From the other thread about food production it seems we need a thread for food preservation. So here we go.
We use multiple techniques to store the food we raise or purchase. We have canned kraut, pickles, tomatos, peach butter, pear butter, grape jelly, spiced honey, & bread in a jar (a treat my wife makes to give away for occasion). We have dehydrated, potato's cantaloupe, pineapple, apples, peaches, pears, onions, tomatos, & jerky. The freezer got green beans, corn, okra, tomatos, peaches, & various meats. When we start to slaughter the chickens, they will go there also. Along with the beef we are buying.
A little bit of the thought we put into our ways of preservation: In a MAJOR SHTF situation, say a CME from the sun or a financial collaspe, you can pretty safely assume the fuel supplies are going to go away quickly. Due to this, my immediate plan calls for firing up our outdoor stoves and grills and start canning and dehydrating everything in the freezers possible. I have stored what I believe to be enough LP gas to run the stoves for several days non stop. I also have some gasoline put back to run the generator long enough to keep the freezers/fridge cold until the food is processed. I don't want to use it all up on the genny however due to needing it to run the tiller as far into the future as possible. I choose several yeas ago not to invest into solar due to the cost and lack of effciency. I just couldn't afford enough panels and batteries to power what I needed. While it is pretty sunny here a lot of the time it is partly cloudy, call it 30-70% at times thru out the year. Winter and spring can be very cloudy at times, certainly nowhere near as bad as the PNW, but bad enough to limit available sunlight. Summer is very hazy for weeks on end, this to will reduce the output to some degree. I just felt it wasn't something I wanted to invest in at that time.
My plan is to go more in the direction of running our place like my grandparents families did in the late 1800's-early 1900's. Electricity will not be much of a priority for us.
Bookmarks