"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any." 
— Alice Walker

I refuse to start every newsletter this year with doom and gloom, but we are collectively dealing with information overload, fear, uncertainty, and a healthy dose of rage at the current state of things. If you’re not feeling overwhelmed, furious, and deeply unsettled by the relentless attacks on women, marginalized communities, and democracy itself, then I’m really not sure you’re in the right place reading this newsletter. My platforms online are a zero-tolerance space for bigotry, misogyny, racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, fascism, and every other flavor of hate. So please know that I’m feeling all the things —sad, mad, frustrated, scared, depressed, anxious —but trying my best to focus on the things I can control.

Like buying seeds! Placing my second seed order of the year, this time from High Mowing Organic Seeds, was a balm on my soul this week. In no particular order, I got:

• maxibel haricot vert beans

• golden acre cabbage

• tango celery

• ceres dill

• German johnson tomato

• lila lu carrot

• Napoli carrot

• red kuri winter squash

• honey boat delicata squash

• Dakota black popcorn

• glass gem popcorn

• tap dancer popcorn

• grune perle parsley

• pink boar tomato

• mizuna Asian greens

PHEW. I still have to order my potatoes, but know the varieties I’ll be getting: Adirondack Red and German Butterball. I planted potatoes last year, but by the time it was ready to harvest, the garden was too overgrown and I couldn’t remember where I had planted them.

And speaking of potatoes, I just made a note for myself to pop out to the garage this weekend and check in on my dahlia tubers that I’m trying to store over the winter. It’s a big experiment, and I heavily consulted this blog post while storing mine, except for the part where they say to not put all of your eggs in one basket. Meaning, store them in a few different locations to see what works best. Well, mine are all in the same spot —so here’s hoping it works out, fingers crossed.

One bright spot of the year so far has been seeing the widespread appreciation for Costco, one of my favorite stores, for refusing to roll back DEI initiatives. And just a reminder that DEI probably isn’t what you think it is and covers many things such as: gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, religions, socioeconomic status, cultural background and national origin, veteran status, and more.

In celebration of companies standing up for what is right, here’s the list of my favorite things to get at Costco that I shared with my friend recently, since she just became a member because of their stance on the issue! I didn’t polish this at all, and I just know I’m missing some goodies but this was all my mom brain could conjure up on a whim. We’ve been doing the bulk of our grocery shopping at Costco for 10 years, and I think I have it pretty dialed in — 99.99% of our meals are eaten at home, and they have great prices on good quality stuff in bulk. Plus, the $1.50 hot dogs!! Although in full disclosure, I think I’ve become a chicken bake kinda gal.

A Frugal Hippie’s Guide to Costco:

• frozen mixed veggies

• frozen organic fruit

• Wild caught frozen salmon

• Grass fed ground beef

• Heavy cream

• Butter

• babybel cheese

• kerrygold

• real good chicken strips GF in frozen section

• cheeses!! Good prices and good quality

• all of the meat is priced well and good to divide up and freeze into smaller portions

• quinoa

• canned sardines (weird but I love them sm)

• just bare chicken for kids (chick fil a dupe and pretty good ingredients, green and white bag freezer section)

• organic Greek yogurt

• organic coffee

• middle snack aisles always have like, dried fruit, jerky, freeze-dried fruit, chomps meat sticks, etc good for kid snacks

• Teton grass fed beef sausages

• goodles mac n cheese

• wild caught frozen shrimp

• dates

• rao’s marinara sauce

• Dave’s spicy pickle chips

• grillo’s pickles

• organic peanut butter

• rice

• bread flour

• all-purpose flour

• seltzer

• string cheese

• simple mills almond flour crackers

• Detroit motor city co is a good frozen pizza in a pinch! I keep a couple in the chest freezer for emergency dinners

• olive oil

• raisins

• frozen meatballs (good and easy and kids love them)

• bibimbap (korean seaweed rolls in the freezer section)

• chocolate chips (good price to keep in the pantry for baking!)

• protein powder (gold standard, can’t beat the price)

My motto this year is essentially that if it’s not at Costco, I don’t need to buy it. Remember, every dollar we spend is a vote, now more than ever.

Until next (pizza) Friday,

Amy

LOLs of the Week

project_knowledge

A post shared by @project_knowledge

cactusjerk

A post shared by @cactusjerk

tales.from.the.thrift

A post shared by @tales.from.the.thrift

thehappygardens

A post shared by @thehappygardens

nugget

A post shared by @nugget

Reading

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

Making

This year, I’m trying my darndest to make everything within reason from scratch —meaning, the goal isn’t perfection, but stretching myself to rethink my grocery store purchases. I’m talking all baked goods, granola, crackers, sauces, dressings, dips, etc. I’m trying to be strategic about making and freezing extra, planning ahead, and getting the kids involved. This isn’t a tradwife/everything is poison vibe, but more of a “everything at the grocery store is so freaking expensive and I’m sick of it” frugal hippie vibe, ya feel me?

From the past week:

• these chocolate peanut butter crispy cups

• a rye harvest sandwich loaf

• yogurt in the InstantPot! This is a great article on the method/science of it.

• a bulk mixture of pancake/waffle mix

• mac and cheese (kids didn’t like it, for the record, but it was delicious!)

• lemon and black raspberry French yogurt cake —I adapted the recipe from a book I got when I was pregnant, Bringing Up Bébé, but this is basically the recipe right here

• this dill pickle chicken salad because my husband accidentally dropped an entire container of Grillo’s pickles and I had to go on a pickle rescue mission. I probably 6x-ed the amount of pickles called for!

Loving

• Salted honey iced lattes. Part of my No Buy 2025 is not buying coffee out and about —you know, unless it’s a special occasion, or we’re traveling. Not as a reward for going grocery shopping and being a Very Brave Girl. We got a little espresso machine a couple years ago as a family Christmas present, and it was off to the races — I was drunk with the power of cheap at-home lattes! Recently, I saw this girl on TikTok make a little salted honey iced latte and promptly made one. 10/10 delicious.

• @SMJFalconry on TikTok — This British dude educates on various birds of prey while holding them and it’s so simple and pure and informative! Ugh, I just freaking love birds so much it hurts sometimes.

• Stick with me on this one, OK? Stewed apples! I saw this video, made them with the remnants of an apple my daughter didn’t finish, and I’ve made it every day for the last week for a snack. I like to make it extra apple pie-y and cook them with a dash of cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, and a pinch of salt. Then I put them on some Greek yogurt and have some Grape Nuts or granola for a little crunch. I wake up craving them, and I am never in the mood for anything sweet in the morning! Like, ever. Pancakes, waffles, donuts, oatmeal? They don’t do it for me. I’m a savory breakfast gal. But stewed apples have me singing a different tune lately, I guess!

• Last weekend we watched The Birdcage for the first time, and aside from being knee-slappingly hysterical, it felt eerily relevant watching it now, nearly 30 years later. The same fear-driven, narrow-minded attempts to control how people live and who they love are alive and well—just with a more aggressive political agenda, courtesy of Project 2025. Agador Spartacus for president!

• ProCreate iPad app for garden design. I bought it last winter and it’s my favorite tool for visualizing how to plot out my garden — there’s a time and a place for spreadsheets, but I like to get a little artsy-fartsy with the design process. It’s helpful to import images and sketch over them — the sky is the limit with the functionality, really. I think it’s one of the best ways to quickly test out ideas. I used it for our garden expansion, trellis locations, pathway design, and rough planting plan. Bonus: if you have kids, they love to doodle their own designs and get really creative with some digital artwork. Think of it like an elevated version of KidPix! I’m showing my millenial-ness there.

Link Roundup

The Last Days of American Orange Juice [The Atlantic]

Families buy more sugary cereal if advertising targets kids, not adults [NPR]

How the Capybara Won My Heart—and Almost Everyone Else’s [The New Yorker]

Restaurants and Bakeries Are Rethinking Their Most Basic Ingredient: Eggs [Eater]

Trees ‘remember’ wetter times − never having known abundant rain could buffer today’s young forests against climate change [The Conversation]

Enjoying Pizza Friday? Share the love and forward this email to a friend you think would dig it so they can get in on the fun, too. Like pebbling, which is what penguins do! They bring little trinkets like pebbles to their loved ones. How precious is that?

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