Yesterday was a very good day, food wise, for me. I consider any day a good day when we eat very well and very cheaply, primarily from our garden and what we can forage locally.
I started with breakfast. I had a bowl of my daughter’s homemade granola topped with a local maple yogurt and raspberries from my patch. Then I put in a hard day of drying peas, making sauerkraut, freezing broccoli, pulling out the snap peas and just trying to catch up after a couple of weeks under the weather. Late in the afternoon, my friend, Leni, came by and we went off to harvest a truly remarkable bunch of oyster mushrooms. It was the largest flush I have ever seen, running from the base of the tree all the way to neatly the to, a good 3 feet or so. We cut down a six gallon bucket of shrooms, took them home and divided them up. I had already taken a bunch earlier in the day so I had a lot of mushrooms to preserve. Most will be dried, some frozen in butter sauce but the rest ended up as dinner. I made some pasta (a lot of work but so worth it) with a white wine, butter, fresh peas and mushroom sauce and served it with some garlic bread. It was amazing.
I tried to figure out how much this meal had cost me but gave up in short order. I had better things to do like sit on the deck and watch the sunset, read for a while, help Karen make cookies and take a late swim. At some point I do need to sit down and figure out some basic things like the price of bulk purchased flour per cup. It pays to be aware of information like that, especially if you are trying to live debt free, eat well and prepare for coming hard times. I had it all computed at one time but prices have gone up since then.
I have a birthday coming up and, as usual, have a list of books I want. There is a new home dairy book that looks good and an old one about being independent on five acres. Other than that, I have nothing I crave other than more kitchen equipment but I am starting to feel like an addict in that department. I may have to go cold turkey and just not buy anything new for a while.
July 21, 2009 at 8:14 am
I would love to hear about the new home dairy book!
We have 7 milking LaMancha does and my daily routine includes milking them, putting fresh milk in the fridge for the family and making various raw cultured products (chevre, buttermilk, yogurt, etc).
While it is tiring, its starting to fall into a routine (tiring part comes from having to clean the darn milking machine!)
Needless to say, I have dairy on the brain!
July 21, 2009 at 10:21 pm
First of all, congratulations on your appearance on the Today show!!
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32026641#32026641
Secondly, thanks for mentioning the “independent on five acres” book. I’ll have to look for it myself!
And finally, it would be neat if you were to consider an online “wish list” of sorts, where you list the things you’d like to get and if a subscriber feels like it they can buy it and send it to you (anonymously both ways). I’ve seen this done on other blogs, and it’s a nice way to say thanks.
July 21, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Kathy, I found you from survivalblog.com. I’m a retired navy commander and now a teacher. I live in Rhode Island and have a summer camp in the Sturbridge area. I feel very alone in this area with my preparedness efforts. I’m well advanced in my preps and efforts and would like to meet some people in my area who share my interests. I see you have classes now and then. Please let me kno how I can find people who share my interests. thanks.
July 22, 2009 at 6:04 am
Jonesy:I had not seen the segment so thanks for the link. It was not as horrible as it might have been but I still wish I had not done it. Thanks for the wish list idea. I would so much rather people spent their money on their own preps. I get so much more out of this blog than I put into it. I feel as though I have this little on-line family. I learn so much and there is a nice give and take as I visit the blogs of the folks who visit here. To Jeff: I think finding other like minded families is really hard. It means putting yourself out there in a scarey way to talk about prepping. There are state preparedness groups. I know I have come across the Massachusetts groups on-line (mass preparedness network, I think). That might be a good hook-up. If I do another class I will let you know. The next thing I have planned is a food preservation class scheduled for mid September.
July 22, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I think it was important for someone to say that prepping “isn’t bunker mentality or stockpiling weapons, it’s about ‘how do I prepare my family for a crisis.’” The former is what most people think of first, even my wife and I did until we found your book. The latter was our epiphany, and now this is what we say to break the ice with our family members & friends. To get that message out on TV is awesome! And I’m sure a lot of people had “a-ha!” moments from that, which might just be enough to kick their butts into gear. So, I know you wish you hadn’t done it, but at least a lot of good likely came of it!
Speaking of blogs, we’re planning one right now too that follows a young couple’s process of learning about preparedness and self-reliance. As soon as we can get the last tweaks done, I’ll include it in my signature.