Posted on 07/24/2011 1:08:37 PM PDT by Mamzelle
All of my usual stores are rearranging and changing what they put on their shelves. I'm sensing that the big uptick in prices will start to arrive shortly, maybe before Christmas. I'm interested to hear what the impressions of FRugal Freepers. What are you seeing? What will you be buying in quanity before TSHTF?
YUP! Have you ever made chicken and dumplings? Same idea. The dumplings are a basic biscuit recipe, which you “drop” on top of hot stew. The Dutch Ovens that were typically used over hot coals are the ones with small feet on the bottom... they’re also more valuable as antiques because this is an identifying mark as “older” cookware.
Nido is whole instant powdered milk, it’s available at Walmart in the Mexican food section, not the regular powdered milk section. It mixes instanly in hot or cold water and is the best powdered milk I’ve ever used. I only discovered it pretty recently, it’s manufactured in Chile. The US doesn’t allow whole powdered milk that I know of. I’ve had it from NZ before.
Curling up with an old cookbook makes for a nice read.
Thanks, I’ll have to check it out and see if our local Walmart has it. We are a small town with almost no Mexican or Latin citizens.
Would suggest you try “better than bullion” type glaces once you rotate through your broth. I have found this just as good as canned broth once you mix water in, and is much easier to store.
Yeah, you posted this on the gardening thread the other day. Great idea with the veg scraps. I drain the canned veggie juice for the freezer but hadn’t thought of the scraps. Mine complains about all the little bits of leftovers in the freezer so that he can’t get his treats in there. I’ve heard to add a spoon or so of vinegar to the cooking carcass to leech out more calcium. Don’t know if it’s true but if nothing else the vinegar is good for you. Heck, I grew up at granny’s knee helping her can so 32 is nothing. You’re the one of your peers who’s going to make it through any hard times be it TEOTWAWKI, unemployment or a family illness or whatever comes down the road so pat yourself on the back for knowing how to be frugal and making do.
Save your pickle juice for cleaning out the sink drain subbing it for the vinegar. Also, when cooking a tough beef roast in a crockpot, pour in a cup (or more) of pickle juice, a sliced onion, enough water to cover and lots of pepper (no salt since the pickle juice is probably salty enough). The juice helps to tenderize the meat and gives it just enough of a sumpin’ sumpin’ but it’s really not pickley. Of course, slice a cucumber into some pickle juice to make some quick table pickles. Gotta pinch pennies these days.
If you’re making jelly, save the fruit pulp and make fruit butters. I love cinnamon plum butter. Also, this summer, save your watermelon rinds (the white part) to make sweet pickled watermelon rinds - ooooh, my, good stuff!
I know!! I was traveling in Charleston SC and I stopped in a Walmart to make a few purchases, and wandered around looking at all the emptied shelves. It was a little spooky, because something like an empty Walmart could set off a panic.
Some stores stock a few luxuries (I'm frugal but a foodie) and they could get me in the door, then I'd need to buy kitty litter at twice the price. Is this what they call a loss leader?
Well, a favorite store just stopped stocking the luxury goods, so what will they do? Why should I go there instead of Walmart for kitty litter?
We don’t have a big “mexican” section in the local wal-mart, but they do have the Nido powdered whole milk. Make sure you don’t get the Nido infant formula by mistake.
The Nido is on the very bottom shelf in our local store, and I almost missed finding it. Yellow can I think. Just go to Amazon and search “Nido” and you’ll see a pic. It’s more expensive to buy on Amazon though.
I dunno... Just hoping it’ll save on the electric bill what with this heat wave. It was 105 today. Hung a towel on the glass outside door to keep some of the sun out.
Same here. They lost power in town a couple days ago. Electric company sent out notices for voluntary usage cuts.
Texas.
I would not live in or near a big or moderate sized city even if it meant I had to live in a travel trailer.
If one has no soap, white vinegar is a good disinfectant germ killer, and a bit in water is useful for washing. Of course, one is more likely to have soap than white vinegar.
I buy Kirks Castile soap by the case, washes very clean and quickly so you use less water. I wash my hair with it, and use a slight vinegar rinse or use my own rinse I make. It can wash clothes, too. It’s pure coconut oil soap, the best way is to order from the manufacturer.
I’ll ping you when I’m ready. I really need to work on it very soon.
Ping
Hmmm - just gave up on some 1999 yeast, as it finally quit risin to our specs.
Freeze it, lasts a long time.
that didn’t work; let me try again.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts?
3rd of 3 threads on survival topics
Here is the pic at this link. There is a Europe manufacturer also - I would prefer to buy that , but not available locally.
Management would be getting all kinds of clues from HQ about what we can really expect. They’d know why grocery store shelves suddenly seem to go empty in ways I can’t ever remember.
So what we did was go to the local grocery store and buy one of each brand up on the shelf. We opened them all, squeezed the water out, and peeled back the lid.
(We also ate a lot of tuna for a couple of days).
The store brand ("Our Family", a Nash-Finch label) won out: the tuna was mainly chunk, the flavor was good, firm, and as a bonus, it was cheaper than all the others.
Most larger or chain stores have their own brand label, usually a little cheaper than the bigger 'name' brands. Don't blow those off while you are looking, and if there is more than one chain in your area, get some of the other store's store brand, too.
In order to best assess what is available in your market, though, this is what I'd recommend doing--buy a can of each brand and check them out. It doesn't have to be at the same time, but if you don't, put on yur 'food judge hat' and take notes: Texture, firmness, flavor, aroma, amount of 'chunk' versus crumbs, any characteristic you find important, and rate each can. Let everyone in your family who eats it have a 'vote', if you want, and rate them as best to worst. Note price as well. If nothing else, you can decide what concessions (if any) in quality you are willing to make for a price break.
Keep in mind that you can do this with any product, be it canned peaches, green beans, peas, whatever, and if you are going to stock up on them, it is even nicer to buy something you will be happy eating, unless you are just pushing to get quantity on a budget and price is THE major consideration. Consider that spending four or five dollars more on 100 cans might make the difference between eating something you like and spending a hundred meals wishing you had something else. Since rotating your stock in the pantry is as important as having one, this way you won't have a dusty corner stacked with food going uneaten and getting closer to its 'use by date'.
Consider, too, that while most foods remain nutritionally viable to some extent (unless the can is bulged or leaking) even after their use by date, but suffer worst in appearance and texture, if you start with something you like, in a survival situation a little degredation won't be as bad as the effect on something you thought was sub par to begin with.
Relatively speaking, doing a taste test is a small expense to prevent stocking up on something you don't like.
If you think you might be prejudiced against some particular brand, write the name on the bottom and peel the labels.
Also, if there is a big sale (and it isn't too far to the store), buy a can or two and try them before stocking up. Sometimes different lots give different results.
Our results have been good with that store brand in this area, not just on tuna, but with other products as well, but there have been a couple of instances where the 'name' brand won out (Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup and Tomato soup won--especially because the Chicken Noodle can be eaten right out of the can, even cold, and is palatable.).
Hope that helps!
What’s the name of the low end grocery? A chain store? Java Time sounds like a deal... thanks for sharing.
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