Photo courtesy of Grannie Pam Peters
Many of our longest The Survivalist Blog readers requested a recipe section be added to the website. Dan thought that was a superb idea and got busy creating a new section that would provide useful survival, homesteading, and off grid cooking recipes.
The recipe section request sparked an idea for another new, and I believe, one of a kind, prepper website offering. After finishing my first recipe article, I mentioned the idea of interviewing renowned prepping cook, Grannie Pam (Pamela Gail Peters) for the section.
When I began designing the interview, I thought it would be really cool if it was interactive so the readers could post their own survival cooking questions and get some responses from an expert in the food growing, preserving, and cooking field.
Out of those thoughts the idea for yet another new section was born. Dan is always able to spot a great idea and equally eager to help provide insightful, actionable, and educational learning experiences to help fellow preppers.
Here is how the interactive interview format will work. I will write a promo piece for the interview, including an introduction to our expert guest. In the comments section below you can submit questions that will be included in my interview. Once the piece if published, on this same page, the guest expert will be invited to respond to your post-interview questions and comments, as well.
Now, let’s virtually meet Grannie Pam…
I had the privilege to meet Pam in 2015. Pam has been growing her own groceries, preserving them, and cooking – baking with them for decades. She has an esteemed reputation for her cheese making, wine and beer making, dehydrating, fermentation, canning, and bread making skills.
She learned the importance of self-reliance skills at her grandmother’s knee when she was just a small girl working beside both of her grandparents in their garden.
Quick disclosure: If you visit a link in this article and then you buy something, I may earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You can read my full disclosure here.
Pam’s published book titles include: Grannie Pam’s Prepping With Big Flavors, Grannie Pam’s Meals In Jars, More Of Grannie Pam’s Prepping With Big Flavors,
Pam, like most of us, feels folks are starting to look back in time and are wanting to learn how our grandparents and great grandparents did things. The prepping grannie considers keeping the skills that appear to have been almost lost, alive, to be quite an empowering experience.
“I feel like this is the gift that I can give to anyone who is willing to learn. I am always surprised at how many want to learn and also by how many still don’t care to know anything. – Grannie Pam.
She is not just a firm believer in sharing what she knows and is learning about with others, but looks so forward to doing so.
Tara Dodrill is a homesteading and survival journalist and author. She lives on a small ranch with her family in Appalachia. She has been both a host and frequent guest on preparedness radio shows. In addition to the publication of her first book, ‘Power Grid Down: How to Prepare, Survive, and Thrive after the Lights go Out’, Dodrill also travels to offer prepping tips and hands-on training and survival camps and expos.
Oh, man! This is gonna be GREAT! But, what questions? I don’t know – there is so much to talk about.
OK, GPam, what is your FAVORITE prepping activity, and why?
This sounds exciting! I look forward to learning more about Grammy Pam and learning from her.
My question: What encouragement do you offer to those who would LIKE to learn to can, but have reservations (‘canning is scary’, I’m afraid of making anyone sick’, etc.)?
(Hush, LTD! I planted Rutgers tomatoes this year with the specific intent, if the yield is good enough, to try my hand at it this year…)
Gurl, you KNOW I can walk you through it!
Tomatoes are water bath canning (high acid), so, a good starting place.
Do u have the Ball Blue Book?
Send me ur address and I’ll send u the packet I’m using for next canning class.
Good morning TSB community, questions to Grannie Pam will be accepted through Sunday evening, so I can get the all ready for the interview next week.
GPam, do u have fave bread-making tips to share? Recipe?
Cheese-making for beginners?
Favorite survival food recipes? Preferred sources for ingredients?
I like the idea! My question stems from a canning failure this morning. One of my pint size Kerr jars broke almost instantly when I put it in the canner. It was the third jar in and the only one that broke. Also the only wide mouth. Is there any test for jar soundness? I hate wasting food when this happens!
Exactly HOW did it break? (This tells me why.)
LTD: The bottom quarter inch separated. Hope that is what you meant.
Moe, that is exactly what meant. You have experienced “thermal shock breakage”. This occurs when you place a glass jar with contents into water in which there is just too much temperature difference.
ALWAYS try to time the two so that they are at relatively equal temperatures (water and jar with contents.
You can use your oven set at 200 deg. F. Put each filled & ca0ed/ringed jar on a cookie sheet in preheated oven. Go ahead and heat your water. Water boils @ 212°F. When very hot, but not boiling, lace your jars – one at a time. Covdr and process. This is one way.
Another is to start cold, or even luke warm. If you cold pack jars, put down in cool water. If you vooked your food to be canned, heat your canner wayet on LOW. Kep on low until all jars are in canner. Cover, turn heat up, and process.
One more clue + and there is always somebody who wants to argue about it – but “Golden Harvest” jars are inferior products. In fact, they are Jarden (Ball) Corp’s tax write-of product line. That based on a telephone conversation I held with a Jarden Corp. employee/customer service rep a while back.
Every jar I have ever had break in a caner was Golden Harvest. I no longer buy them, and I use them for storing dry foods.
Jarden Corp. owns distribution rights to Ball, Kerr & Golden Harvest. Ball & Kerr are made by the same company in Northern Indiana. GH is made by another company out of Jasper, Indiana.
Hope this helps.
that’s capped/ringed jar – still can’t use my dominant hand well. Sorry.
How about: let’s say I want to start growing my own food. But I have no idea how to get started? What do I do, and how?