is ongoing here in my little apartment.
My local grocery had boneless, skinless chicken breast on sale for $1.99/lb. 14 pints are in my pressure canner.
Frozen hash browns were on sale for $1.99 per 2 lb. bag. I bought 4 bags. They filled 11 dehydrator trays and are drying as I write. I really like having the dehydrated hash browns on hand. I put about 2/3 of a cup of them in a bowl, cover with boiling water, and within about 15 minutes they are ready to fry up for one generous serving. I've tried making my own from raw potatoes, but without success. Potatoes have to be blanched before drying. The thin slices and 1/2 inch cubes work well, but the homemade hash browns tend to fall apart. The frozen ones are already blanched, so all I need do is spread them out on the screened trays, set the dehydrators at 135 degrees and let them go.
I'm working on building my food storage back up. I used a lot of it over the winter when I was staying home most of the time. And I was really glad to have it. So each week I'm buying the sale items I can use. Prices are going up at an alarming rate, so whatever I can preserve now will save me money in the long run. As I no longer own a vehicle, this kind of shopping figures out to lots of bus rides, but it is worth it for me.
Having your own land and raising your own food is wonderful. I would much prefer to be doing that. But when in a place where that's not going to happen, there are still ways to preserve food. It is called doing the best you can with what you have to work with.
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You're a wise lady.
ReplyDeleteGorges...I'm not so sure about wisdom, but I am sure about self-preservation.
ReplyDeleteJust when I thought it was safe to wander over to your blog, I find I've been enticed to be hungry and go look for a snack.
ReplyDeleteAw...I'm sorry, Jess! I know...I'm kinda obsessed with this food storage/preservation thing.
ReplyDeleteIt's sort of funny - I hear excuses from people that they just can't possibly put anything back for a rainy day. I figure if they see that I can do it, living in a tiny apartment and with no car to get me to the store and home again, anybody can.
The thought of hash browns, served with two slices of bacon, two eggs over easy and some wheat toast, almost caused me to make a run to the all night supermarket.
ReplyDeleteJess.....Well, damn. Now I'm gonna have to head for the kitchen and cook something.
ReplyDeleteWalmart has the same chicken at the same price all the time. That about all we buy. I talked about getting a dehydrator and I get that deer in the headlight look from my wife.
ReplyDeleteBeef prices are nuts, and pork is getting to be the same way. All our snow is gone around here. YEA!!
Rob.....I have two dehydrators (20 trays total) and when my son brings me produce from the Farmer's Market, they both run 24-7. I also buy up frozen veggies when they are on sale and dry them. I make soup in the crock pot a lot and they are perfect for that. But mostly, they take up way less storage space than canned veg. and are great for long term storage.
ReplyDeleteI nearly choked when I saw the price of hamburger yesterday. I think it's going to get worse before it gets any better. Am kicking myself for only buying 4 packages of chicken. Should have bought at least a dozen at that price.
Vicki, I have a friend in South Africa who was making her own dehydrators and found out the wood had formaldehyde in it. So that first version was not a go, but she's still at it. Her's is solar powered, or will be when she gets it straightened out.
ReplyDeleteHarry.....I'll bet that's Dani. I've been watching with interest her solar dehydrator experiments as I think it would be a wonderful backup for the electric version. I should probably research the old timey methods of drying food. Our great-grandparents had ways of doing things that worked. We seem to have lost those skills and I really need to make an effort to learn should they be needed again.
ReplyDelete