really old style living?

ceridwen

seasalt wrote: »

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.

My personal thoughts (though I AM in an urban area) is that power is unlikely to be "out" for more than a few hours at a time - leastways in my sorta location. When I had to replace my fridge/freezer recently anyways I made sure I bought one thats A or A+ or summat rating and the largest I could get in my kitchen - and I noted that it keeps food "safe" for much longer than my old one did actually - think offhand that my old one had only kept food "safe" for a few hours of the power off - but this one (from memory) is more like 18 hours of keeping it "safe". At that point I thought "That should cope then okay with the power outages I anticipate will be happening over the next few years at intervals".

People in more rural areas and/or with older fridge/freezers would be well advised to think on as to any way they can deal with outages (for whatever reason). I have an idea offhand that wrapping fridges/freezers in layers of blankets (presumably NOT covering those coils at the back!) might act as insulation against heat for them? Does anyone know if I'm right on this?:think:

mardatha

But industrial action will affect you C... if it comes to that this winter.
BBC Scotland forecast just told me there is to be snow on the mountains tomorrow night... here we go !

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

But industrial action will affect you C... if it comes to that this winter.
BBC Scotland forecast just told me there is to be snow on the mountains tomorrow night... here we go !

Errr....errr....I do have to confess that come the 3 Day Week back awhiles that the only time I can recall owt was when someone's wife from elsewhere in the country rang up and said "My husband is coming to your area on business and I cant get x/y/z here...can you give him a shopping list and see if he can buy it in your area please?". By the time the husband had turned up - the shopping list of stuff had been bought by me and was sitting waiting for him with a note on top about how much he owed me......:)

I AM very well aware that I am/have put myself in a very advantageous situation all round - and DO know full well just how lucky I am when I see all sorts of problem situations in other parts of the country. I have done my personal best and am now SO well stocked-up/food growing in tiny garden/bartering arrangements well in place/etc that if I personally am affected....well...I'll be rather surprised I guess....

But I am very well aware how much more difficult it is in many parts of the country - and how many years I personally have been "preparing" by now - hence I want/try to do what little I can to help keep "the ship on the water" for everyone else so to say....

ceridwen

Right - re substitute ingredients for missing ones. There are various websites that list substitutes for various missing ingredients if one googles and I just checked what I'd written in my books re various ones.

Anyways - I hadnt written egg substitutes down but I do know there are some.

Maybe for a starter peeps might like to read:

http://www.ehow.com/how_114372_substitute-missing-ingredients.html,

which gives an idea or two about substituting eggs for instance...generally though its worth googling round to think about ideas for substitutes.

Main meals, for instance, are basically = protein + carbohydrate + veg.

So its worth having a little list in one's head of various protein items - rather than automatically thinking "meat or fish". Carbohydrate doesnt have to be pasta or potatoes - there's a load of various different grains for instance, theres rice, theres bread. Veg. could be a huge selection of things - ie not just the "old faithfuls" of carrots/cauliflower/broccoli/peas - theres loads of others that will serve the purpose (ie providing Vitamin C and a bit of colour in the meal).

pink_numbers

Thanks ceridwen, you are right, I should google it first! Don't know why I didn't, as I tend to google things first. Must be a senior moment! Thank you for the link also, how very interesting that an egg can be substituted for apple sauce and oil!

jamanda

You're making me twitch again. I'm the same as lots of you - large stockpile of tinned stuff/dried stuff, flour, yeast, powdered milk etc. Only thing I'm not sure about is water. I understand you can't keep ordinary tap water for too long. I have (somewhere) a large water carrier but don't know whether to fill it up and hope for the best or get a few bottles. Does anyone know if you have to have "proper" bottled water. And also, where the heck do you store it, because it is bulky and heavy. If we get much more stuff in this house we're going to have to camp out in the garden.

mardatha

As far as I remember you can keep it for several months but keep it in the dark... light does something to it. I will ask and get back to you

seasalt_2

Think you can sub flaxseed meal for eggs in some recipes and good old vinegar and bicarb although only in fruit cakes rather than sponges.

Re water storage, have a look at ThriftyFelicity's post - about a page back - second link is all about water storage - points out that anyone with a hot water tank already has x gallons stored and I think there is also a recommendation about adding v.small quantities of bleach to water you plan to store for more than three(?) months. She also suggests using empty pop bottles etc for storing tap water rather than buying in bottled water.

mardatha

All I can find at the moment is to wait until the last minute then fill as many containers as you can. Store it in the dark. and you can also use Milton tabs or unscented bleach in small amounts to purify water.

parsonswife8

Theres' cheap 2 litre and 5 litre bottles of water in the supermarkets. We keep ours in the shed outside where it is really cold.