Halloween and prep tips

     Halloween can conjure images of pumpkins, costumed children and candy.  As a prepper, mom, grandma  and so cheap that I have a hard time saying I am frugal without giggling, I encourage others to join me in the Halloween fun with all the prepping and thrifty lifestyle and have a good time doing it!  

     That carved pumpkin tradition can offer some prep skill building opportunities, too!  When you cut open the top of the pumpkin and gut it don't throw that stuff away. 

Carve two pumpkins and save the seeds for next years crop.
Also, those brightly colored indian corns come to the local grocers this time of year.  They should be heritage.  They make a great source for seed gathering.  

Make pumpkin soup.  

Those tiny little gourds we use to decorate with have alternate uses.  
Make a bird feeder out of them.

The squirrels will finish them off after the seed is gone.

Keep them through the fall as a Thanksgiving decoration. 

Make roasted pumpkin seeds.  Put it all in a bowl and cover it with water.  Skim out the fleshy stringy bits that held the seeds inside the gourd and put the seeds on a buttered cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with a little garlic salt or plain sea salt and toast in the oven until golden brown.  It's a great snack for a cool fall evening.  

www.homekitchengarden.com 

Play it Again: Canning Pumpkins - Keeper of the Home

www.keeperofthehome.org

After the candle goes out in your Jack O' Lantern, cut the pumpkin into strips right down the creases. Cut away the scorched parts, steam the squash and can it for Thanksgiving pies.  I like to puree mine before I seal it, but it seems others like to leave them diced in the jar.  


     The whole Halloween costume idea gets people's creative juices flowing.  We think about what to wear how to get or make the components and how to pull it off.  Last year, I saw a tiny little G.I. Joe out trick or treating with his daddy who was helping him "assault" the keepers of candy while Dad was dressed head to toe in his ghillie suit!  Nice.  Dad put his little fella in his size 4T cammies dad got a chance to wear his ghillie suit in public.  Too cool!  

     I posted some great easy to make items for preppers that can be made with a simple straight stitch, like pouches or medicine bags.   Halloween is permission to practice sewing!  

    These outfits, were also made with simple straight stitching, albeit on a sewing machine, but with the exception of a couple of curves on the inset sleeves of the Alice in Wonderland costume, these outfits were just straight stitching.  I just finished them this weekend.  I can't post pics of the two young ladies in costume, as my granddaughters live out of state and I am over nighting the Greek goddess Aphrodite and Alice to Colorado, tomorrow.  

     By next weekend there will be a small Captain Hook and a smaller Jake from Jake and the Pirates.  Those costumes I will make from cutting down old clothes and adding the trim to make them new again.  There will be pictures.

Halloween happens.  It's a great time of year as the seasons change.  Let your creative juices flow.  Make something out of fabric and scraps.  Go ahead, but some pumpkins for the holiday....then use them for prepping, getting more than one use out of a single purchase.  Have a good life.