Late Winter-Early Spring Meditations

I love John Denver, always have. Even before, and certainly ever since, I was 14 and my parents took me to The Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport, I have loved John Denver. Not in that infatuated way teenage girls like celebrities (like I love Mike Rowe now lol) but in an ethereal way.  He was just so soothing and calming to me during all my teenage angst, and I had a big dose of angst!  This is a great acoustical version of this song and it just sounds like a chilly late winter day where you can feel the faintest wisps of a spring breeze mixed in with the fading winters breath.  Hope you enjoy it....



Now that you're relaxed and in the proper frame of mind, let's talk about this in between season that is Late Winter, Early Spring.  I'm sure you've all heard the saying "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb" and that certainly seems to be true.  Already this month we've had nearly 10 inches of rain.  There's another old saying that whatever rain falls in March will also fall in June.  Let's hope that's true!

With all this rain and warmer than usual temps, I have already started planting a few things in the garden. In January I set out Onions and on March 1st the Kale, Spinach, Cabbage, Lettuce and Collards went in.  Now, I'm really feeling brave because Tuesday I planted corn.  We always have a cold snap in March or early April but for some reason I'm feeling safe this year. Even if there ends up an unexpected freeze, I can just cover everything.

Courtesy Old Farmers Almanac

Have you ever heard of the Three Sisters Planting Method? It's a traditional Indian planting technique and I find that it's a pretty effective way to grow a lot of food in a smallish space.  The technique is to plant 6 corn seed in a 2' circle and when the corn is 5" tall, you plant 4 bean seed (half-runner type beans only!) around the corn. A week later plant 6 squash seed around the beans.  The idea is to have the corn provide a trellis for the beans, which provide the nitrogen for the corn and squash, and in turn the squash provides shade to hold moisture and prevent weeds by providing shade with its large leaves. Since I have raised beds I did this on a smaller scale and it still worked well.  Give that a try and see what you think.

Since the weather is so warm right now, I decided to go on a little hike through my woods today.  I decided to venture off the beaten path and cut through the woods.  Now, I've lived here 3 years and have never walked out this direction and was amazed.  There's always so much greenbriar (which is 100% edible by the way) that I usually don't trail blaze but today I felt adventurous.  I found a creek and on the bank of this little creek were 2 fruit trees.  I'm not sure what they were but from the leaves it was obvious they were fruit trees.  Possibly a crab apple or wild pear of some sort, not a plum because they haven't leafed out yet.  I've heard stories of wild pears in these woods but have never seen one.  I tried to mark the location on Google Earth but I'm apparently not savvy enough because I couldn't figure it out.  I'll go back in a few days and find it again and just flag it I guess.  Near by the creek I found a couple of holes about a foot in diameter and probably 100' apart and they were lined on the surface with flat rocks and I never did touch the bottom of them with the long stick I poked them with<  It's a mystery alright!  The oddest thing is the area I was walking in was the top of a hill and all cleared of underbrush and there were these holes, too small for a well I think.  Just bum fuddles me.

I found Wild Violets, in which a tea made from the leaves and flowers is reputed to sweeten a sour temperament...

And as I was finishing up my walk I stopped to pick sorrel and ended up with about a pound of it. Just enough to make a pot of rich French Sorrel Soup...

I'm headed to a friends house Sunday to gather some Cottonwood buds to make some Balm of Gilead Oil.  If I'm not too late to get some, my next blog will be instructions on making it!

Enjoy this wonderful mid season while you can, soon it'll be too hot to breathe!

Back to Basics: Backyard Gardening

It's time for doing some planting in Texas! I'm always so excited when it gets warm enough to at least plant some lettuce, greens and onions.  I did a blog on my new Hugelkultur garden a couple of years ago but figured I might go back to basics and talk about gardening from zero.  Some people are new to gardening and might be intimidated by it so here's a little help for them.

I saw a post about an east Texas planting schedule and it made me think about planning my 2016 garden. If you've never gardened, you might not know that the US is organized into USDA Zone Maps. In order for you to be successful you need to determine your zone and know which seeds to plant and when and which plants will or will not grow in your zone - here's a link to that. I like to buy heirloom seeds and I found a nice link to an educational guide on planting timetables.

Now that you have info on determining your Zone and planting timetables, you need seeds.  I used to think a seed was a seed and they were all the same and off I'd go to Walmart and buy seeds until I learned the difference between GMO, hybrid and heirloom seeds.  It's a lengthy and involved explanation and not one I feel qualified to explain so here's an excellent link to a discussion on the subject of the fundamental difference and why it's VERY important to know the difference!!! http://www.foodrenegade.com/hybrid-seeds-vs-gmos/

I don't mind using hybrid seeds if I don't care if I save the seeds from year to year. In fact, I always buy hybrid corn seeds because I have never found an heirloom corn that is as nice as the hybridized ones are. But I prefer heirloom seeds (except corn) because once you buy them you never have to buy them again.  They are healthy and hardy strains that you can save them from year to year for centuries - just like your ancestors did.  As for GMO's, in my opinion they are just evil and unnatural and I NEVER buy them.

I've only bought from a small number of heirloom seed companies but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them out there. Be selective though because there are many companies jumping on the prepper/survivalist bandwagon and they are often overpriced and have inferior quality seeds. I've also randomly ordered seeds from Amazon if I wanted something specific that I couldn't locate anywhere else and had good luck with that. I got a flashy catalog from Johnny's Seeds a couple of weeks ago but they don't have many heirloom seeds so I didn't bother looking at the catalog (sorry Johnny).

My list in no particular order::
Victory Seeds Company - very good selection, great results, large amount of seeds per order too
Bakers Rare Seeds Company - excellent selection, has rare seeds, very good results
Heirloom Seed Company - great selection, less than good results

Now you need to determine where and how you are going to build your garden.  Are you going to till it directly into your soil or build raised beds? How big do you want it to be? How much time do you have to dedicate to your garden? How will you water it? What about animals in your area? Do you need a fence to keep them out? What are your favorite vegetables? How will you preserve the surplus?

(Bruce Lambsbaugh)

There are more than a few things to think about but, thank goodness, it's not rocket science.  If you're 100% brand new to gardening, you might build a few small raised beds to start with or if you have some flower bed space you can dedicate to vegetables, plant there.  Just start somewhere and the rest will fall into place on its own. As for me.... I do raised bed gardening because it's just easier than tilling and weeding a big area and much easier to water.  My beds are made of 2x6 untreated lumber and are about 2 years old.  They were great that first year but last year the gophers found it and I lost most all of my plants.  This year I dug up the beds and put 1/2" hardware cloth down and refilled the beds.  Hopefully that will keep the buggers out. I have my entire garden fenced in so deer and rabbits don't eat it all and that has been the best decision ever!  Also the wood has begun to rot this year so I plan to use treated lumber (yes, yes I know but there are varying opinions on the chemical issue) with the inside covered with heavy plastic sheeting. I implemented the Hugelkultur method to reduce the amount of watering I had to do but found it's just too stinkin' hot here in the summer for that to be completely effective. Since starting the raised bed garden, I have used heirloom seeds (except corn) with excellent results. I save many seeds each year but find that I never have to plant tomatoes or arugula because they readily reseed themselves. Heirloom seeds WANT to live so badly they just reseed themselves lol.  I look for heirloom seeds everywhere I go. Last July I went to France and since their government does not allow GMO's (unlike the United States) and the farmers don"t use hybridized seeds (I asked), I saved the seeds from a couple of varieties of tomatoes and plan on planting them this year!!

How much to plant?  I live alone but my grown children and their families live nearby so I plant enough to feed us all if that should become necessary and the picture at the very top is my actual garden. I have 5 raised beds and I stagger my plants. By that I mean I plant tallest in the middle (like corn or okra) and then shorter plants next to that (like peppers, peas or tomatoes) then the very smallest (like lettuce or greens) on the outer edges.  I fringe every bed with onions, as well.  Herbs are grown in separate beds against the front fence and melons are grown along the back fence.  Since the photo was taken in 2014, I have added 2 fig trees and a loquat tree in the garden too.  They'll give some much needed afternoon shade for the veggies.

Now you have the tools you need to start.  Get your seeds ordered, decide on your spot and whether it's going to be soil or raised bed and get started.  There's nothing like eating fresh green peas in early May or biting into a red tomato still warm from the sun and knowing you did that yourself.  Go out there and make a life you can nourish yourself with.

A Grandmother's Gift...Lye Soap Making and Chicken Killing

When I was very young - probably not more than 4 - I used to look forward to the days of the mass chicken killings. My grandmother had this black woman named Essie that would come work for her for a day or two and they'd cull the flock and stock our freezer with fresh chicken.  I remember they'd snare the chickens around the feet and hang them upside down from the clothesline then go down the line dispatching them one by one then start processing them. I remember seeing them gutting the hens and finding unshelled egg yolks in the reproductive organs and how fascinating I found that to be.  When I grew tired of the yolk discoveries I played with the chicken feet, making them move by pulling on the tendons then peeling the scaly, yellow skin off and marveling at the paper thinness of it. If I tell most people about those memories they get squeamish and start telling me how morbid I am and what a perverted taste of entertainment I had but I don't see it that way at all.  I grew up with a love of the sciences and especially biology and that, combined with my knowledge of the body processes via chicken A&P, helped me excel in nursing school.  Little did I know that 25 years later I'd be retired from nursing and enjoying a life of homesteading and survivalism. If it hadn't been for my grandmother letting me help in the chicken killing, I wouldn't be able to raise an animal and process it and be able to put food on the table.  That wasn't gross, that was a gift from my grandmother.

Whenever she and Essie would break for lunch, my grandmother and I would eat in the kitchen and Essie ate outside at the picnic table, with us watching her. I used to ask my grandmother why she didn't come inside and she answered "She's welcome to come in but she won't because she wasn't raised that way".  Even then, I understood that.  Essie wasn't a slave but her parents and grandparents probably were and they raised her to be respectful.  Don't get offended about that statement because even back in the early 1960's in small towns, whether you want to believe it or agree with it or not, that's how it was. Nobody was offended or slighted by it, it's just the way things were.  Then, at then of a long day of processing, we drove Essie home, paid her and gave her some of the chickens.

Sometimes Essie would bring us some lye soap she had made.  I was always so excited about it, especially the way it smelled of lard and heritage.  It always did remind me of old timey-ness and I could imagine Essie standing at a cast iron pot stirring the soap with a wooden spoon behind that old wooden house she lived in.  I never saw my grandmother make lye soap but I've heard her tell about helping on soap making day with Mama Bell (her mother-in-law) so many times that I felt like I had been there too and felt like I knew just how to make it.  After I retired and moved out to the country I made my first batch of soap.  I know you can buy soap for .50 to $1 a bar at the store but it's so much more rewarding to make your own and it's easy -  I haven't purchased soap in 3 years.

Homemade soap is quite simple to make and pretty much fool proof.  If you do make a mistake and it doesn't harden, you just use the liquid as hand soap or shampoo so there's no such thing as a waste. It does require Lye and that can be bought in small cans at local hardware stores or you can do like I did for a while and buy it in 1 lb bags from Amazon until I came across an article on how to make your own lye from wood ashes.  I thought, when the SHTF I won't be able to buy lye so I need to know how to make it.  Turns out it takes a few days but it's simple.

Homemade Lye Water From Hardwood Ash

1 Five gallon plastic bucket with a few small drain holes in the bottom
Old cotton tea towel
Hay
Hardwood ashes to fill a 5 gallon bucket halfway
1 smaller plastic bucket for the 5 gallon drain bucket to rest in
Soft water (distilled or rain)
Cover the bottom of the 5 gal bucket (with drain holes) with the towel then a 1" thick layer of hay, scoop ashes into the bucket atop the hay until the bucket is about 2/3 to 3/4 full.  Nest the 5 gallon bucket into the smaller bucket.  (The goal is to have the bottom of the larger bucket fit just inside the top of the smaller one.  You want space inside the smaller bucket to hold the lye drippings.) Gently add water to the top of the ashes. Let this sit and drain overnight or until it is no longer dripping through.

The amber to brown liquid collected in the bottom bucket is the lye water.  The lye has to be the proper strength to cause the saponification process so you'll need to check it.  The easiest way is to use a fresh egg in the shell or a potato and place it in the lye water and it needs to float high enough on top of the liquid to have a quarter sized piece of the object completely unsubmerged, this is the correct strength for soap making.  If the lye water is too strong the egg will float much higher, you can add a little water until the egg floats correctly. If the egg or potato sinks, it's too weak: add some fresh ashes to the old ones and pour the weak lye water back through, let it drain and recheck. You may have to do this 2 or 3 times. Be careful when handling lye because it can burn your skin.   Once the egg floats correctly, you are ready to make soap. Prepare a soap mold too...I use a straight-sided 12x16 pan as well as a purchased loaf soap mold.  If you don't have one of those, you can use a small cat litter pan.

Mama Bell's Lye Soap
6 oz homemade lye water
13 oz soft water
2 lb fat (lard, fat or bacon grease)
Essential oils or fragrances, if desired
in a stainless steel or glass bowl, pour the water into the lye water (never lye water into water), check temp and allow to reach 85 degrees. In a stainless steel pot, heat fat to 85 degrees and very slowly drizzle lye water into fat in pot and over low heat, cook and whisk until it becomes thick like sour cream and the soap leaves trails on the surface. If you want to add essential oils or fragrances, do that at this point, Pour into soap molds and cover with a towel.  It can take anywhere from 24 hrs to 1 month for soap to harden enough to handle.  Be patient, each batch is different. Once it has hardened, cut it into pieces and arrange in a single layer on a large sheet pan, uncovered and allow to age for 1 month.  This allows any excess lye to neutralize so you avoid skin irritation.

If you master this basic recipe you can go on to more exotic soaps like Goats Milk, Castile, Olive Oil and other specialty soaps.  I add chamomile blossoms, herbs or oatmeal and honey to my soaps but the sky's the limit. Give this a try and learn an important survival skill, you'll be glad you did someday!

Winter Foraging Pt 3, Sheep Sorrel and Rosehips

I'm so excited about this blog. I get to share my absolute favorite winter soup recipe and a recipe for a delicious jelly and healthy herbal tea.  Let's get started!

Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) is such a wonderful treat to find in the winter as you're poking around the yard or in your dormant garden.  It is a hardy herb that is drought resistant and will produce almost all year long and thrives on neglect.  Doesn't get much better than that does it? The leaves are what you're after and they're easy to spot because of the unique shape - it's somewhat like an elongated arrowhead. Once you've spotted some, taste a leaf...it's pleasantly tart but not acidic like lemons.  To harvest, cut the tender leaves off just above the base...get a few fat handfuls so you can make a generous pot of soup. you'll want leftovers. Before I share the recipe, let me tell you the health benefits of sorrel.  You already know if it's growing on God's green earth it's going to be healthy and natural and full of nutrients but it also has some medicinal uses.  The leaves are high in Vitamin C and antioxidants and are useful as a diuretic and an immune booster and have shown promise as an anti-cancer therapy. The plant is used in Essiac Tea which some cancer patients swear by. It is said to relieve sinusitis pain and congestion as well. The roots can be dried and powdered and applied to a bleeding wound to staunch the flow - that would be invaluable in a shtf situation.

You can make sorrel soup two ways: with egg yolks or without,  I've made it both ways and trust me, the egg yolk version is the way to go. It's silky and decadent and, as my grandmother would say, it has that "morish taste" - in that, you want more.

French Sorrel Soup
4 T butter, divided
1/2 c green onion, chopped
4-6 C packed, chopped sorrel
Salt to taste
3 T flour
1 qt unsalted chicken or vegetable stock
2 egg yolks
1/2 C cream
Melt 3 T butter on medium low in soup pot, add green onions. cover and cook 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in another pan, bring broth to simmer and keep handy.  Add sorrel to pot with green onions and a generous pinch of salt, cook till sorrel is wilted. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth a ladle at a time, whisking in well after each addition, until all the broth is incorporated.  Bring to simmer. Whisk cream and yolks together and in a very thin stream, drizzle yolk-cream mixture into sorrel mixture, whisking vigorously all the time so the eggs don't scramble. Add remaining butter and gently cook 5 minutes at a bare simmer. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some crusty bread.

The next wild food is Rose Hips, the seed capsule of the rose. We've all seen the swollen base of a rose after its petals have fallen but did you know they are edible? While not all commercial roses have the best rose hips, the wild roses are known for them.  Rose hips are astonishingly rich in Vitamin C and essential fatty acids, they must be prepared properly.  Inside the seed pod there are tiny "hairs" that must be removed as they cannot be digested. This is easy enough, just cut the hips in half and scoop out the seeds and hairs and either eat or use the outer part.  I then recommend drying them super dry (either in a low oven or in a food dehydrator) then grinding them in a spice grinder to use as an ingredient in tea or as the main ingredient in Rose Hip Jelly.

Rose Hip Tea
1 rounded teaspoon powdered rose hips
Mint or dried citrus peel
Boiling water
Honey to taste
Place rose hips and mint or citrus peel in cup, pour boiling water over that, let steep a few minutes and add honey to taste.

Rose Hip Jelly
(Make this fresh as needed)
3 T powdered rose hips
Apple juice or apple cider
Mix a small amount of the juice in with the hip powder until you have a jam-like consistency, add more juice if needed to maintain consistency, serve. Refrigerate leftovers and use soon.

I hope you love these recipes as much as I do. Enjoy!

Let It Snow....Winter Foraging Pt 2, Chickweed, Bittercress and a few other things

It's a most unusual winter this year. It's actually colder here in Texas than it is in parts of Alaska. While the east coast is enjoying spring-like weather, the western US is having record cold temperatures and blizzards.  In the south, it's been a record year of rainfall and tornadoes.  In east Texas, we usually have between 34-45 inches annually and already in 2015 we've gotten 67.77 inches as of yesterday. Here in the south we are in the process of hiring a construction company to construct an ark for us because it seems there's more water than dry land.  I try to remember as I slog through the mud and watch the horses and chickens do the same, that I should give thanks in everything.  I can tell you one thing, all that rain and mild temps are great for winter foraging. Now is a great time to watch the ground for tender, tasty greens and grab them while you can.

I was at the feed store yesterday getting hay and saw vast amounts of dandelions growing along the sides of the building and up against the steps going into the store and got to thinking about a wild salad or a wild stir fry and knew that's what I wanted to tell you about today.

Before I do that, I have a few other things I wanted to share with you. Occasionally I come across something that I find so wonderful and share worthy that I cannot keep it to myself.  I have 3 things I wanted to quickly tell you about:
1)  One Second After by William Fortschen and One Year After also by Mr Fortschen.  I had a friend tell me about these books that tell the story of the aftermath of an EMP and that they were so interesting he literally stayed up all night reading them,  I ordered them from Amazon and read half of One Second After last night before bed and he was right, it's hard to put down. It's equally hard to read as well. though.  It makes you reevaluate your habits and dependencies.  I was busy making notes as I read, of things I needed to do to be better prepared for any type of devastation that could come.  If you practice any kind of prepping, you probably have read it, but if not...you have to read these books.
2) Golden Milk. I came across the recipe as I was searching for a detox tea and it looked good in the picture and sounded good, so I made some.  It was good!  It has turmeric and ginger which are both good for detoxing but also have anti inflammatory properties. I'm a retired runner and my knees hurt much of the time so I decided to try this to see if it could help the pain.  I've only been drinking the concoction for 2 days so I can't testify to the pain relief but I can tell you it tastes so good, I'd drink it even if it didn't do anything at all. I tried a few recipes and the link above is the best.  I used fresh turmeric and grated it but the recipe here uses powdered turmeric and that's much more common to find than turmeric root. Doesn't stain your hands yellow either.

3) War Room. While I do enjoy a good, wholesome movie, this one isn't exactly what I would pick but because it is so powerful and so important, I'm overlooking some of my preferences and recommending it.  If you are soon to be married or are married, this could be a boon to you.  I gave it to my family members this Christmas. I encourage you to just buy the movie because you'll want to watch it over and over again.

Okay, now to the foraging part.  Let's talk about Chickweed and Bittercress.  These two tender greens L-O-V-E the winter. It can be 10 below and they will still thrive.  Both are so abundant that they are invasive, you'll do your lawn and your body a favor by eating them!  I usually share a medicinal plant as well as a strictly edible plant but this week these are both pretty much just edibles.  They both have mild medicinal properties but none that have been verified by me so we're just going to enjoy these as a nice, green winter treat.

Chickweed (stellaria media)...

,,, is found in virtually every corner of the world and its appearance doesn't vary from one place to another so it's super easy to ID and safe to eat.  When I was in my teens and first learning about foraging, this was the very first wild edible I tried.  I gathered a mess of it and made a bechamel sauce and wilted the chickweed into it - much like a creamed spinach.  It was tasty, but then, what isn't good in  gravy?  Now days, I prefer it in a salad over cooked because it's so delicate that I like to keep it as unadulterated as possible.  You'll find Chickweed growing beside buildings and in flower bed and sometimes around the base of trees.  In the spring it will have tiny, white  flowers with many petaled heads and vibrant green, somewhat heart shaped leaves.  The plant dies off as summer heat sets in but as soon as cool fall weather comes around, they come up en masse and will stay all winter long until they die off again in early summer. Locate a patch of it and just pull up the entire plant.  The stems are thin and spindly so it's easy to do so.  Wash them, pick off any yellowed or dead leaves and give them a quick chop.  You can pick each individual leaf off if you want but it's tedious to say the least so I just leave the stems in.  They are tender and mild, much like spinach.

Bittercress (cardamine hirsuta)...

...Bittercress (hairy bittercress) is a member of the Brassica family which also includes cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli and, like it's relatives, is pungent and flavorful.  the roots of the Bittercress can be harvested and mashed with a mortar and pestle and mixed with sour cream to make a sauce that is similar to mild horseradish.  The leaves are spicy and peppery and certainly liven up an ordinary salad. Like Chickweed, it can be eaten raw or sauteed lightly. It also has a long pagan history and is mentioned in the 10th century Germanic poem Woden and The Nine Herbs Charm as being one of the folklore herbs in the charm that is used to cure snakebite and poisoning. If you don't know if you have Bittercress growing near you, just look at the picture below, of the Bittercress seed pod and I bet you'll know then.

They stick to everything.  Eat them now so you'll have less to deal with later!

If you've ever wanted to forage but have been a little scared you'd get the wrong thing. these are the plants to start with.  Enjoy!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow....Let's Go Winter Foraging: Acorns and Pine Needles.

Just because it's nearing winter doesn't mean there's nothing to forage.  Granted there isn't much greenery but there is still abundant food sources. I've selected a few common fall/winter foraging foods to talk about and over the next few posts I'm going to tackle a couple of them each time so I can give you some in depth information about each one.

You might decide to forage in the winter just to familiarize yourself with what's out there or you may forage because you want to stretch your winter food budget or because of other personal security reasons. Whatever the reason, take a special note of today's selections - I think they are super important because of how common they are and because of their awesome nutritional values.

Today I'm discussing Acorns and Pine Needles..............

Acorns (particularly as flour products) have long been a staple of indigenous peoples diets and only within the last 100 years have they fallen out of favor as a food.  They are labor intensive so they became known a "poor people food", it was just easier to go buy wheat flour and truthfully, wheat flours makes a far superior bread due to the gluten content, whereas acorn flour is a starch and has no gluten.  There are other plants and roots that can be used as flours and/or starches but we're sticking with acorns today. Acorn flour will sustain and nourish you in a survival situation but you probably won't find it as satisfying as that soft, white Sunbeam bread.  Even so, Sunbeam won't be around when TSHTF so you need to have a backup plan and acorns will provide that.

As I mentioned earlier, they are labor intensive to convert into flour, but not so much that you will find it unworthy of your time. Acorns have tannins (different species have different tannin levels) and if you don't leach the tannins out prior to processing, you will have a bitter flour that will stain your teeth. dry your mouth up and can cause considerable constipation. Makes you excited to eat them huh?? lol. Okay, here we go.....
First thing you need to do is locate the species of oak you have growing near you.  Take a pic of the leaves and acorns from the tree(s) you have and look them up on Google and determine the species you have then you'll know how to process each one so it tastes best. I found an acorn webpage that has a wealth of good info on this wild nut and some recipes too.  It has a list of the best tasting acorns, which I thought was a great addition!

Acorns aren't just utilized as flour, they have a respectable amount of nutrients and are a decent source of protein, high Vitamin B and are a good source of minerals.  This makes acorns very versatile and are used as a coffee substitute, cooked and eaten as you would a chestnut, added to soups and even pressed to extract their oil to use in external applications such as massage oil.

Humans have eaten acorns for about as long as there have been humans.  The Greeks were one of the first people to utilize them as a flour, alone or combined with wheat or barley flour, and used to make bread.  The Confederate soldiers used acorns as a coffee substitute during the Civil War when the north cut off supply routes (take note of this fact, it might come in handy soon <wink, wink>) as did the Germans in WW1 and WW2.  The Germans called it Ersatz which literally means substitute and that name has turned into Ersatzkaffee which is still available as a product called Postum - a grain based hot beverage.  Acorns were dried, crushed and roasted to make "coffee" but it didn't resemble the taste of coffee at all except in that it's served as a hot drink and I'm sure as they were fighting a war in the brutal winter, it was a very welcome treat, regardless.

Oak trees and their acorns were a symbol of strength, longevity and family legacy.  Our Scandinavian, European and Germanic ancestors valued the oaks so much that the acorns were used as emblems on the shields they carried into battle and as military uniform patches,

 



Preparing acorns is a lengthy, but not overly so, process.  It's very rewarding to know that you have made flour or coffee from these lowly nuts.  Also, if you look back at my post on Yaupons, you'll see that you can roast the leaves as a substitute for coffee as well and they have a big supply of caffeine.  Add some roasted Yaupon leaves to the roasted acorns and you have a very acceptable coffee substitute. The same website I listed above that detailed the different species of oak according to taste also has the instructions to process the acorns from start to finish to make anything acorn you might want. There's even a recipe for a acorn flour cake that is the best I've ever had.

Next, let's talk about the wonderful Pine tree.  It's versatile in so many ways.  You can make your home smell good, make a waterproof short-term survival shelter, make pitch to waterproof a boat or building, it's nutritional and medicinal and it's awesome tinder to start a quick fire.  But since we're talking foraging here, we'll just stick to the edible qualities of the Pine.

A great way for a beginner to get an introduction to using Pine as food is to make Pine Needle Tea.  It's easy and nutritious - Pine needles have 5 times the Vitamin C of a lemon and is very useful as a survival food but is very useful medicinally, too.  It is used to treat coughs, colds, sore throats, hypertension, urinary ailments, as an antidepressant and numerous other uses.  While most all of the Pine is edible, not every Pine species is suitable.  There are 3 species of Pine/evergreen that should NEVER be consumed because they are toxic and arbortifacients in both animal and human, so be sure and avoid these.  Let's get these details out of the way:

The toxic Pine family are:
Yew (Taxus)

Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)

Norfolk Island Pine (Araucana heterophylla)

The safest Pine for beginners is the White Pine (Pinus strobus), which is also one of the most commonly found.

Let's make some tea!!

Pine Needle Tea
Gather a good sized handful of White Pine needles, chop small and place in mug.  Pour 8-10 oz boiling water over the needles, cover and set aside to steep.  As soon as the needles have settled to the bottom, the tea is ready (about 30 mins). Warm back up if necessary, add some honey or orange juice for sweetness, if desired and enjoy!

Hope For The Best, Prepare For The Worst

Usually my life is chaotic but lately I've had a lot of down time and too much time to think and stew for me is a recipe for T-R-O-U-B-L-E, I usually end up getting in political debates with people on facebook but I channeled that brainpower into something constructive this time. I've been wanting to do an instructable blog about making your own MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) and since I had some down time last couple of weeks, this is what has come out of it.

I know everybody and their grandma is on the Emergency Food Supply bandwagon lately and I know how expensive it is.  I ordered a couple of buckets of MRE's from Mountain House and thought, how do people stockpile this stuff?? I paid around $67.00 a bucket for 12 packages and I know several people who have $$$$ invested in these MRE's!!!  I didn't like the food choices nor the variety, it just wasn't the foods my family would eat. I know in a SHTF scenario beggars can't be choosers but when we are without our basic comforts that we're used to like running water, electricity and convenient foods in the fridge, we will want something that will make us feel like it's not the end of civilization. That something is food.  Food comforts us, nourishes us and lifts our spirits and makes a difficult time more bearable.  I decided to figure out how to make my own MRE's using recipes that my family liked so when times are hard we will have that extra security knowing we are at least eating and eating well.  I found several websites and blogs by people who were already doing this (I was shocked that I wasn't the only person doing it! LOL) but most were vacuum sealing convenience foods like crackers, granola, jerky, etc and that's not what I wanted. I wanted FOOD. I found a website for Thrive Life Emergency Food http://www.thrivelife.com/shop and they had an awesome recipe database but the recipes are geared toward families who use dried foods at home as a way of cooking and most of the recipes required 30%-70% fresh ingredients with the remainder being the dried foods. Since I am wanting to create entire meals to be used in an emergency situation, I didn't find that too practical. I mean, when the grocery stores are empty or there's a natural disaster and you can't leave your house to go to town, what are the chances you're going to have breadcrumbs or tortillas or fresh fruit just laying around? Not likely, I'd say.  I wanted everything you'd need for a complete meal in one bag and all you'd have to do is add boiling water.  When the world is in chaos, you need something to be easy.  I had a like-minded friend tell me that www.walmart.com  had a large dried food supply - who'd have thought? - so I looked into it and they do and it's quite reasonably priced as well! The name of the products are Auguson Farms so, that's where and what I ordered my supply to experiment with.

I ordered (either in dried or freeze dried) and it totaled up to be $197 (free shipping):
Onions
Celery
Bell Peppers
Carrots
Potato Chunks
English Peas
Broccoli
Cheese Powder
Cream of Chicken Soup
Tomato Powder
TVP Beef Crumbles
TVP Chicken Crumbles

I used my own herbs, spices, garlic, bouillons and salt that I already had and just added those to the pouches. These are big cans of product so you can make lots of MRE's before you run out. I spent last week making recipes and spent the morning today making pouches.  The pouches I used are food grade Mylar bags I ordered from Amazon and they came with the oxygen absorbers and they figured out to be around 38 cents each.

First MRE I made was Chicken Noodle Soup. I packaged the noodles in a separate little bag because they have to be cooked separately and heat (don't vacuum seal them, they'll puncture the bag) sealed them with my Nesco sealer.

So easy, now just measure out your ingredients and dump them in the Mylar bag and add an oxygen absorber.

Now, you need to seal the bag. Most home kitchen sealers won't vacuum or seal Mylar bags because they're slick and the machine needs a rough surface (like the plastic bags that come with the sealers)
but you don't need to vacuum seal it because you have the oxygen absorbers.  I use the cheapest flat iron hair straightener I could find and it works beautifully.  I seal one side, then move to the middle and seal, then squeeze out excess air and seal the other side - easy peasy.

Label and date the bag with a Sharpie......

Keep going until you make however many you want.  When you get ready to eat them, just boil the water and pour it right into the bag and let it sit 20-30 minutes and you have a complete meal. If there's a pasta packet in your meal, just remove that, add the water to the Mylar pouch and then put the pasta on to cook while your seasoning pouch is getting ready.

I mentioned the cost of pre-packaged MRE's but I didn't really break that down for you so you could really appreciate the savings you'll get by making them yourself...it's a lot cheaper.  I figured up that Mountain House MRE's are around $2.34 per serving (not including any shipping) and the DIY ones are only $1.10 per serving (including all shipping) and you have food your family recognizes and will enjoy eating.  I only made 5 different main dishes today just so I could show you how but I plan on making some breakfast meals next.  This is great for kids to help with too and learn some math in the process.

Pack them in buckets (doesn't have to be airtight, just needs a tight seal), label the contents and date. This 5 gallon bucket from the paint section at Walmart held all 12 main dish pouches.

I will add that I used TVP (soy based Textured Vegetable Protein) because it's a fraction of the price of freeze dried beef or chicken and still has a high protein level.  If you think you might be hunting to supply protein to your pouch, you can omit the dried animal protein or TVP and use your fresh meat.  I'm just not brave enough to bank on a steady supply of game right off the bat, so I added my own protein. All vegetables in the recipes are either dehydrated or freeze dried as well.

Now, want some recipes?  Of course you do!

Beef Stew (4-6 servings)
2 T cornstarch
1 c beef, freeze dried or TVP
3 T beef bouillon
1/4 c carrots, dehydrated
1/4 c English peas, freeze dried
1/4 c celery, freeze dried
1 c potato dices, dehydrated
1/3 c onions, dehydrated
2 T tomato powder (or instant tomato soup mix)
1 T Worcestershire powder
1 t garlic, minced, dehydrated
2 t dried basil
1 t black pepper
1/2 t salt
When ready to use, add 6 cups boiling water and let sit 20-30 mins.  May also be cooked in pot for 10 mins and let stand 10 mins.

Chicken and Potato Curry (4-6 servings)
2 t salt
1 t garlic powder
1 T curry powder
2 T garam masala powder
2 t cumin
1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t cayenne
1/2 c onion, dehydrated
1 1/4 c potato dices, dehydrated
3/4 c English peas, freeze dried
1/2 c broccoli, freeze dried
3/4 c carrots, dehydrated
3 T cream of chicken soup mix
1 1/2 c chicken, freeze dried or TVP
Add 5 1/2 c boiling water and let sit 20 mins to serve.May also be cooked in pot for 10 mins and let stand 10 mins.

Cheeseburger Soup (4-6 servings)
3/4 c beef crumbles, freeze dried or TVP
1/2 c onions, dehydrated
1/3 c celery, freeze dried
1/3 c carrots, dehydrated
3/4 t dried basil
3/4 t dried parsley
1/2 t dried dill weed
1 t chicken bouillon
2 1/4 c potato dices, dehydrated
1/2 c cream of chicken soup mix
1/3 c cheddar cheese powder
1 c powdered milk
1/2 t black pepper
3 T sour cream powder (may sub with 1/4 t citric acid)
Add 5 1/2 c boiling and let sit 20-30 mins to serve. May also be cooked in pot for 10 mins and let stand 10 mins.

Chicken Noodle Soup (4-6 servings)
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t butter flavored granules
3 T carrots, dehydrated
1/3 c onions, dehydrated
1/3 c celery, freeze dried
1 c chicken, freeze dried or TVP
1/2 t Italian seasoning
1 T chicken bouillon
2/3 c chicken gravy mix
1/4 t citric acid
2 c egg noodles (packaged separately within pouch)
Add 6 c boiling water to pouch. Meanwhile, cook egg noodles in boiling water in pot till done. May also be cooked in pot for 10 mins and let stand 10 mins.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (4-6 servings)
2 c broken thin spaghetti (packaged separately within pouch)
1 c beef crumbles, freeze dried or TVP
2 t Italian seasoning
1/2 c tomato powder
1 t garlic powder
1/2 c onions, dehydrated
1/2 c bell pepper, dehydrated
1/4 t fennel seeds
1 1/2 t salt
1 t black pepper
1 T beef bouillon granules
1/4 c Parmesan cheese, dried and packaged separately in the pouch
Add 6 c boiling water to pouch. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in boiling water in pot till done. May also be cooked in pot for 10 mins and let stand 10 mins.  Add Parmesan  as desired.

Whew! This is a long blog post, I know, but there's a lot of good info here!  Hope you enjoy experimenting with making your own MRE's.  I'll post new recipes and tips as I get them.  Enjoy!