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.