Jar Box (TM) Review (part one)

Today I am loading up my first batch of Jar Boxes. First, let me say when I first heard of Jar Boxes, I saw some outrageous price and I said "no way". Well, that was hundreds of jars ago and before I needed to prepare to move all my jars, to an house that is half the size I am in now and is in an area that has had multiple earthquakes in recent years.



Before I get started, I want to address the price. Even as wonderful as I think these boxes are, I personally will only buy them at a certain price point. For me what equated to less than a dollar a jar.
With that being said, here is what I think so far. 
1) STACKABILITY: Note: I would not stack jars normally for any reason. The difference with using the Jar Box is that the actually jars have space that is created in the box to protect the top of the jar lid. Look at the picture below and you are able to actually see the space on top. Store with the rings off.

2) PORTABILITY:This is a biggie currently. I will report more in a month or two when we have finished moving all the canning jars. The cases have four locking clips, which are easy to engage. plus for added stability they have 8 holes around the edges where you are able to further secure the pieces together.

4) COST: I addressed that some what above. I researched several places in my area and found the best cost value was at the Tractor Supply Store. They were $1 off (August 2014), so my cost was $7.99 for a pint Jar Box and $9.99 for a quart Jar Box. That is about what I pay for a new box of Ball Canning Jars locally. 
5) LABELING: So far this is one feature that I would like to see added; there isn't a convenient way to label the boxes. In the video I see that the have simply written on the boxes. I hesitate to do that, since I am sure I will reuse the boxes.  

6) UNIFORMITY: This will just be an added bonus. Soon all/most of my canning jars will be stored in the same storage systems. That isn't a requirement, but really is a bonus for my eyes.

These are my thoughts for my first time use. I will update more when I load them up and move them. 

5 Tips & How to Use Elderberries for Winter...

I have always been fascinated by homemade homeopathic remedies, so early on I decided to start learning how to make these remedies at home. I've been making elderberry syrup now since 2013. 

Mr. Perky stayed home from work today, which is a really rare occurrence. He was experiencing cold/flu like symptoms. So I went full scale making elderberry juice. I actually made four batches total. 

Today I am sharing various tips I have learned, plus how to dehydrate elderberries (sambucus nigra) and how to make elderberry juice.

Ripe berries:  The berries ripen varies from late summer to early fall. Mostly you can tell by the birds and the berries. If the birds aren't eating them, they are not ripe. When they are ripe they are soft, turn a deep purple color and are full of red juice.

How To Dehydrate Elderberries

First you need to identify your elderberry bushes, in Virginia they grow wild.

My DH and friends went elderberry picking a couple of weeks ago. Initially I just popped the bag in the freezer. Some of the seeds I am saving to plant this spring in my new home. 

TIP: Before or after dehydrating you need to clean/process the berries. They have short shelf life, so if you are not freezing them immediately they will need to be process within a few days. If you float the berries in a bowl of water after you have removed them, you can easily scoop up any floating debris. You need to remove berries that are not ripe, leaves, stems, old flowers blooms etc. It is time consuming, but leaving these other parts in the mix will leave a bitter taste to your elderberry juice. 
While we tried transplanting some elderberry bushes on our new farmette, I will probably order some elderberry bushes to insure I am getting sambucus nigra elderberries. I will keep you posted.

I find I am able to see a difference between the elderberries that we picked & the ones I purchased from Amazon (associate link). But, they both are really good. 

OLD FARMER TIP: Freeze the clusters, then shake the bag.

Left is before putting the berries in the freezer and the picture on the right is what was in the bottom of the bag after shaking. I did still need to pluck some berries, but shaking them certainly saved time. You may also do this when picking.

                        

    

Next, remove the remaining berries from the umbrels & my results.

TIP: Melissa Barnes Blake suggested using a fork to pick the berries off of the umbrels. Definitely going to do that next time.

                

  

I wasn't sure, but I spread the elderberries out in the 
Excalibur dehydrator tray. (associate link)  I was concerned they were going to fall through, but they didn't. I dehydrated the berries at 135 degrees until they were no longer soft. Probably about 4-5 hours. Honestly, I think that my dehydrator was one of the very best purchases I have made. I use it continually. 

Afterwords I set the trays on a towel (glad I did) and gentle rubbed the berries to remove them from the screen. Next time I will use dark towels.

Put the elderberries into a canning jar.

Then what was left of the towel was added to a canning jar and vacuum seal them.

There you have it. The elderberries on the left are the ones we picked. The ones I got from amazon are on the right. Look good don't they?

TIP: I write the recipe for elderberry juice on the lid of my stored elderberries. I also vacuum seal the jars between usages. Now my berries are ready to make elderberry juice.

How To Make 

Elderberry Juice

Originally I was using a recipe I found online, but I have edited it so much now. Many recipes I have found use 1 cup of honey, which is far too much for my taste.

Ingredients: (personally I now double the batch, since I use it so often)

1 Cup fresh or 1/2 cup dried elderberries.

3 Cups water

1/3 Cup honey (not really needed)

EDITED: Now I add a couple of slices of dehydrated ginger to my recipe. You may also add other medicinal plants.

First, add 1 cup fresh or 1/2 dried elderberries to a pot and add 3 cups of water.

Bring to a boil & then reduce the heat and simmer for 1/2 hour.

Strain everything through a strainer. Then smash the berries to get all the juice out. Previously I used a regular strainer and a spoon, but I have to tell you I just got an Oxo Food Mill.  It's one of those tools that I really wished i had gotten a lot earlier. I love this thing. Particularly, it makes the work so much easier and it is a breeze to clean.

CAUTION: Don't eat the seeds. There is some chance of toxicity. I just googled it & read about it. A couple won't hurt. just use caution.

Lastly, add 1/3 cup of honey. Since the juice is still hot, I pour it back and forth to melt & get all the honey out of the measuring cup. 

Don't you just love this bottle? I like them so much, I got them at Ikea. I just went back and bought some more swing-top bottles. Then I used a funnel and pour into a bottle of jar. You store the syrup in the fridge. It will last for several months.

DOSING: You may take it every 2-3 hours. Personally I have been just drinking an ounce or two at  time. 

REMINDER: Don't use raw honey with young children you are able to use other sweeteners like raw sugar. 

TIP: Since I made 4 batches, I also freeze my elderberry/ginger juice. Recently I have been utilizing the frozen elderberry/ginger. The cubes are super convenient. Which leads us to...

Perky's Go-Go Juice

One of my gramma names is Go-Go, long before Honey Boo Boo's go-go juice came into being. Once I started making the very best blueberry juice ever, I started mixing my elderberry/ginger juice which  I now have frozen and blueberry juice. This is an absolute fantastic afternoon pick me up. While I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on t.v., I am only able to share that this works extremely well for me. 

Items I used in this post and this week.

    

Just so you know I participate in the Amazon associate program. What that means is when you click on a link I post & purchase items; I receive a small percentage from Amazon. your cost is exactly the same. I try to make sure these are products I have used and recommend.

From herbwisdom.com: "Used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, improve vision, boost the immune system, improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsillitis. Elderberry juice was used to treat a flu epidemic in Panama in 1995.

Elderberries (Sambucus) have been a folk remedy for centuries in North America, Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, hence the medicinal benefits of elderberries are being investigated and rediscovered. Elderberry is used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, to improve vision, to boost the immune system, to improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsillitis. Bioflavonoids and other proteins in the juice destroy the ability of cold and flu viruses to infect a cell. People with the flu who took elderberry juice reported less severe symptoms and felt better much faster than those who did not."

Depression is real...

Many people are shocked that Robin Williams death was a suicide by hanging; for me it has pushed me to be open and to encourage all of you of the need to have thoughtful conversations about depression. First, if you are having thoughts of hurting yourself or are thinking about attempting suicide, please get your phone and call 911 right now. Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (800-273-8255) to reach a trained counselor. Use that same number and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.

Personally, I feel the more people are willing to talk about depression, the less stigma will be attached to the disease. Generally I only discuss my depression, when I see the need in a one on on situation...

Each story is different

For me personally if TEOTWAWKI should happen, my life and many others will change. If there comes a time that medications are not available, I will have alternative plants available but they will only help a tiny bit for me.
Generally, I will be in a position of being a LOT more emotional, crying a lot more (no control) and the part I don't like the most...is the inability to actually get up and move from a location. It is like being frozen almost or having many wet blankets dropped over my body. 
All of this is currently handled through modern medicine. I have been dealing with depression since I was a teenager.

While medications help a lot, there are still times that are really tough. Actually now is one of those times I am struggling.
But, I have told the three people whom I trust, exactly what is going on right now, the symptoms that are manifesting currently and they are watching me carefully. I find this open communication helps me a lot. I am not suicidal.

Depression isn't the only medical condition that will a huge issue if the grid goes down. My hope is that you will be honest with your loved ones & do what you are realistically able to do in your preparations. These conversations are important. 

Just so you know, I will not tolerate ANY bullying, nasty or cruel comments towards me or anyone on this topic today. This is your only warning, you will automatically be banned.

Depression manifests itself in many ways.

Links to learn more about depression:

SuicidePrevention Lifeline

MayoClinic

Each Sunday I say the same thing...

"It's Sunday! My favorite day of the week!"

Talking about God today.

I suppose you are able to figure out I am a follower of Christ. If not, surprise!

Sure I enjoy Sundays, they are peaceful & restful. I love the community I worship with, they are really awesome. Plus, I have the added bonus of usually being able see some of my grandchildren each Sunday morning. Which of course makes this gramma happy!

But, that isn't why Sunday is my favorite day of the week.

Each day of the week I strive to spend time with G-d. But sadly, I fall short.

Sunday I am able to go to a place and worship Him. My complete focus is on Him. He is amazing and I can't begin to explain how thankful I am for having Him in my life. I love having that opportunity. I am grateful for the freedom of my beliefs and for the comfort of a facility (we are mobile & meet in a school) with walls, a roof, air conditioning...

But honestly, sometimes I just want to smack people.

I find in our society, we complain about so many things or lack of things. I was reminded yet again of this fact this week.

One of my BFF's just came back from Africa. She was working with an orphanage where 90% of the children there are HIV positive and/or are have disabilities.

Watching her videos and seeing her pictures was a reminder of all that I have.

We should really be grateful for all that we have & how little we truly need. 

It's Sunday! My favorite day of the week! And I am truly grateful. How about you?

A Real Life Cautionary Tale...

The world is changing. We need to be more aware each day. This is from a person you know in our community. I am proud this person is willing to share their story, so we all are able to learn a valuable lesson. I am sharing this tale in it's entirety, because this is their story to tell. Please listen. ~Perky~

“Good morning. I just wanted to talk a minute. Monday evening my husband and kids came to pick me up from work. When we got home our door was open. Now I've lived in this small town all my life.
We live on the back of 5 acres in a forest. You cannot see the house. We lock our door occasionally. So we found our safe open and all the belongings on the floor and our money was gone along with a gun and some small items. They had moved over our window unit to throw out the goods.
We called the police. I had to go to the end of the driveway to flag them down as they didn't even know there was a house back there. They took pictures and dusted for fingerprints. They found no prints. I find that odd because they should have found my husbands at least. The police did not even do a perimeter check. Around 1am that night, since I could not sleep, I woke up my husband and told him that I think they dropped our stuff in the pasture and will return later to get it and we should go look.

Sure enough! They dropped the belongings by the gate. They took the money, coins and a nice antique pocket watch though. I was so mad that the police did not find this when they were out initially. This stuff was only 20 feet from our window!!!
Since then my husband has been so mad at himself. He got complacent and did not lock the safe nor the house door. I explained to him if it had been locked they would have destroyed the door to get in and took more belongings than what they had gotten out if the safe. You can replace money but not sentimental guns, jewelry etc.

Yesterday he installed a couple cameras in the house, new dead bolts and now the safe is locked. I don't like putting my money in the banks for fear of bank holidays etc. So I think we will be hiding stuff all over the house in weird places. We will have a code as to were it is so we don't forget.
There is a message here that God was telling us. I'm thinking He was telling us to depend on Him more than our money. I did not realize the comfort I felt knowing we had some cash to depend on when times got tough when all along I should have had comfort in Him knowing he is always there in tough times and good times. Now we are lost. We have to adjust to REALLY depending in Him. We should have been focusing on God the whole time. We did not even realize how we had gotten far from Him. We are active in our church and do our home bible studies etc. We love our church family.

Our money security blanket is gone and we HAVE to depend on Him. Funny how He makes us listen. I'm not mad at Him. I'm grateful. He has opened our eyes in a creative way. I love Him so much. I'm thankful that our family was not home and could have gotten hurt. It will take about a year to save up what we lost in money but our focus is different now.

I encourage your followers to not trust anyone. Use your locks, lock your safes, purchase a security camera.

They are out there and will steal from you.
Our pastor came out that evening for support and said a prayer. It was pretty powerful. All I can say is I'm glad I was not the thief who stole from us. Gods wrath will get them. It's not up to me it's up to Him Please, in your new home don't get complacent. Get a camera and lock your doors. Just because you are in the country doesn't mean those thieves will not find you.”

Starbucks evangelism...

Why I do what I do… I have worked at Starbucks for nine and a half years now. Now I am taking this month off and one of things I will be doing is deciding if I will try to find another position as a barista in a town close by to where we are now living. 
Believe it or not, I feel that God called me to this job. I love working with my partners, I love most of my customers. Just don’t ask me about “grande, 2 raw sugars cappuccino”. Ugh! 
I have found that I have had far more conversations about faith (God, JC the whole thing and everything else in between) than I have ever had anywhere else. Including church. I love talking about peoples faith journeys. People are so hungry for spiritual discussions. As long as they are not feeling judged. I am just really curious and sincerely want to know why people are where they are in life. 
Let’s see there is "venti, 7 pump melon, passion tea lemonade": who grew up unchurched and is really trying to find what is real and not real. 
And what about "venti coffee with hazelnut syrup": grew up Catholic but is feeling very far away from all things God. Drinking, drugging, lots of meaningless sex. 
Then there is "double tall vanilla latte": grew up without any faith journey at home at all. She has been investigating pagan (ism?). 
Oh and "triple grande breve latte": married, lapsed Lutheran, who needs to talk about having an affair with her co-worker. 
Well then, I also have to mention "doppio espresso": who states proudly that she doesn’t believe in God, but in pirates. Seriously. 
The funny thing is I am a "fluffy, perky gramma" (I started using the "perky" term 10 years ago) and anyone that knows me, knows that I am totally in love with God. I realized some time ago that God calls me to be in relationship with his children that are tattooed pierced and disenfranchised. It started out as unintentional for me (not Him).
The stories go on and on… It’s not my place to judge anyone where they are on their journey, but to just honestly love people where they are at. And that is why I do what I do. 
I live my life by my vision statement of "Love God, love others, it's simple" and my life's mission statement is "entice the skeptic, challenge the lukewarm & ignite passion in the believer".  This applies across the board from work to what I do here as a prepper. 
This month of decision making is going to be interesting to say the least. I guess some of it will depend on if the new Starbucks location will accept my strange restrictions on when I will work. I have a funny feeling that I feel that I may wind up back at Starbucks, we will see. We will see if God is still calling me to this job.


While this is being written in late July 2015, I am post dating the blog post.

Do YOU Want to Save/Earn Money with Zaycon?

What is Zaycon? 
Today is Zaycon Chicken Event Day in my life. I just recently ordered my 40 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken breast. 

When I first heard about Zaycon foods, I went to their site and read everything about them. Then I registered. I understand that forty pounds is a lot of meat and even with a decent per pound price, it is still a big chunk of money to lay out. Thankfully, I started saving up money each month & was able make the purchase from my saved money. 

     

Then initially they didn't offer any “events” remotely close to my area. But, I registered anyway & I have encouraged others to do the same. I learned that from Zaycon that the more people that register and share, the better chances of creating a new event location. It really did work. Now if you really live in the boonies, you may have to travel more. As LeAnn knows they don't ship to Alaska yet.

After you register, you then look for events that are close to you. I was willing to drive about an hour to be able to pick up my chicken. It is worth the drive for me, especially for the quality and cost of the chicken.

Honestly it took me awhile to decide that I was going to purchase from them. But I finally decided I was going to order. I talked to a friend and the first time we split a case of chicken (20 lbs. each) and we pressure canned the chicken breasts together.
There are Zaycon support Facebook sites in some areas. Mine is Zaycon Fresh of Virginia. These sites, if available allow you to find other people what are will to share an order with you. 

Just look at the size of this chicken breast. These are really cage free chickens, the super size comes from what Zaycon specifically orders from the farmers.

Most retailers & restaurants order smaller sizes. I called to ask them.

So, how do you save on your purchase? 

The power comes from sharing with your friends. 

1. Now please allow me the honor of being the person that introduces you to Zaycon. click this link & Register. This is my unique link: https://www.zayconfoods.com/refer/zf144734
2. After you register you will receive your unique referral link & SHARE YOUR REFERRAL LINK with your friends. This is a really important step. When people you know register and purchase, you will receive $1 credit each time that person purchases - to apply to your purchases.
3. Then subscribe to an area (or two, depending how far you will travel) under the location tab.
4. Order your chicken or other product.
5. Then the day of your local event, you drive up, hand them your confirmation, they load it in your car. 

Back to my friend, as I mentioned we split our first case. We were so impressed with the quality of the chicken, she registered and the next time we bought 3 cases (60 lbs each). I got a credit of $1 for her purchase.

40 lbs. of chicken ya'll

Even if I didn't get referral $1's, I still wholehearted believe that this is an excellent deal. The quality alone is worth everything.
I know several of you already do Zaycon, please feel free to share your thoughts.

Tasty bacon from Zaycon: baking

for Pasta Carbonara from 100% from storage

Zaycon really does offer a great deal on fantastic products. The food is superior and I have been so very happy. Why not hop on the Zaycon band wagon today?

Glad you visited today & would love it if your joining our community in Facebook at Perky Prepping Gramma.

P.S. I almost missed the fact that we will be living in our new house, 90 miles away from our current location. Glad I caught that before I ordered.