This is one of those meals that needed a name, so we just made it up. Most people would think 'Food' was a strange title to a blog article, so Frank named this dish for us.
There is really not much special about this dish, it's just something I came up with since we have limited our carbohydrate intake. It's healthy, tasty and I make plenty of it. It's not particularly attractive, as in a pretty dish, but we don't care. What's neat about it is that almost all of the ingredients came from our farm or homestead. We know how the meat was raised, the milk produced, the cheese made, the vegetables grown and how all of it was processed. This is what makes this meal a 'Special'. We've almost come to take our homegrown food for granted, but not quite. Anytime the food on our table constitutes a homegrown meal in it's entirety, we take note, and enjoy every bite that much more.
Okay, on with the meal. The first ingredient is ground goat meat or chevon. About half the time I think I spell it wrong and put chevron, so if you run across that somewhere in this blog, sorry about that. I season the meat with sea salt and fresh ground peppercorns, then brown it with about half of a large onion (store bought) and any sweet peppers we have on hand. I just picked these peppers from the plant I transplanted into the greenhouse.
When the onions and peppers are starting to brown, I add two heaping spoonfuls of our canned garlic and a pint jar of our canned
yellow squash and let it heat up and blend in with the other flavors. By the way, I strain the liquid off of the squash into the pig bucket. I do this with any liquid we aren't planning on using in cooking. I even rinse out milk and kefir jars and put this milky water in the pig bucket. I really like using these liquids to increase our meat supply instead of pouring it down the drain like I used to.
While the squash is heating, I grated a little cheddar cheese and got out the salsa and fermented jalapenos. I haven't told you about the jalapenos yet. I fermented two quarts of jalapenos in the same kind of crock we use for sauerkraut. I inoculated the peppers with kraut juice when I started them, then left them in the crock for about three weeks. They taste great, still very tangy and stayed crunchy. Thanks to the reader that recommended we try them. I have four pint jars of peppers stored in the refrigerator now along with the usual four quarts of sauerkraut.
Now that the meat and vegetables are ready I dish them up, add some salsa, peppers and cheese.
This type of meal has the possibility of endless variations, the only limitation is your imagination. So go create your own 'House Special' with whatever ingredients your family enjoys. After you do, see how many of those ingredients you can produce or store for the long term. The uncertain, difficult days ahead of us, will require good, healthy, home cooked meals for comfort and much needed nutrition. Practice now while you can.
Until next time - Fern
A couple of days after I butchered the goat last week, I made my first ever jerky. Chevron jerky. This wether was about two and a half years old, and should have been butchered a while back. The only meat I left whole were the two back legs. I baked one while I was grinding the rest, and it came out very tough. We chewed on some of it for a few meals, then I froze the rest. It can go into a jar the next time I can some stock or soup. From this same leg, before I cooked it, I cut out a big chunk of meat with the idea of trying some jerky. This is a task I have wanted to try for quite some time.
A while back, I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, someone out there told me in a comment that very simple jerky could be made with sliced meat, salt and pepper. That is exactly what I was looking for. I don't want to buy an extruder and have to grind the meat, mix it with whatever, then squirt it out on a sheet of something that won't let it fall through the cracks. I know some folks make excellent jerky this way, but I wanted something very simple. I stored the meat in the coldest part of the refrigerator until I was ready to make jerky. You know, that place on the top shelf that will make boiled eggs freeze solid? Right there. It was good and cold when I got it out and started slicing, which made it pretty easy.
I wasn't sure how much salt and pepper to use, so this time I only sprinkled it on one side, pressed it in and placed the meat on my standard dehydrator trays.
The directions in this book said to dry at about 180* for four hours, turn it over, then dry for another six to eight hours. The problem with that is that eight hours later was about 1:30 am, and I knew I wouldn't be up then, so I figured a little extra drying time wouldn't hurt. The baby chicks were in the room I normally use for dehydrating, so we moved next door into the pantry. There isn't room in the kitchen, so the dehydrator lives elsewhere in the house. Here is the jerky at four hours. It looked very good to me.
I turned off the dehydrator at 6:00 the next morning. Needless to say, the meat was dry, probably too dry. You can't bite off a piece, you kind of have to chew it off. The four tray Excalibur dehydrator we use is very simple, with a knob that controls the temperature. It doesn't have an on/off switch, so we plug it into a power strip that does.
What did we think? Frank's seal of approval is still out for deliberation. Me? I think it's great! I am very pleased with the process, the ingredients and the taste. Now I have to learn how to store it so it doesn't go rancid or mold or something. I know I can keep it in the freezer, but what if we don't have electricity one day?
One of the reasons I am interested in jerky to begin with, is that it is another way to store meat besides canning. Canned meat is very nutritious, but it is one of my least favorite ways to eat meat as far as flavor goes. Fresh cooked meat is great, but if you're in TEOTWAWKI stage of life, the day of butchering will be one of the only days that fresh meat will be available. Jerky is also a great way to store protein and salt in an easy to transport package. If times get really lean, it will also give your mouth something to do for a while in times of hunger. All of these things come to mind when I think of making jerky from our chevron, or goat meat. I'll try the same thing when we butcher our first pig. Meat from American Guinea Hogs is more of a red than pinkish white meat you see from many pigs.
The goal in learning simple, efficient ways to grow, cook and store food will hopefully make a difference when survival is the name of the game. Packing nutrition into every item in a meal, instead of empty calories void of nutrients, will be an absolute necessity if we're going to make it. The shear volume of work required to live in a collapse, grid down, do everything yourself or you won't make it situation, will require adequate nutrition, or will soon turn into an impossibility. Think about it. Seriously. Think long and hard, discuss it with your friends and family that are on board. Come up with solutions that will fit your situation and implement them. Now.
Until next time - Fern
A long time ago, let's see about 25 years ago, we were at a doctor's office. Frank was talking to him about the things we were doing or needed to do around the homestead we lived at then. The doctor looked at him and said, "That's why they're called chores." Chores are daily routine tasks. If we were all sitting together in a room tossing out ideas that come to mind we could make a big, long list of chores that lots of folks do every day, week or month. I was thinking about the idea of chores this morning as I, yes you guessed it, was completing some of the chores.
- Make coffee and fix breakfast
- Feed the cats, chickens, pigs, dog, goats
- Milk the does
- Strain and cool the milk
- Clean up the chore related stuff, like buckets and such
- Grind wheat and make a batch of sourdough bread; left to rise
- Wash the dishes
- Frank stripped the bed and started a load of laundry before he left this morning, so I put them in the dryer. Later the bed will need to be made and the clothes folded and put away.
- Now for a different kind of chore, a project chore. Remove the barrels from the greenhouse, rinse out and hose off each one, let it drip dry, then towel dry. Sweep the floor and plywood pieces before replacing the barrels on a square of plywood and replacing the table top board. Repeat until all were finished.
- Some of these chores are repeated throughout the day, like fixing meals
- Evening animal chores include everything listed above, except add watering all the animals to it. This time Frank goes with me.
- Wash the eggs, put the milk away
- Strain and feed kefir
- Bake bread and eat a sample. The eating isn't much of a chore.
- Get the coffee pot ready for tomorrow
- Some days include gardening, mowing and all kinds of other things
Now take your daily routine and throw in the need to do everything yourself, with or without the help from others, for all of your daily needs. You knew I would be talking about this, didn't you? It's what we're all trying
to prepare for. Our daily routines, once the collapse occurs, will be filled with chores from sunup to sundown. Chores that will be required if we expect to survive. Chores that will make us wistfully wish we had a few of the conveniences that we now enjoy, things that would make our lives much easier. Like turning on the faucet and having safe drinking water at our fingertips, or hot water at the turn of a knob. We live in the lap of luxury and yet many days we will hear complaints about doing chores. I think that's what prompted the good doctor's comment. "That's why they're called chores."
Okay, so let's use a little imagination and see if we can describe even a small portion of the chores or events that may happen in one day post TEOTWAWKI. Ready?
Wake up and get out of bed. Are you sleeping in a bed? Or were you on guard duty all night and find relief at the rising of the sun so you can go to bed?
How about a hot cup of coffee? Do you have any coffee left? Do you have a cup to drink it out of? Did you store enough to last a while, even with rationing? Okay, do you have the type of coffee pot that can withstand the heat of a fire or the top of a wood stove or rocket stove or whatever device and fuel you have that will produce heat? Did you bring in wood last night for the fire or do you need to gather it this morning? Okay, we have coffee and heat, now we need water. Did you haul and filter the water last night so it will be ready this morning? Does it need to be boiled before it can be made
into coffee? Where is your water coming from? Is it a public source? Do you need protection to go there and get it? How much can you haul at once? How are you going to haul it? Or are you able to reroute a water source through your existing plumbing and continue to use your kitchen faucet? That would be a luxury in a collapse situation.
By the way, when you got up this morning, assuming you weren't on guard duty, where did you go to the bathroom? Have you been able to take care of a safe, sanitary toileting location? This isn't something people talk about much, but let's face it, everyone of us needs some hygienic way to take care of toileting. Yes, we still haven't decided on the location of our outhouse, but we will soon.
Okay, toileting taken care of, water, coffee and heat. Now I'm hungry. What's for breakfast? Are you going to cook? That brings a whole new set of thoughts and questions. Where did you get your food? Did you grow or raise it? Does it need any preparation? Are
you going to have a piece of bread and butter and call it good? Where did you get the bread? Did you make it or barter for it? Where did you get the wheat or flour, leavening, oil or fat and salt? Do you have an abundance of those things on hand? How did you bake the bread? Do you have a functioning oven, wood stove, cast iron dutch oven or something else to bake in? Do you have the fuel it requires? Do you have the pans you need? Now for the butter. Where did it come from? Are you milking an animal that is giving you enough cream to make butter? How are you keeping the milk, cream and butter cool enough to prevent spoilage?
You want some eggs with that bread? Do you have chickens living under the right circumstances to provide you with enough eggs for breakfast? Again, how are you going to cook them? Serve them? Do you have plates and forks? Salt and pepper? A table to eat off of?
Now it's time to clean up from breakfast. Do you have any soap or cleanser? A dishcloth and towel? A sink, basin or dishpan? Now we're back to water again. Did you heat up enough water to wash dishes while you were making coffee and cooking the eggs? What are you going to do when you run out of soap or cleanser?
Okay. Now I'm tired and we have only talked about getting out of bed, making coffee, fixing breakfast and cleaning up the dishes. That is only the very beginning of the day. Now is when the real work begins, work that will entail the basics of daily living,
obtaining water, fuel, food and remaining safe. Everyday, day in and day out, chore after chore after chore. Like Frank said recently, there will be no commercials, no time outs, no vacations or mindless distraction staring at a big or a tiny screen. I really don't think some people will be able to handle the drastic change of life as we know it and the expectation of having to work hard everyday just to stay alive. I feel sorry for the people that can't, won't or don't give it any thought at all. There will be many people that are unable to cope with such changes. They just won't and that is very sad.
Please spend some time reviewing the list of chores you will be required to do when the SHTF, and everyday after that. There will be many things we haven't thought of, even though we feel like we have been preparing for this all of our lives. I know there will and have tried to prepare myself for that. Even if there are things we haven't acquired or prepared for, we need to be prepared mentally for that shortfall and not let it devastate us or stop us in our tracks. We will do the best we can with what we have, that is all we can do. And it will be enough.
Until next time - Fern
I do my best not to use medications for my stuffy sinuses. There are times that I'm okay, but many times my sinus cavities are just stuffy, and if I don't take care of them, I am very prone to sinus infections, even after surgery to decrease that problem. For a number of years I used over the counter medications such as Sudafed (before
the clamp down because of use to make Methamphetamine), Muscinex (which
works well, but affects my whole body), and Flonase (Fluticasone,
generic prescription) which is a steroid nose spray. It was just easier to take a pill or inhale a mist than to try
something different.
We had a great ENT (Ear, nose and throat doctor) in Alaska that introduced us to a sinus wash. The air in Alaska is very, very dry and that made us even more prone to sinus infections, since it tended to really dry out our nasal passages. Once we started using the sinus wash, it helped a lot.
There are several different types of sinus wash techniques. The Neti Pot has been around for a long time. It's not something we have tried, even though for a while, Frank just used a bowl of saline in the shower. Once I got used to the really weird feeling of squirting water up my nose, I prefer a sinus wash bottle. It is simple, quick and effective.
The first sinus wash bottle we bought had individual packets to mix in each application. When we realized the contents were salt and baking soda, we started mixing our own. Before we used the last packet, we measured the contents. A slightly heaping 1/4 teaspoon works just fine. So now we fill a little bowl with salt and add a pinch of baking soda.
The directions for use are printed on the bottle. This is our backup, just in case the original one finally bites the dust. We have been using it for nine years. After each use, we rinse it with hot water. One thing we learned was to leave the bottle sitting upright with the lid off between uses, just for air circulation. Periodically, it can be cleaned with a vinegar solution. When cleaning, a narrow tube cleaning brush works on the straw portion and a regular bottle brush works well on the bottle.
A friend asked me if we used sterile water when we mixed up the solution. Our ENT indicated tap water is fine for this procedure, even following sinus surgery. I use warm water as close to body temperature as possible. Cold water just doesn't seem to work as well.
After we started using the sinus wash we found out that a young lady we knew swore by them. She was a very active, athletic young woman that had serious allergies and asthma. Once she discovered and started using a sinus wash, she had fewer asthma attacks and was able to decrease the medication she was taking for these two issues. She found that washing out the irritants that kicked up her allergies not only helped alleviate some of those symptoms, but in turn, decreased her asthma reactions as well. I don't know if this would be the case for others since I do not have any serious allergies, or suffer from asthma, but I did think it was very interesting.
Using a sinus wash instead of pills or nose spray, is a little more work and not always convenient. It is definitely easier to swallow a pill or squirt a mist in my nose. But in our efforts to decrease our chemical intake, this is a low-tech, no medication option. And along those lines, when the time comes when we don't have easy access to the plethora of over the counter medications, this may be a very important option. If we have access to water and salt, we can treat allergies, sinus congestion, colds and any other ailment that comes along to decrease the air flow in our nasal passages. Is it a cure all? No. Is it a sustainable way to help increase our health without bombarding our bodies with yet more chemicals? Yes. Happy breathing.
Until next time - Fern
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| My funny Frank |
We haven't made many omelets lately, but with an abundance of eggs and some great fresh stuff from the garden, it seemed like the thing to do. Frank and I both worked in restaurants for a number of years in the past. When we got married, we were both in college, working as a waitress and dishwasher at the same very small cafe. It helped pay the bills and in the long run, taught us a few things about cooking. You might be interested to know that Frank taught me to cook. Regular meals, that is. I learned to bake bread, how to make a good pie crust and some canning skills at my mother's elbow, but how to get everything in a meal to come out at the same time, I learned from Frank. The story is that I could burn water when we first got married. Luckily for us both, that has changed, and I really like to cook, and usually ban him from that task.
When we looked around at the ingredients we had from the garden, we realized they would make a very tasty omelet. I started off with a little ground pork seasoned with salt and pepper.
To that I added an onion and a sweet pepper and let them cook for a bit.
While they were cooking, I stirred up 3 eggs in a bowl for the first omelet. We used to have an omelet pan many years ago, but it had teflon in it. After a while every teflon pan we had would chip or get scratched and we didn't like the idea of eating teflon, so we got rid of them. It took a while, but now I can flip an omelet in my stainless steel skillet, just about as well as using an omelet pan. We bought a set of these stainless steel pans over 30 years ago when we got married and they are still working fine. I seldom use the skillet anymore, because after I finally learned how to use and take care of my cast iron skillet (it took me a number of years), I use it almost exclusively now. Over time we bought extra handles for our stainless steel pans, and we've replaced the ones on our saucepans at least once. They get used just about everyday and by this time, I hope to never change to any others. You know after a while you get rather set in your ways about some things and just don't care to change them, right? The only advice I have about flipping omelets is that you will have to practice. I have had many land on the stove, the floor, my wrist or just kind of land in a blob in the pan. It takes practice and patience. I don't use a spatula or anything, just a quick jerk of the pan.
Right before both sets of eggs were ready, I added the tomatoes to the meat mixture. I didn't really want to cook them in, just heat them through.
We have enjoyed several omelets lately. There is no end to the possible combinations of ingredients that can be used. They are great with the salsa we made last summer as well. But, I guess the best thing about it is the fact that all of the ingredients we used came from our place,
except the meat, which came from a family down the road. I hope we never lose that feeling of wonder and joy at eating what comes from our small patch of earth here, it is such a humbling feeling. And guess what? We got our first brown egg from one of our young Australorps hens, which is always a treat. Like waiting for that first squash, potato or green bean of the season, we always wait for that first pullet egg like kids in a candy store. It's the simple things in life that bring the most pleasure and satisfaction. Life is good.
Until next time - Fern
This salsa recipe has been adjusted several times to the current ratio of vegetables. We really enjoy it. Especially with fresh corn chips. We buy corn tortillas then fry them in olive oil and sprinkle on a little salt. They are very good alone. But when you add a bowl of fresh salsa, it's almost a meal in itself.
We eat the recipe fresh and we also can it to eat throughout the winter. The ratios can be increased or decreased depending on the number of ingredients you have or your taste preferences. We like the simplicity of the recipe.
Since I made this batch of salsa over a few evenings due to time constraints, I chilled the ingredients as I prepared them. Before I canned it, I heated it all to boiling.
Earlier in the summer when I only had a few tomatoes, I peeled them by hand to make a quart of fresh salsa. For this batch I actually had a decent number of tomatoes so I blanched them.
Boil a pot of water deep enough to hold some tomatoes. Leave the them in the boiling water for about a minute or until the skins start to split. Then put them in a sink of 
cold water.
The skins will slip off easily after they are blanched.
Peel and chop 6 cups of tomatoes to the desired consistency. Some folks use a blender or a food processor, I dice them.
Finely chop and add 4 medium onions and 1/2 cup jalapeno. Add 1 tsp. salt.
Finely chop and add 2 tbsp. fresh cilantro (more or less). Adjust the amount according to your taste. I tend to add more than the recipe calls for. We really like the flavor. I bought these plants in the produce section at the store. When I plant cilantro here in the spring it bolts and goes to seed. These are trying to do the same thing. So I keep them potted on the porch so I can go out and take clippings for the salsa.
Stir well. To eat fresh - chill (if you can wait that long). Eat!
To can, heat to boiling, fill hot, sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe rims, put on lids and rings. Water bath for 15 minutes after coming to a full rolling boil. Remove the canner lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove the jars and place them on a towel, then cover with a heavy towel and let cool slowly and seal.
This is another tasty, easy way to preserve our wonderful harvest.
Until next time - Fern
This type of meal has the possibility of endless variations, the only limitation is your imagination. So go create your own 'House Special' with whatever ingredients your family enjoys. After you do, see how many of those ingredients you can produce or store for the long term. The uncertain, difficult days ahead of us, will require good, healthy, home cooked meals for comfort and much needed nutrition. Practice now while you can.
