Allyson

I watched the devastation of Helene as it tore through the Carolinas region. Entire towns are gone, and when I say gone, I mean they no longer exist. They are buried beneath rubble and mud in a level of destruction not seen (IMO) since the Galveston hurricane of 1900. I have heard reports of over 300 dead, and I think that’s ridiculously low. I know that the “official” number is currently 95 (as of this writing, 10/15/24), per NCDHHS. That number is just offensive. People on the ground are stating bluntly that they’ve seen piles of bodies.

Milton, too, was a force to be reckoned with, especially right after Helene. It spared the Carolinas, but hit Florida, and did so hard. I’ve heard of 17 deaths so far, and it’s well reported. There are news people in Florida, walking through the very wet, sometimes partially submerged neighborhoods. A number of houses are demolished, thanks to the tornadoes spawned during Milton’s arrival.

These two disasters are NOT the same. Please know, I’m not meaning to disparage any of the people involved in either hurricane. To anyone who has helped, in any way, you deserve kudos, love, support, and praise. But the response is just not the same, and the disasters are of entirely different levels.

Just as an example, “FEMA has approved more than $96 million in housing and other types of assistance for over 75,000 households.” (FEMA) and “FEMA has approved more than $177.6 million for over 56,900 households.” That means in NC, each of the households has gotten about $1280. In Florida, each household has gotten about $3093.

What?

And that’s just the reported stuff, right from FEMA’s website, which is probably quite biased. Florida, which wasn’t hit even remotely as hard, which hasn’t been rocked by watching loved ones swept away by violent mudslides they had NO warning of, have gotten more than twice what the folks in NC have gotten.

And people wonder why the folks in NC are “hunting FEMA” right now?

Read More

Squash soups are a favorite of mine. Because dairy and I don’t get along, I can’t indulge in my favorite chowders anymore (I don’t care what anyone says, chowder made with oatmilk is just not the same). Squash soups can be blended to give an impression of being creamy, when there’s not even a drizzle of dairy in them. Also, if you do need to add a bit of milk for flavor, oatmilk will do just fine because it’s a background thing and not the star. This is my recipe for Hubbard squash soup, and it’s really delicious. It’s great when you have to feed a crowd, because a single of these odd colored squashes is enough to feed a family of 20. Today you can get smaller ones, and indeed, my local grocery store has Hubbard squashes that are about the size of an acorn squash, but there’s something wonderful about using a huge Hubbard squash. They look like they belong in the Jurassic period. LOL!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs squash peeled and cubed
• 3 onions diced
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup protein, boiled then minced
• 2 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp each of cinnamon & ginger, mixed together

Add the squash and onions to your broth, and bring it to a full, rolling boil. Reduce the heat and cook until the squash is tender. If you want a “creamy” soup, cook until it’s falling apart soft, and if you prefer a more clear broth with chunks, stop when just tender to the fork.

Your protein can be pork, chicken, or even vegetarian options such as seitan or walnuts. Boil meat until it’s very soft and falling apart (think pulled pork consistency) and then shred it with a fork or mince it up into very small pieces. Stir this into the soup along with the egg yolks and salt. Stir gently, then allow to cook for a few minutes.

When putting out the soup, set the sugar and spice mixture on the side in a small bowl, with spoons. Allow people to season to their own taste.

Serve this soup as a first course to a feast, or offer it with a salad and a more substantial meat.

I make considerably more of this recipe than is called for, because it freezes well and I like having convenient lunches I can just pop into the microwave later. A large batch takes the same amount of time and effort as a small batch, so why not “go big”?

Notes:

When I make this, I use 10 cups of broth and about 5 or 6 pounds of cut up squash. I use one very large Spanish onion and one regular sized cooking onion. I also like it to be meaty and hearty, as it’s usually all we’re going to eat, so I use about 3 or 4 cups of shredded chicken. I increase the egg yolks to 3, to thicken the soup, making it much more “creamy” or “silky” in texture. I used Himalayan Pink Salt, about 1.5 tsp, and a sprinkle of pepper on the top of each served bowl of soup.

This soup is incredibly thick and hearty, much moreso than you might think.  When my kids were younger, I used to make this a lot. They  suggested that the squash was kind of lost in the broth, and that it tasted rather like chicken noodle soup. This is a plus, in my opinion, as the soup was full of all sorts of good things for the kids that they wouldn’t normally eat. I’m all for hiding the good stuff in yummy dishes!

My newest cookbook is now available!

Clay pots are probably the oldest cookware known to humans. Since not long after we harnessed fire, we’ve been learning new and improved ways to make cooking vessels, and clay was an obvious early choice. When fired, it’s hard, heat resistant, and heat retaining. It holds liquids and solids equally well. And best, clay can be pressed into any shape. This small cookbook covers five recipes from each of five different time periods: Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Medieval, 18th Century American, and modern day. Each uses a clay cooking vessel, be it pot, pipkin, tagine, or pan. They are tasty additions to any modern menu, while still touching on the history of early human cooking. M. Allyson Szabo is the author of The Re-Enactor’s Cookbook, and Cook Small, Live Large! Her interest in all things historical and kitchen oriented has served her well, and she produces cookbooks that enlighten and educate with a conversational flair. Readers at all levels of cooking can enjoy her books!

So I don’t usually toot my own horn here on the blog, but I did want to post this up because it lends itself well to prepping and how to cook during an emergency. While the recipes in the book are a bit fancier than you’re likely to make during a major emergency, the methods you’ll learn will be useful.

If you can find clay, you can make pots. Once you have pots, you can cook. You can boil water to make sure it’s safe to drink. You can wash, shave, do dishes. The book doesn’t go into how one makes pots, but there are tons of amazing YouTube videos and articles on the subject that you can tap into.

There are lots of different types of shelter that we have access to. As with most things “prepper” related, everyone has a couple of opinions, and many of them clash. Basically, the idea is that you should have access to some kind of shelter in the first three hours of an emergency. It’s a good target to aim for, but it requires a lot of forethought and/or skill to pull it off.

The first kind of shelter that most of us have is our home. If you can stay at home, you probably should. Your home has all your food, your beds, your comfort items, and you know it. If you’re the type of person who’s been prepping a while, you probably have a plan in place for how to keep your home safe from raiders or marauders, and so that makes it one of the safest places you can be. A roof with four walls and a stout door really does trump most other types of shelter.

What if your home isn’t available, though? Whether it’s because you’ve been caught out when the emergency occurred, or a flash flood has washed away your home, or a tornado has ripped it into shreds, or any other reason, home is no longer safe. Your next easiest (and possibly safest, in many cases) form of shelter is your vehicle. You can cover the windows for privacy, you can lock the doors, and it’s mobile so you can move it to a safer place if things get hairy wherever you are. Your car also has the ability to hump more goods than you can by yourself. Again, it’s a fairly warm place (at least in comparison with outside), the doors lock, and it’s yours. You can formulate a plan around your vehicle long before you ever need it.

With your home and vehicle out of the picture, what else can you do? Well, that depends a lot on your strength, ingenuity, where you are, the time of year/weather/temperature, and lots of other things.

Read More

So there I was, happily standing slightly left of middle, when people around me started doing weird stuff. First, it was making statements that bothered me. Stuff like calling me a TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist), which is so far from the mark as to be almost funny. I was told that I don’t understand what it’s like to be LGBTetc. I just can’t possibly get it because I’m so normal.

Folks, these things were coming from people who’ve known me in real life, face to face, for about a decade. They know I’m pansexual (ie bisexual but really I don’t care what you stash in your slacks). They know I’m pagan. They know I’m poly. They know I’m kinky. They know I’ve had lovers of many types (men, women, and people who don’t really fit comfortably into either of the first two categories). They know I come from Hungarian stock (ie Magyar, a group who were and sometimes still are persecuted) on one side, and Scottish (a group historically persecuted) on the other. If you want to get down to brass tacks, I’m a charter member of some of those alphabet soup groups. I’m old enough that I remember when the kink community was still ruled largely by the gay men and their families.

I’m also apparently sexist, homophobic, and racist.

All of this is said of me because I decided to comment (sometimes face to face, and sometimes online) about things going on in the world. Stuff like how I don’t think you should force the word “cis” on someone, just like you (that particular group) don’t want various pronouns forced on you. Somehow, it’s always “just not the same.” And so I’m a traitor to my race, to my gender, to my country.

What? Read More

I know not everyone on here does TikTok, for a variety of reasons, and I respect that. However, I’m trying to widen the readership of our blog, and TikTok is fairly “happening” these days. Also, I like it.

So… if you want to see me talking, and get a feel for who I actually am, feel free to follow along.

@vine.of.liberty Welcome to the Vine of Liberty vlog! Here, you’ll get a weekly Wednesday overview of the blog, and occasional videos about news and topics of interest. Come visit us at vineofliberty.com #vineofliberty #politics ♬ original sound – The Vine of Liberty

I preface this by saying that I’m not Jewish. However, having dated several Jews over the years, I can tell you that the food is INCREDIBLE. Since Yom Kippur began on Friday at sundown, I thought this delicious parve (meaning it can be eaten any time by Jews, provided they aren’t fasting) dish would be just perfect to share today. Remember that Yom Kippur is not a “happy” holiday; it’s a religious time of reflection and introspection. Mostly, people who celebrate Yom Kippur just want to be left alone for their 25 hours of attonement. After the fast, families tend to enjoy a small feast together.

Ingredients:

• 1 package puff pastry dough
• 1 large onion, diced and sauteed
• 2 (7- and- 3/4-ounce) cans salmon
• 2 medium potatoes, cooked, cooled, and drained
• 2 eggs, whisked (for egg wash)
• sesame seeds, for topping
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

Defrost the dough per package directions. Pay attention to this, as you don’t want it to be too moist and melty, but it can’t be frozen either. Roll out the dough to 1/4″ thick, and then cut into 3-1/2″ squares.

Combine all the ingredients for the filling, and mash it very fine. You can use a food processor if you want, but it’s better to do it by hand. You want it to be fairly smooth, almost like a pate, so that it fills the pastry well. Put a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each square. Fold the dough over, and press to seal. You can do this “pirogi style” (fold it in half, seal with fork tines for a pretty edge) or Jewish style (fold the corners up and seal it, making it back into a square, then flip it over and put the seam side down. Put your knishes onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Brush the knishes with the egg wash, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 350*F for 40 minutes, or until they are golden brown.

Notes:

If you celebrate Yom Kippur, these are designed to be eaten AFTER you’re done fasting. You can make them ahead of time, and then just reheat them easily enough. They can tide you over until the rest of your meal is ready! If you aren’t Jewish, these can be enjoyed anytime. As a bonus, they’re also safe to feed to observant Jewish friends.

It’s good to know that Harris has everything under control. Her advertising team is on the job, let me tell you.

Enjoy!

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFmVuDq3/

I’ve talked about having access to fire in the past, but I haven’t really gotten in depth about how to start one. I figured that was a decent place to go, this Friday, what with all the storm disaster stuff going on. This is a really complex topic, and I’m going to include some videos so that you can see as well as read about the subject. If you have more information, please feel free to add it in the comments below!

So fire is started when three elements come together: fuel, oxygen, and heat. If you have all three, you have what you need to start or continue a fire. Take one away, and if a fire has already started, it will die out. That’s the science end of it. (CalSafe)

We have lots of ways of starting fire, whether it’s for pleasure, cooking, heat, or protection. The easy methods are things like lighters, everstrike matches (metal “matchsticks” that sit in fuel), blow torches, and that sort of thing. Generally speaking, these methods “just work” when you use them. They provide enough of the three elements that you can get a fire going. But what if you don’t have one of these easy methods? What if your fuel has run out, or your flint is used up?

There are ways to start fires that are “in the middle” when it comes to difficulty level. Regular matches are in this category (because they can easily get damp, don’t stay lit very long, and have a tendency to dissolve over time). Strike-anywhere matches are less prone to problems, and usually have much longer stems, which makes them easier to hold. Unfortunately, they aren’t literally strike anywhere, but require a rough surface of some kind to get them lit. I would put the most modern style of ferro rods into this category as well.

Then there are the methods that require a certain level of skill: flint and steel, bow drills, other types of friction styles, and the more esoteric types like using magnifying glasses. To use any of these requires practice, repetition, and education. It is important to learn at least a couple of these more difficult methods in advance of emergencies, because it’s too easy to lose all the easier methods of making fire. Read More

Hey folks! Chris is exhausted after a long, hard day of work at the Fort at No. 4, and asked me to put up a Friday Feedback for y’all.

First and foremost, we went up to the Fort today because we want to warp our new loom. In order to do that, we have to get the warp thread organized. That’s done on a warping rack or warping board. You can see in the video that Chris is winding the thread along a very long pathway over several of the pegs. We figure we wound about 3900 yards of wool thread today, in about 3 hours. It was a lot of work on Chris’s part. What you see him doing in this video is a very tiny clip. Think that, done hundreds and hundreds of times. When all the winding was done, it was tied to keep it organized, and then pulled into a large hank that keeps the threads organized and neat, while making it shorter and easier to carry.

The warping board you see in the picture here is a proper 18th century one. We only wanted to have about 10 yards of fabric when we’re done weaving. I’m sure Chris can explain the math of this one for you later (I still don’t really get it), but three pegs on either side, wound in batches of 16 (not strings, but 16 rounds of all the pegs), basically is the warp for about 10 yards of fabric. I can’t tell you how many batches; it was a LOT. But look at all the pegs. They go all the way to the floor. It’s entirely possible that they would have used the entire board to warp a loom for many, many yards of fabric. It’s truly incredible!

Read More