Category: Food Storage & Cooking

What Will You Do When Your Stored Food Runs Out?, by Woodsman

What Will You Do When Your Stored Food Runs Out?, by Woodsman Among the multitude of preparations conducted by would-be survivalists, gardening is often minimized in value compared to the physical purchases of beans, bullets, and band-aids. However, in any long-term TEOTWAWKI event, gardening would probably become nearly the sole means of subsistence for your family and as such, it is critical that you make the efforts now to learn the ins and outs of how to produce a year’s worth of fruit and vegetables from your own land. Prior to moving to our retreat, my family lived in a …


Letter Re: Advice for an Unprepared Greenhorn

Jim, I’d like to add one piece of advice to the “Greenhorn” reader who hasn’t gotten started, but knows he must. After getting the basics you listed, he should start on a food preparedness action plan to feed his family in a crisis. The blueprint for all that is in the great preparedness course you created. I know it’s not cheap, but the mistakes it helps you avoid will more than offset the cost, even for someone on a tight budget. And for that reader who wrote in to share his story, it’s free. Just send me his address, Jim, …


Letter Re: Advice for an Unprepared Greenhorn

Hello Mr. Rawles! I love your blog, and visit at least weekly, more often daily. The current economic situation is sickening. I mean, actually making my stomach hurt, as I am not prepared. I just recently was hit on the head with the motivation to get prepared. The only problem with that is that I don’t even know where to start. Food? Weapons and Ammunition? Medical supplies? I am the patriarch of a family of 4. My wife and I, and our two children, both 10 and under. What I could use your advice on is just what I mentioned …


Letter Re: Yoder’s Canned Bacon and Canned Meats?

Mr. Rawles; Thanks for the time and effort you put into SurvivalBlog.com. It is a truly valuable and unique resource. Working on my lists of supplies and equipment, I’m wondering about Yoder’s canned bacon and other canned meats, beef, chicken, turkey, pork, sausage, etc. They advertise [an up to] 10 year shelf life (depending on storage conditions of course) and the price isn’t unreasonable. Too heavy for much mobility but for home base they appear to me to be an attractive way to store some meat products without refrigeration. Any info or thoughts on this? Thanks, – Gatekeeper JWR Replies: …


Letter Re: Home Canning and Stocking Up

Dear Sir, I would like to thank you for your time and effort in providing a “one stop shop” for such a large volume of information. Principally due to your site, my family and I have begun to increase the size of our pantry with both purchased food/supplies and other materials as well as increase the amount of food we are home canning. One observation I have made in all our preparations is the amount of food (from local gardens, backyard fruit trees, farmyard orchards) that goes to waste in our area. It is amazing the amount of produce on …


Letter Re: My Hurricane Ike Experience

Dear Mr. Rawles, First of all, my heart goes out to all those who truly suffered with loss of life or property as a result of Hurricane Ike. I only had the minor inconvenience of being without electricity in Houston for five days. (There are still over one million in Houston and the surrounding area without power.) So I had a taste of what it is like to be off-grid and learned a few things to share with your readers. It seems a lot of people here had generators which burn lots of precious gasoline. But after a few days …


A Girl Scout Troop Leader Wants to Get Her Girls Prepared

We recently got an e-mail from a Girl Scout troop leader, describing how she wants to start a project making 72-hour “bug out” bags for the troop members. Her goal is to get her troop members better prepared, yet not tip-off their parents to her own level of preparedness. She wants to avoid making herself look like some sort of “preparedness nut” or “whacko”. The important thing to keep in mind is that terminology and phrasing are crucial to how people form opinions. Do not use terms such as “Bug Out Bag” or “Get Out of Dodge Kit” or “Survival …


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

Hello Jim, This note is in reference to the letter from Melanie and Rick in Columbus about the woman who never thought of using the grill to cook. I had a similar experience with my mother-in-law. While we had power and water, she had lost hers. I offered to bring buckets of water to her house so she could manually refill the toilet tank to flush with(she has septic). Not only did she not think of that, she couldn’t understand the concept. She ended up going to a hotel for a couple of days. People like this will not last …


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 …