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Having grown up in middle class America, I enjoyed the bounty this country has always had to offer. We’ve enjoyed generations of relative stability and security here in the USA. My childhood was one of fun, family, food, vacations etc. Pretty much the American dream embodied in a perfect small town setting. I have tried to give my children the same type of “Mayberry” like childhood. I’ve even gone so far as to buy a farm and live the farming lifestyle with them. We teach them about livestock, gardens, crops, the circle of life, food production and loving the environment.

I never thought in my wildest of dreams they might grow up in another “great depression”. However the events of the last 20 years, especially the last 8-10 have driven the super power America to her knees. Our great nation has multiple costly wars in progress, massive government spending on entitlements, and consumer excess never seen before in any country on earth.

US consumers (read-you and me) have borrowed and spent trillions of dollars in the the past decade mostly on stuff produced in other nations that have economies based on savings and production. While all this excess has taken place, the government has signed a number of terrible trade deals in which our manufacturing base has moved overseas and off-shore.

Instead of paying American workers a living wage to make superior products we pay other countries who use cheap labor to make disposable products that we can mark-up and sell to our materialistic society. We’ve turned the greatest manufacturing nation in the history of the world into a nation of shelf-stockers, clerks and servers. This has contributed to the decline and soon the “possible” collapse of the USA.

I know many of you reading this may think Chef Snow has lost his mind, I wish that were true. I am not looking for you to take my word on it…I will provide some resources for you to check out below.  I suggest looking a little deeper then CNBC for the truth on the economy. Although we’re still in “recovery summer” I think the evidence shows that was all double-speak and PR trying to convince us that the administration’s stimulus spending worked. The Federal Reserve has even said publicly it did not and that our economy is slowing again. If a couple of trillion of printed money cannot revive this economy what can?

I write this post and provide this podcast as a friendly warning to WAKE-UP and start preparing for what might be a terrible decade of misery here in the USA. I know most of you have children, being a dad myself I want your kids (and you) to have a fighting chance for a better future should things get bad.

A few ways you can prepare is to:

• save some food in a secure place in your home
• learn to garden, even if only in pots or raised beds-NOW
• putting some potable water aside, and buy a water filter
• Canning some vegetables and fruits
• buy dry beans, dry potatoes, dry milk, pasta, wheat berries, sugar, can fruits & veggies, coffee and other food commodities.
• Stock up on essentials like TP, toothpaste, personal care products, cooking oil etc.

If things turn around (I don’t think they will) you’ll have some extra food you can eat, donate to charity or give to your church..nothing lost. If they do not turn around, you’ll be prepared to at least have some basic rations as the future unfolds.

Additional Resources:

Watch Overdose a 3 part movie

Here are some resources for learning or buying: (NOTE: I do not have any financial interest whatsoever in any of the companies or resources listed below, please do your own research)

Visit Backyard Food Production
Visit Shelf Reliance
Save Some Seeds-this is a great product.
Diversify some of your assets in precious metals
Water Filters

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Remember to comment, and tell me your thoughts, this podcast is my opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please help spread the word about the show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 864-492-1499 … you might hear yourself on the air.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listener Feedback: 864-492-1499

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Just a short little message about consuming and cooking with late summer seasonal foods like corn, tomatoes, peaches, peppers etc.

They come and go quickly so I encourage you to take advantage of them by enjoying them on your table TODAY and canning them for this winter. Some Ideas:

1. Make a batch of salsa with local tomatoes and peppers
2. Can tomatoes for the winter
3. Make peach pies, peach chutney
4. Can peaches for winter
5. Use bell peppers to stuff with rice and ground beef
6. Roast local peppers then freeze them or make roasted pepper soup or risotto
7. Corn-make sweet corn & poblano relish
8. Make corn chowder
9. Eat corn on the cob
10. Make corn and cheddar pudding

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In this episode I talk about alot of peppers, sweet and hI also discuss the formation of my new line of food products. I ma doing a ton of canning these days and that is part of this weeks episode.link to audio

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What’s in Season:
squash, strawberries-gone!, blueberries, cucumbers, bell peppers, all kinds of summer herbs, zucchini, cherries, peaches, etc..

On The Farm:
This week were talking about canning and preserving. So far this season I’ve canned pickled beets, one batch of green beans, one batch of strawberry jam. I am planning on doing some more jam, beans and a batch of ratatouille.

We’ve been overrun with squash this year and and have had to be creative to use it up. Making ratatouille is the perfect recipe for summer garden preservation as it uses tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, zucchini, herbs like parley basil etc.. Plus it has all the magical fresh flavors of summer and is a perfect side dish for bbq’s and picnics.

Site Updates:

We are adding a new integrated web store so look for the shopping cart to appear inside the website. This allows us to provide a more seamless shopping experience.

Also, we added a new membership feature which will allow you to create several types of membership including a free membership and 3 lengths of paid membership. The decision to charge was not an easy one. Those of you who have been with us a long time know we tried before to program a membership but with limited technical success. We need to charge because administering the site and creating new content costs too much money for us to keep paying. We apologize to anyone who is offended by this new policy.

Each time we shoot there are ultimately thousands in costs from food, recipe testing, videography, editing, time to administer the pages etc. Of course with a tough economy those who are truly struggling and want access can email us and plainly ask for a free membership, nobody who needs the help will be turned down. Also, the emails are strictly confidential and only seen by me.

Career Update:

Leaving soon for NEW YORK botanical garden event. Will be demonstrating some grilled shrimp in a cheesey masa cake with tomato rhubarb salsa.

Ball Jar Event In Charlotte:

On July 12 & 13 I will be doing some work for Ball Jar, events will include a live canning demonstration and talk with the media. Then will be doing some local media, maybe radio and some local TV.