Preparing For A Long, Hard Winter

Friday night brought a terrible storm into our area. We lost several greenhouses, a roof, had numerous trees come down including some that hit Jerry, had windows broken and more. The yard looks like a tornado hit it. There were numerous people without power for several days. Luckily we were not one of them.

The severity of the storm was quite unexpected. I was preparing homemade noodles when it hit. I spent the majority of the next two days getting packages of food ready for the winter months. With gas prices soaring and rumors of higher electricity costs this winter every little bit of food that can be saved now will really make a big difference then.

I made four pounds of homemade noodles, which will not keep us long but it is a start. There is a good chance we will have the opportunity to glean a potato field later in the year. If so, I will can those potatoes to use throughout the winter.

With the roses being in full bloom and so fragrant I decided to try my hand at making rose petal jelly and rose petal honey. I had five half pints spill in the oven so I had to stop and clean it. However I did end up with six half pints of the jelly and three half pints of the honey, one of which we are going to eat now.

I then made packages of dry ingredients for breads and cookies. Later I will freeze the eggs I need for those packages so I know when the time comes to bake there will be eggs. So far I have four packages of honey wheat bread. Two of them will make two pound loaves and the other two will make pound and a half loaves. I also made five packages of dinner rolls, but we ate one already.

I cooked up the necks and backs of some of the chickens Jerry butchered as well so there would be some chicken broth to can. The recipe that I followed yielded a peppery tasting broth. I am going to mark those cans so I can dilute them later on with more broth. I set the broth in the fridge last night so today I could get the oil off easily and then we will can the broth.

I also made up some packages of cookie mix, dry ingredients only. So far I have a package of orange sugar cookies, four packages of peanut butter and oatmeal cookies with a variety of oatmeal flavors and a package of honey spice cookies.

I am keeping all of the packages of dry mixes in the freezer so there is not a bug problem later on.

I have plans to make up some more cookies, some cakes and brownies. This will make putting them together easier when the time comes and eliminate the chance we are out of one spice or the other. With the hints of upcoming shortages of flour, sugar and rice making this stuff ahead of time will guarantee we will have plenty.

An interesting observation was that our goats are in heat. This should not happen, I am told, until at least September. I do not want to breed now as the babies would be born during the winter and I for one am not thrilled about milking in fridgid weather. I spoke with a friend about it and she said this was quite unusual. She allows her buck to run free with her herd and said he was courting the does. I hope mine come into heat again when they are supposed to as I did not want to breed them until November.

 Sheri