Pinterest

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

When the power goes out....

My neighbors get to go out to eat, or even stay in a hotel when the power goes out...Not us.

I have mentioned it on here several times before that we can go off grid, and keep on going (our biggest hangups right now are the fridge, freezer, and during the winter months keeping the stock tank from freezing).  Our kitchen is pretty much business as usual.  I can cook on my 1941 beauty, which requires no electric whatsoever.  (According to her manufacturing plate, she rolled off the factory floor just 3 weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor)


 I also have a version of the "early kitchen aid".  And, I use it every few weeks or so.  (actually I have probably 3 or 4 of these around).


Yep, its an old hand crack cast iron food and meat grinder.  Here it is getting a workout grinding up boiled chicken breast.  It seems to do better with chicken than my Kitchen Aid does--one blade will shred it, while the other makes the pieces smaller, which is good for chicken salad.

My kitchen contains more antiques I think, than modern items.  And I use a good deal of them, unless they contain lead or are made of uncoated galvanized metal.


This grinder normally is attached on the right side of my husbands McDougall cabinet.  (It was taken off to be washed when this picture was taken).  A McDougall cabinet is very similar to a Hoosier cabinet, and both were made in Indiana back in the 1800's .  This one has a flour bin and a sugar bin, and all the glass for the bins and spices are still intact (which is not the norm for most older kitchen cabinets)

This cabinet also holds all my dehydrated foods from the garden--including onions, peppers, mint, beans and tomatoes.  Notice none are stored in plastic.  I am trying to avoid plastic for our food storage when possible, due to the chemicals that often leach out of plastics-especially when they store acidic foods.   Another note about dehydrated foods--one large wagon-full of onions dehydrated down to 4 quarts.   I re-hydrate them by soaking in water about 30 minutes before use-or if in a crockpot or slow cooking item, I just throw them in from the jar.

As for the fridge and freezers and stock tank...I have been keeping an eye out for a used propane run fridge and freezer (used in RV's and also by the Amish) and also for a propane or solar heated stock tank.  It is hard to find either one of them used, but one day hopefully one will turn up.  The fridge and freezer probably would not be used unless a power outage occurs, then we could move food over  to it if need be.

1 comment:

syds1girl said...

I love your kitchen. We live in a cabin in the north woods. Our drain will go into freeze-mode by mid Dec and thaw sometime in April. I figure, having running water 8 mos out of the year is great. Pumping our shower and dumping the buckets for only 4 months is better than full time! All we need when power goes out is to hook the small generator to the fridge only. All the other appliances are run on gas, so with the wood heat, we're business as usual too. But we don't have stock to think about, that would be tougher. Your cabinet is beautiful, and you stove too! Your home looks so cozy!