Prepping progress report
I haven’t been as consistent with these as I had planned when I started them, but vacation and some other things got in the way. At any rate, I figured it was time to start doing them again.
This week / recently:
1) Watched numerous YouTube videos about gardening and preparedness topics. I learned how to use my non-productive pea plants to help add nitrogen to the soil, to use a trellis, how to water from the bottom of a container (that one I basically knew already), and how to deal with floppy / spindly seedlings (obvious, but aren’t most of the things we don’t think of?). Feel free to check out my YouTube channel. I think I’ve watched most of The Survival Podcast videos now, and they’ve all been really helpful. Well, except maybe for the ones about eating grilled beef heart and doves. I know, I know…but yikes.
2) Dehydrated some huge bags of vegetables (peas and kernel corn) that we got from Sam’s Club and rarely used. I usually use fresh or canned corn, and we don’t eat a lot of peas. The bags were taking up space in the freezer – now they take up a lot less space, and once I vacuum seal the bags they’re going into, they should last a very long time. I can’t believe I never thought of dehydrating frozen vegetables before – what a Duh moment that was.
3) Also dehydrated applesauce to make fruit rollups for our food storage. We use a #10 can of unsweetened applesauce to make these. One can will yield about 10 enormous rollups in our dehydrator, being conservative, and it is so easy! The cans cost 3-4 dollars at Costco. This entry is cheating, though, since the rollups never last long enough to actually make it into the pantry. We all love them. I just wish they sold cans with other types of fruit puree.
4) Bought a decent knife for my purse. Decent for my purposes, anyway, which mainly consist of opening boxes and that kind of thing. It’s a Buck knife with an extra lock on the handle, which was what I was looking for since I am around children. It’s also yellow and pretty. There. Do I sound female again? Good.
5) Found a gun class. I mentioned this in a previous post.
That’s all I can think of now – I’m sure once I post this other things will come, but oh well.
Regarding the roll ups, have you tried making tomato leather to replace the #10 cans of tomato puree/tomato sauce/spaghetti sauce? Such a space saver.
Not yet – What a great idea! So far, I have only done fruit roll ups and dried veggies in the dehydrator. I will have to try that – thanks for the tip!