Growing Yuppie Chow

 Photo By ilovebutter

Photo by Phillie Casablanca

Yep, I guess I'm guilty of growing "Yuppie Chow".

Yuppie Chow is that stuff Foodies buy from upscale natural foods stores and farmer's markets, such as heirloom slicing tomatoes, garlic scapes, mesclun salad mixes, baby carrots and tiny squash, haricot verts, bok choy and such -- you know, expensive things, but not the bulk of one's calories. Yuppie Chow.

I'm currently rethinking what I can grow because if there's a food crisis, I don't grow enough to feed myself adequately without outside additions. In an extended crisis there will be NO food on the grocery shelves, and perhaps no gas to get there anyway. I'm open to growing food suggestions if you have any! 

Of course, Yuppie Chow is not all I grow. The heirloom tomatoes, various herbs, asparagus, and bulbing fennel are considered Yuppie Chow, but I also grow enough garlic, shallots, leeks, onions, and long-keeping winter squash to last through winter. The winter squash, of course, provide lots of calories. The other things simply add more flavor than calories. I hate insipid-tasting food.

I don't raise any meat animals or have chickens for eggs, so I'd be low on protein. My few small nut trees wouldn't produce 2 ounces of oils even if I could press them, so I'd be short on the essential fatty acids that come from meats and oils. Tubers don't do well for me here (other than Jerusalem artichokes), too many tunneling rodents that get to them first.

I'm looking to grow things that can flesh out my pantry in an extended crisis, both perennials, and annuals where I can save seeds for the next year. Currently, I only plant a few things where I save seed, like tomatoes and beans. I need to learn how to save seed from things like summer squash and cole crops because in an extended crisis, there may be no available seeds.

My fruit trees are small and won't bear for a few more years so I only have some perishable berries for fruits right now.

I'm thinking to try growing oyster mushrooms because they contain around 15% protein, as well as adding complex flavors to cooked foods, but I guess that might be considered more Yuppie Chow...

Snowstorms and Medical Emergencies

Photo by Marcin Wichary

I have posted often about preparedness, and the current early Fall snowstorm that brought problems and power outages in the N.E. bring it to the forefront once again. (The heavy snow storms of last winter also brought the necessity home. Fortunately my area fared better than many last winter, but it could have just as easily been my town that had deaths because emergency vehicles couldn't navigate the roads.) Those news reports just bring home the importance of preparedness again and again.

Having some emergency food, water, batteries and such should be a given for every household, so I just want to address medical supplies here.

Last night in the kitchen I accidentally dropped a heavy chef's knife, cutting deeply into a toe. I bled like a stuck pig until I could bend my leg into enough of an awkward position to actually see the cut on the very lower outside of my smallest toe, and get it cleaned and bandaged. It didn't really need stitches, and our roads were clear if I had needed to drive to the ER. 

Afyer I stopped the bleeding and was rooting in the medicine cabinet, my thoughts went to my "emergency medical gym-type bag". It has lots more stuff in it than the bathroom medicine cabinet, but I couldn't put my hands on it readily... which makes it totally useless in an emergency.

So my job for tomorrow is to ➀ locate it, ➁ check for what needs replacing and do it, and ➂ put it where it's easy to find.

Tip: When I first assembled that bag, I packed all dry things in plastic baggies taped shut. I figured that if we had some persistent heavy rains, roof damage or flooding, wet bandages and a wet first aid book wouldn't do much good. Now that I have a food vacuum sealer, I plan to re-pack things that need to stay dry in ziplock bags and seal the ziplock bags inside vacuum bags. That way if I have to open a bag, and it's wet all around me, I still have a back-up sealed bag to use when I put things away.

Where are YOUR emergency medical supplies, and are they up to date?

Preventing Some Radiation Effects

Photo by relapsed nun

Lately I have been reading a lot of bits around the internet about what is true and what is false or misleading about the reported radiation amounts coming over the US, and the effects, if any, on our food and water. There are a lot of sites that seem to "prove" the PTB are not fully disclosing all the facts, and frankly some of it is very convincing.

I'm not sure what to believe, so this post is about preparedness and prevention, not a knee-jerk reaction. What I am doing is incorporating some healthy things into my diet that are tasty, nutritious and will help if there is radiation fallout... and won't hurt me if there really isn't any problem. One obvious thing to do is to increase iodine intake, and another is use rosemary, and consume more of the foods and vitamins listed below. 

Even if you are not concerned about radiation exposure, you can't go wrong by adding a bit of seaweed to your diet. What? You cannot imagine eating seaweed? I bet you add salt to soups and stews, don't you? Well, just substitute any seaweed vegetable, which will supply the salt and cook down like any leafy green... plus seaweed is a super food that is rich in many health-promoting nutrients. (In a few days, I plan to post photos of some of the seaweeds in my pantry, and how to use them.)

Kelp, wakame, dulse, sea lettuce, kombu, bladderwack, hijiki, nori and other sea veggies are naturally rich in iodine. The first pack of dulse I ever bought many years ago turned out to be a tasty slightly sweet pinkish-colored snack food, and I've kept some in my pantry ever since!

BTW, several months ago I bookmarked an online supplier of North Atlantic seaweeds, mainly because I wanted more dulse. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money buy any at the time. I went again yesterday to their site, and they are certainly aware of the interest in seaweed; I didn't note the prices in February but I feel confident they might have been less than now. Even so, it's cheap nutrition and protection.

Another Maine certified organic sustainable seaweed site has this to say:

Dear Old and New Customers,

Due to the events in Japan, quite frankly, we are swamped. Please be patient as we process your orders and requests. Expect turn around times to be considerably longer than usual, and please resist the temptation to bypass our limits by ordering frequently. We are committed to sharing our resources as equitably as possible and trust in your good will and co-operation. Thanks for your understanding in this period of planetary uncertainty.

Godspeed,

Shep Erhart

Founder, MCSV

P.S. Our phones are ringing off the hook, so call us only if you absolutely have to. Thanks. https://www.seaveg.com/shop/ 

Although taking potassium iodide pills (KI) can be potentially harmful (and intefere with other medications), ingesting natural iodine is not. Right now potassium iodide tablets are back-ordered for months, so it's a moot point on the pills anyway. There have been a lot of politics playing around KI since scientists first discovered it's effectiveness (90%+) in radiation protection back in 1954 and then receiving FDA approval in 1978. There have been many proposals to stockpile it regionally over the years, but the nuclear industry has continually blocked those proposals. They feared it would send a message that nuclear power was unsafe, so the industry decided to protect itself instead of the people.

Seaweed Harvested from deep waters by women divers, Photo by nurpax

Seaweeds purify all the world’s oceans- they can do the same for your body. Seaweeds like kelp, dulse and Irish Moss can protect us from a wide range of toxic elements in the environment, including radiation by-products, converting them into harmless salts that our bodies can eliminate.

Natural iodine in seaweeds can reduce by almost 80% the radioactive iodine-131 that would beotherwise absorbed by the thyroid... that is, if natural iodine is already in the system. Seaweeds are so effective that even the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission recommends that people consume two to three ounces of seaweeds a week (or 2 tbsp. of algin supplements a day, see sodium alginate below) for maximum protection against radiation poisoning. (Source) Gingko biloba can be protective even after exposure to radiation. (Source)

Then there's the use of one of my favorite herbs, rosemary! In two separate studies, scientists in Spain found that nothing fights radiation damage to micronuclei like a simple garden herb known as rosemary. You can make rosemary tea, use rosemary in cooking, and/or buy tincture of rosemary to take a few drops daily. I've never tried rosemary tea but I use a lot of it in cooking; now I'll use more. YUM!

The scientists noted that ionizing radiation causes the massive generation of free radicals that induce cellular DNA damage. The fact that carnosic acid and carnosol found in rosemary are fat soluble allows them to provide highly significant protective anti-mutagenic activity. Even the most powerful water-soluble antioxidants lack the capacity to protect against gamma ray induced damage. This study can be found in the British Journal of Radiology, February 2 edition.

In a study from India, scientists investigated the radio-protective potential of caffeic acid against gamma radiation-induced cellular changes. Food sources offering significant amounts of caffeic acid are apples, citrus fruits, and cruciferous vegetables. (Note: Wiki says cruciferous veggies contain enzymes that interfere with the production of thyroid hormone unless cooked for 30 minutes.)

Right now it looks like the best defense against radiation poisoning is the same as the best defense against all diseases. This defense begins with diet (including lots of probiotics like yogurt, kefir, etc.), and supplements. Eating a diet high in apples, citrus fruits, seaweed, cruciferous vegetables, drinking red wine, and using fresh rosemary have been scientifically shown to be effective against radiation poisoning. 

Supplements of rosemary extract (or tincture) containing carnosic and rosmarinic acids are widely available. Supplements of DIM offer higher doses of one of the most potent compounds in cruciferous vegetables. 

Broccoli sprouts are the best source of sulphoraphane, another highly potent compound in cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli sprouts are available as supplements too. Making a pitcher of fresh vegetable juice several times a week for all family members to drink is a great way to fortify everyone against an environment that has turned against them. The juice should contain high amounts of broccoli, cabbage or other cruciferous vegetables. Adding a small slice of fresh ginger will give the juice an appealing flavor. Use only organic or fresh locally grown vegetables if they are available.

I know kelp (or any seaweed) is very good to add to garden soil, but I have NOT been able to find anything that says it will increase the ability of plants to ward off radiation. But hey, it can't hurt!

VITAMIN C: This may be the most important thing of all to have on hand for many applications, e.g. poison, bites, viruses, etc. The book “Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins” by Thomas Levy, MD, should be one of your most prized possessions... along with as much Sodium Ascorbate as you can store. Vitamin C cannot only protect against radiation but also repair damage from previous exposure. There is abundant scientific proof for this assertion.

Kelp: Supplement the diet with easily assimilable organic iodine, as in kelp (Norwegian or other clean water kelp if possible), this will saturate the thyroid so radioactive iodine will not be absorbed. Kelp, like all sea vegetables, contains an amazing substance called sodium alginate. Sodium alginate reduces the amount of strontium-90 absorbed by bone tissue by 50 to 83 percent.

Sodium Alginate: (also available as a powder) An effective preventive and therapeutic substance against radiation and heavy metals. In two experiments using rats, sodium alginate decreased by a factor of 12, the uptake of several radioactive isotopes—including strontium-90, strontium-85, barium, radium, and calcium. Skoryna el al. concluded that ingestion of small but regular does of alginate is effective in preventing the daily absorption of small doses of radioactive strontium and other contaminants that are present in the environment. Brown sea vegetables such as kelp are the most effective sources. Alginate is nontoxic and is not reabsorbed for the GI tract and appears to have no adverse affects even at high doses. Red sea vegetables, such a dulse are most effective at binding plutonium, and green algae binds cesium most effectively. 

Protective program for Strontium-90

Calcium and Magnesium: both help your body to pass off Strontium 90. Get supplements that are not made from animal bones (they contain Strontium 90). Dolomite is best. Dr. Linus Pauling says heavy calcium supplementation will reduce strontium 90 absorption by 50 percent, but be careful not to over indulge unless exposed.

Calcium: By the mechanism of selective uptake, calcium blocks or decreases the absorption of strontium-90, calcium-45 and other radioactive isotopes by the skeletal system. Calcium also helps to eliminate radioactive isotopes that are lodged in the bones! The National Research Council recommends that adults consume 800 mg. of calcium per day. For children and lactating women this is 1,000 mg. and 1,400 mg.. Too much calcium can be harmful. The best forms of supplemental calcium are calcium citrate, gluconate, carbonate, lactate, or amino acid chelated calcium. It is good to take a calcium-magnesium combination.

Pectin: Obtained from fruit like Citrus skins (oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, limes, etc. - the pectin is high in the skin but low in the fruit), tart cooking apples, sour apples, crab apples, (under-ripe apples contain more pectin that ripe apples), lemons, wild grapes (Eastern Concord variety), cranberries, gooseberries, boysenberries,  Blackberries, Currants, Gooseberries, Loganberries, most Plums (not the Italian kind), and Quinces are high in pectin.  

Like sodium alginate in agar and kelp, pectin bonds or chelates with radioisotopes, especially strontium-90, and reduces the absorption into the skeletal system. 

 

(Source for the supplements information.)

Radiation and Drinking Water

Photo from Topato's Photostream

The disturbing situation of airborne radiation particles and radiation-contaminated water in Japan sure puts a different light on drinking water now. Unfortunately for me (and for perhaps many of us) radiation is both a foreign and complex subject and searches on the internet didn't turn up direct answers to my questions. What I did find in a roundabout way is that there is information available for removing dissolved mineral radioactivity in drinking water, primarily because here in the US there are many areas with hazardous levels of radionuclides in our drinking water.

When some 'authority' figure says any radiation hazard coming from Japan is very low, what kind of radiation are they talking about? There are alpha particle/emitters, beta particle/emitters, gamma rays, neutrons... and are they talking about ionizing radiation or non-ionizing radiation?

I have been slightly biased against nuclear power plants for many years, but after researching nuclear technology for an intensive week or more, I am now standing firmly against nuclear power plants. This is not a knee-jerk, panic reaction, but an educated response (and a hard slap to my own head because of all those years I never made the time to really learn about nuclear technology.)

Sure, "They" say nuclear power may help solve the US dilemma of our voracious power consumption, and that it IS safe, but that's not the answer. How many of those people in Japan even within 50 miles of the Fukushima Reactors do you think would gladly give back most if not all their electrical consumption over the last 40 years if it would erase the nightmare?

In order to understand nuclear technology and its impact on human health, I suggest you read Nuclear Radiation and its Biological Effects because I cannot begin to explain it. I do know the atomic structure of fission fragments produced in nuclear reactors is unstable... which means no more predictable than a crazed crack addict. 

Please note what I've posted below does not constitute professional water filtration advice, nor health/medical advice, and does NOT cover all forms of radiation dangers. It is simply some of what I have gleaned from the literature, and because I don't think the authorities are telling us everything. (I'm not either, but only because I don't know.) It's very confusing and by no means do I understand it all. For one thing, not all radioactive particles are the same, and not all radioactive particles have the same degree of safety or hazards.

Drinking Water:
I've had a survival plan of one sort or another for many years, mostly due to living in hurricane-prone areas, and/or Tornado Alley. Potable water (i.e. safe to drink) has always been in the forefront of my preparations, and I've made several posts on this blog about potable water. You can find them under the label "potable water".

What hasn't been in my plan for potable water is addressing radionuclides, so now that's been my research project, and here (below some technical data) is a bit of what I've found so far, and some suggestions I plan to follow. I am not suggesting you follow them, just do your own research. 

The radioactive Iodine-131 found in the drinking water in Tokyo is a radionuclide produced when atoms of uranium in nuclear reactors (or nuclear weapons) divide into 2 parts. Iodine-131 has a half-life of 8 days, and I-131 emits gamma rays, similar to x-rays which cause ionization. Examples of ionizing particles are alpha particles, beta particles, neutrons, and cosmic rays.

Gamma rays can be detected by whole-body counters which measure a body's internal exposure whereas dosimeters measure a body's external exposure. Spent fuel rods contain gamma radiation emitters. The spent nuclear fuel rods and liquid reprocessing waste are called `high level radioactive waste'. It must be kept secure for hundreds of thousands of years -- essentially forever. Lower level waste may be equally long-lived, but it is less concentrated.

Half-life is the physical time required for half of a quantity of a radioactive material to undergo a nuclear transformation ("Division"). The chemical resulting from the transformation may be either radioactive or non-radioactive. We should not confuse physical half-life of the chemical with biological half-life which is the time required to eliminate half of the material from the body through exhalation, urine or feces.

Probably the three most worrisome radioactive materials from a health perspective are iodine-131, cesium-137 and strontium-90. I-131 affects the thyroid; cesium-137 affects the whole body (it is chemically similar to potassium) and strontium-90 affects bone (it's chemically similar to calcium).

Although stable cesium and strontium are harmless, radioactive isotopes released by nuclear fission can cause cancer. Cesium-137 and strontium-90 both have half-lives of almost thirty years, but cesium-137 is normally excreted from the body within two years while strontium-90 can be incorporated in our bones for a lifetime.

Radionuclides are often referred to by chemists and physicists, as radioactive isotopes or radioisotopes, and they can also present both real and perceived dangers to health.
Radioactivity is a health risk because the energy emitted by radioactive materials can damage or kill cells. Exposure to radionuclides from drinking water results in increased risk of cancer.  

Alpha radiation is a type of particle emitted through the decay of certain radioactive substances, such as uranium. The level of risk depends on the level of ingested uranium concentration. Alpha particles released by uranium cannot penetrate the skin, so uranium that is outside the body is less harmful than that which is inhaled. David Ozonoff, an environmental health professor and Chair Emeritus of the Boston University School of Public Health called alpha particles the "800-pound gorilla of radioactive particles.

Beta particles can cause serious burns or worse, such as the 3 men in one of the Japanese nuclear plants experienced when contaminated water got in their boots.

Okay, back to drinking water...
There is naturally occurring radioactivity in some of our water, depending on where we live. It occurs irregularly throughout the bedrock, much like other minerals such as iron, arsenic and quartz. A few examples with health importance include the alpha particles in radon, radium 226, and uranium; radium 228 is a beta particle. (Radon is a gas dissolved in water; most other radionuclides are dissolved minerals in water.) Ozonoff says drinking water with any amount of alpha particles, even when consumed in amounts below federal legal limits, raises your risk to develop health problems or in rare cases, cancer. Examples of alpha particles found in water are those from uranium, radium and other minerals.
   

So, what can we do to hopefully assure safe drinking water in the event of either nuclear contamination or higher than normal levels of naturally-occurring radioactivity?

(Source of the water treatment technical data below.)

Obviously one option is buying bottled drinking water (if you can trust your life to it), but that can get very expensive very fast.

In my opinion from all I have read, my own best (and possibly imperfect) option is actually a choice of 2 versions of the same basic thing: a reverse osmosis system. One version is a whole-house unit capable of processing 300-400 gallons a day, enough for a family of 4 for daily activities including showers and laundry as well as drinking water. My personal option would be a P.O.U. (Point of Use) version which would treat 2-5 gallons a day, enough for drinking water.

By the way, the only bottled water I ever buy to drink is Aquafina, which is bottled through a reverse osmosis treatment. I've been buying it for several years, although now I try to avoid adding plastic bottles to our landfills.

Reverse osmosis (RO) treatment addresses all uranium, radium and gross alpha contaminants. In this treatment process, water under pressure is placed against a special membrane. The RO membrane allows water molecules to pass through, but retards the passage of other contaminants, including radionuclides. The rejected contaminants and the water that does not go through the membrane are "wasted" from this device to prevent the overall buildup of the contaminant(s) on the untreated side of the membrane. Typical installation cost of RO is approximately $900-$1,100. The benefits of RO treatment are that it will take out all dissolve mineral radionuclides, whether positive or negative valance, and any other unrecognized contaminants. In addition, there is no concern about the contaminants accumulating within the treatment device. (Note to self: Where do the contaminants go if they don't accumulate in the device??)

Another option is Treatment Equipment for Ion Exchange, which is basically a water softening unit that removes targeted contaminants by exchanging them for other non-hazardous contaminants, typically salt. The contaminants accumulate in the medium, see notice below about disposal. 

It is important to read the fine print on any filtration system to see exactly what they actually filter out. (That also means I need to check the filters stored in my emergency kit and see if they filter radionuclides.)

Radionuclides can also be removed by cartridge size cation and anion exchange medias and certain adsorptive medias. Cation exchange (+) will address all radium contaminants and that portion of the gross alpha which has a positive valance. Anion exchange (-) addresses uranium and the remaining factors contributing to gross alpha. These radionuclides accumulate on the ion exchange cartridge until the cartridge removal capability is equaled; thereafter all contaminants could get through. Most modern devices have a water meter to alert the user when the treatment capability is used up. Initial cost should be lower than RO, but operating cost should be reviewed.

Notice: The spent regeneration solution and concentrated radionuclides are typically discharged to the home's septic system or a separate dry well. Proper disposal of the concentrated radioactivity is an important aspect of any treatment process and should be discussed with the authorities in your area.

Source of the water treatment technical data above. Source for the general radiation information (if not linked) came from here where they reprinted it with permission from No Immediate Danger, Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth by Dr. Rosalie Bertell. I strongly advise anyone to read the radiation link just above; it covers some important things we should read about nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons.

Links to my other posts regarding this disaster:
Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop...
Disaster Preparedness in the wake of Tsunamis
Holistic Radiation Protection Tips
Radiation Dose Chart
Similar Fukushima Reactors in the US
Letter from Sendai, via friend to friend to friend...

Homemade Elderberry Cold and Flu Syrup

Common Black Elderberry, Sambucus nigra
Image courtesy of Dave's Garden PlantFiles and Melody Rose, photographer

Elderberries are ripening now in our gardens, and so are the wild ones along the roadsides. It's easy to use some to for a homemade cough/cold/flu syrup extract, but you must be sure you pick the edible variety, the common black elderberry, Sambucus nigra. Only the berries of the black elderberry are edible (cooked; raw = stomach distress), the rest of the plant is toxic. There is a poisonous red elderberry, Sambucus racemosa, which you must avoid (although birds seem eat the berries).

Red Elderberries, Sambucus racemosa, All Parts Poisonous, Photo by Ken Harris

Image courtesy of Dave's Garden PlantFiles and Melody Rose, photographer

Elderberries are commonly used to make country wine and yummy jelly, but their real value is in the natural health and healing properties we are now re-discovering. Elderberries contain amino acids, carotenoids, flavonoids, sugar, rutin, viburnic acid, vitaman A and B and a large amount of vitamin C. They are also mildly laxative, a diuretic, and diaphoretic (aiding in fever management). Flavonoids, including quercetin, are believed to account for the therapeutic actions of the elderberry flowers and berries. According to studies, these phytochemicals known as flavonoids include anthocyanins that are powerful antioxidants and protect cells against damage.

Benefits

Elderberry syrup (or extract, same thing without sugar) boosts the immune system to fight coughs, colds, flu, bacterial infections, viral infections, and tonsilitis. It also is said to lower cholesterol and improve vision and heart health. Clinical studies support the health-giving reputation elderberry has had for centuries. Elderberry is also very effective for relieving stress, and it is so effective it is being considered for military troops under stress.

H1N1 Virus
A recent study published in the July 2009 issue of the scientific journal, Phytochemistry (2009 Jul;70(10):1255-61), declares that "elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro."

Similarly, a study published in the Journal of International Medical Research (2004 Mar-Apr;32(2):132-40) examined the efficacy of black elderberry syrup (marketed under the name Sambucol) in a group of flu sufferers in Norway. They determined that their symptoms were relieved on average four days earlier when taking elderberry extract compared with a control group receiving a placebo.


So, here's how to make your own elderberry syrup:

Elderberry Syrup Recipe #1 
makes 1 quart

2 pounds fresh elderberries, stemmed and rinsed

4 cups water

2 cups sugar, to taste

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Put the berries and water in a non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the berries are soft and squishy. Cool, and run the pot contents through a food mill, discarding the skins and very tiny seeds. If you don't have a food mill, you can thoroughly mash the cooked berries in the pot, and strain through a jelly bag, allowing them to drip for several hours.

Put the strained juice back in the pot, add the sugar and lemon juice and cook at just below boiling for a few minutes, until the syrup is clear and has thickened. Cool thoroughly, and pour into a sterilized bottle or jar. Store in the refrigerator.

Elderberry Syrup Recipe #2

makes 1 quart 
2 cups fresh elderberries, stemmed and rinsed

4 cups water

1½ cups honey, to taste

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions: use the same directions as recipe #1.

Neither of the recipes suggest canning in a hot water bath, but there is no reason not to do so. (They don't because the recipes just make one quart, easily refrigerated.) The berries have already been cooked so there is no added nutritional loss from heat. I am making a triple batch in half pint jars to share with friends, and I will process them in a water bath. My friends can transfer them to a stoppered refrigerator bottle if they choose, but the syrup must be refrigerated after breaking the seal.

No access to fresh elderberries?  

You can substitute 1/2 cup dried elderberries for the 4 cups of fresh berries. I'd put the dried berries soaking in the water for a couple of hours or more to completely rehydrate, before cooking, and probably add a bit of extra water to compensate for the berries being dry. Here's one online source for dried elderberries; there may be more, so check around.

Using Black Elderberry Syrup
To prevent catching a cold or the flu, take one teaspoon of the syrup morning and evening. If you are treating someone who's already ill, give the person a teaspoonful every two or three hours.

Children love elderberry syrup, so it's very easy to give to them. If this remedy is being given to babies under two years of age, make the syrup with sugar instead of honey.

Elderberry syrup is also a delicious treat when poured over ice cream, and it's a favorite for pancakes. Try mixing a teaspoonful in a glass of ginger ale to settle a queasy stomach!

Do you make Jerky? Pemmican?

I've been looking into making jerky, which I don't even like. Well, at least not the convenience-store pressed version containing soy sauce, sugar, artificial smoke flavoring, chemicals and preservatives. I have never tasted the real thing, which is just dried raw meat seasoned with salt and pepper, and maybe a bit of powdered onion, garlic or crushed red pepper flakes.

I'm interested to hear if you make jerky or pemmican, and how you do it. How do you use it? Apparently jerky-makers are almost fanatical about their jerky, and they must be abundant because there are all sorts of jerky tools for sale across the internet. (I'm away from home until later in the week so I probably won't be able to 'moderate' comments until then.)

Actually what I want to do is make some real pemmican that I can store in my emergency food stash, because it is the most nutrient-dense food I can fit (store) in a small area, and if made properly, it lasts for years.

Properly made jerky is a good place to start in making pemmican, and commercial jerky won't suffice because of government regulations in the high temperatures required for drying, too much salt, and all the additives. (Remember how salty the dried chipped beef in a jar is, for making creamed chipped beef on toast... aka SOS?)  I'm aiming for nutrition, not salty shoe leather.

Making jerky for pemmican is easy, although this method below would not be approved by the USDA because the meat is not cooked, just thoroughly dried as it was done for centuries either in the sun, or near a fire. Most sites practice CYA and recommend heating to 145ºF for at least 10 minutes to kill any salmonella and E.coli, and lots of salt. (I won't make mine that way.) Use your own discretion and faith in your butcher, but I suggest you avoid using store-bought CAFO beef for all the potential dangers and nutritional deficits.

I'll run through the process here, and again later with pictures when I make some. (Right now I'm waiting for the next butchering so I can get enough beef leaf fat make more tallow.) Get some very lean grass-fed beef (like eye round) and trim it completely. Slice thinner than 1/4 inch, which is easier done if the beef is partially frozen.

Season lightly with salt and pepper (you can add a bit of onion powder or garlic powder, and/or powdered red pepper along with the salt and pepper, but don't overdo it) and put it in your dehydrator at about 100º-110ºF. The object is to dry the meat, not cook it, and temps over 120ºF will cook it. (The salt and lack of moisture are what inhibits bacterial growth.) Turn the strips over several times during the drying process to insure uniform drying. How long it takes depends on thickness of the meat strips. When properly dry, it should bend but not snap, and not feel damp or have soft spots. Too dry is better than too damp because it can spoil if it's not dry enough.

If you don't have a dehydrator, here's a link to download plans to build a very efficient dryer for under $20, using a cleverly designed cardboard box and a 100 watt incandescent bulb. It will dry up to 10 pounds of raw meat.

Once the meat is fully dry, you can use it as is for jerky snacks, or grind it for pemmican.

Why use only grass-fed beef?

Grass-fed beef:

1. Higher in beta-carotene
2. Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
3. Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin (B1) and riboflavin (B2)
4. Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
5. Higher in total omega-3s
6. A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
7. Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
8. Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
9. Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease

What is Pemmican?
"Pemmican was a nutritionally-dense staple of the American Plains Indians, made in the summer from dried lean buffalo meat and rendered fat (tallow) as a way to preserve and store meat for winter, and traveling. When the frontiersmen, mostly early trappers and explorers, discovered it, pemmican became a commodity the Indians sold or traded to them.

The Hudson Bay Company bought tons of it every year to satisfy the demand. The basic unit of trade was an animal hide filled with pemmican, sealed with pure rendered fat on the seams, and weighed about 90 pounds. As long as it was kept away from moisture, heat, and direct sunlight, it would last for many years with no refrigeration or other method of preservation."
(Source: Lex Rooker)

Calories and Nutrition

When made correctly, pemmican from grass-fed beef is a complete food, and eating only pemmican for extended periods induces no nutritional deficiencies. (Think Eskimo diet.) One half-pound of pemmican will provide about 1500 calories.

Not all sites agree about the inclusion of dried berries in pemmican; some think it may have been just to please the 'white eyes'. After reading many sites and explanations, I have decided not to add dried berries to mine. If the berries are not 100% dry, they can spoil the pemmican. I'd rather dry my berries separately and just have them available.

Traditionally, Native Americans pounded the dried meat into a powder; fortunately we have blenders, meat grinders and food processors. Properly dried beef will be about 1/3 or so of the weight before drying, and needs to be ground to a chunky powder with some meat fibers remaining.

Once you have the meat ground to a slightly chunky powder, carefully weigh equal amounts of meat and rendered beef tallow. Then the tallow needs to be heated enough to be liquid so you can mix them; the mix will appear slightly wet, but the tallow/fat should all be absorbed by the meat with no excess fat pooling in the bottom of the dish.

Press the mixture into a mold (mini-loaf pans, cupcake tins lined with cupcake papers, pressed flat in plastic sandwich bags, etc.) and allow to harden at room temperatures. To store, wrap in butcher's paper, or aluminum foil (or both) to keep out any light and moisture. Store in a cool, dry place. I will put my wrapped pemmican in a heavy-duty zippered plastic bag or most likely vacuum-seal it, then into a food grade plastic container with a tight lid.

Some No-No's: 
Do not use butter or vegetable oils. Rendered pork or lamb fat could be used, but not recommended because of a lower melting point (like carrying it in a backpack, or on a shelf in in storage). Do not add anything that is not 100% DRY.

Keeping Stored Canned Goods from Rust

I created a long-term storage room for dried foods by enclosing part of the back porch. Unfortunately, we soon needed the space so I moved jars of anything that would not freeze and break out to the root cellar, which remains above freezing usually, but also a little dampish because it is set into the hillside. By the end of last winter, the lids to the mason jars I use for storage were showing spots of rust.

I took off the lids and rings of about 2 dozen jars and spray-painted them (just the outside of the lids, but both sides of the rings). It took forever to get a good coating inside and outside of the screw channels on the rings, and I used up an entire can of spray paint. That stopped the project because I still had well over a hundred jars to go... jars of beans, pasta, grains, dry fruit... you get the picture.

Ball makes a plastic replacement lid for both wide-mouth and regular canning jars (NOT to use in canning, just opened cans in the fridge), but they would be expensive because I need so many. So the jars have been sitting on the root cellar shelves, rusting slowly into total decay. I figure about 3 more years, and the rust will have eaten a hole all the way through the lids.

However, last week I came across a post somewhere about waxing cans and boxes for long-tern storage, to prevent rust in metal cans, and insect invasion in cardboard boxes. They just melted beeswax or paraffin in a large double-boiler (actually a stockpot large enough to hold a cereal box, inside a larger pan of water) and dipped the containers, first the top half, and when cooled, dipped the bottom half. I don't see any reason this wouldn't work for my mason jars.

I would only have to dip about 2" of the jars to cover the lids completely, thus not needing nearly as much wax as if I had commercial metal food cans needing to be covered entirely. Paraffin, a petroleum product, is less expensive than beeswax or a vegetable candle wax and since it won't contact any food I'm okay with trying it.

Next month I will wax some, and see how they fare over this next winter. I have the idea it will work just fine!

Protecting Computer Equipment cheaply with Faraday Cages or a Microwave

 Photo from Mr Thinktank's photostream

There has been a lot of talk for several years about protecting electronic equipment from magnetic storms, solar flares, and any potential nuclear explosions when some idiot hits the panic button and sets off the bomb, or even a suitcase nuke is set off by terrorists. NASA warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' predicted soon will cause devastation. Every 22 years the Sun’s magnetic energy cycle peaks, while the number of sun spots – or flares – hits a maximum level every 11 years.

Dr Fisher, a Nasa scientist for 20 years, said these two events would combine around 2013 to produce unprecedented levels of radiation. (Other scientists give a wider range of potential timing, and spanning several years.) 

In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like “a bolt of lightning” and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken. Scientists believe it could damage everything from emergency services’ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to “everyday” items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs.

Due to humans’ heavy reliance on electronic devices, which are sensitive to magnetic energy, the storm could leave a multi-billion dollar damage bill and “potentially devastating” problems for governments.

As an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) travels to earth, whether from a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME, projected for 2012) or a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere, it hits and runs along electrical power lines as well, building up voltage and amperage, which is what happened during the last solar storm a dozen years ago, blowing out transformers and leaving 6 million people in eastern Canada without power for weeks.

There are lots of sites online on how to build a Faraday Cage, which blocks the radiation and grounds it outside into the earth. When Einstein and others first refined and purified uranium, they took time off and studied its properties. That's when they discovered the "rays" that were harmful, as well as the phase transformations. In the course of their work, one of the scientists discovered that simply covering an object with a grounded copper mesh would stop virtually all electromagnetic radiation, whether proton or neutron. Obviously, they had to protect their monitoring equipment! Thus was born the "Faraday cage."

Solar flares vary in strength and in impact on Earth’s magnetic field. The flares are highly radioactive, although humans are protected from this radiation by the atmosphere. What suffers is technology. The heat from the flares can damage satellites, and magnetic rays can disturb radio communications. 

The bottom line is that we don't know for sure 'when'... but we do know the possibility of electromagnetic energy affecting our electronics, esp. computers along with magnetic hard drives and back-up disks is always lurking, whether from solar flares or some nut with a trigger finger. So, the time to prepare is now.

Building a Faraday Cage actually isn't expensive, nor hard to do. (The easiest idea is below.) It can be as simple as getting 2 cardboard boxes that fit tightly one inside the other. Wrap the outside box with heavy duty aluminum foil, then plastic to protect the foil from ripping. Run a ground wire from the foil outside to the ground, and attach the end to a ground rod. Place the smaller box, which provides insulation, inside the lined box and put your computer and drives in it. (Or radios, TV's, etc. You should always have a protected emergency radio.)

Something like a printer paper box with a lid might work and give you daily access to the computer, just be sure to line the lid. I have no idea if one layer of HD aluminum foil would block really strong magnetic pulses, but I might consider building a copper foil-lined box for small electronic items (other than my computer and stored data).

However, here's a much quicker and cheaper solution. Microwaves ARE Faraday cages. They are made to contain the RF signals generated by the cavity magnetron which cooks the food. Since they are made to block RF signals from escaping the unit, they will also block RF waves from entering it. And it has a door for easy access.

Get an old, non-working but intact microwave free from a landfill, town dump, or recycling center (or your neighbor!). Put it in your office, and keep your valuable magnetic data and computer in it when you aren't using it. You should cut off the electric plug and run a heavy copper ground wire from the ground wire in the cable outside and ground it. The heavier, the more juice it will carry, but be sure it is small enough in diameter you can bend it into corners, and out. I'm inclined to buy the cheap grounding rods that are pounded deep in the earth and used to ground your house electricity. Most are about 8' long, pointed on one end, and used to be under $5. Get a good clamp, too.

I have a huge over-the-stove microwave stored out in the barn. (It works, I just won't use a microwave for the damage it does to foods.) It's big enough to hold all my disks, drives, and 17" laptop. Plus, it will keep everything dust-free... something my office does not. I'll park it on the counter in back of my desk, along with the coffeepot, where it will be handy enough to access every day.

Another tip
You could buy a small sheet of pliable copper foil in a craft shop, and line a cell phone pouch with it. The phone wouldn't receive a signal inside the pouch so you wouldn't use it normally, but you might have some warning of when to use the shield. Any strong geomagnetic storm will likely come with extraordinarily intense aurorae. This won't be just visible at the poles -- during the 1989 storm, the aurora borealis was seen as far south as Texas, and the auroras of 1859 are thought to be perhaps the most spectacular ever witnessed throughout recent recorded history. 

Such a visual display could prove useful as a warning of incoming magnetic disruption, giving you time to shield your cell phone immediately. Hopefully, you put your computer in the old microwave before you left home!

Storing Foods for Emergencies

Part of my pantry in progress, Fall 2008

For many years I have kept a goodly amount of foods in my pantry in case of an emergency. (I have been through too many hurricanes and ice storms not to!) However, with my change in diet, the bulk of what I have on hand isn't what I now eat... although in a crisis, it's better than nothing. I have enough cereal grains, pasta and legumes to feed a family of four for 3+ months but I don't eat those anymore.

I do have many jars of home-canned meats and soup stocks, and now a small freezer full of meats. If there's no power for a few days the freezer contents will spoil unless it's below freezing outside and I can secure those foods in a shed, so that's iffy storage. I also have plenty of home-canned vegetables, but the starchy ones like corn are not on my "good for me" list.

I've been looking into what I can store in my pantry at cool room temperatures which will meet my current nutritional needs. One thing for sure, is to can more meat, fish and fowl. I can also make pemmican; it isn't difficult at all, and lasts up to 20 years on the shelf. I can convert some butter into ghee, another easy-to-do task. Properly stored ghee is good up to 10 years. I need to increase my store of saturated fats... coconut oil, lard and tallow. And more olive oil in light-proof tins.

One biggie I want to try is storing eggs. A common method was storing eggs in water-glass. Other methods were eggs stored in a combination of salt and bran, eggs dipped in tallow or wax and covered with flour or bran, and eggs stored in lard.

Eggs will keep in water-glass for about 6-9 months. Even when I have my own chickens for eggs, there will be a period of non-production every year when they moult, so I'd be without eggs even if there is no crisis. I have read many procedures for storing eggs, and water-glass looks like something for me to try. Eggs have been as successfully stored in lard but that takes a LOT of lard. I may try it anyway with maybe a dozen or so eggs just to see. Actually, it may be just as cheap to use lard; water-glass (silicate of soda) costs around $40 a gallon I think, and you dilute it with water 10:1.

None of those measures will work if the eggs are not fresh, and if they have been washed. Eggs fresh from the chicken are coated in a substance that seals the egg air-tight, which is why farmers can store a few eggs (to be used in a week or so) in a basket on a kitchen counter.

I know you can scramble eggs, dehydrate them, then grind them into a powder. I think that would be good to have on hand as a nutritional supplement to add protein to other foods in a crisis, but doesn't appeal to me for breakfast!

Confit preparation is something else I want to try. We all are familiar with fruit confit (stored in sugar), better known as candied fruit. Meat confit (stored in fat) originated as a means of preserving meats without refrigeration. Traditional meat for a confit included waterfowl such as goose and duck, plus turkey and pork, but other meats are also used.

Curing meats, and smoking meat, fish and cheese is something else I want to learn. Plus, I intend to try a greater variety iof naturally fermented foods this fall.

As I play around with each of these methods of storing foods, I will post them, with photos.

FEMA suggests Christmas gifts for the disaster age

Imagine tearing open that large present under the Christmas tree with your name on it and finding inside... a fire extinguisher.

Or a foldable ladder.

Or a smoke alarm in that smaller box.

Those, plus a home disaster kit including food, water and prescription medications for 72 hours, or a first aid certification course are just some of the gifts that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is suggesting Americans give their loved ones this holiday season.

FEMA also advised that, in addition to reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids, you take the occasion of having the whole family together to "develop a family disaster plan."

Do they know something we don't??

SNOW!!

I awakened to a light dusting of snow this morning, our first winter storm of the season. In the time it took to make a pot of coffee, the snow changed to wet and dense, with a temperature hovering at 36ºF.

We are right at the edge of this storm so it's difficult to predict how much snow we will actually get. The Weather Liars say from 1 inch up to 8 inches. I am pretty well prepared if we lose power, except I overlooked the scant amount of cat food on hand.

I hope it's enough snow for a decent blanket over my garden beds for several days; I started prepping the beds last week with some biochar and organic worm castings covered with a thick layer of leaves. I wish I could get someone to come and till it all in but it may have to wait for early spring.

Silver and Gold

Photo: Creative Commons License by Muffet

Continuing with my thoughts on money, currency, and gold… I thought I’d write about silver a bit. In my earlier post on Gold Value, Investing and Risks, I mentioned USD ‘silver certficates’ which preceded the USD federal reserve notes.

There are still a few of those silver certificates around, in the hands of collectors. They were withdrawn from general circulation in the mid-1960’s as I recall. That was about the time the price of silver went up and the value of the silver in our coins became more than the face value of the coins, so the US Mints stopped making silver coins. I read somewhere that when silver was $16/ounce, the silver value of our then-silver dime was over $1 in value by weight of the silver.

People began saving their silver coins as the newer alloyed coins were minted. When many folks were preparing for Y2K, it was advised to look for silver coins in case our economy collapsed. Those old silver coins usually have no value to a coin collector except for the silver value. Those coins are called ‘junk silver’, and even today an occasional silver coin will show up in circulating change. (I once found an old US half-dime in some change; they were minted from 1792-1873. I had it in my jewelry box with some buffalo nickels and my baby sister bought ice-cream from the ice-cream truck with them.)

My grandfather always carried 2 silver dollars in his pocket. One was minted the year he was born, and the other was minted the year my grandmother was born. I got them when he died, but when all my jewelry was stolen a few years later, the coins were in the box. I bought one replacement, his birth year (1882) several years ago, in just ordinary circulating condition, and I paid something like $20 for it. Probably cost about that to replace it today as that year Morgan Silver dollars were plentiful except the ones with the "CC" mint mark.

Silver has fluctuated a lot in USD value over my adult years, from around $2 to almost $23 a troy ounce. Today as I write this, it is $16.62.

The US Mint issued Kennedy half-dollars in the mid-1960’s that had an inner core of 79% copper and 21% silver, and clad with an outer layer of 80% silver/20% copper. They were the last US Mint coins containing any silver; their total silver content was 40%. Our current half dollar coin has a metal value of about 8¢.

Pennies from 1909-1982 were 95% copper (except for the 1943 steel WWII penny), and worth almost 2¢ in copper today. Pennies since 1982 are 97.5% zinc and worth about half a cent in metal value. The few folks who do small metal castings (like sand castings) can melt pennies along with some aluminum cans and some copper wire for a very inexpensive homemade alloy that has a low melt point for casting small parts.

If you want to see the historical (and current) price of silver, check here.

One thing does concern me a bit… should a catastrophic event occur, would our government confiscate our silver and gold coins they way the Patriot Act says they can (including confiscation of food stores and other items) in much the same way Roosevelt confiscated gold in 1933?

Of course, you could invest in gold foil-covered chocolate 'coins' like the photo above... you can always eat them!

Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Drinking Water and a WAPI

I’ve never lived in Tornado Alley except the year when a tornado leveled Udall, Kansas killing 80 people and injuring hundreds more, about 35 miles from where we lived. However, I grew up in the Land of Hurricanes and have been through perhaps 20 of them from Cat 1’s to Cat 4’s.

So I know only too well the destruction and interruption of services from severe storms. Even now, living in the mountains, hurricanes pose a threat. It’s not the threat of wind damage, but the flooding that brings down mountainsides from rain coming up with a storm from the Gulf of Mexico or coming inland from the Atlantic. 3 inches of rain on relatively flat land isn’t too bad, but 3 inches of rain on a mountain all flows down to the lowest point, becoming feet instead of inches. With any severe storm, the water supply is usually affected.

I have posted how to make an inexpensive emergency water supply apparatus, but that still costs at least $50 for the filter. We all know you can boil water to kill any bacteria in it, but what if you have precious little fuel? Or maybe none? Sooner or later, the sun will come out and with a little cardboard and some aluminum foil you can make a solar oven.

Later this week I will post some plans for making a solar ovens (solar cookers), but solar ovens will not get hot enough to boil water. However, water doesn’t have to reach boiling temps to be safe. Water heated to 149ºF for a short time will pasteurize water; that is, it will kill disease-causing organisms like E. coli, Giardia, Rotaviruses and even the Hepatitis A virus.

Here’s a $6 gadget that you can use with a solar cooker to let you know when the water is pasteurized. It can also be used when heating water over a gas or charcoal grill or even a wood fire. It’s a great addition to camp and emergency packs.

The gadget is actually a simple thermometer called a WAPI, which stands for Water Pasteurization Indicator. It’s a reusable, durable indicator that contains a special soy wax in one end of the tube, and has a moveable weight to keep it at the bottom of the water when in use. When the water (or milk) reaches proper pasteurization temperature, the wax melts and runs to the bottom of the tube. Remove the tube from the pot and let it cool so the wax hardens in the bottom. To re-use, just turn the tube upside down (so the wax is at the top), slide the weight to the bottom, and drop it in cooking water.


WAPI’s are made by Solar Cookers International and sell for $6 (or less in bulk). Churches, Scouts and civic groups often raise money to supply them to Third World countries where millions of people become sick every year from drinking contaminated water. SCI also sells a solar pasteurizer called an AquaPak that is a bag with a WAPI built in. It will pasteurize 4-5 liters in about 2 hours, and sells for $20. Buy 2 and have water for a hot shower!

Hydrogen Peroxide and the Turnip Truck

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is one of the few inexpensive miracle substances still available to the public. The good news is that hydrogen peroxide is non-patentable (it’s in the public domain), so those great pharmaceutical houses with strings to Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney can’t make a dime off of it.

What does happen is that some manufacturers add just a tad of some minor (cheap and perhaps ineffective) ingredient to it, name it the “best” green product to clean and disinfect, and sell it to us in a fancy spray bottle at a high price… when in reality it is nothing more than ordinary 3% hydrogen peroxide you can buy in any drug store for under a dollar.

Those companies are pretty sure we just fell off the turnip truck, so let’s debunk that myth!

H2O2 is a weak acid with strong oxidizing properties, and is a powerful bleaching agent. It is used as a disinfectant, antiseptic and oxidizer. The hydrogen peroxide available at drug stores is usually 3% solution but Pharmaceutical/Food grades are available in solutions up to 35%.

About 50% of the world's production of hydrogen peroxide in 1994 was used for pulp and paper bleaching in the manufacturing process. Other bleaching applications are becoming more important as hydrogen peroxide is seen as an environmentally benign alternative to chlorine-based bleaches.

From here on out, when I say H2O2, hydrogen peroxide or peroxide, I’m referring to the standard 3% drug store solution that comes in brown (opaque) bottles. Hydrogen peroxide decomposes rapidly when exposed to light, hence the opaque bottles.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved hydrogen peroxide as a sanitizer. Clean your kitchen counters and bathroom surfaces with hydrogen peroxide to kill germs. Simply put some on a cloth, or spray it directly on the counters. (Remember, it is a bleaching solution so be careful where you spray it.) After cleaning your cutting board, pour peroxide on it to kill bacteria.

Add a cup of H2O2 instead of bleach to a load of whites in your laundry to whiten them. H2O2 is effective at treating fresh (red) blood-stains in clothing and other items. It must be applied to clothing before blood stains can be accidentally "set" with heated water. After peroxide dilutes the blood stain, cold water and soap can be used to remove the peroxide treated blood.

Hydrogen peroxide is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) as an antimicrobial agent by the FDA. Try it as a hand-sanitizer! Carry a bottle of it and some paper towels in the car’s glove box, especially during flu season.

H2O2 is used medically for cleaning wounds. Didn’t your Mama always pour peroxide on a cut before putting a bandaid on it? It causes mild damage to tissue in open wounds, but it also is effective at rapidly stopping capillary bleeding (slow blood oozing from small vessels in scrapes and abrasions).

There are numerous sites (and controversy) about using Food Grade (35%) H2O2 both intravenously and internally as treatment/cures for a number of diseases including cancer. That's not a discussion I want to get in to on this blog. There are also references to using H2O2 in the water for farm animals (like beef cattle, hogs turkeys and chickens) to prevent disease and increase market weight.

Some horticulturalists and hydroponic growers advocate a weak hydrogen peroxide solution in watering. Its spontaneous decomposition releases oxygen that enhances a plant's root development, and helps treat root rot. I have saved many an over-watered plant by adding peroxide mixed with water to the already soggy, droopy plant. Trust me, it works!

For germinating seeds, mix 1 oz. H2O2 with 1 pint (16 fl. oz.) water; soak seed 8 hrs. Peroxide can also be an excellent, safe insecticide. Simply spray your plants with 4-8 ounces of peroxide mixed with 8 ounces of white sugar and one gallon of water.

You probably knew all or most of these uses (and probably more!) already, but if you are like me, you get distracted by fancy commercials and forget. So let’s get back to using an excellent product that’s good for us, good for our pocketbooks and good for the environment. We already have a miracle product that’s multifunctional, cheap and GREEN… we didn’t just fall off that turnip truck!