Politics of Putting By

My husband and I have recently gotten into canning our own food. It started last year at the end of the summer… when we had two gallons of leftover green tomatoes from the garden at the end of the year. I figured we could make a batch of green tomato pickles… and that would be that. So $18 for a granny ware water bath canner… and another $12 for a box of Ball jars later… and we canned pickles.

Delicious pickles. Really they’re the perfect thing for a ham sandwich.

Then for Christmas… I thought I’d be cute and I bought the hubby a sauerkraut fermentation pot. It’s got a water seal lip… and you pretty much put cabbage and salt and water in… and pull kraut out in three weeks.
Delicious sauerkraut. Really… once you’ve made homemade the store bought stuff just tastes vile. And that’s when we started developing a collection of Mason jars. We’d give away some kraut… buy more jars. Got to be where people were trading us empty jars for kraut.

And then after the holidays… my Mom moved over to the Mayslake Senior Living Apartments… and she gave Tim her pressure canner. I think I remember my mom using the pressure canner exactly once when I was growing up… so it was still in its box with all the packing.

So here we were… with all the supplies to really “put food by” but we live in a condo. It’s not like I can farm my living room? And then we started experimenting. First with mint jelly. Our mint plant at the community garden went crazy… and I had GOBS of mint. So we made mint jelly. It was good… I refused to put the green food coloring in that the recipe called for… and it made the jelly a lovely golden color.

Then the farmer’s market rolled around… and we bought a couple of half bushels of slightly bruised tomatoes. We canned tomato-basil sauce. (One of the acid recipes from the Ball Book where you add lemon juice to make sure it’s acid enough for water bath canning.) Again… really delicious… and besides the outlay for jars… pretty cheap.

Then we decided to take a day one weekend in October and go apple picking. And we found a place that had U-pick vegetables. So we brought home a bushel of tomatoes… and a bushel of mixed carrots… several pie pumpkins, squashes… and a bunch of eggplant.

And then the canning began in earnest. Pepper rings, smoky chili BBQ sauce, pumpkin-pineapple compote, more tomato sauce. Jalapeno jelly, and we roasted some of the eggplant for freezing… and froze some of the pumpkin… and some roasted chilis. And applesauce. We’d scored a bushel of “applesauce apples” when we went apple picking… and I don’t know how many quarts of applesauce we put up… but it was a freakload of applesauce. At least three canners full. Two batches plain, one batch spiced.

So here Thanksgiving rolls around… and I start thinking to myself… “Self. Now is the only season when pineapple, sweet potatoes… and cranberries are at a reasonable price. I love pineapple. I’m pretty fond of sweet potatoes… and rather UN-fond of commercially canned sweet potatoes because they’re usually swimming in weird brown syrup. And I love cranberry sauce.

So one trip to Aldis…and I come home with five bags of sweet potatoes… five pineapples… and six bags of cranberries.

I started looking around on the Internet for more canning ideas… and that’s where I started coming across this phenomena called “prepping.” It seems like a philosophy somewhere between the Mormon mandate to put food by in case God decides to raid your pantry… and preparing for the zombie apocalypse. Hoard food, guns, water… personal supplies… and if the virus that could destroy humanity hits the fan… or the commies finally attack…you have the ability to fend off your hungry neighbors with a shotgun.

At first glance… there’s something that seems very sane about emergency preparedness. I could probably eat for several months out of the contents of my pantry. Mind you… it wouldn’t be a stunning variety in meals… rice and beans… rice and chili… pasta and sauce… pasta and beans….

But I could do it. And not because I believe in zombies… but because I believe in THRIFT. Pick up an extra when something goes on sale. Buy in bulk. And now our home craze of canning sale produce so we can enjoy it all year long. Sure…I’m going to end up with flats of sweet potatoes under my bed… but what the hell? They were cheap!

But… I think about all of those fearful people out there… hoarding food and water and ammo in a back closet so they can protect their family in case of economic collapse… and then I listen to the pleas of our local food pantries who have had to stop giving out bags because they’ve run out of food… and think to myself… WTF. Take care of my family… sure. But what about everyone else?

I realize no food pantry in their right mind would accept home canned goods. I don’t feel weird about stocking up on canned pineapple… because Jeez… you stand in the kitchen for several hours minding a boiling canner and that pineapple is not only cheap… it’s the literal “fruit” of my labor. I put the filled cans back in the case… slip them downstairs onto a basement shelf… and know I’ve done something to save my planet by processing my own food… in season. (Even if it was supermarket food.) But the idea of stocking up on six months of living supplies in case I miss the rapture?

It’s like planning for the scenario where the government breaks down… and Mel Gibson is leading us in a wild-haired chase across the new American wasteland for guns, food, and fuel… until Tina Turner ushers us into the Thunderdome. If that ever happens… if our society ever breaks down to the point where I need to carry a gun to keep from getting raped in the street… or Tina ever does turn away from soul to soldier…

Pinto beans would be the last think I‘d be thinking about.

Prolonging a life that would become ever more nasty and brutish in the hopes that somehow… order would prevail after the collapse of my civilization? Whaaa? I mean... my heart bleeds for the people of Somalia... I have serious respect for their plight... because I wouldn't last 50 seconds over there.

Growing up...in the event of a nuclear holocaust…I actually felt pretty good about living in Chicago. We have Great Lakes Naval Base. We’d be front and center if the Ruskies decided to bomb us into oblivion. A flash of light… and then my retinas would vaporize before the fact I was about to die would even register in my brain. I’d never have to see the aftermath. I spent most of my childhood living in the cold war era… with that thought as a COMFORT. Comfort. If the worst happened… I wouldn’t survive to watch my hair fall off... and my friends and family mutate.

So as I watch these prepper videos… trying to learn a better way to chop sweet potatoes for canning… listening to the underlying message of ”Those godless ACLU loving crazies are going to try to take away my guns, freedom, fresh water… and canned pumpkin… and when our financial system collapses after the Socialists take over...” inwardly I cringe a little. Has the zombie apocalypse already started… and it’s happening on youtube? Sustainable I care about… we've lost touch with our food. Most of us... myself included... have lost touch with our waistlines. Anything I can do to make eating more REAL and less FAST is a good thing.

But survivable? Am I worried that the end is near... and someday Swiss Miss Cocoa mix will be a commodity item? Not so much.

http://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/

Samuel Insull...the most famous Chicagoan you've never heard of...

I'm trying to work up a White Paper on the Smart Grid... and am in that stage of writing where I'm desparately trying to educate myself on the subject and feeling like a big, stupid, dopey, graduate of a sub-standard liberal arts program.

Oh...wait...

But I've become enthralled with Samuel Insull. Here's the skinny...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Insull

Now I'm going to assume that you've just clicked off my blog and read that entire wikipedia article. M'kay?

Wow. Talk about rags to riches to rags! This is the man who created the modern electric grid. Who created the BUSINESS of selling electricity. And want a quote:

"For my own part, I cannot see how we can expect to obtain from the communites in which we operate, or from the state having control over those communities, certain privlages so far as a monopoly is concerned, and at the same time contend against regulation."

Right there...black and white... the FATHER of the modern power grid pretty much spells out that electrical infrastructure... with declining costs for production, high capital expenses, and intensive scrutiny by government and politicians... would NEED regulation.

And what did we do over the last 20 years? Deregulated the electrical system. Made it "for profit." Like anything that's for profit... the basic business premise is to sell as much as possible to as many people as possible at the highest price you possibly can.

Exactly opposite most of the goals of the Smart Grid. Limiting GHG emissions... creating supply stability... promoting efficiency... it's counterintuitive. We shot ourselves in our collective feet on that one...didn't we?