10 Things a Prepper Does Come Harvest Time!

                                                                                               By Jeanette Vale

Summer is over.  The potato plants have turned brown and fallen over (this means the spuds are huge and waiting to be dug up).   The house is filled with fruit flies as buckets of produce make their way into every corner of the kitchen and dining room.

The fresh foods of summer and early fall cheers and clears the body.  It gives us a rest before those heavy holidays come lumbering in.

 Two

Gift it.  Under cover of darkness, pile-gift zucchini on a neighbors front porch. 

You know they don’t want it, but neither do you!   Hope that they never find out it's you, but know  they will forward the RING footage.  The pesky doorbell camera catches everything.  Crimes against humanity.  Zuchini.

Three

Dehydrate.   It is a fast job of slicing up fruits or veggies, throwing it on the trays and turning on the dehydrator.  Fall into your bed and sleep.  When you wake up the food is done.  Cram it into jars and suck the oxygen out.  

When a big earthquake hits you’ll chew on its contents and be glad you stored it. 

For example, dehydrated bananas are so good.  They are chewy and sweet.  When you are stressed out from a natural disaster, eating leathery food is therapeutic.  It expends the pent up anxiety you store in your jaw.  

The sugar content in the fruit is also comforting.  My friend helped at a local 5k race and she inherited all of the unused banana’s at the finish line. She dehydrated these and now has a good store of this therapeutic food, for free!

Four

Favorite Recipe.  Store what you love to eat.  Use the tomatoes, onions and bell peppers from your garden to make a good pasta sauce.  Adding hamburger and seasonings to the mix will ensure a meaty meal that is easy to grab.  

Not having to cook anything (or even add water) is a brain-saver if you are overwhelmed during a disaster.  If you can items that are stand-alones, like stewed tomatoes, it’s hard to know what to do with that in a crisis.  Or worse, canning stuff you don’t even like.  Those jars just gather dust.  

Store what you love.  Eat what you store.   When your children have what is familiar to them, they will eat it.  During a disaster, if they are suddenly eating something new–even if it is delicious– they may reject it and then you have a gaggle of hangry babes on your hands.

Five

Grate and freeze.   Grate and freeze one cup measurements of zucchini.  This makes it easy to bake zucchini bread.  Who has an event coming up?  You’ve got a gift.  A fresh baked sweet loaf.  Everyone is touched when they receive a homemade gift.

Six

Chip it.  Making kale, zucchini and potatoes into crunchy chips is fun.  If you have ever lost the ability to eat crunchy foods (like after a dental procedure) you crave crunch.  

There are textures we love.  Dehydrating zucchini or kale into a crunchy chip is simple .  

There is no grease needed.  Now, for the potatoes you can add a little oil and microwave it into real chips! 

 Being able to eat crunchy foods during a disaster is satisfying.  I put these into jars and suck the oxygen out.  

There is a product called FOOD SAVER.  They provide the equipment to suck oxygen away from your food.  It is sold in your local Walmart.

Seven

Roast it.  Slice up garden veggies and potatoes,  toss these in oil,  sprinkle seasoning and roast it.  Roasted veggies are savory, warm and comforting.

Eight

Vinegar it..  Rice vinegar sweetened with sugar is a lovely mix to throw thin slices of cucumber and carrots into.  Placing these on sandwiches takes things to a whole new level.  

You will find you can’t eat enough of these and it will put your garden veggies in your tummy and not molding in the produce bin.  

Nine

Garden Party.   Speaking of cucumber sandwiches,  I found a lovely video on cucumber sandwiches and tea service.  Sometimes I need a break from all this doom and gloom prepping.  Have a cucumber sandwich and tea party.  Don some white gloves and a flowery hat. Invite your friends and talk of anything but prepping.  The men-folk can join too.  If it's too hot for tea,  enjoy the video below of lemon balm and peppermint.  It makes a cool  summer beverage I love to drink.

Ten

PACK IT.  You are a prepper.  Cram dehydrated foods into your bug-out-bag.  Have dried banana’s, apples, peach, plum and strawberry fruit leathers,  zucchini chips and beef jerky in every nook and cranny.  These chewy foods are great in times of stress.

The bounty from our gardens will bless us in future days.   ‘Putting up’ the harvest marks a wonderful time of the year.  

When I eat from a jar of peach jam, I remember who I was with when we canned it.  This memory is packed into the jars and makes the food that much more delicious.  You can’t get that from a store.

This year (2022) our garden didn’t do so well.  We had untimely freezes.  We had to keep buying new plants each time the cold hit.  My trusty garden partner was out sick most of the year and so the garden suffered.  However, we are still covered in produce and swatting at fruit flies!

Here’s that recipe of my favorite raw vegan apple cobbler from Raw Vegan Chef Judita Wignall!  Enjoy! 

1 apple chopped 

1 half lemon squeezed over the apple

Apple pie spice, sprinkled on apple

Cashew Cream (blend until creamy)

1 cup of Cashews 

1/4 cup of water

1/4 cup of raw maple syrup

Use 1/4 cup of the cashew cream drizzled.

Granola Mix

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup dates

1/4 cup Palm sugar

1/2 cup oats

 And another video on The Summer Lemon Balm Drink

 Come visit us.  We love being prepared and helping you do the same. www.emergencyzone.com