You Win Some, You Lose Some

When we were in the hospital with Miss C, Mr. B's mom drove his car back to our house and left his lights on with the keys locked in the car.  The battery was dead by the time we got home, so he jumped his car from mine.  As it turns out, my alternator was on its way out, and jumping the car fried it.  We didn't learn this until all of the battery-dependent systems (including lights and windshield wipers) died...while driving on a highway...in the pouring rain...with two kids in the car.

We researched how to replace an alternator ourselves, but we really couldn't do it without a good possibility of ruining something else in the process because of how my engine compartment is set up.  So I found a reputable car repair shop, and it cost us over $500 to replace the alternator.  It had to be replaced, but it was rather a painful expense.  It always seems to go that we make a little headway with our finances, but get knocked back on our rear ends.

Thankfully, Mr. B had just volunteered to change his schedule so that he made time-and-a-half on one of his work days, and I'm starting to tutor again.  I'm trying to tell myself we'll be back to where we were in three months or so, but it's difficult not to be discouraged.

BUT, some things have gone our way. Right after picking my car up at the shop, we ran to meet a member of a natural living group from Facebook that I had been talking to. My water kefir grains have been prolific, so I've been giving them away to strangers and friends alike. I met this woman at a local farm with a CSA program. She was so grateful for the grains that she gave us some much needed eggs from her CSA share. I hadn't mentioned that we needed them, but we really did need them.

I realized the farm was really close to my grandfather's house, so we called him on our way out. He had us come over to pick apples from the tree in his yard. The apples were just spoiling on the lawn and attracting deer and bees. He has an old picker that he made himself. It's three metal bars wire tied to a garden stake with an old onion bag on a circular wire.

 

He can't find an onion bag to fit it anymore, so he's been taping it back together over the years.  I mentioned that our local farm store had a picker for sale, but he just said his father's picker was homemade as well.  I think he liked to carry on that tradition.  We got over 25 pounds of apples for just an hour worth of work on Mr. B's part and an hour's worth of visiting on mine. A lot of the apples have large bad spots, but they're free, and they'll be great applesauce.

Foraging Gems

Now that we're into July, raspberries should be coming into season in our neck of the woods.  *B* and I kept talking about going out and foraging for berries and some more sumac, but nothing was coming of it.  Thursday, it was "do or die" day.  

*B* cut about six cones of sumac from the side of the road on his way home from work.  That makes 6 cups of sumac-ade, or can be reduced down to make a lemon juice-like substitute.  We're looking into how to best store them for the next couple of months, whether it's dried as a cone or in liquid form.  There's a great stand of sumac that I want to cut, but it's off an exit ramp, and I'm nervous about taking Miss F there.  It might be a project for a day when she's home with *B*.  I could probably gather 20 or more cones just from that one stand.

We went for a walk in a local park where *B* had seen some berries a few days ago.  As soon as we drove in, we started spotting the raspberry bushes.  Most of them were unripe, which is great news.  It's better to be early for berry season than late.

Unripe raspberries

As we walked the trail, we saw tons of raspberries, but we started seeing blackberries as well.  Many were good sized ones, like you'd get from the grocery store!  We probably walked around the park for two hours, but by the end, we had a ton of berries:  2 cups of blackberries and 6 cups of raspberries.  And that's not counting the ones Miss F ate (we forgot to pack her a snack and it was dinner time).

 

I figure that 8 cups of berries at $4 per half pint (going rate at our organic market) yielded us $32 worth of free berries.  That's the equivalent of paying ourselves $16 an hour to have a walk outdoors as a family!

The Most Delicious (and Free!) Summer Drink

When talking about foraging a few months ago, my aunt had mentioned a red cone that can be made into a strawberry lemonade-like drink.  She didn't remember what it was called, but it didn't take long for us to figure out.  Staghorn sumac (not poison sumac) is native to the US and produces red cones of berries in the summer.  There are tons of these trees on the side of highways near my house, but I was always leery of stopping on a busy roadway, especially with Miss F.  But I was thrilled today when I noticed a sumac during my outdoor exercise class.  I took Miss F back after class, and we cut two cones to try this experimental brew.

I put these two cones in about four cups of cold water and mushed the berries up a bit with my fingers.  The berries are hairy, and you need to get the flavoring off of them.  I let them sit for about an hour, and *B* strained off the lovely pink juice.

The juice is very sour.  Even *B*, who no longer uses sweetener in his drinks, had to add some maple syrup.  But with sweetener, a little extra water, and a bunch of ice, this is a fantastic and refreshing summer drink.  This lovely little concoction costs only 6 cents per glass or less depending on sweetener.

Tomorrow evening, when *B* is home with Miss F, I will be stopping on the side of the road to cut as many cones as I can.  The extract will be stored and used as a lemon substitute.  A local and frugal source of citric acid - who can ask for any better?!