I also recommend a dehydrator and a sealer. My partner has been dehydrating rice, beans, ginger, and just began trying it out on eggs. We determined we need a grinder for the eggs though. They are already limiting how many eggs we can buy and have signs up apologizing for shortages. Going to look into dehydrating milk soon. Been stocking up here and there on canned goods. Not as far along as I wished, but will still be better prepared than most for how bad it's going to get.
RE: Free prepping help from the grocery store.
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Free prepping help from the grocery store.
The problem here is that so many dry goods come with free insect eggs - that eventually hatch in the heat. So, yeah, vacuum packed is ok, like rice, but can't find beans and other pulses. Will be on rice, oil and wild veg! Although, there is so much food here, they'd have stop people moving.
True. My main concern for now is having enough food on hand to make it through the winter. I'm a little on the fence when it comes to prepping. I don't trust my capacity to safeguard years worth of goods in a case of SHTF, nor anywhere to secure it in hiding. I figure if I can try to prepare for at least one winter it might help enough if things get to bad for me to have to become a nomad into less populated areas.
I have more than 100,000 heirloom seeds I bought that are packaged to be good for some time, so in a worst case scenario if things get to bad if i do become a off the trail nomad once winter is over I can grow some food.
Not looking forward to the necessity of having to test my mettle on this, yet still preparing regardless to increase the odds of an outcome that allows for my survival.
Winters are not really cold here, so concerns are slightly different. After seeing a similar country, Sri lanka, get shafted, that methodology could happen here - to make the "business" of food unprofitable. However, take away the dumbphones, and life here isn't so different to 100 years ago.
And yeah, none of it is "welcoming".
True on the insect eggs, that's why I freeze or vacuum all the SHTF materials, before storing. Frozen materials can still be used for seeds, but vacuum materials are much faster. The freezing takes 2 days, but I always run them for 3 days just to be safe. Vacuum takes almost no time beyond the filling time.
Look for lentils, sometimes people who buy up the beans miss them. I've found some other items like cous cous and quinoa to store. Buying pasta will extend the inventory of stored goods too. Stock in spices to avoid menu exhaustion, it's cheap and easy to add.
Keep on prepping!
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we'll be buying up animal feed soon! No joke, a lot of it is edible for humans, we've just become fussy. I'll have to look into vacuuing, coz the insect thing pisses me off. eg I stopped buying any pasta that was PACKED outside of Italy, as those factories suck. Genuine Italian pasta, made and packed there, has never been infested.
Mind you, I'd rather have a ton of flour and make some quick bread - is really same as pasta, and there are even italian dishes made with chunks of bread instead of pasta.
I have stored a lot of pasta, but I've never seen bug problems there? But Packing pasta in jars and pulling a hard vacuum, would definably avoid it any egg problems!
Working on quick breads myself, not happy this far. Still need to build a wood fired oven too, but I do have a dutch oven I can cook with until the oven is built.
Keep on prepping!
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For "quick", I think one needs to cheat, using baking powder instead of waiting for yeast. Is more like flat bread, pittas or naan bread, rather than an actual loaf. I also like making white pizza, which does use yeast.
I plan to do pan flat bread, and I already bought the baking powder. I also want to make burrito wrappers with no Leven, until I get the malibar spinach growing leaves big enough to wrap with.
The bread will have to move to sourdough, as yeast will drop out when the SHTF! I have 3 powered mills, and 2 hand mills to make wheat into flour.
I looked today and I also have oats and rye in storage!
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Vacuum packing works well. I need pet food too, but I hope I've stocked in enough that I don't need to eat it for them. A 50 pound bag of wheat costs less than a 25 pound bag of dog food, so I'll be grinding a lot of whole wheat flour!
I found a coop that has that plus buckwheat, barley, spelt, and half a dozen other bags of seeds. I have happily spent a lot of cash there...but I'm planning to go back soon.
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And some of these "older" grains have not yet been GMO'd ; some are hard to find, while others have become "premium". lol.
And yes, I get dry pet food for my own laziness, but real meat is much cheaper if the cheap cuts. I avoid canned food as the cats have been sick on that shit.
I picked this coop specifically because it doesn't handle GMO seeds. If the farmers insist, they make them prepay, and unload them in the parking lot. They never being them inside, and they call him to come get them when they arrive!
I'm pressure canning as much meat as I can lately, but I see the rise in costs; and that might stop that prepping soon. I've been buying canned meat to store too, so we should be good!
But I do need to buy more dog food, for my spoiled rotten beasties, LOL! 😆 They do prefer what I eat over dog food anyway....
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smart dogs!
cats are smaller and I calc ages ago costs about half the price feeding them real meat - they also eat less of it as more nutritious.
when I did have dogs I'd buy bags of soup bones - dogs less fussy, as cats are strict carnivores.
They do like soup bones! I'd have to pressure can them, to put them on the shelf for later, but I'd end up with bone broth; so I may try that.
My dogs like people food best anyway, ROFLOL! They will eat anything I'm eating, which will help me feed them.
I have pressure canned several dozen quarts of meat in the last two weeks, but I'd like a lot more! I have experimented with pressure canning beans, because on solar power, crock pots are out....
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A dehydrator is a good tool for prepping! I find that frozen vegetables work well in a dehydrator, because they are already blanched. I can put about six pounds of frozen / dehydrated vegetables into a quart jar. Then I pull a hard vacuum on the jar to extend the shelf life.
I bought some freeze dried eggs, but I bplsm to use my Sister's quail and Chickens for eggs after SHTF. But dehydrating and grinding is a good idea. I'd store it under a vacuum too.
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Yeah, we do the hard vacuum as well, although we got a batch of defective bags a couple of weeks ago. We are slowly building up a collection of canning jars, but they are not as easy to store.
I really like your blog here. So much great information and discussion, much better than the typical here was what I ate for lunch today posts.
I try to post something that is helpful, and hopefully some reader can use something from it!
The hard vacuum is an excellent preservation method, but I like it best in jars. They stack well in case-lots, and will accept a lot of vertical distance. This allows a Lot of jars to be stored in the same place. The dehydrated stock, is quite light; compared to normal canned goods.
I have mylar bags too, and like them. They are good for long term storage!
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