I say tom-A-to, you say to-mah-to...

On the debate of water bathing or pressure canning tomatoes:
Please note I am NOT an expert.
My answer is as simple as “know what you grow”.

.
Here is the fact: To decide if you water bath or pressure can food depends on the acidity level.High acidity=you can water bath. Lower acidity=you need to pressure can.

The debate revolves around the issue that newer breeds of tomatoes may or may not be acidic. But, if your know what your are growing or buying, I would think the answer is easy. 
So, if you are canning “new” types of tomatoes (from the store or what you grow); ADD vinegar to raise the acid content back up for water baths.

Does that make sense?

I am growing Desters this year.

About the Dester

New! A large pink beefsteak variety that reaches 1-1 1/2 pounds. Its rich sweet flavor makes it an excellent slicer. The seed came to us from an Amish lady just a few miles from our Baker Creek farm. Anna worked as a house cleaner for Dr. Dester and his wife in Indiana in the 1970's. Having acquired the seed from Germany, the Desters shared their favorite tomato seed with Anna, who treasured it and now shares it with us. One of our best tasting tomatoes.

I know the story, therefore I know what I grow & they will be water bathed.

How to Choose Your Water Filtration System...

Think! What is the first few things you do in the morning? Does it involve water? Mine does. Probably one of the most important things for me in the beginning was insuring the water would be safe to drink by having an extremely good water filtration system.

One of my tasks for our team was I am the researcher on water, food and health (back-up). We each have our areas of strengths  I will admit it is BORING reading up on water filtration systems, their claims (efficacy) and what it all means. But I want to challenge you to do this, since the safety of your water is of paramount importance.

The easiest way to explain it for me is the more (absolute) 9's a water filtration system has, the safer your water will be to drink

Here are links to the facts on several of the better filtration systems:

1. Sawyer FAQ

2. I can't seem to find the proper page with details, but Aquamira.com is rated really high.

3. Berkey

4. Life Straw

Again, after a lot of reading; in the end I decided to purchase Life Straws for our get home bags and the Sawyer Water Filtration System for our family. Here is what they say on their website.

“First, Sawyer's filters and purifiers are rated in Absolute Microns. This means there is no pore size larger than 0.1 or 0.02 micron in size on the PointONE™ and PointZEROTWO™ respectively. This means that it is impossible for harmful bacteria, protozoa, or cysts like E. coli, Giradia, Vibrio cholerae and Salmonella typhi (which cause Cholera and Typhoid) to pass through the Sawyer filters and purifiers. At 7 log (99.99999%) the filter attains the highest level of filtration available today. The PointZEROTWO™ filter removes both bacteria and viruses.”

Here is their detailed explanation log chart.

It operates with a bucket (which you purchase separately).

I believe there are other great systems, but this is what worked for us.

Oh, and they have a 1 million gallon guarantee.
Now that we are moving, I am actually looking at installing a Sawyers water system onto my kitchen tap. I will keep you posted.

I am not saying a bad word about the other systems I listed above, in fact I believe they are good systems. For the cost, the efficacy of pollutants removed and longevity my personal preference runs with the Sawyers System. Fact is I almost bought a Berkeley, but personally the cost of having to keep additional filters on hand (prep storage) just seemed not effective to me when the Sawyers has a million gallon guarantee. 

The other tipping point for me is I personally know they have a program to provide filtration systems in countries where clean water is a great need. Churches frequently will support and sponsor sending the systems where they are needed. It was after I sponsored a village was when I first got my personal system. I happened to be researching around that time. It is pretty amazing to actually do a demonstration of the dirty water to clean water after filtration.

Additional Suggested Reading: Here is the first water storage article that covers more basic ideas on water storage: Water: A Real Conversation. If you want, here are two very detailed blog posts on water filtration from Preparedness Pro. It is where I began my education on water. I highly recommend you read them. Water Filtration: Facts & Fiction, Water Filtration Facts: Pay Attention to the Nines.

What I do here is simply share our preparedness journey. If you liked this post we would love it if you joined our Perky Prepping Gramma community on Facebook, comment or share. Plus it would just make my day.

          

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...then he shot himself

Imagine being 19 again…

There was a guy, considerably older than I was, who was stalking me. The term “stalking” wasn’t used back then. But that is certainly what it was. We worked together in the military. I was military police and he was an investigator. He followed me around where I worked. Every single day. I felt like I was under surveillance. He would send me a bouquet of roses almost every day.
One night about midnight, he came to the guard shack I was working and started chatting with me. At one point, he just said “I love you and can’t live without you” and pulled out his gun and shot himself right in front of me.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion after that point. He slumped over the steering wheel of the cobalt blue sedan. I could see the bloody exit wound on his back. His right arm was limply splayed over the center console. Blood was splattered everywhere. When the bullet exited his back it pierced the upholstery of the drivers seat, right at a stitched seam.
This really messed me up as you can imagine. I was actually under investigation for the shooting, because of bizarre circumstances that surrounded the incident. He did live. It took years to heal from this attempted suicide that happened in front of my eyes.
Fast forward to many years later. There was a young girl at youth group, who was going through some very difficult times and wasn’t talking about what was wrong. Finally one night on the phone I cornered her and told her she had to tell what was going on.
She said “I can’t tell, no one could understand. Have you every seen someone try to commit suicide?””
Well, I could truthfully answer, “Yes I have, let’s talk about it”.
No human mind could have ever foreseen that conversation. Only God In His infinite wisdom, knew the truth.
So, who am I? Just another face you see everyday.

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it 

the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

Napoleon Hill

Deep & Wide

Width in preparations is great. If you are preparing for a long term situation, there is only so much that you are able to store.

Say you have even 10 years worth of stored food; while that is awesome, what do you do at the end of your storage? Eventually you will run out and then things topple. 

For example, if you have a tree with wide root structure and beat it high winds and a hard rain, it is possible to topple the tree over.

But, DEPTH = STABILITY.

How do you build that stability? Depth involves your plan to carry on - the on going plan for self-sufficiency. Donna Hoaks teaches what she calls the P.A.C.E. system. Let's walk through the P.A.C.E. System.  

P.A.C.E. stands for Primary, Alternative, Contingency & Emergency. Let's start with chocolate for example.

Primary: I have a lot of chocolate candy stored.

Alternate: Brownie mixes, cake mixes, chocolate pudding mixes.

Contingency: I also have LOTS of cocoa & chips stored. Along with other cooking staples. Because chocolate is something I want to continue to have for a long time, I store a lot. I currently have about 20 containers of cocoa stored.

Emergency: I am going to try to order cocoa beans soon & practice to see if I am able to grow them, probably in a hoop house of some sort.

Vegetables:

Primary: I started with storing canned veggies from the store.
Alternate: When I learned to can, I started canning my own vegetables.
Contingency: I started last year learning how to garden with non-GMO, non-hybrid seeds. Using organic practices. Practicing my skills now.
Emergency: I have more seeds stored and I am learning to save seeds now from my own garden.
I currently have several years stored just in case. Keeping stocked ahead helps prepare for a year or two of drought, or in case there is flooding during the season like this year in Texas which destroys this years crops.

Primary: I have canned chicken (from the store) & some frozen chicken.

Alternative: I have chicken I have canned. I probably have at least 250 pints jars of pressure canned chicken stored. 

Contingency: If I need to get chickens to grow, I have a plan to get them. When we get our new place soon, chickens are one of the first things we are getting.

Emergency: I also have chicken seeds stored. Just kidding. Seeing if you are paying attention, if so put a smiley face on my Facebook page. LOL! Only those who read will be in the know.

Apply the P.A.C.E. across the board to your preparations & you will have true depth which equals stability in case of emergencies. 

I want to thank Donna Hoaks for sharing this P.A.C.E. System with me. It falls right into my thought process. She notes: "A few years ago, some friends and I did the PACE system for chocolate and coffee. PACE=Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency. It is a great system to check all your preps. For P, I had candy stored away. A was some brownie mixes and other goodies I could fix. C was having the items to bake from scratch...baking chips and cocoa primarily. E was having some chocolate hard candy as a last resort, such as Werthers. It was fun to watch everyone figure out how to PACE themselves. The PACE system should be applied to every area of your preps: Water, Food, Light, Heat, and Cooking (which includes fuels), Medical, and Shelter. Make sure your preps are deep enough to protect you.”

This really plays into the growth process of my preparing. I have worked on the “two is one, one is none”; to include stocking “three” of various key equipment that will be important to being prepared. When possible, try to make the Emergency level "Make it, not buy it" So often we need to know how to replace what we have purchased if we couldn't buy it. Having a lot of soap is great, but do you know how to make lye and turn it into soap?" “ 

I have been thinking of how to extrapolate everything out...

Art, Art I Love You...

Who am I? I am a creative artist.

I worked with designing stages to portray messages and experiential moments to draw people closer to God. I loved soaring on the top of a ten foot ladder, creating and designing in the air. It feels like flying to my heart.

Now, I am no longer implementing these designs. It's a new season in my life. I am still going to design occasionally and have other implement. This was a design we implemented for Resurrection Sunday (yesterday).

Basically, in my heart I am still an artist. Waiting to see where the next step on this journey will lead me.

TP Over/Under debate. What is your count?

People can get crazy over the debate if t.p. should be placed with the paper coming over the top or running down the back.

When more importantly you should know how many rolls you go through in a week. Seriously, I know it sounds too basic, but when you are preparing for the future, isn't that the more important question?

I am sort of like the Princess and the Pea with t.p. While I am able to, I would prefer to have NICE t.p. stored up as much as possible.

TIP #1: Bob, from East Coast Storage sells 5 gallons buckets with several rolls of commercial t.p. stored inside. He cuts off enough of the outer portion of the roll, so that it fits snuggly in the bucket, then rolls that up tightly and stuffs it inside the cardboard roll.

What happens when you run out of the “good stuff”? Do you have an alternative planned?

TIP #2: You can find all sorts of alternatives if you search around. Sponges? Washable, reusable clothes? A makeshift bidet? There is very little clothing I give to thrifts stores or throw away now. Particularly if it is soft. LOL.

But, you also need to consider if you have water available for flushing. How about an alternative disposal plan for the waste? What about a back up toilet?

TIP #3: There are a ton of options when looking for alternative toilets. Think something simple. We have a few 5 gallon bucket sets, with a seat on top & bags.

I know our answer, do you know your answer?

Sell Fresh, Sell Local in the Commonwealth of Virginia

Regional News: Business

This week I was looking for local ordinances for selling food that you make at home, which I checked to include things like selling what you produce on your homestead/farm. This is just some genral information to get you started.

Making food at home and selling it for profit has a lot of regulations. I suggest you really study and follow the Commonwealth's requirements. I can remember news reports of people receiving hefty fines for not follow the regs.

If you take this route, consider it a business; because the Commonwealth of Virginia will.

Commonwealth of Virginia Food Laws

 

Here is an article that you may find interesting.

HomeCanned Food

 

If you have a homestead/farm and wish to sell what you grow, again make sure you understand the regulations and follow them.
To promote your business; list your produce, eggs or meat you have on your farm through a well know index. Both of these have informaitno for other states/commonwealths.

1. Buy Fresh, Buy Local:

2. Pick YourOwn (VA)

Another good site for information is the Virginia Tech Coopertive Extention at:
http://www.ext.vt.edu/news/solutions/solutions2009/Articles/local_foods.html

There are a variety of ways to earn some income from you own effort to increase your self sufficiency. I am seriously considering working with some farmers to transport their produce to my suburban area. The demographics of the area in which I live desperately want fresh produce, eaggs, meat that is produced without chemicals.

 

For other areas/states: I simply googled: selling food from home Commonwealth of Virginia.