Fruit Harvest! Preparedness 7.0/ What I Bought This Week

 

Fruit Harvest!

Apples and pears! Dave and I spent a good chunk of Sunday afternoon canning apple slices. Usually I do all of it by myself, so it was really helpful to have Dave with me. He was basically in charge of rinsing, slicing, cutting off any bad spots. I was in charge of the syrup, prepping and packing the jars, canning and processing. Worked great that way! And I love my new steam canner! 

It uses so much less water, more efficient than the old one, much nicer experience. My old steam canner used to have a lot more water added after every batch. It took longer to heat it back up. This used a lot less water so the heat up time was much shorter, and great seals on everything! Will be working on processing some of raw apples that are left over by freezing those in vacuum bags. Sadly someone started stealing some of our pears so we went ahead and picked them, and will be canning them also. Fresh and raw is the best though, uber juicy! Out tomatoes are finally turning red and Basil is HUGE, almost time for pesto! 

Preparedness 7.0/ What I Bought This Week-

We went to Target to buy something. Their ENTIRE seasonal section was empty, nothing there but empty racks. More to come I expect. I bought my grandson some gifts for birthday/holidays early, who knows what will be available later? Sshhh- I got books and art stuff. Got Cadbury chocolate bars for $1.50, everywhere else are $2.50! I bought four, for when the zombies come! Found some Wallyworld Keystone beef, chicken and ground beef, $6.00 a can, just cooked meat and sea salt, simple ingredients. This other store now also has zero cashiers. Not fun on my back with the bad ergonomics of the bagging stands.  Bought some Jasmine rice, a 10# can Augason Farms dehydrated potato slices for $8.00. Fresh taters never seem to last too long. I might dry some of my own soon. Got some mixed canned veggies and frozen peas (almost all gone). Got 1/2 gallon apple juice, salt, more plastic canning jar lids. Got some new (free) jeans from Eddie Bauer with a free $10.00 coupon. What a deal, marked $10.00, zero outlay! I bought a nice big bag of Jasmine rice, great flavor, and fast to cook. When I poured it into a 1/2 gallon mason jar some of the rice was floating in the jar. Like on cobwebs, ew. Time to freeze! 

Planting Amaranth? -

I remember seeing this growing a long time ago. This might be perfect in Idaho high desert, will look to finding some seeds. Lots of great info here on how WOMEN saved this species.  Ancient Grain Amaranth  It's amazing how some people don't grow this, think of the water savings and protein! 

Finally Garden Veggies! Preparedness 6.0 - Calories vs Nutrition, September Is National Preparedness Month!

 

Finally Garden Veggies!

With our late start (due to crazy weather) and then HOT crazy weather our veggies took a beating. We have finally cooled down into the 80s and so things are settling in. All the watering paid off! I harvested one lemon cucumber a week or so ago. Tonight we got two wonderful tomatoes, two slicing cucumbers, several pickling cukes and a medium sized zucchini! The tomato plants are really loaded and there's some paste tomatoes that are orange, almost ready. Will go out into the garden today and trim back a little bit of the foliage to help the tomatoes get riper faster.  We're still getting eggs, apples are not quite ready for Labor Day weekend I think. I will be doing peaches instead for canning. Because it's been so busy on the weekends so I decided to freeze the peaches until I could can a bunch of them. So that's the plan!

Preparedness 6.0 - Calories vs Nutrition/ What I Bought This Week-

There's lots of preparedness foods, like freeze dried, out there. Some are pre-mixed foods, some are single food, like fruits, veggies and proteins. I started looking at ingredients, reviews and taste tests. Here's a few things I noticed right out of the gate: lots of lots of empty calories, lots of dairy based products, white flour and a lot of salt. Obviously there's a difference between starving to death because you don't have anything to eat versus maintaining your health. If you're in a real emergency situation if you're really active you need plenty of protein/crabs and calories. One of the things I saw was a few different brands that specialize in freeze dried foods that have one ingredient. For instance freeze dried chicken chunks. Big difference between that and a chicken flavored casserole meal with white rice, salt chicken flavoring and dairy. With the chicken chunks you can make all kinds of different meals! So if you're looking for different foods to store for true preparedness, whether freeze-dried, dehydrated, or canned,  check the label and think about what you're buying. Dave and I are pretty allergic to most Dairy. I can eat a small amount with a meal but if I overdo it I really pay for it with major acid reflux. If Dave eats too much Dairy he also has some issues but they're different. So I was good to realize what your options are. There's also taste, good review here-  

Glad I haven't bought  any ReadyWise!

What I Bought This Week-

Two books, used on eBay, both by the same author- 

and 

I used to follow Wendy's old blog (now defunct) wanted to read her books. I found her new blog Milkingsquirrels.blogspot.com  Great stuff! Nice interview with her here Failuremag.com

A little inspiration-

Went back to Grocery Outlet and bought some more unbleached King Arthur self-rising flour. I also found some other organic unbleached flour. Bought some organic spelt berries for grinding for a different kind of flour, two more containers of crunchy peanut butter to stash and some cocoa powder! I won't survive the apocalypse without chocolate! The great thing about cocoa powder as you can use it for almost anything, baking, hot chocolate, Etc. Bittersweet chocolate chips, great for baking in the winter, a big loaf of a whole grain rustic Artisan 1/2 price. Got a nice box of cans of fat-free refried pinto beans, some more canned sliced carrots. I bought a new steam canner, one with a thermostat. The other one I have worked perfect, but you have to sit and wait for a steam plume to start your time. I thought this would be more efficient. There's quite a few University Extension office's that recommends steam canning. I've also done water bath canning but it's a lot simpler, not so much water with steam canning. There still seems to be quite a few canning jars in stock locally, just zero lids. Also got extra cat food! Anya has a sensitive tummy, has to eat super soft food/pate.  

September Is National Preparedness Month-

With Louisiana being hit by another hurricane, Ida, good reminder you just never know when things can happen. Food, water, meds, basics are really critical, as well as being able to get info. When cell towers go down good to have a hand crank radio! 

Link here Ready.gov and here Redcross.org , there's tons of site online for lots of info, don't forget your pets! 

Fermented Pickles/ Preserved Peaches In Honey/ Preparedness 5.0

 

Wow, 42 last week! 

Fermented Pickles/ Preserved Peaches In Honey/ Preparedness 5.0-

Autumn is in the air! It is finally cooling down what a nice trend! Tomatoes are just turning pink finally!!! What a late start/severe hot weather we've had. It's been interesting seeing what's going on in some of the local grocery stores. We tried to buy some distilled water this weekend and couldn't find any in a very large store. We were told by one of the cashiers that the plastic bottles that the water goes in is made in China and so there's a shortage of them. We went to a Walgreen's pharmacy and found some there, but they were almost out. We were told there that there was a shortage due to labor issues in California with workers. Not enough people in the factories to fill the water bottles. Beef prices have really skyrocketed! Glad that's not something we eat a lot of anyway. I do have three roasts I bought months ago in the freezer. 

I decided to start making some homemade bread soon and will probably stop buying sandwich bread completely. We eat one loaf a week, maybe. Luckily I have a recipe from several years ago that I had made successfully. I did buy some King Arthur flour whole grain dough enhancer. Basically makes it rise a little bit more and is not quite so dense. I'm looking forward to baking some bread and always makes the house smell so great! I saw a dough whisk and decided to buy one, comes with a curved scraper-

Comes with a flexible scraper- 

$7.00 on Amazon

I am still stocking up on a few small things here and there quite like canned veggies. I also found some nice big bags of frozen veggies at Costco. I suspect that over time there will be more shortages of fresh produce so I'm planning ahead. We made a trip Saturday to a place we've gone the last couple of years. It's a rural farmstead store. They have the best pickling cukes! I just couldn't grow enough to use. So I bought a bunch. I did three jars of one with garlic, dill, mustard seeds, black peppercorns. I did one jar with just garlic and dill. I use my fermenting jar with the water lock and three with Mason Tops-

The end of last years, still great! 

We also bought two huge frozen chickens, also local. Last year the ones I bought were almost the size of a small turkey!  Recently I scored some raw local honey in Costco. I decided to try this recipe   Peaches Preserved in Honey Lacto Fermented I may try her Blueberrie recipe next! I took some of our organic peaches out of the fridge, got a clean jar (thrifted) and the honey-

all sliced, cinnamon and peppercorns in the bottom 

I topped off with the Turmeric and added the honey. I had to take a knife down the sides to get it flowing down. I had to add three batches, slowly, about 1 and 1/2 cups, to 1 and a 1/2 Qt jar (about). Now resting and getting bubbles today! 

I also made some pickled red onions-

Slice the onions thins, put in a jar, add a few peppercorns (or diced jalapenos/red pepper flakes), season rice wine vinegar (or apple cider), a little salt, shake well. Great on sandwiches and salads! Let sit for a day or so and it's ready!!!