Ulla Bisgaard

As my kids are moving out and I am getting older, I am trying to develop a flexible visual system for planting and harvesting. My memory isn’t very good, so I depend a lot on reminders. We are in the hottest part of California, so we grow food all year round. The goal is to produce at least 90% of the food we need, with enough left to sell at the farmers market, or trade for what we can’t produce.
Currently we have 21 large raised beds and a 3300 square foot food forest garden.
Visual reminders works best for me, due to my memory issues, since I see it constantly. To do this I am using a whiteboard, a binder with my own plant catalog and spreadsheets on my computer.
The whiteboard centers around a round calendar divided into our three growing seasons (cold, warm and hot) and surrounded by the plants. It also has my todo lists and deliveries. When my kids are here, they check the board and usually take care of some of the things on the todo list. Plant names are on magnets, that also works on the metal plant markers I use in the garden, so I don’t forget what I planted.
The binder contains:
a catalog of the plants we grow, but isn’t finished, since I am constantly using different varieties of annuals.
It has a calendar that shows our fruit and berry harvest times. My goal is to have fruit and or berries available fresh year round.  It has a plant catalog of what we grow, but only a short line on when to grow with a few notes. Last it has a list of medicinal uses and plants I want to try in the future and notes on companion planting.
My spreadsheets keeps track of our production, income/savings and expenses. The spreadsheets keep my husband from freaking out when I add more plants.
Right now I really need some input, especially on the whiteboard. What can I do to better organize it? Should I color code pr season, type, in an entirely different way or not at all?
Should I keep my plant catalog as lists of plants or make it bigger to include subspecies,  varieties, notes on use, growing instructions and experiences with it?

Well, I say no too. Anything with meat in it, needs to be pressure canned to be safe. Even my grandmother knew that, and she learned from her mother in the late 19th century. She always said, that waterbath canning broth, often made for sour broth or broth that made them sick. Since I use an electric pressure canner, I often find, that pressure canning are easier and less work than water bath canning. Also, I switched from waterbath canning to steam canning a few years ago, and it’s much better/faster and easier to use for things that doesn’t need a pressure canner.

My parents were poor for a long time. They lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with no toilet and only cold water. They lived there with two small children, until my grandfather died and we moved into their house together with my grandmother. After that their finances got better, but my mother was always very fugal about food. To feed us all my father would go fishing and hunting. The fish and meat was then preserved, some in salt, some smoked, some dried and some frozen. My mother together other women and children, would travel to the national parks where we would forage for mushrooms, chestnuts, rosehips, nuts, pine tips, pine cones, ferns, elderberries, blueberries and so many other things. Later meat was bought directly from the farmer, usually as a whole or half animal. My mother did the butchering herself.
Nothing went to waste in that household. To stretch ground meat, she would start by adding salt to the meat and mix it in. Then she would add ice cold water, which the meat sucked in because of the salt. This by itself added 50% more volume to the ground meat.
We used to get day old bread from the baker, who often didn’t charge anything for it. The best dread we would eat as is, the rest was dried and ground into breadcrumbs. The bakers leftover cakes and cookies, was mixed together with a little rum extract. Then it was shaped into balls. These were served with lunch or as a dessert. My parents also brewed their own beer and wine, which is how I learned how to do it.
They also grew a lot of vegetables and fruits, after they moved in with my grandmother.
This upbringing has definitely influenced how we live today. Despite all of this work, there was still times when we didn’t get enough to fill us up and I learned to eat food even when it made me sick. Food is not something that was wasted. For me having our homestead with food security, is the most important thing in my life. It simply makes me feel safe, not just knowing that we have enough to eat, but also that I have taught my children how to  achieve food independence.
That said, fugal living wasn’t just about food. It was also about mending instead of trashing things, sewing our own clothes, knitting and crochet, and making our own tools. It is hard work, but it’s also honest important work.

I always end up with some kind of bumper crop. Fall 2024 I grew 800 pounds of winter squash and pumpkins. If it happened now, I would probably use a large part as food for my chickens. At the time I decided to do a variety of things. I made lots of pumpkin soup, some was dried and some canned. I dried or canned a lot in cubes, I shredded a lot and made some into powder. We still have a lot of it in the freezer, so right now I am working hard on using them up. I found an amazing recipe for pumpkin custard, which I have then frozen. I also made lots of pumpkin cookies and muffins. Since I freeze dried a lot too, I probably won’t need to grow any for another year or two. The next time, I will save a lot as chicken feed. The powders I use for baking, in my coffee etc.
Lemons are also something we get a lot off. We grow Meyer lemons, which have a thinner peel making them ideal for candying, extracts and lemoncello. I also dry a lot for tea, make lemonade concentrate (both canned and dried as powder) plus zest and juice, which are frozen in ice cube trays and stored in the freezer. Extra fruit I usually cut into cubes and freeze for use in smoothies. Kale, collards and other greens are dried and ground into a powder, which I also add to juice and smoothies.
Extra vegetables are dried and made into what I call broth bags. Once it’s time to make broth, I just add carcasses, water and a broth bag. It makes making broth a breeze.
I also use extra vegetables to make bouillon cubes. I add the vegetables, aromatics and optional meat to a pot and cook it. Then I add salt and blend it all. Next I transfer it to ice cube trays and freeze them. They are good frozen, but I like freeze drying them, since I save on freezer space that way, and dried I can also send some to my college kids.

Slippery elm root and Marshmallow root (or the whole plant) might work.

I have three rock roses, which technically aren’t real roses. Their leaves make a strong antibiotic tea, that while very effective tastes extremely bitter. I add honey and licorice root to the tea, so it’s easier to get down. I have three different varieties, since they all work for different types of infections including viral infections, but also have other properties. One of them has a sap, that works fantastic for shock.
I also have 2 roses (one is Rosa regusa, don’t remember what the other one is) one isn’t doing too good, I think it’s too hot here, the other one though, gave me 2 quarts of nice sized hips. It’s also taking over the area, so I will have to prune it soon. Also, the one that doesn’t produce hips yet, has edible flowers that I dry and use for makeup or as a food color. I love using roses for cooking and color, and want more, so I can make a nice hydrosol.

Jane Mulberry wrote:Ulla's link for water-bath canned lemon curd wouldn't work for me. I think the Facebook group must require membership before showing the recipe instructions. I found this one from Ashley Adamant instead:  https://practicalselfreliance.com/canning-lemon-curd/

Good to know it can be preserved, though she does say it's only good for 3-4 months.

I thought the link worked, but since it doesn’t, I have added screenshots

Kate Downham wrote:.

How long does your lemon curd keep for? All the recipes I've seen have said to only keep it for around a month in the fridge. I'd love to find a shelf-stable recipe.

I use a recipe where it’s canned. The canning process makes it shelf stable.
Here is a link to the recipe Canned lemon curd

Since the link doesn’t work, I have added screenshots of the recipe.

Anne Miller wrote:Thanks for sharing this.

Today I had a discussion with dear hubby about food supplies.

He said that the National Weather Service was advising folks to have at least a 3 day supply of food on hand.  He could not understand why folks might not have a 3 day supply without being told.

I said because most folks use Uber Eats ...

When people call me a food hoarder, and don’t understand why I do this, I tell them about the time my husband got fired and it took 18 months before he found work again. I tell them about staying out of grocery stores during Covid and about all the times, when have come down with winter viruses. I  also tell them about going hungry, as a child because food was limited.
Once I have told them this, I take out my spreadsheets and show them how much money we save each year. This year we saved 10 thousand dollars after expenses were deducted. This isn’t about hoarding, it’s about having food security, about health and peace of mind. I don’t have to worry about prices going up or empty grocery shelves.
We are not dependent on fast food either, which so many people are.
I don’t have a 3 day supply of food. I have enough in long and short term storage to feed us 2 to 3 years.
Now I will go to the kitchen and get to work. Today we are making pumpkin custard cups, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cookies. All three will be frozen as snacks and breakfast options.

This is a great thread, especially since there are many videos about frozen cube meals going around right now.
I make cubes or squares with: lemon juice, lemon zest, turmeric juice, minced ginger, ginger juice, minced garlic, pesto, elderberry juice, orange zest, pasta sauce, orange sauce, sweet potato mash, breakfast sausage, and meals like Greek rice or vegetable medleys.