Posted on 08/22/2011 6:50:37 PM PDT by Kartographer
You need to start stocking food. You can do a lot if you start early. Unfortunately, “early” might have been yesterday. Now we’re way past early, and you need a reasonable plan to get food supplies that will store well and don’t cost too much.
Buy extra, use FIFO. Go ahead and buy more food than normal when you’re out shopping, and set it aside as preparedness. Use the “first in, first out” rule to eat your older supplies first. Keep rotating your supplies so you never abandon food “way in the back.”
(Excerpt) Read more at modernsurvivalblog.com ...
My stash is heavy on spices, sauces, gravies, dehydrated, peppers of various types, onions. We have gotten use to a highly varied diet and food fatigue should be a real concern. Face for many of us you could tell the day of the week by what Mom was cooking (Meatloaf Monday, northern beans and corn bread Tuesday, Wednesday chicken or maybe beef and noodles, Thursday pinto beans and fried potatoes, Friday fish usually the cheap bulk fish sticks, Saturday hamburgers, Sunday fried chick) and we were fine with that, but now days it isn't only the kids that can look into a full 'frig' or pantry and see nothing to eat. Do yourself a favor and pack away things that when added to you basics will keep the everyday interesting and palatable.
PING!
Kart - can you add me to your prepper ping, please? Thanks :-)
yep!! Variety is the spice of life, and spice can definitely enhance life...great point to make, and yet another layer for folks to consider as they continue to build that stash and wonder what would be good to put up next.
I just finished smoking and dehydrating the first batch of this year’s garden Ancho peppers. They are just outstanding to rehydrate and flavor any pot full of beans...
Know your area. It’s not ideal but it can keep you alive. All zones have their unique survival fauna. Chit hits the fan there is no telling how low or long it’s going to go.
It’s clear as a bell that at the very least a Double Dip is coming up and I ain’t talk’n roller coaster or Baskin Robbins!
I think that we are in for something like the collapse of Argentina ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yerKMQc7-w&feature=grec_index)but from the look of things it may even be on a global scale. Additionally I think we will see a much more violent version. As recent events show (Flash Mobs, UK riots, etc)we have a larger entitlement minded population and a the US has a much more violent and armed population than Argentina. I see many many small business wiped out by flash mob looting, and see rape, robbery and murder for murder sake. Many of these ‘yutes’ will think no more about killing you than most people think about stepping on a roach. That will be the test of many. Most preppers I know are Christian people and they will hesitate to do what they might have to do to stop the ‘yutes’. On the other hand the ‘yutes’ won’t think twice nor lose a minute of sleep, in fact they will smile and laugh about it.
Think of this quote which is one of my favorites:
“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Siege of AR-558 (#7.8)” (1998)
Quark: Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.
Now go look at some of the videos of the riots in the UK and of some of the flash mobs here in the US and look into there eyes.
For those who are just starting or are old hands at prepping you may find my Preparedness Manual helpfull. You can download it at:
http://www.tomeaker.com/kart/preparedness1i.pdf
For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, a extra couple changes of oil and filters for your car, tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.
As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”
Or as the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.
NIV Proverbs 22:3
Lastly this for the doubters and the scoffers.
“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger.
Underestimation can be fatal.”
Canned gravy will kill anyone that is not a longhaul trucker, military, nurse or a construction worker.
Best to make your own with a couple table spoons of flour, oil and a little black pepper. It's not that hard to make and homemade gravy won't give you the indigestion that canned gravy will. ;)
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Lots of peanut butter. It keeps a long time, is nutritious and tastes good on crackers - which also are good keepers.
Should also start buying things you don’t usually think of like powdered milk, canned milk, vitamin supplements, silica gel, powdered eggs, clorox, aspirin, dried fruit and beans. There are so many imaginative things you can think of. A little at a time adds up. If you have a water supply like a stream or river, the clorox will kill just about anything. Chewing tobacco is great for things like ringworm, poison ivy/oak, almost any kind of rash. Baking soda and vinegar. Epsom salts. I could probably list a million things and you would be surprised at how many uses there are for each one. Raw lemon juice will repel ants. Okay. I’m done.
Also, have plenty of unsweetened Koolaid (I like grape) stored away. You can find packages that make 2 quarts on sale sometimes for 10 cents each. Add 1 cup of sugar and you have a tasty drink that everyone (especially children) will enjoy.
Sugar opens other possibilities such as making alcohol for consumption, trade and can even be used for fuel. It has an almost unlimited storage life if kept dry.
The nice thing about canned items is you usually don’t have to add a lot of water.
My husband and I have been prepping over the past 18 months or so. Our stock includes dry staples like flour, sugar, salt, coffee, spices, powdered milk, grains, cereals, peanut butter, vitamins, oils, etc. And, yes, peanut butter. I date everything with a sharpie as it comes in, and store what I consider to be “fragile packed” in pestproof bins.
My heirloom, organic tomatoes are starting to ripen, so I stocked up on canning supplies last week. I picked up a few hints from my grandmother before she passed, but this will be my first at canning ‘maters. Apple butter is on the list, too.
My 10+ year old van is hinting it would like to retire, and it’s replacement will run on flex fuel and eventually straight alcohol. We live in a farming community and my husband’s goal is getting us off the grid. It’s ambitoious, but a good one.
The nice thing about canned items is you usually don’t have to add a lot of water.
My husband and I have been prepping over the past 18 months or so. Our stock includes dry staples like flour, sugar, salt, coffee, spices, powdered milk, grains, cereals, peanut butter, vitamins, oils, etc. And, yes, peanut butter. I date everything with a sharpie as it comes in, and store what I consider to be “fragile packed” in pestproof bins.
My heirloom, organic tomatoes are starting to ripen, so I stocked up on canning supplies last week. I picked up a few hints from my grandmother before she passed, but this will be my first at canning ‘maters. Apple butter is on the list, too.
My 10+ year old van is hinting it would like to retire, and it’s replacement will run on flex fuel and eventually straight alcohol. We live in a farming community and my husband’s goal is getting us off the grid. It’s ambitoious, but a good one.
We plan to grow alot of ours as well. Here’s our five basic types of storage:
1. Dry storage - Beans, oilseeds, and grains primarily.
2. Processed - canned, dried.
3. Root cellar or ice box. Freezer if there’s electricity.
4. Overwintered - covered by straw or plastic if they can’t naturally survive subzero.
5. Perennials - come up every year. This includes wild foraging.
I read once, that the pioneers never died in the winter in the raging snowstorms like you see on TV. They died in the spring when the grass was green and the flowers blooming, March or April, because they were out of stores and nothing much was growing yet.
Plan for that.
I have been “prepping” for well over a year. Like I said, I could probably list a million things. I have an old, cast iron potbelly woodburning stove just in case. I get a little amused by the people who can’t really afford it who are buying gold as fast a their little eyes can blink. What are you gonna do with it? You can’t eat it, drink it, or plant it. People laugh at me when I tell them to buy seeds and some chickens. Laugh all they want. Laugh until they die.
You gotta learn what’s edible. For instance, dandelion leaves are as healthy as spinach. You cook it the same way and season it the way you want. Lots of wild growing things are good for you. Get a book and read up, because honestly, the way things are going, you just don’t know.
And remember that small dogs and cats will work as livestock for those who might be stranded in a suburban house during the spreading of the riots after blackouts.
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