What did you do to save $ today?

[me&thegals]

This probably sounds silly, but I picked blackberries. I don't ever pass up a chance to pick something that is free, wild or offered to me by someone else It takes time, as you all know, but it saves us so much money from our grocery bill all year and allows my family to eat most excellently.

 

[FarmerDenise]

We pick blackberries every other day. It grows in the neighbors yard and we pick it over the fence. I think we have about three gallons in the freezer already.

 

[big brown horse]

(In Texas they call blackberries "dew berries".) I love dew berry pie!!! I never made it before, but my friends did. Are either of you going to make it? If so, please post a recipe! The blackberries are just beginning to become ripe here too!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I think the last time I made blackberry pie, I just mixed the blackberries with about a tbs of cornstarch, and a tbs or so of sugar. Put them in the pieshell, added some butter to the top maybe 1/4 cup or less and covered it with piecrust. And baked it I don't remember for how long. Similar to an apple pie. SO said it was very good, but he had to keep sampling it, to make sure the quality was consistent.
By the way here is my grandma's trick for covering up baked goods that come out a bit too dark (which mine tend to do, because I forget they are in the oven and walk out of the house to do something in the garden.) She would sprinkle a generous helping of powdered sugar on top.

 

[FarmerDenise]

bbh, you had asked about pitting plums. I don't remember where you had posted it. But if you are talking about the small wild plums, I have an idea for you. I use a cherry pitter on those little plums, works like a charm. I dried a whole lot of them this year, pitted them and sliced them in 1/2 half to dry. The ones that I left whole didn't come out as well. Some of the pits stay inside, but they are easy to remove, once the pitter has put the hole in the middle.

 

[me&thegals]

(In Texas they call blackberries "dew berries".) I love dew berry pie!!! I never made it before, but my friends did. Are either of you going to make it? If so, please post a recipe! The blackberries are just beginning to become ripe here too!

No pie We eat lots fresh, and on ice cream and yogurt. Hopefully 4 gallons will get frozen for use in smoothies and sprinkled by the handful onto our applesauce all winter. Then, about 1 gallon goes for blackberry jelly, which is so delicious!

Besides that, about 20-50 quarts will go for my CSA and hopefully about 30 quarts to be sold at market, possibly another 14-28 quarts to another cooperative CSA. The blackberries grow wild everywhere that is mildly open in the woods around here. It just becomes a matter of how much time one has to pick them.

FD: I freeze mine on cookie sheets too, then scrape them into 5-quart freezer buckets. Works great and stacks up nicely in the freezer Good luck! Does your neighbor know you are picking them, by the way?

 

[me&thegals]

wow--don't know what i did. Just ignore this one

 

[sylvie]

(In Texas they call blackberries "dew berries".) I love dew berry pie!!! I never made it before, but my friends did. Are either of you going to make it? If so, please post a recipe! The blackberries are just beginning to become ripe here too!

Here the bushes are called blackberries and the low trailing viney blackberries which rip the skin while tripping you are called dew berries. They are both black berries but have different growing habits. We make pies and jelly from both-I can't tell one from the other in taste.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AG238

 

[keljonma]

(In Texas they call blackberries "dew berries".) I love dew berry pie!!! I never made it before, but my friends did. Are either of you going to make it? If so, please post a recipe! The blackberries are just beginning to become ripe here too!

Here the bushes are called blackberries and the low trailing viney blackberries which rip the skin while tripping you are called dew berries. They are both black berries but have different growing habits. We make pies and jelly from both-I can't tell one from the other in taste.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AG238

Yeah, I think they are related berries, but not the same. I know in Texas, when you go dew berry picking, you are supposed to carry a stick to chase the snakes away! We went once - thankfully, no snakes were seen that day!

 

[sylvie]

Today I called the phone company to cancel DSL Broadband. I planned to go back to Dial Up with my old company, much cheaper.
Phone Company made me an offer to keep DSL for same price as Dial Up to keep my business! I wish I had done this about 6 months ago!!!
I also dropped some services that I never have used like call waiting and forwarding that I thought were bundled. Great savings!
If only I had known this earlier.