Stockpiling the Basics (Shortened)

The Organic Prepper ^ | 10/17/13 | Daisy Luther

[Kartographer]

To build your stockpile, look through your cupboards and see what you use the most. Every kitchen will be different but below are my most-used items – the ones that I search out and buy in bulk.

Baking Items:

Baking soda
Baking powder
Yeast
Cocoa
Nonfat dry milk

Fats:

Olive oil
Coconut oil
Shortening
Butter

Sweeteners:

White sugar
Turbinado sugar
Muscavado sugar/brown sugar
Honey
Molasses
Maple syrup

Other:

Salt
White vinegar
Apple cider vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
Black pepper
Herbs and spices
Cornstarch (please consider organic for all corn products)

[Farnsworth]

Only the healthy will survive a collapse. Folks like me tied to necessary medications will be dead within a couple of weeks.

Darwin

[PA Engineer]

I have bought a few of these for family, friends and neighbors. From Cheaper Than Dirt:

[metmom]

Herbs and spices I will be growing these next spring.

I have been working on my herb garden for a while now. Many of the common herbs for seasoning are perennials including sage, oregano, lemon thyme, and thyme. Rosemary is cold sensitive but can be brought indoors for the winter. Right now, I buy it new each spring.

I use them for cooking and there is NO comparison to the flavor you get over the dehydrated stuff.

I have also been growing garlic for the last few years and that is working out well, and I just had some scallions (a biennial) go to seed. I saved the seeds and the scallions, while huge, are still good to eat. I plan on using those ones for scallion-potato soup.

[Nailbiter]

bflr

[metmom]

Long term stability is one of their strengths, although menu boredom can be a drawback.

Menu boredom is overrated.

Some people are on really restricted diets and you do get used to it. Not saying it's easy, but it's possible.

You can learn to be grateful for what you DO have to eat instead of complaining about not having variety.

And in some places in the world, they eat pretty much the same thing day after day because they don't have anything else.

One thing I rarely see mentioned in the prep lists is good quality multi-vitamins.

If you are stuff on a limited diet, it is very likely not nutritionally balanced and there's a good possibility that it will be deficient in some vitamin or another.

There's no sense in dealing with scurvy (Vitamin C) or (God forbid) night blindness when you need to be able to defend at night.

Mineral supplements are also important.

There's no point in succumbing to an illness or infection because you are physically compromised from a deficiency of some kind.

[Pajamajan]

bookmark

[metmom]

If you are stuff STUCK on a limited diet,

Sheesh. That's what i get for posting in the middle of the night.....

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

and also get a bunch of MREs.

Keep in mind that MREs are for short term use...very short term.

A consistent diet of MREs will give you certain gastro-intestinal...malfunctions. Use them for emergency use....as they were intended.

[bgill]

Solar cooking

http://solarcooking.org/plans/default.htm?redirect=no

http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Cookers_International_Network_%28Home%29

I made the Cook It solar oven (foil and cardboard) with the kids years ago and it works pretty well. Solar ovens use specific pans so make sure you have the proper ones.

http://www.cookwiththesun.com/canning.htm - this guy shows how to home can tomatoes in a solar oven.

[bgill]

Vit D-3.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

BUMP for later. Thanks. Just wanna double-check my stash. ;)

[greeneyes]

The canned stuff goes much quicker then you would think. I’ve gone to counting the cans figuring 365 days x 3 meals. Its a lot of cans and bags.
***********************************************************

Indeed it is. My plan is basically grains and dried or fresh fruit for breakfast, since that is what the family likes best. Rotating 7 to 14 different meals.

One meal per day is Homemade Soup and Homemade bread or salads in season.

I basically buy stuff by the case, and they have 12 cans per case. I buy 1 case, if I only want to eat that item once a month. If I want to eat an item once a week for a year, I buy 4 cases plus 4 cans, and so forth. Cases are stacked on dollies 5 cases high. That leaves room for a case of tuna, clams, or other type of cans that size. I have room to stack 10 of these along the floor under the pantry shelves. Which gives me 600 cans of veggies and fruits. 120 cans of tuna etc.

I kinda do the same thing for canned meats. I buy them by the case on sale. Chicken and Pork, I buy on sale and can my own. These all work on the same principle-Once a month is one case for the year. Twice a month is 2 cases for the year. etc.

I store pantry stable stuff like flour, baking soda, dehydrated potatoes etc. fast mac etc too. Just not as much of it. I also store some of the long term storage stuff in the #10 cans. As I clean out a closet, and make room, I add some more long term stuff.

I just went in and pulled out all cans of 2013 dates and stacked them together to see what I had left and make sure to use it before I start dipping into the 2014 stash. Now that I have it set up and organized, it’s a lot easier to keep track of what I need to buy next and what needs to be used up first.

It can all be readily seen by scanning the shelves.

[45semi]

"I have bought a few of these for family, friends and neighbors. From Cheaper Than Dirt:"

I have too. Havent tested , or even assembled it yet. I have mine stored in the 5 gal buckets that it will be used with.
On a happy note, I do have a new metal roof, and a rain barrel collection system.
That, and a hand pump that will quickly fit on my (now electric) wellhead.
And a bucket of pool water chlorine tablets...

[45semi]

I recently got hold of a old satellite dish & am thinking of trying to make something similar to this, maybe boil water for bathing or cooking with it...dunno

[45semi]

Kart, Those older posts about your ammo can stove are there, but I don't see any 'visual' references.
Any chance of some good pics so we can see the details & parts necessary?

[greeneyes]

Was taking inventory of cabinets next to the kitchen stove today. I was struck by something I saw, and remembered this list of “basics”.

Maple syrup. Not sure if they mean the “real stuff” or the stuff most people buy which is cheaper, and made with high fructose corn syrup, with some coloring and preservatives added.

Here’s a way to have your “maple” syrup for about 82 cents per 24 oz bottle (3 cups) a 50% discount. Buy a bottle of Mapleine. It costs $4.24 at Walmart and will make 24 pints of syrup(15 of the 24 oz bottles of syrup).

Add sugar to your stock pile. A four pound bag of sugar will make 3 bottles of the 24 oz syrup. You will have syrup that tastes great, and no need for preservatives or corn syrup.

Easy recipe: 1 cup sugar, 2 cups really hot water, and 1 tsp mapleine. I just stir it up and put it in a 1 quart mason jar and let it sit over night with the lid on. It’s usually all dissolved before morning.

This will cut your cost of syrup by half. I learned this technique from my granny as a kid, and I always kept a bottle of mapeleine on hand, in case we would run out and need a quick substitute for the kids french toast.

Mapleine lasts forever and a day. LOL It’s a long term prep item for sure. The bottle is about 2.5” x 5” x 1”. The space needed for the sugar and mapleine is less than what is needed for the syrup bottles, and stacks better in storage.

[JoeProBono]

[greeneyes]

OOPs. I am having a lot of trouble with transposing stuff lately. The recipe is 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water. The way I wrote it was reversed, so it would be way too runny.

[Hugin]

I came across this at the local dollar tree the other day. Seems they pasteurize it at 280 degrees then "can" it a juice type box. I hadn't seen milk packaged this way before, though it seems Nestle, Borden, etc. now make it also, but it costs more like $3 each by the case. So for a buck it's a bargain. Anyway, took some home, chilled it, and tried it out. I can't taste any difference from regular fresh milk, none of the funny taste of powdered milk. The "use by" date is about a year from now, I suspect it would still be good a lot longer. I'll have to stock up while it's cheap.

[Titan Magroyne]

Never seen that, which would be handy for the occasional recipe. (I never buy milk just to drink, except for buttermilk once in a while as a treat.)

However, broth & stock packaged that way have been known to start leaking, and whattamess! Stored inside a container that would catch leaks, not so bad.