new member

[sharron]

Welcome from Oregon

thank you

 

[sharron]

looking forward to learning even more

 

[frustratedearthmother]

looking forward to learning even more

You might be able to teach us a few things!

 

[tortoise]

food , i've always liked to can and freeze but was mostly tomatoes and extra veggies that we didn't eat during the summer, now i can freeze and dry almost everything that not only do we grow and raise, we usually buy a whole beef from a friend but we also have chickens and the kune-kunes that we raise. i don't like the butchering so we have someone else do it but if i had to i could do it, i grew up hunting and fishing with my father so i can process just about anything

Wow! Thats awesome! I have interest in preserving food but I'm just not getting it done. I will be following your posts! My big SS goal is to not be dependent on grocery stores.

 

[sharron]

You might be able to teach us a few things!

thank you for that, but maybe not, mostly i learn from someone else, but it does seem like i have a green thumb, i can take a store bought apple and start a tree from the seeds( sometimes) i've started lemons from restaurant lemon slices in the tea lol, i love to play to see if i can, i got a lot of veggie seeds from store bought veggies and then keeping my seeds from year to year.

 

[baymule]

Girl after my own heart! I love to grow a garden, can, dehydrate and freeze the proceeds. We raise 2 feeder pigs every year, 1 for us, 1 for sale. Currently have a steer for the freezer. Also raise chickens. We raise Katahdin hair sheep too. Having a blast with it all. @Britesea has a freeze dryer and fascinates me with what she does with it!

 

[sharron]

Girl after my own heart! I love to grow a garden, can, dehydrate and freeze the proceeds. We raise 2 feeder pigs every year, 1 for us, 1 for sale. Currently have a steer for the freezer. Also raise chickens. We raise Katahdin hair sheep too. Having a blast with it all. @Britesea has a freeze dryer and fascinates me with what she does with it!

we had 7 little piggies this past summer, was going to keep one for ourselves but i couldn't believe how many people wanted the kune-kunes, ended up selling them all within a week, had one lady call us from new york, so now we don't have one to butcher but thats ok, still have the last one in the freezer, we did raise the katahdins years ago but since we live in pa and winter in florida don't have anyone to take care of them and we hate to put them on our son and granddaughter since they both work weird work hours
been thinking about a freeze dryer, just can't make up my mind , do i really need it since i already do everything else and enjoy it

 

[Britesea]

I like the freeze dryer because there are some foods that I don't like canned or dehydrated (peas, broccoli, etc) and I don't really trust freezers- they can go belly up and then you could lose thousands of dollars' worth of food, depending on how big your freezer is. The down side of the freeze dryer is you can only process about 10 pounds at a time, and it takes from 24 to as much as 40 hours to finish. It's also not an "instant" meal, like opening a can of stew can be; it takes time to rehydrate the food. But I love having another level of food processing available to us. Great for camping!

I wish we had room to raise a pig, but our 1/2 acre is simply too small to be able to set up a pen far enough away from the house that we wouldn't have to smell it all the time... *sigh*

 

[sharron]

Wow! Thats awesome! I have interest in preserving food but I'm just not getting it done. I will be following your posts! My big SS goal is to not be dependent on grocery stores.

i don't understand, why aren't you getting it done? you can do it, since 1970 i canned the way my mil law taught me, water bath and open kettle, was terrified of pressure canning, this year with husbands help, bought two pressure canners, a old presto canner( refurbished it our selves) and a new all american, like i said, with husbands help, getting the hang of the pressure canner, who knows, by the time i hit 75 i might even like it lol
if you can't plant a garden you can maybe find a farmers market or local auction and buy what you want to try, you can do it
i like going to the grocery store once in a while, thats where we see all our neighbors but i like going out to the garden and picking what i want to eat too and its so much better flavor wise and i even enjoy the hoeing

 

[sharron]

I like the freeze dryer because there are some foods that I don't like canned or dehydrated (peas, broccoli, etc) and I don't really trust freezers- they can go belly up and then you could lose thousands of dollars' worth of food, depending on how big your freezer is. The down side of the freeze dryer is you can only process about 10 pounds at a time, and it takes from 24 to as much as 40 hours to finish. It's also not an "instant" meal, like opening a can of stew can be; it takes time to rehydrate the food. But I love having another level of food processing available to us. Great for camping!

I wish we had room to raise a pig, but our 1/2 acre is simply too small to be able to set up a pen far enough away from the house that we wouldn't have to smell it all the time... *sigh*

believe me i understand about the freezer, we lost a whole year of raising turkeys one year, 10 turkeys, not to mention the chickens too but i make sure i check the freezers once a day (have three chest freezers)
we have 5 acres and the pigs aren't smelly, at least not these, the normal big pigs we use to raise, yes, they smell, these don't , maybe cause they're pasture pigs , only problem that i've found, these little piggies are naturally so friendly and talk to you and follow you everywhere if allowed, you should see them come running when they see us in the garden.
never thought i would love a pig, this from a woman whos been afraid of hogs since she was about 12