Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Two Letters Re: Storing Coconut Oil

JWR, I work in the oleochemcals industry, just a little info on oil storage. Oxygen is by far your worst enemy when it comes to long term storage for any fat based materials. The oxygen will primarily interact with any of the double bonds located on a fatty acid chain, breaking down the fatty acid and creating the compounds that cause the oil to become rancid. The more unsaturated the oil is the more double bonds that will be available for the oxygen to interact with. Coconut oil is naturally highly saturated (typically ~94%), therefore fewer double bond sites on the …


Letter Re: Fire: Your Partner in Survival

Dear JWR: The excellent article, “Fire: Your Partner in Survival, by Pledger” mentioned the BTU ratings of certain trees. Wanting to know a bit more, I did some searching and found a chart of the BTU ratings of various types of wood. On another note, Pledger’s reference to a cord as 4×8 feet by 16 inches threw me. I looked it up and found that a “full cord” measures 4x4x8 feet, which is the number I was familiar with, ranging from 80 to 100 cubic feet stacked. The web site I found uses 90 cubic feet for its BTU ratings. …


Letter Re: Storing Coconut Oil

Jim, When I was in Costco this week, I noticed that they had Organic Coconut Oil. This coconut oil is a good storage fat because it is very shelf-stable. The manufacturer says it has a shelf life of two years, but a friend of mine told me that she had some that she stored in her basement for 6 years, and when she used it it was just fine.  Coconut oil is definitely healthier for you than Crisco (which is hydrogenated vegetable oil) or hydrogenated lard (the lard you commonly find in the grocery store); we’ve all heard about the …


Letter Re: Hiding What is Mine

Dear JWR: Like most of us I am storing food in preparation of something bad happening. I have some super pails along with regular grocery items as well as some freeze dried items. I have a pantry which has long since been over run with supplies, so I built a couple heavy duty cabinets in which to store my overflow. When the great SEE (Society Ending Event) comes about I am quite sure our government won’t just shrivel up and go away. Quite the opposite, they will go from house to house looking for stored supplies. If they come to …


Surviving Snowmageddon, by Lugknut32

In January, 2012 Washington State went through what the locals called Snowmageddon. My family and I had just returned from being stationed in Germany for the preceding nine years. Some of our belongings were still packed up out in the garage. Mostly my “camping” things. Having just started at the new assignment, I had not yet taken the time to unpack everything. I had bought some heavy duty shelves for the garage (in anticipation of unpacking my gear). While in Germany, I was stationed in Bavaria (Schweinfurt and Graffenwoehr specifically). I had been raised in the Midwest, so I was …


Letter Re: Emergency Bags for Your Vehicle

Dear James, I wish to make a comment about the article on preparing an emergency bag for your car. This is a prudent and good idea. I currently have one for each vehicle I own. The only problem with the article is the choice of food. I have a tendency to leave my emergency bag in my car. The problem arises in the summer when the outside temps start to rise. With the outdoor temp at 100 degrees F the car’s inside temperature is 120 to 130. The MRE entrees only have a shelf life of 30 days at 120 …


Emergency Bags for Your Vehicle, by Z.T.

Most preppers probably have a pretty good handle on how to assemble a bug-out-bag (BOB). And, it’s probably so large and ungainly, that it gets stuck in the closet, just like mine. Let’s be honest, are you going to have it when you need it? I think we have covered the likelihood of being at home when “it” happens in plenty of detail in the past. We have seen that the chances of you being at home on your couch with your BOB beside you are slim. What about all the other situations? In other words, where to you spend …


Start Where You Are, by Sanders

I’m older than you are. I’m female. Wanted to get that out of the way early, so you can decide whether to keep reading or not. I assume you’re new to being prepared. Long-time survivalists wouldn’t want to read an article titled “start.” But you do. You’re interested in the subject of preparation, but you’re also a little overwhelmed by what you’re seeing on survival sites. You don’t think you can do all that stuff. The fact is, you probably can’t. You’re a bank teller, not a former Marine. You’re alone, not affiliated with 30 like-minded survivalists. I’ve read all …


Local Food and Energy from Top Lit Up Draft Micro-Gasification Stoves, by Doug B.

"Food and energy are the two keystones of any community economy anywhere on earth.   If we produce and distribute food and energy locally, we have the food, the energy and the money.   We establish the capacity to create and retain wealth in our community.   We put in place the two foundations of any human economy."  -David Yarrow. More and easier food and energy production immediately raise standards of living. Less time worrying about essentials, leaves more time to do everything else.  Do not overlook this simple truth in preparedness and future planning.  Top Lit Up Draft (TLUD) stove technology has …


Letter Re: Food Storage in the Southern United States

Mr. Rawles, Regarding the letter, Food Storage in the Southern United States by Gary S.,,  in Florida, from May until October, the heat is merciless, making food storage difficult. Some items, like powdered milk, barely last the summer without electrical cooling. Most folks turn their A/C up or off during the day when they are away from home or pay a very high electric bill. .With the droughts of the past few years, even heavily canopied forest home sites can be too hot. Power outages from wildfires, hurricanes, storms, tornadoes,  or heat waves can cause loss of air conditioning for …


Letter Re: Storage Food At COSTCO Stores

Jim, I just noticed while in COSTCO today that they have 6 gallon buckets of freeze dried food on offer. For $99, you get a one-month supply of 2100 calories a day, enough for one adult. I wonder how many people caught in the megastorm that hammered the East Coast recently had any food stored in, and how difficult it was for most folks to get provisions before the stores were stripped bare?  Just another reason to keep something one hand. For more variety, though, folks should really consider storing other stuff, as taught in your Rawles Gets You Ready …


Staying Sane (and Happy) at Your Winter BOL, by Mrs. Icebear

I laughed my way through the entertaining and informative (even for me – I had no theoretical knowledge of waxing skis whatsoever, just did “what the other kids did”) recent article on the “exotic Norwegian” cross country skis. So I thought that maybe a couple of other Norwegian experiences might be of interest to survivalblog-readers: Having lived the first 30 years of my life in Norway and had ample experience with both skiing and offgrid living as a part of everyday life, I have some personal tips on not just surviving offgrid, but actually having a good time even though: …


Do-It-Yourself Prepping, by L.J.D.

In the past year, prepping has gone from an interesting concept to a way of life for us. There are countless resources for information, products and equipment available to the person who has an open calendar and a bottomless bank account. Unfortunately for the rest of us, even if we can carve out enough time to fully devote ourselves to prepping, we tend to find a large portion of supplies to be out of the realm of our current budget. And, with the economy in crisis, it doesn’t seem probable that the budget will be increasing anytime soon. In our …


Addictions That Could Be Your Undoing, by Z.T.

I have tried to think about things that you may not have thought of, in regards to The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI.) And maybe not just fresh ideas for readers, but even for those that write about these things. And, it’s possible that you may even think that I am going waaaay out there to bring you fresh ideas. But I’m not. I bet you haven’t thought of how silly and secret addictions can really hurt you. Have you? While the effects of hard drugs, even seemingly minor alcoholism, have their own withdrawal symptoms that …


Letter Re: U.S. Army Recipes Available Free Online

Jim, I have been building a library of preparedness-related documents to store on a DVD data disc. In my search for cooking recipes, I found this web site: U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps School: Food Service Publications & Links The page contains a link to a ZIP archive of recipes use by the Army — about 100 MB of indexed recipes of all types. A direct link to the ZIP file is here. Watch ‘Yer Top Knot and Keep Your Powder Dry, – The Wyoming Geezer