What have you done?

[Sean the Nailer]

I got a phone-call this morning from a bro of mine. The eatery that he manages is shutting down for a few weeks. He asked if I/we wanted any of his 'stock' that won't keep on hand. I said "sure, I'm more than interested, it just depends on the price as to what I can afford".

He said that I just have to "show up smiling" and it's all mine.

I/we were there an hour later, he loaded up our truck, and the first thing I did was drove across the street to another bro of mine, and asked if he and/or his family could use some potatoes. His eyes lit up. I gave him a 50 lb box of potatoes, right there. He started to 'walk away' with it, but I asked him "are you just going to leave it in your car all day, till end of shift? (it's freezing here, still very winter) He said 'yes'. So I said "put it back in the truck, and I'll just go take it to your place and give it to your mom." He called her to ensure that she was home.

The smiles on his face though, for a whole box of spuds (restaurant quality) sure was something.

Then the smiles on his mom's face, when we arrived, sure made an impact too.

So My Lady and I are fixin' to learn how to "shred-blanche-dehydrate" a whole whack of potatoes. Simply because there is NO WAY that we can store them without them going bad before we use them. And that's still with giving more away. I've got time to help out in the kitchen doing this, and besides, a LOT can be done with dehydrated grated potatoes.

Knocked on 2 other neighbor's doors to offer the same as above, but nobody was home yet. Will try again later.

So, we all get the 'shelter in place' or whatever, but what have you done to help out 'yours' and those around you?

 

[Kadams1563]

Loaded ammo, bought TV dinners, and waited for the go ahead.

 

[Alphatreedog]

Buddy of mine asked how I was with supplies and I said ok . He pressed about alcohol and I sai about a week and a half of beer m Next day hit handed me. 1.75 litre bottle of peach vodka . He was lamenting his shortage of .223 today . I told him I could hook him up woth 200 bullets to reload and asked him about powder n primer . He's good . He gave another friend of ours several boxes of non perishables . It's goog to have friends .

 

[theLBC]

good job!
we can't eat a costco bag of potatoes before they start growing, so we give away half a bag every time we buy them.
it is still cheaper than buying them from the grocery store.
same with butter, although we can freeze it, i will give some away if i know somebody that can use anything to help.

i never had enough potatoes to peel to try this.

 

[PatMiles]

Dumb shit is out on his deck in the rain using an electric drill!

 

[Threadcutter308]

Dumb shit is out on his deck in the rain using an electric drill!

If he was really smart, he would have added some rock salt to the bath water and sprinkled some all over the deck. Increase that conductivity baby !

 

[Sharpshooter3]

If you put those potato’s in the fridge they will last for a couple months. We also used to store them in the basement in netted bags as kids and they would keep for quite awhile would get a few eyes growing on them but just snap them off and make mashed potato’s.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Seeing as our basement is 'warm' because we've tried to store them down there thinking the same thing,,,, but they grew eyes and turned green just within a few weeks.

This 'grated/blanched/dehydrated' thing IS going to work, but it is going to take a while. Anyone here have experience with canning potatoes?

Because SO MANY restaurants/food kiosks are being shut down, the soup-kitchens and food-donation places are inundated with stuff that won't keep.

I'm not looking at storing/putting up all 200 lbs of them, but we gotta be able to do something. Still have a foot of snow on the ground, going down to -21 tonight, just a FYI on locale.

And no room in either fridge, as we just got 2 cases of eggs last weekend from a local producer that we've been dealing with for years. They grows good chickens, mmmm hhmmmmm

 

[armorpl8chikn]

Do NOT try to home can potatoes. I know someone is gonna flame me and tell me how they can taters all the time.....to that I'll simply say, lucky you.

Leave the tater canning to the pros with the right equipment.

 

[RioKid]

More of a "nice thing someone did for me" report...

I live in a small town, during the winter, I always swing in and plow out the driveway and dooryard of a nice family who lives about 6 miles away. That family lost dad to cancer a few years back while the kids were still in high school.
My wife has battled an autoimmune disease for a long time and one of her treatments is to nuke her immune system to nothing about every 18 months or so. Well, as shit luck would have it, she just finished that latest round of treatment about a month ago. So she is quite vulnerable to viruses and such.
Well, the lady who's driveway I clean out always wants to know what she can do to show her appreciation and I always tell her "nothing, just looking out for each other in a small town...".
She happens to work at the little pharmacy in town and I called to refill prescriptions yesterday and when I went to pick them up, she walked out with them when she saw my truck pull up. She had a pen wrapped in a disinfectant wipe and took care of the transaction at the curb. Since she knows my wife is susceptible to crap, I thought that was pretty frickin' cool of her to do that.
Sorry it was long winded, but it's the least I can do to show my appreciation by telling you all that people/neighbors still do look out for one another. Nice play Sheila!!! And thank you!
RioKid

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Do NOT try to home can potatoes. I know someone is gonna flame me and tell me how they can taters all the time.....to that I'll simply say, lucky you.

Leave the tater canning to the pros with the right equipment.

You know I gotta ask 'why', right? My Lady and I are not new to 'putting up' either with a "water bath" method or "pressure canner" method, depending on what we're working on. Though truth-be-told, neither of us have pressure-canned potatoes. Numerous other things, including beans (that we're still working on getting the "goodest" recipe going), mushrooms, corn, pumpkin, applesauce, etc.

Hit me with a PM if you want, but I'd sure like to hear why. Thank you.

 

[QuickNDirty]

I got a phone-call this morning from a bro of mine. The eatery that he manages is shutting down for a few weeks. He asked if I/we wanted any of his 'stock' that won't keep on hand. I said "sure, I'm more than interested, it just depends on the price as to what I can afford".

He said that I just have to "show up smiling" and it's all mine.

I/we were there an hour later, he loaded up our truck, and the first thing I did was drove across the street to another bro of mine, and asked if he and/or his family could use some potatoes. His eyes lit up. I gave him a 50 lb box of potatoes, right there. He started to 'walk away' with it, but I asked him "are you just going to leave it in your car all day, till end of shift? (it's freezing here, still very winter) He said 'yes'. So I said "put it back in the truck, and I'll just go take it to your place and give it to your mom." He called her to ensure that she was home.

The smiles on his face though, for a whole box of spuds (restaurant quality) sure was something.

Then the smiles on his mom's face, when we arrived, sure made an impact too.

So My Lady and I are fixin' to learn how to "shred-blanche-dehydrate" a whole whack of potatoes. Simply because there is NO WAY that we can store them without them going bad before we use them. And that's still with giving more away. I've got time to help out in the kitchen doing this, and besides, a LOT can be done with dehydrated grated potatoes.

Knocked on 2 other neighbor's doors to offer the same as above, but nobody was home yet. Will try again later.

So, we all get the 'shelter in place' or whatever, but what have you done to help out 'yours' and those around you?

I don't even know what I've done. Don't know anyone that offered me free shit, but my neighbors are good, and some others I made good, and some others still (after the rationing) I just gave money to, with some instructions on how to use it.

One lady from the last batch told me she used the money I sent to buy some tools to do some work that netted her $50 today. She's got 5 more jobs this week in the pipeline. Her husband is also a trucker, apparently. Least I can do.

 

[alpine44]

We used to have a potato cellar (Kartoffelkeller) during my childhood. Temperature was cool like a wine cellar but fairly dry and it was absolutely dark. Potatoes were kept in a bin made from wooden slats and they would be ok for months.

Cool, dry, and absolute darkness is key. We made an experiment with a simple maze built out of a shoe box. Several separation walls with small ,offset gaps along the side walls and one hole towards the outside of the box. A germinated potato in a small flower pot was put at the far end. After about a week the potato plant would emerge from the hole after zigzagging across the baffles while following the path of the extremely faint light in the box.
Like shown here https://m.simplyscience.ch/kids-exp...-irrwegen-findet-er-zum-licht.html?_locale=de

 

[armorpl8chikn]

You know I gotta ask 'why', right? My Lady and I are not new to 'putting up' either with a "water bath" method or "pressure canner" method, depending on what we're working on. Though truth-be-told, neither of us have pressure-canned potatoes. Numerous other things, including beans (that we're still working on getting the "goodest" recipe going), mushrooms, corn, pumpkin, applesauce, etc.

Hit me with a PM if you want, but I'd sure like to hear why. Thank you.

Botulism.
Any low acid food can be higher risk. Potatoes are especially vulnerable as they are a ground crop, and the bacteria that cause it are prevalent in soil.

 

[QuickNDirty]

Oh..... I also just went Nuclear.



That post.. shows up to about 80% of the Pasadena voters. Plus another 25% in my own group, and a substantial percentage of the rest of the voters IF it gets approved in that page.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Bro just dropped off a 2 gallon bucket of Sauerkraut. I have NO IDEA what-all I'm going to do with that. I hardly ever touch the stuff. And he says that he's got another 5-10 boxes (possibly) of potatoes for me tomorrow, too.

At 50 lbs a box, pretty soon we're gonna be talking about a serious amount of spuds! Food banks around us, and soup-kitchens too, are already overflowing because of so many restaurants having the same issue. Hence why we're looking for a "long term storage" process. For us, and others too.

 

[earthtrekker1775]

Bro just dropped off a 2 gallon bucket of Sauerkraut. I have NO IDEA what-all I'm going to do with that. I hardly ever touch the stuff. And he says that he's got another 5-10 boxes (possibly) of potatoes for me tomorrow, too.

At 50 lbs a box, pretty soon we're gonna be talking about a serious amount of spuds! Food banks around us, and soup-kitchens too, are already overflowing because of so many restaurants having the same issue. Hence why we're looking for a "long term storage" process. For us, and others too.

Boil, salt and mash them fine, then dehydrate them into powder. Vacuum seal and reconstitute when hungry. Check directions online as I am not a food storage expert.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Got a phone call this morning from another Bro of mine, where he asked me if I needed any beef for our freezer. He's the same one I was going to call and ask if him and/or his family needed any potatoes. After arriving at his house upon completion of our errands, he brings out a box of vacuum-packed and frozen steaks, (2 to a pack) and goes back into his house carrying a 50 lb box of potatoes.

It's great to have bro's looking after each other.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Bought 1x4 sticks and 1/8" tempered Masonite; a fair-to-middlin' bunch..

Got a little low intensity project going on in the Garage and shop, building light duty work benches and shelving for balsa and tissue rubber powered model aircraft construction.

Grandson is building a heavy duty workbench and shelves out in the garage for general repair work, including trucks and quads.

This is not a restriction, it's an opportunity to prepare and come out of this hitting the ground running.

Greg

 

[Greg Langelius *]

I do some canning. At the altitude I live (pressure is 85% of sea level), I must use a pressure canner, because the necessary temp can't be reached with a simple water bath canner; it boils at too low a temp. This is the one I use, with the rack removed, It can be used as a pressure cooker, making meals like Stews, Tomato Sauces, and Corned Beef W/Cabbage go a lot faster.

Potatoes will darken if stored below 45 degrees, even when canned.

Canned potatoes will also soften over time. To prevent softening, I use Calcium Chloride Salt additive, or Pickle Crisper. Salt substitute also contains Calcium Chloride, and has the benefit of reducing Sodium intake.

When I make stews for canning, I use calcium chloride/pickle crisper for 1/2 of the added salt. I happen to be on a low sodium diet, anyway. I add a small amount of lemon juice to the water in the bowl where I soak and lightly salt the cubed potatoes I will use in the stew. If they're being canned, I use pickle crisper instead of salt. The lemon juice helps prevent the potatoes form darkening; also, try to keep them from drying out, it's not good before cooking.

Tips.

Jars and (...yes...) cans can contain Sauerkraut, so can it. I would add a smidge of vinegar to assure a safer canning result.

Greg

 

[Maggot]

Bro just dropped off a 2 gallon bucket of Sauerkraut. I have NO IDEA what-all I'm going to do with that. I hardly ever touch the stuff. And he says that he's got another 5-10 boxes (possibly) of potatoes for me tomorrow, too.

At 50 lbs a box, pretty soon we're gonna be talking about a serious amount of spuds! Food banks around us, and soup-kitchens too, are already overflowing because of so many restaurants having the same issue. Hence why we're looking for a "long term storage" process. For us, and others too.

I may have just solved your problem. Then youll have hand sanitizer.


How to Make Potato Vodka – Clawhammer Supply
www.clawhammersupply.com › blogs › moonshine-still-blog › 14516...


Rating: 4.4 - ‎128 reviews
Jan 7, 2016 - Mashing Process. Clean the potatoes with a produce brush. Cut the potatoes into small 1 inch cubes and cover them with two inches of water in a stock pot on the stove. Turn the heat to high and boil the potatoes for 15 minutes. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or an electric immersion blender.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

I may have just solved your problem. Then youll have hand sanitizer.

How to Make Potato Vodka – Clawhammer Supply
www.clawhammersupply.com › blogs › moonshine-still-blog › 14516...
View attachment 7281641
Rating: 4.4 - ‎128 reviews
Jan 7, 2016 - Mashing Process. Clean the potatoes with a produce brush. Cut the potatoes into small 1 inch cubes and cover them with two inches of water in a stock pot on the stove. Turn the heat to high and boil the potatoes for 15 minutes. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or an electric immersion blender.

IF I were to be doing something like that, Maggot, then I'd have to go out and purchase a whole whack of other equipment. As enticing as this is, I just don't have the infrastructure needed to do this.

Have to find an "Uncle Jesse" in the family one day.....

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Is there a way to use a pressure cooker/canner as a pot still?

 

[Greg Langelius *]

The shop remodel has been reconfigured upward, with the addition of 1x2, 1x6, and 1x12, as well as a pair of 48" LED ship lights.

Weight bearing shelves as well as the bench will now employ 1x12 and 1x4 to produce a 30"x48" bench top.

Layout drawing and panel fabrication drawings are completed; parts list with dimensional is in progress. Panel fabrication should commence either today or very soon. The design has been revised to incorporate modularity, ergonomics, and esthetics. The Masonite will be used for light weight bearing shelving, and 1X lumber with reinforcing ribs are intended for heavy activity work spaces, and for high weight capacity shelves.

Materials, fasteners, adhesive, and illumination units onhand; finish will be done with clear gloss (maybe clear satin) water base polyurethane. The model airplane construction and tissue covering/finishing processes employ acetone based adhesives and lacquers, hence the Poly.

Early on the followup list is ventilation and heating.

Greg

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Is there a way to use a pressure cooker/canner as a pot still?

Others more experienced than I are sure to chime in, but any of the research that I've done stress to stay away from the 'aluminum' material for a pot. Start with stainless steel, and add copper caps/tubes/hoods.

But for clarity, I've got NO hand's on experience with this premise of making hand-sanitizer.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Yes..., sanitizer...