Jamming! No Cook Freezer Jam

The lovely thing about Costco is their price on produce. Nowhere else here in Nevada can you beat the price of scrupulous heads of lettuce, large bunches of bananas, strawberries and more. Buying a huge lot and only using half still beats prices of other stores! Then for my small household what could I do with the leftovers to really get more for my money?

There are several options really; canning, dehydrating, flash freezing, OR my choice for today was making freezer jam! Now I have been accumulating things for canning all summer so I can put things away from my garden, but thus far the garden has seen better years.


What did I have in abundance today? Plums about half a box from Costco, and I had a package from Ball, No-Cook Freezer Jam Pectin, and 5 8 oz plastic freezer jars.

I cut up about 8 plums and put them in the food processor till they were a semi smooth texture, next I added the package and a cup and a half of sugar (i am sure Splenda would work too) and stirred it briskly for about two minutes, poured into the five jars screwed on the lids and Tada!
It really does not get easier than that.



Now I know if I have a lack of power I will have issues there but I plan on doing some serious canning when I have more fruit available but for now, this was just right.

Homemade Cleaning Products

Today I am trying out the laundry soap recipe used by the Duggars, their site can be found here. The only exception to the formula is I used an ivory bar because I have been waiting two weeks for one bar of Fels-Naptha. have already tried the diluted softener sponges in place of regular dryer sheets. It works fantastic! So I had to try this out!



Their site got me thinking and sent me on a search of all the other cleaners that will be needed and what else can we do to become a little more frugal. My guess is that these homemade tried and true recipes may work better than the perfumed chemicals I buy at the store!



Here is where I found some fantastic recipes...and a an overall terrific prepping site! Looking forward to trying them out as well.

Kentucky Preppers Network: Homemade Cleaning Products

What do you use? What corners have you cut? Curious to hear what creative ways people are coping in this economy.

I just went on a search for Fels-Naptha and guess what folks, it is very difficult to find, as I have been waiting 2 weeks for a bar from Amazon. The washing soda is flat NOT AVAILABLE, and so I went to Ebay to search for these items. I finally found a decent deal on the Fels-Naptha, 24 bars for $40.00 which is a lot cheaper than the $4 and up for one bar I had previously found. This means two things, either it is in low production or high demand. By the washing soda being unavailable as well that tells me high demand may be the culprit.

So how is that an indicator the economy is turning the corner? I think what is keeping the economy going as it is, are those of us stockpiling and prepping. Just a thought.