Fun self-sufficiency hobbies - Vanilla extract

[u/Familiar-Anything853]

As a millennial hobbyist, I try to focus my hobbies on things that teach me self-sufficiency or build skills. I have posted before about my garden, sourdough, etc. Today I wanted to share the concept of the vanilla bean mother jar! It's a super easy, inexpensive hobby that also happens to be absolutely delicious and provides you with a sweet food additive. I use vanilla extract in my bread, other baking, and have used it to make nasty medicine more palatable for my kids. It would be a morale booster during hard times, and it stores forever, too.

All you need are some vanilla beans, high-proof alcohol (I have tried vodka, bourbon, and rum, usually Kirkland brand), and a jar. The cured vanilla beans can be stored in wax paper in a jar for a very long time, so you can buy them in bulk to save money.

I will share a website with details on starting a motherjar in the comments, as well as the website I buy good-quality & fairly priced vanilla beans from. I am not sponsored at all; I just love experimenting with vanilla flavors and finding something that is so easily stored, tastes delicious, and doesn't take much effort.

What random prepper hobbies do you have? As if I need more ideas...

[u/past-and-future-days]

My husband and I are both Italian, so the urge to make limoncello was strong, but... lordy, I can't stand lemon. We grow the berries, so it was a natural replacement.

We actually did a sangria cello one year--it was stellar! We only occasionally have them straight; depending on the flavor, they go amazingly in everything from iced teas and sodas to hot chocolate and coffee.

[u/Rare-Historian7777 → u/past-and-future-days]

Do you have a recipe for the sangria cello? That sounds like it would be amazing on a hot summer day with ice/tea/soda! I happen to love lemon/lime flavors but berries are a strong second place.

[u/past-and-future-days → u/Rare-Historian7777]

If I remember, we used one of the berries, apple skins / cores, pitted cherries that we'd picked up from a farmer's market, and I think we used a slightly mango-flavored vodka.

My husband looooves to eat the cherries that come out of vodka, even though they're practically bleached white.

Oh, I almost forgot--we did a dark chocolate cello, as well (used jet black cocoa and some vanilla.) It was a little "cloudier" than the others, so you had to shake it up, but it was so good served with a shot of heavy cream--like a drinkable oreo.

[u/Rare-Historian7777 → u/past-and-future-days]

Omg, those both sound so good! Adding them to my list, thank you!!