Category: Food Storage & Cooking

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 …


Long-Term Preparedness for Your Baby or Toddler Part 2, by K.F.

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Sustainably Diapering Your Baby or Small Child in a Long-Term Emergency In an emergency situation, one has to consider how you are going to diaper your child for the duration. If you choose to store disposable diapers and wipes, you must have an action plan for how you will dispose of them properly. Obviously, this is not a sustainable option for an emergency with an undefined length of time, but many prefer this method. Most people would call me a “crunchy” mom. I gave birth at home in our bedroom, I avoid big pharma, and I am a huge proponent …


Long-Term Preparedness for Your Baby or Toddler, Part 1, by K.F.

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Feeding Your Baby or Small Child Consider feeding your baby or small child in the midst of tropical storms, flooding, and with threats from nuclear testing. As world events are painting an increasingly grim picture, my husband and I have felt the urgency to set aside some backup resources in case of a long-term emergency. My husband is the “must-have-a-plan-for-everything” kind of guy. Therefore, he has excitedly mapped out our emergency storage space, along with the details of its contents. He is an avid “outdoorsman”, so many of the items that we would need for long-term preparedness are either already …


Letter Re: Food Storage Question

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HJL, With limited storage space, cost not a concern: Is it better to store the typical dry beans, rice, etc.? Or would you obtain a higher calorie count with something like the Mountain House cans? HJL’s Comment: It really depends upon your budget and what means you have to store food. Dry beans and rice (and similar foods) are easy to store and can provide a basic sustenance, dense calorie count diet with very little supplementing from other food sources. However, it is a very bland existence. If just surviving is the name of the game, it will work, but …


Valley Food Storage, by Pat Cascio

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While there are many different types of “survival foods” on the market, ranging from military MREs to freeze-dried and dehydrated plus any number of types of off-the-shelf foods that last a long time, today we are looking at dehydrated foods from Valley Food Storage. Survival Foods Having been a Prepper since I was a little tyke, I’ve tasted all manner of “survival foods” over the years. Some were better than others and some much, much better that others. Then we have some that aren’t very tasty, but they will keep you alive. My family and I are always on the …


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on can sealers. Books: Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself–While the Rest of Us Die o o o The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam   Movies: Dunkirk (now in theaters)   Music: Ricky Skaggs: Soldier Of The Cross o o o The Best of Mary McCaslin: Things We Said Today


Letter: Sealing a #10 Can

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Hugh, A friend recently acquired the capability to seal #10 cans. He’s bought a supply of new cans and is still playing around with the concept. He offered me the opportunity to do a few cans of my own. The concept has intrigued me. What would you pack in a #10 can if you could choose the contents? My preliminary thoughts My thoughts are a #10 can would be good for stuff that must stay one or more of these: Oxygen free Dry Sterile Clean


Recognizing and Resolving Common Vitamin Deficiencies, by J.F. Texas

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Ideally every person from birth through old age would get all the nutrients they need from the food they consume, but deficiencies occur. There are times when the optimal amount of nutrients from food intake are not possible. People who consume energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods can develop a marginal micronutrient intake and low serum concentrations of vitamins. In times of food shortages or limited access to fresh foods, nutrient deficiencies can become even more common, especially vitamin deficiencies. What are vitamins? Vitamins are organic molecules required in small amounts to prevent deficiency signs and symptoms. The most concern is for water-soluble …


Freeze Dried Friday

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Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here! Today we’ll have a quick note about a shaft seal failure. But first: Keeping the Freeze Dryer Filled Harvest season is getting close here. Some herbs are just about ready to be …


Freeze Dried Friday

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Welcome to a new column on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Drier that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here! A Halting Start This week with the garden harvest starting to ramp up, the freeze dryers are getting ready for their workout. Freeze Dryer number one is back up and running after …