Barbara Manning

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Gilbert Fritz wrote:I'm looking into storing large amounts of dried vegetables. How can I do this without breaking the bank for mason jars? Will freezer bags work for a few months?

I have also found at Temu a little gadget that reseals containers. It's great for leftovers in Mason jars (regular and wide mouth)! You just place a lid (No ring!) on your full jar and press the button and it seals. Abracadabra!
Because it uses a vacuum, it's pretty safe. Just don't use them *instead* of canning if the food is to be canned. Many companies are selling them now:
https://www.floreviaboutique.com/product-p-308073.html

I have one of those gadgets and it works well to seal the contents of glass jars.  I've sealed dehydrated meat & veg (carrots, beans, mushrooms, beef jerky, etc.) and been happy with popping the seal, using what I need and resealing. Almost all my dried beans and legumes are saved this way.  I also have a vacuum sealer, which works well too, but I am less enamored with the amount of plastic waste that the process generates. This YT videoer gives a lot good advice.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HElNfFqrgfM&t=412s Enjoy!

I generally use a drip cone to make the single cup of coffee I drink in the morning. I do have a French press, and a perc pot when I need to make coffee for multiple people at one time. When using the French press, I'll add the coffee, then some boiling water and give it a good stir. Then add the rest of the water and add the lid and wait up to 7 minutes before I use the plunger. I like James' idea of pressing just to the water line, but I don't think it would work in my French press (which is the one that R. Ransom has).

For me, the biggest change to my coffee routine was when I started adding chicory to the coffee. I don't measure, and I don't grind the coffee daily. I have espresso beans from Segafredo Zanetti Espresso (an Italian outfit, doing business in Japan). I have a 10.5 oz Chock Full of Nuts coffee can that I use. I grind about 8 oz of coffee into it. Then I add about 2 oz of ground chicory. I stir or shake to mix the coffee and chicory before I pour it into the can (which sits in the 'fridge). The coffee lasts about a month or a bit more, depending on my travel schedule.  I find that the chicory mellows out the coffee. It's still rich and fragrant, but the bitterness and any other "off flavor" is gone.

I'm pretty sure some of you will be horrified at this rather casual approach to a cuppa Joe, but for me, my precise measurements go into other cooking processes. Chicory is pretty easy to get ahold of if you want to buy the ground and prepared product, but evidentially,  it's also a good "second crop" as it's sown in late June or early July.  Growing it and plowing it under seems to be good for the soil as well.

Les Frijo wrote:Yep just typed a long reply. Tried to post it. Dumb page came up telling me I'm basically dumb for taking too long. hit back button and all gone. Turning off computer and walking away now.

You are not alone Les Frijo. I think we've all been there.  But I will take Anne's advice and create/edit in Word, then copy it to Permies to post.  

Is there a way to get a written but not submitted post back? Is this a pressing need or am I just a nimrod for closing the tab before I was done?

I was building a post to the Cooking with Dry Beans and Peas thread in the cooking |frugality |beans section of the site when I closed the wrong tab and poof it was gone. Sigh. I doubt there is a way to resurrect it, but is it a feature you think you might need? Even a violator saying "Are you sure?" before sending the data off into the twilosphere would be helpful for us with fat fingers and flying mouse moves.

Thanks!

r ransom wrote:Wouldn't that be nice.  

The number parcels I've had end up delayed by going to California is ridiculous. One shipping company uses both international 2 letter codes and usa state 2 letter codes. And then confuses itself.  Instead of traveling from one side of the city to the other for next day delivery, my parcel gets a week vacation in California.  Then the company tries to charge me brokerage and duty (twice).  It's a real pain.

R. Ransom, Let me tell you a story.  

I have had a lot of success by digging around to find the Apex predator of the companies that bring me pain. The trick is to find the corporation that owns whatever bullroar company owns the mopes who are ignoring you, or otherwise making your life unmanageable.   There is nothing more dynamic and satisfying than having the holding company's CEO's office calling the president of the company that giving you s**t to dress them down for dissing a constituent.

My best story is to tell you that for 20 fricking years, the company that pretended to "manage" my pension, sent letters to me to tell me how great they were doing for me. But when I called the number they had in all their letters, the CSR (customer service rep) response was rude, abrupt, and disinterested. As far as they were concerned, I was not their client and I did not have an account.

It took a little time to find the parent company, and to write a terse letter to the CEO of the international holding company telling him (it's always a him, isn't it?) that if, in fact they did not owe me the money that they continued to tell me was in my pension account, then that they could possible be overstating the amount they needed to hold in reserve for future pensioners. This is a big deal for large corporations that need to hold monies in reserve to pay to its employees in the future -- it's money they cannot invest in current expansions or projects. They can invest in very conservative assets, but not much more. In short, I appealed to their greed.

I told him I was enough of a data manager that I understood that my account was not an anomaly -- that it represented a small but significant number of accounts that, for his company could represent quite a bit of cash being held in reserve that could be put to use today. I was rude, abrupt, callous, and very disrespectful to whatever company they hired or department they used to manage their employee retirement accounts. Basically, I told him to "man-up" and figure out WTF was happening with the mopes he or his minions hired to manage the retirement accounts.  The letter included the time and date and the fact that the last CSR that I spoke with not only told me I did not have an account, but also was unwilling to tell me how to identify him or his location. It included the "Oh yay! Aren't we doing a swell job for you," original letter and the disrespect and possible abuse I experienced with on the telephone with the CSR.

I was not out of control, but I was very angry at the treatment from a international company that I worked for in 2 countries for 10 years. I wrote the letter, spent a few days editing and document it, then sent it registered to the overseas corporate office.  Imagine my surprise when weeks later, I got a mailed response from the HQ office of the CEO. He assigned one of his, well, someone who reported directly to him, told me that indeed I did have a retirement account with them and added a specific person in the US to call. Given that I have never personally met the CEO of ANY company I've worked for, this was a big deal.

I called the person he mentioned in the email and very quickly transferred the money into an account I could manage directly.

Here, my laboriously written bla bla bla can be reduced to an example of the Squeaky Wheel Syndrome, and possibly a grand Winston Churchill quote: "Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense." delivered in a speech to Harrow School in October 1941 - during possibly some of the darkest days for the UK during  WWII.

I will be cheerful in helping you write a finely crafted letter to the nettlesome company that has yet to figure out international shipping.  As an American expatriate, I am uniquely qualified to re-write and/or edit your letter to them. If they continue to be unresponsive, I can help you find other companies that can provide the products or services you need without the crapola you are currently forced to endure. I think I am well versed and can help you tame the beast in the company you are currently working with and/or find a company that can provide what you need with far less hassle.

We all need more peace in 2026. Let's start here.
Happy New Year, everyone.
Barbara




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Dustin Waller wrote:Just curious,
Is FL /or FLA understood unanimously? 🙄

Unlikely. I'm assuming you are referring to the US state of Florida, but is my assumption correct?
Also, I get the 2 letter abbreviations for Alabama and Alaska confused all the time. I'm just lucky that I don't know anyone who lives in either state.
I think we citizens of the world should simply abandon the two-letter US State abbreviations altogether, in favor of spelling the WHOLE state name on the envelope.

First let me say that I am well out of my league here. But, as a urban "farmer" there are some techniques and tips you may be able to use from Cassandra Brown at Becoming a Farm Girl. She has a YouTube channel of the same name and this website: https://becomingafarmgirl.com/. I also learn from her newsletter, "No-Acre Almanac:" Homesteading Wisdom, No Farm Required

While you may not need all the tips and techniques she shares, I think you might benefit from her talks on vertical gardening, fermenting, canning, and other preserving methods.  I would also encourage you to plant as much vegetable variety as you can. Having lived on a delicious and very hearty potato and ham soup for a mere 5 days, I can attest to how immediate the need to savor something else arises. Your 9 people will want variety.

I would also encourage you to read the recipes at least in Eat more, Weigh less by Dr. Dean Ornish and anything by Christina Pierello. Christina, like Our Fearless Leader, survived cancer by changing her diet.

I realize my experience in permaculture is tiny, some will say non-existent, but I've learned a lot from all three of these sources.  Good luck. You're doing a good thing.

Alina Green wrote:Some people buy chicken feet (aka "back scratchers"  haha) to add to bone broth, for the gelatin in all that skin and connective tissue...and toenails.  ugh.

You are so correct. Where I live I have to buy chicken feet, but the resultant broth was so delicious. I'll buy them once again but prepare them separately and add the resultant gelatin to individual brews. I suppose they would work in beef bone broth, but unless it was a voluminous beef broth, it might change the flavor. What  do you think?

wayne fajkus wrote:Prepping batch 2. Bones are frozen. I will take the advice of roasting the bones in the same pot. Great advice!

Yep. If you can, roast and boil/simmer them in the same pot.  You'll save yourself some clean up, and retain all of the flavor bits.

I don't salt my bone broth because I treat it as an ingredient in something else, and I know I'll be salting the end product.

Also, rather than boil the bones and toss the first batch of water, try cleaning the bones (or do as I do and used them direct from the source) and keep the water you use to boil them for the balance of the broiling/cooking might help with the gelling factor.  You may find that during the first boil, a dirtyish foam forms on the surface of the water. I use a skimmer to remove the foam.

Roasting the bones for a longer period of time and simmering the bones for a longer time will also give you a darker, richer broth. Having said that, purchased broth often has food coloring in it. The whole point of making your own is to reduce or eliminate all the additives, preservatives and unpronounceable ingredients. Try adding blackstrap molasses if you want to have a darker color. It's a processed product but less so than than the common commercially available browning sauces. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/benefits-blackstrap-molasses

Here's that Chef Google says about getting a good gel in a bone broth:
"The element of beef bones that makes the resulting broth gel is collagen, which breaks down into gelatin during the long cooking process.
Here is a breakdown of how this process works:
Collagen source: Collagen is the primary protein found in the connective tissues, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments attached to the bones, especially in joint and knuckle bones.
Conversion to gelatin: When these collagen-rich parts are simmered gently in water for an extended period (typically 12-24 hours), the heat breaks down the insoluble collagen into soluble gelatin.
Gelling effect: As the broth cools, this dissolved gelatin re-forms, creating a rich, viscous, and "jiggly" or jelly-like consistency when refrigerated. The more collagen in the bones and the better the extraction, the firmer the gel will be.
Reversibility: When the gelled broth is reheated, the gelatin melts and turns back into a liquid, giving the hot broth a rich body and mouthfeel.
A broth that gels when chilled is a key indicator of a high-quality, nutrient-dense bone broth."

I'm thinking that your first boil (where you pitch the water) also may be pitching some or all of the collagen. Or, you are cleaning off the bone bits that contain most of the collagen.

You're lucky to have so many bones!  I would also continue to reduce the broth until, like someone else in this thread suggested, you end up with a syrup-like consistency. You can pressure cook that too, and end up with a shelf-stable beef concentrate.

Good luck and keep cooking!