Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. ~ Arthur Ashe
I thought this quote really applied to this motto and our focus on our food storage this month.
"Forget about peak performance. Would your results improve if you simply focused on being reliable in the normal moments?
Show up when it's easy to skip. Do the fundamentals and do them well. And so on.
Before you make it complicated, remember there are always simple improvements waiting to be made."
What I've wanted to convey throughout this series is that we are NOT in a hopeless place. We can do something. We just need to 'show up'. And that's where we end this series: Do what you can.
I am a list maker. And if there's one thing I LOVE to do when I am feeling overwhelmed with circumstances is to make a list of what I can do.
Right now, I can make my own taco seasoning mix. I can make most all of the bread items we want: loaf bread, rolls, bagels, tortillas, cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, pie crusts. These could go in the freezer.
I have saved apple cores in the freezer that I can turn into vinegar (a process but still, I can add that to my pantry) or jelly. I have cranberries frozen that can become juice or jelly.
I can use chicken frames I've saved in the freezer to make chicken stock, as well as some beef bones to make beef stock.
I could use fruit on hand to make applesauce.
I have an electric pressure canner and a hot water bath canner, jars and lids. That will allow me to can all of the above stocks, and juice and jellies and preserve things like chili, spaghetti sauce, enchilada sauce, soup, stew, meats using the supplies I have on hand in my freezer and pantry. I have a Ball Blue Book as well as internet to look up necessary information.
I have herbs I can harvest and dry: mint, basil, sage, rosemary, oregano.
I have an electric vacuum sealer for canning jars that would allow me to save those herbs in an airtight jar. I can toast frozen nuts and make my own mixed nuts and seal those.
I can pick up pecans and shell those out to vacuum seal or freeze for future use. A local advertised FREE black Walnuts if we come pick them up.
This in addition to having enough food on hand to make meals for us to eat all through the week.
And the biggest thing of all is that I'm willing to learn new things, not lock myself into the way I've always done something. When change occurs, we have to be willing to change with it even when we're not real sure what that is going to look like at the time.
This is what I can do right now.
Now look around you and see what it is that you can do that is in your current skill set. And make a list of those things you think you want to learn and go look to see what you need to practice that new skill. Some things just require an input of time rather than money. You'll be surprised at how much there is that can be done.
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6 comments:
I, too, love making lists. It helps me see all the possibilities. Of course, the next challenge is finding the TIME to do all these things, but I find breaking things down into small steps helps. And so does using appliances like the crock pot or instant pot if you have them. Put the chicken frames in the Instant pot, set it and walk away. Mix the bread and set it to rise and walk away. Spend ten minutes shelling a few nuts or making bread crumbs. Etc. etc. A lot can get done in little bits of time if you can focus enough to use them (which, I admit, is also a challenge at times.)And things become easier when you develop the habit. I make bread and yogurt all the time now and have the processes memorized, so it's very easy. But it wasn't always that way. I had to learn and practice.
Black walnuts are free here too but we have never been able to get those hard shells open. When I was a kid we had a tree and I remember Dad pouring a bucket of them on the driveway and driving over them back and forth many times. Not a broken shell! They are a curse in your yard because there is nothing you can do to get rid of them except pick them up by hand and get rid of them.
Lana, that is kind of hilarious about your dad driving over those walnuts that would not crack under two tons of US steel. Kind of like they were from another planet.
Terri, as I was reading today's blog I kept picturing you in a calico dress sitting on the porch in a rocker and shelling peas, kind of like one of the Walton women. Which, incidentally, was one of my favorite shows ever.
Cindi, Yes, using those servants is a huge help. I'm seriously considering adding a food processor or at least a grinder/shredder attachment to my Kitcheaid Mixer so that I can cut down on the amount of time spent doing things by hand alone. Anything to speed up the time savings!
Lana, I've heard from many that the trees are not conducive to good gardens either.
I wonder if the pecan shellers could crack them? I understand that getting the hull of them is quite a long process as well. I don't personally know anyone with walnuts and thanks to those good sales on them at Amazon I've found it unnecessary to worry over it, lol. I'll take the time savings there, too.
Anne, I have sat many and many a day on the porch shelling peas or butterbeans or shucking corn. Childhood memories. I might not be wearing the calico but I've certainly lived that life and hope one day to have enough peas of my own to manage that shell time once more.
Of course, come summer, one can buy peas and butterbeans in the shell and bring them home to shell out. It's only been in recent years that the farmers got smart and started shelling them and selling them for a lot more...
List making is vital in organizing my days. Besides it is satisfying to check items off as they are completed. At least, that is the plan but you know what they say about plans...ha!
I remember cracking black walnuts at my brother's house. Not sure how he cracked the outer tough hull. My sister-in-law made a spice cake with black walnut frosting. So good!
Nice post, Terri! Almost all of us could do more than we are doing now.
Tonight I took a couple of items out of Zylis bags to thaw, resealed the bags and put them back in the freezer. If you want to do this, you do have to wrap the items individually in wax paper (cereal liner bags for me) in order to keep the frozen items separated.
I was talking to my gadget-loving son the other night and he mentioned that he was using his vacuum sealer for "everything." He and his wife don't have children and she works away from home every other week. A lot of their food "went south" before they could eat it. He commented that their food stays fresh and lasts a LOT longer this way. I probably would not have thought of this.
--Maxine
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