Got any food projects going on?

One thing we do is make our own breakfast sausage,I can make Jimmy Dean style for 99 to 1.69 a pound depending on pork sale prices. And it isnt chock full of preservatives. Nice money saver and better quality and quality control too IMO.

Other thing we recently learned at the SMF Forum was how to make buckboard bacon,since Ive made that again I will never go back to commercial,cheaper and better.Its made from a shoulder roast and very close to what pork belly bacon is,now we like it even better.

Then learned how to smoke cheese at same forum,just buy the cheap on sale cheese at 2.99/lb,and smoke it 2-4 hours,gourmet cheese,gotta love it! Pack it with the food saver,should store a loooong time.We use it as a trading item and for goodwill at the thrift store,a happy Joanie means great deals for us,win-win!

Today a local Mexican chain store (Cardenas) has pickling cucumbers for 50 cents a Lb,Mrs is going to whip up a case full of pickles.Pickles took us a few times to get right,again,wonderful product on the cheap.

And Ethnic markets have good sale prices,the Mexican here are great for produce on the cheap.And buy em from the refer by the case and they havent been sitting out,drying out,and getting jostled around by customers,last case we bought was zucchini,right from box the were gorgeous,in the bin all beat up. Just asked produce guy for a case.(40 lbs or so?)

You all got any food projects going on you find really exciting?

Growing peppers and tomatoes

got a dehydrator and pressure canner... haven't used the canner yet...

built a couple of DIY "Earth Boxes" earlier in the summer for some peppers and garlic (don't use SteriLite containers, they are disintegrating from UV at 2 months... the 5gal buckets are OK)...

built a set of sprouting jars from the Ball jars I use for vacuum sealing... rims and small section of screen to have a continuous batch system if needed for "greens" from great northern, and pinto beans I've stored... I think this is a better solution, than try to grow in Florida soil, other than the Earth Box method... you get results in about 5 days

In 08 I put away some canned goods (Dinty Moore, Campbells chunky etc) that I normally don't eat (bad planning on my part prior to viewing Wendy DeWitt) for use in hurricane power outage... have been eating them up... most a year after "best by" date... so far no issues...

Sprouts,very good,I like the alfalfa,good substitute for lettuce.



OH,and the radish,nice flavor.I like a lot of the beans too,that sprouting is a great thing,and easy to store a lot of seed.Mail ordered some in bulk a while back,cost 140 bucks but its a lot of fresh nutritious food.And foolproof,its a guaranteed crop for sure,and as you said,fast too.

Les,have you ever pressure canned? I think its easier than waterbath tho it takes longer waiting for the canner to cool,we are on about our third year doing it,learning curve is very rapid/easy.

Garden just doesnt do well here,have high hopes on the tomatoes this year,so far they are looking good,hope they ripen in time.

I just picked up 72 cans of corn for 50 cents each on sale at Cardenas,their store brand is top notch,want a LOT more,and need oil.Heard soybeans way up,corn futures jumped 60% in just a few weeks. Time to buy is now,prices will be going way up soon.

Geeze,beef prices sure are up,chicken and pork on sale still good here.

Nothing much, 'cept for this:

Very nice Doug. No oil wells in the background to spoil the view!

Well done Doug,very nice gardens.

Nothing special really, just another season...

We have about 1,100 sq ft of vegetable garden. Tomatoes and beans are starting to come in now. I expect we will be canning this coming weekend. Beans just get frozen and vacuum packed. Since we can water, things are doing really well.

The orchard is doing super this year, thanks again to our honeybees. They really make a big difference in production.

We just picked about 50 lbs of peaches last weekend. There should be lots more this weekend. Apples still have a little while to go before harvest, but the trees are heavy with fruit. The dogs have already started in on the ones on the ground.

We are also picking up our half-cow a little early this year. Farmer is sending it to slaughter early due to drought conditions here affecting his pasture in a really bad way.

Had a good honey harvest this Spring too.

Everything is coming in really early this year.

Just the opposite, I lost three of my apple trees to borer beetles in the last two weeks.
-Blast

Spuds.. no on the pressure canning... I'm single, and have decided to put away some meat and meat sauces in pint and half pint single serving jars...got one of the All Americans...

I've been working on the generator which was a gift... 30amp 250v breaker installed in my non attached garage to back feed the house, but the generator is not running right...trying a smaller 8hp engine tomorrow, to see if it will pull the load

the heat has been pretty serious on the plants... the beans did not do well in the Earth boxes... peppers, onions, and garlic did...think I'll concentrate on the peppers, and dehydrate them..dehydrated garlic and onions are too reasonable at Sam's to duplicate

the sprouts are amazing...should be part of every prep plan....

Les,we went with the All American too,a little pricey but IMO is the best made period,no gaskets a major plus,and heirloom quality so my DIL ( the foody of the family) is going to love it someday too.I think price to value long term cant be beat.

My Bud has been doing a lot of meatloaf and he and his wife have been raving about it,in pint wide mouth jars. Got me excited to try it too.

Sometimes we can get onions for 8 lbs/dollar and make flakes and powder,sure is tasty.The one I cant get into is dehydrating potatoes,we can get dried here dirt cheap,though chemical infused like most commercial,but its a survival food,not for gourmet cooking.Preservatives hardly an issue at that point.

We just dehydrated ten trays of apricots kids gave us,turned out so good we will do a lot more next year.

OUCH!

I hope this still rates as preparedness and not whacko TEOTWAWKI territory - I was spooked by reading some reports on the impact of an EMP, so I invested ~$250 in several hundred pounds of 'superpails' of rice and oats to supplement my food stores. This is really, really long term storage, such that if I go the rest of my life without opening and eating from the pails, my semi-panicked fully paranoid $250 investment will cost me $10 per year. I love rice and I love oats, but I am not likely to dip into these pails by themselves - they are there for eating if *everything* is off for the next while and society is literally starving and trying to make ends meet. A garden will be good after an EMP event, but will require 24x7 perimeter security from food poachers, which maybe I won't have. So I'm hedging my bets with a bulk purchase.

I don't usually dwell on things like EMPs or any other event that might, for instance, shut off access to equipped.org forever - far more likely I'll continue to experience smaller more manageable disasters. Dollar for dollar and hour for hour I'll still get more value, exercise and have more fun from our garden than pails of grains sitting in a cool dry place. This rates as an impulse buy, but I actually feel pretty good about it too based on the scientific research into EMP capabilities - although I am still negotiating with my wife on where I should actually keep this.

Total time on this food project: 2 minutes for ordering, a week for shipping, a half hour putting the pails in storage. Complete.

So in the end, one less thing...

FWIW I bought from beprepared.com, a reliable vendor at a reasonable price. I like the ~50 lb superpails because they come appropriately packaged for long term storage (oxygen absorbers, mylar bags etc). No relation to or compensation from the vendor etc.

Spending $250 on food hardly strikes me as paranoid. I can blow that in 15 minutes at the supermarket.

At my house, you'll often find many months of foodstuffs in cold storage. My garden stores alone account for several hundred pounds of potatoes, carrots, beets, squash, onions, etc. This is the reality of living in a cold climate. My parents and grandparents did the same thing. Prudent and practical, and darn handy too.

My 2c.

Tomatoes, onions, and peppers are cheap right now, and I have a lot of dry red kidney beans in storage, so I'm making and freezing large batches of venison chili with the last of my deer meat.

Anything to save a buck as I dont think Im going to have much extra come retirement.....Hence the canning skills.

Today we put up 21 qts pickle slices and spears,figure came to about a buck a qt.

click to enlarge

That's a good point, although by buying $250 of food I don't anticipate eating in the regular rotation of my pantry, I'm going against my basic principle of eat what you buy, buy what you eat. I bought specifically these pails of rice and oats for ease of prep (fewer calories expended) and caloric intake, not for day to day eating. I thought of getting some pails of wheat - I grind my own wheat and make breads and doughs almost every week, but baking after an EMP event may not be easy or even safe to do. Anyway, that's the sort of What If thinking I was hoping to partially address with my impulse buy. I admit, I'm not fully prepared for an EMP event (and I think I'm ok with that).

We don't have a huge garden area or terribly long growing season here, but its been hugely productive after 8 years of soil enhancing with compost, coffee grounds etc, and its a lot of fun to tend. With bountiful Eastern Washington providing our tomatoes potatoes onions and fruits of all kinds, we've focused on core things like basil which is growing great guns this year - also its far easier to put this up and store, but it doesn't produce very many calories. I think I'll continue to buy most of my pantry in cans which we use on a regular basis, but look at starting canning operations next spring. Aside from making jams we haven't canned any produce.

What a lovely thread! I don't have a garden, but I have been hitting up the farmers' stands pretty often. I just started canning a couple of weeks ago. So far I've done home made jelly (that was my first time, went with something easy). Then I did mangos that I got on sale for 25 cents a piece. Then I worked my nerve up to try pressure canning, and now I'm hooked! I've done 15 bean soup and pickles so far. I might actually do some chicken later this evening or tomorrow, I have some in my freezer that needs to be cooked.

I was hesitant to start canning because of startup costs. I quickly realized after doing the math on each of my projects, that it DOES save you money in the long run. And, personally, I more likely to can foods that my family actually eats. We don't buy a lot of canned foods, so this method is great for me.

A tip for any beginners, is just make your regular meal, double recipe. Then can what's left (before adding dairy, flour, etc, of course). My food storage contents have expanded very rapidly!

Edit to add: I've been using pint size jars. We are a family of two adults, one small child. My logic is that it would be less waste if the power is out (leading to no refrigeration). Also, in a severe situation where bartering might be useful, I thought pint jars would be more practical for trading items. Downfall is that it seems to be less food more space. Any thoughts on that, should I use quart jars too even though we are a small family?

Edit again to add: Also, I'm thinking pint jars are more useful if I see someone in need that I want to share with, I could give them *something* without feeling like I'm depleting my food stores too much. And I could help more people a little bit instead of one person a lot. Does that make since, or is my logic flawed? A different perspective would be appreciated.

Krista,I cant think of any changes you need to do,you have a plan,it works for you,and every morsel stored is that much more insurance for a food glitch of any sort.I say keep up exactly what you are doing.

Good job,and happy canning!

Quart jars have their place. It would be difficult to put up dill pickles in a pint jar. That said, I remember when my mother put up scores of quart jars of vegetables and fruit..early on it was a wax seal. Once in a while, a jar didn't seal right, and we lost a quart of peaches. Better to lose a pint!

Another consideration is how much you would need in a recipe. For example, you would probably need more than a pint of tomatoes to make chili or spagetti sauce...might as well put them up in quarts.

Fish, meat, apple butter,jam etc would be better in pints. I make my own maple syrup and I put it up in jelly jars.

Excellent points, thanks! I'll keep on doing my thing then, because you are absolutely correct, better to lose a pint than a quart! Today I was a busy bee. I canned chicken soup, pasta sauce, and green beans.

On a side note, I used wide mouth pint jars for pickles. It worked okay, although I had to trim the ends. Instead of wasting the ends, I made what I am calling "Pickle Bites", lol. I hope they are crunchy. I'm waiting a couple weeks to try them. If they aren't cooked to mush, I might even fry them: "Fried Pickle Bites". People keep telling me fried pickles are good..... I'm not so sure... :p

Edit to add: For us pet owners, you can even use bits and scraps from meats and whatnot to can your pet's food! I've started collecting the scraps in a ziplock in my freezer so I can do a big batch at a time. (Also people edible in a pinch!)

A neighbor has 2 apple trees loaded,offered me all I want when they finish ripening in a couple weeks,see I need more jars,Mrs has made some fine apple sauce in the past,WOOHOO!Will bring them some nice canned product for their generosity.

Been loving those pickles,the garlic has mellowed into almost sweet smooth taste,they are great.Been eating a couple pickles a day,great food bargain there at a dollar a qt!

might try here

http://allaboutfoodstorage.com/wp-content/uploads/EVERYTHING-UNDER-THE-SUN-2010-word.pdf

Canned 24 qts chicken/veg soup,all sale items comes to 30 cents per qt to fill em.

Yup,our Mexican store,Cardenas, sales on veggies sure is nice.

I just got a new dehydrator and a new smoker! I got stuff workin' 24/7! Will try to snap some pics soon...

Great Phaedrus!
Frozen veggies can be had cheap and dehydrate beautifully.If you havent done before you will be very pleased,just pour em frozen one layer on a tray and viola.

Click to enlarge pics

Heres my latest,this was the soup

Celery,onion,canned corn,creamed can corn,carrots,canned diced tomatoes,cabbage,broccoli and chicken.



==========================
Beef Jerky,just finished,simple,was just soy sauce,water and onion powder,soaked in refer for 24 hours.I do NOT use cure on my Jerky,YMMV.









=======================

Last smoker project was cheese,got this,in foodsaver wrapping.Done with the amazen smoker.

Its Mozz,Pepperjack,Monterey Jack,Colby... with Apple and Cherry smoke,50/50. Start at 9:30PM.Ambient temp 65F.

Learned something,when temps low 70's or less dont have to monitor smoker temps,it stays plenty cool.

Top,Pepper and Monterey Jack



Bottom is Mozzarella and Colby


Done after 3.25 hrs


Been giving a lot away,so far got apricots,eggs and some zucchini and beefsteak maters,LOVE IT! Great trade item!

BTW,gave some to Joanie at the thrift store and for 7 dollars got these and more!
Gotta love it!

That bread machine costs 80 bucks,barely used


The Blender base is 1970's pricy quality,runs smooooooth,so nice to have another extra.

Izzy,you will like this,and no pectin required,made these Oct 2010,were excellent and a great way to use up your green tomatoes,nice and sweet too.
=============================
This is a tomato marmalade,or jam if you like.

Makes 5 to 6 pints approximately.You may either can them,freeze it,or leave in refrigerator 2-3 weeks

Ingredients

* 2 oranges
* 2 lemon
* 7 pounds tomatoes, skinned and cut in small pieces
* 1 cup sugar per pound of tomatoes
* 1 TBSP ginger, grated
*1 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Skin tomatoes,cut out stem
2.Thinly slice 2 oranges and 2 large lemons,remove seeds,cut slices into quarters
3. Place the citrus , tomatoes, sugar and ginger in a large pot. Bring to a boil and boil uncovered for 2 hours or until the jam thickens.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the preserving jars.
5. Fill jars with hot marmalade, leaving a 1/4 inch head pace. Wipe the rims clean. Seal according to manufacturer’s directions.
6. Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes at sea level,add 1 minute for each 1000 feet higher.
--------------------------------------------
Gather up your tomatoes.I have cherries,large,and romas,both fresh and frozen,will be using 4 lbs red tomatoes,3 lbs green






Take tomatoes,cut out stem,slice an X through skin,then throw into boiling water 30-60 seconds.Should just note skins falling off.Into ice water and peel off skins.




Put all ingredients into pan,boil lightly so it doesnt boil over.I stirred it every 15 minutes for 2 hours.




After 2 hours I took a wand mixer to it as the citrus wasnt breaking up,and got this




90 minutes more boiling,stirring every 10 minutes I had reduced it to this,and had this consistency on a spoon turned sideways,a jam like thickness.Started my lids boiling for the dishwasher cleaned pint jars.






Waterbath canned.Im at 5,000 feet,book calls for 15 minutes of boiling,I did 30 minutes because.... why not? Not worried about over processing it.


Got 3 of these




2 of these



And a pint in refrigerator


Toast with cream cheese and marmalade.This would be super on a toasted bagel with cream cheese,or on pork,or biscuits.

Sounds like lots of people are into canning etc...I have a small garden and just put in some raspberry bushes this summer. I've also canned blueberries and tomatoes so far this summer, helped a friend can a big batch of peaches from her tree (and got a few jars for myself in the bargain), frozen strawberries, blueberries, some kale and zucchini, and dried strawberries and blueberries. Soon it will be time to go apple picking and make applesauce...this year I got a food mill so I won't have to peel all those apples by hand. That was not fun last year!! I still have a lot of dried apples left from last fall so will not be doing those this year. One thing I haven't tried making yet is jerky, but I think I will try it this fall.

See another canner here,love it.You did great this year Jolt,wtg!

Jolt,we have one of those apple skinner/corer thingies,works ok I guess,sure beats doing by hand,we have apples coming real soon,I think cinnamin applesauce might be nice.



Folks who havent canned,if its ever crossed your mind to do so its really easy esp. with the web,its ALL there,great youtubes.

We made apricots in light syrup for the canned ones.



For the dehydrated cherries and apricots just run a knife around edge to pit and pop out pits.We then tossed into a bowl with 1-2 tsp vitamin C powder in a qt of water to keep color good. You could use lemon or lime juice too. The Vit C powder available at health food stores.

Got the 15 lbs of buckboard bacon (pork butts) into the smoker,2 layers......



15 hours of smoke,then 2 hours in freezer to firm up for slicing on electric slicer (Hobart model 110,late 1930's,early 1940's deli model,found on craigslist for about 120 bucks IIRC)

Got bacon ends, regular looking style bacon slices,and Canadian bacon style slices









Most of it packaged up,I just use regular ziplocks as it wont last more than 6 weeks or so before we eat it all.Got 18 bags bacon and 2 of bacon ends.




Home grown tomatoes,homemade bacon,gotta love it!

Wow Spuds, that's some serious bacon! I just finished canning 12 pints of spiced applesauce today, after going apple picking yesterday. That should be it as far as canning projects for the season.

Jolt,that sounds soooooo good,a nice treat of sweets,man I cant wait to do some soon.

The basic preps are good,but the sweet stuff,I would really miss those,applesauce sounds so good right now.

I still have some of that tomato jelly,sweet as can be.If I wind up with green maters I will make more of that.

9.25 lbs betterboys and 3.75 lbs romas today.Amazing!!!!! We are even dehydrating em have so many.

Getting about 12 lbs a week right now,awesome!

I doubt we have six plants,a row maybe 20 feet long? A lot from such a small space.And no cages.I just let em grow against a 3 foot high fence and rest on ground,pick ground ones before fully ripe and even pill bugs dont bother em,lost I bet easily less than a dozen,which went to chickens.Just amazed.



Pics a couple weeks ago....

Love this stuff.These will ripen over the week on the windowsill,cool to watch em get perfectly ripened




These very ripe,eat ASAP next couple days




These? Have to figure something out




For dinner,homemade garlic herb bread,toasted,tomatoes and lettuce and mayo,light yet filling dinner.

Well the tomatoes ripened real fast,so into the dehydrator,2 top are roma,bottom is betterboys.

Coming along.This dehydrator only goes to 117F so things take a while.Will store in this form,Mrs says she may powder some for instant tomato soup,a couple/3 TBS powder to a cup hot water is all it takes.

Girl making sure its being done right.

Blast,

I feel your pain. The drought here in MO destroyed my entire corn crop. One of my apple trees may be dead. Wax moths destroyed our bee hive, and a hawk killed one of our chickens this past weekend.

I did expand one of our gardens and will be putting in twice the wheat we did 2 years ago, so hopefully that will go better than the corn did this year. At least all the raised beds I dug seem to be producing.

Hopefully winter doesn't take out any more of our trees. I assume the drought in Houston last year took out some of yours? I know my folks in Kingwood lost some.

Greg

I've been trying to cut down on the bread and pasta, so have been grilling on a small tailgate size propane grill recently...

flashback from 1971...on a slow mid shift in Japan there was not much activity so a couple of us analysts would make a yakitori run for the entire flight (600 sticks of yakitori...every bar in Saitozaki was cooking for us)at least once a month

yakitori is typically chicken (or pork) on a skewer....so bought some bamboo skewers...cut up some chicken breast, marinated in soy, sugar, garlic powder and organge juice... alternated between onion slices... another time with pork..

and it dawned on me..the bamboo skewers (cut the points off with a wire cutter after skewering) would be an excellent cooking method for a power out setting... sanitary...no clean up...utilize a small heat source from most any fuel...with the tips cut off they could be used to eat noodles, rice, veggies as chop sticks (hashi/kuaizi)...never was able to use them well enough to drink soup...perhaps an ancient society might have figured out the way to eat with minimum resources...we might better pay attention...

Not sure if it's a "project" or not, but I did pick up some of these LRP rations. IIRC these are the summer rations. I didn't really want the breakfast ones all that much but the dinner/lunch entrees are really good. They're basically Mountain House Pro-Pak in slightly different packaging. They're pretty hard to find at times (the LRPs). There are a couple places that have them reliably but you need to buy pretty large amounts.

They're really not a food storage item, more of a camping & survival product.

I went the 'traditional' food storage,ie,lots of carbs.....now Im thinking,after recent research has shown, that a high fat diet is actually good for you heart wise.That the caveman diet with lots of meat and fat may just have the science behind it to back up heart healthy claims. Sooooo many food myths that sound good on paper when in actuality have pretty much zero actual research to back it up. But thats another topic.....

Back to your Asian cooking.I like their emphasis on fast hot cooking,based on the fact that cooking fuel was a luxury for them. I used to cook steaks fast and hot on a grill with sticks/twigs on the ground in my starving student days (Lived in a bus in middle of desert),fast and hot,just 7 minutes approx for a steak,amazing!

So great post for that idea!
==============================
Phaedrus,those LRPs sound super if not a bit pricey. Looks like the Mtn House just in a heavier package,what a super item for the car BOB. I like Mtn House a lot,a little salty,but you will need that salt too in a survival situation.Good stuff!

A Bud runs a survival/prep store.He is down on MRE's because he says they constipate and are designed to do just that.Retired military....he cant understand why MRE's sell so well,he wont eat em!But I guess short term meals they have a place?

3.25 lbs today....



that's 52.5 lbs so far.....At 3 dollars/lb that would be 156 dollars.

Tomato powder in a pint jar

The best feature of MREs is the absolute ease and simplicity of preparation, plus the over packaging makes every meal like Christmas, as you unwrap your "presents." Most of those I have eaten have been in the guise of "fire rations," which are the same items rebranded and packed in boxes with different labels.

I think the story about constipation is a military urban legend (MUL), although it may be true. Back in the old brown boot army, we used to say the same thing about C rations. Either MREs or C rats taste great when you out in the field/fire line and the elegant restaurant with the wine list and tablecloths is unavailable....

With just a little foresight and planning, you can prepare meals that are lighter, more tasty and nutritious, and cheaper, right out of your local supermarket. But you will have to actually cook.

" He is down on MRE's because he says they constipate "
My own experience from about 1980. I was at 29 Palms, Ca. as a support corpsman with a Marine tank company (reserves). My first time in the field. About the 3rd day, I mentioned to an experienced gunnery sargeant that I feared I was growing constipated; hadn't been to the "toilet" since our arrival. he asked me if I was eating the "candy" disks which came with our rations. (Can't remember now if they were C-rations or MRE's. Reservists took what we were handed and said thanks.) I ate a "candy" disk that evening and, the next day, lost probably 10 pounds of "used" rations. The gunnery sargeant explained the "candy" disks were a laxative to counter the lack of fiber in the rations.

I did reservist corpsman at Pendleton.I remarked wish I had a gun. Couple Gyrenes said dont worry Doc,we will take VERY GOOD CARE of you!

And they did,starting with the food,forget what they were but when the boxes came these guys dug thru and tossed me some,gave me the skinny on what was good or not,nice guys,lotsa respect for Marines from me,fine young men!

Sooo....Im Navy while closet hippy Elmo Zumwalt was in charge,boy did he give the old line Brass fits! He had this idea,what do we eat off base? One thing was Arbys roast beef,so he had the Navy copy it and We got to eat that on base in the cafeteria.Boy Arby's had a cow,Elmo just blew em off (Thats 1-800-SoSueMe,1-800-SoSueMe...LOL!).

Copied some other fast food stuff too. And Midrats,fresh cooked food to order at midnight for night shift,boy that rocked!

Good guy ole Elmo,the Navy couldnt get rid of him fast enough,but us young guys thought he was the best (YMMV),LOL!

re: Admiral Zumwalt's Navy...I had a couple of Navy CTs (Thai linguists) that kinda worked for me in 72.. they had moustaches that would have made Emiliano Zapata proud....

Beards,bell-bottoms and Dixie Cups.

Plus we had Beer vending machines. Crazy Hippy that Elmo!

You can bet Elmo wouldnt have been 'shocked and embarrassed' when Cher did the turn back time video. He would have put her on tour!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEszTzdUMcY

Im dehydrating frozen Blackberries on parchment paper so they wont stick.

Why do this?

Since they store poorly and take up a lot of freezer space.So blackberry powder here I come.

What are they for?

Thats the good part.If you take a coffee cup,fill half with berries and fill with water,microwave to boil,then mash em up.Drink it and berries completely. Tastes pretty darn good too.

This will stop diarrhea in its tracks.Stomach cramps,gone! Now sometimes it takes 2 doses,but it REALLY DOES WORK,everyone Ive given it to,or advised,has gotten relief. It works BETTER than Imodium,and it doesnt leave you bound up afterwards like the anti diarrheal drugs can do.

I'll update as I finish up,havent dehydrated these before but should work.



Well.....parchment paper a BAD idea,the juice oozed onto it,scraped em off and straight to a tray now....





OK,direct to tray is working,almost dry.....

Pretty cool,homemade (BLT....BST ACTUALLY,LOL) bacon,homegrown tomatoes,alfalfa sprouts for lettuce(in sprout jar in refer,been 2 weeks and still fresh and alive)

Store sourdough bread and mayo,both we could have made from scratch with whats on hand.

Very good from stuff we did at home,love it!

Blackberries done.Frozen berries straight to tray worked fine.Approved and inspected by dog.

15 berries to cup of boiling water,mash and drink for the stomach upset is what we have been doing

Another batch of maters,very tangy,huge flavor,these dried to crispy.Notice we always have a ferocious Alsatian guarding the trays....

Radish sprouts,seeds about three years old.Seem to be germinating well,this is start of day four.Can make a sprout jar from a lid with small nail holes,or use screen or nylon stocking on top of jar,we rinse 2-3 times a day if we remember. got some more alfalfa going,they with maters will be our fresh salads for a while.

No garden space?

This year we experimented with the topsy turvy growing thingies.A buck each at dollar stores is a fair price,some we paid 2 bucks.

My squash failed (as always here) from powdery mildew.

The cherry tomato did great,grew slower than ground but the plan is to bring in when it freezes and see if it will produce in a window with some light added.

Son did peppers in his,huge success in desert.

Warning,hot weather in direct sun you may have to water twice a day,morning and evening,when it gets down to 80F once a day works.I also added some miracle grow to mater.

Mrs just made me a sandwich and radish sprout/tomato salad,dang but that salad was good!!!

FRESH FRESH FRESH,tastes just like an iceberg lettuce type salad.Only slightly more flavor.

LOVE this stuff!

Last time we ordered seeds we got them here,AFAIK the price seemed really good and the quality is very very good IMO. If you have other sources you use,would you post em please?

IE,1 lb alfalfa seeds for 10.50,thats a deal!

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/bulkherb/r.html

Got your pumpkins yet?

Around here we can get em for 20 cents/lb,thats cheap squash for sure. One of my favorite fall treats,love those seeds.We will cook as squash,do up seeds,make soup,and Mrs wants to look into canning pie filling this year.Got 3,going to get more.

Pumpkin Selection and Storage
Choose smaller pumpkins for eating

http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodstorage/a/pumpkinstorage.htm

Finished canning the last of our tomatoes last weekend, about 50 quarts this year. We probably gave half the tomato crop away this year to friends and family.

Gary,how much space did your maters take in garden?

OK,saw this about wood chip gardening,called Back to Eden (Like garden of Eden).

Basically its making your garden like a forest floor,no tilling,no watering to a point,kills weeds like crazy with a 4-6 inches layer of wood chips.NO need for fertilizer after it starts composting,doesnt use pesticides. Its the biblical approach to healthy plants,and he has the garden(s) to prove it.

You do this in fall and can plant in spring,each rain sends a compost tea into soil.

Soooo.....up here the bark beetle caused a lot of trees to be destroyed,they chipped the branches,about 1.5 years ago? So 2.5 miles from house is staging area,went up and hauled off 3 trash cans of left behind already composting chips for our small garden,pics when I lay it out.

Chipped WOOD,not Bark! Bark is bad.Chipped branches.

OBTW,thinking about it area of chips we went to had zero weeds growing,amazing,and the area a couple/3 inches below top of chips was moist,it hasnt rained here in months! Just like he said it would be.Chips 6-12 inches deep there.

This video is 1.5 hours,when you have some dead time really worth the look.

http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/#movie

Spuds, I would guess 400-450 sq ft. leaving luxurious row space.

For weeds, my weapon of choice is a swoe.

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/57700-product.html

They are manufactured by Wilkinson Sword Company. It works super fast, no mulch required. I maintain giant gardens with this one tool. I have over 10 acres of landscaped yard.

Nice hoe Gary,little pricey,would you say its lifetime quality? I will always pay more for quality,cheaper long term IMO.

Small yard is my drawback,could never grow enough to feed us,good on you having all that space,awesome!!!

Water is buku expensive here,mulching may be a really good answer for us,I mulch before season....a season worth of mulch from one chips application ....I like the concept,my soil is like talcum powder.

Actually I used to get free chips at dump,they decided to sell em to a company.Where water used to pool it was now dry while raining,and I did see soil improving under the chips.When I first moved here and we didnt garden,now that we are gardening I know the utility of the chip method,cant wait to get back into it.

I'll do lots of pics as this progresses.

I got about 70 lbs maters from 80 sq feet this year, 4x20,next year we will double it.This was preseason mulching,dug in with chicken poo.My learning curve on that was its easy to go overboard on poo and be a nitrogen,green leafy overgrowth at fruit expense,or even burn up the baby toms.Got the right amt figured out now. With the chip compost the fertilizing aspect will balance itself,so his do.

Example,I have 3 dogwoods,1 is in the compost pile.Its green and leafy now and grew notably this year,the other 2 grew little and leafs are dying and falling now.

Do you know If I can grow maters over potatoes? Or would they shade em out? Been playing with potatoes,havent got it down yet.The woodchip method requires no hilling,as potato grows it doesnt get 'pushed' to surface from firm dirt below,it just kind of displaces the chips laterally and doesnt rise much at all.

Learning to grow in a shady treed area,in a short season/winter freezing area,has been a multi year challenge.

I grow taters in boxes. It works great and takes a surprisingly small amount of space. Here is a link to the general concept. http://tipnut.com/grow-potatoes/

The swoe is not useful as a hoe, for breaking up dirt. It's a single purpose tool for weeding. I have two, one for me and one for my wife. The quality is top notch. I learned about the swoe while working at an Arboretum. You can see my testimonial on the website link I gave you.

So youre that Gary,eh?

Thanks,looks like a fine tool.

This is the tomato bed that did about 70 lbs this season of romas and betterboys.Note 3 solar panels on barn roof supply its lights and keeps 8 batteries charged for power outages.




From fence on left,as wide as 2x4's and out to red trash can is new bed,it will be twice size of tomato bed.




Will use top layer of leaf from this bin.Will be chicken poo,leaves,composted chips and dry chips.




The chips....brown barrel has the heavily composted,they will be first layer





How cool is this,house behind us is chipping branches,they said take all ya want,back later to update progress.

Thats some chipper,they gave us 6 trash cans half filled,very heavy,this will be the topmost cover.



Got another 6 cans of this,I owe lunch Wednesday




Put down some leaves,etc...Birds loving it,Pickles got some crickets.





Looks like enough stuff left to fill in the whole area (more than we originally planned to do,Mrs wants to do all of yard)

Wife and daughter approve,finish it up tomorrow.Thats a lot of work doing it by trash cans,they are heavy,humping em up a lot of steps.If we had a front yard they would have been happy to drop the truckload of chips free.

Turned out nice,from this to this....






This is where we get chips

Looks good. Chips helped quite a bit to keep the mud from being tracked into the house too

Exactly what wife said as we went out to get 5 barrels today,going to do side of house and a couple more areas,very cool stuff.

I've been doing some grilling on an inexpensive "tailgate" type grill, and it will probably be my go-to cooker for power outages during hurricane season...stamped burner, with a louvered diffuser plate to keep the juices from dropping on the burner... works fine for grilling veggies and meat, but the diffuser doesn't allow food to be heated in a sauce pan that well...cut a 6" hole in one end of the diffuser... not exactly rocket science... works more better...

tonight....chicken breast marinated in soy sauce and orange juice for about 3 hours, dusted with some Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning...

Les,so true.I dont worry about cooking so much,Ive been able to cook with a hole in the ground,a grill and twigs/tiny branches,did it for years.Hot and fast is doable.

Got our first rain,mulch is NICE,no muddy dog feet,awesome.Got our first benefit of soil prep,very nice.

Got whole salmon,Keta from Alaska,for 2.99/Lb

Got 72 pint jars today 7 dollars a dozen,bought em out.Usually about 12 dollars a dozen for jars with lids here.


3 of these fish,5-6 lbs each,2.5 fish canned,saved a big hunk for baked salmon Sunday.



Cut em up,packed to one inch head space,bones,skin and all.Each pint got 1/4 teaspoon salt,some with a few drops liquid smoke and peppercorn and a garlic clove,some with seaweed seasoning,some with lemon pepper.No added liquid.




Got 18 pints,will do em for 110 minutes at 15 lbs for 5000 foot level.



When we eat it will pick out bones and skin at that time.

Will make salmon sandwiches like tuna sandwiches,salmon casserole,salmon cakes,lots of things.


Looks like they turned out pretty good.Thats our first try at fish.

Ive really been going thru these pickles,if you like em gotta make some.We put in a few garlic cloves,next batch going to put in a lot more,makes a fine tasting garlic.

So good,I'll be hard pressed to ever buy pckles again,unless need a specialty type.

Lots of youtubes on doing this if you have a pressure canner.

Im canning and dehydrating pumpkin.

Made soup but overcooked it and it turned brown,going to be chicken food today,and dog food.EDIT-Dogs like it.So did chckens,a LOT.

Into oven at 375F about 45 minutes




Cut off skin




Cut into chunks




Process pressure canner 90 minutes at 15 Lbs pressure here at 5000 feet.Turned out nice




Mash some up




3 cups per tray on parchment paper




12 hours later in our cool dehydrator,most do this much quicker

There is the 1st sheet dry enough to peel from parchment.Took about 22 hours here.

That is 3 cups,will be further dried and powdered.

Its enough to make one pie says Mrs,got 5 of em.

Is that the coolest stuff or what?!

Planning to move my topsy turvey indoors,think on a pulley to lower to water,strand LED lights in leaves,2 CFL on pole lamp shining and in the window in front room.Its probably 6 foot and nicely loaded with fruits.

I call it a fine success.

Just made some Kendal Mint Cake based upon this recipe:

Kendal Mint Cake Recipe

Ingredients
1lb sugar (white, for white mintcake, brown for brown mintcake!)
1/4 pint milk
1 teaspoon of peppermint essence
Optional: melted chocolate (just in case you want to coat the finished product)

I used brown sugar and added dark chocolate. Came out okay, not as good as the real thing, a little on the thin side. I am going to try another larger batch with white sugar and no chocolate.

Pete

this was once a staple for all my canoe trips,great energy boost and a bit in a hot cup of tea was a real treat on a cold wet day.
However!! you can't find it in the USA! REA was my source for years but it's long gone.the price to get it sent from the UK is almost the price of the bars alone.
i get the impression that there is a major hassle with the FDA and some years ago a whole shipment was dumped in the sea because it was not allowed to land.it's called "cake" even if it's a candy bar and "cake" is not allowed.i can buy all sorts of candy bars from Japan,Germany and how about Toblerone!! what is it about the mint"cake"???
my small supply now is from a friend who took a vacation in the UK and brought back some for me.by the way when he went into some outdoor gear shops in London they not only did not have it but wish they could get some themselves.he ended up in Yorkshire where they make it before he could load up for me.
don't get me started on Chunky Bars,another power bar before power bars were invented,now if you can find them they are filled with cheap peanuts and not Brazil nuts!...grumble--grumble-----

I too miss being able to purchase it from REI and plan on checking downtown where there is a store that specializes in British food items – I can only hope that might have it and that it not too expensive. If so, I will let you know.

The recipe I used came close to the original in general flavor. Of course I did not really measure anything and added the dark chocolate to the whole mix, which I am sure, had some culinary effect on the whole process. I purchased some white sugar and plan on taking another stab at making some this weekend.

Pete

Thats great stuff! Thanks so much for sharing spuds. I see your pup likes to help out in the garden.

Yup,Girl is funny,we like to say around here...."Inspected and approved by Girl"

She also inspects all the bags we bring into house,nose in deep and sniffing away,she finds the doggie toys from thrift store and pulls out what is hers.We think its because they smell like kids.

Mrs calls her the TSA.

Picked up a new bread machine at thrift lately,made some bread.

This makes HUGE loaves (4 cups flour),this is French with added gluten to all purpose flour so it was crunchy crust and chewy in the middle.

OK,not as nice as cooked in stove,but durn good anyhow and takes simple to new heights.

So far so good for the tomato moved indoors.Did a little trimming and weaving of branches.

Its a 27 watt CFL light and a west facing window that only gets direct light 15 minutes a day. I open blind in morning and light runs 24/7,seems like a regular old household plant in practice (smells fresh too),hope it makes it through the winter

Various roast beef from Round.......
=============================
For real rare,bear in mind I like rare,for medium heat to 135+ F ....

Making a roast at 250F to an internal temp of 127F,on the grill with smoke and water in the water pan....



Took just under 2 hours....let it sit a good 20 minutes



All done,dipped in sour cream/horseradish,wow!!!



Thanks to slicer I turned the rest into thin sliced Deli cuts,very cool! Now I can save another fortune using cheap cuts of meat made into expensive deli slices!

Another at the 127F internal temp

Doing a round roast today with the amazin smoker,50/50 apple and cherry.

Its sitting on shelf below the roast,off to one side so it doesnt get drippings on it

210-220f smoker temps.Amazin with sawdust chips no problem staying lit.






Coming along,3 hours in....





All done 5 hours later....

At 135F internal temp.....

Another dinner,smoked with apple and hickory to 135 internal temp.Slabs cut from the tender-est middle,ends into deli slices.







Roast made a durn good french dip with horseradish sauce,yumm!



============================

Cooked a fully defrosted 4 lb roast.Took out at 139F internal temp,smoker temps 235-250F,took about 3 hours.

The center had just a hint of pink,but when you vacuum pack it sucks the juices out and it looks rare again,it wasnt.

Well we got the Hobart to do some serious slicing,not bad for 120 bucks,sounds awesome quiet.Figured in for a penny in for a pound,we will be doing roasts,bacons,sausages and cheese so thats a LOT of slicing.

This thing is heavy,took both of us to move it into house.

Actual picture of Mrs Spuds with actual picture of Hobart.



Not bad,very thin slices.Would be worth the effort to do a good 15 lbs per session.

I'd love to have a Hobart slicer at home!

Spent months on Craigslist trying to find one at a price I could pay,this one was finally there after I'd seen it on Ebay.And after price had been cut in half after not selling on Ebay.I called fast!

Its a late 1930's - 1940's model that would have been in a Butcher Shop.Man I got it from had bought it at an estate sale to resell.

Reason it didnt sell I guess is its missing the blade guard and sharpening stones? Just for the heck of it I turned it on and ran my handheld handled diamond knife sharpener over edge,its nice!

We drove over 2 hours in each direction to get it (Nice day trip but another story ) works really well,slices cheese like a champ too.

Spent a day really cleaning it up nicely,Yup,a Hobart! Boy do we love the thing!

This is an 8 lb. Turkey Breast,its just a Turkey minus legs and wings.

Put onto smoker with internal temp of 37F.Onion and celery tucked between skin and bird,breast up.Butter the skin.Salt and pepper.

Smoker is apple dust in amazen brand smoke generator,smoker grill is electric with temp at 235-250F as it cycles.

Starting out....







After about 2 hours....






And about 4 hours total,internal temp of 160F,coming off grill...






And let sit 40 minutes before serving,supposedly the temp will rise another 5 degrees as it sets up on counter for 165 final temp. Color is excellent,the bird was as moist a bird as weve ever made,think its the low temp cooking that the juices stayed in the bird. Was fine flavor.

If you have a smoker try this,its a super winner for sure!




You could try cooking your bird in oven at 250F,just remember for safety you have to reach an internal temp of 140F in no more than 4 hours.Bet it comes out just as moist,literally clear juices flow as you cut it,amazing!!

Edit- Oh,another benefit,lot less cleanup,just a grill,and it cooks outside freeing up kitchen space,all in all a very easy way to make a bird.

Wood chip Mulch coming along nice,this would be mud without it.Got some Oak chips just down the street few days ago,boy that was heavy,thats the light colored stuff on right,estrogen overload with all the wimmins there...




These are the mater plants I uprooted while still green fruits,put in the box as long as they have the slightest orange they will ripen,pretty nice on that!

This is the season for meat deals.

I found turkey breasts for .99/lb and it wasnt an advertised sale,just had em.

Oh,dont forget to get your bargain hams,I got mine for .79/lb and had them cut into 1/4 inch slices,not the Greatest,Farmer John,but not that bad either.

Also a good time to buy sugar for about 50 cents/lb,and my favorite sale,Pineapple.

Its pineapple season so the 20 oz canned is priced as about as good as it gets right now,so stock up.Got my best deal so far at .99/can,can run closer to 2 dollars for 20 ounces later on around here.

The smoked prime rib came out very well,they like rare so came to the right place.




Wrapped and rested for an hour.BTW,its even better cold the next day (by far,the smoke is ALL there),so next time for company I'll do it a day in advance and serve some with sour cream/horseradish cold and heat the other for the dinner plate.

Tomato didnt make it,so I ordered one of these to try...



http://dx.com/p/2w-led-green-house-grow-lights-for-hydroponic-systems-gardening-8372

2W LED Green-house Grow Lights for Hydroponic Systems /
SKU: 8372 (Added on 9/9/2007)
Price:US $18.17
Shipping: Free Shipping To UNITED STATES
Delivery: Typically ships in 7 - 10 business days

todays Bacon

2 quarts apple juice
2 quarts filtered water
1 Cup Brown Sugar
4 oz Maple syrup
5 oz Molasses
3 oz Honey
1/3 Cup Sea Salt
1 oz. Cure #1 Pink Salt...... (Or 1 heaping tablespoon per gallon of liquid)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Allspice
2 Tablespoons Whole black Peppercorns
About 15 lbs pork shoulder at 99 cents/lb,cut into 4 inch slices at store and deboned and skinned

Into refer for about 12 days.....then a 15 hour cold smoke in smoker

YEAH ... I'm about to try out my own pemmican. I did some searching here on old threads and came across Benjamin's pemmican recipe - so that will be on my list. I don't expect miracles - just need to get some pemmican that's good enough that my kids could eat it in an emergency.

My interest in pemmican was re-kindled after I read a recent book about Custer's Last Stand. It's a very good book ... The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick. Somewhere in the narrative was a short story about a white woman who was captured on the Plains, got sick and was saved by eating some Indian pemmican.

It occurred to me that the stuff might be a "lifesaver" for people who have gastrintestinal disorders during an emergency e.g. after an earthquake. Of course, this is optimistic thinking since it assumes that anyone would actually eat my pemmican anyway :-) So I figured I better get going and start making some of the stuff, and testing it out on my kids.

Pete2

An easier way to obtain pemmican is to purchase Tanka bars - whose ingredients are buffalo meat and dried cranberries. They are well packaged and I have consumed several that were well beyond their expiration date - still quite nutritious. I stash one or two in my various kits and keep them handy for emergencies. They are a nice contrast to the usual energy bars.

The drawback is that they are quite expensive, although REI gives a discount on an order of more than 12 bars.

http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.ph...=true#Post24329

Benjammin 02/12/04

In my case, it is rendered, filtered beef tallow, dried thin sliced meat, a little salt, a little pepper, dried huckleberries, and almonds. All the dried ingredients are ground coarse and mixed into melted tallow, which is then allowed to cool and harden. I've also used sunflower and sesame seeds at times. It packs as many calories as possible in the smallest space available and lasts longer than anything not hermetically sealed and sterilized that I've ever come across.
-------------------------------
Anonymous Unregistered 02/12/04

Check out this site for all the recipes you'll need to start experimenting with pemmican
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/pemmican.html
Ed

Today I took the meat out and tied it up.Its kind of loose after the de-boning.

As it cures it gets sort of hard,so the meat will be tightly packed together,each piece,so it will slice better.

I'll show that when I cut the strings off.

Really looks nice, putting it back in refer.

Got Campbells tomato and Mushroom soups for .68/can,and store brand canned greenbeans and cream corn for .33/can.Last canned corns sale was .50/can.

Got ketchup for .48 each,and hotdogs for dogs for .48/each.Small tomato paste for .18/can.

Checking my records this is sales price in 2008! So loaded up.Last can sale lasted us a year.

Got vegetable oil at 5 cents/ounce,boy has priced dropped nicely on oil,its buy time.

This was at Winco,any canned sales out your way?

I'll update this as I go along today.

Bacon pork after 13 day soak in cure.It has formed the pellicle,fancy for dried a bit and surface sticky so smoke sticks better




I will smoke in this electric smoker,from Lowes,less than a hundred bucks.You can cook roasts,sausages,ribs,chicken on this thing,set temp and good to go.Not a high temp grill,gets up to around 350F or so.




Now I pack the Amaze-n-smoker (smoke generator) with hickory sawdust.Just pack it,light one end and forget it,should do the full 15 hours of cold smoke planned today,no added heat.Ambient temp 45F today.
The smoker is about 50 bucks online.Makes smoking foolproof.




Meat loaded on 2 trays.....away we go!




8 hrs in,taking on some color




12 hours in,going to do 2 more hrs.Ambient temp 35F.



Had to add a little more dust to smoker

I have been giving some consideration to making bacon and sausage. lots of good stuff on youtube, although many of them tell you to do it one way and another says specifically not to do it that way.

Bob,the absolute last word on smoking can be found here at the smokingmeatforum.

They make it very easy with simple rules and foolproof recipes,and great product reviews.All you need to know and it really is simple simple,then you progress to whatever level you like up to absolute pro should that be your goal.They will have you up and running fast.

You can smoke from bargain basement prices up to infinity,whatever fits you,another nice thing that site does.Im on the bargain end and at that level alone you can make awesome products.

Im also on the simple end of recipes,they also go from newbie to pro.

NO relation to site,just a fine resource

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/

15 hrs,done. Into the refer overnight,will cut up in morning






Now we wrap tightly in cling wrap and into freezer,in my case about 3 hrs.We want the meat semi frozen and tightly packed.It will be just barely bendable when we run it through the meat slicer to get tight bacon strips,not loose pieces.

All set,took 3.5 hrs in my 0 degree F freezer to get firm




The rough cuts/ends




The good looking cuts










Some bacon ends cooked in toaster oven.Nice sweet maple bacon




All packed up and ready for freezer.Not vacuum packing,just cellophane and into big Ziploc freezer bags,we eat it so quickly no need to use the expensive vacuum bags.

Bacon in toaster oven,bread lettuce and mayo,that was a GOOD sandwich.Worth all the effort.

yumm

Not exactly a project but I bought 10 cans of Maxwell House ground coffee from Dollar General the other day. 30.6 oz cans. $40.40 shipped. Currently on BO.

Might be a project finding a place to store them.

Good deal Bob,I do same with coffee sales.This is what they are showing now,you nailed a deal for sure




Maxwell House Wake-Up Roast - 30.65 oz

Item #: 11786775

Free Shipping with $25 Purchase! (Details)
$5.00 each (was $6.50)
Qty:

$30.00 case 6 units per case (was $39.00)
Qty:

Hmmmm...that dollar general with free shipping over 25 dollars,thats some deal!

Ordered a bunch of stuff.No gas,no time to shop,delivered to your door.

Thanks Bob.first time Ive heard of them!

I used this code 10DG50 and got $10 off plus free shipping.

I don't know if it still works.

THANK YOU!

I ordered 10 at 50 bucks,got 10 dollars off with your promo code!

4 bucks for 30 ounces coffee,what a deal!

Im seeing this,I flipped the page to fast to verify,no sales tax?

Item Sub-Total: $40.00
Shipping: $0.00
Sales Tax: $0.00
Total: $40.00

Bob,where did you find this discount code?

Thanks ILBob,got em today.Saved me some bucks.They might say no coffee to Calif,but they sent em.Was 40 bucks,great deal!

So,got this corroded cast iron rusty dutch oven camp stove at thrift store.No Name.Dug it out other day and started wire brushing it and found some numbers.Turns out its a 1960's Lodge,so worthy of cleaning up.Spent 2 hours with a wire wheel on drill removing rust and crud.

To season alternated with Crisco and Coconut oil,heating in oven to 450F and heating about 2 hours,then cooling in oven.

6 coats later and have this.I like doing this for the price and for the quality,older they are seems better the quality.Very pleased,its a beauty though pics dont show how pretty it is.





EDIT,didnt get a before pic (Didnt think it would turn out so well) but outside was far worse than this pan,though inside was somewhat better

I've used electrolysis to clean up several cast iron pan flea market finds. It works great. All you need is a car battery charger, a large plastic container (I use an old kitchen garbage can), a piece of rebar, and some washing soda.
http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

-Blast

p.s. Do it outside and don't smoke. It release quite a bit of really flammable hydrogen gas.

I have heard claims that bead blasting works pretty well.

I have also heard you can soak them in vinegar to get the rust off. No idea if that works or not.

Great idea Blast - The only thing more fun than chemistry is electro-chemistry.

Phosphoric acid would take the rust off, but I wonder about the residual phosphate coating it leaves behind. It is probably food safe, but how would it respond to seasoning...

Theres also a method of using a 20:1 water/molasses solution,though that can take a week or two of soaking.Apparently you buy bulk molasses from a feed store.Seen some pretty amazing rust clean ups with it.More molasses faster it works.

Some folks shy away from blasting r/t getting things imbedded into pan,or sending it out to be done and they use a contaminated medium on your pan.

Electrolysis has lots of fans out there who flat out love the results.

Gotta say Im a huge cast iron fan.

"Do it outside and don't smoke"
No need for two Blasts here.

This is a no knead bread,2nd attempt at it.First was a great success on the DO thread.

6 cups white flour
4 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups Rye flour
8 tsp sea salt
1 tsp yeast
7 cups water

Mix dry ingredients.Add water and mixed with hands just until flour all moist.

Makes a very sticky dough.

Covered with plastic wrap and set on counter for at least 12 hours



After 16 hours on counter i removed saran wrap from dough and got this very sticky dough.I like seeing bubbles in dough.






On to floured counter-top and turned over on itself a few times with maybe 2 TBS flour added to both loaves to make less sticky so it can be handled.Then a little cornmeal and caraway seeds sprinkled on. As it rises a dutch oven and cast iron bread pan are preheating to 475F in oven

Shoot,too wet,had to manipulate too much.May have ruined rise?

Anyway ,into oven






Made a baguette with twisted dough,may let it rise longer.....



OK,sticking to parchment ,redone with more flour and buttered tray




Hmm,20 minutes in,not too bad,getting a rise



Bread done

Now for the Reuben Sandwich

Sliced baguette lengthwise and in half and toasted



Corned beef cut against the grain



Put em together with Swiss cheese,homemade sauteed sour kraut and 1000 island dressing










Put both sides together and wrap in tinfoil and into toaster oven



All done...



Man alive,Im stuffed!

You can mail one to me!!!!!

Used up some of the smoked salmon yesterday on sushi.These are nori sheets,sticky rice,salmon,shrimp,avocado,carrots and cucumber,green onions and wasabi paste on sealing edge.

Lots of youtubes on how to make if interested,makes a tasty healthy meal thats far cheaper than buying prepared.

Great as leftovers too!

click to enlarge

This is a family favorite,and it could be made with your pantry storage supplies too. Its potato,onion,canned oysters,butter,pepper and powdered milk.

Click to enlarge

Peel 2 medium potatoes and 1 medium onion,cover with just enough water to boil


as they boil to just Al Dante,dont overcook!


prepare 1/2 pint water with 1/4 cup or so powdered milk,to a heavy cream consistency


When potato has just a bit of crunch left add milk and pour in oysters and juice, add pepper and pat of butter.Heat through a couple minutes without boiling to cook oysters and potatoes now soft but still have form.


Serve it up.Quick 10-15 minutes,tasty,filling and can all be done with your pantry supply food using dehydrated onion and taters.Can add a little flour or potato flakes in beginning if you want it thicker,I like it fine this way.

Oyster Stew



Approved by Girl

mmmm... homemade sourkraut! it seems to me that Blast was whipped up a batch a few months ago... think I need a Reuben sandwich tomorrow!

-----------------------
Sauerkraut

About 15 lbs with about 7-8 TBS salt (1/2 tablespoon per pound),see how that works out......Its slice cabbage thin,a layer,sprinkle salt and layer and repeat...




Plate,then 18 lbs coins in ziplocks in a bowl to weight it down






Gamma lid lightly screwed on to let ferment but keep bugs out,inspected by the Wimmins and approved





lots of bubbles....somethings happening

OK,wound up with this after three weeks



add to jars


waterbath at 30 minutes/pint at my altitude 5000 feet


And one fresh for the refer....


Girl and Snooky approve

==================
Link to Gama lids if curious,no affiliation,just an example
http://freckleface.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/gammaseals.html

Another Batch

15 lbs kraut.
1.5 days,temp just over 80F in house



Kraut temp 72F,about the highest temp you want.Too low takes months,too high will not be as good as a different bacteria is favored.


-------------------------
Good explanation on how it ferments at link
http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/food-preserving/sauerkraut/fermentation-sauerkraut

'The best quality sauerkraut is produced at 65-72° F (18-22° C) temperatures.

Below 45.5° F (7.5° C) fermentation time is up to 6 months.
At 65° F (18° C) fermentation time is 20 days.
At 90-96° F (32-36° C) fermentation time is 10 days.'
---------------------------
3 weeks later....
16 quarts fermented sauerkraut,water bathed for 35 minutes at 5000 foot elevation

Yep! http://www.foragingtexas.com/2006/12/making-sauerkraut-and-other-fermented.html
Mmm, fermentation...not just for making alcohol!
-Blast

An aside that may interest:

I live in a "heritage" farmhouse (a.k.a. endless fixer-upper). When I first moved in, I found several large, smooth field stones in the basement. They had obviously been kept on purpose and used for something, so I didn't throw them out.

It took me a while to figure out what they were: they're "kraut stones," which would have been well-boiled and then placed on top of the freshly made sauerkraut to keep it below the level of the brine for proper curing.

Major cool!

Blast- I didnt know fermentation would cease in refer and had multi YEAR life in the refrigerator,good info.