Category: Food Storage & Cooking

From Piglets to Bacon- Part 5, by Animal House

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I’m a grandmother who has plunged into raising pigs, and I’ve worked with them from the time they were piglets all the way until they were full grown 400 pound hogs. Then, I’ve butchered two females and processed the meat myself. In the four proceeding parts, I have described this journey– from the animal selection to providing a secure pen, food, and water as well as developing my plan for butchering and processing. There has also been a difference between the plan and reality, and I’ve explained both. Well, actually, I’m now describing my real experience with processing. So, let’s …


From Piglets to Bacon- Part 4, by Animal House

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I’m a grandmother who has raised her own small livestock and grown two female piglets into full grown hogs. This is my story. In the first three parts of this series, I have told how I began raising pigs, the selection process I went through, preparing their pen and securing them, growing them, and my plan for butchering them. The process didn’t go exactly as expected, and I’m in the midst of telling you what actually ended up happening and what I learned along the way. Butchering (continued) Butchering is something I have never done so I was flying blind. …


From Piglets to Bacon- Part 3, by Animal House

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I am a grandmother who decided to raise her own small livestock, including pigs, and then to butcher them. This is my story. In the first two parts of this article series, I have already written about selecting and growing the pigs as well as told my plan for butchering two female hogs. Slaughtering and Butchering (continued) I laid out my plan in the last part of this article series and included the specific tools and materials required. I expected to complete the whole process of killing, cleaning, butchering, and packaging within two and half days or a max of …


From Piglets to Bacon- Part 2, by Animal House

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This is my story, as a retired grandmother of raising small livestock and our experience of going from piglets to bacon. In part one, I shared about preparing the pen, selecting the piglets, and basically getting them set up and situated in their new space. But after that, it was time for them to grow. Growing the Piglets When the girls were young, we fed them twice a day. They got a varying mixture of healthy non-GMO swine pellets, soy meal, fresh eggs, and hot oats on cold days, any table scraps that the rabbits and chickens didn’t get, and …


From Piglets to Bacon- Part 1, by Animal House

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This article is about growing piglets, slaughtering, and butchering hogs. It covers everything we did from start to finish concerning piglets to bacon! Why a Retired Grandmother Raises Small Livestock But first, it is important to understand why in the world a retired grandmother would want to raise small livestock. While this article is not about the bad stuff in commercial pork products, I want to list the reasons why I make the effort to raise my own small livestock. Just for starters, “…synthetic preservatives are added to 70 percent of all factory farmed meat and poultry to prevent spoilage, …


The Long View- Part 3, by J.M.

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I try to have a long view, one that is both near and far in perspective. We are in the final part of this article, taking a look at the preparations required for a long-term scenario, in the event of a major societal break down. This is part of my routine, as I evaluate my own preparations compared with risk assessments. We have looked at repairs, food, water, weapons, and medical topics in the previous two portions of this article. Now let’s move on to how we keep warm and prepare our food. Heating and Cooking If you don’t live …


The Long View- Part 2, by J.M.

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I try to have a long view, one that is both near and far in perspective. Whenever significant events occur, I do a quick review of my potential events risk analysis to see if anything’s changed that might impact how I’m prepared. In this article, I am taking a look at the preparations required for a long-term scenario, in the event of a major societal break down. We have covered the need for repairs and tools to make repairs, when items or parts and supplies won’t be easily replaced or shipped to us. Food (continued) Yesterday, we also covered a …


The Long View- Part 1, by J.M.

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I try to have a long view, one that is both near and far in perspective. Whenever significant events occur, I do a quick review of my potential events risk analysis to see if anything’s changed that might impact how I’m prepared. For example, when North Korea started acting up, I realized that I needed to do some additional preparations to handle potential nuclear and EMP events. At the start of every year I also do a deep-dive review to see if there’s anything I might need to re-consider or adjust. A Question During This Year’s Review During this year’s …


Making a Storehouse Moths Can’t Eat Away, by RAD

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There is no time like the present to start storing up sustenance for that “just in case” scenario. In these uncertain times, when civil unrest can explode at the drop of an offensive phrase and natural disasters can strike at any moment, not to mention the threats of terrorism and possibility of war, it is a good time to ask yourself some questions. Are you prepared to withstand days, weeks, or even months without a source of food or water? Do you understand what could happen if, let’s say, a power grid is destroyed? Do you know how long a …


Letter Re: Food for Thought

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Hello HJL and JWR, In your recent post titled “The Survival Community’s Dirty Little Secrets”, you refer to the hucksters that seem to pop up and snare unsuspecting customers. This happened to a friend not too long ago with regards to long term food storage. He fell for the ridiculously cheap “complete one year supply” mirage. Fortunately, I had the time to educate him on calories per meal and the type of calories he needed in each before he made the purchase. This brings me to the reason I am writing you. I wanted to show him the facts, so …


Mid-Scale Grain Gardening in Alaska- Part 2, By Alaskan Gardeners

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We are continuing on with this article about my wife’s and my journey in mid-scale grain gardening. Yesterday, I explained our reasons for believing it was time to build self-sufficiency, and now let’s move on to the food production part, specifically our grain gardening efforts. Definition of Mid-Scale Grain Gardening Grain plots may vary in size, ranging from, at the minimum, a small plot using a rototiller or shovel and rake for soil preparation, hand sowing the grain, reaping with a scythe or sickle, threshing with a flail, and winnowing with a kitchen fan or a windy day. The small-scale …


Mid-Scale Grain Gardening in Alaska- Part 1, By Alaskan Gardeners

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Food sufficiency is a large part of self sufficiency, so my wife and I pursued mid-scale grain gardening, though our home was in Alaska. Here is our story and how we have done this. Breakdown of My Article My article will cover the following: Preamble: Why We All Should Become Increasingly Self-sufficient– The First Steps Definition of Mid-Scale Grain Gardening Crop Operations Reaping and Drying Threshing and Winnowing Scaling Up Harvesting Operations So, What To Do With All This Grain? Disclaimer Preamble: Why We Should All Become Increasingly Self-sufficient People’s outlook and actions are largely a product of their experiences, …


Potatoes—A Staple for Food Storage With No Refrigeration, by Back Yard Gardner

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Growing and storing potatoes in the Northwest through the winter months always brought unsatisfactory long-term storage results. It didn’t matter how I stored the potatoes after digging, whether in dry sawdust, under a layer of newspaper, on a dark cool dry shelf, all had similar results of shriveling and sprouting potatoes before the stored crop was used up. An Experiment For Stored, “Fresh” Potatoes I tried an experiment with the 2016 potato crop. Once I dug the Kennebec potatoes in April of 2017, the results of wonderful plump potatoes spurred me to store the 2017 potatoes crop the same way. …


Our Family’s Garden Grain Experiment- Part 2, by Wild BillB of OR

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Our family did an experiment to see how we could grow wheat and oats in a garden setting. In part 1 of this article series, we shared that we used two different garden plots, one that was well fertilized and one that had never been fertilized or used for a garden. Additionally, I told about our seeds and how we protected our growing areas from animals. We began describing the tools that we tested to harvest wheat and how we found, for us, that the sickle worked best. Also, because the naked oats we grew dropped seed more readily, we …


Our Family’s Garden Grain Experiment- Part 1, by Wild BillB of OR

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This is an account of our family’s experience and learning while experimenting with growing oats and wheat in a garden setting. Storing food and preps are important; but, for us, the primary role of food storage is for the immediate emergency or to get us through the first year of a serious crisis. What then? No one can store sufficient food for a serious, long-term disaster. The Key Is Growing and Gathering Your Own The key is growing and gathering your own, and our favorite staples to grow are potatoes and corn. Living on the “wet” side of Oregon we …