First off: Forget DRY CANNING At large in the internet wasteland are those who purport to ‘teach’ us how to dry can wheat berries/beans/lentils/corn etc. Dry canning is packing bulk dry food in jars, heating the jars in the oven, screwing on a lid before it cools, forming a seal. […]
Prepping for Strange Times
27 posts
Dehydrators take the water out of food to prevent rot, mold, bacteria including dangerous organisms like botulism. Properly dried and stored food can last for years or even decades. Dried food saved ancient cities under siege as they waited out the enemy. Pemmican made of dried meat and tallow was […]
“We will pray with those old druids, ’cause they drink fermented fluids, waltzing naked through the woo-ids, and that’s good enough for me.” from Pete Seeger’s version of ‘Old Time Religion’ Fermentation, our most cultural preparation of foods, goes back over 12,000 years in the archaeological record. It’s been part […]
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?” Okay, I’ll ask. What’s a peck? And what’s a pickle? A peck in the American measuring system: most of us understand to be ‘a […]
September in America is National Preparedness Month culminating in National Preparedness Day on the 30th. We’ll get into particulars of this important holiday shortly but first a personal note. To my mind, some year it would be great for the government to call a spade a spade and put forth […]
As you get into this project and are watching the obligatory hundreds of do-it-yourself internet videos, you’ll see a lot of people filling up raised beds inside the wood frame before the greenhouse is done. You might think, as I did, ‘That’s a good idea. This way I don’t have […]
Picking the greenhouse up at the shipping dock: The 20 foot long Sungrow is designed for compact shipping. All fits comfortably in the back of a Tacoma pickup truck. As with most expensive things sent to Alaska, the company you buy it from wants you to inspect it before you […]
For connecting the greenhouse to the ground there are 3 options: T-shape metal feet you dig down a foot or so and back fill, or pour a concrete pad and bolt the greenhouse frame to it, or build a wooden base and secure the frame to that. I didn’t trust […]
This post and the rest of the series applies mostly to the Planta Sungrow Greenhouses since that’s the company I chose. Most Important Thing–Attitude: Be Cool. You can do this. Assembling components, like an arch for example, may take a while to figure out. That can be frustrating but once […]
‘Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too. Unconscious of a less propitious clime, There blooms exotic beauty, warm and snug, While the winds whistle and the snows descend. William Cooper, The Garden Got a Greenhouse in this year. Before I start I should point out that a lot of […]
The humble Cooler, or ‘the Chilly Box’ as our friends from New Zealand call it, doesn’t cost much, lasts decades, and is worth its weight in gold when the fish are running. Size: We have two. Both are low-end cost. High end coolers can run hundreds of dollars but for […]
For easy long-term storage of bulk perishables, for leftovers, or to hold food until you’re able to get around to canning it, or to pre-freeze what you’ll be sticking in the freeze dryer next day, your chest freezer is the way. Here are some thoughts on buying and using […]