No Waste

I'm a frugal person by my very nature, always have been. It was ingrained in me during years and years of struggling by my mother to make ends meet throughout my childhood. However, I sometimes wonder if I don't go to much more impressive extremes. For example, I purchased half a bushel of apples. The first half of that batch was made into applesauce, the cooked 'pulp' remaining after having been strained was given to the chickens. Tonight I went farther with the other half of that batch of apples. I had my eldest daughter help me peel and core the apples. Then I canned those sections in spiced syrup (got 5 qts too), but what to do with the peelings and cores?! It seemed like such a waste! All that lovely flavored peelings. So I cooked them down with a couple cups of water and ran them through an uber-fine mesh sieve. I not have 3 cups of the loveliest natural apple juice. I will add another cup later and make jelly with it! Still not quite finished though, because I also have the remaining paste-like pulp that is left after squeezing every possible drop of juice from it. I put that aside and tomorrow I plan on mixing in some whole oats. I'll bake those 'apple biscuits' on low for awhile and hopefully I will have home-made apple crisps to feed to the rabbits! I wouldn't want humans to consume them as they may contain whole stems and seeds as well. However, that accounts for every bit of the apples I purchased, with no waste whatsoever. And gives me 5 qts of canned apples, 3 pints apple jelly, and a couple dozen 'apple biscuits' for the livestock. Definitely a thumbs-up on this one!

A few other no-waste recipes I use include one for peaches and one for watermelon. The peaches you peel them and section them, canning the fruit itself in syrup, and then boil down the skin peelings to make peach honey! The watermelon recipe, you eat the pink part of the fruit (it's best to cut it off though LOL) then peel the green skin off and use the remaining part of the green rind to make watermelon rind preserves!

I have other methods to reduce waste. I have a dog that frequently clears most of any 'plate' leftovers from the children, not to mention her special usefulness in cleaning up toddler food messes. In addition I have a pair of rat boys who stay fat on leftovers and bones. Not to mention the compost pile!