A little good news on the shopping front!

      This is a new report but it looks like the futures market for Coffee, sugar and cocoa have dropped a little in price and the warehouse seem to have built up excess stocks. While sugar has a long shelf life both coffee and cocoa is more volatile and doesn't store as well long term. There will be some lag time but we could be looking at lower prices in the grocery stores next year.
    I went a little nuts on baking bread last night. 7 loaves and 2 dozen rolls. Six loaves have been double wrapped  and put in the freezer and today I made biscuits and gravy with some of the white rolls. I tried a dried product Country Gravy Mix from Sauce Supreme I got at the dollar store. Not to bad for just mixing it with water and boiling for 2 minutes, don't add salt while cooking but a little fresh ground pepper helps kick up the flavor. I think this would be a great addition to a BOB, BOV or you camping set up along with homemade dehydrated burger, sausage, or jerky,  add dried garlic, onions and red pepper flake. You could make up a nice batch of SOS or biscuits and gravy that takes only water and heat to make.  
    I was feeling a little punky the last few days. I was a little angry at our so called public servants in DC about NDAA and few other things. I think I was having a flare to go along with it. But what was the worse is I was not sleeping well and felt totally dried out. So I thought I'd get a bunch of humidity in the house and use a fan to blow the steam out of the kitchen. It really helped a lot for my nap so I'm boiling some more water tonight and hope it helps me sleep. Next week I'll be adding a humidifier to my shopping list along with a new coffee maker as my old one and my spare both died this week. I'm using one of my stove top percolator for now and it works just fine, plus I have a French press and an enamel camp percolator so I'm good to go.
    Good news! the Lager beer is finally carbonating and finishing up. I prefer the ales for winter but I can see how doing a lager would be a lighter taste for summer time and for folks used to an American-style beer. I'm so glad  I didn't give up on the Lager!
    Last but not least started looking at the seed catalogs for what I'd like to plant for next year. I found a neat heirloom corn that is sweet corn if picked young and then a dent corn if harvested later, a couple of tobacco plants that are very pretty and may do well , A dwarf coffee plant that I'll keep inside with my dwarf citrus plants and we will see if it works out. Going with more root veggies like turnips, parsnips and kohlrabi and see how the do here and how well they store. Talked to a friend that did the 3 sisters planting of corn, beans and squash and she said it worked great in her garden here in Idaho.