Veggie Co-op

I'm so excited about joining this co-op! Who knew?! I don't necessarily live in a place where I thought something like this would exist, but through word of mouth...
We tried our first garden last year, and we had some good meals that came from it. But it wasn't a great year for our first try. It was very wet, and we definitely did not get out of the garden what we felt we should, for the work and money that was put into making it happen. I was excited ready to try again this year, but after hearing about this frugal opportunity, I am hanging up my gloves this year and spending extra time with my boys!
I have paid a minimal amount of money to be able to go once a week for 24 weeks (from May to Oct) to get 5 lbs of veggies I choose. It also includes a bunch of corn, a big pumpkin, and a hayride at the end, plus a couple of sessions of canning! I am so excited right now because I just got my officially membership card in the mail. I'll continue to update how it actually ends up.

Gardening is Easy and Good!

This has been our first year trying to grow a garden. It has been a nice, rainy spring and summer, and this has helped our crop greatly! I have not been good about posting updates and pictures, partly because it is all so good that I eat it and then think "I should have taken a picture of that first!"

Here is a picture of some of the produce we are getting about weekly now. Our garden is not huge, so it is not a ton of crop, but it is a good amount for us to get fresh salads and sides a few days a week without having to buy the ingredients!

The crop has been good, it has been nice to save, and it has been a productive experiment! Can't wait to keep getting more great food to eat!

Fresh Herbs

I hate to see things go to waste! Reeeeally!
Our garden is doing great! we had lots of rain, and then lots of sun, and a little more rain. And things are looking REAlly good!
We have sweet basil and oregano growing in our garden, and both were getting very big. They were ready to be cut so they could start growing again.
Don't want to see it all go to waste, so even though we will not be able to partake in their goodness this week, we will being drying some out so it will last.
This is my first attempt EVER at drying out an herb, so feel free to let me know a better way.
For now, our drying has also because somewhat of a decoration. A 2 for 1 deal.
We'll see how it looks at the end of the week...

Watch your garden grow

I love finding ways to save money.

I love finding ways to eat healthy.

I love eating good food.

I love finding ways to save money while eating good, healthy food.

Grow a garden! That's how you can do it!

We are not experts. I am definitely not. I did not grow up gardening. I have not studied it, read up on it, spent hours trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. (Mainly because my husband has done the work on the garden. But still...)

You buy the seeds, or even some plants that are already started. Buy the things you know you will want to eat (maybe even all year round if you do good with the garden). Read the directions on the packet, or with the plant. Or quickly look the vegetable up on the internet if you have to. The internet is chock-full of info on how to grow a garden!

It really is simple. We water it on the days it doesn't rain (which hasn't been much lately) and we watch our plants grow. We've had peaches (we did not plant the trees and don't do much for them, but we get good peaches), lettuce, and sweet basil. All very good so far!

We watched our lettuce grow.

We thinned it out some and filled a couple of bowls with fresh-from-the-garden lettuce.

Then we made some really amazing salads with it! I can't wait for all the toppings to come from our garden too. But for right now, the avocados in the stores are so good. And tomatoes. And some slivered almonds and a light dressing. MMMM. I'm getting hungry for a salad.

It really IS simple! And thrifty. And green. (haha. I didn't mean the color when I wrote it. but it is the color green as well!)