Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Preparedness Beginnings, by “Two Dogs”

I am a retired Marine Corps officer and Naval Aviator (jets and helicopters), commercial airplane and helicopter pilot, and most recently, an aircraft operations manager for a Federal agency. I graduated from numerous military schools, including the U.S. Army Airborne (“jump”) School, U.S. Navy Divers School, Army helicopter, and Navy advanced jet schools. In addition, I have attended military “survival” courses whose primary focus was generally short-term survival off the land, escape from capture, and recovery from remote areas.  Like most Marine officers, I attended The Basic School, an 8-month school (only five during the Vietnam era – my case), …


Letter Re: The Virtues of Fasting Experience for Well-Rounded Preparedness

Greetings! I have an idea that I have been wanting the patriot survival community to consider. Here it is: Basically we are able to go without food for much longer than most people know. This is not true with water to be sure. A normal, reasonably healthy human body is easily capable of going three to six weeks on very, very little nutrition and remain completely mentally alert and even physically active. During a prolonged fast you will not be able to pick up as much furniture as normal but you may easily be able to walk for 100 miles! …


Letter Re: Preventing Steel Food Cans from Rusting in High-Moisture Environments

Hello James and Memsahib! Greetings and prayers for you both. In the Saturday August 8th blog there was a report of damage to underground storage food, with cans rusting. When we traveled for years on our sailboat we varnished our canned goods to prevent rusting. We removed the labels, wrote the contents of the can with a permanent marker, then varnished each can. We never had a can rust with this protection. Our cans were exposed to salt air and an occasional dousing from bilge water. B.B. thought that waxing his cans would help. That may work but any contact …


Hard Times at Here–Are You Ready?

The hard economic times that I–and many others–warned you about are now here. We are clearly now in the opening stages of a full-scale depression that will last a decade or longer. This news article (sent to me by SurvivalBlog reader Eric C.) .about an unemployed couple in Indiana is a microcosm of what we will be witnessing for the next decade. Take a few minutes to read it. Our pampered society is in for a rude wakening. Now, at the risk of sounding unkind and judgmental, the term “white trash” comes to mind. Note that this man in Indiana …


Letter Re: Practical Lessons Learned From Home Canning of Meat and Vegetables

JWR, Thusfar this year I’ve canned 140 pints of meat and veggies. And more to go. I believe ready to heat and eat meals will be very handy when the Schumer hits the oscillating rotator. We grew the potatoes, garlic, onions, sweet banana peppers, and carrots ourselves. We buy whatever meat is the loss leader at the grocery that week. I am storing pasta separately. When we open a pint we will add cooked egg noodles. If one cans the egg noodles they get very mushy. I’ve been canning for some years now and have some serious advice. I opine …


Survey Results: Your Favorite Books on Preparedness, Self-Sufficiency, and Practical Skills

In descending order of frequency, the 78 readers that responded to my latest survey recommended the following non-fiction books on preparedness, self-sufficiency, and practical skills: The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery (Far and away the most often-mentioned book. This book is an absolute “must” for every well-prepared family!) The Foxfire Book series (in 11 volumes, but IMHO, the first five are the best) Holy Bible Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmage Stevens The “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course Crisis …


Two Letters Re: Last Minute G.O.O.D. Versus Well-Considered Early Relocation

Jim: The figure [cited by “Feral Farmer”] of 100 square miles per hunter-gatherer can’t be correct. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles). So, at 100 square mile per hunter gatherer, would only support 95,400 natives. Considering that large chunks of the Arctic and desert are minimal in their resources, not to mention Greenland, this figure (100 sq mi) can’t be correct. Here are a couple of online references: Agricultural practices and policies for carbon sequestration in soil By John M. Kimble, Rattan Lal, Ronald F. Follett and, Food, Energy, and Society By David …


Letter Re: An Outward Bound Prepper’s Perspective

Hi Jim, I’m new to your site and books but not to the concepts and precepts. My dad had a survivalist/self-sufficient mindset with a cool mix of Native American philosophy and know-how. I didn’t eat store bought meat or baked goods until I was 10 or 12 and thought processing shoulders of venison in the kitchen was the norm. We had a huge garden and fruit tree orchard. My mom was a master at canning; although I think it should be called “jarring” because you’re putting it in jars, not cans. He collected, traded, and rebuilt guns and amassed quite …


Ug-99 and The Ugly Times Ahead–There’ll Be Fungus Among Us

My consulting clients often ask me me for predictions. “What’s your timeframe, Mister Rawles?” I hear that in almost every consulting call. My clients ask: “When will the US economy crater?” I tell them that is impossible to predict, because there are so many variables and interdependencies, and because the markets are so heavily manipulated. They also ask me: Is the H1N1 Flu sure to mutate in to a more virulent strain, and if so, when?” I answer: “That is impossible to predict.” I’m also often quizzed about the Ug-99 wheat fungus (aka “Durable Wheat Rust”, or simply “the stem …


Letter Re: Bugs in the Pantry

Mr. Rawles, I’m new to prepping. But for some time now, when I go to Costco, I pick up peanut butter, a bag of rice, or a bag of beans to toss in the closet. I really like storing wheat, because it seems to have a much longer shelf life, but it is a little harder to find than rice. I figure I’ve probably got about nine months to a year worth of food for myself now. I know that the bugs will get into it eventually, and I’ll throw a bunch out and start over. I’ve been examining rice …


Letter Re: Sprouting is Key to Good Nutrition in TEOTWAWKI

James, I am a fan of sprouting, but I have to disagree with Roxanne on a few points: The idea that the human body needs external enzymes from raw food and that we will ‘run out of them if we eat cooked food’ is a food myth that traces it’s origin to the natural hygienists of the last century, along with the idea that you can live forever if your colon is clean. Humans have been cooking food since we discovered fire. Our pancreases are bigger and we do suffer plenty of diseases wild animals don’t and yes, eating some …


Sprouting is Key to Good Nutrition in TEOTWAWKI

If you were to take an inventory of all your preparedness supplies, would you feel quite confident that you are in fact “ready”? Your supplies might include a good, well thought out long-term, food storage program, complete with a variety of dehydrated and freeze-dried legumes, grains, vegetable, fruits, dairy and meats. If you’ve gotten this far, you are to be commended for taking two giant steps toward emergency preparedness. But have you also considered the very process by which these foods are preserved to give you the benefit of long-term food storage? Did you know that both the dehydrating and …


It Matters Not Whether Inflation or Deflation–You Need to Protect Yourself, by Gentleman Jim from Colorado

No matter who you are, where you live, or whatever your political proclivities, economic trends such as inflation/hyper-inflation/deflation simply don’t care which party you belong to, who you voted for, or whether you’re believe in Keynesian “prime the pump” spending by the government, or not. The laws of economics may be somewhat fungible and give us surprises from time to time, but overall: * They don’t care whether you love the earth, hate the earth, drive electric tiny-cars or huge Hummers or travel by foot or horse. * They don’t care whether you’re in a blue state or a red …


Two Letters Re: Walking Tractors and Similar Powered Farming Implements

Hi; The ongoing discussion about tractors is interesting. I was recently able to purchase a fully restored 1952 Ford 8N for $3,500. The tires, front end bushings, everything is new, and the motor is rebuilt. This is a deal of a lifetime to be sure. But, there are plenty of other good deals out there, this is the time to look. Check with farmers to see if they have an extra tractor to sell. Many farms own multiple tractors and if they need money you might get lucky. And if you get real lucky you might find an old one …


Letter Re: Many Weeds are Actually Edible Wild Plants

Mr Rawles, I read the article “Many Weeds are Actually Edible Plants” with much interest. I am a botanist not a horticulturist. I was trained in the taxonomy of native plants not commercial flowers and such. Taxonomy is the identification of plants. I did three years work at my school’s botany department doing field research continuing the longest prenuclear botany studies of native plants in the US. I was required to be able to identify by sight more than 1,000 native plants. My taxonomic mentor was Mr. Howard Reynolds, Ph.d., University of Nebraska and former Marine Corpsman, in the Pacific …