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We went to a shindig at a local farm. Bigger than I expected. Lots of crafts booths, a corn maze, pumpkin patch, all kinds of homemade treats - but $7 for a 2x4" banana bread, and $20 for a large home made sourdough loaf, had to pass on that, but folks were snapping them up, so guess I'm out of touch. We fed lettuce to a goat. Woot-woot! And that's my day so far. ;) :D

I have to figure the profit margin on banana bread, we make really good bread, with walnuts and Kahlua. For I think about $1 a loaf. Maybe a new business. ;)
 
Bush hogged the lower pasture down in the bottoms this afternoon, just a few acres. Cut quite a few low hanging tree limbs with the new loppers I bought. Pushed down a dead willow tree and got it pushed out of the way. The bottoms are now done for the year.

Then I cut a couple acres up in the main pasture where the hay rings used to sit. Lady's thumb and perrila had killed all the grass. They had to go!

Watching football now, no plans but dinner and more football.

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Hooray, all the upstairs door trim is painted. Little granddaughter had her headphones on while I was painting, she was singing and playing ukelele, didnt realize I could hear her, but it was great being entertained.
Almost time to start cooking dinner, and get some of the cherry tomatoes washed and sorted...green ones downstairs and red and yellow stay up. Picked four buckets of them today. And a bucket of cayenne and habanero.
 
We went to a shindig at a local farm. Bigger than I expected. Lots of crafts booths, a corn maze, pumpkin patch, all kinds of homemade treats - but $7 for a 2x4" banana bread, and $20 for a large home made sourdough loaf, had to pass on that, but folks were snapping them up, so guess I'm out of touch. We fed lettuce to a goat. Woot-woot! And that's my day so far. ;) :D

I have to figure the profit margin on banana bread, we make really good bread, with walnuts and Kahlua. For I think about $1 a loaf. Maybe a new business. ;)
that's some high prices for bread!! I sell my sourdough rye for $7 , regular white for $5 , banana bread I would sell for $5 too
You must be in a large city with a bunch of rich folk!
 
so I am being very bad, having a slice of pizza and a beer in bed LOL. I was so tired from moving stuff around today went to bed early and then son asked if I wanted some pizza ( he made one for snack after working on solar panels all day)
I feel like I unloaded a trailer full of hay by myself...
So I moved ALL our food storage to the pantry instead of extra room, many many buckets that were heavy. I moved all the animal care stuff in the livingroom temporary , will go into a cabinet after I sort it. Cleared out the closet in the room, was full of things that needed to go in the trash, have 6 bags of trash including my last wine making experiment I forgot in the closet and the top is rusted shut on the bottle LOL , going into the trash definitely. I found my ice cream maker :)
Told husband once this project gets done I want to go swimming
 
Today I went through all my cooking spices and cataloged them by brand and "best by" date. I found that lots of brands omit any kind of date on their spices. Hmmm.

Then I went online to look for lists of "essential spices to have in your kitchen". I did have most of those, although some were quite old.

Next I researched best brands for high quality spices. And also researched brands that had "basic kits" of the most common spices. Then I researched what brands offer very small containers - no need buying larger jars of stuff I won't use often, and end up inventorying it for staleness 15 years from now.

I found that "Simply Organic" offers small jars of most things that I want. Oddly missing from the small jar offerings is paprika, but they have three versions of that in larger jars. Offering no small jars seems strange to me - paprika is a fairly popular spice, I use is often.

Two questions: (1) Does anyone have experience with this brand? Are they any good? And (2) when it comes to organic spices, does "organic" mean they will have a shorter shelf-life than non-organic equivalents?

https://www.simplyorganic.com/spices-and-seasonings?product_list_limit=100

Scroll down for the little jar varieties - they are all $2.59 per jar. FWIW, they appear to have 23 different small jars of single spices and 3 more small jars of combinations - Italian mix, Pumpkin Pie mix, and Herbes de Provence mix (which looks a lot like Italian mix to me, with Lavender added). 23 x $2.59 = $59.57 and 26 x $2.59 = $67.34 both of which are reasonable prices to get a nice assortment of spices (but you'll have to get the paprika separately). The only problem is, how does one find out if the Simply Organic brand spices actually taste good? I certainly like the small jars so less will go to waste. But if their stuff doesn't taste good, it's probably no better than my aged stuff already in my cabinet.
 
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I have a cabinet spice drawer filled with spices. I probably have all the ones ever needed for normal cooking, and then some.

Many are likely past their "best by" dates. But I don't care.

I took a pic of them all so I know what to look for when I open the rack drawer. Saves me lots of time searching.
 
Today I went through all my cooking spices and cataloged them by brand and "best by" date. I found that lots of brands omit any kind of date on their spices. Hmmm.

Then I went online to look for lists of "essential spices to have in your kitchen". I did have most of those, although some were quite old.

Next I researched best brands for high quality spices. And also researched brands that had "basic kits" of the most common spices. Then I researched what brands offer very small containers - no need buying larger jars of stuff I won't use often, and end up inventorying it for staleness 15 years from now.

I found that "Simply Organic" offers small jars of most things that I want. Oddly missing from the small jar offerings is paprika, but they have three versions of that in larger jars. Offering no small jars seems strange to me - paprika is a fairly popular spice, I use is often.

Two questions: (1) Does anyone have experience with this brand? Are they any good? And (2) when it comes to organic spices, does "organic" mean they will have a shorter shelf-life than non-organic equivalents?

https://www.simplyorganic.com/spices-and-seasonings?product_list_limit=100

Scroll down for the little jar varieties - they are all $2.59 per jar. FWIW, they appear to have 23 different small jars of single spices and 3 more small jars of combinations - Italian mix, Pumpkin Pie mix, and Herbes de Provence mix (which looks a lot like Italian mix to me, with Lavender added). 23 x $2.59 = $59.57 and 26 x $2.59 = $67.34 both of which are reasonable prices to get a nice assortment of spices (but you'll have to get the paprika separately). The only problem is, how does one find out if the Simply Organic brand spices actually taste good? I certainly like the small jars so less will go to waste. But if their stuff doesn't taste good, it's probably no better than my aged stuff already in my cabinet.
Who buys small bottles of paprika? I would call those samples 😂. I actually just received seeds to grow my own paprika peppers 🤤. I order in bulk so might not be of much help here, but if your spices are properly sealed, they are probably fine. If you have flavored extract (like lemon extract) that is old, it is probably NOT fine. Check those as they turn into alcohol.
 
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