The One-Year Pantry, Layer by Layer

SHTF Plan ^ | 3/13/13 | Tess Pennington

[Kartographer]

Some foods to consider for longer term storage are:

Carbohydrates: white rice, pasta, wheat, oats, dehydrated fruits and vegetables, sugars, honey, fruits, roots and tubers (cook these well) and cereals. For those with wheat allergies, click here. Proteins: legumes, eggs, nuts, peanut butter, canned meats and fish, oatmeal, grains, wheat, quinoa, seeds, MREs, popcorn Fats: whole milk, ensure, peanut butter, oil (preferably plant based oils), nuts and seeds Vitamins and Nutrients: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, vitamin powders, dehydrated fruits and vegetables, seeds to grow vegetables and for sprouting, survival bars

[ansel12]

Places likely to have water supplies maintained include what I posted.

“Probably the safest place to live would be outside of a military base in a small town that is filled with those who serve the GIs, who rent homes to their families, who are retired from them, and a town that is remote from outsiders, which makes it more of an extension of the base than a real city.”

[Kartographer]

Me being a jerk?
Towns in NM mostly depend on deep wells to provide their water. In a shtf situation and the grid is out how is that water going to come to the surface? Even towns on rivers in NM only have a mostly continuous flow only because of the systems of damns, which again require electricity and being manned and maintained all of which would be problematical during shtf. Those are the facts, so is pointing out the facts being a jerk now?

[ansel12]

Now you are starting to post something that while overly general is at least useful, it sure beats simply telling people that a desert state can have areas where water is a problem.

Living outside of a base that would maintain water supplies is useful.

Also useful are wells like my family’s New Mexico well which is 1200 feet deep and has already been verified as capable of supplying water to an entire community by the water district that wanted it for that purpose.

[Kartographer]

You post the exception not the rule. And you have not address the problem of providing long term power to pump the water to the surface.

I have said it more than once in a major long term shtf situation the Rio Grand Bosky would soon become a killing field for ‘gangs’ of predators. What few natural lakes would quickly come under someone’s control.

At one time ‘wars’ were repeatedly been fought in New Mexico over water and during a long term shtf they would surely and quickly occur again.

[Kartographer]

I am curious about what the New Mexico Ping List has to say about water in New Mexico and a long term SHTF situation. Anyone?

[Iron Munro]

Thanks to you both for responding to my post about the spoiled corn.

As I said, it was an experiment and I am glad I took that approach. It would be a disaster to put up several hundred pounds of corn in that fashion only to find it had gone bad when a disaster strikes.

I learned something out of the deal and it only cost $11 for the corn and a few more for the mylar bags.

Based on your inputs I will buy another bag of corn and treat half of it with the freezer method and the other half with the oven method and observe the results.

If I reach any conclusions I’ll post the results on one of these prepper threads.

Just for info purposes -
We have had a couple of weevil attacks in our pantry over the years. The weevils seemed to show up in pasta and rice more than other products.
An infestation renders a lot of foods inedible and takes a lot of work to clean up.
Now we try to process all grains and grain based products through the freezer before bringing them to the pantry.

Running products through the freezer isn’t difficult with the quantities we buy for normal use but becomes more involved when dealing with 50 pound sacks of grains.

[ansel12]

Solar can pump a well, but the only concern is of the individual and whether they can secure water not the fact that entire states have issues with water.

Water in the West on a statewide basis and for large needs applies to many states and we can go on endlessly about it on every thread, but usually we deal with water issues on an individual basis.

I don’t intend to not move to Arizona, or Nevada, or New Mexico, or all the other water short states because of the general water conditions in the state, whether I move to New Mexico, or Arkansas, or Maine for preparedness, water for me individually would be the issue, not the state’s reputation in regards to water.

[Iron Munro]

Thanks for your input and sharing your experience.

[skinkinthegrass]

or use (width = xx) modified HTML to "satisfy" 'email.. . ;-)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Depends on what part of NM you live in. On the High Plains of NE NM you may have drinkable water from a windmill.

SE NM you might get good water or alkali water which is undrinkable.

Same for NW NM. Some water there is so bad you cannot drink it! I once started up a remote pump and took a swig of the water as it came out. It was undrinkable. It tasted like a very strong mixture of alkali, baking soda, sulfur, and salt.

Don’t know about SW NM.

[Kartographer]

Thus my stand on water in New Mexico (even for a individual prepper) will be problematic at best and to the vast majority of everyday people living in New Mexico access to a clean reliable source of water during a extend shft event would quickly become a nightmare.

[ansel12]

Well, you have a stand.

Personally the more issues water for a state, the more it makes it sound better to me for the smart prepared person.

One of the hopes of many freepers is that difficult living in their own area for those unprepared or who live in a vulnerable condition, whether cold or heat, or water, or fuel issues or whatever, would make the population in their area thin out quickly as the people instantly fled to camps and better areas .

[arbitrary.squid]

Well which is it, a Forest Service road or a private one?

[SkyDancer]

Both.

[yorkiemom]

This lady shows how to use dried corn to make cornmeal mush and then fry the left over for another meal.

My grandmother, who was born and raised on a farm in Kansas, used to feed us fried cornmeal mush for breakfast. It's good with jam or syrup!

Thx for the video - good corn information, from planting to grinding. I was kinda thinking corn would be a good option for planting - and for saving for the winter.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The lime soak, dry and grind is called masa harina. You do everything the same as making masa but then you dry the masa and grind that up. It will keep about a year in that state and you can have masa any time you want, just add water.

[yorkiemom]

That's been a discussion item this week, given their behavior. I made a list of useful items that can be derived from a cat.

Remember... I do have a banjo. It will need replacement strings. ;)

Now what could kitties do to deserve such thoughts?

My 5 would never consider being naughty. (The 3 inside are persians, which means they are pretty much like stuffed cat toys that move occasionally. The 2 outside ferals have sprayed inside before, even after being fixed. Hence, they are now outside kitties and I quit trying to domesticate them.)

[yorkiemom]

Glad you only lost $11. It’s worth it in the long run to make sure the rest of what you store is in good shape.

Yes, please let us know how the rest of the experiment goes. I still need to store some corn myself.

[JRandomFreeper]

I am familiar. I prefer to make fresh, since I don't make tamales very often (4th of July and Christmas and usually one or 2 random dates during the year) and I like the fresh better.

I got the full course from a 90 year old that didn't speak a word of English. She had an old stone quern that she demonstrated, and then had me use. She finally fessed up and said she really uses the Corona mill these days, and was glad to retire the quern when she was a young married girl. ;)

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Now what could kitties do to deserve such thoughts?

Mowing down 14 jalapeno starts in about the time it took me to turn my back and get a refill on my coffee. Apparently they like the taste of the plants.

/johnny