Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: Do-It-Yourself Meat Canning

Dear Jim, Here is some info that other like-minded survivalists might find useful. There was a recent article on television about beef and chicken being priced very reasonable due to the fact that the market is being flooded by farmers trying to unload their product before it costs them more to feed and ship than they can sell it for. I checked it out and yep they were right. Sam’s Club has boneless, skinless chicken breast and beef tip roast for less than 3 dollars a pound. I paid that same price for it a year ago. Anyway, considering this, …


Letter Re: Long Term Storage Food Vendors are Now Painfully Short on Inventory

Hi Jim, I would be interested in you analysis of this: Nitro-Pak, is not even accepting orders for #10 cans of food. Emergency Essentials, (www.BePrepared.com) is out of over half of their #10 can selection. Notice that [presently] you cannot order even wheat in cans or pails. Is this happening throughout the food storage industry? What is up with all this? – Paul D JWR Replies: The storage food industry is relatively small and simply doesn’t have the capacity to handle orders from more than 1% or 2% of the population. Because of the recent headlines about global food shortages …


Letter Re: Household Food Costs Escalating in England

Jim, It is not just USA that may is seeing food and fuel prices increase, here on the other side of the pond in the UK we are see the same. Problem here is that out government are trying to persuade us that inflation is low. Due to keep moving the goal posts and accounting methods. There is now a worldwide crisis over supplies of key crops such as corn, wheat and rice that has triggered food riots in some countries. In the UK it has brought the biggest rises in bills in a generation. A family which spent £100 …


Wars, and Rumors of War

I got a hoax press release on Friday about Chile declaring war on Peru. But meanwhile, there are lots of real wars gong on. Fierce fighting has broken out in Lebanon. And to top it off, crude oil spiked to an all-time high of $126 per barrel, in part because of tensions between Venezuela and Columbia. In the midst of all this war news, the ongoing global grain shortage crisis is likely to cause additional civil wars, and possibly cross-border wars. It is all too clear that we are living in very dangerous times. Let’s call them fragile times. In …


Is Survivalism Just “Unbounded Imagination of Anxiety”?

It never fails that when the mainstream media writes about survivalists, they try to lump us together with racists and tin foil hat whackos. Failing that (since the whackos represent such a miniscule fraction of “survivalists”), they will often trot out a psychologist or other “expert”, to try to convince the general public that preparedness is irrational and that it is evidence of some deep-seated paranoid delusion. This was the case in the recent BBC news article titled: “Do you need to stock up the bunker?”. The article focused on Barton Biggs, who is a well-known and relatively mainstream hedge …


Christianity and Physical Preparedness

I occasionally get e-mails from SurvivalBlog readers, asking about how I can justify active preparedness in light of my Christian faith. Some cite the “Lilies of the Field” passage in Matthew 6:25-34: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more …


Two Letters Re: Cooking Aromas and Post-Collapse OPSEC

James: On the subject of limiting cooking aromas, there is a cooking technique that has been catching on lately in this country. Sous Vide cooking, which means “Under Water”, started in France by using food placed in vacuum sealed bags and then placing them in hot water (160-to-185 degrees Fahrenheit) for a long period of time. Here’s a link describing the method: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide Many recipes can be found on sites such as the one offered by Food Network, or type “Sous Vide Recipes” in the search engine of your preference. This method is used in large food operations, such as …


Letter Re: Turning Your Trinkets Into Storage Food

Dear Mr. Rawles, As I was divesting of the useless flotsam one sees as a hindrance to true preparedness, I was inspired to list my trinkets on eBay. (Now, for all those who have a hatred for eBay [because of their anti-gun policies] , this is a separate issue.) I also have a PayPal account. That is another stumbling block to some. But for those of us who are still making the transition to becoming prepared citizens (from their former place in the herd of sheeple), this may be a very viable opportunity. Please hear me out! So, you sell …


Letter Re: Coping with Changes in Diet when Using Storage Foods

If and when you find yourself tapping into your survival food, consider that the change in diet may have some unexpected effects. As an example, I recently increased my protein intake, then noticed a pain in my foot. I thought at first it was just an injury from training (jumping out of a moving car is a little tricky). Later I realized it might be gout. Four gallons of cherry juice later it’s gone and it set me to thinking, how might my food cache effect me. I think the main concerns with stored food would be as follows: Food …


Letter Re: Do It Yourself Coffee Roasting

After reading some information in SurvivalBlog about roasting green coffee beans I thought I could offer some useful info on the subject, since I’ve been a coffee supplier and roaster for about 10 years. Let’s assume the grid is down—how does one roast coffee? You can do it over an open flame such as a propane burner, or campfire. In the days of cattle drives the cook would roast in a cast iron pot just stirring the beans constantly. If you do that then a peaberry type coffee bean works best because they are more round, and my research tells …


Letter Re: Cooking Aromas and Post-Collapse OPSEC

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Greetings All, SurvivalBlog has, and is, providing great practical information as well a thoughts on just about every aspect overcoming adversity and disastrous conditions. This brain trust provides information on retaining as much privacy as possible in this era of electronic monitoring of everything we purchase, and how to camouflage just about every type of inanimate object. I have noticed one issue that hasn’t been addressed. (Don’t faint!). During a long term situation in particular this one issue can impact any family or group’s safety. So here is the question. How can we best ‘camouflage’ or limit the smell of …


Three Letters Re: What Determines if a Storage Bucket is Food Grade?

Greetings Jim, I have found the folks at the bakery counter at [supermarkets such as] Safeway are willing to give me food grade buckets for free or maybe $1 each. They get frosting five gallons at a time. Once you read the label on that stuff you may never eat store bought cake again! – DAP in Missouri   Jim: I wanted to share the best priced source I have found for Food Grade Buckets. Other than getting them free from food vendors, I haven’t found a price better than $3.99 for five gallon food grade buckets. Lids are $1.09. …


Letter Re: What Determines if a Storage Bucket is Food Grade?

Mr. Rawles, I recently purchased some five gallon buckets at Wal-Mart that I thought would be considered food-grade. I’m afraid these are probably the paint buckets you recently warned against, but I read elsewhere on the web that if there was a “2” inside of the recycle-symbol on the bottom of the bucket, the bucket would be considered food-grade. If these are unsuitable, do you mind going into a little more detail as to why? Thanks, – Ben J. JWR Replies: The number 2 (with the number inside the “chasing arrows” symbol) refers to HDPE, but not all “2” marked …


Letter Re: Food Shortages at COSTCO and Sam’s Club Stores

James, I visited COSTCO store in Woodinville, Washington Saturday morning, right at the store’s opening time. I had my doubts about the reality of the shortages, and needed to shop, anyway, so I thought I’d check it out for myself. They had eight big warehouse guys escorting two pallets of rice out to the showroom floor just about the time I arrived. Six of the eight then stayed with the rice, handing it out to customers as needed. Both pallets were completely sold out by the time I left the store about 45 minutes later. I talked with two of …


Two Letters Re: Food Shortages at COSTCO and Sam’s Club Stores

Sir, Yesterday I went to COSTCO to check out the rice situation (and grab a cheap lunch). Today, a friend said he wanted to go, so being that he doesn’t have a [membership] card I went with him. Not only was all the rice gone except for a few very small bags of some long grain nasty stuff, but where there had been pallets of rice 24 hours earlier, now there was other items (macaroni and cheese and something else). I overheard about a dozen people complaining about the rice situation, and all of them just wanted “a few bags …