Next up… beef broth. I’ve got it made, just need to defat it, condense it and then dehydrate it.

My friend and I eat the WAPF way and most recipes for food storage include commercial bouillon which is loaded with fillers and chemicals. So we started with the premise of pocket soup (which is what was done years ago where the broth was boiled down and cooled to gelatin and then wrapped and put in a pocket so when they were traveling and got to their destination they could have instant soup by adding hot water.)

So basically we boiled the bone broth down to a smaller amount and then spread on parchment paper and put in the dehydrator. Then dry until crisp.

As best we can figure we have to defat the broth before dehydrating for long term storage so that the fat doesn’t turn rancid.

Hope that helps.

When hurricane season passes and we have all this stuff still lying around I try to work through the canned items as best as we can throughout the fall and whatever’s not used (usually a lot. I just don’t care for canned vegetables.) goes to a holiday food drive. And in that context, I don’t feel that’s being stingy, as the stuff is less than a year old, it’s not like it’s been sitting in the back of a closet for years.

Being that when we’re talking disaster preparedness we’re preparing for a very specific type of disaster, there are other things on our list as well, like plywood and gasoline, cash and battery operated fans… and propane for the gas grill. Definitely. Also toilet paper. Obviously.

We don’t have a generator but my Father In Law has one and we’ve strongly considered it. In ’04 parts of the area lost power for TWO WEEKS. IN JULY. IN FLORIDA.

Honestly if that happens I’m not going to care what I’m eating by day 3, I’ll be so hot and cranky.

I’m hoping to take some baby steps into canning this fall, but for now the green beans we don’t get to eat fresh that the garden is yielding are going straight into the freezer, and freezer stuff would obviously be used first in an emergency.