Website Alert! "Dinner in a Jar"?

The Old Coot Who Married Me is a member of an amateur radio group, and last Saturday night there was a group social. Since The Old Coot was in charge of the social, I decided that it was important for me to attend as well, mostly to support him. I was so glad that I went! My Friends Jay and Lauren were both there, and as always, it was so great to see them. Even better, My Friend Lauren, who is always on the prowl for new ways to use food storage, was all excited about her latest find. It is such a simple idea, I can't believe that I haven't seen it used in this way before, but I'm glad that I know about it now.

The website that she referred me to is called, "Dinner is in the Jar". The idea is similar to all of the "Cookies in a Jar" that many of us have seen at Christmas: the dry ingredients for cookies are layered in a Mason jar, ready for mixing, and all that you need to do when you are ready for cookies is add the sloppy stuff like eggs and oil. Well, the lady on this website has decided to do the same thing for meals by putting dry ingredients like rice or pasta, along with spices and dehydrated vegetables, etc., in a jar or a sealed mylar bag, and then when it's time to cook, there are just a few "add-ons". The cook book that she offers has the recipes for the items that go in the jar, as well as labels that you can photocopy and attach to your jars that list the add-on items and directions for cooking.

For example, the recipe for "Pasta Soup" lists macaroni, lentils, plus some spices that go into the jar, with the add-ons being simply 1 pint of cooked chicken cubes (I like buying the canned chicken just to have on hand for "crunch" times) and the 10-1/2 cups of water required for cooking. Since I just bought the book, I haven't had a chance to try the recipes yet, but they sure look good, and it is definitely an intriguing idea. "Gan"-"Green Thumb" and I will report back soon with the results of our first dish. In the meantime, please check it out!

Winter Storm – A Chance to Test Our Emergency Preparedness

As I have stated before, watching the events that unfolded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina forever changed my thinking, and I have become determined to make my family as self-reliant as possible. Being a novice at many things, I have just had to guess on how prepared we really are, especially since I live in an area that (so far, at least) is not prone to earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. Well, this week Texas saw snow, and our area actually saw more snow than we have ever had in a one-day time period. It was pretty fun, well, up until the point that our power went out. But even that had its “up” side because we got a chance to see where we really are as a family as far as being prepared goes (our home is all electric). Like pretty much everything in our lives, we learned that we had our strengths and our weaknesses.


A big thing that I did right was that I actually listened to the weather forecast for once. In our area, the weather can be so hit-and-miss that many times when you hear a forecast predicting inclement weather, it is easy to roll your eyes and say to yourself, “Oh, whatever.” This time I took the report seriously and went to the grocery store before things got bad. There was plenty of fresh bread, milk, etc., in the house. In addition to a house full of food that needed cooking/heating, we had lots of things to eat that didn’t require cooking. We were set. If we did need to cook, Robert had a little camping stove and fuel squirreled away that he bought at a garage sale (garage sales are a great source for acquiring that type of thing at a great price). I did realize, however, that while we had plenty of food in the house, we didn’t really have a decent supply of drinking water. Not a problem for a power outage for us, but if there was ever a major problem with our water supply, we might not be so happy. Need to work on that.


One thing for which we have always been grateful is the fact that we made it a point to buy a house with a fireplace. While it isn’t exactly an inferno, it did keep the house pretty warm, especially when we closed the other rooms off and congregated in the family room. Another plus was that we had plenty-o-plenty of firewood, all of which was free. Living in a residential area, there are at least one or two trees each year that get a good pruning, or even cut down. Unless those home owners also have a fireplace (most don’t), that wood ends up on the curb, waiting for collection on trash day. Robert volunteers to haul it off, and so far no one has ever turned him down – it’s a win/win for everyone.

The fireplace is definitely an asset, although I will say that now that I seem to have so many problems with breathing and sinuses, I will probably get a wood burning stove if I ever get my house in the country. With no electricity to operate a blower, we have to leave the doors on the fireplace open in order to get maximum heat, and the burning wood drives me nuts. There is a new product I have seen advertised that I am quite taken with. The Vermont Bun Oven is a wood burning stove that will not only heat your home, but also allows you to use the top surface for some basic cooking and there is an oven on the bottom for baking. Yes! My little house on the prairie will have one!

The second item for which I was grateful has also served to humble me through the years. You see, my husband is a tool collector; I can’t even tell you how many different tools and “toys” he has. I just know that he has stuff everywhere, and his “stuff” has been the subject of many discussions. When he told me a few years back that we really needed a gasoline powered portable generator, I found myself thinking, “Woof – another new toy to clutter up the garage.”

Well, today was not the first day that I was glad that he bought that thing. We have used it a couple of times before, after losing power during thunder storms, and it always comes in handy. Our big thing is that our freezer is usually pretty stocked, plus there’s the refrigerator, and we hate the prospect of losing all of that in the event of a long-term power outage. The generator provides enough power to run our refrigerator and freezer, plus something small like a lamp, and my husband always runs an extension cord over to our next-door neighbor’s house to help him out. (Note: If food safety is a concern, the Texas Cooperative Extension has a neat fact sheet, “Handling Food and Drinks When Losing Power” that is quite informative.)


We did learn a lesson today: You need to fire the generator up once in a while, when you don’t actually need it, if you want it to start right up when you do need it. I believe The Old Coot said this was in the instructions, and was something he meant to do, but just never got around to. It took him quite awhile, and a lot of struggling, to get it going today. We will be performing regular maintenance on our generator in the future.

I also learned to appreciate my cell phone. I am not a fan of cell phones; I generally find them intrusive and annoying, and I think most of us talk way too much. But it did come in handy today because we recently “bundled” our cable, internet, and land-line phone service. Even though we had purchased the battery back-up pack for our land-line “black box”, it died way before we were able to get our generator going, leaving us with only our cell phones, one of which I used to report our power outage. I guess I’ll have to rethink my opinion of both cell phones and bundled services.

A tiny hero in our “emergency” scenario was actually something I had bought as a fluke, as stocking stuffer gifts for many members of our family. I’m a big fan of QVC and they have something known as a “Today’s Special Value” (they pick one product each day and offer it for a 24-hour period at a really great price). Right before Christmas they had offered these really cute, little flashlights . Initially I liked them because they were in a set of five and came in really cute colors like lime green and purple:


They are exceptionally bright:


But what really sucked me in was the “glow-in-the-dark” ring that makes the flashlight easy to spot in the dark:


In fact, Mom was the first one to know that the power had gone off when she got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. When her table lamp would not come on, she was able to easily spot her flashlight’s glow ring (she keeps the flashlight on her nightstand). She then came and told me about the power outage, and it was easy for me to spot my flashlight, too. Who knew that something so insignificant could be so helpful?

We were too busy taking snow pictures and trying to get the generator going to listen to the radio, but we do have a crank-powered radio available to get important information if we need it.
Well, that was our winter storm experience. Our power DID finally come back on, and we DO love electricity. There are some things we still need to work on, but overall, the steps that we have been taking towards being prepared did pay off – the day was not too bad!

So That’s What I Did Wrong With My Tomatoes! (Notes from a Class on Gardening)

“Gan”-“Green Thumb” and I are lucky enough to live in a community that offers free classes on organic gardening every-other month at our local library. A local nursery, feed store, and a product line called “Nature’s Guide” are the sponsors, and there’s a new guest speaker each time. We recently attended a short, one-hour class that was taught by a very knowledgeable man by the name of Sabino Cortez. Among other things, Sabino is regularly heard on the radio show “Living Natural First”, and he also has his own company and website called Erath Earth . I have to say that I probably learned more about gardening in Texas in the one hour that I spent listening to him than I have learned in many months. Mostly, I found myself slapping my forehead and thinking to myself, “So that’s what I did wrong!” My forehead was glowing red by the time I left the library!

The big eye-opener for me was that even in January we are supposed to be thinking of our gardens. This is the time to be getting beds and garden spots ready. To control weeds in our lawns he recommends putting out the corn gluten meal early (it is known as a pre-emergent, meaning it is meant to stop weeds before they pop up; once they’re up, it’s not so effective). There is an article on the “Living Natural First” show blog that talks more about natural weed control, if you are interested.

Tomatoes: This is where I failed miserably in my first gardening attempts. I got a few tomatoes, but that whole thing about harvesting them throughout the whole summer seemed like just a myth. Here’s what I learned, to the best that I can make out my notes (I absolve Sabino Cortez of any lack of memory on my part):

1. Start garden prep now; compost is one of the most important amendments that you can add to your soil, especially for vegetables. Lay down a layer of compost between ½” – 1” thick on your soil and work it into your soil gently, keeping it at the top 2” of soil. He stressed using good quality compost. He said that it should be “fine” textured – if you can recognize individual components of the compost (such as wood chips, etc.), then it probably isn’t “finished” yet. Unfinished compost will actually grab nitrogen from the soil to use to help break down the unfinished components. A good compost looks like soil. Of course, some of the best is the stuff you do yourself; you always know what is in it. If you want to be “organic”, he said that you have to be careful of “bulk” compost when buying from an unproven source, as it sometimes has herbicide in it. (I had a little trouble following this part, but if memory serves, some compost has horse manure in it, which is generally not a problem. However, if the horse ate hay that was treated with herbicide, then it passes through, and goes from hay - to horse - to manure - to compost - to your garden. Once introduced into your garden, it can be a factor for up to 15 years!) He gave us a way to test compost for herbicide: Plant a raw peanut in a pot (they grow fairly quickly). When the plant has some growth on it, including some leaves, make a compost tea from the compost in question and water the peanut plant with it. If there is herbicide in the compost your peanut plant will usually die within 24 hours.


2. He also recommended something called “soft rock phosphate” (a natural form of phosphorus), and he stressed that tomatoes and peppers need this. If I’m reading my notes correctly, he recommended picking out the spots where you want to plant tomatoes, digging a nice deep hole, and then mixing at least 30% compost with the soil before putting it back in the hole, stopping at about 4” from the top of the hole. For that top 4”, mix ½ to 1 cup of soft rock phosphate with the soil, and fill it up!


3. Another amendment that he recommended was dried molasses. This helps to provide carbohydrates that all of those microbes in your soil need in order to “colonize”? (Who knew there was so much stuff happening out there!)


4. A major mistake that I made last year was planting my tomatoes in 5-gallon pots. Tomatoes like a lot of root space – if you have to plant them in a container, it will need at least a 10-gallon container. But overall, the deeper the soil, the longer the plant will hold up, with 3-4 feet between each plant.


5. All vegetables are “full sun” plants.


6. Good compost will give tomato plants all the nitrogen that they need to get started. Don’t give tomatoes nitrogen until they have fruit. From what I understand, if you give nitrogen at the beginning, you get a tall plant with lots of growth, but not much fruit. Once you see the fruit forming, then you can add some nitrogen; however, he stressed that you should not put the plant food too close to the base of the plant. You should put it about 6”-8” on the outside of the plant.


7. Another “Oh, no!” moment came when Sabino talked about watering your new tomato plants. He said that we should plant our new transplants, water them well, and then walk away. Don’t water them again until they start looking “droopy”. Apparently too much water is a real culprit because constant watering means that the tomato plants don’t develop a large, deep root system. This deep root system is needed when that 101 degree Texas sun is beating down on us in the middle of summer. The bigger the plant gets, the further away you water – it needs to “look” for water.


8. Another mistake I made when wanting to undertake organic gardening is that I pretty much equated “organic” with “don’t do a whole lot”. It still takes work, especially in the area of pest and disease prevention. Waiting until you have a problem is too late; you really need a weekly, routine foliar feeding in order to prevent insects from getting a foothold in the first place. He talked a lot about compost tea, garlic, and orange oil. If you would like to learn more, the “Living Natural First” show has a wonderful organic glossary that gives a quick summary on many products and treatments used in organic gardening, and it is brief enough that even a novice like me stayed interested and understood it.


9. I think I will have more tomatoes this year!

If you live in Texas, then I have another neat resource for you. I found a website called “Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide” and it is through the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Even if you don’t live in Texas, I would bet that your local extension agency has something similar for your area. I found this guide when I was looking for the average date of the last spring frost for our area. In addition to giving “last frost dates”, this guide addresses which vegetables are best suited for large or small gardens, gives light requirements for certain vegetables, tells which vegetables are easily transplanted, and much, much more! More than anything, I was surprised at how early some plants are supposed to be planted. According to this guide, in my area, there are things that I need to be thinking about planting soon! Anyway, this guide looks great to a novice like me.

So there you go; “Gan”-“Green Thumb” and I are getting excited about our prospects for having at least some limited success this year. We’ll let you know how we fare!

Happy planting and good luck!