Thursday, March 10, 2016

* My Name is Tracy and I'm a Food Hoarder

Is that a thing, I wonder? Can one hoard too much food? I’ve always felt better when my kitchen cupboards and freezers are full, but with the impending food shortages and price hikes I’ve kicked it up a gear. I’m bordering on survivalist prepper. Most people my age use the freezer for ice cream and vodka and think I’m mad to have KGs of chicken and leftovers in the freezer … until we’ve finished the vodka and everyone is a little peckish and I can pull out a whole mezze platter chop-chop like. Then I’m the queen!


The fact that I’m a food hoarder became obvious to me when I had to evacuate the kitchen to make space for the renovations. I have boxes of stored food. I think it’s inherited. My Mom has always stored food too. That’s how we know for sure the size of a condensed milk can has reduced in the last 10 years. Yup - that’s why your fudge doesn’t come out quite the same as it used to.

I just don’t see how it can be weird or unnecessary to buy extra supplies when things are on special. Then when you are low on cash you still have food. Recently we’ve been stocking up on extra basics like flour, sugar, vinegar, butter, dried beans, salt, bicarbonate of soda - things I can’t make or produce myself. Everything is going to get more expensive, it has already started, so I’m not even waiting for the specials at the moment. If we have the basics we can make anything.

I preserve a lot of fruit and veg and the vinegar and sugar are essential for this. You can extend the life of almost any fresh produce with these ingredients, a big pot and a few glass bottles. Mason jars are coming back into fashion as more people start bottling again. Look around for Consol or Ball jars. You can buy new lids and all your bottles are the same so they pack neatly. I still reuse product jars though, so I have some to give away or trade. I prefer the Consol to the Ball jars, mostly because Consol is a South African company, but I have to admit that the Ball lids seal better at the moment. 


I’ve been making my own bread because I think it is nicer than supermarket bread. Also I can make thin ‘buns’ sort of like pita bread but just a little thicker. These are great for sandwiches and homemade burgers. This cuts down on unnecessary bread, there is just enough to hold all the good bits together, and they have a lovely crust you don’t get on sliced bread. Also - I know what ingredients I’ve put in it. That makes me happy. 

This is were I would have inserted  picture of my beautiful homemade bread. But we ate it all. Sorry. Next time I bake I’ll be sure to post a pic.

Here’s my recipe. It’s nothing fancy but it is tried and tested. I make a big batch and freeze extra so there is always a bread roll or loaf on hand - just as if you were buying it from the supermarket. This bread freezes well. If you know you’re going to freeze it you can bake the bread till it’s just done and then pop it back in the oven when you’ve defrosted it to finish it off and give it that just-baked freshness.  This bread + a dollop of Mom’s homemade apricot jam = HEAVEN.


The recipe is from my recipe book. I’ve been updating it and writing in all the recipes I had laying around on scraps of paper and serviettes. I’ve found so many recipes I forgot I had. If you like this one I’ll be sure to share a few more with you in the future.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

*It's All About the Money

Droughts and floods are effecting food production in South Africa and all over the world leading to food shortages and price hikes and the South African Rand is in the toilet. Everything is getting more expensive and prices are predicted to keep rise until well into 2017.  No matter how hard you work or what job you’re in things are going to get tight for everyone.


I don’t make a load of money. I’m just not that person. Working for myself making upcycled creations it’s always feast or famine and much to many people’s horror, I am ok with that. I don’t fit into any of the regular type of jobs or professions. The only employment I could get in these times is a minimum wage job and even those are scarce. So I’d rather live the way I do than spend hours doing something I hate - being a slave to a 9-5 job that gives me no satisfaction and getting home exhausted and demoralized every evening only to earn a minimum salary that at the end of the day is probably less than my average earned for my creative work anyway. I don’t need a lot of things. I would rather do without if it means I am a little more free from the strangling need to make more money. I really am, I’m not just saying that to justify my choices or to sound like an airy-fairy hippy. I know it’s weird but I have spent a long time soul searching and thinking on it from every angle and I really don’t like money. The more you have the more you worry about losing it.

We went through some hard times when I was growing up and the thing I remember from then is how easy it was to be happy. As a treat, Mom would buy a chocolate on the way home after school and we’d cut it into three pieces for me, my sister and my Mom. Happiness. No matter how hard times got my sister and I always got our pocket money. I could buy a bottle of coke. Happiness. We got home-cooked everything because it was cheaper and even though we didn’t have much money, we lived on a farm and ours was still the place all the kids came to visit and Mom would feed them all with vetkoek and mince and homemade biscuits and cakes. Happiness.

I am so lucky to be blessed with an amazing husband who supports and encourages me every day even though I know he would really be quite happy if we had a little more money coming in every month. Tom has a day job as Curator of Exhibitions at the National English Literary Museum. He writes, which is his passion and is what he’d really like to do all day long. His comedy novel ‘Midnight’s Chicken’ is set in a book shop and is about working in retail and why you shouldn’t take up terrorism as a hobby. He loves photography, and has just signed up to do a PhD.

And herewith a quick word from our sponsor...

So it is  obvious I am not good at acquiring money but I am fabulously good at not spending it. So I aim to prove I can make money by not spending it. I know this is possible, it was something that was made clear to us when I moved from working at home to my shop/studio and our home expenses noticeably rose and our quality of life deteriorated when I was not able do all the little things at home that I had done. Working at home simply works for me, I can do so much more in a day. I like to do a blend of work and home chores and I know all the ‘work at home’ gurus, articles and Internet advice say you should separate your work from your home stuff - but that’s what works for them, not me.

The basics of my plan is to make more of our own stuff. Food, cleaning solutions, toiletries even, thereby saving on all the stuff one buys because it is easy. Homemade stuff is usually a bit more expensive to start with but it lasts a lot longer because it is of better quality and when you make it yourself you’re less inclined to waste anything. It also reduces the amount of products you have to buy - vinegar and bicarbonate of soda will pretty much take the place of window cleaner, bath cleaner, counter top cleaner, stove and oven cleaner … you get the picture. I’ll be trying out all the Internet recipes and advice on these things and let you know what works for me. In this way you won’t have to do all that for yourself. So many of the recipes are written in other countries and have to be ‘translated’ into South African measurements and products.

We have already saved some money by cancelling our satellite TV. Now don’t get me wrong - we didn’t give up TV altogether! We love our TV, a little too much maybe. Instead we have signed up for the Internet with Imaginet who offer brilliant service. They are super friendly and helpful and they are local. We have also signed up with ShowMax a streaming website. With ShowMax you pay a monthly fee of R99 and you can watch anything on their site. You pay for the data to stream the show you want to watch but you can choose how much you want to watch instead of paying R800 or more for satellite TV whether you watch it or not. And we needed the Internet at home anyway. I think this will reduce the amount of time we sit in front of the TV randomly surfing channels, wasting time, just because it’s there. That in itself will save money as it frees up time to do something more useful or more time to sit on the stoep with a glass of wine and watch the sun go down. Which is really the desired end result of all of going to work in the first place isn't it?


 I hope to find more ways to save money that can be just as easily implemented in a household run by two working people. Most of the money saving changes – like any changes we make – are mostly about changing habits. Like the way the car just takes you straight to the supermarket instead of the local little fruit and veg shop you have vowed to support as they sell all the best local produce and even have farm-fresh free range eggs! Or the bag of bread rolls you buy even though there are homemade bread rolls in the freezer. Habit. Or plonking down in front of the TV and flipping through channels only to land on something that ‘will do’ and letting it suck up hours of your life. Habit. Let’s make new ones.

I do feel that I have to at least attempt to make my own veggie garden. Again. I am a terrible, terrible gardener but I feel if I am going to talk about home sustainability I have to at least try one more time. We have a new community group on facebook group for the people of Grahamstown to share and sell their excess produce so it would be great if I could get my garden going soon. If anyone has any advice on growing vegetables please do share, I’m going to need all the help I can get. Just so you know, though, I am a terrible gardener but an amazing bottler so if you live in Grahamstown and have extra fresh fruit or veg I’d gladly make pickle, sauces or jams and trade you for your excess produce. Deal?