After You've Grown Your Own....

Freshly picked and washed . Ready for processing...

In an earlier post entitled "Growing Your Own", I wrote about the importance of providing some food security for your family in times of increasing economic turmoil and uncertainty.  Since then, things have continued to take a turn for the worse with a record number of Americans now enrolled in  government food stamp programs (aka SNAPS).  Would you want to dependent on any benefit being maintained by our bankrupt federal government?  No thanks.  Alternatively, you can begin to help yourself by grabbing a shovel, digging up that useless lawn, and planting a survival garden for your family.  Sure, it will take some practice to develop a green thumb of sorts but like with anything else perseverance should eventually yield to some sort of harvest-bountiful or not.  If it turns out to be the former, then you will need to get some practice in the various ways of preserving your abundant output.

Here on our modest homestead, we are getting some good yield this year on our cucumbers- most of which are the bush variety which are ideal for pickling.  For shorter term use, we process some of these as "refrigerator" pickles.  Not a difficult process and we seem to like the taste of these more than the ones we "can" for longer term storage in our food pantry.  Of course there are always new recipes to be tried. Bon Appetit!

...into a  new batch of  refrigerator pickles!

Pohatcong Hoagie Face-Off

The Contenders:   On the left: Warren Glen Market   On the Right: Quick Chek

While we all try to maintain the pretense of eating only healthy foodstuffs there are of course the inevitable forays into less healthier realms to satisfy our primordial urge to consume copious quantities of the type of things that cause nutritionists to beat their chests and wail in despair. While the classic Italian hoagie may not qualify with the worst of offenders in our fast food universe, it will nevertheless give you a major wallop of your daily need for fat, sodium and calories all in one sitting.  With that out of the way, let's consider two places in town where that need can be met.  Our two local contenders, as shown above, come to us via the Warren Glen Market (a mom and pop operation) and QuickChek (yeah corporate America).  Here's the tale of the tape:

Warren Glen Market:  Price: 6.25    Weight: 1.05 lbs.   Cost per ounce: .37 oz.   Features:  Uses Thumann's Deli meat and cheese.  Bakery Quality Bread.

QuickChek: Price: 2.99  Weight: .64 lbs.   Cost per ounce: .29 oz.    Features:  Can substitute whole-wheat or Parmesan bread instead.  Custom condiments available. Generic type deli meat/cheese.

The Verdict: Warren Glen Market. I mean c'mon seriously, how can you have a good-tasting sub/hoagie without investing something  in quality meats and bread?  These are the basic building blocks of any good sub and your taste buds will certainly know the difference.  Study the picture above.  Need I say more?  Okay, if you have only three bits to your name - go to QuikChek.  If you want to do your appetite some justice-then it's Warren Glen Market.

Reader Bonus: Italian Hoagie connoisseur Smokey Joe weighs in: 


"I have sampled both hoagies and have determined that I do like both subs, but I like Warren Glen Markets because it tastes better and it uses quality meats, cheeses and bread.Although I would rather have both of these subs at anytime rather than the barely edible Italian subs at Pohatcong school"

After the Storm-How Prepared Were You?

Storm damage on Warren Glen Road

In the aftermath of yesterday's late afternoon  storm which unleashed a torrent of rain, sudden high winds, and even hail upon shocked residents the damage was evident everywhere you looked in Pohatcong and surrounding townships.  From flattened cornfields to a panoply of twisted tree limbs, trunks and downed power lines there was an eerie end of the days feeling if you took a drive around last night.  Many neighborhoods were without power for varying amounts of time and what struck me was how few households were providing their own back-up power mainly via generators. I only saw one in fact excluding our own.  Mostly a lot of candles and flashlights.  So the question to ask is how prepared is your family  for these kinds of emergencies?  Without back-up power it would only be hours before you are without water ( assuming you have a well and well pump) and the food in your refrigerator would suffer a full scale bacterial assault.  And this is only for starters as a full host of other knock-on effects would soon be upon you and yours.

The key word to keep in mind when calculating your preparedness (or lack thereof ) is FEW-Food, Energy and Water. How are your FEW resources? Are you stocked up or can you provide your own survival for 1 day, 3 days, 3 weeks, 3months or a year or more?  Interesting questions to ask in times when weather may become more unpredictable and when due to deteriorating infrastructure, the electrical grid may not be the reliable presence it once was.