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When I was a young child, I found a Con-Servo Steam Canner in one of my Grandparents attics. Being curious, I had to examine it carefully and ask lots of questions. It was a large metal box with a door and two sets of shelves like an oven. In the bottom was a pan for water. I was told a lot of jars of food could be canned in this at once, using steam instead of hot water. Most people were still pumping or even carrying there water by hand... Read more →

Yield: approximately 7 pints 10 cups finely chopped zucchini 4 cups finely chopped onions 1 green pepper, chopped finely 1 sweet red pepper, chopped finely 5 tablespoons pickling salt 2 1/2 cups white vinegar 1 large cayenne pepper with seeds 1 tablespoon nutmeg 1 tablespoon dry mustard 1 tablespoon turmeric 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1/2 teaspoon pepper 2 teaspoons celery salt 4 1/2 cups of sugar Chop the vegetables and sprinkle with salt over them. Mix well. Let stand overnight. Drain the vegetables. Rinse thoroughly with cold tap water. Drain again.... Read more →

For many years I have relied on our MEHU-LIISA steam juicer to extract the liquid goodness from all kinds of fruit and tomatoes. It came from Lehman's Hardware, where I have been a customer for nearly 40 years. The hot steam inside the unit releases the juice with out any pressing, straining, peeling or grinding. Steam transfers heat very efficiently, and the fruit is heated less than being processed in a hot water bath canner. It should retain more vitamins, and it is easy to see and taste the difference.... Read more →

Sometimes called the Cole crops, this family of cold hardy vegetables also includes Kale. They readily cross pollinate, so if you want to save seeds, you MUST choose only ONE variety of ONE of these crops in the entire family. The flowers do not form to pollinate until the second year of growth. You must Winter over at least a half dozen plants from the previous year. The second year is when you have to be concerned about cross pollination. For details about saving seeds, my favorite web site is... Read more →

I did not even sell tomato seeds at first. It is not that I don't grow and really love to eat them. Tomatoes do require starting indoors here in the North. That is not usually a project for beginning gardeners. They are very tricky because they are vulnerable to plant diseases, and need to have just the right amount of heat and water. Artificial light or a well heated greenhouse are needed too. When times are tough, providing these things will be much more difficult. If you master starting tomatoes... Read more →

This is my great grandmother's recipe. My family enjoys it every Spring. Salad for 4-6 people Gather a brown paper grocery bag half full of dandelions. Cut the dandelions plant just below the root. Rinse well with plenty of water. 2 cups of water 1/2 cup of cider vinegar 3/4 pound salt pork , chop finely 7 hard boiled eggs Pick over, wash, and chop dandelions. Fry salt pork until crisp. Set aside fat. Boil water, vinegar, and about 1/3 of the fat. Mix boiling liquid with dandelions, stir well... Read more →

We live in a time of plenty. Foods are brought to our local stores from far and wide. When times get tough, what foods will we NEED to eat? Now we often look to our garden or a produce department to provide vitamin rich fresh foods. Colorful salads look great, but we need foods which provide the energy to keep us going. Our bodies need protein to maintain them. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies won't matter much if we have already STARVED to death! Grains, starchy vegetables and fruit all... Read more →

When storing seeds for many years keep them dry and cool. Suzanne Ashworth's book confirms what we have been doing for many years. "The two greatest enemies of stored seeds are high temperature and high moisture."1 and "Home-saved seeds will retain maximum vigor when thoroughly dried and stored in a moisture-proof container."1 Moisture can pass through plastic, as well as paper. The pouches that I use to store our collections and grains are food bags that are metalized 2.2 poly which provides two layers of protection from moisture and light.... Read more →

SeedforSecurity has set up a YouTube account with our very first video: Pesto - An Instructional Video. You can subscribe to our channel to get our latest videos. Check it out here Read more →

Think this couldn't happen? Think again. Supermarkets typically have only 3 days of food available. What if delivery was interrupted? This could, of course, be from a natural disaster or from a terrorist attack. The idea is to plan ahead, especially if you are like me and have many mouths to feed. O.K. So what do you do? Do not panic; think! Have at least 4 weeks of food on your shelves. By this I mean canned meats, hearty vegetables such as beans, corn, and some starch. Pasta or rice... Read more →