sources of vitamins

[singyourwayhome]

How do you plan to meet vitamin needs if you DO have to live off your food storage? It seems like a good thread to start.
Here's some nutrition info about orange PEELS, along with some recipes to preserve them (remember this for when oranges come into season.....):

It turns out that orange (or any citrus) peel is full of nutrition. According to Answers.com, “One may be surprised to find that there is 2,000% of the daily recommended value of vitamin C, 100% of the daily recommended value of Calcium, and 90% of the daily recommended value of vitamin A in any type of orange peel.” I certainly was surprised! The pith (white part, bitter) is also very high in pectin, which is why marmalade thickens so well. Pectin is a great fiber for your body and is a prebiotic. Prebiotics help the probiotics (good bacteria) live happily inside you. Compounds in citrus peel has shown in studies to be as effective as statin drugs for lowering LDL cholesterol. Who knew? All this means that if you’ve been saving and storing your orange peel (dried and ground up, or otherwise), you’ve been stashing away a multivitamin!

Homemade Orange Flavoring- preserving orange zest; this works for any citrus as well.
Wash and dry 3-4 oranges. (or as many as you like)
Use a vegetable peeler to peel all the orange off the outside, you want the colored part more than the white pith. (eat the oranges!) Spread the peels on a plate, and let dry out for a couple days, until they’re thoroughly dry. Drop them in a blender or food processor, add 1 Tbsp sugar for each orange you had, and run on high until peel is very finely chopped. Store in an old spice jar, baby food jar, or a small jelly jar. Label it. 2 Tablespoons gives you the zest of one orange, enough to flavor a batch of about anything; muffins, cakes, cookies, pancakes, whatever. Use it in place of part of the recipe’s sugar. Also good as part of a spice rub for meats.
You don’t really need to add sugar, but it seems to help the zest hold its flavor longer, and makes it easier to have enough in the blender for it to chop well. If you’re not using sugar, 1 Tbsp. is the zest of one orange.

Another way to preserve oranges is

Easy Orange Marmalade
1 orange, washed well
Sugar or honey
Cut the orange into quarters, and put it, peel and all, in a blender or food processor. Turn on and let it chop as fine or coarse as you like your marmalade. Look at how much puree you have, and use that same amount of sugar or honey. Put the puree and sugar in a saucepan and heat on high until it boils. Simmer for 5 minutes, until everything is translucent. You’re done. Makes 1- 1 ½ cups, depending on your orange. Or make a big batch, this will take more like 10 minutes of simmering. Pour into jars, seal if you want to store it for a year or more. I’ve kept it in unsealed jars in the refrigerator for 8-9 months before. They might have lasted longer, but we ate them first.

Do you ever have oranges start to shrivel and dry out? Turn them into marmalade, even if the peels are hard as leather. It’s also delicious to make lemon or lime marmalade, or a mixture. The lemon is my favorite, especially using just a bit of salt and vanilla – 1/8 tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. vanilla per cup of puree.
You can use marmalade as the sweetener in recipes; a cup of it has about ¾ c. sugar. I love it in muffins.

Candied Orange Peels (short version instructions):
save peels from 5-8 oranges, boil them in 3 changes of water, drain, cut in strips with scissors, simmer til translucent in 2 c. sugar and ½ water. Roll in extra sugar while still warm. If you need more details, let me know.

[Rensai]

Good info. Thanks for sharing. I'm always in the market for more good home storage ideas.

[tlove]

Wow!

I had no idea the peels
had that much nutritional value!
Here I've been throwing away
probably the most important part!

Thanks so much for the info &
GREAT recipes!!!

[moonwhim]

I understand sprouted seeds, beans, etc. produce a lot of vitamin content.

[minuet1]

The vitamin C content decreases drastically once an orange is cut open and not used in a timely manner, or exposed to heat. I'm wondering what drying the peel does to the vitamin content?

[highfive]

Sprouts also have a very high protein content.

[Moss Man]

I fully agree with the comments that sprouts should become your vitamins. The sprouting process increases nutrition dramatically. We've been told to store wheat, that it is the best for man, but not necessarily to only make bread.

I would also agree with the thoughts on orange peels. They are nutritious but how can you store them for later use? I would suggest obtaining pure orange (or any citrus) essential oil for your food storage. If you decide to get essential oils, be aware that not all can be used or are recommended for internal consumption.

[tlove]

Speaking of citrus...

I'm wondering how safe ALL the citrus from Florida will be now after the oil catasrophy? Its not like all that fallout is going away anytime soon...

I can only picture an orange, ripening in the sun, soaking up oil & benzene from the now highly-toxic tree. Then getting rained on with toxic drops. The wind blowing who knows how many chemicals in the air - attaching itself to the fruit. All of it soaking deeply into the fruit. Then someone picking it, throwing it in a box, and then off to the market in whatever form! (Including using that citrus for prepackaged orange juice, etc.) I seriously doubt they'd label it any differently ~ scary.

[Rand]

I have always wondered where all that nutrient comes with sprouts. It wasn't in the grain or bean initially. You add a little moisture, time and a little light, and bingo, a huge jump in vitamins, but where do they come from.? Where did those little kernels get the resources to build them? A 500 % increase out of what? A little water? Amazing. Another miracle of this complex system of life we get to be a part of. Kind of like the manna from heaven.

Never forget the sun. Vit D is vital.

[AngelPalmoni]

when you are using food storage you should be planting small pots of lettuce, carrots, spouts, and potatoes... you just want to survive really