Food Prices, Shortages & Inflation - The Trash Index

[freemotion]

DH uses an old iron (to iron clothes) to seal the mylar bags here.

Great idea! You could use your good iron if you don't have an old one by putting foil on the mylar and brown paper from a bag on top of the foil, then ironing through that. Read that in instructions for waxing cloth. Should work, right?

 

[Wifezilla]

It should. Or you can get a teflon fabric sheet. They sell them as flat sheets or as shaped iron covers.

 

[Mackay]

Just google "making ghee". All you are doing it heating it until the milk fat solids drop to the bottom of the pan. Then you strain.

As for storage, put it in a canning jar when it is still hot and seal it.

And I am a born optimist, but I always still have a plan b...cuz life is weird and stuff. ALWAYS!

I had purchased a few cans of canned butter from New Zealand... kinda spendy but at the time I was imagining life without butter and I freaked out and spent way to much of course.

The shelf life is 15 years.... it does not say ghee, it says butter, so I'm guessing that butter can be canned but I don't know how.

 

[CrimsonRose]

How to can butter!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmmyS7z1UNI

sources say it will stay good for 3 years!

 

[Bettacreek]

I don't have anywhere to store 15lbs of butter now

This wont help Bettacreek much, but if you even find yourself with too much butter and no freezer space, make GHEE!!!

Ghee, or clarified butter, has all the water and milk fat solids removed leaving pure oil. It can store this way for years.

Good idea. I'd just have to hide it from myself or I'd die of eggs benedict over-dose if I had that much clarified butter ready-to-use!!!

 

[k0xxx]

While perusing the latest over at FinancialTimes.com, I came across their commodities page. Wow! Commodities are really starting to take off. Year to date the price have increased dramatically.

Corn is up 65%
Wheat 49%
Soybeans 33%
White Sugar 34%
Orange Juice 43%
and is up Coffee 50%

In the non food categories...
Lumber is up 39%
and Cotton is up a whopping 122% (I've got to order me a new pair of overalls!)

 

[i_am2bz]

While perusing the latest over at FinancialTimes.com, I came across their commodities page. Wow! Commodities are really starting to take off. Year to date the price have increased dramatically.

Corn is up 65%
Wheat 49%
Soybeans 33%
White Sugar 34%
Orange Juice 43%
and is up Coffee 50%

Altho I'm not as economically-challenged as I am electricity-challenged (I did take a few econ classes in college, but that was 30 years ago ), how does all this translate into real-world prices at the grocery store? For instance, I haven't noticed that a pound of coffee has gone up 50% since last year...

Also, we've all been kvetching about the price of butter going up dramatically, but I haven't really seen a corresponding increase in milk prices, which seems strange to me - you need milk to make butter, right? So what is it that's making butter prices go up...? :/

 

[Wifezilla]

It translates in to higher prices on the way. Grocery stores had been absorbing some of the cost, but they can't do that forever. Also things like frozen veggies went from 16oz bags to 12oz bags at many places. King Soopers in one store I noticed this change a few months back.

As for milk, not sure. With price supports, subsidizing, and other USDA shinanigans, it is hard to tell what the real price is.

Butter was selling for $2/lb a few months ago. Now it is $3.14/lb

A large bag of 8:00 coffee (whole bean columbian roast) was selling for $11. Now it is $13.

Once prices rise at the commodities trading level, it takes a while to trickle up the system.

You have been warned.

Now the only thing on Knoxx's list I actually buy is coffee. Been stocking up

 

[FarmerChick]

our store brand of butter went from $2.69/lb to $2.89/lb and it ticked me off, so next stop at Sams I am loading up cause I know it will be way less than $2.89 in the jumbo package


yes food prices still increasing--I still see the .20 and .30 increases in the products I buy--and that is still happening even tho they increased prices already on those products

price increases sure are not over by a long shot



and toys
my gosh the price of toys this Christmas seem unreal
everything for Nicole that she wants is in the $49 to $99 price range--for crappy plastic---wow am I being super frugal on those buys lol

 

[i_am2bz]

Once prices rise at the commodities trading level, it takes a while to trickle up the system.

You have been warned.

Now the only thing on Knoxx's list I actually buy is coffee. Been stocking up

Gotcha. So we got a few more days/weeks/months to hoard before it gets REALLY bad.

And yes, packaging is getting smaller in an attempt to hide the price increases.