Survival Preparedness Food Preps, Ingredients versus Prepared Foods

Modern Survival Blog ^ | 8/22/11

[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.”

[PA Engineer]

This is a little off-topic, but can anyone give me tips on how to keep a well going if the &h*! hits the fan? We have a good deep well but the pump is electric. I’m clueless how to keep it going if we don’t have electricity. Is a generator involved somewhere in this equation? Thanks for info, or pointers to a good web page that gives verrrrry specific how-to information!

I can help you out. How deep is deep? Do you have the horsepower and inrush rating of your well pump? The inrush rating will be expressed in a letter code. Inrush is like an empty hose that has to fill with water before if provides water. Any generator or inverter set will have to be rated to deal with this which is an instantaneous startup power of up to twice the rated pump power requirements. Do not consider a DC system for this arrangement. Ohm's law will kill you with the required cable sizes to overcome the electrical resistance. Freepmail me if you would like the rundown, options and links.

My preference has been batteries and inverters for silent and seamless power. You can charge the batteries with either, and, or a solar and generator combination.

Regards

PaEngineer

[Publius6961]

Bookmark

[I see my hands]

I remind the wife often that if she were to go first my stores would effectively double.

[Minus_The_Bear]

Rainechange Aquabloxx...

I believe the primary purpose for this product is for cosmetic fountains. But they do sell larger modular holding tanks for rainwater capture and storage. Could easily work for gardening or something else.

[Squantos]

Perfection personified....:o)

Same plan here....not a hobby but a lifestyle. If my electric bill increased fourfold tomorrow it would still be only half of what my neighbors pay. Folks need to think through the basics of life now an just consider such as a foundation of everyday needs. Because soon it may be to late.

Stay Safe.... Nice garden PAE !

[bgill]

Best to make your own with a couple table spoons of flour, oil and a little black pepper.

To each his own, but I'm with you on making my own. Much tastier. Add a couple shakes of dehydrated onion bits, yumm.

The main thing is to stock what your family already eat and enjoys. In disruptive times, at least food can be what brings normalty. I don't have as much as I want but we can get by for a little while be it a national emergency, a weather event, or a financial crisis.

Cooking skills is a must. Those who have no culinary skills past ramen noodles aren't going to make it. Having a simple cookbook with the basics is a must. Knowing what ingredients can be substituted with others raises those skills - squash turned into apples, nuts as flour, and how to use spices. Learning, now, to combine what some would consider quirky ingredients takes those skills even further - using vegetables as a dessert or treat, gluten or wheat free cooking, etc.

[bgill]

Cut the recommended amount of sugar for the koolaid in half and it’s still tasty.

[appalachian_dweller]

I tend to stay away from ‘homemade’ anything in my stock pile. Cooking should be kept to a minimum to conserve cooking fuel.

What's important here is calories. You're not going to be sitting around in a TEOTWAWKI senario, you're going to be very active dealing with security and other tasks.

[bgill]

this will be my first at canning ‘maters. Apple butter is on the list, too.

Try your hand at tomato preserves, yummmm! Also, make apple jelly first and then use the leftover pulp for the apple butter (this double duty trick works with other fruit like plums, too). If you have enough apples and tomatoes, dehydrate them into sundried tomatoes and apple chips.

[MomwithHope]

I was surprised at how much good stuff I found at Costco, especially the freeze dried hash browns in individual cartons like little milk cartons. Also this summer I am trying out my reusable canning lids, they work great I found them at tattler canning lids.com

[bgill]

Cooking should be kept to a minimum to conserve cooking fuel.

Solar oven = zero fuel. Spend as little as the cost of a roll of foil or a few hundred for a store bought oven.

[DCBryan1]

Where can I find info on micro hydro power? I live in the city, next to a creek from a spring! ...however, it flows all year round. I have a 500 foot frontage on that creek and it drops about 20 feet. I'm thinking that with a little dam, and some pipe, I could have some constant energy. When it rains, even a little, that creek is a shotgun of water coming off the hills around me.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

DCB

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

See post #6.
Hmmm....

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Yea, the gold bugs amuse me also. If the SHTF as bad as many of them think, gold will be almost useless. You can’t eat it and its heavy to carry.

Actually, (and I cannot attest to the gold bugs' motives or reasoning) buying gold...or converting paper assets to gold...is the tactic best used to allow yourself back in the game after the collapse has 'receded'. Paper money will be worthless. When it is replaced at some point by some other scrip, gold will allow a person to get themselves on a stable financial footing again. For buying and bartering before that happens though....you are right...it's next to useless.

[Kartographer]

If you Google hydro generators you will find plenty of information and dealers.

[Kartographer]

Why? Just get A Rocket Stove:

http://www.ush2.com/rocketstove.htm

[Kartographer]

By the way there are DIY plans in my Preparedness Manual for a Rocket Stove you can build.

[upcountry miss]

Can somebody tell me how to convert canned milk to regular milk in recipes? Equal amounts water and canned milk?
Several years ago, we rigged up a hand pump to our deep well. Simple to do and handy.

Hubby and I in our eighties. We are familiar with cross cut saws to obtain wood for fuel and heat, galvanized tub in kitchen for bathing, outhouse for toilet, wild game for food, saving seeds for next years planting, hand cultivating and cooking and baking on a wood kitchen stove. Expect we will do better than most if TSHTF. In fact, I prefer cooking on my wood stove to cooking on electric.Looking forward to colder weather when we will fire up the wood stove. Have a pantry full of staples, including loads of veggies, fruit and berries preserved from produce grown at home.

[Errant]

Add a couple shakes of dehydrated onion bits, yumm.

Usually around here, we make gravy in the same pan after cooking sausage, fried steak, chicken and etc. But even plain flour gravy is delicious when prepared by a knowledgeable cook. Will try the onions! I learned to cook hashbrowns by cutting up onions and potatoes (with skins on) and adding a little parsley from a chef in Santa Barbara - delicious!

Sometimes tasty foods can be pretty simple. As you say, knowledge is key and one really should practice their culinary skills and learn the substitues now.

Learning a few simple skills like how to make biscuits, gravies, deserts from scratch, that all of our ancestors knew how to do, can make a big difference in quality of life when like items are no longer available at the grocery store.

[bgill]

I’ve been joking that my 3 labs are a potential food source for 2 years.

There's talk of 3 labs eyeing their owner as a potential food source when the Purina runs out.