Grocery Staples

[OakLeaf]

So what is the difference between "micro-greens" and "sprouts"? About 18 hours and a little sunlight from what I can tell?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

So can I get away with hens and guinea fowl in my urban setting??

Maybe hens. Definitely NOT guinea hens- they make the most GODAWFUL LOUD racket all day! The only racket louder I've ever heard is peacocks.

Here is a site where you can hear some clips of them making their racket.
http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/sounds/

Here this is funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvEzD...eature=related

A friend of ours has two guinea hens, and they make an incredible noise neverending, all day- you can hear it a mile a way. Her chickens hardly make any racket at all. Even her rooster pales in comparison to those guineas.

[shootingstar]

Chinatown does sound amusing and interesting... hmmm.... I'll see what I can find online in terms of using that kind of stuff

This is not a quaint "ethnic" food suggestion...this is a suggestion for economic food survival.

You'll be with shoppers doing the same like you to save money, in those areas. And some are eating just as cheaply but in some ways healthier than you are right now.

Sorry....you will find some cheaper pricing for ordinary ingredients. I've given you suggestions what to eat raw ...and dont' forget cubed tofu is tasty uncooked too. Like cold custard in texture.

[smilingcat]

micro-greens to me are baby lettuce leaves. The leaves we collect are no more than 4 inches in length. Green yes, red yes, mottled color yes. green/red oak leaf lettuce at three to four inches in length.

Sprouts to me, refer to plants that just germinated. The first set of baby leaves may have opened but not the real leaves. So, much of the sprout is just the baby stem. Don't know enough of botany to give you the correct names for the parts of plants as they "sprout".

And hi to Lisa,

Well my property did have a permit for a chicken coop back in the late '30s I think. Do you think that permit is still good? Are these permits open ended?? Wouldn't it be a hoot if there was no time limit on the permit. Chicken are far more destructive on the ground with all their scratching. Guinea fowl less so. And they are better at pest control than chicken. Ticks for example. I didn't realize they were really loud though. oops.

adding to shooting star,

works with silken tofu not the firm variety.

cut tofu into 1 inch-ish cube (slightly bigger for my personal taste.)
one medium sized scallion or two small scallions sliced thin (into little ringlets)
1/2TBS of fresh ginger grated.
dried bonito flakes (optional)

place 3 or 4 cold tofu cubes on a plate.
top the tofu with scallions, grated ginger and dried bonito flakes.
drizzle some soysauce over the top.

Enjoy. The dish is called hiya-yakko in Japanese.

[cylegoddess]

Wow, everyone eats healthy!
Mine isnt all that different;

veggies( all sorts, lots of whats in season) lots!!
potatoes ( I can eat these every night, baked mostly.)
quinoa flour ( to make cookies, scones and cakes)
quinoa
moong dhall flour ( to make flat bread for pizza )
free range organic eggs( I eat the yolks)
cheese( vegetarian variety, Im really into GOOD cheese - parm regiano, mortadella,halumi, good edam, hard cheeses mostly). Dont have much, just about half a block a week
organic yogurt - unsweetened or honey sweetened
fruit - heaps, esp apples. I eat these all day
Roobois tea -I drink this all day( no caffeine)
Stevia- to sweeten tea
Flaxseed oil - this is a must!!( fish oil makes you smell bad too)
Balsamic vinegar
antipasto things - artichokes, sundried tomatoes, etc
butter
unsweetened whole fruit preserves
avocados
soda water
chips( sometimes! yummy)
ice cream ( sometimes,only one kind I can eat sadly)
frozen spinach ( I like this with mashed avocados) or frozen broad beans
deep fried beans or garlic peas( sometimes!)
Vitamins - zinc, vit c, selenium,iron, copper, multi, mixed antioxidants, women's PMT preventer, isa flush( for constipation - works great if you eat lots of fiber but have trouble anyhow), chromium picolinate, cleanse for life, glucosamine, spirulina( I dont get much protein in diet)
protein shakes ( on occasion)

Husband;
pasta
tofu
nuts( uncooked and unsalted)
dairy free choc
canned chick peas
tea

We used to have a big organic garden but husband got tired of it, so giving it a rest.
I do think its a good idea to have some junk food, myself. I have a weakness for chips so only buy small bags -as soon as a I open them, I eat the whole bag.
I eat the most boring meals! Mostly steamed veggies and a baked potato. Im sick of cooking.

On that note, for cheap student cooking - how about a crock pot? You often can get one from thrift shops. I had a rice steamer when I was young and poor - but dont mistake barley for rice( bought ten lbs - yuck!).
You should( whomever that was) eat more fruit and veggie. Lots of people are coming down with scurvy, believe it or not( my Mother in law for one) now days. At least two fruits and three serves of veggies will keep bad things away( food stamps will help, I went thru that too.Its nice to be able to afford food!!)

[OakLeaf]

micro-greens to me are baby lettuce leaves. The leaves we collect are no more than 4 inches in length.

Ah, okay. I've always seen those referred to as "baby greens." When we get micro-greens in restaurants, they are just very large sprouts. Just the cotyledons, but allowed to grow larger than the sprouts you usually see, seed coats shed and rinsed away, and exposed to light to green them up. No true leaves yet. That's been consistent in at least four or five restaurants where we've had micro-greens.

[Jolt]

Maybe hens. Definitely NOT guinea hens- they make the most GODAWFUL LOUD racket all day! The only racket louder I've ever heard is peacocks.

Here is a site where you can hear some clips of them making their racket.
http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/sounds/

Here this is funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvEzD...eature=related

A friend of ours has two guinea hens, and they make an incredible noise neverending, all day- you can hear it a mile a way. Her chickens hardly make any racket at all. Even her rooster pales in comparison to those guineas.

Those guinea hens are loud! One time my family and I were visiting relatives in Montana and were staying in our camper in my grandparents' yard. Their neighbors had a small flock of guinea hens that would sometimes wander into their yard, and one morning when we weren't really ready to wake up yet they came over and were making all kinds of racket. So...I ended up going outside and herding them back into the neighbors' yard in my pajamas! Everyone thought this was pretty funny.

[GLC1968]

Chocolate with almonds. Two bars every week must be a staple for us.

Tater tots when we got a hunkering for junk food. It is junk food isn't it??

Pace Picane Sauce and organic multi-grain chips or bean chips. Also junk food.

Otherwise, we eat healthy. And we are almost finished with planting our garden. Lost track of all the varieties of lettuce we grow. crooked neck yellow squash, three kinds of cucumber, 8? different varieties of tomatoes. At least 6 are heirloom variety, Zuccini, acorn squash, bell pepper, Japanese pepper, several varieties of beans... French tarragon, cilantro, parsley, basil, oregano. garlic, ginger to name just some of the herbs growing...

We also have meyer lemon trees, washington navel orange trees, bears lime trees, Rio red grapefruit trees, and just picked up an odd looking pink lemon(ade) tree. Missing are Hass avocado, Bay Leaf (bay Laurel) in my yard. Bay laurel tree died several years ago..

Most of our groceries will be coming from our yard in about a month. We've been back to eating our home grown micro-green for the past week. And hopefully, we can start adding our tomatoes to our salad in about three maybe four weeks. Green zebra tomato plants have set some fruit hmm raddishes too.

So can I get away with hens and guinea fowl in my urban setting??

And flowers for our table are also growing. Roses, dahlias, glads, ...

And yes we have torn out all the useless grass on my property. Ooo just realized, I think I want to get some yellow rasberries just outside my window. Berries and to discourage would be intruder.

Urban homestead at its best maybe I'll post a pic in about a month or two when things are lush and green.

Definitely post pics!! It sounds awesome!

Check with your local ordinances, many cities and towns allow urban chickens (but not roosters). If I remember correctly, in Portland (even downtown!) you are allowed up to 4 hens (again, no roosters) with no permit. Of course, Portland tends towards more progressive than a lot of places, but you never know (particularly in California).

Chickens will definitely eat a garden, but they are not that destructive if you have a small number on a larger space. Most people confine them to too small a space and in those cases, they will destroy all things green. They will also eat just about anything (we feed ours any leftover/spoiled milk solids), so they are a good compliment to a compost bin.

Guineas are loud, but they can be an AMAZING alert system. Like most birds, they have great eyesight, and they will sound the alarm at anything unusual. I can see how this would be a huge problem in an urban environment, but my husband's parents kept them on their rural land in MS years ago and loved them. They didn't need a dog or even a doorbell!

[IvonaDestroi]

I take an electric tea kettle with me camping, and it will boil all the water you need for anything you can cook with hot water. And there's also a few websites with nothing but recipes of things you can make in your hotel coffee maker! Both of those items can be had for less than $15.

Karen

Coffee maker?! This I have to see...

[IvonaDestroi]

This is not a quaint "ethnic" food suggestion...this is a suggestion for economic food survival.

You'll be with shoppers doing the same like you to save money, in those areas. And some are eating just as cheaply but in some ways healthier than you are right now.

Sorry....you will find some cheaper pricing for ordinary ingredients. I've given you suggestions what to eat raw ...and dont' forget cubed tofu is tasty uncooked too. Like cold custard in texture.

I just said it'd be interesting because they have a pretty wide variety of unique fruits and veggies out here in our chinatown, most of which I would have no idea what to do with (or even what they're called)! It would definately be interesting to try some new things though, I think I might check it out

[surgtech1956]

What is quinoa?

[cylegoddess]

a berry that can be used like a grain, thus great for gluten free or grain intolerant people.It can be cooked like grits or cous cous, ground into a flour( wetter and more fat than wheat with nutty taste,nice for scones) or eaten as cereal, puffer or flaked. Yum!