Kitchen

Goat Milk Coffee Creamer

August 6, 2022 by Leigh 8 Comments

When life hands you lemons, you are supposed to make lemonade. Well, I did that yesterday. Today, well today there was a mishap in the freezer. Instead of letting it get the best of me, I decided to get a project done that I have been meaning to do, but never had the time…. Today was the day I was going to make a batch of goat milk coffee creamer, whether I planned to or not.

They say you shouldn’t cry over spilled milk

I don’t know who “They” are but I almost cried today when I went to put up two half gallon mason jars of fresh goat milk. When I looked in our freezer, I saw that two jars had burst and I felt tangible pain. I started checking over my other jars and sure enough twelve half gallon mason jars were broken. I had a decision to make, either leave them in there and deal with each jar as we pulled them out to use it. Or fix it now while I had the chance. I’m not one to kick the can down the road, so I grabbed a milk crate and brought all twelve jars upstairs.

Finally after almost six hours, I finally had all of the milk melted, jars thrown away, and all twelve jars triple strained. I wanted to cry every time I found a glass shard, but this is precious milk. This is the only milk I can drink without stomach issues. And the only way I can get more is by breeding goats, and then waiting six months.

After everything was all said and done, I had managed to salvage all the milk except a few drops, only to run out of freezer bags. **facepalm** This is my life.

Now, I am not 100% sure what caused the jar failure. I have frozen mason jars for years and never had an issue. If I had to guess, I would say either a head space problem or half gallon mason jars shouldn’t be frozen. It doesn’t really matter since I won’t do it again, but it would be nice to know for the future.

Anyways, the whole point is I have one and a half gallons of goat milk that I need to do something with. I could refreeze them, and I may still but for right now, I am making coffee creamer. I may even try my hand at making cheese so stay tuned.

How to make Goat Milk Coffee Creamer

I’m going to start this with saying this, you do NOT need goat milk to make your own creamer. Any milk will work. However, since I have goats and gut issues, I use goat milk.

Using a 1:1 ratio whisk your milk and condensed milk into a thick bottomed sauce pot.

Allow it to heat for a few minutes to mix really well. If you are going to use any flavorings now is the time to add them. I’ll go over my flavorings below.

Pour into your creamer vessel, I use these if it’s going in the fridge, or old creamer containers if going into the freezer.

Allow to cool. Then store in either fridge or freezer.

That’s it! You don’t have to be some wizard to make creamer. If you don’t like “Foo Foo” creamer, just whisk your milk an condensed milk together. Done.

When you are ready to drink it, make sure to shake really well first.

Peppermint Mocha on the Left and Cinnamon Cake on the right

Flavorings

All flavorings are based on a quart, so adjust your recipe as needed. Also start with small amounts and then add more if you want. It’s harder to take away than to add more.

Peppermint Mocha

1T cocoa powder 1t peppermint extract

Cinnamon Cake

1T cinnamon, 1t butter extract, 1t cake batter flavoring

Banana Nut Bread

1t cinnamon, 1t butter extract, 1t cake batter flavoring, 1t maple syrup flavor, 1t banana flavor

Pumpkin Spice

1T Pumpkin spice flavor on this one, you can add additional cinnamon or cake batter to give it a more cake-y taste but test it first with just the pumpkin and see how you like it.

While I’m still mad about the jars breaking, I am glad that I was able to finally get around to making creamer for us. I just hate that it had to be like that. Oh, well.

Goat Milk Coffee Creamer

5 from 3 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Cook Time 5 mins

Servings 1 Quart

Equipment

1 Thick bottomed pot
1 Spatula
1 Whisk
1 Quart Container

Ingredients

14 oz Sweetened Condensed Milk
14 Oz Milk
Flavorings

Instructions

Pour milk into thick bottomed pot and start heating on low
Stir in condensed milk
Add any flavorings you want
Whisk together until combined. If using powdered flavorings this could take a while. Let sit for a few minutes and then whisk again. Repeat until most or all of the flavoring is dissolved
Add to quart container and allow to cool before refrigerating

Notes

You can absolutely freeze this if you have a freezer safe container.

Keyword Coffee Creamer

If you like this post feel free to share it on your social media and follow us on the social medial links below! And don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts!

How To Start Canning

July 21, 2022 by Leigh 1 Comment

Y’all! It’s canning season! I am beyond excited! Over the next few months I will be sharing with you ALL (okay, most) of the canning recipes that I have accumulated over the years. From things like salsa and broths to more complex stews and soups. I’ll also show you how we can basics like corn, green beans, and beans. But today? Today I want to talk to you about how to start canning.

How We Started Canning

I have always been fascinated by the idea that I didn’t have to go to the grocery store to buy food. You mean I could have a garden and animals that provided food for me? And I could put in a little work and have healthy food throughout the year. I also didn’t need a million freezers to store food and have to worry about a power failure? So I started researching, because that’s what I do when I don’t understand something.

I found out that canning is actually pretty simple. Put the food in a jar, tighten, and put it into a waterbath canner or pressure canner, and set the timer. The hard part comes in knowing which way to process the foods and for how long. If you don’t allow the “pearl clutchers” to get in the way, you can have shelves and shelves full of healthy food that will last for a couple years.

With this knowledge in hand, I went to work. I started with canning apple sauce and over the years, I have canned hundreds, if not thousands of jars of food.

Take the fear out of canning

What do I mean by pearl clutchers? Well, these are the people that whole heartedly agree that what the USDA, FDA and Ball say, you must do. There is a ton of fear about canning that is perpetuated by these organizations. They make it feel like the only thing you can can are jelly, jams, and a couple of soups. To give you an example: The Ball Book Of Canning says you cannot can chili with beans but on the next page, you can can ham and bean soup. That doesn’t make any sense.

So my take on it is this: if the store can put it in a can, or Grandma didn’t kill her entire family, then it’s probably okay to eat. If I follow basic kitchen cleanliness while I cook, follow proper canning times? It’s probably okay. When I take the jar off the shelf to make it, and it looks good, smells good and I boil it for 10 minutes? It’s probably okay to eat.

Random tangent

The latest update from the CDC says that in 2018 there were 242 cases of botulism in the US. Of that, only 18 were foodborne. Only 3 of those cases were linked to home canned food. You can read the full article here. Does it happen? Absolutely. But there are 329.5 million people in the US as of 2020. That means that your chance of consuming botulism is pretty close to zero.

Do your research, find solid recipes, and get to canning. It will be okay.

Let’s Get Started

So you have decided to take the plunge and start canning. But what do you need to get started? My friends over at Southern Dream Homestead has a great blog post on canning and I highly suggest it. But the short version is this:

Water Bath Canner, the first ad, similar to the one below. I like it simply because I can use the pot for various other things. When I am pressure canning, I use huge pots for soups and stews making 36 Quarts at a time. This can also be used as an old fashion stock pot and as a water bath canner. The utility is great!

The second picture is my pressure canner. At $165 it’s a little steep BUT try finding one at Walmart, Target or other stores. They may have it cheaper. Edit to add: Here is a link for a pressure canner from Walmart.

The third picture is arguably the most important when it comes to canning. Great recipes. I have made several of soups/ stews in this cook book and they are absolutely divine. The chicken chowder and enchilada soup are family favorites.

The fourth is a great cook book with easy to follow instructions. It’s got processing times, instructions and a couple quick cheat sheets for you. The fifth is a pretty cool canning book that has some more off the wall can-able things but also shows you how to use them in part two.

I also have a quick reference guide that you can download get in my members only section. Sign up below and you will be emailed the password.

Lastly, you need tools. This one is a bit more expensive, but the tools feel a little more quality than some of the others. Regardless, you should probably get a couple sets of jar grabbers, funnels, ladles, etc.

You may have noticed that I left out jars. Get Ball Mason Jars, period. Yes, you may have some success with other jars. You may even find some obscure brand that holds up amazing. However, Ball is tried and true for a reason, their jars will literally stand the test of time. But PLEASE don’t buy them from amazon. You are going to pay through the nose for them.

The best place I have found for mason jars is Wal-Mart. Depending on where you live, your prices will vary, but I can get a case of quart mason jars for around $16 and a case of pint for $12. Half gallons come in a 6pk for $12. Amazon wants to double or triple that price. So shop around. Oh, and stock up on lids whenever you can find them.

Finally, get yourself some good sturdy shelves. You do not want to spend an entire summer canning your heart out, getting burns, and sore muscles to have your plastic shelves fail. I’ve got a great tutorial on how we built our canning shelves and after several years, we still love them.

So get your supplies and get started in the kitchen. I promise you, when you don’t want to sweat your butt off making dinner, that can of chili or chicken noodle soup is going to taste amazing. You can find my make ahead pickle brine and green bean recipes by clicking the links. Those are two very easy ways to get started on your canning journey.

If you like this post feel free to share it on your social media and follow us on the social medial links below! And don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts!

How We Organize A Deep Freezer

April 23, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Seriously, how is it that I can organize our freezer and within a month it’s back to being a disaster. Every time! But I have finally figured it out! I saw this hack on Pinterest and figured what did I have to lose? If it doesn’t work, I can reuse the supplies. But if it works? Well, my sanity may just be returned. Maybe. So how did we organize a deep freezer?

Read All The Way Down For The 6 Month Update

Let’s start with before

Yup. A disaster. Would you believe that I reorganized everything in February when we butchered our meat chickens? I cleaned everything out, defrosted and wiped everything down. You wouldn’t know it to look at it now.

What you see here is about seventeen meat chickens that have been broken down into parts and bagged. What you don’t see is the half a cow that has to go in here. Now, I will say, we bought the half cow knowing that we would have to get a second freezer because there was no way we were going to fit half a cow, 17 chickens, plus all my creamer.

Yes, it’s an addiction. No, I’m not sorry.

Bean water addiction aside, we needed more freezer space. But I knew that if I didn’t have some sort of a system, we were going to end up with a massive chest freezer that was nothing but piles of meat. Let’s be real here, not much sucks more than having to dig through frozen meat to find the one piece of steak that’s at the very bottom.

Enter Milk Crates To Organize A Deep Freezer

Milk crates have saved my sanity when Jared brought home the cow. I’m not going to lie, I was nervous that three coolers of meat was going to create more chaos than me. But we worked through it and got everything separated into five milk crates. They are overflowing but still stackable.

The idea with the milk crates is to have the ability to pick up and move them to get to what is below them. So far it has worked beautifully and I will be buying more crates for my upright freezer to handle that disaster.

The problem with the using milk crates in the upright freezer is not having the ability to see through them to what is inside. Yes, we could label them but if my kids won’t put things up where they go, do we really think that putting a label on the crate will help? I guarantee it won’t.

One More Tip

We also write on our freezers. This helps keep an eye on inventory levels…. when someone remembers to deduct what they took out…. which no one does. But it’s a good idea.

Now if anyone has a plan for a DIY smoker that would be really helpful.

6 Month Update Of How This Has Worked

In the effort of full disclosure, this idea is fantastic. But it lacking in some areas and could improve in others. Here are the pros and cons

Pros

It has absolutely made finding things super easy
While it doesn’t necessarily save space because the milk crates do take up space, it has created “sides” for things to go. Pig on one side and cow on the other
The inventory system works well, as long as there is marker around it somewhere

Cons

Adding inventory that doesn’t fit the category of the milk create has created a massive headache. Things like a whole chicken or bacon.
Because the milk crates don’t have lids, things get disorganized very quickly. Like trying to find ground beef under a ton of pork chops.

Alternatives?

One of the things we are looking into is getting wire shelves and using them as separators. My thought is this, everything is going to end up in piles anyways. Why not create a system that organizes the deep freezer into piles. We’ll then take the milk crates over to our upright freezer and see how it works over there.

If you like this post feel free to share it on your social media and follow us on the social medial links below! And don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts!

Bringing Back Kombucha

March 15, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I’m a bad brewer, I left my kombucha on my counter for about six months. Much like everything else, I got busy and forgot about it. I’m not going to lie to you, I really thought I was going to have to scrap the whole thing and start over. While it’s not vinegar, it’s a little too tangy for my liking. But apparently forgetting about your kombucha over winter isn’t that bad, especially when your kitchen regularly sits at 65* or lower. Today, I want to go over bringing back your kombucha.

PS: the best place I have found for kombucha SCOBY is Cultures For Health. They have a ton of different cultures and I’ll go over how to start their dehydrated kombucha SCOBY in depth below.

Kombucha Is Pretty Forgiving

Lucky for most of us super forgetful people, kombucha is very forgiving…. for the most part. As long as your first ferment isn’t an odd one, like you’ve only added sweet tea in the first place, you can pretty much leave it alone for months on end. In fact that’s how SCOBY hotels got started. But it’s not a great idea to just let it sit without taking the steps to let it go dormant. The longer your SCOBY sits, the more likely it is to get moldy, especially if the environment that it’s in isn’t super clean. Think kitchens with open produce, flies, etc.

I’m not saying your kitchen is dirty, quite the opposite. But I know that no matter how clean my kitchen is, I’ve got fruit flies thanks to the amount of produce my garden is giving me. No matter how often I clean my kitchen or process my produce, it’s still going to have flying critters around it.

How To Bring Your Booch Back?

To start you need to wash your hands and dig that SCOBY out and put it in a CLEAN bowl or on a plate. Make sure to place it somewhere were flies, children or a cat (yes, that almost happened) will get to it. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast and I use this one from Cultures for Health.

This recipe will make approximate 1-1.5 gallons of booch. If you don’t want that much booch, just half or quarter the recipe.

If you order this from Cultures for Health, you will get a small jerky looking SCOBY and you will need several days-weeks to get it started. It’s not hard, just not exactly what I was expecting when I ordered mine. However, it has been a strong starter for me and I would gladly buy another if I did actually end up killing mine. Stick around and I will explain how to start their SCOBY at the end. They do have a live culture that I would recommend if you are looking for a faster start with your booch.

Next, take a cup or two of old kombucha out of the vessel and set aside as your starter.

Next, brew your new sweet tea. I like my tea a little stronger and sweeter so I use 6 teaspoons of half black/ half green tea. While I have a kettle going for water, I add a cold brew filter to a wide mouth, half gallon mason jar and add my tea to the filter. Once the water is boiling, I pour over the filter and let it sit for about 10 minutes or until I remember I have it steeping. I could set a timer, but I usually don’t remember I even have one.

***** Very important! Use dechlorinated water!!!!! If you are on city water or are unsure if you have chlorinated water, use bottled spring water or leave a gallon of water out on the counter for 24 hours. If you use chlorinated water you will kill all the good bacteria we are trying to grow!******

While the tea is steeping I add about a quart of cold water to my vessel. I also use ice to get the water nice and cold so that I can keep the process to a minimum time wise. I use a vessel very similar to this, but mine is a thrift store find. The biggest thing to remember is that any spigot that you use will get clogged with debris from the SCOBY so make sure you are cleaning it whenever you make a new batch of booch. Rinse REALLY well because we do want GOOD bacteria to grow, not the bad kind.

Once the tea is done steeping, I remove the filter and compost the tea. Then I stir in about 1 1/4 cup of plain sugar into the mason jar with the tea. I stir until the sugar is almost completely dissolved. Then I add the tea to the vessel and add about another 2.5-3 quarts of cold water. I usually just use the half gallon mason jar so I can get any tea or sugar that is left behind. Before adding your SCOBY and starter tea, make sure that none of it is more than about 70*. If it is, add more ice or cold water if necessary to hit that 70*. A little colder is fine, too hot and it will cook your SCOBY and probably kill it.

Once your sweet tea is cool and in the vessel, add your starter and then finally your SCOBY. It’s worth repeating though, you don’t want to add your starter or SCOBY to tea that is too warm because it will kill your SCOBY. Anything over 75* will start to cook the good bacteria and yeast that makes up your SCOBY.

This is all called your first brew. This takes the longest time but gives you just under a gallon of booch for pennies compared to the store. The 2nd brew is where we get to have all the fun! I will be posting that one when this batch of booch is ready to be bottled.

Bringing your kombucha back is not difficult. In fact, it’s really no different from brewing a brand new batch. As long as there is no mold on your SCOBY, you are pretty much good to go.

I hope you will at least take the chance on kombucha. I first drank it at the urging of a coworker after I had complained for the umpteenth time about the amount of times I had gone to the bathroom. Within a few hours my stomach cramps went away and I was fine. Now, I drink it several times a week and it really helps with regularity. In hopes of saving some cash, I have revived my booch and hope to start experimenting with flavors very soon!

Using Cultures For Health Dehydrated SCOBY

Cultures for Health has 3 SCOBY’s that you can purchase. The first one is dehydrated, the second is for black tea and the third is for green tea. If you are in a hurry get either the second or third one. Now, when I ordered my first one, I wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention and ordered the dehydrated SCOBY. It has been a fantastic SCOBY but does present a lot of challenges if you are not ready for it.

When using this SCOBY for the first time you have to create a starter for it. Since we are just starting a SCOBY and not actually making Kombucha, just use a wide mouth, quart mason jar to start. You will also be using:

2-3 cups hot water for tea

.25 cup white sugar

2 tea bags or 1-1.5 teaspoons of loose tea. (I prefer loose tea)

Simply use the steps above to make your sweet tea. Make sure everything is cool and then add to your vessel. Next, add the .5 cup vinegar to your vessel. Add your SCOBY and then dampen a coffee filter with a little vinegar and cover your mason jar. Secure with a rubber band or even the ring for the mason jar. Allow it to sit out of direct sunlight for about 30 days.

Your SCOBY may not look any different, mine did, but it is ready to go. You can either dump the first batch (saving 1-2cups) or use in in whatever vinegar recipes you may want.

Now you are ready to make another batch of Kombucha. Just repeat the steps in the main blog post, adjusting for your vessel size. And remember don’t use chlorinated tap water!

If you like this post feel free to share it on your social media and follow us on the social medial links below! And don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts!

How To Clean Cast Iron

March 12, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I was reading a forum the other day that absolutely shocked me. A lady was freaking out because she had scratched her cast iron and the advise that she got ranged from “You can never use it again” to “It’s cast iron!” If cast iron can be handed down through generations and that’s all the old homesteaders and farmers had? There’s very little you can do to break it. Unless you get cheap cast iron. But let’s get into how to clean cast iron.

Cleaning Cast Iron Isn’t Rocket Science

Using cast iron isn’t hard. Cleaning cast iron is not hard. But for some reason there are a lot of people out there that think that this is the holy grail of pans that must not be tarnished and never used. Cast iron cookware has been around for thousands of years. They didn’t have rubber sponges, soft spatulas and other nifty gadgets we have today. So use it, clean it, and enjoy it.

PS: No cast iron was hurt in the making of this post. Although, I think Jared considered killing me when he saw the state of the skillet.

How to Clean Cast Iron

In my other cast iron post, I talked about how to cook with cast iron and briefly touched on how to clean it. This post is about the various ways to clean cast iron. None of these methods are wrong. In fact, some people throw their cast iron in the dishwasher *gasp*. Others use soap, the horror! But technically speaking, they aren’t wrong to do so. Lodge says “You can use a small amount of soap”, in their post about cleaning cast iron.

I do not use soap to clean cast iron. I will never throw mine in the dishwasher, at least I cannot think of a reason that I would. Instead, what I do is a mix of different cleaning methods based off of how nasty the pan got.

When Jared saw this pan, I really thought divorce was coming. But he just raised his eye brow at me when I told him I was doing it for a blog post. He said, “fix it” and walked away. So that’s what I did.

Step 1:

If your pan is a caked, baked, and nasty fill it approximately half way with water and set it to boil for about 5-10 minutes. As you are letting it boil, start scraping the bottom of the pan to help get everything unstuck.

Step 2:

Scrape off any stuff that still stuck on the bottom of the pan with a scrubber or scraper. I use one like this. If the mess in the pan isn’t that bad, I will skip the boiling step and just scrape the pan. Either way the pan is clean and that’s what matters.

Step 3:

Now we add a fat of your choosing. I like avocado oil because it has a higher smoke point and that is really important when breaking down the oil and getting it to start seasoning the pan. But you can use grapeseed, corn, peanut and canola.

This step is very important for creating that glassy, non stick surface. But again, there are a million different ways that people season their pans. Some put a thin layer of oil on a paper towel and smear it all over the pan, some put a dollop of oil in the pan (shown below) and heat the pan. I don’t think it matters as long as the pan is hot and that oil moves around to coat the pan.

Some people also do this in the oven to allow for the entire pan to heat up, spread the oil, and bake in. Again, it doesn’t really matter. As long as the oil gets into the crevices of the pan, you are good to go.

Step 4:

Once the oil has moved around the pan and coated the bottom and sides, let the pan cool. If I can touch the handle, I will wipe out the excess oil and allow to finish cooling until it’s safe to hang up.

Add some oil and coat the bottom and sides of the pan

Nice glassy surface and it’s ready for storage

Tips

If you have just bought your cast iron and it came preseasoned, go ahead and just repeat steps 3 and 4. I normally season a brand new pan 2-3 times before I am ready to use it.

For stubborn stuck on messes that boiling and scraping aren’t getting off, I will take salt and some water and scrub with that. Sometimes, it just needs a little extra muscle. This is very rare. If that doesn’t work, you can use salt and a half lemon. You’ll need to rinse thoroughly and then season multiple times but it should get it off.

If you are getting a yard sale find, or Granny has given you a pan that came from the basement, I would put a sheet of aluminum foil on the rack of the oven and set it to 500. Put the pan upside down and let it go for about 2 hours. If you have a self cleaning oven, use that setting. Be warned it will smoke like crazy and stink to high heaven. If you have the option of doing on a grill outside, I prefer that way. After that, just repeat steps 3 and 4 until there is a nice layer of seasoning on the pan. It will take time and maybe a few repeated attempts.

It is not hard to clean cast iron from the left and make it look like the right. Just a little bit of patience and elbow grease and you will have a pan that will last you and your family a life time.

Feel free to follow us on social media and share this post with your friends and family!

What Does Food Security Look Like?

March 4, 2022 by Leigh 5 Comments

If you live in America or really any industrialized country, there is a good chance you have a ton of holes in your food chain. The vast majority of Americans don’t even know what food security is, it’s just not something they think about. As long as they can get to the store and buy their food, they are happy. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit, it was eye opening for a lot of people. They learned that having an emergency food supply isn’t just about a zombie apocalypse. This series is here to help you identify and start to fill the holes in your food security.

Why Food Security Is Important

I don’t understand why so many people don’t think about where their next meal is coming from. It’s mind boggling to me how many people just go about their life with no thoughts to the future. Most people don’t have a plan if their house catches on fire, let alone what they are going to do if they lose their job. Preppers have caught a bad name due to being hyper prepared but also due to propaganda. But those of us that have lost jobs, homes, or other life altering events know how important it is to have a back up plan.

Not all emergencies look the same, nor are they all on the same scale. For example, losing a job could be catastrophic for one family, but not a big deal for another. A week without power could cripple a family that relies on freezers to feed their family. A cancer diagnosis could financially ruin a family. But all of these are emergencies. But by having food security reduces one part of their emergency. Even if it’s small.

What Is Food Security

To start, we need to figure out what food security means to you and your family. To me, food security means having the ability to source and acquire the food, water, and other necessities my family and animals need to survive, at a minimum. If you don’t know what that looks like, you came to the right place.

In order to start filling food security holes, you need to first identify them. Then you can start figuring out how to close those holes. Remember, we are trying to source these items. Are you on a special diet? What do you know how to cook? What do you like to eat? What kind of storage do you have? What do your animals need to eat? These are all very important questions in closing food security holes.

Let’s start answering some of those questions

If you are on a special diet like a cardiac, diabetic, or even lactose intolerant, getting emergency supplies is going to be harder to do. There is a ton of carbs and sodium in long term, commercial foods. Preserving your own foods is ideal, but it’s not necessarily long term.

Can you cook? If not, having pre-made, commercial meals may be the way to go. Especially if your culinary skills are limited. However, I would highly suggest you learn to cook more and also learn about the fundamentals of cooking.

Are you a picky eater? Or have someone in your home that is picky? Then you need to make sure that you’ve got foods that they like or can tolerate. It’s cruel to tell someone, “sucks to be you” in an emergency situation. So make sure you’ve got foods that they like. A side note to this, if you buy a pre packed survival meal kit like this, please make sure that you like EVERYTHING in it. It may save you some money now, but if you don’t like beef stroganoff, don’t waste your money on it.

What kind of storage do you have? We are blessed to have a basement/garage combo that we were able to retrofit with shelves and turn a 12×12 area into our food storage room. We’ve got tons of shelves and supplies to help us out. Everything from canned goods to extra jars as well as commercial, long term storage items. If you aren’t that lucky, where can you store your emergency supplies? A linen closet? Under the beds?

Lastly, what do your animals need to survive? It seems that most people forget to make sure they’re animals will be okay in an emergency situation. That means making sure that you’ve got medications, food, and water.

Why is this so important to me?

Well, recently we had to replace our well pump. I know you’re thinking, “Leigh, a well pump isn’t about food and food security.” But it is. Without water, all things will die.

When we moved on to our homestead, we were told that the well pump was pretty new but to have a couple of pump switches on stand by because the power would surge and cause the switch to fail. The first night we were here, the water cut off in the middle of my shower. I had to use bottled water to finish washing my hair. I called my step dad and the old owner trying to figure out what happened. The switch failed.

For the next several months we dealt with the water randomly cutting off or the water stopping if we ran the back spigot. Multiple plumbers came out and no one knew how to fix it. Then one morning, the water cut off completely.

This is a big problem, without water you cannot drink, shower, water crops or animals. Since the other plumbers couldn’t figure out the problem, I decided to call a well plumber. We were showering at the stations because we had no water at home and we were giving our animals bottled water. There was also a winter storm bearing down on us that was supposed to hit that weekend. The stores were running out of water. In short, we were screwed if we couldn’t get access water.

The well plumbers came out and said it was the well pump. When we explained it was a brand new pump, they said that everything we were describing; running out of water, low pressure, etc were all because of the pump. Once it was replaced, we never had another problem.

PS: Shortly after the well pump was fixed, that winter storm hit and we lost power for three days.

So how does this relate to food security?

Simple: if you do not have water, you cannot cook, clean, drink, or survive. Without that well pump, our animals would die of thirst.

Some of the steps we took after this incident was to make sure that we always have 5 gallon jugs filled. We also have a pump to get water out of them. Then we have several IBC and 55 gallon totes around the property that we fill for animal water.

Our garden produces a lot of our veggies, if not all of them. This helps make sure that we have fresh veggies for today, but also canned veggies for later.

Then we have our animals, all of the animals on our homestead can survive off of what the homestead produces during the warm months. The chickens and ducks give us a ton of eggs and we’ve only selected dual purpose breeds so that we can butcher when we need to.

Our goats provide us with milk and we make our own cheeses, creamers, and even butter. We are also going to be purchasing Boer goats and breed them so that we can have meat from them as well.

Don’t live on a farm?

Don’t panic! Just because you don’t have a garden or animals, doesn’t mean that you can’t start preparing for an emergency! You can go on Amazon or Walmart.com and start looking at various long term, emergency food. We like Augason and Ready Wise, but do your research.

Also make sure you have manual can openers or keys like these. Oh and coffee!!!! Make sure you’ve got some form of caffeine because when the power goes out, nothing is better than hot coffee!

Food security includes water, food, and basic necessities like soap, medications, first aid, and clothes just to name a few things. So what can you do to start identifying holes in your food security and fixing them?

If you like this post feel free to share it on your social media and follow us on the social medial links below! And don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts!

Why We Cook With Cast Iron

February 22, 2022 by Leigh 6 Comments

Cast Iron Is King

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I know here in the south cast iron is king… or queen. Either way it rules the south with an iron fist and for good reason. Cast iron is easily the most versatile item in your kitchen. No need for six million pans, one cast iron skillet and a good Dutch oven/ stock pot is really all you need. Big dinner or small, it can do it all. Yes, it’s corny but it’s true. There are so many benefits to cast iron that it is definitely worth using.

For years I have been a firm believer in my non stick skillets and other cookware. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really last that long. We’re talking five years tops before the coating was mostly off. To be fair, we are extremely hard on most products. But after listening to me complain for years Jared, being from the south, was like “Why not cast iron?”

Why Not Cast Iron?

The main reason was simple: I’m not used to it. I grew up with everything crappy pots and pans to the best of the best. We wrecked every one of them. So when we made the move to the homestead, out went the non stick and in came the cast iron. The learning curve was huge. I had no clue what I was doing. But with Jared and YouTube’s help? I’ve got the glassiest cast iron on the planet. Well, not quite but we are getting there.

If you’re anything like I was, you have no idea what the best brand is, how to use it, or even how to cook with it. Rest assured, I’ve got you covered. After a ton of research, I could tell you all about every brand and oil. What’s the best, the worst, and the in between. But the reality is that it’s a lot of information. Or, I could just tell you what I did and you can take some of the learning curve out of it. Let’s get started!

What Brand to Buy?

Well this one is pretty simple. Lodge. I don’t say this lightly, remember we beat the crap out of every single product that comes into this house. It has to stand up to that. So far my Lodge pans are the only ones that have done that. The other reason I’m a fan of Lodge is because I can find it at pretty much any store. Living in a rural community, that is important to me. I don’t want to have to go around the world to find what I need. Since almost every town has a Wal-Mart or at least the next town over does, here are some links to the cast iron I bought from them.

Lodge Pre-Seasoned 12in Cast Iron

Lodge 12in double handle pan (corn bread pan)

Lodge 13in Cast Iron

You can also buy them on Amazon here. If you are only looking for one or two to start with I suggest this one and this one.

If you are just starting out in cast iron, I don’t recommend going to the yard/garage/junk sales. The only reason I say don’t is this; do you know how to strip, grind, and season? If not, then maybe not start there. Let’s set you up for success instead of frustration and possible failure.

Just be forewarned, it is addictive . You will end up with all the cast iron!

How to Use Cast Iron?

Again, it’s pretty simple. Turn on your burner, put your cast iron on it and add your fat. Once the pan is hot, start cooking. That’s pretty much it. You’ll see groups, posts, articles, etc that will tell you that you can only cook certain things in cast iron. This is simply not true. I cooked everything in cast iron. Everything! Gumbo, fish, eggs, you name it, it goes in the cast iron.

You can also put your cast iron in the oven and make bomb biscuits, baked chicken, and many other foods without having to break out the cookie sheets or casserole pans.

A word of caution though. If you put something acidic in it, you will need to make sure to clean it well and season really well. What are some acidic things? Tomato bases, lemon juice or vinegar bases, and the like.

But What Fat to Use?

This is totally up to you. I prefer the higher smoke points. For example: avocado oil has a smoke point of 520*. Grapeseed oil is 420*. Olive oil is 375*. Why is this important? The smoke point is when the oil starts to break down. The best temperatures to season cast iron is over 400*. That being said, I normally reach for grapeseed oil when searing, seasoning, or just general cooking.

Clean Up

Clean up is just as easy as using it. However, you will hear every possible way to clean your cast iron. Jared boils water in it to help loosen up whatever is stuck on and then after a good rinse he will re-season it. I scrub whatever is stuck on off with one of these these. The only hard fast rule I’ve heard with cast iron is no soap. Yes, you heard right, no soap.

The reason why is that most soaps will remove that layer of oil, or seasoning, and you have to start all over again. But don’t worry, all but the most extreme bacteria and viruses die at like 150*. So when you have scrubbed off all your dinner and wiped it out, put back on the stove heat it back up, add a light smear of fat and let it absorb. Once that oil is moving, turn off the burner and let it cool. Once you can comfortably touch it, wipe out that excess oil and store it.

Before you cook on it you’re going to heat it up again. The surface of your cast iron is going to go way past 150*.

This pan is clean but not oiled (seasoned). So you can see some of those scrub spots. They will go away once I get some oil in it.

That’s pretty much it. If you have any questions feel free to let me know! If you like this post hit that subscribe button and share it!

Kitchen

They say you shouldn’t cry over spilled milk

How to make Goat Milk Coffee Creamer

Flavorings

Goat Milk Coffee Creamer

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Share this:

How We Started Canning

Take the fear out of canning

Random tangent

Let’s Get Started

Share this:

** Read All The Way Down For The 6 Month Update**

Let’s start with before

Enter Milk Crates To Organize A Deep Freezer

One More Tip

6 Month Update Of How This Has Worked

Pros

Cons

Alternatives?

Share this:

Kombucha Is Pretty Forgiving

How To Bring Your Booch Back?

Using Cultures For Health Dehydrated SCOBY

Share this:

Cleaning Cast Iron Isn’t Rocket Science

How to Clean Cast Iron

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Tips

Share this:

Why Food Security Is Important

What Is Food Security

Let’s start answering some of those questions

Why is this so important to me?

So how does this relate to food security?

Don’t live on a farm?

Share this:

Cast Iron Is King

Why Not Cast Iron?

What Brand to Buy?

How to Use Cast Iron?

But What Fat to Use?

Clean Up

Share this:

Read All The Way Down For The 6 Month Update