Posted on 02/19/2016 11:53:31 AM PST by TMSuchman
Ok, folks, 2 weeks ago I started us on a series of discussions, on what we need to be looking at for long term survival, if & when the need arises. [I need to apologize for missing last week's installment, I had some family issues come up that needed my attn all weekend long]
So we started on the need of looking at a long term food supply/ies, because the stores are going to go bare very fast & chances of resupply maybe very dim. I was hinting around gardening & raising your own. [Because every durned fool is going to out in the woods looking to bag a deer or whatever else they can shoot] and fishing as an alternative, food sources.
So now you have got your new stockpile/s gathered. so what now? What is your favorite way of saving it for later times? I really like dehydrating myself. I can put up my stockpile/s up dry for saving & that takes a small amount of room in my pantries. But there are other ways avail. So this week let us talk about those other ways. [And by the way I really suck sand at canning] For those who are kind of new to this stuff, there are books that you can get for FREE from a large amount of different sources, both on line & via local resources. I have both printed & electronic versions of the same info stored in different locations, around my house & property for just in case. and I am a really big sucker for the very old cook books & info. [I have a very bad feeling that the tech. that we hold to so dearly is gonna fail us in a very bad way & we're gonna end up living like we did back in the 1800's] So now all you "old school" cooks & preppers it is your time to sound off on how you do things. And as always thank you for reading this & responding.
Bookmark for later.
I’m not as pessimistic as you are on hunting. I don’t think most of the durned fools will be around long enough to make a dent in the deer population. Plus, my money is on squirrels as a meat supply. They multiply like rodents, and my area is so full of them that I could take a half dozen a day forever, without effort.
I don’t suck at canning I just hate it.
Yes, my plan for the local rabbit population. My point was trying to ask if you have a choice which would you choose to “spend” your last round on.
Fruit, veggies: drying, root cellaring
Meat, fish: smoking, jerking, salting
Have you checked with your local conservation officers lately? there seems to be a very large uptick in fatal illnesses within the deer herds the last few years.
How about slingshots? Anyone have luck with that on squirrels? What kind would you buy?
When it comes to long-term food production, permaculture is often overlooked. You want to create the most nutrient dense foods with the least amount of inputs as they will be scarce. Example: Hazelnuts. grow on all kinds of soil. Doesn’t require fertilization/tillage. Nutrient dense and can make cooking oil out of it. Maple syrup. Yes a pain to collect but zero gardening. But If I had to plow land and could only grow one thing it would be soybeans. The only complete plant protein. After that potatoes
A squirrel is well worth an air rifle round. I take at least one squirrel a quarter, just so I’m familiar with how the air rifle handles outdoors, how squirrels respond to movement and to stillness, and how to cook the silly little thing.
You should have four types of food sources.
1.) Canned food for short term (a few weeks) or ration supplementation. Not labor intensive. Can it yourself or buy it this type of food required no water, no cooking and is currently easily available and cheap. The down side is that they have a comparatively limited shelf life, are heavy and take up lots of space.
2.) Dried foods staples. Requires water and cooking (fuel) longer shelf life (but not forever). Good for time when you might need to eat for several months from your stash. A bit more labor intensive.
3.) Grown food. Requires seeds, land, animals, water, time and fuel for cooking. Labor intensive and you need to know HOW to do it without power tools. There is a book out there "gardening when it counts" that is pretty good as long as you can overlook the fact the author is a commie. For situations that last for years.
4.) Foraged foods, requires knowledge of what is edible. Supply is more dependent on chance then anything else. Can be used any time, I forage for fun but in survival situations not recommended as a primary source of calories.
I had not checked and did not know that. Deer seem to be doing quite well in my area, except for their issues crossing the roads.
Sweet!
Interesting. Prior to my first rifle I was pretty good with a Wrist Rocket.
I saw a video on youtube where a rich couple converted their swimming pool into a fish growing pond. I know fingerlings are not expensive - they’d bought tilapia.
There were lots of different videos on raising fish in your yard. My favorite was the people with a kiddie pool and an overflow into a smaller pool. The large pool had the fish, fed with fish food and grass clippings. the overflow pool had an ‘island’ of styrofoam with lettuce growing in holes cut in the styrofoam.
If electricity were no longer available, you could always go ‘old school’ and dry it on lines in the sun like a pioneer.
I put longer lives on the stored food than you do.
The LDS church sells canned food (to non-members too) that has usually a 30 year shelf life, and the prices are very reasonable. To me that’s so close to forever that it doesn’t matter. Brick and mortar centers and online orders are both at this link: https://providentliving.lds.org/self-reliance/home-storage-centers?lang=eng
Canned foods are often very good well past their “best by” date. I open various cans every three months to see how they are doing and just how long they last. I’m particularly partial to canned fruit and spaghetti sauces, which are good more than three years past the date on the can, since they are much better canned than dried options such as the LDS foods. LDS long-term storage is heavy on beans and starch, so canned fruit and canned soups round out the menu nicely for up to four years.
Some grocery store cooking oils at normal prices (not the expensive stuff such as coconut oils) have three-year “best by” dates and are fine for at least four years. Like fruits, oils are a good thing. They are also harder to do on your own, except for lard, of course.
I do NOT recommend canned tuna even a month past its date. I’ve opened it six months later, and no one could eat it thinking it might be okay. I cracked a second can and didn’t even finish opening that one, then checked and threw out four more cans of expired tuna. That experiment failed, except that finding out was the purpose of the experiment.
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