Preparedness #16 -03/30/09

Hey!
Have you visited the ward preparedness internet pages? If not, you are missing out on some really good work by Rhonda Johnson. She is so good to do this and makes it sound like it is nothing. Thanks to her again! Here is how to get to it if you haven’t seen this access already: http://rupreparedgv3.blogspot.com there are things in the ‘Blog” that we don’t have room for in the insert.

Thanks to John, Marsha and son Tom Crofts for getting the garden ready and letting us use it. I think John shows more tan from the garden work than the trip to the Bahamas - Anyway, thanks to them.

Big thanks also to Blain Gubler for the powdered ‘sunshine’ that he spread liberally on the ground and then tilled it in the ward garden. All of these individuals have ‘built the house as if they were going to live in it themselves.’ In other words, gone the extra mile.

So, since the ward garden is ready, If you want to have a plot and you have not been contacted, call me today or? and we will go over and get you set up.

I would like to take a little more time on drying food in this insert. Today, just for illustration sake, I took celery weighing 17 ounces –just over a pound, and dried it. . What weighed 17 ounces now weighs 1 ounce and loosly piled, a little over a half cup of space! Twenty five pounds of apples dry to four pounds. Think of the advantages, low storage space, no fancy equipment (I save plastic screw top jars like containers for nuts, mayo and other foods) You can use zip lock but need to use the heavy duty freezer kind. Vacuum bagging is even better but I don’t have a bagger and even though good, not necessary. It might be good to add one of those little oxygen pouches that they sell at the Dry Pack Cannery especially if storing a large quantity in one container.

The point is, you don’t need elaborate equipment, there is not a big set up to do, there appears to be little loss in food quality or nutrition. In small gardens, you don’t usually get a lot of any one thing ripening at once, so this is great for that reason; if you have a comercial dryer, you can put in as many or few trays as you want then let it go. Drying is especially good for us here in the west as the air is dry, and warm and the food dries quickly. Meat (jerky) is even relatively easy and safe to dry. There is a great publication available from the Washington County Extension Internet site that describes how to do the whole drying thing.
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN-330.pdf

Interestingly enough, the practice ‘pizza warmer’ solar oven we discussed a few weeks ago would make an almost perfect food dryer with a few modifications to cover the food with cheese cloth to keep critters off.

Not to kick a dead horse so to say, I am trying find ways for you to do what we all have been commanded to do without it being out of financial reach for anyone. Not being silly this time, I purchased a ‘grape’ tomato that has small grape sized fruit that are quite sweet. In addition to eating them fresh, I am going to dry some for ‘Tomsins’ to store next to my Craisins. Really! Again, they can be a great snack.

If you look in the ward blog, there is an email that Bishop Langston sent that shows what a year’s supply of ‘basic’ food will cost and the space it will take. It also shows what you get for the effort: a loaf of bread and some beans. You will be well fed and crazy for variety. The things that will make the difference and add the foods that will make variety and a more rounded diet, are things that you can do with what you have to work with. In American cooking, onions are just about as important as salt and pepper. If you buy onions when they are in season for .39 a pound and dry 25 pounds of them, you can have one very important ingredient for cooking and it will store in a couple of 1 gallon zip lock bags and weigh 3 pounds! Squash – various kinds, spinach, kale, chard, tomatoes, chilies, potatoes all can be easily dried. Materials don’t always have to come from your garden – Just get them however – whenever you can. Don’t pass up an opportunity to put stuff away. Almost all fruits can be dried and many make great snacks for the winter or….. You can make fruit or vegitable purees and pour them onto trays for drying and are sometimes called leathers. I can imagine making a pizza leather; why the potential is limitless! Maybe I should settle for corned beef and cabbage leather instead of cookies! Just think how good stewed tomato, okra and zuccini leather could be. Then, maybe not.

Since all dried food does better in the house where it can be cool and dark, and because it takes very little space, it is perfect for our limited space dwellings and can fit well in small spaces like under beds, etc.

gv3grant@gmail.com 435 628-2739 http://rupreparedgv3.blogspot.com