Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: Food Storage Versus Expecting Manna Falling from Heaven

Greetings! In response to Heather M., I think your Old Testament examples are excellent, but there are numerous New Testament examples as well, with the best being St. Paul’s admonition in II Thessalonians 3: 6-15 “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the …


Letter Re: Food Items in Non-Food Grade Buckets?

Hi Jim, I’m an avid reader of your blog but I have a question: Can I store vacuum sealed wheat in regular buckets (not food grade)? I like the idea of having 10 lb bags of vacuum sealed wheat for simplicity in retrieving when needed and for distributing as charity if needed. I realize it wastes space in each bucket (being in a vacuum sealed block) – but my question is whether it’s safe to use the less expensive buckets or will potential out-gassing eat the vacuum sealed bags? Your books (I have all of them) are very helpful to …


Getting Your Loved Ones on Board with Preparedness

Roughly 10% of the e-mails that I receive from SurvivalBlog readers come from people that mention they have a relative that refuses to get prepared. This is usually because they refuse to believe that anything could ever go wrong beyond a localized and short-term natural disaster. (“Order and commerce will certainly be restored within a week!”) This is what I call the Pollyanna syndrome. How someone could have witnessed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina so well-documented on television, yet still maintain a “Polly” attitude astounds me. Convincing Pollys to to get prepared can be frustrating, especially when they stop listening …


Letter Re: SurvivalBlog is a Money Saver

Mr Rawles: For some time I was a lurker, reading SurvivalBlog on a more or less regular basis. Eventually I decided I needed to pay for what I was getting. I became a Ten Cent Challenge subscriber. Yesterday, you saved me more than the cost of my subscription with just one tip: I ordered a Foodsaver V2830 and paid just $59.99, postage paid. These originally sold for $169.99. I had wanted one for a long time and put off purchasing it because of the expense. Many thanks! And to the rest of the lurkers out there, it’s time to pay …


Letter Re: Grab-and-Go Soup Mix for Bug-Out Bags

Hello Jim, First let me say how much I appreciate your site and how much I’ve learned from it. I visit it usually a couple times a day as I’m trying to fill in gaps in my preparedness plan. I thought I’d share a few tips. Over the past couple years, I’ve bought about a dozen Nesco American Harvester food dehydrators and have set up an assembly line to dehydrate several cases of fruits, vegetables and meats every week. In the off-season when fresh produce is relatively expensive, I switch gears and buy cases of canned vegetables and proceed to …


Letter Re: Food Storage Versus Expecting Manna Falling from Heaven

Dear Sir, Thank you so much for your insightful and educational blog. I highly respect your opinion and I am e-mailing you today to ask for your advice. My husband and I are both conservative Christians who are totally committed to being prepared. Our problem is that we have encountered other conservative Christians who believe that manna will literally fall from Heaven if famine comes upon the land. I was personally told by my former pastor that I was “stupid” for storing food and owning guns. He also told me that by being prepared I was demonstrating a “lack of …


Mini Dairy Goats for a Sustainable Future, by Donna G.

Goats are one of the most versatile animals of all livestock. With hard times poised on the horizon, they’ll greatly improve your quality of life. They provide us with milk, meat, leather, weed/undergrowth clearing, environmentally friendly to the earth, non-toxic garden fertilizer, horse companionship, 4H or FFA projects and as pack animals to carry their own “Bug Out Bags”. My husband and I have been breeding and raising goats for over fifteen years. This article is presented as basic information for anyone thinking about adding these wonderful animals into their lives. What is a Mini? There are two recognized breeds …


Letter Re: Should We Currently Emphasize Storage Food or Gun Purchases?

Hello Jim, I’ve finished reading your fine novel “Patriots” several weeks ago, and have passed it on to another like-minded individual. I’ve also been scouring your web site daily for the last several months, and gleaning extremely valuable information not only from you, but the many fine individuals who add excellent links to current events. I have forwarded your link to others, and have it saved as “required reading” daily. A brief background on our family; I had been one of the Y2K aficionados, and had lived on the Big Island for many years. If it were still just my …


Letter Re: Hunt Packs Available at Cabela’s

James, I often read your blog and have read your novel , “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”, (and have given it as a gift to several folks!) I just wanted to let you and your other readers know about something I found at Cabela’s recently: 3-day and 10-day ‘Hunt’ Packs. These nifty boxes contain a mix of energy bars, gels, drinks, etc. designed for use by ‘Wilderness Athletes’. Aside from the humorous effect of the name, these are quite handy and can be ordered from Cabela’s on-line web store and may provide survival minded people an excellent option for Bug …


Letter Re: Some Changes in American Wholesale Food Distribution

Hi James You’ll recall hat I wrote to you a while back, forewarning of increasing prices for canned tuna, as I am in the import food business. I read Buckskin’s message with interest, as I sell to food distributors, of the type that he is referring to. What many of your readers may or may not know, is that a huge amount of our food products are imported. I don’t have exact figures on it, but there are certain categories of food products that are almost exclusively imported, as they either cannot be produced here at all or cannot be …


Letter Re: A Suggested Checklist for Preparedness Newbies

Here’s a beginner’s list I made for my [elderly] father today: Food {Brown pearl] rice does not store well. Neither does cooking oil so that needs to be fresh. No, Crisco doesn’t count. Coconut oil would be your best bet. Wheat berries – 400 pounds – bulk order at your local health food store Beans – 400 pounds – bulk order at your local health food store Mylar bags Spices Salt Country Living grain mill propane tanks, small stove and hoses to connect freeze dried fruits, vegetables, eggs and meat if you can find them. Water 500 gallons of water …


Letter Re: Some Changes in American Wholesale Food Distribution

James, I have a good friend who is an executive in the "food distribution business". They supply restaurants, schools, hospitals, day care centers, nursing homes,,,,,the large quantity food purchasers. This past week at their annual sales meeting, they were informed of coming changes. #1–Most food has been delivered in #10 [96-ounce] or one gallon size cans. [The rolled steel for] most of these cans[is] made in China and the cost has increased dramatically in the past several months because of rising steel prices. Effective December 1, the price on an individual empty #10 can is increasing by about 75 cents …


On War, Gardening, and Cooking for Bad Times, by Elizabeth B.

Wars are forever. The memories seem to never end for families. They are passed on from generation to generation.The Civil War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Iraq. What remains is not even so much who won or lost, but rather the memories of war center on beloved family members that died and the foods of these times… I’m only in my 50s, yet our family oral traditions date back earlier than 1860, but that is where I will start. My great-grandfather’s two brothers marched off to fight in one of the major Civil War battles that no one …


Two Letters Re: Adapt to Survive, by Elizabeth B.

Mr. Rawles, I can understand Mrs. B’s reasoning from a long term standpoint. But, what I believe she is missing is that most of what is trying to be conveyed to people on this site is to stock up on articles such as food stuffs, hygiene supplies, bartering goods and such for the period of time that will exist from the point that the realization of a SHTF time and the time when all the skills and knowledge will be needed to sustain life. For an example, lets say that it’s October or November and everything has just fallen apart. …


Adapt to Survive, by Elizabeth B.

You are incredibly mistaken if you think you can store up enough to see you through bad times. You are wrong, dead wrong. When I say store up, I’m talking, food, provisions, tools, barter equipment, and whatever. The key to survival will be adaptation, just like in nature. Those who survive will be those who can readily adapt to a changing environment. I know many of you are sitting on little mountains of barrels, cans, packages and feel like you have an edge. Simply put, you will not be able to squirrel away enough. What happens when the stash runs …