Waste Not Want Not

Waste not want not was a very important way of life back in the day. It was imperative to make the most out of every bit that you had.

I never remember my grandmother hauling garbage cans to the road, because there was no waste in her house. Now most houses have one or two garbage cans out front on pick up day.

Last week I was telling a friend about all the grapes hanging on the vines and how I really hated to see them go to waste.

She said, well…. “waste not want not” So, I got busy canning more grape jelly.

I will admit that it doesn’t come naturally for me to think “what else can I do with this”. I sometimes struggle when a situation calls for ideas outside the box, or an improvisation. This is because I like a plan and I am not always the most patient person. 😉

Sometimes I get so eager to get so much done that I forget to stop and enjoy the process or think outside the box of how can I make this even better.

So, when my friend said “waste not want not” it stuck with me.

Take a look at my latest waste not want not project.

Take a guess at what it is.

Go ahead, I’ll wait 🙂

It’s corn cob jelly Y’all!

Now, I know how crazy that sounds but hey, why not?

Remember I told you about me canning all that corn this past weekend?

I saved the cobs, cooked them overnight in the crock pot to get a beautiful golden corn broth.

Look at that color in those jars. That lovely golden yumminess!!!!

Oh come on, I know you’ve sucked on a corn cob after eating it to get the sweet juice out of it. Everybody has. I know you know what I’m talking about….

Anyway, once you’ve got your corn stock made all you do is bring it to a boil then add pectin and sugar and you have a golden jelly that is a very strong resemblance to the taste of honey.

Once I finished this batch I was so excited that I immediately started jotting down ideas on what type of herbs I could use in it. For example maybe a rosemary thyme jelly or maybe a lemon or orange citrus hint to it. I think that would be lovely too.

This corn cob stock would also make a great starter for vegetable stocks or chowders and soups. Endless possibilities here Y’all.

I think waste not want not worked out pretty good here.

Now, I need to go make some biscuits for this jelly. YUM!

Corn Cob Jelly Recipe

3 cups of corn cob stock
1 box of fruit pectin
4 cups of sugar

Pour corn stock into a heavy bottom pot and add fruit pectin, stirring frequently on medium heat, bring to a boil. Continue to stir the mixture and add sugar, return to a boil on medium heat, boil for 1 minute. Ladle the VERY HOT mixture into jars and water bath for 5 minutes.

That’s it! How easy is that?

This jelly is a great starter recipe for a beginner canner, or for kids too.

What a sweet way to start your canning hobby.

Till next time,

Lori

Weekend Homestead Happenings

Do you remember in this Fridays Frugal Five I told you about some free Panera bagels I got leftover from a work meeting.

Well, bagels freeze just lovely and take a look at what we enjoyed for one of our breakfasts this weekend.

I love the fact that I saved those bagels, and the egg is from our chickens, and the tomato is from our garden.

Really, how cool is that!

Now, who would turn their nose up at leftover free bagels if it looked this good? Obviously not me.

I was inspired a couple weeks ago with a gallon of gifted grapes to make some grape jelly.

Well, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that we have had grapes growing on our little homestead for years now, but I’ve never thought to turn them into jelly, I just always thought they were too sour.

But thanks to the Z Man for picking and cleaning me a gallon of them, and thanks to the inspiration of grape jelly last week, I canned another 17 jars of grape jelly and it turned out great.

grapes

You can read more about how I made my jelly here.

We didn’t grow corn this year, but I found some lovely corn at the farm stand just down the road.

I’ve never put up corn, but thought I’d give it a try this weekend.

Yes, that’s a cucumber in the middle of the corn in the top left picture.

The nice lady at the farm stand gave it to me for free, I didn’t have the heart to tell her I have about 2 dozen at home waiting on me to do something with.

The best way I found to cut corn off the cob is to use a bundt pan and a sharp knife. The kernels fall right into the pan with very little mess.

It was by no means a difficult process. It did take a bit of time because corn in a pint size jar needs to be pressure canned for 55 minutes.

I bought 8 dozen ears and that netted us 54 pints of canned corn, all sealed and just beautiful.

So, as usual we had a busy weekend on our little homestead, but we will be glad for it come this February and we have all this wonderful food to enjoy.

How was your weekend? Did you put anything into jars this weekend?

Till next time,

Lori

Friday’s Frugal Five

This week was “stay out of the stores” week and I’m happy to say that I’ve been rather successful too.

Well, I did have to stop and pick up a few canning jars, but that’s it.

I realized that each day either on my way to work or on my way home the thought of stopping at the store just somehow instantly popped in my mind.

Just like hey it’s 12:00 time to eat lunch, or hey it’s bedtime time to brush my teeth, hey I’m in the car lets stop at the store….

What is that!!!

What I know about myself is that if I don’t make a conscious effort to stay out of the stores then my subconscious will come up with something that I need and I’ll be at the stores every day.

So this weeks frugal five is more about the things I didn’t do instead of the things I did do.

Not one morning did I stop at the stores on the way to work to pick up something I thought I might need.
Only one evening did I stop at a store to pick up canning jars, but bought nothing else that I thought I might need.
I did not carry my credit card with me all week, purposefully.
I did not spend any of the cash in my wallet and used a store credit to purchase the canning jars I picked up.
I did not buy breakfast, lunch or dinner out all week.

I did however “put up” (canning) 16 jars of salsa, 7 jars of tomato juice, 5 jars of sweet relish, 16 jars of (my version) salsa verde, we packed our lunches, dried our clothes on the clothes line (in between storms), added money to the pickle jar and are still breathing fresh air and loving it.

Salsa Verde 2

What frugal fun have you had this week?

Till next time,

Lori

Homestead Tomato Juice

The tomatoes are dwindling down. I’ll probably only get a few more batches of tomato juice before the canning tomatoes are gone. It makes me a little sad.

Last nights inspiration got us 7 quarts and 1 pint of tomato juice.