Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Off Grid Cooking Solutions, Part 3, by V.W.

I have really come to enjoy researching and testing off grid cooking ideas and possibilities.  Last year I had purchased a few products that I felt were going to be the back bone of my preparedness efforts. Over this past winter, I began thinking that it was necessary to actually try out the ideas and suggestions from videos I had seen and articles I had read.  I ordered a few products to round out my supplies, and I became so enthusiastic with all the possibilities that I wrote “Off Grid Cooking Solutions, Part 1” and “Off Grid Cooking Solutions, Part …


TEOTWAWKI in a Two Bedroom Apartment at the Edge of Town, by Melanie C.

Making it through a worst case scenario in a two bedroom apartment is not my idea of a good chance of survival.  I read about others who are relocating to the American Redoubt or who have acquired sizeable land out away from town.  Those who have bunkers or cellars lined with shelves of log-term storage foods and an arsenal of weapons and ammo to protect it all; who have chickens and goats and a place to plant those seeds that come in the long-term storage can.  Then I look at myself and think, “Can’t do that, can’t afford that, maybe …


The Secret Prepper, by M.D.L.

(Why I prep, and how I do so in a family that thinks I’m crazy.) In the summer of 1977 my mother dragged me to see my older brother’s Cub Scouts meeting.  I was closing in on my sixth birthday and she informed me in no uncertain terms that I would be joining.  My mother was one of the multitudes of single mom’s in my part of Brooklyn.  A neighborhood where at the time crime was high, money was tight, and involved dads were few.   The only place for many boys to find any kind of positive male role model …


Letter Re: Some Observations on the Price of Beans

Mr. Rawles: In every decent sized town I’ve lived in there has been at least one “discount” grocery store. The stores that sell almost-expired food, dented cans or torn bags, local farmer over-production, that sort of thing. (And FWIW, only one can in a flat has to be dented for “the powers that be” to deem the entire batch unfit.) My most recent good buy has been repeated three years in a row here. It’s May, and the local store is selling one-pound bags of black-eyed peas at the discount price of 3 for $1. New Year’s Day was 5.7 …


Letter Re: Late Corn Planting in the American Midwest Does Not Bode Well

Sir: As a retired corn farmer, I find it quite interesting that the Fed’s USDA is still keeping to it’s hard-and-fast immutable “projections” of 97.3 million acres of corn being planted this year. Just like building a house, call the Fed’s number the “planned” or projected blueprint idea. But now let’s look at the “as built” story. Here, where the “rubber meets the road,” or I should say “where the planter tucks in the actual corn seed,’ the “actual” or real situation is quite another story due to very late corn plantings, if at all. The surprise is that the …


Letter Re: The Many Uses of Vacuum-Sealed Bags

Hi Jim,  The reader who contributed the food saver  storage bag post gave a lot of great ideas.  I would like to add my experience with Food Saver and how I solved some serious problems with the vacuum system itself.  Nine years ago I started a serious food storage program. Life is full of trials and errors, and lots of lessons learned from other’s trials and errors.  I made the move into dehydrating foods,  primarily beef and vegetables for long term storage. I bought Cabela’s large dehydrator after researching everything out there that I could afford.  It has performed marvelously after I …


The Many Uses of Vacuum-Sealed Bags, by L.E.

The Many Uses of Vacuum-Sealed Bags Late spring and early summer are the times to buy the Seal A Meal or Foodsaver machines. They are both made by the same parent company and can be found at any major grocery or department store in the kitchenware section-the Seal A Meal is the less expensive version that can be found for under $30 on sale, and the bags to go with it will cost you about the same again. You can make this a game or a family activity like an assembly line, just have all your items stacked in little …


Simple Portable Stoves, by Carolyn P.

The survivalist movement is growing at great rate today.  You only have to read some of the articles posted in this blog to know that.  But with all the fancy accruements available today some of the more fun and lowly survival items are overlooked.  Among them: The hobo and emergency pocket stoves. These are so much fun to make, and so easy.  I remember first seeing them in an ancient tiny camping book from the 1960’s.  The book itself was a hoot.  When I cracked the book open the faded and almost crunchy yellowed pages revealed what I thought was …


Health, Self-Improvement and Self-Mastery: Survive to Thrive, by A.P.S.

   This article intends to uncover mechanisms to assist the reader in self-help, self-mastery, and self- improvement.  The topics covered are meant to provide discovery of self- improvement ideas, identification of some techniques to improve your life, and give the reader further tools to pursue a deeper dive into the subject.  The reader will come out of this article with an awareness of the many topics to improve their thoughts, feelings, emotions, physiology, and performance.  The article pulls from sports medicine, psychology, martial arts, health and fitness, and self-help guides.  To really master some of these topics, it is highly …


Letter Re: One Year Food Supply at COSTCO

Hi JWR, Just a quick note regarding the posting of “One Year Food Supply at COSTCO”. Just in case Walt G. and others are not aware, that particular food storage system has no meat In Costco’s THRIVE special, it’s all TVP. True, there is milk and egg protein, but if someone needs actual meat, there isn’t any–it is [soy-based] TVP (textured vegetable protein).   Take care, and thanks, Steve N. in Arizona JWR Replies: There are other food storage packages on the market that do have real meat. And one alternative is to supplement with real canned meats (such as …


Letter Re: One Year Food Supply at COSTCO

James, What is you opinion of the “30,144 Total Servings 4-people 1-year Emergency Food Kit” now at the COSTCO website? Are the shelf lifes realistic? (Are they really long term storage kinds of foods?) What can you tell me about the company that makes them? Are they legit? Is this price realistic? I appreciate your sage counsel. Thanks, -Walt G. JWR Replies: The THRIVE brand foods are packaged by Shelf Reliance, a very reputable company that has been a SurvivalBlog advertiser for many years. Unlike many of their competitors, they do their nitrogen packing under controlled conditions. (Tests have shown …


A Military Wife’s Perspective on Preparedness, by Laura M.

I take a different approach, but one that may prove useful for other ladies. My husband is military, so that would make me the military spouse. However, I can tell you from experience that there SHOULD be a survival guide to being a military spouse. Now, I don’t plan on making this some betty home maker guide; Because in my opinion there is so many other survival aspects that us ladies should be aware of when our husbands are away. Unfortunately, we are not aware of these survival tactics until some misfortune is staring us in the face and we …


Letter Re: COSTCO Freeze Dried Storage Food Buckets

James, Costco sells a bucket of freeze dried food that provides 2,000 calories per day for one person for 30 days. Not a huge variety of entrees but quite adequate and rather tasty. Normally it sells for $100 per bucket including shipping. They sell a 36 bucket pallet for $3,300. That pallet is on sale now for $2,700 and the sale ends Sunday evening April 21st. That’s $75 per bucket. I don’t think it’s possible to get this much food for this low a price. The link is below. Thanks so much for all the information you provided. – K.T. …


The Zero Waste Kitchen, by Kate in Colorado

With food prices soaring with no end in sight, it is extremely important to use our food purchases and harvests wisely. How we manage our kitchens and decrease food loss will become even more critical in the face of increased economic pressure that seems to be increasing at breakneck speed.  The people of this country have been blessed with such food abundance in the past that many people automatically assume the supply of food will continue to be endless in the future.  The average person has no idea where their food comes from nor how it is constructed, processed, and …


Off Grid Cooking Solutions, Part 2, by V.W.

To follow up o my article Off Grid Cooking Solutions, Part 1: One of the first items we purchased for off grid cooking was the humble Dutch Oven.  There are many enthusiasts of this time honored way of cooking.  The Dutch oven is surprisingly versatile as it can be used over a fire, with charcoal briquettes, on a regular kitchen stove, a woodstove, portable camp stove, or the rocket stove.  Because of the fuel consumption required and the logistics of storing charcoal and wood, I am not as interested in using my Dutch oven over an outdoor camp fire or …