really old style living?

Primrose

ceridwen - I was interested in your comments about your dehydrator because I've often pondered about getting one, especially for drying surplus tomatoes and apples and have never been able to 100% convince myself that I would work it hard enough to recoup its value, so please do keep updating us on your efforts, especially for tomatoes. How are you planning to store them once you've blitzed them? Will they go into a powder at that point which can be used for soups & caseroles as a kind of tomato stock powder? You perhaps haven't got to this point yet, so please keep us posted.

seasalt_2

I used to have a stockli but gave it to someone else a couple of years ago as I now dry field mushrooms in the bottom of the rayburn and herbs in brown paper bags over it. I freeze cherry toms as find them more useful than dried ones - Eliot Coleman in Four Seasons Harvest, recommends drying toms as a substitute for sundried ones - I never skinned mine, just sliced them thickly or cut cherry ones in half - but maybe they would have been nicer skinned - was never quite sure what to do with them after I'd dried them - mostly the kids just ate them like eating dried apple or something.

ceridwen

Primrose wrote: »

ceridwen - I was interested in your comments about your dehydrator because I've often pondered about getting one, especially for drying surplus tomatoes and apples and have never been able to 100% convince myself that I would work it hard enough to recoup its value, so please do keep updating us on your efforts, especially for tomatoes. How are you planning to store them once you've blitzed them? Will they go into a powder at that point which can be used for soups & caseroles as a kind of tomato stock powder? You perhaps haven't got to this point yet, so please keep us posted.

Well - the tomatoes have nearly finished drying. Meaning - I took most of them out at about 9 hours drying time - as they had turned "crispy" - so I figured they must be about ready. The ones that were still slightly "damp" are having a bit more drying - and I've got some sliced cooking apple in there drying in the dryer trays I freed up.

pink_numbers

ceridwen - sorry it's taken me all day to get back to you, I had a terrible migrain after my last post and so was laid up for most of the day.

Anyway, my recipe says 1 parts bees wax to 5 to 5.5 parts olive oil. I also add a small amount of cornstarch to stop it from feeling greasy, and also grapefruit seed extract and vitamin e to slow the oils from getting rancid.

ceridwen

PINK NUMBERS

Thanks for that. Hope you're feeling better now.

PRIMROSE
Well - I've now had apples drying away as well.

Both the tomatoes and the apples are now in lock and lock boxes. I read somewheres that one needs to leave dried food in a temporary container for a few days to see if it emits water still (ie would need a bit more drying).

For longer term purposes - I think initially I will put things in plastic clip-it type bags. I have to think on beyond that - as I'm not happy with using plastic bags and long-term they will become rather more difficult/expensive to get anyway (if possible at all) - so I think basically over my lifetime I will have to store dried foods in lock and lock boxes or sterilised glass jars (I am guessing here that sterilised old honey/etc jars would suffice?).

Anyways - the machine seems to be working okay - so must now send an email off to my fellow "Transitioner" saying that my old dehydrator is all hers now if she's still interested.

Re the tomato dust - katholicos tells me that she uses a heaped tablespoon or 2 rehydrated with water as the basis of a pasta sauce OR adds a heaped tablespoon or two to casseroles/soups/stews/etc. I shall be experimenting with some kept as dried slices and some blitzed to dust.

Meanwhiles - back at the ranch - I must go back for a good look at katholicos' blog (aka MSE homepage) - as she's got a section on that re dehydrating.

ceridwen

Right - I've just gone for a quick look again at Katholicos' dehydrating info and find she has some clips on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL61RgKPV1E

mardatha

Reading the headlines from the TUC conference and looks like we will need our food stores as its going to be an "interesting" winter.
This thread is all about really old style living - and in a way is very apt, because we seem to be going back to really old times .
Jobs that were once safe and for life are not any more. The Victorians and Edwardians were one wage away from destitution - those days seem to be coming back ! (watching the headlines nervously for the announcement that the Workhouse will replace the Job Centre)...:eek:

Primrose

mardatha - Yes, you're right. I think it will be an "interesting" winter. I think for many older people, who had to live and work through the Three Day Week and winter of discontent, there are lessons to be learned. These include being well stocked up on basics. Do you all remember the panic buying of loaves and toilet rolls? I'm very glad my OH has just taken an interest in learning how to make bread as I think if we have transport strikes, bread could well be one of the first staples to disappear off the shelves.
We recently did a freezer and storecupboard inventory. We're probably long enough in the tooth in terms of survival attitude in this household now to be able to last out a siege, but anybody who relies on electricty alone for heating & cooking might be advised to buy one of those little portable gas camping hobs and a few spare gas cartridges before they too fly off the shelves. And there's always the barbeque which could be set up in the garage in an emergency ! And those thermals packed away in the wardrobe!

ThriftyFelicity

Sharon Astyk has written some excellent articles on food storage. Not sure if these have been mentioned before.

The articles include:

Food storage 101 - part 1

Food storage 101 - part 2

Beginner food storage

How much food to store?

Food storage baby steps

The menu project

She also has lots of really interesting and useful information on food preservation.

seasalt_2

ThriftyFelicity wrote: »

Sharon Astyk has written some excellent articles on food storage. Not sure if these have been mentioned before.

The articles include:

Food storage 101 - part 1

Food storage 101 - part 2

Beginner food storage

How much food to store?

Food storage baby steps

The menu project

She also has lots of really interesting and useful information on food preservation.

Hmm. This is really interesting stuff. I have been swithering about buying a small chest freezer to store more garden produce, bulk cooking etc but then if the power is out for several days....

I am not totally confident anymore about bottling things - despite helping my grandmother and mother when I was a child - GM's pantry shelves were stocked with plums, pears, rhubarb, tomatos, goosegogs, beans, apples, blackberries etc etc - altho fruit was all done in a sugar syrup whereas you can sling it into the freezer unsweetened. Remember her always carefully checking the jar lids were still tight - botulism was the worry - and I suppose I'm not confident I'll do it right! A bit like cheerfully dishing up a stew with field/horse mushrooms in and then waking up in the night wondering if I've poisoned everyone! (Haven't done yet!:))

Water - we are lucky enough to have a well although it has a heavy concrete lid on it (with ventilation holes) these days since OH nearly dropped DS (in a back carrier but not strapped in! :eek:) down it when filling buckets for the cattle trough one day. Also have quite a few rain water butts/tanks for the garden - could be boiled/bleached for drinking in an emergency.

Definitely, food for thought. Thanks TF.