“Food, Part 5”
Guest Article by NRP & Blue, Aug. 14, 2021.
Good afternoon Y’all, tis a good day here on Lightning Point.
Can anyone out there guess what time of the Year it is????
That’s right, tis Harvest Time. Crops are coming in all over the place.
Even here on the Rock I live on.
Harvesting Wheat
Ok Ok; that is not my Garden HAHAHA
The Wheat Harvest is on, and here in the US, In 2020, about 1.82 billion bushels of wheat were produced.
Sounds like a LOT of wheat huh?
Corn is in full swing for sure:
And OMG is it good this year, and on sale, I got some at Safeway for $0.17 per ear, and 55 cents at regular price, OUCH!
So guess who went to the store 5 times last week….. HAHAHAHA
I cut it from the ear and freeze it in 2 cups each in Freezer Bags, works well
Beans:
Have ya ever seen a Bean Harvest? I have to admit its 24-7 when the Beans are ready. I did a stent of driving the 20 yard truck that would pull up and unload the Harvester. What a BLAST, but not so much after 8 hours and at 3:00AM….. Ugh. Good Memories for sure.
Rice:
What is absolutely amazing to me is that most of the Rice in the world is still harvested by hand, what a Back Breaking job for sure.
BUT OMG look at that View.
Ok, let’s get back to reality for a bit:
Working on that Deep Pantry is really not so hard.
Let’s take a few examples.
Beef; yes it’s that time when the Beef Industry is processing the herds.
I have a 1/2 lined up this year; I do one every 3 years. Have a friend that raises 4 a year, and sells them each year to a few close friends.
The cost ends up right at $3.75 per pound in the freezer, including Beef, Processing, and Cut & Wrap. That’s not a bad price this year considering good Hamburger is right around $5-$7 for the good stuff. So if you really want to save money, find a Processer and arrange a 1/2 or a full.
Fruit; How about Apples and Peaches?
Do you know anybody that has a few Apple Trees? If you do I would bet if you made a deal to clean up the mess after all the apples drop they will give you all you could ever use for no cost. In the Stores, you ask? $3 a pound for the good ones, and they taste awful, zero flavor at all.
Peaches? OMG I was gifted 10 5-gallon buckets of Peaches…… Let me tell ya, that’s a LOT of peaches, again all I did was rake up under the tree afterwards and zero cost, and yes I canned them all, minus a few I ate of course. I heard the cost…. $50 a bushel for bulk, about 9 Gallons per Bushel.
How about that Garden you have going for vegetables????
All sorts of things coming in from it right now.
Tomatoes
Green Beans
Swiss Chard
Spinach
Summer Cabbage
Squash
Peppers
Beets
And a lot more.
This is why it is so important to know how to preserve Fruits and Vegetables.
How is the best way to build your Deep Pantry???? With Free Foods, a GREAT way to start….
Next, Only buy stuff “On Sale”, Buy in Bulk, plus remember
“Store what you eat, Eat what you store”
I seriously encourage folks to work on that Plan, the List, and a good Inventory of what you have and use.
Also keep checking Connie’s articles for the Items to get, she is doing a GREAT job at listing a weekly purchase and items to get done. You can always search the Side-Bar for particular items and “How To” Articles.
This is a very, VERY good time to look for sales and find like-minded folks to share ideas and thoughts with.
Speaking of a Garden, I could not resist adding a Photo of my Tomato Plants from this year…. HAHAHA
Teasing Connie a little I guess LOLOL
I call it “Tomatoes on Steroids”, Yes that’s one tomato plant, well over 6 foot tall and 4 feet wide…..
Gata Love It….. HAHAHAHA
Please, very much Please, start getting that Deep Pantry going.
Look around and see what’s going on around the Country and the World.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair …, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way …”
The opening paragraph of Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities
How true it seems these days…..