Survival Cooking, Prepping and Living

May 14: Grocery Vs Garden

I try to be hopeful that we will raise enough money for my son to get brain surgery this year (3 surgeries multiplied by about 3 to-and-from trips each equals approx 9 trips ). I have to juggle a lot of balls... Chores. Conversations. Doctor appointments. Medical tests. Surgeries. Raising money.

You get the gist.

As much as I miss growing plants, harvesting fresh fruits and veggies, and collecting eggs from my beautiful chickens and quail, this will not be the year to get back to it, although we need it desperately. With food prices increasing, including eggs (thanks to the Orange Idiot), and some things not even appearing on shelves anymore, I have to find alternatives to paying $8 for a carton of eggs vs growing my own food.

Maybe a little sprouts system? (See pic below).

But going that route ... Weslee won't eat sprouts, and I would miss the bite of a sweet strawberry, the juicy tomato, the freshness of cucumber, the crunch of raw green beans (we both love them that way), and just the variety of trusting and eating what we grow.

Oh, and ... the lettuce! Yum!

Evrn if I can get his next surgery scheduled in August, the garden will have to be ignored for weeks around that time, while we are in Cleveland (we live in Louisville). Same goes for chickens and quail. I have a little space on my patio, but again, who will water/feed them, and collect their eggs?

I am open to suggestions. Anyone?

I got this in 2020 for about $25. It now costs about $35! Unbelievable!

.......

Weslee needs more brain surgery for his seizures. Please go to his Medical GoFundMe or to our Paypal ... Thank you.

Apr 30: Prep For Boredom

When I first heard about covid, my mind started racing. Coughing. Loss of smell. Highly contageous. Released on purpose. Inject bleach? Horse mdds? Shine a light ... up .. where?! Sorry...don't get me started.

But my main concern ...

See, my son had only a few months prior (mid-June 2019) been released from the hospital. He had had a brain surgery which caused a stroke, coma, and a plethora of side effects. He had to relearn to walk, talk, hold a cup, and much more.

If a pandemic quarantine / lockdown was going to happen, I needed to be ready.

Hygiene? Check. Food? Check. Extra seizure meds? Check. Water? Check. Projects and/or crafts to keep us busy? Uh, not nearly enough.

First, I figured I would just prep for six months or so. Then I went to the Dollar Tree store and got all kinds of things. I placed an order through Amazon. I got out six cardboard boxes and labled then by month.

Each got a snack or three, a book, a dvd or blu-ray disk, stuff to do a project (which he hated!), and so on. He got to choose one thing from the box every few days.

I ended up re-using the boxes as the quarantine dragged on. [I called them the "bored boxes"].

But all of this prepping made me think, so I excitedly researched and wrote 'The Bored Book". I ended up doing quite a few from my Bored Book list. Such fun!

The worst of the covid pandemic is over, but the way things look in the USA, we might still need a supply of Bored Boxes.

Plus this book can be used at home when recovering from a medical something, winter blizzards, or just about any time.

Let me know what you think. Vikki

.......

My 28 year old (but mentally and emotionally is about 12) son, Weslee, has intractable epilepsy, autism, OCD, ADHD and lots of side effects from lots of brain surgeries. After a week stay at the Cleveland Clinic in 2024, his team of doctors is suggesting more brain surgeries. We need help to get there and back plus with copays, etc. Please donate through the link below then share this link: https://gofund.me/085ca903 ..

...OR...

To donate directly through PayPal :

Click here to go to:

www.paypal.me/VIKKIWESLEELAWRENCE

Thank you.

Apr 21: I am Back!

I can't believe it has been about 4.5 years since I posted here. Wow!

Changing that, because (1) I miss it, (2) the world sucks, and maybe I can help at least a little.

...

After a lot of starts and stops with blogging, I will keep updating only THREE blogs:

Epilepsy Awareness, my son's struggle with seizures ...and why I am called 'That Purple Mom" (and includes my storefront): ThatPurpleMom.com
Prepping / Survival Cooking / Living, and getting through these difficult times: www.survival-cooking.blogspot.com (this one)
My journey to get healthy: www.veegettinghealthy.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by.

Vikki

.........

...OR...

To donate directly through PayPal :

Click here to go to:

www.paypal.me/VIKKIWESLEELAWRENCE

Thank you.

Ripe and Unripe Tomatoes and a Harvest

Besides watching a seed burst out of fertile soil, or that seedling grow into a producing plant, my next favorite part is when it is finally time to pick ripe fruit and veggies. Oh, and cutting herbs like parsley and mint, or hmmm... lettuce.

Here are a few pictures of one of my harvests. Feast your eyes!

This is the inside of my fridge after a very busy day of harvesting. Weslee doesn't like watermelon or cantaloupe but I managed to grow a few sugar baby watermelons, a few crenshaw muskmelons (cantaloupes), and a few golden watermelons. Loving the radishes too (ready to slice and pickle!).

Just a quick harvest before the first frost. just a quick harvest before a freeze. Notice the yellow pear tomatoes, orange slicer, and small eggplant. PLUS - our pride and joy, besides the several small orange carrots, we managed to grow 2 atomic red carrots (top of plate) and some cremey-white carrots (just under the red carrots). We also pulled up 2 tiny sweet potatoes, and two small red-bunching onions - very potent!

This is a colander of green (unripe) tomatoes I picked just after a first frost. The plants survived (barely) under two blankets and a big piece of plastic. It was too much work to try to save the plants, and I didn't have room to bring the pots inside. So I picked these to dehydrate then grind into powder. Green tomato powder is added to my all-vegg powder, and also kept separately to add depth to soups and stews. It's not very tasty by itself, and I haven't yet experimented with making green tomato preserves.

Colorful Tomatoes

One of my favorite things to grow is tomatoes. Seeing a big bush or tall vine with colorful fruit beckoning ... is there anything better?

I have to be careful of the acid in tomatoes but over the years, I found a few varieties that my stomach doesn't hate. The ones that seem to do well are: Yellow Pears, Kellogg's Breakfast Orange, and a tiny currant tomatoes that I can't find the name of anywhere!!

The following are a few of my favorite pics of my growing tomatoes:

Black Cherry Tomatoes and a red slicer.
I accidentally planted 2 different varieties
in one pot. Both did well.

This is a pic of one of my harvests. Squash,
peppers, cucumber, eggplant
and, of course,, tomatoes. Yum!!

This is a tray filled with sliced yellow
mamas, yellow pears and small red
roma tomatoes

.

My first dehydrator was a cheap round one but it worked. I love my new Excelsior though!

This tray of tomatoes dried about 6-8 hours until mostly dried and barely pliable. Bagged with a dessicant package added, then placed the baggies in a tightly sealed mason jar.

Living in a small apartment with a small patio (as opposed to when I had the farmette in Colorado), I had to make some adjustments. Most of my gardening is done in pots. Does it matter? Only in regards to quantity ... but not quality. I can still have a plant of each of my favorite low-acid tomatoes and as long as I take care of them, they will produce enough to save for the coming months AND provide some for fresh eating too.

How many of you grow tomatoes on your patio?

Buying Healthy Dehydrated Fruits and Veggies

It's late in the year to begin gardening, at least in the northern Hemisphere. Sometimes, a shortcut is necessary while biding your time. So while you pore over your gardening catalogs, choosing which berry bushes or fruit trees to plant, you might consider adding the following to your stores:

I found http://www.justtomatoes.com/ (NOW: https://www.shopkarensnaturals.com/ when my then baby was beginning to eat solid foods. He tried all kinds, and he expressed a preference to jarred food. Vehemently. A friend mentioned the dried mixed vegetables she'd found at a local health food store, so I picked up a small tub. Liked what I saw: no added ingredients other than the fruit or veggie. Not even sulfur! After Weslee saw me eating the mixture of dried corn, carrots, peas and tomatoes, he dug right in.

We pretty much placed a regular order for Weslee of soynuts (they don't do those any more, or freeze-dried tofu), peas, blackberries, blueberries and mango. I haven't seen the blackberries in a while, but they have added a whole line of powdered fruit that I use in smoothies and refrigerator-oats (peach, banana, etc).

We don't rehydrate any of these so we're sure to drink lots of water.

It's really difficult to calculate serving size but we consider a serving to be a small "Dixie cup" of the fruit and peas, or one tablespoon of fruit powder.

Makes me feel good ... well, better ... about his health.

If you don't have enough bushes, trees and other plants to satisfy your fruit needs, you should check out their site. It's not as good as growing it yourself, but will do in a pinch.

ETA 4/30/25: I think this company went out of business. I can't find them anywhere. I am open to replacement ideas!

Recipe for Instant Italian Pasta

An instant homemade healthy MRE (meal ready to eat) recipe

All ingredients are dehydrated.

2 tbsp ground beef bits

2 tbsp orzo or tiny dehydrated pasta

1 tbsp tomato powder

1 tbsp sweet bell pepper dices

1 tsp onion dices

1/2 tsp garlic

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Mix well. Place in a half-pint jar and tightly seal. Store away from light and moisture.

Directions:

When ready to eat, rehydrate with 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups of very hot / boiling water in a bowl with a cover. Let sit for 10-20 minutes.

You could also add the water then microwave for a couple of minutes.

= = = = = =

Please comment with pix and how it turned out for you.

Instant Homemade MREs

Calling all people who dehydrate...

...or people who backpack and camp...

...or preppers...

As part of my 'Preppers Project' book series, I am working on a book of recipes using shelf-stable ingredients. These are actual meals in a pint or half pint jar... from breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and even snacks. They all use dehydrated or otherwise shelf-stable ingredients, then are placed in a jar and stored until ready to use.

Hopefully, I can post lots over the next few weeks. Test the recipes, then post your pix and comments.

Thanks!

Pickled Radishes

RADISHES ... some people like them, and others don't.

High in potassium ... a diuretic
Can provide up to 1/3 of daily Vit C required
Considered an antioxidant that is good for the liver
Small amount of protein
Not a or of calories; has some sugar
Natural source of Vit B6, magnesium, calcium and even zinc!

Radishes are super easy to grow (remember that scene in "Gone With the Wind" when starving Scarlett gobbles the radishes right in the garden?).

They have a quick harvest time ... some as quickly as a month! You can scatter seeds in a small area and as they grow, thin them out for small tender sweet treats, making room for others to get bigger for preservation.

And always leave some to mature to make seeds for next year's crop.

Since this root vegetable is so healthy, consider preserving them for a rainy day.

Here's a quick recipe that I hope you give a shot at.

Ingredients:
18-20 medium/average sized radishes
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbl sugar, granulated
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm or hot water

Instructions:

Slice the radishes as thinly as possible. A mandolin works well here, but be careful of your fingers!
Place the sliced radishes in a canning jar or bowl.
Combine the vinegar and the rest of the ingredients. Mix well to dissolve the salt and sugar.
Pour over the sliced radishes and let sit for an hour. After that hour, store in the fridge for up to three weeks, or water-bath can like any other pickle.

If you like variety, try adding different spices to the pickling liquid.

Let me know how you liked these.

Who has Power?

Warning!

Gonna get on my soapbox for a moment.

Visit this link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0RDTZML-7wDuyS-9VoZWNZLWMcFEvsjXG0JfDjchvEIgZY6X61T10n6bc&v=1l5354hYmtk

This (above) video makes me angry to realize (yeah, duh!) that the rich and powerful 2% so firmly controls everything about the rest of us. We (98%) are nothing more than slaves in a degrading global society....given a little freedom so we won't notice we don't really have any freedom.

Sure I have a little power...enough to control how long I can sleep, or how I respond to situations, but we have minimal or no power to control things like medications, homeschooling, how to best provide for my family, whether I can have a pet in my home, and who makes the clothes I wear (and where they are made).

Governments and employers watch and listen to us via phone, computers, etc, even incorporating drones. We now live our lives under a photo-scope (microscope with everyone capturing pictures and vids of anything anywhere and anytime).

If we take a moment to really THINK about our lives, we come to the realization that we have much less power than we think we do.

Twilight Zone...ish.

Ok. Done.

Birthday During Quarantine

Soooo... my birthday was this week...not that it was a special number or anything (once I hit 50, I stopped calculating my age).

I never expected that I would spend this birthday, stuck at home, just my son and I. No special dinner with friends. No fancy meal out (using DoorDash doesn't count!). No fancy cake, or my fave ice cream.

Despite us both feeling sick with coughs and crud, my son made the day special. He actually put on clothes, drew me a card, and was nice ALL day!!I

Attitude matters.

💜

Deviled Egg Dumplings

Sticking with my craving for dumplings, I tried something new. I wanted a bump of protein, so chose eggs for my next experiment.

Sounds weird, I know, but my deviled egg dumplings were delicious.

Started again with boiling water. Added a squeeze (or three) of spicy brown mustard, about a tablespoon of freeze dried green onion slices, and a little salt. I roughly chopped two boiled eggs and added them to the pot.

Once it was a rolling boil, I added Jiffy Mix dumpling batter. Placed on the lid and checked it about five minutes later.

Soooo delicious!!

Strawberry Dumplings

Started experimenting this week with things from my pantry. For some weird reason I had a sudden craving for dumplings. Now I didn't want chicken and dumplings, so I looked through my freeze-dried items.

Boom.

Strawberries.

I started some water boiling in a small pot. Added a handful of strawberry slices, cinnamon, a little raw sugar, and a packet of lemon juice powder.

When the strawberries were rehydrated, and the water was boiling, I added the dumpling batter that I made from Jiffy mix.

Placed the lid on and in about 5 minutes I checked. Perfect.

It doesn't exactly look beautiful but sure tasted pretty yummy !!

I get my freeze-dried fruit (and peas and tomatoes) from Karen's Naturals (used to be Just Tomatoes). I just placed another order the other day so they do still have product in stock.
https://www.shopkarensnaturals.com

Growing Radishes for a Spicy Hot

I was looking through my favorite heirloom seed provider (hoping hoping there were some seeds still left to but!), and couldn't believe my eyes!

Looks like these are new for 2020.

This little gem of a radish is touted as being as hot and delicious as wasabi and horseradish!

Most preppers make sure they have a good amount of rice stored, and some might even have soy sauce and a very few, seaweed. You could go fishing for bass or crappie, and grow carrots. All of these ingredients could make a delicious sushi / sashimi but wouldn't it be better with 'wasabi' and pickled ginger?

So...grow your own wasabi!

P.S. I ordered these seeds and started a few minutes of them on March 16. They are growing very well.

Link for seeds:
https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/new-items-2020/japanese-wasabi-radish

Tomato Seedlings

I got a late start on sowing my tomato seeds but since we are still almost a month before they can go outside, they should be good to go in time.

In the plastic "milk" jug:

Red Micro Tom

In the six plastic cups:

Barry's Crazy Cherry

Kellogg's Breakfast (my fave)

Yellow Pear

I started the tomato seeds in just a tiny bit of soil, and as they grew, added more soil, leaving just the top of the leaves showing. Repeated. And repeated. These now have strong roots.

Time for a Victory Garden

During this global pandemic, food is still being farmed and manufactured, but while we sit, stuck in our homes or at bug out locations, many people are eating junk to comfort themselves. After the expected months of this, our bodies will be in even worse shape...from battling the CV-19, other health concerns, too much TV watching or other sedentary activities, etc.

We are going to need the activity of gardening, and the healthy food it will produce.

Figure out how much space you have (even a few pots on a windowsill can yield constant salad greens and some strawberries.)

So plan your garden, order seeds, potting soil and pots...whatever you need. Get started on those seeds now so you can benefit from the 'fruits of your labor'.

======

I will soon be writing a book about this, and using methods like Square Foot Gardening.

Stay Safe

I was a prepper for a long time, but when I moved from my farm in Colorado to this tiny apartment in.KY, I had to downsize. Yes, I absolutely regret getting rid of things...like a whole box of R95 masks.

We are only about four months into this pandemic. People are dropping like flies. Health care systems are understaffed, under-supplied and overworked. These medical workers have cracked hands from so much washing. Their faces bear near-permanent marks from constant mask wearing. They can't see their families. They can't get tested.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Stay at home. Learn something, like cooking or a language. Exercise. Make masks. Teach your children. Anything. Just stay at home.
Write the idiot Florida governor telling him to close everything or face a class action suit from RESIDENTS who contract and die from the CoVid-19 from Spring Breakers...all because he is a politician and a dick.
Order seeds, pots, dirt, grow bulbs. Plant a little garden indoors ... lettuce, radishes, carrots, herbs. If you have space outdoors, do tomatoes, potatoes, the three sisters (corn, winter sqash like butternut and pumpkin, as vining green beans), berries, cucumbers, etc. You could be eating fresh food in just a few weeks!!
Take the time and effort to make face masks for your local clinics and hospitals. (See: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4FB--BOyTiU )
Nap. Rest. Eat healthy. You deserve it.
Catch up on conversations even if it is just via FaceTime or Skype.

You get the idea.

What are YOU doing with your quarantine time?

By the way...my prepping book is stuck in Amazon-land. I will figure something out.

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...And....I am sick. I won't get tested. (Why bother to try?! I am not a sports figure nor do I work in the White House.) Will ride this out at home.

Seeds Finally Started

I am little late starting my seeds but hey... better late than never!

This shows just a few of the tomatoes and the mini bell peppers that I've started. Oh, man! My mouth is watering even now! My fave is Kellogg's Breakfast tomato, an orangish sweet slicer.

Since my son doesn't like peppers or tomatoes, I am planning on just enough for me and to dehydrate for next winter.

I did however also start today some spinach seeds and various lettuces which Weslee will eat. Tomorrow I will do the strawberry starters, sugar snap peas, mini carrots, and in a few weeks, the vining green beans...more of what he will eat!

He will be able to have veggies every day, and hopefully strawberries in a few months.

This will all supplement the food I stocked up on.

You should do this too.

URBAN GARDENING - NOTE:
I will be discussing more urban gardening this year. I have a small apartment with a small patio. Inside, near my back door, I have a setup like an indoor wire garden shelves with a plastic cover. I have my seed starters there for now, but when I can move things outside, I will. Exception: those plants that don't need pollinators, like lettuce, carrots, radishes and herbs will stay inside.

I encourage everyone to order heirloom seeds of a few veggies that you will actually eat (I use Baker Heirloom), some medium to large pots, and some potting soil. Place the pots in a sunny window, or set up wire shelves with a grow light or two.

If you want tomatoes or something else that requires pollination, and have no place outdoors for your pots, you must hand-pollinate. I will discuss that later.

Mac and cheese

I don't understand people ripping boxed mac-and-cheese kits away from other people. Yeah, every food item is flying off of shelves because of social distancing and self quarantines (or just plain greed), but if there isn't boxed variations available, is it too much to ask that they make it from scratch? Don't they know how super easy it is to make?!?

Instructions:

Boil pasta.

Drain.
Put back in bowl.

Add butter and grated cheese.

Stir until heat from pasta melts the butter and cheese.

Eat.

Sure, there are other ways to make it, other ingredients you could add, but still...come on!!

Pandemic Book

Completed writing this book and uploaded it to Amazon yesterday. It has a LOT of information on not only the CoVid-19 pandemic but also Ebola, Entero, and other health scenarios.

Good for preppers and concerned people of all kinds.

Am now waiting for Amazon and KDP to approve it for release. As soon as it is, I will provide links.