Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: Storage Without a Basement

Hello J. W., I wanted to write in response to the letter posted July 2, 2014 from MM. The writer asked for suggestions regarding an alternative to storage without a basement. The writer said, “Any suggestions will be helpful as a basement would have offered storage with automatic climate control in an off grid situation.” It was my interpretation that the writer was looking for advice regarding how to keep his preps cool in the southern U.S. in an off-grid situation if a basement/cellar was unavailable or even an impossibility. I felt he was trying to say that in his …


Letter Re: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

Dear Mr. Latimer, Thank you for your in-depth review of the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer. You mentioned in Part 3, Operation, Section 6 “Working with Trays”, first sentence that you “used both the aluminum trays and the stainless steel ones”. I checked the Harvest Right website and found no stainless trays available for purchase and I have only the aluminum trays. My question is: Where did you get the Stainless Steel Trays? I have the Harvest Right unit prior to your review and would like to purchase the stainless tray for my unit as well. I don’t like aluminum for …


So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI, by Dr. Prepper – Part 3

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the preparation of a survival garden where grass used to be, amending the existing soil with compost, and the creation of rows or raised beds. In Part 2, I discussed the construction of an eight foot tall fence and gate with the intent of keeping out varmints. Specifically, and perhaps strangely to some readers, no mention has been made yet as to WHAT should be planted in the garden or how much and why. This is because many who are not familiar with subsistence gardening may be surprised at the true facts …


So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI, by Dr. Prepper – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the need to start a garden sooner rather than later, the pitfalls of starting a garden where grass has been cultivated, the creation of your gardening beds (whether rows or raised beds), and the use of composting for amending the soil. In Part 2, I will continue with discussing the structures of the garden with emphasis on fences, gates, and varmint control. Fence Basics Maybe you are one of those fortunate few where there are very few varmints– an undesired animal in an undesired place. (Some would ascribe the term to certain …


Letter: Storage Without a Basement

Hugh, After much prayer and house hunting, it would seem the Lord is leading me to relocate about 40 miles from where I currently live. This was never my plan, as I had intended to move much further west. My area does not have basements due to the water table. I am now having to rethink how I handle my storage. The house will be renovated to my specs and has over 2600 SF with about 10 acres. I will be having a safe room built outside the home for hurricane threats. Any suggestions will be helpful as a basement …


Letter: Confiscation of Stored Foods

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There is quite a bit of “buzz” going on that the DHS will come in and take stored foods. What might you know about this and what are the odds? I know, with this admin anything goes, but I think it is certainly worth addressing. – P.W. Hugh Replies: That is the whole point of OPSEC, but practically speaking, the DHS isn’t who you will have to worry about, unless you are a grocery store or warehouse. Anything smaller than that isn’t worth dealing with when you factor in the manpower and risks to personnel. The danger for individuals comes …


Letter Re: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

Hugh, Great Harvest Right review! It’s incredibly informative and well written. Thank you. I’m currently about to pull the trigger on purchasing one of their machines. I was hoping you might be able to share some wisdom on your experience with ice cream. You mention cream content below 1/3 worked well. Did you try various brands and something “light” like this worked best? What was the drying time? Was this one of the high liquid foods that required you to defrost in the middle of the process? Any insight is incredibly appreciated. Hugh Replies: That ice cream will work just …


Letter Re: The Pachamanca: A Survivalist’s Feast

One alternative to the pachamancha pit is the “haybox cooker”. My experience involves only foods cooked with lots of liquid, but the idea is to get the food to a rolling boil, then pack it away in a well-insulated environment for six hours or so. Traditionally, people used a box filled with straw, but modern alternatives exist, typically in the form of a simple metal pot and an insulated larger pot with a tight-fitting lid. Amazon should turn up several examples under the search term “thermal cooker”. – EQR


The Pachamanca: A Survivalist’s Feast, by J.C.

Sometimes, in survival situations, it is in one’s best interest to avoid detection when possible. However, this can be difficult to do when food preparation comes into play. Fire is often a necessity, when it comes to cooking outdoors, but fire creates smoke, which can draw unwanted attention. There are alternatives to open fire cooking, namely solar ovens, but these alternatives often require special conditions, like minimal cloud cover, to work effectively. Camp stoves are also a possibility. However, they can be bulky; often require a scarce, non-replenishable fuel source; and sadly, not everybody is going to have access to …


Letter Re: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

HJL, Hi, I purchased one of the Harvest Right units before your review and was impressed after looking over the machine. My first load was chicken, blueberries, muskmelon, and pineapple. WOW! It took a little longer, due to the moisture content of the berries, but everything turned out as the company said it would. Remember, one is none and two is one. Remember that in bad situation one will use more than 2000 cals due to stress, etc. Most of the units I have priced say they can supply those cals for 10k for one person. Oh, by the way, …


Product Review: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer, by HJL – Part 3

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Note from the Manufacture Harvest Right has been very responsive to their customers feedback and, in fact, responded to the first two parts of this article with the following letter: Thank you for using the freeze dryer, and thank you for your article. Because of your thoughts, we have made the following modifications to our unit: We have changed the riveting of the tray holder assembly. It is now quite stable. We extended the length of the drain tube. We are also using shrink-wrapped solder connections instead of electrical tape. It is much faster and looks better. (We don’t know …


Two Letters Re: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

Hugh, Thanks for the review of the freeze dryer, I’m very interested. Just wanted to share that the first thing I thought when reading your review and clicking on their pictures is “that display is going to go bad”! And it did. Gotta worry about $4K and something major (and predictable) goes like that, with only a 1 yr warranty. – M.R. HJL Replies: I was initially worried about that, too, but the company was very responsive in taking care of the issue. While I did the repair myself, they offered to have a local appliance repairman do the work. …


Common Sense For Food Assurance, by J.M.

Over the years of taking the journey to being a better prepper, through self taught observations/experiences with myself and with others, have effected and guided me to realize that common sense had better be a big factor in all areas of prepper skills but, in particular, the areas of foods preparations (what to obtain) and food storage (both for the long- and short-term storage, how much, and the quantity needed versus available space to store). Using that guideline/method, it can be applied to all areas of planning and execution for surviving major, life-altering experiences. However, this article is geared to …


Letter Re: Grain Mills

Hugh, We searched for the perfect grain mill for years. We wanted one that did not depend on electricity, because none of us can be guaranteed that we will always have electricity. If you have one that is totally electric then if the grid goes down you have a good door stop. We wanted one that could be used by hand crank, but if we wanted we could attach it to an electric motor and one that would not heat up the grain. We opted for the Grain Maker, which is made in Stevensville Montana. It is very heavy duty, …


Letter Re: Grain Mills

Hugh, The author expressed little concern for his WonderMill’s tendency to heat the flour it milled, on the grounds that the flour was about to go into an oven anyway. This logic certainly makes sense; however, heated flour can be a problem in some cases. We once had a mill, whose brand I’ve forgotten, that heated its flour quite a bit. We make a fair bit of sourdough, and our starter quite noticeably failed to thrive when fed flour from this mill. Of course we let the flour cool before feeding, so latent heat wouldn’t kill the starter outright, but …