Posted on 08/15/2007 7:08:15 PM PDT by shrinkermd
MIDLAND, Va. — The Labor Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.2 percent for the 12 months ending in July, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are actually rising by double digits.
Already stung by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American consumers now face sharply higher prices for foods they can't do without. This little-known fact may go a long way to explaining why, despite healthy job statistics, Americans remain glum about the economy.
Meeting with economic writers last week, President Bush dismissed several polls that show Americans are down on the economy. He expressed surprise that inflation is one of the stated concerns.
"They cite inflation?" Bush asked, adding that, "I happen to believe the war has clouded a lot of people's sense of optimism."
But the inflation numbers reveal the extent to which lower- and middle-income Americans are being pinched.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its July inflation report that egg prices are 33.7 percent higher than they were in July 2006. Over the same period, according to the department's consumer price index, whole milk was up 21.1 percent; fresh chicken 8.4 percent; navel oranges 13.6 percent; apples 8.7 percent. Dried beans were up 11.5 percent, and white bread just missed double-digit growth, rising by 8.8 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Your post shows a great amount of common sense and insight.
Sometimes a person who is an elite thinking individual runs smack dab into the realities of life.
Wealth is fleeting no matter how much we believe in safe investments.
Who knows when a major disaster such as sickness or a hurricane will strike and take away a life time of savings and living as an elite.
I have the same issues w/freezer and crops!!
I simply cut the tomatoes in 4ths or 8ths, depending on size, slit the skin side just a bit for the length of the piece, layer them in the dehydrator and let them go. I can get 5-6 tomatoes per tray and I have 5 trays. Mine is the cheaper version that doesn’t rotate on its own, so when I think about it, I give the trays a quarter turn. I also will turn the pieces over every once in a while and take the driest ones and place them in a higher position while placing the ones that need more drying on the bottom, when I think about it. After about 24+ hours, they will be dried, but still moist and since I am afraid they will mold, I then put them in the oven on a foil lined tray at 170 for several hours. I usually recharge any of the silica gel pacs I have saved over the years from medications and vitamins, etc at the same time....just put them in the 170 degree oven for 2 hours in a small bowl and then, after the tomatoes are dried hard and cooled, I bag them w/the gel pacs.
I have made some tomato powder, but the tomatoes have to be very, very dry and the food processor blade needs to be really sharp. I have decided to just dry them hard for now and when the weather is arid this winter, I will use a small dedicated processor to grind them to powder. Then, all I will have to do is add the tomato powder to whatever I am cooking or to water (up to 50%/50%) to either take the flavor up a notch or make tomato sauce. I am growing basil in an indoor hydroponic unit right now and I think I will add that to some dried tomatoes and cover with olive oil later, when the harvest lets up somewhat.
I did a quick and dirty sauce yesterday: I just processed the entire tomato, skin, seeds and all, and then left it to simmer all day...maybe abour 6-7 hrs. That took a gallon down to 5 cups and I will have to reduce it further when I use it.
Takes up too much freezer room right now, too. I have some huge tomatoes that are still green and I expect I will have to wrap some of those and store them in a cooler for a week or so just before frost...it has been a great tomato year, here, even on my North-facing farm way down in a valley. I had 17 plants, plus about 20 volunteer cherry tomato plants from seeds the birds *planted* for me from last year and I have been drying and we have been eating them for about a month, already. My 59-day plants had ripe fruit at 55 days....a first here, where I am usually 2 weeks behind the ridge farmers.
Now, I have to figure out if we are just going to eat the sweet corn til it turns to starch or if I will try and freeze some. I haven’t decided. I have to get another chest freezer by deer season and I just do not have the room right now for frozen corn. Maybe next year.
Thank you, so very much.
In some ways I do feel sorry for the elitist thinkers when reality slaps them, but then I remember most of the reality the “common” person faces daily was caused by them in the first place and my empathy seems to dry up.
I consider myself to be fortunate. My husband and I have a wonderful marriage, our daughter is healthy and happy, we have a roof over our heads and food on the table, he’s got a decent job, and we pay our bills......usually on time :)
I COULD go back to work fulltime, but it really wouldn’t make much difference in the household income because it would kick us up to another tax bracket and we would have to pay for child care. My part time job is at the local Moose Lodge and I can bring my daughter with me until daddy gets home from work and he picks her up. Mooseheart promotes itself as a Family Fraternity, and it really is, which is the reason we are members.
Thanks for the info on the drying of the maters.....
I need to scoot for a couple hours, but will further reply to you when I get home later.
Forgot to mention :
At least w/my dehydrator, I cannot get a 2nd tray on until the first tray of tomato pieces has dried enough for there to be room above them for the next tray to fit. So, when starting, it may be 5+ hrs or so before you can get a 2nd tray on and so forth for the additional trays. Also, once you have several trays on the coil, you will be able to consolidate the pieces that are the driest on to one tray and as soon as the contents of the 2nd tray are dried enough for another tray to fit above it, that tray can then be moved to the bottom, closest to the heat source. Within a day, you will have all 5 trays on the dehydrator and you can simply slice up more tomatoes for the topmost tray as you remove dried ones to the oven.
Hope that makes sense.
fooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood! ;)
Once in a while I do...when I need to impress a City Kid or something. ;) Butter is relatively cheap here in Dairyland, so I don’t usually bother.
I use those eggs up right away. I just buy the store-bought ones because I can make hard-boiled eggs from them immediately. Fresh eggs need to sit for 2 weeks at least to hard-boil. The membrane doesn’t separate from the shell and they’re impossible to peel.
Do a search on my Freeper name. Plenty of hints along the way, if you can wade through all of my complaining against the Government, LOL! (There are some hints in this thread, too.)
How do you figure the price of corn affects the price of navel oranges, apples, dried beans and white bread?
Exactly. Well stated. And the Pubbies WON’T be savvy enough to do a thing about it. :(
Once again, thanks for all the tips.
One more question, though.........do you use then in the same manner you would use canned/frozen maters?
i didn’t say what you said.
here’s what i said on reply #2 to which you responded:
>using corn for ethanol
>is not
>a good idea.
Well you’re right, there’s not enough used cooking oil to make a lot of difference. But it will work in some VW and older Mercedes diesels.
“And, you’re getting ripped off by your grocer if you’re paying through the nose for everyday, white, farm factory produced eggs. Midwest egg prices (which should include ChicagoLand) are running about 92-cents per dozen right now”
Probably being ripped off. About the cheapest I’ve seen them, and I scout the advertising pages for all of the stores around me, is 99 cents. Of course, at Easter you can usually get them cheaper, maybe 59 to 79 cents a dozen. Your egg colors sound real pretty. Actually many times I pay extra and buy Eggland brand eggs, which do taste fresher and better to me, but maybe it’s my imagination. Wish I could raise hens, but I doubt if my condo association would be very happy with a bunch of them cackling out on my balcony. It’s bad enough with me cackling out on my balcony....
Actually, it turns out that oil is the best source for renewable energy.
The earth manufactures it, the technology for finding, extracting, refining, distributing and burning it is well-defined and advanced.
For some reason, politically, we just don't want to use it.
Try as I might, I can't understand why, other than there's a bunch of sandal-wearing, bicycle riding, patchouli-breathing FM types that think it is a bad thing for some reason.
They can be rehydrated in any liquid, including wine or stock, and pulsed in the processor to form a sauce and the powder can be reconstituted with water to form a sauce, but I usually add that to canned sauce to punch up the flavor & extend the volume. Processed with olive oil/garlic/basil, they make a good dip and a base for salad dressing. They can be added to soups/stews/casseroles as is and those are better than canned stewed tomatoes, IMO. My main reason for drying is it is less work and takes up less space.
Commercial tomato sauce is something I haven’t been able to replace for spaghetti or chili. It is such a bargain when you look at how many tomatoes and how much time/energy it takes to get something as thick and as consistent. Ditto tomato juice. I really prefer commercial to home canned.
This will be the first year that I have a large quantity of dried tomatoes to experiment with. Maybe we can have a food thread this coming winter to share recipes from our summer produce.
I've pinged our food ping list leader, as well two ofthe other frugal foodies I know!!!
Thanks for all the great info on drying the maters, I've pulled out my dehydrator and dusted it off. I haven't used it in years and my 9 year old doesn't remember it ever being used, so she is currently fascinated with it :)
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