Dehydrating Food in The Suburbs

    I bought a food dehydrator several years ago to make jerky and trail mix with. For about a month I was a jerky making fool (I made all kinds and flavors), then I put the dehydrator up.....and forgot about it. Recently I found it again and wondered if I could find other uses for it besides making jerky and trail mix. Some of you are probably thinking out loud "Of course you can, there's LOTS of ways to use it". I didn't know of any. I'm embarking on a journey of dehydrator self discovery. I know there are probably a million websites with dehydrator recipes on them. I'm sure I'll check them out when I run out of ideas, but I like to experiment on my own. Here are some of the things I learned.

     I usually buy tomatoes from Sam's club in the big plastic box. There's probably 15-20 Roma tomatoes in there. We make salads with them, and within two weeks, I end up throwing 1/2 of the box out because they've spoiled. So I started dehydrating half of the box. After the first week I inspect the tomatoes and cut out any bruises or damage. Then I slice them about 1/4 inch thin and dehydrate them. They create "tomato chips". Which my youngest child loves. She eats them almost as fast as I can make them. I tired them, and it was like a bullet of tomato flavor hitting you in the mouth. I tried rehydrating them, and had mixed success. I could use them for cooking (in chili for example) but not over a salad. I store them in a zip lock back because they get eaten so fast. For long term storage you could put them in a mason jar with an O2 absorber and they would store for a long time I'm sure.

     Dehydrating pineapple chucks that have been rolled in sugar make a great candy.  My wife likes these, and I make them about twice a year. I buy the canned chucks of pineapple when they're on sale. Open and drain them, them roll them in regular sugar. They'll pick up more sugar than you want if you don't let them dry a little after draining. I drain mine in a spaghetti colander, and let them sit for about 20 mins before sugaring them up. Dehydrate them until they're hard, then store in either a zip lock or a jar. These make a great addition to trail mix.

     Thinly sliced Kiwi fruit dehydrate down to a chip like consistency. I peel mine first though. The "hairy" peel doesn't dehydrate well, and looks pretty nasty to be honest. This created the taste sensation much like the tomato bullet, but fruity....a Kiwi bullet if you will. I haven't found too many uses for these, aside from the occasional snack. Very occasional, kiwi are expensive and the taste just isn't an everyday thing for me.

     I experimented with making fruit roll up type snacks. I tried jellies, jams, and apple sauce as the base before dehydrating. Some of them came out pretty good, some of them came out pretty bad, most of them came out very messy. I couldn't get decent consistency. Either the base was too thick or thin in the dehydrator. Dehydrating the thicker spots dried out the thinner spots too much making them brittle, while the thicker spots were leathery. Different temperature settings helped a little, but created other challenges. If I used a jam, strawberry for example, the fruit would not completely dry out, while the jam part would dry too much.  Any suggestions on this one?
    
      I'm not an expert and I don't play one on the Internet. Please submit suggestions and recipes, for my kids sake. You can comment them in at the blog site, anonymously if you want. Or you can e-mail me directly: survivalinthesuburbs@gmail.com  As always, thank you for reading.

EDC (Every Day Carry) In The Suburbs

     Every Day Carry (EDC) is an important part of your survival plan. EDC gear is what you carry on your person day in and day out. It's the gear that will get you from wherever you are when something bad happens, to the next stage of your survival plan. That next stage may be getting to your vehicle so you can leave, or gear up from your Get Home Bag (GHB) and move out on foot. The next stage could also be getting you home where you decide if your next step is to Bug In...or to Bug Out.  In any circumstance, your EDC will be what you go to FIRST. Lets look at EDC in the workplace.

      If you're fortunate enough to work for yourself or work in an environment that doesn't require "business casual" attire, then EDC is a good bit easier. If you work in a corporate environment, like I do, you have to be respectful of your workplace environment and it's policies. It's not socially acceptable in most corporate environments to walk around with a Batman Belt on loaded down with a Leatherman multitool, folding knife, cell phone, flashlight, first aid kit, mini survival Altoid Tin, pepper spray, 50 feet of paracord , extra batteries, GPS, carabiners, keys, etc all dangling and jingling as you walk down the rows of Cube City. Face it.....you look like an idiot.

     Before we go any further lets go on record as saying, I'm not telling you how to live or what to carry....I'm telling you what *I* would do in these circumstances. Rest assured there will be comments either on this blog or on other boards to the affect of  "I work for myself so i can carry a ninja sword, 2 sticks of dynamite, and a rocket launcher at work."  Well...that's wonderful...most of us can't, or have enough common sense not to even if we could. There will also be the "must be right at all costs" guy who will say something along the lines of " I carry anyway, even if it's not allowed, becaue I have the right to."  Yeah...ok. Good luck explaining to the little lady why she and the kids have to move back in with your parents while you find another job in this economy. Me and the Common Sense Crowd will be considering whether to buy your forclosed house as an investment.

       I'm off the soapbox. It's apparent that common sense ain't so common. Anyways, enough about all of that. On to the good stuff.

     Some of those things you might need, some of those things you might feel better having, some of those things are just silly. It's an exagerration, sort of, but the point is to learn some "business camouflage".  Simple techniques that will allow you some latitude on what you can carry in public or at work.

     Look around you, observe the people in your environment. Are backpacks commonplace? If so, great, most of your problems are solved. You can carry your work stuff AND some extras in your backpack. Make sure you seperate the two. Have your EDC stuff an a seperate compartment, or better yet, in a smaller bag inside your packpack. That way if you need your EDC stuff...and only your EDC stuff, you can grab it easily. Please don't consider a fanny pack....please. You laugh, but I still see them in use. I still see the "European Carry All" AKA the Man Purse as well. Talk about drawing attention to yourself...a man purse will do it.

     The winter time is awesome for EDC. Coats mean lots of pockets to hold stuff. Shoes are an important part of your EDC. Choose wisely. Several brands of "outdoor" or "rugged" shoe companies make office appropriate shoes that are still VERY competant in the out doors. Look into some Keens or Merrils for exmple, they look good and perform well. These will save you from having to walk home in a pair of wingtips. There are many brands, but those two come to mind. Do some research.

     Lots of people EDC a folding knife. Some carry it completely in their pocket. Some use the attached clip to clip it to their pocket opening levaing thr clip and some of the knife exposed, it's easier to access that way. If I carry one, I carry it clipped to my pocket opening. Some places of employment allow knives, some don't. One thing I have done in the past is to spray paint the clip on the knife tan. This way it doesn't stick out so much against my khaki colored work pants. Sure...you can see it if you stare, but it passes casual observers without notice.

     Have a good belt. I wear a slightly thicker than normal leather belt to work. I'd like to wear a nylon trainers belt or riggers belt, but it's not business casual appropriate. Have you seen the buckles on those things? So why a thicker leather belt you ask? Because it will support my body weight without breaking. Not that I would ever NEED that, but it made sense at the time I was belt shopping. It looks like a normal belt, it's just thicker...and a little bit wider. Belts are an important part of your EDC, choose wisely.

     My work EDC, in addition to seasonally appropriate clothing,  basically consists of my phone, wallet, keys, iPod, laptop backpack, light snack, water bottle, and a small flashlight. I have a GHB in my truck and I park less than 30 yards from my office building. So I can get to that if I need to. I posted previously about a GHB, please read it if you haven't.

     As always, comments and topic suggestions always welcome. Check us out on Facebook:Survival In The Suburbs

    I'm not an expert, and I don't play one on the internet. Survive to fight another day.
    

Growing Food in the Suburbs

     Growing a garden in the suburbs as part of a self sufficiency lifestyle is a great option for generating food for your table. If you plan to harvest your own food and preserve it for later use gardening is a great option for increasing your food storage preparations. Lots of people use pressure canning, water bath canning, or dehydration to preserve fruits and vegetables they grow in their own gardens. I'm new to the gardening concept, and I'm learning lots of new things every week it seems like.

     I wish I could have a traditional garden, but I can't. I live in a neighborhood that has a strict Home Owners Association (HOA).  I cannot have any part of a garden visible from the street, and I live on a corner lot, so my entire backyard is visible from one street or the other. As a result, I have to be very careful about what I can plant and where I can plant it. I have to be very conscious of using "blocking" plants and shrubs, so the things I do plant can't be seen.

     The soil in my yard is another problem I have to contend with. It is almost entirely red clay. If any of you are familiar with southern red clay, or even SEEN southern red clay, you know exactly what I'm talking about. One solution I came up with is digging a trench in the clay 1 foot wide, by 1 foot deep, by 3-4 feet long. Next I line the trench with old newspapers.  Finally I fill it with a mixture of 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost. Basically I have created my own clay flower pot that will hold 3 or 4 plants and I can plant directly in that.  I top it off with some mulch to hold moisture, and water with a 2 gallon pitcher 3 times a week. It's low to the ground, away from the house, and is easily camouflaged behind a couple of Knockout rose bushes.

    The things I grow are Garlic, Jalapeno Peppers, Banana Peppers, Bell Peppers, and herbs like Oregano, Basil, Thyme, Rosemary and Fennil. I even have a peach tree, a fig tree, an olive tree, and a black berry bush. I think I'll try some container tomatoes, and blue berry bushes next spring. For obvious reasons I can't grow corn, pumpkins, watermelons etc. Even traditional tomato plants are too tall with the stakes or cages required to help them grow straight.

       
     The herbs and several pepper plants are grown only in containers. The picture above is an olive tree on the left and Spicy Basil on the right. I like to be able to move them to follow the sun, or expose them to rain. I would not recommend growing anything within 15 feet of your house because most residential pest control treatments spray up to 15 feet out from the foundation. I would take precautions against food plants being sprayed with lawn treatments designed to kill weeds or promote green grass. If you have anything in the planted in the ground, cover it with trash bags prior to spraying. You don't want to eat anything that has been sprayed with poisons. I don't yet have any solutions for avoiding chemicals that can seep into your plants through water that has run off of chemically treated areas such as a neighbors yard.
 
     I'm sure we will cover this topic several more times in coming posts as it is a broad and interesting subject. My adaptation of  container gardening and variations on square foot gardening are still in the trial and error phase. I hope some of these tips might work for you. If any of you have suggestions please share them with me so I can see if they work for myself and others.