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What to do with the current glut of greens, and lettuce...?
Right now we have so much salad and greens of all kinds to eat. I love it, but like the post about the eggs, sometimes you have to plan well to get through it all. I thought I'd share what I've been cooking, but I'd love more ideas. I'm sure I'm not the only one right now if there are gardeners here! Lettuce obviously goes…
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Jam without the Pectin?
Have you ever made strawberry jam without pectin? I don't usually make jams, preserves, or jellies because...well, I usually eat my fruit ripe and raw and I'm not a big fan of them! Well, my folks called earlier this week, so excited... They found a local, organic berry farm! They were raving about the strawberries and…
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Flower jelly..keep some of that color year round
Ashley has a good post on various flower jellies, including some foraged types.
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Pemmican
I thought this was a pretty interesting idea to try. My husband says that it sounds gross. I think I'm going to make some with the next deer my husband gets this year anyway. Has anybody had any experience with it?
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How to store celery
I usually end up with limp celery. Mother earth News had this article and I am going to try it
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Whole Lotta Eggs!
Yep, it's Spring and the girls are in full egg laying production. I have been making all kinds of delicious recipes that use a good amount of eggs, but I was still getting a dozen per day. I found that I could freeze whole eggs, so now I have 6 dz. in our freezer for those times of the year when the girls are molting or…
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DIY Smokers
Another interesting thing to try. Can acquire plenty of the bits and pieces for free. One more piece in the self sufficiency puzzle.
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Root cellar question
A listener just asked me, "Once upon a few years ago, @Marjory Wildcraft wrote of her intention to experiment with root cellars and how deep one would need to be in TX to keep things at the correct temperature. Do you know if she ever published anything on this? my home is not so hot, but I have not found good info for the…
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Living without Refrigeration
I just watched the presentation since I got the email with the link. It was very interesting and had lots of useful information and ideas. I’d love to see monthly samples of what someone would eat. I’d also like to see if anyone has made fish sauce the way they described in the video. Is that how Asian fish sauce is made?…
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The Dangers of Backup Food Supplies (HUMOR)
A few months ago some friends were going to Sam's Club and asked if I wanted to go. As you know, I'm huge on making sure you have plenty of backup food supplies - especially right now. So although there isn't much packaged foods I eat, I figured, hey it's a good idea to stock up on almost anything really. It could be…
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Where to find bulk OG Beans and Grains
Looked everywhere in my area for bulk (25lb) seeds, grains and beans. Barley have enough area to grown veggies. And definitely not enough atea to grow staples. Could only find bulk basic Pintos and rice. Found a few farmers in Washington and idaho who have there own direct bulk sales, but the shipping kills all the value.…
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Canning water......yes, water
As we've had several topics on preparedness, from weather through other issues; having water stocked is a big factor. In this article, Ashley walks us through how to can water and why.
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Freezing Eggs
Two years ago when I was up to my eyeballs in fresh eggs, I decided to try freezing some as an experiment for preservation for use during the downtime of winter. Being that I make a frittata most weeks, I chose to do a dozen eggs at a time. So I lightly whipped them up, some I added a bit of sea salt to and others I…
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Lard!
I'm so happy.. I got a whole pig recently from a local farm (a Berkshire), and got the leaf lard. The bag was HUGE. like 20-30lbs! I've been working on rendering all day--it's going in the crockpot. I needed to share with folks that would appreciate my good fortune. :)
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Azure Foods
I was researching organic alfalfa pellets and stumbled upon Azure a site to bulk order organic and non-GMO products. Has anyone used this site?
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Please be careful with new canning jars!
Our grocery store had Ball canning jars yesterday so I purchased a case each of wide mouth pints and wide mouth quarts. I am canning chicken and want to do beef stew next week. As I was getting everything ready, I checked all of the jars. I even thought how silly that was since they are brand new, but I decided to not take…
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Best Vacuum Food Sealer
We are having the most frustrating time when it comes to vacuum sealing our meat! We have a Food Saver machine and think it's time to abandon it and step up to something more robust. Does anyone have experience with good maybe industrial, maybe just Really good pro food vacuum sealers?
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Setup For Dehydration
@monica197 I made a dehydrator thread. The Excalibur dehydrators are quite popular. They have stainless steel construction. Excalibur Food Dehydrators - America's Best Dehydrator! https://excaliburdehydrator.com/ Here at Excalibur, the Science and Technology of Dehydration is our Main Business. We are the world leaders…
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Just hit the payment button!!!
I am super excited!! Just purchased a freeze dryer!!! What a hard decision to make considering the price of them. I have been saving my egg money and the bit of payment a neighbour gave me once in awhile for looking after her place and horses when she goes on vacation. (Pre Covid) Counted it up and was amazed to see it…
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Tomato Bouillon
Do you make tomato bouillon / tomato powder with your skins? Or do you just can your tomatoes w/ skins? P.S. Sorry, forgot to take a pic of the powder as it took hours and hours to dehydrate it!
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Freeze Dryer - Anyone have experience
A friend of mine is buying a freeze dryer. Very expensive unit. I'm sure it will come with instructions and recipes but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with a unit like this. Tips? Suggestions? Recipes? Do's and Don'ts?
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Making Sauerkraut with DIY airlock. Does this balloon trick really work?
While reading the article https://thegrownetwork.com/make-the-perfect-home-fermented-sauerkraut-its-all-in-the-temperature/, I realized that I do not own an airlock so I did an internet search and came up with the idea of covering the jar opening with a balloon and puncturing the balloon with pin holes to function as an…
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Bountiful Harvest
I just finished getting 40+ pounds of Heirloom pumpkins roasted and pureed. Now to package it and freeze it for later use in pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin bread..... Yummmmm!
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What are some creative solutions you have for canning weights?
If you don't want to or can't purchase commercial "weights" what's your go to solution? I've heard of baggies of water, a smaller jar nested inside (both for fermenting not canning), rocks....I was recently making some kraut and used silicone muffin wrappers? Would love to hear more ideas!
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Canning season
It's definitely canning season. I just made my second batch of blueberry jam from end-of-season blueberries. Here's one jar of the seven I made: And for the first time this year, I'm trying to make "bread and butter pickles". These are vinegar/mustard cucumber pickles that also contain chopped onions in the recipe. I think…
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Delicious decorative quince fruit (chaenomeles)
Quinces - treasure of the garden: beautiful blossoms in spring, delicious fruit in autumn Middle September. Every evening I cut quinces while watching TV. And it lasts for almost a week. One activity contributes to another: it is boring to watch TV and it is boring to cut quinces, but both together are a nice combination.…
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Does anyone dehydrate milk?
I saw a you tube video by Sweet Adjeley( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymm1RUxwyVc) about how to dehydrate milk. I never know you could! My brain says "You can't dehydrate a liquid, it will just run through your trays"! Sweet Adjeley shows you how, it was great, I have been trying to come up with ways to have milk in…
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uses for maitake (hen of the woods, sheepshead, Grifola frondosa)
A friend just dropped off a bag (4 lbs or so) of maitake mushrooms. I am planning to dehydrate some. Does anyone have any other good suggestions or recipes for using them?
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Grape leaves
Has anyone else had their family canning recipes add grape leaves? My grandmother told me they kept things fresh and crisp.
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Canning Lids
I successfully completed my first attempt at water bath canning over the weekend. I had so much fun. I believe I will be addicted soon. When I bought my jars I didn't even think about buying extra lids. With it getting harder to find the lids in the stores I have been looking online. I'm very nervous to purchase them from…
