Great thread! I still have a lot to learn, but will share the small measures I am taking:
I have begun buying an extra bag or two of white flour when I go to the store. I store these bags in an extra freezer, where they will last for years. I use the oldest bags first and rotate. Rice and dried beans have a fairly long shelf life, and are good buys. It doesn’t hurt buy extra cooking oil. Canola is cheap and has a pretty long shelf life. Butter freezes well.
I have purchased extra vitamins for the kids. They have a long shelf life and could help with Vitamin C/iron deficiencies.
Here’s a site that has info on how what to do in order to conserve/purify water. If you’re not able to boil water, you can treat it with bleach:
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/wqwm/emergwatersuppl.html
I wish we had acreage, but we will just have to make due expanding our garden in the suburbs. I love gardening, and am learning more about saving seeds from heirloom veggies. Seeds (once dry and packaged correctly) can also be stored in the freezer so they remain viable longer. Here’s a great site to learn more:
http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html
Some of you may have already heard of No Knead Bread. I started making it a couple months ago, and I no longer buy bread from the store. It’s really easy, and tastes so good. I bought yeast in bulk, so it’s very inexpensive. I apologize for posting something from the NY Times, but it is a wonderful recipe:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html
We only have electric heat though. Although we have a fireplace, it does not produce as much heat as I had hoped, as we found out a couple years ago during an ice storm ... better than nothing though. I have some cast iron/enamel covered pots. I wonder if these work on top of a charcoal grill?
Any opinions on this product to dry veggies?
I saw some plans on earlier posts showing how to build a solar dehydrator, but unfortunately I have no clue/ability when it comes to building things. I have an electric food dehydrator that I like. I still need to learn to can, but a dehydrator is a good option for now.
All great links, thanks for the info.
I don’t know about that dehydrator [it has no customer reviews] but I found a cheap one at your link further down. It has almost all 5 stars. Lately I don’t buy anything without customer reviews.
food pantrie dehydrator and seed sprouter
Sorry, your link made me laugh, it is the old hippy way to dry food and you can make it for $5.00, less if you already have the stuff on hand.
It was in Mother Earth News in the 1970’s and you may well find it in the 1800’s how to books.
You could use window screening, the wire or fiberglass.
If I were making it myself, I would buy a small roll of baling wire at the hardware store and leave at least a foot between the shelves. This would make the hangers and the cross pieces for the shelves.
Make it to the size of the tray you are going to use and I would look at making my trays of screen so the air can circulate, you want a remove able tray so you can wash it.
In my large homemade dehydrator, it has window screens for trays, just as you would use on a small window, frame and all.
The outside could be the cheap nylon net, we used to buy it in any fabric shop for 25 cents a yard and as I recall it is 72 inch wide... Now it will be a dollar or more and Walmart has it.
We used it in the 50/60’s for make the slips to go under the skirts and make them stand out. And under square dancing outfits, now it is used in crafts and it is washable.
Bill made me a hanger for the greenhouse, attached to the rafters, that looks the same and used old oven shelves, we did not cover it of course and the cover is the easy part, either sew it on, or use regular clothes pins to hold it on and gather the top and bottom and pull it in tight, to make a tube over the frame.
Just look at the photo in the ad and try to guess what I wrote above.
LOL, the source of the catfish in a barrel was a lot worse than the NYT, but I wanted the information.
Good information, is where you find it.
Thank you for your post, it was useful and interesting.
Check the last few pages of thread #1 and you will find info on dehydrators.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts?q=1&;page=9901