What If.... Preppers/Savers on the Youtubes Sometimes Lack Creativity and Experience

 OK, rando rant a bit because I'm kind of a dick.

On the youtubes, the thrifty people I follow are doing this "What if" type thing. Fine.  

Things like "What if you only had a half a bag of rice, 3oz lentils, and moldy cheese, and you don't get paid for a week and the money is gone...how would you stretch the food and what would you make?"

Mornings with Granny is best at this because I suspect she's been poor for reals.

I was poor once upon a time and now I'm too lazy/cheap/frugal to run in to town when I am lacking an ingredient.

ANYWAY...recently, the ones I watch are "prepping" or stocking up for power outages.  Turns out rice is a bad idea without power.  Um...like the electric stove or any of the 2 dozen counter top plug in appliances are the only ways to cook???

JEEZ people!  One vlogger was talking, this morning, about a power out where they had no way to heat water or cook food. She has other videos where they grill food outside.  Does the propane tank and/or charcoal not work when the electricity is out???

Also, candles under an upturned can with holes cut in the can-sides makes a tiny stove.   So does a can of crisco with a wick (which can be a bit of dry wood, twisted fabric, wooden skewers, taper candle jammed in a hole, or almost any cooking oil/fat you have around).  PEOPLE!!! Electricity is not the only power.  

What about a solar cooker?  Or the dashboard of your car in mid day?  Heat water with those mid day and then put it in a thermos, or even just wrap up the container of hot water with whatever.  That reflective dealy in the windshield works well.  ALSO coolers keep things warm.  They are don't just keep things cool.   Then you can heat that warmish water for washing or whatever.

Also...rice, pasta, grains can be soaked for a while, brought to the boil, poured into a thermos or the pan wrapped up and they will cook much faster with very little heat, e.g. over a candle or crisco heater.

Grills hold pots as well as naked slabs of meat. You can even bake bread, cake, whatever on there.

ALL YOU NEED TO COOK IS A HEAT SOURCE.  

Other tips for power-outage cookery:

Think about the size and power of your heat source.  Boiling a cup of water over a candle will take a while.   Boiling a cup of water on the grill is wasting heat...boil up the big pan of water (tea kettle, anyone?) and store the excess because maybe it will still be warm later.   Overnight oats/soaked-rice for 4 is too much to bring to a boil over a candle.  Not too much on a grill or in a solar cooker.  

Frying is faster.  Small bits cook faster.  You can fry on a grill.  Put the frying pan (cast iron is the best option) on the grill.  Add fat and whatever.  Cook.  Don't wander off.

Grill outside.  Want to bring some of that heat inside?  Heat up clay plant pots and bring them inside in metal buckets, set them on things that won't burn like bricks or the hearth.  You want get super warm, but you'll be busy and a bit warmer and NOT die of carbon monoxide. 

Butane burners are great, I use them all the time.  But the butane runs out pretty fast if you start with cold water and want to boil it up.  Hence lots of preheating on the woodstove and storing the water hot in thermoses (thermosi?  thermopodi?)...insulated containers!

Things to do now:

Make a "hay box" for your favorite pasta/rice pan.  NOT the insta pot.  Don't be an idiot.  The pan that you can put on the grill, stove, woodstove, etc.  Best if it has small handles but just use what you have.  Find a box, card board, wood, or a metal milk crate, that fits the pan with several inches to spare on all sides.   Line your box with wool blankets or old sweaters if you have it, or hay (hence the name), straw, cardboard, or even metallic bubble wrap. Make sure there is an inch of cardboard or wood or no-flammable at cooking temps fabric between any plasticky crap or fabric and the pan. Make the lining fit tight around the pan.   When the time comes, heat the pan up, like on that grill, and when the food is boiling hard, put the pan in the box (which of course you insulted on the bottom and sides and top) and close it up.  If you can heat up a rock or plant pot ahead of time and put that in the box while you finish boiling up the food, that will preheat the box and make it work better.

Don't have a box?  Make a bean hole in the ground and preheat it like in the olden days.  I will let you google that.

You can boil things mid-day in the solar cooker and transfer to the hay box or bean hole or thermos.

When using a thermos, preheating is best.

These all work like slow cookers.   Pasta will get mushy fast, whole rye berries hold up super well as do wheat berries, oat groats, and barley.   Quinoa is an excellent option as well.

If I am putting meat in, I prefer it to be fully cooked first, either fried up (sliced thin it fries faster/less fuel) or precanned by me or an industrial canning service.

If using a thermos for soup or flavored grains/pasta, you'll want to not use that for coffee or tea water later.  No matter what they say, the flavors linger. I have tested glass, plastic, and stainless steel lined thermoses and all retain that stank.  It's fine in the next cooked item, but not great in my coffee.  

To make the thermos cooking work: invest in a good bottle brush and good funnels.  I use a big canning funnel for the wide mouth thermoses and a skinny funnel for the insulated bottle type thermoses.  

The water you use to preheat a thermos is fine to use in the next batch of soup, to drink, to give to pets who usually enjoy the vague food stank, or to soak tomorrow's grains.  

These practices always save fuel/money/pollution/resources to why not be practicing now??

Rant complete...for now.

Pantry Challenge So Far, and I Forgot a Thing...

 I forgot another person who will need a meal treat for the holiday/her birthday!  We've done it for 20 years so, I will make an attempt to combine that with the already noted 1 meal out, but unlikely I can pull that off. 

Day 1 of the pantry challenge went fine.

Sardines for lunch (right from the can!  ew but I was headed to the field and in a hurry).  Eggy whole wheat flour skillet bread for breakfast.  It was supposed to be pancakes but they got puffy so they were skillet breads.

I made a couple of other things that were even less creative and interesting.

I figured out about how to divide the stock between December and January so I have some meat and veg left later in the game.  And thought through holiday meal options.  The ones at home.  I have so much to work with that treats are no problem.  Clearly I overstocked on that sort of thing.

It does make it easier NOT to eat the canned/packaged stuff right away.  That will last.  The carrots will make it another week or two, but not likely through January since I have no root cellar.  Same with the onions.  The squash might.  But, I will be working to keep an eye on the fresh and eat it as it gets to the end of good.  Also will get sprouts going as the other fresh food runs low.

I discovered another jar of coconut oil, 15fl oz, and 2 jars of 100% cranberry juice that I had spaced.  Those will be handy for xmas.  I have maple syrup that should go well with the cranberry juice to make a nice sauce for duck.  I've fermented some of the carrots with ginger which is a good tart side as well.  Hopefully will have an onion to roast because those are delicious and cook inside the woodstove.  And I have a little tiny squash that I can stuff with raisins or figs and walnuts and roast up with a bit of maple syrup or honey.  And if I get on the stick, a fresh batch of kombucha will be ready to flavor up.  Also have makings for hot chocolate or a mocha with coconut milk (powdered coconut milk is the bomb to have around), as well as german style pancakes for breakfast.  I reviewed the menu so I remember not to eat up the things I need for that meal.

A friend gave me 2 bags of powdered egg a week ago and that really helps.  If the chickens stop laying, I can still make most things.  Fried egg is a loser from powdered, but baking and pancakes work fine.

I also have gelatine...maybe a cranberry jello mold?  Or a coconut milk based pudding.

No-Spend February Informed Pantry Stock List

 It is time to start restocking the pantry.   The no-spend month was handy in getting through the stuff I don't eat, as well as noticing what types of foods I get for free or onsite and hence, they will not be on the top of the restock list, but instead on a sort of watch list in case the supply should change.

Things I get, or can get, onsite or through my own efforts:

Meat  By helping people butcher, I have a pretty good supply of meat and I gain skills...oh so slowly do I gain skills.   I will add the hunting rider to the fishing license mentioned below.  I can get small game or big game here on the property.  I can also butcher out my chickens as they get past being decent layers or I get sick of the cock duet in the mornings.  The 2 roosters are on notice every day they start the concert before 4am which is now every dam day.

Eggs More free hens should 

Fish. I'm going to go get a fishing license with the "stuff for land" or "household" budget line(s) this month.  If I actually fish this year (AHEM Sara W!!  You have been warned), that will pay for itself AND provide recreation and nature break thinking time.

Legumes.  I managed to grow a very few lentils and garbanzos last year.  Critters got them before I did but with more effort, I could make it happen I think.  The Siberian Pea shrubs are starting to put out pods and those are an edible legume.   I might be able to harvest some this year.

Camelina seeds.  They are a protein boost with omega-3, fiber and they can be gelled into fake eggs like flax seeds.  EASY to grow, harvest, clean and store.  I kept plenty for seed.

Greens 9months of the year.  Need to work harder on this and I am getting a jump on it now.  My Good King Henry is up but got frozen in the bad weather.  Might begin being harvestable in April.  Same with some wild greens like nettles, dandelion leaves, and fern heads.   If I plant radish seeds this weekend, the sprouting kind (the radish is edible but not delicious but the greens are excellent if you like strong flavors on the bitter side) I could have greens in a few weeks.   I have kale coming up in the mini greenhouse.  I have some kale that has been alive through 2 winters now.  It doesn't put out a ton of leaves, but one takes what one can get.  Lovage...god the lovage!  Both a green and a seasoning.  I moved as much of the roots as I could get out of the raised bed yesterday over to the big in-ground garden and planted what might be 3 large clumps.   The rest of the root bits I plan on potting up and maybe selling or giving away.  IF I am diligent and dry some of the greens, I might be able to stretch the supply into winter.  If I get enough sprouting seeds off radish plants, that would nearly get me greens independence.

Garlic.  I am still eating on last years' sad harvest (critters got most of it) and what the community teaching garden was giving away.  Of course I forgot to plant any last fall, middle of the house build and whatnot, until a sudden really hard freeze and then gave up.  Still for the past month or more I've saved a clove off the heads that had stored well and yesterday I stuck them in the mini greenhouse.  Why not?  Might work.  I've had a few this past week that were starting to grow in the storage bag so I put a few of those in as well and planted on in a little pot in the wee shed.  The spider plant former pot occupant froze to death a few weeks ago.  Oops...

Flavoring agents.  I've managed to collect dill.  Could have collected and dried lovage leaves, chives, sage, thyme (multiple kinds), oregano, tarragon, horseradish, onions (walking onions mysteriously appear and disappear in the garden...I did plant them but where do they go sometimes?), garlic, mint (various types).

Herbal teas.  I have wild roses, pine and fir trees, hops, mints, raspberries, and much much more that I could have been gathering leaves and petals off of to dry for winter teas.  I'm testing chicory to see if I want to grow that as a coffee substitute or coffee stretcher...so far, it makes me poop to  much to want to have all the time but might be worth it as a medicinal.

Berries.   Still have a TON of service berries, elderberries, and oregon grapes perserved in vinegar (partly because I had access to so much other fruit all winter this time).  I also have blueberries from the you-pick and I might even have some of my friend's blackberries in vinegar.  My berry bushes didn't put out enough to preserve, the planted bushes.  BUT they are doing better since the move to a new garden.  We'll see...   Service berries are pretty reliable.  If I drive or walk 5 miles to the state park up the road, I should be able to get huckleberries now and then.  I think I've found a spot to put my honeyberry shrubs and they are even bearing in their sad undersized pots.  The hens picked them clean the day before I had about 2 cups coming ready to harvest.  My blueberries have never been happy and my wild raspberries are meager.  I could work harder with the pin cherries on the lower part of the property and try working with the ash berries (those orange danglers on ash trees are edible), as well as haw apples (the fruit of the hawthorn).  My aronia berries and chokecherries are coming along a bit but are not happy.  The gooseberries and currants put out 1or 2 berries a year so far...hope springs eternal.

Apples.  I get bucket tons off the deer poop apple trees.  Plenty.  Need to work on more preserving them with drying, canning, and a root cellar some day.

Water. I have a well. 

Mushrooms.  Not many, just a few.   I am trying to learn more about identification so I will have more species that I can harvest and eat. 

Potatoes grow but are hard to preserve without a root cellar.

Beets also grew well in the big garden and were a good source of greens as well as roots.

Oddly, I suck at squash but am going to keep trying.   I have a ghost pumpkin in the small garden rotting away with some sheep poo on it.  Here's hoping it turns into a nice pumpkin patch this year!!

So, that's a great deal!

Things usually/often included in 2nd Harvest distribution locally:

Canned fruit, some fresh fruit 

Canned veg, some fresh veg

Canned beans

Pasta

Rice

Bread

Those have come, in the past few months, in large enough quantities to become part of the pantry stock.  Recently the canned items have been no-added-sugar and no-added salt versions (mostly) which work in my preferred diet.  

I'm learning to pace myself with the canned goods...eat the fresh fruit and veg early on because it's usually a tad bruised or near the expiration date.

Occasionally there are windfalls like the 10lb bag of all purpose flour I got 10 months back or the 6lbs of red meat that we got last week.  Those can't be counted on but are lovely when they happen.  The usual animal proteins are dairy and/or super salty processed meat.  I can't eat those and stay healthy due to personal problems.   The amount of pasta lately has been bonkers so that is getting shared out and when people quit accepting it, I put back 2lbs of angel hair to make up for the chickens.  They love it.

Things that are currently hard to produce and hence could be purchased as pantry stock:

Grain.  I like me some grain!  I might be able to get buckwheat to go but don't have the brain space to figure it out.  I've planted it and it came up and flowered and put out seeds. I didn't figure out an easy/doable hand harvesting method.  Once I do, then there is the cleaning and getting the hulls off and etc.   I might try wheat and wild rice.  I've tried quinoa (yes, I know it's not a real grain)  (neither is buckwheat smarty pants) but didn't get a harvestable amount.  Will try again.

Nuts.  I've planted chestnuts, hazelnuts, english walnuts, butternuts, horse chestnuts (don't eat those....make soap).  So far all but 1 hazelnut tree have died.  A chestnut might be powering back from roots.  We'll see.  I really want nuts (heh heh).   Good protein and an oil source.  BUT I can grow sunflower seeds so once I get that going, I may need/want fewer nuts.

Oil...the meats I can get easily are pretty much super lean.   Even the chickens because they are layers butchered in old age or roosters, they are not fatty.   The elk a friend gave me (thanks Rik!!) was amazing and lean.   Same with the ducks I've butchered with a friend. More fat on the ducks.  Since we're canning, we've been taking it off.  I might ask for some to render into cooking fat next time.  Nut oil (heh heh heh) would be handy.  It magically appears when you try to make nut butter.  Instead of mixing it in, pour it off and cook with it.  For now, I've been buying various oils. Coconut oil is the easiest to store, hardest to spill and I prefer it to the others when I use it as skin lotion.  I may not want to smell like olive oil or canola all day and they go off flavor in the freeze/thaw/overheat cycle of my home.

Spices.  Many herbs I can grow.  If I get a greenhouse going maybe hot peppers will make it, or thai peppers as a house plant.  Many spices like cinnamon won't.  Nutmeg is from Madagascar so I don't believe it's going to make it in north Idaho.  Mustard seeds...the debate is still alive on this one! Not growable in the quantities I need for making mustard for others, but maybe enough to make for me.  I will run a test.

Cocoa/Chocolate.   That's not going to grow here but I am going to continue to love it.  That will be purchased as needed/wanted/possible.

Coffee.  That isn't going to grow here.   I'm working my way toward lower consumption and finding ways to stretch it.  Right now I reuse the grounds.  If I start with all fresh grounds and make a french press, pour over or percolated version, then for the 2nd press/pour/perc  I add about 1/2 the original amount or less of fresh grounds.  It's not going to win coffee awards, but it cuts the amount of coffee grounds per 2 cups by 1/4.     That's about a week's worth per month.  Every 4th month is free!  (sort of).  Cutting back on the number of cups per day also helps.  I've been filling in with my back stock of tea and will keep doing that until the tea is gone.

Tea.  Herbal teas yes.   Green or Black tea...nope.  Not able to grow that here.  Hopefully I can mostly transition to growable or gatherable tea types (nettle, mint, raspberry) eventually.   They don't have caffeine so I'll have to watch and see if coffee intake increases when the G/B teas run out.

Sweeteners.  I keep trying to grow stevia as a houseplant!  So far, no go.   Honey is a theoretical possibility but I have failed for several years to get a harvestable amount and currently do not have bees.  I have been cutting back on  sweetener so that will be the biggest help.  If I keep making kombucha I will buy sugar for it.  If I eventually get a honey source going then I can try to move the mother over to that.   Sometimes sugar is also helpful in a liquid to turn into vinegar.  Honey vinegar is delicious but without my own honey it can be spendy.

Sourers.   I can brew vinegar and the pineapple scrap vinegar I brewed is AMAZINGLY delicious.  For reals!  I will keep trying with the vinegars.  Eventually maybe press apple cider and vinegar some of that.   Other sours...I have started a perennial sorrel in the garden and learned to pick sheep sorrel.  Nice sour for salads and whatnot.  Hmmm...I wonder if it is still sour if I dry it!  Lemons are not going to grow here outside. Perhaps a tree when I get a house.

OK!  Time to inventory my seeds while enjoying a cup of pantry stock tea!