Category: Food Storage & Cooking

I wish I could remember the exact moment I became a “prepper”, although I would much rather use the term “aware”.  I’m sure everyone has that “A-ha” moment that sets them on the path to enlightenment, and that brings me to the subject of the day.  I would like to re-introduce canned food to all of those food snobs out there, because I once was one. Yes, it’s true – for me it was always “freshly caught”, “freshly killed”, “never frozen”, “minimally processed” and most especially “organic”. As a child of the 1950s I was the unwilling guinea pig of …

Dear JWR: Stockpiling food has been performed for centuries.  Our earliest ancestors were hunter gatherers.  If they didn’t save up food for the winter, their existence would most certainly be doomed.  It has been recorded that in hard times throughout history people have re-learned preservation techniques that would ensure their survival for the months and years ahead.  I believe we are in a similar trend at the moment. Most everyone has a reasonable supply of food in the pantry for convenience purposes.  On the other hand some people, like our neighbors who we have affectionately named the “Pod People”, exist …

With the current economic climate and the recent drought, there is a lot of concern about an impending increase in food prices.  As I browse through homesteading blogs and review comments from recent news articles, more and more people that have not been a part of the “prepper  movement” in the past are now starting to open their eyes and see a need to increase their food stores.  When you first begin to build your pantry, it is helpful to think about the purpose of food storage:  The true goal of storing food is to be able to provide enough …

After you have spent the summer growing all of that fresh produce, it always seems like everything ripens all at the same time.  There are many ways that you can preserve those fruits and vegetables for the winter; canning, dehydrating, freezing, and root cellar.  I do not have a root cellar, so I rely completely on canning, freezing, and dehydrating.  To dehydrate your produce you will need a food dehydrator or you can simply use the sun and sundry them.  Some items such as apples, potatoes, pears, et cetera need to be pre-treated to prevent browning.  You have the choice …

Mr. Rawles, I just discovered emergency storage food is sold at Costco.com. They have a sale going on right now that bears mentioning in your blog. A year’s supply package of THRIVE food from Shelf Reliance for $1,199.99 including shipping and tax-free. No additional cost for existing Costco members. Non-members can also purchase this but must pay a small surcharge. They quote shipping as 5 to 7 days.  This is the best deal on emergency storage food I’ve found after quite a long search and was the first deal that prompted me to pull the trigger and stock up. Thanks …

Sir: Thank you Mr. Rawles for your blog. The recent post about scouting from Louie in Ohio brought back a flood of memories for me and the scouting program of so many decades past. One such memory was from a wise Scoutmaster at the beginning of a 50 mile 6-day hike through Alpine wilderness . He stated that in 6 days we would walk out of these woods a different person than had walked in. Most of the twenty or so young men scoffed at hearing such counsel. Of course we ran out food on day four, we were responsible …

Dear Mr. Rawles, I’m a fan of lentils from way back.  Some things I didn’t see in the article and the follow-up letters are: 1. Lentils can indeed produce intestinal gas like beans or most other legumes. However this can be significantly reduced by introducing a single peeled whole carrot into the lentil dish when cooking.  Remove the carrot before serving the lentils.  No, I do not know why it works.  I just know that it does. 2. Brown/Green lentils have the same cooking time and temp as brown rice. 3. Red lentils have the same cooking time and temp …

JWR: I have a couple of comments on the recent lentil article. Brad mentioned: “Mannaharvest.net sells 25 lb. for $24.70” Restaurant Depot (which I learned about on SurvivalBlog) sells 25 lb bags for about $13. They also have 25 lb bags of many other beans for similar prices. JWR mentioned: “Lentils can harden in long term storage, just like beans. This limits their practical shelf life to about eight years.” Since we store what we eat and eat what we store, using up lentils before they harden is not a problem. We empty the large bags into quart canning jars …