A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
Proverbs 27:12
Store or Starve A beginner’s guide to food storage
A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. Proverbs 27:12
Well, we already have a major Rat infestation in the Federal District of Columbia, and modern society is most definitely falling apart.
;-)
Thanks for posting this. I’m getting ready to teach a food storage class here in Phoenix, and this article may give me some ideas.
Canning jars work well and stack easily and even without processing them, the lids that you use for processing form an airtight seal just by screwing the bands on tightly.
4 later
Did you see this thread?
Say, anyone know where appleseed has been lately?
Thanks for the ping!
Do all LDS churches have a sealer?
Do they let non-LDS faiths use it (ie: I’m Catholic)
I don’t have any LDS friends so can I just call and ask to use their facilities?
Good post. There is no food store in any city in the country with more than a 5 day food supply. In the event of disaster, stores are emptied in < 24 hours.
It’s important to store. But unless you’re in a rare rare situation, few can store for more than a few years or have a varied enough diet to keep themselves from being deficient, or from going crazy from simply eating the same stuff all the time.
If the collapse lasts for a long period, you are going to learn how to homestead and renew your food supply. You need to buy seed and lots of it and learn how to save it. I’ve been gardening that way for about 10 years, here’s what I’ve learned on buying seed:
1. Heirlooms/open pollinated. Forget hybrids, don’t buy anything that can’t breed true. Heirlooms taste better anyway. Saving seed is a must.
2. Buy & store enough seed for each variety for at least 4 years. Crop failures happen.
3. Keep more than one variety of each vegetable. I can say plant out 4 varieties of melons a year, but have 12 more in the freezer and rotate on a 4 year cycle. That way if you do lose a variety for some reason you aren’t denied that vegetable.
4. Calories AND nutrition are key. Calories are good but it’s the nutrients that help convert it to energy efficiently so you are up to doing the chores of surviving. It’s easy to do in the summertime when the garden is green and abundant. Where it gets critical is early spring where stocks are low but no food can be taken from the garden. I read years ago that many pioneers got sick and died in the spring and not the winter, during the in-between time of little, no, or very poor quality food.
5. Buy vegetables for storage. Freeze, can, dry, root cellar - make sure you have stuff that will hold up to those. Root cellar storage is huge, the freshest food has the most nutrition. There are many, many heirlooms that were bred to be put in a root cellar and if taken care of last for a long time. I have had carrots in my fridge that lasted over a year and were still good to eat.
6. Raise plenty of dry goods and things that can be ground to flour. Beans, corn, grains, rice are obvious. Other things like buckwheat, cowpeas, grain sorghum, sesame, soup peas and chufas that aren’t so obvious.
7. Grow things to flavor the food. Sorghum, sugarbeets, stevia for sweetener, herbs for seasoning, onions and garlic, apples for vinegar, etc.
8. Grow perennials and overwinter. Fruit especially. Also things like multiplier onions, horseradish, Good King Henry, jerusalem artichokes. Thing that can be put in a bed and left there and will come up year after year and provide food. Leeks, spinach, carrots, brassicas, etc will overwinter with cover, can be harvest during any winter warm spell.
9. Grow things with multiple uses. Pumpkins with good roasting seeds. Eggplant with edible leaves, topset onions that have a bulb and tops and green onions too. Strawberry spinach - fruit and berries, beets - roots and greens, etc. Things that can be eaten in various stages, like flint corn, beans or winter squash.
10. Extend the perennial idea to planting things in the wild, give yourself forage material.
11. Cut and come again things like spinach, lettuce, other greens, tomatoes, peppers, melons that will keep producing. Things like favas and certain varieties of beans that will go dormant in heat and drought and come back when conditions are better.
That’s just a fraction of it, but it’s a start. My favorite catalogs:
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/
http://www.gourmetseed.com/
http://www.rareseeds.com
http://www.landrethseeds.com/
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
http://www.southernexposure.com
http://www.seedsavers.org
Knowing that homeschoolers tend to be an independent lot.....
Ping to this interesting thread.
Bookmarking. Thanks for posting.
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BTTT
Use buckets, barrels or boxes...fill with at least 8" of garden soil, fix some sort of trellis for vines to grow up...and you have a vertical garden in a tiny space...tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, green beans, peas, - you can have an 8' wall of veggies! Easy on the back too.
I live in the country - no problem with space. But my back loves my wall garden.
And if you do have space, put in berry bushes, plant fruit tress - dwarfs are ideal: they put on fruit much faster, no need for a ladder and only the tree is dwarf. The fruit is full size.
Plant, depending on your climate, in 2 week intervals so that everything doesn't come on at once. I can get in 3 plantings - in Maine. Except for years like last summer with it's never-ending rain. Seed just rotted for first 2 plantings.
I grew up on a farm in the '30-40's. There was always a years supply of food on hand. Gardens, canned goods, barrels in the cellar, fruit trees and bushes, jams, milk and butter in the barn, ditto beef and pork. Chicken and eggs in the coop. Venison in the woods and fish in the waters.
Never in the history of mankind have people been so vulnerable when it comes to food as today. (I have a son who is a long hauler for the largest refrigerated company in the countrty. If you knew how precarious the trucking industry is right now - you would be VERY frightened. I'll give you one clue. Over a half million truckers lost their jobs last year. The media and the gov't is very silent on what is happening across the country.)
Think on that for a bit.
I have my wood stove and kerosene lamps - and my wicks are trimmed. ;o)
Or if you have the finances, simply buy Mountain House dried foods that have a shelf-life of 30 years. You could even eat them out of the box without water, although that would suck, but you could survive.
http://www.mountainhouse.com/
When the shit hits the fan, wanna trade food for water? I doubt any of you would go apocalypse on me with a 870 facing you down.
We're prepared. Try to come close. I have killed only one man if my life, but when the bottom hits, I'm ready. The love of my life is what will make your kneeds bleed, not to mention your groin.
I'm 60, in shape, can fire a weapon, and run circles around men my age. I know where to aim to give the most pain. I will not kill you - I will make you wish I have put a simple quick bullet into your stupid brain. But I won't. I will blow out your ankles, then your knees, then your groin, and you will be spilling every suck as al-Queda shithead idea you ever had.
Yes, I will do that if given the chance. Do you have any concept how much it hurts to have a knee or elbow blown off? I want that so much. But of course, our stupid president is going to give you rights if you only surrender. Here's a clue...there are many radical Americans just waiting for the opportunity to take out your gentitals. You know, the parts that you get to use as a cover for your jihad. We're getting wise...you're in trouble.
So now bin Laden says the West should stop fighting you murderous pricks because we support Israel. Do you fuacks have any idea how rediculous your demands are?
First it was because the West was involved in the Middle East. Then it was about the West's involvement in other ME matters. Now it's about the Wests' support of Israel. Sheesh, you simpletons are stupid beyond rational belief.
And guess what? The West will kill you! You send one stupid Yeman trained bomber on a plane and you still couldn't make it happen. Al-Queda is neutered.
Hide asshole, hide. We're coming after you. You have no where to go. Even your best buddies in Pakistan are looking to KILL you every day, and doing a fine job. Just go away and live your lifes with your goats. Keep pretending you are revelant. Us bad Westerners know the score. You are nothing but punks. We are dedicated to blowing you into pieces and not allowing you to experience your 72 virgins.
Sorry shitheads, many of our Troops are coating bombs with PIG grease. "Justice is coming, and hell is coming with us". Either you back off, or the USA and others will keeping killing all of you. Your cause WILL be decimated if you don't stop.
You want to subjicate women; you want to kill women for being raped; you want to control and execute for the slightest infractions? It's going to end. It did in Iraw...you're next!
Ping, though you probably have most of this information. Some interesting posts, though.
Blogger’s acct. of raising pigs
http://coalcreekfarm.com/2009/04/pigs-on-coal-creek-farm-and-im-not-referring-to-my-children/