Basic Food Storage--Sprouting Wheat

Why, oh why, would anyone want to sprout wheat?  I mean, with a healthier diet that is already including lots of whole grains and beans and garden produce, isn't adding in sprouts going a little over the top?

Actually, it may be over the top for some.  But there are times when being able to sprout wheat could come in handy.

First off, wheat is a bit hard for some people to digest.  Especially if those people have been eating a typical American diet high in processed foods.  Secondly, and important for all, is that wheat sprouts are far more nutritious than the unsprouted whole grain, with far more vitamins B, C, E, and K, as well as more calcium, iron, and magnesium.  And it provides a different way of using wheat, one that can add variety to salads, soups, and cereals, as well as being used to add a little crunch to sandwiches.

To start your sprouts, in a quart size canning jar, soak one cup of wheat in cool water for 6-12 hours.  One cup of dry wheat will yield approximately 2 1/4 cups of sprouts.

Plastic sprouting lids available from Amazon or health food stores make rinsing and draining easier, but you can substitute nylon netting and a rubber band.  A clean knee-hi nylon could also be used, but it somewhat hinders air circulation. 

After the initial soaking, drain the wheat and rinse thoroughly.  Do not soak or let the wheat stand in water again.  Repeat the rinse and drain cycle every 6-12 hours, with 8 hours being ideal, but this also depends on the temperature.  The ideal temperature for sprouting is 70 degrees; warmer temperatures necessitate more frequent rinsing.

For draining the wheat, the jar must be inverted and at an angle, ideally about 45 degrees.  A large bowl or dish drainer in the sink works well.  Putting the jar upside down will not permit draining.

Keeping the sprouting grain in plain view will help you remember to rinse it; however, do not place the jar in direct sunlight.  That will cook and kill your sprouts.  On the kitchen counter out of the sun will be perfect.

Taste your sprouts as they are growing.  When do you like them best?  Wheat sprouts are generally harvested between the second and fourth day of sprouting.  Dry them thoroughly for about 6-8 hours from the last time they were rinsed, and then store them in the refrigerator.  Your wheat sprouts will keep for three days, assuming they were very dry when you put them away.

There are numerous ways to use wheat sprouts--add to soups, salads, breads, sandwiches, taco meat, chili; grow into wheat grass; dehydrate and grind into flour; make sprouted breakfast cereal or porridge.  Some people just like to eat them plain.

Links to related posts:
Wheat
Vitamin B3
Vitamin B2
Vitamin C 


For further information:

https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/sprouting/how-to-sprout-wheat-berries/

https://sproutpeople.org/growing-wheat-sprouts/

https://keeperofthehome.org/getting-started-sprouting-wheat-berries/

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 

Rendering Lard

Most everyone has heard of, if not read themselves, the Little House on the Prairie series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and preppers especially seem to be very familiar with one title in particular--The Long Winter.  The blizzards just didn't quit that year and many people were indeed starving.  It makes you want to buy more food.

There's another series of children's books, also autobiographical, but this collection is worlds better than Laura Ingalls'.  While the former collection is written at a second- or third-grade level (or maybe college-level now with the way our world is), the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody is written at a much higher reading level.  The books detail Ralph's life from the time his family moved to Colorado to help his father's tuberculosis to his time in Kansas as a young man raising and selling hogs.  All throughout the books are many lessons to be learned about hard work and self-reliance.  I feel it is one of my great failures as a mother not to have read these books to my boys when they were young, but I didn't even know about them at the time.

Anyway, in the final book of the series I learned that, historically, pigs were raised as much for their fat as they were for their meat.  We're a bit removed from that in this age when the majority of our oils come from neat little bottles, or if you insist, from plants like soybeans, corn, peanuts, and coconut.  Before those came along, however, there was lard.  And most every woman with an ounce of brains knew how to render it.

It is not at all difficult, but it will smell up the house a bit, depending on what method you choose to render it and how much fat you are processing.

The three kinds of fat from pigs come from different parts of the body.  Back fat comes from, shocker, the back of the pig and still often has the skin attached.  Once rendered, it produced lard that is a bit yellow and has a stronger pork smell.  It's generally used for frying and sauteing and making sausage.

Belly fat comes from, another shocker, the belly and often has some meat in it as well.  Belly fat is not typically used for rendering into lard.  This is also where bacon comes from.

Leaf fat comes from around the kidneys, so there is no skin attached and no little layers of meat in it.  When rendered, the lard from leaf fat is perfectly white and odorless, so it is what you want for making biscuits and pie crusts.  Lard from the back and belly fat is great for sauteing and frying.

If you are ordering your pig fat from a family farmer or you're getting your pig from a butcher, you can request to have the different fats packaged separately to make the process easier for you.

Render the different fats separately, starting with the leaf fat.  Chop it into small pieces and place it in a crock pot on the lowest setting, or in a heavy pot (cast iron Dutch ovens are ideal) on the stove on low or in the oven at 225 degrees.  Add about a quarter cup of water.  This will prevent the fat from burning before it begins to melt and the water will eventually evaporate off.  Leave the lid off to allow the water to evaporate more easily.

Check occasionally for the first hour and stir.  This process can take from two to several hours, depending on the size of the fat pieces.  After the first hour, check more frequently.  Once the cracklings (little crispy bits) start to settle on the bottom, it's time to ladle the fat through a cheesecloth-lined strainer to remove the cracklings. If you allow the edges to burn or over cook it, the lard will brown and take on a stronger pork flavor.  It's still fine for sauteing and frying, but it won't be what you want for biscuits and sweet pie crusts.  (It will be fine for chicken pot pies.)

Pour the strained lard into clean pint or quart jars, write the date on the lid, and store in the refrigerator or freezer.  That way, when you write a blog about it in the future, you'll be able to tell people something more specific than "I think it's two or three years old and smells fine." (Note that I did not write good.  Bacon smells good.  Lard that is not rancid smells fine).   Yes, when the lights go out for good, we won't have refrigeration.  But that's ok.  People rendered lard for centuries before we had refrigeration and they simply kept it on the counter or in a cabinet for months or even a year at a time.  When it's our turn to go without electricity, we'll just have to keep it as cool as possible as best as possible.  Our faithful noses will tell us if it goes rancid.

And why do you want to know this?  Well, if you've exhausted your supplies of oil, how are you replenishing them?  What's sustainable here?  Pigs.  Unfortunately, unless you come across a rancher raising heritage breeds that still grow a lot of fat on them, the pigs won't have as much fat as they did historically.  But they will at least have some.  That fat is high in vitamin D and helps the body absorb and utilize vitamins A and E as well.

For more information:
https://www.daringgourmet.com/how-to-render-lard-and-why-you-should-use-it/ (history of cottonseed oil, canola oil, and Crisco)
https://www.myhumblekitchen.com/2011/02/how-render-lard-the-right-way-snow-white/
https://www.mommypotamus.com/render-lard-crock-pot/

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com   

5 june 2021

The Medicinal Uses of Red Raspberry Leaf

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on an item you might wish to have available if needed so that a physician can treat you and your family as best as possible.  No medication, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care.  A qualified, licensed physician or other medical provider should be consulted before beginning any herbal or conventional treatment.


When my family and I talk about the five years that we lived in Missouri, we usually mention the only three good things about our time there, the three F's:  friends (a few great friends), fireflies (who doesn't love them?), and fireworks (the most phenomenal displays I ever saw were put on by a lawyer friend from church--nothing at Disneyland, or at city/county Fourth of July events, or even Michael Milken's personal event at Lake Tahoe--no, we weren't his guests, just on a neighboring section of the beach--could come close to this lawyer's show).  But as I begin this post on raspberries, I remember how prolific the raspberries in my garden there were.  I spent a couple of hours three times each week during harvest season to pick them.  Wow, I miss those raspberries.

And as delicious and desirable as those raspberries were, the true treasure was in the leaves.  Little did I know then.  Raspberry leaves are loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, and E, as well as the essential minerals iron (one ounce of raspberry leaves yields 18% of the RDA for iron), magnesium, potassium, zinc, and calcium.  For this reason alone you are really going to want these gems growing on your property in addition to being able to find them elsewhere.

Time to harvest:  Raspberry leaves should be harvested in the summer, rinsed, and dried well in a dehydrator or in the shade.  Insufficiently dried leaves can become toxic.

Fortunately, raspberry leaves are very easy to use.  Their active constituents are, in contrast to many other herbal remedies, extracted with water.  No alcohol involved.

Infusion:  One to two teaspoons of dried leaves per cup of boiling water.  Let steep for fifteen minutes. Drink three to four cups per day for treating diarrhea, incontinence, PMS symptoms, leg cramps, gout, and arthritis. It is particularly useful for easing painful menstrual cramps and regulating menstrual flow, especially when taken regularly.  Historically, raspberry leaf tea was used to ease labor pains, improve the quality of contractions, and help build a good supply of breast milk.  Though some sources suggest it can be used for treating morning sickness and nausea, it should be used with caution and only under the direction of a licensed medical practitioner during the first and second trimester of pregnancy. 

Decoction:  Steep five tablespoons of raspberry leaves in one quart of water for fifteen minutes.  Use as a rinse or gargle to treat tonsillitis, canker sores, cold sores, gingivitis, and sore throat.  This same decoction can be used for treating eczema, acne, dermatitis, and itching of the skin.  The cooled and filtered decoction is used to treat conjunctivitis of the eyes.

Poultice:  Dip a clean cloth into the decoction above and apply to minor wounds, varicose veins, and minor burns like a sunburn.

Contraindications:  Raspberry leaf is not for internal use in people with gastritis or peptic ulcer, or those with uterine fibroids, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, or endometriosis. 

For further information:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1016/S1526-9523%2801%2900095-2
https://www.drugs.com/npp/raspberry.html#fandc-np5263.b2
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/red-raspberry-leaf-tea#bottom-line
https://theherbalacademy.com/3-raspberry-leaf-benefits-for-women/


© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com

12 september 2022

27 september 2020