Preparedness 10.0 / What If ? , Canning Rhubarb Sauce

 

Payette Lake

Preparedness 10.0 / What Ifs?

Autumn is here, cooling down, leaves starting to fall, got some rain! We decided to take a short day trip up to McCall for a change of scenery and a mental health break. Great weather, saw six deer, clear skies and 70 degrees! Random shots-

saw tons of these on the ground, not sure what they are

Water is low

We hit our favorite thrift store! I found a really nice expensive-looking ceramic garlic holder for fresh garlic-

$2.00

The store was just putting out a cast iron pot with a lid. As the worker was taking a photo I asked her how much it was? She said "well what do you want to offer me"? I looked at the bottom and said "made in Taiwan",  looked in pretty good shape. I offered her $12, she said yes and I bought it! It needs a good scrubbing but it was already seasoned which was good. Not sure how old it is. I had read lately a lot of people bake round loaves of bread in round cast iron pots. Always good to have an extra pot anyway since sometimes we have company and need the extra cooking containers-

We stopped at the Ace Hardware store since I had a funny feeling they might have some canning lids. And boy did they! I bought some Pur brand wide-mouth canning jars. I think Pur bought out part of the Mason company.  After I did some digging I think that the lids are made in Colorado. I was really happy that the price, 12 lids for $5 so I bought five boxes. Who knows what next year will bring? Good to plan ahead-

I took a day of work for projects, that was much more relaxed! I did a little fall baking, using the last of my canned apples slices from several years ago. Lots of cinnamon and an oat/crumble topping, yummy! 

On the preparedness side I heard Costco is not only limiting items but will be hiring their own cargo freighters, just like Home Depot. Our grocery store, Winco, seems to be pretty well stocked for now. The Dollar Store is on the national news, now their prices going up. I just keep looking for gaps I can fill now inexpensively. I bought some soy sauce, pork chops (to freeze), ketchup, Bronner's apple cider vinegar. We use vinegar in the chickens water, great for probiotics and shell strength. I bought some nice bell peppers, .50 cents each, to freeze-

Went to our fave farmstead, bought pumpkins and fresh local fruit, gypsy peppers, squash, peaches and plums-

fun pumpkins! 

squashs

More bulk spices, chives and parsley

I just froze two dozen eggs since the production is slowing down a little bit. Will freeze another dozen.I finally found some dried small red beans to make red band and rice, recipe here Authentic Louisiana Red Beans and Rice  This is a recipe you can really play around with. I had a frozen pork shank so I used that for flavor, much better than overly-salty ham hocks! Served with biscuits, and lemon cukes, love those beans-

Nice haul from the garden, will freeze some-

I had to turn off Youtube and take a break from all the prepping info last week. I was on information overload. I can see the writing on the wall (to a certain extent) of how the next year (or two) might roll out.  I will say frankly it's looking pretty bad. I just read that natural gas is skyrocketing and that could be really tough for a lot of people this winter. At least we do have several oil-filled radiant heaters. They don't use a lot of power and a great to heat up individual rooms. The UK is running out of fuel and calling in the military to help. Ships stuck on the coast, droughts, etc. I think for some people who don't know how to cook from scratch, garden, preserve foods or fix things life might get pretty ugly. Sometimes you have to make SACRIFICES. My family did that during the depression. You adjust and keep going. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but we'll see. After watching a YouTube video the other I thought about some "what ifs"??? 

What If ? 

****What if you couldn't find any clothing/shoes/household goods for a year? What if groceries and other supplies become more and more limited? What if you couldn't get basic medical care? What if your main source of heat for the winter quit working? What if you had trouble getting water? What if you lost power for an extended period of time? What if you didn't have internet access? ****

Some of those questions get your wheels spinning. So what kind of backups might you be able to have? Can you barter? Can you make things? And how can you modify your home/life to be more resilient? For urban folks I HIGHLY recommend the Retrosuburbia book, see left sidebar for more info.  Full of amazing ideas! Here's my fave new Youtube channels, tons of great info there Melissa Norris Modern Homesteading and this too Simple Living Alaska, check them out! Gives me helpful tips and tricks and something positive to focus on if I get bummed out. Hit the thrift stores, for instance and buy tools, etc. Tools would be a great barter item. Think outside the box. 

I know, it's not red

Canning Rhubarb Sauce-

Every year our neighbor (who hates rhubarb), lets us harvest hers, we give her eggs. This year we got about 10 lbs. I froze it in vacuum bags back in July, then thawed this weekend-

Here's what I used, was a little too sweet so I added a little bottled lemon juice  Canning Rhubarb Sauce. The 10 Lbs came out to 13 jars. I did adjust the sugar a little bit lower and it was still pretty sweet so I was just a tablespoon of lemon juice. Nice to have more homemade food! It came out a bit green, that rhubarb isn't the really red version, and I don't like food coloring. It's tasty! Good on top on ice cream, cereal, yogurt or plain.