The Great (Pinto) Bean Experiment

Tuesday
I ground about 6 pounds of dry, uncooked pinto beans. The idea is to cut down the cooking time. I ground them using a heavy, cast iron corn grinder. So I ground the beans in batches, first I picked the beans, if you have never cooked beans like this, you'd be shocked at what ends up in the package with the beans... rocks, dirt clods, mystery beans, corn, bug eaten beans, mystery seeds, bits of this and that, and the occasional non-organic item, I have no idea what the white, plastic thing is that I found in the beans.

After I picked the beans, I would place a handful of beans in a barely dampened towel and shake the beans around in the towel. Beans tend to come covered in grit, dirty, one should wash them, but since I was about to grind them, I didn't want to run the risk of grinding moistened dry beans, they might not store as well.

I ran them through the mill on a medium setting, enough to break them into smaller pieces, then I ran it through again on a tighter setting to grind it to nearly a powder, about the consistency of cornmeal. Now, what to put the bean meal in... I thought about zip-lock bags, then decided against it. Mountain Man Bob drinks lots of coffee with creamer, I try to buy the largest and cheapest creamer in the store. We have LOTS of empty (large) creamer containers, so I grabbed one of them. It worked perfectly! Each container holds about 1 and a half bags of bean meal. I filled 3 of them.

That all happening yesterday, I'm not as sore as I thought I might be, especially my right arm, my grinding arm. My hands are a bit sore, but all in all, it's not bad at all.

Last night I wanted to test how this bean meal cooks up. I put about a cup and a half of bean meal in a pan, added twice as much water and gave it a stir (no salt yet, it toughens the beans), I started them on high until it boiled then dropped it to low. I covered the pan and let it go. It really went through the water, about every 15 minutes, I would add another half cup of water and stir. About 2 hours later, the beans still had a raw bean taste and were gritty. I added a pinch of baking soda and continued cooking and adding water.

Well, it ended up taking nearly 4 hours to cook, that is far too long for me. The idea is to cut down on the cooking time, therefore using less propane. Once the beans were done, I seasoned them, salt, pepper, ground coriander seeds, filé powder... they were pretty tasty.

I decided to go ahead and try dehydrating the cooked bean paste. I poured the bean paste into sheet pan lined with parchment paper, I made sure the layer was thin. I placed this in a small (microwave sized) convection oven, propped the door open about a half inch using a butter knife, then turned on the oven on low. It took a few hours to completely dry. I had to stir the bean paste around, break it up to allow it to fully dry. Then I took the dry bean paste and ran it through the food processor to grind it into small pieces. It looks like coffee.

The only thing I didn't do was rehydrate it and taste it. I'll do that later.

Since I determined that the bean meal doesn't cook any faster, I took about a cup and a half of bean meal, added water and covered, it was left to sit all night, the idea is that soaked beans cook faster. We will see today.

Thursday
OK, the soaked bean meal did cook faster, in about 2 hours, but it's still not any faster than cooking whole beans. So now I have decided the only way I am going to cook pinto beans faster is to use a pressure cooker. Fortunately we have 2 of them, a big one for canning and a smaller one for cooking. Just have to check the rubber gasket to make sure it's still OK, might do a test boil with just water to make sure it seals good.

BTW, dehydrating the cooked beans did work, I put some of the dehydrated beans in a pan, poured in quite a bit of water and heated it all up, They were pretty tasty.

Honestly, after all of this, I have decided that for now, I can and will continue buying instant refried beans, I can get them at the store in town, I can also get them from Sam's Club, they sell a 3 pound bag of instant refried beans for around $6, can't beat that for now. Unfortunately the only Sam's that carries them that I know of is in El Paso, at least 3 hours away. For now I know someone who goes out there several times a month (doctor visits), so I can stock up on them. At least I know that I can dehydrate refried beans for storage and eating later. :)


Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
.
.
.
.
.

Beans, Beans and More Beans

I am about to log off for the night, but wanted to tell you, no, tease you with an up and coming post I am working on about beans. Specifically pinto beans, I am working on a 2 part experiment with them. Thanks to a friend who loaned to me a piece of equipment that is making this experiment possible,

Beans + corn grinder = less cooking time
- moisture (dehydrating) = instant refried beans

My toes are getting cold, it's time to crawl in the warm bed... :)

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
.
.
.
.
.

Free eBooks

I found a good source of ebooks (pdf's), these are all out of print books, about homesteading, check it out, oh and they are free to download. I snagged a few myself. :)

http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/0302homested.html


Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
.
.
.
.
.

Thanks To You!

Woohoo! I received my first check from ClickBank! That's the hardest one to get, to keep down fraud, before you can get your first payment (as an affiliate) you have to get 5 unique sales with 2 different payment methods (and PayPal doesn't count for a payment method). Then you have to wait a bit after the last sale, just in case there is a refund given. After the first paycheck is earned, then you don't have to wait as long for payments.

It's taken a while, but I finally completed their requirements and they cut me a check. I want to thank everyone who purchased an ebook through my blog, this would not have happened without you.

If you are scratching your head about now wondering what I am talking about, assuming you are reading from my blog and not from a reader program, look to the right of the page, you might have to scroll down a bit, you will see "DIY Sponsors", this is where you will find the ebooks. These are all done through ClickBank, for those of you who have blogs, I highly recommend this company, you can make a few extra bucks by offering ebooks that relate to your blog.

I know that some of my readers do not like advertisements, and to those, I say sorry, but considering all of the FREE info and entertainment you are getting from this blog, I'd say quit yer b*tching, I say that with a smile on my face though. :) I am opening my private life to you, I am giving my time, all with no charge, the advertisements are one of the small ways I earn some money (it's not a lot, I'm not getting rich here) to keep this site going (internet access costs me dearly) and helps me to purchase those pesky little things we all need, food, supplies and such.

So again, I say thank you to everyone who has purchased ebooks through this blog, I do try my best to check out the ones I offer, don't want the garbage, there is a 60 day money back guarantee on all ebooks, so if you are on the fence about buying one, go for it, if you aren't happy you can get your money back, no questions asked.


Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
.
.
.
.
.

In Honor Of Those...

...who fought and continue to fight for all of us. In honor of all those who died for us. In honor of all of those who served and continue to serve.

My son in the Army, stationed in Iraq, I also have several friends and other family members who are war veterans, I thank each and every one of you who fought for this great Country, the United States of America.




Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
.
.
.
.
.

Off grid updates

Now that the rainy season has ended, and the really hot days have passed us by, it's time to get back to work on the old, er make that relatively new homestead. This is the beginning of our third winter living out here. A friend asked me today if I liked it out here, my answer is, YES!!!! This is the place I have been trying to get to all of my life. Now that I am here, my main goal is to enjoy, thrive, and live.

It's time for more soilcrete pouring, more rock work, more building on the skycastle. We are going into our third winter in our off grid home, second full year. We have learned a lot, still have a lot to learn though. Don't really know if that ever stops, nor would I want it to.

The nights are really getting cold, at least for us, I know there are many places that get far colder than we do. It's been getting down into the upper 20s F and lower 30s F most nights. Fortunately it warms up into the 50s, 60s and even 70s F during the day, as long as the sun is shining. On the rare cloudy days, it will stay cold all day.

The wind has picked back up too, we have been going around picking up loose items that might blow around, picking up things that have already blown around and generally battening down the hatches. The other night, it was blowing pretty hard, the gusts were very hard. I heard the sound of something rather heavy sliding across the roof. Considering our solar panels are up there, that's not a sound I want to hear at all.

I grabbed a flashlight, went to the door, ready to brave the ladder if need be, it turned out that it WAS the ladder I had heard. It had slid from one side to the other and was leaning on another roof area. I was able to go back to bed and sleep better knowing our solar panels weren't trying to fall off the roof.

I took some video and some snapshots today, it's a beautiful day, perfect clear skies, very slight breeze, it's close to 50 degrees F outside, in the sun it's just perfect, not too hot, not too cold.

Enjoy the pix and vids.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
.
.
.
.
.

Human Powered Gadgets

I have heard about these before, now I want one, it's called a Vortex Blender. This is a food blender that is human powered. It appears to be sturdy, it's a 2 speed affair. I understand that it's a bit noisy on high speed. You clamp it to a table or other sturdy surface, fill it, cover it and crank away. This was originally created for tailgaters and campers, while I do not fall into either category, I know I would put it to good use. Does anyone reading this have one or have used one? If so, what do you think of it?

I have a wimpy hand crank food chopper/mixer (not a slap one), it looks like a food processor, has three blades in it, it does ok on soft foods, but it would never work for real food, or ice... 

The other thing I have thought about was getting an old electric food blender in a second hand shop, and trying to convert it to human power blender,  maybe with a flywheel and some gears... I did a quick Google search but didn't find much for DIY hand cranked blender, I got mostly articles about the Vortex Blender. Surely someone has done this, I'll keep looking, if I find anything, I'll post another message about it.

I think it would be great to have a table set up with interchangeable, hand cranked kitchen goodies... yup, I dream big and sometimes complex...  I'll toss the idea to MMB, if anyone can do it, he can.


Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
.
.
.
.
.