Scavenging and Fun Stuff!

So last night, after midnight, Mister and I went and gathered grapes. I'd noticed that there was a grape vine on a chain link fence near a playground a while back, and when they were ripening last week, I told Mister that we needed to collect them.

Concord grapes: they're everywhere, but I've never heard of anyone actually eating them. Anyone I knew who had them in their yard just let them do their thing.

So with a flashlight, a bag, and a serrated knife, we gathered approximately 4 lbs. of grapes (not counting the stems). They are now in the process of making two interesting products. The first, is a Grape Mulled Cider. The recipe will follow. The other product that I'm making is on-par with homemade bitters made from the stems and pits left over from the grape cider.

Grape Mulled Cider
5 pounds Concord grapes
8 cups water, divided
1-1/2 cups sugar
8 whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks (4 inches)
Dash ground nutmeg


In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine grapes and 2 cups water; bring to a boil, stirring constantly.


Press through a strainer; reserve juice and discard skins and seeds.


Pour juice through a double layer of cheesecloth into a 5-qt. slow cooker (I didn't use the cheesecloth). Add the sugar, cloves, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and remaining water. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours. Discard cloves and cinnamon sticks. Yield: 10-12 servings (2-3/4 quarts).

I will include a pic of the finished product as well.

The current state of affairs of the grape bitters is:


I will probably let that sit for a few weeks, then strain, dilute and add sugar. Or something along those lines.

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While I was looking up ideas to use the grapes with, I came across a couple of recipes from MEN that I want to save.
Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Red Grapes and Thyme
Roasted Grapes
Apple Cider Elderberry Jelly

Also, an interesting site to use seems to be Make Hard Cider Easy -- if I ever get enough apples to make it worth my while!

And regarding the Lemon Balm Codial that I made previously, Mister had a fabulous idea for it. We could use it in Margaritas in lieu of the Triple Sec (which I hate the taste of). I for one, am excited to try.

Plans and More Plans

Since I have nothing better to do than sit around and plan, that is what I do a lot. My plans for this upcoming year:

Household Stuff
-- declutter majorly. I have the 100 Things (to give away/get rid of) list on my sidebar, and there is only one item on it. I need to work on that.
-- organize clothes seasonally. I usually keep all of it out "just in case I need a sweater!" or whatever. Organize!
-- get rid of what clothing is dead: I'm terrible at buying more of, but not getting rid of old underclothes in particular.
-- clean the house on a regular schedule. Mister and I want to be able to cancel the cleaning lady that his LL is insistent upon. That's just a waste of money.
-- find proper food storage at Mister's apartment.

Social Stuff
-- get cards night permanently up and running. If it needs to be every week to do so, then I'll make it every week.
-- start a knitting/crocheting group. Perhaps once or twice a month.
-- perhaps do a brunch monthly. Rotate homes and such.

Sustainability Stuff
-- actually eat the food that I store! Plan meals and menus around storage.
-- organize how and where I'm planting before spring comes around.
-- get more rags and cloth wipes in lieu of paper towels -- we already use cloth for some kinds of clean-up, I just need to expand that.


I think that's all that I can feasibly expect to work on. Yay plans!

Random Sustainability

So I'm working on several projects towards sustainability. (Mister keeps grumbling that I keep trying to run before I can walk, but really, I'm already AT baby steps!) The first was a project which I completed today (aside from taste testing).



Here is my lovely PB jar filled with grain alcohol in which Lemon Balm has been steeping for almost two weeks. It has already been strained.



Here is the same jar with simple syrup and water added. Looks tasty! I just hope that it is. If so, Project: Lemon Balm Cordial will be a success!

The other project is just starting out today.



Here's my lovely quart jar of sourdough starter -- only just started today. I am using this method to form my sourdough, and I shall post its progress!

Hmm

Sometimes, I wish that whatever change we'll see happens NOW. And immediately. I want to have to make a decision and stick to it -- not through strength of will, but because it's the only working option. I want my family to be full-time on board, and my fiance to not have stupid fights with me about the usefulness of pantries (for "there will always be grocery stores").

How long did it take for the Depression to be in full swing? Were there people who never noticed? Were there people immediately effected with their neighbors confused?

I'm reading old posts of Sharon's blog, and it just makes me long for a farm. The chances of my having a farm? So slim. But I want it. I don't know what to do with it, but I want it.

I keep trying to dive into activities that I KNOW need wading. So I buy too many seeds, and plant none of them. I lust after canners and jars, but have no produce or recipes to use. I keep saying "next year I'll..."

When will next year arrive? Please let it just arrive with a big crash. I don't want to be alone with this.

Glass Straws!

As one of my roommates and I both use an excessive amount of drinking straws (you don't want to see me drinking anything without one!), we are going to try Glass Dharma's re-usable, "glass" straws.

http://www.glassdharma.com/

I learned about this company and the concept over at Retro Housewife Goes Green with this post

It's funny, because sustainable straws are something that I've been thinking on a lot. Not necessarily re-usable glass ones, but thinking more on the origin of straws: as a piece of straw from the fields! But as I couldn't see any easy way to obtain this natural straws, I left myself ruminating and drinking out of plastic.

But! Housemate and I are going to try these out, one for her, one for me (two slightly difference sizes to see what we like) and a bamboo carrying case apiece. If we do like them, we'll buy more for the house, but not the carrying cases -- those are specifically for our purses!

If and when we get the ones for the house, we will probably store them in a similar way to how one stores art brushes -- in a roll up bag of, usually cloth.





The image is of bamboo, but that's the only one that they showed that was open!

I'll let it be known what the opinions of the straws are.

Prepared-ness

So many people are talking about "how prepared are we for when the unexpected happens?" The unexpected could be unemployment, grid collapse, or somewhere in between.

Let me try and compare where we are now, to where I'd like to be a year from now. N.B. -- my estimates are VERY rough.

FOOD
Now

-- protein: we have probably 3 months of dried beans in house, 1 month of dried lentils, and 1 month of frozen meat, plus 4 cans of SPAM. >.>

-- grain: we have frozen english muffins (and coupons to get 12 more), and probably 6 months of rice, we also have flour for bread to last 3 months

-- vegetables: not so good; we have a few bags of frozen veggies, and very little else. Some dried peas maybe. Some tomato sauce.

-- fruits: we have applesauce to last 2 months, jam for 2 months, and canned fruit for about 2 months.

-- dairy: we have cheese to last maybe a month -- we're a cheese loving place. We also have powdered milk.

A Year From Now

-- protein: we will have close to a years worth of dried beans. We will also have chickens that we could eat.

-- grain: as I will not be growing any, we will still be dependent upon buying rice in bulk, and flours in bulk. So that should stay the same

-- vegetables: we should have canned beans, tomato sauce, salsa, and all sorts of goodies to last for at least 3-6 months.

-- fruits: will not be growing any, so it will still be storebought applesauce, jams, and canned fruits (unless they're on WICKED sale), but I should double the numbers we have at least.

-- dairy: we will have chickens, so hopefully we will have eggs on a regular basis, but cheese and such will still be storebought. And only cheese lasts any length of time. We do have powdered milk, but that should really only be used for cooking.

Also, we'll hopefully keep 2-4 weeks of cat food and chicken feed in the house.

HOUSING
Now

Currently, one of my housemates is paying the bulk of the rent, as he has the bulkiest job (compared to my minimum wage/25-30 hour a week job and my other housemates student loans...).

We pay our heating through a combo of state aid and student loans. We have natural gas.

We pay our electric with student loans.

I think the gas for the stove goes in with heating...?

A Year From Now

Hopefully, more than one of us will have money with which to pay rent. We might also take in more roommates to pay said rent (will need to be broached with the LL carefully -- but I can handle that).

I don't necessarily see how we pay for the utilities changing, but we might work on getting a solar oven for summer, or at least grilling during the summer and/or winter. I'm not sure of the efficiency of the grill vs. our stove...

WATER
Now

Right now we use the water from the tap and have maybe 6 gallons in storage.

A Year From Now

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/safewater/

With a ridiculously over-the-top domain name, this site none-the-less gave me the answer I needed of how much water to store. 1 gal/day/person. And they recommend storing 2-4 weeks. That's 42-90 gallons in storage. Hopefully we'll also have rainfall catching equipment.

TRANSPORTATION
Now

Right now, I use public transit usually, BF uses his car, one housemate uses his bike, and the other taxis or public transit. Or our feet.

A Year From Now

This is another item that I don't particularly see changing -- except maybe to get a cart to attach to the bike!



Hmm... there's so much to still do, and so much that even a year from now I won't have set up. Can I have my pretty manor house in the country now? Pretty please?