Hi Everyone
NOTES:
** Time to take pictures of each room in your house. Take pictures of your garage. This is all for insurance purposes.
** Do you have gasoline stored? It sounds weird, huh. But if if if if we have to evacuate, I want to make sure we’ll have a full tank. I don’t store much, maybe 10 gallons. It is in a storage bin by my back fence. (Not in the garage!!!) Also, we rotate that gas every 6 months or so. We pour it into the cars (ugh, it’s messy) and replace the gas in the containers.
** The wind we have had the last few days reminds me that last year we had power outages because of wind. And of course, in the summer we had power outages because of fires, and just because of very hot weather. Get prepared now. We got our generator fixed. But our solar panels didn’t work last time we hooked them up. We have GOT to get that fixed. And….I did buy paraffin for the lanterns.
GARDEN HAPPENINGS:
** Already spraying for Aphids, especially on tomatoes and lettuce. All bugs have their season.
I interspersed my tomatoes with basil, onions, garlic and asylum hoping they will help repel the bugs. It hasn’t worked on the aphids, but maybe on the hornworms!
Tomatoes all have flowers! Two months from fruit to flower, so we’re on the way.
The blackberries are flowering. The blueberries have small green berries. The lettuce is happy under a tree where it only gets sun a few hours a day, and dappled sun after that.
I tied up the celery.
I didn’t even know this was a thing until this year. Evidently, if you DON’T tie it up, you only get thin, spindly stalks of celery. This is true. But, it smells like celery and tastes like celery, so I just continued to grow and dehydrate it.
But, if you tie up the celery, you are supposed to get nice thick stalks like at the grocery store. I have 5 celery plants.
You can see that this one is planted in the same pot as a tomato plant. They are not ALL tied. I’m waiting for them to get a little taller. I just happened to have this brown paper laying around. Someone online used an empty cereal box. I think any kind of dark paper would be fine (a paper grocery bag?)
LONG TERM STORAGE: Wheat
Let’s just review. The church recommends one year of stored food. Sometimes this is just not possible. We found during COVID that the store shelves were empty for about 3 months. I think this IS do-able for anyone. Aim for that.
Now, one year. The recommended basic MINIMUM is
400 pounds of grains. This includes: wheat, rice, corn, oats, barley, and pasta. This is a per person amount. At this rate, you would have just over 1 pound a day to eat. This is just over 3 1/2 c. wheat. One cup of wheat will yield just over 1 1/2 c. flour.
If you break this down into months, you need 33 pounds a month of wheat and grains. That’s one large “bucket” of wheat. Think of the 25 pound bags of sugar or beans they have at the grocery store. The size is about the same. In fact, buckets are a good choice for storing wheat–they are insect proof and rodent proof AND they stack! Don’t stack more than 3 high at the most. The weight will crack the lids over time. You just need to store it with oxygen packets or dry ice to kill any larvae that may be there.
If you are storing wheat in #10 cans, one case of 6 cans = 1 month for 1 person.
SHORT TERM STORAGE: soup 10 cans
Whatever soup you use most often.
72 HOUR KITS: matches Yes, I “DO” have a flint and steel. And… I’ve even started a fire with them. But, matches and fire starters are SOOOO much easier. For a couple of dollars you can get a very large box of matches. Diamond matches, 3 boxes of 300 each (900 matches) $8.40 on Amazon. If you used 5 matches a day, it would last 180 days (about 6 months). Done!
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES:
Apple Pecan Bread
1 c. flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Combine and stir well
2 small apples, seeded, quartered, approximately 1 1/4 c.
1 large egg
3 TB oil
2/3 c. packed light brown sugar
Place apples, egg, oil, and sugar into a blender. Blend until the apples are chopped, about 20 seconds.
Add apple mix to the dry ingredients with
1/2 c. chopped pecans
Mix by hand JUST until the dry ingredients are moistened. Spread the batter into an 8 1/2″ X 4 1/2 ” greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 30 min, then remove loaf from pan and allow to cool completely before slicing.
Brownies with Whole Wheat
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp instant espresso powder (I usually omit this)
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
Add all to a mixing bowl and toss together.
In the blender:
1 c. unsalted butter
2 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
1 TB vanilla extract
4 large eggs
Blend for 20 seconds until creamy. Stir the butter mix into the flour mix and mix by hand to blend completely.
Place in a greased 9X13 pan
Bake 350˚ or just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Do not over bake.
Buttermilk Whole Wheat Rolls
Combine
1/3 c. warm water
1 1/2 TB honey
1 TB active dry yeast
Stir to combine, and set aside for 5-10 minutes to “proof” the yeast.
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 TB unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 c. buttermilk at room temperature
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Blend the flour, salt, butter, milk, and egg. Add the flour until a soft dough forms. Knead slightly and then let the dough rise in a greased bowl until it doubles.
Punch down, knead lightly, and let it rise again.
Shape by rolling the dough into a 10 inch log. Cut into 16 even pieces. Shape into rolls and place into a pan, or on a baking sheet.
Cover the rolls with a clean, dry towel and allow to rise another 35-45 minutes.
Bake at 375 for 18-22 minutes or until lightly browned.
Optional: Combine 2 TB melted butter with 3 TB honey. When rolls are finished baking, remove them from the oven and quickly brush the butter/honey glaze onto the hot rolls.
Marti Shelley
