Posted on 03/25/2013 1:33:13 PM PDT by Kartographer
Preppers’ PING!!
might be something going on Kart. Noticed web started acting funny about 20 minutes ago. You seeing anything?
“Copy canning” will get you out to 30 or even 60 days.
Just buy an extra of whatever you’re buying to eat anyway, preferably on sale.
Good advice. We have been doing that for years.
I always stock up on tp and paper towels when there is a really good sale and for TP nothing beats the scott 1000 rolls.
Tp never goes bad and you can always use it, also it is a good barter item in a pinch of the cheeks.
Paper towels can be used to supplement a first aid kit as well as you can put them over the other bandages to mop up blood in severe injuries, plus if you are carefull you can reuse them. Plus a well folded paper towel can be used in leu of a sanitary napkin as well, I have done this before and it better to use than TP which can work but is horrible in that it disintegrates.
Another good item is soap, either liquid or bar hand soap, or laundry soap. Stores really well and if you get enough of it you can also use it for bartering later.
Female Hygene products such as pads are another one you can use for other purposes like first aid plus are great barter items as well.
Any paper item is great to prep as they are fairly versitile and can be stored and rotated better than canned food.
Forogot to add when I stock up on laundry soap I buy the store brand in the plastic buckets, as it can be stored on the bottom of the store room and is immune to flooding. Plus after you use it, you have a free bucket, another barter item.
I read the article, and will make these comments...
Use by dates...if canned goods, these can be generally ignored. Most canned goods will last and remain a healthy food well beyond the ‘expiration’ dates.
Cooking Oils...the only oil any of us should use for cooking is coconut oil. We have expeller pressed, naturally refined coconut oil that does not smell or taste like coconut. Coconut oil is made up almost entirely of medium chain saturated fats that cannot spoil if kept at ambient temperatures...coconut oil will still be edible long after any of us reading this are gone. It is healthy and should be a part of our diets. We are on our way to having several hundred pounds stowed away for when we can’t get it anymore.
Baking Staples...whole wheat flour will eventually turn rancid if it still has the germ in it. It keeps longer refrigerated or in the freezer. Most healthy flour is from sprouted spelt. We have access to organic sprouted spelt flour from an Amish mill. Baking soda will keep a long time if kept air tight, away from moisture. Arm & Hammer Baking Soda is Aluminum free, btw. Baking powder has an age limit that can be extended by keeping it in the freezer. We buy pure Mexican vanilla by the quart at very reasonable prices and have it stored.
Condiments...Grow your own horseradish and grind it as you need it. Turn fresh cabbage into sauerkraut. As the article says, buy whole peppercorns and grind as you need them. We buy RealSalt in 25 lb bags and have it stored.
Vegetables...grow your own as much as possible. A ‘root cellar’ will keep potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, onions, garlic for months. Remember that sweet onions will not store well. Can your fresh tomatoes from your garden that exceed what you eat.
Meat and Fish...Freezing is a good option. So is canning. Make jerky out of beef or venison. Depending on where you live, remember that venison, rabbit, squirrel, geese etc are available if you hunt. Go fishing.
WE MUST NOT FORGET that if we are going to depending on electricity for water, refrigeration, heating (running the fans on the gas furnace) etc, we must become grid independent. There are various options for this, and is subject for another thread.
In closing, we are in the country, we have a well, and we have gas from a well for which we have mineral rights. This is our holeup place, our ‘bugout’ location. We are not threatened by earthquake or flood, and our location is defensible. We have a garden, and plenty of room for expansion. We have three horses that keep the garden in fertilizer. We have a prolific peach tree. We have cherry, apple and pear trees, and we are setting out raspberry and blueberry bushes. We grow asparagus, and once started, it keeps coming year after year.
There are some things we are stocking, like the coconut oil and a few other things that we will use for barter. Staples can be used for barter, never ammunition (my not so humble opinion).
We recycle all grease and fat from cooking. We make soap out of it. The soap is used for everything - in the shower, in the laundry, etc. Which reminds me, I need to get another hundred pounds of lye (sodium hydroxide).
We use hydrogen peroxide for many things, both health and household uses. We buy 50% food grade by the gallon, and we have this stocked too. We avoid chlorine bleach for health reasons.
Those are even better after they’ve cured a bit.
On second thought. Maybe put them in the dehydrator on low overnight.
Get aluminium foil, people!
Infinitely useful. Never degrades.
Buy an extra roll every time you go to the store. I have 20 rolls in the garage, figure adding at least another 10 or more.
Ditto for toilet paper. If you have room, and less than 6
month’s supply, you are a darn fool.
Unless you like dental pain, fill a 5 gallon bucket with toothbrushes, dental floss and toothpaste; along with several of the filling / crown repair dental epoxy packages and a couple tubes of ambesol.
I have spoken, ignore me at your own peril. /grin
Once had several cases of USN ‘C’rations, that were 30 years old. They tasted fine. Some items were better than others,like the meatballs were terrible but the canned salsbury steak was good....[ the Chesterfeild cigaretes were awful]. However I’ve eaten canned goods from the market that were 2 years old that had turned into bland tasteless goo.
>>Once had several cases of USN ‘C’rations, that were 30 years old. They tasted fine. <<
I am sure someone here has the info on the latest generation of MREs...?
Hmm.. less that I thought.
Do they taste good enough to rotate?
Or just go with the canned and dry goods?
Here are my thoughts on prepared meals of any kind from MRE to the #10 cans,
Here’s my thoughts on these kits:
I often get asked questions about various 30-60-90 and more food kits, buckets of prepared food that store for years as a quick and easy way to be prepared.
Now I’ve not tried the food in very many of these kits and so I can’t really say if the food is good or bad, but here’s the problem as I see with these prepared meal kits. Say you have a 60 day kit that comes with 10 different dinners six of each dinners A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J and since you never tasted their food the odds are that there will be 2 to 3 of these meals that you really like 4 or 5 that are ok, 1 or 2 you can choke down if you have too and another 1 or 2 you wouldn’t feed your dog!
That means two things; One: You run the good chance that twenty percent or more of your storage you won’t eat and Two: After a while what you will have left is mostly stuff you don’t like and won’t eat unless forced and that will get OLD very fast.
I think that you are better off storing 100% things you know you will eat and in as much a variety as possible. That’s my thoughts.
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