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The Frugal Feast

© Leda Meredith

A few random thoughts on eating both cheaply and well...or perhaps not so random. One thing all of these suggestions have in common is that in generations past they were simply the way most people had to eat and live. It is only in recent times that even people living on little money had the option to ignore these ideas.

The reason I hear most for ignoring common sense when it comes to saving money and eating better is, "I don't have the time." So I did a little experiment:

Picking up lunch at a deli vs. making it before I go to work.
Walk to deli-5 min.
Wait in line-5 min.
Walk back to work-5 min.
Total: 15 min.

Making sandwich at home, or packing leftovers from previous night's dinner into container-5 min.
Total: 5 min.

Ordering Chinese delivery vs. making stir-fry.
Deciding what we want and making phone call-5 min.
Waiting for delivery- 20 to 30 min.
Total: 25-35 min.

Chopping vegetables and getting out seasonings-10 min.
Cooking-5 min.
Total: 15 min.

Hmm.

1. Eat in season. There is no point in paying $2 lb. for leathery green beans in January when you can eat tender ones for half that during the summer, or for overpriced hothouse tomatoes that have no flavor and worse texture by the time they get to you mid-winter. Winter foods are the ones whose prices are dropping now: acorn and other winter squashes, leeks, apples, cranberries, citrus fruits, nuts, root vegetables...and the canned, dried, pickled, or otherwise preserved versions of summer crops such as tomatoes.

1a. Picked free or cheaply bought in season, "extra" vegetables and fruits line can line your shelves in brightly colored jars that will supply you with sauces, seasonings, jams, wines, pickles, teas, etc. till the warm months come round again. Drying, freezing, canning, pickling, fermenting...you can spend as little or as much time as you like on this "hobby" that was once a survival necessity and can still contribute to keeping expenses down and food quality up. And there is a special satisfaction to opening a jar of something you put up yourself that isn't included on a commercial label.

2. Remember the "forgotten foods", and don't turn your nose up at what your grandmothers ate.

In England during WW2, people were encouraged to forage the wild countryside foods their ancestors had depended on. I've heard more than one person who survived that era scorn those wild foods because of the tragic associations of that time. But I think the bright green nettle soup they ate in spring, the homemade blackberry jams, the salads of tender spring-picked dandelion greens, cannot have been so bad.

The copyright of the article The Frugal Feast in Urban Homestead is owned by Leda Meredith. Permission to republish The Frugal Feast in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.