October 2014 Newsletter

Things to buy or put in storage this month:  Even if you do not have a garden or fruit trees of your own, this is still a great time to buy fresh or canned fruits and vegetables in season.  Stock up on over-the-counter medicines for colds and flu and paper goods for the holidays and facial tissue.  When I get sick the last thing I want to do is run out to the store and buy medications.  I like to already have all the basic items on hand.

Fall is also the best time in my opinion to start putting a garden in if you have never had one.  Remove part of the lawn, build your grow boxes and fill with soil.  This will give you a head start on your gardening in the Spring.  As soon as we have some nice Spring weather you can just run out to the garden and start planting and not lose time in preparing.  Fall is also the best time to buy any fruit trees on sale and plant them in cooler weather, they will go dormant soon anyway.  If you would like my easy garden soil recipe you can email me for it.

Additional Fun Resources for Preparedness:  For my readers who have a Facebook account you can find many great Facebook pages for Food Storage and Preparedness.  Hint- Once you “like” one of these pages you will get suggestions for other similar pages on your wall.  Some of my favorite Facebook pages on these subjects are: Food Storage Moms, Homestead Survival, Little House Living, Urban Farm Magazine, Food Storage and Survival, and Prepared LDS Family, Simply Canning and Ball Blue Book of Canning, check them out! There are many videos on Youtube that demonstrate canning, dehydrating and many other do-it-yourself Preparedness projects.

 Product Highlight of the Month:  Victorio Apple Peeler-Corer

This apple peeler also removes the apple core and slices all in one step.  To separate the rings (the apple will look like a curly fry), just take a knife and make one cut through all the rings.  This peeler comes in 2 styles of bases, suction cup base or a clamp base.  All parts are removable and washable.  This makes processing lots of apples, or even potatoes fast and easy.  I use it when making apple sauce, juice, dehydrating apple slices or canned pie filling.  Any apple parts you don’t use can be composted.  

All Day Crock Pot Apple Butter

5 ½-6 lbs of apples (run through the apple peeler/corer

4 C. sugar                                      2-3 t. cinnamon

¼ t. ground cloves                       ¼ t. salt

Prepare apples and put in crock pot. Add everything else and stir well, till apples are coated.  Cover and cook on Hugh for 1 hour.  Reduce heat to LOW, cover and cook for 9-11 hrs or until thick and  dark brown, stirring occasionally.  You can do this step over night.  Then uncover and cook for 1 more hour.  In the meantime, get jars, lids and bands all prepared.  If it is still too thick you can run it through a blender, use a hand held blender or a potato masher. Ladle into hot jars.  Put lids and rings on.  Turn jars upside-down and leave for 5 minutes.  Then place upright.  Or you may choose to process in a water bath canner for 20 minutes.  Use like jam.

Homemade Apple Pie Filling by Ball Blue Book

You can also dehydrate the rings.  Store in a ziplock bag where it is cool and dry.

         

Easy Tips for organizing your “Nothing-fancy-basic-food-storage shelves”:

1.       Always store the heaviest items on the bottom shelves.  Good things for the bottom shelves are large #10 cans, anything in a glass jar, or large cases of food.

2.      Store your medium weight items on the middle shelves such as your smaller glass jars or canned foods in regular size cans.

3.      Upper shelves are great for paper goods or store bought foods in boxes or pouches.

4.       On the very top of high shelves you should store things that you do not use very often such as food preservation equipment, or seasonal items.

5.      Reuse the short cardboard trays that cases of canned goods come in.  They are great for stacking one case on top of another.  I also use them for organizing sauces etc., especially the sauces that are in glass bottles such as A-1 Steak Sauce, Soy sauce etc.

6.      If you are lucky enough to find some boxes that have high sides and no top, be sure to save those for organizing things such as shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste etc. Long, skinny boxes that reach to the back of your shelf will not waste any space.

7.      Label the ends of each box, so that even your kids can find what they need.

8.      Always put the new items in the back when you put it away.      

9.      In case of an earthquake, be sure to put something across the front of each shelf to keep your items from falling off.  Make sure you can still remove your items as needed.  If your shelves did not come with a bar for this purpose you will have to make something yourself.