Category: Food Storage & Cooking

What’s For Dinner?- Part 5, by J.R.

Juice We store juices for drinking as well as cooking. Most juices come in plastic bottles and function as part of our water storage. Store what your family likes. We also store juices for baking and canning as well. Bottled lemon juice is called for in many recipes for jam and other home-canned products. Even if you are lucky enough to have fresh lemons, you should always use bottled lemon juice for your canning. This is because the commercially-canned product has a set level of acidity, while the acid levels of fresh lemons can vary widely, and it is critical …


What’s For Dinner?- Part 4, by J.R.

Meats While meat should probably be viewed as a nicety rather than an essential, we have made it an essential in this house. My husband is a type-1 diabetic, and as such his insulin will last a whole lot longer if he goes to a no-carbohydrate diet. We could purchase commercially-canned meats, but we really prefer not to for both economic and safety reasons. We buy pigs and sides of beef from a local family and generally use our meat straight from the freezer. However, we always keep a sufficient number of empty mason jars and new lids on hand …


Letter Re: Powdered Milk

HJL, To add to the article “What’s for Dinner,” one way to make powdered milk more palatable is to add one can of evaporated milk per gallon of reconstituted powdered milk. Powdered milk has had most of the milk fats removed from it and adding them back in via evaporated milk makes it much better tasting. When we lived in Turkey, the milk plant on the Balgat airbase in Ankara used the powdered with evaporated method to provide milk for the BX. (Tuberculosis is endemic in the cattle herds in Turkey, and you will get TB if you drink their …



What’s For Dinner?- Part 3, by J.R.

Powdered Milk/Dairy Ah, powdered milk. It’s probably the ugly stepchild of the food storage world, the last item people want to put in their food storage because it’s the last thing they want to drink. We’re going to change that. First off, let’s discuss the various needs, the bare bones essentials. Children, up to about age ten or twelve years, and pregnant and nursing women need 75 pounds of powdered milk per year to satisfy the nutritional demands of their growing bodies. Teens and adults can make do with 20 pounds of dry milk per year. This reduced amount is …


What’s For Dinner?- Part 2, by J.R.

Sugars The recommended storage amount for sugars is 60 pounds per person per year. Most people in the developed world at this time consume far more than 60 pounds annually. It is definitely far more than we should and what is best for our health. However, if you choose to store less for your family, be sure to increase the amounts of other foods you store to compensate for the loss in calories. To give you a bit of perspective on sugar demand, here are some historical figures on per person sugar consumption in the developed world. In 1700, sugar …


What’s For Dinner?- Part 1, by J.R.

I tell my family that those are the three most dreaded words in the English language. At the same time, I often think about how very difficult life is going to become when most women will not be able to answer that question for their families. While those who are preparing for complete collapse of the economy and our society may feel they have the situation covered, the reality is that the vast majority of preppers, at least those I have conversed with and observed, do not. The reasons vary. For most, it is lack of knowledge of what foods …


Letter Re: Some Harsh Lessons of Beekeeping

Keith K, Thank you for that informative write up on beekeeping. I’m jumping in to beekeeping this spring with an innovative new hive called the Flow Hive. You can check out their product at honeyflow.com. I have no experience with beekeeping, but this seems to be a revolutionary product that might make enough of a difference to you that you’ll give it another try. I think the non-invasive method of collecting the honey may help with your mortality rate and level of effort since you don’t need a bee suit, smoker, or honey extractor. The method also doesn’t remove the …


Attaining Food in Urban Locations (From Land and Sea)- Part 5, by Cracker Makk

LOBSTER Lobster are a delicious source of protein and can also be found in locations that have structure. They forge around hunting for food at night and tend to take shelter in the day time. Look for them in cracks and crevices, and look carefully for their antennas sticking out of the hole where they have taken refuge. Remember that lobsters swim backwards, so if you are using a net to catch one then make sure you set it behind them. I have always caught them with my hands. If you choose to do it this way, make sure you …


Attaining Food in Urban Locations (From Land and Sea)- Part 4, by Cracker Makk

IMPORTANT LAND NOTES If you live close to or just above sea level and you get a significant amount of rainfall in a short amount of time, like in the instance of hurricanes and tropical storms, try to get out to some wooded or wildlife management areas as soon as the weather lets up. Explore lowland areas that have limited high areas. The deer, hogs, rabbits, and many other animals will be on high ground, like roads and dikes. They will be in herds, as the water will be too deep for them to move in the lower areas without …


Two Letters Re: Attaining Food in Urban Locations

Hi, One food source that was not mentioned so far in the “Attaining Food in Urban Locations” series that is quite common in the west are Canadian Geese. These birds are not completing their migrations and frequently winter in urban parks or any location where there is water. They can be approached quite closely due to their frequent closeness to humans, and a pellet gun would be more than sufficient to add them to your table. – Tim P. o o o HJL, A large rat trap works for pigeons and doves. Bait with corn or any grain. A tether …


Attaining Food in Urban Locations (From Land and Sea)- Part 3, by Cracker Makk

TURTLES / CATFISH My grandfather ran trot lines all through the year, when I was just a boy. He loved catfish and fresh water turtles. He claimed that turtle, or “cooter” as it is known by the Seminoles, was the best meat in the everglades. It is soft, tender, and sweet. There are a variety of turtles (box, alligator snapping, and softshell to name a few) in freshwater lakes, ponds, canals, and streams, and they are all great eating. My uncle and I always ran trot lines when we went camping. You can run them in salt or fresh water. …


Attaining Food in Urban Locations (From Land and Sea)- Part 2, by Cracker Makk

EGRETS / HERONS Egrets, curlews, and sandhill cranes are also excellent sources of protein and are so delicious that the Native Americans preferred them to over all other bird species. They are protected by the Department of Fish and Wildlife but are very plentiful and may aid in your survival when things get bad. Remember when desperate times present themselves, food is food. This article isn’t about what is legal to eat; it is about what is edible and how it can be obtained. The best places to find these three types of birds are golf courses, parks, and low …


Attaining Food in Urban Locations (From Land and Sea)- Part 1, by Cracker Makk

If it has hair, feathers, or scales, it is edible. In the desperate times that lay ahead, people are going to have to make a choice. They’ll either become self-sufficient and revert back to the practices of our ancestors (the hunter/gatherers) or stand there with their hand out and wait for something that isn’t coming. You need to learn how to keep your body nourished and feed the ones you love. The truth is there are food sources everywhere around us that are easily obtainable with a little patience and technical know-how. However, many people in this country have become …


Letter Re: Eating after TEOTWAWKI

HJL, I get excited to read each daily posting. I think how I could make it better and more applicable to my “plan”. I read another very thought provoking article, Eating after TEOTWAWKI, where the author talks about growing a garden and some environmental issues he has run into. What to grow and how much of each is certainly a question all of us have. JWR and many others in this blog have addressed sweat equity and the idea that one knows more not by reading but through experience. In my ten years of gardening, I’ve also experienced my fair …