cutting costs - groceries

Due to the rising costs of fuel and transporting, the cost of groceries has
skyrocketed - regular milk in these parts is $4.39 a gallon/store brand, and organic is $5.79/gallon.

Gas is currently: $3.65/gal premium / $3.45/gal reg

Hubby raised dairy goats as a youth and we are considering the purchase of 2-3 dairy goats along with some chickens to cut costs over the long term (milk, butter, cheese, eggs, meat). We own .75 acres in hillbillburbia, blessedly flat and no zoning restrictions on farm animals.

The garden this year will provide all our vital veggies throughout 08-spring 09. Seedlings are already growing under lights.

Eating organic and healthy does not have to be expensive. We eat organic, and we do it cheaply.


What we do to cut costs:

Subscribe to Countryside magazine - great cost-cutting and p&r ideas, all from readers.

Join a food co-op, or frequent farmer's markets, or make friends with farmers (dairy, veggie, beef, beekeepers, etc). Or read the classifieds - most farmers sell their excess produce.

Plant a garden. Can vegetables and fruits. Pick from local orchards and farmers (check the classifieds). Container garden if you have 'no space'. A plot as small as 10' x 10' can yield more veggies than you'd ever think.

Purchase your beef directly from the source with friends to share the cost, and have it butchered and split amongst participating families. As a kid, my family would 'split a cow' with another family, and store the meat in a chest freezer to use over the course of a year.

Make your own stocks - chicken, beef, vegetable, fish. I use chicken stock is just about everything I cook, which is all made from whole foods ingredients. Packaged foods cost more, and have less nutritional value than whole foods.

We are, as a culture, spoiled by what we can get at the grocery store, at a moment's notice. Perhaps the rising costs of foodstuffs will encourage a return to family self-sustenance.

unexpected spring, early april surprise

The journey, we became

Day One

The sultry southern summer sun sparks at dawn,
scatters dewdrop diamonds across cotton flowers,
threaded prisms that break light into a thousand rays.

You catch a glimpse of me from the corner of your eye,
And I giggle when you smile.

Day Two

"He is my desire," a soft susurrus
to the black swallowtail moon.

She peeks in through canvas windows,
slips past the zippered tent flaps,
casts caressing shadows across entwined limbs.

She would carry my wish to the heavens,
If only she were not imprisoned by the knobby arms
of the scrubby Florida pines.

Day Three

Let that old medicine woman
murmur esoteric prayers under labored breathe,
lay leathered hands across your fevered brow,
smudge sage as she retraces ancient footprints.

For you, she sings songs once sung
to send men into battle.


April 2, 2008