sweetcorn
Lovin' The Homestead
Lol , yuppp !!
The bean thing
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- Start date
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
I love beans. I started saving my own beans and now am growing my own dry beans on purpose. They cook a lot faster and come out more tender. I have hard water too and only have problems with beans on rare occasion and only with store bought beans. I soak mine overnight, poor the water out (into the garden), then put in fresh water and bring to a boil (I will occasionally add a fresh bayleaf and or fresh garlic to the beans at this time) . Then I let them simmer until the skins can be blown off. That is when I add other ingredients or take some out to use in salads or to freeze or whatever.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Certified Bean Hater here 
Can't even stand a jelly bean now!
As the youngest of nine kids, beans were too often on the menu and I just could not stand the texture. The taste never bothered me, the texture made me gag a maggot!
My mother would make me sit in front of that cold bowl of beans for hours, until I ate it, gagging and wretching. She always told me, if I puked, I would have to eat that too.
To this day, beans are off the menu for me.
Can't even stand a jelly bean now!
As the youngest of nine kids, beans were too often on the menu and I just could not stand the texture. The taste never bothered me, the texture made me gag a maggot!
My mother would make me sit in front of that cold bowl of beans for hours, until I ate it, gagging and wretching. She always told me, if I puked, I would have to eat that too.
To this day, beans are off the menu for me.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Rice. Rice is good. Not protein, but very versatile source of nutrition in hard times.
- Thread starter
- #35
I want to thank everybody for all their ideas and suggestions and has got me thinking a little differently,.one of which is to store foods that I will eat. I will however try some of those bean recipes because I want to stretch my food dollar, being unemployed for the last two years is a big factor in this. Thought about getting a working wife but will try the beans first.
I am in the initial stages of testing a solar oven and so far it looks good, when perfected I will build an adapter to convert it into a dehydrator. After a few suggestions of dried foods I looked into it and seems like a good way to get nutrition all winter long from my garden vegetables. As I type this I am drying peppers and tomatoes in my convection oven as a test of what they will be like.
I bought this house as an investment 5 years ago and moved into it 2 years ago after quitting my job and have been remolding it ever since. Once sold next year I will be building a 100% self sufficient retirement cabin which is why I joined this forum.
To date I have built a solar collector water heater that works great and will not only supply me with domestic hot water but also hydronic floor heat for the mild winters here. I tested this when it was 28F outside and it made 10 gallon of 125F water in 3 hours.
I converted a small chest freezer into a refrigerator that uses only 100 watts of electricity a day which is 25 time less then a conventional refrigerator. The solar oven will make larger batches of food when sunny out and stored in the fridge for when its not, only needing a small amount of propane to reheat. single servings.
I have plans for a solar distiller to make potable water from the rain water harvesting system, I will have an RO filter but those cartridges are expensive to replace and only use it when necessary.
Since I will be off the power grid I have solar voltaic panels and a backup generator, also have all the parts to build a human powered bicycle generator that should make enough power in an hour to keep the refrigerator and computer running for a full day.
Being a industrial automation electrician for the better part of 3 decades I can MacGyver most anything with cast aside parts, and I have 2 bedrooms and a shed full of them.
Thanks again for al the info
I am in the initial stages of testing a solar oven and so far it looks good, when perfected I will build an adapter to convert it into a dehydrator. After a few suggestions of dried foods I looked into it and seems like a good way to get nutrition all winter long from my garden vegetables. As I type this I am drying peppers and tomatoes in my convection oven as a test of what they will be like.
I bought this house as an investment 5 years ago and moved into it 2 years ago after quitting my job and have been remolding it ever since. Once sold next year I will be building a 100% self sufficient retirement cabin which is why I joined this forum.
To date I have built a solar collector water heater that works great and will not only supply me with domestic hot water but also hydronic floor heat for the mild winters here. I tested this when it was 28F outside and it made 10 gallon of 125F water in 3 hours.
I converted a small chest freezer into a refrigerator that uses only 100 watts of electricity a day which is 25 time less then a conventional refrigerator. The solar oven will make larger batches of food when sunny out and stored in the fridge for when its not, only needing a small amount of propane to reheat. single servings.
I have plans for a solar distiller to make potable water from the rain water harvesting system, I will have an RO filter but those cartridges are expensive to replace and only use it when necessary.
Since I will be off the power grid I have solar voltaic panels and a backup generator, also have all the parts to build a human powered bicycle generator that should make enough power in an hour to keep the refrigerator and computer running for a full day.
Being a industrial automation electrician for the better part of 3 decades I can MacGyver most anything with cast aside parts, and I have 2 bedrooms and a shed full of them.
Thanks again for al the info
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
Wow, looks like you are really getting your self suffient stuff together!!
I've been wanting to tinker with a solar oven, but then something always happens and I get distracted. I actually have a black metal box, that I think would work well with a sheet of clear pexiglass on top or even real glass. I just have to do the experientation as far as actual cooking is concerned.
Has anyone here cooked with a solar oven?
I've been wanting to tinker with a solar oven, but then something always happens and I get distracted. I actually have a black metal box, that I think would work well with a sheet of clear pexiglass on top or even real glass. I just have to do the experientation as far as actual cooking is concerned.
Has anyone here cooked with a solar oven?
- Thread starter
- #37
Denise, Don't use plexiglass it is not suitable for the temperature and ultra violet sun rays, I am using an old storm window and seems to work good. Tempered glass is recommended even uv resistant poly carbonate works good, my collector is made with a suntuff 8'x4' poly panel that cost $36 and weighs about 2 pounds.
Saturday is suppose to be clear skies and since I don't have any beans yet will try rice instead. I will let you know how it works after the test. Also will make a new thread later and post pictures of my endeavors.
added oven link:
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2998
Saturday is suppose to be clear skies and since I don't have any beans yet will try rice instead. I will let you know how it works after the test. Also will make a new thread later and post pictures of my endeavors.
added oven link:
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2998
Wifezilla
Low-Carb Queen - RIP: 1963-2021
Found this while looking for recipes to toss in to my stash of dried beans....
"HEALTHY PINTO BEANS - and PEOPLE
About 20 years ago, someone noticed that the people in one remote village (A) on the East coast of Mexico were very healthy, yet the people in another remote village (B) about 70 miles away were not healthy. Their diets were virtually identical: a little fish, their home grown beans, some corn, and a few vegetables. The soil conditions and water available for gardening were virtually identical, and the villagers used similar clay crocks or jugs for storing their harvests.
Another obvious difference between the two villages was that the first one was able to store beans from one harvest to the next, but the poorer villagers often ran out of stored beans, as bean weevils destroyed their dried beans.
The people in village A were healthy and industrious, their children full of energy, with strong limbs and teeth, ran to their tasks and games as healthy children do. Meanwhile, in village B, the people were listless, did less work, and the children all had symptoms of rickets and scurvy.
So what could make such a tremendous difference in the health of people in two neighboring villages? After considerable study, it turned out there were two things the people of the distant villages were doing differently.
In village A, a watchful villager had noticed that bean weevils had to brace themselves against one bean in order to gnaw through the hard outer shell of another bean. So they only filled their storage crocks three-fourths full, and once a month would shake them. The shaking of the beans would by itself kill the been weevil larvae, and thus their beans would remain unharmed in storage.
Again, in village A, persons long before had noticed that beans were hard to digest, which meant that all of the food value was not being extracted from them. So they added a teaspoon full of wood ashes (lye) to the soaking water for their beans, then rinsed the beans and discarded the soaking water before cooking. The lye altered the state of the lysine in the beans, so the available amino acids were much more readily assimilated by the human digestive tract. It worked: they were healthy.
You are wondering if the researchers took those lessons from Village A back to Village B, and everything turned out just fine, like in a fairy tale, right? Well, they tried, but the B villagers said they had been growing and saving beans for years, they knew what they were doing, and something as simple as shaking their beans was dumb, and they weren't going to put any wood ashes in their beans. Sounds like the tale of the ant and the grasshopper to me!"
This story reminds me of findings about traditionally prepared tortillas vs modern flour tortillas. The old way uses corn soaked in lye and actually provided a lot of calcium. The new way is just refined crap.
"HEALTHY PINTO BEANS - and PEOPLE
About 20 years ago, someone noticed that the people in one remote village (A) on the East coast of Mexico were very healthy, yet the people in another remote village (B) about 70 miles away were not healthy. Their diets were virtually identical: a little fish, their home grown beans, some corn, and a few vegetables. The soil conditions and water available for gardening were virtually identical, and the villagers used similar clay crocks or jugs for storing their harvests.
Another obvious difference between the two villages was that the first one was able to store beans from one harvest to the next, but the poorer villagers often ran out of stored beans, as bean weevils destroyed their dried beans.
The people in village A were healthy and industrious, their children full of energy, with strong limbs and teeth, ran to their tasks and games as healthy children do. Meanwhile, in village B, the people were listless, did less work, and the children all had symptoms of rickets and scurvy.
So what could make such a tremendous difference in the health of people in two neighboring villages? After considerable study, it turned out there were two things the people of the distant villages were doing differently.
In village A, a watchful villager had noticed that bean weevils had to brace themselves against one bean in order to gnaw through the hard outer shell of another bean. So they only filled their storage crocks three-fourths full, and once a month would shake them. The shaking of the beans would by itself kill the been weevil larvae, and thus their beans would remain unharmed in storage.
Again, in village A, persons long before had noticed that beans were hard to digest, which meant that all of the food value was not being extracted from them. So they added a teaspoon full of wood ashes (lye) to the soaking water for their beans, then rinsed the beans and discarded the soaking water before cooking. The lye altered the state of the lysine in the beans, so the available amino acids were much more readily assimilated by the human digestive tract. It worked: they were healthy.
You are wondering if the researchers took those lessons from Village A back to Village B, and everything turned out just fine, like in a fairy tale, right? Well, they tried, but the B villagers said they had been growing and saving beans for years, they knew what they were doing, and something as simple as shaking their beans was dumb, and they weren't going to put any wood ashes in their beans. Sounds like the tale of the ant and the grasshopper to me!"
This story reminds me of findings about traditionally prepared tortillas vs modern flour tortillas. The old way uses corn soaked in lye and actually provided a lot of calcium. The new way is just refined crap.
big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
Wow, that is very interesting Wifezilla.
If one were to soak corn in wood ashes, would you do it before it was ground while it was whole and dry? How long etc. And you are just talking wood ashes right? (This stuff is so new to me, so I have tons of questions.)
If one were to soak corn in wood ashes, would you do it before it was ground while it was whole and dry? How long etc. And you are just talking wood ashes right? (This stuff is so new to me, so I have tons of questions.)
noobiechickenlady
Almost Self-Reliant
Thats how you make hominy. Soak the whole corn in lye, lime or ash water. When the corn is somewhat swollen, bring to a boil, and use a plunger device (butter churn works well, I've heard) to gently churn the corn so the hulls & tip come off & float in the water.
Then you rinse repeatedly in hot water, removing all the hulls & tips (along with with lye) churning as you go to make sure you get all the corn pieces done.
Once all the corn tips & hulls are gone, rinse a final time until the water runs clear, heat up some butter & fry the corn til tender.
Or dry it & grind it to make grits or cornmeal. Mmmmm
Then you rinse repeatedly in hot water, removing all the hulls & tips (along with with lye) churning as you go to make sure you get all the corn pieces done.
Once all the corn tips & hulls are gone, rinse a final time until the water runs clear, heat up some butter & fry the corn til tender.
Or dry it & grind it to make grits or cornmeal. Mmmmm
