{"id":11571,"date":"2012-10-08T02:12:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T09:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=11571"},"modified":"2012-10-08T02:12:53","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T09:12:53","slug":"it-must-be-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/08\/it-must-be-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"It must be fall. It’s food time!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvested the mystery-apple<\/a> tree over the last three days!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

About 90 pounds of fruit. I have no idea whether that’s great or mediocre as apple trees go, but it’s fabulous for a tree that produced only one apple in the last two years.<\/p>\n

I got a fat lip when a rogue apple crashed down on my face. And there are still a few left at the top of the tree or in difficult-to-reach spots. But I’m pretty happy about this.<\/p>\n

Now what to do with all this bounty? Some I’ll store in boxes in the basement. Some I’ve promised to friends (furrydoc, how many pounds d’you want?). But … well, that’s a lot of applesauce or dried apples.<\/p>\n

Ooooh, wait. Chutney. Yes! My apple-apricot chutney<\/a>. Aaaaaaand, I just happen to have some California dried apricots left from a recent care package (thank you, AG).<\/p>\n

It’s also canned-food sale time:<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This time of year lots of grocery stores have case-lot canned-goods sales. Despite the freaking soaring<\/i> prices, these are are still a pretty good deal.<\/p>\n

I regard these once-a-year buys as my first-line food preparedness. Generally I don’t eat a lot of canned or boxed foods, so I keep the cases intact, put them in my emergency closet upstairs, and rotate them once a year.<\/p>\n

While they’re mostly foods I don’t eat every day, they’re foods I could<\/i> eat with little preparation and scant disruption. Even better, they’re comfort foods that I would<\/i> eat — happily — if the power were out for two weeks or the downstairs was hip-deep in water.<\/p>\n

The main courses here are turkey chili (24 cans), mac & cheese (24 boxes), and refried beans (24 cans). The adjuncts are mandarin oranges (24 cans), diced tomatoes with chile peppers (12 cans) and beets (24 cans). (I wouldn’t really recommend beets as the main veggie, but I can’t stand canned peas or green beans, and canned corn — the only other veggie in the local sale — doesn’t really count.)<\/p>\n

I figure that’s about 72 very filling meals, probably more for somebody with my “lite” appetite — total cost under $100. So if you’re one of those folks who puts off preparedness because you can’t afford to buy a year’s worth of DeLuxe-Sooper-Duper Freeze-Dried Mormon-Approved $$$ Entrees, think on that. <\/p>\n

One person could get by for most of a month on $100. And face it; we’re more likely to have short-duration emergencies (hurricanes, ice storms, power outages) than SHTF zombie attacks.<\/p>\n

Of course I also have water, powdered butter, powdered milk, and a cookstove stashed (mac & cheese wouldn’t be worth much without them). Plus dehydrated veggies, eggs, soup bases and so on — bargain priced at the local Walmart<\/a>. Dog and cat food, too. And don’t forget the can opener!<\/p>\n

But those grocery store canned foods, monotonous though they are, are the first line of emergency eatin’. <\/p>\n

I think back to the monumental storm that destroyed my yurt and left the whole region dark and cold in 2007. I was too numb to want to eat much for the duration, and all I wanted was something predictable and easy.<\/p>\n

Monotony? Bring it on.<\/p>\n

And now … when it’s time for monotony to end, there are apples!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvested the mystery-apple tree over the last three days! About 90 pounds of fruit. I have no idea whether that’s great or mediocre as apple trees go, but it’s fabulous for a tree that produced only one apple in the last two years. I got a fat lip when a rogue apple crashed down on my face. And there are still a few left at the top of the tree or in difficult-to-reach spots. But I’m pretty happy about this. Now what to do with all this bounty? Some I’ll store in boxes in the basement. Some I’ve promised to…<\/p>\n

Continue readingIt must be fall. It’s food time!<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening-heaven-forbid","category-preparedness","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}