Food preserving - If hard economic times hit....

[calfoxwc]

Whether it's weather disaster caused, or a depression, or jobs losses (here in Stark County, unemployment has

skyrocketed)...

what to do? How do you cut corners ? How can you make lemonade out of the lemons?

The first hint I have, is drying fruit. You can slice apples up into 3/8 slices, the actual width

isn't a requirement - and with a dehydrator or oven at 135 degrees, dry them.

The apple slices will last, eight months to a year, especially if you vacuum seal them (if you have one of those),

and/or refrigerate them. My brother-in-law and his wife made some a year ago. They are kept in a plastic

jar in the basement... and those apple chips were very, very good.

So, we have been making them a LOT. Ida Red apples are fair to good, I am trying Pink Lady today.

But the very best so far, is the Granny Smith apples. What a burst of flavor. I recommend a dehydrator, because

you have air flow with the heat. That is quicker.

Instead of the cookies or chips or twinkies etc, bought from the store, what better snack, especially for

kids for lunches, than wholesome apple slices?

Apples ripen and lose their crispness over time, some far quicker than others.

But the slices just preserve that food, and you don't use preservatives etc, that the commercial

dried fruits companies do.

We have done pears, which also turned out fine, and bananas, which don't really seem to be worth the trouble.

While you slice them, put the slices in water with "fruit fresh" or something like that, even salt water, to keep

the fruit from oxidizing, that is, turning brown.

And, the pineapple we did? Priceless. Two whole pineapples didn't make a lot of slices though,

but the end product was very excellent. Everyone is wild about the dried apple slices. It's great for

kids, and the rest of us.

and, if you have a neighbor or friend with an apple tree on their property - that is priceless.

that is easily a year of having great fruit in your house. A little bit of work, don't need a freezer or

canning equipment. But if I take the dried slices and use my vacuum sealer jobbie, and toss the packages

in the refrigerator or freezer, I think I could enjoy them well after a year.

Also works for peppers and tomatoes.... it's a great hobby, and prevents loss of food that gets overripe too quickly.

[calfoxwc]

Canning takes more work, equipment, and information to do it PROPERLY.

I recommend you buy a copy of Ball's "Blue book" of canning recipes. With canning, you must

closely follow the directions, and you will have good results.

The upside is, after a full year and a quarter, I still have a few jars of canned tomatoes that

I use for chili and my own home made soup. The tomatoes taste terrific right out of the jars, even still.

Always check your lid - that it is depressed and solid and not easy to pry off, before you try your canned goods.

[admin 0]

We mix a lot of the dogs food with rice or bread, and add in a lot more table scraps ... feeding two dogs, even though they are small is getting tougher in harsh times.

My wife and I both have been blessed with consistient jobs, but with four teenagers (and a 9yr old), our grocery bill is between $300-$500/wk!

The kids also get a lot of rice, potato, or pasta type side dishes and more water & Koolaid than pop or juice.

We try to keep after-school snacks around a $1/per, such as Michelina dinners and left-overs.

I think the tennagers kill us with school lunches. We pack and provide them with probably too much, but put a lot of individual items in there that they snack-on from as soon as they depart for school through most of the day. We've switched to packing bottled water instead of the small juice box type drinks. They can also re-fill the water bottle using the school drinking fountains. Lunch meat kills us, but the school lunch is a one-shot type of thing and they are hungry before and after ... plus, if you give teenagers cash they spend it on everything but a school lunch and when we put money into a school account for them, they still found a way to buy junk with it instead of a meal.

The Kids are our biggest problem, keeping them out of the cubboards between meals and after school is a real chore. However, by-law we are required to feed them, we've checked.

[calfoxwc]

do you have your own garden? That's an upcoming addition to this thread, I probably shouldn't make a separate one.

We grew 900 tomato plants last year, and 420 peppers. There is one pepper we grew, a big sweet banana pepper, that

was so good, kids loved the free samples I was giving out. Dried, they are a treat.

I know T and I have been doing big, serious gardening. we grow most all of our own plants, except the big

candy onion sets this year, and pototoes.

I need to go find a study on home food savings that can be saved by having a home garden.

I want to put in a fishing pond this year, since I'm not working this past year, and can't afford a new pontoon boat,

nor can we afford a Lake Erie boat like we used to have.

Dad and I are talking about stocking large Italian bullfrogs in our bog... @@

[Mr. T]

We had a fairly ;arge garden last year and we had plenty of food top go around. I only wish that we had not had so much stinkin rain though in July. It brought on the blight and harmed our potatoes and tomatoes, otherwise we would have had a much better year. The peppers and onions did fine.

The one crop that did fail was the kentucky wonders green beans. so we replaced all of thois plants and replaced them with pole beans and managed to get enough to last the winter.

I have already started a few seed trays about 80 tomatoes to start and some radishes and green onions, those are my favorite.

But I need to find a good source for some seed potatoes before they are gone. I cannot find a good source here localy

[calfoxwc]

T, our experience is, that the blue Lake green beans are superior in taste, and grow very well.

I'd order your pototes - from E&R , in Indiana. I can get you the phone # if you want me to.

I have to get some thornless blackberry bushes going... and more blueberries.

I wish my orchard was mature.

"sigh"

[Kosar_For_President]

@calfoxwc said:

T, our experience is, that the blue Lake green beans are superior in taste, and grow very well.

I'd order your pototes - from E&R , in Indiana. I can get you the phone # if you want me to.

I have to get some thornless blackberry bushes going... and more blueberries.

I wish my orchard was mature.

"sigh"

I wish I had the land like you Cal. I would be growing all sorts of shit. Especially, the expensive stuff at the market. Like red and yellow peppers and blueberries. I might be moving into a place with a nice fenced in backyard on the OBX, with some blocked off areas that have good clean soil from what my girl tells me. I wonder what grows good there?

If that happens I will be asking your advice. When is a good time to plant? Hopefully the middle of April is not too late down there?

[calfoxwc]

If you are talkin N.C., T is the expert there.

But tomatoes are the biggest money maker at farmer's markets, outside of berries.

Man, you can sell blackberries and blueberries for $5 a quart, sometimes $3 a pint.

I was all set to go pick a bunch of blackberries last year to sell and can,but the farmer who sprays

the land next door, sprayed too close to the fence line with all the berry bushes, and fried em.

son of a....

in our orchard, I have mcintosh apples (2), sour cherry (1), sweet cherry (1), a red bartlett pear tree (1), two peach trees....

but they are young.

year before last, we canned 64 quarts of green beans. They were excellent. Frozen, no, they get mushy and lose their taste bigtime.

I still have a few quarts of tomatoes... they are really great. And, a year later, I still have several quarts of transparent cooking apples

frozen. They are oustanding even now.

Need berry bushes. The neighbor is letting us plant his field with hay - that is a good money maker around here.

Herbs and flowers will grow in the little old 10x12 hard shell greenhouse. Well, as soon as I liquid nail the stupid flimsy panels back in..

they flipped out of their clips and went sailing like klingon death machines all the way 30' in the air, past 6 acres and fell

in front of the woods.

And the new used 14' by 32' hoop greenhouse will hosue all the veggie plants. We supply our couple of neighbors and some friends with plants.

I have to go trim the old orchard out in our woods in the morning, and later, go cut several big wild cherry trees down for the old farmer neighbor - he wants them gone, and I want all the wood.

I have to oil spray the orchard before the buds come out, and after it stops freezing at night.

this week, we have to cover the big greenhouse, so we can start all our veggie trays with seed to transplant some things into the ground

about May 21, the rest just before Memorial Day here in Ohio.

I would have started today, but Bernie Kosar had cabin fever, like me, and we took a 2 hour walk around a neighbors' grassy field,

and all the way across our fields, to our woods. A few days ago,he spied what had to be a young skunk in our woods...

I have a holster for my H&R just in case I see him again... @@

So much work to do now. yikes.

[Mr. T]

Peppers grow the best in this climate, We planted the red, yellow and green bell peppers along with jalapenos and chili peppers. I didnt cut all of the plants down and back in january we still had a few growing. crazy I know we even had some lettuce that came back up.

I have always had trouble with tomatoes here. Maybe that is why they run close to $5 per lb. down here.

Someone could capatalize on the tomato market here. Not very far from my house a nice couple who relocated here from Medina have a produce stand they run most of the summer. they are always running out of green beans and tomatoes and he gets a good price for them. $8 for fresh green beans.

[calfoxwc]

Dang. I fell asleep while reading "Carrots love tomatoes" in my big sofa chair and just woke up.

You need to test your soil. Chances are, down there, you may have too much nitrogen in your soil,

which goes to the plant growing, but not so much the tomatoes.

Sweet corn loves nitrogen in the soil...

About dehydrating - I found out that the Pink Lady is a very excellent apple ! It is not as sour, to me, as a nearly ripe

Granny Smith, still very crisp...

You can slice them without coring them, but the corners are kinda wasted, unless you want to just eat those.

also, I would peel the apples. If you buy them in a store, they are probably coated with a thin coat of wax.

And, with the peeling so thin, when it's dehydrated, it tends to be a tiny bit bitter, probably depends on the apple?

Also !

When you get your dehydrator, it should come with a few plastic trays with no holes. This is great for making jerky,

and you can make your own fruit roll-ups. You won't have to buy them, you know your fruit is healthy, no preservatives,

and they didn't cost you much if you have an apple tree, or were given them by a friend. Look up recipes on that...

those fruit rollups can get expensive if you buy them much.

I still have dried green and ripe tomatoes I put in chili, soups, and meatloaf... or I just eat a dried tomato.

If you or someone else doesn't really care for tomatoes, try some sweet cherry tomatoes.

There is a chocolate tomato that we are growing a lot of - it was a big hit with kids last summer when I was giving out

free samples. I know some couples who came from a half hour away to buy our tomatoes, especially the "chocolate" cherry tomatoes.

Just chocolate brown, with a really great, great taste. When they had movie night, they snacked on those cherry tomatoes, they were so good.

Also, there is a kind of very round, very golden cherry tomato that is super sweet, like "Sugargold" or Sungold"...

Some of the regular cherry tomatoes are more for salads.

z-z-z-z-z-z.;

[Mr. T]

If you dont have a bunch of money for storage and want to freeze you can always use the ziploc vacuum freezer bags, we used these and they worked well. I didnt think it would work, boy was i suprised.

[ballpeen]

Using a regular freezer bag and a straw can achieve nearly the same thing.....zip the bag until only a straw can be inserted, and suck out the air...use your thumb to seal off the bag as you remove the straw and finish zipping the last qtr inch...a little air may enter, but not so much you don't extend freezer or storage time a great deal.

[kpolen4]

@calfoxwc said:

If you are talkin N.C., T is the expert there.

. And, a year later, I still have several quarts of transparent cooking apples

frozen. They are oustanding even now.

Those apples make the best home made apple sauce ever

[calfoxwc]

Tip of the day:

If times get tough in this country.... you want to be prepared. While you easily can, go to Sam's club, and buy

the big box of instant mashed potatoes - the Idahoan mashed potatoes are excellent. You can buy several boxes,

and just have them in a food storage closet for later on, if tough times hit. One box makes a LOT of mashed potatoes.

Instant milk, canned milk...

I'm not -predicting- a depression like crisis, but my instincts just tell me to think outside the box of what

could happen to make our lives a tough way to go, instead of cruising more or less like we have for a long, long time......., and different ways you and you neighbors might be in a dire situation, money wise, energy wise, food wise...... Spagetti sp? is pretty cheap,

especially if you have an Aldi's store near you, or a Marc's... think of things to get for later, that don't go bad.

I have instincts telling me to be prepared for tough times....

[Kosar_For_President]

@calfoxwc said:

Tip of the day:

If times get tough in this country.... you want to be prepared. While you easily can, go to Sam's club, and buy

the big box of instant mashed potatoes - the Idahoan mashed potatoes are excellent. You can buy several boxes,

and just have them in a food storage closet for later on, if tough times hit. One box makes a LOT of mashed potatoes.

Instant milk, canned milk...

I'm not -predicting- a depression like crisis, but my instincts just tell me to think outside the box of what

could happen to make our lives a tough way to go, instead of cruising more or less like we have for a long, long time......., and different ways you and you neighbors might be in a dire situation, money wise, energy wise, food wise...... Spagetti sp? is pretty cheap,

especially if you have an Aldi's store near you, or a Marc's... think of things to get for later, that don't go bad.

I have instincts telling me to be prepared for tough times....

I do have a stash of food and water, which really goes back to me living on the OBX. I did need it once, I am sure T and attest to this. I get canned veggies with protein like peas, spinach, chickpeas, etc. and store them. I am still waiting to get a job to get my first Berkey with some back up filters. I don't expect a depression, but why not be prepared?

Like the potato idea, they don't go bad and have protein.

[calfoxwc]

One of the important things, is learn to have a garden. Your own tomatoes, corn, sugar snap peas, onions, green beans,

peppers, squash, cucumbers, radishes, etc etc etc...

Has anybody noticed? that (one of my favorite peppers), the golden bells... is about 3.99 a pound?

A garden can help any family lower food bills.

And, get a good recipe for making your own bread and butter pickles, and you won't want to buy them in the store !

[Mr. T]

@kosar_for_president said:

I do have a stash of food and water, which really goes back to me living on the OBX. I did need it once, I am sure T and attest to this. I get canned veggies with protein like peas, spinach, chickpeas, etc. and store them. I am still waiting to get a job to get my first Berkey with some back up filters. I don't expect a depression, but why not be prepared?

Like the potato idea, they don't go bad and have protein.

We made our own purifier out of two 5 gallon buckets and two filters. $aved about 150 bucks this way.

You can buy the filters off of ebay.

And yes, we try to keep a well stocked pantry, you never know when you will be needing it due to tropical storms or hurricanes. Generators, gas, Bleach and plenty of ice.

Thanks for reminding me I need to check my yearly inventory.

[Kosar_For_President]

@mr.-t said:

We made our own purifier out of two 5 gallon buckets and two filters. $aved about 150 bucks this way.

You can buy the filters off of ebay.

And yes, we try to keep a well stocked pantry, you never know when you will be needing it due to tropical storms or hurricanes. Generators, gas, Bleach and plenty of ice.

Thanks for reminding me I need to check my yearly inventory.

T, are you sure those are air tight with no leakage, it just seems a bit flimsy.

[Mr. T]

We made ours similar to how this guy did.

[LeBrent]

Thanks for the posts.

I just bought a food dehydrator and have tried it a couple times on fruit. So far pineapple has turned out the best.

Another good tip is lemon zest. Peel some lemon zest onto a mesh tray and when it dries, grind it up for lemon powder for seasoning.