Sharing Pawpaws & Frugal Accomplishments

Hello, friends.  I'm happy to be joining in with The Prudent Homemaker today.  Last week, I made a peach cake with our peaches, and dehydrated the skins and bits for bird suet.  I harvested purslane and basil, and made purslane pistachio pesto, along with a caprese salad.  We had it with pasta, though it's very good with the farro risotto recipe she shares as well.  Another night, I made eggplant parmesan with garden vegi's and herbs, as well as a pawpaw cake, which we enjoyed and were able to share.   An interesting thing happened related to pawpaws last week.  Friends of ours met a man looking for pawpaws, who does research work on bird habitat for the Smithsonian Institute.  They gave us his contact info, and he came out this weekend.  Of course, this morning was the first in two weeks that there were no pawpaws to gather on the ground.  Thankfully, I had kept some harvested the past couple of days, and we were able to coax another 4 down to share.  He roasts coffee as a side gig, and said he'll send us some as thanks for the pawpaws.  I love good coffee, so that sounds like a win-win exchange!

J's laptop went black recently, and he purchased a new one at Staples, requesting they transfer data from the old to the new laptop.  It took 6 days longer than promised, and a bit of back and forth, but they ended up giving us coupons for $20 off future purchases for our trouble.  I received an ebates check for $5 and change.  Wanting to propagate our raspberries and hazelnuts, I tip layered several branches of each, hoping they'll all root to increase our berry and hazelnut harvest.  I gathered and cleaned seeds from red chard, calendula, wood betony, and black eyed susan.  Almost 13 lbs. of pawpaws were prepped for the freezer one evening.  There aren't a great deal of lima beans or butter peas coming in yet, so I combined the two, and we had them with basmati rice, asian cucumbers, and sliced tomatoes for dinner one night.  Garden vegi's, eggs and pawpaws were shared with a friend  who had gotten us front row tickets to see Lyle Lovett in a lovely old theatre.  I was about 8 ft. from Lyle and His Large Band!  He brought in a local choir to help on several songs, which was wonderful.  It was not frugal, but worth every penny, and an evening I will long remember.

After working in town last week, I picked up a few things at Aldi's, including .79 avocados and my favorite seeded, organic bread.  I also stopped at Lowe's and got a couple of things on the mark down rack- 12 oz of organic espresso coffee for $3.50 and 4 everything bagels for $1.20.  Bean and pea shells, onion and tomato ends, and a package of last year's okra was added to the broth bag in the freezer.  Eggs were boiled for the pups and us, and the water was used to water plants.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow and tromboncino squash, eggplant, okra, butter peas, figs, pawpaws, a peach I had missed and hazelnuts were gathered.  I weeded several areas in the garden, and gave the chickens small and split tomatoes several days.  I cleared around one of the figs that had things grown up around it. Yogurt, kefir and hummingbird food were made, and scraps were composted.  Okra was frozen in meal size packages.  Laundry was done with homemade soap and soap gel, and hung on the line, and homemade soap and deodorant were used.

After dark one night, we put the 11 week old chicks in with the rest of the flock.  They seem to be making a good transition, with little notice from the older hens.  My shop had a couple of sales last week, as well as one sale in J & I's shop.  I've been brainstorming things to add to my shop, mostly items I've made before, and intend to bring back as time allows.  I picked a bouquet of flowers to enjoy.  Lowe's was having a sale on landscaping block, and we were able to edge three more flower beds with block this weekend.  We used two gift cards, and J's military discount to reduce our out of pocket expense.  I told anyone who asked that we only needed well wishes for our wedding, but we still received some gift cards, as well as several handmade items.  All were very much appreciated and will be gratefully used.  We also purchased 5 good sized hostas from the half price clearance rack at Lowes, 3 different varieties, and divided two of those, to give us 7 new plants to help fill in our shade garden.  The autumn clematis is blooming, with a most delightful fragrance.  Wishing you a week of hope and peace.