About Grain Grinders

There are many different grain grinders to choose from out there and I think it can get really confusing when trying to decide which one to purchase. After all, the good ones are usually $250 and up, so you don't want to enter into the purchase lightly.

First you have to decide if you want an electric grinder or a hand grinder. Each serve their own purpose.

Electric grinders are quick and easy to use - you can leave it on your countertop and therefore be more likely to use it daily. There are even attachments you can purchase to grind grain using your KitchenAid Mixer.

Hand grinders take a bit more to set up and are a bit more work to use, but if you had no electricity or were trying to limit the use of your electricity or generator, then this would be the way to go.

Our opinion is it is good to have both.

I don't make a habit of grinding grain daily for my baking, but I have a friend who freshly grinds her flour for her baking every day. And I can tell you from first-hand experience her baked goods are absolutely fabulous.

Since I wasn't grinding grain daily, I always just used the grain grinding attachment for my Vitamix whenever I needed small amounts ground for baking bread, etc.

But this year as part of my preparedness budget, an electric grain mill made it on the list. I want one that is dedicated to grain grinding that I can leave on the counter so I'll use it more frequently.

Electric Mill

I did my research and decided to go with a WonderMill. WonderMills are similar to the WhisperMills that are no longer made. It is supposed to be very quiet and very efficient. The makers of the mill say it will grind 100 pounds of flour in an hour. It has a 1.75 horsepower motor. It will grind wheat, rice, small grains, legumes and beans as large as garbanzos. It also has a lifetime warranty. Sounded good to me and came highly recommended from several of my friends.

And, as luck would have it, our friends at FunderFarm sell these and have been running them on sale recently from $239.95 (retail $269.95). I placed my order last week and my mill arrived late yesterday afternoon. I will definitely be posting again to let you know how well it works!

Hand Mill

There are just as many different kinds of hand mills out there too. You really have to look at what you want to grind and in what quantities, how much room you have, where you want to set your hand mill up, how fine will it grind the flour, etc.


Many people agree that the king of hand mills is the Country Living Hand Mill. I also have several friends who have this mill and say it is the best one they have ever had. I can't personally say, since I don't own one, but I can say that it is on my list for future preparedness purchases. You'll have to do your research to find a price on these that fits your budget, as you can sometimes find them on sale various places online. The website above for the mill has some good videos on their product as well.

These are the two mills that I've done the most research on and that come most highly recommended by friends of mine who use them on a daily basis. I'd love to hear from other readers who have used different mills that they really love!
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Solar Oven Cooking

One of the latest acquisitions for our long-term cooking needs is a Solar Oven. Should the need arise to cook without electricity or propane, if you want to cook without smoke or strong smells - solar oven cooking is a fantastic choice.

We chose this particular solar oven - Global Sun Oven Solar Cooker.

It retails at the time of this writing for $201.95 plus shipping. At the time we were shopping, it was the one we thought was the best deal for the money. We wanted one that was big enough to cook a couple loaves of bread, or a casserole or something like that, but still have it portable.

The oven was shipped to us very quickly - we received it within a week of ordering. It was well-packaged and had no shipping damage. We also ordered one Water Pasteurization Indicator.

This oven folds up to about the size of a suitcase. It has a nice leveling tray inside that can be used or removed. It has a leveling leg in the back and is very lightweight for ease of movement - weighing about 21 pounds. The reflector panels fold up neatly and snap onto the oven box when not in use and there is a carrying handle, which makes it easily portable.

My oldest daughter tried it out yesterday - she mixed up a package brownie mix and put it in a dark pan - a 9" round cake pan. The directions say that dark pans work best for absorbing the heat for cooking.

We placed the oven in the backyard and lined it up so that thepanels were directly facing the sun. We put the brownies in on the leveling tray, shut and latched the glass front door and it was quickly about 210 degrees in the oven. We checked after about 20 minutes and the oven temperature was 280 degrees.

The brownie mix called for cooking in a traditional oven for about 26 minutes. We had to move our Sun Oven twice to keep up with the sun - we were cooking around 2:30 in the afternoon. The air temperature was about 94 degrees. Our oven did hit 300 degrees and the brownies cooked in about 50 minutes.

There was no burning on the edges, the brownies were crisp on the outside and very chewy on the inside - no different than what I would expect and look for if cooking them in my traditional oven.

Overall we were very pleased with the outcome. Positives include: No heating up my traditional oven or house for cooking on a hot day; no smoke or smells that would give away my location, ease of use, portability, no using fuel that might be needed for other things - just a great purchase in my opinion.

There are many styles of solar ovens out there - you can do a search and decide for yourself which one might be best for you. There are also plans available for making your own solar oven.

And there are tons of recipes on the web that people have adapted for solar cooking - although pretty much anything you'd cook in your regular oven can be cooked in a solar oven - you just have to adapt your cooking times slightly and the solar oven doesn't seem to cook out the moisture of things as much as a regular oven does, so you might have to slightly adjust your liquid measurements for things like stew, casseroles, rice, etc.

You can even cook in the solar oven in the middle of the winter on a snow bank - all you need is sunshine!

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Ready for Spring Gardening?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for the dustings of snow and cold weather to head out and for spring to move on in! I'm thinking about our spring garden plans for the year and what I'd like to accomplish - how about you all?

I'm going to repost and article I did from last spring about getting ready for spring gardening, just because it has so many good links in it that might come in handy. Feel free to share what your gardening plans are for the year - you might give the rest of us a good idea or two!

It could take volumes of text to go into great detail about gardening how-to, especially for those of you out there who might be doing your very first garden this year. So, I'm going to provide some links instead for great gardening resources that are already out there for you to use.

Getting the "perfect" garden spot going can take years of working the soil to get it nutrient-rich for your area of the state or country. But there are things you can do even if this is your first attempt at gardening that will make the job easier and still allow you to see some yield from your efforts.

You don't have to own a tiller, a lot of land or tons of gardening implements to get started. We've done traditional garden plots, square foot gardening, raised bed gardening, container gardening and had good yields and bad in all of them. Some of it is beyond our control - like drought, but usually just a little hard work and TLC will yield a nice little bounty for you and/or your family.

Know your climate zone: Tennessee hardiness zones range from 6a to 7b. Knowing your hardiness zone will help you determine which plants will grow in your area during what times of the year. Here's the USDA Hardiness Zone Map for TN - this one is interactive for your location using Google Maps.

Know your frost-free date: The frost-free date for my area of West TN is April 8th-15th. That is the date that it is considered "safe" to plant outdoors without having to fear a frost will come in and kill tender young plants. The past few years, we've had a hard frost / freeze around April 13th - so it pays to know this information. Here's a handy little chart from Victory Seed Company for the First and Last Freeze Dates for TN.

Know what you'll eat: It really doesn't do much good to plant a whole slew of squash or zucchini if no one in your family will eat them. So take some time first to decide what you want to eat and how you want to use it. Are you going to freeze any of your harvest? Are you going to home can any of your harvest? Are you going to dehydrate any of your harvest? Do you want to have enough to eat fresh plus plenty to put away for the winter? Do you want to grow extra to trade for other fruits or veggies you don't have the ability to plant? Do you want to grow extra for extended family members? Spend a little time thinking this through so you can take the next step and determine how much you need to plant based on how much you'd like to yield.

Some links relevant to the above:
If you want to home can, freeze or dehydrate and never have - I recommend this book as a complete guide to get you started. It covers everything you need to know about canning, freezing, dehydrating and includes fabulous recipes. I use this every year and have never had a recipe fail. Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving.

Know how much you need to plant: Once you know what you want to plant and what you want to do with your harvest, you can determine how many seeds / starter plants you'll need to reach your yield. Much will depend on your gardening method. You can get more plants in a smaller area if you use the square foot gardening method; you'll need a lot more room if you are using traditional row gardening, so take all of that into consideration. Here are some handy calculators:

Backwoods Home - you can go to the link, type in "gardening" in the search box and read many articles about gardening basics.

How to Plan a Farm and Garden to Feed a Family

About.com: How Much To Plant

Virginia Cooperative Extension - has a handy chart, but you'll need to use the TN planting dates if you are in TN instead of the ones on that website.

What kind of seeds? Most people trying to become more self-sufficient and grow a substantial garden to supplement or completely provide for their family's food needs will work hard to use only heirloom seeds. Heirloom seeds gathered from this year's harvest can be saved and used to plant next year's harvest. With hybrid seeds (like most you buy from any "local" stores or nurseries) the seeds from your harvest cannot be saved and used for future planting, requiring that you constantly buy new seeds. Yes, heirloom seeds might be a bit more expensive on the front-end, but once you learn the easy art of seed-saving, you'll always have the seeds you need right at hand! Here are some links - do your research and make your own decision on the company you think best deserves your business and is most dependable:

Bountiful Gardens - we've purchased lots of seeds from this site and they've always been dependable.

Marianna's Heirloom Seeds - right here in TN

New Hope Seed Company - another right here in TN

GetSeeds.net

Heirloom Seeds

Seeds of Change

SeedSavers.org

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Amishland Heirloom Seeds

Keeping it going: Once you get everything planted, you'll need to take steps to make sure your plants thrive. Watering guidelines, using mulch, natural fertilizer, weeding, bug control, composting and knowing how to start companion and rotational gardening will help you get the most from your vegetable garden for your entire growing season and those to come. More links:

National Plant Board List of Noxious Weeds

Guide to Selecting A Garden Mulch

Environmentally Responsible Gardening Products

Chemical-free pest control and garden fertilizing - Jerry Baker, Master Gardener

Dave's Garden - gardening tips

Neptune Harvest - all natural organic fertilizer

How To Compost

Compost Master

Conserving Water In The Vegetable Garden

Organic Garden Pest Control

Attracting Beneficial Insects to Your Garden

Natural Garden Pest Control

Beneficial Nematodes

Rotational Gardening

Crop Rotation

Companion Planting - Secrets of Organic Gardening

Carrots Love Tomatoes - companion planting book

Companion Planting - So Happy Together

We'll do some tire gardening again this year as well as some conventional and raised be gardening. We've had a cute little pot bellied pig who has been working hard through the fall and winter to till some of our yard for us - my husband calls her our hog-a-tiller! She's created a few 8 ft x 16 ft spaces for us that will be ready for spring - and when the time comes I'll show you what we do with them!

I'd love to hear your comments or share with me other links that gardeners here in TN might find useful!

Add to Your Preps AND Help Haiti!

Okay all you preparedness friends out there - if you need to add something to your preps and want to help Haiti at the same time - please go to MRE Depotfor your shopping - they are offering 3 different ways to help:

1) 10% off any purchase and they will send the 10% to Haiti - PROMO CODE IS HAITI, and/or

2) place an order of goods and they'll pay to ship it directly to Haiti and/or

3) make a cash donation and they'll match it.

This is a very reputable company we've used them a lot for our purchases - they have great prices, good shipping and fantastic customer service.

If the item is on their website, they have it in stock.

We can personally recommend (meaning we've tried these ourselves) the Red Feather Butter, the Yoder's Canned Bacon, the Costa Rica Green Coffee Beans, and the Canned Taco Meat.

Chia Seeds - Excellent EFAs

Image courtesy of Natural Remedeez

We've recently discovered this fabulous little seed - Chia Seeds. Yes, these are the very same seeds used for those horrendous Chia Pets that make their way through the stores during this time of year for Christmas presents.

But don't let that discourage you. Keep on reading - you'll be amazed.

Research on these little seeds reveals what a truly wonder seed they are. We've long tried to figure out good ways to have long term storage for Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. Most things that are high in these oils go rancid quickly or it would be cost prohibitive to store.

Enter Chia Seeds. Here is some info for you:

From Wiki:

It is still widely used in Mexico and South America, with the seeds ground for nutritious drinks and as a food source.

Chia is grown commercially for its seed, a food that is very rich in omega-3 fatty acids, since the seeds yield 25-30% extractable oil, mostly α-linolenic acid (ALA). It also is a source of antioxidants and a variety of amino acids.

Historically, chia seeds served as a staple food of the Nahuatl (Aztec) cultures of Central Mexico. Jesuit chroniclers referred to chia as the third most important crop to the Aztecs behind only corn and beans, and ahead of amaranth. Tribute and taxes to the Aztec priesthood and nobility were often paid in chia seed.

Chia seed may be eaten raw as a dietary fiber and omega-3 supplement. Ground chia seed is sometimes added to pinole, a coarse flour made from toasted maize kernels. Chia seeds soaked in water or fruit juice is also often consumed and is known in Mexico as chia fresca. The soaked seeds are gelatinous in texture and are used in gruels, porridges and puddings. Ground chia seed is used in baked goods including breads, cakes and biscuits. Chia sprouts are used in a similar manner as alfalfa sprouts in salads, sandwiches and other dishes.

Another source for excellent info: BuyChiaSeed.com

Chia seed is high in calcium, 5 times the calcium of milk. 631 mg per 100 grams of seed.

Chia seed is also high in protein, with 18 grams per 100 grams of seed.

The optimum ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 should be 3:1

Chia seed provides that ratio.

Chia seed is hydrophilic. Absorbing up to 14 times (Mix @ 9-10 times) its weight in water. This helps extend energy and endurance.

Chia seed is rich in antioxidant oils.

Chia seed contains chlorogenic acid, and

caffeic acid as well as myricetin, quercetin, and kaempferol flavonols. These compounds are both primary and synergistic antioxidants that contribute to the strong antioxidant activity of chia seed.

Chia seed is also low in sodium, only 19 mg per 100 grams.

We buy ours here: Natural Remedeez

from their website:

Chia turns out to be the highest known whole food source of omega-3s. 3 1/2 tablespoons contains as much omega-3 fatty acid as a 32-ounce Atlantic salmon steak. Chia is an excellent source of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, and copper. It has as much magnesium as 10 stalks of broccoli, as much calcium as 2 1/2 cups of milk and as much iron as half a cup of kidney beans.... The Chia seed contain high levels of fiber, and more antioxidants than many berries. it can also help regulate blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease. Chia stabilizes blood sugar levels by reducing blood sugar swings through its ability to slow down the release of carbohydrates and their conversion into sugar. Chia seed is considered to be nature's perfect food.

We've eaten ours by the spoonful, have ground them into smoothies, and I've ground them into a flour and put them in pancakes. We've sprinkled them on top of salads and waffles.

I encourage you to give Chia Seeds a try and add them to your long-term storage preps!

Recipe: Anyone For Scones?

Here's a recipe you might want to try for your family this weekend. One of the all-time favorite things my family likes to have for breakfast would be scones. These are right up there with homemade blueberry pancakes and waffles. They really are very easy to make and can be made in so many varieties. We sometimes have them several times a week!

For breakfast, my husband likes them best with dried cranberries, walnuts and orange zest. We dip these hot out of the oven into local honey. Yum. The girls' favorite is chocolate chip, which I sometimes make for breakfast for them, but most often as an afternoon snack. They also make a great dinner bread with sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan cheese. Makes my mouth water just writing about them!

Here's our basic recipe:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar (can be decreased or omitted, depending on variety you make)
4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
3/4 cup milk (can use cream for added richness if desired)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. (This picture show the dough after incorporating the butter. I added chocolate chips to these and am about to lightly mix them in with a fork).Add milk and blend well; the finished dough should be sticky. Flour a flat work space and knead the dough for about 1/2 minute. Press out to about 1/2 inch or less thickness ~ and cut into any shape desired. Triangles are traditional. Transfer to a baking sheet. (Be wary of little hands trying to snatch them before they are even cooked yet!)
Bake for 15 minutes and immediately remove from baking pan to cooling rack. Yield is about 12 depending on shape and size.

Varieties:

Cranberry Orange: After cutting in butter and before adding milk, stir in with a fork about 1/2 cup dried cranberries and orange zest to taste. You can also stir in some chopped walnuts. Proceed with the rest of the recipe as written. Finish the top with demerara sugar before baking if desired.

Citrus: After cutting in butter and before adding milk, stir in with a fork lemon and orange zest to taste. You can also stir in some chopped walnuts. Another breakfast favorite here with local honey!

Chocolate Chip: After cutting in butter and before adding milk, stir in with a fork about 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips and proceed with the recipe as written. For these, you want to be sure to add the 1/4 cup of sugar. These will hardly last the afternoon at our house!

NOTE: I always use a pastry cloth when working with doughs instead of putting my flour on the countertop or on waxed paper. When you lightly flour your pastry cloth, it will keep the dough from sticking to the surface without incorporating extra flour into the dough you are working.

Kitchen Knives and Cutting Boards

Here are 13 tips when buying kitchen knives and cutting boards:

Kitchen Knives:

1. You can get by in the kitchen with just 3 really good knives~ Chef, Serrated and Paring.
2. Chef knife is usually 8 to 10 inches long.
3. Serrated knife is for soft foods, cold cuts, bread and tomatoes.
4. Paring knife is usually 3 to 4 inches long.
5. Look for knives that will hold an edge - no knife can be "ever sharp".
6. Bolster is what provides balance during use.
7. A full tang means the blade goes all the way through to the end of the handle. Some knives have an enclosed handle and some have handles where you can see if the tang goes to the end or not.
8. Professional sharpening is usually needed about once a year. The "sharpening steel" is not for sharpening, but to keep the edge on the knife. You should use the steel on your knives every time you get ready to use the knife.

Cutting Boards:

1. Should be wood or plastic. Glass boards will ruin your knife edge. You want them sturdy and thick, not thin and flimsy.
2. I use plastic for RAW MEAT, because they can go right into the dishwasher. I use wood for everything else, including cooked meat.
3. What to look for in a wooden cutting board: Maple is the best for care and ease on your knives. Get one that is as big as you can afford. You really only need one, as it will last a lifetime with proper care.
4. Features to look for include a carving well, juice trough and finger wells.
5. Be sure to use food safe mineral oil on the wood when it looks thirsty to keep it from splitting or cracking. Never put it in the dishwasher. Hand wash with soap and water then dry immediately.

Cast Iron Cookware Care

I really love to cook with my cast iron cookware. My favorite skillet is one that belonged to my grandmother - it is so seasoned that it cooks like you wouldn't believe and nothing sticks to it! Here is some information that I've learned along the way about caring for cast iron.

• Cast iron is very cost effective. It is so durable that it will last a lifetime or longer with proper care. It is an excellent heat conductor - can go from stove top to oven - it is very versatile. It isn't used by as many people today mainly because it is heavy and a lot of people don't know how to properly season it.


• Seasoning cast iron is done so the pan will become non-stick and to seal the pores so there will be no odor retention. Here's how you do it:

1. Lightly oil the pan with vegetable oil. If it has a lid, oil it as well.
2. Place the pan (and lid) in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.
3. Make sure the pan is placed in upside down - this is essential or the oil will bake in the pan and leave a sticky residue.
4. It might take 2-3 times of doing this before it is seasoned well for the first use.

• If you store your cast iron with paper towels between the pans, the towels will absorb any moisture and prevent rusting.
• If the pan has been seasoned improperly and is already sticky, you can remove this residue with LOTS of elbow grease using steel wool with no detergent and hot water. After it is clean, re-season it.
• If there is rust, you must scrub it and then re-season it. For severe rust, you can put the pan in your oven on the self-cleaning setting, then wash the pan and re-season it.
• I rarely wash my cast iron skillets with detergent, just a rinse and wipe dry seems to keep them clean and rust free.
• If you cook anything with a tomato or very acid sauce in your cast iron, you might need to re-season it.

If you've never cooked with cast iron, I really encourage you to give it a try! We haven't used non-stick cookware in our house for years - I rely solely on my cast iron and my stainless steel cookware that has copper bottoms.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope this day finds you all in good health, good spirits and hopefully enjoying at least one delicious holiday meal with family and friends.

Micro Greenhouse Idea

Ultra Micro Greenhouse

Author The Scavenger
JohnsonFamilyFarm.blogspot.com

This was just an experiment and it worked great for me. I took a plastic juice jug which I have plenty of and made a Ultra Mirco Greenhouse. I just cut the jug in two, placed some compost inside and planted my seeds. Add a little water and put the top half back on, be sure to replace the lid this also it helps to keep the heat and the water inside. I only watered them when I first planted them and that's it. Seeds sprouted in just a few days. Set them in the window sill so they can get some sun and watch them grow. After your sprouts get a few inches high move them into a larger container.

This is a great idea to get a jump start on your Victory Garden. Raising food is a must for any long term survival situation or self sufficent life.

I used what I had on hand at the time which must be practiced in these situations.

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Why We Should Store Food

The Basics of Being Prepared with Food & Why We Should Do It

In this country, we have become used to a certain way of living. We don’t have to hunt for food any more, our time is taken up with making or spending money and we have time for leisure activities and hobbies. Time for household chores has been cut dramatically, and cooking can be as quick as you want it. You can “drive thru”, go to a restaurant, cook on the bbq, create a home made masterpiece or “nuke” a hot pocket. Your local grocer has everything you could ever want to feed your family.

There are several problems with this.

The first is especially obvious in these current times, and that is the economy. Food prices are rising, nothing goes down…well, unless you believe in Wal Mart’s “roll back” pricing signs! Our very paycheck is at risk these days with such high unemployment. The prices go up even more when gas prices increase, which brings us to reason #2.

Our lovely, fully stocked grocer is only 3-7 days away from being almost empty! Your grocer (drug store, gas station, home depot) depends on a delivery to remain stocked. Raise the price of transport, raise the price of groceries. Stop the transport (due to a flu pandemic, an electrical outage, a natural disaster etc) and stop the groceries.

Nasty stuff is out there…we’ve heard of the poisonings and illnesses created by eating contaminated food. The government has the controls in place to prevent much of that, but they’d rather create more restrictive bills that will have us relying on big agribusiness. (another rant and a debate for another time lol). However, from time to time, things will slip by FDA and inspectors. Much of the problem is because we are spoiled and continue to demand food from other countries, out of season. We can add to that, our needs are so great that farms use chemicals to ensure the demand is met. This all can be solved by following what is called “The Hundred Mile Diet”. Eat food that is locally grown! Not only are you supporting local economy, you are eating food that is better adapted to your body. It’s also more likely to be less contaminated with harsh chemicals. Better yet, grow your own! A by-product of our eating habits is that we don’t always make meals that were once considered wholesome, hearty and healthy. We view them as too plain or fattening. This need not be true! All we need to do is make appropriate substitutions. But by fixing your own food from scratch, you definitely help with a variety of issues. Not to mention that your family will be very happy.

So, what does this have to do with Being Prepared? Well, the first thing that you need if something goes wrong, is food. FEMA, Homeland Security, Ready.gov, every state in the country, and even the White House suggest that every family be prepared for an emergency/interruption of services with food and water for 72 hours. However, that wouldn’t have done the people stranded in Katrina much good! The NEW suggestion is that you have at least 2 weeks worth of food, if not 30 days. That is the beginning of your basic food “preps” (preparations/emergency supplies).

So, how do you go about getting 2 weeks to 30 days worth of food? Do you have to resort to buying MRE’s (meals ready to eat like Army rations)? Are you going to turn into one of those wierdo’s that lives in a bunker with a thousand cans of Spam? Of course not, and it’s easy to do!

I follow the principle of “storing what I eat and eating what I store”. It’s kind of like having my own grocery store. It’s what used to be known as a full pantry in the old days.

Every time I go grocery shopping, when something I use is on sale, I get as many of that item as I can afford. For instance, we eat spaghetti often. When pasta is on sale, I pick up 10 boxes instead of two. When spaghetti sauce is on sale, I pick up 10 cans/jars. The shelf life of pasta (properly stored) is about 10 years. The shelf life of your canned/jarred sauce is about 5 years. I know that I have enough food for 10 meals without my family noticing that I haven’t been to the store! Of course, I do the same with tuna and mayo, flour and sugar and many other things. Make a menu for three meals a day for a week. All the stuff you would normally make, include comfort foods like brownie stuff) and then multiply the ingredients by 4 and then as the items go on sale, you can purchase enough. Soon, you will have enough to feed the family for a month with no hassles.

Consider why this might come in handy:
Economic/unemployment
Flu/quarantine (yes, the government CAN quarantine you for 2 weeks! NO trips to the store)
Natural disaster (hurricane, earthquake, fire)
Civil unrest (probably due to unemployment and high taxes lol)
Martial Law
Terror Attack

Your first responsibility to yourself and your family is to feed them, then defend them…can’t defend, can’t start a new life, can’t wait till the problem is solved if you starve to death!) You can’t be a Patriot and fight the government when they have food and you don’t.

Author: HerbalPagan
Visit: GreenSurviving.blogspot.com
Massachusettspreppersnetwork.blogspot.com

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Fall Garden Planning

Have you planned your fall garden yet? Even if your summer garden is still going strong, it's time to get your fall garden plans set. And if you missed out on summer gardening this year - you still have time to get in some plants for fall!

You can search the archives of this blog to see some examples of tire gardening and some great vegetable gardening tips that will allow you to get a fall garden going quickly.

Remember, to plan your fall planting schedule, you need to know the plant hardiness zone that you are in. Here in West TN - we are pretty much in zone 7. I can look this up here on an interactive map: Interactive USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map and it will tell me what zone I'm in. Then I visit Victory Seed to find when we usually get our first frost in the fall and when we plan for our frost-free date in the spring. So here in West TN, our typical first frost in the fall is around October 27th; last frost in the spring is around April 8th.

Here are the plants that do well as fall crops and information on when they need to go into the ground:

Broccoli: can start as seeds indoors or outdoors 16 weeks before frost; transplants go outdoors 10 weeks before frost; harvest 4 weeks after first frost. You could stagger your planting at 16 and 14 weeks to increase your harvest time. Time to maturity is about 16 weeks.

Cabbage: can start as seeds indoors or outdoors 16 weeks before frost; transplant go outdoors 10 weeks before frost; harvest 4 weeks after first frost. You could stagger your planting at 18 and 16 weeks to increase your harvest time. Time to maturity is about 16 weeks.

Cauliflower: can start as seeds indoors or outdoors 14 weeks before frost; transplant go outdoors 8 weeks before frost; harvest 2 weeks after first frost. You could stagger your planting at 16 and 14 weeks to increase your harvest time. Time to maturity is about 14 weeks.

Carrots: plant as seeds directly outdoors about 11 weeks before first frost; harvest 2 weeks before to 2 weeks after first frost. You could stagger your planting planting at 16, 14 and 12 weeks to increase your harvest. Time to maturity is about 10 weeks.

Peas: plant as seeds directly outdoors about 10 weeks before first frost; harvest at first frost to 4 weeks after. You could stagger your planting at 12 and 10 weeks to increase your harvest time. Time to maturity is about 10 weeks.

Beets: plant as seeds directly outdoors about 8 weeks before first frost; harvest at frost to 2 weeks after. You could stagger your planting at 10 and 8 weeks to increase your harvest time. Time to maturity is about 8 weeks.

Lettuce: plant as seeds directly outdoors about 8 weeks before first frost; harvest at frost to 4 weeks after. You could stagger your planting each week to increase your harvest time. Time to maturity is about7 weeks.

Spinach: plant as seeds directly outdoors about 8 weeks before first frost; harvest at frost to 4 weeks after. You could stagger your planting each week to increase your harvest time. Time to maturity is about 7 weeks.

Radishes: plant as seeds directly outdoors about 4 weeks before first frost; harvest at frost to 2 weeks after. You could stagger your planting at 8 and 6 weeks to increase your harvest time. Time to maturity is about 4 weeks.

So, for example, if I want to plant peas in my area and I know my first fall frost could be around October 27th, I can back out 10 weeks and know that I need to have seeds in the ground by August 25th. I'm really too late for broccoli and cabbage, but I'm going to plant it anyway in an area that I can cover to keep warm for a couple of extra weeks if I need to.

I'll post pictures next week as we spend time clearing out some of our summer veggies that are finished producing and start planting our fall seeds. Also, I'll give you an update on the progress our little hog-a-tiller has made clearing two new gardening beds for us!

Global Wheat Fungus Inevitable

An excellent read here for those of you not familiar with the Ug-99 Durable Wheat Rust fungus that is spreading - most scientists say containment is likely impossible. Read more here:

For a brief overview:
Survival Blog: Ug-99 and The Ugly Times Ahead - There'll Be Fungus Among Us

For more in-depth information:
Borlaug Global Rust Initiative

Summary: Now is the time to be putting away your stores of wheat if you haven't already, before prices start to rise more than they already have. As a reminder, hard wheats are usually used for bread making since they are higher in gluten. Soft wheats are usually best for pastries and pastas. Also, consider alternate sources of grains: spelt, millet, barley, rye, kamut, triticale, amaranth and quinoa.

Some sources for ordering grain:

Bob's Red Mill

Honeyville Grain

Emergency Essentials

Walton Feed

Amazon.com

Frontier Survival

Bulk Foods

Aaoob Foods

Great Cooking Implement

Found this little gem over on SurvivalBoards this evening and it was so good I had to share.

It is called a Discada - basically a large (22 inch) wok made out of a plow disk - would be fabulous for campfire cooking - we're definitely ordering one of these!


You can read all about it here: Discada.com

Community Gardening

Interested in getting a community garden started in your area? It might be as simple as approaching a local church to get your idea going.

What started as an idea I expressed in passing to one of our church pastors has now turned into a successful adventure - at least so far!

In about 4 weeks, we've signed up 32 families to participate in the first ever community garden at our church. The church has provided the ground and the lumber for us to make our square foot gardening frames. A church member has stepped up and offered to provide all of the seeds and vegetables that our families will need to plant their garden plots. Another church member donated an 18-wheeler full of compost to improve the soil. Many other church members have volunteered their time helping me design the space, for tilling the ground, moving in the compost with a backhoe and we all met this past Friday to build our garden frames.

Each family participating will have (2) 4x8 garden plots that they will plant and can keep their harvest. All participating families will also help tend a 20 foot x 40 foot "community" plot for the church; the church receives all the harvest from this plot to give to families in need at our church our community.

At our first class meeting, the families gave me the list of veggies they most wanted to plant. Since most of the families participating are very new to gardening, I then took that information and helped them by plotting out what would be best planted where in their square foot garden sections.

Each family now has a planting plan for their garden section that they'll use when we meet again as a group on April 25th for our very first planting day.

If you have a dream or desire to teach others to garden, but don't have the space for a large community garden - the key might just be as close as your local church - you never know until you ask!

Tracking Food Bills in Congress

It is hard to keep up with the ever-changing numbers and volumes of bills that are introduced in this administration - here are some resources that you might find useful in keeping track of food regulating bills that are in various stages of committees.

H.R. 875 - this is the bill we've heard the most about and that has gotten so many people up in arms about the broad definitions that could be construed to include backyard gardens.

It appears that H.R. 875 will probably be side-tracked and run out of steam because there is more interest in H.R. 759, which would seek to overhaul the entire Food and Drug Administration and needs very close watching to see how they handle small and home-based businesses, farms and ranches.

There is also an H.R. 814, S.510 and S.425 - all relating to food regulation, mandatory food and animal tracking systems, etc.

Just know that you'll have to stay on your toes and keep up with what's going on and moving in and out of committee if these food bills are important to you - and believe me, they should be important to you.

Here are some additional resources that might help:

Food & Water Watch

Cornucopia Institute

Local Harvest

Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

Sustainable Food

As always - know that you cannot believe everything you see, hear or read - remember most of these websites are opinions with a particular cause or slant or bias - use them as part of a broad spectrum to educate yourself and as with most things, use your intelligence to decide for yourself what sounds logical and please - read the bills yourself so you know what they say!

What's In The Pantry?

I thought it would be nice to take a peek at some of the items that we have stored in our home pantry - most of this was put in place in the past 6 months to one year, as we rotate our items regularly. We make it a habit to try to stay 1+1 or more on almost everything. Each time we go to the store, in addition to buying what we need, we try to buy 1+ of each item and then put it in our reserve pantry. This is a quick and relatively inexpensive way to steadily increase your storage supplies.

Our 2009 Storage Pantry:

FOOD PRESERVATION (things I canned)

Apple Butter = 11.5 pints
Brandied Pears = 4 pints
Bread and Butter Pickles = 6.5 pints
Cucumber Relish = 5.5 pints
Fig Preserves = 3.25 pints
Hot Pickled Veggie Mix = 13.5 pints
Peach Cobbler Preserves = 20.5 pints
Pear Butter = 9.5 pints
Pears In Syrup = 7.5 pints
Pear Pickles = 9.5 pints
Pickled Okra = 10 pints
Squash Pickles = 9.5 quarts
Squash Relish = 15.5 pints
Stew Meat = 7 quarts
Sweet Pickle Relish = 11 pints
Sweet Pickle Spears = 6.5 pints
Tomato Preserves = 4.5 pints
Seasoned Ground Beef

FREEZER STORES

Apple Slices = 10 pounds
Bell Pepper Slices = 4 pints
Blueberries = 10 gallons
Green Beans = 4 quarts
Peach Puree = 4 gallons
Peach Slices = 4 gallons
Peas, Various = 2 gallons
Yellow Squash = 2 quarts
Home Canned Pesto
Coffee Beans
Butter
Cornmeal
Cheese
Nuts
Extra Ice Packs
Pizza
Meatloaf (homemade)
Lasagna (homemade)
Soup Stock

In the Freezer From our Pasture-fed Ranch:

Beef = 1 whole
Lamb = 1 side
Pork = 1 whole

Grain and Other Stores in our Overflow Pantry:

Kamut = 25 pounds
Millet = 10 pounds
Spelt = 25 pounds
Wheat = 300 pounds
Rice = 200 pounds
Pasta = 40 pounds
Pumpkin Seeds = 5 pounds
Unbleached All-Purpose Flour = 50 pounds
Sugar = 30 pounds
Oats = 20 pounds
Cornmeal = 15 pounds
Wheat Germ
Flax Seeds
Sprouting Seeds
Heirloom Vegetable Seeds
Popcorn
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Yeast
Spices
Powdered Milk
Peanut Butter
Oils
Vinegar
Salt and Pepper
Borax
Canning Jars and Lids
Spaghetti Sauce
Ketchup and other condiments
Coffee Beans
Tea
Walnuts, Pecans - vacuum sealed
Dehydrated Apples
Dried / Dehydrated Fruits
Various canned goods from the store, such as pineapple rings, mandarin oranges, whole corn, green peas, carrots, broths, whole tomatoes and the like.
Feminine Hygiene Items
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Rubbing Alcohol
Various Over-the-counter medicines

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few items in my overflow pantry, as I don't have my list handy right now, but you get a good idea of what we're keeping on hand at the moment.

It is comforting to know that we have plenty of food on hand for many reasons. One is that I'm not pressured to go to the grocery every week and pay whatever the going prices are. I usually grocery shop only once a month. By preserving my own food or buying in bulk on occasion, I stay away from the grocery and weekly spending. Also, the food that I've preserved is fresher, free of artificial colors and preservatives and, in our opinion anyway, tastes much better.

From an Emergency Preparedness standpoint, you never know when these food stores might come in handy due to job loss, economic downturn, bad winter weather or the like.

Please feel free to share what's in your pantry!

Making Your Own Sour Cream and Buttermilk

I like to use buttermilk for a lot of my baking - in things like biscuits, scones, bread and muffins all have a great texture and flavor when I use buttermilk. I do not, however, like to buy buttermilk at the store. So, I make our own.

I use Kefir Grains to make a soured milk called Kefir - it is much like buttermilk. I purchased a 1/4 cup of the live grains through the mail. When they arrived, we put them in a glass 1 quart jar and added about a cup of whole milk from a local dairy. The milk we use is pasteurized, but not homogenized so it still has cream that comes to the top.

After about 12 hours, we had our first cultured kefir. I strained the liquid through a strainer- keeping the grains and putting the cultured milk in a glass jar in the fridge. We can drink this cultured milk as a drink or use it as you would buttermilk for any baking. I then put the kefir grains back into a glass quart jar, add more fresh milk and start the process over again. We do this every day.

Now that we've been doing this a while (about 2 years), we have lots of kefir grains. They continue to grow and multiply and before you know it you could be making a gallon of kefir (buttermilk) a day! When our grains grow to the point where we have excess I either sell some of them or save them (if you are interested in purchasing kefir grains to start your own, please email me by visiting the Contact Me link.

You can save them by drying out the grains and freezing them in a glass jar with powdered milk to protect them from ice crystals. They can usually be re-started up to 2 months after freezing them.

You can also dry out the grains and keep them in a glass jar with powdered milk in the refrigerator. You can re-start them this way up to 18 months after storage. Saving some of the excess grains like this ensures grains for the future should something unforeseen happen to my current batch. Here's a photo of about a cup of grains that I've just rinsed and am starting to dry for long-term storage:















You can also pause your grains for up to a week by putting them in milk in a glass jar in the refrigerator. They can only be left this way for a week, then you must re-start them or change out the milk again. They can be kept on "pause" in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

We also use the kefir milk to make our own labne (sour cream) and cream cheese. Once I've strained the liquid off the kefir grains, I line a strainer with a sturdy cheesecloth that I've moistened. I put the strainer over a pot and pour the cultured kefir milk into the cheesecloth.

Depending on the amount of liquid, sometime in about 8 to 12 hours you get a cheese texture in the cloth similar to sour cream. Leaving it longer allows it to dry even more and it takes on more of a cream cheese consistency. Here's a batch I made for sour cream. This is how it looks when I first pour the kefir milk into the cheesecloth, when it is ready as sour cream and a final of how the sour cream looks when I put it in the container:
If I had let this set a few more hours, it would have dried more and been the consistency of cream cheese.

When I end up with more kefir milk in the fridge than I need for baking or drinking, I sometimes take 2-3 quarts of it and make the kefir cheese.

I also save the whey that is left from making the cheese. This I use in baking also, especially when I want something with a really sour taste. When I make my artisan bread, I often substitute most of the water with kefir whey and it gives the bread a delicious sour dough flavor without using sour dough starter. I also use the kefir whey in my regular loafs of bread. Sometimes I pour a little over the food for the dog, as it is excellent protein. There are a TON of uses for kefir whey.

This is how we make our own buttermilk, sour cream and cream cheese. I haven't had to buy any of these products in several months. I do have to buy the milk to keep the kefir growing. The milk we prefer to use from a local dairy is $3.89 per half gallon. I can use anywhere from 1-3 of these half gallons per week, depending on how much kefir we are making. So, it might cost a little more than purchasing sour cream or cream cheese would, but I'd prefer to know the origin of the milk that I use in these products than just buying whatever is on sale this week at the store that often has added fillers and ingredients.

Does anyone else out there use kefir grains?