If you would like to grow some of your own food, but lack garden space, there are ways you can do it. Besides plant pots on the windowsill or on the porch, there is a tiered planter than can give you several plants in minimum space.
The following video shows you one of those planters...…..
There are several videos on youtube showing this method, but I found this Daddykirbs channel which seems to show the method best.
You can grow greens, hanging plants, small tomatoes, hanging cucumbers and flowers if you desire. There are now several mini-plants available that take up less space and produce full-sized fruits. I have grown some myself in the past so I know they are out there.
If you have even a minimum of outdoor space available, you can grow some of your own food.
All you need is a planter, garden soil, compost, water, started plants or seeds, and a bit of labor.
Yes, everyone, there's a way to preserve your chickens other than freezing. Sometimes there are power outages and if you are relying entirely on power to keep your foods frozen, you could very well lose your food source.
Try pressure canning some of your stock. The following video shows you step-by-step how to cut up your chickens, fill your jars, and pressure can them, then allow them to cool and store. Living Traditions Homestead is a good source at youtube if you want to learn how to keep your family fed. They have good growing tips and videos on cooking and preserving that are safe and sure for you and your family.
There are more ways than just freezing your meats to save them for future use. Canning is a long-time method used for many years to safely feed your family. Pressure-Canning has taken it a step further toward safety and reliability.
Whether you buy cut-up chicken parts or whole chickens from your grocery store or butcher, or you have your own flock of meat birds or dual-purpose chickens at your disposal, you, too, can preserve chicken for your future use.
Times get really tough when there are food shortages or pandemics. Learning how to preserve foods for you and your family in the future is a plus.
I hope this video is helpful.
Stay Safe, Keep Your Distance and Disinfect during this troubling Pandemic.
I know its happened to all of us. We buy ice cream, put it in the freezer, and after opening it a few times, we find ice crystals forming on the ice cream.
You can prevent it very easily.
All you need is a piece of waxed paper, about 3 inches larger all around than your ice cream carton.
This is what my ice cream looks like covered in waxed paper. You notice the paper is tucked right down on top of the ice cream to prevent icing.
As you can see, I have pretty much emptied this carton of ice cream but there is absolutely NO freezer burn, ice crystals or frost on this ice cream.
When you have removed the portion of ice cream you want, just tuck the waxed paper back down into the carton covering all the ice cream inside.
Stick the top back on, and place the carton back in your freezer. No ice-forming crystals will damage your ice cream. It works. I use this method all the time.
If you are wise enough to plant a garden, then there are ways to expand your food sources. When you plant many of your crops, there are the green leaves on them which are tasty and healthful. Such as turnip greens, collard greens, beet greens, even the leaves from broccoli and cauliflower. The following is a video from Living Traditions Homestead channel on Youtube. This family grows their own food and have many ideas on how to preserve them. This is one of them......
In this kitchen she is using a large pasta pot, one with a straining insert. You can substitute that for a large pot and use a hand strainer to lift out the blanched greens and place them in a colander to drain. Its the same effect. Using ice cubes in the cooling pot will cool the contents quicker but as you see here, she only uses cold water, no ice.
If you want to get more food for your hard work, try this method. Its fruitful.
No garden space?...….. how about using pots for growing herbs and food plants along with lovely flowers to beautify your life. This video shows you the basics on how to get a healthy pot started.
I am a former organic gardener and I approve her methods. I had raised beds and raised berms (now called earth beds) but I also grew veggies and herbs in pots. Among them were herbs like parsley, thyme, sage, and even rosemary along with greens like lettuce, arugula, water cress, miner's lettuce, corn salad (Mache) along with other greens like basil. I even tucked in radishes among the greens since they mature in about a month and can be harvested before other crops need the space. I also had tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers growing in pots with success. There are seeds bred specifically for small patio growing. The patio tomatoes like Tom Thumb, Totem and Tumbling Tiger are successful in pots. You can grow food, too, using the above instructions on how to fill those containers for best results.
Here are a couple of my Totem tomatoes I checked for size. They are very tasty. And the plants are full of them.
Above: Totems just starting to fruit.
These are Totems still green but abundant.
These (above) are my potted green peppers. They are not bred for patios, just regular pepper seeds. Peppers do not need a lot of space to grow a normal plant. Its still early in the season above so I have them covered with half-gallon milk jugs to keep them safe thru a cool night. Tip: Save the milk bottle caps so you can cover the jugs completely before nightfall to keep in the heat and keep them warmer thru a frosty night. Remove the caps during the day so they do not overheat in the sunlight.
Above you see my Spacemaster cucumber plant. Its specifically bred to grow in small spaces and is ideal for pots. Here's mine with several blossoms. You can use a tomato cage in the pot so the plant can grow upwards using limited space.
Yes friends, try using pots and grow your own fresh veggies and herbs. There's nothing like seeing your own plants ready to harvest and then the delicious eating that follows.
Found this info on Google about frozen foods......posted by a cook who freezes......
"While foods can stay frozen forever, they will not stay tasty forever.Freezer burn is the foe of any frozen food. It creeps into packages, covers once-delicious foods with frost, and then sucks the moisture out of them. When thawed, foods that developed freezer burn look desiccated and limp. You can cook them, technically, but they will lack good flavor or texture.Freezer burn is inevitable in even the most well-packaged foods. Vacuum sealing is the best deterrent. Second to that is sucking or pressing as much air out of your package as possible. This is one big reason why I use plastic bags for freezer foods instead of other containers — it’s much easier to get the air out of a bag than a stiff plastic or glass container.As a general rule of thumb, frozen food will keep for three months in a standard home freezer before starting to show signs of freezer burn. This is true for raw meats, cooked meats, prepared foods, breads, and anything else you might think of freezing. This said, if you pull something out of the freezer that’s older than three months and it doesn’t show signs of freezer burn, it’s probably still good to eat. How the food was packaged, how often you opened the freezer (which quickens freezer burn), and other factors can extend the “shelf life” of your frozen food". quote, unquote.
Found this chart online and thought it would be helpful with so many folks buying and freezing foods during this tough time. Its also good to know in general.....
You can make your own hand sanitizer with just a few ingredients. Its simple and easy to use. Below is a video by Dr Joe showing exactly how to make your own.....
When you cannot find any on the shelves at your local pharmacy or grocery store, you can buy a few items and make you own supply. Its not very difficult and will destroy any germs on yours hands.
Be careful out there. Stay safe.
Do you want to make face masks but you don't sew? You can make these from tee shirts. They fit your face and only take 5 minutes to make.
They are not ideal, but they are better than nothing. You can make them from clean tee shirts or from the long sleeves of your work-out shirts; long tee shirts or something similar. You can even tuck some sort of filter in the mask.
There is now no reason to go out in public without some protection for you and the other guy.
Take the time to protect yourself and your family.
Good luck everyone.
I call these Texas 2-step taters because I usually make them in a super large skillet so I can have lots of leftovers. Otherwise, you can just call them simply 2-step potatoes. INGREDIENTS
A Large Skillet
4-5 Large Russet Potatoes
4-5 tablespoons vegetable oil
3-4 pats Butter
salt and pepper
Roasted Garlic with Herbs Seasoning
About 3 Tablespoons cold water
Wash and scrub your potatoes and wipe them dry. Put oil and butter in skillet. Turn on Med-High.
Cut off the 2 short ends and any bad spots and trim some of the peel away but leaving some peel for added flavor. I usually trim downward 4-5 times around the potato. Discard the ends and trimmings.
Cut your potatoes in half lengthwise and the slice them just under a quarter inch thick.
Place your slices in the skillet (the First Step in this procedure), add salt and pepper. Then add some Roasted Garlic and Herb Seasoning as seen here above. An alternative would be some garlic powder and some Italian seasoning. Turn heat down to Med-High. Cover with a lid but leave the vent open if it has one, or leave a bit of space uncovered around the rim.
Turn the potatoes every few mins. Some will brown and some won't but its fine. Cook until some of them are fork tender.
Now for steaming them which is the Second Step. Make a space in the center of your skillet and pour about 3 T. water into that center.
Place your lid back on the skillet and close any vents. You want the lid tight. Turn up the heat to High and let it cook and steam for about 3 minutes or until all the water evaporates. The steam softens the potatoes. Remove from heat. Its done.
The result are tasty potatoes that are a bit crisp here and there but soft in the centers due to the steaming. Add more salt and pepper to taste before serving.
I put the leftovers in a covered container and heat what I need in the microwave. They will keep well for 3-4 days in the fridge.
There are many edibles around that folks pass by every day. Check out this video to see a few of them. You can saute them, eat them in salads and snack on them raw. This video covers only a few of the wild things you can eat safely.
Always, always check further online to read about the plant and check out images of them to be sure you are choosing the correct ones for your table.
Above is a youtube channel that is very popular and gives lots of good advice, its Living Traditions Homestead. Worth a look.
There is one weed that seems to grow everywhere and is very recognizable as well as tasty. Here follows a video showing the plants and a recipe of how to cook them and then how to serve them. Its another good source of wild food.....
These I have shown you are not all of the wild things that you can find out there.
If you go to this online site listed below, you will find a list of 62 edibles along with their pictures. …
Just click on the URL to hilite it, then click on it to "copy" then 'paste' it at the top to post it.
When it comes to eating, we may have to forage when it gets too difficult to get to the grocery store or have our foods delivered and when items are just not available as much as they have been in the past.
Its worth having some ideas at your fingertips that might help in the future. Good luck everyone.
This looks like another good face mask. I like the fact that you can tie this one so that its snug and also it gathers around your face so germs can't enter.
Check it out. Looks like a easy maker.
I will continue to look for things that may help us get thru this pandemic safer.
I know there are online shopping groups to get groceries, but something important to remember..... They all have a long waiting list so if you are thinking of placing an order, it will take 2 wks or more to get your food. When you make out your list, make it out so that it includes enough foodstuffs to last you around 3 weeks to be prepared.
In these trying times, a garden would be a good idea. Whether you have some land, or just a suburban lawn, or maybe only a porch or deck is in your realm of possibility, you can grow some food.
The following is a video made by a gardener who gives some very good ideas. He is a regular on youtube showing folks how to grow food whether its on acreage, a small plot, a raised bed, a simple earth bed sometimes called a berm, or just in pots. His video here is updated to show that you, too, can have your own Victory Garden. Its worth a look.....
Take a few minutes to check this out. Remember, for a larger screen, click the lower right-hand corner of the video for full-screen viewing.
For those of us who needed to move from our suburban homes and are now without garden space and living in a small apt or in a busy city, there is the probability of growing your own sprouts. All you need is a jar, seeds, water and a kitchen cupboard.
For this endeavor, watch the following video about growing Sprouts......
We have to think of our future. Food is of upmost importance. Even after this tough time passes, there may be other times that test our lives. Its always good to have a way to grow a bit of food. Try sprouts or a few pots to grow fast-growing greens or even microgreens on your windowsill. Its worth a try.
Remember, too, that in many areas, if you have the room, you can raise a few hens for eggs. No roosters, which would disturb the neighbors, but hens/pullets. A clutch of pullet chicks will start laying eggs at about 5-6 months of age. Check your local ordinances.
Hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs. The rooster is only needed to raise future chicks.
Another possibility for meat is rabbits. Very quiet. Tasty meat if you are able to handle what getting it entails, or you can have your local butcher do the deed. Remember, if you do not name the animal, it is easier to handle when it leaves.
The other is raising quail. The hens lay eggs in about 4 months and their meat, though small in stature, is tasty. If you are thinking of quail, check out Slightly Rednecked on youtube. He is very knowledgeable about rabbits and quail both.
Possibilities to grow your own food exist if you look for them.
Leah Day is a trusted online quilter. She is good at what she does. In this video she makes a mask that uses a wire or pipe cleaner to mold to one's face and there is a pocket so a filter can be removed for disinfecting. Surely very useful in these trying times.
This video is more about what materials to use and what may be safer. Its a good view that may help in making better homemade face masks.
I hope these are somewhat helpful to my friends and readers.
Notes:
1. You could leave one of the openings open, where you insert the wire or pipecleaner or whatever bendy object, maybe even a piece of aluminum foil folder over a few times or folded over a piece of bread twisty tie. This way you can remove it when you want to wash your mask or disinfect it.
2. Remember, if you disinfect it in the microwave, all parts must be 100% cotton, from fabric to thread. If not, it will most likely cause a fire. Be Ultra Careful about Microwaving.
If you can sew and have the materials, you could make some germ masks for your family, friends, and even for hospitals. They are not respirator nor N95 masks, but they are good in a pinch.
Here's a few extra tips:
1) Use 2 layers of a close-weave fabric like pillow cases and sheets for top and inside.
2) Use flannel or an interfacing as used in dressmaking for the inner lining.
3) I prefer making them 9" by 7" thereby making them a bit larger to fit all faces.
4) Always use 2 different colored fabrics for front and back so you always know which one is the front. When using them it would be better to always have the inner side against your nose being the same fabric and not the other side. If you did, you would be then breathing any germs laden on if it was turned wrong-side out.
REMEMBER, THESE MUST BE BREATHABLE. TRY THEM BEFORE DISPERSING THEM TO OTHERS.
Dishtowels are a good filter, but they make breathing difficult. Vacuum cleaner bags, which have been suggested, are made with chemicals I would rather not be breathing so I would not use those.
