Tag: Future

Being Prepared

It was a year ago Saturday that I first wrote a post about being prepared. I felt the need to mention it again and the need to make another post about it as a bit of a public service announcement. My posts about anything other than food or projects don’t tend to get a lot of views, but thank you for reading and for hopefully considering preparations. I grew up as a girl scout, and that taught me a lot of basic survival skills, but more than that, I grew up in a way that has made me want to be prepared for whatever may happen. For that reason, during college I was often the “mom” of the class due to me carrying around just about anything I could need. Hungry? I had snacks. Cut? I had band-aids and a styptic pencil. Pain? I had Ibuprofen and Alieve for Migraines. Just about anything I could need I had, making my bag about 5 pounds heavier, but at least I always had a way to help the situation I was in. It wasn’t always that I would need something, but on the regular when I would need something I always had it.

Advertisements

When I got married, we had many different goals for our life. When two people come together in marriage, it’s good to have common objectives and goals for the future, and that includes talking about what our priorities should be and what goals we should work towards. Of course, it was always a goal to have a garden and this blog, but I had no idea at the time the pandemic was coming. I have experienced hardship in my life while growing up, but there are many from my generation that didn’t experience any hardship. I’ve always been a bit of a hoarder when it came to making sure we had food, but the pandemic just encouraged me to go until I’m satisfied. It sounds like it’s a bad thing, and if I were stocking up when the stores were empty, then maybe I’d feel a bit more self conscious, but I’ve always been overly prepared with non-perishables and canned goods. So what were some of the biggest changes I made?

One big change I made was trying things I had never cooked with before. The pandemic started to become serious 8 months after I got married and moved in with my husband. My biggest changes were beans and rice. Growing up, I never had them, so even though we don’t have to rely on just beans and rice, each ingredient can contribute to a healthy diet without eating like someone who is in poverty. Another huge change was buying ingredients to bake. I had never had anything significant made from scratch at home. If it comes in a box, why go through all the effort? Well, the basic ingredients for baked goods gives you a well rounded kitchen and a blank slate for so many recipes. Further, I had never had food seasoned by anything other than salt or seasoning packets. Spices add so much life to food, and there are so many cultures you can visit though food and spices. Eating just to eat doesn’t make it an enjoyable occasion, that’s why spice is so important. Try food that is new with spices you may or may not like, even just to say you tried it!

Advertisements

Those were just some of the basic changes that has helped me to grow as a home chef and as a person. Of course, we never thought we’d be in this situation, but we were glad to be partially prepared before, and thankful we needed very little during the thick of it. This time made us change our goals as a family. I discovered I had a huge love for gardening. This year was my first garden, and it was amazing. So, though we just bought this house less than 2 years ago, we do plan to eventually move to a property with more land for gardening, and maybe some small livestock.

In closing, what are somethings that are good to have on hand?

I’ve found canned meats to be helpful. I like to have a month’s worth of meat in the freezer at the beginning of each month. If you can can your own food, you definitely should, if not, know of good ways to keep what you have good in case of power outages. Fresh fruits and veggies don’t last long, but they are still necessary for a healthy diet, so having even some dehydrated fruit is good for emergencies. Flour is so versatile. Bread, cake, pizza crust, tortillas, and pasta, are a few foods to make with it. You can also use flour for thickening a sauce, coating your food for frying, and making batters. Another thing I like to have is evaporated milk. Condensed milk is sweetened while evaporated milk is just concentrated milk, all you need to do it thin it out with water, then you have a standard milk for whatever you need. Have an extra case of water in the house at all times, you never know if the well may stop working, or if the town needs to do maintenance on the water pipes. And finally, having a first aid kit is very helpful in an emergency. Though the situation may be stressful at the time, it’s nice to not have to worry about having a clean wrap because you should have one in your kit.

Thanks again for reading. I have a real passion for taking care of others and I hope this will give you inspiration for what you may need, or a glimpse into the mind of someone who likes to be prepared.

Advertisements

3

Garden Planning 2021

Advertisements

I’ve been planning my 2021 garden since fall and have altered the plans several times. It’s important to keep a record of your plans, and I so far have 5 sketches for my 2021 garden dating back to September. This year will be my second year with a garden, and I’m planning for a 3 season garden. This means I have plans for all seasons, Spring, Summer, and Fall, and plans on what goes well together and what will go in once one stops producing. With this planning also comes many decisions. I have decided to start everything from seeds except what doesn’t use seed. I have also decided to use two new small raised beds and to use two more fabric pots than last year, however since I flipped the beds this fall, I only have one of the five bags I need filled. I’ll also be figuring out how to fill them early this spring. The soil is very compact here and not very fertile. We do have a compost bin, but it is much too small to be a hot pile, so though there is some dirt at the bottom, it will take a very very long time before I’ll get any significant compost from it.

Advertisements

The Plans

As I mentioned these plans have changed and evolved over time. The first things I did when planning my garden were to make a list of all the vegetables we eat a lot of and we feel would be a fun challenge for the next year. I also sketched out a layout for the garden. Then I began to place the plants I really wanted into the sketch accounting for plant spacing. Then, when you get to your last few plants you have to make the decision of what you want to plant this year. Take into account, how much you currently have stored, how often you eat it, and if you will have the means to store certain vegetables over an extended period of time.

Advertisements

Once your vegetables are picked, you can tweak your plans over the span of a few weeks. However, when you finally are set on what you plan to grow, be sure to order seeds! Seeds are in a higher demand than normal and it could take a while to get seeds or for them to come back in stock. Beyond that, it will just be deciding when you can plant things, and what can be planted once one plant is ready to be pulled. For example, I already have my garlic in the ground and it came up before the hard freeze came, so I know that will be planted until late July when it will be time to harvest. After that, I will plant beets. I denoted that by a “/” on my sketch. I have several other plants I will be doing that with, I plant to plant Peas, once it gets warm, pull the peas and plant green beans, then come August/September, I’ll be able to plant a second planting of peas. I’ll be doing the same thing with my second new bed, but with two plantings of broccoli and one planting of cabbage. I also Plant to plant potatoes once the ground is warm, and once they are harvested, I will be planting Spinach in the fall. I am in zone 6A, so my timeline will likely be different than yours, however I hope you were able to get some helpful information.

Some possible questions you may have, I’ll try and answer before hand, but feel free to ask any questions you might have down in the comments. I’ll just hop into it. The circles not within a rectangle/square are my fabric pots. I plan to plant one with horseradish, two with sweet potatoes, and two with potatoes and spinach. The rectangles on the left side of the page are 4ft x 8ft beds that are 12 inches deep. These are the beds I started with last year. The square beds on the right of the page will be 4 ft x 4 ft beds, though they have not been constructed yet. There is also a possibility for another 4 ft x 8 ft bed for onions, but that will only happen if the cost of lumber comes down significantly before May. Most people in my area have a consensus not to plant anything in the ground before Memorial Day, however, plants like peas and broccoli are very cold hardy, so their spring planting will probably go into the ground beginning to mid-May. The picture above of dates and veggies underneath will be the days I will have to start my plants inside. For them, I will probably be starting them at the end of the time frame, just so they don’t get too big, if I do have to wait until mid- or late May before planting. What else… I will be planting two rows of tomatoes, and I’ll be doing one variety per row. I will also be planting both banana peppers and bell peppers in my pepper row. I have tons on Marigold seeds, so I’ll be starting them in every flower bed around my house, and I also learned to get them in the ground super early, or they won’t sprout. I learned the same with dill last year.

That’s all I can think to clarify. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment below! Thanks for reading!

Advertisements

1

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! Thank you for subscribing to my blog and for your visits. Thanksgiving is a very special holiday to me. I began this blog a little over a year ago and Thanksgiving was the first big set of posts I was able to upload. Thank you for allowing me to do what I enjoy to do. I love cooking and I’m very glad to be able to cook for my family, and I’m glad I can share my recipes and experiences with each one of you. Let’s make this new year a better one, and I hope you get the opportunities and/or motivations to accomplish some of the things you’ve always desired too! Have a great day and happy thanksgiving!

0

My Updates and Questions

Hey. I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve done a more casual and less scripted post. I guess that leads me to the questions I have. What do you think of the new format of my recipe posts? This is the second time I’ve altered the format for how I write these recipes in the last year. I’ve been moving more in the direction of how others do their recipe formatting. List the ingredients, and list each step with photos of that step. I also added the option to download the recipe as a recipe card. Is that helpful? Should I instead be formatting them as a whole page instead of 4×6 note card sized?

Lately, I’ve been trying to update some of my older posts a bit. I have so many more tags then a used to, and so I’ve begun adding newer tags to older posts. I’ve also been considering revisiting my older posts to remake them. My old phone had terrible photo quality, so many of my old posts were edited to remove the shake or grainy texture of the photos. I would really like to re-do many of them, but it will take some major time. Also, if I hear you like the format of these new posts, I will reformat older posts to fit the new style.

My plans for the blog are still moving forward. This week I got a tripod, so I’ll be trying that out on some older recipes. I will be posting the link to the YouTube once it’s up and I’ll be announcing it on every platform. I’m also thinking about holding off on Instagram for now. I don’t really know what to post, and when I do it’s not great engagement, which is understandable since it’s a completely different kind of website/app.

Projects right now are relatively slow around the house. We are preparing for hunting season and winter. The garlic was planted 3 weeks ago, and one of my garlic cloves sprouted after just a week, so it’s one of the few green things left in the yard. My peach tree has lost all it’s leaves overnight and we’ve had only two frosts so far this fall. My marigolds are still blooming in my raised beds, and though I’d like 2-3 more raised beds for next year, our priorities are elsewhere, so it’ll wait till the spring. Since we finished the master bedroom, no more flooring has come up or gone down. We are planning a yard sale for next summer though. Josh and I both have things we don’t need or use, so we plan a yard sale and a couple family picnics next summer since most family members haven’t seen the house since we moved in 15 months ago.

This virus has been pretty hard for us. We think we may have had it in May, but it’s impossible for us to know with all the testing being so limited where we are. With the second flu season coming, we are exposed to more people who are sick and it seems impossible to know who has it, and if you can even get it twice. When we were sick in May, we were mostly asymptomatic. I had a fever and a cough, and Josh didn’t even have that. However, when my mom got sick she was sick. And, this weekend I lost a Great-Great Uncle to the virus. He did have many existing issues and he’s been holding on for a while, but he got sick from a home nurse and that was it.

What a crazy time we live in. I wonder who will be looking back at our writings someday and what will they say or feel about this. It’s crazy in the U.S. right now, but at the same time, everyone is still just trying to live. For some, life has gone completely back to normal, while others are in a completely new situation and just trying to get their bearings. For some, their business is booming and has never done better, and for others their dream has been crush with lock downs and regulations they just can’t meet. Jobs, families, businesses, so many things affected. It stinks that so much bad is happening to so many people right now. However, I am very thankful for what I have. Things haven’t been easy with friends and family getting sick, being trapped inside with limited interactions with the world, and watching helplessly as we can just wait. But, we are thankful for what we do have. We are thankful for the changing seasons, for the warm days and the rain, for the food in our stomachs, and for the coming opportunity to once again fellowship with others when we are allowed to. Look forward to the future. Make goals and dream. Don’t stay in the sorrow of right now and instead look forward to the spring. This is just another season in life.

3

Mid-September Garden Update

Advertisements

As a first year gardener, I don’t know much about gardening. As a result, I do lots of research and planning, and even still it seems with gardening you just have to learn from your mistakes. The first frost is coming this weekend and I’ve already retired most of my garden. There are a few radishes in the ground still forming, green tomatoes sitting on the vine, and the lettuce flowers beginning to open. The only color that remains in my garden is three marigolds that are still thriving despite the temperatures. My house plants will be coming inside tonight to prepare for the frost, and soon my husband and will be struggling to find enough room to keep them for another winter.

There are so many things I wanted to do in the garden still, but yet the first frost is nearly here. I was able to amend one raised bed. I added manure and peat moss. I mixed it into the top few inches, and covered it with another thin layer of mulch. I had planned to plant garlic this fall, but with the first frost among us, it is likely too late. I may still try to get it in the ground, but we will have to see if it will warm back up at night after this frost. And to protect it from the frost, we’ll likely use hay bales to protect from frost. We’ll have to see when it comes.

I have a small patch of dill growing that I planted this fall. My tomatoes and lettuce will also be adversely affected by the frost. Once they are done, we will amend that bed too with more manure and peat moss. My biggest lesson this year was to keep healthy soil. My tomatoes performed poorly in comparison to most everyone, and though I want to blame the very dry and hot summer, I am sure the poor quality soil played the largest part in that. We also learned our lesson with netting, and that chicken wire is superior to a plastic net that can still let in all sorts of critters.

Advertisements

Much thought has been going into a garden for next growing season as well. I am researching when to pull crops and when to plant new, when to start seedlings inside, and what crops do well in the spot of another crop. The plans have become more finalized, and I think I found a setup I prefer. Researching, I found a new way to string up beans/peas. It includes making a wooden frame, then using 100% cotton string as the trellis. This is a huge improvement from the plastic and metal my beans grew through this year. Pulling my beans took so long because of all the tangling and growing into the plastic. So this way of trellising will be an improvement and pulling the plants will be way easier too, and the string 100% cotton can be composted, unlike plastics or other artificial materials.

If I do get my garlic soon, I will do a post about that, but otherwise, my garden is just about done for the year. Thank you to everyone who has been seeing and checking up on my progress. Gardening has been a lot of fun and I am very excited to see what next year holds!

Advertisements
0

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started