Posted on 08/17/2012 8:16:52 PM PDT by Kartographer
Don’t want to stockpile 1,000 pounds of dried rice and beans? Want something that taste a little better then MREs? Want something that you don’t have to worry about rotating out?
One of the main problems with stockpiling survival food preps, is that people sometimes stockpile what they do not normally eat. So the food stocks sit in a closet, expire, and have to be thrown out. In the long run its easier to stockpile what your family normally eats so rotation is handled in a natural manner.
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalistboards.com ...
Yes and no. Our stores are to buy us time, that's all.
We have made preps to acquire small game, mostly squires and rabbits; however, any small mammal will do. Fishing will also produce protein. Large game (deer and bear) will disappear quickly.
We've become adequate at gardening and have been planting fruit trees for the last few years, some of which are no starting to produce for us.
Also, there are many farms in my area and we've made arrangements with several to trade animals for security and labor.
No plan is perfect. All one can do is to try and anticipate what will come to pass.
I have been concerned about that, too, that people buy gobs of dried beans and would run out of fuel or water to prepare them. Dried food takes water and fuel, it doesn't prepare itself. For a short time emergency, like 5 or so days without power due to a hurricane or other weather event, I have canned beans and instant rice along with other open the can and heat items like canned creamed soups with meat in it (those are Progresso soups and are delicious). Also have canned fruit for those times.
So, I have a short term emergency way to heat and eat using very little fuel. I have numerous ways to cook for a long term emergency and have way to have good water for as long as necessary. I'm sort of a Plan A/B/C/D person to accomplish a task so I can live as well as possible under dire circumstances.
*guffaw*
Thank you for that great graphic!
I do like those, and everyone should be prepared with some type of wood stove for cooking.
Whichever stove you use to cook your food with, make sure that you have the pressure cooker, and the pressure canner, and canning supplies.
Among my 15 or so various stoves are the ZZstove, which gives one a somewhat controlled burner, and uses a AA battery, I have rechargeables and a couple of small solar chargers.
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Cook%20Gear/Stoves/Zip%20Ztove%20Sierra%20stove/Owner%20Review%20by%20Dawn%20Larsen/
I also have their discontinued, non battery stove which is a backpackers version of the one you built, there are a number of models of those passive, twig burning stoves, that help make the flame more similar to a burner.
Regular kitchen type cooking with fire (not grilling, but boiling and simmering) would be quite an eye opener for most people, it wouldn’t hurt for preppers to try it a couple of times if they are not experienced in it.
Costco has 50 pound bags of rice or bread flour for $17. Hat alone will keep an adult male going for a month. (Yes, nutrition is lacking but it will get you the calories needed to get nutrition.)
Even some customers don’t realize it. When I was a cashier there were a couple of times I refused to ring something up because it was swollen, I’d send my bagger to find a good one. I remember the looks on my customers’ faces when they realized they’d picked something up without really looking at it and were about to poison themselves.
Canned fruit is more acidic than canned veggies or beans so they have a shorter shelf life. The acid will eat away at the can and bacteria will get in. The human stomach will kill all kinds of nasties but this guy is nuts.
/johnny
I always wash purchased greens, even the bags marked triple washed. Last week I opened a bag of triple washed baby spinach and a little grasshopper jumped out.
I grow most of my own greens, so it's not an issue for me, but if I use store bought, I use a 50ppm chlorine soak on anything eaten raw. I don't have a spleen anymore (misplaced it on a mountain a while back), and shigella is BAD NEWS(tm) with a compromised immune system.
It's commonly spread by 3rd world workers in the field without sanitation facilites. Fecal splashing, I believe, is the technical term.
/johnny
I’ve been thinking of writing up a rather long vanity about prepping; I used to have a blog (it probably still exists somewhere, I should check) but just have not the time to add to it. A few people here (I think probably all on your list) wanted me to tell them when my blog was fixed up. I’ll ping you if I do this, I really want to (time is a problem) to just give my own ideas and experiences, some of which may help a few others.
Having been in the prepping mode pretty seriously for about 7 years (?) or so, I’ve learned a lot, and we are increasingly poorer and poorer to the point where we don’t have enough for property tax even if we don’t spend one more penny until November (when taxes are due). So I have a lot of experience at prepping and having no money.
I agree with the absolute necessity of rotating; but would add this - rather than buying what one normally eats and rotating, learn to eat very cheap long shelf life foods and then rotate. That way if income dwindles (or shuts off!) a person will not go into shock at having to eat “icky” food they’re not used to, or not have enough stocked up for hard times.
I am sure, IDontlike, that you have never, ever, EVER made a slight grammar or spelling mistake in your whole life!
Would you like a nice gold star?
Then you can work on not being rude!
Yes there is supposed to be one of those liners. Please help yourself to those cans which are in doubt. I’ll focus on the food I know is safe.
/johnny
In a survival situation the grammar nazi’s are the first ones tossed to the zombies.
You must have a really top notch pressure cooker. When I cook pintos, for example, I soak them overnight or until they are all swollen and non-wrinkly, rinse well, and then bring to pressure (mine is not fancy, doesn’t have any gauges), then put on low for about 40 minutes. Any less time and then are not done.
Different beans take less time; pintos seem to take the longest. Soaking is essential. I use a lot of quicker cooking legumes like split peas, lentils and mung beans. I soak them all, esp. the mung (24 hours).
I assume you mean the zombi’es.
If there is a bug in vegetables, then there couldn’t be a lot of pesticides in them.
:-)
“Fecal splashing”
Yum. Can’t wait to go home and fix a great big salad
“I’ve read that undented canned food can last a decade or more.”
I’m just rotating-out some Campbell’s Chicken Noodle, Vegetable, Chicken Rice, Split Pea and Tomato Soups which have *2006* stamped on them - I’ve been *prepping* since 9-11 - and they’re just fine. Same with Saltines and Ritz Crackers. As long as the can isn’t dented, kept dry and cool, it’ll (probably) last longer than the mfgr’s dreaded expiration date. (Contents may settle in shipment and your mileage may vary.)
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