Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: Potatoes as a Survival Garden Crop

Sir, It’s important to maintain a variety of root and grain crops for use as survival crops. Potatoes are easy to grow, easy to store and are nutritious enough to keep you healthy as a sole food (if you eat 2/3 of them raw). It is true potatoes have to be grown every year and that they are vulnerable to soil pathogens, but they can be grown under relatively low light, cool conditions, so why not take a small part of the harvest and raise them in a greenhouse through the winter with supplemental light. A half 55-gal. drum filled …


Letter Re: Potatoes as a Survival Garden Crop

Mr. Rawles: The problem with potatoes as a survival crop, is that they are susceptible to soil-borne diseases. Before toxic sprays, seed potatoes were grown at elevations above 800 feet, which does help. They also require a very good root cellar, in order to keep all the way through the winter, until the next planting season. Seed potatoes cannot be stored for years like grains. One [year of] crop failure, and you are done. It helps to swap all your potatoes saved for seed with another gardener, some distance from you. Look for someone with a different type of soil, …


Two Letters Re: Potatoes as a Survival Garden Crop

Morning, Jim! Just a quick addition for your readers to your recent note about potatoes gaining in popularity: most of their useful nutritional value is in their skin and outermost fractions of inches. I believe this is true of most root vegetables. Peeling these vegetables just renders them as a wad of starch or carbohydrate – much less useful for your body than the good Lord intended them to be. All they really need (especially if grown in a home garden where you know what went into the soil) is a quick rinse and a light scrub. Ideally your order …


Letter from David in Israel Re: Stocking Up on Matzoh

James I would first like to wish the Jewish readers of SurvivalBlog a happy and kosher passover. And after that I also want to remind everyone that Saturday night is the start of Passover. Why is this important? It means that even in many small towns big packages of matzoh will be available often at a closeout price after the seder night. Matzoh (an unleavened flour cracker) is a good ready to eat food that lasts for several years in the sealed box. If you wonder what good wheat flour crackers are just look online for the recipes we have …


Safe Food Handling, by B.H. in Western Washington

Safe food handling is critical for a healthy life in both good and bad times. As a former restaurant manager, I can tell you food safety or customer safety was priority number one. It’s hard to make money when you’ve killed your customers, which is the alternative to safe food handling. Death or severe illness is the unforgiving consequence to food borne illness. Food borne illnesses doesn’t just happen in restaurants it happens everywhere food is handled and prepared whether it’s during decadent affluence or full scale TEOTWAWKI. Please don’t confuse food poisoning with food borne illnesses. Chemicals, bacteria, or …


The Precepts of My Survivalist Philosophy

In the past week I’ve had three newcomers to SurvivalBlog.com write and ask me to summarize my world view. One of them asked: “I could spend days looking through [the] archives of your [many months of] blog posts. But there are hundreds of them. Can you tell me where you stand, in just a page? What distinguishes the “Rawlesian” philosophy from other [schools of] survivalist thought?” I’ll likely add a few items to this list as time goes on, but here is a general summary of my precepts: Modern Society is Increasingly Complex, Interdependent, and Fragile. With each passing year, …


Letter Re: Food Riots in Haiti

Mr. Rawles, The BBC and several other news outlets are reporting Food Riots in Haiti, where food scarcity and price increases have resulted in violence. Reports say mobs are looting shops, burning cars, blocking roads, and shooting at UN Peacekeepers. It is also reported one man was shot to death by UN Peacekeepers. The rioters are responding to food prices increasing some 50% over the past year. Apparently the United States and France will be sending more money to assist in subsidizing food prices. There’s plenty of information about this showing online. Here are a couple of links, one from …


Time For Retreat Logistics Stage Two–The Soft Items

If you are a regular SurvivalBlog reader, the odds are that you already have the majority of your key logistics squared away, like food storage, tools, guns, communications gear. So now it is time to stock up on “soft” and perishable items. These include over the counter medications, vitamins, chemical light sticks, matches, paper products, cleansers, spices, liquid fuels, and so forth. You need to exercise caution when stockpiling soft items, for several reasons: 1.) Shelf Life and Deterioration. Some items like pharmaceuticals, batteries, and chemical light sticks are best stored in a refrigerator. Keep in mind that items like …


Letter Re: Homemade Alcohol Stoves

James, A few years ago I was interested in methanol since it worked well in fuel cells to generate electricity without combustion. Alas, I found that methanol [“wood alcohol”] is very toxic. Anyone in a burning methanol [extensively in a confined space] would shortly after feel “drunk” then [might eventually] die from methanol poisoning. Additionally, methanol you spill on your hands enters your bloodstream and damages your liver (permanently), any you inhale does likewise, and any that hits the ground will poison the soil and groundwater. Its bad stuff, not something you want to have around unless you really have …


Economic Climate Change: The Long Winter May Begin This Summer

I’ve had several consulting clients contact me in recent weeks, all with notes of fear in their voices. They realize that something is horribly wrong with the economy, but they cannot properly isolate and articulate the problem. I haven’t been able to calm them, however, because to an extent I share their anxiety. In my estimation, the “something wrong” that we sense is nothing short of a monumental shift in the economic climate. America is clearly headed for a recession. Most economic recessions are simply a product of the business cycle. These recessions are relatively mild and they often last …


Two Letters Re: Homemade Alcohol Stoves

Mr. Rawles, The recent article on alcohol stoves made me think of these ultra-lightweight, portable alcohol stoves made out of soda cans, See this Wikipedia article. I have successfully built the original Pepsi-can version using epoxy glue, as well as the Heineken-can “penny” version. I have not tested them “in the field” but both work very well indoors, and they have impressive performance, boiling 2 cups of water in 5 minutes using only 2 tablespoons of alcohol. Those who have actually used them outdoors say they outperform other small stoves even in the most extreme of conditions. Even for indoor …


The Homemade Alcohol Stove and The Wonder Box, by LeAnne

In any situation, small electricity outage, or large-scale grid-down disaster, a simple homemade alcohol stove and a Wonder Box slow cooker can simplify your life and add the comfort of cooking and warmth. Why alcohol? Alcohol is the one fuel that can be burned indoors without any chimney or any objectionable fumes. The only byproduct is water. [JWR Adds: Keep in mind that for safety, even with an alcohol stove, some ventilation is needed, sine the combustion will consume available oxygen.] Isopropyl alcohol (70%) is cheap. A couple of quarts can be purchased for about $3.00 at Costco or Sam’s …


Letter Re: Advice on Long Term Ammunition Storage Techniques

Mr. Rawles: You recently wrote: “Oxygen absorbing packets would have no efficacy for ammunition storage. (These are designed just for killing insect larvae in storage foods).” Sorry, Jim, but that’s not quite correct. Oxygen absorbing packets come in a variety of sizes and do their job very well. Their job? Absorbing oxygen. They are placed in packets of food such as jerky to reduce amount of oxygen which degrades the flavor of the food. That they also make life more difficult for bugs is a side-effect. The ability to absorb nearly all the free oxygen in an enclosed space makes …


My Seven Favorite North American Edible Wild Plants, by Paul C.

In light of the impending economic and social crisis, a knowledge of edible wild plants is essential. I have included a list of seven easily recognized plants in this discussion, but keep in mind there are hundreds of edible species. These seven are common throughout much of North America. When foraging, one must remember that if you need a field guide to identify a plant, you are not ready to eat that plant. However, field guides with color photographs are necessary for anyone interested in this activity. In my opinion, the best field guide on the market today is The …


Letter Re: “Ark” Storage Food Buckets as Sam’s Club (and formerly at COSTCO)

Jim, I think I made a great purchase today. A division of “Inn on the Creek Foods” makes a six 1?2 gallon plastic bucket of instant food. The bucket is called an “ARK” and can be purchased at www.getyourark.com for $119 + $25 shipping and handling. Each bucket has 90 meals inside in 285 individually sealed pouches. The shelf life for this kit is listed as 15 years, and the buckets have a “Store until 2022” label on them. I saw on their web site that Sam’s Club was a sole source distributor of them if you didn’t want to …