Lots of Soup & Fickle March

Hello, friends.  Last week, I redeemed Swagbucks for $25 at Paypal.  I'm working on using plenty of potatoes, so J can have the eyes to plant, and made home fries.  I gathered up our smallest potatoes from last year, for him to plant as is.  Our garlic was used in our favorite brussels sprouts, a MM recipe.  We like to steam them first, and the cayenne was left out due to current dietary restrictions.  I pulled cranberries from the freezer, and made another of his recipes, Wild Blueberry Cranberry Sauce.  I wasn't satisfied with the twine I had put up for the peas, and added some lower twine to stabilize it better, then added some rocks and bricks to stabilize it further, after this photo was taken.  All the green you see in between the rows of peas are volunteer lambs quarter and greens.  We've grown greens in this bed several times, and let them go to seed.   I plan to harvest the greens, which I expect won't overpower the peas before they're done.  Vegan pecan sandies were baked for a sweet treat.  

A batch of golden paste was made for the pups.  For dinner after some dental work, J requested vegetable soup, which used our garlic, squash, tomatoes, broth and butter beans, along with bought vegetables.  I dehydrated sweet potatoes for pup treats.  On a dreary day, I cleaned and calculated shipping weight and dimensions for items I'll attempt to sell on ebay.  These are some of the antique items from my friends.  I am getting reasonably close to having gone through all their items, and hope to finish that this year.  I made another round of home fries, to go with sweet and spicy cauliflower and green peas.  J tilled up the final row for potatoes on Saturday, and planted it.  

After stopping by the library to pick up books, I went by the discount store, and bought bags of organic lentils 8 oz for $1 vs $4.49 online & organic turmeric for $1 vs $2.99 online.  Both were slightly outdated, but should be fine.  The sad thing is the food now comprises about a 4' length of shelf, instead of several aisles.  I'd think it could be due to food shortages in general, but it's progressively gotten smaller over the past few years, with housewares sadly now taking over the store.   Food Lion had asparagus on sale for $1.99.  The recent cold snap put our asparagus on hold, and they're just starting again, so I took advantage of the sale.  They also had a sale on organic strawberries for $2.99/# instead of $5.89, brussels sprouts were $1 off, and I used a $6 reward towards my purchase.

J serviced the mowers last week.  I made a batch of ketchup.  Most condiments include vinegar, which is not recommended on the MM protocol, so I make my own these days.  Two of the containers were frozen.  I dried all laundry on the line, and as usual, we caught warm up shower water, used for flushing.  A bag of books were dropped off at a little free library.  Leeks and asparagus were harvested for our use, chickweed and dandelion greens for the pups, and various greens for the chickens.  I tried a recipe for vegan potato leek soup, made with our veggies.  It was fat-free too, and not the tastiest soup, so I'll try adding vegan "butter" with the leftovers.  A container of chickpea noodle soup was defrosted for lunches. 

 

Friends picked up our barely used propane heater and M's lathe and tools for their son.  The propane heater was only bought to meet code when moving into the house, as we always intended to heat with wood.  After J set us up with central heat and air, he took it out.  I'm glad someone can use it.  Over the weekend, I took photos of the ebay items, and got them listed.  Hopefully at least one item will sell, for the effort.  Several more pre-sprouted tomatoes were planted in potting soil, as well as another artichoke.  The wintersown mizuna and bought lettuce plants were planted in the garden, after J prepared a spot.   We already had a frost this weekend, and expect lower temperatures tonight.  Ah well, thus is fickle March.  Be well, friends.