CrabGrassAcres

In the freezer it should keep indefinitely. However, after a few months I think things pick up a 'freezer taste'.

Yes it should work the same if you dry it before grinding. If you can afford it you might want to get a corn grinder like the one on this page: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/masa.htm

No, it won't be white unless you started with white corn. The mill normally used for masa flour is made for grinding wet corn. What kind of mill are you using?

We once lived in an old camp trailer and it wasn't very big. I got a shepherd's folding stove and put in the trailer. We had a propane heater, but only 5 gal bottles and they don't last long. If you are snowed in for months at a time you get creative. I lined the wall behind the stove with alum foil and it kept the wall cool. A shepherd's stove stores in a small space and the stovepipe can be nested into a box till needed.

You can buy sheet metal duct work that is made to fit inside a wall cavity. You could prob adapt that to hold quite a bit of grain.

Organic corn from the feed store is perfectly fine. I use feed store corn myself.

Pickling lime or builder's lime is the same as slaked lime. Usually you can find pickling lime at a grocery that has canning supplies. You want calcium hydroxide, not calcium oxide. If I couldn't find pickling lime I would not hesitate to get the builder's lime from a lumber yard.

Here is a recipe. Corn tortillas are made with treated corn. THis tells you how to treat it. There is a grinder that is specifically made for nixtamal or you can prob use a corona hand mill if the food processor is not available. Corn Tortillas Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2006 Show: Good Eats Episode: TORT(illa) Reform 1 1/2 to 2 pounds Nixtamal, recipe follows 4 to 5 tablespoons lukewarm water 1 teaspoon kosher salt Place the Nixtamal into the bowl of a food processor and pulse 10 to 15 times. Add 2 tablespoons of the water and pulse 8 to 10 times, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Add 2 more tablespoons of water along with the salt and pulse until a dough begins to form. If the dough is still dry and somewhat crumbly, add the remaining tablespoon of water and pulse several times. Turn the dough out onto the counter and shape into a ball. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and allow to sit for 30 minutes. *You may also make tortillas from pre-ground masa flour following the directions on the bag. Preheat a cast iron griddle over medium-high heat until it reaches 400 degrees F. Divide the dough into 1 1/2-ounce portions, shape into balls, and keep covered with a damp tea towel. Cut a 1-gallon zip-top bag in half and line the base of a tortilla press with the plastic. Place 1 ball at a time onto the press and top with the other half of the plastic. Close the press and push down firmly several times until the tortilla is flattened. Remove the plastic wrap from the tortilla and place onto the cast iron skillet and cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove the tortilla to a plate lined with a tea towel. Cover the tortilla with a second towel to keep warm. Repeat with all of the dough. Use immediately or store in a zip-top bag in the refrigerator for up to a week. Nixtamal: 1 pound dried corn kernels, approximately 2 cups 6 cups water 1/2-ounce slaked lime* (commonly called cal), approximately 2 tablespoons *Cook's Note: Both dried corn and slaked lime (cal) are available online and in most Latin markets. Rinse the corn under cool water; drain and set aside. Place the water and the lime into a 3 1/2 to 4-quart, non-reactive stockpot, set over medium-low heat, and stir to combine. Add the corn and bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally. Make sure that it takes at least 30 to 45 minutes to come to a boil. Once the mixture comes to a boil, remove from the heat, cover, and allow to sit at room temperature overnight. Do not refrigerate. Drain the corn in a large colander and rinse under lukewarm water for 5 to 6 minutes while rubbing the corn kernels between your fingers in order to remove the outer coating. Place the corn into a large bowl, cover with lukewarm water, and allow to soak for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, rinse, and repeat. Use immediately to make masa dough for tortillas. Yield: approximately 1 1/2 to 2 pounds nixtamal Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 45 minutes Inactive Prep Time: 12 hours

I was talking to a friend in Colorado the other day. She said when I70 was closed due to a rock slide in Glen Canyon http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/25/rock.slide/index.html she was at her daughter's house in Delta for the holiday. Her husband was working and planning to drive down for the meal. My friend and her daughter went to the store to buy Thanksgiving dinner fixings and there was next to nothing in the store. They went to all three groceries in town and no food. The SIL was working in Montrose and he tried to buy groceries before coming home (his wife called him and told him the situation.) He told the store clerk that he was going to run to Grand Junction to get groceries and the clerk told him that stores in GJ had been calling trying to find food for their customers. At some point Walmart got a truck out of Salt Lake City and my friend's daughter stood in line 3 hours and got next to nothing. My friend finally called her husband and told him to bring groceries when he came. The SIL asked why she would tell her DH to bring food since the small town they lived in wouldn't be any better off. She told him that her DH would bring food from her pantry and freezer. So my friend fed a large family group (SIL's extended family plus her family.) The daughter and SIL learned a lesson and now have their own large pantry. Even the SIL's family learned their lesson. OTOH, this past winter with exceptional snow had the relief workers snowmobiling into places with food for people who don't keep a pantry and couldn't get out to the store.

http://www.comorosvanillabeans.com/extract.htm Fritz, this is where I bought mine. I really like the Madagascar Bourbon beans. I make a simple syrup of sugar and water and pour the hot syrup over the beans in a sterile quart jar. Cap and let set for a few week then use the syrup instead of extract. I use about 20 beans in each jar. I was gonna make extract, but I'm too cheap to buy booze. When the jar is empty put more hot syrup over the beans. You can pour booze over that beans whenever you want and keep refilling the jar with booze.

HEY! I got a truck! Oh JOY! I think I'll make a swimming pool! LOL

Tomatoes and greens. I once read about a frontier family that made it thru a long hard winter and finally got to town. They bought a can of tomatoes and opened them on the spot and ate them out of the can.

Originally Posted By: dogmom4 Andrea, thanks for such a wonderful post! I have a half dozen containers of strawberries that went dormant over the winter but have been taking off with the weather warming up. Only one of lettuce that basically overwintered and survived the freeze we had. Last year I tried the upside down tomato with little success. Not because it won't necessarily work, but, we had a pretty long stretch of over 100 degree days, I got sick and they all died for lack of watering. Plus, it was necessary to get on a ladder to water them because they were hung on the edges of the roof (flat roof). No one else but me wanted to get on the ladder 2 times a day to water. So, this year I plan to figure out a way to hang them from the roof but using a chain so they can be raised and lowered to be watered or hang lower to be watered from the ground. (snip) http://www.dripworksusa.com/store/kitshop.php#tiptop

Cookie, I ain't gonna let you see "my" canned stuff. Not if you think canning only 3 turkeys is odd. LOL Wanna come help me can two pigs? (smirk)

Now, Cookie, tsk, tsk, you will make the poor child afraid to join the canning queen club. LOL

Thanks, PCS! Yes, do get Carla's book. It is excellent.

I've made newspaper pots with both of those methods. If you are making a bunch, the first method is very fast and easy. A cheap way to do is take a cardboard flat from the grocery and slip it into a trash bag to make it waterproof. Set all your dirt filled pots in it and water from the bottom by pouring water into the flat. It isn't pretty, but it is nearly free and works. When you are ready to plant, just set the pot and all into the ground. They dissolve much faster than peat pots.

OK, first learn to make cornbread. Cook up a pot of pinto beans using only salt for a seasoning. I've eaten it this way many a time and it is ok, but boring. Some pepper sauce will help. Go out and gather some greens from your garden or the pasture or the woods. Cook up a mess of them. If you have nothing but grass in the yard boil that up for soup, but take the grass out before serving. You will have to drink it, but it is nutritious. Make sure it is not grass that has been sprayed with anything and wash it well before cooking. Next look for recipes using "polenta". It is nothing but ground cornmeal mush, but polenta is chic and mush isn't so the recipes are for polenta. Try parching the corn before you grind it. Bake it in a slow 250* oven till it is very lightly brown. Grind it when it is cool. Do only a small test batch at first till you know how brown you like it. You can make mush with it and it will have a different flavor than the mush you make with unparched meal. Soaking the dry corn in lye water will make hominy. You can google for directions to do it. This frees up the b vitamins so the corn is healthier. It also gives it a different taste. You can grind it into a fine meal and use in any cornmeal recipe. You can use it in corn chowder or you can fry it in fat until crisp and salt it for corn nuts. There are tons of recipes for pinto beans, from chili to soup, tacos, burritos etc. You can even use them for baked beans. You can also grind them up and make pinto bean pie or pinto bean candy. Just google for recipes. I would suggest you get the yr's supply of beans and corn, then as time and funds allow, start collecting other ingredients to make them more interesting. If you can do a garden, that would be great. If nothing else, start some greens and some tomatoes in buckets. I've found that nearly everywhere I've lived, there is something that can be gathered wild or grown that will provide vitamins and 'boredom relief', but usually there are not enough calories in those things and never enough fat, to sustain life on their own. Hope this helps.

I'm not sure what you are asking for?

This is something to try the soft white wheat with.

Originally Posted By: Mt_Rider StillSurvieving....it's these kinds of stories that motivate me to Grow My Own as much as possible. Makes the hair on the back of my head stand up. I've seen enough to have no trouble believing this does happen. CGA, I've been pondering this since you posted. This is the very thing many people could afford to do. Get just a few basics and maybe garden seeds for the rest. Even many Urban folks can grow some greens. Definitely not fancy and one would get pretty sick of the limited diet after what we're used to now. But its FOOD if it all goes very bad. 'Course I don't digest corn well at all...so I'd have to substitute. (Oddly, I don't have trouble with popped corn.) It's better, of course, to get the variety but starting with basics that will give you a great deal of calorie/nutritional count is important. Good thread. MtRider Yes, exactly! Beans and a grain will see you through many bad times. My daughter can't eat corn, and has celiac disease so I store rice (cheap) and instant potatoes (not cheap) for her. I really would like to have enough for my sister and her family and since I do not have a lot of cash, I'm getting more beans and corn. We can grow veggies. You can grow collards or other greens without much space and you don't have to worry about a short season with them. The grains can take a lot of space and work to grow so why not stock up while they are reasonable and available?

Wish I had a basement or a garage.

White Feather, you should do it however it works out for you. I prefer to buy in bulk myself as it does save me money. No list is cast in stone! They are here for a guide for those who aren't sure how to start prepping. Welcome to the forum!

GMO is genetically modified organism. GMO crops are engineered to tolerate really high doses of herbicides etc so have more chemicals in them. The genetics are also patented, so if you grow any of them out and the patent holder finds out, they can and will sue you. Best to avoid them. Parching kills insect eggs and was an ancient method of keeping the grain usable for long periods. I don't think I would parch a lot for long term storage tho. It is so much easier to use a mylar bag and O2 absorbers. I just spread the dried field corn on baking sheets and roast it in the oven till it is lightly browned. Do just a little at first and grind it after it cools to see how brown you want it. Parched, dried corn can be eaten without further cooking. The Indians would carry some ground parched corn with them for trail food. Here is an interesting web site on parched corn: (Thanks to Leah, this link has been fixed. However, I will also post the information in the Preserving forum so that it is preserved here, too.) http://web.archive.org/web/20070711060334/...archedCorn.html

There is an identical grinder on ebay for quite a bit less: http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?s...op=1&fsoo=1 Then there is this one; http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BIG-HOPPER-CAST-...1QQcmdZViewItem They look the same except one has a larger hopper. Shipping may be more or less depending on your location. I haven't used either. Some people say they like them fine and others don't. There is also the corona brand. I expect any of them is better than two rocks! LOL