Michael Janzen

I was doing a little research on long term food storage and found a couple good resources. The first is this very detailed resource on survival-center.com which catalogs many different types of food that are good for this kind of disaster preparedness. The other is a blog called the Bear Ridge Project. The blogger, Big Bear, explains a simple approach to food prep on a tight budget.

It sounds like a green house or an indoor grow set-up is required in most parts of the world to grow coffee. But it also looks like growing your own coffee plants is definitely doable, just not easy. Read about how to grow coffee plants at Sweet Maria’s.

Grow Coffee Plants at Home

I just ran across this incredible little list of edible items and when they are in season. This would be very useful to any freegan for sure, or a great knowledge prep for hard times. There are 12 PDF files to download, one for each month of the year.  Foraging Guide

A chicken tractor is a simple portable chicken coop designed to easily move your feathered egg laying friends around the yard while keeping them safe and sound from predators and visits to your not so understanding neighbors. Here’s an instructable on how to build a simple chicken tractor. I first learned of it on Make.

Chicken Tractor Instructable

This is an excellent article on how America in general got so fat and why we should never eat processed food loaded with salt, fat, and sugar. I also want to point out that there’s no conspiracy here; food manufacturers are simply trying to make us want to eat more and more of their food while reducing their costs. Unfortunately the methods they are using to make themselves more profitable are unethical and extremely dangerous to our health.

How We Became a Society of Gluttonous Junk Food Addicts

I want to make a tiny alcohol burning stove and space heater for Nine Tiny Feet and just came across this great tiny stove on Make. This example is so small if actually can be worn around the neck like a necklace. Weird but possibly useful. Stove Necklace. You can also see it for sale… very expensive… better to make one yourself out of copper tubing me thinks.

Why alcohol burning? My guess is that post peak-oil many of us will probably learn to distill spirits from local vegitation as an alternative fuel to petroleum and natural gas. Nine Tiny Feet will have a peak-oil prepper spin when I’m done; a teaching tool for simple and sustainable living without petroleum.

It seems some things havn’t changed much in a few thousand years. This is a link to a recreation of the oldest known olive oil press which ironically resembles modern equiptment. It makes me think I should be sure to plant some olive trees on my future sustsinable homestead and learn to make olive oil in the mean time.

Just spotted this on RowdyKittens, Growing Potatoes in Small Spaces. Looks like the perfect little thing to build out of pallets.

A little cardboard box won a solar oven contest recently and thegoodhuman.com made this solar oven for $1.50. You could probably make one with stuff in your house right now. I think I’m going to make one too. Follow thegoodhuman on twitter, I do.

Spotted this recipe for steel-cut crockpot oatmael on The Greenest Dollar this morning. Julia and I have had steel cut a couple times and wanted to try it this way. Sounds tasty.

Here’s their recipe:

• 1 cup steel cut oats (DO NOT substitute old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats)
• 4 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• cooking spray

1. Start by spraying your crock pot with cooking spray- This was a reader tip in the comments section, and it really helped cut the clean-up time the next morning because the oatmeal didn’t stick a bit! So, don’t forget to do this.

2. Pour in the water, oats, salt, and butter

3. Cook on Low for 6-8 hrs.- The first time I made mine I did it for 8 hours with no problem. I even left it on warm for another hour after that until my husband woke up, and it still tasted great. I think you could easily get away with cooking these on low for 10 hrs., but I’m not sure if longer cooking time would impact the nutritional value.

Heather at The Greenest Dollar found this recipe on RecipeZaar.com.