully, you can reduce your leftover nightmares and your financial loss and still have a great turkey dinner with all the real requirements. 

Alternatively, do what my family is doing: have a meal that everyone loves, and to hell with tradition.  In our case, it’s ham, scalloped potatoes, and apple pie for dessert.  Yum!!!

Happy Turkey (ham?) day!