steam juicer

This is my still.

This is my still making wild black raspberry juice.

J.J. (just joking) this is a Steam Juicer that DH bought me like about a zillion years ago @ a Good Will store for under $20. Normally retails for upwards of $130 new so I can't really say that it's a must but if you score one for a great price it's one piece of home preservation equipment that's nice to have. Otherwise the old school method of cheese cloth/white cotton pillow case to create a jelly bag works just as well.

I actually am only using it because my girl group (church not a song & dance act), is working on making jams & jelly's. So rather than having numerous jelly bags strung out all over the church kitchen I recalled that this contraption was in a corner of the cellar.

The reason I wrote still is that is what the gals all asked me when I set it on the stove during a PW work day. Apparently I look like the type of urban homesteader to have a still.

Even more droll since the average age of my gal pals is like 6o. Kinda makes ya wonder what they were up to in their youth huh?

Plan is to freeze what I collect until I have enough of a good size batch to create something. Really already have enough jelly from last year's canning season so I am thinking perhaps juice.

Which is what I really need allot of since daughter's cleared us out of all the previous years grape juice a total of 54 quarts plus 5 quarts found hidden which = 59 half gallons.

The Steam Juicer didn't come with a manual so I am winging it. Steamed the berries for 30 minutes to extract the juice. Need to see about either buying a copy of the manual or downloading a copy. I'm sure there is more to this "still" than I realize.

Here's the picking field err spot really. By spot I mean a tiny spot. Behind the garage where there is very little sun & I haven't fertilized.

Gotta love totally free & easy!

Update on Urban Pantry Challenge - All the produce that I have either frozen or dehydrated this week either gifted or from DH's garden.

Canned up 9 pts. of Almond flavored Cherries that came from the same canning factory as last year. Difference this is year that I bartered for a smaller amount with my bbgf. Still have canned cherries left from last year. Cherries came pitted. Traded a new granyware canning pot with rack & a jar lifter. My accessed value for the canning equipment was $20 although I had only paid under $5 @ an auction. Threw in a dozen Ball canning jars NIB that was gifted to me.

Sunday DH & I went to the local Mega Mart to pick up a few items since we both were craving grilled burgers. Ended up spending $54.48 for the following items; one cuke @ 50¢ (dumb on our part as in a week or so we will have cucumbers from our garden), four ears of Sweet Corn @ 30¢ each, one tomato on the vine 62¢ (refer to the foolishness of buying a cuke), boneless pork loin discounted to $1.99/lbs. bought 2 packages which totaled slightly over 17 lbs. Cost of pork was $32.90. Also bought a package of Italian Sausage $7.02, and ground beef patties that were discounted $12.24.

All the meat was repackaged in to family size servings. The pork loins worked out to be 6 packages. The Italian Sausages 3 meals. Ground beef patties 2 packages of 8 burgers each.

Within the next week I will be spending in the neighborhood of $300 on a 1/3 of a cow. This should be the last time I need to buy beef until next July.

Since it's just the two of us for the rest of the Summer I have been crock potting meals for later eating. Cooked one of the pork loins in White Wine, Garlic, Rosemary, (garlic & Rosemary both from garden). Combined with a garden salad & wax beans from DH's community garden allotment it was a nice dinner.

Few weeks ago an avid coupon shopper gave a seminar on couponing/rebating after church service. We exchanged emails to arrange possible bartering opps. This is a better alternative for me than dragging out to the store coupons in hand for the small percentage of items that I do buy.

The conversation went as follows -

I was wondering if you would be interested in bartering? Since my household runs on more of old fashioned methods couponing really doesn't work for me.

Oh, but it could. What items do you buy on a weekly basis?

Don't really shop weekly. What I buy is items like toilet paper, bleach, vinegar, really items that I can't make myself. Sugar is a biggy since I can. I was wondering if you might consider bartering. Gallon of bleach for a loaf of homemade bread? I bake rye or a half whole wheat loaf.

Well here's an offer for Domino Sugar 50¢ off if you buy 10 packets of Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid is on sale this week...

At that point I really hoped I had a good poker face on.

I stopped discussing my method of food preservation in times of bounty because this was a woman who fed her children colored sugar water. I was talking Apples & she was busy filing store receipts for later rebate use.

Don't get me wrong coupons work great. The concept would work magic for me if I could find coupons for items such as canning lids. Washing soda. All the items that I can't buy in a store brand/generic version. Hmm the only thing that jumps out @ me is washing soda. Beer. Primo coffee. And tp ofcourse. I'm not that much of a homesteader to make my own.

The other aspect is of course if my trading commodity costs me less than what I traded it for.

Can I bake a loaf of bread for less than the cost of a gallon of bleach?

Well I did score 100 lbs. of locally grown wheat of which I still have 2/3 left... and I still have 1/3 of a bushel of organic rye. Will need to barter for butter, dry milk, white flour, yeast, & salt too. If I'm savy enough we just may be eatting our bread for free.

Provided that the wood stove is installed this fall which will provide the means to bake.

Otherwise will have to factor in the electricity that my 1949 Hotpoint stove sucks down.

~~ pelenaka ~~

... we have you!

The first part of that phrase is Why prep when.
Closely followed by a smirk, or a shy smile or if that family member is confident enough an outright chuckle.
Then that display is met with a look of cold dead silence.
Sometime you are just tired of talking to a rock. It's not like I'm a major subscriber to the whole when the ..it hits the fan scenerio, but the same skills that hard core preppers & survialist adhere to can help the bottom line on a modern days family's budget.
Not to mention natural disasters.
Economic downturns.
In the past I have offered assistance with helping close family to set up their own long term food storage system. I have offered up mason jars & canning equipment. A starter set if they choose to utilize home preserved food as part of their preps. I have emailed details on gleaning opps, meat buying coops, or various barter deals. Nothing short of droping by their door to deliver a basket of garden produce arouses them.


No pic on today's post. We are making a few high tech changes around the urban homestead this Summer. One of which is switching over to a lap top from DH's 10 y.o. computer. Slow going due to a learning curve. Not as bad as being a techo virgin but enough to raise the frustration levels for us both. Besides switching systems we have also decided to turn off our home internet DSL leaving us so far with only a local library WIFI port which isn't 24/7/365.
For the Summer we are taking full advantage of our tax dollar supported library's internet port to pocket a bit over $40 a month. It's > a 10 minute walk via shoe leather express & if you count the fact that we also use the library's dime to charge the laptop there's a savings too.
In the meantime we'll scope out other WIFI options like occasionally visiting a coffee house or perhaps a barter deal with a neighbor who has wireless internet. Or scoring a great deal on an air card plan.
The 2nd big change for us or rather me is trading in my land line telephone for a cell. I had resisted because I was deeply emotionally attached to my phone number, one that has been almost 10 years in existence. That says allot for a person like me who has lived in no few than 23 homes. Seems that I was fussing for nuttin as now the telephone powers that be will let you keep your #. For now we are going with a cheapo cell plan. Savings of $ 20 and change per month.
So besides playing back the cost of the lap top ($840), the all most $70 a month will be channeled into the wood pile. That is to say to buy a 3 cords of quality firewood for Winter heating, cooking, clothes drying, & if do able utilize the wood stove as the primary method of heating water replacing the natural gas water heater. That would only leave us with only one utility bill a month the electric. Hopefully since we won't have to power the furnace blower that bill should be > than $50 per month instead of $70 ish.
Since it's off season for firewood now is the time to stock up. While I haven't given up on gleaning or bartering for cords of wood which in the past year has gotten to be more difficult, I still want to have a supply in. After those two budget items are paid off there is always paying back the cost of installing the wood stove ($ from 2008 income taxes). Then finally doubling up on our extra monthly mortgage principal payment.

Scored 5 half gallon bottles of lamp oil for $2.68 in of all places Target.
DD#3 treated herself to a bathing suit off the clearance rack which is why we were there instead of say Aunt Sally's. Both her & DD#2 will be gone for the remainder of the Summer to Houston to visit with their father. I'm missing them already but DH & I are looking forward to alone time.

Canned up 6 pints of Victorian Rhubarb BBQ Sauce. Rhubarb collected from the garden since early Spring, raisins that started out as grapes from a barter deal 2 years ago (dehydrated & vacuum sealed in a qt. mason jar). Tried a bit on pork loin that night very nice! This recipe is differently a do over. Estimated cost per pint is 30¢ which includes spices,vinegar,ect. , & cost of lid. As I wrote before my jars the majority of which were free have all been paid off after the first few years of canning by the savings of not paying retail for food.
Gifted 3 vintage Sunbeam stand mixers to a fellow homesteader in turn was gifted a dozen of her farm fresh eggs.
Now & perhaps tomorrow our area will finally experience Summer temps & no rain so I need to stain our bedroom door, work on a plan to build an outdoor solar shower, & enjoy the Sunshine with my family.

~~ pelenaka ~~

Raised bed update

Update on the 3 foot deep raised bed that was layered with soil, bunny poop, ground egg shells, phosphorus, wood ash, and green matter. San Marzano Tomato plants have really taken off growing to 16". In light of this I replaced the stakes with an over head trellis system that DH built out of scraps. Not pictured is a white plastic corrugated panel placed behind the bed to reflect light. So far no issues with insects of mildew.
Funny I didn't notice my tighty whities or DH work socks hanging on the line when I snapped the pic.

So far so good on this raised bed which was layered like the previous one picture but has had a year to compost (huge worm population). Along the white PVC trellis is San Marzano Tomatoes which also have shot up to 14", curious that it wasn't more since the growing medium should be more advanced in nutrients. In the middle is Brussels Sprouts almost 20" tall. Foreground is Celery almost a foot tall and as you can see bushy. Hard to see the Marigolds among everything. No problems with weeds since this bed is soo densely planted. No problems with insects or mildew.

Check out the plastic birdbath I scored curb shopping ... can you see the cracks ? Gotta love clear packing tape.

It haven't canned up a thing not even Strawberries. We have only been harvesting a small amount from under the Apple trees and one of the Peach trees but not enough to preserve. After almost 8 years my primary bed has called it quits. Can't really complain as the average life of a strawberry bed is 5 years. Differently got my money's worth from the original 4 plants I bought. After the Peach harvest I'll prep for a future Strawberry bed under the Peach tree closest to the greenhouse. In the mean time I have been transplanting new Strawberries seedlings as I find them to a bed out in the front yard. We still have about a dozen pints of Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam that I can up last year to help tide us over until next June.

Can't say the same about the stewed whole tomatoes that I canned last year (16 qts.) and the year before that. All total we ate 28 quarts. Having these on the pantry shelf is allot like having fresh eggs in the ice box. With both you can conjure up a good meal.

Haven't had a chance to take inventory of either the home canned goods or our commercial stock, but per my DS who was home from Houston we had only one can of purred pumpkin left after I made him two pies. DD #3 also mentioned that we were out of Green Tomato Mincemeat pie filling, her favorite. She left me a note on the school calendar to remind me to spare green toms and barter for raisins so we could can up a few quarts.

Update on UPC: Since the garden has been producing green salad fixings and we aren't as home bound now (cabin fever makes you eat!) we have been staying closer to my goal of $100 a month on groceries. It will become more diffacult as our stash of commerical goods dindle since the majority of that food was purcased in 2006 or before our current economic recession.

Why oh why didn't I buy 3 cases of pumpkin pie filling instead of 2?

~~ pelenaka ~~

pause

Last Sunday DH & I were alone as our daughters attended a church sponsored youth event at the Islamic Center in Rochester. So after having coffee & dessert in the fellowship hall (OMG do Presbyterian love to eat) we went browsing at a flea market in search of weather tight salt & pepper shakers for the patio/outdoor kitchen. Then we hit a yard sale on the way home where we were introduced to an alternative (read foolish) way of thinking.
There was a couple out on their front lawn having a hugely discounted sale . Items like televisions, a stereo, & two rifles which got DH's attention. Long story short the guy was talking about how he wasn't gonna part with the rifles in light of our country's past economic climate (raise eyebrow/rub chin/ponder thoughtfully, did I miss the newsflash?) but then reconsidered since things had picked up in the last 3 months. Then he muttered a punchline about not needing to protect his can goods which only he thought was very funny.
I asked him if he had ever been laid off.
No, he was in public service.
I kid you not those were the words that he used.
I glanced over at DH who was at the same time glancing back at me. Not really sure what I answered back to this. I mean this guy really gave me pause. I was busy thinking to myself of all the occupations that aren't prone to cutbacks. Brain surgeon most nursing positions. Still it happens except maybe to this guy (per him).
Then I remembered when I was 19 & got laid off. How it took me 5 weeks of job hunting before I finally got a job in one of the lowest paying nursing homes in Rochester. Then another 6 weeks of living on various friend's couch/living room floors with my DD#1 who was 18 mos. old until I could scrap together rent & deposit for a studio apartment.
So besides sparking a trip down memory lane this guy's remark got me to thinking about how hard it is to recover from a period of unemployment. Back in '82 I would have to say that it took me about six or eight mos. to recover. Back then I didn't own a car just a bus pass. Rent was $200 in the Maplewood section. My sitter cost me $30 & an apartment cleaning every week.
Now? I shutter to think about it. Yet doesn't this fear guides my thinking in everything I do?


Count the tomato stakes.
One. Two. Three. Four ... twelve total. Ya, I know don't plant your seedlings that close (6")together. Well if i was gonna follow that rule then I'd also have t follow the rule about having @ least 6 hours of direct sunlight which is physically impossible due to a neighbors 100 y.o. Maple tree shading my backyard. So I settle for 3 hours & an almost 3' deep raised bed that has been layered with bunny poop, green matter, ground egg shells, wood ash, & top soil.
San Marzano seedlings were planted deep with only the top 2" showing on 6/1.
It's now the 8th & there almost 6 inches tall & very healthy.
If I had to rebuilt my raised beds again I would make them all 3 feet tall. Easy to weed.

I have extremely (unrealistically) high hopes for this bed. We built this bed last Summer along with a cold frame to the left and layered both in the same manner as the other one. This bed has had a full Autumn & Winter to breakdown into compost with the help of like a million worms. So far the 4 San Marzano tomato seedlings have grown 5", the 6 Brussels Sprouts (center) have shot up 4" & doubled in size, and the 12 celery seedlings (foreground) has also doubled in size to 8" tall. Other than sprinkling a pinch of phosphorus in each planting whole all I have done water (rain) on an almost daily basis. I need to plant in more marigolds before the bugs arrive.

If I selectively harvest the celery stalk by stalk will it continue to grow thereby giving me twice the harvest? Need to grow enough to dehydrate for Winter soup & provide for Summer eating.

~~ pelenaka ~~

piece a meal

This is my outdoor coffee table made by my DD#2 using a metal frame bought @ an antique shop in Leroy, New York (Orginal home of Jell-O) for 50¢, some lathe taken off the kitchen ceiling 9 years ago, screws from DH hell box, and black paint.

Viola, who needs a fancy store bought table to be urban chic? Thank you my daughter. Now to recover those cushions bought curb shopping ...

~~ pelenaka ~~

P.S. this patio set has been a few years in the making as the glider was an end of season clearence purchase, the chairs from a tag sale, & as a wrote the cushions bouhgt curb shopping. In the evening when DH comes home we take a few minutes to sit out under the peach trees & reconnect. The table also serves as a place to sort & fold clothes that have just come off the line.

MD 2009

Yeah, I know I'm a very blessed. This is what I got for Mother's Day.
The only other thang better than receiving a NIB wringer would have been a solar hot water heater. Bet you though I was gonna say a plow huh? Silly rabbit no place to park a plow or hitch one or really no need to use one on this urban homestead.
So here's the low down on my ever expanding nonelectric washing system.
DH was perusing Craig's list when he located this wringer out in Hamlin, New York for a steal.
The seller is raising funds to sponsor a soup kitchen. So a win win all the way around especially since the wringer only cost $10.
Originally this was bought from the Vermont Country Store price unknown as when I checked the website it wasn't listed. Lehman's carries a what appears to be the same make of wringer for $189.95.
One other item that I really want to try is a pants stretcher which both VCS & Lehman's carry (Lehman's is about $4 cheaper). According to the write in Lehman's catalog you insert the pants stretcher after washing into each leg then adjust it so it's snug & hang to dry. Suppose to give that just pressed creased down the legs look.
My Abulea always said that being poor & looking poor have nothing to do with each other - clean pressed clothes that have been well maintained will never give away the truth about your finances.

The wash tub is a holdover from my canning equipment. Before I bought my huge canning pot that holds 15 quarts I used this over an open fire resting on a couple of oven racks that I bought curb shopping. The fire pit was constructed with cinder blocks. A thin piece of plywood covered with aluminum foil cut to fit as a cover (tends to fall off). Add a found cabinet handle & you have a covered huge canning pot for really the cost of the wash tub. Better yet take your homemade lid to the hardware store & ask to have a piece of aluminum flashing cut to fit the underside of your lid with an extra 3 ". Fold over the edges crimping the fold with pliers. Wear work gloves flashing cuts! Screw on with tiny stainless steel screws (won't rust) on the top of the lid 3 screws on each side. The screws & flashing shouldn't run more than $10. You can go as fancy as you want with the lid but do consider painting the top part that won't have flashing on it with something durable. This will make the lid easier to clean.
For the canning rack that fits inside your wash tub pot it can be anything from old bath towels on the bottom & in between quart jars to forming a rack from canning rings using picture hanging wire/stripped wire bread ties. Picture those plastic loops that hold a six pack of soda together. That is what your aiming for.
Definitely prefer the wood stove but in a pinch when you need to get the job done an old wash tub over an open flame in the cool of an August evening is a nice alternative. Add in free firewood & you have lowered the cost of putting food on the table considerable.
A round wash tub fits 15 qt. & 1 pint jar which is needed for spacing. Square tub should be in the same neighborhood give or take a qt. jar. I used a round tub that was already in the cellar as my square tub has a load of wash soaking in the morning Sun.
Addendum 5/18/09 - To prevent soot from the fire adhering to the surface of a pot wipe down with dish soap. Then afterwards just wash off the soot.
~~ pelenaka ~~

P.S. Thank you my husband, I can't wait until Father's Day!