The Damsel in Dis Dress
Posted in chickens, preserving on Mar 4th, 2013
We freeze all sorts of things to keep them for later. Why don’t people know that we can freeze eggs too? (eggs courtesy of the Damsel’s Freerange Flightless Female Flock.) It’s okay. You can do it. It’s not illegal. The knowledge of this secret can now sweep the earth. Now, calmly realize you aren’t going [...]
Posted in preserving, thrifty, Uncategorized on Jun 21st, 2011
Did you hear about the food poisoning outbreak in Europe? Awful! Lots of people got sick, some even died. They eventually traced the source of the e. coli bacteria to sprouts grown on an organic farm. Does this mean we should avoid organic food? Absolutely not. The fact that the sprouts were grown organically didn’t [...]
Posted in cooking, preserving on Nov 22nd, 2010
Ah! This is the Damsel’s kind of project. Easy, quick, big payoff. Making herbal vinegar is as easy as kindergarten. It’s up to you which kind of herbs to use. What herbs do you love? Start there. The Damsel loves sage, and has a boatload of it, so there you have it. Take fresh, washed [...]
Posted in preserving, Uncategorized on Sep 27th, 2010
Way back last year, the Damsel posted about Making Your Own “Sun-Dried” Tomatoes. She’d dried tomatoes sort of half-heartedly before that, and didn’t know how much she’d use them. (Click the link for directions) A year later, she’s here to tell you she LOVES this method now. She used the dried tomatoes all year long [...]
Posted in preserving on Sep 15th, 2010
The Damsel was just sent this list of 50 websites with canning information. She found the list to be quite thorough. There’s even a website for canning squirrel, because it’s important to do it correctly. After all, you can’t take up your WHOLE freezer with squirrel, so you’ll need to can some. **wink 50 Canning [...]
Posted in preserving on Aug 2nd, 2010
It is the Damsel’s wish that you know how to preserve food. It’s one of the basic skills of becoming more self-reliant. When you put stuff in glass jars and seal it, it’s called “canning” or “bottling” or “putting up.” And the easiest thing to “put up,” in the Damsel’s humble opinion, is apricots. So [...]
Posted in preserving, Uncategorized on Jul 27th, 2010
Get ready for a SERIOUSLY old-school skill. When you make jam or jelly, you need something to make it jell. Most folks use commercial pectin–a product extracted from fruit–usually powdered (although liquid pectin is available). But. BUT. What if it was doomsday and there was no pectin in the stores? WHAT WOULD WE DO????? The [...]
Posted in preserving, Uncategorized on Jul 23rd, 2010
Freezing raspberries is as easy as kindergarten. The Damsel would like to gently insist that you flash freeze your raspberry treasure. Do it this way: 1. Wash the berries. This means put them into a strainer and rinse well with cold water. 2. Let them drain a bit. 3. Spread them out in a single [...]
Posted in preserving on Oct 28th, 2009
There’s been a whole lotta grape pickin’ going on at the Damsel’s place. This is a funny picture, because it looks like the Damsel is tightly clutching a bunch of grapes, about to yank them off the vine. That would be a silly way to pick grapes because of smashage and droppage. Rather, she is [...]
Posted in preserving, Uncategorized on Oct 21st, 2009
The Damsel doesn’t understand why, but the people at her cottage are pickled-beet crazy. Big, little, young, old, they all love them. What can this mean? The only thing the Damsel likes about beets is that they are sort of purple. Even so, she pickles the little devils for the rest of the weirdos in [...]
