THREE SOUP TIPS TO ADD FLAVOR AND SAVE MONEY

There is nothing that says simple living like a pot of soup on the stove. I realize many people only eat soup in the winter, but it is a cheap, healthy and yes – simple way to eat well any time of the year. My view of soup is very practical. Give me anything and I can turn it into soup. Add chicken stock to leftover chicken and rice – you have soup. Steak and potato leftover from dinner out – add beef stock and onions – soup. Well, you get the idea, I like soup and I have broad views on what it is and when to eat it.

To keep it short (I’ll try) I am not going to post any recipes, or theories, science or history of soup. No, I just want to pass on three simple tricks I use to really make the most of ingredients. Waste not – want not is probably a very good maxim to be relearning as we head into another year of economic fear and loss. As I said before – if living well is the best revenge, the best way to live well is to eat well. So to keep my word and be brief, here are three tips to prevent waste and make awesome soup. 

#1) Keep a lidded container in your freezer.

Any time you cut more veggies than you need toss the extra into the container. The next time you need to make soup or the container is full, toss them into your broth and voila – you have homestead vegetable soup. The random mix of veggies makes this soup taste like a surprise from the garden – each time it is a little different. If you want to do this with leftover cooked vegetables you certainly can, but use a separate container. You may not always want to use them together since obviously the precooked ones won’t have the same texture or need any real cooking time.

#2) Never throw away any hard cheese.

What to do with that thick waxy rind you get from cheeses like hard Swiss, parmesan or Romano? Or the nice piece of cheddar you let turn into a hard brick in your fridge? Save them – wrap them in foil and they will keep forever. Next time you are making soup – just throw large chunks in while simmering and remove them just before you finish. It will impart a rich complex flavor to any soup. It is really amazing how good it is. It really supercharges the flavor.  Do not turn up your noses – Julia Childs did it.

#3) Never throw away soup

We all tend to make too much soup at one time. Huge batches of chili or lentil soup just appear. Where we had planned on a quart – we make a gallon. It happens to us all. We get tired of eating it and so often people toss the excess. No, no, no – once you realize you have made too much soup divide it right away and freeze the extra. Most soups handle freezing well. If you still end up with more soup than you can eat – don’t toss it. Take the leftovers and puree them with a hand mixer. This puree is great to put in the freezer and use it later as a starter for a new batch of soup. It can also be used fresh as a thick sauce to pour over vegetables like potatoes or asparagus.

Wow, I did it - I kept this post short. To be more self sufficient we do not necessarily need to find ways to get more, often we just need to find ways to use what we have. That is the essential trick to simple living.

Dexter and Kerry cows: heritage Irish cattle for small homesteads.

Cows were probably introduced into northern Europe by the migrations of Neolithic man as early as 2000 BC. The original animal was closely related to the ancient Aurouchs of the Stone Age. From this small black cow most of Europe began to breed and develop the larger more productive cattle which emerged all over Europe.

But, as in all things, when trying to raise cattle, the hardy homesteaders of Ireland faced many challenges. Their climate was less than ideal. Their soil was thin and unproductive. Their land holdings were tiny and they had many other claims upon their daily labor than tending a needy breed of cattle – usually tending the cow was the job of the wife or an older child.

So, in the nature of things, the Irish began to favor tough, resilient, cows that could handle the Irish weather without lots of pampering or expensive shelter. They looked for calves that were smaller than most because smaller cattle could feed themselves from the tiny patches of pasture a cottage could provide. Also, smaller cattle were more easily handled by women and children. Similarly, cows that were good natured and calm were bred for because you needed that trait if you were likely to have a child looking after the animal.

Over the millennia, these pressures of land and preferences of the people, led to the breeding of a small, tough, good natured animal. While most of Europe went with bigger, heavier, more productive cattle, the Irish stayed close to their Celtic shorthorn ancestors, brought over nearly 5000 years ago.

STORING TOMATOES for maximum flavor and shelf life

Gardening season in Florida is off and running. The number one vegetable grown in the home garden is the tomato. Of course, actually the tomato is a fruit, but let’s not get picky. A tomato plot is essential to all homesteaders, self sufficiency hopefuls and generally everyone who enjoys a nice salad. The tomato plays such a large part in simple living that it deserves a whole page just on its history. It is not going to get it here. Nor, am I going to talk about growing or even using tomatoes.

I want to speak to you briefly about storing tomatoes for fresh use. Even if we grow our own in backyard gardens, we must resort to store bought tomatoes in the off seasons. Very often, we find ourselves dealing with tomatoes that are not fully ripe. Almost every tomato you buy in the store has been picked totally green and far ahead of its peak ripeness. Even in homestead gardens, the heat or rain may require you to pick some tomatoes before they are fully ripe.  That is the bad news. A tomato that ripens fully on the vine and is picked just before use is ideal and can't be duplicated by commercial methods. However, there is good news. Tomatoes, as a fruit, will continue to ripen even after being picked. People hold them until ripe in many ways – some good, some bad. I will let you know which is which. Also, I can share with you a very effective heirloom method my mother uses and it works very well.

WHAT TO DO WITH JELLY THAT DID NOT JELL OR JAMS THAT DID NOT SET

Simple living is a state of mind. If you decide that making jam and jelly is a terrifying thing, where any tiny slip can spell total disaster, then it will be. If you believe it will be a relatively easy process that almost always works, but which can have some random results, then it will be. Happiness is not in the process or even the results. Happiness is found in how we deal with both. Making jam and jelly is a very simple thing. It is an heirloom skill that has been working for centuries. You cannot undo generations of success with one small deviation from the process. If you add a little too much lemon juice or too little sugar, cook it too long or not long enough – it will still generally turn out perfectly good jam or jelly. It is here where the thought process comes in.

So, if you expect every jar to be brilliantly colored and just the right thickness then you are the problem. First of all what is the right color and consistency? I like mine brightly colored and just thick enough to stay on the spoon. Others like theirs to get a dark color and be thick enough for the spoon to stand up in. Heck, some even like it cooked to a rich amber color with a thickness just this side of taffy. So if there is no one “perfect” result there can be no perfect process nor perfect results.

DRYING YOUR LAUNDRY ON A LINE IN FRESH AIR - heirloom skill worth revisiing

Well, I am still on the laundry.  I told you to reduce your laundry detergent in my St Patricks post. Today I want to talk to you about line drying. Drying your clothes on a line in the backyard invokes many different images. Some may dream of the clean sweet smell as you collect them from the line on a lemonade scented afternoon. Some may think of how much they are saving by not running that energy hog drier. Sadly, many will think of the lint riddled, stiff as a board towels they took down the first time they tried to dry in the sun. Worse, some will groan about better uses for their time and sniff at the silly waste of opportunity.


Let me address each of these images, started with the last one first. Is drying your clothing without a drier as waste of time and opportunity? Well, strictly speaking - yes. Of course it is quicker to dry clothes in a hot drier powered by a quarter ton of coal being burned to generate the electricity off at the power plant. I would argue, that if you do not care about saving the environment, you might enjoy saving the money needed to run an unnecessary appliance. But let us hit that opportunity cost idea. That concept is a hideously corrupting idea dragged into our homes from the business world. The idea is that one should compare the value of everything we do to the rate of earnings we could make spending that time working. So, if anything you do does not generate or save dollars equal to the rate at which one gets paid - it is a waste of time. Hogwash! First of all, this idea assumes that the dollar is the only measure by which we can get paid. If this were true, every minute we spend with loved ones, every time we went to a play or a picnic was a waste.

SOAP AS SACHET - SIMPLE LIVING SOLUTION for people to lazy to make their own sachets…

In my previous post I told you how to make great sachets out of socks, stockings and cedar chips. It was a great heirloom skill revived to serves us today. But, I am sure there are those of you out there who cannot yet muster the time and effort to actually pull that off. Really now – it could not get more simple. But, well actually yes it can get more simple. If you are looking for super simple low effort solutions, I have one for you. It is not as good as cedar at repelling bugs and it does not do much to reduce moisture. But, it does a great job of providing a nice smell for your clothing, linen, towels and such.

So what is this even more simple solution? – Scented soaps. That’s right, scented soaps do a great job as sachets when you use them in clothing drawers, linen closets and towel shelves. Here are a few of the great tricks this little bar of soap can do

1) You can find every scent in the world in soap.

2) Top quality scented soaps are common in bargain stores.

3) The bars are small and can be slipped into every nook and cranny imaginable, including shoes. 

4) When actually need soap you just swap out an old one from a drawer and replace it with a new fresh bar next time you go shopping. This is a great way to keep the smells fresh and also ensure you never run out of soap.

5) It allows you to justify buying too much soap whenever you come across a really heavenly smell.

6) No fuss - no muss - no work.  ( You should be ashamed. )

Well, I am not going to spend a lot of time on this post, because it truly is so simple. This idea came from my mom and she still does it today. Her bathroom smells delightful and it changes a little over time as she switches from honeysuckle to lavender to spice. She also tucks tiny rich smelling bars from Paris and big milky ones from New Zealand into all her drawers and I can tell you I have never ever opened a drawer in my mother’s house and not been met by some wonderful smell.

Now mind you, she also uses the stocking and cedar trick. But I would have to say if all you are looking for is smell – soap is a simple living answer to how to get results with basically no work.