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Adapting in Place
We’ve been living a new lifestyle for six months, so much so that the new lifestyle seems natural. We automatically buy foods on sale, we buy in bulk, we compost, we recycle, we garden, we preserve by canning foods, we learned to make butter, yogurt, candles, soap; we learned to dehydrate foods, how to store foods properly, how to prepare for hard times. And perfect timing, too, to finish storing foods just as the financial crisis hit. There are so many great blogs and sites with guidance for a new lifestyle. Rather than repeat what they are saying, I’m going to give you links to check out.
Sharon Astyk, a writer, started the group course that got us started: http://sharonastyk.com/
Check out this great blog for canning butter!
http://greenappleorchard.blogspot.com/2008/09/bottled-butter.html
Gas shortages and prices. Hurricane Ike brought with its destruction a deficit gas supply in Tennessee and parts of Georgia. Not since the 1970s have I seen regular gas lines and “out of gas” signs. We’ve saved a lot of gas with the new vehicle—better gas mileage and careful driving. Guess I’ll have to learn to Drive 55 again. Gas here in Columbia is 3.89/gal.
I made six pillar candles in different colors. I plan to use the beeswax I purchased to make the next batch. I’m also making glycerine soaps. Great printable instructions here: http://www.cajuncandles.com/containerguideprint.html
For an excellent source on storing foods: http://lds.about.com/od/preparednessfoodstorage/a/foodstoragewhat.htm
From West Wind Farms:
It's said that history repeats itself. Nearly a century after heat pasteurization of milk began, pasteurization by irradiation began for meat. Several years ago, the food safety division of USDA approved the euphemistic "cold pasteurization" of uncooked meat and poultry "to reduce levels of food-borne pathogens, as well as extending shelf-life". Sound familiar?
Attempting to stem the tide of consumer reaction to food-borne illness from contaminated meat and poultry, the meat industry has found in cold pasteurization by radiation a way to continue pushing tons of meat through their systems each hour without changing the procedures that actually cause the contamination. Irradiation provides a perk for the industry too - meat that would normally have to be moved to the quick-sale cooler compartment now stays unnaturally fresh for weeks, just like ultra-pasteurized milk!
Consumers have been concerned about irradiation of meat and have not accepted it. Currently irradiated meat must be labeled with the "radura" symbol so consumers have the information necessary to make their choice at the supermarket. However, on September 18, the American Meat Institute, an industry group representing meat packers and processors, petitioned USDA for approval to irradiate beef carcasses as a "processing aid". Because processing aids are not required to be labeled on products, no label would be required for meat from irradiated beef carcasses.
As usual, big industry lobbies for the regulations that put band-aids on their problems. Once implemented, those regulations apply to all members of the industry, including small meat processors who generally produce safe meat products. It is likely that mandatory irradiation is only a few years away, and clean meat from small, family-owned meat processors will have to be irradiated just as contaminated meat from large mega-packers will. Without any doubt, this will put small butcher houses out of business. Irradiation is not an affordable option. And worst of all, it's not needed.
Consumer outrage at the incidence of contaminated foods from the industry is justified. However, we, as consumers, can unintentionally fuel the passage of irresponsible and unnecessary regulation when we are not specific about the type of solution we want. Do we want the meat industry to continue practices that contaminate meat and then allow them to kill all the bacteria (both healthful and pathogenic bacteria) before it hits our table, or, do we want clean, healthy meat that is not contaminated to start with? Do we want meat irradiation to apply industry-wide, or just to those businesses that have indicated through testing that they have a problem? Should they be allowed to use it indefinitely or only temporarily until they can fix the source of their problem? Do we want a sterile food system, devoid of all the healthful bacteria that we need to thrive?
