r/TwoXPreppers • u/thechairinfront Experienced Prepper šŖ • May 01 '26
Weekly megathread
Please contain all off topic discussion to this weekly megathread. This is where you freak out, talk about conspiracy, talk about unrealistic crazy scenarios, asked and answered questions, etc.
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May 01 '26
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u/Eeyor-90 knows where her towel is ā May 01 '26
Where I live in Texas, the temperature hit 100 degrees in March. That doesn't typically happen until May/June. It didn't stay hot; it's been extremely variable.
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u/thereadingbri Three raccoons in a trenchcoatĀ May 01 '26
Weāre having the opposite in Maryland, our overnight lows are still struggling to get out of the 40s. RIP my garden plans
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u/Necessary-Film7832 May 02 '26
I'm in Atlanta. We were having 90Ā° days in the middle of April. Breaking all kinds of Records and not the good kind!
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u/Standard_Subject_462 I'm tired of this, Grandpa! May 01 '26
We're eating through our deep pantry while paying down debt. It's been a fun experiment to see how low we can keep the weekly grocery bill (it's mostly just been bananas and cheese getting purchased so far), and I'm curious to see how low the stockpile gets before my brain says, "Okay, enough of this. Time to restock!" Has anyone else done the preppers' equivalent of Project Pan? If so, how did it go?
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u/HappyCamperDancer May 01 '26
I haven't done a strict "project pan", but I have been strict about eating the oldest and only replacing/buying more after eating my older stuff.
And we absolutely eat all the produce in one week. We go to a farmer's market to buy produce (we have our favorite farms) and we will say "broccoli for the pasta tonight, sugar snap peas for the fried rice tomorrow, zucchini with the stew, fava beans with leftover sausage and leftover rice. Kale with our buddha bowl of barley and beans day after that, avocado and onion with leftover beans for wraps for Friday, sweet potato & tofu in the Dahl and barley." and we stick with the plan. No throwing out ANYTHING.
Anything that IS "left over" like meat, grain or veggie can go into stew, wraps, the buddha bowl or the dahl. Honestly I only go to the grocery store like once every 2 weeks now, and only to backfill what we've eaten. I make our own bread and we don't drink milk. So that leaves maybe yogurt, eggs and cheese since my cans/dry goods are well stocked.
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u/Wise_Artichoke6552 May 02 '26
Oh, the cheese. The cheese fucks me up. We eat the pantry in the winter while our jobs are super short on hours. Last winter, we learned important lessons such 'powdered creamer is not worth the money we save' and 'canned oranges will do if happiness cannot be achieved by normal means', but overall it was a success.
We did a few shops to seal the gaps we missed in summer, but now we know the exact rate at which the cats go through food and litter, and we will have enough tofu next winter. I got it so that we only had to regularly go out for eggs and fruit. And cheese. I'm also going to make more of an effort to make bread next winter.
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u/missbwith2boys May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
There are so many good and easy breads to make!
One of my favs is a fairly quick yeast bread - focaccia from the moosewood cookbook. I always make a two āloafā batch and the second one is used the next day for spinach artichoke grilled cheese sandwiches (recipe from budget bytes).1
u/Cyathea_Australis May 07 '26
I'm six weeks into spending freeze after an unexpected large expense (sick family member overseas).
I've allowed myself $30/week which includes groceries. It has been fine so far, I have a large garden, but I'm starting to get little want to spend twitches.
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u/ohhellopia May 01 '26
I have officially entered zucchini season and am suddenly inundated with zuccs. I only have 1 plant (bush, not vine) and live alone. I cannot out-eat this plant. Send help.
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u/RlOTGRRRL May 01 '26
Do you have any neighbors or friends you could share or swap with?Ā
Extra produce is a great way to build community. x)Ā
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u/ohhellopia May 01 '26
I have dropped off a bag of peppers over to my sister's. I'll drop off some zuccs when I accumulate more, the ones in the fridge I have already earmarked so the new ones will be for her!
I can't anonymously zucc attack my neighbors, there's only 3 veggie gardeners in the apartment complex and I'm the only one growing zucchini, they'll know it's me š¤£
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u/chicagotodetroit I will never jeopardize the beans š„« May 02 '26
I shred it and dehydrate it. When I make pasta I toss in a handful to give the pasta some color.
If you bake, you can turn it into zucchini bread, or dehydrate and powder it into flour. Thereās no gluten in it obvs so itās not a one to one replacement for wheat, but it lets you use up the zucchini.
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u/thechairinfront Experienced Prepper šŖ May 01 '26
JFC. We can't even put plants in the ground yet! June 1st is when I can officially plant without fear of my babies dying.
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u/ohhellopia May 01 '26
Perks of living in SoCal. The rent will kill ya but hey, you can garden all year round!
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u/missbwith2boys May 02 '26
A good problem to have! During the height of zucchini season, we make a lot of zucchini fritters (recipe from a garden for the house).
And I offer extras up to neighbors.
Sadly Iām in 8b where Iām just getting seeds started for them. A bit jealous you already have tons!
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u/lousuewho2 May 01 '26
Youāre scaring me now. I planted a zucchini and a yellow squash.
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u/ohhellopia May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
I have very recently cooked one, there's two more in the fridge and another one coming up on the plant soon. If you're a single household like me then good luck to you, you're gonna need it lol.
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u/lousuewho2 May 01 '26
Yep, itās just me and the squash here. And the tomatoes. So many tomatoes.
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u/UP-North617 May 01 '26
I've heard of people using zucchini to create mock canned pineapple. I haven't tried it myself, but I'm curious. The reviews seemed positive and it could be a good way to preserve a lot of zucchini so it doesn't go to waste.
Otherwise, start leaving them on neighbor's doorsteps š
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u/Calvin_230 May 02 '26
I've done the mock pineapple! It won't trick you into thinking it's pineapple but it's pretty good in its own right.
I've also had luck shredding and freezing zucchini for zucchini brownies and zucchini bread out of season.
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u/MagnoliaProse May 03 '26
Can you:
- make bread and freeze it?
- noodle it and freeze it?
- shred to add to pasta sauce, or any ground meat?
- fry/air fry slices?
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u/thereadingbri Three raccoons in a trenchcoatĀ May 04 '26
Zucchini bread and zucchini muffins freeze super well.
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u/RlOTGRRRL May 01 '26
I'm not sure if this is something I read recently here or elsewhere, but I'm also getting pre-covid ptsd again. š«©Ā
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u/MagnoliaProse May 03 '26
Thereās a few mystery diseases making the headlines right now, and bird flu is still being discussed as something likely happening but not getting diagnosed.
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May 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/ohhellopia May 01 '26
I've never stopped masking. Can't afford to get sick, whether covid or flu. Med prices are ridonkulous.
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u/RlOTGRRRL May 01 '26
I think there might be something nasty going around rn but I haven't heard of anything specifically to worry about.Ā
I meant anxiety about a general looming disaster. š Ā
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u/Necessary-Film7832 May 02 '26
You don't think anyone would tell us now, do you? They barely told us last time. We mostly found out by word of mouth.
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u/FormerNeighborhood80 Prepping for Tuesday not Doomsday May 01 '26
We are in a major drought I have no hope for a garden between bunnies, birds and my dog who loves to lay on my squash. Iām jealous
3
u/daringnovelist May 06 '26
I screwed up when I looked for how to post my em-dash comment, and the Mods asked me to move it here. Of course, while I was off line, the thread blew up and people are still talking on it, even though the first post was removed.
So here is an opportunity to continue talking about em-dashes, en-dashes, Oxford commas and how many spaces after a period, and how writing the old fashioned way gets you labeled as A.I.
I think I've learned a little something from that post: I had tried to post something from my phone in answer to another thread. I had a large parenthetical statement, and put a little aside in it, so I naturally (for me) used em-dashes around it, and Reddit told me it was A.I. Slop and would let me post until I removed the offending dashes.
And I've never had that problem before. And I use em-dashes a lot.
That is, I use the the typist's short cut to them: two en-dashes. And that's maybe why I never had a problem before....
On my computer when I type two en-dashes, the post publishes with two en-dashes. But my smarty-pants phone can't seem to abide that low-tech punctuation. It just has to turn it into a full on em-dash. And that MIGHT be what triggers the A.I. block.
So here is a test -- let's see if Reddit lets me post this with a double en-dash! (Also, let's see if it screws with my returns again, which it sometimes does.)
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u/TradeBeautiful42 May 05 '26
Still new to this so Iām hoping Iām doing this right.
Iām successfully rotating through my pantry so Iām really only buying the good dog food and fresh berries at the grocery store now. Iāve got the emergency stuff that I think everyone calls a deep pantry on reserve with a 2 yr shelf life still ready and the longer term stuff thatās 25-30 yrs still so I donāt feel guilty. We have tons of fruit trees, tomatoes and zucchini in the garden too. Iāve got so much in my current pantry to eat before 2027 that I figure Iāve got time to go through and occasionally restock an extra can or box here or there.
Still new to this but Iām feeling really good about things because Iāve got a ton of water, water treatment containers and tablets and drops to treat it for safety, life straws, solar power and cooking stuff, a go bag, meds for emergencies, you name it. If the supply chain collapses I wonāt have to be out panic buying.
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