It’s time for our Thursday blog hop, wherein we celebrate living simply, sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
Who is hosting the blog hop?
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Wardeh of GNOWFGLINS
Alicia of Culinary Bliss
Me!
So what are you waiting for?
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to grab the image above and add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
Everyone, visit and comment at the linked blogs.
Thanks for hosting!
-Brenda
I’m sharing a really easy and delicious yogurt sauce for salmon.
Thanks for hosting!
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Your seasonal calender below is SO helpful
Thank you for hosting, excited to follow! Really enjoyed the post about Mona last week as well…
-Carrie
I have a random question about drying apricots. So I cut them in half, soaked for about 10 minutes in a water and “fruit fresh” solution and then put them in my dehydrator. After drying them for several hours I have brown, kind of leathery apricots that look and taste absolutely nothing like the ones found in stores. Do you have any tips for drying apricots? Thanks!
Hi Mallory,
I suspect it may be the type of apricot you go. Some are better for fresh eating and some are better for dehydrating. If you don’t use sulphur they will be brown regardless, I’ve not ever had success with fruit fresh or lemon juice either. That said mine are lovely colored inside but the outsides are brownish. The flavor, however, is very intense. You need to pick them at their perfection then dry as quickly as possible. I choose to dry them so they are not totally dry and freeze them since they take up less space that way and are portable. Or you can make them into fruit leather which is 50% applesauce and 50% apricot puree or you can puree and freeze or can that for later fruit leather. Part of ditching the chemicals and preservatives is sacrificing beauty but the flavor should still be excellent, if not better.
Hello… I am joining you for the first time and enjoyed reading your profile. Perhaps you have posted about this already, but… what happened to your grocery expenses once you changed your food methods?
Looking forward to peeking around your blog.
Hi Heather, initially it went up because I was shopping at the farmers market then it went down once I got the grain grinder and stopped buying processed foods altogether. It also helped once we bought 1/4 cow and the chickens started laying. I was unprepared at first and had not put up any food for winter since I started this in January. By summer I had veg from the garden and bought local fruits to put up. Now most of the fruits are coming from our yard, all the veg and I’ve found even less expensive sources for the meats, by learning to cull or butcher or cure myself. We used to spend around $1000/month on food. Now we spend around $300/month on food. I still buy the milk and have been buying local cheeses from places like Beechers and occasionally Tillamook for the kids, otherwise artisan cheeses from the farmer’s market which we eat sparingly as we do meat. Good luck!
Thanks so much for the apricot tips. I really liked the idea about freezing and I am going to try that out. And fruit leather is a great idea. Thanks!
Mallory you are so welcome! What’s nice once you’ve dried and frozen them is you can take them out and cook them in a little water, whiz them and sweeten with honey to taste to make preserves at any time. Since they are dried you don’t need to thicken the mixture and you can control the sweetness. Plus you aren’t canning and buying all that sugar! And my kids love fruit leather.