7 ways to get food for FREE

Let’s face it, times are tough for a lot of people these days. Finding money for the simple things like the weekly grocery shop is becoming hard for many families. But there are ways you can source food for FREE or very cheaply. Here are 7 ways to get food for free.

GROW YOUR OWN

Chickens and eggs

Admittedly, there might be a small start up cost associated with growing your own food. For example, chickens are an excellent source of food in both the meat and the eggs. There’s the initial cost to set up a coop for them and purchase the chicks but, in the long run, this could provide a lot of good quality food for your family. Eggs are an excellent source of protein and can be eaten as is or used in baking and the chickens can be eaten as well. The manure is perfect for the garden. I can remember we had chickens in our backyard growing up. I’m not really sure why we got rid of them. Maybe it was too much for Mum to handle on her own with 3 young children. Check your local area government rules and regulations for keeping chickens.

Keeping Chickens for Eggs

Keeping Backyard Chickens

 

Fruit & Vegetables

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is also an excellent source of free food. Many varieties of produce can be grown from seeds you already have (eg tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons etc) or they could be grown from the actual item itself (eg potatoes) or from the root (eg celery). There are a lot of tutorials on how to grown your vegetables from scraps if you Google them. Fruits like strawberries are very easy to grow as well. I have grown my own herbs over the years but intend on growing salad vegetables when the weather warms up.

Starting a Vegetable Garden

Grow Your Own Food

25 Foods You Can Regrow from Kitchen Scraps

Fruit from the Fruit Salad Plan (Monstera Deliciosa)

I can remember we had a choko vine, a pawpaw (paypaya) tree, a fruit salad plant (monstera deliciosa) and a custard apple tree. This obviously saw us through hard times when we couldn’t afford basic fruit but I don’t remember eating too much of these things. My grandmother was pretty self sufficient with both fruit and vegetables in her backyard. Just remember to factor in the time it will take to tend your vegetable garden. You’ll have to make sure you keep pests away, fertilise it (you can do this easy enough by making your own mulch from food scraps) and keep it watered. 

COMMUNITY GARDENS

We have a community garden in our area and a lot of cities and towns are getting in on the idea. Members from a community take a small allotment of land and turn it into a thriving fruit and vegetable garden. You probably just have to volunteer your time in return for produce. I actually haven’t been to my local community garden but have been meaning to. Check out your local area for any community gardens.

Find a Community Garden in Australia

 

FOOD BANKS

Free Bread

I have had a couple local churches offer free bread over the years and I’ve always taken up their very kind and generous offer. When I first became a single parent, I was getting free bread from this lovely elderly couple who collected beautiful unsold fresh bread and buns from local bakeries at the end of the day. Once I got back on my feet, I said that I no longer needed to collect it but they said I should come anyway. It was only going to be thrown out. I didn’t want to take any before someone else in need should have it.

There was always so much leftover at the end of the night at the local church hall. We used to get beautiful sourdough loaves, wholegrain loaves and rolls and the lovely couple would save a doughnut or cake for my children. 

There are at least 2, that I know of, churches in my immediate area who still do this with the bread. Whatever is leftover at the end of the day is collected by a farmer who feeds it to his pigs. Honestly, this bread is one day old, if that. It’s beautiful and fresh and packaged. There is nothing wrong with it. Again, I would never take free bread from anyone else in need but if it’s only going to be fed to pigs, I’ll take it home with me. I only ever take what I need for our small family. Our freezer is always stocked with bread and rolls. When it’s defrosted, it’s as fresh as the day it was baked.

Groceries

Food banks also offer food that is either past it’s ‘best before’ date or getting close to it. They may offer some of this food for free or ask for a small price or donation. I know some churches in my area have ’emergency packs’ for $40 which has quite a few groceries in it but it’s not for me but I’m sure it helps out a lot of people in need.

Another church near me recently acquired all these boxes and boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. They were like 3 boxes for $2 and each box had about 20 chocolates in it. The best before date wasn’t until Christmas time, not that they would last that long in my house. I know chocolates aren’t nutritious everyday food, but they do have a lot of dairy products, fruit and vegetables and bread for free and other groceries for a small charge. Google ‘food bank’ or ‘free food’ in your area.

 

CHARITIES

Charity organisations like St Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army and Lifeline (here in Australia) have food banks or services where they will give you a food parcel when times are really tough. They also offer free services to help you work out a budget, how to get back on your feet and counselling when you need it. I never knew of this service before and I can remember the first Christmas on my own after my mother died and my marriage ended, I really wondered what I’d do for Christmas presents for my children.

I had a few things I picked up second hand from op shops but someone suggested phoning a charity for a Christmas parcel. I did and they brought me a whole lot of Christmas type food, snacks and treats for the children plus a little present each for them. I was so grateful. I felt like a bit of an imposter accepting the parcel because I know we would’ve got by and the children wouldn’t have known any different but I’ll always be grateful for that kind gesture and never hestitate to give to those 3 charities I mentioned.

BARTERING

Not that I’ve ever done this but if I ever was desperate for food, I would be more than willing to offer my services of cooking, cleaning or sewing, for example, in return, for example, a dozen eggs from someone who had their own chickens. I can remember as a young girl, people coming over with a box of vegetables, for example, for my Mum and she’d hand over their clean laundry or some mending they needed.

There are a lot of people out there who don’t know how to mend or cook and I’m sure they would be more than happy to do it in return for whatever food they offered or at least money towards buying food.

Barter for Cheaper Food

 

MARKETS

I love my markets for fruit and vegetables and other bits of ‘trash and treasure’ and it is all relatively cheap to buy anyway. I have been there towards the end of the day though and a lot of sellers are ‘giving away’ a lot of produce they don’t want to take home with them. I can remember getting a whole huge box of broccoli for $5 which I blanched and froze and after I paid for it, the seller threw in a couple of oranges, capsicums and potatoes. Probably a few dollars worth of extra produce I scored for free.

 

PANTRY CLEAN OUTS

I can’t say I’ve ever taken food from strangers when they’ve had a clean out. You see it a lot on Facebook garage sales for example. Usually it’s just unopened food the person knows they’ll never use. I’m not sure I’d be game enough to try it from a stranger. You just never know but for years, even when I was working full time, I always took my mother’s unwanted food items. They weren’t really unwanted. They were probably just spur of the moment purchases she had made and she realised she’d never use them.

Same goes for my sister. She often goes on a health kick or changes her diet so she’ll send all her unwanted items my way. I don’t mind in fact I love it. It gets my creative juices flowing trying to come up with ideas to use them.

 

I think in this day and age, it really is hard for a lot of families but there are a few ways you can be savvy when it comes to sourcing food for free. 

Sugar free cake using fruit & vegetables

You’ve seen the recipes, right? Pumpkin loaf, Banana cake, apricots, peaches, sweet potato, zucchini, carrot etc etc. All beautiful combinations. They are all pretty similar recipes at the end of the day. They are an excellent way to use up fruit and vegetables that might be on their way out. I found this nice sounding recipe over at Shugary Sweets for a Pineapple, Carrot, Zucchini Bread that looked absolutely gorgeous. I got to thinking we all have some of those ingredients but not all the time. I didn’t have zucchini on this particular day so I started playing with ingredients and this is what I came up with.

I was visiting a friend for afternoon tea this particular day and she has tried to eliminate sugar from her children’s diets which I reckon is an absolute miracle in itself. She’s had some wonderful success with changing her children’s behaviour just through this alone. You could of course add sugar if you wanted to but this is where I substituted the sugar with pureed fruit. It certainly wasn’t as sweet as a traditional cake but it still tasted nice.

The batter was this beautiful orange colour from the sweet potato. You could achieve the same result with pumpkin.

This recipe produced two loaves which was great. One for afternoon tea and the other taken to my sister’s place for morning tea. She always has fantastic light at her house for photos and beautiful things put out. The joys of no children.

I’ll be keeping this recipe as a regular. I reckon it’d make a nice muffin too. Handy for lunch boxes and popping in the freezer. Can be iced or each slice buttered.

Sugar Free Loaf using Fruit & Vegetables
(based on Shugary Sweets “Pineapple, Carrot, Zucchini Bread”)

• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup mashed banana (approx 2 medium bananas) (replaces 3/4 cup brown sugar) *
• 1/2 cup pureed fruit (eg apple, pear, pineapple) (replaces 3/4 cup sugar) *
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of 1 orange
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Variations & Additions:

• 1 cup pureed vegetables (eg sweet potato, pumpkin)
• 1 cup crushed pineapple
• 1 cup grated zucchini
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup nuts, roughly chopped

1. Add melted butter to mashed banana and pureed fruit. *(Or alternatively use sugar quantities as above.)
2. Add vanilla, orange zest and eggs and mix well.
3. Add any combination of extra fruit, vegetables and/or nuts.
4. Add flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and powder and salt and mix through.
5. Pour into two lined loaf pans and bake at 160 deg C for approximately 40 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. (Can be made into muffins.)

6+ ways to use tinned Fruit Salad

 

I often have tinned fruit in the pantry, in particular tinned fruit salad. There are so many things you can make with it. The obvious one is to serve chilled with ice cream.

Here’s some other ideas.

• serve with or set in jelly or custard
• trifle
• cheesecake
• fill individual meringue shells or a large pavlova with whipped cream and top with strained fruit salad
• layer in tall glasses with cream for dessert or Greek yoghurt and topped
  http://blorner.com/ReniL/

  with granola for breakfast

• puree or leave chunky and freeze in ice block moulds
• make fruit smoothies
• fill crepes or chop fruit slightly and add to pancake batter
• add to muffins
• put in a serving dish top with crumble (crisp) mix or cake batter and bake

 

Tropical Tiramisu

 

Fruit Salad Cake (I made this with a chocolate cake mix)

 

 

Fruit Salad Slice

 

French Fruit Flan

Fruit Salad Plait (replace plums with drained tinned fruit salad)

 

Lite Ambrosia Salad

 

 

 

Basic Fruit Crumble/Crisp

In my attempt to bring back the age old tradition of dessert after a meal, I have decided to have a fruit crumble tonight. I believe they call something similar a ‘crisp’ in the US but whatever you call it, it’s a great way to use up fruit starting to turn bad in the fridge or make up a quick dessert with tinned fruit.

Strawberry & Apple Crumble

 

 

These kind of desserts aren’t enjoyed that much in the warmer months here where I live in Queensland, Australia but are just perfect in our cooler months. It’s been a cool day today and will be cool tonight so I’ll be looking forward to this. It’s pretty low in calories too with only a little bit of butter used to bring all the crumble together and crisp it up. If I have them, I like to add nuts to the crumble mixture for a bit of extra crunch. Served with plain vanilla ice cream and I’m in heaven.

 

 

 

Apple, Cherry & Walnut Crumble

 

 

Basic Crumble

 

• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup rolled
  oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup nuts of choice, chopped finely
• quantity of softened fruit (if using a hard fruit, eg apple, boil for about 5 mins until slightly softened)

1. Combine flour and butter and rub butter into flour until it resembles fine crumbs.
2. Add other ingredients and ‘crumble’ over the top of fruit.
3. Bake in a 180 deg C oven for approx 20 mins or until golden.

 

 

Buying vs growing your own vegetables

[photo source]

Is it better to be buying vs growing your own vegetables? A lot has been written in various media for quite a while now on how easy it is and how much better for you it is to grow your own vegetables at home. In many ways I agree but, for me, it’s totally nonviable and not very economical.

[photo source]

Raised garden beds, garden beds made from recycled materials, permaculture, organic gardening, companion planting, succession planting, saving seeds, etc etc are all terms I hear and read about all the time. I would love to eat nothing but fresh, homegrown produce but it’s just not worth my while. 

[photo source]

Don’t get me wrong, if you’ve got the time, the resources and the people to eat all of this produce, then it might just be worth your while. My grandmother grew her own vegetables (and fruit) on her dairy farm and then also in retirement in her backyard. Whatever she grew, she ate. There wasn’t much she had to buy except for pantry staples. It was all there in her backyard. My mother tells me stories of how they’d eat green beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner (just kidding) but when the beans were in season, that’s all they ate. I couldn’t even get my children to hold a green bean.

[photo source]

I’ll grow a few herbs, which I know get used up in cooking meals, but I’ll choose to buy my fruit and vegetables and strive to get the best value for money I know how.

Buy in season

Rather than menu plan and then buying what I need, I plan the meals I will cook based on what fruit and vegetables are in season. They will always be in great supply, in peak condition (hopefully) and, most importantly, cheap. Here are some websites to look up what and when will be in season.

Australia: Fruit & Vegetable Season List

New Zealand: What’s in season?

USA: Interactive Peak Season Map at Epicurious

UK/Ireland: Eat the Seasons – What’s good to eat this week? (Updated weekly)

Canada/USA: Eat the Seasons – What’s good to eat this week?

 

Buy frozen

Look out for specials at your local supermarket or, when fruit and vegetables are in peak season and cheap, and you have the room, freeze them for use later. This is also to good to remember if you do happen to grow your own.  There is quite a lot of information on how to freeze and preserve vegetables and fruit on the internet but I found The National Center for Home Food Preservation in the USA has quite comprehensive information on freezing, canning, drying, smoking or pickling fruit and vegetables on their website.

Buy canned

Some people may argue that frozen vegetables are far superior than canned but some vegetables actually increase the phytochemical content of some foods, for example lycopene in canned tomatoes and the beta-carotene in canned carrots and pumpkin.  I use a lot of canned tomatoes and find they are full of flavour, cheap and easy to store. Canned beans and pulses such as lentils and chickpeas are a great standby as a source of protein.

Using vegetables in other ways

In a family where I am the only one who eats capsicum, zucchinis, eggplant, varieties of lettuce, cucumber, beans, celery, silverbeet and spinach, just to name a few, I’ll choose to buy a little when it’s in season and use other seasonal vegetables in a way my family will eat them to get the most from my dollar.  I’m talking about pureeing the fruit or vegetables and adding them to muffins and cakes or using the puree in pasta sauces, curries, patties and any other deceptive way I can. I also just put them on my kid’s plates and cross my fingers, sometimes with success.

No, that’s not me. That’s Martha. I find it hard to believe she gets her hands dirty.

As much as I love getting in the great outdoors and gardening, I’d prefer to spend my time in other ways rather than ensuring that all my hard efforts are being wasted in growing an abundance of vegetables that no one else will eat (except maybe the snails and grubs). I give full praise and credit to people who do grow their own and make it work for their family.

Some excellent resources to get you started on a home vegetable garden, should you so desire.

Gardenate – A worldwide resource to keep your kitchen garden growing and producing

Easy organic permaculture garden

Step by step no dig garden

Growing vegetables in pots

There is a lot of information out there on the internet and at your local library and hardware or garden centre.

 

Plum & Macadamia Pastry Braid

 

I’ve been kindly allowed to join in “The Mum & The Chef“, a group of bloggers who have got together, pick an ingredient and make it into something delicious. “The Mum” is Mish Lilly of Mish Delish fame and “The Chef” is Katrina Higham of the Windsor Deli in Windsor, Melbourne, Victoria. I’m yet to get to know who all the other participants of this challenge are but will list their blogs at the end of this post.

The cut glass bowl I’ve photographed the plums in was my Nanna’s. I’ve inherited a lot of her lovely things. As you can see on the below photo, it still has a small piece of ribbon which she glued on and wrote “W.P.”, which was my grandfather’s initials. I guess, in those days, everything belonged to the ‘man of the house’.

This month’s challenge is plums. I’ve got to say, as much as I would’ve loved to create something totally out of the ordinary and a real test of my skills, I have to be practical and come up with something that I know my family of 2 adults and 2 children will eat (a girl aged 6 who is the fussiest eater in the world and a son aged 4 who will eat just about anything). I also like to be frugal in everything I cook and not go to too much expense when buying ingredients, rather using up what I have already stocked in the pantry. I’d rather spend my money on quality rather than quantity. I had to buy plums but because they were in season, were reasonably priced.

I decided to try my hand at my Nanna’s Fruit Plait. Besides having freshly baked scones coming out of the oven when we visited my Nanna, she always made this beautiful fruit plait. A basic soft, sweet, shortcrust pastry filled with prunes, apples, sultanas or whatever fruit she had on hand. I loved the peach one the best.

One of the best gifts I’ve ever received from anyone was an exercise book of my Nanna’s favourite baking recipes. She hand wrote all her favourite recipes and gave it to me for Christmas one year. My poor Nanna has been http://cosm.co.nz/community/profile/paulsen deceased for over 10 years now but I refer to this book all the time for her classics like Jam Drops, Ginger Nuts, puddings and other sweet treats.  She even drew diagrams of how to plait the pastry.

So this is her fruit plait, filled with plums, drizzled with icing and sprinkled with chopped macadamia nuts. Not overly difficult or challenging but it’s something I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to trying and a good way to use up seasonal plums. I probably could’ve rolled my pastry thinner and made the ‘plaiting’ pieces longer but I’ll know next time. It tasted delicious anyway.

Plum & Macadamia Pastry Braid

4oz (125gm) butter
11oz (350gm approx) Self Raising flour
4oz (125gm) sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Filling:
4 large plums (I chose less ripe, firm Tegan Blue plums)
3 tbs water
3 tbs brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Icing:
4 tbs icing sugar
1 tbs boiling water
chopped nuts to sprinkle on top (I chose macadamias but flaked almonds are just as nice)

Halve plums, remove stone with a teaspoon and cut again into quarters. (I like my fruit filled sweet treats chunky.) Add water, brown sugar and cinnamon. Allow plums to soften slightly over medium heat and until sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool before using.

Sift flour and salt, add butter and rub butter into flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add sugar. Add beaten egg and milk. Mix until a firm dough forms. (You may need to add more flour, as I did.) Knead slightly until pastry is smooth.

Roll out dough on a floured surface to a rectangular shape (approx 20x25cm), trim ends to form rectangle shape. Add fruit to the centre of the dough. Cut strips approx 1.5cm wide on the diagonal on either side of the fruit. Wrap each strip over the fruit, forming a plait pattern. Bake for approx 30 mins in a 180 deg C oven.

Serve warm as is for afternoon tea, warm with custard and/or ice cream for dessert or just dig in, as I did, as soon as it came out of the oven! I hope I did my Nanna proud.

Thanks Katrina for allowing me to join in. Can’t wait for the next challenge!

“The Mum & The Chef” participants:

www.katrinahigham.com.au
www.mishdelish.com.au
www.tarisota.typepad.com
www.youwantsomemore.blogspot.com
www.gourmetgirl-friend.blogspot.com
www.papecancook.blogspot.com
http://franklyfeisty.blogspot.com 
www.allconsuming.com.au 
www.domesblissity.blogspot..com
www.girlswearbluetoo.com