You're Not Gonna Die From This

S.D. and I have been playing with the idea of making sauerkraut at home.  While this could conceivably be the stinkiest idea we've ever come up with, it could also be very rewarding.  

One of the things I kept hearing about on homemade sauerkraut was the possibility of botulism in your handmade product.  I had to find out, as how can you survive the ZA only to fall to botulism poisoning from your own preparedness?  Not a good idea!  So I looked.  And looked.  And searched.  

And came up with nothing.  No scientific proof of botulism from properly made sauerkraut.  na-da.  Oh, there were second hand accounts and "heard once upon a time" storied aplenty, but no actual scientific research, mention or proof.  This also jives with my chemistry background, (and micro and food science) as the pH of sauerkraut is at least one point more acid than botulism can survive and thrive.

The warning I did run into is to never make pickles with homemade and untested vinegar of unknown pH lever.  This is a far cry from "botulism from sauerkraut ate my baby" scare tactics that were going around all over the internet.  There is, by the way, a litmus test for pH of vinegar using, well, litmus paper that is easily acquired off the internet of from a science supply store.  And then you know.  Funny how things can get carried to an extreme simply by word of mouth and not by critical thinking.

In any case, I will be buying cabbage to do this experiment, as my cabbage did less than nothing this year, unless you count a dramatic death-scene that would've been good for a freshman in high school drama class.

I'll keep you posted on the fermenting news as it comes along.  In the meantime, don't get bit, know your exits, grown your own when you can, and stay prepared!

What if We Didn't Notice?

S.D. and I went on our annual state fair date, and among the shuffling hordes, shuffling along, were likely plenty of zombies.  These zombies were easily placated by fried foodstuffs on a stick, but it brought my attention up sharp!  If we were at a populous event and the ZA broke out, would we even notice until it was too late?

Unlike most (S.D. included), I have a strong mental map of the fairgrounds, so escape would not be difficult if necessary, but many other there would become brainy appetizers.  It also occurred to me that perhaps zombies would be easily distracted by shiny 4H displays and crop art, it seemed so at the time.

So, the next day, at home, we took a few more steps to make the house secure, lay in more provisions, and recuperate.  Most people won't understand or "get" the preparedness, so I just don't explain, I just let them think we're nuts.  It's a strategy that works.

Do you know your escape plan for when the time comes?  It could be mighty important!

Dehydrating the Excess

As much as S.D. and I love canning, some things are just better off dehydrated, especially when there is simply NO freezer space left.  The great advantage to dehydrated foods is the compact and permanent nature of the product.  The disadvantage is needing water to rehydrate your product for usage and that they are all very hydrophilic in nature, they need to be in an airtight storage container, or several smaller airtight storage containers to keep the product good for a longer period of time.

Like canning, there is an original energy expenditure for creating the stored form of the product, but then will stay stored without power or energy until used.  Our latest adventures in dehydrating have involved Scotch Bonnet peppers (1/4 bushel will dehydrate and pulverize down to a 4oz dry storage jar), and even more recently, celery.  Today we are venturing into the world of dehydrated onions.

We have a store nearby, and it is a discount grocer who sells almost expired produce at a mighty discount.  Last week, my dear friend, YAM and I took a trip there and I purchased #50 of onions for $15.00.  I felt pretty good about this and feel as though I can be justified in experimenting again.  It is my hope to convert the mass of onions into a lilliputian stored product.

Hang tight as we figure this one out.

Another Reason to Eliminate Your Yard

In the Midwestern city we live in, the Japanese Beetle is starting to encroach on our lands and way of life.  I may or may not battle the JB, I may continue to change our way of life, so to make our land, home and garden as inhospitable as possible, and thus minimize their effect on what I hold to be really important.  I wish to make the nurseries for their young small and undesirable.

Now, the GOONS have come up with a bacteria that kills them, but it takes 1-5 years to take hold and thrive in your garden, and a side-result is that you will likely have to hand-pollinate your flowers.  The drift I get from that is that Paenibacillus (formerly Bacillus) popilliae is going to kill much more than the JB, it will likely kill most everything else, although I do need to perform more research on this to be certain, the research coming out of Ohio State is that it is not terribly effective anyway.

I think instead of putting milky spore on my lawn, I will simply continue to eliminate my lawn.  Lawns as we know them are urban deserts and wastelands that suck resources that really ought not be sucked.  As our neighbors have gifted us with our very own batch of rapidly spreading creeping charlie, the side lawn will fall this autumn to the raised garden bed plan.  Very likely the front yard will get terraced and garden-ized when there are funds to do so.

With no grass to have larvae in, I hypothesize that I can minimize the JB right here and right now.  The neighbors to the west are turning their lawn over to garden, and the neighbor to the east is all thistles.  It is the expansive neighbor to the south that is the most concern, and for that, I shall increase my garden totals of garlic, kale, nasturtium, and anything else I can find that they do not like.

As though we needed another reason to eliminate the urban wastelands of lawns, I encourage everyone to start taking away their habitat, creating a friendlier habitat for all else concerned.