Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: Tropical Storm Ike’s Devastation Works its Way North to Ohio

Good Morning, Jim, And yes it is a good morning at that. I’m here in the suburbs of Ohio between Dayton and Cincinnati. Our power has returned. I read Larry in Cincinnati’s post this morning, and I know his thoughts and feelings all too well. Like him, we had the preparedness mind set already in place, and fared a bit better than some of our neighbors. I only caught the tail end of your interview on AM 700 WLW in Cincinnati in my truck as I was heading to work ( the company I work for is on a different …


Dear Mr. Fuld: It’s The End of the World As We Know It

The recent news headlines about the investment banking crisis have answered the question that I often get from readers: “Why do you spend so much time talking about economics?” In my estimation, an economic crisis is the most likely trigger for a societal collapse, in the short term. The Lehman Brothers debacle is just a microcosmic preview of the global credit collapse. It is also a good illustration of the derivatives risk that I’ve been warning about for many years. How many times do I have to say this? The entire credit system is broken and it will be a …


Letter Re: A SurvivalBlog Reader Prepares for Hurricane Ike

Dear Mr. Editor: Just a quick note to tell you how people that read your blog are preparing for Ike. Thanks for all the great information. I live near Houston in the suburbs, about 60 miles north of Galveston. Most of the stores are open and have plenty of water, drinks, bread, tuna and other canned foods. The stores have done a much better job this time of keeping needed items in stock than they did when Katrina was headed this way a couple years ago. The gas is going fast, and many stations are closed. I filled both my …


Letter Re: National Geographic’s Cover Story on Soil and Food

JWR, Here’s a link to the September 2008 National Geographic cover story about the world’s fragile soils and their diminishing capacity to feed 6.5 billion+ people as well as cautionary examples of places where the soils can no longer support the existing population due to poor stewardship in the past. Pages 92-93 of the hardcopy edition have a great fold out map showing soil fertility areas around the world — a good retreats and relocation general shopping reference (although certainly not detailed enough for researching specific properties). My Best, – Lee in Hurricane Alley


Letter Re: Build it Yourself Farm and Homestead Equipment

Mr Rawles While looking for plans and ideas for a new outbuilding for my home. I found this little gem solid information buried deep in the Countyplans.com web site. It has probably has around 150 plans to build everything from a Turret Lathe and Mill to Cement Mixers and Tractor Scoop Loaders. This stuff is in PDF format, download able and free. The plans are reprints from old do it yourself magazines and are past copyright so there isn’t any legal issues with the downloads Now a lot of these equipment plans would not pass the government’s current nurf world …


Letter Re: Substantially Higher Food Prices at Warehouse Stores

Hi Jim, Yesterday I made my monthly or thereabouts pilgrimage to Costco to buy bulk items for our pantry and other needs. I immediately noticed that prices had gone up on just about everything. The 40 pound bags of Kirkland brand dog food (re-labeled Iams brand) had gone up from $19.90 to $23.64 which is about a 16% increase in price. The 25 pound bags of Indian long grain rice went for $20.00 to $24.00 – a 20% increase and other items here and there had gone up a dollar or two or three. While Costco continues to be a …


Letter Re: Observations on Empty Store Shelves in Louisiana

Mr. Rawles, I am an over the road truck driver and happen to be in Louisiana today. I have been to several stores in the southern part of the state and took note of what was in short supply. The shelves in the camping section were empty, they were out of water, generators, gas cans, coolers and frozen dinners. The frozen dinner thing I didn’t get, I figured they’d be short on canned or boxed food. Just stuff I noticed and thought I’d share. God Bless and I’ve been praying for your wife.- Vincent from Portland JWR Replies: Part of …


Letter Re: Hurricane Gustav–Learning From Mistakes

Jim, A friend first introduced me to your blog, and I have begun to seriously consider many of the suggestions made by you and others for preparedness. One of the biggest indicators of a person’s level of preparedness is an actual or potential disaster event My wife and I have lived in Northwestern Louisiana for a little over two years. On the eve of Hurricane Gustav, we realized how unprepared we were for lack of power, water, let alone social breakdown. I certainly didn’t expect a major disaster, and we didn’t have one, but it is better to be prepared …


Letter Re: Reusing Restaurant Food Ingredient Containers

Mr Rawles, I’ve been thinking a lot about storing food like grains in the olive containers that get thrown out at the restaurant where I’m currently working. There made of what I assume to be food grade plastic (olive storage) and looks like they store about 7-to-8 liters. The lid is made of two pieces and has a rubber seal. If I were to wash these off a bit do you think they would serve as long term food containers? Thanks, – Paul from Canada JWR Replies: Those containers should be fine, since they are doubtless made of food grade …



What Will We Eat as the Oil Runs Out? (Pt. 2) , by Richard Heinberg

Impact of Biofuels One factor influencing food prices arises from the increasing incentives for farmers worldwide to grow biofuel crops rather than food crops. Ethanol and biodiesel can be produced from a variety of crops including maize, soy, rapeseed, sunflower, cassava, sugar cane, palm, and jatropha. As the price of oil rises, many farmers are finding that they can produce more income from their efforts by growing these crops and selling them to a biofuels plant, than by growing food crops either for their local community or for export. Already nearly 20 percent of the US maize crop is devoted …


What Will We Eat as the Oil Runs Out? (Pt. 1), by Richard Heinberg

The first dilemma consists of the direct impacts on agriculture of higher oil prices: increased costs for tractor fuel, agricultural chemicals, and the transport of farm inputs and outputs. The second is an indirect consequence of high oil prices – the increased demand for biofuels, which is resulting in farmland being turned from food production to fuel production, thus making food more costly. The third dilemma consists of the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events caused by fuel-based greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is the greatest environmental crisis of our time; however, fossil fuel depletion complicates the situation …


Letter Re: Energy Bars as a Storage Food

James; This might interest your readers. I am considering buying compact, high-calorie emergency food bars for long term storage of food. I know they are not “real” [nutritionally complete] food but they easily moved and taken along, they have a great storage life and taste pretty good. The problem is that no pizzas and no cereal might make for a dull year, but having some of these on hand might be good. I was wondering if the ‘food bars’ are a good storage product. I would not stop storing real food, but would rely on the ‘bars’ for [short term] …


Letter Re: Ramen Noodles as a Food Storage Supplement

Mr. Rawles, First off, thanks for your fine web site! I was proud to become a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber. For those looking to increase their food storage supply in a cost-effective manner, I would recommend stopping by Wal-Mart and picking up their 12-pack containers of Ramen noodles (in various flavors). They’re currently $1.73 per package, which comes out to just 14.5 cents per single pack. Nutritionally, a single pack of Ramen noodles contains: 380 calories 14 grams of fat 52 grams of carbohydrates 2 grams of fiber 10 grams of protein and 16% of your daily requirement of iron …


Letter Re: Questions on Root Cellaring

Hi Jim, I don’t recall reading a specific article about root cellaring, specifically long term storage of vegetables. Is there a point and time when potatoes go to sprout that you can no longer safely eat them? What about the best overall temp to store in and yes or no to burlap bags? What about other veggies? Another tidbit was on Fox and Friends house call portion of the show they talked with an expert and outlined the extreme benefits of eating broccoli and broccoli sprouts with their extreme cancer killing properties and the vitamins in the vegetable. On a …