Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: Advice on Small-Scale Grain Growing, Harvesting, and Processing

Sir: Friday’s letter on grains was very good. I have acquired myriad of 19th century farm tools at what are called Threshermen’s Shows in Wisconsin. These are shows for Hit and Miss [stationary] engines, Steam engines and the tools from late 19th Century to early 20th Century Farming. There is usually a flea market as well. I have picked up a scythe in reasonable condition for $20.00. I had to spend about an hour carefully sharpening it, but I got it sharp enough to cut my thumb pretty well. After a visit to my first aid station I took it …


Letter Re: Advice on Small-Scale Grain Growing, Harvesting, and Processing

Hi, I love your survival site. I was wondering about finding low cost or fairly low cost equipment to harvest, thresh, winnow and hull grains such as wheat, barley, millet, oats, etc. Also low cost equipment to extract oil from seeds such as sunflower seeds. I’ve done an extensive search on the Internet and can find very little that is meant for a family or small group of people. Manual (hand power) or electric/gas/diesel are all of interest. Being able to process and use grains is extremely important but I don’t know of any sites that sell survival equipment that …


Preparing for TEOTWAWKI–A Change of Lifestyle and a Change of Mindset, by D.O.

The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI): statistically speaking, the odds are that you and your family are going to die. However, because you are reading this, you have decided that you want to die of old age in the event that Schumer hits the fan. 1. Your Level of Preparedness is dependent on where you are living. If you are living in large metro city. Then have about 60 days of supplies. After that time in a true TEOTWAWKI situation living conditions will have deteriorated to the point that it is unlivable and you will die …


Letter Re: Property Owning “Refugees” on Adjoining Property

Mr. Rawles, Thank you for putting so much effort into your blog and your writings. I bought your novel “Patriots” a few years back, dog eared it, and passed it around. To my wife’s consternation (and my to the consternation of my brothers’ wives), you’ve started to make a difference in how we look at life. Your blog is a daily “must read.” Since I live 200 miles from my brothers in Iowa (my most likely doubling-up partners) I have to consider a retreat farther north in Wisconsin. There are large tracts of federal, state, and county forest, plus the …


Build Your Fallout Shelter From Barter Goods, by Mr. Yankee

I am just paranoid enough in this uncertain world to think that I’d be better off with a fallout shelter than not. Oh sure, you can throw together an expedient shelter in a few hours, but I think I’d be farther ahead adding some mass to the ceiling and walls of a basement room. Here’s how I plan to do it and I think the plan will work for anyone with a similar situation. My basement is of poured concrete with no interior walls. My shelter will be created by converting the most earth shielded quarter of the basement into …


Letter Re: Preparedness and Charity

Dear Mr Rawles, As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, churches and charities are conducting food drives. Besides being a chance for us to act in a charitable manner to the less fortunate, it is also a terrific opportunity to cycle out some of our food stockpiles. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been donating excess wet-pack canned good (with 2007 expiration dates), and replacing them with new, 2008/2009 expiring items. From my way of looking at things, it is a win-win for the recipients and us — the donors; the hungry are fed, and the shelf life of our food …


Letter Re: Barter as an Investment and a Hedge

While barter for necessities is one possibility, barter for wealth is another. A poor man with a small investment in an essential TEOTWAWKI item can magnify his wealth. If you are not in a position to outfit yourself with the food/weapons/tools you would like now, consider a barter investment. Something you can get cheaply now, and then trade for the items that are currently out of your budget. When choosing barter goods for storage, consider seven things. Original cost, size, availability, need, divisibility, verification, and indestructibility. Items stored for barter should: (1) Have a very low initial cost. In this …


Two Letters Re: Alcohol and Tobacco as Barter Items

Mr. Rawles: Thanks to Warhawke for his very well written article. There are two items conspicuous in their absence, tobacco and alcohol. I seem to remember reading somewhere, perhaps in the novel Lucifer’s Hammer, that people will always want to smoke and drink no matter how bad things are. I am wondering if you and/or Warhawke have any thoughts? Would it be prudent to stock an occasional can of Plowboy tobacco and some of the little airline bottles of booze? I’m very Interested in your thoughts. – Carl In Wisconsin Sir: Greetings and thanks for the great web site. In …


Getting Ready for Survival On a (Broken) Shoestring Budget by J. Cole

Since the mid-1960s, after reading Pat Frank’s novel Alas Babylon, I have been interested in preparing myself for TEOTWAWKI. And, as a child of the 1950s growing up in central Florida, I was taught early to be ready in case of nuclear war, so Frank’s book was not that far-fetched to me. My family was poor by any standard you could compare it to in those days. There was no chance of us ever affording a “bomb shelter” but preparations were made as best we could. We stocked up on canned food and water, we had a central hallway with …


Wheat Sprouts and Wheatgrass as Survival Foods, by SF in Hawaii

One of the problems with stored food is the inevitable deterioration of the vitamin content. You don’t have to worry about the mineral content going anywhere but vitamins are notoriously fragile. While many have asked for the best kind of multi-vitamin supplement for long term storage, the answer for the survival community is simpler. Many of us have buckets of wheat stored. So make wheat sprouts and wheatgrass juice. Vitamins increase substantially during the sprouting process. In regards to wheat, vitamin B-12 quadruples, other B vitamins increase from 3 to 12 times and the vitamin E content triples. Vitamins A, …


Letter Re: Question About Humidity and Food Grade Plastic Food Storage Buckets

Hi, If food for long term storage is put in a plastic five gallon bucket with silica gel and a mylar bag, how much does it matter how humid the outside air is after it is completely packed? For instance, if the only place to store the food is in a shed outside will humidity in the air get into the bucket? How important is dry storage air to the time the food can be successfully stored. Thanks, – C.N. in North Carolina JWR Replies: Food grade plastic food storage buckets are designed to be air and moisture tight when …


Letter Re: Fireless Cooking in an Crock Pot Adapted Ice Chest, by B.B.

Mr R.: To follow up on B.B.’s article, the following piece may be from Kurt Saxon, or another brilliant reality-based mind like that. I apologize in advance for not having ironclad attribution on this. Awesome info in any case. The small stainless steel cookers/cups ( Thermos “Thermax” model ) will do the same thing on a smaller scale. Once again SurvivalBlog nails it with great information. – M.P. SAVING MONEY WITH A THERMOS BOTTLE First the thermos. There are three kinds but only one is practical. Forget the cheap, plastic ones lined with Styrofoam. These might cook oatmeal and white …


How Long Until You Starve?, by Mr. Yankee

How long would you survive if you could never buy groceries again? Now consider how much worse that scenario would be if everyone you know was faced with the same question. It may have more relevance than you think. The food distribution system in industrialized nations has a complexity which baffles the mind. Thousands of suppliers coordinate with thousands of distributors to send food to millions of retailers for billions of consumers. But is there enough redundancy in the system to ensure the continued viability of commercially delivered food to your table? What if that incredibly complex system bottlenecked or …


Fireless Cooking in an Crock Pot Adapted Ice Chest, by

When young and adventurous, we enjoyed family tent camping. We sneered at the “wimps” who used trailers—even including those who used camping trailers. We were purists. One year, a friend loaned us a few days of relaxation in his 16 foot travel trailer. A revelation! This was living! We learned that deprivation was not nearly as much fun as it was to be camping with all the amenities. It was made even more clear as we watched the folks in the next campsite while they stood around in a drizzle waiting for their Coleman stove to heat up water for …


Letter Re: Seeking Advice on Kernel Corn Storage

Hello Mr. Rawles, I was wondering if you could give me and your readers more info on whole kernel corn storage/nutritive value after storage and storage life given packing and conditions (weather)? I was also going to inquire about the different wheat’s and their differences but you have answered that already thanks, I would however like to know which mylar bags to use for better protection against the humid and high temp weather in my area (4 mil versus 8 mil thickness) if it matters at all? I don’t think the plastic bag route mentioned in your excellent “Rawles Gets …