Preparing for troubled times ahead - Advice on what is needed.....

[Toddy]

I think things are changing though. Too slowly, but they are changing.
Scotland's renewable/green energy is growing rapidly. It's not enough to heat every home, etc., yet....

I think the huge issue is that we don't want to do without energy. Our very modern lives (the internet we're all using, etc., ) need energy. But that's been true since the first apes made and used fire, and everything we've done thereafter is just building on that.

So, we need to make better use of energy, and we need to be more aware of pollution from our energy production, of all methods, because we know what we're doing to our planet.

The UK and much of N.Western Europe's in a funny situation though, we cannot rely on solar energy to provide enough. Whether that's from panels or from trees grown for firewood, we don't provide enough for our current energy needs. So, that means we need fossil fuels, or nuclear power.
Unless we really do get our act together and embrace the technology Trinity of sun, wind and water power and use it to our best advantage.

I think we'll get there, but we're not there, yet.

M

 

[bearbait]

A number of foreign countries and companies own massive stakes in the UK's power generation. I believe that our nation - the public - should own our power generation and distribution, and that none of it should be in private hands. Same foreign ownership applies to our water companies.

(I'm sure that suitable search query will find you some damning info.)

 

[bearbait]

I was totally unaware of the last major event so thank you. I have been saying for years now that any invading forces would only have to hit the grid and absolute chaos would be achieved in less than 48hrs, completely forgot about solar flares, doh !

Interesting novel on a similar topic: Blackout by Marc Elsberg, except that it's a coalition of hackers that start bringing down the grids across numerous countries. It's disturbing how potentially quickly our "civilised" behaviour changes when faced with no power, no fuel for the car, no food in the shops, no...

 

[Harold Godwinson]

Always makes me laugh the EDF charge UK users through the nose so they can keep French prices down, I know through out history we have bailed the French out a few times but is it really acceptable now that we are basically paying for them to have cheaper energy??

Going back to the question I don't know how bad things will get, one day we might even see rationing brought in for things like energy or maybe even food but we can all use less of everything, we are all very wasteful simply due to our life styles. Potentially it will need peoples life styles to change as well as for people to grow there own etc. As a 70's kid I look back on how life was then, how my parents did things and we were all more frugal. I grew up in second hand clothes not designer brands, I had a second hand bike. We walked everywhere as kids, we ate what was put in front of us and if there wasn't enough food we had sandwiches for dinner (we never went without but we never ate to excess either).

I feel in many ways history is repeating itself, humanity always reaches a peek that becomes unsustainable and then things come crashing down and a new order of normal is established.

The probably is as a species westerners are now very lazy and soft, we have learnt to expect things as our right and expect our governments to maintain these things. Sadly, it's now becoming evident these things are not as sustainable as we think.

 

[sidpost]

Interesting novel on a similar topic: Blackout by Marc Elsberg, except that it's a coalition of hackers that start bringing down the grids across numerous countries. It's disturbing how potentially quickly our "civilised" behaviour changes when faced with no power, no fuel for the car, no food in the shops, no...

I personally lived through this type of scenario in a massive tornado strike that took down the Nuclear power plant in addition to the power lines.

I was there for three weeks with no electricity, and two weeks with none in a 60-mile radius! Well water so, no electricity for the well pump. No gasoline since the pumps didn't run. Perishable food all went bad.

I met neighbors and shared meals together with people I had never met. People came around to make sure I was doing well, and all sorts of positive things.

I was in a rural area so, so my experience was likely much different than that of other people in larger metropolitan areas but, weeks later I did not see any reports of looting but, I did see and hear reports of people in neighborhoods sending storm damage "tourists/looters" away at rifle point (this was in Alabama, USA).

 

[Bearmont]

During our last flood in Germany there was a wave of support and helpers arriving while the official rescue forces were stuck lacking official authorization because of some political issue. So yeah, I have much more hope in people being decent and the horror scenarios we get in movies can just be considered elaborate fear campaigns.

 

[sidpost]

During our last flood in Germany there was a wave of support and helpers arriving while the official rescue forces were stuck lacking official authorization because of some political issue. So yeah, I have much more hope in people being decent and the horror scenarios we get in movies can just be considered elaborate fear campaigns.

German bureaucracy can be a real challenge at times. I loved my time there but, some of the rules would drive you nuts!

The people there were always really supportive of each other from what I saw. Friendships there are very deep and long-lasting so if you are new, it takes a long time to become a member of the local citizen groups but, once accepted you have a very good group of people to socialize with and get advice about any number of things.

Today, watching the news (DW and BBC) I wonder how much things have changed with migration and Neo-Nazi problems which I hope is just a passing issue like the anti-foreigner issues in the Netherlands following the death of a famous painter's descendant.

One thing about that part of the world is that the people really know how to preserve food for lean times. I was amazed by the grandmother that grew all sorts of leafy greens and vegetables during Winter! That and fermented things like sauerkraut really made Winter a nice season for me on the dairy! I didn't snow ski but, the local festivals and fairs were really nice along with many great weekends with a beer stein in a tent somewhere listening to the band and chatting with locals.

 

[Woody girl]

Preserving skills ,apart from jam and chutney making never realy seem to be a thing in the UK.
I once tried salting runner beans using table salt, went all slimy, it was nasty !
I'm thinking I used the wrong type of salt. The old lady who told me about salting beans is now long gone, research is mostly americanised on this sort of thing and they talk about using kosher salt. My local shop looked at me like I was asking for unicorn teeth when I asked if they had any. I'd realy like to learn this skill as I'm always over run with runner beans.

 

[Toddy]

Runner beans are tricky, because you really want a kind of crunch still in them.
The folks who produce tins of beans use calcium chloride as a firming agent. It is used in tiny quantities, but it makes a huge difference to the quality of the product, helps keep the colour too. No grey slime, iimmc ?
It's safe to eat, it's one of the basic chemicals used to make tofu.
It's easily available to buy and to use.

Much nicer than salted beans, tbh, and I like salt, but salted beans are only fine in very small quantities, not as a big part of a meal.

 

[SaraR]

Preserving skills ,apart from jam and chutney making never realy seem to be a thing in the UK.
I once tried salting runner beans using table salt, went all slimy, it was nasty !
I'm thinking I used the wrong type of salt. The old lady who told me about salting beans is now long gone, research is mostly americanised on this sort of thing and they talk about using kosher salt. My local shop looked at me like I was asking for unicorn teeth when I asked if they had any. I'd realy like to learn this skill as I'm always over run with runner beans.

As far as I can tell kosher salt is just coarser than table salt (and doesn’t have any iodine and the like added to it).

 

[Bearmont]

I just lactoferment everything, as that also makes stuff shelf-stable for a really long time. It should work with fresh beans, but I don't know the kind. Mostly I do Sauerkraut, or carrots, or a hot sauce mix to be blended later. Fermenting garlic in honey is really cool too.

Just get some clean 2% salt water, put the veg in there and allow it to release excess gas. That's basically it. It produces its own carbon dioxide making the glass sterile after a while.

 

[sidpost]

Preserving skills ,apart from jam and chutney making never realy seem to be a thing in the UK.
I once tried salting runner beans using table salt, went all slimy, it was nasty !
I'm thinking I used the wrong type of salt. The old lady who told me about salting beans is now long gone, research is mostly americanised on this sort of thing and they talk about using kosher salt. My local shop looked at me like I was asking for unicorn teeth when I asked if they had any. I'd realy like to learn this skill as I'm always over run with runner beans.

Table salt in the USA has all sorts of "anti-caking agents" in it so, it can't be used to can with for the reasons you noted.

Kosher salt is a large flake salt that is NOT contaminated most of the time with other stuff like Anti-Cacking agents.

I think it is Oak leaves but, I could be wrong with the tree type that is used to keep things like beans firm when canned so as you noted, they turn soft or slimy. My local farm store sells a product with this in it that duplicates this effect. Don't remember the specific brand name right now but, it contained the things in the leaves to keep stuff firm and fresh when "canned".

 

[sidpost]

As far as I can tell kosher salt is just coarser than table salt (and doesn’t have any iodine and the like added to it).

Table salt is available commonly in the USA with and without Iodine but, Iodine is not the problem with the issue noted above about soft slimy runner beans.

I don't recall ever seeing Kosher salt with iodine listed.

 

[sidpost]

If you have one of the "Y2K Prepper" air-tight food storage containers, put fully dry beans in it and flush it with Nitrogen gas to remove all the Oxygen and they will last a really long time.

For really old dry beans, pre-soak in Salted water to break down the tough outer layers of the bean, and then cook as you normally would.

 

[SaraR]

Table salt is available commonly in the USA with and without Iodine but, Iodine is not the problem with the issue noted above about soft slimy runner beans.

I don't recall ever seeing Kosher salt with iodine listed.

That’s what I wrote.

Coarser salt crystals, like in the kosher salt, will stay intact for longer while still absorbing liquid, but then again, pickling salt is usually quite fine-grained. And if you fully submerge it, the salt will obviously dissolve eventually. So I’m guessing the salt crystal size didn’t really matter in this case. Iodine shouldnt’ affect it either, but perhaps some of the anti-caking agents caused the slimyness?

 

[sidpost]

Since pickling often involves colder water or is added to the mason jar directly, pickling salt is intentionally made smaller to facilitate it dissolving into water and what is being canned.

Big salt flakes will do the same thing, it just takes longer. Pickling salt around me can be hard to find at times so, I typically use some Kosher salt since I don't want anything else except the salt in my products.

Some water softener and pool salt is pure salt so, they can be used too. I preserve some raw pork products in tubs of pool salt for the simple reason it is so much cheaper. The pork doesn't know the difference so I use pool salt when I need large quantities of it.

I'm currently using a bag of water softener salt in my fish tank as well. My fish love some salt in their water and it really helps their health as well.

 

[santaman2000]

Runner beans are tricky, because you really want a kind of crunch still in them.
The folks who produce tins of beans use calcium chloride as a firming agent. It is used in tiny quantities, but it makes a huge difference to the quality of the product, helps keep the colour too. No grey slime, iimmc ?
It's safe to eat, it's one of the basic chemicals used to make tofu.
It's easily available to buy and to use.

Much nicer than salted beans, tbh, and I like salt, but salted beans are only fine in very small quantities, not as a big part of a meal.

Yes but is tofu really edible?

 

[santaman2000]

I see a lot of comments about how we need to reduce our power usage and comparing today to times past. True enough we could each reduce what we consume with minimal discomfort but that's not as effective as it might seem. Going back to the 60s and 70s as many of us relate for our childhoods it's important to remember that not only did each of us use less then, but there were also far fewer of us (approximately 3.6 billion in 1970 vs just over 8 billion now) Also we can't just consider what we use personally but how much is used on our behalf in the form of infrastructure. Small examples being the number of energy consuming grocery stores, hospitals, textile factories, etc. expanded to serve that growing population.

 

[Toddy]

Yes but is tofu really edible?

Well, I like it.
A lot of people world wide like it too

Kind of weird though, how out of literally thousands of edible plants that humanity subsists mainly on a couple of dozen.

Maybe it's time to think outside the basics.

M

 

[Woody girl]

I see a lot of comments about how we need to reduce our power usage and comparing today to times past. True enough we could each reduce what we consume with minimal discomfort but that's not as effective as it might seem. Going back to the 60s and 70s as many of us relate for our childhoods it's important to remember that not only did each of us use less then, but there were also far fewer of us (approximately 3.6 billion in 1970 vs just over 8 billion now) Also we can't just consider what we use personally but how much is used on our behalf in the form of infrastructure. Small examples being the number of energy consuming grocery stores, hospitals, textile factories, etc. expanded to serve that growing population.

What annoys me is that exmoor boasts about being plastic free, all our local shops now use paper carrier bags...except the co op, our main food shop, which covers everything in plastic and still uses compostable bags that don't compost unless it's hot composting.
I use my own home made cotton bag for my shopping, I used to refill my ecco cleaning products, but the town lost that business during the pandemic, so that option is gone.
I get a refill for my glass milk bottles at the grocers, and always carry a reusable cup for take away drinks, and a reusable water bottle, which can be refilled in at least 3 tea rooms, two pubs and a hotel, but visitors , and locals still buy plastic bottled drinks and food, which they ..sometimes.. put in a bin, often not. Plastic bags full of dog poo hung on branches or just dumped at the side of the road or path. Everyone drives here in their car, and doesn't use public transport, so buses have been cut, and will be cut further, meaning more cars.
It's madness. Lip service, no more.
I barely half fill my small wheely bin in a month. I put out more plastic for recycling than anything else as choice for plastic free products is so limited.. It hurts me. Pre pandemic, I was realy proud of my plastic free life. Its gone backwards here.