Under Pressure

May 18th, 2012

I’ve been thinking about getting a pressure canner to can meat and dried beans, separately. I have a stash of meat in my freezer, but what if the power goes out? I also have dried beans which I use, but not as often as if they were ready to eat.

Two weeks ago my sister lent me her brand new (the brand isn’t new but the pressure canner is), still-in-the-unopened-box pressure canner to give it a try. I kept it for a week, unopened, and gave it back.

Then I began to look at options. I want a large canner, but not too huge, so I can lift it. And the 1950s-era hood over my stove doesn’t give me much clearance, and that determined that I wouldn’t get the largest model available. I began to price the exact model my sister lent me. I almost had it ordered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond thinking I could use a 20% off coupon to maximize savings, but still found a better deal at Amazon.com. I ordered the 16-quart Presto canner and on its way.

Yesterday, in anticipation of its arrival, I bought four chuck roasts. The ranchers with whom I place my annual beef order have a weekly special at a food co-op that is about 2 miles from where I work. This week the chuck roasts were priced at 25% off the regular price. I zipped to the co-op (also a new place for me that needs further exploration) and bought them. Having the meat on special and near my office makes me think that I won’t need to place an annual order, but instead shop the weekly specials and load up throughout the year.

I’ve also decided that I want to budget about $100 a month for building up my pantry. Yes, I have food to eat, but what if I had to take care of more than my husband and me? I can’t feed the world, but I can do more to prepare. I just have to shift my resources. I’ve probably spent too much leisure time watching “Doomsday Preppers”. But since my pantry is more carb-rich than protein-rich, I want to work on that balance.

Tomorrow, I’ll put myself and the canner under pressure to get those four roasts processed. Hopefully having ready-to-serve meat in the basement will help me release a little steam.

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The Cost of Vegetable Gardening

May 9th, 2012

The vegetable garden is almost ready to be put directly into the ground. For the last week I have been hardening off seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, celery, and Brussels sprouts. My dear husband calls them “spindly sail bait” but I think they have promise. Each spring I put those tender plants into the soil and by fall, the tomato plants have toppled their large cages and the rest have grown beyond recognition.

My hope this year was to plant the entire garden with plants started from seeds. I almost made it, but the tomatillos didn’t ever take off. I also got some free cauliflower seeds too late to sprout and bought a four pack of ready-to-plant starts for $1.99.

Last Saturday I went to a local nursery that is woman-owned and has been in her family for a generation or two. I bought about $6.50 worth of seed potatoes, my cauliflower plants, a rosemary bush (mine didn’t make it through the winter), a raspberry plant (also didn’t survive winter), and four bags of medium sized wood chips to cover the weed barrier in my garden. The raspberry plant was $12.97. When I got back to my garden I planted the raspberry plant and placed the wood chips in the garden.

Last night I planted seeds for my vining plants, which are in a separate bed. I planted three melons, two kinds of cucumbers, two varieties of pumpkins, a winter squash, and succumbed to planting a zucchini. I was going to ban that dreaded squash from my garden this year (mostly because I can’t keep up with it), but changed my mind. My little seed packet had only one seed left, so if it sprouts, the zucchini is a go. If not, well I’ll see what it’s like not to have zucchini for a summer.

Tonight I stopped at a big box home improvement store on my way home from work. I needed some small bark chips to use in the garden space where I had planted the seeds for vining plants last night. The bark chips, for a bag twice the size that I bought at my local nursery, were $4.96 each, versus the $6.99 I paid for a smaller bag. I decided to buy one more raspberry plant because I have room for it. Tonight’s bigger plant was $7.98, five dollars less that the one I bought four days ago.

So I think you know where I’m going with this. I’m trying to grow as many of my own plants from seeds to save money, and to prove that I can do it. I want to support my local businesses, but when the cost of doing business with them can be 50-100% higher, I am more likely not to shop there. I did get drive up service at my local nursery and a nice young man loaded the wood chips into my trunk. At the big box store, I schlepped the bags (twice as heavy!) myself.

I still don’t know what the cost of raising a garden is. I think starting from seeds is certainly the most economical way to go. The free seeds I was given for the fifteen tomato plants that are going into my garden will yield hundreds of pounds of fruit. But how many raspberries will I get off the $12.97 bush? Enough to pay for it? I’ve sewn my economic seeds in many places—in my own garden with free seeds, at a local nursery, and a big box store. I suppose if I’m spreading my means to several sources, then we all have a chance of surviving.

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Posted in Saving Money, Vegetable gardening | No Comments »

I’d Love Your Vote!

April 24th, 2012

I’m not running for an elected office but I am participating in a contest offered by “Doomsday Prepper” blogger Kellene Bishop. I’ve posted my experience eating out of my pantry for two and three months. The contest has a group of prizes and popular vote determnes who wins. The entries are interesting to read. I’m #83 and here’s the link.

http://preparednesspro.com/preppers-contest-entries/

If you want to vote for me, go to post 83, scroll through the comments and submit a comment at the end. You can also vote up to 5 times…either for me or any of the post. The contest ends at midnight on April 26.

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Posted in Pantry Challenge, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Leftovers

April 16th, 2012

• I finished watching “Doomsday Preppers” on Youtube. I think there were some good suggestions and areas where I can improve in my own preparations. I don’t think I’ll ever get as extreme–mostly because I’m preparing for doomsday—but I can certainly have more water stored, get a better first aid kit, have an alternative form of cooking available, and devise a back up plan.

• I also watched “The 1940s House” a BBC production from about ten years ago. It showed a three-generation family that spent nine weeks living in a reality-like setting in England during the World War II years. For this experiment, they moved from their home to a 1940s house. The family dressed in period clothes, built their own bomb shelter, and had to “make do” on the rations distributed at that time. A panel of war-era scholars doled out challenges for them to face. I found it quite interesting.

• A few weeks ago my husband and I spent a morning shopping for items that we use often in our pantry and which needed replenishing. We spent about ½ an hour and got flour, sugar, oatmeal, pasta, and white beans. It cost us $250.

• I found a bag of key limes for $1.50 and made lime curd. It’s good, but I still favor the traditional curd made from Meyer lemons. That’s four curd variations I tried this year.

• Speaking of fours, there’s a great four-page section about freezing food in the April 2012 edition of Whole Living magazine. I’m tearing out the pages and putting them in my food storage binder. While I know many of the tips offered, there is always more to learn.

• The seedlings are getting taller. I’ve been working in my back yard to prepare the ground for carrots, peas, radishes, and lettuces.

I’ll get back to more substantive posts shortly.

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Posted in Kitchen management | No Comments »

Vegetable Gardening 2012

April 3rd, 2012

Vegetable gardening has begun once again at and in our house. Ten days ago I planted tomato and pepper seeds. I planted nine pots of Roma tomatoes, workhorse plants for making salsa and sauce, and six kinds of heirloom seeds. Last year I planted my seeds in tiny peat stacks and had to replant them after a few weeks. This year I opted to give each plant its own 4 inch pot to start with. While this will save me transplanting once before the plants are placed in the ground, it takes up more space on my kitchen table and dining room floor—the spaces that get the most direct sunlight in my home.

I have two plastic trays that I am growing my plants in. Under one I have a low heat mat that keeps the soil warm. This tray is covered by a plastic dome about 8 inches high. No surprise, but the seeds that were pampered by the spa treatment heat and humidity sprouted much faster than those that have to tough it out with east-facing sun only. Once the seedlings sprouted, they were moved to the regular plant tray and I rotated the non-sprouting ones to the indoor spa.

Last Saturday I thinned the little seedlings as there are more than one per pot and about 2 inches high. Last year I didn’t divide the plants soon enough and had some broken stems because of my negligence. I also planted the next round of indoor seeds: 3 pots of Brussels sprouts, 5 pots of celery, 5 pots of broccoli, 5 pots of cabbage, and 2 pots of tomatillo. Those new seedlings are currently growing in the spa.

While it’s not difficult to start plants indoors, it takes some maintenance. Each day I try to rotate the seedlings a quarter to half turn so that they grow straight and not toward the light. I also need to place a fan near them so they learn resistance to the wind.

This weekend, I’ll do more indoor planting of basil seeds. And in the next week or two it’s time to start my vining plants like melons, cucumbers, and pumpkins.

Outdoors, I’ve weeded and raked my garden plot. I’m reconfiguring the arrangement I had last year and will diagram what I’m planting. I also bought some weed barrier fabric that I’ll use this year. I went without it last year and my garden stayed fairly weed free, but this spring has already revealed invasive weeds in the space. Once the garden space is designed and the weed barrier in place, I’ll plant carrots, radishes, and lettuces.

Finally, this year I’ve been keeping a garden journal.

Thus spring begins with seeds, the hope of a good crop, and a record of the journey.

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Posted in Vegetable gardening | No Comments »

Gardening and Cooking—Victorian Style

March 26th, 2012

The last few weeks I have become addicted to three BBC series that were produced in the 1980s. The first is the Victorian Kitchen Garden, a show dedicated to the monthly progress of bringing back to fruition the walled garden of an English estate. The walled garden and attendant glass houses were the places where all fruit, vegetables, and flowers for the great house were grown. The gardeners use traditional gardening methods and tools from the Victorian era and bring in an expert who lived on such a garden as a young man. He’s a knowledgeable man who has a jacket and tie on in every episode, even while he’s spading, weeding, or planted. As I’ve watched it, I’ve imagined it would be how the staff of the characters in a Jane Austen novel worked. Kind of an “Upstairs Downstairs” for the vegetable gardeners.

An off-shoot of this show is the Victorian Kitchen Garden, where the cook takes the produce from the gardener and creates period meals. The episodes break down to various meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, picnics, dinner parties, etc. The cook in these episodes also worked in a Victorian kitchen as a young woman. The kitchen in which she works is completely outfitted in Victorian style, from the wood burning stove, to the old kitchen gadgets. It’s a delightful show that shows that the work in the kitchen is never completed.

Last night I found another couple of episodes with the same cast: The Wartime Kitchen. These shows discuss food rations during World War II, Victory gardens, and how people “made do.” And there’s yet another series: The Victorian Flower Garden which I haven’t watched yet. The same people are in this show as well.

I found all of these on Youtube. There are gaps in some of the episodes but I find them interesting and I’ve learned a few tricks (how they dried and sulfured apples during the war, how to make a teepee for beans, etc.) I don’t think they are available elsewhere. But the beauty is that they are instantly available.

So I think the lack of my blogging has a direct correlation to finding the various series. Poke through a few of them. You will either love them, finding them charming and interesting or you will roll your eyes and see what else is available. Or maybe just go work in your garden. Or maybe update your blog or Facebook page.

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Posted in Vegetable gardening | No Comments »

Grapefruit Curd

March 14th, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, one of my favorite bloggers, Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks, posted a piece about ginger grapefruit curd. The recipe sounded heavenly. I’m fond of curd and thought it would be interesting to try curd recipes using different citruses. So while at the market I bought some grapefruit and fresh ginger. Then my life got unexpectedly busy and the curd didn’t get made. Until a couple of days ago.

I followed Heidi’s recipe almost to a fault, except I didn’t use a double boiler but put the ingredients directly into a saucepan. Her technique is like mine, to mix the ingredients first before heating. The results were good—grapefruit with an underlying hint—almost bitter—of ginger. I licked the pot clean. Then I wondered what it would taste like without the ginger. So I made another batch tonight, omitting the ginger. I used an even older grapefruit than that for the first batch. It was juicy enough that I had to use only one. The finished product doesn’t have the same bright citrus intensity of lemon curd but is more subtle. After licking the pan clean again, I decided that I prefer the plain grapefruit version to the one with ginger. Now I wonder what I could do with a bag of key limes….

By straining the juices, as she recommends, the finished product is very silky. I hadn’t strained my lemon curd in the past. My only disappointment with the project was that I had hoped the curd would be an orangey-pink hue, similar to the color of a ruby red grapefruit. No. The results seem paler than that of traditional lemon curd. I think the butter and egg yolk content overpower the color of the juice. So if you make a variety of curds, be sure to label the various flavors because they end up looking almost alike.

Ginger Grapefruit Curd

1 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, strained
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar (you can also use ¼ cup honey)
2 large egg yolks, preferably at room temperature
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained
1 tablespoon fresh ginger juice (made by pressing grated ginger through a strainer)

Simmer the grapefruit juice in a small saucepan, reducing to ½ cup. Let cool a bit.

Cream the butter in a medium sized bowl. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy and light. Add the yolks, then the eggs, one at a time, beating well to incorporate after each addition. Stir in the salt, and then gradually add the grapefruit juice, lemon juice, and ginger juice, working the juice as you go. (I still used my mixer for this part and it turned out fine).

Rinse out the small saucepan you used earlier and fill 1/3 of the way full with water (or skip this part and put the mixture back into the pan). Bring to a simmer and put your stainless steel bowl of curd on top of it. Stir constantly, and heat the curd slowly enough that the sugar has time to dissolve. This will take about 10 minutes. Pull the curd from the heat when it just thick enough to coat your spoon, about 166-170 degrees. The curd will continue to thicken as it cools.

Pour into small containers. Makes 2 cups.

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Posted in Breakfast recipes, Dessert recipe, Freezing | No Comments »

Doomsday Preppers

March 2nd, 2012

With a mixture of horror and fascination, I’ve watched two episodes of National Geographic’s new series “Doomsday Preppers”. I don’t have cable but have watched them on Youtube. Part of me views in awe at the different in-depth preparation and skill that people have cultivated to take care of themselves. I’ve taken a few classes from Kellene Bishop, featured in one of the episodes, and found her advice on pantry preparation very helpful. I read and link to her blog. But there is another part of me that wonders just how practical, sane, and necessary the steps are that some preppers take.

Perhaps my reactions stems from the fact that I don’t consider myself a doomsdayer. I don’t believe that the world will end in 2012. Or if a nuclear disaster hits, hiding in a bunker for a year won’t do much except prolong my life for that time, trapped away from everything. Seems like solitary confinement. I’m also concerned that many of the preppers have arsenals of firearms ready to defend themselves. Perhaps I am like an ostrich with my head in the sand, but those kinds of defense mechanisms don’t bring me peace but fear.

That being said, I am very grateful to have a full pantry. It has been very helpful in the last few years through this Great Recession. My expenses have been reduced, I eat healthier, I’ve learned to be more self-reliant, and there is always something eat so I don’t rely on eating out. Practicing two pantry challenges (not grocery shopping but eating entirely from what is in the pantry), one for two months and another for three, has helped me learn what to store, what I will eat, and where I need variety.

Where my own experience and the preppers converge is that I need to store more water, have alternative sources for cooking my food on short-term basis, and have a few more emergency items available, like flashlights, batteries, etc. My bug out bag, a backpack with essentials for 72 hours, needs to have the food and water rotated (they’ve been in there for about 4 years) and more emergency items in it. It needs to be bigger. I also want to hide some cash in small bills in my home.

Why? Because there are emergencies—a power outage that can last for a few days (that happened about six years ago), an earthquake, crazy storms, job loss, or neighbors who need help. There could be a nuclear disaster or war. The economy may never recover to where it was not so many years ago. My plan is to continue to pay off my mortgage, save money, and declutter my home. This helps me prepare for the time when resources might be even scarcer or that if my home is destroyed, I am minimizing my loss.

So I’ll work on getting a little more prepared to take care of myself, including planting my garden this year and keeping my pantry stocked. And in between my own preparation and work I’ll tune in to Youtube to see what those doomsdayers are up to.

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Posted in Do It Yourself, Pantry philosophy | 2 Comments »

Book Review: The Urban Homesteader

February 28th, 2012

Spoiler alert: I liked this book enough to go online and buy a copy for myself. I had borrowed a copy from the library, read it with fascination, and realized there was enough good information that I wanted to resource it again and again.

Husband and wife team Eric Knutzen and Kelly Coyne put into practice all that they write about. Here’s what I liked about the book: The information was easy to read, generally easy to understand, and gave me, an urban homesteader, a lot of new ways to consider how I live. The book is divided into seven chapters of general content areas. It teaches readers how to complete basic projects, like starting a compost bin, building a raised bed, how to mulch your yard, and building self-watering containers. Some of those basic projects I’ve never taken on!

There were many sections in the gardening area where I learned new information about crop rotation (don’t plant the same vegetables in the same place every year), fertilizer teas (I haven’t been doing that), making a bean teepee (for growing beans or for resting in the shade), and pest control.

Another chapter talks about urban foraging from fruit trees and dumpsters. There was a full chapter about livestock, from chickens and rabbits to bees. I admit that I skipped that chapter because I still haven’t decided if I want to take on that much of a farm.

There was a long chapter on preserving and drying and tips on green household cleaning. Another long chapter discussed water conservation, with ideas about diverting gray water to garden space. My husband disagreed with the authors’ argument that kitchen sink water shouldn’t be diverted. He believes that food particles in kitchen sink water would decompose before they would become bacteria. I have no idea who is right, but since we’re not planning to put in a gray water system right now, I don’t need to decide.

The authors talk about reducing transportation costs and ways to save. They also advocate that when making the next move, a person should select an area in which to live, draw a circle with a one mile radius from the property on a map and make sure many of the day to day necessities can be found within that space. Luckily, my neighborhood has grocery and specialty stores, restaurants, gas stations, and a gym all within my one mile radius. And there’s a bibliography in the back with recommended books and websites. That might be the best resource in the book.

So I could list all the different things I learned from the book for you, which would also give me a document to keep for myself. But instead, I am supporting these authors in their quest for creating their own urban homestead by buying the book for myself. Now I’ll get the copy back to the library for the next reader to learn from.

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Posted in Book review, Do It Yourself, Vegetable gardening | 1 Comment »

Crafting with a (Re)purpose

February 20th, 2012

Over the holiday weekend I went to one of my favorite art shows. It’s in a small town that has homes which are architecturally designed to match the desert landscape. The landscaping is minimal and no lawns are seen. At the center of the community there are several art galleries, a couple of restaurants, and a pottery studio. For this weekend, artists from a variety of states bring their pieces and display them in tents and along the street. Thousands of people attend.

I ended up buying two pieces that use leftover materials. The first is a wind chime made from an old rectangular cheese slicer with sterling silver knives, forks, and spoons hanging from it. This artist had several different kitchen implements to which she attached silverware to create the chimes. I selected the cheese slicer version because I liked to sound the silverware produced. Some of the other chimes, although more attractive, didn’t have as pleasant a sound. I will hang it near my vegetable garden later in the spring.

Another artist used sterling silver forks and created interesting bracelets with semi precious stones held in the tines of the forks. While I almost bought one, I couldn’t find that I absolutely adored. But I loved the whimsy of her work

The other piece I bought was a knitted scarf. The artist who created it used about fifteen different yarns. The colors vary from purple to turquoise, green and gold. The yarns are various textures and types. It’s quite lovely. I asked her if she used up the scraps of yarn in her collection to make them. She said that she buys the yarns and then mixes them together. But she eventually uses all the bits that she has.

While traveling to and from this festival, and during the weekend, I worked on one of my yarn bombing projects. I ended up crocheting thirteen small fish that are each a few inches in diameter and between four to seven inches in length. I’m planning to hang them from a tree in my front yard. Most of the yarn for the fish came from other crochet projects or donated yarn from friends. I ended up using four or five small balls of yarn. Each fish has between two to four different yarns in it. I still have yarn in my scrap bin, but it’s nice to have some of it used well.

And thinking about this blog reminded me of the first afghan I ever made. I was in 7th grade and started a granny square pattern. Rather than making a bunch of small squares and sewing them together, I simply kept going around that initial square, adding a new color on each row. I used scraps of yarn from a large bin that my mother had. And I think my mother still has the afghan in her closet.

My posts lately have been more about reusing or purging. But when spring comes, I’ll begin to write again about my garden and preserving. And I’ll have the musical clattering of a cutlery wind chime to entertain me and my crochet fish hanging from a tree to cheer me as well.

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Posted in Repurposing | No Comments »

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