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CrabGrassAcres

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Posts posted by CrabGrassAcres

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Originally Posted By: Mt_Rider
    StillSurvieving....it's these kinds of stories that motivate me to Grow My Own as much as possible. yuk 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?
  4. 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

     

     

     

     

     

  5. 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

  6. I like it parched too, Sharon. I put it in a slow oven so I don't have to stand over it, stirring the pan while it parches. You can add parched corn or corn meal to nearly any dish to give it more flavor and stretch it out.

     

    I use my Whisper Mill to grind the corn. There are manual grinders just for corn. You can get them on ebay. I also have a very old huge grinder with a wheel that can be hooked up to an exercise bike or to the PTO of a tractor or any motor that can accept a vbelt. I bet I could use the treadle of my sewing machine to run it too.

     

    You need to check the corn before buying a large quantity. Ask the feed dealer if it is GMO. Usually they will not be selling GMO because it has to be kept separate from nonGMO grains. "Deer corn" in my local is used for feed and is clean. That is what I normally feed my animals and myself. If all you can get is not real clean, it can be cleaned by pouring it from one container to another in front of a fan. If it is really dirty, you can wash some in water and spread it out to dry before grinding. The hull will keep the corn from absorbing water unless you really soak it a long time. Usually you need lye in the water to get the hull off. What I've been buying has not needed to be cleaned.

  7. Tell the feed store guy you want animal feed corn, deer corn or for chickens, it is basically the same thing. Do NOT get corn chops, which is cracked corn.

     

    I store mine in mylar bags with O2 absorbers in blue totes or buckets. I keep a bucket in the kitchen with a Gamma lid that I use out of regularly. I grind it in my regular grain mill and eat from it several times a week. I find the local corn is cheaper to buy than rice or wheat and I use it to stretch my bucks and give me more variety in my diet. You won't believe how much better tasting it is than the stale corn meal from the grocery store.

  8. The cracked corn is field (dent) corn that has been run thru a grain mill. Popcorn is a flint type corn. You can use the cracked corn and remill it to corn meal, but it is much better to get whole shelled corn and mill that. I've seen bits of cob and stuff in with the cracked corn. It is easier to clean stuff out of the whole corn before grinding than to try to clean the cracked. Also, the whole corn will stay fresh much longer than the cracked.

  9. This will supply nearly 2,000 calories/day for one year with adequate protein and fat. If you know what wild foods to forage for greens or can grow a small patch of greens, you can provide vitamins at no additional cost. You will also need salt and will want some other seasonings. You may be able to grow or forage for fruits, nuts, peppers etc.

     

    This is prob one of the more boring diets in existence, but my mother told me this is the diet that kept her family alive through the depression and WWII. They did have a garden and grew lots of collards.

     

    1. Pinto beans, 50 pounds at Sams Club for 25.43 1500 cal/pound = 75,000

    2. Field corn, 50 pounds at Feed Store for 6.50 1500 cal/pound = 75,000

    3. Bakers liquid shortening 35 # at Sam's 22.49 3500 cal/pound = 122,500 calories

     

    Buy one container liq shortening $22.49, 2 bags of beans $50.86, 6 bags of corn $39.00, Total 112.35

     

  10. Originally Posted By: Skagitgal
    OH!...... this is so good. I nearly wet my pants laughing so hard. Especially the Y2K and better preps in storage than you use everyday.

    Now the fabric, we dont talk out loud about the fabric crammed in totes. That is a whisper only conversation. You know, nervously looking over shoulder,checking from side to side.

    Skagit checks to see where DH is, before she dares type this.

    The man just doesn't understand! And this is the man that has 6 pairs of electrical pliers. And the number of 9/16th. wrenches for brake adjusting; well lets say...when we cleaned out the longhaul truck there were 12. Snicker.

    Boy have I got a lot of mileage from that particular incident!!


    A friend of mine was reorganizing her rather extensive fabric stash and her husband wanted to load it up and haul it to the dump. She told him "You do Buddy, and I'm hauling every tool in the garage to the dump!" LOL
  11. We need more ducks!

     

    I looked out the window and one of my roosters was squaring off with a duck! When I laughed the rooster turned around and started to walk of, but the duck chased after him and noodled him right in the tail feathers. That rooster jumped two feet in the air and took off running with the duck hot on his tail. LOL

  12. http://www.theshelffactory.com.futuresite...._wsn/page2.html

     

    I was looking for decorative brackets and these look reasonably priced. I'm hoping to get shelves put at the tops of the walls over all the windows pretty soon. Figured I could start with my bedroom and do one room at a time. If you drill a hole thru the supports that are on either side of the window, you can run a wooden dowel rod or metal rod thru the holes and put a decorative cap on each end. Here are some pretty ones:

    http://www.countrycurtains.com/sdx/H24715.jsp

     

    (I've never ordered from either of these places, so have no idea how the service or anything is. They are just two sites I found to show what I want to do.)

  13. Feed corn! YOu can get 50 pounds for about $7. I eat a lot of mush. I make "polenta" and put all kinds of stuff with it. It is way cheaper than pasta and even cheaper than rice. Use it to vary your diet now and when you are totally dependent on your storage foods.

     

    I never buy soups. They are expensive and I don't care for the taste of them. My DD cannot have them anyhow because of gluten problems.

     

    Things that will add body/flavor to soups are powdered onions, browned flour (or cornmeal or rice), dried nettles, leftover coffee, kelp granules (taste a bit fishy), tomato powder,other powdered dried veggies.

     

    If you use soy, buy the beans and learn to make your own soy milk and tofu. The leftover fiberous bean bits can be dried in the oven and added to meatloaf or other ground meat dishes. To avoid a beany flavor bring the water to a boil and pour in the dried soybeans. This kills the enzyme that causes the beany taste. The enzyme also has antinutritive factors that are deactivated by the boiling.

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