Top 20 Food Storage Mistakes

Prudence Not Paranoia ^ | 12/13/12 | Kellene Bishop

[Kartographer]

1. The Food Storage Mentality
2. Food Rotation
3. Production
4. Inventory Evaluation
5. Experience!
6. Food Storage Conditions and Containers
7. Food Nutrition
8. Not Enough Water
9. Appetite Fatigue
10. Comfort Food
11. Paying Too Much for Food
12. Making Food from Scratch
13. Prepare to Share Your Food
14. Throwing Food Out Too Soon
15. Rely on Your Own Research
16. Failure to Remember the Tools
17. Fall Into the Pigeon Hole
18: Failure to PLAN to Conserve Physical Energy
19: Special Diet Considerations
20: Protect the Investment

[EQAndyBuzz]

Anyone storing salt cod? How does it hold up? I know it’s light, after rehydrating I might be able to leech out the salt and reuse it and it is a good source of protein.

[Marcella]

“Where is your blog, Marcella?”

I’ll send you a Freepmail with the url. I post on Survival Podcast and it’s not my website so I don’t think that would be a blog, but I don’t know the exact definition as to what is a blog. ???

[ansel12]

A very good article.

One thing that I believe though, for serious preppers, is to have the deep, apocalyptic, put away and forgotten, reserves of bare Mad Max survival.

To some degree, depending on income and storage, it is nice that underneath all of the rotating and massive food stocks and balanced diets and food fatigue worries, is something like a locked away gold vault of nitrogen packed hard wheat and beans, and white rice and white flour and salt and sugar.

It would be nice to have something left to survive on if all else gets used up, or plans go awry. I say put them away and don’t bother rotating them because one, they are expensive when packed for permanence, and two, who wants to adopt a permanent lifestyle of using many years old wheat and beans by rotating them?
Just buy some #10 cans, or nitrogen packed five gallon buckets, and put them away for good, let the kids have them when you die, they will be a deep, deep, reserve of last ditch desperation ‘survival’ food, and they are always available for trade or even negotiations, if that came up.

[Vendome]

12 Lumens?

Say, that’s a mighty bright light....

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4eUorrfsYM

The worlds smallest rocket stove

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNgc98odLrc&playnext=1&list=PLA232706B7302A769&feature=results_main

rocket stove mass heater UK.

Because warmth is and means survival and sterility plus cauterization ....

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

http://sustainablog.org/2011/09/how-to-build-a-rocket-stove/

How to Build a Rocket Stove: 6 Plans

[TEXOKIE]

That is an excellent article, Kart! thanks! I went to the link on cheese wax, and was glad to learn about what she had to say about that!

My focus has been to try to obtain as much knowledge as I can possibly can about a lot of different things. I’ve been doing some research over past several months on edible wild plants in our area. Some are actually not wild, but are surprising (at least to me) in being edible.

Here are only some of the links I’ve found and might be a place to start if one is interested in learning this type of information.

This area of interest ties in with my other area of interest which is herbal medicine. (Note: I do not at all claim to be an expert on plants! Be sure to do your own research and BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING BEFORE YOU EAT SOMETHING WITH WHICH YOU ARE UNFAMILIAR!)

FOODS:
Chicory
http://www.outsidepride.com/seed/flower-seed/chicory-wildflower-seed.html

Crabgrass
http://www.eattheweeds.com/crabgrass-digitaria-sanguinalis-2/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitaria_sanguinalis

Daylilies
http://honest-food.net/2010/06/29/dining-on-daylilies/

Elm
http://www.eattheweeds.com/chinese-elm-a-tree-that-doesnt-go-dutch-2/

Hackberries
http://www.survivaliq.com/survival/edible-and-medicinal-plants-hackberry.htm
http://wildedibletexas.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/hackberry-jam/

Jerusalem Artichokes
http://homecooking.about.com/od/soups/r/blss36.htm

http://www.motherearthnews.com/print-article.aspx?id=2147490463

In the comment section following the article at this link there is a discussion on Jersusalem Artichokes:
http://www.shtfplan.com/charlie-mcgrath/mcgrath-there-is-a-disaster-coming-get-ready-for-it_11132012

Maple (seeds!)
http://folkwaysnotebook.blogspot.com/2012/04/eating-maple-tree-seeds.html
http://www.eattheweeds.com/maples-how-sweet-it-is-2/

WEB SITES of Interest to this topic (in no particular order):
A good place to start: http://www.superfoods-for-superhealth.com/wild-edible-greens.html

http://artofmanliness.com/2010/10/06/surviving-in-the-wild-19-common-edible-plants/

http://www.ediblewildfood.com/list-edible-plants-1.aspx

http://landscape-america.com/problems/weeds/edible.html

http://thecozynest.com/index/jan.htm

http://www.okwildcrafting.com/

http://edibleyards.com/

http://www.foragingtexas.com/2007/07/hackberry.html

http://www.uwyo.edu/ces/wyoweed/wyoweed.htm

http://crabappleherbs.com/blog/2008/04/11/eat-your-lawn-wild-greens-salad/

http://www.ehow.com/list_6113449_native-edible-plants-oklahoma.html
BOOKS:
http://www.futurnamics.com/garden.php (Daxton Brown’s book on survival gardening)

Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash (Alfred A. Knopf)
http://erclk.about.com/?zi=7/3dp

Wholesome Harvest by Carol Gelles (Little Brown & Co)
http://erclk.about.com

The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook by “Wildman” Steve Brill (Harvard Common Press)
http://erclk.about.com

[Melian]

You can buy glow sticks at the dollar stores and they come 4 or 5 to a pack.

[Lurker]

They are still digging up salt cod the Romans were eating. And it’s still edible.

[CARDINALRULES]

When you add more sugar to your supplies you can add some cans of sweetened condensed milk. As long as the can is in good condition it will last for years beyond the date. It actually turns into caramel as it ages. Good to eat just plain but can be added to other food or drinks. I get mine at Aldi’s so I can afford to get more for both using now and for storage.

[Ellendra]

How to make your own chocolate bar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvGXslu2dxE

You can also use lard or even beeswax for the shortening. Beeswax works well for molded candies. I’d recommend against using butter, the moisture in it would mess up the chocolate.

For a while I was experimenting with cocoa substitutes that could be grown up here, but I’m afraid that project has been relegated to the “maybe, someday” list. I think the nutlets from the linden tree showed promise, if anyone wants to pick up where I left off. Some trees bear only tiny ones, while others have big enough ones to be worth picking.

After I get my greenhouse I might try growing a cocao tree, just for fun.

[sickoflibs]

I have been using the VAC seal bag machine to suck all the air out of the bag and heat seal it before I freeze it, for about 10 years now..

It keeps the food from freezer burning.

[sauropod]

mark

[greeneyes]

Some of my books came in the mail this week. I am enjoying reading Eating off the Grid; storing and cooking foods without electricity and the SAS surivival hand book.

The article makes some good points but as I read through it, I was thinking “duh” more often than I would like. Maybe I am just crabby today, but I started cooking on a grill in the cafe when I was just 6 years old, and used to help Granny make lots of stuff including Bread, Churned Butter, jellies etc.

I might mention that none of our stores have ever had a loaf of bread that cost $4.00. The most expensive are about $2.00 and the cheap white stuff is around 70 cents.

We started gardening in earnest in 2009 mainly to ensure the safety and nutrition of our food. Fresh produce that I grow year round are lettuce, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions and various herbs.

Appetite fatigue is kinda a lack of imagination issue to me. I prepare beans at least 14 different ways so that the flavors are different enough to avoid this by use of spices and herbs.

Also combining the beans with 2 other side dishes gives an entirely different experience that just eating beans every day or beans with the same sides all the time.

Anyhow I have always bought extra when there are sales, and especially load up on the stuff we really like. So a lot of this article was kinda self evident to me.

[greeneyes]

Great sounding recipes!

[greeneyes]

Salt and sugar can play a role in preserving foods, and barter, as well as making comfort foods. Besides, stock up a lot in case the libs decide to outlaw sugar and salt.lol

[Marcella]

“Appetite fatigue is kinda a lack of imagination issue to me. I prepare beans at least 14 different ways so that the flavors are different enough to avoid this by use of spices and herbs.”

Yes, it is “lack of imagination” but many people can't improvise and have to have concrete recipe instructions or they end up with beans the same way forever.

I have long term storage beans from Walton Feed, good for 25 years. I set about getting every kind of seasoning I could to make those beans taste differently many ways and I had no recipe to go by - I just knew what to do. Then, thought of every kind of soup I could think of to put beans in and have the ingredients for those soups.

In past years, I was sort of a soup person, making up soups. When I made soup, my step-son always wanted me to call him so he could come get soup for his family.

I don't use water in soup as water has no taste. I use canned broth, chicken or beef or veggie according to the soup. If no cans of broth, use bouillon added to water.

[TADSLOS]

Very informative post.

[greeneyes]

I don't use water in soup as water has no taste. I use canned broth, chicken or beef or veggie according to the soup. If no cans of broth, use bouillon added to water.

*****************************************************
I agree. I too have used bullion. One of the things that my other Granny used at her restaurant was soup base. Very satisfactory results, and I always keep a year's supply on hand. Have you ever tried it? It is not liquid or paste, it has been dehydrated.

[Marcella]

No, have not had soup base. Is it a powder? I may have seen that at Sams - think I saw a bottle that said soup base or something like that.