The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Nargleblast

If I recall correctly, Jocasta Innes did a Tipsy Prunes recipe in her original Paupers Cookbook. 

C_J

I used to have a Rumtopf back in the 1990s - we used to joke that when we served up the contents at Christmas it was potent enough to melt knicker elastic!

ziggy2004

If you like rumptopf these are great too https://www.food.com/recipe/boerenjongens-28949

markin

Drool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUKDur73Ye4

markin

jamanda said:

I think it was just for drinks/beer etc. moving away from plastic and glass bottles.

I'm frantically trying to freeze/bottle stuff from  the garden so we have plenty available.  Mum is vegan so I need plenty of fruit/veg so I can feed her.  If I can't get round to it pretty soon and cut down the climbers, we'll have to get into the house with a machete but food garden is taking priority.  I am telling everyone it is a wildlife garden while keeping quiet about murdering caterpillars on my brussel plants.  Springwatch eat your heart out.  Why can't they go and play in something else?

 

I think it soon affected tins for food and its not just staff distancing issues.  All the current news stories seem to be USA and a search for 'in Europe' is all from march, April, but its a world market it must be affecting everyone unless the EU has its own steel and tin manufacturing and the US thinks its to expensive or is totally over reliant on china?

24th july.

https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/24/new-supply-chain-crisis-during-pandemic-not-enough-cans-for-food/

"In the modern world of low-inventory manufacturing, an unexpected spike in demand has brought critical shortages in COVID-19 test kits, ventilators and now cans for food. Wholesale manufacturers and distributors are running out of empty cans to pack nonperishable foods that so many Americans are buying in bulk.

“Especially in ready-to-eat meals, like chili, soups and prepared meats,” said James Kwon, CEO of technology and logistics firm ePallet. “The cans are in short supply.”

Specifically, raw materials like steel and tin from China are scarce, as are made-in-China labels that go on food cans. Kwon said one food manufacturer had labels sent over by plane instead of ship to get them quickly. Still, canned items that normally may be unavailable for just a week or two are now delayed for months, presenting challenges to at-risk populations that depend on canned food."

EU Steel story, very long, short snip below.

"A slow restart.

In Germany, the EU’s biggest producer of steel, restarts are proceeding even more slowly. Steelmaker Thyssenkrupp said it expected a production cut of 20%-30% of its capacity to last into the summer, and Salzgitter plans to continue with reduced production amid a gloomy outlook for the rest of the year.

With 39.7 million mt of crude steel produced in 2019, Germany saw crude steel output fall 10% on year in the first quarter, with year-on-year falls also likely over the summer.

Italy, the EU’s second largest steelmaker with 23 million mt crude steel production last year, was the first to officially restart steel production from late April. Italian crude steel production in May went down by 43.6% to 1.25 million mt, according to official data released by worldsteel on 22 June, and industry sources said that mills were continuing to run at low capacity.

In their first-quarter earnings calls, steel mills forecast very low production and profit for Q2, while for the first time they were not able to give a full Q3 and Q4 outlook. The overriding message was that balance sheets would continue to worsen as the recovery in demand is expected to be slow, and a return to pre-pandemic levels is not expected until the end of this year.

“We saw a slow restart of the mills but I am not confident production will bounce back any time soon and I think that we will also soon see some re-closures due to low order intake. I would not be surprised if we saw earlier and longer summer stoppages this year”, a senior industry source told S&P Global Platts."

https://blogs.platts.com/2020/07/08/european-steel-industry-coronavirus-demand/

markin

MingVase said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/17/uk-facing-worst-wheat-harvest-since-1980s-national-farmers-union-nfu

In the US  10 million+ acres of corn destroyed by 50-100 mph winds in the 'cornbelt'!  

"A powerful derecho that tore through the Midwest earlier this week also flattened more than 10 million acres of crops in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said.

Among the crops destroyed were about 43% of the state's corn and soybean yields.

"Although it will take days or weeks to know the full scope of damage, initial reports are significant," Reynolds said Tuesday."

greenbee

markin said:

MingVase said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/17/uk-facing-worst-wheat-harvest-since-1980s-national-farmers-union-nfu

In the US  10 million+ acres of corn destroyed by 50-100 mph winds in the 'cornbelt'!  

"A powerful derecho that tore through the Midwest earlier this week also flattened more than 10 million acres of crops in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said.

Among the crops destroyed were about 43% of the state's corn and soybean yields.

"Although it will take days or weeks to know the full scope of damage, initial reports are significant," Reynolds said Tuesday."

Corn in the US is maize, not wheat. So there may be a shortage of high-fructose corn syrup. Or cattle food. 

wondercollie

greenbee said:

markin said:

MingVase said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/17/uk-facing-worst-wheat-harvest-since-1980s-national-farmers-union-nfu

In the US  10 million+ acres of corn destroyed by 50-100 mph winds in the 'cornbelt'!  

"A powerful derecho that tore through the Midwest earlier this week also flattened more than 10 million acres of crops in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said.

Among the crops destroyed were about 43% of the state's corn and soybean yields.

"Although it will take days or weeks to know the full scope of damage, initial reports are significant," Reynolds said Tuesday."

Corn in the US is maize, not wheat. So there may be a shortage of high-fructose corn syrup. Or cattle food. 

Right now is prime corn on the cob season.   Corn, canned, fresh or frozen is eaten as a vegetable across the continent.

 Cornmeal is also a popular type of flour for breads and batters in the southern US.  It’s also a staple in Mexico.  It’s also a component in certain brands of dog kibbles.

in my province, the harvest will be lower than normal for canola, wheat and corn.  The weather has been awful 

MingVase

Very interesting posts markin thanks. It pays to know what's going on. And with all the steel now being made in the EU I wonder where that leaves us.. hung out to dry I think.

[Deleted User]

I have just discovered what may be a very clever idea in my dehydrator instruction book in that you can actually make vegetable leathers, this is very useful in it's own right but then came the words 'carrot leathers make a very good base for cream soups' and tomato puree leathers with herbs and spices  can be tomato paste of be made into tomato sauces.  I need never let veg go in the compost bin again if they can be steamed, blitzed and leathered and leathers keep well and take up less room than dried products.  How useful is that?