Category Archives: Intentional Spending

How I’m providing nourishing food to our boys in a dorm

canning, Intentional Spending, Parenting

>>I know how you cook and care about feeding your family nourishing meals- how do you “handle” (for lack of better word, handle seems a bit dramatic), your kids’ diets while they are away in their schools?  <<

We’ve found the meals in Israeli dorms in the past to be decent, with good amounts of protein and fresh produce. It helps that my children aren’t picky eaters. I don’t really worry about their food once they’re out of the house; I assume they’ll make the choices that are right for them and work within the parameters of what’s available. They do appreciate home cooked food much more when they come home, though!

However, at the current yeshiva both my boys are at, the menu seems to be scaled down; it’s heavy on the starches and light on proteins; there’s hardly any fresh produce. This isn’t a complaint; I think this is typical of yeshiva ketanas, and that the yeshiva high school my boys attended in the past had unusually good food. In any case, we have a situation we haven’t had come up before.

When I spoke with my sixteen year old son at the end of last week, he mentioned how helpful it was that I sent them with so much tuna, since he eats a can every day.

I sent it thinking it would be something he would have once in a while, and asked him why he was eating it so often. He explained that if he doesn’t have it a couple of hours after lunch, he’s so hungry he can’t think about anything but eating dinner the entire afternoon. He’s never said anything like this, so I asked him about what and how much he was eating. Since he has a cavity that just started that he wants to heal, he’s trying to avoid processed carbs. That’s the bulk of what is served at his school, and since he’s not able to fill up on bread/pasta/white rice, the small amounts of protein leave him unsatisfied.

I wondered what I could do about this. What could I send him other than tuna? I wanted him to have foods that would be satiating. Cookies and crackers wouldn’t be helpful, nor would any of the snack foods available in the stores. I couldn’t think of anything that would be filling that doesn’t need refrigeration or involve some kind of preparation.

Then I had a brainstorm. I asked him if he had room in the dorm for electric burners and a pot. He said he did. I asked if I sent him home canned foods, would he heat them up and eat them? Yes, he would.

I offered to make him some hearty homemade soups to supplement his diet and asked what he wanted. He requested split pea soup, so that’s what I started with. I made a thick stew with a generous amount of rich broth, to pack in nutrition and calories; he could eat as-is or thin it down for a more typical soup consistency.

I pressure canned seven liters of the soup, as well as seven pints of chicken wings. When ds15 returned back to yeshiva after Shabbos, he was traveling by bus with just a backpack and therefore could only take only a few of the jars back with him. Ds16 called to tell me that even without being able to heat it up, he enjoyed it at room temperature.

One jar is four cups of soup, and is enough for both boys to supplement one school lunch. Based on their feedback, though, from now on I’m going to can pint sized jars for them, so they can eat separately according to their schedules. This week I’ll make them some beef stew, and by periodically canning different dishes, they’ll have some variety.

This Shabbos both boys will be coming home, and I’m planning to send them back to yeshiva with a suitcase containing the burners, pot, and jars of food. They’ll bring the empty jars home for me to reuse. I’m also going to send some fresh vegetables and fruit, and a frozen bottle of raw goat milk. I suggested he buy yogurts and produce at a local store to supplement.

This is a first for me. Until now, the food served at the dorms has been adequate for all of our boys. In this case, I’m sure they could have found a different solution, but this is one that I feel good about nutritionally. I hope this will be a good solution to keep them nourished from a distance!

Avivah

My new steam juicer, clearing out the freezer, and finally fixing the dehydrator

canning, dehydrating, food preservation, Intentional Spending

My son recently visited the US and brought back for me my latest kitchen tool, a steam juicer. I had put a lot of grapes in the freezer knowing he would be bringing it to me when he came for this past Shabbos, and yesterday I had a full day of experimenting with my new plaything.

A steam juicer is basically a large pot that has three sections that nest inside one another: the bottom holds the boiling water, the middle collects the juice, and the top is a colander that the fruit or vegetables are put into. There is a plastic tube that leads from the center juice receptacle to whatever container you want to put the juice in.

The basic idea is that rather than blend/mash/cook/strain the grapes to make juice, you can steam them and skip all those steps. It took longer than I expected for the juice to be extracted and I was a bit impatient waiting for it to be done, wondering if this had been a worthwhile purchase or not. After a few hours I realized that I had slowed down the process significantly by not keeping the juicer at a high heat the entire time. (I was afraid that the water in the bottom section would boil dry, and thought that keeping it at a simmer would be effective and minimize the likelihood of burning the pot). Once I realized my mistake, it went much more quickly. But it’s not a fast process.

The last time I made grape juice I added water while the grapes were cooking. Since I wasn’t sure of the exact dilution, there was a question about if the bracha was still hagafen or not, so we didn’t want to use it for kiddush on Shabbos. This time I made sure it was 100% grape juice.

Once I had eight liters of juice, I began canning the juice in jars so they would be shelf stable, while simultaneously adding a fresh batch of grapes to the juicer. In the end I processed 16 quarts of juice.

My conclusion on the steam juicer is that I’m glad that I bought it since the actual hands on time to make the juice is cut down quite a bit, so I was able to do other things while the steamer basically made the juice for me. The end product is nice and clear, and the flavor is excellent. Now that I have a steam juicer, I’ll be looking for other opportunities to put it to use and justify the space it takes up in the cabinet!

I bought my dehydrator back in 2009, and it served me well until last year it suddenly stopped working.

I wasn’t sure what was wrong with it, but since it’s basically a simple contraption, figured it could only be one of two possibilities. When I originally bought the dehydrator, I got a reconditioned one for $150. To buy the same thing new at this time would be $319, so the investment in a couple of parts seemed like a worthwhile choice. I bought a thermal fuse and a motor from the online store for about $50, but they don’t ship to Israel so I waited for many months until my husband made a trip to the US and was able to bring them back.

My husband brought back the replacement parts in February but putting them in was low on the priority list of projects. When he was ready to replace the parts, the transformer had blown. Since I bought and used my dehydrator when living in the US, it runs on 110 electricity and needs a transformer to be used here. I had to get the part for that to be fixed before working on the dehydrator.

I was taken aback and discouraged that I couldn’t find any local hardware stores that had the size fuse I needed. I made two separate trips to RBS over a period of several weeks and each time looked for the fuse; thankfully I finally found it the second time, when I took the boys to yeshiva for their first day. I did not like that several of my appliances are dependent on a five shekel fuse that I couldn’t find, and they couldn’t be used for weeks while I was searching for the fuses. I don’t want to be in that situation again if I can help it, so when I found them, I bought four extras to have on hand.

After all this time and effort, I finally have a working dehydrator again! I wanted to clear the freezer since I’m getting my chicken and meat order for the holidays soon, and need to make space. In addition to taking out the grapes, I took out all the frozen peas and frozen mixed vegetables, four bags of each, and put them all in the trays to dehydrate.

Once they were finished drying and had cooled off completely, I put them in containers on the shelf, and am ready for my meat pickup later today! I like canning so much and it has its advantages, but it can’t compare with how compact and lightweight food is after being dehydrated.

Avivah

Waste not, want not – do you need it, can you extend it, can you upcycle it?

Homemaking, Intentional Spending

There’s a pithy phrase that was popularized in the WW2 era: ‘Waste not, want not’. There are so many resources available to us and when we look at them with a creative set of eyes, you’ll often find more life left in that item than you previously assumed. Do you need it, can you extend it, or can you upcycle it to use it differently?

Here are some examples:

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Food – Do you need to use the expensive ingredients listed in the recipe, or can less costly similar ingredients be substituted? Can you prepare less of the dish rather than be left with leftovers that end up being thrown away? Can you cut down on the frequency of meat meals, and integrate meatless meals during the week?

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Repurposing clothing – My son ripped the elbow of a high quality shirt that was in excellent condition. Patching that wouldn’t be doable or aesthetic, so I headed to YouTube to watch a video on how to turn a long-sleeved shirt into a short-sleeved shirt. It was the first time doing this for me and my first attempt wasn’t perfect, but it looks pretty good. Next my husband asked if I could do the same to a cufflink shirt of his; he now has two ‘new’ work shirts.

Another example: my boys are hard on pants, and I periodically recycle their ‘good’ pants to ‘work’ pants. That is almost always because they’ve ripped the knees. I patch them from behind using material from a pair of pants that I keep for this purpose, then reinforce the patch at the knees and the areas around it repeatedly so they’re very strong. I do it all with the same color thread as the pants, and this extends the life of them for a long time as work pants. They do a lot of hiking/biking, outdoor work and home repair work, so these pants get a lot of use.

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Spatula, a valuable frugal tool – Ds10 and ds5 and I made banana muffins yesterday. Ds10 wanted to taste the batter and I told him he could lick out the bowl when we finished. He was dismayed when I took out a spatula and ran it along the bowl, scraping out enough for two or three more muffins. He still got to lick the bowl but it didn’t have the generous amount leftover that he was hoping for! A spatula is a simple thing but it’s amazing how much you can get out of that can or container or bowl by scraping it with the spatula.

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Repurposing containers – At the same time that there’s a huge industry selling us storage containers to organize items in our homes, there are many free containers that come into the home that can be productively reused, reducing or eliminating the need to buy the ‘storage solutions’. Here in Israel when we buy screws and nails, they are sold from bulk bins and you bag the amount you want. So you don’t come home with a box for them. My husband recently was organizing the hardware and found that the peanut butter jars with screw on lids were perfect for keeping nails and screws organized well.

And then there’s the glass jars and bottles that store bought food comes in. I didn’t use to reuse them because I didn’t see the value of the recycled containers or cleaning them out seemed like too much work, but now have recognized how useful they can be! So now I reuse most of the glass jars that come into our home. If the jars have metal pop-top lids, I use them for canning. If not, I use them for storage.

Lately I’ve been saving glass grape juice bottles rather than recycle them – until now I’ve been storing our goat milk in recycled plastic water bottles, and while plastic has its advantages, glass is a healthier option for storing food.

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Saving electricity – Electricity costs have gone up world-wide, and that’s motivated me to be more conscious of all the quiet leakage going on in our home. Though we hardly use air conditioning, we regularly have way more lights and ceiling fans on than we need. Someone leaves a room without turning off the light, then goes into the next room and turns on the light – and so it goes. I’ve begun asking our boys to be more conscious of this, and while I don’t go around all day long being the electricity police, I do turn off lights and fans that aren’t in use. I’ve explained to them there’s no use spending money on something that brings us no benefit; it’s just throwing money in the garbage.

Building supplies and natural resources – My son dug up a lot of dirt in the backyard when preparing to build a shed. He piled it to the side of the yard and left it while he was building the shed. Once the shed was done, it was time to find a place for this dirt. The easiest thing would have been to dump it. However, I wanted to build a raised garden bed, and it made no sense to dump it and then at a later time to dig up more dirt to fill the raised bed. We also had pallet wood in the spot that the shed was built that we needed to find a new home for, so I asked him to use the wood to build a garden bed. He built the raised bed using the pallet wood scraps, filled the bottom of the raised bed with more wood scraps hugelkultur style, and then dumped all the dirt on top. (Though the dirt is low quality fill dirt that will have to be actively enriched to be a decent growing medium, it was still worthwhile to do this.)

I’ve been looking for a rack to hang in the kitchen to organize brooms, dustpans and sponja sticks for ages. I know they exist but haven’t found one. Finally, I asked my husband if he could make something for me. Using a scrap of white painted wood (a castoff from another project), he attached hooks along the length of it. Then he screwed a wire ring into the end of the sponja stick so it could be hung; the brooms already had holes in the handles. Free, using what we already had in the house, and now my kitchen is better organized.

These are just some ideas to get you thinking creatively, not a complete list of things we’ve done. I could give you so many more examples – we do this regularly because it’s an extension of the way we think: to look for ways to use our resources wisely and responsibly. It’s particularly satisfying to create something useful from something that seemed destined for the garbage/recycling. And I also appreciate when we are able to put in the effort to maintain an item rather than replace it.

I do want to clarify that I don’t like clutter, so this doesn’t mean keeping a huge amount of stuff piled around. If it’s something I’m not likely to reuse, I rehome it as quickly as I can so it doesn’t take up space in my home.

Waste not, want not – there is abundance in using what you have wisely and well.

Do you have things you’ve done to recycle, upcycle or otherwise extend your resources? Please share your ideas in the comments for others to learn from!

Avivah

Peach Crisp and Peach Cobbler recipes, canning peaches

Homemaking, Intentional Spending, recipes

It’s the summer and summer means delicious peaches are in season!

With all these luscious sweet fruits to work with, I’ve appreciated being able to make desserts that I don’t make the rest of the year – peach crisp and peach cobbler.

In case you’re wondering what the difference is, peach crisp is a baked dessert that uses a crumb topping over the peach filling. With peach cobbler, the cooked peach filling is baked with a biscuit dough – sometimes the dough is placed on top, sometimes on the bottom. I tried making it both ways in the last couple of weeks.

I have fond memories of my mother making peach crisp when I was a child, so I enjoy it when I have a chance to make it. It’s an easy dessert to make, and easy to make gluten free. Here’s the recipe I made:

Peach Crisp

  • 4-5 peaches, sliced
  • 1 c. ground walnuts (or any other nut flour)
  • 1 c. oatmeal
  • 2/3 c. sugar
  • 1/2 t. cinnamon
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 c. melted butter/coconut oil
  • 1 t. vanilla

Place the sliced peaches in a pan. Mix all the remaining ingredients for the topping, then sprinkle on top of the peaches. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 40 – 45 minutes. Serve hot.

Frugal note: if you don’t have nut flour (and many times I don’t), just substitute an equal amount of oatmeal. To be clear, I don’t mean rolled oats, but the chopped rolled oats that are sometimes sold as instant oatmeal. If you only have rolled oats, whiz them in a food processor to make them smaller.

The peach crisp is on the right in the picture below (one pan was already eaten by the time I thought to take a picture for you!); the peach cobblers are the other two pans.

Peach Cobbler

  • 5 c. fresh peach or nectarine slices
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 2 T. potato starch
  • 1 T. lemon juice

Topping:

  • 1 c. flour (use a gluten free flour mix to keep this gluten free)
  • 2 T. sugar
  • 2 T. brown sugar
  • 1 t. baking powder
  • 3 T. butter or coconut oil that has been refrigerated so it’s solid
  • 1 egg
  • 4 T. milk or coconut milk

Combine the peaches with sugar, potato starch and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, let cook for a couple of minutes. Pour the peach mixture into a 9 x 13″ baking pan.

Mix the dry topping ingredients together. Cut in butter/coconut oil. Mix the milk and egg together, then combine them with the dry ingredient mixture. Stir until just combined to keep the crust flaky. Drop this mixture by spoonfuls on top of the peach filling. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 25-28 minutes, until brown.

Upside Down Peach Cobbler

  • 6 T. butter/coconut oil – put in baking pan and melt
  • 1 c. flour (use gluten free mix to make gluten free)
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 2 t. baking powder
  • 1/4 t. salt
  • 3/4 c. milk/coconut milk

Mix the batter ingredients in the order listed. Pour the batter on top of the hot melted butter/oil in the pan. Top this batter mixture with the peach filling, including the juices. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 38 – 40 minutes.

I made two 9 x 13 pans of this one as well, but didn’t take a picture. The batter mixture rises up through the peaches. It’s a different kind of recipe than the first cobbler; my family liked them both and didn’t have a preference for one or another. By the way, serving any of these hot with vanilla ice cream is so, so good.

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I don’t buy gluten free flour mixes, so I looked up a recipe and mixed up my own. I used a combination of white rice flour, millet flour and potato starch. (I have a grain grinder so this was the work of just a few minutes to whiz them up.) This worked great for the cobbler recipes but was too dry when used for Yirmi’s birthday cake.

I had some more ripe peaches and though my children wouldn’t mind daily fresh pans of peach cobbler exiting the oven, I keep foods like this for a treat. The season that peaches are very affordable isn’t usually very long, so I decided to can whatever peaches I had that had a soft spot or two that would lead them to spoil.

Though I prefer to minimize sugar, my first batch of cooked nectarines really wasn’t good. As compote it would have been perfect, but I had added lemon juice as a preservative for canning it sugar-free, and that took away the sweetness. I probably added too much lemon juice, but I can’t say for sure.

What I do know is that I added a bit of sugar to the cooked fruit mixture before water bath processing them, and then it tasted great. Anyone can do water bath canning with a regular stock pot, as long as it’s high enough to cover the jars with an inch or two of water.


The above jars are a liter, which means they each hold four cups of cooked peaches, so one jar is just right for a 9 x 13 pan of cobbler or crisp.

Avivah

Cutting project costs by building with pallets

Homemaking, Homeschooling, Intentional Spending

I started looking at ads to buy goats, then realized I better get a pen built first so that I didn’t create unnecessary stress for myself by finding the kind of goats I wanted but not having a place to keep them. So my husband stepped in as the overseer of that building project while a couple of our boys did the building.

I had been planning a certain kind of pen, but when I saw how expensive the goats are, was inspired to offset those costs by finding more frugal options for building the pen. I settled on using pallets, which are a good source of free wood, but they come with the not insignificant effort of dissembling them. For the pen design itself, we decided to minimize our work and use whole pallets, mostly avoiding the need to take them apart (the door is the exception).

Building with whole pallets has its challenges; since the pallets aren’t identical there’s extra time and effort involved so that the end result doesn’t look haphazard. Ds16 and ds14 worked together to get the main pen built; my only physical input was to redirect some passionfruit vines from along our fence to the area above the pen. Passionfruit grows quickly and my intention is for them to is that they will eventually cover the top of the pen, providing shade as well as making it look more visually appealing.

Building the door did require wood of a specific size, so ds14 found a method that is very effective in breaking them apart – though he makes it look easy he quickly developed blisters on his hand and I felt tired just watching him. That young man has a huge work ethic and a lot of stamina! Once he took the pallets apart, he built the door and now all that’s remaining to add is a lock.

Though doing your own projects is less expensive than paying someone, building materials nonetheless add up quickly. Ds14 and ds20 discovered this for themselves last year when they co-purchased geese and building materials for a pen. I suggested to them that they consider using recycled wood, but they didn’t think it was worth the effort. They spent 1500 shekels on a wooden frame, chicken wire and screws, and soon experienced for themselves how fast the expenses added up. Later when they decided to end the goose experiment, ds14 decided to switch over to chickens and wanted to add a chicken run. He chose to use recycled materials; almost doubling the space but spent only 100 – 200 shekels more).

Independent of cost considerations, I very much like reusing and recycling. It’s gratifying for me to find a way to use what I already have or what already exists rather than get something new.

About using pallets – it’s important to know that they have different codes printed on the pallet that indicate how the wood was treated. Sometimes dangerous chemicals are used and those pallets marked as such should be avoided for a project like this. We chose pallets that were untreated or heat treated. To see a list of the symbols and what they stand for, check out this site.

My husband gets the credit for shlepping the pallets home. Talk about a good attitude – he did it smilingly and told me he appreciated the chance to get a physical work out loading and unloading them (so far he’s brought home 25 pallets!). Next on the list of pallet projects is a hay feeder, milking stand and outdoor stairs.

Avivah

When life gives you lemons, make lots of lemon juice!

canning, Intentional Spending

This week I got a windfall of lemons, and decided to process them immediately. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of my produce being left in a bag and put away somewhere outside of the fridge by a zealous child wanting to quickly clean up, and by the time I find it it’s no longer usable. So I decided to seize the moment. 🙂

Fortunately, my food processor has a juicer attachment. I bought this food processor about five years ago because the owner told me with the high demands I make of my machine, I would burn out the motor of smaller and less expensive machines. It’s a good machine and has served me well, and the juicer attachment makes a project like this very doable.

Ds9 saw what I was doing and asked to help, so I put him to work.

At some point ds5 wanted ds9 to join him in the pool, so he went to swim. We have a gated pool in the backyard for our vacation apartment, and this year I considered having just one pool, to simplify maintenance and cut costs. But I decided against the seemingly more frugal option. Having a second pool on the front patio right outside the kitchen window means I can easily keep an eye on them when cooking and makes it possible for them to spend significantly more time swimming than if I had to leave everything to sit with them in the back. They come home tired and irritable from school, and being able to spend so much time in the pool makes our afternoons much more relaxed and enjoyable for everyone.

In from swimming and ready to help some more!

Ds9 juicing lemons, with the overflowing pan of juiced lemons and container of leftover pulp in the background.

Ds5 wanted a turn, too!

The inexpensive lemon juice I buy at the store is actually watered down citric acid. This fresh lemon juice is delicious – a bit sweet and very flavorful.

Though the juicer attachment strains out most of the pulp, tiny white seeds still go through. When preserving lemon juice by canning, these little seeds can make the finished result bitter. I learned this with my disappointing experiment canning mandarin oranges earlier this year. They were so sweet and tasty eaten fresh, but once I canned them, they were bitter and unappealing – the pith left on them had caused the flavor to change. I opened all the jars of mandarins, turned them into jam and reprocessed them, but honestly they probably are wasting shelf space because we have yet to touch them.

That experience inspired me to be more careful with the little things that don’t seem so important. We used the pulp that came from our second sieving to make lemonade – with the addition of some water and maple syrup, it made a nice drink for a hot day.

This time, the experiment turned out great! Lemon juiced is a high acidity product, so it can be preserved using the water bath canning method. There are two ways to do it, by pouring the juice into the jars hot or cold. If you choose to do the hot pack method, the jars have to be hot before placing hot juice in them, and you then place the jars directly into boiling water. This can be a time savings because you can boil the water while you’re doing something else, but I prefer the cold pack method because there are fewer steps.

After filling the jars with the unheated strained juice, we placed them into a large stockpot. I have a rack for the bottom of mine, but if you don’t you can put a thin towel or washcloth on the bottom so it doesn’t bang around and crack once the water boils.

Cover the jars with about an inch of water, then put the lid on and bring it to a boil. Once the water is boiling, you begin the processing time – in this case, fifteen minutes for quart sized jars. When the time is up, take the jars out and put them on a towel covering the counter – again, this is to protect the jars from cracking.

The preserved lemon juice changed color a bit (I’m guessing if I did hot pack that it wouldn’t have changed as much), but the flavor is excellent. As you can see, even after straining it a second time, there was still pulp left that rose to the top once I processed it. I wasn’t worried about straining out all the pulp – if I was, I would have used a finer sieve. I just shake it before using and it’s all good.

We ended up with a bit over eleven liters of lemon juice.

The finished product, along with the three lemons I left unjuiced so I can use them for salads.

As far as the financial savings – if I compared the cost to eleven liters of the watered down citric acid, making my own saved just 44 shekels. If I compare it to the cost of real lemon juice, it saved much more – over 150 shekels.

That leaves the question, is it worth it to spend the time on this? With my helpers it took about ninety minutes to make the juice. It would have been faster by myself but I consider it a gain when I can double up on the things I want to do and spend time with my children, so I didn’t mind the time spent. I would have had to be available to them during that time in any case.

Now, this equation works because I enjoy activities like this, and I like ending up with a quality product. If I didn’t, this might have felt like drudgery and not worth the time and energy spent.

Avivah

Formula shortages and formula options

Healthy Living, Intentional Spending, nutrition, Parenting

A few weeks ago there began to be a shortage of formula in the US, a situation that has reached what some officials have called a ‘crisis situation’.

Baby formula is in dramatically short supply, with many stores locking up the formula, limiting it to one per customer, or the stock in the stores simply not there. Parents of babies who need formula are having to drive far distances, pay exorbitant online prices to opportunist sellers – or do without.

As a mother of 11 who has been deeply committed to breastfeeding, I nonetheless have experienced the challenge of not being able to nurse two of my babies. I nursed my tenth child, who had a weak sucking reflex, for four months, while simultaneously pumping for several hours a day to keep my supply up. I finally gave up when despite all my efforts, I couldn’t produce the milk he needed. (I later realized that the two pumps I had borrowed were faulty and that was the source of the problem, but in my exhausted state and with very limited community resources, I couldn’t access other options.)

I turned to formula, trying different kinds while also looking for goats’ milk and mothers’ milk donors, for the most part without success. Finally, after five months we found a formula he could tolerate, that was only available by medical prescription and cost over 1000 shekels a month.

When my eleventh child came into our lives via the legal system, I began seeking out mothers’ milk donors before he even arrived home. I was then living in the center of the country, and access to community resources was dramatically different. Like his brother before him, he couldn’t tolerate regular formula. For the first two years, we were blessed to be able to give him mother’s milk for all but two months (a week here, a week there, when the donor milk couldn’t be found), and for those in-between times we supplemented with a medical prescription formula. I later donated the many unused cans we had purchased to a mother in financial need whose child used that specialty formula. I was so grateful to have the resources that I needed to keep him healthy.

When I think of these desperate mothers seeking food for their babies, it’s heartbreaking. I once ran out of formula due to logistics in prescription/purchasing rules (those have since changed) and we ended up in the emergency room on Shabbos as a result.

These mothers need options. While breastfeeding is wonderful and I fully support it, it’s not an option for everyone. It’s disturbing for me to see commentators – especially men – suggesting that if mothers would be breastfeeding they wouldn’t be in this situation.

Many women physically can’t produce milk no matter how much they try, due to illness or physical challenge on the side of the mother or baby; there are foster/adoptive parents/grandparents raising children that they didn’t give birth to.

I do believe that steps will be taken to to increase formula production and hopefully this will be a short-lived crisis. In the interim, parents need help. If you are a nursing mother and know someone struggling with the formula shortage, perhaps you can offer to help out by pumping. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to the tens of mothers who kept our youngest nourished and healthy thanks to their donations. Or if you see formula in your stores, buy it to donate to someone else who can’t find it. Or share the below information for how to make their own.

How did people feed their infants in the days before commercially produced formula was available? Hiring a wet nurse was a common practice, but in cultures that didn’t have that practice, parents made their own. Here’s are two recipes for formula that are nutritionally complete that were published in Nourishing Traditions; one is dairy and one is meat based. Goat milk is an excellent replacement for mother’s milk, though it needs to be supplemented with vitamin B12 and folate. Many of our elders who were bottle-fed were raised on evaporated milk mixed with Karo syrup; here is a simple emergency formula replacement recipe using evaporated milk, as well as an excellent explanation for why evaporated milk is a better option than regular milk. **Disclaimer: of course every parent needs to verify with their medical professionals that the option they are considering is appropriate for their child.**

Hopefully this situation will quickly be resolved. In the meantime, parents can look to alternative solutions and feel empowered knowing they have the tools to keep their babies fed and happy.

Avivah

Oil prices zooming up, and where to find palm oil?

Intentional Spending

Due to health concerns, I choose not to use vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower or soy. Though generally cheap and widely available, I stick with coconut oil (for cooking and baking) and olive oil (for salads).

There’s one oil that I’m only able to get Passover time, and that’s palm oil. I look for it as soon as the stores switch over to Passover foods, and until a couple of years ago, would get about twenty bottles when they were at half price for 5 shekels each. It’s a shelf stable option and very convenient to have on hand to supplement my coconut oil use.

Last year I didn’t see any on sale, so I got my twenty bottles for the full price, ten shekels. This year I was disappointed not to see any palm oil for sale, not for a reduced price and not for a full price. None at all. Not only that, I hardly saw any oils being sold. I had noticed before Purim that the oils were scantily stocked, but thought it might be due to stores wanting to use up stock before switching to Passover foods.

Fortunately, my husband found two bottles of walnut oil for Pesach. That wasn’t enough for us for the amount of people we were cooking for! So I sent my husband back to the store to get some more walnut oil for the last couple of days of Pesach.

He called and told me he found ten bottles of palm oil, and did I want it? ‘Yes, all of them, please!’ But they’re 18 shekels each, you want me to spend 180 shekels on oil right now? Understandably, it didn’t seem like a priority to buy seemingly overpriced oil in quantity. With no hesitation, I told him, absolutely! I was so glad to get some.

I usually buy a carton of coconut oil (bulk size) twice a year. About six months ago, I realized prices were about to climb significantly for that specific product, so I bought more than usual. I also bought some for a couple of others who I told about the expected price increase.

This week I looked at the website of the bulk baking store I bought it from, to see if they carried palm oil. While I was browsing, I saw that the hydrogenated coconut oil (I buy unhydrogenated but didn’t see it in stock, the price is usually similar) is now 526 shekels for a carton. I paid 202 shekels for the same size carton a year ago, and 235 shekels at the end of the summer.

You know what oil is now 323 shekels for a sixteen kilo carton? Canola. Seriously. One of the cheapest and most nutritionally worthless oils is now more than I paid six months ago for the most expensive oil.

For us, good quality fats are an important part of our diet, and I consider it a priority to have some on hand. Believe me, I’m really glad that I bought a second carton in the summer; I just finished the carton I bought then and am now at the point that I would be needing to buy more. Coconut oil is shelf stable for a long time and I saved over 300 shekels on that one carton. I don’t know if I’ll continue to buy coconut oil if I have to pay so much for it; I’m going to be looking for a less expensive option.

On Sukkos (five months ago) my daughter-in-law told me she wanted to buy coconut oil in bulk but the price was up to 350 shekels; that looks like a screaming bargain right now. The question is, does a shopper buy some extra at this price, which seems exorbitant now but may be a bargain in another six months? I don’t expect the price of coconut oil to go down anytime soon; realistically probably not for a couple of years. But this price is a bit rich for my budget.

Oils are currently being rationed in the UK and other parts of Europe; they’ve been out of stock for weeks in Germany. The managing director of Iceland supermarkets confirmed they are rationing oil to a bottle a person, and explained, “If you look at commodity prices, sunflower oil has gone up 1,000 percent in terms of the commodity cost in the market, palm oil (up) 400 percent, and then there is things like wheat, 50 percent, fertilizer 350 percent”.

What’s causing these prices to shoot up? In short, supply chain issues and the Russia-Ukraine conflict is the latest factor. Does what happens in the UK or Europe have anything to do with those of us in the US or Israel? Based on these price increases, it certainly seems so.

As I’ve said before, one of my primary grocery budgetary strategies is to stock up on what I need when the items are on sale. Today I’ll be going to a meeting with ds9’s teacher; his school isn’t far from an Osher Ad supermarket. I’m planning to stop in and see if I can find some good deals, and though I know the chances are slim, hoping to find palm oil! (Please let me know in the comments if you know where to buy palm oil in normal kitchen sized quantities.)

Avivah

Starting to see food shortages in US, what to do now

Intentional Spending

I wrote the following on November 8, 2021, but finally decided not to post it because I felt it was too soon to talk about this. Instead, I chose to share information about how to budget for food, buy in bulk, find pantry space and repurpose leftovers, knowing this would be helpful information to anyone wanting to stretch their food budget for whatever reason.


>>You can’t imagine how many times I’ve written and rewritten this post, deleting and deleting and rewriting again! My dilemma is I don’t want to cause anyone anxiety or alarm, but at the same time, I want your family to have what it needs.

I’ve deleted all my commentary and explanation about the reasons this will happen, and I’m going to get right into it.

Food prices are anticipated to rise sharply in coming months. There is a lot of talk behind the scenes about food shortages.

Most of you live in countries where this seems preposterous, but some of you are beginning to see shortages. There is a complex web of factors leading to this situation worldwide and as fascinating a topic as this is, I’m not going to talk about why and how this is happening. I’m going to focus on what to do about it.

First of all, now is the time to be as conservative as possible in your spending. Please think about what foods you use, and buy a bit more of them each time you shop. Don’t panic, don’t go into hoarding mode, don’t get afraid.<<

Today I’m going to talk more directly about this issue. Thankfully, here in Israel our prices are remaining steady and I’m not seeing unusual shortages. That’s not to say that caution isn’t in order, because worldwide inflation and supply chain forces will eventually affect us all.

For my US readers: please take this seriously! US groceries have shot up significantly and will continue to rise. Many, many areas are seeing serious supply issues, with significant sections of the supermarkets empty. They are being explained as being caused by a shortage of workers due to the O variant, and some areas having winter storms and people panic buying as a result. That is definitely a factor but if you think that’s all that is happening, you’re going to be lulled by a false sense that this is a short term issue that will be resolved in a week or two. It’s not.

Some news outlets are beginning to talk about this being a long term issue. Finally!!

I’ve looked at lots of pictures and descriptions of what is in short supply or missing. It varies from store to store, obviously, but here are the things that are pretty consistent:

  • dairy products
  • eggs
  • meat and chicken, sliced sandwich meat
  • frozen processed foods, ready to eat meals
  • bottled juice, some sodas
  • fresh produce
  • bread
  • pastas
  • pet food (specifically for cats and dogs)

If something isn’t on this list, it doesn’t mean some places aren’t experiencing shortages of that. But this list seems to be accurate for the majority of places. It seems red states were the first affected, but the blue states are also being affected now. The bigger cities and wealthier areas are the last to be affected.

People in the affected areas are getting increasingly alarmed to see the combination of price increases and empty shelves when they go to their stores. In American there has always been an abundance of food at low prices, and people assume it will always be like that, so this is understandably disorienting for shoppers.

What if you’re in an area that doesn’t have any gaps at all (and there are still many places like that)? Should you ignore this and think that this doesn’t apply to you?

NO!!!!

You’re the best positioned right now to heed this warning. What is happening in other states will affect you eventually. You are so fortunate to be able to buy some food insurance for yourself, to easily stock your pantry before there are any shortages. A relaxed guideline at this point is to get at least a month’s worth of staples.

To make the empty shelves less noticeable, supermarkets are reorganizing their spaces, taking out shelving and moving it around, fronting the empty shelves with one or two of the items (nothing behind them), filling empty spaces with foods that there is a lot of. For example, one baking aisle pictured had many shelves of white sugar. I’m seeing some people reporting that the expiration dates on canned goods is much shorter than usual. And now there are beginning to be limits on how many of each item you can buy.

What I don’t see in short supply yet are the things that make up the bulk of my meals. Good, old fashioned staples. Ingredients that you need to know how to cook to turn into a meal. 🙂 It’s not a coincidence that these are the last things to be sold! For many people, cooking doesn’t go much beyond heating up ready-made food, and they have no idea what to do with these ingredients.

If you’ve ever read pioneer stories, their big shopping trips would be something like: a barrel of flour, a barrel of beans, a sack of cornmeal, some molasses and a little salt. They’d supplement with their gardens and hunting, and those would be their groceries for months.

Well, that’s not a bad way to think with what’s going on. Personally, I wouldn’t tell anyone to buy extra frozen pizzas or pop tarts, though if you want to get additional meat/chicken and frozen vegetables, it’s a good idea. Think about the most basic foods, ingredients that can be bought inexpensively, stored in a small amount of space, and have a long shelf life. White rice, legumes, flour, sugar, canned goods, peanut butter.

Fortunately, these are also the foods that are most frugal! Many, many people shop for just the week, or even just a couple of days at a time. That’s not a prudent approach right now. I’m suggesting that when you do your shopping, you get additional staple foods.

When you’re doing your shopping, please be kind to the staff. They are the brunt of the frustrations for many shoppers, which besides being wrong, is unfair since they bear absolutely no responsibility for this situation. People are so stressed and this is adding to the ramped up anxiety, so bring your own positive, calm energy with you, so you can spread some good vibes.

One more suggestion – buying local is always a good thing! If you can buy directly from a farmer, that’s a great option. (When I was in the US, I made a trip to Pennsylvania every month or two, and bought my milk and eggs directly from the farmer.) You can get good prices and directly support those who are producing foods you enjoy.

As always, if you have a question, or comment about what you’re seeing in your area, please share in the comment section!

Avivah

Homemade cough syrup remedy, helps coughing and congestion

Healthy Living, home remedies, Intentional Spending

There’s a lot of common cold symptoms going around now, which seasonally what tends to happen in the winter months. For generations, people have known how to treat this kind of thing at home.

Last week I heard one of sons coughing at night and the next morning told him how much vitamin C to take. After a few days, I heard him still coughing in the night and asked him if he had taken the vitamin C I told him to take the first day. No, he sheepishly admitted. I obviously knew that because he wouldn’t still be coughing if he had!

It’s not as if there’s just one way to respond to cold symptoms, though. There are many different remedies people have used effectively for many generations in cultures across the world to heal upper respiratory illnesses and chest congestion, using ingredients that are natural antibiotics.

Plasters and poultices with onion and mustard as a base were a common practice. There are lots of cough syrup/tea recipes include whiskey or bourbon (‘hot toddy’). Below I’m sharing non-alcoholic syrup and tea recipes variations, so you can see how much flexibility there is with the general concept. (The first two listed are what I make.)

  • Mix equal parts freshly squeezed lemon juice and honey. Take a spoonful every few hours.
  • Chop onion, cover with honey. Let sit for several hours; it will become a thin and watery consistency. Strain out onions (you can eat them) and take a spoonful every few hours.
  • Layer raw onion, fresh ginger and raw garlic into a pint jar until half full and then fill the rest of the jar with raw honey. Shake periodically over twelve hour period. Strain, use like cough syrup, a tablespoon every 4 hours.
  • Onion tea – boil cut up onions with peels included until soft. Strain, mix with honey and drink hot.
  • Slice a large onion, sprinkling sugar between the slices and put into a jar. Add water to weight it down. The juice runs out after a few hours, take a spoonful every few hours.
  • 1 teaspoonful each of dried rosemary and thyme. Add boiling water and let it steep. Strain it and drink. Can sweeten with honey and add a sprinkle of cinnamon. Drink hot or cold.
  • Boil a red onion, drink liquid with honey.
  • Mix small amount of horseradish/ginger and mashed garlic with honey, pour a cup of boiling water over it. Allow to cool slightly then sip. You can also add couple tablespoons of lemon to the “tea”.
  • Oregano (natural antibiotic) and thyme (removes mucus) tea with a teaspoon of honey.
  • Honey-lemon-ginger warm tea, with a bit of coconut oil
  • Mix raw apple cider vinegar with equal parts of raw honey.
  • Red onions (peel on), lemons (sliced, peel on), honey, garlic, ground horseradish. Ad enough eater to cover, heat until just boiling. Cool. Strain, take a teaspoon at a time or add to a cup of hot water as tea.

Isn’t it marvelous that lemons are in season in the winter at the time that people need that natural vitamin C the most, and that onions and garlic can be stored year round? So even at times that people had no grocery stores, the ingredients they needed to to boost their immune systems were available. These are all very affordable ingredients – even honey, which is the most expensive, is still considerably less expensive than store bought cough syrup with its questionable ingredients!

If you have your own recipe that you’ve found helpful, or use any of these and they work for you, please share in the comment section below.

Avivah