THRIVE Market!

Have you heard about Thrive Market yet?

They are a wonderful company that sells healthy and natural products and brands you love at wholesale prices.  Think Costco but better!  We don't buy much in the way of packaged foods anymore but the few items we do we get from Thrive now.  

When I first learned about them I compared the prices on the items I would buy the most between our local Kroger and Amazon.  Thrive won out every time.  They deliver straight to your door and offer free shipping on any order over $49!  So, about once a month we place our order with Thrive and then we can avoid the store (except the Farmer's market) except for those occasional items you need ASAP. 

Thrive is also a company with a great mission and a commitment to providing a family in need with a membership for each paid membership.  That means, when you join not only do you get the benefits of discounted healthy foods and products...but you are giving that opportunity to another family as well.  I like the sound of that!

This morning we received another order from Thrive.  All this for less than $45! 

That's two bags of organic oats, three packages of wild rice cakes, two huge bags of cereal, pancake mix, two boxes of crackers, baby wash, toothpaste and they included a recipe for blueberry muffins ♥

If you'd like to give Thrive a test drive, you can try them out without paying for membership for 2 months.  You will also get 25% off your first order and free shipping over $49!  Give it a try and let me know what you think.  If you have any questions, let me know! 

Try THRIVE now!

Fig!

Summer is starting its wind down here at our little house.  The pool hours are cutting back, public school started back today and most of the Summer crops in the garden have already been pulled to make way for Fall plantings.  Its a bittersweet feeling to see the sky darkening sooner and to see the first leaves already beginning to fall (even though its still in the 90's here today).  Its that mixed bag of being eager for my favorite season to arrive and being a little sad that Summer is almost gone.  Truly, Fall doesn't really get going around here until October...but I am already dreaming of pulling the scarves back out and mixing up batches and batches of pumpkin bread.

Today in honor of the pending close to Summer and the welcoming of Fall we made fig jam.  We have a fig tree or two in our backyard but they are still green.  I am afraid they are not going to ripen properly due to how dry it has been and Mr. has been eyeing them like crazy.  So, when we went to the market this morning and saw they had buy one get one containers of figs that was that.

 You can tell we are jonesing for Fall here, right?

While the baby napped I whipped up two jars of fig jam, one with cinnamon and one without.  Hopefully we will still get our own figs from out back, but in case we don't...this should do the trick.  

Fig Jam Recipe:

24 ripe figs

One Lemon

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

2 cups water

Wash and allow figs to air dry 

Chop figs and place in large sauce pan

Add 2 cups water and bring to a low boil

Add sugar and turn up heat

After about 10 minutes mash if you like

Continue to stir frequently to avoid sticking

Add lemon juice 

Continue to simmer over medium heat until it thickens to consistency you like 

Add cinnamon if desired

Allow to cool then add to clean jars

Will keep in refrigerator for 10 or so days

Garden Update

This is our first year of REALLY planting a garden.  In the past I tried to grow a few things (one year even in the square foot box I ordered online).  Usually it was just a few pots of herbs and some failed tomatoes.  My problem is I get lazy and forget to water everything and in the Georgia summers that just doesn't cut it.  

This year will be different though.  I am determined to grow something of substance and begin learning about growing my own food.  That, combined with the 9-year-olds (be it short-lived) desire to have a garden had me placing a decent sized order for seeds in the late Winter.  We combed over our High Mowing Seeds catalog and chose what we wanted to grow and what we thought we had enough sunlight for.  

We started with trying to start a few seeds indoors.  That didn't turn out so well.  Our tomatoes and Iko Iko peppers just didn't do so hot so, I abandoned starting them inside and just waited until it was warm enough to throw everything outdoors.  I ended up having to purchase small tomato plants since I wasted all our seeds trying to DIY it.  We ended up purchasing a mixture of plants from the big box garden store and through our CSA market.  

Once it was warm enough we started with green arrow peas, zucchinis, cucumbers, spring mix, carrots basil, rosemary, spinach and jalapenos.  In the back of the house we planted our tomato plants in buckets and some organic potatoes I had saved in a large garbage can.  We quickly ran out of space and added a second box of onions, sunflowers, cosmos and some thinned cucumbers and zucchinis (I went a little crazy with the seeds).  We were also gifted some free strawberry plants and raspberry plants from a kind neighbor and added more strawberry plants, all in pots next to the boxes.  

I ended up having to thin the cucumbers and zucchinis big time so some zucchinis were moved to a spot in the back yard under this strange flower pot thingy that is filled with basil seedlings. 

 (first box with jalapenos, carrots, spring mix, zucchinis, peas, cucumbers and spinach)

 (potato can)

 (thinned zucchinis underneath weird planter thing filled with basil)

 (second box with onions, dill, sunflowers, cosmos, more zucchini and cucumbers)

(16 tomato plants of various varieties)

Now one month later, things are coming along pretty well.  I managed to rehab the fledgling cucumber plants and zucchinis that looked a little rough in the beginning.  Here is how things looked over the weekend:

(Various strawberry plants, basil, rosemary and wildflowers in pots.  newish greens and spinach along with some extra sunflowers in gifted pallet)

 (salvaged cucumbers in long pot)

 (second box still coming along with added marigolds)

 (original box with added marigolds, re-homed jalapenos and some cucumbers that need to be thinned again badly)

 (peas coming in)

(more peas and cucumbers on back deck)

There you have it...one month of work and growth.  Still doesn't look like a lot, but its improvement.  We have been weighing and tracking all that we harvest so we can see at the end of the year what we have grown.  SO far we have a whopping 1 lb of berries, a few ounces of spring mix and a gallon freezer bag of basil that I haven't weighed yet.  Creeping along y'all, creeping along.