To not feel overly anxious about how badly people are behaving during this very serious pandemic I must stay busy and listen to the nudge that must come from God.
I feel this comes from God because it is the rational and sensible feeling I get that I need to do something. By nature I am excitable so this rational feeling does not come from me.
It is time to prepare, that is what I felt before this all started. On January 28 of 2020 I had a feeling something very serious was going to happen. At this time the coronavirus was not being taken very serious but on that day, I ordered two eighty yard rolls of 1/8 inch elastic to make masks. I had never made a mask before nor ever in my life purchased a large roll of anything sewing. Just a package here and there for what I needed. February first I ordered 2 bottles of Virex disinfectant.
Each nudge I reacted to.. I listened...
My goal is to bring calm to our home.
It has not been easy because of how I feel towards the people that are being selfish and are responsible for the loss of lives because they do not want to follow any rules at all. Since I cannot do anything about that, I can do something about this.
I will continue to listen to the God nudge.
Food preservation is very important right now so this is what I am doing. I am preserving food using different methods.
For sweet potatoes I try to get potatoes that are similar in size but if that is not possible I use what we have.
This above are eleven baked and skin removed sweet potatoes...
I am dehydrating these sweet potatoes so I sliced them and laid them out on the trays....
This is the 11 sweet potatoes after they have been condensed down using a dehydrator. Minus a few that I used for a dehydrated food sampler..
And these are gold potatoes, 10 pounds..
I thought about how quickly onions are used so I got busy and dehydrated onions as well.
These jars are 10 vidalia onions plus a pint that is about half full of chopped. the jar to the right are bananas. Home dehydrated bananas look different that those bought in the store because those in the store have extra ingredients added. I use lemon juice when dehydrating bananas or otherwise they would be darker than this. The dark does not effect the taste at all.
I rehydrated some of the food I had dehydrated to do a taste test. I like to do this when I dehydrate. I poured boiling water over the sweet potatoes and let them sit for 30 minutes just for this taste test. Each vegetable or fruit or herb requires different soaking time.
I did they same for the onions and mushrooms.
The potatoes look like this dehydrated..
I took a skillet and added just a little olive oil and a little butter then I put all the soaked food items into a skillet with the remaining water that was left that did not soaked in.
The potatoes needed extra time rehydrating but I went ahead and started simmering them until all the water simmered out of the skillet and the only thing left was the oil and butter and I let them saute in that. These food items are pre cooked, steamed or blanched before dehydrating so they do not need to boil hard or they will mush up.
A lot of people do not know how to use dehydrated food. It can be used in stews or soups, pies, bread, or just as a side dish like above. I forgot to take a picture of it on the plate but the photo above did not have any juice left and it was just vegetables when finished.
Cooking with dehydrated food is not hard at all because the prep work is done before it is in the jar and you just need to learn gentle cooking. Just soak, cook off the water so there is no flavor loss. But read about how to rehydrate food because all food whether it is canned or dehydtated there are proper ways to safely dehydrate and rehydrate. You can also rehydrate in the refrigerator.
Our Monday meal in the garden last week was almost a rain out but we ate between rains. It was a home cooked hamburger, cooked onion, home fries and baked beans.
I purchased Charles some new work shirts, underwear and socks to be put back because we do not know what will happen with supplies and the economy.
I started reorganizing fabric I have concerns about the shortage of fabric and I am thankful that I did and do have fabric put back. Thread is another item that became short.
The cucumber arbor has almost been swallowed up in cucumber vines and blackeyed susans.
This is looking at the back of that arbor...
Each morning we pick cucumbers and every day lately we pick a full pan of cucumbers.
This is just right for a pickle. I am working on bread and butter pickles now...
I beg everyone to please wear a mask when going anywhere, it is the right thing to do so just do it. We still need to stay home when we are not working because this pandemic is far from being over. We can help it to be over by doing these things.
With stores open if there is something we need outside of groceries, we can always call a store owner to see what precautions they are taking and make arrangements for picking something up from their store. We can phone in a order to them and make arrangements for picking it up. If they or their patrons are not wearing a mask do not patronize that store, go somewhere else.
There are many options we can use to protect ourselves and others. This is not living in fear it is being smart. We can maneuver through this pandemic if we just take the extra steps to do it right and listen...
Grandma Donna
