How to Stretch Food because prices will go up six percent

a reply to: JAGStorm
I do not post here often, but I do come multi daily to observe.
My wife and I have been prepared for a long time. We live in a small city with a back yard that allows for a garden, and even an herb plot.
Now my wife has three food dryers. She dries herbs and veggies such as corn, peas, carrots, potatoes etc.
[Fan forced, temp regulated dryers are the best.]
So you mention foods during the depression. You are spot on concerning the flavor of many of those foods prepared out of such great need.
So then this comes from quite a long time ago [depression and post depression].

When grandpa worked the railroad or the field. When gma had to literally make her own bread. Chop off the chickens neck and pluck the feathers. When she had to get up with the old man and begin a meal for noon when he hit the fields. All is true. And of great value. It happened...

I am 71 now but as a child watched my mom make bread exactly the same way my gma did. How to make noodles with a rolling pin. How to knead bread until it "felt right",
I say now to anyone reading the posts hear. Learn from them. Learn how to make simple breads, soups, and meals from almost nothing. Because it is time.
Know you will need lots of flour. Store it correctly, and don't forget bread needs yeast to rise. You will need lots of that too. Don't plan on using a bread machine without electricity.
You are so right OP. So many years ago nothing was thrown out or wasted.

Recently..yesterday in fact, the wife and I went out to acquire a little more food. and in the meat case? About half full. Not much beef and not much Chicken, but lots of pork at high prices. But one thing stuck out to me.
In the middle of the case was a cut up very large "Femur" bone. [not the usual neck] Securely wrapped and labeled as such and for the making of Beef Stock. It was almost gross as they placed it between two sparse pieces of meat. hmmm Seen some bone in cases before but never such a large single bone labeled femur. It was huge with a large marrow. And the price? almost $4 a pound. It would make a nice stock but would need cut down with a circular saw to cook it out well. This is something new [I am always looking for something different..It is an indicator]

Listen folks: A storm is coming. Gods storm. Learning how to make something out of nothing will soon be necessary.
Learn to flavor foods. Stock up what you can. Grow your foods if you can. Because the OP is right here. Stock up, and learn how to stretch your food. It doesn't take a lot of meat to season, especially if you use herbs.
Perhaps some of the folks here could share any ideas or recipes or even tips on preservation and storage? Knowing how to stretch and use what you have on hand may literally be the difference between survival or ..well..You know.
Posting here is a little hard for me but I do read a lot and will be following this thread.

Thank you JagStorm for putting this out.

I remember a few years ago seeing a post with some recipes but don't know where to look.
So I will share one with you now.
A couple of chicken legs boiled for meat and stock. Add...Some veggies dried or fresh, added with a little salt/pepper.
Boil the stock until you have flavor.then

Then mix together 2 or 3 cups of flour and maybe three or four eggs. [dried powdered eggs will work] The flour/egg mixture must form a semi hard ball when well mixed with the eggs. [you will have to knead it] Now
... Get a good sound rolling pin and roll out the flour ball as flat as possible. slice with a knife into thin noodles.
Now just drop into your boiling stock. Ready to eat in just a few minutes.
[Not talking about "healthy" foods here, just staying alive ones]
All it is is eggs and flour. My mom passed away years ago. I make these often. Very simple.
I usually make moms bread at the same time and that's so easy a cave man could do it.
Once again op thanks for this thread. I will be watching for any ideas.

I will use Old Joes take on it.
"Come On Man" We all know a storm is coming, and it doesn't hurt one bit to prepared.
Anything we can do to help someone else is a good thing

Did you know?

If you can tomatoes most people throw away the skins. Don't do it. Get a food dryer and dry them.
Then put in your food processor and turn into powder. Then you can add it to your Chili etc for extra flavor.
Also I didn't know fertilizer was going up. Any ideas of how to deal with that other than paying the high prices?
I am in Central IL and food prices have gone up for many items already past 6%.
Please deal kindly with my post, English, punctuation, etc, as I am an old man now and some things escape me.

Perhaps some of the folks here could share any ideas or recipes or even tips on preservation and storage?

The old ceramic 2-5 gallon crocks are good for storing and preserving meat, (use pork fat at the top to seal in the cooked meat and tag it for ID). The crocks used to be easy to find and fairly cheap, but since everybody and their brother are antique dealers now, they are more expensive. Still available in most flea markets in the States though.

Wine is my favorite method for the storage and preservation of sanitized hydration, anyone can make it, and it can be made from nearly anything, grass, flowers etc.

Take It Easy, Keep Your Powder Dry, and May The Wind At Your Back Never Be Your Own...Oh, and watch your Topknot.

a reply to: DavidsHope
Heh Davids, less o that. You're 71, well I'm 72 and you aint old. Eeerr, your just mellow.
Stale bread? When you've finished with the oven and it's cooling down chuck the stale bread in. Dry it out, break it up, ready made croutons. Not very nutritious but a filler.

Prices are whack right now. Milk gone up 23% from 2.99 to 3.64, that is lot more than 6%-7% I keep hearing.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Living frugally isn't that hard, you can grow potatoes for instance from supermarket varieties even if their coated in pesticides. All it'd take is a piece or two where its eyes started to sprout.

You don't necessarily need milk and can get calcium from egg shells, to make safely they need to be boiled or heated in the oven first. I use a mortar and pestle to grind them down mostly feeding to my plants but sometimes i've used as a supplement to add to meals in a well ground powdered form. It lasts a long time when sealed in a container. Could likely freeze indefinitely. Ive also read the membrain inside the shells once cooked is very healthy to eat.

As a rule almost any vegitable you can buy can be replicated and grown from a single vegitable to start a vegie garden. The one thing ive an issue with trying to subsist largely on vegitables is good quality iron, you do get some iron from vegitables but its never going to be as good as meat. Im not a vegitarian at all i mostly don't buy alot of meat due to the quality and cost in NZ. You can also freeze plenty of goods like cheese and butter and they should last years when properly packed for the freezer.

Another idea, you can easily make butter from a small pottle of cream as little as quarter of a cup. Very easy to do simply shake it up in a container with a tight fitting lid and a little salt added till the butter milk separates from the fat and you get a good quantity of butter milk as a bonus. You can do alot with butter milk.

Then there's making flour from oats which is alright only you may need to add a little wheat flour so that you get gluten to make bread cakes and biscuits as oats ive found don't have alot of gluten.

You could prob even live on herbs as part of a meal if prepared right. One of the harder nutrients to get is Vitamin D, if you got into growing mushrooms that'd be one way. For anyone that ever looks into that, please grow them outdoors mushroom lung is no joke.

Aside from meat its entirely possible to lower grocery costs substantially if the effort required is prepared to be put in.

a reply to: crayzeed
A great resource to capture wild yeast as well.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Make Naan Indian flat bread (originated in Iran!) that fries in skillet (I use iron). Use like tortilla or pita: dip in other food or wrap food in it. Can be travel bread: add stuffing and fold in half: cheese, taters, almond paste, ground sesame seeds (gomasio), hummus, mushrooms, fruits: apricot, apples, plums.

Recipe simple on line: unbleached all purpose white flour (I use organic), oil, yeast, yogurt (or buttermilk), water, salt (I skip 1/4 t. sugar). Yogurt makes it taste like sour dough. Vegetarians can use hemp or oatmeal yogurt. Can mix flours for taste sensations. Add garlic, ginger, onions Indian, other spices melted chocolate?

Knead dough with fist or a stand mixer; let rest to double the dough in size. After dough rises if making only one put small ball on bread board, use glass to roll it out if don't want to use roller. Can cut big dough ball in 8 and put one by one in oiled skillet, turning once. Kids can roll flat patties.

Store putting left-over dough in glass/ceramic bowl in frig with wet cloth over it, lasts a week+. In India black seeds like onion sprinkled on top. Can top with cilantro leaves.

Fruit flavored yogurt or veg powders, colored flours added can make pink, orange, purple tint. Variety spice of life! Yogurt good for probiotics. Add a portion of another flour for endless variety and more nutrition.

Can ground flours to add using Vita-mix, other food processor: dried garbanzo or other beans, coconut flakes, rice.

Wife is planning on breaking out her families old cajun recipes, with a big pot you can make 1 meal a week since cajun food usually re-heats very well.