Letter Re: The Easy Storage Survival Harvest

I have minor additions to Minnesota Rose’s excellent post on which storable foods have the most nutrition and food value. 

In looking for which plants have the most protein, the HealthAliciousNess web site has very good information on the highest protein fruits (dried apricots, I was happy to see), vegetables (sun dried tomatoes, surprisingly), and beans and legumes. 

The protein content of beans and legumes varies from a low of 11 percent for pigeon peas to a high of 28 percent for soybeans.  These are cooked percentages, which are much lower than dry percentages because of the additional water; i.e. cooked soy is 28 percent, but dry roasted soy is 40 percent.  Soybeans were the highest; adzukis, lentils and white beans have 17 percent protein; cranberry beans have 16 percent; pintos and black beans 15 percent, and lima beans 14 percent. 

If you are interested in soy, the black soybeans have by far the best flavor, are tender, cook fastest, and work well in chili, bean soup, etc., and have no bitter taste at all.  Black Jet, available from Johnny Seeds in the United States, or from Salt Spring Seeds in Canada, are usually considered to be the best tasting of the black soybeans, and grow well in both northern and southern gardens.  Brown and green are next best in flavor, yellow soybeans are bitter, and best used for livestock. – Mary M.

JWR Replies: Don’t forget that you can easily sprout soy beans in your kitchen. Soya sprouts are tasty and very nutritious. Because the process of sprouting adds vitamins, it is an important adjunct to any food storage program. Here at the Rawles Ranch, we formerly used sprouting trays, but we’ve switched to sprouting in Mason jars, using stainless steel mesh lids. We’ve found that these are more compact, less messy, and quicker to use than trays. The trick to successful sprouting is changing the water frequently, and the Mason jar sprouting method makes this very easy.

Economics and Investing:

Pimco Predicts Greece Will Default. JWR’s Comment: Prepare for a further succession of dominos to topple. Spain and Portugal will probably be next. And I regret to say that the domino at the end of the queue is at: 38°53’23.28″N, 77° 0’31.01″W

Jason Hommel: Silver: From $30/oz to over $500 by 2020 (And from $500 to $5000 by 2030!)

Democrats push for jobs package in debt deal. JWR’s Comment: More “stimulus”? They must be insane. Someday, they’ll finally admit that we are a bankrupt nation living on borrowed time.

The U.S. Postal Service, facing insolvency without approval to delay a $5.5 billion payment for worker health benefits, will suspend contributions to an employee retirement account to save $800 million this year.  

Study: $1,400 Tax Hike Needed to Fund State and Local Pensions

Items from The Economatrix:

If Greece Defaults, What Happens to Portugal, Ireland & Spain?

Changes in Futures Trading Confirms Silver Shortage

Fitch Sees Risk of Greece, US Debt Defaults

29 Reasons to be Angry or Scared

Oil Rises As Fed Acknowledges Economy’s Slow Pace

End of QEII, Impact on Treasury Market

Odds ‘n Sods:

Marie K. found the Cookit! web site, that offers a “History Cookbook” which is categorized by time periods (such as Prehistoric, Romano-British, Saxons & Vikings, etc.) Within each time period, videos of individuals costumed for the era demonstrate how different recipes were prepared. They show how to make Girdle Bread over the fire (Medieval recipe) or Beancakes (Saxon/Viking recipe) or Roman Lentil Casserole also known as Pottage (a Romano-British recipe).

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Fred Z. suggested this piece from NASA’s news arm: Getting Ready for the Next Big Solar Storm

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The ARRL‘s annual national Field Day weekend is scheduled for June 25-26. If you have an interest in ham radio, this is a great opportunity to get some hands-on time with ham gear, learn from experts, and go camping. Contact your local ARRL affiliate club, for details.

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Parachute cord (commonly called “paracord” or “550 cord”) has umpteen uses, from lanyards and bracelets to rifle slings. Serious preppers always keep it around, especially when hunting or hiking in the back country. Braiding paracord is a fun hobby where you can inexpensively produce practical gifts that your friends and relatives will appreciate. The folks at Camping Survival tell me that they have been selling so much parachute cord that they have launched a spin-of web site: ParacordKing.com.

OBTW, Tom at Camping Survival also mentioned that they’ve added several new Honeyville food products that are now in stock and are shipping the same day or the next business day.  For a limited time, you can used the 5% off coupon code “survivalblog“.

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Kelly D. recommended this: Top Five Places NOT to Be When the Dollar Collapses

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“At least once every human being should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from the supermarket, that safety does not come from policemen, and that news is not something that happens to other people.” – Robert A. Heinlein, The Number of the Beast

Notes from JWR:

I’m sad to report that Ron Hood (of “Hood’s Woods” fame and editor of Survival Quarterly) passed away on Wednesday, June 22, 2011, after battling prostate cancer. Through Ron is gone, his videos and writings will be a lasting legacy. He was a consummate outdoorsman who used his teaching skills (a Bachelors in History, A Master of Science in recreation management and an Ed.D. in Institutional Management) to relate them to others in a unique way. The great thing about Ron is that he was an absolute expert in many things, yet he wasn’t at all puffed up or a braggart. In watching his many films, you get a real sense of his quiet competence. Ron was a great man, and he will be missed by many.

To Ron’s wife Karen and son Jesse, my sincere condolences.

Like me, Ron was an Army Security Agency (ASA) veteran, so even though I never met him, I feel a special sense of loss. Ron served at ASA Field Station Sinop (in Turkey), and was on a Target Exploitation (TAREX) team, serving 18 months in Vietnam. The significance of his tactical ASA time doesn’t register with most folks, but it commands great respect among ASA vets. These guys were the “go anywhere, do anything” heroes of the ASA, and their exploits are legendary. It wasn’t unusual for a handful of them to be dropped off at remote mountaintop intercept site “with a pallet of C Rations and a case of Scotch” and be expected to generate reams of useful intelligence entirely on their own, for months at a time. This meant everything from fueling and repairing gensets to doing their own cooking and providing their own security. That truly was living life on the edge. The TAREX guys even went a step further: They analyzed captured radio equipment and went with Special Forces teams to probe VC and NVA sites and conduct direction finding (to pinpoint transmitters). They even surreptitiously photographed antennas to help identify radios and their associated units. This was serious boondocking, often deep behind enemy lines.

I lost my wife two years ago, and even though by God’s grace I have since remarried, I still feel the loss of Linda. (“The Memsahib.”) So I can truly say to Karen that I know how you feel. Karen and Jesse: You are in our prayers!

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Today we present another entry for Round 35 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo , and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 35 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Resourcefulness: How to Survive Without Supplies, by L.W.

Be prepared. This is the core logic of the survivalist movement. We work to be prepared for a variety of situations, from the common natural disaster to outbreaks of disease to TEOTWAWKI. We conduct thorough research, create organized lists and plans, shop while scrutinizing the fine print, test the products we buy, and then carefully store it all away for possible use in the future. A great deal of control and independence is involved. These steps we take to prepare, at a minimum, provide us with a sense of comfort and security. They can also save lives in an emergency.
But what if the worst happens and we find ourselves without vital supplies? It’s the potentially nightmarish scenario of any survivalist, and it can happen at any time. Some would call it a cruel twist of fate for those of us who have taken the time to prepare to suddenly be without. But it’s a very real possibility we must consider in order to ensure our survival in a time of chaos.

Why would you, as a survivalist, suddenly find yourself without supplies?

1. Looters. We’ve seen it repeatedly throughout history in disaster-stricken parts of the world. People take advantage of a society without rule of law. At first the majority of looters will fall on chain stores and businesses because they’re easy to access and literally advertise exactly what they hold. But as supplies dwindle and desperation increases, people will begin robbing one another of their very means to survive. Don’t fall under the false belief that if you have a gun for security then you’re protected from robbery. Some thieves will rely more on stealth than violence and come quietly in the night, leaving you to awaken to empty storage space and bare cupboards.
2. Damage. In the case of natural disasters such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and tornadoes, all or a portion of your supplies may be rendered useless. Your supplies may also be victim to random gunfire in a society without rule of law (an unseen hole in a water tank, for example) or damaged in your haste to bug out. Perhaps you failed to test a portion of your supplies and in the process of assembly, you break a vital piece of equipment. There are countless ways for supplies to be irreparably damaged in an emergency.
3. Inefficiency. Even with testing directly after purchase, there are times when supplies simply don’t work efficiently enough for their purpose and we’re forced to abandon them. Such can be the case with hot plates and camp stoves, battery-powered appliances, and anything else which requires energy to perform. Perhaps it’s been five or ten years since testing and the efficiency has dwindled enough for the batteries, fuel, or heat to be put to better and more efficient use elsewhere.
4. Breakdown. Breakdown can occur to brand new supplies without a reason why, or due to long-term use years into TEOTWAWKI. This is especially permanent when dealing with electronics and machinery. Hand-crank radios, two-way radios, generators, solar-powered lights, fueled stoves, water purifiers . . . eventually they won’t perform anymore. While we might have the skill to repair items like clothing, bicycles, and roof leaks, few people have the knowledge and tools necessary to repair broken down technology.
5. Charity. Most survivalists take charity into consideration when stocking up on supplies, and as they well should. But what if you’ve helped as many people as you planned for, and people in dire need of your help just keep on coming? This isn’t a question you can answer now, as you aren’t presently staring into the eyes of a starving pregnant woman and her toddler on your doorstep. Just know that there’s the possibility your supplies will be used by more people than you originally anticipated.
6. Duration. Few people who prepare for emergencies, even survivalists, will have enough of every kind of essential item to last five, ten, or twenty years into a societal breakdown. The severity of a situation could increase this problem as far as wounded people and medical supplies, outdoor heat and drinking water, strenuous labor and food, and threat and ammunition. Supplies will run out.
7. Budgets. It costs quite a bit of money to stock up on emergency supplies and to restock expired supplies. Survivalists can only stock up as their budgets allow and don’t typically buy everything they need at once. The pitfall of this necessary pacing is that disasters don’t wait for us to be ready. We all have wish lists. We could only be halfway through them when we find ourselves in the midst of TEOTWAWKI.
8. Oversight. You may overlook something. Right out of the gate there may be something you need that you just don’t have. For example, perhaps you failed to take lumber into consideration and your house becomes damaged. Maybe it’s something even more vital than lumber. All the lists in the world can’t prepare you for this moment, as it will be a shock. But no matter how many times you slap yourself on the forehead for forgetting a particular item, it doesn’t change the fact that you now must go without.

There are other reasons why you may suddenly find yourself without supplies. Perhaps you don’t know how to assemble a survival item no matter how hard you try, such as a four-person tent. Maybe you don’t properly clean your supplies and they become too dirty to use over time, such as a particulate water filter. The lack of one item may cause a chain reaction which makes other supplies useless, such as a safe key and a safe with a gun in it. There are limitless reasons why just having supplies in your possession isn’t enough to survive.

Now that the comfort and security of having supplies is all but gone, allow me to replace it with the knowledge that you can, in fact, survive without them. Supplies are a luxury which make our time during an emergency much more bearable, but luckily for the general populace, they aren’t one hundred percent necessary.

How would you survive with no supplies?

Water: Let’s take a brief look at survival with no stored water and no specific water treatment for purifying water.

If water is still coming out of the tap and the emergency situation hasn’t given you cause to question its quality, you must begin collection immediately, as it could be turned off at any time. Fill the bathtub, all kitchen glasses and bowls, heavy duty boxes lined with garbage bags, the washing machine (just be sure to turn it off when it’s full), anything and everything that can hold water. You can even fill garbage cans for non-potable wash water or plant irrigation. Even if you find out afterwards that the water isn’t deemed safe to drink, depending on the situation it may be non-toxic enough for bathing, or at the very least, useful for flushing the toilet. Cover the filled containers with plastic wrap if you intend to drink it in the future.

If water isn’t coming out of the tap, there are still several places to find clean water in your home and the homes of others. One of the most abundant sources is the standard water heater tank, which may hold anywhere from 25 to 60 gallons of water. To access the water, first turn off power to the tank. This could be a gas valve on the tank or a circuit breaker in a panel depending on your set up. Next, close the valve on the pipe which fills the water tank so that no (possibly contaminated) water can flow into it. Now: there’s a valve near the bottom of the tank where the water can drain. Turn on a hot water knob all the way at a faucet in the house so the water in the tank can drain through the valve at the bottom. If there’s dirt in the water you collect, let the water sit so the dirt settles to the bottom and collect water from the top to drink.

Collecting rainwater is an option for people who live in moist climates, as is collecting ice to melt with body heat for those who live in cold climates. For those who live in hot climates, making use of condensation is a viable option, as the necessary supplies are those found in the average garage. A type of solar still can be created by digging a cone-shaped hole with a diameter of three meters in a sunny spot, placing a clean collection container in the center of the hole, and covering the entire hole with plastic sheeting. Anchor the edges and place a rock in the center of the plastic sheeting just over the collection container. The inverted plastic cone should be deep enough that the condensed water runs down the plastic and into the container, but not quite touching the sides of the hole.

In extreme situations you may also drink your own urine. Urine is around 95% water and five percent non-toxic waste products. To safely drink your own urine, you must be free of bladder health problems, such as urinary tract infections (UTI)s). It’s also best to drink it along with another source of water if possible because of the high sodium content. To drink your own urine, you must first urinate for several seconds to clear the bacteria from the urethra before you begin collection for drinking. You must also drink it immediately; otherwise bacteria will begin to accumulate.

Other sources of water include fruit, certain canned goods like vegetables and tuna, ice cubes, water from your pipes, and even the water in your toilet tank (not the bowl) if you have the means to boil it.

It is important to remember that most water can be used more than once, such as for washing clothes and then again for flushing the toilet. You should also reduce the amount of water your body requires by staying out of the sun and limiting physical activity when possible. But however resourceful or conservative you are with water, nearly all sources of water will eventually run dry. It will then become necessary to move on and seek out new sources in order to survive.

No Stored Water (Review):

  • If water is still coming out of the tap, fill anything and everything with water.
  • The water heater tank is a prime place to find 25 to 60 gallons of water.
  • Make use of your climate by collecting water from outside.
  • Drinking your own urine can be an emergency source of water.
  • Use your own resourcefulness to think about where more water could be.
  • Conserve and recycle the water you have.

Food: Let’s take a brief look at survivalism with no stored food and no specific means to hunt, fish, or grow food.

It’s possible to live for at least three weeks without food. Possible, but not realistic. Going so long without food wouldn’t present a problem if we were in the physical condition of our ancestors, but most people today aren’t healthy enough for such a long fast. The strain on the heart would prove too much for those who are obese and would threaten the lives of those who are overweight. When you also factor in how many people are diabetic, having underlying health problems, and are on medications, we’re talking about hundreds of millions of people who simply can’t fast safely.

Luckily there are several alternatives to going hungry, and one of the best is foraging. There’s a great variety of edible plants, berries, and roots hiding in plain sight and edible raw or cooked. Take the ever so common Dandelion, for example. Every part of the Dandelion is edible, from the yellow flower to the leaves (young, small leaves taste better) to the roots. Earthworms are another source of food, and full of protein. Depending on where you live, you may also have access to Cattails which have edible roots year round, the pine needles of pine trees, the leaves of Plantains, or live (not beached) seaweed.

It’s worth researching now what other edible plants are found in your part of the world in case you need to depend on them as a source of food. Here’s a great link for knowledge on how to test a plant you aren’t sure is edible in a time of survival: http://survivalcache.com/wilderness-survival-edibility-test/.

Berries are another nutritious survival food, although before you dive in, there are some general rules you should know. If the berries are yellow, white, or green, then you should most likely stay away from them. About half of all red berries are edible, and dark colored berries are edible nine times out of ten. Most of us remember picking berries when we were children and can easily spot blackberries, raspberries, huckleberries, salmon berries, and other types of berries. The down side to berries is that they’re seasonal and one of the most easily recognized wild foods, which means in a TEOTWAWKI situation, they may be incredibly scarce.

One of the means to obtain food some people may overlook is teaming up with people who have food to feed you in exchange for work. Most likely the work will be hard labor and the food will be carefully rationed. However, working for food will be much safer than being caught stealing it in a world without courts and juries. Furthermore, working in a group provides benefits which go beyond food, such as protection, companionship, a wider range of knowledge and skills, and a greater chance of long-term survival.

No Stored Food (Review):

  • Food isn’t as vital as water. Healthy people can fast for up to three weeks.
  • There are edible plants all around us. Take time to research those around you.
  • Berries are a nutritious addition to any plant-and-root-based diet.
  • Working for food may be a practical option during TEOTWAWKI.

Keeping Warm and Staying Cool
 Let’s take a brief look at survival with no means to start a fire and no air conditioning.

Warmth is a vital part of survival. Any emergency which causes a power outage could make staying warm difficult. All long term emergencies will eventually result in loss of power, or at the very least, the need to conserve power sources.

Depending on the emergency, you may need to dry off before donning dry, warm clothing. Clothing that will wick moisture away from your body and dry quickly, such as nylon or polyester, is best for a first layer. Most people who have these fabrics on hand will have them in the form of workout clothing for the gym. For bad outdoor weather, wool stays warm even when wet. Put on as many layers as you need and keep in mind that people can lose up to 75% of heat through their head. So on with those winter caps!

Moving around is an effective way to keep warm and if you’re short on supplies during an emergency, you will be doing plenty of it. But there are several ways in which exerting yourself too much could be dangerous. Aside from expending energy you may not have enough food to restore and injuring yourself due to exhaustion, you may begin to sweat and then get chilled when you stop to rest. Pay attention to your comfort level and peel off layers if you need to. The key is to be warm, but also dry.

Seal off one room of your house, preferably the smallest one. If you live in a two-story home, remember that heat rises and an upstairs room may be easier to keep warm.
Create a “fort” about the size and shape of an igloo, where the heat from your family is trapped in the small dome you’ve created. Blankets draped across chairs will work for the inner shell. Crumpled newspaper or pieces of cardboard should be piled on top and around the shelter for a dense layer of insulation. Crumpled printer paper and posters would also work. The outer shell of the shelter should be as impermeable as possible to keep the heat in and the cold out. It can be created using standard garbage bags, even saran wrap or tin foil, and tape. Don’t forget to seal off the sides. Make sure there are plenty of blankets left to insulate the floor of the shelter.

To keep warm throughout the night, have your family to sleep in this shelter parallel to one another so that body heat is shared. You can take turns sleeping on the outside ends if there are more than two of you.

Keeping cool can also be a life-saving survival skill. It can lessen the amount of water required by your body and keep you from developing heat exhaustion, or worse, heat stroke.
Wearing shorts and a tank top (or simply going without clothing as this may be TEOTWAWKI after all) is a good start to keeping cool. If you’re outside, be sure to protect yourself with sunscreen and be careful to keep the integrity of your skin intact. The best place to be inside is in the lowest room of your house. You can also be outside in the shade, relaxing in the breeze. It’s important to drink water whenever you’re thirsty (if you can) so you don’t become dehydrated. Drenching a scarf in second-use water and then tying it around your neck is an effective way to cool off quickly. Last, who could forget those fold-up manual fans? With a little thought and resourcefulness, you’ll come to find that there are many ways to keep cool without air conditioning.

Keeping Warm and Staying Cool (Review):

  • Layer your clothing and keep your head covered.
  • Move around, but stay dry.
  • Create an insulated igloo shelter in which to sleep with your family.
  • When wearing little clothing, protect your skin.
  • Stay in the shade when possible.
  • Drink as much water as possible.

Keeping Conditions Sanitary: Let’s take a brief look at survivalism with no basic toiletries, showers, trash service, or toilets.

Hygiene is something many of us take for granted. We don’t think twice as we wash our face, brush our teeth, take a shower, or put on clean clothing. We also take for granted how lack of good hygiene can make us sick. Here are some ways to stay clean and sanitary with what you already have in the house.

The Basics: There are several basic rules worthy of review, as we tend to disregard them when we have plenty of hygienic supplies at our disposal. First and foremost, keep your bacteria-covered hands away from your head. Don’t rub or pick your nose, wipe your eyes, pick at your teeth, lick your fingers, or put your fingers in your ears. Second, don’t handle food or drinking water directly with your hands; instead, use clean winter or Nitrile gloves. Finally, cover your coughs and sneezes with the crook of your elbow. The only thing more annoying than being sneezed on is developing a disabling cold that leads to life-threatening pneumonia.

Teeth: brushing your teeth with no toothpaste is nearly as effective as with toothpaste. Don’t attempt to use sugar or salt to clean your teeth as this may irritate your gums and wear away the enamel, but you may use baking soda if you have it on hand.

Bathing: First and foremost, know that you won’t be bathing everyday. Twice a week, at most, is how often you’ll be bathing. The easiest way to get “clean” is to collect water from a nearby lake or river and scrub away even if you don’t have soap. The reason you want to collect water for scrubbing down instead of simply jumping in is because you don’t want to contaminate the water source, dirty as it may already appear. When you’ve finished with the water, use it a second time to wash your clothes and then a third time to flush your toilet. If you aren’t located near a water source, you may need to use some of the water you’ve collected from the water tank.

Washing: Any soap can be used to wash clothing. Even if you have no soap, dunking the clothes and rubbing them against each other will be sufficient enough to further dirty the water. The clothing you can expect to wash regularly include the undergarments: bras, boxers, underwear, socks, and tank tops. All other clothing will be of secondary concern and only washed once in a while. I recommend buckets if you have them, as the tub only allows for washing and not rinsing. Once the clothes are washed, simply wring them of excess water and hang them out to dry.

Waste: If you have a septic tank that isn’t full, you may continue to flush the toilet for “number two” simply by pouring a bucket of water into it. Be aware that sewage lines may be damaged in an emergency, in which case your best bet is a shovel. Be sure your pit is at least a football field away from any water source and located in the lowest spot in your area. The deeper the better. Place a board or sturdy plastic lid over the pit so that no one falls into it. A plastic tarp over everything is a good idea if you live in a rainy climate. Cover each waste deposit with some dirt to discourage mosquitoes from breeding in the pit, and don’t allow water to pool in the bottom. You may run out of toilet paper, but leaves, newspaper, and small disposable rags will work fine. Do not flush these items as they may permanently clog the toilet. Dispose of them in a deep pit far from any water supply.

Trash: The best option for dealing with trash is to have as little as possible. Think before throwing any item away. Could you use it for anything else? You’ll need to burn or bury the trash you have. If you don’t have the means to build a fire, that’s alright. Pick up a shovel, a pick, even a metal rake. Allowing trash to accumulate is inviting germs and sickness into your living space. Depending on where you live, you may also be inviting wild animals. Get rid of your garbage as soon as possible.

Cleanliness: Even if you keep your space as clean as possible, eventually you will be faced with the need to abolish bacteria you can’t see. Modern day cleaning products are convenient, but they aren’t they only solution for killing germs. The Provident Living web site is a wonderful resource, where they explain how you can use common household items to create an effective cleaning solution. You can condense these recipes to the amount of water you have on hand.

Keeping Conditions Sanitary (Review):

  • Keep your bacteria-covered hands away from your head.
  • Soap isn’t always necessary. Scrubbing is.
  • Keep waste and trash disposal far and low from any water source.
  • Household items can be mixed to create cleaning solutions.

As you can see, there are many ways you can survive without disaster-specific supplies. It would be much more difficult and you would encounter more hardships such as sickness, weight loss, and stress, but you could survive. It’s just a matter of being intelligent and resourceful.

So if TEOTWAWKI or another emergency comes to pass and you’re standing there without a portion of those supplies you held so dear, don’t think about tomorrow. Keep your mind focused on today and the puzzles (not problems) that need solving right now. Make a list, mentally or otherwise, of all the items you have access to and/or around you. Think about how you can use a combination of them to solve your puzzle. With the right attitude and rational, logical thinking, you can survive no matter how many traditional supplies you don’t have.

Letter Re: Off-Grid Laptops

Dear Editor:
I recently came across the announcement for a new upcoming product. With Intel creating Atom processors with lower and lower power consumption, Samsung was able to design a netbook with integrated solar panels.

It immediately occurred to me that this would be an ideal solution for off-grid computing. You can archive thousands of books and references on a single hard drive, have some instructional videos, maps, and more. You may even run lightweight CAD programs that would give any aspiring designer a significant advantage in a recovering economy where no one else has access to any computational power. Since it can charge itself with solar power, you don’t need to use up your stock of batteries or generator gas to keep this resource available. – Walter H.

JWR Replies: First, let me state forthrightly that beans, bullets and Band-Aids come FIRST. Everything else should have much lower priority in you prepping. Don’t get caught up in buying gadgets at the expense of first keeping yourself fed, warm, dry, and safe.

Samsung’s solution will work, but it leaves you dependent upon a netbook an integral PV panel that lacks a CD-ROM drive. My recommendation is to instead go modular and buy the following:

A.) A slightly more capable rugged laptop (new or refurbished) with a modest sized-screen for low power consumption. (A Panasonic Toughbook would be ideal), and

B.) A larger (5 to 15 watt) amorphous panel or hard panel (depending on your mobility constraints), and

C.) A 12 Volt DC jump pack and the requisite cabling.

Not only does this approach add CD and DVD capability, but it also divides your risk. While wonderfully compact, an integrated laptop with PV panel represents all-or-nothing concentrated risk. With my approach, if either the PV panel or the laptop ever fails, they can be replaced. A further benefit is that the jump pack can also be charged by your vehicle and can used a hub to power other small devices and a DC-to-DC battery charging tray. In a worst case world without fuel, your vehicle’s battery can still be a useful stationary battery, and your vehicle’s dashboard makes a good weatherproof place to position a solar panel. But if you are in an urban or suburban environment where auto burglary is a risk, then remove the battery, and wire it up in a room on the sunny side of your dwelling.

Letter Re: Morality and the Prepper Movement

James Wesley;
I came into the prepper movement (without being aware there was any such movement) by degrees, through religion, a few years ago.  As an old “Latin Mass” traditionalist Catholic, there is a tendency amongst our ilk to look with suspicion upon that which is trumpeted as “progressive” or “liberal” or even “modern.”  Not that we are against real progress in some area, or resist modernity for its own sake, but because a real Catholic ought to be a spiritual man, who rejects much of what the modern world tells him is “good,” since these same things so often hinder spiritual progress, family stability, and focus on salvation and the afterlife (e.g., Television, immoderate or impure internet usage, music which appeals to the base emotions rather than lifting the mind to God, etc).

It would probably not surprise you then to learn that, with this suspicious gaze fixed at the modern world, there are many amongst us who focus that suspicion on world politics, economic issues, and social trends.  One among us, Bishop Richard Williamson (of the Society of St. Pius X), being a broadminded pastor of souls, is charitable enough to comment upon some of these “not strictly or directly religious” matters, because he understands that nevertheless, these socio-political-economic matters will have a direct bearing upon the ability of us to work out their salvation.  And so he speaks frequently upon matters such as gold/silver as wealth preservation assets; gardening and food storage; 911 as an inside job (I.e., warning of the police state, and those who control this nation’s foreign policy; etc).

So one day after Mass, this guy I knew started talking to me about buying physical gold and silver, and from there I progressed to learn about food storage, guns/ammo, and the whole “shebang.”
Not too long ago, I read “Patriots” and recommended it to several people who also read it.  I will read it again soon.  The appeal of the book for me (other than that it served as a very practical checklist of things to consider in my own preparations) was that it was set in a good versus evil context.  The men and women who were the Patriots were good, moral people.  Their enemies were those who were evil-doers.  I took from the book that the “collapse” was portrayed as a chance to start this country over again, and an opportunity to remedy many things that fly in the face of Christian morality and Constitutional government (i.e., No collapse was not desired, but if it must come, the survivors would have to rebuild this country into……something).
About that time, I broadened my list of regularly visited survivalist internet sites.  What I saw from those that contained chat forums was heartily depressing: I was shocked to learn that most preppers had a hatred, contempt, or at best a heavy distrust of religion and God.  It made me wonder: If there is a collapse, what kind of country would these survivors rebuild?  Would such men really be of the caliber depicted as Patriots in the book?  How would they be any different than the biker gang depicted if things ever got tough?  Can Godless men really be good men (that is, Godlessness was tried in communist Russia and China, and also in Nazi Germany with less than flattering results). To me, that the atheists (if there really is any such thing; mostly they are those who believe in, but hate, God) have the ascendancy in the prepper movement is worrisome: Modern secular Godless society is disgusting enough in many respects.  What do you think a post-collapse society of atheists would degenerate into?  So the primary purpose of this article, then, is to exhort–even at the risk of minor OPSEC violations–fellow Christians to spread the prepper movement amongst themselves, to ensure that if we ever have to rebuild, there will be something better than Mad-Max to look forward to. 
Here are a couple things that I do, for what its worth, toward this end:

1) Network with people at Church: Generally, these people tend to be of a higher moral caliber than those who disregard Church (Yes, there are legions who fall short of attaining to the morals they profess, but at least they are in the fight; at least Christian morality is important to them, and as Archbishop Fulton Sheen once commented: If the Church had to be as perfect as you seem to want it, you wouldn’t be welcome to join it!).  Generally, they are people you already know something about, which will make your prospecting more productive.  To a higher degree, you will know who will be worth the time to talk to, and who won’t than if you spoke, for example, to people at work or school.

2)  When talking to those you know to be irreligious preppers, do not wear your religion on your sleeve (which is not to say you hide it either).  Try to impress them with the integrity of your character.  Most people–religious or not–respect this in people.  If someone respects you as a person, they have a better chance of being receptive, and seeking out, your opinions.  As St. Francis of Assisi used to say: “Preach always, and if necessary, use words.”

3) Write!  I would view myself as a hypocrite having such concerns, but never doing anything to try and turn the tide.  There are so many internet forums, magazines, newspapers, etc which are overrun with anti-Christian preppers that one would think prepping itself was somehow at odds with Christianity.  Instead of despairing, formulate your opinions and get them out there!  Do not let the Godless hordes out-maneuver you.  They are organized in a unified hatred of even the natural law (i.e., those things all men know to be right and wrong, until their consciences are indoctrinated into confusion).  If you want to live in a better post-collapse world, you need to be prepared and organized to put a plan into place, and this means heightening awareness through the various media outlets and personal communication.  You need to write.  The globalists, Masons, atheists, etc all have plans ready to go.  What do we have?  Little bunker ghettos and isolated retreats, but no plan as to how to remake a better society.  If collapse happened today, we would be snuffed out fairly easily.

I want to end with you all dwelling on the three preceding points.  If the Christian preppers do not increase in proportion, and coordinate and communicate with each other, what is the point of surviving a collapse?  The barbarism that follows will be much worse for them than dying in the initial conflagration (Have you ever seen “The Road”?).

JWR’s Product Review: The Vest Guy Magazine Pouches

I recently bought a number of magazines pouches made in Utah by The Vest Guy. I was very impressed with their quality. Great materials, expert stitching, and dimensionally correct. The particular pouches that I bought are for the Saiga 12 shotgun (both box and drum magazines) in MultiCam camouflage. But the company also makes a very wide variety of load bearing vests, duffles, drag bags, packs, and umpteen varieties of magazine pouches. Some of these appear unique. For instance, I noticed that they offer some X-Series .308 drum magazine pouches and FN PS90 pouch varieties that I haven’t seen from any other maker.

They have a very wide range of sizes and colors. For practical preppers, unless you live on a sailboat or out in a desert then I primarily recommend olive drab or MultiCam. Yes, I know that black is more popular because of the SWAT mystique. But ask yourself: How much flora and fauna found in nature is colored dark black? Very little. I have found that olive drab blends in nicely both day and night, but in daylight black sticks out like proverbial sore thumb, even in urban environments. So I advise opting for versatility rather than garnering Mall Ninja style points.

The Vest Guy also makes a lot of “drop leg” holsters and pouches, which I dislike from a practical standpoint. I suppose they have to keep their customers that are in the extreme fringes of the Airsoft Crowd happy. But FWIW, I think that if Airsofters ever had to carry the weight of real, loaded magazines around, then some of their gear preferences would change rapidly. Again, choose the items that you order wisely. Just be cause it is cataloged doesn’t make it practical.

If you are tired of buying low quality imported web gear (usually from Mainland China), then add The Vest Guy right next to Maxpedition and Wiggy’s on your list of quality gear makers that have the integrity to still manufacture their products here in the United States. Kudos!

OBTW, for the sake of full disclosure: I paid full full ticket retail for my Vest Guy pouches and I’ll gain nothing from this endorsement, so the FTC can take a flying leap.

Economics and Investing:

This McAlvany podcast interview is a must: Bill King Interview:  Europe is the Detonator – The U.S. is the Bomb. King points to the collapse of socialism in western countries as the core of the collapse that started in 2009, and derivatives as the biggest risk.

Reader Stephen M. mentioned that The Economic Collapse blog posted a good summary of the US national debt situation. Here is a key quote: “If we do raise the debt ceiling, that will ‘kick the can down the road’ a little bit farther. However, world financial markets will still crash eventually and our eventual economic nightmare will be even worse. Well, can’t we just ‘inflate our way’ out of debt? No, unfortunately things are just not that easy. If we try to inflate our way out of debt, interest rates will likely rise just as quickly as inflation does, and that would be absolutely catastrophic.”

The Daily Bell reports: Federal Reserve ‘Embeds’ Employees in Banks

Items from The Economatrix:

Another Broker Halts Trading in Gold and Silver Products

The Chinese Government is Buying Up Economic Assets and Huge Tracts of Land All Over the U.S.

IMF Cuts US Growth Forecast, Warns of Crisis

Two Million Construction Jobs May Be Lost For Good

Odds ‘n Sods:

Finally! Wisconsin may soon adopt nondiscretionary concealed carry permits. (Thanks to Phil T. for the link.)

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W.J. sent us some more good legislative news, from Pennsylvania: Deadly force expansion passes Pennsylvania Senate.

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Reader K.K. mentioned the WWII irregular scout unit Castner’s Cutthroats in Alaska. K.K. notes: “They lived off the land, and out of a backpack when deployed.” Readers should refer to Wikipedia as a starting point for researching the unit’s modus operandi.

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More than 30 readers sent me the link to a recent hatchet piece by leftist journalist Nick Geranios (a Spokane, Washington stringer for the AP wire service): Extremists finding fertile ground in Northwest US. Geranios, who loves quoting biased sources like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) had previously done his best to muddy the reputation of the preparedness community in several other articles. One of these was titled: Americans turning to survivalists for advice (published in December, 2008.) To besmirch the reputation of the entire Inland Northwest region, Geranios repeatedly dredges up the ghosts of the Aryan Nations, who were successfully sued and run out of Idaho 11 years ago. The actions of that long-defunct handful of neo-Nazis is still be used by leftists to mischaracterize not just Idaho but the entire Inland Northwest. Also note how Geranios none-too-subtly libels Pastor Chuck Baldwin (former presidential candidate for the Constitution Party) by including him in a list of “well-known figures in the anti-government movement”. He lists Baldwin right alongside absolute lunatic fringe anti-semites, racists, and neo-Nazis. Please don’t take Nick Geranios and this sort of activist journalism seriously.

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SurvivalBlog’s correspondent The Werewolf sent some news about flex fuel truck developments in Brazil: Iveco Trakker Bi-fuel Ethanol-Diesel for Brazil

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“A person can be a partisan or a survivalist, but not both. The survivalist defends himself, his people and his redoubt against all comers. It’s not just his right, it’s his duty. He may have standing patrols or mount a rescue operation, or do a preemptive strike against bad guys advancing on his community, or even take control of a strategic hilltop. He may make arrangements with other survivalists for mutual aid, much like volunteer fire departments do. All this is defensive. What he will not do is join with others in wholesale annihilation merely to expand turf. Legitimate defense does not involve gang war. The survivalist wins this game by not playing, which is to say he wins by staying away from crowds. Same as always.” – Ol’ Remus

Letter Re: The Late Ron Hood and Prostate Check-Ups

Jim,
My wife just read aloud your touching tribute to the late Ron Hood.  

I feel that Ron’s death was a needless loss to the survival community and his family.   If men have their PSA checked annually, there’s no reason this disease should sneak up on them.   I was diagnosed with prostate cancer five years ago when I was 60.   Instead of surgery, which can leave one impotent and/or incontinent, I chose proton therapy at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, as did my father-in-law.   My current PSA is 0.22. Thank You, God!   I hope that you have been getting yours checked regularly!   Thanks,- Bob H. in Oregon

Notes from JWR:

Safecastle (one of our advertisers since 2005) is having a one-day, 25%-off sale on Mountain House cans on Thursday, June 23rd. These canned foods are in stock and ready to ship–while supplies last. It’s their first such sale of 2011, after Mountain House’s well-publicized production/backorder issues through the first half of the year.

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Today we present another entry for Round 35 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo , and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 35 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

The Easy Storage Survival Harvest, by Minnesota Rose

I have tracked down, purchased, and read over 25 books this past winter, all having to do with gardening, food storage, and food processing.  My goal was to come away from many long winter nights soaking and reading in my claw foot tub with more than wrinkled toes.  My agenda was simple: I wanted these new, used, and out of print gems to provide instruction and inspiration in formulating a plan to grow as much of my family’s food as possible as soon as the snow finally melted—and then put the harvest in storage.  As I soaked in the hot water, I also soaked in the sage advice and timeless tips of generations of fellow growers. This in combination with a year of botany study I just completed with my kids and my previous gardening experience and I feel like I have a fairly good grip on everything from asparagus anthers to the best zone 5 zucchini varieties. 

After all that study I needed to put together a plan.  As great as it is to know how hand pollinate my squash blossoms, or that in my region I can grow one variety of from each of four species of squash (maxima, mixta, moschata, and pepo) for seed without them crossing with each other, how many squash seeds should I plant? Every gardener sets about planning their crops with a slightly different goal in mind and a different set of circumstances influencing their growth and storage.  For example, I never so much as perused an article on how to grow 600 pound pumpkins and I read precisely zero chapters on how to produce gorgeous, prize winning camellias because those are not my goals.  My sole goal is sustenance. Delicious, homegrown, nutritious sustenance, but survival food all the same. I wanted to try a sort of trial run on how I would garden if my life depended on it, all while working toward a large enough garden space to sustain my family and more if needed.

Surprisingly, I found nearly as much bad info out there as good.  I ruled out the advice of a few “survival” web sites who seriously touted low fat, low calorie garden veggies as the best survival garden foods, extolling the low fat/ low carb/ low calorie virtues of all the veggies included on their lists.  Now, I love lettuce and cucumbers just as much as the next gal, but if I had to choose my top twenty-five foods to survive on, then neither would make the cut.  As I marveled at how impossible it would be to sustain life on cucumbers and lettuce, I also wondered how these “survival experts” would suggest that you store them.  I was also wary of the “survival garden in a can” concept.  Storing seeds is a great idea and these companies may offer a great service, but if all your seeds sit around in a can until society collapses what do you suppose you will do with them then?  To me, when your life depends on it seems like a horrible time to learn to garden.  Neither a healthy, tilled and enriched garden bed nor the means to preserve your harvest is magically included in that can of seeds.  It takes more than seeds to grow food.  We need practice. We also need tools, insect and animal control, a water supply, and in my northern climate some seed starting materials and a cold frame come in handy.  Seed storage isn’t much of a plan at all if you can’t actually grow them when you need them to survive.  

After consuming every last book I purchased and sifting through the wealth of both good and bad information on the Internet I wanted to get local.  I have a friend who eats so much squash her skin turns orange… seriously.  I peppered her with questions.  Not only does she grow a multitude of squash, but she does it a couple of miles from my house in our shared climate and weather conditions, and in very similar soil. Then I spoke with a retired neighbor who used to grow a huge garden in what is now my back yard.  What better expert could there be on my microclimate and soil capabilities?  I spent some time in online gardening forums and exchanging ideas with my mom, who is a master gardener. I read, talked, breathed, and dreamed companion planting and compost for the last seven months (perhaps to the slight annoyance of some friends and family), but I did pick up a great deal of knowledge and ideas just by talking to people. In that spirit I thought I should take a break from hoeing weeds and share some of the things I have learned in case anyone else can benefit from it. Since there are endless resources available to explain how to grow food in your garden, I want to concentrate on what I’m growing and why.

Most importantly, I learned that reading a stack of books and not actually working up a garden makes a person akin to a ‘childcare expert’ who has a degree… but no actual children of their own.  Secondary only to that, the most important thing to me is to prioritize for crops that require little or no processing, refrigeration, freezing, or other costly and time consuming special treatment that depends on electrons flowing through the power lines.  I want to grow food I know will be useful even if the freezer no longer functions without having to spend all of August and September sweating over a canner. I don’t want to have to depend on electricity in any way for the production or preservation of the brunt of our homegrown food supply.  These crops would also have to prove hearty and nutritious, something to fill you up and stick to your ribs. That is, something quite a bit more substantial than those survival cucumbers I read about. Root crops were the starting point as an answer to my family’s needs.

Root Crops
Root crops are a perfectly created source of calories, fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals, and are therefore quite filling and healthy.  After all, those roots are where the plant stores all of its nutrition over its dormancy to be able to reemerge the next season.  Potatoes in particular sustained most of Ireland until blight caused the infamous famine in the late nineteenth century.  They may be my most important storage crop. Potatoes are also recommended as a first crop to plant in newly tilled ground.  According to my research, every 100 row feet of potato plants yields somewhere between 150 and 250 pounds of potatoes.  Late season varieties will of course have higher yields than early varieties because they have longer to mature. 

Plenty of information is available on how to grow potatoes, but a few facts that I found interesting were: Smaller seed pieces planted farther apart (16-24”) will yield a smaller number of large potatoes.  Larger seed pieces planted a little closer (12-18”) will give you more potatoes, but they will not be as large.  Hilling up your potato plants gives them more loose soil to grow in, keeps weeds under control, conserves water, and reportedly increases yields.  The plant will continue to grow roots up its stem and form more tubers in the soil you cover it with.  Potatoes also must be protected from sunlight—that is fairly common information.  Sun exposure will turn your potatoes green.  Contrary to popular belief, however, that green pigment is only chlorophyll.  It is only an indicator of poisonous (glycoalkaloid) toxin buildup and any green-tinged potato should not be consumed by man nor beast.  Don’t just cut off the green parts. The poison is spread throughout the entire potato.  Also of value to me was the fact that potatoes are on the “dirty dozen” list of fruits and veggies with the highest amount of pesticide residue.  If you open a new bag of potatoes from the grocery store and take a whiff it is more often than not reminiscent of the fertilizer and pesticide aisle at your local gardening or hardware store.  Try it if you don’t believe me.  Then tell me again why you would never grow potatoes because they are so cheap to buy at the store. Commercially grown potatoes are routinely doused in chemical fertilizers and pesticides whether they are needed or not and then fumigated after harvest to prevent them from sprouting in storage. I apply wood ashes, Epsom salt, and bone meal in the trench I plant my potatoes in and use insecticidal soap to control bugs.  Pyrethrin, a readily available pesticide which is derived from chrysanthemums, is dusted on my plants only if the soap fails to do the job.  Which potato would you rather eat? Homegrown potatoes are basically dug, cured, and stored at the end of the season after the vines have died back.  They can be transformed into a plethora of dishes too plentiful to list.

If there is a rival nutritional powerhouse to the potato, it could only be the sweet potato.  Packed with complex carbs, fiber, vitamins A, B6, C, and minerals, sweet potatoes are a winner.  While they are commonly grown in warmer climates, I have read of people growing them well into Canada so I started my sweet potato slips in a sunny window in late March.  They are not actually related to potatoes, but a member of the morning glory family.  The leaves and shoots are also edible and can be grown all winter as houseplants, nibbled on, then used to start a new crop the next spring.  Yields seem to be very similar to potato, but depend largely on length of growing season. The longer they grow, the larger they get. Lift at your preferred size before a hard freeze or after the first light frost, cure in a warm, humid place, and store. You can mash, bake, fry, or smother sweet potatoes in marshmallows if that’s you preference.  I can almost smell the sweet potato pie already.  This year we are going to try making “sweet potato sugar” by drying and grinding slices of sweet potatoes.  It sounds like a promising sugar substitute, oatmeal topping, and granola ingredient to me and I would love to get anyone’s input who has tried it. 

Wrapping up the root veggies, carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, beets, onions, and garlic all appeal to me for the same reasons.  Grow, cure, and store, or in some cases skip the curing and get straight to the storing. Surely devote as much garden space as you can to these important crops.  Onions and garlic can also be interplanted with almost everything else in the garden and will help repel bugs, rabbits, deer, and any other beasties you can think of and have many health benefits aside from their food value. I hope to conserve plenty of time, money (freezer bags, canning jars and lids, electricity, etc.) and freezer space by devoting a large area to these crops. These are my stew, soup, casserole, and potpie fillers and flavor enhancers.  They all roast well and most can be added to mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes for variety and flavor. 

Although not grown underground, pumpkins and winter squash are next on my list. Grow, cure, store.  See my pattern?  In addition to feeding my family from the richly nutritious flesh, the seeds are also a notable source of protein, zinc, and other minerals. I add pumpkin and squash puree to everything I can think of. Breads, quick breads, pies, muffins, casseroles, and even my crowd pleasing homemade mac and cheese gets a nutritional boost and orange color enhancement from my secret ingredient: butternut squash puree, and no one has ever guessed why.  Pumpkin cinnamon rolls are a winner and squash dinner rolls are a family favorite.  Cubed squash roasted with potatoes and onions is a fall staple. Depending on the variety, I have come to expect from 2-10 fruits per vine, grown three vines per hill.  My 14 hills of Waltham Butternut squash, Small Sugar pumpkins, Blue Hubbard, and Striped Cushaw should then give me somewhere in the neighborhood of 200+ squash and pumpkins with any luck.  With only one variety from each of the aforementioned species and God’s will, I can save seeds from the cream of the crop and have even better squash and seeds to barter with next year.  I can also share the squash bounty with my chickens, which was one reason why I planted so many.  While squash is tasty, we don’t love squash to the point of turning orange from eating it! If you are interested in saving seeds I highly recommend the book Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth.)

Corn is next on my list. For every 100 feet of corn planted, the conservative consensus seems to be an expectation of at least 120 ears.  This is my first year trying open pollinated corn.  I am a little concerned that the lack of sweetness we are accustomed to may not appeal to my family as fresh corn on the cob, but I am totally looking forward to good, clean, un-tampered with corn for my family and my flock.  Sweet corn is only the beginning.  Freshly milled cornmeal and corn flour ground from the dried corn is something I am looking forward to as a staple that far outweighs the corn on the cob of summer in my book.  Cornbread, johnnycakes, polenta, muffins, sponge cakes, tortillas, and even adding some of the meal to biscuits, breads and pizza dough is what I am looking forward to. The eggs from my hens should also benefit from real corn instead of the nutritionally inferior Franken-food corn I am currently feeding them from the local elevator. Over 200 row feet won’t be able to support us and the birds completely, but it’s a starting point and I plan to till up more yard and add to it next year.  Corn can be left in the garden to dry until you can get to it so long as there’s nothing else that will get to it first.  Shelled corn will take up much less storage space than corn left on the cob.  Grind corn as you need it to get the most nutritional benefit and best flavor.

Beans wrap up my easy storage list.  Everyone I know is planting green beans or wax beans in their garden, but nobody seems to be planting dry beans. I am growing four varieties of dry beans this year for a little variety in winter usage and seed for next year.  At 15-25 pounds harvested per 100 row feet, beans provide a great source of protein and fiber.  Of special value to me is the Vermont Cranberry bean, which is a sweet heirloom dry bean that grows to maturity in 65 days.  I could almost get two successive crops of this one, but at a minimum can put in staggered plantings.  That should give me some protection from inclement weather, plus split the harvest and handling into easier to handle portions.  Beans fix valuable nitrogen in the soil and are another beneficial crop to interplant with others. Outside of your usual chili, bean soups, and baked beans, beans can be sprouted for salads and stir fries, added mashed to ground beef (or TVP) recipes like sloppy joes and tacos, or pureed and used to replace part of the fats and impart some protein in flavorful baked goods like brownies and molasses cookies.  Black bean salsa can be a meal in itself.  Beans can be milled just like grains to add extra protein to your flour, and have been since Bible times.    

Most people have heard of Ezekiel bread.  In Ezekiel 4 God explains to Ezekiel how to prepare bread from grains, beans, and lentils to fully sustain life for 390 days of lying on his side and prophesying while the people of Israel were punished for their iniquities.  As I read, “Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.” (Ezekiel 4:16-17 KJV) I can’t help but wonder if we should heed our Creator’s advice to Ezekiel and lay in quantities of the prescribed ingredients against possible wrath imposed on our own wayward nation, but perhaps I digress.

Back to gardening, beans recently grown in your own garden won’t require baking soda to soften, will cook faster than the beans that sat on the store shelf for a year or two before you bought them, and can be replanted in a future year’s garden for  a crop that pays dividends.  Beans should be frozen or heated before storage to kill weevils and any other creepy crawlies.  In a situation with no available electricity I would certainly have enough cold winter nights to do the job.  Even with this treatment and shelling them (which I plan to coincide with family movie nights), you have an excellent source of protein and fiber that can be stored for years with a minimal time investment. 

The previously mentioned crops make up the majority of my survival garden plan, but sunflowers and grain amaranth cap off my easy store harvest.  Sunflower seeds are an easy to grow source of fat, protein, and many vitamins and minerals, most notably vitamin E.  Sunflower seeds can be eaten out of hand with their shells intact or de-shelled through a very coarse setting on a burr grain mill and winnowed to remove the shells.  Shelled sunflower seeds can be added to many baked goods, salads, stir fries, and trail mixes.  Include them in a batch of pemmican for hikes and hunting trips.  Roasted and ground, they make sunbutter, a tasty peanut butter substitute very popular with my youngest child.  While whole sunflower heads can be fed to chickens with no processing, you can also reach for the opposite end of the storage spectrum by investing in a home oil press and creating your own sustainable source of cooking oil. 

Amaranth is the only grain I know of that contains lysine, the amino acid missing from other grains and necessary to form a complete protein. That makes any flour suddenly far more nutritious just by milling some amaranth along with another grain and results in flour with protein your body can readily absorb. This is my first year trying amaranth in the garden, but my intention is to cut some seed heads to leave whole for the chickens and to thresh some for my family. [JWR Adds: As I’ve mentioned before, be careful with Amaranth. It can become a weed that tends to spread and it can take over garden beds and open spaces.]

To recap, without heating up your canner, messing up your kitchen, or opening your freezer door, you can have all of these fresh and nutritious foods available to help sustain you all winter long: potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkins, carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, beets, onions, garlic, corn, and beans. Some will last longer in storage than others and their usage should be planned accordingly. Also noteworthy is that with the exception of bean seeds, these crops can all be planted early in the season, allowing you the opportunity to get them in the ground first and then concentrate on other crops.  With a little more work you can add sunflowers and amaranth, which will require threshing. When I add just wheat, eggs, and chicken to that list I see a very diverse diet with so many possibilities.  Although I advocate additional food storage items and techniques, I would still do fine if these were the only foods I could eat. (I would still miss my coffee terribly and long for an occasional Hershey bar or hamburger, but it sure would beat daily rations of white rice and old pinto beans in my book, plus it can be achieved on a much tighter budget than most food storage concepts. )

All that is left is to figure out where to put it all.  For me, an unheated room in the basement will house the goodies that want to be stored just above freezing.  My laundry room cabinets can hold the things that like it a little warmer.  I will fully embrace fall décor by decoratively piling squash in every available corner of our home until their population is slowly transformed into delicious dishes and chicken food. Just in case the world unravels midwinter and jeopardizes my indoor stash perhaps I’ll bury a couple of trash cans of produce in the yard and blanket them in straw.  For the easiest storage of all and assurance you will have something to eat when the snow is gone, many of these crops can be left to overwinter in the ground they grew in with a layer of mulch for protection in colder areas.  You can “kill two birds with one stone” and rake your leaves on top of your parsnips this fall.  If my power fails I can rest assured these harvested items won’t be harmed.  My frozen peas and green beans may become a soggy mess, but my cache of easily stored veggies will still be a reliable part of my overall food storage plan.

Gardening certainly takes a time investment, but returns so much more than food.  A sense of accomplishment, some physical exercise, knowing where your food came from and how it was grown, passing valuable knowledge down to the next generation, the spiritual peace of getting your hands in God’s dirt and witnessing His wisdom in creation, and at the very least a suntan are a few of the benefits you don’t eat.

I’m sure plenty of the people reading this article already grow wonderful gardens.  This paragraph is for those who don’t: Growing food doesn’t require a vast swath of acreage.  If lack of land is your reason for not gardening then stop making excuses for yourself. Even if you only have a balcony overlooking a busy city street you can practice container gardening (while you are hopefully making plans to move out soon).  Plant a few pots of something and experiment with natural fertilizers and insect control on a small scale so you have a plan in case you are depending on your crop one day and Miracle Grow is no longer available.  Go find a vacant lot or abandoned foreclosure house and stick some seeds in the ground there.  See if your community has a community garden or growing co-op and start one if not.  Or make a deal with an established gardener to help with the weeding in exchange for some of the produce. There is still plenty of time to get some practice under your belt this season. Wherever you are, I encourage you to find some seeds and put them in the earth.  Do it with children if you can round them up.  It is important for us to teach children how to grow food.  Their generation seems destined for destitution and their very lives could depend on it. For that matter, our generation seems to be headed toward an overdue dose of hard times long before they do and I want to make sure my skills are up to snuff, don’t you?

I could go on from my soapbox all day about why the entire nation should be gardening, but since the sun is still up and so is the grid I am going to go stick a few more tomato plants and melon seeds in the ground then do a little online research to determine if it’s better to buy or build a large dehydrator.  Now that my easy storage survival crops are in I have the desire to branch out into the other tasty things.  Although I certainly can’t provide all of the details necessary to grow, harvest, and store all of these crops, I hope something I shared will encourage somebody else to get outdoors and get growing. God bless you and your garden.