Canning recipes, food preservation and food sales

[TheGrey]

I will be canning some salsa today as well. We aren't as lucky on prices. $1.89 a pound for Roma's. I need to have some salsa ready fornworkntomorrow.

Yeah, that's been the usual price here. When I saw the sale, I jumped on it. They only drop the price a couple of times per year.

[TheGrey]

Bountiful is a good deal, but unless you make effort to use what you get it can be wasteful. It's volunteer based except for the truck driver. The co-op runs through Internet orders and volunteers. Volunteers unload the truck and separate that week's order out onto baskets. In theory that happens before the "donators" i.e. People who bought the food, show up. It seems a good half the time, the truck is late. There is a website, you preorder, prepay, and buy the "extras". This week tomatoes next week could be apples, these are usually below retail and are usually quite good.

I looked at their website. Interesting. Yes, I could see how things could be easily wasted (we really don't go in much for salad stuff) but it looks like it could be a good program.

[Hummer]

Bountiful is a good deal, but unless you make effort to use what you get it can be wasteful. It's volunteer based except for the truck driver. The co-op runs through Internet orders and volunteers. Volunteers unload the truck and separate that week's order out onto baskets. In theory that happens before the "donators" i.e. People who bought the food, show up. It seems a good half the time, the truck is late. There is a website, you preorder, prepay, and buy the "extras". This week tomatoes next week could be apples, these are usually below retail and are usually quite good.

http://bountifulbaskets.org/

We've used Bountiful Baskets in the past, mostly in winter and spring before our own gardens produce. It's usually a very good deal price wise, and it helps us eat more fruit and veggies. The varied selection encourages experimenting with produce that we don't regularly use. We make a point of using all the food or giving away any excess.

It is run as a co-op. We try to volunteer to distribute from the produce crates into the baskets because any extra food on the truck is divvied among the volunteers. Pick up locations are usually in a business parking lot like this where buyers get two baskets each. You bring your own boxes and leave the baskets behind.

[Hummer]

I just finished reading One Year After, the sequel to William Forstchen's novel, One Second After, about the effects of an EMP detonation over the United States. I've also read Lights Out and Collision Course by David Crawford. All, highly recommended reading. These books address the scenario in which 80-90% of the US population is projected to die off within 6 months due to starvation, medical emergency, rioting and warfare. I'm now starting Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, by Ted Koppel. Whether the SHTF happens by and EMP or some other widespread disaster, the apocalyptic scenario seems very plausible to me.


For me (as an Eagle Scout), being prepared is one of my core values. I suppose I first learned from my grandmother who lived through the Great Depression and always kept a locked cold cellar pantry in the basement, stocked with canned and dry goods. My wife and I do much the same and we could possibly live for 2 years off what we have stored in the pantry and freezers. I do keep some bulk dry goods such as beans, rice, lentils, coffee, dehydrated fruit and veggies, etc., in buckets and tubs. Recently, our supply of pinto beans (that I packed 7 years ago) was running low so I picked up a 10 lb. bag and vacuum packed them in meal sized portions. 2 1/2 cups of pinto weighs about a pound and will make a crock pot full of food, enough for several meals. It's a great addition to elk steak, hamburger, or any other red meat. We usually freeze leftover beans but I like the idea of canning them and may put up a batch or two of that soon.


I want to increase my dry goods storage and am curious what types of dry goods you guys have put up for long term storage, what methods you use, and how long you've been able to keep it in good condition?

[TheGrey]

I just finished reading One Year After, the sequel to William Forstchen's novel, One Second After, about the effects of an EMP detonation over the United States. I've also read Lights Out and Collision Course by David Crawford. All, highly recommended reading. These books address the scenario in which 80-90% of the US population is projected to die off within 6 months due to starvation, medical emergency, rioting and warfare. I'm now starting Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, by Ted Koppel. Whether the SHTF happens by and EMP or some other widespread disaster, the apocalyptic scenario seems very plausible to me.


For me (as an Eagle Scout), being prepared is one of my core values. I suppose I first learned from my grandmother who lived through the Great Depression and always kept a locked cold cellar pantry in the basement, stocked with canned and dry goods. My wife and I do much the same and we could possibly live for 2 years off what we have stored in the pantry and freezers. I do keep some bulk dry goods such as beans, rice, lentils, coffee, dehydrated fruit and veggies, etc., in buckets and tubs. Recently, our supply of pinto beans (that I packed 7 years ago) was running low so I picked up a 10 lb. bag and vacuum packed them in meal sized portions. 2 1/2 cups of pinto weighs about a pound and will make a crock pot full of food, enough for several meals. It's a great addition to elk steak, hamburger, or any other red meat. We usually freeze leftover beans but I like the idea of canning them and may put up a batch or two of that soon.


I want to increase my dry goods storage and am curious what types of dry goods you guys have put up for long term storage, what methods you use, and how long you've been able to keep it in good condition?

I haven't read any of those books except One Second After, so I've got to catch up!

I have a dehydrator, but aside from drying cherries, I haven't used it much. One thing that concerns me about keeping things like dried beans and such is that they use up a lot of water to rehydrate. We're not really near a source of decent water, so if any sort of disaster happens and we're without city water for whatever reason, we must rely on the water that I've stored. If our electricity is knocked out, that means no crock-pot. Come to think of it, a Sun Oven may be the way to go with this. I can more food than I freeze, ever since we lost electricity in a house fire and everything in the freezer was gone.

I would love to know more about dry storage. Can you tell me more about how to secure coffee? Do you keep dry beans or grounds? How will it keep from going stale? What is the best way to keep flour and sugar? I have read books and blogs, but they all say something a bit different from each other.

[Hummer]

I haven't read any of those books except One Second After, so I've got to catch up!

I have a dehydrator, but aside from drying cherries, I haven't used it much. One thing that concerns me about keeping things like dried beans and such is that they use up a lot of water to rehydrate. We're not really near a source of decent water, so if any sort of disaster happens and we're without city water for whatever reason, we must rely on the water that I've stored. If our electricity is knocked out, that means no crock-pot. Come to think of it, a Sun Oven may be the way to go with this. I can more food than I freeze, ever since we lost electricity in a house fire and everything in the freezer was gone.

I would love to know more about dry storage. Can you tell me more about how to secure coffee? Do you keep dry beans or grounds? How will it keep from going stale? What is the best way to keep flour and sugar? I have read books and blogs, but they all say something a bit different from each other.

Yes, dry beans especially take a lot of water and energy to cook, but they have a longer shelf life than canned foods. Without electricity, we'll be cooking on gas and wood burning appliances, mostly outdoors.

I have stored coffee beans in original packaging for 12-18 months, and notice it starts getting stale at about 6 months. I have some that I vacuum packed a year ago with the food saver. It seems to be fine. I've read that the best way is to buy green, unroasted coffee beans in bulk, and vacuum package it so it can last a few years. Then pan roast them over the camp fire or in the rotisserie on the grill. Some local coffee shops sell green beans and I've been meaning to pick up a 25 or 50 lb. bag.

We keep 100-200 lbs. of sugar in original packages and have never had it go bad. It gets rotated when I make fruit wines and feed hummers in the summer. We haven't stored or vacuum packed flour or grains in bulk beyond what's in the pantry that we would use in 6 months to a year. We don't use a lot of flour now but the demand might change if the SHTF. Was hoping to learn from others who do....

[Brian]

I need to figure out how to build a better cold pantry in the basement. Growing up in a rural area, even those who lived in town often had dug-out areas in the basement that were cooler than a normal basement for storing things root-cellar like. You just don't see that here in the city as much and I haven't figured out how to solve for it. Partly complicated in my situation by having a walk-out basement I guess. Humidity (lack of) is also a problem here too. I had a bunch of garlic and other root veggies from our mini-garden the last year or so, but they just don't keep as long as I remember them keeping as a kid. My garlic is already getting pretty dry.

I haven't read Collision Course yet, so I'll add that to the list. Another oldie but goodie is Alas, Babylon if you've never read it. I like it because it has less of a "mall ninja's dream" feel compared to some of the other popular books out that were more recently written.

[Hummer]

You probably won't like Collision Course any better than I did because of the flawed mall ninja type characters. Still, it's worth a read to know what you may be up against. I really liked David Crawford's Lights Out because of the characters, the story of collaboration, weapons and tactics. I also enjoyed Forstchen's One Year After, though not as much as the first novel. Apparently there is another follow up book in the works.

Same idea for a cold cellar room as with building a wine cellar. In our colder climate, best on the north side of the basement. Insulate the walls facing the warm interior space and ceiling, and leave the exterior concrete walls and floor uninsulated. A pan of water with or without a fan can add humidity. Folks who build wine cellars often use small air conditioners timed to run only a few hours a day to keep things cold. 56-58F is good for wine, 45F is better for a root cellar. Apples, pears, potatoes and carrots like it closer to freezing, like 34F.

[TheGrey]

Sprouts has Roma tomatoes on sale for 2 lbs /$1. Go get them!

[TheGrey]

Cherries are still on sale at Sprouts. Actually, they're on sale everywhere, but Sprouts has the best prices at $1.98/lb.

I bought a few pounds to pit and dehydrate.