Living Wisely During Hard Times

Most homesteaders know as well as anyone that the current state of the US economy isn’t very good. Are probably aware enough to see that it’s not getting better any time soon, either. Hopefully the homesteader has been wise enough to purchase his/her chunk of land far enough away from the ‘boom’ cities and regions that they got a good deal on it, as it probably represents the only real assets that family has.

Of course, there are the other assets related. The house and outbuildings, the farm and garden equipment and tools, the vehicles that get the homesteader to markets or trade-meets, auctions, etc., and the food (and energy) supplied by the property and proper investments in the property. Outside of actual transportation costs, the wise homesteader should weather the recession and coming depression better than most stuck-in-the-city folks. Our homesteads aren’t rollover investments - they’re our HOMES and security, even in hard times. Especially in hard times.

But there are some issues to be considered as the retail marketplace takes as hard of hits as the banking sector is taking. If there’s a shopping mall within 20 miles of your homestead, it’s likely to be an empty eyesore before the end of the year as retail outlets fall. So far this year the standard mall shops that have filed for bankruptcy include Linens n Things, Sharper Image, Mervyn’s (in California), Shoe Pavillion, …and ever increasing numbers of less universal retail shops.

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Filed under Alternatives, Economics, Family, Future Planning, Homestead, Independence | Comment (0)

Fun With Heirloom Tomatoes

Now that I’m over that nasty bout with salmonella-laced foreign tomatoes, I must say I’m delighted that my own heirlooms are finally turning red in the garden, providing the sweetest, meatiest, most desirable fruit/veggie on the planet. Since the FDA rescinded its warnings due to the sudden availability all over America of actual locally-grown tomatoes, we can talk about what to do with all that juicy incoming bounty.

Processing tomatoes for preservation (or just for making dinner) is a messy job. That’s why I planted varieties this year that are known more for their usable inner ‘meat’ than their juice and seeds. Plus it’s been a bit dry this season, so too much water definitely isn’t their issue. When it comes time to do the processing, you may wish to do what I do and use the back deck grill instead of the kitchen stove to boil those large amounts of water. No air conditioning here, it’s usually not necessary and is a total waste of ‘trons. But when you’ve got big pots of water boiling in the kitchen for long periods of time, even the most mellow of summer mountain weather can quickly become unbearable.

Here are the basic prep steps for processing fresh tomatoes:

1. Wash all your tomatoes in running cold water. Even if you never use pesticides or pepper spray on them, washing is always a good idea (unless you’re eating tomatoes while out there picking them).

2. Put tomatoes in rapidly boiling water for 10-20 seconds, until you see the skin split. Remove quickly and put them in cold water (I fill up the sink with cold water ahead of time). This stops the cooking and further loosens the skins.

3. Cut the parboiled tomatoes in half and cut out the stem-end core, pull off the skins. Then quarter, squeeze out the seeds, seed membranes and juice into a compost container or bowl (from which you can later extract seeds to save and juice to drink).

4. Put the peeled and seeded tomato quarters (or pieces, if you chop further) into a colander or sieve to drain more moisture. I usually sprinkle salt on them at this point, it helps to get the moisture out.

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Filed under Cultivated Herbs, Food Safety, Food Storage, Garden, Harvest, Homestead, Recipes | Comment (0)

I Messed Up, Got Sick

Yeah, I should’a known better. I wrote a post here about How NOT to Be Poisoned by Your Food, and got poisoned anyway. Got sick enough for two whole days to be really, really sorry.

It might have been tomatoes. Or it might have been a pepper or cilantro used as seasoning. The FDA seems to be suspicious of anything coming in from Mexico right now, and I didn’t ask.

A friend came over last weekend with tons of food for munchies and the grill. It was his birthday, and we ate quite a lot. He’s a meat-eater and we’re not, though I did try a grilled shrimp that was delicious. Didn’t taste the bratwurst, the hamburger patties or the chicken. But he had this container of olive oil and vinegar ’stuff’ gathered at a salad bar style buffet at the big local grocery, with mozerella and artichokes and peppers and cherry tomatoes and whole garlic cloves and such - it just looked too good. I tasted the cheese, the artichokes, a jalapeno and one cherry tomato. Before I knew it I was puking my guts out, and was so sick the next day I couldn’t get out of bed.

It was almost immediate, too. Which of course has to be food poisoning. Since I didn’t also have the watery runs, I’m guessing salmonella that never got past my stomach, and I’m pretty sure it came in that little container of oil and vinegar goodies God only knows where they came from.

Despite the fact that the outbreak’s been going on for months and the FDA claims it just can’t find the culprit, haven’t recalled anything and don’t plan to do a darned thing, I’m telling my readers yet again to BEWARE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. Even when it’s the most appetizing-looking stuff at the ‘build your own’ bar at your own local grocery store. Salmonella poisoning is no fun at all (thousands have been hospitalized just in this current outbreak), you’re better off not eating at all if your own tomatoes and peppers aren’t yet ripe. One poisoned ingredient in the mix can quickly poison everything it’s mixed with, and your system will hate you for it.

Just a warning, it can happen even when you’ve been really careful. All you have to do is give in to what your friends bring to munch on - and no one but me got sick, which tells me something. Hubby didn’t touch any of it (except the shrimp). Both friend and grandson are confirmed meat-eaters (hoping grandson gets over it soon). Anybody who can stomach ground mystery-meat and bratwurst can handle a little salmonella without getting sick. Don’t let that be your guide!

Buy local, dear readers! There’s a farm truck, fruit and veggie stand or farmer’s market near enough to you to make it well worth your while!

Filed under Food Safety, Garden, Health | Comments (2)

Tools: Get The Best, Even Used

Having posted with pride about our new honest-to-hillbilly deck, I thought this might be a good time to talk a bit more about the many tools a homesteader needs in order to keep the place in order, do the gardening and landscaping, renovate and repair home and outbuildings. I can do this because during the deck project we had a total of 4 hammers on hand, and two of them ended up without handles before we were done. Frustrating.

The very best thing you can do, of course, is to purchase the absolute, best quality, longest-lasting tools - any tool - you can possibly afford. Yet in today’s economy, getting the best quality tools is often beyond the means of those of us trying hard just to make things work. Here at my homestead we’ve got a shed chock full of old chain saws, string trimmers, handle-less shovels, pitchforks, axes, mauls, sledgehammers, pruners, etc., not to mention a whole collection of broken hammers, screwdrivers, various saws and power tools bought cheap over the years and which didn’t last long enough to get to the second job.

Worse, I’ve an energetic daughter and some grandchildren who work hard on occasion, but can’t ever manage to put the tools back where they belong. Which means I find rusted things all over the place, often with wooden handles that long since rotted into compost. It’s extremely frustrating, and having to replace the tools every time you start a project is a regular pain in the ass. Not to mention expensive.

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Filed under Building, Future Planning, Home-Products, Homestead, Maintenance, Renovating, Repair, Tools | Comment (1)

An Honest-to-Hillbilly Deck

In preparation for the annual Independence Day celebration, last week was a regular beehive of energetic engineering to finish the deck in time for the fireworks. I of course appointed myself straw boss for the project, and imported day labor …er, an old friend… to do the actual work. My observations confirmed the efficacy of “hillbilly engineering” to the point that it loses a bit of its epithet-like undertones, and makes me confident enough to go ahead and advise that you don’t have to be a licensed general contractor to get things done around the homestead!

There was a deck there previously, installed by visitors from Florida a decade ago while we were out. We’d already sunk the support poles (a few salvaged 4×4s and some sturdy tree limbs) in concrete and installed the joists - salvaged 2×8’s left over from when we had to replace the foundation beams (another saga…). We’d scarfed some thick tongue-and-groove planking for the deck surface from the Children’s Home where hubby worked as a fundraiser at the time, left over from some projects there. We had planned to put those visitors to work, but we’d also planned to make a real deck with spaces between the boards so the water could drain off, and those visitors just went ahead and grooved the tongues anyway. Which of course meant that the deck was doomed to rot in record time, which of course it did.

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Filed under Homestead, Maintenance, Renovating, Repair | Comment (1)