Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Letter Re: Living Off The Land

Mr. Rawles, My Survival Group was having a discussion the other night, and we got to talking about “What if / Worst case” stuff. One of the situations involved the old “Lost in the wilderness with nothing but your knife and your lighter”. (you do carry a pocket knife and a lighter with you, right?) That got us to thinking…what would you eat? Most of us tended to think of ways to snare small game, but then we got to talking about wild plants. Before long, it became clear that not only is foraging for wild plant potentially more efficient …


Letter Re: Nutritional Supplements and Preparedness

Jim, There is one thing that I think that would be very helpful to also stock up for WTSHTF, that would be supplements there are several out there and other products just for general health like protein powers / Met rex formulas and so on. I have some experience with these things from the Army – to helping my father fight cancer. Most of these added to a meal would help your body with many things like extra calories, to repairing muscle, blood pressure, vision, heart, to just good general heath. I really do not know of a shelf life …


Letter Re: Wheat Price Inflation and The Importance of Buying in Bulk Locally

Hi Jim: Last year I bought some wheat from Walton Feed: about $8 for a 50 lb. bag. Called then yesterday: $15.50 for the same 50 lb. bag: But inflation is running at only 4% right? Luckily I found an organic grower of wheat an hour away who will sell for $800/ton and avoid the $500+ shipping fee. Not many wheat growers in Massachusetts. It pays to shop locally. – John


Letter Re: Calculating Bulk Storage Food Quantities

Shalom Jim: I was visiting Geri Guidetti’s Ark Institute web site and she has posted on there that for just one adult male the following is the minimum food storage requirements for one year: 1.) 350 lbs. of wheat (actually for a family of four it is close to 1,200 pounds of wheat alone) 2.) 155 lbs. of various grains 3.) 55 lbs. of beans, etc. My question for you is do you agree with these numbers? And are you storing quantities like this or do you use a different system? I am getting ready to make some large purchases …


Letter Re: Rolled Oats Versus Steel Cut Oats for Storage

Dear Sir, I love your blog and read it every day. I have a background in chemistry. I believe that the fat content, per unit weight, of rolled oats is essentially the same as cut oats. What is different is the density. I agree with the point that the cut oats store more densely. More importantly, the access of oxygen to the oil/fat is faster in the (thinner) rolled grains relative to cut, and faster in cut oats relative to whole oats. I would bet that the rolled oats will go rancid faster in a warm climate. Other than that, …


Two Letters Re: Rolled Oats Versus Steel Cut Oats for Storage

Mr. Rawles; Regarding the steel cut versus rolled oats discussion, I too love the taste of steel cut oats. The easy, low energy way to prepare them is on the McCann’s steel Cut Irish Oatmeal (box, not the can). It is: Boil 4 cups of water. Add 1 cup oatmeal. Stir, cover and leave overnight. The next morning cook over low 9-12 minutes. This is very easy. Using a microwave to re-heat the oatmeal in the morning is even faster. Just my $0.02 worth. Love your site, – Steve in California   Hello Mr. Rawles, I was surprised and disappointed …


Letter Re: Eating The Food That You Store

Mr Rawles, First off, let me start by saying, I loved “Patriots” Kudos to you. The thing I’m writing to you about is an idea I came up with after reading one or the suggestions for single survivalists using # 10 cans of foodstuffs in their preps. The reduction of waste is a serious subject. I think it would be a good idea for all of the folks that use these food stores, to invest a bit of their survival funds on a vacuum sealer system, and kitchen scale. The cans could then be opened, divided into individual portions, [labelled] …


Letter Re: Eating The Food That You Store

Sir: I currently store many foods which I routinely eat, none of which has the long shelf life of many of the ‘survival staples’. I’m ready and willing to buy several thousand dollars’ worth of hard wheat and other canned supplies, but I have one problem: I don’t know if I will actually eat them! Is there anyone out there that has a sampler pack, that allows one to try various offerings to make sure that we and our families will eat those staples? Thanks for all your hard work in helping us prepare! Warm Regards, – Rich S. JWR …


Letter Re: Rolled Oats Versus Steel Cut Oats for Storage

Mr. Rawles; Here is another thing that readers should be aware of: steel-cut oats require substantially more cooking than the more processed varieties. I buy #10 cans of steel-cut from Honeyville Grain, mostly because I like the taste of this product. Compared to “just add boiling water” instant oats, steel cut is much slower to cook, requiring about 20 minutes of boiling to become sufficiently soft. As a preparedness food, it requires too much fuel and preparation time to be a first-line food of choice. On the other hand, a pressure cooker could probably make short work of preparing any …


Letter Re: Recommendations for a Storage Food Vendor in Canada?

Hi Jim, I live near Ottawa, [Canada] and have no idea where to buy wheat, whole corn, etc. The only place I can think of would be the feed and seed store, but don’t know about whether these are human consumption quality. I went to a huge local farm and asked them, and they said “I’m not sure where to buy it…” Thanks, – Chris R. JWR Replies: I have heard positive reports about FC Surplus, a storage food vendor in Ontario, Canada. At last report, they carried Mountain House freeze dried foods, the Canadian “Freddy Chef” MREs, and a …


Letter Re: Rolled Oats Versus Steel Cut Oats for Storage

Hello Mr. Rawles, I recently discovered something called ‘steel-cut’ oats which are healthier than rolled oats. Are you familiar with this and how do they differ when it comes to long term storage. I did find a small container in the store that was about 2-1/2 times the cost of regular rolled oats. I have enjoyed reading your daily tips and the blog. Thank you, – Margo JWR Replies: The advantages of steel cut oats are marginal. They do have slightly more nutritive value than rolled oats, but certainly not enough to justify their substantially higher price! Rolled oats are …


Letter Re: Whole Grains Versus Milled Grains for Storage

Jim: With regards to food storage, I’ve heard a great deal about people buying buckets of wheat to put away. What would be the feasibility of just cutting out the middle-man and stocking up on baking flour, cornmeal, etc.? If this were possible it would allow one to forego the price of a grinder and put those funds toward even more foodstuffs. I imagine it would keep pretty well if packed with a good vacuum-sealer and socked away in food grade buckets. What am I missing? – L.C. JWR Replies: As described in my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, …


Letter Re: Gold is Going Up, But is Now a Good Time to Buy?

Jim, I am going to become a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber before the end of the month because the information provided in SurvivalBlog is invaluable and has forever changed my way of thinking! I have been a reader for about a half year and have seen the topic of gold come up several times. Gold is apparently at a 28 year high and the desire to get invested from my personal standpoint is high but my question is do you see gold leveling out or continuing its upward trend? The other part of the equation is I am young father …


Letter Re: Phases of the Moon and Deer Hunting

James, Ungulates (cattle, deer, antelopes, camels, deer, goats, pigs, sheep, as so forth) daily routines are keyed to the moon. People’s routines are keyed to the Sun. The moon cycles each 28 days, the sun in 30 or so days. Each day, the sun is always somewhere near high noon, i.e. 50% past sun-up, at 12:00 sun time (duh). However, the moon can be at ‘high noon’ in moon time at any given hour, i.e. at 9:00 a.m./3:00 p.m., etc.—because the moon has a shorter cycle. Recent satellite telemetry studies on collared white tail does and bucks across North America …


US Food Riots Much Closer Than You Think, by Robert Felix

(The following is re-posted with permission, from IceAgeNow.com) Recently, I said “we’ll be fighting in the streets for food long before we’re buried in ice.” I say the same thing in my book Not by Fire but by Ice. I just received an email from a reader that sums it up better than I did: “I spent about thirty years working in commercial agribusiness. My main job was to purchase ingredients, mainly grain, for flour mills and animal feed mills. As a part of my job, I was forced to understand the US food supply system, its strengths and weaknesses. …