The Egg Apocalypse sounds heavy, right? A little doomsday, right? Well it may be exactly that when 48.1 MILLION chickens, turkeys, and other birds drop dead of H5N2 (the bird flu that caused the outbreak earlier this Summer) causing an 80% increase in eggs. I don’t know about you, but my budget isn’t big enough to pay the $3-$4 a dozen price of eggs now at the grocery stores. And I most certainly don’t have it in my budget to use eggs in my baking or for anything other than boiled eggs really. Well, I hope you all have some powdered eggs in your food storage because every company is pretty much sold out. I don’t say this to make you feel bad, I say this to be a lesson that you never know what is around the bend. This is why it is so important to prepare NOW, while you know that you can. So over the next few days, I will be sharing some ways around using fresh eggs so that together we can weather this inflation storm.
The paradox of the Egg Apocalypse.
You would think that in a time when so many chickens and turkeys died that chicken prices would be going through the roof as well. However, that is not the case. I’ve bought chicken at prices I haven’t seen in YEARS. For example, I just bought whole chickens at $0.49 a pound! Whole chickens have been hovering around $1.89 a pound for the last year or so. Now, don’t worry, they aren’t selling the meat from all of those chickens laying eggs that were effected by the virus. The real problem is that other countries that American farmers would export chicken to have put bans on accepting poultry, so there is an influx of meat available to the public. So while eggs are going through the roof, this is a great time to stock-up on meat and start canning your own chicken at home!
Why am I such a fan of home canning chicken when there is freeze-dried chicken available? Well, I will tell you.
- First off, most freeze-dried meat costs, on average, $12-$15 a pound. (Yes, you read that correctly. Now, you can share that at your next food storage party when they try and push freeze-dried meat at you as something you should be using every day.) Unless it is a filet mignon, I’m not spending that much on meat–period. My budget simply won’t allow it. When I bottle my meat at home, it costs what I paid for it at the store. Thus, saving me money in the future.
- Canned meat is just as easy, if not more easy, than freeze-dried meat. It’s as easy as opening the bottle and pouring out the chicken. No hydrating, mess or fuss and it’s ready in 30 seconds or less. It tastes fabulous in casseroles, soups, etc.
- The liquid that is in the bottle with your meat is excellent broth. (So don’t pour it down the drain!)
- The bottles are in usable sizes. You see, with freeze-dried meat, when you open that $50 can of meat you then need to use it right away or it will go bad. (Trust me, I opened a can once because I ran out of something and it was Sunday. Then I forgot about the can and opened it up 6 months later. WOW, the stench was horrific.)
I’m not saying you shouldn’t store freeze-dried meat, if you really love it and who knows, maybe in 8 years chickens won’t even exist. I don’t know. But, what I am saying is that freeze-dried meat should most definitely, NOT be used every day to replace fresh meat while it is still much cheaper to use the meat from the grocery store.
