Saving $40 a month with Free Vegetables

[Off-Grid Lover]

Hello

We've always juiced about 4-5 days a week, just 3/4 a cup of Kale, Carrots & Celery

Fresh organic vegetables are pretty expensive.

We'll now we've had no choice, our son has schizophrenia so we've juiced 2x a day. A few days a week it's just 1x a day due to

us being gone or he is gone. I've spent hundreds on organic fruits, veges & supplements. This is how I've saved $40 a month


We shop at small Mom & Pop health food stores. Much more expensive but they use local growers I've met and see at the Farmers Mkt . We buy from a chain called Grocery Outlet also

but if the price is close, such as a sale, try to avoid chain stores for the locally grown food. I asked this week at two Mom and Pop health food stores and they provided us

A small box of Carrott Tops
A small bag of Green Beet Leaves
Some Celery tops cut off (the leaves)

Instead of juicing Kale 2 a day, which is about $1.50, I am using these greens instead. This saves us about $40 a month,

I also learned since our son is on Medicare/Medicaid (and SSDI, he used to be high up with Apple) he may qualify for a Food Benefit Card.

It's a card with $35 a month's worth of Groceries. I believe it is limited with how and what you can buy but if so, its just limited to healthy food anyhow.

I'll call his Medicare Provider today. He's also paying $50 a month for a GYM which there is a program thru Medicare called Silver Sneakers which may cover that.

He may be able to get back to work in a few years, his brain is so fried, he is so spacey he cannot really concentrate at all to work.

But he has color in his face, lost a pants size, no more medication for high blood pressure, shrunk his kidney stone down to the size of the tip of an ink pen.

He had the illness, got a degree in Exercise Science during that time, started working for Apple as Tech Support, ate KETO with hardcore exercise, and combatted it for 10 yrs.

But he was loosing the battle, even with doing all fo that. Sleeping all day, depressed, barely Abel to do his job. The same job he was moved up 3x in he started degressing.

Broke his leg then went bonkers within 3-4 months due to a lack of hardcore exercise. Ate junk he'd NEVER eat before, talking nutty, hallucinating refusing to get diagnosed

Though we knew he had schizophrenia and had been hallucinating to some extent since the beginning of College. His Uncle had it BAD



I need to learn all of the vegetables the grocery stores cut off the ends of. Rhubarb is one but I hear the leaves are poisonous. I might could get our juicing costs down a little more.

Considered working for a produce section but the hours are awful, the pay is very low too.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Kohlrabi leaves and stems are tasty. The leaves clasping around cauliflower are edible. Your supermarket would not be getting sweet potatoes with leaves, but those are edible. I have a city neighbor who grows sweet potato leaves for market. There's no reason not to use the outer leaves of cabbage that I know of.

In spring, summer, and autumn there are probably quite a few greens that you could forage. (I do.) You can find websites and books to get you started. There's always gardening to produce more of what you want.

[Off-Grid Lover]

Yes those are great ideas I didn't know that about cauliflower which we buy sometimes to juice, thank you We only forage for Blackberries but should look for more. We grow potatoes, kale and onions but that's it for this year

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

If it is mainly greens you are after, I highly recommend foraging for both "lambs quarters" and purslane come next spring. They are both mild tasting and very nutritious. The FDA has nutrition info on them

We collect and use so much of the lamb's quarters that we can it for winter use. We often stir it into an omelet. We dry some lambs quarters so that we can easily add very small amounts to soup, stew, noodles, sometimes even breads just as a nutrition boost.

Purslane can be used in the same ways, though I've never canned it. I have, however, fermented the stems for pickles. When we get a lot of purslane, we blend it to make a kind of pesto and stash it in 4 ounce jars in the freezer.

I just remembered that radish leaves are edible, too. Sometimes I see radishes sold in bunches with leaves still attached. They have a bit of bite, like a mustard. Personally, I would only eat them in small amounts, because they have, in the past been used as a de-wormer!

[Off-Grid Lover]

If it is mainly greens you are after, I highly recommend foraging for both "lambs quarters" and purslane come next spring. They are both mild tasting and very nutritious. The FDA has nutrition info on them

We collect and use so much of the lamb's quarters that we can it for winter use. We often stir it into an omelet. We dry some lambs quarters so that we can easily add very small amounts to soup, stew, noodles, sometimes even breads just as a nutrition boost.

Purslane can be used in the same ways, though I've never canned it. I have, however, fermented the stems for pickles. When we get a lot of purslane, we blend it to make a kind of pesto and stash it in 4 ounce jars in the freezer.

I just remembered that radish leaves are edible, too. Sometimes I see radishes sold in bunches with leaves still attached. They have a bit of bite, like a mustard. Personally, I would only eat them in small amounts, because they have, in the past been used as a de-wormer!

More excellent ideas, thank you Joan. You are very knowledgable and foraging is such great exercise. This weekend I am going to search for some local books
We have an Attorney friend who used to forage for Miners Lettuce.
have never considered the radish leaves are edible so will try those too
Not sure why but maybe because this is a new concept to me this week.
No foraging here until around Mid May when the snow dissipates