In conversation with Steph

Today's conversation is with a lovely lady named Steph. I am often in awe of her creative talents and I love the example she sets for her daughter.

1. Please tell us about yourself
 
So I’m Steph, I’m 31, a single mum from Essex and I have Lupus Nephritis and SLE. I have a 7 year old daughter and work as an Office Manager for a Credit Union. In my spare (hah) time I enjoy making all sorts of items to sell to help top up the bills!


2. What inspires you to live more sustainably?

 I try to live as sustainably and mindfully as possible - if I have to buy new I try to ensure it’s ethically sourced, recyclable or organic where applicable. I grow a lot of my own produce, shop for clothes in charity shops and make a lot of reusable/washable items instead of using disposables.

(I have to add here, that Steph is the wonderful lady who made my first reuseable cloth pads, and her beautiful work totally got me hooked, and I've since bought more from her and made lots for myself too!)

 3. What's made the biggest difference? 

 Having my garden has changed my life massively. I spend a lot of time out there now and I get a real sense of achievement eating what we grow. I thought I would’ve got bored with it by now, but each year we add new varieties to what we grow and each year I’m surprised by what we can produce in our little garden!
 
 4. What would you advise people to start with? - like if someone is starting to change things from scratch, where to start? 

 I would encourage any and everyone to start small and make little changes where and when you can. Live within your means and don’t feel guilty about the changes you can’t afford to make just yet! Organic is expensive, so grow what you can. Clothes are expensive, so grab a bargain at a charity shop! Reusable is surprisingly not that gross and can make a huge change to your life and pocket (once the initial investment is made).
 
 5. How do you balance saving the world and being a busy mum?



I sometimes worry about how this affects my daughter but luckily she’s in a phase where she seems to love it.
She loves shopping for a bargain and getting mucky in the garden. She helps me batch cook, works flipping hard in the garden and helps me literally bake our bread.
So I guess whilst doing what I do essentially creates more work and takes more time, it actually gives me way more quality time with my girl whilst doing our bit for the planet too

In conversation with Kathi part two

 Continuing my conversation with Kathi about food storage.

Can you show us some of your stored foods?

These photos are a part of our bulk food storage and canned goods.  I keep a pantry upstairs that is smaller with food so I don’t have to run up and down stairs while I’m cooking.  We also have a couple of freezers full down there and more shelves filled.  We eat what we store, so it’s a continuous process, hence the mess. This is in the basement, to keep the food in optimum conditions, it’s the coolest and darkest place in our house to store it.

 










To have my pantry filled, I also needed to tackle the issue of dried goods.  I could purchase in bulk, but how to preserve the food so it didn’t go bad?   More research needed.  I discovered that oxygen is the major culprit in food degradation.  A solution I found was to buy Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers to repackage the food for longer storage.  We only purchase what we use and my list isn’t for everyone because it’s what we use and others may not.  I keep flour, sugar, oats, jasmine rice, and dried beans in Mylar packaging and have found it all keeps well for when we use it.  We purchase those items in bulk about twice a year.  The beans are used for canning as we run low.  Buying in bulk costs far less than smaller packaging and I rarely need to run to the store when baking because we’re out of an ingredient as I make sure to have all the necessities on hand.
  

 How does doing all this help your family?
I think what I’ve found through out this are the benefits that I didn’t anticipate.  First would be the amazing amount of money we save.  We are purchasing the bulk of our food in season when the costs are lowest for the year and don’t get hit as much with inflation.  If an unexpected bill hits us, not a problem because we don’t have to purchase food  if we need the money for something else.  Having a full pantry also means we only shop at grocery stores for sales so it’s rare to need to pay full price for much.  Another big benefit for me is peace of mind.  One time my little grandson was watching a news clip of grocery stores with empty shelves as a hurricane approached near where one of my sons and family live.  His eyes got huge watching, it had never occurred to him until that moment that stores could be empty.  He said, Grandma, if anything bad happens here I’m coming to your house.  It was wonderful to reassure him that he didn’t have to worry.  

In my granddaughters first year of college she was required to purchase a meal plan, huge numbers of dollars for food she didn’t even like!  She asked me to teach her to can her own food to take for the following year as she would have her own apartment.  She did a wonderful job of it and we told her to take whatever she needed from our pantry to be able to cook her own meals.  We visited her over the weekend and took her grocery shopping in case she needed anything.  I asked her if she wanted a loaf of bread and she told me no, she preferred to make her own.  This journey has provided a means for me to teach self sufficiency to my grandchildren with skills they can carry throughout their lives.

Oh, I thought of some other benefits that I should have added.  With canning, I’m able to put a full meal with main and side dishes on the table in five minutes.  Just dump and heat, real fast food.  Far less waste  of food to throw away because I use the size of jars to can for what we will actually eat.  Far less trash to put in a landfill because the jars are reusable and not thrown away.  I also know what is in our food as it’s real food, chemical free from farmers that care about food safety since that is what they feed their families too.  Another benefit that is very important to me is I don’t have to worry about checking my cabinets for food that has been recalled.  I know who grew my food and how I processed it.

Have you got a song that's an anthem for your life, or this season?A song for my life?  That is a tough one!  I’ll have to go with My God is an awesome God.  He is, has always been and will always be.  Our life on planet earth is getting so much more difficult in today’s world and I can’t imagine not having God’s love and guidance to navigate through it.

Thank you so much Kathi for sharing all of this information about food storage and canning with us

In conversation with Kathi part one

So I chatted with my friend Kathi about food storage and canning. I've never had the pleasure to actually meet Kathi in real life, but I know that I'll get to see her one day in heaven!
We had a long conversation, so I will share in two parts


Please tell us about yourself..
Hello all! Kathi here, from Colorado in the USA. I'm a wife, mother and grandmother to a precious lot. We were a military family and frugality was our way of life as military pay was pretty low. I only wish I would have known then what I do now because our money would have stretched so much further than it did!

I know you’re a bit of a whizz in the kitchen, with regards to saving money and storage. How did you first learn all your skills?
Learning skills is a process. I've always been a person to want to try new things and had many years to dabble with different methods of food preservation, they were hobbies that I had fun with. At some point in the last ten years I read an article online that was an eye opener to me. I realized that if we had an emergency situation we were woefully not prepared. I actually wasn't able to sleep that night because the thoughts of what to do were tumbling through my head. The next morning I told my husband about it and what I was thinking. To my surprise, he told me he had been thinking along the same lines recently and that we should work on it. Hearing that from my retired green beret husband was enough for me to start the journey with purpose.

 I started researching to find out how people set up their food pantries for emergencies. I was overwhelmed with info and almost wanted to just give up on the idea because we don’t like commercially processed foods and definitely didn’t want a pantry full of food we wouldn’t eat. I talked with my mother and father in law to find out what their families did in the depression to preserve food. Their primary means of food storage was dehydration and canning. I had the equipment for both from my hobbies and decided to go with it.Prior to that, I had made pickles and applesauce with canning

 I’ve made jam before, but I’ve never done any canning because it scares me a little! Can you tell me a bit more about that?
 Debs, you mentioned in your question that canning is a bit scary to you, honey I can relate! It was for me so I made sure to continue learning with the safest methods possible. It is more difficult to can in other parts of the world mainly because the expense of the jars and lack of pressure canners makes it a bit harder. But, I’ve been in touch with people worldwide that safely and successfully can their food using what is available. Here we are blessed with many local farms that sell their produce at a cost much lower than grocery stores. We also grow a small garden and primarily plant what we have found is the most expensive to purchase in our area like tomatoes and green beans. My family helps out whether it means helping me lift the enormous bags and boxes of food from the farms or with food prep prior to canning it. What do I can? Every thing we like prepared that way, it really is a personal preference. We have meats, veggies, soups, stews, fruits, jams, different cuts of potatoes for the different ways we eat them. If there are foods we don’t care for canned we freeze or dehydrate. Corn or zucchini goes in the freezer, onion dehydrated. 

 Oh, I thought of some other benefits that I should have added.  With canning, I’m able to put a full meal with main and side dishes on the table in five minutes.  Just dump and heat, real fast food.  Far less waste  of food to throw away because I use the size of jars to can for what we will actually eat.  Far less trash to put in a landfill because the jars are reusable and not thrown away.  I also know what is in our food as it’s real food, chemical free from farmers that care about food safety since that is what they feed their families too.  Another benefit that is very important to me is I don’t have to worry about checking my cabinets for food that has been recalled.  I know who grew my food and how I processed it.


This is really interesting. Can you give me examples of what you've got canned that you can use to make a quick meal? And how you go about heating it up and putting it together?
If we want a nice roast beef dinner, we put a jar each of roast, potatoes, carrots in the microwave in a bowl, microwave for five minutes and have some of the most tender roast available from any cut of beef I've used.  If I want to make gravy to go with it, I can use the broth from the roast to make that up on the stove while the rest is in the microwave.

A five minute meal with pork is breakfast burritos adding a jar of pork, a jar of potatoes, fried in a skillet with eggs added.  The tortillas are heated in the microwave while the mixture is heated, add a jar of green chile that I have canned up to a pot to heat on the stove and thicken and we have delicious smothered burritos. Another variation on that is to use a jar beans to make refried and use those instead of potatoes and eggs in the burritos, add some shredded cheddar and we're set. 

We also love to use canned chicken in a variety of Mexican foods like tacos, tacquitos, enchilada casserole.  It's a huge time saver because I don't have to cook and bone the chicken, it's ready.  A couple of other favorites are beef stroganoff which I have canned ready in a jar to put in a pot, thicken and add sour cream which I keep in powdered form in our bulk supplies while some noodles are boiling or the same with chicken alfredo.

We love breakfast foods for dinner and enjoy a jar of corned beef hash that has been canned to fry in ghee that I also have canned with eggs and toast.  On a cool day we love a homemade pot pie and have a mix canned up for chicken or beef pot pies.  I make a pie crust, thicken the mix dump it in, top it with another crust and bake for a hearty meal. We have a variety of soups and stews canned that we empty in a pot and heat on the stove adding anything at that time that wasn't canned. These are just a few of the ways we use our home canned foods.

The fun part of canning is going through your normal meal plan, decide what can be adapted for canning and make it up to use.  In canning, I make multiple meals at one time and have the luxury of time saved later.   It's completely personal preference as to what to can and how to use it. Also, many spices intensify in flavor when canning.  Unless it's for a specific dish like roast, stroganoff, I tend to add the spices when we are heating the food instead of when canning.  It makes the ingredients more versatile to use later.  I don't waste bones and save them to make broth which is canned for when I need it to make a lot of soups, etc.

Oh and spaghetti meat sauce !  I have two versions canned from scratch. Two types because our grandkids like a tamed down sauce compared to our tastes.  Can be heated and served in the the time it takes to make the pasta and garlic bread.

Debs in conversation with Anna

In the start of a new series, I thought it would be great to hear from some other people about topics vaguely sustainable-ish. In this new social media age, I asked a few of my friends (read targeted and begged!) if they'd be willing to answer a few questions. First up (because she sent her answers back first!) is Anna, and I was really interested from what I've seen on facebook about her forays into having an allotment.

1)Tell me a bit about yourself

Hi, I’m Anna, mum of 2 cheeky children, 2 guinea pigs and 2 stick insects. I’m a full time parent and carer to my son who has autism.


2) How did you first get into growing things, and what made you take the leap into getting an allotment?

To be honest, I’ve never been able to grow anything! I remember having cactuses as a child and even they didn’t survive. I never considered myself green fingered!
I went through a few life changes a couple of years ago, and as a result, I realised the need to take better care of my mental health. I was given a book called ‘pips to plants’ and decided to try and grow an avocado from one of the ones I had bought from Tesco. To my total surprise, and after weeks of waiting and changing the water, it actually grew! It showed me that plants just need a little time, nurture and love; a bit like people!
I wanted to spend more time outdoors, so I looked into local allotments and found out there was one 3 minutes walk from my house. I signed up and decided I would do it for a year and see how it went. I also thought it would be a lovely thing to get the kids involved in. At the time, I had very little expectation as to how ‘successful’ it would be.

3) What successes and/or failures have you had?
 
Do you mean in life? Or at my allotment? In life I think my greatest success is making a little home for my family. I don’t always get it right, but I show up every day and give it my best shot.
My best success with my allotment has to be setting it all up. That was the hardest part. Once it was ready to grow, my success has definitely been runner beans. They’re pretty easy to look after, and need plenty of watering. There’s nothing quite like coming back every couple of days and having a whole new array of beans to pick. My 7 plants produced so many beans that I ended up giving loads away and I still have 2 bags sitting in the freezer.
I’ve been pretty lucky that I haven’t had too many failures beyond leaving the broccoli too long until it sprouted out everywhere and I couldn’t eat it. One funny fail that I had, was after attempting to grow the broccoli again, I noticed that it was growing balls on the stalk! I then realised that I was actually growing Brussels sprouts! I must label my seeds better. They tasted good at Christmas though.

4) How does growing your own food made you and your family thinks differently about other things?

Growing my own veg has given me an appreciation for the process, time, care and attention it takes to make something from scratch. It’s made me think about how mass production uses chemicals to speed up growth and keep the bugs away, so I make an effort to grow organically. I use things like sustainable washing up liquid mixed with water to spray the leaves and keep the aphids away. I also use egg shells as a deterrent for slugs and snails. I try to keep all chemicals out of my patch.
It’s also made me think about the distance that some food has to travel to get to the supermarkets from other countries.

5) What advice would you give to someone who wants to start growing stuff, but had no idea where to start?
 
Advice I would give to anyone starting out, is to start small and just have a go. Tomatoes and cucumbers are really easy and you can buy a grow bag and start in the garden. Potatoes are really easy too. I was overwhelmed at first with the idea of filling a plot, but I decided to just use half of it. Once I got started, I kept adding more and more, and by 6 months it was full!

6) How do you balance everything/make time to get out and grow stuff?  How do you manage 'mummy guilt' or the desire to get everything done perfectly?

I’m lucky that because I’m a full time parent and carer, I have hours in the day when the kids are at school. I can go up to my plot and do half an hour of weeding and water everything without it taking up the whole day. At the weekends, I take the kids with me. They love watering, there’s lots of space to run around and a nice tree close by that they like to climb. The most exciting time for them (and for me) is picking the produce.
I don’t worry too much about getting it perfect. I see it as an experiment. If it works it works, if it doesn’t, I’ll learn from it. That goes for parenting as well. We can only do our best.

7) What song is the anthem for your life, or the season you're in now?

I don’t have a song/anthem as such, but I do like the quote:

“Like a lotus flower, we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness, and radiate into the world.”


Thanks so much Anna for being a part of my blog experiment. I think we need to try growing some tomatoes or something in our patio pots again this year - I'm definitely feeling inspired to have ago.
Below are some photos from Anna's allotment - stolen from facebook with permission!