The Big Carrot Conundrum

Why should I plant carrots when they are so cheap to buy? I mean for R4 at our famous and ever-popular Pick & Pay you can get 6-8 big, fat carrots all neatly wrapped in a plastic bag. They also offer you a second option of R6 for 6 sad-looking, dirty carrots with wilted tops still attached to their poor bodies. Or if you are in the big time, you can splurge about R10 on a Styrofoam tray, some plastic and 10-15 clean-scrubbed baby carrots.

This is the question I pondered yesterday. To be frugal is not the same as being stupid, so I do not want to keep the frugal kingdom busy with useless activities. Now I got some very good advise from an art teacher while I was studying visual arts at Unisa: When you do not know what to do, or not sure how to proceed, or ponder over serious issues (which I am sure the carrot conundrum falls under) – just start DOING! While you are doing, everything will become clear. You are either going in the right direction, which allows you to intensify your doing, adapt your doing, enjoy your doing. Or you are going in the wrong direction, which allows you to stop your doing, change your doing, or give up art.

So taking these wise words into consideration, I started doing. I presented my carrot masterplan to the frugal elves, and we allocated a special area in the vegetable garden for my 3 types of carrots I want to plant. We opened the packets, we sowed, we watered, we labelled. We grated the store-bought carrots, we baked a cake. We ate the cake. We loved the cake. And true to the art guru’s words, it all became clear.

So for me, the following reasons are why I will continue to plant carrots instead of going to a shop for these orange powerhouses.

-        I do not have to drive anywhere, just walk 300 meters to my garden (saving fuel, tires, breakpads, oil)

-        It is quicker for me to cover 300 meters than to drive 3 kilometers (I know some of you find this hard to believe looking at my current physical condition – but obese frugal fairies can fly short distances)

-        Since I cannot send the frugal fellows without driver licences to the shop, I can however send these same frugal fellows to the vegetable garden

-        I help the planet by cutting down on all kinds of yukkie stuff (plastic, Styrofoam, car emissions, etc.)

-        I do not have to dress up or comb my hair when I go to my vegetable garden.

-        I can try different seeds and types of carrots (there are even white, purple, black, yellow ones!)

-        I can use all the green tops for my chickens

-        The excess carrots from the garden can go to feed other families and bring orange joy to people who do not have a vegetable garden or R4 for P&P carrots

-        If we want to be self-sufficient in 5 years time, I had better start planting, harvesting, storing, bottling, pickling carrots NOW

These are a lot of good reasons for me to plant carrots, so although on face-value not a very frugal thing to do, when you look at the overall picture it makes sense. I will forge ahead!

The carrot cake we made comes from the series “Baked and Delicious”, volume 81. It is a carrot and ginger cake, and contains bananas for extra moisture. 

Now every carrot cakes deserves some carrots (otherwise it would just be a cake). You can have carrots inside or on top – we chose both options. So I bought some little sugar carrots from the baking shop, (about R10 a packet of 6). David then decided to make his own sugar fondant so we can make our own little carrots.  For less than R20 we now have enough fondant to make and decorate enough cakes for a year! And it lasts for a long time as it contains nothing that can spoil.

 

No power again, but nothing is going to stop the frugal elves

See if you can spot the home-made carrots!!!!

 

I discovered that some blog-readers are confused. If I am celebrating chickens in December – how can I also celebrate carrots in December.  The answer is easy - one is an animal and the other one is a vegetable. I will also be celebrating my kitchen, generosity, hands (they are associated with gifting and providing), vegetable garden. I warned you that I have a lot to celebrate, so please try and keep up with me if you can.

Just talking about chicken gets me excited, so here is our chicken dish number 5. This one was a winner at R40 for 4 people. Little Jamie Oliver is now all grown up and responsible, so this recipe is from his TV series about saving/cheap cooking or something like that. It is called………..

Humble chicken stew with dumplings

Step 1: Rescue your chicken carcasses from the fridge (these are the ones you had left over after the roasting exercise) and like a hyena you need to pull off and get every last bit of meat from the bones. (put bits of meat back in the fridge)

Step 2: Now rescue from the fridge the veg-pot you have been building from all the scraps this week, and together with the now-naked bones, make a mean chicken stock.

Veggie scrap pot (onion skins-and-all)

Stock on the right and doggie-delights on the left

Step 3: Fry bacon bits until they look about right, then add chopped veggies of your choice (we used potatoes, carrots, leeks, onions, celery) Fry together for 10 minutes.

 

Step 4: Add little bits of chicken (even if it looks little – I promise you it is enough for this dish) and 1 litre of your home-made chicken stock and put in oven for half an hour.

Step 5: Use about a cup of self-raising flour, salt, pepper and mix with beer until you have a sticky dough. Spoon on top of stew, cover and back into oven for another 20 minutes or so.

 

Ps. To make it more expensive (if there are readers out there with extra cash to spare) – add mushrooms to step 4 and grated cheese to step 5. If you do not have money, you can leave out the bacon without causing a major disruption to the dish, except make it about R25 cheaper.

 

We have been making this recipe a lot over the last month or so, and it is one of our favourites, so please try it. We do not serve anything else with it – just a smile on the side.(and the beer left over from the dumpling dough)

Yumminess: 8/10

Frugality: 8/10

Easyness: 8/10

 

Thank you to everyone who is willing to donate old clothes and toys and shoes – I have cleaned out a room in the flat to serve as the “Donation hospital” – and will be keeping you up to date on the progress.

Miri – thanks my friend for the BIG bag of girl clothes and shoes – this will make many, many girls look good and happy and girlie and precious! Already started some emergency treatment on the school clothes, will post some before and after pics. The rest is perfect and does not need anything to get them ready for gifting.

 

Lovies

Lizette