I make mulberry jelly every year and fruit leather as well. It is one of my favorites. I have wild mulberry trees as well as an amazingly sweet berry producer called Illinois Everbearing. It produces for over a month. Remember-it’s a very low pectin fruit so use a good percentage of less ripe berries and some additional pectin in some form (commercial pectin or apple juice). Pure Mulberry jelly has become the gift everyone in my extended (and indulged) family asked for as Christmas gifts.
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Do you like kale? I harvest kale in the winter time. In the midst of snow. Kale tolerates winter quite well!
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Deer And Gardens
We have lived in the country for many years. Always had a big garden. Never had a fence. Sure…there would some nibbling by critters. But not too excessive. Probably around 5 years ago, that changed. Deer will eat almost anything and everything in the garden now if given a chance. So up went a tall fence. Cannot believe how many deer I see now.
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It’s Harder To Work From Home Once Rugrat Goes Mobile
I completely agree that if more 2 earner households with young kids did the math, they may be surprised to find how little ahead they’re coming out. It’s a great idea to put all options on the table. As a feminist, I find it sad that our society has still not done the difficult part of making it easier for women to have a career and a family.
One parent working from home is a great option. But it can be especially challenging with a toddler and more so with more than one little. It’s amazing what those smart little buggers can get into when your head is turned. For example, my kids are only 9 months apart (adopted - no I didn’t do that!) When they were around 3 they were very early risers and mornings were usually for mayhem. One morning they were playing nicely in my son’s room so I relaxed in bed. Then it got quiet and I was suspicious. Those two had worked together to pull over a night table to under the window, somehow figured out how to open the screen, and climbed out from his second story window onto the roof of a one story addition directly outside. When I looked they were having a ball running around the pitched roof! Fortunately, I’m one of those people who laughs during disasters. So they didn’t realize I was completely freaked-out and they came back in when I asked them to.
Now you know why I have grey hair.
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The game will be gone less than a year after the long emergency is realized.
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And the farms with cattle, sheep, goats will become the new hunting ground for the starving folks with rifles.
How can a farmer deal with this?
Just a thought. Let all neighbors know that you will be slaughtering and butcher an animal once every ___ weeks and will sell to neighbors at a discount. Some kind of barter arrangement. And that you will gift meat to those who truly cannot pay.
The goal here is to 1) help your neighbors in distress, 2) recruit your neighbors as a part of your farm’s defenses, 3) and to help everyone be comfortable with YOU continuing to be the farm’s owner.
We will have to change our sense of what the rules are and should be in the light of the new situations.
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farmers and warriors need each other.
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Ben- suggest we all need to read up on what happens in a famine so we are prepared for what’s coming. Michael Yon provided some advice on his website a couple of months back. Seriously it’s only months away now, end of 2022 will be a disaster.
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Aus, always good to hear from you. Suggest moving away from the road and population. Find water and stay quiet. No time to be learning, what you now know is all that matters. IMO
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great advice re staying quiet, blending in will be important
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Completely agree that the difficult part remains undone. Instead of respecting our unique innate attributes that naturally lend themselves to prosperity, we “feminists” of the seventies tried to be like men. I jumped off that bandwagon when my first came along, and have never regretted that decision, although I did need to work longer afterward.
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Canned 5 Jars Of Frying Okra Today
I canned Five jars of frying okra today. Just drain the okra in a colander and fry it in peanut oil. Cover okra with corn meal of course. Delicious!
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Sorry, I meant which model of freeze drier, and how many folk would it provide for. Thanks
? Sorry, Robie
It’s a medium size Harvest Right. The size refers more to how much food you plan to be freeze drying, not so much to the number of people it would provide for. We consist of 2 people here on our homestead.
Maybe if we were just planning on freeze drying a little food here and there, the small size might have been fine, but we want to preserve food from the garden, plus want to store some. The large was slightly tempting, but just seems like too much on many levels.
The medium will freeze dry 7-10 lbs. of fresh food (1.5-2.5 gallons of freeze dried food) per batch.
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That’s the unit I settled on and it’s perfect for our purposes. When we are cooking up a pot of soup or any other meal, we’ll just double the recipe and load up the freeze drier trays. Depending on the water content of the food, along with the temperature and humidity of the room, the freeze drying process will take one to two days to complete. I use the food for backpacking, travel, long term storage, and for quick meals when time is too short to cook. I found it worth the investment.
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I Find Helpful
Just received my Harvest Right freeze drier. Next purchase is a steam canner, and I’ll have all the preservation tools. Also, getting a Samovar wood/coal stove to go with my Ecozoom wood stove as I’m setting up a small outdoor “kitchen” in my garden.
Backwoods Home magazine is my favorite! Very practical information. Also can’t stop watching this channel! https://youtube.com/channel/UCIix6MklfJFywa_36iDj8Sw
Best of luck to everyone!
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How About A Link…
A great many of us wrote lengthy comments the last time Samantha Biggers wrote about food preservation…couldn’t articles like this one have some links at the end that reference those articles and comments?
I see so many questions and comments by those newer to food growing and preservation that have already been discussed and question that have been answered–it would be great if they could easily access those comments rather than relying on those of us who have already put the time in answering to repost.
Just a thought.
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Do you have a Versa model EcoZoom? If so, how do you like it?
Good to hear that you’ve found it worth the investment! This has been pretty much what I’ve heard people say about it which is affirming. Can’t wait to get ours!
Great ideas! I have considered a dehydrator but it would sit so much in between use. Renting it out makes so much sense if you can trust the people to take care of it while they use it.