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angela

Testing Seed Germination Rates

25 Apr 2012
angela
1 response

If you have seed saved from prior years, it is a good idea to test the germination rate before planting your whole garden with it. Depending on the rate of germination, you can decide if you want to plant normally, plant more thickly, plant single sprouts, or just toss the seed out and start with fresh seed.

Testing seed germination also just happens to be a requirement for the Boy Scouts’ Gardening merit badge, so my son got to do this project for us this year while I took pictures. Here’s how we do it.

1. Gather the seed you want to test. Just for fun, I gave him some cucumber seed I had left from the survival seed can packed for planting in 2000. That’s 12 year old cucumber seed.
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Tags: Education, experiment, Gardening, Howto, Practice, Saving Seeds, Seeds, testing

New Products Announced at Shelf Reliance Convention

17 Apr 2012
angela
0 responses

As a consultant for Shelf Reliance, I had the opportunity to attend their annual convention in Salt Lake this past weekend. It was exciting, educational, and exhausting (especially with my 10 month old in tow). There were quite a few new product announcements that I’d like to let you know about, so before they even get the new products launched on the site, I’m letting you in on them right here.

NEW THRIVE PRODUCTS:

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Tags: Cooking, Food, Food Storage, Shelf Reliance, Thrive

Reusable Canning Lids

20 Oct 2011
angela
4 responses

How many canning lids do you have in your storage? Canning in a long term emergency situation means having the supplies to do it. You’ll need your canner, jars, rings, and of course those pesky lids. Lots of them. Those lids that you can only use once and then you need a new lid. And once you’ve used your stash of lids, then what? Or is there a better way? What about canning lids that can be used over and over?

Last fall I tried some Tattler reusable canning lids. I canned jam, tomatoes, and salsa with them. The Tattler company has been making these lids since 1976. They are two pieces–a plastic lid and a rubber gasket. You’ll need the metal rings that came with your jars or you can buy some extras on the Tattler site if you’re short on rings. The lids are BPA free and made in the USA. Tattler has them available for wide mouth and regular jars. The upfront cost of $7.00-$8.00 per dozen is, of course, more than the metal lids, but with regular re-use they pay for themselves pretty quickly.

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Tags: Canning, Food Storage, preps, Storing Systems, supplies

Variety in Your Food Storage is a Good Thing

27 Jun 2011
angela
3 responses

Way back in 1998 sweet husband and I were just getting serious about our food storage. That’s shortly before we had any kids. We had the opportunity to do some canning at the LDS dry pack cannery and so we sat down to figure out what to can.

Well, we didn’t have a wheat grinder and didn’t really know what to do with wheat, so that was out. I’m not sure why we ruled out oatmeal or sugar or whatever else, but we did decide we both liked white rice so we meticulously counted up how much white rice we’d need if we ate it for every meal for an entire year. True story. And that is what we canned. A whole lot of white rice. Now I know you’re all giggling at the fact that you really can’t live on white rice alone for a year without suffering some serious nutritional issues, but we were young and didn’t think through this very well.

So let me tell you what happens when you buy that much white rice. (more…)

Tags: Food, Food Storage

Honeyville Grain is Having a Sale!

20 Apr 2011
angela
1 response

Just when you thought food prices were going up everywhere, Honeyville Grain is having a 10% off sale today through Friday at 6 pm PST. That’s only 3 days, but if you’ve been in the market for some food storage, now’s a great time to get some. Honeyville is one of my favorite places to shop–that’s where I get my 6 Grain Cereal and Gluten Flour. To get the 10% off, simply enter coupon code: “HOPHOP11” during checkout.

And don’t let the name fool you, they have more than just grains. They also have freeze dried fruits and vegetables and some really tasty hot cocoa (the French Vanilla is my favorite). And you know there’s more, so go browse around their site a bit and see if they have what you’re wanting.

Normally, their prices are a little higher than other places, but they only charge a flat $4.49 shipping anywhere in the continental US for your whole order–not per item. So, that great shipping rate plus the 10% off should make for a fair deal on some good quality food delivered to your doorstep. While you’re there, sign up for their newsletter and you’ll be notified every time they have a sale. Remember, for this sale enter coupon code: “HOPHOP11” during checkout anytime from now until this Friday 4/22/11 at 6:00 pm PST. Happy shopping!

New address for Adventures in Self Reliance

07 Feb 2011
angela
0 responses

Hey all, it’s Angela here, interrupting the heat and light series to let you all know that my Adventures in Self Reliance blog has moved to a new location at Food Storage and Survival. And I’ve got some great giveaways going until Feb 14th, so make sure you check out the giveaway post while you’re there. Thanks! That is all. Back to your regularly scheduled posts. :)

Tags: blogs, Links

Super Easy Currant Jelly

20 Jul 2010
angela
4 responses

Our currant bushes finally put on enough currants this year that the kids couldn’t keep up with eating them all, so we had currants left to make some currant jelly.
This is super easy jelly to make and one of my favorite flavors because it’s a nice combination of tart and sweet. Here’s what you’ll need:

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Tags: Canning, Food, Food Storage, Gardening, Howto, Recipe

Great Powdered Milk Taste Test and Review

04 Mar 2010
angela
33 responses

This post is cross posted from my blog.

Ever wanted to find a powdered milk that tastes good? You’re not alone. So just in case you don’t want to go through the expense and hassle of trying out every kind of powdered milk you can find, read on. I did it for you.

After a comment about the flavor of powdered milk on another post, I hatched a plan to have folks try a bunch of different kinds of powdered milks to maybe find one that tasted good so this reader and anyone else who wants to know (including me) will know which brands would be best to buy because you know powdered milk is not cheap. I had some super help with this milk experiment from Emergency Essentials, Grandma’s Country Foods, Walton Feed, Blue Chip Group (now Augason Farms), and Honeyville Grain who all donated some of their milk for the review. Thank you to all of you–we couldn’t have done it without you! (more…)

Tags: Canned Foods, Food, Food Storage, Milk, Reviews

Got Old Oil in Your Food Storage in Utah or Southern Idaho?

22 Jan 2010
angela
0 responses

Want to donate some to a study on food storage oils at BYU? I love food storage experiments, so you know I’m letting them have some of my old stuff. If you’d like to help out the oil study, see the details here. They are looking for vegetable oils that have been in food storage 6 months to 5 years. Right now my oldest oil in storage is only 2 1/2 years old. Bummer. I’ve had older stuff before I would have loved to donate. Anyway, contact Ann Saunders at BYU if you’ve got some old oil they can experiment on. :)

Tags: Food Storage

Making Canned Milk Products from Powdered Milk

05 Jan 2010
angela
3 responses

When I started storing food, I thought it would be a good idea to store forms of canned milk like evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. I bought quite a few cans and have used most of them over the years. However, I only have two recipes I regularly make that call for evaporated milk, and one that calls for sweetened condensed milk, so I did not use every can I purchased before they expired. (more…)

Tags: Food, Food Storage, Howto, Recipe

Preparedness Stocking Stuffer Swap

04 Dec 2009
angela
0 responses

You all know Christmas is coming. If your house is anything like mine, you’ve got stockings to fill, and usually Santa is a little more sparse on the grown-ups stockings. Do you stuff your own? Use a sticky note to remind your Santa not to forget the stocking? End up with stuff in there that you really don’t want or need? Of course I’ve never had any of those happen, I’m just asking ;)

Anyway, this year, I thought I’d have a little stocking stuffer fun, so I am hosting a preparedness stocking stuffer swap over at my blog. If you are interested in giving and receiving some fun preparedness/self reliance related stocking stuffers this year, please join in the fun. Here’s the basics: I will assign each participant a new friend for whom they will prepare and ship a stocking full of prep related goodies. And another new friend will be shipping goodies to you. How fun is that? And if your Santa is really on the ball and already stuffs your stocking, you can just call it a preparedness gift exchange. :)

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