My Food Storage Week In Review

I thought that I would share a few things that I did this week that either used my food storage, or added to my food storage.  

There was a situation this week in my neighborhood that was highly inconvenient, but also a great lesson for all of us.  Thursday night I received this note on my front porch.

 

What!?!?! No water!?!?! We got this notice at 8 p.m. the night before the water was going to be shut off for 8 hours.  I was really aggravated that I would not have water for that long with 5 kids, my sister, and her 2 children.  What a fun vacation for her! It was my sister's last day visiting at my home and she was planning on doing her laundry all day Friday before leaving.  Plans changed and she madly did her laundry that night.  My brilliant sister also suggested we fill up all the tubs with water so we would be able to flush the toilets the next day.  So we did this.....

All the kids took showers and we filled all the tubs.  My sister lived through Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and is a pro at not having water.  This experience also reminded me that I need to fill up my 55-gallon water barrels.  We emptied them to move and I haven't gotten around to filling them.  I see a project for this weekend!

While my sister was visiting we also did a little experiment.  My neighbor gave us an abundant supply of garden lettuce.  We couldn't eat it all and, using my foodsaver, sealed the extra in a mason jar.  I took a picture today of the jar in the fridge and as you can see, 2 weeks later, it is still edible.  I see only a small amount of browning starting on some of the white edges.

I have seen lettuce stored this way, but I have never tried it myself, and I am sold on it!!  It is a great way to extend the life of your garden and have fresh salads all the time.  Think of all the combinations you could make for lunches at work or school.  Just take some dressing on the side and shake to mix before eating!  I would place carrots and other veggies on the bottom of the jar before the lettuce and then seal.  Fast, healthy lunch options!!

Here are a few other random things that I did this week:

I made "fruit" snacks out of some very large zucchinis that my sister gave me from her garden.  Click HERE to see the post and recipe on making fruit snacks out of zucchinis.

 

For the most part, I like to make my own household cleaners and I needed to make more of my granite/glass cleaner.  We clean almost everything with this solution.

 

Whenever I need spices I head to Winco and purchase them from the bulk section.  They are so affordable and I have never doubted the quality!  I spent $28 and refilled my garlic powder, cinnamon, onion powder, cumin, ginger, curry powder, huge bag of dutch processed cocoa powder, and chili powder. To keep them all fresh I used my foodsaver and sealed them in glass jars.  And since I had my foodsaver out I sealed my freeze dried cheese in jars as well.  I had opened the #10 can and I didn't want the cheese to spoil.

This is just a sampling of how a typical week at my house is.   I really wanted to cook in my sun oven for my sister, but we had crazy thunderstorms roll in almost every afternoon. There is always a small part of preparedness going on in my home. From small beginnings come great things. - Proverb