Preparedness Challenge Week 15

Amy at Homestead Revival has been hosting this challenge and I've been enjoying reading about her efforts, but haven't really posted anything mostly because while in this small house I don't feel like there's much we can do to store extra food and water.  However, since it is small steps that get the job done, I do have a few things to share.

A couple of weeks ago we answered an ad for ripe apricots.  We went to the owner's home and he insisted on picking them for us, so we just stood on the ground pointing to what we wanted and taking them from his hands.  We bought 10 pounds and he gave us another 10 that were a bit overripe and ready for jam making.  Tony made one batch of cooked jam and it turned out nicely, I just don't like cooking the fruit if we don't have to.  Online research showed that the pectin needed for sugar free or lower sugar jams wasn't available in my area, so I ordered a box.  It just came yesterday and I haven't used it yet.  I did however, dehydrate a couple of quarts so far.  We've just been enjoying eating them fresh!

A friend told me her neighbor offered her access to their plum tree.  This friend doesn't do any canning so she asked if I could come get some instead, gotta love friends like that!  We were planning to go this evening, but it looks a bit stormy, so that might change.

Finally, our local grocery store has had roma tomatoes on sale twice at prices low enough to buy in quantity, so I've dehydrated several quarts, made stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce, all of which is in the freezer now-except the dehydrated ones of course!

I kind of fall back on the knowledge that we have goats and chickens, so if something happened we'd at least have eggs and milk.  We live along a creek, so there's access to water that can be boiled on the wood stove.  The stove can also be used for cooking.  If we ran out of feed, there are trees along the creek that the goats love, and the chickens would probably fare alright if they didn't get their daily supplemental rations.  Maybe not the best scenario, but I feel like basics are covered.