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Miscellaneous Preparedness Tips

HARD CANDY, CANNED MEAT
Consider a supply of hard candy, especially the “sour” kind that has ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) to provide energy without your having to use up your more valuable protein foods for body fuel.

Small cans of Libby’s Vienna Sausage have long expiration dates, and are not expensive. Neither are small cans of sardines, and they have a good storage life as well; the ones packed in oil would probably be a better choice than those packed in sauce. A recent telephone call to Hormel Foods revealed that their SPAM AND OTHER HORMEL CANNED PRODUCTS HAVE A SHELF LIFE OF FOUR TO SIX YEARS because they are cooked in the can. Again, consider these items for 72 hr. packs.

Peanut Butter
Surely, you have opened a jar of peanut butter and left it in the cupboard for a close to a year at some point; it kept pretty well, didn’t it? It’s inexpensive enough to buy several jars. Ordinary canned vegetables (but not all fruits) are generally edible for about two years.

Oils
My own experience with everyday cooking oils has been that after opening, they were still quite usable two years later. Some olive oil I opened was good three years after I opened it. A manufacturer of vegetable shortening has told me that their product has an indefinite shelf life if left unopened.

GROW POTATOES VERTICALLY!!
Potatoes can be planted in the early Spring using this method:
Loosen the soil; .....lay a car tire on top of it.... put a layer of leaf mulch down on the ground inside the tire, then lay your potato ‘seed’ on top. Then apply another layer of leaf or straw mulch, and then a layer of soil.

Roots will begin to grow even before it gets warm outside, because the mulch is breaking down & producing heat - plus the black rubber of the tire absorbs the sun’s heat and protects the ‘seed.’

Come late spring your above ground growing takes place and you have an early, well-established plant. THEN: you keep adding soil and mulch around the bottom of the plant as it gets taller, covering the bottom inches of the plant but always leaving 7 - 8 inches of green potato leaves growing up top; and you keep stacking more tires on top. Eventually you have a modest “tower of tires” with the green part of the plant still growing out the top one.

To harvest: just knock over the tire tower. You’ll find many dozens of beautiful big potatoes. My kids thought this was the neatest trick.

PLANTING POTATOES (in garden)

If you are planting regular white (not sweet potatoes or yams) potatoes, you need to have potatoes that have begun to sprout from the “eyes”. It is better (but not necessary) to get these sprouted “seed” potatoes from a commercial source, to ensure they are free of disease, growth retardants, etc. I have used potatoes that sprouted under the sink in our potato bin as well as “store-bought” seed potatoes and haven’t experienced problems.

At any rate, plow your ground well and break up all dirt clods. Make rows about 3-4 feet apart. Create a trench in each row about 6 inches deep by raking or hoeing dirt out to each side. Put fertilizer in trench and mix into soil very well. Cut each sprouted potato so you have a chunk with at least one good sprout (usually a one- or two-inch piece). Put in trench SPROUT SIDE UP and cover with two to three inches loose soil. Potatoes will sprout in next two to three weeks.

As the plants grow, you need to rake soil at sides of trench up to cover the growing plant. BE SURE to leave at least four inches of potato plant above ground. Many people also use well-rotted composting materials, leaves, straw and grass clippings to cover the potatoes. As the plant grows, it forms the potato under the soil and mulch. By applying layers of loose soil, mulch, etc., you protect the growing potatoes and provide a place for more to grow!!

You can begin to dig potatoes after the plant blooms. Most people wait to harvest potatoes until the vine (potato plant) has died and withered. If you intend to store your potatoes, spread them out and allow to dry and cure in an airy place for several days before storing.

DRY POTATOES
I found this in my dehydrater book.
Preparation; Peel, wash and slice 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick or shoestring 3/16 inch thick , or grate or dice depending on how the dried potato is to be used.
Pretreatment: Steam blanch over water containing 1 tsp. sodium bisulfite per cup of water 4 to 6 min or until translucent but still firm.
Rinse well in cold water to remove gelled starch.
Drying Temperature: 160F for 1 to 2 hours, or until done.
How to use: Grate slices and rehydreate for hash brown potatoes.

DEHYDRATING STEAMED POTATOES
Too many extra potatoes?? I peeled them, cut into fry size and steamed them til they were done. I have a steamer that I bought at ShopKp many years ago, but you could use a double boiler/steamer. After I steamed them til they were fork tender, I dehydrated them! Takes about 12 hours at 135* in my dehydrator. 5 lbs of potatoes will fit nicely into 2 and ½ gallon ziplock bags. To use them, I can fry them, bake them or toss a few into a soup or stew. I can also re-hydrate them and use in casseroles.

POP BOTTLE GREEN HOUSE
You can cut some of your empty soda bottles in half, put dirt in the bottoms, plant wheat seeds, and put them on the dashboard of your vehicle, and park so that the windshield faces south and acts as a greenhouse; you can even push the bottoms back into the tops (with the caps off, for ventilation) to make individual greenhouses and put them on the roof or hood of your vehicle if you have no more room on your dashboard! Just make sure you secure them by surrounding them with rocks or tying them together so that the wind does not blow them over.

My own experience with greenhouses is that how cold your plants get at night is not nearly so critical as whether it gets warm enough during the day, and if the sun is shining, the interior of a vehicle is much warmer than outside. If growing some wheat for greens seems like a good idea, also store garden seeds and use the same method to plant Swiss Chard, a fast-growing leafy vegetable whose leaves you can keep harvesting over a period of months. But wouldn’t it be a good idea to try this method out now?

We all know that garlic cloves keep well for months; they will grow into plants when planted small end up; the green shoots are edible and garlic is beneficial for health.

If these last two paragraphs on sprouting and growing inside a vehicle seem far-fetched, consider the psychological benefits of causing something to grow that can be eaten, instead of just living off dwindling stored supplies. And if you have to move your vehicle again, your sprouters and planters are portable!

I once heard a nutritionist on the radio say that when you eat white rice instead of brown rice, YOU THROW AWAY FORTY NUTRIENTS. I guess a good analogy would be eating white-flour products instead of whole-wheat products

USING RAINWATER
Rain is funneled from the roof into gutters and from there into a holding tank (a cistern). The water will keep best if it’s underground (cool & out of the sun) — even so, the first couple minutes of a rain should be channeled away from the tank so that the roof can be washed off, and clean water enter the tank. Filtration can take place right at your sink with a portable camp filter or a more elaborate (non electric!) system. Clothes washing and showers can be done without filtration, as long as the water smells okay and looks clear — any water that touches food or your hands should go through the filter.

In our area, the best rainwater is spring and fall waters; summer water is considered pretty poor, easily goes moldy, and tastes bad — something to do with the bacteria and heat. If you have reasonable rain during the cooler seasons, you can store excess water (chlorine bleach comes in handy) for the dry seasons.

If you store water in an underground tank, you’ll need a simple hand-pump to draw it up — they run around $50 here. Alternatively, you could just lower a (clean) bucket into the water by rope and haul it up.

Anyway, the system will work! You’ll probably have more water available by this cistern system than you realize. Plus, it’s relatively cheap to set up.

PLASTIC FOOD/WATER CONTAINERS

The company is United States Plastic Crop. out of Ohio. Their phone number is 1-800-537-9724. They have some great deals on plastic buckets & drums.

All FDA approved. In addition, if you buy in larger lots you can get discounts up to 15%.

WATERBEDS FOR STORAGE

You can use a water bed for water storage. Use Clorox at 1 tsp. per 10 gal h2o to keep bacteria down. There are algaecides sold to prevent algae growth in waterbeds: but we have use a waterbed for over 20 yrs and never added anything but water, and never had a problem. You might want to check the sites on long-term water storage (Emergency Essentials, Watertanks, etc.—and others have this kind of info).

A lot of the flexible watertanks are made out of the same basic material as waterbed mattresses; in fact, the watertanks.com “bag in a box” bag is made by a waterbed manufacturer. Use the water supply from the waterbed mattress for washing water.

The basic plan is to store the “main” water in flexible tanks like the above, using chlorine, boil and filter the water before it’s used .

WATER BOTTLES & DRUMS (for thermal heating)

The 2 liter bottles are great as a thermal mass for your house, too. Put them against a south wall, and they’ll absorb heat during the day and radiate it back out during the night. The fact that you can use the water, if you’ve put a little bleach in them before you sealed them up, is like a bonus.

55 gal. plastic barrels (second hand, previously used for shipping a detergent, $5 a piece) which you could re-use indefinitely in catching rainwater.

EMERGENCY WARMTH

Here is a roundup of the ideas thus far about emergency/expedient/improvised thoughts for keeping warm:

+ Buddy Burner http://www.justpeace.org/buddyburner.htm
+ use newspapers over windows for insulation; use strips of cardboard and small nails, duct-tape.
+ newspapers as insulation for beds and floors. They can also be wrapped around legs, arms, and torso underneath clothing for extra insulation (often used by homeless people)
+ bundle the humans, numerous layers of clothing.
+ seek refuge in a basement (in many areas, underground rooms keep a more constant temperature
+ barrels of water painted black in sunny areas during the day, absorb heat from the sun, radiate it at night.
+ use concrete blocks or bricks with propane/kerosene heaters to absorb heat and then radiate it when the heat is turned off. (Note there are many concerns with using propane and kerosene inside, make sure whatever it is you are doing is well ventilated.)
+ close off parts of the house, concentrate the people and whatever heat is available in a smaller areas, but here again, allow for plenty of ventilation — people have died in cold emergencies from the fumes of improperly vented heaters. NEVER use charcoal inside.

Pinecone Firestarters

Materials
Medium-size pinecones
water
Double boiler
Knife
Paraffin
Old saucepan or large tin can
newspaper
red or green crayon (optional)
old muffin tin
scissors
candle wicking or heavy cord.

1. select cones that will fit in muffin cups, if cones are still partially closed, they can be made to open completely by baking them on a old cookie sheet at 200 degrees for 30 minutes.

2. Put water in bottom of a double boiler and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer. With a knife grate paraffin into a old saucepan and set inside the top of double boiler.

3. When the paraffin has melted, dip each pinecone to coat completely. Remove and cool on paper.

4. melt more paraffin as needed. When all the cones have been dipped, add red or green crayon to the melted wax to tint.

5. Pour melted paraffin ½ inch deep into each of the muffin cups. Cut wicking or cord into 2 inch lengths. Place one wick in each cup, placing it to one side with at least an inch extending above the paraffin.

6. Allow paraffin to partially harden, then press a pinecone into each cup, let harden completely. Run hot water into the sink and dip the bottom of the muffin pan into it to loosen the starters, lift each one out. Use to start a fire in your fire place.

Disaster Preparedness Recipe & Tip Sources:

Watch this video ~ The Future of Food
http://www.mercola.com/future-of-food/index.htm

http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa091399.htm
http://busycooks.about.com/cs/seasonalcooking/a/disastercooking.htm
http://www.naturalmeals.com/ArkChart.html