Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

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According to the Forecast, Winter’s Here

4 December 2011

Looks like we’ll have our first days of the season with the high temp below freezing this week.

M and I got half of the garage cleaned out so we could get one of our cars in there. That’s a sure sign that winter weather is here.

I put a ring of straw bales around the kale and collards this afternoon, then draped a sheet of clear plastic over the whole thing. I weighed it down with some big, heavy logs on the west side, and more logs on the other sides. I think it’s almost impossible to fight off that wind when it’s whipping out of the west northwest, but we’ll do our best. I hope to get a few more weeks out of it.

I cut quite a bit of kale, cooked some of it, and put the rest in a bag in the fridge. I don’t pick or cook ahead in the summer, but seems like the right way to deal with it this time of year.

Also, the compost was at 137°F this afternoon.

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It’s That Time of Year Again

2 December 2011

I drained the 3 outside rainbarrels yesterday. They weren’t frozen, but they probably will freeze soon. I left one outside and in position with the valve open last winter, and it seemed to come through just fine, so I’m going to do that with all of them this winter. It would be good to get a few more of those 55-gallon plastic barrels just to have on hand.

Dealing with the coffee grounds for composting becomes more complicated without them, but doing it inside the greenhouse is still a very good alternative.

I have to say that those rain barrels haven’t been terribly useful, mostly because we’ve had few prolonged stretches of dry weather. But they’re still good to have on hand, because those dry spells (along with sudden collapse of the electrical grid) aren’t predictable.

I ordered a 6-gallon bucket of buckwheat groats from Pleasant Hill Grain in Nebraska yesterday (Honeyville didn’t have any bw in stock and hasn’t for some time). I feel a little crazy still stocking up on staples…but the world situation is more dire than most people realize.

On the one hand, as Sharon Astyk used to say, you can’t buy your way into preparedness…but it’s not going to hurt, either.

I covered my kale a few days ago, and haven’t had it uncovered since, because it hasn’t been above freezing very much since then. That’s not ideal, but it does get a bit of dim light through the tarp, and it will be okay for a few days like that. I’ll get it some sun this weekend, and also hope to get a transparent cover made. I might as well keep it going as long as possible.

Posted in Food, Gardening, TEOTWAWKI, Water | Leave a Comment »

Eating

29 May 2011

I’d like to know how many affluent Americans wait until they’re hungry to eat. Most of us are in the habit of eating three square meals a day, no matter what. That’s not Paleo at all. I’m sure humans stuffed themselves when they had the chance back then too, but very, very infrequently

There’s a practical reason for eating when you’re not hungry, of course — even though I’m not that hungry when I get up in the morning, on work days I will eat anyway, because I know that if I don’t I’ll be *really* hungry by 9am.

The habit of eating based on a timetable instead of waiting to be hungry is another way we treat ourselves like machines instead of living organisms.

Posted in Food, Low Carb | Leave a Comment »

Low Carb

8 May 2011

I had a good low-carb day today. I’ve had only two real meals and a lot of yard work, but I feel quite satisfied and full. We just got back from the Grumpy Troll, where I had a bunless cheeseburger of very tasty beef. It tasted charcoal-broiled and was really quite excellent. I love low carb.

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Wheat

6 October 2010

Stored another 100 lbs of hard red wheat today.

100 lbs of wheat fits into three 5-gallon buckets.

Used resealable Mylar bags in the buckets with 3 500ml oxygen absorbers in each. Closed each bucket with a gamma lid. Should stay good for a long time.

M got the buckets from her work. They were used for pickles — most of the smell is out of them and with the Mylar bags in between, I’m not worried about that smell getting into the wheat.

We have about  350 lbs of wheat stored right now. My informal goal is to keep two adults and two children alive for a year without external inputs, and I think we’re somewhere near there. I’m assuming we’ll have a growing season in that year to grow as much food as we possibly can.

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