Cultivating a Local Food System

[peregrinus_WA]

Found this article over at The Distributist Review:

Cultivating a Local Food System** **

As the War Mercantilist Socialism economy continues its downward grind, one of the most important tasks for distributists is to ensure local food security. I see six important elements that work together to support local food security:

(1) preparing meals from basic ingredients,
(2) frugal supermarket shopping,
(3) gardening,
(4) food storage,
(5) home preservation of food.
(6) buying local foods,

For those who do not know, distributism is an economic system that is family/local oriented. This is suppose to be the first in a series of articles on this topic.

On a side note:

One thing mentioned is making bread instead of buying it. That I can get behind since the breads I like tend to be expensive and too large for a single person… However, the oven in my apartment is not the best and has a habit of setting of the fire alarm which is a little too close to the kitchen. I am thinking of getting a small bread making machine. Does anyone have any suggestions on a machine. I figure I could easily recoup the price of the machine.

 

[Zooey]

I have a Regal that I bought at Walmart’s umpty years ago. (I also have another machine that I picked up at a yard sale for $20, new–The lady’s husband said, “I’d rather have you bake it in the oven, I don’t think I like bread machines” I have never used it as the Regal is still functional).
The main thing to look for, be sure to get a machine that will bake a 2 pound loaf. This sounds huge, but is actually an average size loaf, and the smaller machines require re-writing most recipes, which are all based on the aforementioned 2 pound loaf.
A bread machine will indeed pay for itself. I love mine…especially in:coolinoff: July & :coolinoff:August. (In :winter:January, I use the oven!)
If you do find a secondhand machine, theere is a “replacement manual” at hillbillyhousewife.com/breadmachinemanual.htm and I cannot say enough good things about it. I temporarily lost my manual, printed out this one, & I have never gone back to the “official” one again. (Site also had great recipes!) In other words: Print out this article & the recipes for bread machine breads from here, & enjoy homemade breads.

There are wonderful, pricey machines out there, & I am sure they are worth every cent. (I hear all kinds of good things about Zojirushi [Spelling??] Check King Arthur flours’ online store for info.)
Just saying, Both I & friends I have sent to this site have baked wonderful homemade breads for years, with Walmart and/or thriftstore-yard sale machines.

 

[peregrinus_WA]

I have a Regal that I bought at Walmart’s umpty years ago. (I also have another machine that I picked up at a yard sale for $20, new–The lady’s husband said, “I’d rather have you bake it in the oven, I don’t think I like bread machines” I have never used it as the Regal is still functional).
The main thing to look for, be sure to get a machine that will bake a 2 pound loaf. This sounds huge, but is actually an average size loaf, and the smaller machines require re-writing most recipes, which are all based on the aforementioned 2 pound loaf.
A bread machine will indeed pay for itself. I love mine…especially in:coolinoff: July & :coolinoff:August. (In :winter:January, I use the oven!)
If you do find a secondhand machine, theere is a “replacement manual” at hillbillyhousewife.com/breadmachinemanual.htm and I cannot say enough good things about it. I temporarily lost my manual, printed out this one, & I have never gone back to the “official” one again. (Site also had great recipes!) In other words: Print out this article & the recipes for bread machine breads from here, & enjoy homemade breads.

There are wonderful, pricey machines out there, & I am sure they are worth every cent. (I hear all kinds of good things about Zojirushi [Spelling??] Check King Arthur flours’ online store for info.)
Just saying, Both I & friends I have sent to this site have baked wonderful homemade breads for years, with Walmart and/or thriftstore-yard sale machines.

I am looking for one that is flexible. I would love to make some Sourdough, French, or Italian bread, but make it so they are like large single serving roles (I am assuming you can do that with the bread machine.

 

[peregrinus_WA]

Another thing I may try to do, especially when the Farmers Markets start up here is make some tomato (spaghetti) sauce from scratch. I cannot find any jar sauces that are thick enough and that is spiced to my liking. In addition, I do not cook with salt which it seems all sauces have in it.

When I mean from scratch, I mean from whole tomatoes. I know how to blanch tomatoes (how many men know how to do that ). The only thing I am trying to figure out is if I can use my slow cooker.

There are other things I am going to try to do, but I have not figured out what yet.

BTW: I am single and I am staying that way. rpp and I have the same philosophy on women. npatrol:

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

I am looking for one that is flexible. I would love to make some Sourdough, French, or Italian bread, but make it so they are like large single serving roles (I am assuming you can do that with the bread machine.

I would love to learn to make my own whole wheat/grain loaves. I had a bread machine but I never seemed to find a recipe that tasted good enough, but I will look into the recipes on that site, thanks! I like the idea of cheaper, healthier eating .

 

[peregrinus_WA]

I would love to learn to make my own whole wheat/grain loaves. I had a bread machine but I never seemed to find a recipe that tasted good enough, but I will look into the recipes on that site, thanks! I like the idea of cheaper, healthier eating .

I am reading into the Distributist and Catholic Land movements. Both promote local and individual self-sufficiency. In fact, I truly believe that Modern Society had robbed people of the capability of self-sufficiency and have stated that in an entry in my blog that will be publish tomorrow.

 

[rpp]

Another thing I may try to do, especially when the Farmers Markets start up here is make some tomato (spaghetti) sauce from scratch. I cannot find any jar sauces that are thick enough and that is spiced to my liking. In addition, I do not cook with salt which it seems all sauces have in it.

When I mean from scratch, I mean from whole tomatoes. I know how to blanch tomatoes (how many men know how to do that ). The only thing I am trying to figure out is if I can use my slow cooker.

There are other things I am going to try to do, but I have not figured out what yet.

BTW: I am single and I am staying that way. rpp and I have the same philosophy on women. npatrol:

Because tomatoes have certain types of acid, if you blanch them, you can only freeze them. You cannot use regular canning methods. If you want to can tomatoes or tomato based sauces, you must use a pressure canner.

Making bread (I often make my own) is both easy and complicated. Complicated because, unlike most cooking, you have to get the ingredients in exactly the right proportion, the liquid needs to be at the right temperature and the room temperature during the rising must be in the right range (usually 75-85) and is warmer than what most people keep their home. This is true whether using bread machines or kneading by hand. The bread machine will give you consistent result, but I find that the texture is more coarse, at least with my Oster.

I would second Zooey’s observation about getting a machine that can handle a two-pond loaf. While you can adjust the recipes to make a smaller loaf, you generally cannot go less than 1-1/2 pounds with a bread machine because there is two little dough for the automatic kneading to work effectively. You would have to knead smaller amounts of dough by hand.

You can always freeze the extra bread after you make it. I would not recommend trying to divide the dough before the machine starts to bake it. Most machines have a dough-only mode. It will knead and rise the dough, but not bake it. You canthen divide the dough, freeze what you do not immediately need and bake, in your oven, what you need.

By the way, salt is a critical ingredient to bread as it help kick-start the yeast and helps the bread to rise. You can minimize salt by making sweet breads.

Like you, I am single but feel called to the vocation of marriage. Our philosophy may be the same, but I am not sure our goal is. :bluelite:

 

[peregrinus_WA]

Because tomatoes have certain types of acid, if you blanch them, you can only freeze them. You cannot use regular canning methods. If you want to can tomatoes or tomato based sauces, you must use a pressure canner.

I plan on making sauce only since I cannot eat whole tomatoes so that is not the issue.

Making bread (I often make my own) is both easy and complicated. Complicated because, unlike most cooking, you have to get the ingredients in exactly the right proportion, the liquid needs to be at the right temperature and the room temperature during the rising must be in the right range (usually 75-85) and is warmer than what most people keep their home. This is true whether using bread machines or kneading by hand. The bread machine will give you consistent result, but I find that the texture is more coarse, at least with my Oster.

Thanks for the advice on the temp. I have made bread from scratch before but I never paid attention to the temp.

By the way, salt is a critical ingredient to bread as it help kick-start the yeast and helps the bread to rise. You can minimize salt by making sweet breads.

Baking is the only time I use salt.

Like you, I am single but feel called to the vocation of marriage. Our philosophy may be the same, but I am not sure our goal is. :bluelite:

I definitely ain’t :yukonjoe::hey_bud::takeoff:

 

[Brenda_V]

Because tomatoes have certain types of acid, if you blanch them, you can only freeze them. You cannot use regular canning methods. If you want to can tomatoes or tomato based sauces, you must use a pressure canner./quote]

I beg to differ. I have successfully canned tomatoes by blanching them to remove the skins and using a water bath method. No salt involved either. Can’t do it anymore as I found out I am allergic to tomatoes which explained why my hands were raw when I canned them. As for being unique in knowing how to blanch them, guess again, my husband knows how to do so, we do the same with every other vegetable we have preserved (most by freezing, just not tomatoes as they are acidic enough to water bath can).
rpp;5211252:

Making bread (I often make my own) is both easy and complicated. Complicated because, unlike most cooking, you have to get the ingredients in exactly the right proportion, the liquid needs to be at the right temperature and the room temperature during the rising must be in the right range (usually 75-85) and is warmer than what most people keep their home. This is true whether using bread machines or kneading by hand. The bread machine will give you consistent result, but I find that the texture is more coarse, at least with my Oster.

I would second Zooey’s observation about getting a machine that can handle a two-pond loaf. While you can adjust the recipes to make a smaller loaf, you generally cannot go less than 1-1/2 pounds with a bread machine because there is two little dough for the automatic kneading to work effectively. You would have to knead smaller amounts of dough by hand.

You can always freeze the extra bread after you make it. I would not recommend trying to divide the dough before the machine starts to bake it. Most machines have a dough-only mode. It will knead and rise the dough, but not bake it. You canthen divide the dough, freeze what you do not immediately need and bake, in your oven, what you need.

By the way, salt is a critical ingredient to bread as it help kick-start the yeast and helps the bread to rise. You can minimize salt by making sweet breads.

Like you, I am single but feel called to the vocation of marriage. Our philosophy may be the same, but I am not sure our goal is. :bluelite:

Bread is not as sensitive as you are making it out to be. I also successfully make bread without salt but the taste is slightly off. The amount of salt used in making yeast breads is negligible though so I stopped worrying about it and just add that teaspoon of salt.

To answer the question about bread bakers and making “one large bun”, not going to happen. Like rpp said above, you need a larger volume of ingredients for the bread maker to work. Now I have one but haven’t used it in over 6 years. As a matter of fact I should be getting rid of it as it just takes up space in my cupboard.

If you are wanting to make buns, use the bread maker to do the mixing and kneading for you, then take out the dough and shape and bake (only our OP’s oven does not work - suggestion, look into a small countertop convection/toaster oven appliance instead of a bread maker, then you can make small loafs of bread easier.) Somewhere in all my recipes I even have a dough recipe that can sit in the fridge for up to two weeks and you only take out the amount you want.

Now, did someone ask about sour dough? To make sour dough, you need a starter, again I used to do that but I was the only one who liked sour dough that well (my husband got turned off once he saw how the starter is made and what it did to one of my dish towels) and then I found I can’t eat wheat so when I make breads there is no kneading involved, just rising. Reminds me I need to try making a wheat free sour dough starter!

Brenda V.

 

[Elie_JAMES]

Nice recipe

 

[shannyk]

I’ve not ever had really good results with a bread maker. Doesn’t mean there aren’t good ones out there but I just gave up in trying different ones and just make my own by hand. Plus I like to soak my grains before I bake with them so doing it my hand allows for that.

First off…your oven. Sounds like it just might need a good cleaning if there is stuff down in the broiler etc. it might smoke horribly. Also if your temp controls aren’t working right try a thermometer for inside the oven so you can know the true temp in there. That way you can figure out where to set the temp.

Allrecipes.com has a TON of bread recipes of all kinds including bread machine recipes. Most people don’t like their homemade bread for sandwiches etc. because they are used to the fluffy bread from the store. Fluffy, tear-able instead of breakable bread requires gluten and plenty of it. You can get wheat gluten to add to bread recipes if you wan that typical bread texture. It’s often in stores now, in the Bob’s Red Mill brand. The Bob’s site has some good recipes there too.

When I’m not making my son’s gluten free coconut flour bread, I make this wheat bread for the rest of us. Best to slice and then freeze what you’re not going to use right away because homemade bread dries faster than store bought. I’ve also used white whole wheat and half whole wheat half AP flour for this for a lighter more ‘white bread’ result.

On the local food thing, have you looked into food co-ops? It’s something you could maybe go into with a friend or friends if you’re a single guy because it usually involves far more food than one person can eat. It’s a great option though for locally grown food:thumbsup:

ETA Ok I just realized how old this thread is…oh well

 

[peregrinus_WA]

First off…your oven. Sounds like it just might need a good cleaning if there is stuff down in the broiler etc. it might smoke horribly. Also if your temp controls aren’t working right try a thermometer for inside the oven so you can know the true temp in there. That way you can figure out where to set the temp.

That is the first thing I checked. It was clean. Also, the fire alarm goes off even when I am sauteing things with the stove vent on and even when I take a shower sometime (although I have figured out how to stop that). The apartment complex says that the alarms are set to be very sensitive.

Allrecipes.com has a TON of bread recipes of all kinds including bread machine recipes. Most people don’t like their homemade bread for sandwiches etc. because they are used to the fluffy bread from the store. Fluffy, tear-able instead of breakable bread requires gluten and plenty of it. You can get wheat gluten to add to bread recipes if you wan that typical bread texture. It’s often in stores now, in the Bob’s Red Mill brand. The Bob’s site has some good recipes there too.

I actually have Allrecipes bookmarked and I have the iPhone app. Yes, I am a technogeek

On the local food thing, have you looked into food co-ops? It’s something you could maybe go into with a friend or friends if you’re a single guy because it usually involves far more food than one person can eat. It’s a great option though for locally grown food:thumbsup:

ETA Ok I just realized how old this thread is…oh well

I have started to. One thing I like to do is go to farmers markets. There is also a place called Western Market that has a lot of local foodstuffs.