Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Prioritizing My Prepping, by R.W.L.

First of all, a note of praise to JWR: thanks for all you do.  You’ve got an amazing reference blog site going here and are providing an immeasurable amount of help to your readers.  I stumbled across SurvivalBlog via a link in the comments section of another blog called The Deliberate Agrarian, last October. The link included the warning: “Just see if you can escape from the archives in less than four hours.”  Two weeks later, I emerged from the archives with blood shot eyes and was both enlightened and scared at the same time.  I had a lot of …


Letter Re: Extreme Coupon Prepping

Jim, I’d like to share my recent experience with grocery discounts using the controversial discount cards that stores issue. First of all, I’ve never filled out a customer-information form for any such card, and since I pay cash nobody knows who I am. So since my name is not connected with the discount cards, I gladly use them to take advantage of every possible discount. There are three Kroger stores in my area, and one day recently I was on the canned vegetable aisle and noticed a tag that said that a certain brand of diced tomatoes was priced at …


Two Letters Re: Extreme Coupon Prepping

Mister Rawles; Someone recently mentioned that some people buy too much stuff with coupons that they can’t possibly use up.  Also there was someone who usually buys “cheap” products like V05 shampoo, etc.  I have been couponing for four years.  My husband is a pastor and we took a lesser-paying church about the time the economy went South.  Then we added a family member.  I prayed and asked the Lord what to do.  We were spending $500-to-$600 each month on groceries with me trying to buy less expensive stuff, cheaper cuts of meat, etc.  I have always lived a frugal …


Two Letters Re: Extreme Coupon Prepping

Sir: I just wanted to add a few comments to Y.M.’s extreme couponing prepping article. Shoppers fall into three categories: 1 ) the busy, unplanned shopper, 2 )  the rookie shopper and 3 ) the Olympian. The busy shopper just runs in the store and buys whatever is there. The rookie saves 10-20% and the Olympian saves about 80-90 %. I am definitely in the rookie category. I can save 20-40 % by just shopping the front and back page of the store’s weekly circular. Also if  you cook and do not eat out of boxes, you have additional savings. …


Suggestions From a 2 for 1 Prepper, by M.M.

I especially liked the February, 2001 SurvivalBlog article about Forever Preps. I now have enough salt to last me forever in Mylar lined buckets. That includes regular salt for salt curing. I need saltpeter. I have dry bleach, hand tools, skills, and Jesus. I’m working on the rest. As a matter of fact, within my extended family we have four medical people, a fireman, a teacher, a banker, an accountant, HVAC technician, mechanic, farmer, baker, trucker, engineers—we don’t exactly have a butcher or candlestick maker, but my son tends to his own deer and fish and I have made plenty …


Letter Re: Food Handling and Cooking Safety

James, While I enjoyed the article written by Jason A., there were minor points that stuck out to me. As a professional chef who has completed numerous food safety courses, many of them the same that health inspectors must take to be certified, Jason’s list of final food temperatures and cooking suggestions were a good start, but had some potentially precarious recommendations. Washing fruits and vegetables will rarely remove all the pesticides and bacteria, unless you use a food sanitizing liquid such as bleach water, which you may or may not have in such a situation. Washing removes any exterior …


Letter Re: Long Term Storage Foods in Supermarkets and Big Box Stores

Jim, I recently had a discussion with management at the Clarkston, Washington Wal-Mart [in eastern Washington, on the Idaho state line.] The General Manager has definitely got a finger on the pulse of consumers.  They have a huge display set up at the entrance to the store of freeze dried food [in #10 cans] from Augason Farms.  The display was an island two pallets wide and 8 pallets long.  They offer a full line of freeze dried foods from alphabet soup to Whole Egg Powder and whole raspberries.  They also had a display of breakfast and dinner emergency cases of …


Surviving TEOTWAWKI with Infants and Toddlers, by M.A.

As parents of twin infants, we recognize that our situation is far less defensible, far less mobile, and far more vulnerable in general in the event of a societal breakdown. However, we love our boys and they will be extremely useful on the farm one day, so we’ve decided to keep them around anyway. Below are some steps we have taken to prepare ourselves as parents of infants, with their future state as toddlers and children in mind.  Avoiding Separation Being able to sufficiently care for your children is a requirement even in a Great Depression or hyperinflation period. Social …


Letter Re: Meat Canning Experience

James, I would like to add a note to one of the observations of Don M., regarding re-freezing of meat. I too have heard many times that it is unwise to re-freeze meat or fish. I grew up hearing it. Often it is even implied that it is a health risk. Most folks don’t know why; it’s just what they’ve always been told. Water expands when it freezes, and as we all know, will rupture whatever contains it – even steel pipe. The cells of meat and fish contain a high content of water. When it freezes, it will break …


Letter Re: Meat Canning Experience

James,                   People frequently refer to losing power in freezers as good incentive to keep freeze dried food on hand.  My family found out the hard way that your freezer full of meat can be canned with excellent results!  I awoke one Friday morning and headed downstairs to get ready for work.  I noticed a glow in the basement and, knowing that there were no lights that were supposed to be on, went downstairs to check it out.  Somehow, the night before, the upright freezer door had either not been shut securely or had come open.  Our store of …


Letter Re: The Butter Storage Dilemma

Dear JWR: I’ve been reading your site for some time and thought that some of your readers may find our Butter Storage Solution helpful in their plans. I’ve been a prepper for decades and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about butter. Our stored food reflects our caloric needs as well as having some things to eat that we really like — things that make us feel better. My wife likes butter very much and I began looking for solutions around the turn of the century. Living in New Orleans (or anywhere with a sub-tropical climate) just makes the …


Life Without Electricity in a Semi-Tropical Climate, by Lynn M.

We are preppers. I love reading the prep/survival books. There’s so much information out there and so many people involved in prepping now, there’s just no reason to not do it! We learned from experience that you can never be over prepared. Since 2004 I’ve learned how to store food for the long term, how to filter water (okay, I’ll give credit to my Berkey on that one), I’ve learned about bug out bags and how to build a fire with a flint, but what I learned the most from was living for more than two weeks without electricity after …


Letter Re: Stocking Up on Grains and Legumes

James,      I was wondering if you could comment on one aspect of Sky Watcher’s method of filling buckets and removing oxygen.  She suggests putting the dry ice in the bottom of the bucket.  I have always heard that you should put the mylar bag in the bucket, then fill the mylar bag with grain.  Once the bucket is filled, then place a chunk of dry ice on the top of the grain and let it sublimate.  Once it is the size of a nickel then you seal the bag and  then seal the lid.     Since CO2 is heavier …


Preparedness in Megalopolis by John C.

One thing to be said of modern life, you generally wind up living where the work is. Money can be very good, for example, when you’re working as a government contractor in the Washington, DC area, so that’s a plus. The bad side of this lifestyle, though, is that you’re planted squarely in Megalopolis, with guaranteed chaos and congestion during any catastrophic event, severely hindering your ability to get home from work or to evacuate the area.  Those who commute into cities or live in high population areas can relate, as evidenced by what normally might be a 1-hour commute …


A Simple Plan For a Procrastinating Wannabe Prepper

Dear Mr. Rawles: I first became introduced to the survivalist movement in the 1970s when I read Howard J. Ruff’s books Famine and Survival in America (1974) and How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years: a Crash Course in Personal and Financial Survival (1979). These books dealt mainly with financial preparations but also pointed out the need for food storage, security, and other preparations that would benefit you and your family in emergency situations. I did take allot of his advice on financial investing but ignored his chapters on all of the other advised preparations like food storage and …