52 Pick-up! 5 Gallon Food Storage plan

Here at Wicked Raven Farm, we are always looking to be self sufficient, and one of the best ways to do that is to preserve our own food!  Because we live in Alaska, we aren't always able to grow all of the items that we need to preserve.  So we have a food storage plan that we use so that in case of any emergency or catastrophe we will survive and thrive!

Why, you may ask, would someone know how to do this? What for? Well, I do it because my mother did it!  And her grandmother before her I'm pretty sure! We always had a cold storage room that housed our canned vegetables, meat and potatoes, but also housed an array of buckets and food storage containers.  It was our normal, but I often had friends over who thought it was weird that my mom would ask for products for the kitchen and we would go to the store room and produce a package of what ever it was that she needed.  But one time in about 1976-77 I discovered the reason why I will always be weird this way too!  It snowed, and it snowed, and it snowed.  We got about 4 feet of snow at one time and there was no going anywhere!  We had no power, we were using the wood stove to cook and heat the house, and we were enjoying great meals because of all those 5 gallon buckets full of goodness!  It was more than a week before we could get to the store, and when we did those shelves were bare!  The road crew had to use blasting to carve a snow tunnel on one of the corners and we drove through that until spring came!

I think this is actually a process that the Mormon Church started, this might even be their form.  It is not exactly the one that I use but it is very close and the one I use wont scan well enough to show up on here.

I have added the link below to the form that will help you to make a food storage plan without getting overwhelmed.  Or you can google a 52 week purchasing plan online - there are a whole bunch out there and even some facebook groups dedicated to it.  

http://allaboutfoodstorage.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/weeklypurchasingplan.pdf

The website for the pgward.org also has recipes on it for using your stores up as well.  Don't forget to rotate your stock.  When you buy new items put them on the bottom of the buckets.

One of the things we add to this list is popcorn. Its easy to cook on a wood stove and most everyone likes it.  You can flavor it easily and for us it is comfort food.  Normal in the storm so to speak!

I don't do the water part because we have an alternate water system that enables us to not have to store bottled water, but we do almost all of the rest of it.  I also don't do the flavored gelatin - I use tapioca and plain gelatin for those items.  I also always keep Pectin on hand.  If the power is out for a week or more you may have to make some jelly out of your frozen berries!

The above photo shows the 5 gallon bucket system in my office, part of which is being used as a storage area.  Mostly due to both my hubby and I having some leg issues over the past year, it was way easier then going down to the garage to get certain things, and everything in the garage ends up really dusty which drives me crazy!  In the house is much easier!

Most of the buckets I use are from either purchased food safe buckets or ones that I have reused that we ate all of the peanut butter out of!  We eat about 5 gallons of peanut butter every 6-8 months.  Our local Three Bears store has food safe buckets and I'm sure some of the other box stores will have these too.

We don't stock things that my people won't eat.  We tried quinoa, but none of the boys liked that flavor so it is out.  We do stock a lot of beans and pasta, as well as powder milk, and yes, the protein powder jug in the photo above does have protein powder in it.  Reed has been put on a high protein program due to his rapid growth habit over the past 2 years so we have to supplement for that.  I can't cook that much protein in a day!  We also stock extra buckets of sugar and flour so we never run out, and you might be able to read the one that says "bake mix regular".  Stay tuned for the recipe to make that mix and how easy it is to use.  It says regular because we also keep rice flour on hand for out gluten free guys who are here often enough that we have to be able to feed them easily so I make the mix with rice flour as well.

Don't be afraid to plan for the worst and then you will be happy when you are well prepared when a giant snowstorm, or other disaster happens!

Moose tracks

I have talked many times about the trials of living in moose country, and I know I have mentioned that the cow moose sometimes remember us for years and bring their calves back for a feast on something special from the yard (apple trees, cherry trees, all of the celery)!  But this instance of bringing baby home was new to even my mom who has been gardening for way longer than I have! 

Those are moose tracks in the snow ON TOP of the glass in my cold frame!  Granted - this is a tiny moose - most likely born this past spring- but even so they would weigh well over 100 pounds!  This was after a particularly nasty snow and ice storm and we think he may have been thinking that the greenhouse  window might have some salt on it.

This is the cold frame that is right out back of the greenhouse - actually attached to the greenhouse, so the baby moose must have thought it was just a snow drift and was trying to lick the building or the window.  I cant believe the glass didn't break or even crack!  I got so lucky!  In Alaska, when the roads are really icy, the road service puts a mixture of sand and salt on the roads.  That sand and salt mixture ends up on the vehicles and the moose like to lick that off of the vehicles and get a little of that salt in their diet!

 The above photo shows the service truck with the moose licks on the side of it!  They really do lick the vehicles!  Sometimes the paint gets really scratched from the licking - this vehicle isn't in the kind of shape that it's a concern, but if this were a new truck it could be disastrous!

The next week after the moose tracks were seen on the window, everything melted and a week later it got pretty cold.  This is the design in the frost on that same section of glass!

This is the center section of glass.  It reminds me of lace fabric.  Im pretty sure I can design a fabric or quilt based on this frost pattern!  

This week there is no frost, and no snow - we have had what seems like spring rain all week.  Im pretty sure there will be more moose licks on the vehicles tomorrow or the next day, and maybe some new snow on the glass if it cools off.  Im looking forward to getting growing soon and will be doing some planting during this spring break (which started today - yay) and using the cold frame as something other than a moose lure!

Happy almost spring! 

Ultimate Upcycle - Mirror, Mirror on the wall!

Three years ago - a year after the building of the greenhouse - we had to add about a one foot eave on the barn slant sides of the greenhouse,  We weren't able to get the windows (upcycled of course) to seal, so every time it rained we had water running down the walls!  Not good for my plants, or for the wall wood!


That worked great as a solution to the water problem, but once the green house was full of plants, it started to get a little dark in there.  Everything shaded everything else!  You can see in the above left photo how that eave might make some shade.  So we went into solution mode for that problem.  One of the solutions is mirrors on the ceiling and walls!  Making new openings for windows or changing the blue board out of the ceiling isn't an option right now so we have to use other options.

 The above photo shows a long narrow mirror on the wall of the greenhouse behind some tomato plants.  It helps to reflect the light from the morning, opposite side of the greenhouse back into the room.  None of the mirrors cost me more than $10.00.  Mostly I got them free from people moving and didn't want to deal with them!  Garage sales and thrift stores are also great sources - you can use broken ones even - just use lath to staple the pieces to the wall or ceiling!

This photo shows two of the mirrors on the ceiling of the greenhouse.  This is a shot taken before the plants grew up and obscured the light.  Probably early spring sometime.  So far there are three mirrors on the ceiling and two on the walls.  This has helped greatly but not quite solved my low light problem, especially in winter when it is in short supply. It's also great because some of the mirrors are pretty too!  Because I eventually want to be a year round operation I have to have a way to use natural light so I am only using my off grid solutions when it is truly dark out!  I'm not quite there yet.  Stay tuned to learn how to use tinfoil and space blankets to help the light explode into your dark space!

Chicken Bits!

Here at Wicked Raven we grow a lot of things - one thing we don't grow yet is our own chickens.  We used to have a co-op style coop with a neighbor, but it got to be too much for us as we all work full time (some of us more than one job), most of our kids grew up and moved on, our kids got hurt and had to have physical therapy 30 miles away,  and a critter got in and killed a lot of the chickens!  We will try it again one day when other life things aren't cropping up and we get to spend more time on our farms.

One of the things I love is home made chicken broth.  It is easy to make and is really an upcycle/recycle process the way I do it.  It has less sodium and no goofy fillers or chicken feet parts!  It tastes good and is a crock pot recipe!

When we are making a chicken dish, we clean the chicken and take off the extra fat, skin, and any of the gizzard, neck and tails and we put them in freezer until the time comes to make some broth - or when we have too many "chicken bits" bags in the freezer and they have to go!  We also save the bones from the chicken or if you have a carcass from a roasted chicken - it can all go in the crock or the bits bag.  You can also use turkey.

Start with your bags of chicken bits and your biggest crock pot.  Put the bits in the crock and add 5 quarts of water.  Add 5 stalks of celery diced, 1 whole onion diced, a couple of cloves of smashed garlic,  and about a tablespoon of sea salt.  I don't use much salt in the original broth as I may be adding it to recipes that have salty items - such as sausage or onion soup mix.  It's easier to add more later than have it too salty from the get go.

 Let the whole thing simmer about 8 hours - I usually let it go overnight in the crock pot.  Let it cool and strain the solids out.  Don't discard any chicken meat that may be in there - I always get at least one jar of chicken meat while making broth - don't waste it!

The above photo shows my broth cooking in a large stock pot.  This was a time when I had a lot of chicken bits in the freezer and time to process it all in one batch.

Once the broth is strained, reheat it and pour into the size jars you need, lids and seals on them and process in a pressure canner - quarts for twenty five minutes at 10 pounds of pressure or pints for twenty minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.  If your canning book says something different though - please do follow yours - I have seen differing directions!

Use as you would any chicken broth.  Healthy alternative to the store bought stuff and you know whats in it from beginning to end.  You can process the chicken meat right in the same canner as your broth jars.  Make sure you put the date on the label so you are rotating your broth stock regularly.

Don't be afraid to use other ingredients as well - we have also made beef stock with the fat and "bits" from steaks and such. It was wonderful!  Veggie broth is great as well - Celery tops and carrots work great for this.  Customize your broth to your tastes and have fun with it!