I've never tried using swiss chard for natural easter egg dyes, but it sounds promising. I use yellow onion skins, red cabbage, etc. for dyes (with cider vinegar) and the results are lovely pastels.
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
I am on kartographer’s and tik’s lists so add me to yours please unless they will be combined. Looking forward to it, thanks.
You bet. No I think we are going to stay separate. Their list is more of a current events and things to look out for list. Whereas this one is more of a daily tools And back to basics living list. Thanks, I’ve got you on it.
Just like “some parts of a pine tree are edible”, sometimes you can find a meal just outside your city front door. Familiarize ourselves with urban foraging.
https://www.wildernesscollege.com/urban-foraging.html
http://www.survivalsullivan.com/urban-foraging/
great tips, thank you bgill!
i’ve read that young kudzu leaves are also edible. I didn’t see that one on the list. But being in the south, that is good to know. We did try to eradicate the little bit of kudzu we saw on our property, but I’m sure it will be back :-(
On a peach related note - A friend who takes peach cobblers to social events and gives me the juice she drains off of canned peaches. I make jelly from it.
Most people drain their canned veggies and fruit down the drain. Don’t! Repurpose it especially in times of need. I usually keep a large margarine tub container in the freezer and continually add drained veggie liquid. That’s “free” vegetable broth for the next pot of soup. Note, don’t add or add very little pea liquid because it’s strong so perhaps save that in a separate container and use it as the liquid when cooking dried peas.
Same idea with meats such as when draining off the grease from ground meat, drain it into a large bowl and when it congeals you can save the juice/broth that has separated from the fat for something at a later date.
In times of need, that meat fat can be rendered for soap or candles. Just don’t willy nilly throw food out.
Don’t throw out pickle juice. It is mostly vinegar which can be used to clean sink drains. Pour a cup or more into the crockpot when your making a beef or pork roast. Cut up cucumbers and other vegs and add the pickle juice to them for refrigerator pickles.
We finally had some rain last week so a ton of wild onions have sprung up in the yard. I used to use them as green onions but have too many furbabies these days doing their business in the yard. In the spring we have all sorts of weeds like dandelion, purslane and clover. Yeah, our yard isn’t the pristine showcase the neighbor’s is who has a yardman even in the dead of winter.
There are many edible plants that look like weeds which can be planted in shtf times when you don’t want others to know.
Here’s a free online cookbook titled “Eat Well on $4 a Day”. Not saying give up filet mignon but that sometimes you need to feed the family decent meals during hard times. Remember, prepping for hard times doesn’t always mean hiding out in an underground shelter during a nuclear war but also when someone may have lost a job or having financial problems or is too ill or unable to get to the store so it’s wise to stock the pantry when times are good because you never know when they won’t be.
https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf
Scour the internet or old cookbooks for ideas for substituting ingredients or making a dish with limited ingredients. Breads can be made from ground nuts or cheeses rather than flour. Yogurt, sour cream, cream, etc. can be substituted for each other. Example - I had a container of yogurt that wasn’t getting eaten so made it into a cheesecake (no cream cheese) with a pecan crust from pecans from the yard for a Valentines Day treat. If no one in the family wants to eat that can of beets or sauerkraut in the pantry then make a chocolate cake with either of them.
I found the best recipe the other day that uses 3 ingredients. Cut up a chicken breast (or perhaps thigh meat which is cheaper) into tender sized pieces. Wrap each with a piece or half piece of raw bacon. No seasoning needed. Cook until done on the stove or in the oven. Remove from pan. To the drippings, add a big spoon of cream cheese, yogurt, or sour cream or a combination and heat to a sauce consistency. Pour over the chicken and enjoy.
I used to laugh at my grandmother for have 600 rolls of tp and 300 rolls of paper towels. Now I understand.
BTTT
I do a lot of that already. Poke a few holes in boiled eggs and put them in the pickle juice for a few days, the grandkids loved them.
I pureed a lot of the peaches I had with just a little sugar and drink it, it is yummy.
I've never tried using swiss chard for natural easter egg dyes, but it sounds promising. I use yellow onion skins, red cabbage, etc. for dyes (with cider vinegar) and the results are lovely pastels.
Beautiful!
Correct.
What does VPN mean re pizza? (It’s also a digital network term.)
Those are beautiful! Who would’ve thought that natural colors would be so vivid and gorgeous. And how ridiculous that I would even think they wouldn’t be :-(
bump!
Interesting idea about the weeds. We need to re-landscape our front yard, and I was thinking about putting only edible plants in by the house. I really don’t care much for flowers and useless shrubs. If it can’t be eaten I really don’t see the point. California I had a lot of rosemary but it they won’t make it here. They make beautiful shrubs. So I’ll have to see what will survive in colder weather.
Verace Pizza Napoletana (”true Neapolitan pizza)
I was going to post the website about it but there are too many of them to pick one. It’s the kind of pizza you would get if you were in Italy, in most places. For people here to sell VPN pizza, they have to be approved and inspected and take the right courses. It really does have a special flavor all its own. Nothing like American pizza.
I came close to replicating it when I got all the good ingredients. But there is still something missing, and that was the char from the woodfired oven. The Smokey wood flavor and the little bits of crust that were charred just bring it all together.
Now, if only I could get it in and out of the oven correctly! There’s always something…
Allora, tua mamma é Italiana? Parli la lingua bella?
Awesome! Then you know exactly the pizza I am talking about :-) although my mother was from Trieste, and the pizza there was the same. So it must be an Italia-wide thing.
How did you know my mother was from Italy? No, I wish I spoke Italian but I am trying to learn. I am going to go visit family there soon, and I only have one cousin that speaks English. So I need to learn at least the basics. And I’m going to spend a lot of time alone in Venezia, although I’m sure most of the restaurant and hotel staff speak English. And plus as you said, it is such a beautiful language. For years in Mexifornia, I wanted nothing to do with anything that sounded like Spanish. But in comparison, Italian is much prettier.
So how is it that you speak Italian? Or write it :-)
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