Darlene

I do oat groats and flake my own oatmeal and also semolina.

No need to shake unless it makes you feel better. See my formula above to get an idea of how much weight in beans you need to how much oz of alcohol you need.

I have gallons and gallons and gallons of homemade extract. I tend to do a double fold extract vs the single fold that the commercial companies make. The formula is basically 1oz beans for every 8oz of alcohol. Double fold is 2oz oz beans for every 8ounce of alcohol. I don't split my beans, there is basically no flavor in the vanilla caviar. The flavor comes from the actual beans themselves. I'll pull a bean out of an extract and snip off the end, and then squeeze the vanilla caviar out into whatever I am making for the aesthetics of the vanilla caviar. But, I keep my vanilla beans in their alcohol for at least a year before I use...the longer the better. Once a batch is ready, you can re-use the beans, except this time you need double the beans/alcohol. For example, for a single fold on a re-used bean, instead of 1oz of beans for every 8oz of alcohol, you'd need 2oz of beans for every 8oz of alcohol. I also have what I call a "mother jar", where I put in the extra ounces of beans that are not enough to make a batch, and put them all into the same jar. Every country's beans have a unique flavor and aroma so to put them all into one jar gives a really kewl blend of vanilla beans around the world. I have beans from all over the world. Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, and a ton of other countries. I also make vanilla bean paste out of the beans, which is also very easy to do and is absolutely awesome in pastries. Anyway, that's a crash course in top shelf homemade vanilla extract!

Yeah, I'm going to make some easy scalloped potatoes tomorrow Dee so that I can portion them out and vacuum seal and freeze. I made shrimp scampi tonight and a ton of it but not sure how the cooked shrimp would freeze and reheat. I'll have to do some research on that. The freezer is full of ideas - meal components I've bought but not had much time to cook yet. Maybe tomorrow I'll start? The days seem to be side slammed with one thing or another it seems.

Thanks everyone for your ideas and suggestions. The good thing is that the vacuum sealer will preserve and protect for a long time, whatever foods I make for the freezer.

I'm sure everyone's different, but as everyone knows, when you feed the starter, you have to remove a decent portion of it to make room for the feeding. It's always been hard for me to throw away but it's very easy to get quickly inundated with an enormous amount of sourdough starter. I liked the ability to do the above, and to feed something exceptionally healthy to the chickens, whose eggs I also enjoy.

I'll be leaving on Wednesday to go back to Miami for a week to help my mom and dad while daddy is recovering from a 2 month hospital stay. I don't think I've talked much about what went on from last October-January in the main forums. It was a really rough time and I confined what little I did talk about, to the Moderator's forum we have. Suffice it to say that my dad has been unable to get out of bed, much less walk, since the middle of last October due to an almost catastrophic illness he had. Insurance is a joke and while they technically have decent insurance, it's like trying to fight City Hall on getting them to do what the policy says he deserves. Consequently, one of my brothers has stepped up to the plate and spends countless hours at my parents home, doing PT and OT and daddy is slowly making progress. Anyway, I spent 2.5 months down there helping in a variety of ways when my dad was in the hospital and inpatient rehab facility. I caught covid down there on New Years day and came back home to recover on a variety of levels. It has been incredibly difficult for my mom to carry both herself and my dad, so I am going down next Wednesday to spend a week cooking up a variety of meals in excess, to vacuum seal and put in her freezer so that she will just have to pull out a home cooked meal to heat up for her and my dad. I've been putting together a list of things that I can make that freeze well (not everything freezes well) and wanted to ask if any one has any other ideas or suggestions. This list is not all encompassing and I don't know if I'll make everything, but I wanted to make sure I had enough variety and see what the time there will allow me to make. I also know there are a ton of threads on this subject but I'm pressed for time and don't feel like doing a bunch of searches. Here's the list - and if y'all have any other ideas or suggestions, please share: Salisbury steak (I don't now if mashed potatoes freeze well...I think they freeze well but do they taste as fresh as when freshly made?) Tacos - basically the meat portion Bolognese - it's easy to just boil up some fresh spaghetti Beef barbacoa - basically a taco type meal with shredded beef Beef bourguignon - a fancy beef stew Roasted pork loin with a side of sautéed cabbage w/ bacon Chicken cacciatore Chicken with small tomatoes made into a sauce for spaghettil Stuffed peppers Swedish meatballs (does sour cream freeze and heat up well?) Homemade wood fired pizza (I'm thinking cooking it and freezing it might work?) Anyway, that's the list so far. Any ideas, comments or suggestions is appreciated.

I saw a video recently of a local woman around here who takes her excess sourdough starter when she goes to feed it, and pours it into little pancake like disks in a hot pain, quickly cooks it, and then turns around and feeds it to her chickens. I thought this was a brilliant way to use the excess sourdough starter and a very healthy treat for the chickens.

Happy belated birthday ((((mother))))

Thanks MM for your ideas. It helps to know that our concerns are not limited to just the Mods and Admin.

P.S. If you start to see forums disappearing, just sign into your account or join MrsSurvial (We'd love to have you!!!!) All of it will show again for you.

We're still in the planning and organizing stages, and at some point I will send out a site wide email, but I wanted to give the membership a heads up, and any lurkers that have not joined MrsSurvival yet... In an effort to (in a weird way it feels) keep up with the times, we're going to be adding some security levels to our site. What this will mean is that we will be taking a large portion of the site (or at least I'm seriously considering taking a large portion of the site) and requiring that the person sign into their MrsS's account in order to gain entrance to these portion of our website. Right now, regardless of whether you are a member or not, and regardless of whether you are signed into your MrsSurvival account, everyone and anyone can view the entire site. I'm not comfortable with that anymore, so Annarchy and I, as well as the Moderators, are in discussions as to how much of the site will be taken down to a more secure level that will require either joining MrsS, or will require you to sign into your account in order to view all of the forums. I'm giving everyone a heads up as we work on this and we will keep you posted as to the progress. I've been thinking about this for a while and think it's time to make this change. It won't be difficult, it won't be a massive change, and it won't require anything more than either joining MrsSurvival if you're not a member, or, signing into your existing account. If you have any questions or if what I've written above has confused you, please please feel free to ask any questions. My hope is that y'all will understand the reasons why and will feel even more comfortable, because that is very important to all of us. Thanks!

Hahahahahaha This brings back a lot of memories lol. I moved to the farm AND did it all!!! Livestock, milking, body care products, breads, on and on I could go. So, my best advice to you would be… Go for it. Do it all and then some

I’ve been stuck in the balmy breezes in Miami for 6 weeks helping my parents and have sorely missed firing up my wood stove. I don’t have the cooking stove, but I have the one to heat the house. I do have other equipment for cooking like my big green egg and wood fire pizza oven that will make and bake just about anything from wood heat so like you, I love the aroma and taste of wood cooked foods and can’t wait to get home and fire up my stove to heat the house and the other equipment to cook some foods. This constant warm weather is really making me miss the farm.

Update: I've begun breaking into my stash of frozen American cheese and have discovered that it freezes amazing. Someone had shared that they found that the cheese would stick to the wrapper, and I think it depends on the brand that is used. I know that Velveeta does that, but the Kraft singles I bought froze and defrosted amazing. There was no change at all in the melting consistency after thaw either. Something to make a mental note of

Where we lived, the structures were built to withstand hurricanes. We went through a Cat 5 hurricane in the early 90's. I wouldn't have been too concerned about the storm surge either for various reasons. But, I am grateful that my family there did not have to endure it because the work involved afterwards is endless.

11 quarts is more than adequate :). That translates into almost 3 gallons.

Understood. But I don’t think I understand how the steam gets the juices to extract. Might be a question I’ll have to research.

I wonder if you put a roof on the side by side if that would help protect also from sun and weather.

That's fascinating. I was not even aware there were steam juicers. Out of all the equipment I have, I've never even heard of that till now. It seems that it is an aid to making jelly or juices like you shared. I made some crab apple jelly recently and I'm curious how that would translate into a greater ease of use and time saver...and how steam extracts the juices inside...and I'd be curious what the left over produce is like after the extraction has occurred. I've only had traditional juicers so it's curious how the steam vs traditional has more potential.

Uh oh. I finished the last batch of ketchup yesterday and processed it. Wouldn’t you know that it was the best batch I have made yet. Am thinking about getting 50lbs more of tomatoes now. Seriously, 25lbs of tomatoes only made 14-16 half pints of ketchup. The good news is that it is so flavorful that you don’t need much. Sheesh. Fall is almost here. Fall is almost here. Fall is almost here.

Right now I’m asking myself “why”? Why am I doing all this canning? 65 pints of salsa. 20 pints and 10 quarts of summer sauce. 20 pints and 6 quarts of green beans. 14 pints peaches. 15 half pints and 4 pints ketchup. Crab apple jelly that I need to prepare and process tomorrow. Right now I’m waiting for the canner to get up to pressure to process the last of the summer sauce and I’m exhausted. So I sit here and ask myself “why”. I COULD just can 16 pints of salsa but nooooooooo. I COULD just process a dozen jars of summer sauce, half dozen jars of crab apple jelly and peaches and green beans. Oh and corn. Balanced that and vacuum sealed that in the freezer. The above isn’t counting what I did in July or in June or May. I have no idea where I’m going to put all this stuff but I quit. Well, I’ll quit after I finished the next batch of ketchup and crab apple jelly. I hope.

As everyone knows, it’s canning season. I just jared up a bunch of half pints and a few pints of ketchup I made from a 25lb box of tomatoes. I was able to can a 25lb box of pole beans and still have about 30lbs more to process. I think I’m going to take a large part of that and blanch, vacuum seal and freeze just to make things go faster. I’m VERY impressed with the ketchup though. I looked at about 4-5 recipes and then did my own thing and it’s absolutely amazing. I’ll probably do another 25lb box of that because I’m sure the ketchup won’t last long once the kids try it. in a couple of weeks I’ll get about 300lbs of tomatoes and make salsa and a summer sauce with that which will last me till next year. Oh and I have a 50lb box of corn on the cob I need to blanch, vacuum seal and freeze too. I am also contemplating getting 50lbs of peaches because, well, they’d come in handy in the days ahead I’m thinking. I haven’t canned like this in years and I’m intentionally not thinking about it too much. Just trying to keep my eye on the prize of “I have a healthy stash of blahblahblah” because otherwise I’d probably think I’m crazy. That is not open for discussion though.

That’s really interesting Dee. I’ve frozen 1lb pigs of yeast for over 10 years and mine was still good. Makes me wonder what the difference is/was.

That reminds me of when I first got sheep and one of the pregnant ewes became septic. Had to call the vet who came and asked me to assist. He explained he was going to have to do a c section and would hand me the babies who would live less than 60 seconds. We sat on the barn floor while he operated and what he had cautioned me was true. Raising anything live has its ups and downs and you are so right Dee. The stories we could tell that would shock most people, but we did it because… Well, it’s just what you have to do if you want to live this type of life.