Posted on 03/14/2014 3:43:31 PM PDT by Kartographer
In late 2010 when we started our food pantry, we took what I would call a “hodge-podge” approach. We read different articles and made lists of what we used and did not use but was recommended by the various publications. There is a tremendous amount of information, and this was a new endeavor for us. So our list would take the following into consideration: rotation of meals; caloric intake/nutritional value; pleasure value (is it something we enjoy i.e. pancakes vs. oatmeal); and last but not least, cost. Before we bought, we went to an Amish bulk store and Costco to look and compare prices versus what was available on the Internet. We have children, and when we started this endeavor we were a fairly typical suburban family. We tended to lean toward home cooked whole food meals. (My wife and I argued this point a bit as "home cooked meals" has come to mean something very different now.) We also favored organic, but we did not turn completely away from fast food and processed boxed meals. We had a small garden to grow vegetables and a small raspberry patch. Still, we also would eat out at restaurants, buy bleached flour, and buy convenience meals, such as frozen pizzas, boxed pasta, and canned sauce. Considering this background, we urgently started on our pantry as priority number one. We just discovered prepping and felt that we were completely unprepared.
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalblog.com ...
Beans are easy to grow even in a small space. If you have a fence, you’re halfway there. Eat, can and freeze them fresh. At the end of the season, let them dry on the vine for those dried beans. The dried beans are your seeds for next year or plant those from bags from the grocery store. Even the green beans you’ve let dry will make a pot of beans.
Sorghum syrup isn't sold anywhere around here anymore. I searched for two years with no luck. While it has a stronger flavor, it can be substituted for molasses and spoon per spoon you use less. Sorghum and molasses will last for years. Growing stevia is another option for a sweetener.
It’s hard to stock up here. A couple weeks ago I tried to buy flour and they had 3 10lb bags. Two were ripped open and the third I had to crawl on my hands and knees and use a long spoon from the display to dig out from the back corner. Same with the sugar. I’m not talking just one brand of sugar but ALL the sugar shelves were empty. My one and only bleepin’ well known chain store (HEB) always has empty shelves. If the weekly ads have a sale, poof!, that shelf is empty.
Sugar beets and stevia are already on my wish list and I’ve printed out how to turn them into sugar.
I’ve not had flour go rancid but to save from trashing put it into the compost. Supposedly, sprinkle it onto plants to keep the bugs away. Have you ever tried it on bugs?
If anyone wants more fruit trees, but is on a tight budget, you can get fruit tree seeds online. I'm going that route this year just to see if I get more survivors than I did with bare-root trees. I'm not too picky about varieties, even the wild kinds are great. There are wild plums in the area that taste better than the ones in the store, and they're free!
There's a horse ranch near me that might be coming up for sale soon, I'd love it if a FReeper could buy it. I'll post more details when it's announced.
Some beans prefer different growing conditions than others, so if you (or anyone else reading this) haven’t grown dry beans before, I’d recommend getting several varieties and growing them to compare.
Some variety is good to have, anyway. I have seeds for about 14 different kinds of beans right now, and I have a list of which ones might cross with each other. Last year I tested my runner beans and popping chickpeas. This year I’ll be testing the limas, hyacinth beans, and nunas.
5 acres is a test run? Ok, ignore my previous comment. I think we were talking about two different scenarios :)
Is that the sugar substitute they are talking about in this Amazon review?
http://www.amazon.com/Haribo-Gummi-Bears-Sugar-Free/product-reviews/B000EVQWKC
Well, did a little research and the method is not quite what I thought- which is to string ropes covered with pitch (tar) on bushes and trees to catch birds.
Actually the usual practise was to smear the sticky stuff on the branches of the trees and “birdlime” was used instead of pitch. The birds would return to the trees at night and get stuck and the hunter would whack them over the head and take them to the pot. I think grouse, pheasant, turkeys and the like were hunted this way.
Birdlime can be made from holly bark or mistletoe or other stuff. A substitute from pine sap or the like would probably work, maybe even roofing tar. I saw a recipe for making ‘mouse trap’ glue from boiling down corn syrup that may work.
Probably outlawed though I found no authoritative sources.
Birds are easy but squirrels are tough- I assume you’re not in a rural enough area so squirrel pie or gravy isn’t feasible.
You could relocate the raspberries closer to the house and/or let so many grow that the squirrels can’t eat them all. Get a dog that doesn’t like squirrels, cut back the woods.
Squirrels are difficult!
LOL, no problems here.
You are still my graphic hero, JPB.
I wanted to put five gallon buckets away with dried rice and beans in them, fill them with dry nitrogen, add an oxygen absorber, and then seal it in a Mylar bag for long term storage.
:) All of my purchasing power in beers to you mister!
Not the same substance, but for some people it can have the same effect.
Fried Squirrel?
We have 4 grocery stores here, and a Dollar store plus several convenience stores including Casey’s, so food’s available at various prices.
The local Country Mart has the best pricing usually for most stuff.
Our population is only 3000, but we are the county seat, so we do have people coming in from the farms and countryside to stock up.
No, have not tried it on bugs. I bought flour at the store, brought it home, and lo and behold there was bugs when I opened it. I put it in the compost. This happened 3 times in a row.
So I went to the LDS website and ordered 3 cases of flour. Each case has 6 #10 cans. I don’t use much flour or sugar either for that matter. I grind wheat and flax seed and use it about half and half when I do bake something.
The use by date is 20 or 30 years from now. No more bugs for me.
“I ignore that type stuff you would believe the grief I’ve been give over the fact that I store white sugar!!! But a southren boy has to have his sweet tea!!!”
IMO, sugar is a necessity. It will help with appetite fatigue. It has an indefinite shelf life as well.
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