Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Pat’s Product Review: Meal Kit Supply MREs

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Back in the day, when I was in the military, we had C Rations or “C-Rats” as they were called, when we were out in the field. And, quite honestly, they were really pretty bad tasting, and lacking in much of anything. I served in the Illinois National Guard, as well as the US Army, and have quite a bit of experience with C-Rats. While in the National Guard, when we went on weekend maneuvers, a bunch of us would bring our own food along. And, we’d bring, cheeses, pepperoni, olives – gourmet foods, instead of eating C-Rats, or on …


Letter Re: Salt Curing for Meat

Jim,This is something I hear from people often: “If things go down I’ll just salt my meat!” My answer, “Really!!!  Do you know how??” So here’s the question I have for you folks, assume we are now at that TEOTWAWKI. How many of you really “KNOW” how to salt the meat you have on? Or how to preserve the meat you may harvest in the future? Everyone knows in the winter, if you’re in a cold climate just hang it, it’ll freeze. They’re right it will! Good Luck carving some for dinner. Don’t believe me? Pull out a pound of …


Letter Re: Gluten Free Foods at COSTCO

Dear Mr. Rawles, I follow you via RSS and have purchases your past archives from Amazon. Following the advice in your blog, I just got done on COSTCO.com purchasing some gluten free meal kits. I find it amazing they have these for people with food allergies and yet at rock bottom prices (even with the non-member surcharge.) I will sleep much better at night for my wife, 17 month old daughter and myself. God Bless you and thank you for your wealth of resources! Thanks! – Andy P. JWR Replies: As I highlighted in the Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness …


Letter Re: Woodstove Chimney-Mounted Ovens

JWR, I don’t know about the Baker’s Salute Oven (that another reader asked about), but there is a man in Springville, Utah that makes a similar one that can be mounted on a wood burning stove or on a expedition tent stove.  They are much less expensive as he makes them from repurposed propane cylinders and they are called Grover Chimney Ovens.   They cost $205 instead of $539 like the Bake’s Salute Oven but they are not as large inside.   They are a double-walled oven, so the heated gases from the chimney stack surround the oven itself.  I am not …


A Practical Plan for Survival–One Man’s View, by C.L.

When I was very young I would sometime spend rainy days at my grand-mother’s house going through sporting goods catalogs and the Sears catalog making list of items that might be needed during disasters or emergencies. I have no idea why I am wired in such a way that I give a good amount of thought to being prepared. I am no longer a young boy but now I believe making such plans are more important than ever before. The economic situation in our country can only be described as terrifying to anyone who will take the blinders off and …


Spice Up Your Food Storage, by Linda P.

As a wife, mother, cook, and gardener, I find that articles on long term food storage, are basic and practical.  But when I study the recommended lists for storage items, I wince at the lack of thought that goes into flavor, texture and variety. This article is dedicated to those nurturing souls who know that in a TEOTWAWKI situation, a delicious meal will be one of the most simple of earthly comforts that we can provide to keep others healthy and happy.   Although basic food may keep you alive, food fatigue can be a real problem. Variety is the spice of life, and in …


A Voice in the Bean Aisle – Faith and Prepping, by Connie H.

I couldn’t help but notice the white plastic bags that covered the handles of the gas pumps at the corner gas station.  “Out of Gas”, said the sign. No gas on account of a hurricane a long, long way from Springfield, Tennessee.  Fortunately, I had filled my tank earlier in the week and was only there to get ice. But it all seemed fishy to me how a storm so far away would affect us like this. And honestly, a vague sense of worry lingered in the back of my mind until the following day.  The trucks arrived and filled …


New Prize for Writing Contest Round 49

Mayflower Trading Company has kindly donated several prizes to add to the Third Prize package, for Round 49 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest, et sequitur. These are: A Nesco / American Harvest Gardenmaster Dehydrator with an extra set of trays, and the book The Dehydrator Bible. These prizes have a combined value of $210. This brings the combined value of the top three prizes to more than $6,000! Round 49 begins today and will end on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical …


A Year of Starvation: My Experience, by K.S.

Though food shortages and malnutrition are popular discussion topics for preppers, I doubt that many of us have experienced a real, prolonged lack of food. Certainly we’ve all had a day or two – maybe even more, for the gutsy– with minimal or no food, but often those days happen by choice and are for practice, with a set end in sight. How many of us have gone weeks, months, or more on limited rations? How many of us know what to expect and how we’d feel? How many of us are ready for the surprises and challenges that prolonged …


Letter Re: Natural Gas Powered Generators in a Disaster–Their Compressors, and Yours

James, Thanks for the information you deliver every day. I have recently gone on Social Security Disability and have some money to further our preps. My wife and I will hunker down in place, that being said, we have done what we can to make this as easy as possible. We can heat our home without electricity, but still need a solution for limited electric needs in the event of power outage. We are looking at the Honda EU2000i portable generator with the multi-fuel upgrade. In our years here we have never lost our natural gas supply, but have often …


Two Letters Re: Prioritized Prepping

Jim: I couldn’t agree more with the article written by T.Z. regarding prioritized prepping. Many of us lack the needed organization and discipline to distribute our prepping budget evenly between the different survival categories and instead succumb to impulse buys – more ammo, more guns, more dried food, more camping gear. While stocking up on non-perishable supplies that will always have some use may seem like a good idea, what good are 50,000 rounds of ammo if your only water filter just broke, or you ran out of oil for your two-stroke chain saw? My way of managing these impulse …


Letter Re: All-American Sun Ovens

James, I have a short comment on today’s article for “Pat’s Product Review: All American Sun Oven”.   My wife and I bought the $399 model at a Dallas Prepper show a couple years ago and used it in order to make sure we knew how to operate it. After several weeks of use, my job took me to a long overseas visit and the oven went onto a shelf in the garage. It sat for six months without anyone using it. Yes I cleaned and dried it out. Upon returning from my trip I got it back out to …


Pat’s Product Review: All American Sun Oven

It goes something like this, “one is none, two is one, and three is two!” No, that’s not new math – although these days, it could be with all the insane things they are now teaching in public schools. What I’m talking about relates to survival. If you have one of “something” and it breaks, you lose it, or whatever happens to it, you have none. If you have two of “something” and one goes south, then you still have one. If you have three of “something” then if one stops working, you still have two to fall back on. …


Letter Re: The Importance of Food Procurement

  Captain Rawles, I just saw a very shocking statistic from the USDA: 50% of the US population resides within two miles of three different grocery stores. There are 150,000,000 people in this country who have never been more than two miles away from three different sources of food. I have made a career out of the food industry, most recently in the grocery sector. I know first hand how oblivious people are to where food actually comes from, what unsightly things go into the food supply to produce a sufficient volume to keep the shelves of Wal-Mart stocked (think …


Two Sisters Like Peas in in a Pod, by Peggy W.

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My sister and I both retired due to disabilities are working as we can trying to prepare for the family. Often, we say did we really do that, like talking to a stranger in our local Wal-Mart and saying we would like some green beans and he happened to have about a bushel in his truck he had not sold so, we got them and yielded 14 quarts of beans we needed. Ask and ye shall receive hit us in the face so hard, Thanks be to God! We are on an extremely small budget but we continue to buy …