It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:
Just curious as to what kind of cleaning products you use. Do you make your own or use commercial products? Thanks in advance.
~Leah
Since I started making my own, I can’t go back! Check out my favorite 10 Homemade Cleaner Recipes. I have a few more in the works, too, like a grout cleaner. So stay tuned…
Do you use a vacuum sealer to store your meat from Zaycon? If not, what do you do? I’m currently just using freezer ziplocs, but wondering if there’s a better way! However, I would have to invest in a sealer (and the bags), so I may already be skewed!
~Heather
I use the FoodSaver FM5000 Food Preservation System. I’m obsessed with it and cannot recommend a foodsaver enough. I use it for everything: sealing my bulk meat, preserving an overabundance of produce from the garden, you name it. Yes, there is a definite upfront cost involved, but you can often find a sealer on ebay or Craigslist. Amazon has great deals on them from time to time, too!
Mavis I need your email to put on my whitelist. My emails from you keep going to spam.
~ Thanks, Inez
Well that’s terrible! Here you go {minus the spaces, of course!}: onehundreddollarsamonth
Hi, Mavis! A soil question for you. The garden box at our house is crappy soil from leveling the yard, fancy schmancy garden soil a friend had left over after buying it for her own garden boxes, and tons of compost. In the fall this year, we put tons of leaves over the beds, and left them. They are pretty deflated, but definitely still leaves. I was initially thinking that I would leave it alone, a la lasagna gardening. But now I’m itching to mix it all up. What would you advise I do?
~ Thanks! Leslie
Although I think lasagna gardening is so dang cool, I’d be tempted it mix it all up because you have such a hodgepodge of soil to begin with. I’d be worried about the deeper layer of crappy soil basically killing off whatever you try to plant otherwise. If you mix it in with the compost leaves and good soil, you have a much better chance of having a thriving garden. Then, next year, go to town with your lasagna garden, although I do always recommend a layer of newspapers on bottom first before you begin your leaves and green layers!
Hey Mavis– I’m trying to take advantage of some of the great coupons you show on your site. However, there’s always one thing I’d like to know: The cost of printing these out seems like it’s barely worth it! They use so much ink! Please share your insight to this. I can’t be the only one who wonders about this. Thanks so much!
~Lauralli
With great new technology, I find myself using iBotta or Checkout51 instead of printing paper coupons. Although I will still print them if the value is over a dollar or it’s something I absolutely know I’m going to buy. Then, I switch my printer settings and use all black ink on saver mode and I print 3 coupons per page to save paper. Adjusting your setting to black or grayscale will significantly cut down on printing costs!
Hi Mavis, I’m just down the road from you in Oregon in the middle of an amazing area. Not only world class wine, but this section of the Willamette Valley is dotted with small farms. I am a commercial food processor working with small farms to capture their surplus. These are first quality fruits and veggies that go unsold to their customers as well as those funny shaped produce they don’t bother to try to sell. We help reduce food waste, encourage local consumers to support local farmers year-round, and offer the farmers another income stream. How’s that for using “ugly fruit”?
~Beth from Can Do Real Food
Beth–This. Is. Awesome. You really are giving those little uglies purpose. Ha! Seriously though, I love that there are people out there doing this. So cool!
Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
~Mavis
Deb K says
I really love the last question from Beth at can do real food. I went to the site and she has some really cool food items for sale. Thanks, Mavis, for letting us learn about her and her site. 🙂
deb k
Marg says
It snowed for about three minutes here in not so sunny, but very cold Sequim.
Stacey says
I have a suggestion on the food sealer. If you aren’t able to spend the money up front on a sealer system, you can use a straw to suck the air out of the store-brand freezer bags. I do it all the time. I place the bag on the counter if I want the food to freeze flat, then seal all but the corner. I put a straw in the corner, then hold my fingers around it and suck all the air out. It’s a little tricky to get the bag sealed without allowing air back in, but I’m a pro at it now!
teena says
glad to see someone using ugly but good fruit and veg. I get those from our local co op and one’s with a little blemish or brown on them. I then make soups, stews, savoury bread puddings and more for my local homeless shelter. They really appreciate a home cooked meal (they call me the soup lady), my pressure canner/cooker gets used a lot because I am making a large quantity and nothing goes to waste. I usually do all the prep as I am cooking our dinner (just the two of us). I mix and match recipe’s depending on what I get. If it is too far gone to eat either my chickens or my compost bin gets them. I also volunteer to pick up the waste flowers each day from our Trader Joe’s (trust me they are not waste, they will last a at least 4-5 days and I take them to four different Memory Care, senior centers and a senior health center. It is lovely to see the smile on everyone’s face when I walk in say Hi, it’s the flower lady with a delivery from Trader Joe’s. These flowers would otherwise be composted but this way the patients get joy and at two of them they have flower arranging classes. Perhaps others can volunteer to do this in their area, trust me you feel like Santa Claus when you when you walk in with an armload of flowers. As my mother always said, waste not want not and with lots of hungry homeless people and seniors that do not get flowers often it is a win win all round.
Leslie says
Thanks, Mavis!