Food Snobbery on a Budget...

this post also appears at "Cooking Green with Lia Jean"

Hi, my name is Lia Jean Green bean-eating-machine Mack, and I'm a food snob.

I blame my parents for having us live in Italy for three years while I was growing up. Every Friday morning, the town we lived in held an open air market - mercato - where you could purchase anything and everything fresh.

Fresh fish from the sea, fresh artichokes picked that morning, homemade pastas that took two seconds to cook...and eat ;) Oh, and let's not forget the cheese wagon. Every Wednesday at the same exact time, a man pulling a cart of cheese wheeled down our street singing, "formaggio... mozzarelli... provelone..."

Now that's a real cheese wagon :)

So I got mega used to eating whole fresh foods...and fell in LOVE! There is no beating the taste of a ripe red tomato mixed with fresh basil, straight from the garden. I think that's why everything tastes so much better in Italy. Everything is fresh and local. So what if I couldn't drink the water or that the heat and electricity went off daily at 3pm because someone had to go home for siesta. I was in food heaven!!!

And then we moved back to the States - God love America - where there is a grocery store open daily on almost every corner. Only thing, most of the food available here comes in a box. Or a plastic bag. Or worse! And it's not fresh. It's not even local!

Oh, the horror!!!

Well, fast forward to 2010. I'm married to super conservation man and together we are raising two amazing little greenies. I've been a stay at home mom for six years and have not one thing in my life to complain about. Nothing, that is, except my food budget. It's tight. Living on one income in a very expensive part of the country and being able to buy good whole food that is fresh, organic, and local is difficult to say the least. But it's doable. And for a while there I was doing pretty good.

For the last two years, however, I've been feeling the pinch. Food prices continue to rise, utilities are still going up, and summer is coming, which can only mean one more thing will be getting more expensive. Gas. Just in time for everyone to want to get out and have fun after being frozen all winter. So nice of them...

Yet, I still want to be able to feed my family well, but wanting to buy and eat only organic, local, fresh foods can be quite costly. I know of one local mom who spent over 15K last year in food alone because they ONLY eat local, organic, fresh meats, cheeses, fruit, vegs, ect.... That's a lot of money.

Of course I could easily manage to buy all sorts of shit food (pardon my language) with my food budget. I could feed my family from the box and dollar menu and have money left over! But I'm a food snob, remember? I cannot eat that stuff. Ingredients I can't pronounce? Food that doesn't even look or taste anything like food? Packaged, frozen, processed, freeze dried disgustingness???

Oh no. Not me, baby. Not after eating REAL food. It's just not possible.

Plus, I don't want my kids eating shit - crap - either. We are what we eat. When we eat crap, we feel like crap and therefore act like crap. And I'm not interested in taking care of kids who act up all the time and get sick all the time because they are being fed crappy food.


So, having very little wiggle room in the budget, but wanting only the best (what mom doesn't?), I've learned how to get most everything we need (aka: I want) on the budget we have. It's fun being a food snob. You just have to find a way to do it when you don't have endless amounts of the green stuff lying around. Below are some of the things I do to get what I want, thus enabling me to eat really yummy good for me food all the time

I don't do all my shopping in one place.
Some things at my main grocery store are too expensive, yet elsewhere they aren't. Took me a while to scout out all the good deals, but now I know that by going to three separate stores on a rotation, I can come home with a lot more of what I want for less $.

I garden.
I grow tomatoes and herbs and carrots and potatoes and all sorts of yumminess :) By doing so, I control what goes in and on my food. The kids have their own garden plots too, and we spend a good deal of time with our beloved Mother Earth to keep it going. After the cost of seeds, what we reap is free. FREE! Best price ever :)

I go to Farmer's Markets.
And stock up. What I find for good deals, I buy bunches of and freeze what we're not eating that week. Frozen blueberries, frozen green beans, frozen anything. Tastes great when picked and stored at peek season. Nothing better than pulling out veggies in the dead of winter that you bought fresh and know where they came from. Tastes great.

I buy in bulk.
When I can, I save up and buy staples in bulk. Flour, sugar, pasta, rice... This year I'm buying 1/4th of a bison and a neighbor of ours who likes to hunt is getting us a deer. Who knows how long this supply of meat will last, especially since we only eat meat two to three times a week. (Meat is pricey) This, of course, will happen after I find an inexpensive deep freezer on Craigslist (anyone have one they don't want?)

I do without.
Yes, you heard it. We don't buy pop (soda). The kids drink juice once a day and that's it. Instead we drink water, H2O, aqua fresca...you get the picture. Same thing with junk food. Since we don't eat it, we don't buy it, thus we save big bucks. And if it's not on sale and it's not in the budget, oh well. Better luck next time, right?

I stretch it.
I can make five meals out of one chicken. And that doesn't include the amount of chicken stock I make and use from the bones. So I might spend a little more buying an organic chicken - or A LOT more buying an organic local chicken - but I'll make that dollar stretch as much as possible. With a little ingenuity, you can think of ways to make anything stretch more than one meal.

Of course, all of this takes time, energy, and knowledge, something that most of us are hard pressed to find. But it CAN be done if you put in the work. The biggest benefit from all of this? You won't have to compromise. I don't. Just know that there will be times when you can't get the big ticket items, but that's fine. You don't have to have exactly what you want ALL the time, do you? My goal is to have good for us food only, and don't concern myself with specifics.

Everyone can be a food snob on a budget. All you have to do is learn to go with the flow, enjoy what's in season, and make the most of what you've got.

:)

Green Tips for Green Mamas...Grasscycling

Every week we try to tackle a Green Mama problem with a simple Green Mama solution. Could be one thing to do, one thing to toss,or one thing to purchase. Never know. But one things for sure, it won't be a huge TO DO list. We mamas already have a full day planned, don't we?!

Grasscycling

If you don't cut the grass - I've only ever done it a small handful of times in my lifetime - this tip might be best passed onto your very own Green Daddy ;)

"Cut it high and let it lie! The Environmental Protection Agency recommends leaving grass clippings on your lawn rather than collecting and bagging them to reduce the amount of waste that is collected and processed.

Grasscycling enhances the natural health of your lawn. Grass clippings increase the soil's organic matter, along with its ability to retain moisture and nutrients, resist erosion, and maintain cooler temperatures during the summer. Clippings should be no more than one inch long in order to fall through the grass into the soil." ~ Citizens Information Center

Garden Porn! Getting in the Mood to Garden...

Yes, mamas look at porn too...garden porn that is ;)

It's one of the sure fire ways to get people in the mood to plant and grow their own garden, teasing them with a bit of what's to come...

You've seen it. Tantalizing displays of plump, ripe tomatoes strewn about on a bed of luscious green romaine. Rosy beets peeking out between long, lanky bright multi-colored carrots and turnips.

Heirloom...Organic...Local...

Gotta have it!!

My first of many garden porn magazines - aka: seed catalogs - came in just a few weeks ago, when there was still feet upon feet of snow freezing the ground outside. So I've had time to ingest and absorb the wonderfully vibrant photos of yummy veggies, fruits, and herbs. I can't wait start planning and plant my garden, now that the snow has melted and the sun it amping up it's warmth.

Some of my favorite seed catalogs that I've been pouring over are:

Seed Savers
Seeds of Change
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - talk about drop dead photos! Who knew food could get you so in the mood!!! ;)
Amish Land Seeds

Whatever garden porn seed catalog you go with, just make sure that the selection is Mansanto free, organic, and full of variety and heirloom seeds. And when you're done with them, keep the catalogs around for craft activities with the kids. Also, don't keep the pics to yourself. Invite your kids to dream and design their very own gardens!

Don't forget about heirlooms...Heirlooms rook! For the past three years that I've been gardening with a vengeance, I've found that whatever I plant, so long as it's heirloom, not only does it thrive, but it's easier to keep alive (I don't have a bright green thumb yet, I tend to kill things), and the fruit tastes so much better. Maybe because it's closer to the original. Maybe because it's new to my tongue. Whatever reason, don't be afraid to plant purple tomatoes and striped beets. You'll be happily surprised.

If the ground in your area isn't ready for tilling and moving around, this is the perfect time to start planning your garden. With your seed catalogs in hand, makes lists of what you want to grow and where. Read up on companion gardening - growing plants together that help each other out (like tomatoes and basil together; corn, squash, and beans together).

After you have your list, decide where you're going to plant your garden in your yard (note where there is usually shade and DO NOT plant there...speaking from experience here...). Draw up a diagram of how your rows or beds will lay, what you'll plant where, and make sure to add room for paths to walk on and a spot for your compost pile. Container gardening? Start collecting containers on Craigslist and Freecycle now and start prepping your site.

However your garden grows...here's to the grown thawing out, great garden plans, and seed catalogs that get us excited to garden!

:)

Eco-Friendly Holiday Decorations

Be Evergreen with Your Decorations this Holiday Season...

* When decorating this holiday season, don't forget your winged and four legged friends outdoors! If you are blessed with trees in your yard, make cranberry and popcorn garland to wrap around them, complete with birdseed covered pine cones. The animals will love them and they will contribute to your beautiful daylight decorations, naturally.

* One could definitely argue that chopping down trees for any occasion is not exactly eco-friendly. However, when purchasing your holiday tree from a locally owned organic tree farm, you're not only helping out the local economy.

You're also keeping artificial trees out of the landfill, supporting organic farming practices (some tree growers use over 40 harmful pesticides, which you then bring into your home!), and, for every tree cut down this year, that's at least one more tree planted for next season, if not more.

* Go for all the sparkle you want this season, using LED holiday lights. Decorating your tree and home with energy-efficient LED lights will help reduce your energy bills and, since they burn cooler, they are also safer to use indoors. For outdoor lights, there are some awesome solar powered lights that you can decorate the outdoors without all the wires tracking back to the house, draining your pocket book! Plus they can go anywhere, allowing you to light up even hard to reach areas of your yard.

* When it comes time to take the tree down, before you toss it out with the trash, visit eco911.org for local recycling services and pick up dates. Most cities have recycling programs that turn used trees into mulch and other materials. Or, if you are an avid gardener, you can put your tree out back to be self mulched for garden paths. Doing this not only keeps the tree in the cycle of life, birds and other wildlife will enjoy the additional spot to hide and rest in your backyard during the upcoming winter.

How to Grow Fresh Air...Inside Your Home!

With the cold winter months just ahead of us, most of us moms will be spending more time indoors. Which means the kids most likely will be spending more time inside as well. And we all know what that means...kids, confined in the home + toys + food + etc...more messes for us moms to clean up!

However, there is something that we can make and keep squeaky clean inside our homes that the kids can't destroy the moment we turn around.

The air we breathe! :)

How to Grow Fresh Air by B. C. Wolverton shows how 50 house plants can purify our homes. And with people, in general, spending upwards of 90% of their times indoor - where the air is more polluted than the air outside - its essential that we moms clean up our children's environments as best we can.

How easy to filter out pollutants and make fresh squeezed oxygen that with a couple beautiful house plants!

With an easy to follow growers guide, purifying your home's air with houseplants will be simple.

See...being green is easy!

:)

In the Mix! Kids & Kitchen Compost

You're making dinner, trying to get everything on the table in time, and your little one's, been brought into the kitchen by the wonderful aromas you're creating, just won't get out from underfoot...they're starving!!!

Sound familiar?

Most time I hand out little nibbles to these food crazed monsters, but by the time dinner rolls around, they aren't really hungry anymore. And when you work really hard on a meal, you just want to see everyone enjoy it, right?

Well, that's the inherited trait from my mother's Italian side of the family anyway...

If there is some way they can help with the cooking, that is always a welcomed treat. But sometimes there aren't many small jobs for small hands. So, instead of shooing them away - unsuccessfully - over and over again, I've come up with another plan. And it's something that has to get done, too, so it doubles as a time saver trick.

Instead of doing it all myself, I employ my three year old to fill up our kitchen compost bin with all the scraps that I've created while cooking. Then as a team, my five and three year old take it out back to our compost pile and deposit the soon-to-be black gold on top.

If they are in the mood to turn the pile...wow...great! Thanks kids! ;) But if not, no biggie. The task of taking kitchen scraps out to the compost pile not only takes outside, they also learn how to work as a team, and it helps to instill the truth that just because we're not eating certain parts of the veggies and fruit, that doesn't necessarily make them trash.

Taught to them young and kept as part of their daily lives, kids will see the benefits of living green first hand. Therefore they will be more apt to incorporate them later on into their own life as they grow older.

That's really good because, as we all know, it's our job to raise them greenies :)

My "Victory" Garden...Simple Beginnings of an Urban Homestead

I've always loved the taste of fresh tomatoes tossed with fresh basil and it's always been easy to purchase a tomato plant or two, plop them into a pot, and reap the rewards of regular watering with mouth watering flavor. Yum, yum, yum!

That's about all I did during the years I worked outside of the home. After having kids, I wanted to garden earnestly so that my children would benefit from seeing and learning the love of gardening. It was something that I wanted to do so that my children's children would inherit a love, desire, and understanding of gardening and working with Mother Earth.

A few years ago, my three year old son and I started with a little patch of dirt. The following year we moved our garden plans to a more sunny local in the backyard (darn Maple tree leaves!) This year we have continued in the same area, adding another bed.

It's been three years now of gardening and I have to say that - although things grow and thrive, sometimes - I have no idea what I'm doing. I've planted in the shade and nothing grew. I planted 12 tomato plants practically right on top of eachother and they thrived. I borrowed wood pallets to make an open air composting area in my backyard and I think I'm doing it right... The kids and I have fun making and creating a garden together, and, honestly, this haphazard style of gardening has worked for us up until now.

What's different now?

Necessity has come into play. With food prices and gas prices going through the roof - again - I am fed up with having to worry if I can have fresh organic food for my family come dinner time. So, what's a green mama to do?

I'm challenging myself with the ultimate goal: to become as self-sustained as possible. I want to grow as much food for my family as possible. I want to eat fresh organic food everyday, and freeze and can what I can so that our little harvest will go the distance.

Only problem is, we own 0.17 acres that a house and a pool set upon. So that leaves me some room in the backyard, a side yard, and possibly some of the front yard. I live in Podunk East Coast with no HOA to worry about. If my neighbor can park his car on his lawn for the past 14 years, I can have a veggie farm in mine!

And that makes me so giddy and excited! I asked my darling husband if he'd mind NOT having a lawn to mow. He said he'd be all for it.

So that got me thinking...

My inspiration to start farming my little land came from the Dervas Family of Pasadena, CA. They converted their entire front, side, and backyards into a "Little Homestead in the City", complete with all the food they need for the year, a means to create an income, and their own chickens, goats, ducks, and more! This summer while in California I'm going to take a field trip to their homestead and check it out for myself...a Green Mama's destination for sure!

While I'm patiently and excitedly awaiting my trip, I will be frequenting their Freedom Gardens website, "an online social community of gardening enthusiasts who are fed up with foreign oil, frequent food miles and high food prices. Gardeners of all types of gardens are welcomed". Awesome. I'm sure they won't mind a haphazard gardener then ;)

This year I will be adding another bed to the veggie garden, but that's all. I'd love to do more and would if I had the green...(oh, will the gas prices stop rising!)... That said, I better start making a list of all the supplies and materials I'll need to save for for next year's growing season. Maybe I'll find some frugal ways over the summer to start extending my garden sooner... I do love that Craigslist!

Here's to dreaming and planning...wish me luck! ;)

Kids in the Garden: How to Grow a Bean Teepee

A bean teepee creates a magical hiding spot for your children, a place to discover nature up close, allowing them to enjoy the summer months out of the sun and - maybe even for a time - out of your way while tend to your garden or attempt to read a book and relax.

Easy as 1, 2, 3...

1. Simply push seven to nine 6-foot bamboo poles 3 inches deep into the ground, forming a semi-circle while allowing room for an entrance.
   
   
2. Join the poles together at the top with some twine or old rope, about 6 inches down from the top.
   
   
3. Plant two beans – pole beans, runner beans, lima beans – at the base of each bamboo pole to ensure at least one plant will make it to the top.
   

Children can be put to task with a handful of beans and simple instructions, creating their very own hideaway. Once the beans have reached their full height, place a blanket inside to sit upon. Perfect for either the front or backyard, a Bean Teepee is a great escape, complete with its very own crunchy snacks!