Alternate Methods

Those of us who for whatever reason can not raise a garden, look for alternate methods to acquire vegetables.  Farmer's Markets are a good option.  But if that venue is not available, we watch the sale ads for our local grocery stores.

The store that my delivery service uses ran an ad for fresh veggies.  And I took advantage of it.  Yesterday 6 cabbage, 8 lbs. of carrots, 2 bunches of celery, 5 lbs. of onions and 6 very large green bell peppers were delivered.  And I had no real idea what I was going to do with them, but they are food.  They will feed my family.

I also ordered 4 lbs. each of frozen corn, broccoli, peas and mixed vegetables.

After thinking about my options, I decided to dehydrate everything.  I have lots of home canned vegetables on the shelves and those are good for meals.  Many dehydrated vegetables will rehydrate well for meals as well, but they are also good for soups, stews and casseroles.

Onions and peppers don't need to be blanched before drying.  Those I will dice and dry.  They can be used as is or turned into powder for adding flavor to various dishes.

After doing a bit of online research I found that the other vegetables that need to be blanched can be done so in the microwave.  That appeals to me because I have a smoke alarm in my apartment that will go off when I just boil water.  Cabbage, carrots and celery are shredded or diced, placed in a 2 quart casserole dish, adding a few tablespoons of water, cover and microwave at one or two minute increments until their color turns bright.  Then they are plunged into ice water to stop the cooking and patted dry before going on the dehydrator trays.

The frozen corn and mixed vegetables are drying.  I am off to shred and dice the fresh vegetables and get them ready to dry.

Food shortages are on the horizon due to weather events, civil unrest and widespread pandemic panic.  Every bit of food we can put back now will insure our families are fed no matter what happens next.

Pray and prepare, more now than ever.

Return

 I am not tech savvy enough to post this video here what with Blogger's new format, so please go over to Rev. Paul's blog to view.  It is important.  Thank you.

 https://mooseintheyard.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-return.html

Always Have a Plan - B

So here's the deal.  I talked with Youngest Son last evening.  He has been scouting around for a new pressure canner for me since a part on the lid of mine broke.  He has found none.  He says there are no canning jars or lids to be had, either.

I could go online and order all the supplies.  Thing is, when you are on a fixed income, choices have to be made.  I am not destitute.  I can pay my rent and my bills, pay for groceries and meds, do what I need to do to live relatively comfortable.  But I have just so much cash set aside for extras.  And at this point, I have decided that the extra cash needs to be spent on food.

Things are getting dicey out there, folks.  Weather destroyed a good bit  of the corn crop in Iowa.  Many migrant farm workers are now being tested for the virus and when the tests come back positive as they all do, farms are being shut down.  China is in the middle of a food crisis which then has an effect on our food supply.  Ice Age Farmer has several good videos out about these things, but I have also seen other similar reports.

Now maybe these reports are all just fearmongering hype.  But then again, maybe they aren't.  The question is, am I willing to listen to those who think I have taken a swan dive off the edge of sanity with my preparations, or do I pay attention to my gut instinct that tells me I had better kick it into high gear because time is running out.

Bottom line.  I will not risk the welfare of my family by doing nothing.

So onward with Plan-B.

I like having home canned meat in jars because it is fully cooked and often it makes meal preparations easier for me due to my physical limitations.  But there is no reason I can not have the same product in my freezer.

I have a FoodSaver.  Oldest Daughter is picking up several rolls of FoodSaver bags for me at Target this week.  The plan is to cook up the pork that is in my freezer along with what comes on my grocery order this week and what Youngest Son is picking up for me at Sam's Club next week.  All of that can be divided into meal sized portions, vacuum sealed and frozen.

My grocery order this week includes lots of frozen vegetables that can be dehydrated.  There is a sale on fresh vegetables, so I am ordering cabbage, carrots, celery, bell peppers and onions.  I am not sure yet what I will do with those.  I am still able to water bath can, so I might can some relish or pickle some of the vegetables or some can be dehydrated.  It is all food to add to the stores.  It is all food that will sustain my family if things really do get bad.

Flexibility is necessary in these uncertain times.  If Plan-A doesn't work, move on to Plan-B.  Or Plan-C or Plan-D.  Whatever it takes to do what we need to do.

Maybe everything will work out.  Maybe the rioters will go back to their Mama's basements and play computer games again.  Maybe those governors and mayors who are drunk on power will back off from their virus mandates and defund the police initiatives and be sensible again.  Maybe life as we knew it will come back.

Or maybe not.

Pray and prepare, my friends.  Right now, that's all we've got.

Plans - Sigh

So the plan was to take some time off from blogging to do a serious amount of canning.  That was a great plan right up to the time a part on my pressure canner lid broke.  After checking on the cost of sending the lid in for repairs, I found that buying a new pressure canner would cost less.  So Youngest Son went on a quest for a new canner.  And guess what - apparently pressure canners are becoming as scarce as hen's teeth.  He has a couple more places to check and if none can be found in the stores, he says he will order one for me.  As luck would have it, I had not yet thawed the pork in the freezer that I planned to jar up.

Pressure canners aren't the only items that seem to be in short supply.  Every two weeks I add canning lids to my grocery order.  I order six boxes of each size.  I am lucky if I get three boxes total.  And I ordered two cases of pint jars and got none.  Thankfully, one of my dear readers sent me a link to order jars and I may need to do that soon.

Canning supplies are not all that I am finding in short supply.  As some of you know, due to health issues, I rely on a grocery delivery service, so I am not in stores to see the condition of the store shelves as far as shortages go.  But I am noticing that substitutions within my orders are increasing.  The service I use does not substitute items unless the particular item is not on the shelf at all.  Last week apparently at the store where the service shops, there were no bags of frozen chicken breast, no Dawn dishwashing liquid, no DelMonte sliced peaches and no store brand bowl cleaner in addition to no canning lids or pint jars.  Others that I am in touch with tell me the shortages they see in their areas are different, but are shortages nonetheless.  Methinks the time to seriously stock up is coming slowly to a close.

This time away has not been a total loss.  I have been working on an inventory of my food storage.  It is much easier to consult a notebook when doing my grocery order than it is to dig around in my store room to see what I need.  Plus, there is a flaw in my character.  Or in my memory.  At any rate, I have been known to put something away for safe-keeping, only to lose it for all time.  Yep.  I do that.  So now, at the very least, I know what is in the buckets and I know what is stashed under the bed.

I have dehydrated home canned tomatoes for turning into powder.  If canning jars continue to be hard to get, I may do more, just for the empty jars.  

I have been researching Do-It-Yourself projects to replace some of the items I may not be able to get, should the shortages get worse.  I have found instructions for several that I will tell you about as I give them a try.

And I have been getting some sewing done, particularly a baby quilt for my soon to be born Great Grandbaby.  That job is just fun.  And Lord knows, we all could use a little fun in our lives to counter all the insanity around us.  I will post a picture when it is finished - probably next week.

That's all I know today.  I pray all of you are well.  Take good care and continue to pray and prepare.   

Taking Time Off

I am taking a couple of weeks off from blogging to concentrate on food preservation.  There is pork from a good grocery sale to thaw and can.  There are hashbrowns and tomatoes to dehydrate.  There is close to 100 lbs. of flour to repackage and store.  And that is just for starters.  

I have a quarter beef coming this fall from a local farmer, so the freezer needs to be cleaned out and anything that can be canned or dehydrated needs to be taken care of.  And my sons are planning another Sam's Club run.  And I have another grocery delivery in a week and a half.

If you think for one little bitty minute that things are going to go back to what we considered normal, think again.  We are told we have to 'social distance' and wear masks, but the riots continue unabated.  No social distancing there.

I read in the local news that shootings are a nightly occurrence in Minneapolis.  There was a time not all that long ago that as far as large cities go, Minneapolis was one of the more decent ones.  Now that the 'defund the police' movement has reared its ugly head and law enforcement is no longer allowed to do the job we pay them to do, anything goes and the criminals are deliriously happy with that.  Citizens - not so much.

Between the riots and mayhem that Democratic leaders are allowing to happen and the fear being perpetuated by the left over a virus with a 99% recovery rate, the normal world we grew up in is fading fast.

If you think the Dems will not use every dirty trick in the book and will make up a few more in order to gain power over us, you are delusional.  

Time is short.  If we are not now doing all we can to take care of our families, then shame on us.  That is why I am taking time to can and dehydrate and stock up on other supplies necessary to see my family through what is ahead.  I will be back when I am caught up on what needs doing.

Churches have been closed but so far as I know, there is not a ban on prayer - yet.  Pray and prepare like never before.

Experiment Fail - Sort Of

Whenever I experiment with my food storage and the experiment works, I am quick to pass the information on to you.

So when an experiment doesn't work so well, the only fair thing to do is to let you know what happened.

I had this grand idea.  I often have grand ideas.  Some work.  Others don't.  This one sort of worked but not really.  I will explain.

I have one shelf full of mostly home canned tomatoes and some cans of commercially canned tomatoes.  I also have a box full of bags of dehydrated tomatoes.  Toss into the mix several recipes for using tomato powder.

The grand idea was to use dehydrated tomato powder to make often used tomato products, thus saving shelf space.  If the experiment worked, a good deal of the canned tomatoes could be dehydrated and the shelf space used for those cases of food sitting on the floor for want of space to put them.

So I spent an afternoon running dried tomatoes through my handy, dandy little electric coffee grinder, reducing them to powder. 

The next day I made up a batch of each recipe.  And each recipe worked just like advertised.  The down side was the taste.  I expected them to taste just like the tomato products from the store shelves.  They didn't.

The reasons are numerous.  Perhaps I left the tomatoes in the dehydrator too long and that had an effect on the taste.  Or maybe my expectations were too high.  I was ready to scrap the whole thing.

But after thinking about it for a day or so, it occurred to me that the ketchup made with tomato powder might not taste just like bottled ketchup, but what if bottled ketchup was no longer available.  Anything is possible in our troubled times and with the food shortages happening across the country.  Ketchup that isn't exactly like bottled is still useful should it be all I have.

So I will continue with the experiment.  Most of my home canned tomatoes are going into the dehydrator.  Shelf space gained will be put to good use.  Below are the recipes.  You can decide for yourself if this alternative to tomato products is right for you.

Tomato Paste
6 Tablespoons tomato powder
1/2 Cup water
Equals one 6 oz. can.

Tomato Sauce
2/3 Cup tomato powder
2 Cups water
Equals a bit more than one 15 oz. can.

Tomato Juice
1 Cup tomato powder
8 Cups water
Equals one 64 oz. bottle.

Ketchup
1/2 Cup water
6 Tablespoons tomato powder
1/4 Cup cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon each salt, oregano, cumin
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard

BBQ Sauce
6 Tablespoons tomato powder
3/4 Cup water
1-1/2 Cups brown sugar
1/2 Cup vinegar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2-1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons paprika
1-1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Bring to a simmer.  Cool and refrigerate.

Tomato Soup
6 Tablespoons water + 4 Tablespoons flour
1/4 Cup water + 3 Tablespoons powdered milk
4-1/2 Cups water
2/3 Cup tomato powder
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
Mix four and water until smooth.
Mix water and dry milk until smooth.
Heat 4-1/2 Cups water until almost boiling.
Whisk in tomato powder and heat on medium low to a simmer.
Whisk in flour/water mix.
Add brown sugar and salt and mix well.
Heat to almost boiling.
Turn off heat and stir in milk/water mix.

Spaghetti Sauce
1/2 Cup tomato powder
1 Tablespoon onion flakes
1-1/2 teaspoon each dry parsley, basil, oregano and Italian seasoning
1-1/2 teaspoon each salt and garlic powder
1/4 Cup brown sugar
Simmer 1 hour.

So there you are.  If anyone gives this a try, please let me know how it works for you.  And as always, pray and prepare.

Let's Call it a Protest

 On the heels of a mandatory, state wide mask order by the communist governor of Minnesota, a friend wrote the following piece.  He is a Viet Nam Vet, a retired policeman and someone who has my complete trust and respect.

"I was asked why I don’t take Covid and the mask situation seriously. I said that I do take the virus seriously. I believe the people who are disseminating the information to us have a long, long track record of lying to and showing dismissive contempt for American citizens as a whole.

At one point, the disease was supposed to have a 5% death rate. The death rate has now been reduced to less than 1/3 of 1% worldwide. The truth is I’m not opposed to masks at all. Much like carrying a firearm, I won’t shame anyone for deciding to wear one or not. Sort of a “my body, my choice” situation I suppose.

However, when considering the trustworthiness of information coming from our politicians, I’ve been unable to reconcile the fact that 200,000 people protesting in the streets is met with little to no concern, but a bar, restaurant or hair salon with 10 people in it could be disastrous. The idea that a Trump rally of 18,000 people is a significant risk but a group of 20,000 students tearing down statues isn’t, leaves me perplexed.

Further, how could you possibly take anyone seriously who mandates that free citizens stay at home and wear masks in public but also calls for the acceptance of millions of immigrants entering our society illegally with no record of immunizations against more common and deadly diseases every day.

The truth is that our political “leaders,” just like with guns, drugs, our national debt or sex trafficking, have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about and no plan outside of what’s handed to them 6 seconds before they reach the podium.

So I choose to protect myself as I see fit. If anyone doesn’t like it, I’m ok with that. Just think of it as a “protest.” That seems to be ok with many people."