# Back to Basics



## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

I guess this could kind of go along with the thread I started "Changes in the way we live". 


I've been spending more time in the kitchen trying recipes that my Grandmother made many moons ago. I remember hot cracked wheat cereal she would cook us before heading out fishing on the Salt River in Star Valley back in the 70's. 


So this morning I got the hand crank grinder out, set the mill for a course grind, poured 1 cup of hard red wheat in and ground away. Poured 1/2C. Water, 1/4C. Milk in a sauce pan then added 2/3C. of the cracked wheat. Cooked for five minutes stirring frequently. 


Spooned the cereal in a bowl, added some raw local clover honey and a little butter. WOW!!! It was great! I just wish I was headed out to the Salt to catch dinner now.


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## BGD (Mar 23, 2018)

My grandma used to do cracked wheat too. I love it! Steel cut oats also has a similar texture and is also very good.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Taxi - great job man!

I’ve thought about this very principle many times over the past couple weeks. The closures of many before thought ‘vital’ things may be a blessing in disguise if we can learn to live more simply. I’ve looked at purchasing some ground, building a house, planting a large garden and fruit trees, and raising a beef every year for the freezer. 

I plan on learning more about putting up fruit and all the things that were commonplace not too many decades ago.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

I'd really like to try salting meat to preserve it ie: Salt Pork (but it should work with beef too). 



-DallanC


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## Packout (Nov 20, 2007)

Cracked wheat sounds really good. 
We've been trying some new recipes lately. I like to make homemade tortillas, which only take a few minutes and are much better than store bought/precooked.



DallanC said:


> I'd really like to try salting meat to preserve it ie: Salt Pork (but it should work with beef too).


I've done this. Sams and Costco sell a 25 lb of food grade salt for less than $5. Anyone with meat in the freezer should have a bag just as insurance in case the power goes out for an extended time. 
This is a basic cover of salting meat.
Carne Seca
https://eatrio.net/2013/07/the-carne-seca-experiment.html

It works well with lean cuts (such as elk/deer). Carne Seca is a popular way to keep meats in South America.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

The problem with salting and drying meat is that 99% of us out there are not set up to do it if the freezer looses power for a extended time. It takes quite a bit of space to lay or a elk and deer to salt and dry.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Packout said:


> Anyone with meat in the freezer should have a bag just as insurance in case the power goes out for an extended time.


Speaking about meat in freezers, I had a freezer die a while back and we did lose alot of meat. I found this thing on amazon and it works AMAZINGLY WELL! You just stick a transmitter in a freezer and the head unit just picks it up and displays the temps. We stick the head unit on our fridge (its magnetic), and put 2 transmitters in the 2 freezers we have.

Super cheap insurance considering the cost of what you have filled a freezer with.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B9N71VC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

-DallanC


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Critter said:


> The problem with salting and drying meat is that 99% of us out there are not set up to do it if the freezer looses power for a extended time. It takes quite a bit of space to lay or a elk and deer to salt and dry.


Which leads to the fact that there is not enough good land left for everybody to be self sufficient.

Hard to feed cows on a 1/4 acre lot or high rise apartment.

I grew up making butter from raw milk, rolling oats, all the good stuff. My grandparents still had to source it from farmers.


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

Growing up in a large family 'hot cereal" was what mom made for us every morning for breakfast, sometimes it was oatmeal, sometimes it was boiled rice, but most often it was cracked wheat raised on my grandpa's farm. I haven't had cracked wheat mush in years, but as a kid it was always my favorite.


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## Packout (Nov 20, 2007)

Critter said:


> The problem with salting and drying meat is that 99% of us out there are not set up to do it if the freezer looses power for a extended time. It takes quite a bit of space to lay or a elk and deer to salt and dry.


Uh, not really. Have you done it? You can salt it in layers to drain. You can hang it to finish drying. It really isn't that hard, nor does it take up that much space. A guy in a condo might have more of an issue, but anyone with a 1/4 car garage could easily handle 100lbs+ of meat (if not 3x that much). Just got to prepare a little before hand.

Of course, if people have to understand the concept before the freezer goes out.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

I briefly looked over the "how to" that Packout gave a link to. Very interesting for sure. It's similar to the way a Taxidermist would salt a cape or hide to dry before tanning.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Wishing I had bought a better smoker last year, but so it goes.

Our house has been pretty good at using what we have but we'll probably up our game now.

I've always made our own stock but now I'm being more frugal with scraps and freezing anything that isn't too gnarly.

Cedar's weather has made me nervous about spring vegetables but I'm going to start growing a few, like spinach in some sheltered locations.

We will probably buy or make a chicken coop with the stimulus check. My wife eats eggs like crazy so it was time anyway. We tried meat chickens a few years ago but it's a pain within city limits and a few developed "green muscle" which still makes me gag even if I understand the benign reality of it.

We'll keep being thoughtful about our food supply chain. We'll never be fully self-sufficient but producing some is better than none.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Spring time is the time to plant root veggies. Carrots, parsnips, potato's, beets, radishes, and such. Lettuce and cabbage is usually good to plant in the early spring. They are fairly hardy.


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## 2full (Apr 8, 2010)

There are monitors available that you can use with a phone app that will let you track the temperature in your fridge or freezer. You set the range you want to function within, and the monitor will send an alert to your phone if it goes over or under those temperatures. 
We use them at work for our vaccines. Lost 9k last year in one cooler. 
Put them in after that, and it paid for itself this year already. Saved the inventory in another cooler.


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## 2full (Apr 8, 2010)

As for the spring veggies........
If and when I ever get a day off with decent weather I'll plant my peas, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, onions and a couple of other things. I don't put potatoes in quite yet. If the leaves start to come they are pretty tender and will freeze. 
Cedar City does freeze a lot later than the Wasatch front for sure. I never plant tomatoes and peppers till May 15th at the earliest. Still get froze some years.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

My peas, radishes, carrots, and beets went in the ground last week.


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## hondodawg (Mar 13, 2013)

Anyone toyed with straw bale tomatoes??
This would free up a lot of room in my garden this year. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

One thing if you plant radishes is to plant a couple of rows now and then in a week another couple and then a week after that another row. 

That should keep them popping up for quite a while.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Does this count since it could be 40 year old wisdom now? Maybe NSFW depending on standards.


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Interesting timing of this thread.

My mother was from Germany, she passed a few years back and I have been craving some of her German cooking.

So last Friday I pulled a venison roast out of the freezer, sliced it up thin and made some rouladen, my favorite German dish, and made some home made Spätzle to go with it. Made a pretty good batch, had it for 3 meals now and have enough for 2 or three more.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

hondodawg said:


> Anyone toyed with straw bale tomatoes??
> This would free up a lot of room in my garden this year.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I've seen it done with potatoes but not Tomatoes. Tomatoes need a lot of water and I think the straw wouldn't allow the water to stay in.

When planting potatoes in the straw, you need to add some dirt and cow crap. Burry them deep in the bale and kick it open when your ready to harvest.

I'm going to give sweet taters a try for the first time this year. I like them better than regular potatoes.


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