NOTES:
This site offers 150 fall recipes for the crockpot. I’m going to see if I can adapt any to canning:
150 Best Fall Crockpot Recipes – Prudent Penny Pincher
Last week, I had the unique opportunity to be involved in helping a few residents in Southern California who had been flooded by Hurricane Hillary, and were not able to get food. The Salvation Army stepped in to provide and Team Rubicon was asked to deliver. One of the residents called me the next day to express her extreme thanks for my help. I explained that many people had been involved in providing help and that I would pass on her thanks. THEN I reminded her that this could all have been prevented if she had had even one week of food set aside for just such an emergency. She promised that she would get a supply of food as recommended by EVERY government agency – local and national!!!
This site has a lot of good ideas for preparedness if you are pregnant, or taking care of a newborn. Natural Disaster Safety for Expecting and New Parents | CDC
Have you stored beans? Black beans, white beans, red beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans? Well look what I found: Bean Institute | Beans: Simply Delicious. Naturally Nutritious.
A Bean Institute?? Who knew there was such a thing???
And… they have recipes…..lots of them! 68 recipes for black beans, 39 recipes for pinto beans, cranberry bean recipes (6) and much more!
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
My first one this year:
THIS is a tomato hornworm.
They do this:
So much damage if you don’t get them off!!!
My two ways to recognize hornworms is
1) stripped branches
2) little black dots on the leaves (caterpillar poop)
Also, you can take a black light into the garden at night and the hornworms will glow!!!
You can pick them off. I usually do this and put them in the middle of the sidewalk for the crows. OR you can spray with Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew or another organic spray.
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE – spices
Some spices you can grow yourself. I’ve had really good luck this year with oregano. When it gets about 6 inches high, I give it a good haircut and lay the branches on my dehydrator shelves. I let it dry overnight and the leaves just crumble off. I’ve also done basil, although it doesn’t crumble as easily. I have to put it in a baggie and crush the leaves with a rolling pin. Our entire side fence has rosemary growing along it. It is so easy to grow in this heat.
But if you look at the recipes below, you’ll see that it takes a lot of spice to make bland beans taste good!
- cumin, cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder, thyme, chicken broth (bouillon), coriander, salt and pepper
Also onions (dehydrated) and bell peppers, which you can dehydrate yourself, or buy already dehydrated.
This 1 pound bag is $22 on Amazon. It’s A LOT of pepper and will last an entire year at least. Just put about 1/4 c. into whatever you are cooking and they will plump right up!
Don’t forget cocoa and cinnamon. It’s worth a trip to Winco to get them in the bulk section.
Make it your goal to get all the way to Spring without having to buy any spices.
MISC. PURCHASE: vitamins
Are you taking vitamins? If not, you should! Get a BIG bottle of vitamins for you and your whole family. The goal is a 6 month supply. Vitamins can be pricey. Start small and just pick up another one here and there. You can store them upstairs under the bathroom sink. And throw in a bottle of Vitamin C while you’re at it!
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES:
Vegetarian Three Bean Chili
From The Bean Institute
In a large, heavy pot, heat
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- 2 c. onions, peeled and diced
- 2 red bell peppers, cored and diced
- 2 TB garlic, minced
- 2 serrano peppers, stemmed and seeded, minced fine
Cook and stir until soft, about 3 minutes
- 2 zucchini, diced
- 1 c. corn
Cook and stir until soft and the vegetables give off their liquid and start to brown around the edges, about 6 min.
- 2 TB chili powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp cocoa
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 can 14 oz. tomato puree
Stir well. and cook about 30 seconds
- 1 can (1 3/4 c.) black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 can (1 3/4 c.) pinto beans drained and rinsed
- 1 can (1 3/4 c.) kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 3 c. vegetable stock
Add and bring to a boil.
- 1 c. red bell peppers, roasted, pureed
- 2 tomatoes, roasted whole and pureed
Add and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 20 min.
Remove from the heat and stir in
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
White Bean, Bacon and Corn Chowder
6 servings
From The Bean Institute
- 1/4 lb. red pepper
- 1/4 lb. carrots
- 1/4 lb. onion
Dice into small diced pieces
- 4 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 1/2 lb. potatoes, peeled and diced and keep covered with cold water until needed
Heat a kettle to medium high heat.
- 1 TB butter, unsalted – heat and sauté the diced peppers, carrots and onions.
- 3/4 tsp garlic
- 3/4 tsp thyme
- 1/4 tsp salt
Add garlic, thyme, and salt. Stir and cook 2 more minutes.
- 1 c. milk milk
- 1 1/2 c, chicken broth
Stir in. Bring to a simmer. DO NOT BOIL.
Add potatoes,
- 6 oz. corn
- 1/2 lb. white beans, drained and rinsed
Simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through.
- 1/4 c. cornmeal – whisk to dissolve in the soup. Cook soup for 15 additional minutes, stirring occasionally to allow soup to thicken.
Put 1 c. soup in a bowl and sprinkle with bacon
Chicken and Rice
from Lanascooking.com
In a large, deep skillet over medium heat, melt
- 4 TB butter
- 1 large onion diced (or 1/4 c. reconstituted dehydrated onion)
- 3 ribs celery diced (or 2 TB reconstituted dehydrated celery)
Add onion and celery to butter and cook until 3-4 minutes
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or 2 breasts), cut into uniform bite-size pieces
Add and cook, stirring frequently, until the chicken has stiffened and starts to brown. (if you are using canned chicken, just add and stir to coat)
- 3 c. chicken stock
- 1 1/2 c. rice (long grain white, basmati, or brown)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 TB butter
parsley (2 TB fresh, or 1 tsp dried)
Bring to a boil. Reduce, cover, and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Check cooking time for the type of rice you are using.
Let the pan sit covered and off the heat for about 10 minutes at the end of cooking for fluffier rice.
Can store leftovers in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating and serving.
Marti
Beans, Legumes, & Pulses: 
Oats:
Canned Vegetables:
Peanut Butter:
Canned Meats: 
Powdered Milk or Milk Alternatives: 
Powdered Drinks:
Protein Powders:
Vegetable Powders: 
Argh. Earlier in the season, I saw this guy (or another one like it) and dumped about 1/4 c. of Diatomaceous Earth right on him – which is supposed to kill them. So…either the DE didn’t work, or this is another one. Google says the average life span is 90 days….. pretty much the rest of the gardening season.
The air we breathe contains vital oxygen, essential for life. Oxygen is highly reactive, causing oxidation in contact with substances. This is seen when enzymes brown apples or meats turn rancid. Long-term food storage requires removing oxygen, done by using absorbers containing iron powder that reacts with oxygen, creating heat. 
To extend food shelf life, enzymes need denaturing, and yeast and bacteria populations must be minimized. To prevent microbial consumption and toxin formation in food, we use acidification, salting, 
Light is also an enemy of long-term food storage. Light causes food spoilage by decomposing chlorophyll, promoting the oxidation of nutrients and the development of bacteria. 
Many chemical reactions, bacteria, yeast, and enzymes rely upon water. So, if you reduce the moisture content of the food, you slow or stop all of these processes. Drying food is probably the oldest method of food preservation. This can be accomplished by gently heating the food to evaporate off the water and dehydrate it. Dehydrating food sheds 75-95% of the water. Modern methods involve 
The final enemy of long-term storage is temperature. Once the other factors have been dealt with, maintaining a stable temperature is key to a long shelf-life. Bacteria and other microorganisms grow faster at higher temperatures, so storing food at a cool temperature can help to prevent spoilage. Temperature changes encourage the remaining bacteria to do what it does best–survive. 
Honey contains several compounds that contribute to its natural longevity. Low water content, high sugar concentration, acidity, and the presence of enzymes and other bioactive compounds create an environment that is inhospitable to many bacteria, making it difficult for them to survive and reproduce. It’s mainly the low water content, typically between 17 and 20%. Honey is hygroscopic, meaning it will pull moisture from the air. All the conditions are right in watered-down honey for the spontaneous growth of bacteria and yeast, so you want to store it in airtight containers. If you add water and wait, you will end up with mead, perhaps the oldest-ever fermented alcoholic beverage. In its low moisture state, however, it has been historically applied to wounds to accelerate healing and for its antimicrobial properties. Honey that dated back 3,000 years and was found in Egyptian tombs, when analyzed, was found to be still edible.
Like honey, sugars low moisture content and density provide it maximum shelf life. Sugar is also hygroscopic, like honey, which will pull moisture from the air. This is why sugar left out in the open air will clump and harden. It will outlive you if you store it in an airtight container, moisture free, and in a cool location.
Technically, salt isn’t food. It is a mineral. It’s used as a seasoning and food preserver. In our bodies, it helps regulate fluid balance, nerve function, and muscle contractions. The moisture content of salt, or sodium chloride, is less than 1%. As a mineral, it can be found in rock form. The combination of low moisture, density, purity, and lack of other substances make it inconducive to bacteria and yeast growth. Note that iodized salt will lose its iodized quality after 5 years, but the salt is still safe to consume. Salt will be around millions of years after we are all gone. Just store it in a moisture-free environment.
Imagine the hardest, most inedible, flavorless biscuit possible, and you will have hardtack. We made some in a previous video I will link to. The plus of hardtack is that it’s a means to store flour for other purposes. Simply rehydrate the biscuit in water for several hours or days or powder it back into flour for other uses. The absence of moisture and resistance to air and moisture because of its density give this food a shelf life of a hundred or more years. Hardtack is on display in some museums that dates back over a hundred years.
While corn pollen fossils have been found as old as 80,000 years, what we know as modern popcorn was known in China, Sumatra, and India for at least 5000 years. Nobody knows the oldest unpopped kernel ever to be popped, but popped corn has been a food source for thousands of years. Popped popcorn and kernels 5600 years old have been discovered in New Mexico. What allows popcorn to pop is the moisture that builds up to explosive levels inside an outer shell that is so tooth-chipping hard it is almost impervious to moisture and air. Over time, its ability to pop may be lost, but the food is still consumable for years. It can easily be ground or pounded into cornmeal. Store popcorn in an airtight, even oxygen-free environment, and it will outlive all of us.
White rice, spelt, oats, wheatberries, farro, millet, rye, quinoa, kamut, and similar hard kernel grains in their whole form can attribute their long storage life, like popcorn, to that hard outer shell. Some will easily last 25 years or longer if stored properly in an oxygen-free environment. They are so hard that they require soaking and cooking or being pounded or ground into flour before being consumed. Storage longevity will depend on oil and fat content, but these have an incredible shelf-life when properly stored.
Again, think of the super hardness of the item as part of its resistance to moisture and air and, thus, part of its natural preservation. When properly stored, beans, lentils, and other dried legumes can outlive us all. Discovery of quantities of peas, fava beans, chickpeas, and lentils at Neolithic sites in the Middle East point to their prominence in the diet of early sedentary peoples. Beans aren’t timeless, unfortunately. Every year they age, the less likely they will cook into a tender form. They will be edible for years and years if stored properly, but they will need to be powdered into flour or cooked for a very long time to become edible.
Dehydrating foods extend their edible life, but 
potatoes from the garden (I cured them on a sheet in the spare bedroom and they are now living in the closet), and canned chicken. It was amazingly delicious and took all of about 10 minutes (mostly to cook the beans and potatoes).
I have another two weeks of vacation coming up and really don’t want to mess with this right now. I think I’m going to pull it all up and start over in September when I can give these plants some TLC.
As I have covered in other videos, the economy is improving in some respects, but that may not translate to your finances. Inflation may be slowing on some items, but we will see a continued rise in others. The laws of supply and demand will drive some of this through the rest of this year. The demand for luxury goods or big-ticket items will wane as people tighten their belts. That will result in some bargains if you’re looking to make a big ticket purchase like a car.
The war in Ukraine increasingly looks like it will be slow moving, even a potential stalemate for the rest of this year; however, the recent death of the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prighozin, who reportedly died in a plane crash that may have also killed some of his top leaders, may change the war for Putin and Russia. Video shows the jet free-falling out of the sky, wingless, and not likely accidentally due to some malfunction. It’s pretty clearly an assassination. Also, Gen. Sergei Suro-vikin, a former commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine who was linked to the leader of a brief armed rebellion, has been dismissed as chief of the air force, so Putin is obviously cleaning house. Prighozin’s private Russian mercenary army, known as the Wagner Group, threatened to march on Moscow again. In a social media video, Wagner fighters promised revenge and a march towards the capital. This previous coup attempt by this PMG exposed vulnerabilities in Russia’s territorial defense, as the group managed to seize Rostov-on-Don, a city central to Moscow’s military operations in Ukraine, and even advanced within 200 kilometers of Moscow before retracing their steps. With close ties to Russian military and political leadership, the Wagner Group is a global, potentially counter-Putin threat.
As you may know, I avoid political opinions on this channel, but I feel it necessary to address how politics can impact our lives, health, and safety. Whether that’s riots in the streets stoked by the angry rhetoric of divided politicians and political groups or contentious and bitter struggles between neighbors and communities at school board meetings, politics can threaten our peaceful existence within our communities.
BRICS is another global threat, at least to Western hegemony and established international order, that we are watching for the rest of this year and next. Putin used a 17-minute prerecorded address on the opening day of the meetings to lash out at the West over the financial sanctions imposed on Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. Putin wasn’t expected to attend the BRICS Summit in person because the World Court had an arrest warrant out for him. He did not mention Wednesday’s plane crash that left Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and some of his top lieutenants presumed dead.
If there’s a concrete threat I can confidently predict will impact your daily life, it’s the weather. Based on our data analysis, the likelihood of a significant weather event affecting your region is notably higher for this and the following year. Our recent videos have highlighted the impacts on our food supply and with a strong El Nino cycle, leading to uncertainties and certainties alike.
If those questions leave you with a certain level of uncertainty, it’s prudent to start prepping. If you’re new to preparedness, I’ll link to a recommended video titled, “3 months is all you need as a prepper”. In that video, I lay out the framework to build from 3 days of preparedness all the way up to 3 months. It’s up to you prepared you want to be. But if you can confidently prepare for 3 months, you’ll be ready for most likely scenarios and it will serve as a great springboard for going way past that timeline to be fully prepared.
Well, I pulled out the beans and the cucumbers. It’s just too hot. The plants won’t set fruit in the heat, and the leaves are turning yellow and brown. Not sure what kind of disease that is, but it’s spreading through the beans, and it’s just not worth trying to keep them alive. Even the zucchini and squash plants are only giving me fruit one or two at a time.
Can you drink swimming pool water in an emergency? 
Sun Oven
Before I jump in, let me say something really quickly. I realize the discussion of trends related to observable patterns of increased temperatures upset some within this community as they see it as an attempt to push a certain narrative. I do understand your argument, but if you’ve watched my videos for any length of time, you know I purposefully avoid the political element in any discussions and instead focus on what we can observe. What you do with that information is your business. I’ve been in this community for quite some time, and I realize it’s a big tent, and we all prepare for different things. Regardless of our threat assessments and conclusions, we do share the common goal of preparedness. Hopefully, I’ve built enough credibility within this community that you know me enough to know my interest lies in educating and preparing you. So let’s dive into the content.
To truly wrap our heads around the significance of these unprecedented in our lives rise in temperatures, we have to stretch our understanding far beyond our short under-a-century lifetimes. Even with the collected stories and tales from our ancestors, we can only see back in time a few centuries. The actual recording of temperatures is only slightly longer at 364 years. The oldest continuous temperature record is the Central England Temperature Data Series, which began in 1659. Still, with this limited vision, scientists can extend our understanding of weather patterns for thousands of years. Through studying tree rings, isotopic analysis of ice core samples, sediment core samples, historical records of ancient observers, pollen analysis, and the fossil record, scientists employ multiple indirect techniques to reconstruct past temperatures. Scientists can paint a reasonably accurate image of the overall weather patterns and temperatures from all these.
Just as we have to go beyond the evidence of our every day to determine the historical weather, we have to go beyond the evidence of just our eyes in our daily lives. When you or someone you know makes comparisons like “the summer of 1979 (or whatever year) was way hotter than this,” they limit their understanding of the predicament we are collectively facing. When people argue the nuances of the causes like greenhouse gasses, solar maximums, or even HAARP, they are trying to link complexly interlaced climate to a single cause or no cause. In its simplest terms, they’re missing the forest for the trees.
The ability to just go about our daily lives like Goldilocks wandering through a house is rapidly ending. Our ability to science up a solution to a global problem is also outpacing our capabilities. Let’s face it, most of us aren’t in a position to simply pull up stakes and head to a more temperature and weather-stable zone. Taking all that into account, there are things you can do, steps you can take right now, to brace for the impact of these changes and live through them. I may sound like a broken record sometimes, but it comes down to food, water, and shelter.
I say it a lot on this channel, but you must start growing your foods, at least at some level. That can be sprouts and microgreens, a windowsill garden, a full outdoor garden, or chickens, rabbits, or goats, but you have to learn how to produce at least some of what you eat and free yourself from dependence on a collapsing food production and distribution system. You also need to diversify your eating and cooking strategies. As I mentioned earlier, there may be a time when wheat harvests may significantly decline. Can you pivot to other grains to make your daily bread when you are priced out of the market? When commercial businesses lack the ingredients to serve you the buns for your burgers or the bread for your sandwiches, what are your other options?
Water is also something where you will want a personal supply to get you through periods of interrupted flow. If in a drought, low levels can lead to algae flare-ups that may result in boil notices. Droughts can also result in dwindling supply. When it does rain in massive downpours after a long drought, much of that doesn’t absorb into the ground but results in flooding and overflowing sewer and drainage systems.
Finally, I have to say shelter is a consideration. If you do just three things in response to these shocking weather and oceanic temperature observations, food, water, and shelter should be those things. When it comes to shelter, ask yourself how dependent you are on modern amenities to maintain a livable environment. If you live in an area that is pushing triple-digit temperatures or below-zero temperatures more and more days every year, you’re going to have a problem very soon. If you live in an area that is seeing more and more atmospheric rivers of rain punctuating long periods of drought, you will have a problem soon.
Before we dive into the impacts of a seed monopoly, let’s first look at who currently controls the global seed market today.
Anytime a 
One of the ways seed companies are cornering the market is through controlling how prices for seeds are set. As a handful of companies gain control over the global seed market, competition is eliminated and the remaining companies get to dictate how seeds will be priced.
Another way that seed companies are cornering the market is through the restrictions in their patents controlling how their seeds can be used or exchanged.
As seed companies expand control over the seed market, they are also increasing their influence when it comes to implementing laws and regulations.
As mentioned earlier, monopolies are typically looked at negatively from a consumer’s point of view since it eliminates competition, thus giving one company or a small group of companies control of prices, variety, and quality of products and services. But a monopoly can also impact the economy negatively.
Farmers are the worst hit in a seed monopoly since they are the direct consumer of the seeds that these companies are producing and selling to.
Another negative impact of a seed monopoly is how it affects the food supply. I mentioned earlier how fewer seed companies mean fewer seed varieties available to the consumer. The issue with this is that it weakens our society’s food security.
The seed monopoly is a real thing and it is happening in our world today as seed companies continue to merge and consolidate into a few large corporations resulting in them taking control of the seed market and our food supply as well.