Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: The Politically Correct Joy of Cooking

Jim, The lady who whose submission is in today’s blog referenced the book Joy of Cooking and you provided an Amazon link to the book. The praise for this book – and her quotes from the book – are without a doubt regarding earlier editions. Up until the 1980s or early 1990s The Joy of Cooking contained sections on food preservation, butchering rabbits and other game and a host of other “pioneer” kitchen skills. The current editions (and the last couple, for all I know) are severely dumbed-down with far less emphasis on these topics and more on things like …


Letter Re: Suburban Survival Revisited

Good Afternoon, After reading the follow up post from Suburban 10 on his state of preparedness, I have just three comments to make: 1. Congratulations on getting to the level that you’re at now. Realizing that you are not at the level you need to be is half the battle. 2. Now that you have the red wheat berries and a grain mill it is time to take the next step and learn how to cook the wheat. It’s better to have practiced cooking your long term food storage items when you have had the luxury of time to experiment …


Keeping Cool: People and Food by P.J.

I’m writing from the Mid-West – the sea of corn (mostly) and other grains. As of this writing we are getting some relief from the humidity. “Hearsay” says corn is a guilty culprit for contributing to our high humidity. Corn is in high demand for purposes of food and fuel. Besides corn syrup, a byproduct is humidity, and perhaps, rain – which eventually leads to the subject of this letter – ice. Something that I think will be tremendously missed, is refrigeration – either for food or humans. Having stated the obvious, think of keeping leftovers at a safe temperature, …


Suburban Survival Revisited, by The Suburban 10

In April 2010 I submitted “Suburban Survival”. a set of ten steps I was going implement in order to get ready for TEOTWAWKI. Boy… did I underestimate the power and importance of survialblog.com! First and foremost I thank all of you who responded and gave a cold slap of reality. I thought I was going to be in good shape, but now my view and attitude are vastly different. How did it change? It really started when I bought and read Jim’s survival book. It offers solid fundamentals and interesting insight that I am adapting to my particular situation. My …


Tell No One, by Mary F.

I left the city earlier this year, and have settled in on property that my grandmother bought 70 years ago. I work from home, in the arts, doing publicity, proofreading, and copy-editing. I have a very quiet life, very private, a few good friends, a deep knowledge of the region. I rarely go more than five miles from home. The world frightens me much more than it did when I was younger and stronger and living in the big scary city. Havoc, it seems, has already been cried, and it’s not out of the question that the dogs of war …


Lessons Learned From a Suburbanite, by Battle Ax

I am your typical thirty-something suburbanite that lives in a cookie cutter house (on the grid of course) in a nice little subdivision, with a wife, 2.6 kids, a dog, and two cats.  I have a steady job, pay my taxes, keep my lawn manicured, and chat with the neighbors out front.  I try to keep up with current events, and I believe things are going to get worse before they get better.  Not being pessimistic, but realistic. My roots in preparedness go back to my childhood where my step-father was a military man, and subtly assigned each one in …


Furry Friend Today: Food Tomorrow, by T.L.F.

As our population continues to increase and expand, the small towns are now big towns, the rural outskirts of town are vibrant mini-metroplexes and quaint little mountain towns are growing communities. With this progression of population and expansion of where we are choosing to live, the fusing of nature and your home is becoming an everyday occurrence. Drive through your neighborhood and you will see the cute little bunny rabbits sitting in the corners of the lawns. How many bird feeders and birdbaths do you see with a songbird sitting on the edge watching you drive by? Watch for the …


Letter Re: Getting Started in Self-Reliant Living

Editor’s Note: The following letter, suggested by a SurvivalBlog reader, is reprinted with permission of Backwoods Home magazine–which was one of my favorite print publications, even a decade before they became SurvivalBlog advertiser. Dear Jackie, I have to disagree with your Ask Jackie column answer to Joe Leonetti’s questions about getting started in self-sufficient living in Issue #124 (July/Aug 2010). They missed all the most important points that a “city” person would have to master first. Here are my own suggestions: Joe, forget thinking “self-sufficient” and start thinking “frugal;” if you have the consume-and-spend mindset so prevalent today you’ll need …


The Plan “B” Map, by T.L.F.

To everyone who reads this article, I want you to ask yourself one question: “If a major catastrophe happened tomorrow, would I be ready?” In all honesty, my answer would be no. For me, this is a very scary scenario. I do my best to budget, plan and  continue to stock my supply closet with food and water, but we all know in our current economic state,  it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the funds to build up supplies for “The End of the World as We Know It”. I know there are many people out there who are …


Convince Your Loved Ones To Prepare–Even When They’re Kicking and Screaming, by Patriot Chick

Becoming self-sufficient during a financial meltdown is difficult enough, but trying to convince reluctant loved ones to prepare can be doubly frustrating. It’s hard to understand how anyone wouldn’t want to start stockpiling their pantries after watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti, and more recently the devastating floods in Pakistan. We all watched the newsreels; millions of homeless and hungry fighting for a spot in breadlines. If that isn’t reason enough, the U.S. continues to be threatened with nuclear attack. Meanwhile, most of us are hanging by a gossamer thread between solvency and financial ruin. We …


My Family Preparing for TEOTWAWKI, by Peter B.

Five years ago I really started watching the economy and the way the whole world was going. I started preparing then. I recently purchased two of JWR’s books. Both are great resources for those who have no idea of how to do things in a back to basic scenario. Being a former Eagle Scout, military man and a current Law Enforcement Officer (LEO), I already have skills to rely on. I never thought that being high tech was good, so I have centered on a low tech plan. “KISS” (keep it simple, stupid) is my motto. The easier the better …


The Second Wave: Survivalist Turned MZBs, by Dave in Florida

For many years I have been working towards self-reliance. I like to use the older term self-reliant simply because I feel “survivalist” doesn’t describe the lifestyle properly. I don’t intend to just “survive” but “thrive” – would that make me a “thrivalist?” Yes, I know that was a bit corny. In all seriousness, let’s assume you are an average Joe living in perilous times. What I have to say is speaking to a revelation I have had over the recent years based on my over confidence and belief that somehow I was different than the average Joe just because I …


Letter Re: Calories and Cross-Country Travel

Traveling in the aftermath of a societal collapse will become more difficult without the use of a motor vehicle, which is why you hopefully live near a water source. It is easy to visualize how after a collapse how one could move around locally. Whether or not what one is planning on doing locally is energy efficient or not, to some degree, will not matter as there is not very much distance that needs to be covered. If however you need to move over long distance how efficient the travel is becomes much more important. Lets look with some detail …


The P6 Preparedness Matrix, by L2L

The P6 Preparedness Matrix (priorities + planning + products + provisions + practices + perspective = preparedness) is at the core of success in life. Each of these aspects are essential if we are to be prepared for what ever may befall us in any area of life; both the normal dailies as well as situations unique or unusual to us including long term survival. Think of a six sided cube. These six aspects frame the P6 Preparedness Matrix and thereby define and appropriately constrain our actions (our preparedness if you will) in any situation. These six aspects, for the …


Letter Re: Survival Tips From a Sarajevo Siege Survivor

Jim: The following is one of those anonymously penned items that keeps getting passed around the Internet. It dates back to the Siege of Sarajevo in the ethnic civil war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s: Experiencing horrible things that can happen in a war – death of parents and friends, hunger and malnutrition, endless freezing, fear, sniper attacks. To prepare… 1. Stockpiling helps, but you never know how long trouble will last, so locate near renewable food sources. 2. Living near a well with a manual pump is like being in Eden. 3. After awhile, even gold …