Stocks and Shares of the Frugal Variety.

These Pay Dividends of a Different Type!


No, I'm not talking the London Stock Exchange, NASDAQ or Wall Street, I'm talking home made stock and the freshly picked produce that my garden shares with me on a regular basis.

But it still pays dividends!

Having roast chicken for dinner is always the precursor of Frugaldom stock trading. I trade the stripped chicken carcass for a lovely pot of stock! Obviously, you may choose to take (or make) this with a pinch of salt, but I prefer mine seasoned with the addition of pepper, as well. It's a pretty hot commodity, in my honest opinion.

Stockmaking all looks rather messy at the start, but boiling the bones is the only way to get all that lovely flavour into the water that will later become your soup. Strain off the juices and, for a lower fat version, allow the stock to cool, chill it and then skim off any fat.

I tend to make my stock over the period of few hours in the slow cooker - frugal and almost impossible for it to boil over when left unattended. If you have cheap rate overnight electricity, this is the best time for slow cookers, just use a timer switch.

This time of year is brilliant for thick soups, stews and broths and I always serve them with wedges of freshly baked bread or dumplings. I usually set aside a small carton of the extra meat that is always left over, then this also gets added into the final dish.

From the garden, earlier in the week, I had gathered sprouting broccoli, patty pan squash, beans, turnips, carrots, 5 courgettes and onions, plus I also had a mugful of stewed tomatoes to use up, from making pizza for yesterday's lunch.

Everything except the runner beans has gone into the soup pan and is simmering gently along with a decent helping of red, split lentils and a heaped teaspoonful of turmeric, for added autumn kick.

Despite this all sounding like a very strange concoction, the only ingredients that were paid for in cash were the lentils and seasoning, so this really is a frugal meal.

The pan used holds 6.5L of liquid, so I usually make 5L of soup, meaning that there is always plenty stored in the freezer for winter warmer snacks, lunches or suppers.

Never be afraid of experimenting with stocks or soup-making.

If you are vegan or vegetarian, use your scrubbed peelings, stalks, tops and tails to make a vegetable stock. Season it with whatever herbs or spices you prefer and then freeze the surplus for later use. Simmering some spaghetti in the stock makes for frugal noodle soup, while using this same stock for cooking such things as rice, pasta or cous cous always gives that extra bit of flavour and a few extra vitamins and minerals.

Within the realms of frugal living and housekeeping, there is probably no cheaper option than homemade soup. It is also one of the most nourishing foods for sipping when feeling under the weather or otherwise off your food.

We love soup, especially because you can make it from almost anything.

I'll upload a photo of this latest soup as soon as it is ready. Until then, I can't tell you how it looks or tastes, as this truly is a use-it-up recipe.

Edit: This soup tastes delicious! It is much more colourful than I had expected it to be, but looks very appetising.

Lunch for the next few days and enough left over for several servings to go into the freezer.

The tomatoes give it an interesting look, much less bland than ordinary green pea soup and much more interesting than chicken with rice.

We now have the big debate - to blend or not to blend?

NYK Media

www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Riddle of the Mystery Plant solved!

Blue Sky, Sunshine, Gardening and a Mystery Solved

Not so long ago, I posted about my mystery plant in the hope of finding out what it was.

It had seeded itself in one of the hanging baskets that are attached around the bird table, so my guess was that it was produced from seed out the wild bird mix. Thankfully, it wasn't hemp!

Several suggestions were made as to its identity, with the most likely being some type of red stemmed buckwheat. This, indeed, is what the mystery plant has turned out to be.

Now that the flowers are beginning to die back, you can clearly see the buckwheat forming. I've never seen this plant before now, so still haven't a clue where it came from or how it got here: there doesn't seem to be any buckwheat in the wild bird mix I'm using. I'll save the seed and replant it all next year, as the plant looks rather pretty with its tall, slender red stems and clusters of pale pink and white flowers.

After the windy, wet weather that resulted from the tail end of Hurricane Katia, it was great to see the sun shining and the temperature soaring today. By lunchtime, it had reached a balmy 24C here in Frugaldom, so it was definite T-shirt weather and perfect for getting out into the garden.

Weed, weed, wedding again - cobbled front yard done and then I set about tidying up the strawberries.

Plenty of runners have appeared, so I potted up over twenty of them for transplanting next year.

While weeding between the plants, however, I noticed a new set of flowers coming, which surprised me! As I was cutting away the old growth where previous strawberries had been harvested, I kept finding more and more new shoots.

As usual, I never kept any of the names of the varieties of strawberries we have, so if anyone can let me know what I should do with them, I'd be really grateful. Do I leave these flowers in the hope that they'll bear fruit this late in the year or should they be nipped out to allow the plants to strengthen before over-wintering them?

More broccoli was harvested, along with the last of the peas and some tomatoes. While picking the tomatoes I noticed how much fruit was coming on the cape gooseberries. Who'd have believed these would grow so well outdoors in Scotland?

In preparation for winter, I built a mini glasshouse around the tiny grape vine to see if it survives until spring. There's no space to take it indoors, so here's hoping we get a mild winter. Failing that, it will get moved into the outbuilding and can sit by the window.

The pond got topped up today, to the great excitement of all the ducks! It wasn't long before they were all in there, splashing and diving around like the crazy feathered marauders that they are.

It was great fun for Scruffy cat, too, as she was pawing the water and trying to catch the splashes. Daft cat!

One of these days she is going to fall right in and Joey, our drake, will take great pleasure in chasing her.

By early evening, it was still bright and dry, so we headed out for a walk to see if we could spot any badgers. We have seen them, but not close to the house.

A neighbour a few doors along from us has one coming into his garden at nights, so we're hopeful of catching a glimpse of our resident Mr Brock sometime soon. Unfortunately, it wasn't tonight.

Our walk took us along the lane by the woods, which is where we normally see deer and badgers. We did see a fox, but it disappeared before camera was at the ready. I'm amazed at how many flowers are still in bloom and the heather is still a rich purple along the bank of the stream.

The calves in the adacent field were having a great time, chasing one another around, tails straight up in the air and hooves flying all ways.

They all came to an abrupt stop when we passed, some being more inquisitive than others. This one was very brave and ust kept following us.

Thankfully, there was a fence between us and them, as heap big daddy bull was out there, too!

By the time we were returning home, the sun was setting over the hill and it was getting quite dusky.

Probably, this would be a great time for badger spotting, but the hens and ducks still had to be put to bed and Scruffy cat found to ensure she didn't try to sleep in the chicken hut again!

What a lovely day it has been - we need a full week of this so we can get the kitchen roof replaced but, sadly, the weatherman reckons otherwise.

Curiously Pink... But Very Frugal!

Dinner From The Garden

Nothing beats good, fresh, homegrown produce.

After a slow start to the day, the clouds cleared to reveal bright blue sky and the sun shone, so being outdoors was preferable to being sat at the computer all day.

Here in Frugaldom, there are no end of surprises awaiting us in the garden, so today's find wasn't so much shocking, as rather exciting.

Having been househunting, moving, transplanting a garden and trying to make the new place habitable for the first half of 2012, potato planting was somewhat shambolic, to say the least. I had no seed potatoes ready, so anything that sprouted was put into tubs or into the ground pretty much as soon as we got here - but I definitely didn't plant any pink potatoes!

Tonight, I went to lift some potatoes for dinner and chose to empty one of my tubs. I knew there wouldn't be many potatoes in it, but enough for a meal is enough for a meal. Imagine my surprise when I found these lovely pink tatties! I had wondered about their colour, as the foliage had red veins, but I still didn't plant anything looking remotely like these. A frugal bonus!

Dinner was chicken, (not one of our own, as they all have names!) so I needed some veg to go with it.

Plenty of carrots this year, so it goes without mention that it's carrots with most things here in Frugaldom, at the moment. But the sprouting broccoli is erupting everywhere now, too, so it's a must have, as we love it.

Frugal cooking means making the most of everything, so I don't peel the carrots, these are simply scrubbed, topped and tailed.

To cut down on electricity, I steam veggies over the top of the potatoes - fewer pots to wash doing it this way, too!

Please note - the rabbit was NOT part of dinner!

Frugaldom's Big Bad Bunny

Rooting about in the garden for dinner is great fun on a sunny day like today, never really knowing what you'll find. One thing you will find, however, is our big, bad bunny!

Floppity loves hiding beneath the kale and broccoli, then leaps out when anyone (or anything) walks past. The poor cat has been caught out several times and, being smaller than our rabbit, said Scruffy cat needs to be quick!

This afternoon, bunny decided it would be fun to wriggle her way beneath the netting and was only discovered by the dirt that was flying from beneath the brussel sprouts! This was a great game for her, as she could sprint between the veg beds, stopping only to eat whatever else got in her way. The Frugaldom bunny is becoming very cheeky, indeed!

Who Needs a Roof when The Sun Shines?

September Sunshine

After several dull and rainy days, the sun shone for most of the afternoon yesterday, so blogging fell by the wayside in favour of being out in the garden.

It's sunny now, but I've already had my coffee while sitting out watching the rabbit bouncing around the garden, helping herself to whatever she fancies. Not much damage to be done at this time of year and I don't grudge her the bottom leaves from the brussel sprouts or kale, nor do I mind that she nibbles the carrot tops.

It costs nothing to sit out and enjoy the afternoon, frugal fresh air, the chance to appreciate nature and, if lucky, a walk about to gather in some of the fruits of your labours.

Who needs a kitchen roof when the sun shines? It's a case of making the most of the patio, even although that probably won't be fully cleared before next year. We did get the Saffron crocus bed made (seen on right) and all 60 of the bulbs planted, so I'm happy with that. I've had to lay wire mesh over the top of the bed to keep the cat from going in and digging, though!

Despite all its flaws, we bought the house to develop it into a home and, most importantly for us at the time, for the potential we saw in the garden.

Compared to how it looked  6 months ago, it's now unrecognisable. I'm really pleased with progress and I'm delighted that everything is growing so well.

I do sometimes look in dismay at what still has to be done out there, but the blog and photographs serve to remind me of how much we've achieved so far.

Decided to check on the pumpkins, as I'd really like to have one ready for carving in time for Halloween. These are meant to be giant pumpkins, but I had my doubts at the start. That was then...

Now, my football-sized pumpkins are approaching medinice ball size and seem to be growing by the day. Not sure what to do for the best, as I have never grown pumpkins before this. Having had to double the size of the bed they are in, I left a few marigolds scattered among them - mainly because I couldn't think where else to move them!

Watch this space for pumpkin news.

Further down the garden, behind the rhubarb, I had thrown a handful of sunflower seeds. It was rather late for planting them but they have managed to survive.

Yesterday morning saw the arrival of the first flower, so I'm quite optimistic that a few others will follow suit, assuming the weather doesn't suddenly deteriorate. Fingers crossed that the garden birds get the chance to enoy the seeds this autumn.

The garden is an absolute haven for birds, as long as we can keep an eye on the cat! (She's now onto her third collar with bells, as she keeps losing them while scrapping with the other neighbourhood cats.) One of these days, I'll be lucky enough to snap a photo of all the goldfinches and the bull finches that frequent this part of the garden. Item to be added to the next 'to do' list - tie up the sunflowers, as they have long, since, grown up over the top of their current garden cane supports.

The broccoli is now sprouting all ways. Not sure if I like this as much as being able to simply walk out and cut one large head off the plants, but the sprouting variety is certainly productive, so might prove to be more economical.

The raised beds are planned for next year, so I'm hoping to get back to some more 'square foot gardening', as I like the variety it produces, all from the one smallish space.

In the micro-orchard, the nine home-hatched ducklings are now almost fully grown. At only 9 weeks old, it's getting difficult to tell the white ones apart from Phoebe and Joey, the adults. They all seem happy together and spend much of their time waddling around the pond. Soon, however, a few will be leaving to go to their new homes.

Thankfully, 'Custard Cream', the pale coloured one, and 'Orio', the black and white one, both seem to be ducks, so they have secured their longterm home here in Frugaldom.

I'm not sure how many of the others will remain but I was intending keeping half a dozen ducks for eggs. We now need to decide which three of the others can stay before rehoming the other four. It's a tough decision to make, as I like them all!

Hopefully, my spring bulbs will arrive in the next week or so. This will let me get a bit more done at the front of the house, as I'll can plant up all the tubs. The nasturtiums are still flowering, as are the marigolds. The 'Millions of Bells', given to me by a neighbour, have started to flower and the tiny violas rescued from the cobbled gutter seem to be surviving alongside one tiny begonia.

Seed collecting has begun, from both my own flowers and by way of packets traded through the Galloway LETS group, so next year should be a colourful one. It might not be frugal as far as growing edible produce is concerned, but the splash of colour and the extra bird life it encourages is well worth it. Bird corner should take on a life of its own in 2012.

That's almost it for today. I did manage to make a huge batch of carrot and lentil soup, which has now been split up and frozen. The last of the heritage 'blue' potatoes got eaten with dinner last night and I still have a bucket of carrots, loads of beas, courgettes and the big tub of broccoli to blanche and freeze but space in the freezer is at a premium, so some creative thinking is required, especially knowing that the kitchen has to be emptied completely for the roof work starting. But tomorrow is another day. For now, I'm off to do a bit more weeding before it's time to make dinner.

Sunshine, 26C, Harvesting and my Saffron Crocus Project

Another Frugaldom Microholding Update

The weatherman said showery, so we weren't expecting sunshine and the temperature soaring to 26C - but that's what we got! This was a great bonus, as my Saffron Crocus bulbs arrived yesterday.

With nowhere organised for planting the new bulbs, today's sunshine was an open invite to get out into the garden and get some work done.

The first job of the day was clearing a space. We're making this raised bed close to the house so that I can nip out first thing in the morning to collect all the lovely saffron that I'm hoping to grow. This will make a great addition to the 'Frugal Gourmet' range, as it can accompany the quail eggs.

I had 7' of space between the patio peas and the start of the herb garden, so that's where the bed has been built. It's 30" wide and about 12" deep. After clearing the gravel down to soil level, I lined the bed with weed supressant, added some rubble and then a layer of mixed sand and soil to help provide extra drainage.

Meanwhile, H began digging soil from the hill at the foot of the garden, which is gradually being excavated as the future site of a summerhouse. Each barrow load of soil was riddled to ensure all the stones and weeds were removed before it gets tipped into the bed. As you can imagine, this is taking quite some time to do, so the bulbs won't be getting planted tonight; maybe tomorrow, if the dry weather stays with us.

Another job that was desperately needing done was that of harvesting the carrots. These have grown exceptionally well here. I'm sure that it's because I sowed the seeds in a 50:50 soil and sand mix.

We've been eating carrots for several weeks now, plus there are quite a few already blanched, bagged and frozen. Today, I lifted what was left of them and filled a bucket! These now all need to be washed, blanched and frozen for using through autumn and winter.

Once I'd emptid the carrot bed, it was weeded, dug, raked and then resown with an early variety of carrot seed that should grow over the winter. I'll feed this bed with either nettle or comfrey fertiliser, depending on what's available first.

Some weeding gets done almost every day here, it has to, otherwise the place would soon be overrun. Today, I weeded around the snowball turnips and french beans, managing to pick a few for dinner while there. There were also another couple more courgettes and patty pan squash, so it made for an excellent day's harvesting. There were even a couple of the outside tomatoes needing picked, so I'll cut more lettuce for sandwiches at lunchtime tomorrow. I might even splash out and make another quail egg salad.

A few posts back, I mentioned that I had extended the pumpkin bed by doubling it in size. I'm really glad that I took the time to do this, as the plants are growing at a rate that makes me think of Jack and the giant. The pumpkin foliage has already spread out to the edge of the larger bed and there are several melon-sized fruits hiding beneath the leaves and tendrils. There's also the occasional munching crittur!

I read an article that suggested slitting the stalks on the top of the pumpkins to ensure enough water is absorbed, but I have not attempted this. Nor have I cut out any of the extra pumpkins, as recommended, to enable only the best two or three to develop. I'll leave them another couple of weeks to see how they grow, then I'll decide from there. The biggest and best will have tiles sat under them to prevent their sinking into the soil and, hopefully, help prevent them from rotting.

Across from the pumpkin bed I have raised beds with brussel sprouts, leeks, cabbage and broccoli. This is the first year that I have grown the sprouting variety, but it seems to be coming along quite well, despite my continual war against the dreaded cabbage white butterflies. The caterpillars have hatched in several places, but I simply didn't get around to sourcing enough netting to cover them all. I'm trying my best to keep on top of the problem and the hens are helping by enjoying pecking their way through all the leaves I keep removing in a bid to rid the plants of their pests. 

The first lot of quail chicks that hatched out in the incubator are now ust over 3-weeks-old. They are already feathered up, out of their brooder and into a large cage, wher they have fun running in and out of their little wooden 'houses'. It's still very difficult to tell the sexes, as most are colour variations, but the speckles have appeared on one of the normal coloured chicks, so we do know that it's a female. This first lot of hatchlings are due to be sold with the first prospective buyer expected tomorrow.

Moving further down the garden, we arrive at the micro-orchard. This is where all the ducklings are now happily out and about with Phoebe and Joey, the adult pair of white ducks.

We're still not 100% sure how many ducks and how many drakes hatched, but there is definite quacking coming from at least half of them.

These youngsters are now 6-weeks-old, are almost fully feathered and aren't much smaller than the adults. (That's Joey preening himself by the side of the pond.)

To the rear of the ducklings photos you can make out the row of late potatoes that I planted. I can hardly believe how quickly these have grown! H has had to earth them up several times already, yet they've been in the ground for less than a month.

Here's how they are looking as of this afternoon, their stalks and leaves reaching almost a metre high! Hopefully there'll be some potatoes forming beneath all that foliage, otherwise we're going to be really short of potatoes this year.

At the bottom of the micro-orchard is an old Victoria plum tree. This has served us rather well, as I've already had about 5kg of plums from it, most traded out through the local LETS group, plus others eaten or stewed down and made into crumbles. As you can see by the photo, the bulk of the fruit has still to be picked.

Many thanks to Nicky for collecting me an extra 6kg of sugar while she was in Stranraer. This means that the next lot of plums can be picked here and made into jam without worrying about having to pay £1.15 per kilo for sugar. The Tesco offer works out at about 57p per kilo, so it's a huge saving for the likes of us, at less than half the price of the local store!

Jean, if you happen to read this, I got the new blackcurrant bushes planted this afternoon and also managed to make space for the turnips.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we might be able to get the rest of the crocus bed filled with soil and get the bulbs planted. Can you tell that I'm looking forward to growing these? Let's hope that by planting Crocus Sativas bulbs, they lead to crocus satisfaction here in Frugaldom.  :)