Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: The Value of Sprouting

Mr. Rawles, In addition to seeds for a garden, anyone can produce fresh healthy and extremely nutritious sprouts on a kitchen counter with nothing more than a couple of plastic ice-cream containers. They can provide a real respite from canned veggies while you’re waiting for the crops to mature and year-round fresh greens. I sprout the common mung beans (think Chinese cooking) but I also do lentils, various peas and beans and (if I could get it) I would do alfalfa and clover. You can also make a respectable salad in your kitchen with a tray of mesclun seeds, grown …


Letter Re: Learning Beekeeping is Worthwhile for Self-Sufficiency

Hi Jim – I am a beekeeper and would recommend your readers look into the option of keeping bees. Honey bees produce food that stores without excessive processing (it has two things to fight spoilage, a natural antibiotic and the sugar concentration is so high it won’t support bacterial growth). I use the conventional Langstroth bee boxes but a person desiring to use the bees for home or farm could benefit by using the inexpensive top bar hive method. The top bar hive produces comb honey and the wax makes great candles. Top bar hives are not migratory in nature …


Letter Re: Some Preparedness Lessons Learned

James, The need for usable skills in tough times, goes without need for embellishment. The grand question is: which skills are the most valuable? In any situation the basic needs are obvious – food, shelter, and clothing. Choosing what I would concentrate on learning, became predicated on what I could do, and what the community could provide in stressful times. I moved some time ago from the gulf coast to Tennessee to retire and begin preparing for the coming events. I moved into a community which is pretty much self sufficient, mostly by religious choice. Livestock husbandry ranges from cattle …


Did the American Indians Have it Right?, by MMJ

In these trying times when civilizations are at the brink of disaster and many people are already in personal collapse, we should look back through history to find out how to salvage what we have and how to survive what is to come. [Minor rant snipped.] It seems that economic collapse is imminent and that at some point in the near future it is going to be every man for himself. As we watch countries collapse, global economies fail and people across the world starve and die, I ask myself has any culture or civilization in history gotten it right? …


Making the Transition to Country Life, by Bois d’Arc

Many readers of Survival Blog are either in the process of moving to a lightly populated area or actively planning to bugout to such an area when the balloon goes up. Twenty years ago I moved from the edge of a large city to a fairly remote property, and have been quietly setting up the doomstead and perfecting skills ever since. In the process, I became part of the fabric of country life here and have learned some valuable lessons which may benefit the rookie country dweller. Most full-time country residents are descendents of frontiersmen who ventured into the wilderness …


Product Review: Shelf Reliance Cansolidator – Addendum, by Michael Z. Williamson

After my successful test of ShelfReliance’s Cansolidator, I acquired their full-size Harvest system that holds up to 600 cans. The Harvest comes in two cartons, a tall heavy one with the metal structure, and a big, double-walled carton with the can racks. The instructions are included, and quite straightforward. One or two pictures weren’t as clear as they could be, but a look at the components straightened everything out. While I was able to put the system together myself, I’d recommend have a second person to assist. It’s not particularly complicated, just large. The steel frame slots together with keyhole …


Letter Re: Christianity and Self-Defense

Mr. Rawles, First of all, thank for providing the incredible resource of Survivalblog. I have only been a reader for a few months, but it has been an eye-opening experience. I was raised in a conservative, Christian home and my father was only a “casual” gun owner. At first, when reading the opinions on your blog, I was skeptical about owning firearms. I had never owned a gun in my life and only shot one a couple times. In actuality, I had never really thought too much about guns. However, after reading your reconciliation of Christianity and self-defense and my …


Perspectives on Prepping on a Very Low Income, by Kuraly

I was raised in a missionary family, on nine different mission fields around the world. At the age of nineteen, I went out to serve the Lord on my own in the former Soviet Union. I had no formal Theological training, but was accepted by the missionary societies of my denomination because of my experience under my father and my willingness to go to dangerous areas. I married, and my wife and I have now six children. A few years ago, due to some changes in my theology, I fell out of favor with my denomination and had to return …


Letter Re: Gaining Situational Awareness and Old-Time Knowledge

Jim, Situational Awareness has a number of definitions, from the rather complex to the “simple”. They include: The process of recognizing a threat at an early stage and taking measures to avoid it. (Being observant of one’s surroundings and dangerous situations is more an attitude or mindset than it is a hard skill.) The ability to maintain a constant, clear mental picture of relevant information and the tactical situation including friendly and threat situations as well as terrain. Knowing what is going on so you can figure out what to do. What you need to know not to be surprised. …


Letter Re: Getting the Right Training and Preparing Methodically

Dear Mr. Rawles, I wanted to thank you for what you are doing and your work. I think that the reality is that you are saving a lot of people’s lives in addition to helping people to continue to be “in” the world but less and less “of” the world. I have been able, in turn, to pass along to other people a lot of things that I have learned from you and your readers, and I hope help them to focus and remain calm in their preparations. (I have also pointed them all to your web site). Now three …


Letter Re: Denominating in Time Versus Dollars

James, Today I picked up 200 pounds of pearled barley from my local health food store that had ordered it for me. As I loaded it into my living room so I could mylar seal it, I flashed on what it would have represented in terms of time (man hours) in an earlier age. To get that 200 pounds of barley, I would have had to: 1) Have land 2) Have seed 3) Till, irrigate and plant the land 4) Protect the crop from birds and thieves 5) Harvest, thresh and transport the grain The number of man hours required …


Two Letters Re: Alaska as a Retreat Locale

Jim, For starters I would like to say that Jim you are dead-on with your Delta Junction recommendation. I live near Delta. And it is some of the finest farm land in the world. everything grows amazing here. Some of the information in the previous letters is wrong and I would like to clarify them . The growing season may be a little shorter in days of light, but in total hours of light it is much longer than other places. It gets light here in May and gets dark at night again in late August. Some vegetables will grow …


Letter Re: Canned Food Storage Rack Alternatives

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Hello Mr. Rawles, There’s a better product than the Cansolidator [that Michael Z. Williamson reviewed], but very few people know about it. It’s made by a local company in Idaho Falls, Idaho. I use to live near there, and visited their store several times. The store is Pharaoh’s Storehouse. The reasons that the Pharaoh’s Storehouse products are better than Cansolidators: Made of metal, not plastic! No wasted airspace between the cans, like Cansolidator, so you can store a lot more food in a very small space. Made in America [JWR Adds: But FYI, so is the Cansolidator] Their wall units …


Product Review: Shelf Reliance Cansolidator, by Michael Z. Williamson

The following are my experiences with a product called a Cansolidator. My order for two Cansolidators was filled very promptly, and they arrived within the week. These racks are a common concept for people storing canned goods in bulk. This is a first in, first out (FIFO) rack. New cans go in the top, old cans dispense out the bottom. The Cansolidator is modular, made of a very sturdy and flexible plastic, and the rails are numbered to make it easy to set consistent widths. Each unit contains four top and four bottom rails, and five vertical rails/spacers. You can …


Letter Re: Alaska as a Retreat Locale

Mr. Rawles, Although being an avid reader, this is the first time I have written your site. The letters posted on your site today respecting Alaska as a retreat locale raised a few possible issues in my mind. First of all, let me say that Alaska is my favorite place in the world, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. However, as a retreat locale, one may want to think twice unless the situation forces their location there. Also, it is important to remember that the conditions and terrain in Alaska are very wide ranging, depending where you are. …