Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Sarah, I too am laying by a lot of baking soda. I too have spent enormous amounts of time pondering the absence of it. I found the answer in Carla Emory’s Encyclopedia of Country Living. It’s on page 220 in my book, under Acid-Base Leavenings. “In the real old days, they used to leaven with wood ash. Ashes are alkaline. If you add a teaspoon of ash to a mixture that contains an acid, such as real sour cream, buttermilk from slightly soured milk, or yogurt, then the two make bubbles. You have to work fast because the bubbles don’t …

Sarah, I just finished reading your article on “all about baking soda” and found this to be very informative. Thank you for your time in researching and writing it. Now I know the technical details of this wonderful product I had been using, same as you, for many years! I also had my question answered as to why my quick bread recipes worked by replacing the valuable egg with vinegar. The seven years my husband and I were sailing with our two children around the world, eggs were very dear when our passages were 1-3 weeks at a time. One …

So, in between my homestead responsibilities, writing for SurvivalBlog, and caring for friends, family, and all of life’s responsibilities and pleasures, I’m still working on that cookbook Hugh and I have mentioned. I have several hundred recipes input into the database, but I am just not satisfied and am still working on additions and improvements. I have our family’s favorites included, but there are many ways that I make each recipe. Most of the time, I cook recipes from scratch with fresh, homegrown ingredients, when they’re in season and I have the time to cook, because that’s the healthiest and …

Good evening, Hugh, Your wife has posted a couple of articles indicating your family uses an industrial vacuum pump for vacuum sealing canning jars; do you have any recommendations on vacuum pumps for this task? How many inches of mercury do you regularly pull on canning jars? I’ve seen a couple of videos on Food Savers indicating they pull about 18 inches, but I suspect 20-21 inches should be more than adequate. She also mentioned you made wood crates for storing and transporting canning jars. I’m getting ready to start making some; any suggestions? What dimensions do you use for …

Hugh, For larger volumes: A Deli Slicer. This is one with a rotating blade with adjustable depth. I don’t know about the above, because I got mine from a second hand store, and it’s an old one built like a tank. It helps for freeze-drying as well as dehydrating. The problem with Mandolin slicers is the pressure or movement for some things to slice and limited capacity, and I even have one with a ceramic blade. The deli slicers make short work of large blocks of food. – T.Z.

Hugh, R.T. may change his mind. I bought a Swissmar mandoline and don’t like it at all. I’m now looking at metal mandolins with legs to hold it up away from the food and not so many parts. I found the Swissmar difficult to use and unnecessarily complicated. Also, the plastic “pusher” is breaking already. Excalibur has a couple that look good.

Even in very hot climates, below ground soil temperatures can be cooler than an air-conditioned house or garage. When you have a house on a slab, and dug root cellars are impossible because of high water table levels, you can still “build up” by putting in an earth berm and storing preps under it. If you have enough land, you can make the berm part of decorative landscaping, or use it to increase privacy and reduce noise from the road. Even on smaller plots, you may be able to use an earth temperature moderating technique that is more common in …

Dear Editor: I bought the food slicing mandoline recommended in the article on the topic of food dehydrating: “So Tell Me Again…”- Part 2, by M.P. the very morning the article appeared and have used it frequently ever since. I’ve used it primarily for making sauerkraut and other pickled vegetables as well as hash browns. Until the article I would’ve scoffed at the idea of paying $20 for something that I could already do with the knives in our drawer, a food slicer and a food processor; but now I concur on its usefulness. Perhaps it’s even a necessity if …