Category: Food Storage & Cooking

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 …


Letter Re: Warning on Insect Pests Getting Into Storage Food

Dear Jim, I thought that due to the recent influx of newbies on your site, I would send this warning to not do as I did. Last year, I lost a lot of my stored food as I left it in the original packets in which it was shipped. I ended up with a major infestation of cupboard beetles, losing food and having to steam clean my cupboards. The bad news is thee bugs reproduce unbelievably quickly. The good news is the die just as quickly, and won’t harm you if you eat them, but they sure are unsightly. It’s …


Letter Re: The Least Expensive Way to Stock Up on Storage Food?

Sir, In regards to TJD, “Somewhere in Kansas” lamenting that he is in the middle of nowhere and can’t easily stock up on food, I must say I find his worries a bit hard to understand. In the Bible, Joseph stored up seven years of harvests to prepare for seven years of famine. Those stores were made up of grain crops. That is how Egypt made it through a great famine and gained great wealth by selling their grain at high rates to nations that did not prepare. Being from North Dakota, I know that the title for greatest wheat …


Letter Re: The Least Expensive Way to Stock Up on Storage Food?

Mr Editor, I’m a newcomer to your site. Last week, I followed a link from a news story that mentioned SurvivalBlog, and instantly found my favorite blog. I’ve been burning the midnight oil for the last few nights, going back through your archives. What amazing stuff! Thank you for sharing so much wisdom on preparedness and for so unselfishly putting out there free for the taking. (Oh, yeah, I should also say that you can count me in on a [voluntary] 10 Cent Challenge [subscription].Three bucks a month is a total bargain, in relation to what I’ve already gotten out …


Letter Re: Anti-Hoarding Law of World War I as a Precedent for Future Laws?

Hello, Thanks for all the helpful information in SurvivalBlog. Regarding the reader who wrote in about the prospect of food hoarding laws; there have indeed been times where private U.S. citizens were forced to give up “unreasonable” stores of provisions, thus setting a possible precedent. For example: In 1918, Herbert Hoover (who would later be a US president), then working as head of the Food Administration, saw to it that a retired Navy doctor and his wife were charged for having about a year’s worth of foodstuffs in their home. (The law stated that more than thirty day supply was …


Three Letters Re: Family Food Security for a Recession or Depression

Sir, I have been checking a few other sites this morning that I frequent, and while at the Viking Preparedness Forum, I was checking the food and water storage board and came across these canned food shelves. It is a good set of shelves, making the best use of space, and allowing them automatic stock rotation. We live in a house with a monolithic slab foundation, and the footprint, does not give us a great deal of room to work with, but I think that we can do something similar ourselves. I liked the way that they were set against …


Letter Re: Salt and Other Key Items to Store for Barte

James- I have a tip for my fellow SurvivalBlog readers on salt. Most anyone with a well will probably have a water softener, and as such will know that salt comes in large 20-50 pound bags. We get it for our softener for about $5.00 per 50 lb. bag. Be sure to check the label, and make sure that it is pure sodium chloride, (table salt). Others are Potassium Chloride, the “other” table salt. Watch out for the ones that have additives, of course. Being “rock salt” it’s got large crystals, but you can easily crush or grind it. It’s …


Letter Re: Salt and Other Key Items to Store for Barter

Mr. Rawles: I recently stocked the salt supply to the point that I have barter material, purchasing salt for under a penny an ounce. That is a pretty good investment, if you ask me. I purchased four 25 lb. bags @ $3.99 each. Salt is going for between two and three cents an ounce in the supermarkets, but a local restaurant supplier had the bags on the bottom shelf. I will get more the next time I am there. And while I was on the salt kick, I got my first salt block for my supply, and also picked up …


Letter Re: Advice on Concealing Storage Food

Hi Jim, I’ve researched the net in vain trying to find a solution to this problem, which I suspect I share with a great many people now prepping. I’m hoping you can help. The challenge: Where to hide my food stores? My situation: I live 10 miles from a city of 80,000 in a residential neighborhood. I live at the foot of a small mountain—the area behind my house is woods. I don’t own all of this wooded property, but I’ve never seen the owner. I have significant stores of canned goods, dried oats and beans, flour, sugar, etc. I …


Letter Re: 11th Hour Preparations: It is Not Too Late to Start

Jim: It is not too late to prepare for the hard times that are coming. But time is short, so I am going to be brutally blunt. Prices are going up. If you don’t already expect double digit inflation, you haven’t been paying attention. If you are just realizing that you need to prepare for the future, forget buying barter goods. Forget precious metals to swap for what others may be willing to sell. The idea of buying things so that you can swap them for other goods or services later is bad policy. That’s right. I’m advocating that you …


Letter Re: Suddenly Homeless on the Potomac–Some Preparedness Lessons Learned

Jim & Company, I thought that I would communicate an interesting story for your web blog. As I write this, I’m holed up in campground/RV park near the District of Columbia (DC) Metropolitan area. How I got here was totally unexpected. My roommate is female, a former army buddy and suffers from chronic depression—maybe bi polar disorder. We maintained a platonic cohabitation for two months until she swore a Temporary Peace Order against me because she felt “threatened”. In the liberal pest hole of Maryland, that’s all it takes. No battery, assault or actual threats—I just yelled at her to …


Letter Re: Hope and Preparedness–A Budget Prepper’s Observations

James, The sheeple‘s fear is now electric. You can feel it bristle on your skin whenever you are in a public space. It is on the lips and in the hearts of any news-watching human. What about our retirement fund? How will we afford our regular bills? How will we feed and clothe the kids? There is a little warm spot inside me. The part of me that feels confident in our preparations. Tucked in every nook of our tiny, modest house, an ATM, a grocery store, pharmacy, garden supply plus clothing, shoe, sporting goods stores and all around trading …


Letter Re: Advice on Storage Food–Quantities, Shelf Lives, and Sources

Mr. Rawles; I’m chagrined to say that I found your blog rather late in the game–just two weeks ago, when a friend at church mentioned it. (We had been talking about the banking panic.) Your blog was a real eye-opener. So now I’m just plain overwhelmed and definitely feeling “behind the power curve.” I have a lot of catching up to do. How can I get smart on preparedness in a great hurry, especially about [storing] food? Will food from the grocery supermarket do? Do I need special containers? One of those vacuum sealing things? What about mice? I’m a …