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Hi Kena, great point about the Instapot.  I'll change it and I'm sure we'd've approved anyone who used a similar pressure cooker.

I think Paul doesn't like the camping rocket stoves.  I can't recall why.  But there is a BB in Rocket for Build and cook food on a Dakota stove.  That doesn't require any fabrication and you could get two BBs for one bit of cooking...
 
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Obviously, I will never get any of these. Hay bale cooking? Sure, always wanted to try it. Solar dehydrating? Sure, that’s why I kept the Rodale plan book for oh, 10 years. But I’m not very interested in much of the rest of it. Not far enough along Paul’s scale, and as far as I can tell, never will be.
 
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Jennie Little wrote:Obviously, I will never get any of these. Hay bale cooking? Sure, always wanted to try it. Solar dehydrating? Sure, that’s why I kept the Rodale plan book for oh, 10 years. But I’m not very interested in much of the rest of it. Not far enough along Paul’s scale, and as far as I can tell, never will be.



Hi! I was wondering what your thoughts might be on our forming PEA (Permaculture Experience for Apartments/Anywhere) https://permies.com/t/133871/PEA-Permaculture-Experience-Apartments. We're wanting to make it accessible for everyone. Thanks!
 
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Its all good and well if you have land and can do a lot of stuff.
For most modern living in the city or even the suburbs blocks of land have gotten smaller and smaller from once being an avg of a good 1000sqm down to something like 520sqm in most modern housing estates.
Sure we have solar hotwater but the roof cant handle anything more than that but even the idea of a rock mass stove would be great or even some sort of wood fire oven but when you have a back yard down to something like 15m wide by about 3m deep its near impossible to build something like that out back as you dont get a real lot of space for a clothes line or vegie beds.
Im lucky that i have a bathtub i found on the side of the rd to grow in some herbs and pots to grow a tomatoe and a peper and some more herbs.
Its a great idea what your doing for people with land but for many people like my self many of these tasks just are unable to be done when it comes to a fire pit to cook on as just no where safe to do it
 
Mike Haasl
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Great points Andrew!  This particular program (PEP) is most suited to people with access to a bit of land and a climate roughly similar to Montana (where Wheaton Labs is located).

We've been working on and off on a parallel program called PEA (Permaculture Experience for Apartments) that would be able to be done anywhere in the world.  That effort would be farther along but the limited volunteer labor we have has been focused on getting PEP laid out completely.
 
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Sprouting might be a good addition to the list for sand badge, maybe in the choose your own adventure section. It can be a good way to get some fresh greens from storage foods during the hunger gap, and can make those foods more nutritious and digestible for some people, plus it’s pretty easy but a lot of people have never tried it. Something like “Sprout at least one (dry) cup of seeds, grains, or legumes and keep them alive and fresh until radicles and cotyledons (baby roots and seed leaves) are visible on most of the sprouts” or something like that?
 
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I popped on today to see if I could start earning my Food Prep and Preservation Badge with stuff like making yoghurt, butter, or mozzerella cheese.
I know they're not all inclusive as it's not vegan...but I'd love to see some dairy options added.
  Maybe a future addition to the pizza badge? Homemade mozzerella to go on top of a homemade sourdough crust pizza?
 
Mike Haasl
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Good ideas Kat!  I think as the Straw, Wood and Iron levels are developed they will include most of that stuff.
 
pollinator
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Where would making vinegar fit in this topic?
 
Mike Haasl
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I'm pretty sure vinegar will be in the Straw badge
 
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I believe I have my PEP badge in Food Prep & Preservation!

My BB Links:
- Skillet Test: https://permies.com/p/1087809
- Dry food: https://permies.com/p/1140786
- Vinegar pickle: https://permies.com/p/1090349
- Salt brine: https://permies.com/p/1090352
- Water bath canning: https://permies.com/p/1140772

- Grain - Stovetop: https://permies.com/p/1079146
- Grain - Crock Pot: https://permies.com/p/1140141
- Grain - Solar Oven: https://permies.com/p/1140151
- Grain - Haybox Cooker: https://permies.com/p/1140166

- Stirfry: https://permies.com/p/1080243
- Soup: https://permies.com/p/1084470
- Pizza: https://permies.com/p/1089848
- Bread: https://permies.com/p/1089876
Staff note (Mike Haasl) :

I certify you for the Food Prep and Preservation Badge!

 
Mike Haasl
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Two items were removed from the Sand badge and will be put into Straw.  They are Pressure Canning and Cooking Sunchokes.  If you did one of them already they will be honored for your Sand badge or you can save them for Straw - your choice.
 
Jennie Little
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I haven't seen this anywhere, but I admit, I haven't read the entire thread.

For semi-anti-tech folks, I'm surprised air drying wasn't listed first for food preservation?

Air drying a string of onions or garlic or peppers. Or, a cabbage, perhaps? Herbs?

Is it considered so basic that no one thinks it's an accomplishment? I found one interesting idea for stringing onions in a Brit. show about WWII, a way to loop onion tops through string I hadn't considered. But I"ve never grown onions and no one hereabouts sells them complete, so no onion strings here. I have strung garlic and peppers. I use a needle and thread. I dry herbs every year, I use lunch bags and rubber bands.

 
Mike Haasl
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Hi Jennie, we do have solar dehydrating but I don't see anything for air drying.  That is probably built into lots of BBs in food care and gardening.  In gardening there's a BB for "Grow, Harvest and Store 100,000 calories".  So you can certainly do it for a portion of that.  

But yes, it appears that simply air drying something isn't on the list.
 
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Kat Ostby wrote:I popped on today to see if I could start earning my Food Prep and Preservation Badge with stuff like making yoghurt, butter, or mozzerella cheese.
I know they're not all inclusive as it's not vegan...but I'd love to see some dairy options added.



I make vegan cheese all the time, usually mozzerella! I've made vegan butter in the past as well, and I'd bet vegan yogurt isn't that hard to make either.
 
Mike Haasl
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We're working on the Food Prep badge upper levels right now (Straw, Wood and Iron levels).  Cheese making will very likely end up in the Straw badge (vegan or milky).
 
Kyle Knight
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Good Job on the straw wood and iron badges. Thanks everyone who worked on them.  This would be a great topic for a podcast.
 
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Required:
Restarting a cast iron skillet

Where would we post this?  I did it yesterday/today and it turned out well!

Thanks for including cooking and cleaning; they're two of the skills I actually have.  Looking forward to learning many, many more from others.
 
Mike Haasl
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Great question!  Any BB that isn't a hyperlink (blue text that takes you to the BB thread) means that someone hasn't crafted the BB thread yet.  Hold onto your pictures and hopefully they'll match up with the ones that end up being required for that BB.
 
Mike Haasl
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I just got this badge completed today!!!
Fry an egg that slides
Cook grain on a stovetop
Cook grain in a rice cooker
Cook grain in a solar cooker
Cook grain in a haybox cooker
Dehydrate stuff in solar dehydrator
Vinegar brine pickle
Salt brine ferment
Water bath canning
Cook stir fry
Cook soup
Make pizza
2 loaves of bread
Staff note (Ash Jackson) :

Sand Badge Granted! Enjoy your tasty new badge.

 
Mike Haasl
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Please note that the entire Food Prep and Preservation badge has been clarified to prohibit the following:

- Aluminum cookware
- Teflon and similar materials
- Microwave ovens
- Plastic touching the food, including cooking utensils and zip lock bags
 
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I'm ready to apply for my Food Prep & Preservation Sand Badge!

Fry an egg that slides on a cast iron pan
Cook grain, stovetop
Cook grain, crockpot
Cook grain, solar oven
Cook grain, haybox
Dry food in solar dehydrator
Vinegar brine pickle
Salt brine ferment/pickle
Canning, water bath
Cook stir fry
Make soup
Make pizza
Bake 2 loaves of bread
Staff note (Mike Haasl) :

Congratulations on your fourth Sand badge!!!

 
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What's the reason for banning things like teflon and plastic cooking utensils? I've seen a lot of people say that you can get started on your first badge easy, just cook a pot of rice! And I can do that! But I can't get a badge for it because all of our pots and pans are teflon. It just doesn't make sense for me to go buy a new pot when we have perfectly good ones.
 
Mike Haasl
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Well, this is Permaculture Experience according to Paul and he is very particular about toxins in the home environment.  There is a lot of debate about the toxic impacts of Teflon and aluminum.  They are perhaps a "line in the sand" for Paul while they might not be for other PEX systems.  

Part of the reasoning behind having a few "lines in the sand" is to encourage people to jump into new areas.  Cast iron is one for Food Prep.  Hugelkutur is one for Gardening.  There might be a few more.  

In your rice example, it might be worth considering a trip to the thrift store to see if you can pick up a SS pot for a buck or two.
 
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This is for Food Prep and Preservation, for the badge bit of 'dry food in a solar food dehydrator'.

I dried a luffah sponge - techically it's not food since I'm not going to eat it, but I thought I'd have a stab at this anyway.

If this fails, I will try again soon with some herbs :)

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Mike Haasl
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Hi Natasha!  To get evaluated for certification you'd need to post to the correct BB thread.  In this particular case the BB wants you to prove you have 2 lbs of food before dehydrating.  Since that's not food, it probably wouldn't be certified.  But you can post it there anyway if you want.
 
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I've been making my tofu, would that count as one of the dairy alienatives? I have to make soy milk first,then coagulation it and press it to make tofu, so it's kind of like making paneer.

Also I make a sunflower seed butter and then use that to make a milk substitute. Would that count too and it is a seed not nut milk?

Thanks

 
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Can you post a link to where it mentions dairy alternatives? I'm not seeing that anywhere. I suspect tofu might be acceptable but I (or another staff member) need to review the requirements first. Some of them are very particular. Some of them get modified when edge cases (such as tofu & nut butter might be) become considered. Some of them don't if they don't meet Paul's intent for the badge bit.
 
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The BB is for making 2 dairy products, but it doesn't seem like soy milk or tofu are included, or seed milk. Sorry I should have signposted better.  https://permies.com/wiki/150250/pep-food-prep-preservation/Dairy-Products-food-straw-twodairy
 
Mike Haasl
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Seed milk sounds like a good one to go along with nut, I'll change that one.  Not sure about soy, sometimes Paul has a problem with certain plants but I'm not sure if this is one of them.
 
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Here is my submission for the Food Preparation and Preservation Sand Badge.

You can check out my profile page here.

  Cook Rice  - stovetop
  Cook Rice  - rice cooker, crockpot or instapot
  Cook Rice  - solar oven
  Cook Rice  - haybox cooker and rocket stove
  Make Soup
  Make a Stir Fry
  Fry an Egg on a Cast Iron Skillet so that it Slides Around
  Salt Brine Ferment/Pickle Something
  Bake 2 Loaves of Bread
  Make Pizza
  Dry Food in a Solar Food Dehydrator
  Vinegar Brine Pickle Something
  Water Bath Canning
Staff note (Nicole Alderman) :

I hereby certify that you are the proud owner of a Food Prep & Preservation Sand Badge. Congratulations!!!

 
Jennie Little
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I persuaded a local farm to sell me a bushel of hardened onions, with tops. There are now 2 onion strings in my kitchen. Yay! This maybe nothing to all of you, but it's been something I've wanted to do literally for decades. Badge or not, since it's so "basic," to me it's an accomplishment because I had to find a farm who'd sell me what I needed, look up the instructions (Wartime Farm, Series 1, episode 1, the instructions last oh, 30 seconds or so) and follow them. Then I found a YouTuber who had instructions, but I'd already made the strings.

Accordingly, this year, instead of buying 50 lbs of onions and trying to store them, I will only buy one 25 lb bag and I'll share it with friends and neighbors. Hopefully, that will reduce the waste to 0.

 
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I’m curious to know why their are so few preservation processes?
What about jams, jellies, curds, fruit cheeses, chutneys?
Or smoking, hot and cold? Curing, biltong and jerky?
Or charcuterie, pates, potted . . .  
If you like the idea of adding some of these, is there anything I can do to help?

I appreciate that PEP’s are Paul’s and it therefore reflects his personal preferences in a Montana setting.
 
Mike Haasl
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Yeah, this is one of those aspects that couldn't fit it all in.  If we added everything there is, the selections/choices would be wonderfully varied but ensuring people do the core things would be tricky.  

All those things you mention would be appropriate for the Wood and Iron BBs for food preservation.
 
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