Did you do it yet?

I'm referring to taking the turkey out of the freezer to let it have plenty of time to thaw! I'm the queen of the fast thaw, but it is better to let your bird defrost for a couple days before. Picky pulled ours out of the freezer last night. So we should be all set.

In other news... I forgot to post that I was able to get sauerkraut made on the 21st of October... Only 2 more weeks and it should be ready to be canned up! I'm so looking forward to that. I won't can all of it though, I need to make Kapusta to freeze so that it's ready for Christmas!

We also broke down and turned the heat on the 14th of November. I'm telling you as much as reminding myself. This way Grim will know when to change the filter and I can say that we are almost a full two months later this year then last... Last year was horrible. We got hit with a cold spell and of course I got sick.... So you know I turned the heat on really early.... But this year was much better. I would have loved to have waited till December 1st.... Alas, the monsters were revolting and they smelled funny, too! LOL! I love that line!

Mouthy monster has to go back to the dentist tomorrow.... That tooth she broke near the end of school last year, well it got broke again.... Luckily it was just the filling that broke and not more of the tooth. That kid just won't be careful.

So far I have two big items made for Christmas, that's why I haven't been around lately... Just trying to get everything done in time. I still have more canning to do. Not to mention the turkey stock that will need to be jarred up over the weekend. Non stop straight through the holidays! But I love it!

Yart

Tuesday Ramblings

With yesterday being Thanksgiving in Canada, that meant my mom was home from work. One of her friends came over and they went shopping for the day. They were nice enough to call me to go to lunch with them. Nothing fancy just Big Boys. The food was alright, but the company was fantastic. I love this friend of my mom's, she is always ready for a good laugh.

I tried to get the sauerkraut canned up yesterday. Needless to say, it didn't go well. I made it way to early and it went bad. So now I need to go and get more cabbage. I am fine with that. I only spent a dollar on the cabbage last time. And it was a learning experience. Don't make sauerkraut until the first frost. Not because it changes the cabbage but the area that it will ferment will be cooler. So now I just have the apples, zucchini and 2 acorn squash to process. Then I can decide if I want to get carrots to put up and if I want some more apples to make an apple liquor. And anything else that might catch my fancy at the farm market. LOL! I know, I'm terrible. I look forward to canning and then I complain and then I look for more things to do so it doesn't end.

I have a pot of chili simmering on the stove as I type. I made it a little different this time. I did a quick soak with the beans, I like this method way better. And I didn't add as much liquid. Have to wait and see if they like the thicker chili?!? It is 48* outside right now. So I wanted to have something warm in my belly tonight. We will have corn bread muffins to go with the chili. I had to dig around in the cupboard to find these mixes. Need to add it to the grocery list to get more.

Tomorrow will be bread day. This will be the first time in months that I have made bread. I am dreading it. Once I get started with it again it will be like a long lost friend. But it is just the thought of all that work. LOL! I'm already thinking of the cinnamon bread I could make or the banana bread, ohhhhh the muffins and cupcakes. Like I said terrible.

Mom and I took the monsters down to one of the orchards over the weekend. That's where I got the Jonathon apples from. While we were there they were making apple butter in a cauldron over an open fire. The woman had a great big huge paddle that she had to use to constantly stir the apple butter so that it wouldn't burn. I am so happy that the crockpot was invented, among other appliances of convenience. I can see myself outside all day stirring apple butter or anything else for that matter. But then again if I had to do that then maybe I wouldn't have to clean the bathroom or some other dreaded chore.....hmmmmm!
Since I still don't have batteries for the camera and I'm tired of the crappy camera phone pictures I found a graphic to represent the woman and the apple butter.

Quick Update

I finally got the purple hardneck garlic in the ground. 33 cloves, I am hoping that they come up next year. So that is what I put into my fall garden, I also found a couple of onions that I missed. So in the garden they will stay until spring.

DH and I took a drive last night. First time we have gone out like that in awhile. I wanted to go out to this little run down place that sells onion sets in the spring. Well, low and behold they are now a U-Pick. We didn't have the time or the patience last night to pick but I will be going back before the season is over. We also found a house that was for sale. I called on it and it is way out of range but it has a 3 bedroom house with a natural fireplace, 3 car garage and a barn..... oh and 6 acres.... 6 acres can you imagine the farming dilemmas I could get myself into with that much land. So needless to say I went to bed last night praying to the credit fairy and the lotto gods.

My new mantra "Chickens & Goats & Bees, Oh my" I figure if I say it enough some will get tired of hearing it and grant me a farm... LOL! It doesn't hurt to try!

I have tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic cooking down on the stove right now. I finally found a food mill at the resale shop so I am going to puree it. Then put it in jars and can them. I will add salt and lemon juice to each jar to make sure there is enough acid, so I can water bath the jars.

Still have 2 jumbo zucchini to do some thing with. I think that I am just going to shred and freeze in recipe size bags. But that will have to wait till next week and so it might change. DH took me to one of the orchards around here. We got a bushel of McIntosh and a bushel of Wolf apples. This weekend I will be making apple sauce and apple pie filling. I get to use my clear jel! Yeah! I also have to can up the sauerkraut this weekend.

Well, now the tomato concoction is done and gone through the food mill. I am waiting for my canner to heat up.

Gotta Run,
Yart

Depre4ssion era living./ DLamb

I borrowed this from Heart for Homesteading Yahoo email group. Thanks Rusty for posting this! I thought that this article had some really great information in it, so I wanted to share.

This information though it came through an email was originially the work of Charlotte at Frugal and Healthy Eating. Thank you Charlotte for allowing me to use your work.... And for anyone else who might be interested in more from Charlotte you can go here to her website.

In the depression, it was common to eat meat no more than once a week, if at all. Some of the kind of meals you might expect were: bread and baked beans, bread and gravy, breaded tomatoes (garden tomato sauce on bread - sugar and butter can be added), buttered noodles, cornbread in buttermilk, creamed eggs on toast, dropped dumplings in broth, fried cornmeal mush (ash cakes), fried egg sandwich (mayo optional), fried egg with a slice of onion, fried eggs on toast, gnocci (pasta made with flour and mashed potatoes), ketchup on egg sandwich, noodles and tomatoes (onions optional), pasta and bean soup (pasta y fagioli, pronounced pasta fazool), potatoes and gravy, potatoes fried in bacon fat, raw onion sandwich [marinated onions recipe below], sauerkraut and boiled potatoes, scrambled egg with potato and onion [recipe below], sour milk pancakes (raw milk sours and does not go bad like pasteurized milk), spaghetti and tomatoes, spaghetti and sauerkraut (depression era spaghetti -- recipe below), tomatoes and onions on toast, tomato sandwiches and tomato and cheese sandwich.

Obviously, different combinations of inexpensive eggs, flour, potatoes, onions, cabbage, beans, corn made up a lot of your diet. You got tomatoes if you grew them in your garden. Rice wasn't popular during the last American Depression, but I think it should be more popular during the next now that there is more US-grown rice available.

If you were lucky, you got meat once a week, usually on Sunday. The menu could be something like:

Fried chicken or bacon, blackeyed pea soup, mashed potatoes and gravy, parsnips. Dessert: bread pudding with cream

The Irish dinner of corned beef, potatoes, cabbage and carrots would also fit in well, but make the cabbage sauerkraut rather than eating it boiled. No mention is made of the traditional cheap dessert, but peach cobbler would be a good choice.

Restaurant meal for the price of a cup of coffee:

Order a cup of coffee, extra light, and a cup of hot water (which should be free). Put ketchup in the hot water to make "tomato soup", and then crumble saltine/crackers into it (assuming restaurant has cracker packets at the counter). Salt and pepper to taste.

Breakfast:

Tear up a slice of bread in a bowl, add sugar and milk.

Comments:

Raw milk
Many depression-era families had access to raw milk from a goat or cow-owner in walking distance who would sell excess milk from the cow inexpensively Many families owned the goat or cow themselves.

Pickles and sour cream
All these carb-heavy menus would be greatly enhanced nutritionally if a raw, lacto-fermented pickle or sauerkraut were added to them. Cucumber and apples can be made into a pickle easily, either sweet or salty.[recipe below] and are inexpensive. All these meals would be better with "a raw, lacto-fermented pickle or pickled fruit or veg and some raw, cultured or clabbered milk or cream."* added to them. (*raw sauerkraut and yogurt basically, but there are many variations once you learn how to make pickles/sauerkraut and culture dairy)

Other sources of food
Many families grew tomatoes, probably because they preserve so well which can then be stored through the winter.

Beans were bought in large quantity (25-50 pounds) from a dry goods store, white flour was bought in 50-pound sacks. White flour doesn't need refrigeration like whole grain flour, can be kept in a cool storage area. That much whole grain flour would have to be kept in the freezer. Whole grains can be kept in a cool storage area if you have a way to mill them into flour when you are ready to use the flour.

Rice was not popular during the last depression but it would make a good addition to the list.

Bad as this diet may sound to people used to meat every day, studies have shown that children fed a depression-era diet were healthier than children fed a modern diet high in processed foods, and many children who were fed these depression-era diets loved them, and grew to have fond food memories when they became prosperous, often having a favorite comfort food being a food from their impoverished past.

The best foods to grow for a depression are tomatoes, cabbages and onions. Buy beans and rice at a dry-goods store, and milk from the nearest cow or goat.

Bacon should not have nitrates in it. If you butcher the pig, have the butcher cut the bacon area of the pig into chunks, it is not necessary to have bacon long and thinly sliced. If you buy bacon from a farm or butcher, be sure to include all the fat and any surrounding areas meat that is otherwise less expensive.

What to expect

If you are a woman with children, you will most likely be living in a house -- someone will take you in -- but it may be as a charity case and you will be expected to appreciate it and contribute to the running of the house.

If you are a man with a family to support, you will be more likely to keep your job, but you will be paid less money.

If you are a single able-bodied man, you may be living in a tent city. You won't do much of your own cooking beyond coffee on a communal campfire, but will get most of your food from the community your tent city is in. There will almost always be a campfire going. If it gets really cold, you'll go sleep in a shelter. At that shelter, if you want coffee and doughnuts in the morning, you'll either have to do some work beforehand like chopping wood or you'll have to listen to a religious-oriented lecture while you get your coffee and doughnuts.

If you live in a house, you will have to provide occasional meals to hungry beggars. Since you're going to have to do it anyway, you may as well believe you're doing it out of christian charity rather than for fear of an unfortunate accident to your property. When your children are old, they'll fondly reminisce how "Mom could never turn away someone hungry."

Hopefully, you have a home and can save your mortgage, but, if worse comes to worst, here are some options to consider.

You can live in a car, so if you have neither job nor income and are running out of money, consider spending the last of dwindling resources to invest in a car. If you get a van or a vehicle that can accomodate a porta-potty, you can "boondock" or camp on any nice-looking land you find and consider your time of homeless destitution as part of an extended vacation. If you can afford to drive it south for the winter, that would be a plus.

Hooverville

In the first Depression, shanty towns were built with tin and wood. Because of the prevalence of old cars, it is likely the next Hoovervilles will inlude a lot of car living. Blue tarps can be spread over a couple cars to make a home plus sheltered area. Lots of blankets or sleeping bags in your car will help keep you warm through all but the coldest (below freezing) temperatures.

Depression era grocery list:
Buy in large quantity:
flour, beans, rice, sugar, cornmeal, potatoes, sea salt
Grow in garden/front lawn:
tomatoes, cabbages, onions
Get from a farmer:
Raw milk and cream, (make your own butter from the cream.), bacon or pork with fat (fatback/back fat), eggs, soup bones

Whole grain/brown flour/rice or white?
The human digestive system needs fiber to move food along. The best source for that tiber is the carcasses of the bacteria and microbial symbionts that digest the food, making its nutrients available to us. The second best source is plant fiber, whole grain flour and brown rice. If you have a superlative digestive system (unlikely in anyone growing up on a modern diet), you could get away with white grains. If not, it is probably better to stick to whole grains. There are some anti-nutrients in the fiber areas of the grains, so whole grain foods should always be soaked overnight before consuming. If pre-soaking is not possible due to the particular recipe involved, then unbleached white is better.

Healthy Depression-Era Style Recipes and Menus

Apple Pickles
Peel apples. Throw away peels and continue peeling apple with potato peeler into thin slices. Put in a glass jar. Add whey from a cultured dairy or liquid from a batch of sauerkraut or previous batch of apple pickles. Add brine to cover (salt water with a ratio of 1 pint water to 1 teaspoon sea salt or other full array salt). Put water into a plastic baggie. Tie or knot baggie so water doesn't leak. Put on top of apple slices to hold apples under water (or see sauerkraut to see how to use leaves to hold fermenting vegetables under water.) Cover with a piece of plastic secured with a rubber band and leave overnight at room temperature (that's about as "instant" as you can get with raw, lacto-fermented food.) In the morning, eat the apples, drink the liquid and reserve about a quarter cup of the liquid as your starter for the next batch. You can also peel and thin slice cucumbers or any other soft fruit or vegetable that you could eat raw and add them to the apples. Eat some apple pickles with every meal until your sauerkraut is ready to be eaten with every meal.

Apple cider vinegar
Peel, chop and core the apples. Put in blender with water and blend on high Strain through a flannel jelly bag and save the juice. Add a few raisins to the apple juice, cover with an airlock and allow to ferment. When the juice has become an alcoholic/hard cider, put a mother of vinegar or a mother of kombucha matrix into it. Cover with a cloth to keep out insects, and then let it set at room temperature for a couple weeks.

Ash Cakes or Fried cornmeal mush
Mix 1/2 cup of cornmeal and 1 cup of bone broth or water in a glass or ceramic bowl and let set over night. Pat into a bread loaf pan and refrigerate. To cook, slice and fry in bacon grease. Instant cornmeal mush: mix cornmeal and boiling water half and half, shape into patty and fry in fat.

Baked beans
Soak beans for at least 24 hours in water with lemon juice, vinegar or whey added. Drain, rinse and drain again. Put in slow cooker, cover with bone broth and simmer at low temperature for a day or until beans are soft. Add extra bone broth if needed to keep beans under liquid. When beans are soft, add some tomatoes or tomato sauce, onions and garlic cloves fried in lard, sea salt, pepper, a little molasses and some cooked bacon or pork with fat on. Continue to simmer on low heat for another day or until all ingredients have blended together.

Baked onions
Hollow out some onions and fill with sugar or honey. Bake at medium-low temperature until soft.

Broiled tomato and cheese sandwiches
Put a slice of tomato and a slice of cheese under the broiler until the cheese is melted.

Chicken and dumplings
Get an old chicken that would be too dry and tough for a roast, put in a pot of water, bring to a boil and then simmer until cooked. Remove chicken and set aside. Make dumplings and drop into simmering water, cook for about 15 minutes. Remove dumplings, add more dough and repeat until you have as many dumplings for however many people you are feeding. Meanwhile, remove the meat from the chicken, set aside skin and bones. When all dumplings have been cooked, return to pot with chicken meat. Use skin and bones to make more broth for more dumplings during the week, or make into biscuits and gravy Dumplings: 1 cup flour, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons melted butter, 1/4 cup milk. Mix until smooth and drop by tablespoonfuls in broth. Cook 15 minutes, covered. Do not lift lid while cooking. Other birds or fowl may be used.

Creamed Eggs on Toast
Take 1 tablespoon butter, lard or tallow, 1 1/2 tablespoons flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 cup milk. Melt butter in baked enamel or cast iron saucepan over low heat. Add flour and salt, stirring constantly until smooth and frothy. Cook about 2 minutes stirring often to prevent browning. Gradually stir in milk. Increase heat to medium and simmer, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth, thick and boiling. Shell and slice 4 hard-boiled eggs. Gently stir into cream mixture and spoon of 4 slices of toast.

Creamed Peas on Toast
Make a white sauce (see cream/white sauce below). Add a cup of peas and cook over medium heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over toast.

Depression Era Spaghetti:
Boil a pound of spaghetti. Add cabbage slaw or drained sauerkraut when nearly done. Continue cooking until cabbage slaw is done to your taste if that is what you used. Drain and add some chopped chicken and butter. Stir and add some cheese. (If using raw sauerkraut, drain boiled spaghetti and add sauerkraut, chicken and butter. No need to cook further except to heat.)

Marinated Onions
Thinly slice 2 onions and separate into rings. Mix the following ingredients (amounts can be varied according to taste): 1 ounce of extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup raw apple cider vinegar or extra sour kombucha, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon sea salt or other full-array salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives, 1 garlic clove, chopped and crushed.(Hot pepper optional.) Put all in a glass jar with a cover and store in refrigerator for at least 1 day. Liquid can be re-used to marinate more onions.

Scrambled eggs with fried potatoes and onions
Slice potatoes and fry in hot lard in a baked enamel or cast iron skillet. Add onions and continue cooking until both potatoes and onions are cooked. Scramble some eggs (you can add pieces of bread to the egg if you want), then add to the potato mix and fry until eggs are cooked.

Cream/white sauce. To make a creamed anything:
Take 2 tablespoons butter, lard or tallow, 3 tablespoons flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 cups milk. Melt butter in baked enamel saucepan over low heat. Add flour and salt, stirring constantly until smooth and frothy. Cook about 3 minutes stirring often to prevent browning. Gradually stir in milk. Increase heat to medium and simmer, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth, thick and boiling.

Fried egg sandwich
Fry an egg in lard, bacon grease or other animal fat. Place on bread. Add salt and pepper. Mayonnaise optional.

Challenge #10

This week I found an long lost friend, with the help of the computer. Well, I went to get her on Sunday. She came here for a couple hours. I wish the visit would have been longer but she forgot her meds. In the time that we have been apart she has been diagnosed with Rapid Progressing MS. This actually explains a lot of issues she was having the last time that I was in touch with her. She is no longer the self assured person she once was, she now is quite and reserved. The medication she is on has affected her memory and her reasoning. Even with all that I am so happy that I found her. And that she is once again part of my life.

1. Garden work: Watering & I pulled the last of the broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Planted carrots, lettuce and radishes on Saturday.

1A. Harvest something: Tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers.

2. Preserve something. 8 quarts of tomatoes, dehydrated tomato skins ( for later grinding), made sauerkraut (fermenting as I type) That will go into jars in 6 weeks.

3. Food storage. Nothing this week

4. Other preparedness tasks: Canning and cleaning. Plus getting the stuff for back to school. ( I put some of the stuff away so that if need be we have it for a boredom buster).

5. Try a new recipe: No its been to hot to cook. So we are just eating salads and quick fix foods like tacos and hot dogs. But not at the same meal. LOL!

6. Financial preparedness: Now we are snowballing that money on to the next bill. Still waiting to see if I get a call from either of the places I applied at.

7. Work on local food systems. Not this week.

8: Learn something. I learned how difficult it is to get around with 2 broken toes.

9: Serve someone. Sent some of the garden products to my MIL. She froze the cauliflower so now she has it for the whole winter.

Gotta Run
Yart