Northeastern Region

OK, in my infinite wisdom I typed up a whole blog on my plum experience, then deleted the whole thing with the touch of one tiny button. Yeapper, that’s me, with no way to retrieve it. So I will try this all over again.

I have this very pretty ornamental purple leaf plum tree out in the corner of my yard, it is a sight to see when it is in full bloom. Now the only way I could have it was if it didn’t bear fruit, according to my DH, he didn’t want to have to pick anything up off the ground.

OK, the first year it flowered and no fruit, second year it produced 12 pounds of this ping pong size burgundy plum, a tad bit bitter to eat by itself but made a wonderful jelly. I’m not one to let anything go to waste. Hubby at this point wasn’t happy it produced, so asked if I would trim it, well of course I would. No problem there, I cut it back to the main branches, giving it a “good” haircut. His comment when he came home was, “I think you killed it.” I did tell him to relax that it will grow again next year.

This Spring came and there was a bounty of wonderful white blossoms among the purple leaves. So pretty, I forgot to take a picture. Now remember I even have one of those little phones with a camera in it and I forget to use it.

Summer starts and hubby notices that we are getting plums again, he asks if i would make him a batch of jam this year with the “crop”. Well we watch, we wait, then one day he mentions that he thinks they are ready, of course my comment was, “I just checked them yesterday, they aren’t ready”. OK, summer in the Northeast has been HOT!! Everything is 2 weeks ahead of schedule, so to appease my hubby I walk out while he is mowing the lawn to re-check the tree. One of those “Yes dear things”.

To my surprise they were ready to pick, they were ripe! Now thinking about the year before I ran into the house and came out with 3 baskets in my arms and grabbed the ladder out of the garage. I got that look from hubby, you all know the one, that, “I told you so” look. So as he finishes the lawn I am filling baskets, I filled all 3, so I was thinking OK, have a few pounds there, now nothing to use to pick, hubby was done with the mowing and came over, he presented me with 3 boxes, the ones printer paper comes in, I gave him one of those looks, “like we are going to fill those”.

After I filled one 1/2 way and the cover to the box overflowing I was tired, so he took over picking while I went in to get us each a glass of ice cold water. He of course picks faster then I do, by the time I get out he has another box 1/2 full and there are still more on the tree. We were out picking a total of 1 1/2 hours. I had plums in everything I could put them in trying not to put more then 4 deep, maybe 5 deep, so as not to crust them.

So I have a ton of these burgundy plums sitting in my laundry room, covering 12 feet of counter space. what am I going to do with them, was all I could think. Hubby again said, hey, make some jelly. So after discovering I have no more small jars to use for jelly, I go to the store for 12 oz jars, 2 cases and pectin, I bought 4 boxes of pectin and another 10 pounds of sugar, just to be safe.

OK, I’m thinking, this is going to be a breeze, a few jars of jelly and I am done. Each batch of jelly filled 6 of the 12 ounce jars, I made 12 jars of straight Plum Jelly, then for a change in pace I tossed a vanilla bean into the syrupy mix while it cooked, oh the house smelled so good. So another 12 jars of Vanilla Plum Jelly. Now this took one day and it doesn’t look like I put a dent in the plum supply, i was dead tired by the time i was finished with the jelly that I called it a night and barely made it through cooking dinner, of course i still had to wipe the jars, label the jars and take them to the basement. Sorry, I just looked at them and said good night.

Now I had weighed all of the plums before using them, any of them, I ended up with 52.8 pounds of plums off a tree that wasn’t suppose to give me one plum. So standing in the doorway looking at probably 45 pounds or more left to deal with my mind started to work, think that cup of coffee helped some.

I went down to the basement and found 12 pint jars, I thought about the times during the holidays we had pickled crab apples, so why can’t you make pickled plums. Got my old stand-by Ball Blue Book out and a couple of other books. Cooked up a nice brime with vinegar, sugar and a few spices, cleaned and filled the jars with plums that would fit but were pretty. After all were processed I stood there looking at the little jewels in the jars, knowing I had to wait at least 2 weeks before i could even get a hint of how they tasted.

Did I mention, there is still a mountain of plums in the laundry room, staring at me. OK, back to the basement to check out jars, I came up with 24 jars that some store bought sauce had come in, my kids don’t make home made but do remember to save the jars for me. Well, what to do now? I was really getting tired of them staring at me, so I washed them all up and gave them homes in every large pot I could find, a 12 qt, 10 qt, 8 qt and a 5 qt pot were filled and there were still more of those little guys filling my sinks. How dare they!

I turned the burner on under each pot after adding a little water into them. A couple hours later, I had some soft broken down plums, oh boy, now what? Hey! people eat applesauce, so why not plum sauce. so after going through my sieve I ended up with 24 – 26oz jars of sweetened plum sauce. The most beautiful color of burgundy. Now you can either eat it plain like apple sauce, use it in breads, cakes, cookies or as an add on to BBQ sauce, Chinese plum sauce, oh the variety of uses is endless, but it seemed so were my plums and I was getting tired of those little jewels.

Now my laundry room counter is shared between canning jars and plums. Had to come up with something else to do with them. Then it struck me, Juice!! So I cooked them down and made 14 quarts of juice, I did not add any sweetener to it at all, I should add, never but never try to taste unsweetened plum juice, well not this variety. Can we say bitter to no end, eww! But 14 qts of processed juice is great, at anytime I can turn a qt into a batch of jelly, or just sweeten it for juice, or sweeten and freeze into a sorbet. Never but never think that there is ever only one use for what you can, bottle, dry.

After all jars where cleaned, i sat down at the computer and made some generic labels for them all to wear. carried them all down to the basement for a new home, they still sit there waiting for a shelf to be re-organized for them to fit on. But that is a different story.

Now I am eyeing an apple tree in the neighbors yard, the house is in foreclosure and going on the auction block, think anyone would mind if I just picked a few of those apples before they littered the yard?

Plus there are a few sumac growing in the park near me, just about time to pick and dry. I love free grocery shopping, plus no un-known additives. I hope my next report is of me surrounded by apples.

Even if you don’t have a garden, you can take advantage of harvest time. There are lots of farmer’s markets and even some produce auctions. Another way to take advantage of harvest time is by “gleaning”. If you see an apple tree that hasn’t been picked, ask the owner if they will let you pick in exchange for an apple pie, or if it’s a wild tree, grab a box and start picking! Many people don’t have the time, health or desire to pick from a tree that came with their house, so simply asking if they mind if you pick does no harm, even if they say no.
Friends who garden, may be inundated with extra produce at this time, so let them know you’ll be happy to take excess off their hands!

What do you do with all that produce? Preserve it of course! A great book to have in the house is “The Ball Blue Book of Canning”. If will show you how to can, dehydrate or freeze any produce you can get your hands on. I also reccommend that you invest in some tools for preserving. I have a dehydrator, a Food Saver and canning equipment. This allows me to take advantage of any find I come accross. A wonderful site to check out is:
http://www.dehydrate2store.com/ Here you can find videos on dehdrating. A bag of frozen produce will last a year or so in the freezer. A jar of canned produce will reliably last for two years on your shelf, but dehydrated produce stored properly, will last for 10 years!

Check the sales, check the farmer’s markets, talks with friends and if you see that nice looking apple tree, stop and see if you can pick some! Can’t beat free or inexpensive food for your pantry!

I mentioned in the last post that now is the time to start your lists on what you need to do for winter and what you need to get for winter. I’d like to expand on the list of what to get today. One reason for this is that we have hit a strech of inflation and prices seem to be rising rapidly. I plan to get what I need as soon as possible to try and prevent paying more.

Winter Prep Purchases
Rock Salt/Sand/Ice Melt - though we live in a very rural area and have a snow blower, we still find a need for some salt. Too much salt and chemicals are not good for your land, but a little shouldn’t hurt. I prefer sand when possible, but the salt is a great thing for when there is ice on your steps. Remember to pick up a bag of sand that you will keep in the trunk of your car! My daughter has found this can get you out of situations that would normally have you walking to call a tow truck!
Gas/Diesel – I will be filling up all of my extra fuel cans. In a storm, this could help you clear away the snow, run your generator and get to the store.
Batteries – It’s a good thing to have plenty on hand for all of your flashlights. Winter is when we have the most of our power outaged.
Water - I have been saving my 2 liter soda bottles, cleaning them and filling them with water. Water is so important, and each person needs about a gallon a day to live. We are subject to frozen pipes, loss of electricity and such in New England, so having an emergency water supply is vital. You don’t need to get fancy and spend a lot of money, and they can be stored almost anywhere, even under beds!
Food – This time of the year, baking supplies go on sale. It’s a good time to stock up! I also look for deals on winter comfort food, such as soups and hot chocolate and popcorn. I’ll check my prep cupboard and make sure I have several weeks to several months of ready to eat food. I’d also like to point out that this is the time of the year when farmer’s markets, farm stands, and orchards are having the bulk of their harvesting. This may mean deals for you and chances to pick your own. Consider getting in extra and starting to can, freezing some extra for the winter. I found an apple orchard that a gentleman is trying to bring back to life and he doesn’t plan to pick for himself, so I asked if he minded if I pick. It will give me enough apples to make jam for the family and for gift giving, pies for the winter and apple sauce to can. This is a great time to look along back roads for wild apples and in back yards to see if people have fruit trees they don’t harvest.

With a little planning, you can easily be prepared for the winter ahead!

I’m planning to do several posts on winter preparedness over the next few months.

I know it’s only early August, but it’s time to start making plans for the winter here in the Northeast! At this point, one of the things I do is to make a list.
Lists are handy things and can be kept on the computer or in the purse or wallet and beadded to as you are doing mundane things like sitting in traffic, waiting at the doctors office, waiting for the kids to get out of practice etc…

The list for winter preps includes some scheduling of certain valuable chores. I plan time to go through the house and make sure emergency items are where I can find them; things like flashlights and batteries. I check the batteries to see if they need to be replaced, check the battery stockpile to see if I need to get more, make sure the emergency radio is working. I also get out the lanterns and make sure they are in working order and I have plenty of oil for them. I schedule a full house battery rotation for the same weekend we turn the clocks back. This includes a check of the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as well.

Since I am out in the yard a lot with garden harvesting, I keep the list in my garden tote and make note of anything in the yard I see that needs to be taken care of…hose care, shovel repair or sharpening, repairs to the gutters etc. . Keeping pathways clear and obsticles picked up can save many mishaps during a bad weather day.

I also put on the list things that are handy to have in the winter…like plenty of rock salt/ice melt, extension cords, shovels and car cleaning brushes. Since I have a working list of planned purchases, I can pick these things up as I see them come on sale. I also take an inventory of my food preps. Anything that is low, goes on the list for the next time I can get it at a good price. I also note my water situation and plan to recycle the water storage I have. I’ve been without water in the winter and it’s not fun!

We also put the generator on the list for a full going over, repair and fuel check. I check the fuel cans to make sure that I have plenty. Being out of fuel for the snow blower isn’t handy in the middle of a snow storm! Last year, we had little regular snow but many big storms, and a couple of those storms took more than one can of diesel to get through. If I start the season with two full cans, I will be ahead of the game.

Keep in mind, this is just the list. By making a list, you are consciously thinking about what you need to do, it makes you aware and you have a better chance of actually being prepared if or when you need it!

A person needs about one gallon of water per day. We use waater for cooking, cleaning and for drinking, so having a plan for water storage is a must in your preps.
In a temporary emergency, water in adequate amounts will help life run smoother (in a long term even, it can be the difference between life and death, if not health and illness). As a child growing up in a hurricane prone area, the strongest memory is off my mother preparing by bleaching the bathtubs and filling them with water to the brim. Then she’d take every container we had in the house and also fill them with water. Everyone would get a shower or bath before the event (and before the tubs were filled! lol) Sometimes that water kept us “normal” for a week, if the storm hit direct.
When we had an ice storm a year and a half ago, I followed proceedures and filled up the tub, filled jugs with water, made a 40 cup pot of coffee, and got things ready. Our toilet system doesn’t use power to flush, so I was able to use my tub water to flush with, and the water in jugs for drinking/cooking and cleaning.
Last year, we had a drought that dried up our spring and resulted in our pump motor burning out (just a random thing that would have happened no matter what). We had to resort to “plan A” for water…pumping it from a small brook for household use and for drinking we used bottled water. (I now know where there are two public springs in our town) I have a water filter to use to purify water that may be risky and plenty of back up filters. There are fancy ones you can get (Berkey.com) that many use year round. We installed a gutter last year and at the end of a down spout, we used an “elephant hose” that is flexible and can be run into a plastic barrel, so we can save rain water. This rain water can be used for a variety of things from watering the garden to laundry to putting through my water filter so we can drink it. It’s a good back up plan to compliment the other back up plans we have for water. Husband is thinking of getting an RV water tank to fill for emergencies as well.
When each member of the family needs a gallon a day (not including flushing and bathing), it pays to think ahead!

I’ve had a horrible summer cold, so I apologize for not posting sooner. The other gal who has been posting, Rubies, had a horrible cold just before me…we haven’t gotten together except over the computer, wonder if it could have been a fancy new computer virus she passed to me! (LOL)

We are having a real heat wave here in New England. Something we don’t usually see much in the part I live in. Generally, we don’t have many days where the temps go over 90 during the summer, but this heat is something really odd. This got me to thinking about how to cope with the heat if there was no electricity to run fans or air conditioners. We don’t have central air at our house, only a small window unit in one of the bedrooms. Mostly we keep a fan going and pull the curtains to keep out the sun. It’s mostly been a good plan, but this kind of heat could really do some damage without even a fan. So, how do you keep your cool if the power is out? What can heat do to you?

Heat is something you can become acclimatized to, too a degree…but in all cases, whether you get bothered much by it or not, extreem heat can be a killer! While sapping your strength, it can cause your body temps to rise, make you nauseaus, and a host of other things and can eventually result in death. Each year we hear about people who have died from the heat, so it pays to learn how to create stratagies to deal with it.

The first tip is easy…stay out of the sun! Between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., the sun is at it’s hottest. If you have to be out in it, wear skin covering light colored clothing. Wear a hat and sun glasses to protect against the glare. I usually carry a wet cloth in a baggie that I can put against the back of my neck if I’m trapped outside. Keep the drapes closed during the day. Head to the basement is you can. It’s likely to be a lot cooler at that level. Another tip is cold water; drink it, sit in it, paddle in it, splash in it. Again, using wet cloths applied at the back of your neck can reduce the temp a bit, put your feet in a bucket of cold water, that also can bring down the temp. (not so much the outside temp, but your internal temp) It also feels great!
In the old days in the south, long strops of cloth were dipped in cold water and hung in the windows and doorways, helping to cool any breeze they caught. If you are lucky enough, head for the woods and take a walk to that beautiful natural falls and cool your feets in the pool at the bottom.
With the strain put on our fragile electric grid during these heat waves, we are liekly to see rolling brownouts in some places. Use as littel power as you can, try the natural ways of dealing with the heat and stay safe!
103.5 deg. in western Mass today! A record breaker for sure.

Our local grocery store had milk on sale with a coupon, for $2. Which isn’t bad in my area. Most know I only buy on sale and if I have coupons to go with it. Why spend more money then I have too, ever.

I rarely get a gallon, just takes to long to go though, in my house due to only 2 of us home now. BUT for $2, thought I would play with it. Yes I like to play with food, or what I consider playing. It’s really just finding new ways of using the food we do have in different ways.

Today I made my first batch of homemade ricotta cheese, now if I know it was this easy to do, with minimum work involved I would have done this many a year ago.

Now most recipes ask for you to use whole milk, due the the reason the butterfat content. The more the butterfat content the creamer the cheese will taste. I bought 2%, so not to good for flavor, it’s the richness of the fat that gives the cheese that good flavor, I didn’t know that in the beginning but well I wasn’t planning on cheesemaking when I bought the milk, was thinking smoothies, bread pudding, maybe rice pudding, but that’s another day.

So today I played around, recipes, sort of but not. Here is what I did and what you will need to do the same.

You’ll need:
a stainless steel colander
a stainless steel slotted spoon
a stainless steel 5qt or larger pot
cheesecloth
rubberband
candy type thermometer
You are using non-reactive metal to cook and strain the cheese in, you really don’t want an off flavor after “all your work”.

Ingredients:
1 gallon of milk
1/2 cup of buttermilk powder
1/3 cup of vinegar
teaspoon of sea salt

Mix 1 cup of milk with the buttermilk powder, (this you can buy at most grocery stores in the baking aisle). Pour into pot along with the rest of gallon of milk, place thermometer in pot and turn heat on medium. Bring milk slowing up to 100 degrees, stirring till temperature gets up to 100 degrees, you will see it really doesn’t take to long. You are stirring now so that the milk does not stick to bottom of the pot and burn.

Now stop stirring and let milk cook till it reaches 180 degrees, when it does, take off heat and stir in the vinegar and salt, cover pot with a light kitchen towel and let sit for 2 hours. I set a timer to remind me. I would have forgotten with everything else I was doingthat day, you know, the usual, laundry, ironing, picking up. It really didn’t interfere with the rest of my plans for the day, which I thought was great in itself. It was a couple of minutes here, a couple of minutes there and done.

After the 2 hours, it’s time to have some fun and see what has been happening. Now most recipes tell you to get your slotted spoon and ladel out the curd at this time.

You will need to cut a length of cheesecloth to fit into your colander, 2 layers thick, (don’t want to lose any of your hard work down the sink, now do you)wet the cheesecloth and place into colander before ladelling the curds into the ceesecoth lined colander to drain.

There was so much whey in the pot that I decided to use my reusable coffee filter to filter out some of the curds from the whey before I started to use the slotted spoon. It worked great, no effort and I think I saved a lot of time and energy. Just set the filter over a glass in the sink and poured into it. Later I finished off by ladelling the rest of the curds into the cheesecloth lined colander.Now just let them rest for about 15 minutes, they will drain off well just by themselves.

After that I picked up the cheesecloth by the 4 corners and twisted a little and put a rubber band around the top and squeezed the cheesecloth a little then hung it over a pot with the slotted spoon holding it, placed it in frig for about an hour and all done.

It is easy to tell if the ricotta is ready, when you squeeze the cheesecloth if the liquid that comes out is clear, it needs more time if it is a little milky colored, it is done. at this time, take the ricotta out of the cheesecloth and place into a container that can be put into frig, you can taste the cheese now and see if it needs a little more sea salt or not, I added a touch more to mine.

I had planned at that point to make a lasagna with it but with the heat outside i wasn’t in the mood to have my oven going that long. So instead I made Cannoli, that wonderful Italian dessert.

It was well worth the “effort”. To say the very least I doubt I will ever go back to store bought ricoota cheese again.

Next time around I will try making it with the dry milk powder I have and report back on my findings.

Oh, I made the cannoli on Father’s Day with the whole Family home, I set up a buffet dessert bar, make your own cannoli, pretty much just filling the shells with cheese, but you get to decide the amount you put in. I also had made a fruit salad with Blueberries, Drak Sweet Cherries and Strawberries, flavored it with some home made Vanilla Sugar, and home made whip cream to top it. No one went near the store bought ice cream, wonder why.

Oh Vanilla Sugar is an Italian Delicacy, you can find it in a specialty store for some outrageous price for this tiny little itsy bitsy bottle or make it at home.
I fill the smallest Tupperware canister with Sugar, stick 3 vanilla beans in it, come back in a week and there you have it, Vanilla Sugar.

I get asked a lot the question on how to prioritze your preps. I hope that the post below will help you with this and give you a glimpse at the many layers of practicality to being prepared.

To my way of thinking, with a “jobless” recovery, all jobs are precious right now and we can’t take them for granted.
So, being able to continue working is one of the most important things…this means being sure you can afford gas and decent transportation. Since the price of gas is bound to go up, having a stash of gas can’t be a bad thing. This can be done in most people homes by simply storing a half dozen gas cans that are full. You can rotate out the gas within a year with no problem, but in the future if prices go up, you might have a problem some weeks buying gas, so if you have some, you can at least get to work to make your pay. It’s a good thing for a prepper to have on hand anyways.
Decent transportation…this means a vehicle in good shape and one that you can afford. If you owe on your car, try and put an extra 10% towards paying it off. Then move on to the next debt and do the same thing. IF you were to loose your job, the fewer bills you owe, the better off you are.
Staying healthy…if you have health insurance, get all those check up, shots (tetnus especially), dental work, the extra pair of glasses all done. Then you can start on a healthy regimine that will result in eating and living much cheaper. This means more money in your pocket for preps and less of a hardship for you and the family if your life situation changes.
Food – If you can, try and put in at least an extra $30 into the food budget each week. Do this for 12 weeks and you can easily stock up an additional 3 months of meals for your family (read my blog for suggestions on this). We should all strive for a full year of stored foods for our family. If the system crashes, if you loose your job, you will need that food. It takes over 8 months on average right now to find a replacement job! If something catastrophic happens, you will want enough food to get you through “season to season”…until you can grow and find replacement food for the next year. No matter what, you can bet that food prices will go up and that natural fluxuations will occur in availability.

I sat out on my lawn picking up all the plums that had fallen off my purple plum tree with the last run of high winds in my area. Lost over 300 off that one little tree. How sad that so many were wasted, unfortunately they hadn’t grown enough in size to be useful.
I would say there are over 300 more left on the tree, that was a nice sight. I planted that tree 5 years ago, convincing my no-prep husband it was an ornamental, not fruit bearing. It is a beautiful sight in the Spring, deep purple leaves, white blossoms. Really sets off that corner of the lot.

I bring this up because prepping is so easy. You plant a pretty tree here and there and later you are blessed with a bounty in the late Summer or Fall. Maybe a nice blueberry bush, great for landscaping, the leaves turn Autumn colors in the Fall. No one need know what is there and most people have no idea of how to identify a fruit bearing tree or bush, definitely an advantage to you.

About two weeks ago I went into Lowes, they had blueberry bushes and strawberry plants marked 50% off, I scarfed some up and gave them to my son to plant at his house. Being two of the favorite fruits on their menu it is an affordable way to introduce themselves to “free pickings”. May I add, once you’ve done it, it is hard to go back and pay that $5 a quart price, yes, that is what they charge in my area.

So for less then the $5, I was able to buy 30 strawberry plants and a blueberry bush. Not bad for a lifetime of fruit.

So next time you think prepping is expensive, think again. Shop wisely and you will be rewarded.

3 months in 3 months for $30 a week (family of 4)
We often wonder how we can get prepared on a budget. A friend over at United States Prepper Network got issued a challenge on this and did very well. You can see his challenge at: http://www.unitedstatespreppernetworks.com/USPN_blog/
I’m sure you can do just as well, using coupons and shopping sales and buying what your family will like. I made the below list based on my family. I hope you enjoy it and that each of my readers will take up the challenge and do it as well!

Dinners and lunches: 168 meals
24 jars of spaghetti sauce – $1.00 / $24.00
48 pounds of pasta – $.50 / $24.00
50 pounds of rice – $20.00
48 pounds of beans – $24.00
12 cans of gravy – $ .50 / $6.00
12 cans of chicken – $1.50 / $18.00
12 cans of salmon – $2.50 / $30.00
24 cans of cream of soups – $ .50 / $12.00
12 cans of cheese soup – $1.00 / $12.00
24 canned meat (Spam type) – $1.00/ 24.00
12 lg cans of tomatoes/diced – $1.00/ $12.00
12 cans veggies – $ .50 / $6.00
$200.00

Breakfast: 84 meals
3 lg boxes of biscuick – $4.50 / $13.50
3 lg boxes of oatmeal – $3.00 / $9.00
2 lg box of raisins – $5.00
2 jars of peanut butter – $3.00 / $6.00
2 lg boxes of dried milk – $12.00 / $24.00
$57.50

Extras
1 lb. of brown sugar – $1.00 / $2.00
5 lb of white sugar – $2.50
12 cans of pie filling – $1.00 / $12.00
36 cans of fruit – $1.00 / $36.00
1 lg cans of coffee – $5.00
5 pounds of popcorn – $5.00
veg. oil – $1.00
Crisco – $2.50
2 boxes Crackers (Saltine type) – $1.00/ $2.00
2 powdered drink mix – $2.00 / $4.00
$72.00

$329.50
3 months/12 weeks@ $30. per week = $360