The price of food, gas, and anything you purchase seems to increase every week.
There are a few ways to combat these increases if you revert back to your grandparents’ way of thinking.
The first suggestion is to plant a garden this year. It’s actually a lot of fun to see all the vegetables grow along with all the exercise and exposure to the outdoors. My wife Lisa and I made our first attempt at a garden last year. We made a lot of rookie mistakes but overall were a rewarding and tasty experience. If you don’t know how to attempt to grow a garden, ask around to some of your older relatives or neighbors, most of them are happy to share their knowledge.
Heating oil prices are at an all-time high and a good way to take a bite out of that is to start cutting the unwanted trees in your dooryard or property. Don’t try to do too much at once, just do a little bit every other day and before you know it, you’ll have a handsome woodpile. I’ve been told that a cord of wood equals 100 gallons of heating oil, so if you harvest the unwanted trees around your property, it will save you hundreds of dollars this winter.
In your spare time in the evenings, fishing one of our many ponds and lakes is usually productive. All of these bodies of water have many tasty fish for your freezer. Bass, pickerel, white perch, black crappies, and even yellow perch out of cold water are great eating.
I simply filet all of these fish so that there is no skin or bones, just a clear piece of meat as the end result. When I cook these fish, I start by soaking the fillets for a few minutes in a scrambled egg wash, the next step is a plastic bag with Italian bread crumbs which I shake the filets around in the bag which breads the fish.
The next step is having a big frying pan with about one inch of canola oil on medium heat. When the oil is hot enough gently place the fish filets in your frying pan and simply cook until golden brown, it only takes a few minutes to fully cook. Don’t listen to people who say these are “trash fish” it’s not true as any of these fish are as good as it comes.
In closing this week, get outside, have some fun and you’ll save a little money. There is a lot to be said for doing your grocery shopping with a rifle and a fishing pole.
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