Things I have learned this year of doing without.

My parents lived through the depression. They told stories of lard sandwiches. My mother had jam because my grandfather worked at a sugar factory and  brought home sugar before the war and rationing started to provide for his family. Food storage is a way of life for me. Twice I have suffered job loss and my food storage kept us going. My goal is to always have a years supply. My supply is down to bare bones with this last year of unemployment. I also use my food storage as a hedge against inflation. I buy at today's prices so I don't have to buy at the increased cost tomorrow. It seems like lately cost of food is only on the rise so the more I buy and put away now the more I save my family in food dollars tomorrow and the next day. I can fresh produce in season and never turn down free food. I was grateful to get to pick a large pear tree this fall. So we have plenty of canned pears. I was able to glean somewhere around 400# of white potatoes and I am still trying to get them all canned. As my jars empty and I have enough canning jars for a load I refill them with what I am given. We will be eating potatoes for years to come. But that's ok it makes me feel good knowing my jars are full and I can make a meal for my kids. My parents taught us to eat things like macaroni and tomatoes or macaroni and milk. So I am never without a box of macaroni in the house to feed hungry children. Bread and butter fills hungry bellies too and stretches the meal. I recently learned that I like to add oatmeal to my hamburger to make it go further too a trick from the depression era cookbook I just read. And while I will never make myself a lard sandwich the health benefits of lard are being rediscovered and it does make the flakiest pie crusts. Well I got to go I am boiling a chicken carcus to make bone broth who knew that after making my stock this same way my whole life I am now trendy as well as healthy.