One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1426 of 2143 - I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Greenhouse Gardening in Fall – It’s Time to Pull Up the Tomatoes

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By Mavis Butterfield on October 24, 2013 · 17 Comments

Yesterday The Girl and I went out to the greenhouse to pick some lettuce for a dinner salad and were happy to see the mesclun lettuce we had planted earlier this fall was perfect for harvesting.

Look at those leaves!!

It’s almost November and here I am harvesting gourmet lettuce leaves. Does it get any better than that?

If I had to guess, I have about a 2 weeks worth of dinner salads in the 3-tiered pot I planted. I’m hoping I’ll be able to move the lettuce starts we have growing under grow lights in the house out to the garden by this weekend. Then we’ll see if I can successfully grow lettuce in our greenhouse this winter. {I’m keeping my fingers crossed}.

I’ve also got some spinach growing in a large pot as well. I can’t remember what variety it is though. Anyone know?

And take a look at Lemon. As of this morning we still have 7 meyer lemons growing in the greenhouse. Not as many as I had hoped for, but I’ll take ’em. I’m not sure when they are suppose to start turning yellow, but I suspect sometime in December or January.

Did I mention our tomatoes are on their way out?

Yep, these are the last of the Sun Gold tomatoes. 🙁

And what about the Green Zebra tomatoes you ask? Well… they’re dead.

Take a look at all the grey mold that has set in. Kinda creepy isn’t it?

Yep, it’s totally time to say goodbye to our heirloom tomatoes for the year and get the greenhouse prepared for winter. It’s coming, whether we want it to our not.

Do any of YOU have any tomatoes still growing? Are they on their last leg too or did you say goodbye to yours months ago?

Mavis wants to know.

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No Knead Dutch Oven Crusty Bread

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By Mavis Butterfield on October 23, 2013 · 58 Comments

I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for no knead Dutch oven bread forever since I first spotted it on Mama JJ’s blog Mama’s Minutia. Mama JJ doesn’t mess around with her recipes, so I knew it would be just as delicious as it looked. Plus she cooks it in a dutch oven pot so that was way different for me! But I just never got around to making it.

Until today. WhyOhWhy did I wait this long to try it. I ate almost the entire loaf. The entire loaf people! It’s a good thing I saved a little for my family because the entire house smelled like fresh baked bread so it’s not like I could hide it. But I totally wanted to.

Ingredients

3 cups flour {I use all-purpose white flour}

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon rapid rise yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions

Stir the ingredients together, cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 12-18 hours. Your dough should look like the picture above after 12-18 hours.

Now you are ready to form your loaf, but first put your pot and lid in the oven and pre-heat it to 450 degrees. Let it the pot heat up in the oven for about 30 minutes before taking it out.

While the pot is in the oven, shape the dough on a lightly floured surface just until it forms a sticky ball. Let it rest on the counter until the pot has been in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove pot from oven, place dough in pot and return lid.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove bread from pot and let cool slightly before eating. Now go give Mama JJ some love for sharing such a delicious and easy recipe!

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How to Grow Your Own Food – 10/23/2013 Garden Tally

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By Mavis Butterfield on October 23, 2013 · 3 Comments

Last week the only thing I harvested was 3 ounces of chives. Whoop. T. Do.

But, I did plant an entire bed with winter carrots and radishes, so that kind of makes up for it, right? 🙂 Even though there isn’t a whole lot going on in the garden these days harvest wise, I do have some major clean up projects on the agenda.

It’s just finding the time to get them all done that’s the hard part.

Right now we have lettuce, basil and beets growing under the grow lights I have set up on my desk in the office. I plan on growing the basil indoors, moving the lettuce to the greenhouse and the beets to a garden beds next week.

Are you indoor gardening this fall too? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

~Mavis

Here is what I have harvested so far this year:

Basil – 1 pound 3 ounces

We’ve got basil growing under the grow lights. In the past we’ve enjoyed making fresh pesto and strawberry basil jam with it.

Beets – 133 pounds 12 ounces

We’ve got plenty of beets in the ground to use, just have to find the time to work them into our dinner menu.

Bok Choy – 7 pounds

We didn’t end up growing too much bok choy this year, but it’s on the list for 2014.

Broccoli – 13 ounces

~~Our broccoli plants are doing great and I’m looking forward to a late fall harvest.~~ Girly Girl stole most my plants.

Cabbage – 40 pounds 14 ounce

We are still waiting to harvest our fall cabbage. I feel like I keep saying that but cabbage totally has a mind of it’s own.

Carrots – 43 pounds 11 ounces

I didn’t pull up any carrots this past week but we’ve still got carrots growing in 3 different garden beds. I’m hoping these ones will be my Valentine Carrots.

Chives – 2 pound 8 ounces

We regular chives and garlic chives growing right now. I harvested a whopping 3 ounces of chives last week for a baked potato party.

Cucumbers 9 pound 6 ounces

Our cucumbers are done for the season. ‘ll be buying hothouse cucumbers at Costco until next summer. There English cucumbers are the best deal around.

Egg Count – 2,197

Sadly The Girl did not keep track of the egg count last week while I was away so I can’t update it. Boo!!

Garlic 9 pounds 2 ounces

We planted our garlic a few weeks ago, I haven’t seen anything coming up through the soil yet, but it should be soon.

Garlic Scapes 11 ounces

We use them to make Garlic Scape Pesto.

Green Beans 17 pounds 11 ounces

Kale – 42 pounds 14 ounces

I have it growing alongside the chicken coop. Lucy Puggle sneaks a bit every once in a while but mostly, I grow it for the chickens.

Kohlrabi 5 pounds 10 ounces

Lettuce – 37 pounds 3 ounces

Note to self – Harvest lettuce in greenhouse.

M icrogreens 5 ounces

Mint 13 oz

I made some blueberry mint jam this summer.

Oregano – 1 pound 12 ounces

I used fresh oregano in my heirloom tomato sauce this summer.

Onion – 37 pounds 8 ounces

Pears 47 pounds 7 ounces

Pear butter is AWESOME!

Peas – 42 pounds 9 ounces

Note to self: Pick greenhouse peas.

Potatoes – 319 pounds

How to Harvest and Store Potatoes for Winter.

2 weeks asgo while I was clearing the pumpkin patch I also dug up a few of the potatoes we planted beneath the pumpkin mounds. So far I’ve only dug up about 19 pounds, but there is a boatload more to be dug up. Maybe I’ll have Monkey Boy help me with this today. We’ll see.

Radish – 22 pounds 2 ounces

I planted radish seeds last week.

Raspberries – 21 pounds 7 ounces

Rhubarb – 39 pounds 9 ounces

Sage – 14 ounces

Squash 230 pounds 10 ounces

After all was said and done we ended up with 230 pounds of pumpkins. Not what I was hoping for. My pumpkin crop totally failed this year due to poor crop rotation. Some years are good, and other, not so much.

Spinach – 15 ounces

I planted more in the greenhouse for a winter harvest. 🙂

Sprouts –2 pounds 15 ounces

Here are instructions for growing your own sprouts.

Strawberries 23 pounds 14 ounces

Strawberry season is over for the year.

Swiss Chard 52 pounds 4 ounces

Gag. Our backyard chickens love it and it’s great for trading.

Tomatoes 234 pounds 15 ounces

I need to check on the tomatoes we have growing in the greenhouse. It’s getting to be about that time of year when they need to be pulled up. I was hoping to grow them into November but we’ll see.

Wheatgrass – 7 ounces

Zucchini – 72 pounds 13 ounces

Total Food Harvested in 2013: 1455 pounds 0 ounces

Total Eggs Collected in 2013: 2,197 {+more that we forgot to count}

If you are new to gardening or just want to learn more about organic gardening, my #1 favorite garden book is The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food By Tanya L.K. Denckla.

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10 Pumpkin Carving Tips

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By Mavis Butterfield on October 23, 2013 · 4 Comments

This time of year always puts me in a good mood. There’s something uplifting about candy, costumes, candy, jack-o-lanterns and candy. When the kids were younger, we used to spread out plastic table clothes and make a whole evening out of carving pumpkins. I’d roast the pumpkin seeds, and we’d snack on them as we carved. Good times, people, good times.

If you plan on carving pumpkins with the kiddos this year, here’s a few tips:

Use ice cream scoops to scoop out your pumpkins. Your arms will stay cleaner and they do a great job a scraping the sides of the pumpkin.
Use dry erase markers to draw the face out first. You can easily erase if you have mistakes and the kids will still get to design, even if they aren’t old enough to do the actual carving.
Spray the inside of the pumpkin with a water/bleach mixture and then coat it with petroleum jelly. It will last longer.
Use battery operated tea lights instead of candles. You will still get the full it effect of a jack-o-lantern, without the potential fire hazard.
If you do use candles, sprinkle the inside of your pumpkin with cinnamon, nutmeg and/or cloves for a DIY air freshener.
If you don’t have a dry erase marker, let the kids draw their design on with a large nail. The nail will leave an imprint deep enough for you to see where to carve.
Instead of cutting off the top of the pumpkin, try something different, cut off the bottom or back.
A dry wall saw makes an awesome carving tool and handles way better than a sharp knife.
Use props. This is a perfect place for the kids to showcase all of those “treasures” they’ve collected through the summer {and the perfect opportunity for you to help the de-clutter their collection}. Let them glue on the leaves, rocks, etc. that they’ve collected as hair, eyeballs, etc.
Want to get fancy? Try printing out FREE pumpkin patterns. {This will probably win your best pumpkin on the block, because IS a competition, don’t you know. Ha!

How about YOU, what tricks have you learned over the years?

~Mavis

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