Stockpiling Food?

[Greg Who Cooks]

One nice thing about stockpiling butter, as far as my experience tells me it freezes fine and lasts many months with little or no effect. Whenever I buy a pound I separate three of the sticks and throw them in a zip lock bag and put them in the freezer, and keep the fourth in my refrigerator. When I'm getting low I just take a stick out of the freezer a few days before I anticipate running out of unfrozen.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I have to eat a bunch of pomegranate popsicles to make room in my little freezer. And somehow some UFO's ended up in the fridge freezer...

 

[Addie]

One nice thing about stockpiling butter, as far as my experience tells me it freezes fine and lasts many months with little or no effect. Whenever I buy a pound I separate three of the sticks and throw them in a zip lock bag and put them in the freezer, and keep the fourth in my refrigerator. When I'm getting low I just take a stick out of the freezer a few days before I anticipate running out of unfrozen.

I have become the butt of family jokes about butter. The whole family has a love affair going with Cabot butter. Because we are in such close proximity to Vermont, we get fresh shipments in every day. Every so often Vermont produces a plethora of butter and ships it to us the same day. So it goes on sale. If I could, I would fill my freezer with it. I use the house brand for baking, but Cabot's for personal use. When on sale, I have been known to buy six or more pounds at a time. Then I will send my son to other supermarkets the next week when it goes on sale at other stores. I would eat butter on a popsicle stick if it weren't so ridiculous. I just love butter. And if it is Cabot's, all the better. I would put it on bacon and salt pork. You get the picture. I LOVE BUTTER. And if it is Cabot's, all the better. It is the closest to farm fresh you can get in these here parts.

When I worked with my 4-H kids at the Fair, at 5 a.m. I would go out to the dairy barn for fresh cream right from the cows as they were being milked, butter from the creamery, and eggs right from the chickens still warm in the coops for my breakfast. Life doesn't get any better than that. Now I live in the city and have to wait for it all to come to me. Just doesn't taste the same.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Wow. I never heard of anybody who loved butter that much! I may have bought two pounds occasionally (sale) but usually content myself with a pound at a time.

If I had to hunker down for a month with no grocery shopping trips (and could plan ahead) the only thing I would miss would be fresh vegetables.

 

[bakechef]

When I go to BJ's I get it 4 pounds at a time, usually 4 pounds salted and 4 pounds unsalted...

I use it mostly for baking and some for cooking. I usually buy 8 pounds every other month.

 

[CWS4322]

I buy butter when it is on sale--I like Land O'Lakes unsalted, probably because I grew up in MN. I currently have 8 lb of butter in the freezer, 1/2 lb in the fridge.

 

[CWS4322]

When I worked with my 4-H kids at the Fair, at 5 a.m. I would go out to the dairy barn for fresh cream right from the cows as they were being milked, butter from the creamery, and eggs right from the chickens still warm in the coops for my breakfast. Life doesn't get any better than that. Now I live in the city and have to wait for it all to come to me. Just doesn't taste the same.

I'm on the "hunt" for a cull dairy cow that will allow me to hand milk it...although, with my poor hand thanks to Rocky, I'm not sure I could handle handmilking...I want to make cheese! If I could get a Zebu locally (these are "mini" cows), that would be very, very tempting. And, raw milk is the best fertilizer for the garden, so excess milk would not go to waste. So tempting...we keep talking about it...

 

[Addie]

I'm on the "hunt" for a cull dairy cow that will allow me to hand milk it...although, with my poor hand thanks to Rocky, I'm not sure I could handle hand milking...I want to make cheese! If I could get a Zebu locally (these are "mini" cows), that would be very, very tempting. And, raw milk is the best fertilizer for the garden, so excess milk would not go to waste. So tempting...we keep talking about it...

Keep in mind, dairy animals are seven day/twice daily care animals. No vacations unless you have kind neighbors or can afford to hire someone to come in each day. Forget about getting sick. And you definitely don't want a heifer. Unless you can afford stud fees. They can run into the thousands of dollars.

One of my 4-H kids sold one vial of semen from her prize bull for $5,000. Her feed money for the coming year.

 

[Addie]

I buy butter when it is on sale--I like Land O'Lakes unsalted, probably because I grew up in MN. I currently have 8 lb of butter in the freezer, 1/2 lb in the fridge.

Our closest LOL butter facility is located in NJ. Cabot's in Vermont is so much closer. So the butter is fresher.

 

[CWS4322]

Keep in mind, dairy animals are seven day/twice daily care animals. No vacations unless you have kind neighbors or can afford to hire someone to come in each day. Forget about getting sick. And you definitely don't want a heifer. Unless you can afford stud fees. They can run into the thousands of dollars.

One of my 4-H kids sold one vial of semen from her prize bull for $5,000. Her feed money for the coming year.

The 2x/day milking requirement is the stumbling block. We have pasture at the farm, but no one lives at the farm. The chickens are enough of a commitment because we don't have a lock-down area attached to the coop. They are locked up at night, but allowed out during the day in the fenced backyard. Even with the fence, the little buggers still sometimes get on the other side of the fence and one has to go chicken hunting...

 

[Addie]

The 2x/day milking requirement is the stumbling block. We have pasture at the farm, but no one lives at the farm. The chickens are enough of a commitment because we don't have a lock-down area attached to the coop. They are locked up at night, but allowed out during the day in the fenced backyard. Even with the fence, the little buggers still sometimes get on the other side of the fence and one has to go chicken hunting...

The initial money investment for equipment can also be another stumbling block. Vet bills, regular TB testing, milking machine, separators, cooling equipment, etc. Need I go on? Dairy is a major commitment. You have to ask yourself, "Am I willing to make that much of an investment for just one cow?"

 

[tropical cooker]

Freezer stocking

Something to consider. If the power goes for more that a day, everything in a freezer may not survive.

Climate change will cause storms that may knock out power more often.

 

[Hoot]

Something to consider. If the power goes for more that a day, everything in a freezer may not survive.

After Isabel, we try not to keep too much in the freezer section of the refrigerator for that very reason during hurricane season. In the big old chest freezer, I learned from Isabel, that even after a loss of power for 8 days, nearly everything in there was still frozen. 'Course, we never opened the lid on that freezer till the lights came back on.

 

[CWS4322]

Something to consider. If the power goes for more that a day, everything in a freezer may not survive.

Climate change will cause storms that may knock out power more often.

If you have a generator, you don't have to worry about that. We lost power for 12 days in 1998 during an Ice Storm. The stuff in the freezer survived thanks to the generator.

 

[CWS4322]

Another crop that has been hard hit is the soy crop. This means products containing soy (e.g., vegetable oil) will most likely go up as well. And, soybeans are a huge source of protein in animal feeds.

 

[chopper]

Another crop that has been hard hit is the soy crop. This means products containing soy (e.g., vegetable oil) will most likely go up as well. And, soybeans are a huge source of protein in animal feeds.

Time to buy the big bottle of soy sauce at SAMs! Thanks for the warning.

 

[CWS4322]

Because we grow so much of the food we eat the rest of the year, watching the weather and crop futures are somewhat of hobbies here. I haven't heard "boo" about wheat, but the crop was poor last year, and that has contributed to the increased prices for flour and pasta. And, the Canadian Wheat Marketing Board has been declared a monopoly. Canadian wheat growers can now sell wheat to US markets. That may prove interesting re: pasta and flour prices. Flour prices in the US are typically higher than here in Canada.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

From all the information I've seen and irrespective of the cause (man made? natural?) it appears that we may be facing increased temperatures, more unstable weather and altered climates (for example, one place gets drier, another place gets more rain). It seems to me that in the long run none of us will be able to avoid higher prices, and scarcity may become increasingly common. Probably best we can do is make the best use of our money and storing food and save a little bit in the long run.

 

[CWS4322]

Certainly, it may mean changing one's eating (and cooking) habits. Ironically, things that do NOT like hot weather, e.g., bok choy, are doing amazingly well this year in our garden. The lack of rain has delayed the tomato production here (the two that were yellow yesterday are orange today--but two almost ripe tomatoes on almost 300 plants is not very promising--I so want to start harvesting tomatoes!), but our sweet corn is doing fine. Mind you, we have been watering every other day or so since the beginning of July.

 

[justplainbill]

Glad I like rice & beans.