Posted on 02/26/2018 12:12:20 PM PST by CottonBall
I’ve been missing the vast amount of information on prepping, survival, camping, simple cooking, the old ways of doing just about everything – all the things nw_arizona_granny knew so much about and shared with us, along with numerous other posters with a vast array of skills and knowledge.
We have our various related-threads here, a recipe thread, a gardening thread, and even a prepper thread. They are all great and I don’t mean to take anything away from those and the hard work their owners put in.
But I was missing a place to talk about ALL those things, to get the camaraderie that we used to have on granny’s thread.
I learned how to can on those threads! The pressure canner was not my friend, I thought, but I bought one and stared at it for a month, intimidated. Then I read the directions for another month. But with the help and encouragement of posters on granny’s threads, I jumped in and now have my very own food storage room in the basement with lovely jars of shelf-stable meats, vegetables, and fruit. When we moved, I fashioned my food storage room – and insisted upon having a basement – from what I learned on her threads. Getting started gardening was from her threads. Making my own cleaning products….the list is endless.
So I thought I would take the chance and start another comprehensive prepper thread and see how it goes. I used to have granny’s ping list since I made one of the threads for her, but alas, with numerous computer changes, I cannot find it. So please pass this onto any posters you think might be interested.
We’ll just keep it running until..whenever. Granny created a new thread at 10,000 posts or so. I do like the idea of having ONE thread to go to – because often I cannot find or keep track of the weekly threads. I won’t be posting lots of recipes or tidbits myself – to any mods concerned about the size of this thread. I’d just like a place to chat, post questions, post ideas, make new prepping friends.
Here are granny’s threads, if anyone wants to peruse them:
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #1
Very details PDF! Thanks for providing it.
Do you think pressure canning creates a tighter seal? As in it would deform the lids more?
I have a friend who says she reuses Lids once for pressure canning. I’ve never actually tried that.
Thanks for describing how you check the lids for reuseability. In a prepping scenario, that could be very handy. And even now!
Thanks for the detail on keeping the milk cold! If that worked good enough for the milk company, who is liable, it’s got to be a good method. And all we would need is a water source.
I’m also trying to figure out a way to can without having electricity or propane. The problem is the temperature would have to be consistent so the pressure stays up. Or the water keep boiling. I love the old cook stoves. I tried to figure out how to fit one in my kitchen when we remodeled, but we just didn’t have enough room. I didn’t want to have to cook on one all the time. But maybe I can get one and put it outside under shelter. I almost bought one when I saw it on Craigslist but we didn’t get there on time.
Remember, tomatoes are a fruit so can be solar canned. http://solarcooking.org/canning1.htm
In a regular year, I may can 250 jars, mostly quarts but a fair amount of pints. Depending on if I get tomatoes and apples in quantity; DH usually picks a couple hundred pounds of peaches, a neighbor often lets us pick cherries and/or greengage plums, etc. And black berries - billions around here. But this last summer was a terrible year for all local fruit, even blackberries were few and awful, plus I had surgery and was in no condition to can, so I didn’t do much. Some years I’ve done more if boxes of tomatoes (for intance) came my way. In addition to plain canned tomatoes I make tomato chutney, apple chutney and can in pints. YUM.
People used to have summer kitchens so the hot wood stove would not be inside the house during canning season.
I don’t know about re-using canning lids for pressure canning just because I’ve never used a pressure canner. Scared of botulism; plus our garden is too pathetic to enough veggies to can, and truthfully, I am not fond of canned veggies.
There are manufactured solar food dehydrators.
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Pantrie-Solar-Dehydrator-Non-Electric/dp/B01C85N3QW
Or make your own. https://homesteadsurvivalsite.com/dehydrate-food-without-electricity/
There are many sites with diy plans for dehydrators that do not need electricity.
Can’t stress the importance of printing out prepping ideas ad the diy projects so you will have them when/if the internet is down and there’s no electricity. You will be miles ahead of the game when you have everything on paper and filed away.
“I don’t know about re-using canning lids for pressure canning just because I’ve never used a pressure canner. Scared of botulism; “
Then you should actually love pressure canning! It gets the food hot enough to destroy any spores. As long as you follow the guidelines on the pressure and time, it works like a charm. I worry more about the things I water bath can. I’m not always sure their acidity is where it is supposed to be. I have pH strips but I don’t think they’re particularly accurate.
I love the idea of The Summer Kitchen! And in the old days the kitchen was separate from the house, in case of fire plus to keep the house cool.
I actually have a second kitchen, it’s in the basement and it’s now designated as my canning kitchen. It stays fairly cool down there. It was supposed to be my spice kitchen when I was going to start an online prepper spice business. That fell through because of Tennessee’s domestic kitchen laws. But I’m happy to have a extra kitchen! Although I feel quite spoiled. When we remodeled the house the 1970s kitchen got taken out intact and put in a room my husband built in the basement. So it was basically free. Although he didn’t get to use the cabinets in his shop like he wanted.
And I would love to see your storage room! Maybe that’ll be the topic of another week, how do we store all of our prepping supplies.
Assuming you mean something colder than a root cellar?
For refrigerating small items, you can make a pot-in-pot cooler. Take 2 terracotta containers and nest one inside the other. Fill the space between with sand. As long as the sand stays damp, it will cool the inside. The same principal can be used as an air conditioner in areas where it gets hot enough to be hazardous. I’ve seen some fairly effective air conditioners made from ceramic tubes mounted horizontally, with a tank of water above them and a second tank to catch the water below them. The water from the tank above was allowed to slowly drip onto the tubes, and evaporation cooled the air as it flowed through.
Many old farms used a springhouse for refrigeration. A freshwater spring, cold creek, or other naturally cold water source was piped so that it flowed in and around a small building. With enough insulation, the inside of that building would stay cold even in summer. My grandfather’s farm had an artesian well set up this way, from when it was originally built. One of the previous owners used it to cool the milk from his dairy operation. When my grandfather died, we found 6 jars of spiced peaches buried in the silt where the water came out. Some farms that didn’t have flowing water, would have a basket lowered partway down the well. I would guess that a waterproof tank could be used the same way, and lowered fully or partially into the well water itself keep the contents cold.
Finally, for places where the winters get cold enough, there’s the ice house. Similar to a root cellar, but with a lot more insulation. A double-entrance would also be a good idea, to cut down on heat transfer through the door. I also recommend making sure that the doors can be unlocked from the inside, since this will essentially be a walk-in freezer even in summer. It would also be a good idea to make sure it has good drainage to deal with meltwater.
In winter, freeze or cut large blocks of ice. The bigger the better. Set the blocks in your ice house on a thick layer of insulative material. Straw was a common choice back then. Bury the blocks with more insulation. Pack as many blocks as you can get into the ice house. When the weather warms up, try to limit the number of times that the door is opened so as to preserve the temperature. Thanks to the wonders of thermodynamics, the blocks that melt first will help keep the rest cold. If done right, there should be blocks still frozen by the time winter comes around again.
4L8r
solar canning is safe for acid foods (fruits) or their juice, jams, jellies. do not can meats or vegetables in your solar cooker!!! don’t even add a sprig of parsley as botulism can grow on any non-acid food!
Remember, tomatoes are a fruit so can be solar canned. http://solarcooking.org/canning1.htm
*****************************************************************************************
I would only use solar for drying/dehydration.
Water Bath Canner for the acidic stuff - using rocket stove.
Pressure canner for the meats and non-acidic veggies -using gas bbq or coleman stove.
Here’s this week’s prepper ping - keeping food cold.
It’s not really a huge topic in prepper circles. However, I figure that in the event we need all of our prepping skills and supplies, we might realize that we forgot about this one!
Let me know if you want me to add you to the ping list. I don’t want to add it without permission, and if you think of any topics or something you might want to share feel free! I’ll try to do a new topic every Monday. With the help of the group :-)
Yes, I would like to be on the ping list.
Thank You.
You’re on!
And as our newest member, you get the bonus of getting to do next week’s topic!
(just kidding.......unless you want to, of course)
Thank you for a very informative post!
I always wonder where they got the ice for ice boxes. Especially in the summer.
“Can’t stress the importance of printing out prepping ideas ad the diy projects so you will have them when/if the internet is down and there’s no electricity.”
That’s a project that I needed reminding to do. I have files and files where I keep all the great information I have read. A lot of it comes from this website.
And I did buy a big notebook once and I had labeled the tabs with each of the prepping subject. But never got around to printing them out.
“Pressure canner for the meats and non-acidic veggies -using gas bbq or coleman stove.”
Do you think that’s the only way to get the canner hot enough to pressure can?
A good wood stove can be used for pressure canning. It takes some practice, but it works. Jackie Clay has written several articles and a couple of books on the subject.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.