You can add me to the 3. I have foraged blackberries from our local streams and trails for the last few years. This year was a disaster for some reason and not worth the effort, but usually I can get several lb of fresh blackberries for free (other than the time collecting them, and the purple fingers) and the one morning spend jarring them. We use a half-sugar recipe that allows the fruit to really pop in the resulting jam - it’s really good (especially on buttered sourdough, with coffee) and not possible to find something that good at the store. We call it “blackberry caviar” due to the appearance and texture.
Spaghetti Noodles (Several times. It was terrible every time.)
Pasta Sauce
Mayonnaise
Pickles
Fried Chicken
French Fries
Beer
Corned Beef Hash
Lemonade
Doughnuts
Jelly
Sushi
For most of these, I prefer homemade, but don’t generally have the time. These I usually make at home:
Bread
Tortillas
Pizza
Making mayo makes me nervous that I’m going to give myself salmonella, so I’d rather have the pasteurized product from the store.
We always have a bottle RealLemon. Super simple (lemon juice, sugar, water, shake). Obviously fresh-squeezed is far superior, but it will be at least as good as any commercial lemonade and vastly cheaper.
Except for the cost of the jars. And especially the lids, which aren’t usually re-usable.
I’m pretty sure that the only reason Mom didn’t/doesn’t make most of the family’s clothes is that you can find gently-used clothes for less than the cost of the fabric. In fact, it often goes the other way: She buys used clothes just so she can repurpose the fabric into something else, like a quilt.
Granted I did have to buy a dozen jars on one occasion, but that’s the only time and they weren’t desperately expensive. Friends will always save used jars for you if they think one might be coming back to them filled. It’s a nice arrangement. Share the bounty!
And I’ll re-use a lid several times without problems.
Except for the first two months of the pandemic in 2020, when large numbers of Americans suddenly decided to bake bread at home – partially because it gave them something to do at home, and partially because the bread aisle at the supermarket was often bare. This, of course, then led to sudden shortages of baking flour and yeast.
It was largely thanks to the Great Pandemic Lockdown that we started baking at home. It was a necessity at first, but as our knowledge and skill of baking has increased, we’ve gotten to the point where we bake almost everything at home, simply because it’s 1) fun, 2) frequently better than commercial baked goods, and 3) really not that time consuming.
The fact that woman’s name is “Caren” is perhaps the ultimate Karen feature of her personality. The irony is delicious. I am blessed with a “Karin” here who is “speshul” that way too.
We have at least a half-dozen walnut trees on the property which drop a ton of nuts every year. After last year, when I laboriously harvested and processed the crop, I decided that if I want walnuts, I’ll buy a bag at the supermarket.
I buy ready-to-make ground coffee in bags. It just seems like excess effort to try to start a small coffee plantation so I can harvest and roast the beans.
Is it though? I’m no Iron Chef, but I have a little home fryer, and make French fries, chicken, etc in it that come out pretty good. I’ve never made a donut though.
Most condiments, especially mayonnaise. Bagels - we also tried them once, with no success. Pastrami, and nearly everything which needs hours upon hours of prep.
My wife used to bake bread, and even sold some to local restaurants, but then she got busier. Hers is better than what we can buy, but not enough better to be worth the effort.
Something not on our list is sushi. Though we eat it out, we also make it. It helps to be near Asian groceries with sushi quality fish and all the components. We’re not as good as sushi chefs, but it’s not bad, a lot cheaper, and better than regular grocery store sushi.
Haha! When I told my coworkers that I had bought two loaves of bread in the last year and baked about 150 loaves at home, they looked at me as if I was an idiot. So you must be right.
This was pre-COVID. In the last two and a half years I’ve bought bread only when on vacation.
I haven’t bought a supermarket (packaged or “fresh”) loaf of bread since about 2010. Don’t tell my employer.