Living Free in Tennessee - Nicole Sauce

Today, we will talk through the basics of starting a podcast because so many of you have asked of late. Since this is live on Youtube, I will take live q & A from there if any shows up.

#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?

Unloose the Goose tonight at 7:30pm: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChLkn_5InomdoHWmgMiECfQ

Holler Neighbor Livestream - shared pantry discussion: https://youtu.be/qST--X-xCiI

Stump the Sauce

From Chris: Recently a friend gave me a large bucket of fresh figs. I made some jam but still have a lot left. Do you have some ideas for fig recipes? Thank you Nicole.

What's Up in the Garden

• Summer Squash
• Frankensquash
• Weeding and care
• Tomato update
• Fall Planting in the AP

Main topic of the Show: How to Start a Podcast

Episode 20: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2017/01/23/episode-20-8-lessons-learned-from-starting-a-podcast/

1. Just Do it
2. Use what you have on hand
3. Define your core and stick to it
4. Not all podcast hosts are the same – find a good one and learn what they do well
5. Four areas to consider: Note Preparation, Equipment, Content, Production, Marketing
6. Content (and delivery) is the most important – as long as you don't foul up the rest
7. Network, network, network
8. Block time and be consistent

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up
• LFTN Gift Registry
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/

• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce

Today, I was going to talk with you about how to start a podcast because multiple people have asked me this question. But then a homestead day happened. Got up, had quiet coffee, started roasting, missed a call. We are doing a round of meat chickens. I plan to also do a processing class. They are going to arrive Thursday this week.

And in true homesteading colors, the things that happen on the days they are supposed to happen don't. So I picked up chicks this morning a day early -- and this is a good thing, but my benchmark for coffee volume is now going to be a push. A push that will happen no matter what because it has to.

As I showed Tactical how to get the chicks going, I realized that lots of folks are starting birds for the first time, so today I will share how I raise baby chickens.

• Save the date: Monday Sept 21 for the processing workshop. $65 and you get to take your chicken home.

Stump the Sauce

From Dori: Freezer questions

What's Up in the Garden

• It rained a million inched and the weeds went from short to taller than I am
• SVBs have been missing this year
• Tomato blight has arrived
• Fall garden stuff has not germinated, except the cucumbers

Main topic of the Show: Getting and Raising Baby Chicks. For meat.

• Where to find them.
• Choosing a breed
• Preparing for arrival
• Picking them up
• Orienting them on food and water
• Temperature in the brooder - book vs observation
• Feed matters - growing feed vs other feed, volume of feed
• Water additives (kickin chicken, apple cider vinegar, etc)
• Supplementing with greens
• When/how to get them outside
• Tractoring vs free range vs captivity
• Processing

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up
• LFTN Gift Registry
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/

• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce

Today, we hear from listeners about jumping in - getting going and addressing the thing that holds you back.

No Show Friday or Monday

Unloose the Goose is a hit! (Hosting update)

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Sometimes you need a pantry reset
• Spreadsheet (Next level tracking & Why)
• Community pantry concept
• Corn Salsa Recipe, feedback
• #MYThree Things Weekend Edition

Operation Independence

• HRC is launching something really cool this week or next - stay tuned
• Basecamp has its new tenant - Jenni

Main topic of the Show: jump

Synchronicity - you know how it seems like when you think about something and then start talking about it that you find other people are also thinking about it? Last week I got pretty sick. It started the Friday before last, ebbed a bit over the weekend, then hit like a ton of bricks on Monday morning.

It completely derailed the day - I had been all excited to go into the week kicking ass and taking names. Instead I spent much of the day in bed. SO I thought I would see what would happen if I asked the community to do their own podcast segments on the topic of Jump. I am not sure how many "comment" submissions I got, -- too hard to keep track from bed -- but we got two audio clips that I thought I would play to kick us off.

So Jump. The topic from last week that is not this week. All year, I have shared with you ways to increase independence, shared my struggles and successes with my word of the year, grow.

And things have been really weird this year with coronavirus, rioting and an increasingly divided atmosphere.

Sometimes it really feels daunting to be out on my own in an an environment where the following is not only possible, but looking more and more likely:

1. Additional supply chain issues leading to civil unrest
2. A full blown depression
3. A real estate market crash
4. Massive layoffs from an educational system that society is learning they do not really need

Humans are still animals under our sophistication and sometimes animals lash out. But there is a bigger issue in society and that is the oligarchy that uses the ruse of division, the ruse of peaceful freedom, the ruse of progress and diversity to push an agenda that is the opposite. As we see more people willing to open fire on someone who is or is not wearing a mask, or to throw a child in juvie for not doing homework, we start to see the true colors of those in control.

And when you first see it, you just want to tear it down. But using their system to change their system is like heading to the casino and expecting to win against the house. You may have times where you get ahead for a bit, but house rules = house wins. The only way to get ahead for the long term is not to play the house.

You've heard me say freedom aint hard, but it takes work. That is because freedom is very very simple. It means that you have no business in other people's business and they have no business in yours, so long as no one is getting hurt. And this thing is very very hard to do consistently in part because we have to let assholes be assholes so long as they are not causing harm.

But enough about that - as we navigate this coming instability in the economy and in society, how do we best set ourselves apart from the harm? Because as you dig deep into your fear of all that is going on, while there may be a fear of getting sick and dying under it all, the bigger fear is all these coming crashes that may happen might also cause you to struggle or fail.

Listen to that one again.

There is no certainty in anything in that sentence is there? Lots of maybes and mights. As we become more aware of patterns and impacts of the decisions that the oligarchy is forcing on the people, we can see where things will likely go and it is scary.

And this fear is holding you back. This fear is how you are controlled from the outside. This fear keeps you in your bad relationship, your go nowhere job, your habit of debt slavery.

And while the fear may be justified, fear is an emotion. One that should stop you from putting your head in a lions mouth, but not one that should stop you from handling that mud wasp nest on the wall outside your laundry room. (BTW I have a mud wasp nest to deal with outside my laundry door).

There is a difference between acting rashly consequences be damned and conquering your fear to take action on your own behalf.

So when I started thinking about this year, about my own choices, about the fear of failure, about the fear of a societal meltdown -- all I can see is a bunch of stuff out of my control. And the choice is clear: spend hours online fretting over what might happen, what probably will happen actually, -- or spend hours growing food, building Holler Roast Coffee.

But it is hard to jump. This jump is not a baby step toward more financial independence. What we are looking at now is a big ol' jump into the great unknown. Is it good to jump or bad?

Alas, the answer is "It depends". It is a gift to see the potential direction that all the societal division in the world is leading us to. Why a gift? Because that same skill that we have all been developing gives us the same sight into what is likely to happen when we take a jump.

So while you may be trying to decide if you should launch your new business,

While you are trying to make these decisions, I think you will find you already have. You have the ability to make things work. You have the ability to push through adversity. You have the ability to analyze what is likely to happen, to find someone who is more versed in a topic than you are and get their perspective, to weigh it then make your own decision.

So today, as you are looking at that next jump. Look hard - if the jump ahead of you is not right, then shift focus and take a different jump.

But dont dont dont let the current environment of division keep you from jumping. Don't let them steal another moment of your time focusing on their theatrics. Don't waste precious time on those who wish to enslave you, instead spend that time improving something, jumping toward something that makes your life better, more stable, closer to the life you want to live. Only you can build the things you want into your life and wasting time asking permission to do this is part of the problem.

As we look to the fast approaching end of the year, take a moment, look ahead and take that jump. Because you are the only person who can.

Thank you

Make it a great week!

Song:

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/
• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

It has been a pretty long time since Dori Mulder was on the show. And today, we are fixing this! Dori has had a ton of things change in her life over the past year or so and today she joining us to talk about those changes and what that has meant for her homesteading adventures.

• Travelling to Oregon Next week - no Friday Show Next Week or the Following Monday

Main content of the show

Dori Mulder first came on the LFTN scene in 2017 when she was purchasing a piece a unique property with a large cave and multiple cabins. She has been on the show 4 times (I think). She lives in Jefferson City MO, works part time for the Army National Guard, and works full time as a Loan Officer for Veterans United Home Loans. She is an hobby homesteader who loves gardening, making kombucha, fermenting sauerkraut, making herbal salves, and learning how to forage from the weeds in the area. She learned all this homesteady stuff from Nicole who has been her catalyst for inspired inquiry into self sufficiency.

• Update on Dori 2.0
• Homesteading is where the heart is
• Using what you have to create value
• A cool way to sell stuff
• Relationships when both partners are not aligned

Make it a great week

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/

• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce
• Holler Roast Coffee

Today we talk about website questions you have in a semi-live, semi-social media Q & A Session.

#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with? See in Instagram @nicolesauce

Holler Neighbor Special Edition - New Neighbors: https://youtu.be/ZNV--iWgg74

Unloose the Goose, episode 3 : https://www.unloosethegoose.com/2020/07/29/the-futility-of-politics-the-utility-of-community/

Stump the Sauce

• Stumped myself with beet recipes
• Kvass
• Beet chips - yummy
• Beet Ketchup - yummy
• Beet relish (I would add jalapeno to this)

What's Up in the Garden

• Harvested 25lbs of tomatoes today - total for the year is about 45 lbs from 12 plants
• Giant pumpkin vine
• Poor cucumber pollination
• Things on pause
• Fall stuff is in, minus brassica starts

Main topic of the Show: Website Q & A

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up
• LFTN Gift Registry
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/

• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce

Today I want to share some thoughts on Community quality and why I think some really large communities are no goes for so many people.

Next Wednesday will be a website Q&A show and will record live on Youtube at 12pm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3OvqIp4J8

Then Thursday is a special Edition of the Holler Neighbor LIvestream at 7pm Central. We will be welcoming a new neighbor - any idea who it might be?

TOTW on Community Quality

Have you ever thought you found a great group of people that you could interact, a community say surrounding a hobby like kayaking or building birdhouses, only to discover that they SEEMED great from the outside but once you got to the inside, most folks just talked about doing these things rather than doing them.

Our community quality metrics are skewed. Facebook launched way back when and it quickly became a competition about how many friends you had. And this is similar to how we measure the success of community. When successful groups and communities are talked about, they are measured by how many people are in them. What matters is size.

But what if this measure is wrong?

The best communities are not successful because they are large, it is because they are effective. And to be effective, a community needs high quality members. Therefore, community success is more dependent on the quality of the community members rather than how many will join.

This can be a hard concept for people to embrace because we have been taught that more is better. Sometimes more is not better. More of what is the best question to ask. More members who take instead of do? More members who focus on discouraging action rather than encouraging action? More members who unload piles of problems on everyone around them?

Or more members who also enjoy making birdhouses and share places to get free materials that can be repurposed?

Yep, communities should be measured by the quality of their participants, not the quantity. But it goes a little further than that. The flip side is that the overall quality of your community will tend to be measured by your weakest member.

You heard me.

The weakest one.

You can have an all-star, super awesome lineup with groups of great participants, but if you also have a trainwreck or two and allow them to stay in the community, you will soon see things reduced to the lowest denominator.

And this is why is can be so hard to keep a community strong. Because we want to be nice. Because we want to lift people up. And these desires are not a bad thing.

But as you navigate finding a community to join, or starting one yourself, remember what quality means. And when you find yourself in the position of leader, remember what that means - it means that it becomes up to you and other leaders in the group to maintain a quality membership. THe less fun part of that is ejecting the trouble makers.

But when a group comes together, unified by common values and interests, you will find that cutting the drama and drag is not very hard. Often the community will handle it quietly.

Over the years at LFTn we have had a few energy vampires show up and move on. And we have seen community members face hard times and become a temporary drain. And over the years, the community has gotten stronger and stronger in part because every one is a doer and supports doers. They help each other get past the hard times. And the best thing? They do stuff so the vampires get fed up and leave. It is a self-regulating culture rather than a dictatorship.

So as we think about the communities we want to help, to join, to invest in -- remember the big picture. Quality, not quality, is how you and your community win the game.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/

• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce

Today, we will discuss what you need to know if you want to build your business website -- or outsource it to someone else. It does not have to be a bear.

#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and why is she not home?

Holler Neighbor Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s24fyyTuVxU

Email feedback to [email protected]

What's Up in the Garden

• The loofah has bloomed -
• And lots of other things!

Featured Forage: The Tulip Poplar, Liriodedron tulipifera, http://www.eattheweeds.com/tulip-tree/

• Nectar from the blooms is sweet
• ?Sap?
• Tonic of inner bark for people recovering from illness to overcome lethargy
• Highly astringent leaves were used as topical applications for fever, sprains, bruises and rheumatic swellings.

Main topic of the show: Your Business Website

1. Content
   1. Clarity of who you are and what problem you can solve for me (im out of coffee)
2. Platform: wordpress vs wix vs squarespace vs something else
3. Hosting: price, security, shared hosting, contract duration
4. Security and Maintenance: flexibility and risk
5. Outsource vs do yourself

Live Q&A next week

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up
• LFTN Gift Registry
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/

• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce

Today, I talk about the tenacity of an earlier generation and what we can glean from them to navigate this shifting economy.

Holler Neighbors Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s24fyyTuVxU

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Scarcity has returned to the grocery stores and shipping is slow again. Consider making sure your pantry is ready for another turbulent time.
• Paper towel alternatives
• Tp alternatives
• Harvest Breakfast Platter
• Building to a 6 month supply of what we always eat

Preservation Process

• Putting up more beets - seeking beet canning recipes for things other than pickled beets
• Broccoli story
• Ham
• Blueberry story
• Salsa
• Dehydrated herbs

Operation Independence

• Basecamp and the holler cabin are rented - part of the rental property foundation project
• Scored free blueberries and tomatoes!

Main topic of the Show: Income in a Shifting Economy

Last week, I joined a gaggle of other podcasters in the creation of a new show, called Unloose the Goose. We are focusing on solutions for big problems, talking about freedom and liberty, and other random things. But the intention is to help people who want it to navigate this changing world.

One fellow, Vin Armani, brought up that he thinks we are at the end of an age and we discussed the transition a bit.

Yes. You got it. Change. We talked about change.

As the weeks have passed and Portland Oregon - my home town - has erupted into a hotbed of people taking sides, people acting out, people being violent, and people refusing to talk outside of an us vs them world, there is more indications of a change in our culture incoming. And if we as a society allow it to be a violent revolution, we all know what follows right?

What follows is the opposite of freedom.

So how then, can we navigate the coming weeks, months and years? How can we stop this madness? How can we get back to a peaceful, relatively prosperous life?

Many people hear me ask this and they don't think they have had a prosperous life.

But think about it. Most of us have rarely felt real hunger - if we have at all. Few of us have been homeless.

16 years ago, I was dating a man who asked me "Do you think we are living in a golden age?" and I thought and thought and reflected and came to the conclusion that yes. We are living in a golden age. And it is shifting. And where we end up, no one knows.

I read a quote today that stuck with me in USA Today. It was about a second stimulus check:

"I have terrible anxiety because of the unknown"...this is the crux of the national panic right now, isn't it?

People didn't realize that life has been as unpredictable our whole lives as it is this very moment. We just thought we were going a certain way, often did, and now this has shown us that the world can and will change on a dime. And we need to change with it or we get left behind.

So while we may be transitioning into a different kind of society, a different kind of economy, and a different kind of culture, we may even be heading into another dark age -- there is no way to really know. But we do know ONE THING. Change is constant. Each day has an unknown set of opportunities and challenges. So what do we do to navigate this changing thing?

Well, back in April, when we let the economy screech to a halt, people started getting scared. They had no income from their jobs. The unemployment offices were backed up and they could not get unemployment checks. The stores were bare of supplies and they could not buy what they needed.

Listen to this again

When you hear all this, what do you perceive?

Well a bunch of us feel like that lady in USA today who used her stimulus check to cover basic bills. Scared because of the unknown. Depressed because things have gotten hard. Tired of putting in work every day just to find basic supplies.

Navigating a world where things are not instantly available at all times, while new to some of us, is old news when you look at human history. It is actually kind of cool that we have been able to go so long without having to plan for this -- but if you want a model of how to navigate the coming change, you can look at what your grandparents or great grandparents did: take personal responsibility for your well being, tap into the changing opportunities that you find, don't be afraid of hard work, never underestimate the power of relationships.

Take personal responsibility for your well being - and that of your family

• Perspective
• Pantry and supply management is under your control
• Learning to do things on your own is valuable -- narrow vs wide knowledge
• The more money you have coming in that you have generated by yourself, the more stable that source, unless -- Jason's Story

Tap into the changing opportunities that you find

• You can make money tomorrow if you want to
• Side hustles or full time thing
• Glean value from what you have
• Stomps story

Never underestimate the power of relationships

• Tomorrow's episode of Unloose the Goose we are going to discuss community -- because if you look at other tough times, you see that the voluntary communities are what allowed people to successfully navigate
• Story of Darby's Restaurant
• Who are your true allies? Are they toxic? If so, get new allies.
• You are the story you tell yourself and you are the sum of your friends and family -- so choose wisely

Don't be afraid of hard work

• Sometimes it takes work - working smartly but work - to navigate hard times.
• Journaling
• Kevan Kjar and do hard things
• Really just do your homework already!

Income in a shifting economy is no different than income in a stable economy - it is there, it is up to you and me to find it. Even in Russia with the tightest of controls on housing, supplies and income, people managed to barter, to trade, to build, to do what they could in the reality in which they found themselves. You may need to make some changes inside you, in how you live, maybe even in where you live -- but change is part of life. And while sometimes change feels scary and it even can look bad. Usually, change leaves windows that you can pass through to find something better - even though it is different.

I know that many of you are looking at this world and worrying. You feel anxious. You feel tired. You feel scared. And your feelings are valid. Give yourself a moment. Embrace your feeling then do me a favor? Find one thing. One good thing. One positive step. One thing you can make happen. Do that thing. It can be really big. It can be one small step. Like going for a walk to start taking control of your health. Or signing up to deliver groceries through Shipt. Or building and selling a birdhouse. Or reaching out to the people in your community who want to band together and coming up with a gsd plan. Or writing that first blog post. Or learning how to string a weed whacker. Or changing your own oil. Doing your taxes. Learning to cook lasagna. Taking that cheesemaking webinar.

Do one thing.

Then shoot me an email and tell me what it is.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/
• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Last week, I posted in our online communities a question - who has canning questions. So today, I will cover the first set of a TON of questions that arrived. This really makes me wonder when we can schedule that canning webinar this month?

#HollerHatWednesday: What is she up to today?

Canning webinar tomorrow - sign up here: https://calendly.com/sparkcomm/canning1?month=2020-07

New Podcast! Unloose the Goose: Unloosethegoose.com

What's Up in the Garden

• Updated the trellising strategy in the ap and made sure all the suckers were off the tomatoes
• Mexican Sourgurken will be ready soon
• Scapes came and went and it is time to harvest garlic and baby potatoes

Featured Forage: Jewel Weed, Impatiens aurea (MUHL.), Impatiens biflora (WALT.)

https://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/j/jewelw08.html

• In the garden - pretty plant that reseeds itself after established - liked partial shade and moist ground so it grows around here near creeks and pods and runoff areas. Can choke out poison ivy, pretty, touch me not
• Herbal remedy - skin irritation, particularly from poison ivy
• Culinary: do not eat this plant, nor take it medicinally internally.

Main topic of the Show: Canning Q & A, Part 1

Buddy

What about stuff like pumpkin or sweet potatoes?

Jessica

Which vegetables are better to can, and which are better frozen, if "prepping" is not the priority?

Just curious. Prepping is always the priority. 😬

Victoria

• ...and which are better to pickle vs fermenting?

DeEllen

For experienced canners, what are some different things that we may not have thought to can? (butternut squash, soups and stews, tunafish, broth, lard, pie fillings, IDK it is hard to know what you can now)

Dawn

How to can salsa if you don't want to "cook" it.

Krystal

Stock/bone broth...

• The fat has to come off before canning, right?
• What if it was too hot to put in the fridge when I went to bed and it sat out all night? I put it in the fridge in the morning so the fat could solidify.
• Can you can pesto or is freezing better?
  • Nancy Alexander Krystal Moralee I did lots of research on canning pesto - everything I read said no😒

Christie

Ok, here is another. I'm not new to canning by any stretch of the meaning, but when I make broth, I usually don't have enough for a full canner. Can I freeze and thaw when I have enough for a full canner of quarts?

Jenni

Any info on canning meat. It's the one thing I have anxiety about canning.

Lisa

Lisa Davis Jenni Hill This winter I canned meat for the first time, too! Startled with ham and bean soup (3 hams on sale, lol). It got to the point I just canned the rest of the ham!! I've only used the Carey Canner for meat—not my All American. I didn't have enough to justify. Plus I got to stay in the upstairs kitchen (glasstop stove upstairs, electric burners on downstairs stove).

Samantha

Samantha Comfort Tattlers? What your take?

Andy

Andy Eddings More of a jarring question instead of canning, what is the proper pH of lacto fermented hot sauce? I have the kombucha test strips.

Chris

We can our old laying hens bone in and raw. We think it creates a better tastier product. Is there any evidence this is true?

Karla

Is it better to can separate ingredients? For example, should I can plain puréed tomatoes vs. tomato sauce (with seasonings) vs. spaghetti sauce with or without meat. Thanks!

Bravo Uniform

The best way to store lactoferminted foods. I have a cellar but what I'm reading says 32 - 50 degrees and the cellar is warmer than that until about October. Right now I'm vacuum sealing Mason jars because the heat of water bath / pressure canning kills the probiotics.

R.

Canning jelly/jam.

Safe recipes.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up
• LFTN Gift Registry
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Facebook Group: Facebook.com/groups/lftncoffeebreak/

• Instagram: @nicolesauce
• Twitter: @nicolesauce

Today we will walk through a day in a country kitchen that is filled with preserving, cooking, harvesting and other "from scratch" undertakings. Summer time is the high point for so many projects that it can get a little overwhelming -- and sometimes just knowing that everyone else who lives this way faces the same problems can go a long way in how your approach summer inn a farm, homestead or urbanstead kitchen.

This week's webinar: https://calendly.com/sparkcomm/canning1?month=2020-07

Introduction to canning - Thursday, July 16, 12pm Central

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Dilly beans being put up this week (why)
• Saving Tomatoes when you have too few to can
• Salsa canning season is here
• Still need to do the freezer defrost and audit

Feature Forage - (defer)

Operation Independence

• Arranged to finish hooking up the solar hot water heater - fingers crossed because the less propane I use, the less I buy
• Exciting new project at Holler Roast - more as things develop

Main topic of the Show: Kitchen Logistics for Summer Processing

What motivated this show

From Christie and Victoria: How can a person make the process simpler instead of having a bunch of things going on all over the kitchen. How can it be made more like a factory assembly line?

Here is my issue. My usual canning day Wake up early to beat the heat picking the garden. Wash up whatever I picked - say green beans but it could be anything cucumbers, whatever. Snap a 5 gallon bucket. Get out all the canning stuff. Can the green beans. Let's say 2 canners full. Now it's 5:00 or later and this old lady is exhausted! Hard, hard work, but! Well worth it in January. Any tips or tricks are welcome.

My weekend: tomatoes, pig kidney, beans, eggs, beets, chard, cucumbers, pecans, dill, coriander - actual food for the humans. Planting the fall garden.

Tip 1: Choose your timing carefully

• Bean example
• Cheese making

Tip 2: Plan your meals carefully

• Premade salads
• Crockpot
• BBQ outside
• Eat at a neighbors

Tip 3: The canning/processing pantry or kitchen

• Outdoor set up
• Pantry set up
• Livingroom set up
• My set up

Tip 4: Ask for help

• Shelling pecans
• Osso Buco
• Janna and the corn

Tip 5: Finish

• Beet greens and chard
• Bean harvest and cleaning

What really happened

Day 1

1. Came home with stuff from the market - kitchen counters were already filled with "in-process" projects: Coriander and teas
2. Started sun tea
3. Made breakfast and planned dinner, then harvested salad and tomatoes
4. Jennifer stopped by and started hulling pecans (kurt story) while I cleaned the kitchen as best I could and processed dill into manageable pieces
5. Started the oven to bake eggs at 150 for 2 hours (will end up crushing them and using them in soil)
6. Helped hull the pecans
7. Brought in Sun Tea
8. Made dinner - not as planned -- pulled the bratwurst ripcord
9. >>>Exhausted and still had tomatoes, the pic kidney, beets to harvest and process, chard to harvest and process, beans to harvest and process

Day 2

1. Overslept
2. Jennifer resumed the pecan project
3. Made breakfast, planned dinner
4. Harvested beans, beets, chard - cleaned all
5. Sliced pig kidney and started it in the dehydrator (outside)
6. Vaccuum packed pecans
7. Cleaned the harvest and processed/froze the beet greens and chard
8. Emergency trip to another town to drop vitamins at a friend's door who has covid and it takes 2 days for amazon to get things to you so…
9. Sold honey to John when I got back - he gifted me some squash
10. Made Osso Buco (which takes 2 hours)
11. Prepped beans for pickling (will do tomorrow which is today) this used up the tomatoes so they dont need to be processed and frozen for future canning
12. Tied up sage and mint to dry
13. Looked up relish recipes because I have enough dill pickles and need to do something besides a daily salad with the cucumbers

The result - nothing was really an assembly line - if you want to do this, you end up putting other stuff on hold for the day which I do when I have a big amount of salsa to make, or a bushel of beans. Therefore, I try to only do 1 day of assembly line stuff.

Kitchen was basically clean for the first time Sunday night -- it was never dirty - dirty but there was a constant flow of dirty and cleaned and drying dishes and lots of rotating vegetables on the bar and counters so it looked a sight!

I guess what I am trying to say is this: Martha Stewart has a staff, Julia Childs had a staff. Most of your big personalities with "perfect" kitchens have a staff. They were/are also very good organizers and teachers and there is nothing wrong with that. But the real deal on a homestead is that, during processing season, you end up either blocking time to do things in between cooking meals, you pre cook, you get friends together to knock a bunch of stuff out, or you end up with multiple preservation projects rolling one to the next. And sometimes this equals an untidy looking kitchen. If it is morphing into a place where things are left long enough to rot and smell, best to admit that you have taken on too much. But if you are simply rolling from dried herbs, to canning, to meal preparation, to freezing and packing -- find a way to accept some of the chaos -- and to ensure that you are able to really clean your kitchen all the way at least daily or every other day.

If you have a better approach than I do on your homestead or urbanstead, drop me a line...

Make it a great week!

Song: Calling my name - by Sauce

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

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