Utilizing What You Have on Your Land ~ Being Creative

"That's the way Great-grandmother did it. She looked in the larder, the cellar and then took a walk through the garden to see what she had. And then she made menus for the next couple days."

~ Carla Emory, The Encyclopedia of Country Living

The more productive our land is, the less we need to purchase. Or, the more creative we are with what little we have, the same applies. Those words by Carla Emory have been a huge source of inspiration to me this year. I would love to use what we have to the maximum potential by creating my meals from our harvest rather than a grocery store list. Despite the garden produce, eggs and meat/dairy animals we are raising, we have tried to be innovative with other items. Here are some examples of what we did with the fruit producing plants on our farm...

Grapes

Our grapes have seeds in them so they are not our first snack choice. The solution we found is to squeeze them using an old-fashioned orange juicer. We use the juice in reduced-sugar canning recipes where grape juice is substituted as a natural sweetener. We have also mixed this with seltzer water and ice for a sweet and refreshing summer drink (this is a treat since we don't purchase "drinks"). If you have seedless grapes, they are excellent when frozen as an icy snack. Next year I think I am going to try my hand at grape jelly. What other ideas do you have to utilize grapes? I would love to hear them!

Pomegranates

We do love to eat the pomegranate seeds but had much more than we could keep up with (three trees). What we do with our excess is juice them. You can simply drink the juice (which is way healthy!) or add sparkling water for a summer style, italian "soda". We also froze some juice in ice-cube trays and added them into our smoothies. Delicious! Any other suggestions?

Figs

My husband likes to eat the figs as a fig. To be honest, they freak me out (I think it is the texture) so I turned them into jam. This jam makes a nice filling for jam bar recipes or making your own fruit and cereal grain bars. Any other inspiration for the fig?

Conclusion

There are many opportunities if you really investigate your little piece of earth. It can be anything, small or large to produce something usable. For instance, I have shared how to make lavender infused cleaning products using your lavender flowers. The more we glean from our land (city dwellers too!), the less we need to rely on those price increases at the grocery stores. 

What creative ideas do you have in this same line…
to use what you have on your land

and increase your larder (pantry) supplies?

"Duchess went into her larder and took the pie off a shelf and looked at it."

~ The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan by Beatrix Potter

"He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread…"
~ Proverbs 12:11a

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Coffee and Conversation, So Much at Home, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Hearts for Home Thursdays, Home Acre Hop, Growing in Grace Thursdays, From the Farm Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. All the paintings are done by dear, Tasha Tudor with the exception of the drawing by Beatrix Potter.