greener groceries on a low income - Page 2

[NativeMom]

Originally Posted by Kimiko

I've been really getting into harvesting wild foods/weeds. For example, nettles are out right now and aside from being super healthy and free free free, they are also really tasty (I like them more than spinach). In the next few days, I am going to harvest a heap, steam them down and freeze them for the rest of the year.

What a great idea.

I've been wanting to do this with all of the dandelions in my yard, especially after I saw them being SOLD at a big grocery chain. Honestly, I was surprised by this, but I guess there are people who live in apartments, etc., or places where the weeds are sprayed and therefore poisonous, but the dandelions growing in my yard could probably feed a small army

I'd love to hear how the nettles work out. Do you just steam them???

[Keeta]

Originally Posted by goldfinch

How do you store 25 pounds of beans? Do you separate them into smaller amounts and put them in jars...? I'm really interested in the idea of bulk buying some of these things but can't picture how it would work space-wise.

We recently bought 25lb bags of chickpeas, black beans, and oatmeal. The way we store them is in our basement pantry in a rubbermaid bin, sitting upright so that I can access the opening to each bag easily. I do keep a glass jar of each (recycled pasta jars mostly) upstairs in my kitchen pantry, for ease of use.

The rubbermaid bin is mostly so that we keep mice out of our stuff. We've lost a few - thankfully much smaller - bags of bulk goods to mice.

[aliall]

We get the 3.5 gallon buckets from our grocery store's bakery (they are used for frosting). Sometimes they give them to us free, and sometimes they charge us a dollar each. From what i understand they throw them away. I have found that 25 lbs of beans or sugar usually fits in one, but 50 lb bags of flour or oats usually fills 2 and a half buckets or so. We keep them in the basement.

[staceychev]

Check out this lady:
http://www.cookforgood.com/

[KristyDi]

Originally Posted by aliall

We get the 3.5 gallon buckets from our grocery store's bakery (they are used for frosting). Sometimes they give them to us free, and sometimes they charge us a dollar each. From what i understand they throw them away. I have found that 25 lbs of beans or sugar usually fits in one, but 50 lb bags of flour or oats usually fills 2 and a half buckets or so. We keep them in the basement.

Very helpful! I've been looking for frugal bulk storage. I'll have to ask the bakery at our grocery store about those buckets! Thanks.

[mnnice]

Originally Posted by happyhats

Can anyone explain more about gleaning to me? Also, how does one begin the process of foraging? I'm very interested in it, but I have no idea where to even begin. I live in MO by the way. There are no csas in close proximity but there are people who post on some online classifieds when they have produce or meat to sell. I may put up an ad looking to exchange labor for goods. I will call around at co ops in the city and see if any accept food stamps. If I would already be driving up that way for whole foods or trader joes, it would definitely be worth it. I'm definitely interested in bulk bin shopping, as one of the reasons I want to green my habits is to produce less waste.

Gleaning means going over a cultivated crop after it has been picked (i.e. getting the potatos that are left after the harvestor has been through or picking up windfall apples)

Foraging is picking wild food (mushrooms, berries, nuts, etc). I'm not very good at it, but I'm getting better. For me one of the best places has been a large nearby park. It has lots of apples trees (from the days when it was several farms not a park) and wild grapes. I've also done gleaning at a different park. They have a kids garden program and once it ended and most of the garden beds where all cleaned up I harvested the kale that was left until it was buried in snow.

[lucifugous]

I think that growing your own food is the best thing you can do! You will have to wait a little for the payoff but it will be well worth it. WF does take food stamps, but for me it's a good source for fresh vegetables, so I don't know how much a monthly trip would help. I guess if that's your only source for organic potatoes, natural peanut butter, and other things that last a while longer, maybe it would be worth the trip sometimes. And then you could have some good veggies in the week following the trip, and supplement with low-pesticide-content conventional veggies the rest of the week. In case you haven't seen the EWG report, here are the "clean 15" (contain lowest amounts of pesticides): onion, avocado, sweet corn, pinapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, watermelon, broccoli, tomato, sweet potato. At any given time you can probably find one or the other of those in season, which is when they are better for you and much cheaper. The foods I try to only buy organic are the "dirty dozen": peach, apple, bell pepper, celery, nectarine, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, grapes (if imported), carrot, & pear. (I know potato is up there somewhere, might have barely not made it onto the top twelve, but I took note since we consume a lot.) Again, some of these are a pretty good price when in season. So.. that's not nearly as exciting as gleaning & foraging, but I hope it helps when you're at the grocery store!