Ridin Out the Recession Reader Comments:

From Kathleen: (whom we’d asked if she was Amish) D&D,

 I am not Amish. They are a free people and I a wish I was. It seems the thing that separates me from the Amish is electricity so I often refer to my life style as "Amish with Electricity."

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I, quite often, confuse people with that line.  Sorry about that.   

Yes!  The book is the best we have found that explains canning and preserving thus the title I guess.  It is illustrated and has a lot of recipes including drying, curing and smoking meat.   

It seems we have some things in common.  My husband and I live in Northern NY, near the Canadian border. I had to look up "sweetbreads."  I know how to make zucchini bread in a jar, but I would think that sweetbread could be treated as meat...right?   Hey, I'm from NY, as far as I know sweetbreads are cinnamon rolls and the like.  LOL!

I have dabbled in a lot of homesteading type crafts like making soap from tallow using lye. I even tried making lye, but I used my well water, which is loaded with too many minerals..I'll get it right one of these days though!  I still learn a lot of things from canning too.  This past season I learned the recipe for creamed corn.  No recipe actually it is just a matter of scraping the cob down to nothing and then we used the ole' vacuum sealer and froze it.  It is as good as the day it was picked, and the taste of the "cob scrapins"  makes all the difference.  

So let me know how the sweetbread thing works and keep living "the life."  It is important that we maintain the "American Breed" because when all else fails at least we'll know how to live "Amish w/electric!"...lol

 God bless you like he has me and God Bless America From Bonnie: Good Morning you old Florida Crackers! Sorry for the late response; sick sister and too much to do these days. I used to work full time and get things done and kept in order. Now retired and don't seem to have a minute! It was great to hear from you.   Yep! This old Georgia Peach can stay busy all day and half the night and still not accomplish what I need to do. I will attach my Apple Bread recipe to this letter. Hope you try it someday; it's pretty good. I LOVE that you canned cake in a small-mouthed jar! Though I no longer follow the doctrine, I was raised in a Mormon home and I think they are the past master of food storage and "preparedness" for emergencies. Me and ol' Graybeard (Steve) try to be prepared for any and all emergencies, including food stuffs. Okay, so the neighbors, even though we are very close and help each other in any ways that we can, find us a bit odd at times. It's not everyone that can sometimes be found out in the yard with a fire under the old cast iron wash pot making a batch of lye soap. Ha ha! For many years we were volunteers at the national parks pioneer-type shows. I made lye soap and Steve did wooden bowls with an old hand adz. It was fun, but we finally hung up our tools and costumes and said, "enough", we need to get our OWN affairs in order. Now, we do volunteer at a thrift store that benefits meals on wheels. Good cause and gets us off the mountain for a while.   Speaking of the guvment...........my dad was a master gardener. He was SO depressed when the EPA said he could no longer burn his fields off (AIR POLLUTION, you know). Then he had to buy the potash and all the natural things that burning the field off provided. Then, the EPA banned some of those, also. Daddy was just never quite the same. I'm sure the Good Lord has given Daddy a hoe and a little plot to hoe in, so Daddy is happy as can be! The feds have taxed us to death so they can spend more money on foolish things, and taken away our rights and freedoms little by little until we don't have many of those left. Surely our forefathers weep in their graves! And now, Hillary and Obama want to sign a GLOBAL Weapons Treaty with the UN? We need to stop giving the UN billions of money belonging to "We the People", and kick their sorry butts off OUR land! Uh-oh, I do NOT want to get started down that road or I will write a book!   Tanned any hides lately? I didn't get any bear hides this year because the hunters around here have decided they are too heavy to drag out of the woods! I still tan hides when I can get 'em! Still get a few good bear roasts, though. YUMMY!   So................I will keep on reading your column, and I expect great things! We moved out of the big city life many years ago and came back to a little mill house on the side of a mountain that we had rented out for a long time. Not big, old tin roof (that leaks sometimes), but it's where we want to be. Side lot big enough for the neighbors to join us every year for a few cookouts. We are blessed. Oh, don't pass that on to Obama and the feds; they might think I'm a (GASP!) CHRISTIAN or some other enemy! Shhhhhh! Forget I said that!   Carry on, new friends, and if we ever get down that way again we will give you a call!   Happy canning and surviving! From: Hank Hi, kids! I'm emailing you to thank you for your contributions to CFP.  You guys (and gals!) are great!  Please keep writing your downhome articles--I live in 'in the middle of nowhere,'in Michigan and what you write was my growing up and is (though altered by modern happenings) my life now.  I've emailed Judi (Darling, darling Judi!) how much I enjoy your prose.  Let me give my disclaimer:  Please don't feel as if you should answer my email.  I would much rather have you thinking of other stuff to write.  Again--you are appreciated and please understand that for each email you receive there are thousands of others who love your work but don't take the time to write.  CFP has lots and lots of readers!  And please tell Judi "Hi!" for me.  She sure has been busy lately.