Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Mr. Rawles: I had a shock when I went to the supermarket the other day. I had gotten into a habit of buying beans and lentils in the little one pound clear plastic bags. I had also bought a lot of white rice in two pound bags, just one [bag] at a time. That was convenient, but I wasn’t paying attention to the price tags. When I went to stock up, I found that the difference in price [per ounce] just between the 1 pound bags and the 10 pounds sack was huge. They charge like three times as much …

Hello Mr. Rawles, I communicated with you from time to time over the past two years while stationed overseas. As I said before, your site was a true morale booster after a hard day’s work. Thank you sooooo very much! I discovered your web site a few months prior to transferring overseas and began serious preparation at that time and have continued. I returned to the U.S. two weeks ago for my twilight tour (final tour before retirement). I continue to be a dedicated reader and have purchased some of your materials. I do have three questions regarding plastic pails. …

Jim: I have a question about plastic buckets. I’ve heard that some of them put toxic chemical fumes into food, but others don’t. How can I be sure which ones are food grade? Thanks Much, – Wendy J. (Living too close to Mr. Schumer) JWR Replies: As I explain in the “Rawles Gets You Ready” family preparedness course, determining whether or not a particular used bucket is truly food grade can be a challenge. I’ve had several readers and consulting clients who have mistakenly been told that the the number 2 (with the number 2 inside the “chasing arrows” recycling …

James, Thanks to your blog, I now know where I can get cheap (or free) plastic [food grade] buckets. I’ve been building quite a pile of them, and the time it takes to wash them is minimal. I mainly plain [to pack] Pinto beans, rice, flour, and pasta. How do I make sure that I won’t open them up someday, and find them full of weevils? That would be a disaster, especially if I really need that food when it all hits the fan. Thanks, – Randall W. JWR Replies: Insects and their larvae can’t survive without oxygen. Two different …

Mr. Rawles: There is so much in your blog about stocking up, and it is appreciated, I can tell you. But I haven’t seen all in one place any big reference on how long I can expect things to last. Some of the “shelf life” info out there [on the Internet] is unrealistic. (Do they pull these numbers out of the sky?) This info is also scattered on dozens of websites, not all in one place. Can you recommend any one good reference? Is that info in any of your books? Thanking You In Advance, – Lydia. J. JWR Replies: …

Dear Editor: Roxanne with RMR makes a good point about sea salt adding flavor to a TEOTWAWKI diet. As a physician I must caution everyone that the brief mention she makes about iodine being added to “regular salt” is not a minor issue. In my practice I have identified modern day patients who are actually iodine deficient, something most physicians, even most endocrinologists, think can’t happen. A very respected endocrinologist whom I trained under speaks about when he was a child and families in Utah becoming iodine deficient over the course of winter because of their diet. Iodine needs to …

When we think about setting aside emergency supplies, most of us would agree that preserved food and purified water are the essentials and everything else is secondary to these. Some might even choose to incorporate things like a manual grain mill, a water purifier, a food dehydrator, a solar cook stove and so on. But who would ever consider something as simple and humble as sea salt as an indispensable necessity and commodity in the tumultuous days ahead? I would even go so far as to say if sea salt is not a part of your survival provisions, it’s time …