Prep Genrl Weekly prep thread: October 26-November 1, 2025

[Wildwood]

We have an official freeze warning tonight...just barely but I don't guess that matters. Froze is froze. We were in the safe zone all week and sometime today they decided we weren't so I had to go glean what I could from my garden. I got about two bushels of green tomatoes and maybe a half bushel of ripe ones and a heaping bushel of peppers, mostly of the bell variety but not a bad showing with the not-a-penjo's. I was shocked with the bells. I knew the tomatoes were loaded but the bells have done nothing all summer so I just left them alone and ignored the raised bed I had them in.

It was the most grown up jungle mess you've ever seen and it was like an Easter egg hunt finding the peppers but there were a bunch and pretty ones too. I'm thinking the grown up part sheltered the actual peppers from any heat damage so they were pristine. About six weeks ago, I got so discouraged that I just walked off and left the whole thing and then was blessed with a big sweet potato harvest and more tomatoes and peppers than I ever dreamed I would have at this point.

All in all, not too bad. I'm an heirloom snob when it comes to tomatoes but I'm getting over it. When all my pretty heirlooms bit the dust this year having produced the smallest number of fruits I've gotten since I learned to garden, the experimental hybrids I planted in my overflow garden area kept quietly plodding along producing a little til all at once they exploded and seven plants produced ten times more than the other fifty all put together and did not quit...they were still at their peak of production. I've got to figure out exactly what they are but I'm still going to save seeds and plant a few from that next year.

 

[nomifyle]

We had a goat butchered several years ago, it was delicious but I just could not stand the idea of eating goat, so we never did that again, might still have some of the meat in the bottom and one of the freezers.

 

[feralferret]

I've had BBQed goat that was good. Don't like the taste of lamb. My wife doesn't like either one.

Pretty much the only beef I buy these days is on markdown if it looks normal. Sometimes the meat will look too far gone so I won't consider it.

 

[Meemur]

Yes, some of the "sale" meat looks questionable. I've been buying whole chickens, cutting them up, and then freezing them, along with sale pork chops, so I'm in better shape than I was last week. I still don't have a lot of beef, but that's OK. My notes from last year mention hamburger going on sale in November, so I'll watch for that.

I'd like to get around 8 - 10 pounds of hamburger and cut some of that with local sausage, make some patties, and then wrap and freeze, along with some meatballs, etc. And if I see any affordable roasts, 1 - 2 may come home with me, but the hamburger is a higher priority.

I'll see how it goes. I'm not going near the stores for awhile, and when I do, it'll be for just a few items. I don't want to be a target.

 

[Wildwood]

We just got home from our weekly eating on the cheap plan at McD's with the grands and shopping at WM for all our necessities...DGD wasn't with us this week. Everything was pretty much the same pricewise.

The reason DGD wasn't with us is because her mama and daddy took her hunting very early this morning and she's tired. She's ten and was still trying to get her first deer....boy did she ever succeed! Her daddy had seen the biggest buck he's ever seen in this area a few weeks ago during muzzle loader season but he couldn't get a good shot. He was sure he'd never see it again but it showed up this morning while they were on the stand. DS rattled it in and she got her deer...bigger than any her daddy ever got and he's a master at it. A dear friend had loaned them a very expensive and very accurate gun for her to use. DS and DDIL were over the moon happy...one of the sweetest times I've ever seen with their little family...it was a ten point.

Their lives are a challenge because of DDIL's seizures and this meat will be put to good use...he was huge. They are grinding the whole thing up for hamburger. DS got one during muzzle loader season a couple weeks ago so they already have the cuts of meat. Those two deer are huge for them. DDIL is a pretty good hunter herself so she gets the next one. DGS use to hunt with them but he doesn't like it. He's Papa's boy and it's dirt bikes only for him...he's obsessed with them. Just like DH.

I got my weekly four pounds of ground meat and a big package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I threw in a couple more cans of the canned ground beef for the pantry. I'm just going to keep stacking it because it tastes so much better than home canned plus I can't can it that cheap and it's still just a little over $5 a pound cooked. I also got liver cheese...grands absolutely love it on a sandwich and shaved ham lunch meat plus something new I've never tried. It's ham bits and pieces from spiral ham trimmings in a shrink package and looks really good...I'm thinking pots of beans or milk gravy. It would be good in an omelet too.

I meant to check to see if they had their Thanksgiving hams out yet but forgot. If they had them out, I didn't see them. There was only one regular ham with the other ham selections so if they had any they were in the middle coolers somewhere.

There was absolutely nothing out of order. There was the normal amount of people there and all was good. We just don't have the demographic for protests here. Give it a month or two with people going hungry and it might change. This is the kind of community where the grannies and churches will get together and make sure they are fed if at all possible. There wasn't even the usual person at the door as you go out to make sure nobody is stealing and you have a receipt. Knowing this area, they may have been doing that so they wouldn't have to stop somebody in need if that makes sense.

Boy I've been chatty today...I must have needed to visit.