The Solitary Man’s Refuge (31 page)

If you are ready to go beyond the basic sourdough
starter, try these yeast procurement methods for all new
flavors and textures in your baking.

Whether you are talking about a standard
sourdough starter, or one of those listed below, you will
see many recipes talking about “feeding” the starter. This
means adding 1 cup flour and 1 cup water to the mix so
that the yeast can keep growing. You will need to feed the
starter daily if it is at room temperature, or weekly if it is in
the fridge. If you don’t bake bread that day, you will also
need to toss out one cup of the starter so that the ratios
stay the same. This is an important step—and can be a
great motivator to bake regularly so that none of your hard
work goes to waste! Yeast starters are one thing you will
not want to throw in the compost pile, as the bacteria can
grow out of control and give you a very unpleasant result.

Grapes, along with many other types of fruits
(including apples, oranges, and grapefruit, to name some
examples), contain natural yeast spores in the skin or peel
of the fruit.

For grapes, stem them (do not wash them, as this
will wash off the yeast that you are trying to grow), crush
by hand, and place in a container covered with
cheesecloth. Leave undisturbed for three days. You should
start to see the liquid bubble, indicating that the yeast is
growing. Strain the liquid (which now contains the yeast),
and stir in 1 cup of whole wheat flour.

Leave your grape starter at room temperature for 24
hours. Save only one cup of the mixture, and then add
another cup of flour and a cup of water. Do the same thing
for another day or two. You should have a very bubbly
starter at this point. After this, just keep feeding it so you
will always have some ready for your next loaf of bread.

As you experiment with different fruits (and even
tomatoes!) you will find that each kind of starter has a bit of
a different flavor. Find which ones you like best. Just
remember, you need to use homegrown or wild fruits,
since the store-bought ones will be covered with
pesticides, wax, and who knows what else—probably not
much yeast left to be found there. And don’t wash it off
before starting.

It is amazing the things that we throw away that are
more useful than we know. In this case, that water you
boiled potatoes in for dinner is one of the fastest ways to
make a starter for your bread. Simply take a cup and a half
of the potato water, add a tablespoon of sugar, and stir in
flour until stiff. Cover and leave overnight in a warm place.
If it is nice and bubbly the next morning it is ready to use. If
not—start over.

Alternatively, if you do not usually boil your
potatoes, or just want to try something different, cheat a
little. Use one packet of store bought yeast (1 tablespoon);
mix with a cup of water, a half-cup of sugar, and three
tablespoons of instant potato flakes. Let it stand for 24
hours, and then put it in the fridge. Feed every four days,
but instead of the usual flour and water combo, use the
same amounts of sugar, potato flakes, and water that you
used to create the starter.

One practical challenge with creating and using
your own yeast is storing and transporting it. We see this
in one very practical example, when Israel left Egypt in a
hurry during the Exodus, and did not have time for their
bread to rise. Jews to this day commemorate God’s
deliverance by abstaining from products with leavening
during Passover.

If you want to be able to bake bread the instant you
arrive at your bug-out location (if you ever need to take
your own personal Exodus), then you will want to dry some
yeast for use later.

Take any of your starters, spread very thin on a
cookie sheet or baking stone, and then dehydrate as you
would anything else. If you live in a hot and dry climate,
you may just be able to cover it with a cheese cloth and
place in the sun. Otherwise, put on the lowest temp in your
oven and dry it that way. Once the yeast is dry (not
cooked, if it cooks, the active yeast will be killed and
rendered useless), you can crumble it and store in an air
tight container. Just like store-bought yeast, it will last
longer in the fridge or freezer.

Play around with amounts you use in recipes once
the yeast is ready, as the potency of homemade yeast will
be a little different than the store-bought version and you
will probably need more of it for the same amount of bread
(typically about a cup of starter in place of 1 packet of
yeast, if using wet starter. If you’re using dry yeast, try just
doubling the amount to start).

What you lose in time, you may find you make up
for in flavor and fun. There is nothing quite like the smell of
fresh baked bread to make you feel at home.

“That’s a good article, it’s amazing all the
knowledge you preppers pass around and store that most
folks never even think about.” Michael said quite
impressed with Bubba`s Big Book of prepper practicalities
and formulas he had put together.

“That’s what the prepper community is all about. It’s
sharing knowledge and developing skills.” Bubba said
proudly, but wishing that he and Donald had sat down and
taken the time to get his collective book of wisdom
published so more people could be sharing this
knowledge.

Donald double locked his mom’s house door and
started up his truck to head downtown and went to see
about his job. He decided he would drive by Janice’s
house on the way and just give it a visual check before
stopping for a conversation with her on the way back
regarding getting out of town. He had been relatively sure
the small gas station and convenience store on the corner
of the road going towards her house had already been
burglarized and the broken glass he saw in front of it
confirmed his suspicions as he drove by. He was sure
Janice was already aware of its condition, but he made a
mental note to ask her how long it had been since it was
broke into. This was as much of an intelligence gathering
trip on city conditions as it was taking care of business for
him. He watched carefully a group of teens in baggy assshowing pants walking down the street and they seemed
in his opinion to stare openly at him a bit more than usual.

“Probably feeling a bit braver these days, they are
going to wish they had some pants that were not already
falling off their asses soon enough.” Donald laughed to
himself wondering if they were going to have to trade with
one another to try and get something to fit even a little as
they lost weight from the starvation that probably had
already begun.

“Hell, my fat brother is going to be digging around in
his old clothes soon enough for a smaller size, but he had
been stout for so long he bet Jimmy didn’t have much in
the way of normal sized clothes. I wonder how he is
making out. He had boo coo preps as far as Donald knew
to make it for a while. What he had besides expensive
guns and knives and such Donald didn’t know but
suspected he had a very decent supply of food. Weird how
different brothers could be and both be preppers. Jimmy
was in Texas and had not divulged much in the way of
what he was going to do when the SHTF. Donald knew
even though he was an apartment prepper, he was pretty
well networked in with a lot of people, so most likely Jim
had a bug out location he could get to. Wish I knew more
about his plans.” Donald mused as he slowly drove by
Janice’s house. He didn’t see anything out of order but he
did notice she had rigged herself some blackout curtains.
Good girl! Still he needed to tell her she should either
make them less obvious or take them down during the
day. No sense advertising the fact you were hiding
something to all the prying eyes that were most likely
looking for targets of opportunity about right now.” Donald
thought as he speeded up and continued on his mission.

Donald drove his old truck through an affluent
neighborhood of older mansion like houses inhabited by
mostly older rich people and wondered how they were
fairing with a massive amount of welfare and food stamp
recipients living just a few blocks away. The governor’s
mansion was stuck in this old southern neighborhood a
few streets over and was probably a likely target for an out
of control protest, but he bet the Governor was not even
there and had moved to some undisclosed command
center day one. Donald had warned Janice about the
possibility of uncontrolled fires springing up in the area if a
full blown riot took off, which it would. Donald decided he
would not go by the mansion but would instead try to see if
anything was going on from the side streets leading to it on
his left.

“Now you some dumbasses, he declared to himself
as he viewed a bunch of white yuppies and elderly people
looking like they were having some kind of a rally and
making protest signs in a church parking lot. Wish I could
see what the hell were on those signs.” Donald said to
himself while slowing down and craning his neck to try to
get a better glimpse.

“Do they think a news crew is going to come to see
them or that an inevitable food stamp protest/riot that was
going to be going on soon enough up the street would
welcome them with open arms and not chew them up and
spit them out? People didn’t have sense God gave a Goat
if they thought any kind of demonstration was going to get
food in their bellies. Hell, those signs might just of said
“the end is near” or “repent ye sinners” or some other
religious doomed crap. Note to self, watch out for a rise in
religious fanatics of every ilk and demonstration. Uh oh!
That can’t be good, Donald said to himself as he noticed
police blue lights up ahead. Oh yea, that old neighborhood
grocery store was up on the left there.” Donald said to
himself as he made sure he got to the far side of the one
way street he was on.

Two patrol cars and two bicycle cops had about
eight suspects, most likely looters, arranged around the
small parking lot to it.

“Boys you think you got it bad now, I can’t even
imagine what the city or county jail is like. What the hell?
Here comes a National Guard truck, are they transporting
prisoners for the local law? I ain`t sticking around to find
out and I wish I had thought this little trip through a bit
better. Ok, time to take an alternate route. What is it I want
to avoid? The court house, the sheriff department, the
food stamp office, pardons and paroles, the mental health
center, the bus station, also any high schools. Shit I will
just have to evaluate my risks, too hard to list all the
places in a downtown area that might be a hotspot to
avoid. The hell with it, I am turning my butt around now
before I get some kind of surprise I don’t need! Every one
of these roads leads to the state capitol someway or
another and I got the LA riots fresh in my mind of people
getting dragged out of cars and beaten.” Donald thought
as he reassured himself he could easily reach his pistol
from a sitting position.

Donald turned his truck around and headed back
towards Janices as soon as he could and gave up any
notion of checking in as a disaster reservist at his Federal
Agency.

That damn girl had better of made her mind up by
now what she wants to do. I got my Mom to contend with
and I am not going to stay around here and wait until the
city is on fire to try and leave. She can go to Ramer, She
can come with me or she can go to hell because I am not
waiting any longer!” Donald fumed to himself as he angrily
surveyed the streets in front of him for any indications of
how desperate people now were.

“Hey Michael, the savages from next door came
visiting today. Well, the two brothers did by themselves
anyway. I was out back mushing up some grapes in a
bucket and Harley and Cat were out front just watching out
what was going on in the neighborhood. I heard Harley
barking and came around from the back of the house and
Cat was yelling at them and asking what they wanted
around here. They didn’t even make it part way down the
drive. They hollered down to us that they were neighbors
and just wanted to talk and I went up asked them what
was it they wanted to talk about. They said they were out
of food and could we find it in our hearts to spare some. I
was civil but said we didn’t have enough for ourselves and
was sorry I couldn’t give them any, but you should of seen
the pie eyed look they had on their faces when looking at
the AR I was carrying the whole time. They went home
rather quickly and quietly soon enough though when I told
them no and hell no they were not going to be getting any
food from here.” LowBuck told Donald’s friend.

“Yea, I had a little talk with them on the way down
here. They asked why we were all carrying guns now and I
told them because we can and we sorta declared open
hunting season on most everything that moved.” Michael
replied mirthlessly.

“That idea about community hunts Donald had
needs to be considered once again, but I ain’t arming them
unsavory looking neighbors to participate.” LowBuck
replied just as seriously.

“Me neither. Amy and Cat can guard the shed while
we go talk to Bernie and old Mac about whets what today.
Bubba, there are a few other folks on this road you don’t
know about. We got us a hermit that lives in the woods
and another family with teenage kids that are pretty good
folks but I am having no earthly idea what they got in the
way of food stuffs on hand now. I gave this a bit of thought
last night and concluded that we are sort of damned if we
do and damned if we don’t when it comes to contacting
them. Everybody on this dead end street is going to be
thinking the most likely place to get a meal or water is at
Bernie’s. Those fish ponds of his are a magnet for the
thirsty and hungry residents of this community. Those
ponds are too small to support all of us with fish and he
has some decent firepower down there to protect his
interests somewhat, but he has said before he is not
allowing the free taking of his resources without something
in return for the privilege of allowing others to fish. Two
things that are relevant that came out of Donald and his
talking about the prepper community is, “You will get no
warning if Bernie has the ass with you and he also knows
Donald has some kind of food stored at his home, but
Bernie does not how much Donald actually has. Bernie
even started watching DoomsDay Preppers after talking to
Donald and thinking about storing some food for himself
and family so that’s a good thing I guess. The planting of
wheat on his property in a SHTF situation Donald and he
worked out long ago, but not much else in the way of being
mutually supportive. That wheat won’t be up in time to
save those who are not somewhat prepared already.
There is not enough wheat seed to provide sprouts for
folks to eat and thinning out the deer herd just makes good
sense if we are going to be planting every patch of land we
can clear to reduce their depredation. Labor to do all these
tasks is one thing Donald knew he couldn’t prep for, so
those neighbors of his might not be as useless as we
think. I think organizing the community in some way is our
best bet, because it appears we lack resources the same
as the rest of them, but we do offer or have a tangible
solution to a mutual problem as well as a civilized
approach to avoid mass starvation. Lots of deer hunting
savvy as well as scents and lures can be shared around
here, as we have got lots of hunters in the community with
that stuff around the house from their traditional hobbies.
Neighbor helping neighbor is the way to go, but we still got
to keep this place and most of the preps private so we look
equal in food resources in the eyes of the community. We
can’t be talking about those commercial snares and traps
Donald has invested in he will be breaking out soon. We
just got to look like successful trappers and an asset to the
community because they think we use the primitive snares
and traps to source food like Donald writes about. You
know what? I wish he had just made a bunch of paper
handout copies of how to build them instead of the
drawings he has in his books he has on hand. We could
have distributed them instructions and been done with it.
Kids have been trapping and snaring for centuries and we
need to teach these new ones the art so we all can eat,
while they can use up some of that youthful energy they
are blessed with in a positive manner.” Michael concluded.