Jamming! No Cook Freezer Jam

The lovely thing about Costco is their price on produce. Nowhere else here in Nevada can you beat the price of scrupulous heads of lettuce, large bunches of bananas, strawberries and more. Buying a huge lot and only using half still beats prices of other stores! Then for my small household what could I do with the leftovers to really get more for my money?

There are several options really; canning, dehydrating, flash freezing, OR my choice for today was making freezer jam! Now I have been accumulating things for canning all summer so I can put things away from my garden, but thus far the garden has seen better years.


What did I have in abundance today? Plums about half a box from Costco, and I had a package from Ball, No-Cook Freezer Jam Pectin, and 5 8 oz plastic freezer jars.

I cut up about 8 plums and put them in the food processor till they were a semi smooth texture, next I added the package and a cup and a half of sugar (i am sure Splenda would work too) and stirred it briskly for about two minutes, poured into the five jars screwed on the lids and Tada!
It really does not get easier than that.



Now I know if I have a lack of power I will have issues there but I plan on doing some serious canning when I have more fruit available but for now, this was just right.

Hold it... We CAN Save Cheese!

Today I practiced a lesson in cheese preservation. Like Kellene Bishop @ PreparenessPro I cannot live without cheese. So after some debating, I bought the Red Wax and Natural Brush and was ready to go for it!

I cant tell you how many times I just don't make it all the way through the cheese before it goes bad, and I hate wasting food so this was not just a practice in self sufficiency but also in frugality.

I read the blog from PreparenessPro about preserving cheese and I had to try it. Her instructions were impeccable and easy to follow. I however need to practice my dipping technique as you can see here.

So I purchased my products at a reasonable price from .cheesemaking.com and got my wax and brush promptly and was all set. Set a time that I could be uninterrupted and had let my cheese sit out till it was dry and about room temperature, I keep my home very cool naturally. Then I first brushed on my first coat (as you can see by the extremely chunky piece) on all my pieces then decided to do dip three times then brush one. There is quite a bit of wax on these babies, more than necessary I presume but for a first time try I don't believe I did to bad. However I think I will keep these first ones to myself.

The next chapter in cheese making is the Hard Cheese Kit from the same company and will soon be trying to make my my own cheese. After I have successfully completed that I will try it with the powdered milk from my food storage. Little steps... Little Steps. Lastly, I have several goats and hopefully soon a dairy goat as well and will try the Fresh Goat Milk cheese kit. I tried the Goats Milk from Trader Joes, and absolutely loved it! It was richer and creamier than whole milk, it was truly a treat!




If you have read about the upcoming Dairy situation, I thought it would be a good idea to get a jump start now, but then that is what we preppers do right?