Category: Food Storage & Cooking

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 …


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 …