The One-Year Pantry, Layer by Layer

SHTF Plan ^ | 3/13/13 | Tess Pennington

[Fai Mao]

Actually rather than a pantry I’ve thought it might be a good idea to examine where you live. If it all falls apart I’d not want to be within 500 miles of a major metropolitan area. Your 1 year pantry does no good if the place you live is beset by looters. Do not fool yourself into thinking you can buy enough ammunition to keep them out either.

If I thought a huge economic upheaval was going to occur I’d buy some property in a fairly remote medium sized town, think Lubbock Texas or similar. You want to be far enough out that the inner-city looters can’t make the round trip in large numbers but where there is a fairly homogenous population that will help each other and where there is enough infrastructure to possibly carry on civilized life.

Just my thoughts. I’d not do the 1 year pantry and invest in a small house in a large town a long way from a major city then spend some time there so the people know you.

[metmom]

Actually rather than a pantry I’ve thought it might be a good idea to examine where you live. If it all falls apart I’d not want to be within 500 miles of a major metropolitan area. Your 1 year pantry does no good if the place you live is beset by looters. Do not fool yourself into thinking you can buy enough ammunition to keep them out either.

So? Does that mean that it's better not to bother then?

[Chainmail]

Prep Ping..

[ansel12]

People have plenty of room to like their own living situation whether it is city or rural, or suburban.

It is easy to argue the security of living in the city, where authority and order will first assert itself and aid be distributed.

Living alone in the country isn’t exactly the end all in safety and security if law and order doesn’t exist, pioneers and settlers knew that, as many of them were simply erased from the pages of time in an instant without even waking a neighbor.

[yorkiemom]

Proteins: legumes, eggs, nuts, peanut butter, canned meats and fish, oatmeal, grains, wheat, quinoa, seeds, MREs, popcorn Fats: whole milk, ensure, peanut butter, oil ...

Glad to see peanut butter listed twice, since I love the stuff! (Yes, I noticed it's both a protein and a fat.) I have many jars of it - bought before the price got exorbitant. And some powdered cases. I'll figure out how to make peanut butter cookies when TSHTF, if I have to bake them in my dutch over over a campfire!

[yorkiemom]

People have plenty of room to like their own living situation whether it is city or rural, or suburban.

It is easy to argue the security of living in the city, where authority and order will first assert itself and aid be distributed.

Living alone in the country isn’t exactly the end all in safety and security if law and order doesn’t exist, pioneers and settlers knew that, as many of them were simply erased from the pages of time in an instant without even waking a neighbor.

A sane, rational assessment. Thank you.

My planned homestead would be in the country on 40 acres, most of it hardwoods. However - I worry about being too accessible to the roving hordes that way. If I'm growing crops and raising critters, they would be easily taken (think General Sherman). Perhaps a hidden mountain retreat is safer, although not quite the place for raising food.

[yorkiemom]

I have a lot of hard corn and enough pickling lime to process it in addition to the other grains mentioned. Is there a problem with this as it was not mentioned?

Can you use corn without the lime? Just wondering, as I'd rather just grind it for cornmeal.

I don't know why it's not mentioned. I was thinking that raising corn would be the best idea - you get a summer veggie and a dried winter carbohydrate out of it.

[Starstruck]

I think you can eat and can sweet corn but hard or dent corn which you can store in buckets requires lime to release the nutrients. You could probably make cornmeal but I don’t think it provides what you need.

[EQAndyBuzz]

And when the liberals and Democrats know you have a stash they’ll accuse you of being a hoarder, attempt to confiscate your supply “for the good of the community” where they will be shot, buried and no longer heard from.

Fixed it.

[Twinkie]

I grew up eating white beans, boiled potatoes and cornbread for the most part. Might not have been optimally perfect, but I lived to be telling about it.

[metmom]

I can see that I am not in full prepper mentality yet.

Time for an attitude adjustment.....

[yorkiemom]

I guess I need to look into corn some more. It is one of the few items I didn’t store to begin with - probably because it wasn’t on any of the lists I consulted either - for whatever reason. I recently added some cornmeal, since I saw it prepacked on Honeyville and Emergency Essentials and realized I would really miss it!

How do you use the lime in processing your corn?

[yorkiemom]

BTW, just wanted to add that I got on Free Republic on the advice of a friend who knew there were some prepping articles here. Thanks for your list and for all the great articles!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Pellagra is not a fun thing to have. The lime releases the B3. You can still grind the corn after soaking. You can grind it wet for immediate use or dry it and grind for future use.

[Starstruck]

Try http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/video-making-limewater-for-soaking-corn/ Not good at HTML sandbox

[tbw2]

Canned bacon is a very good alternative. Actually, it might not be, given how my family will use it the moment they think I’ll let them eat it.

[tbw2]

I’m wondering how much of the idealism of rural life should be contrasted with the horrific murder rate of white farmers in South Africa. Being independent off the land sounds great, but even in medieval Europe, farmers lived in villages together and walked out to the fields because of safety in numbers.

[PGalt]

Very good article/thread. Thanks for the information from all posters Be informed. Be prepared.

[ansel12]

It doesn’t have to be roving hordes, rural living has plenty of anti-social tough guys who are not locked into a rock hard code of moral absolutes, if there is no law or sheriff’s department and sophisticated forensics and crime labs, plenty of rural guys and the anti-city, anti-social types who also like the country, will become opportunists and criminals also.

Amoral, or desperate locals can tell when people aren’t home, or are outdoors or busy, walking up on a couple’s house is not exactly Green Beret stuff, pilfering and break-ins, and even murder would not be in total absence in the country if everything went to heck.

[ansel12]

South Africa is something to think about, the farmers know it can come and they are prepared and armed for it, yet it comes anyway, and their attackers are people not known for sophisticated and intelligent planning or methods, it is just hard for a couple or a small family to do much when criminals want to rob them or move into their home.