Mr. Rawles:
Firstly, I must say I have found your site informative and have implemented many of the ideas/suggestions listed on it.
Regarding the most recent post regarding crucial fats in the diet, I must say it was informative but I felt it left out a very viable source of animal fat: The Groundhog. While it may be a rodent, it only eats plants and an occasional insect. The meat is good but greasy since groundhogs actually hibernate. This means later on in the year they will have stored up a large amount of fat which would be of very good value. This geographic region has bear and beaver but they require more effort to procure than the common, rapidly reproducing groundhog, which seems to be everywhere.
I respectfully request that this little tidbit of info finds its way onto your blog as the information available on the internet regarding the consumption of groundhog seems to be in short supply on the Internet. It seems everyone knows about the danger of eating nothing but rabbit, the benefits/fat content of bear and beaver tail, and next to nothing about groundhog. Best Regards, – Jon S.
Jim:
Thanks for posting the fat question. As to pressing the seeds for oils, wouldn’t it be better to keep them as seeds? I think that they would last longer and they can be planted. Also, shortenings like Crisco are not only not useful as fats to the body but outright harmful. They may count as caloric value but not in terms of necessary fats in the diet. – SF in Hawaii
Jim,
I read the letters about fats and oils and realized that I too haven’t thought about them in my plans! I refer you and my fellow Survivalblog.com readers to Captain Dave’s web site. A great site, with an extensive on-line reference manual for Food Storage (and a medical FAQ, too) This site is where I first learned of Joel Skousen, et cetera. and has been a favorite of mine for many years. The link below takes you to the fats and oils section of the food storage “book”. It says at one sub-page that a solid fat like Crisco can last 8-10 years if properly packaged, and if it has preservative anti-oxidants in it. Although, no matter how long you can store something from the supermarket, you will assuredly run out at some point, so home scale production would seem to be the best way to obtain a reliable, safe supply of essential fats and oils.
One other thing that may be helpful as well, for oil storage. According to OliveOilSource.com, olive oil suffers no ill effects when frozen. If a freezer is available and powered, it could easily store at least olive oil, if not others as well? On the linked page below, there’s a question toward the bottom about freezing pesto, and that’s where the folks that run the site say freezing the olive oil is okay.
I hope this helps my fellow readers! Thanks! – R. in New Hampshire