by Tim MacWelch
SYRUPS Maple syrup, chocolate syrup, whatever syrup—it’ll turn anything into a dessert.
CANDY Bring out some of their favorite candies and watch kids of all ages light up.
WINE Everything tastes better in the wilderness, including a nice glass of your favorite vintage. Try boxed wine if you don’t want to lug bottles around.
LIQUOR Whether it’s medicinal or not, there are many uses for this nonspoiling liquid.
CANNED MEATS AND FISH Why not? You only live once, and cholesterol really doesn’t count in survival.
PEANUT BUTTER As stress levels rise, so do cravings for fatty food. Fortunately, this nutritious snack food contains heart-healthy fat.
178 WHIP UP SOME JERKY
With effective food-preservation techniques, carnivores can turn their success in the wild into a series of future feasts. Dried meat can last for a long time, and it doesn’t require any special equipment to create. Here’s an age-old technique for making jerky at home or in the wild.
SELECT Get some fresh, raw meat. Cooked meat will go bad in a few days and lead to food poisoning. I recommend using red meat or fish, but with this technique, you can use meat from any mammal, bird, fish, or larger reptile.
PREPARE Slice your pieces very thin and cut across the grain (perpendicular to the long bundles of muscle fibers that appear as lines in the meat). Trim off all visible fat, as it will turn rancid in the dried meat. While the meat is still juicy, sprinkle on a little salt, sugar, or spices such as pepper, ginger, cumin, or chili powder. These are optional, but a good idea, as salt creates a less hospitable environment for bacteria.
DRY Hang your jerky slices on an improvised rack (this can be twigs and branches around camp). You can dry your jerky near a small smoky fire to add smoke flavoring and keep flies away, but don’t dry it directly over the fire—it’ll cook and then go bad on you. The drying process may take several days, depending on the humidity; turn each piece a few times throughout. Don’t leave your jerky out overnight, and don’t ever leave it unattended (you need to avoid dampness as well as birds and other jerky-stealing critters). When it becomes slightly brittle, it’s done. Red meat jerky will turn a purple-brown color. White meat jerky will be a pinkish-gray.
STORE Store your jerky somewhere dry and safe from pests, and cook it before eating. You can toast it over the fire or pound it up with a rock and throw it in a soup or stew.
179 RENDER THE FAT
Fat is a little tricky to keep on hand, especially in a raw state, as it goes bad fairly quickly. Cooks of yore used rendering as a way to store fat at room temperature without it spoiling too quickly. Rendering involves cooking the fatty animal tissues for a long time at low temperatures and then filtering the fat for storage.
At home, a slow cooker will suffice, but in the backwoods, rendering over a fire can be a bit trickier. Having said that, it’s worth the trouble.
STEP 1 Cut your animal fat into 1-inch (2.5-cm) cubes, removing all visible meat, veins, and nonfatty tissue. Drop the cubes into a pot with water that’s about 4 inches (10 cm) deep.
STEP 2 Bring the fat and water mixture to a low simmer, trying to keep the temperature under 150°F (65°C). If the water starts to boil, the fat will probably burn. Keep the pieces simmering for three to five hours.
STEP 3 When it seems like most of the fat has liquefied, let it cool just a little and strain through cheesecloth. In the field, you’ll have to get creative to make a suitable filter—I’ve used T-shirt material. After pouring your grease through the filter cloth into another container, you can simmer a little longer (thirty minutes or so) and filter once more.
STEP 4 Pour your final filtered fat into small jars or cans and keep them in the coolest, darkest place available. Your fat should last several weeks in warmer weather, or several months in colder weather. Just make sure to eat it before it turns rancid. If it starts to smell bad, use it for something other than eating (it can still be a handy nonedible grease).
180 FREEZE IT RIGHT
If you have access to a freezer or you’re hanging out at the South Pole, letting the meat freeze can be the easiest preservation method. In cold climates, a shed can be just as cold as a freezer. To freeze, tightly wrap cut meat, and loosely wrap animal quarters or large pieces. Using wax paper or butcher’s paper works well, and a vacuum food sealer works even better. Thaw it when ready, and it’s like fresh meat again.
181 CAN YOUR MEAT
The ability to preserve and store your own food is a great skill set for the prepper, homesteader, and anyone else who wants to take charge of what they eat. Canning and storing meats at room temperature may be a little scary for beginners, but home canning is very similar to commercial-canning practices and, when properly done, is safe and the results are long lasting. Canning can save you money, and it can also help you build a pantry that will turn your self-sufficient friends green with envy.
GATHER THE GEAR You’ll need a pressure canner, jars, rings, lids, a jar-lifting tool, a jar funnel, some salt, and your meat. Small jars are the safest, as they reach higher temperatures in the canning process.
FILL THE JARS Use a jar-filling funnel to add your fresh meat or cooked leftovers to a clean canning jar. Add half a tablespoon (7–8 g) of salt to 2-cup (1/2-l) jars. Add a little less than a tablespoon (15 g) of salt to 1-quart (1-l) jars. Wipe any food from the jar rim after filling, as food particles can break the seal if stuck between the jar mouth and the lid. Pour water in the canner until it is over 2 inches (5 cm) deep, and lower the jars into the canner.
BOIL THE JARS Screw the lid on to the pressure canner and bring it to a boil with the weight off the steam vent. Once it begins boiling, cover the steam vent with the weight and adjust your heat to maintain the pressure at the cooker’s recommended poundage for meat processing: 10 pounds (4 kg) is a typical weight for meats. Process 2-cup (1/2-l) jars for up to an hour and a half.
COOL IT DOWN Lift the jars out of the hot water with canning jar tongs and set them on a towel on your countertop to cool down.
CHECK THE SEAL After the jars have been at room temperature for several hours, check the lids to make sure they have “sucked down” and formed a vacuum. You’ll typically hear each jar pop as it cools and seals. After sealing, the lids should be solid and unable to flex. If any of the jars don’t seal after cooling, use the contents that day and try to determine if the lid or the jar were bad. Check the jar mouth for nicks, cracks, or other damage. If damaged or malformed, the jar should be used for other purposes.
STORE YOUR FOOD Store your canned jars of food in a cool, dry, dark place and use within one year for best results.
182 SUPERPLANT: YARROW
PICK NATURE’S PANACEA
If I only had access to one medicinal plant, I’d want that plant to be yarrow. Over the centuries, yarrow has been used to prevent infections and break fevers, as a battlefield dressing for bleeding wounds, and to brew beer and make savory foods. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a European plant that was brought to North America by settlers. The fernlike leaves can be found year-round in the lower half of the United States, but the biggest leaves are usually found in summer. The plant blooms at the height of summer, with a stalk that is about 2 feet (60 cm) tall with a flat-topped cluster of white flowers—like a triangular cluster version of Queen Anne’s lace.
CHURN UP A BETTER BUTTER
Is there anything butter can’t improve? If there is, I don’t want to know about it. But what if you could make your butter better? My favorite food use of yarrow is to blend finely chopped fresh yarrow leaves into salted butter. The resulting herb spread is amazing on bread, vegetables, and even melted over a hot, juicy steak.
BREW YARROW BEER
According to some beer historians (yes, that’s a real job!), the use of yarrow predates the use of hops to brew beer. This isn’t surprising, since yarrow inhibits bacterial growth in wounds—and therefore also fights against spoilage. To craft a yarrow brew, you’ll need a 1-gallon (4-l) glass j
ug, a fermentation lock to fit, 1.5 pounds (0.7 kg) of dried amber malt extract, 2 tbsp. (10 g) dried hops, 1 ounce (30 g) fresh yarrow leaf, water, 1 package of ale yeast, table sugar for carbonating, a few screw-top bottles, and cheap vodka to sanitize your equipment.
STEP 1 In a stainless steel or enamel pot, boil 1 gallon (4 l) water with the malt extract and hops for exactly sixty minutes. (Watch that it doesn’t boil over.) During the final fifteen minutes of boiling, add the yarrow leaves to the wort (unfermented beer).
STEP 2 Cool and strain the wort into a clean glass jug. Let cool to room temperature.
STEP 3 Add the dried ale yeast to the brew and shake it up.
STEP 4 Add the sanitized lock and set the jug in a sink for a few days, as the malt and hops are usually very foamy. If fermentation (bubbling) doesn’t occur within a day, your yeast was dead, or your brew was too hot and killed it. Add more yeast to save the batch.
STEP 5 After a bubbly first week, clean the airlock and put it back on the jug quickly (you need to keep oxygen out). After another three weeks, the sediment should be thick at the bottom of the vessel, the bubbling should have stopped, and the ale should be starting to clear. It will be completely flat when it has finished fermenting.
STEP 6 Carefully pour the flat beer into a clean container, leaving the sediment in the original jug. Add 2.5 tbsp. (30 g) table sugar per 1 gallon (4 l) of beer and mix with a sanitized spoon. The remaining yeast in the beer will eat up the sugar and carbonate your ale. Prepare your funnel and sanitized bottles and caps for bottling. You’ll need about 8–10 soda bottles and caps per 1 gallon (4 l) ale. Keep the beer at room temperature for one week to fully carbonate, then chill the bottles and enjoy this delicious heritage beer.
LEARN THE BENEFITS
The genus name Achillea is derived from the Greek hero Achilles, who reportedly carried yarrow to treat his army’s battle wounds. This medicinal use is reflected in some of yarrow’s common names, such as staunchweed and soldier’s woundwort. These are just a few of its many uses.
STYPTIC Yarrow can stop bleeding quickly due to its astringent and vasoconstricting properties.
ANTIBACTERIAL The crushed leaves contain compounds that have an antibacterial action. This leaf material can be applied directly to wounds or soaked in water to make a tea that can be employed with a hot compress.
DIAPHORETIC A strong yarrow tea can increase perspiration, helping to break a fever.
ANESTHETIC Crushed fresh leaves can have a numbing action—though not for everybody. For some, it desensitizes the nerves and helps with toothaches, cold sores, and boils.
GET THE RIGHT PLANT
When crushed, the leaves and flowers of yarrow will have a pleasant, spicy smell. Most folks agree that it smells like rosemary, oregano, and other cooking herbs. The leaves should be hairy or fuzzy, especially on the stems. If the leaves are smooth-stemmed, don’t even touch them. If you’ve already crushed them to smell the plant’s odor and you smell something bad, wash your hands immediately. Fool’s parsley (Aethusa cynapium) and poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) leaves are poisonous or fatal if eaten, and their leaves can resemble yarrow when young—but will have a bad odor reminiscent of chemicals or cleaners.
183 GROW YOUR OWN INVESTMENT
With a measure of patience, a few good seeds, some rich soil, and a sunny location, you really can grow your own food pantry—and the best way to look at home gardening is as an investment. Sometimes the bugs or neighborhood deer will be the ones capitalizing on that investment—but when you’re lucky, you’ll have so many vegetables you’ll have to give them away.
The labors of gardening are richly rewarded—there’s something extremely satisfying about setting the table for your family with food that you grew yourself.
When starting out, the most important decision you will make isn’t which seeds to buy, but where to plant them.
You’ll need to consider the soil composition and the amount of light your garden will receive. Pick the best agricultural soil you have on your property (talk to someone at your county’s Agricultural Extension Office to consult their extensive soil maps). Once you know where the good dirt is located, select a section of your best soil that gets at least ten hours of direct, uninterrupted sunlight each day, and start your work.
Choose well and wisely, and soon your family table will be laden with grains, herbs, fruits, and vegetables of all shapes and sizes.
184 LAY IT ALL OUT
Found the perfect garden spot? Now you need to orient your beds or rows on a north-south axis, so that all the plants get an equal amount of sun. Plant the tall guys (like corn, pole beans, and tomatoes) at the north end of the beds or rows, so they don’t shade any of the shorter plants. If you’re using barrels, containers, or other vessels for your garden, you should still place the tall ones in the back. Avoid placing containers or crops too close to metal siding or similar reflective surfaces during the hottest times of the year, as the plants can literally cook in the hot sunshine.
185 SPREAD YOUR ROOTS
Vegetables need to grow in loose, rich soil, and without competition. You should remove the sod from any new garden spot and deeply dig and chop the soil with a shovel (or till it with a rototiller machine). Deeply, by the way, means at least 1 foot (30 cm)—but 2 feet (60 cm) is better. This is the hardest work in gardening, but the payoff is huge. Here’s why.
BENEFITS
Deep root growth pulls in more nutrients for your vegetables.
Plants grow larger root systems in loose soil, providing a better water supply to each plant and allowing healthy growth even during droughts.
Deeply worked soil grows larger populations of earthworms and other organisms that encourage plant growth.
Work now and kick back later: Working your soil to a 2-foot (60-cm) depth may allow you to skip a year of tilling.
186 BREW COMPOST TEA
Here’s a great way to make the most of your leafy leftovers and give your garden a nourishing drink. Obviously, this isn’t the kind of tea you drink, but it’s a nourishing infusion that can get your garden the minerals and nutrients it needs to flourish. Start by establishing a compost bucket in your kitchen, and throw all of your vegetable and fruit waste into it. As it gets stinky, move it to a compost pile outside.
STEP 1 Shovel some nicely decomposed compost into a burlap sack. The more “mature” your compost is, the better this will work, so turn your pile frequently to let everything rot nicely.
STEP 2 Gather up the sack and tie it off securely, then affix it to a nice sturdy stick or dowel.
STEP 3 Steep your “tea bag” in a bucket of water, stirring frequently, until the water is a rich brownish color. This means the nutrients from the compost have enriched the water.
STEP 4 Remove the bag and decant your tea into a watering can or spray bottle.
STEP 5 Use this tea when you water and watch your garden flourish!
187 DON’T FORGET TO WATER
Unless you get a solid, heavy rain every other day in your garden, you’ll need to water your plants. This can be done with collected rainwater (a great choice) or with a garden hose. Water deeply and thoroughly every other day. Make sure you water in the morning, if possible. Watering in the evening or at night can encourage fungal diseases, and watering in the heat of a sunny afternoon will cause the droplets of water to burn the plant leaves like tiny magnifying glasses.
188 HONOR THE AMENDMENTS
Well-decomposed compost is always welcome in the garden. The good stuff will be aged, very dark brown or black in color, and will have gone through a high-heat stage of decomposition to kill diseases and weed seeds. Add all you can to your garden, blending it with the soil or applying on the surface as a “top dressing.” You can also add sand to clay-filled soil, add clay to sandy soil, or add aged manure to any soil at all.
189 PLANT ACCORDINGLY
When it’s time to plant, you can sow seeds directly into the dirt, or you can plant seedlings that have been g
rowing in small containers. Either way, water the new plants deeply in order to settle the soil around them. Keep in mind that seedlings can suffer from transplant shock if planted in hot, dry soil; plant them in the evening to allow them to adjust to their new home overnight.
190 GROW HARDY HERBS
Some tough herbs can stay alive from season to season, through even the coldest winters. Plants that survive and bloom year after year (or continue to grow throughout) are known as perennials.
You can grow these woody-stemmed plants near your kitchen door in most climates, and when you’re tired of eating the same vegetables over and over, pop outside and grab some fresh herbs to transform a tired meal into something new.
Perennial plants also represent a great financial investment, as your plants will live for multiple years and growing seasons. So prepare your soil for a few long-term residents, and plant a few. Some popular perennials are sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and tarragon.
191 EAT ON THE CHEAP
It’s easy for new gardeners to spend a lot of money on gizmos and tools in their excitement to get started—but neophytes can grow vegetables with little more than a shovel, hoe, and seeds. To feed your family on just a few bills a day, grow staple crops that can become wholesome replacements for more expensive meals. For instance, grow a row of potatoes and plan two dinners a week around a potato-based main course. Plant a variety of beans, and cook them up as a soup entrée. Sow the seeds that will result in the makings of a great stir-fry. These little changes add up to big savings over time.
