HSmom Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Originally Posted By: Tracie I just got a Tilia Foodsaver Vac350 on ebay for 24.94 including shipping. It's used, but it looks brand new. And I also bought a dehydrator (American Harvest Snackmaster with jerky gun) Jerky gun? Link to comment
Jeepers Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Originally Posted By: Tracie SNIP And the dog spent the day prepping for when TSHTF by vigorously defending me from the folding clothes dryer spinner thingie hubby installed in the back yard yesterday evening. He is convinced it looks shifty and plans to attack :-D Link to comment
Aint2nuts Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 I went to Bashas (a local grocery store) and bought 60 cans of Van Camps pork and beans. They were 15 dollars and a few cents. I also bought four chickens for about 8 dollars total, and four packages of chicken breasts for 67 cents a lb. Woo hoo! I love buying things for a great price and adding to my storage. Link to comment
TractorDiva Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 I am just starting out ... so don't laugh... but I picked up a food dehydrator for free off of my local Freecycle, and have dehydrated my first batch of zucchini. I'm now searching for a pressure canner...might as well jump in with both feet, right? Link to comment
Stephanie Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Laugh?? Girl you need a hand clap!!! Way to go!! Hope the dehydrator works out for you! Link to comment
serendipity Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Laura, that is wonderful! Go for it girl! Link to comment
Tracie Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Originally Posted By: HSmom Originally Posted By: Tracie I just got a Tilia Foodsaver Vac350 on ebay for 24.94 including shipping. It's used, but it looks brand new. And I also bought a dehydrator (American Harvest Snackmaster with jerky gun) Jerky gun? There's a pic here -- it's kinda like a cookie press for spiced ground meat. Hubby will love it. http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-American-FD-61...r/dp/B0002WSQHU :-) Link to comment
LaBellaVita Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Originally Posted By: Laura I am just starting out ... so don't laugh... but I picked up a food dehydrator for free off of my local Freecycle, and have dehydrated my first batch of zucchini. I'm now searching for a pressure canner...might as well jump in with both feet, right? great start Laura! No laughing here! Can't beat FREE! Link to comment
LaBellaVita Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Nothing majorly significant here, just adding more oils, canned goods, camp fuel, etc to our preps. Getting lots of little odds and ends. Bought more vacuum sealer bags, boy, I am just loving this vacuum sealer! Ordered a couple of books, Ball Blue Book of Preserving and 2 books on fermenting, salting, etc. Filled out the spreadsheet on Simply Living Smart and while I would like to customize it a tad, it really is a great starting point, and its so neat to be able to see what you have in a more clear way. Oh, mylar bags came in the mail yesterday, so I will bag up & bucket some things this weekend. Link to comment
Mt_Rider Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Go Laura! Quote: I am just starting out ... so don't laugh... but I picked up a food dehydrator for free off of my local Freecycle, and have dehydrated my first batch of zucchini. I'm now searching for a pressure canner...might as well jump in with both feet, right? _________________________ Excellent! Mmmm. Salted zuke chips are a good substitute for potatoe chips. Just learning the pressure canner myself....ooooo, the possibilities! MtRider [hey, we finally got RAIN with our usual daily thunder/lightning storm yesterday. 3/10ths of an inch on my crispy forest and needy garden. ] Link to comment
Jules Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 WTG Laura, everyone starts somewhere and you're doing great. Link to comment
Ogre Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Just bought a metal shed online. Gives me 130sq foot of storage for preps. I now feel ever so slightly queasy at the cost, but it had to be done. Ogre Link to comment
TractorDiva Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Thank you, everyone for the encouragement. Zuke chips...sounds good. Might be nice to make and have for a snack now, since they seem to be a healthier alternative (not to mention almost no cost to me), especially with the zucchini coming in so nicely. I can't wait to do more -- all of a sudden the idea of prepping doesn't seem as overwhelming as it did before. Since the dehydrator really did the work while I did other things, I can double time: let it work while I can; let it work while I learn; let it work while I bake bread... BTW, speaking of bread, my sourdough starter is going very well...we are loving the bread and I love having my little "counter-top pet"... Link to comment
Tracie Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Ooooh! Zuke chips sound yummy! I just bought two books -- Ball Blue Book of Preserving and "Keeping the Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs" by Nancy Chioffie & Gretchen Mead. It talks about canning, freezing, pickling, drying, curing & cold storage. :-) Link to comment
CrabGrassAcres Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Decided to rotate the #10 cans of wet packed foods. Opened a can of tomato sauce and one of mushrooms and divided them into sandwich size ziplocks. Into the freezer in a nice stack. (The cans were $1.00 each at the bent can store.) Link to comment
Ferretma Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Originally Posted By: Tracie I just bought two books -- Ball Blue Book of Preserving and "Keeping the Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs" by Nancy Chioffie & Gretchen Mead. The first book is the one I use for 95% of my canning recipes. And I just bought that second book myself! So many books are the same ole, same ole stuff. When I pick up a book (I shop at Powell's), if I can learn something new, I buy the book. Even though I have read lots of books on food preservation, I learned something on the first page I read. I bought the book but have a couple more to read before I get to this one (I'm a bookaholic). I canned 36 pints of ground hamburger today. I just don't see the meat situation getting better anytime soon and I don't want to be around hubby if there's no meat. When I was browning the meat, he came into the kitchen. "What's this meat (pointing to the lighter color meat with a different texture)?" "It's a leaner meat. I just can't afford to buy all lean meat so I mix the two to get a better taste." Thankfully, after it's cooked, he can't tell the difference between the ground turkey and the hamburger. It saves money (5 pounds of turkey was $5.00 and the hamburger was $1.50 a pound after a discount) and it is leaner. I also picked the last of the strawberries and froze them for preserving another day. I talked to hubby today about getting a greenhouse to extend the growing season and get the spring season off to a quicker start. Amazingly, he agreed but we don't have a lot of money so will have to figure out a solution. Link to comment
Tracie Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 LOL - the stuff we do to our husbands to trick them. I stretched some ground beef with TVP this week. Powells - sigh. Great store! I wish we had something like that here. I'm off to the Farmer's Market with my Ball Blue Book. Going to see if I can get strawberries for jam & cucumbers for pickling. Link to comment
SugarDaisy Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 I am working on a cookbook of recipes I like that I can make with things I keep around. Ive got a brownie recipe that needs no dairy and Im tweaking a couple cookie recipes. Im not a milk/egg person, so I dont keep those things around normally. With the prices going up, Im not about to buy a package of eggs just to use two to make cookies. Link to comment
betty Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Sugar Daisy, Please post your recipes that don't use eggs for us all. At the current price of eggs, this would be a help to everyone! Thanks. Link to comment
Jasminegirl Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 I went this week and bought 20 lbs sugar, 10 lbs flour, 10 lbs cornmeal, not much this week. Yesterday I another 7 quarts of purple hull peas, put 1 quart peas in freezer and 2 quarts of cut off the cob(field corn) for frying, plus cooked big 4th July Dinner after all that. Today put up another 3 quarts of fried corn in freezer, 3 quarts of butter beans in freezer and another 2 quarts of peas in the freezer. Also a couple gallon bags of corn on the cob (field corn) in freezer. Now I am through for the day. Still have to do my blueberries when I get rested up some. Link to comment
Kelly Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Ihaven't done much the last 2-3 weeks other than inventor and making room for more preps but I made a run today: 108 cans vegt. 3 boxes crackers 3 powdered gravy mix 2 sloppy joe 4 mac & shells 6 bars laundry soap 1 can shortening 2 each gal. & quart freezer bags 1 box garbage bags 4 ketchup 2 each mustard & relish 3 tomato juice 2 spaghetti sauce 2 instant potatoes 4 Veg-all large homestyle vegt. 2 salmon 30 lbs. leg quarters (.59c a lb.) 2 lag packs minute steaks Link to comment
Aint2nuts Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Originally Posted By: Kelly Ihaven't done much the last 2-3 weeks other than inventor and making room for more preps but I made a run today: 108 cans vegt. That is quite the grocery list! Good job. I found vegetables 3/1 a year ago and bought enough to last me two years. I think. It might wind up lasting up three years. I am getting 500 from my ex today, I plan on buying a shotgun of some kind with some of it, and ammo for my 45. Link to comment
cookiejar Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I'm bartering some electrical work I need with a good friend's husband. In exchange, I'll do some graphics work she needs done. He was planning on helping us anyway and I already had it in my head to give her a hand so it's a nice balance of preplanned works. With $$$ so tight, everyone seems to be finding ways to network. I already trade animal babysitting with a neighbor/friend so that works out great too. Link to comment
TeamBettendorf Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Bought diaper covers and started my cloth diaper soakers. We picked 10 gallons of blueberries today and will be processing them over the next several days. Whew!!! Link to comment
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