Last year, Tim Woolf, a leading preparedness expert, spoke locally. One of my neighbors went to his lecture, and I really wished I had gone when she told me what she had learned. The way I understand it, Tim Woolf was asked to see just how prepared he and his family were by living on just their food storage and preparedness items for several months, with no power, etc. They found out what they had that did not work, what did work, and what they wished they had. He is now a leading expert on preparedness.

Good news! I just found some unofficial notes from Bro. Woolf's lectures that some kind person posted on the internet. This person went to several lectures to get more complete notes. To read the notes, click on this link http://www.weshallnotfear.com/Prep.html and then click on the words "read what else Tim Woolf has to say". A Word document will open in your computer. I recommend saving it to your computer to have as a reference -- that's what I did.

I've made some mistakes over the years with my food storage and have learned from them , but if a disaster hits, it's too late to learn emergency preparedness. As the website I've linked states, "As We Prepare, We Shall Not Fear." First I'll learn about heat, as I'd rather not have my family turn into popsicles in the winter with a power outage -- that's something that I've been worried about. No longer!

The Plan: October through December

In July 2008, I posted the first installment of a tried and true plan for building up food storage, shared by a mother with young children. You will find January through September on my post at this link: The Plan: January through September

It was brought to my attention that I never posted the rest of the plan, so here it is folks! Sorry about that!

Thanks so much to the mom who gave all of this to us in the first place. Some of her comments are in quotes.

"It has been remarkably easy chipping away at this project a bit at a time. We use and restock from our stash all the time. I think we are to our goal of having 3 months worth for all of us when it comes to most items."

Basics:

1. Add the weekly item to your shopping list.
2. Buy the largest amount of each week's item you can sensibly afford.
3. Replace items as you use them.
4. If you miss a week, skip to the next week.
   
5. Don't get behind. Share your hot buys with the rest of us.
6. If your family loves something not listed, buy it and store it.

October

• Week 1 -- One or more gallons of vinegar. Great for cooking, canning and cleaning.
• Week 2 -- Wraps and bags…aluminum foil, garbage bags, freezer bags, saran wrap, wax paper.
• Week 3 -- Do something with all those apples. Pie filling, applesauce, juice, apple butter…
• Week 4 -- Hard candy, candy bars on sale after Halloween.

"We definitely need more water storage. But there are still a couple of months left in the year to get it all done."

November

• Week 1-- Vitamins: get extra C, D, E and calcium
• Week 2 -- Treats for baking. Cocoa, coconut, nuts, butter (freeze it), chocolate chips..get it all.
• Week 3 -- Rolled oats, corn meal, cream of wheat, oatmeal. Stock up on boxed cereal.
• Week 4 -- Vegetable and/or Canola oil. Get a good quality.
  

December

• Week 1-- Candles and matches. Put in a sturdy box that you can locate in the dark.
• Week 2 -- Popcorn. Go for the big 12 pound bag or buy the kernels. (I recommend kernels!)
• Week 3 -- MERRY CHRISTMAS! You've given yourself a great gift—security! Keep it up.
• Week 4 -- Watch for after Christmas sales. Nuts go on sale. Dry roasted ones keep the best. Freeze bagged ones.
  

Get Fresh with Your Bleach!

We are cautioned to only use "fresh bleach" for our water storage. What is "fresh" bleach? For one thing, bleach has a shelf life of only 12 months. So, I'll fill you in on what the people at Clorox told me about deciphering the code stamped on their bleach bottles.

My bleach bottle has two lines stamped, and we only need the top line. Mine says "A8810514". Translation:

* A8 is the plant number where product was manufactured
* Third digit is the year produced. This will always be a single digit number. When we get to 2010, it will have a 0.
* Next three digits are the number of the Julian date code, which tells the day of the year manufactured. This will be listed as the number of days into the year, such as 116 days (116) or 30 days (030). It's always three digits. There are Julian code converters on the web, but you can get a good general idea by dividing 365 by thirds without being perfect with it.
* The rest of the numbers thereafter are not important

For practical purposes, the lady told me that you only need to check four numbers of the code: the third number from the left, which tells you the year and then the next three numbers to see which day in the year the bleach was produced.

If you want to get bleach that is as fresh as possible for water storage, find a store that sells a lot of bleach. Everything I've read is that you want to buy Clorox regular, without scents and such. The reason you use Clorox for water storage is that it has a set amount of chemical and some bleaches are more watered down. If you make sure you have the same amount of chemical in another brand, I imagine that's fine, but I don't know.

Another option for water storage is to use the powdered chlorine that is used in spas. The powder has at least a 15-year shelf-life, but I have yet been unable to get in contact with the expert to tell me how much to use per gallon.

The nitty-gritty of this is that if we use bleach to keep our water safe, we need to refill our water storage containers every year and put in fresh bleach -- I don't think it's a good idea to just add new bleach to water to which you're already added bleach a year ago, as you then have double the chemical, even if the old stuff is not as effective.

If you're still trying to decide where to put your huge water containers, having to empty them and refill them every year might make you decide NOT to put them in your basement. Put them where you have easy access. My barrels are in my garage. Some people store them outside. If stored outside, you will want to leave some unfilled space at the top in case the water freezes completely.

Most important is FILL THOSE BARRELS!!! Soon, the weather will be very cold and you're not going to want to be outside messing around with hoses and water.

Tomato Overload? Put Your Oven to the Rescue!

If you have been busy canning, freezing, and making salsa and sauces of your bountiful tomato harvest, you might be sick of tomatoes. (I was actually glad that my vines froze and I had the excuse to not process any more tomatoes.) Thanks to my neighbor, though, I'm now wishing I had every one of those green tomatoes to ripen in my basement.

D.P. shared something new she is doing -- roasting tomatoes in the oven. So, I tried a couple of pans. Oh, the taste! It's more than just delicious. It's heaven! I think the taste is far better than sun-dried tomatoes. Her recipe:

Mix together in a bowl:

• 12 smaller tomatoes or equivalent (she used anything ripe in her garden), cut in half
• 3 garlic cloves, minced finely
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or salt of choice)
  

Lay tomatoes on parchment (sprayed with baking spray) in a baking pan or bun pan (or just spray the pan lightly with baking spray and put the tomatoes right on the pan). Bake at 250 degrees F or 3-4 hours, checking for doneness -- they won't all be done at once. You don't want the tomatoes completely dry, but will remove them before that (they will stick to the parchment if allowed to completely dry). Cool and put in freezer bags and freeze. Eat plain, with bread and olive oil, or on pizza or pasta.

I didn't have time to do my first batch right away, so I mixed everything and left the tomatoes to marinate overnight in a plastic zip bag, and I think the flavor that way was even better than when the tomatoes were roasted right away. My family loved them so much that with two trays of tomatoes, there were only a handful left to pop in the freezer.

If you're big on preserving enzymes, you can can get a similar flavor by mixing all the ingredients, draining, and dehydrating.

I can't fathom how I could have been missing something as delicious as roasted tomatoes, and from now on, this will be one of my first choices for ripe tomatoes. Thanks, DP for sharing your great recipe!

Saving Tomato Seeds

If you are interested in saving the seeds from an heirloom tomato variety (non-hybrid), Jacque's method is easier than any I've tried before. Thanks Jacque! First, though, some rules about planting properly if you want to save the seeds. Jacque passes this on from the Seed Savers Exchange, and this site will become your friend if you become hooked on heirloom varieties:

"Cross-pollination between modern tomato varieties seldom occurs, except in potato leaf varieties which should be separated by the length of the garden. Do not save seeds from double fruits or from the first fruits of large-fruited varieties. Pick at least one ripe fruit from each of several plants."

What is a potato-leaf variety? Why, the leaves look similar to a potato leaf. My Cherokee Purple tomato is one such, so I would have to keep it far away from other tomatoes. If the tomato is self-pollinated, that variety can be planted closer to other tomato varieties. Check out the photo at left that I got from The Daily Green in their article about saving tomato seeds. The potato-leaf variety is on the left, with the standard kind of tomato leaf on the right.

Jacque's son passed on another hint on how far apart the tomatoes need to be planted in order to save seeds:

"You look at the flowers and if the flower is closed without the stamen sticking out the end then it will only be self-pollinated."

Now for Jacque's method of getting those seeds out of the tomato and ready to store:

• Pick several fully ripe tomatoes (same variety) you want to grow again, choosing a fruit that has the characteristics you like. Get a small recloseable sandwich bag, and squeeze or scoop the seeds out of the tomato into the bag. You'll have juice and some pulp, but try not to get tons of pulp.
  
• Close the bag and label it with the variety of tomato.
• Let the bag sit on your counter for three or four days. After that time, you will see the seeds have separated from the pulp and you will smell a bit of of a rotten smell if you open the bag -- the pulp and juice have fermented, which is necessary to remove the gel that inhibits germination
  
• Pour a little water in the bag and mix it up with the seeds and remaining pulp. (Any seeds that float are no good.) Pour off the pieces of pulp and bad seeds, being careful to keep the other seeds in the bag.
  
• Repeat the last step once or twice until all you have left is seeds.

I discovered the easiest way to get these seeds out of the bag and dry them at the same time is to grab a napkin and poke it at the seeds. The seeds stick and the water is absorbed. Then, you gently rub off the seeds on a small plate and let them dry several days. I put the plate on top of the empty bag to make sure I didn't forget which variety I had.

The blog linked next has some great photos and explanation for this process, just in case you're nervous like I was the first time. They do some steps slightly differently, but that just shows you this is not rocket science and this process is flexible. Urban Veggie Gardener

When the seeds are completely dry, put them in a clean labeled bag or envelope. You're ready for next spring!

The Great Tomato Taste-Off!

All those gorgeous tomatos (see photo) and what a fun activity! The contestants: six hybrid and nineteen heirloom tomatoes from all over the world, most provided by our generous JL.


Heirlooms:
Black Sea Man
Box Car Willie
Cherokee Purple
Cour di Bue
Debbie Beefsteak
Furry Yellow Hog
Great White
Heidi
Jaune Flammee
Kellogg's Breakfast
Koralik
Mormon World’s Earliest
Noir de Crimee
Principe Borghese
Santa Clara Canner
Soldacki
Stupice
Taxi
Yellow Pear


Hybrids:
Beefmaster
Early Girl
Green Zebra
Juliet
Polfast
Roma

We broadened our tomato horizons with all the many wonderful and exotic flavors. Who knew a tomato could remind you of a peach, have a citrusy flavor, or even have slightly smokey overtones? The judges (everyone who came to taste) considered every bite. A serious business indeed. What we discovered was that a tomato has a lot more potential than just a sauce puree or a slice on a hamburger. Think of a colored tomato sauce livening up a bland pasta dish, a gorgeous muli-colored salsa, smokey-toned tomatoes with fish, citrusy flavors with chicken... or any number of creative dishes. (Lucky me, I made a gallon and a half of that gorgeous salsa from the cut tomatoes after the event -- red base with white, yellow, red and green pieces of tomato.)

And the results of the voting are in! The top ten winners are:

1. Furry Yellow Hog (Novelty, yellow-striped, very slightly fuzzy, with a bright citrusy flavor)
2. Great White (Beefsteak. Large, yellowish-white and flavorful, with a creamy texture you could wrap your tongue around.) [tied with #3]
   
3. Yellow Pear (small yellow pear-shaped. Sweet and perfect for salads, this produces prolifically)
4. Green Zebra (Light green and yellow stripes, bred from four heirlooms, with a burst of tangy flavor)
5. Cherokee Purple (dusky rose to purple colored beefsteak, close to 1 lb. Rich, deeply complex, and sweet flavor)
6. Jaune Flammee (Orange-colored, apricot-shaped, with a sweet flavor that would be wonderful dried)
7. Polfast (Early, red, sets fruit in cool weather) [tied with numbers 8, 9, & 10]
8. Roma (standard red Italian paste tomato, with flavor intensified by drying or cooking)
9. Box Car Willie (Smooth, bright-orange/red slicer)
10. Cour di Blue (Heart-shaped with meaty flesh & few seeds, excellent for sun-drying. Deep red.)
    

I'm already planning to grow six of the top ten tomatoes and excited to look at the internet to find some more heirlooms to try. Other tasters will do the same. So, we're already planning to have another Great Tomato Taste-off next year. I can't wait! [Shhh, can you keep a secret? Next year the men get to come, too!]

FYI

Here is an FYI to the post below. A friend tells me the herbal course I took 15 years ago, when I first started tiptoeing (ever so cautiously) into using herbs, is temporarily being offered right now, online, for the same price I paid back then -- only $100 (regularly $495). It's called the Family Herbalist Course, and it's run by the School of Natural Healing in Springville, Utah.

First, is a link describing the course. Family Herbalist Course
Second, is a link where you may (if you are interested) register at the cheaper price (scroll down to Level 100 -- Family Herbalist): http://online.snh.cc/Register.html