Survival4Chicks

This article has been contributed by The Survival Mom for your reading pleasure. Visit The Survival Mom Blog for more emergency preparedness information and resources.

People have to eat and water has to be safe to drink no matter what. A lot of preppers are planning to use propane, butane, and kerosene fuels for these uses in case of emergencies, natural disasters or the end of the world, and that’s smart. Longer term planning, though, raises the question, “What do I do when the fuel runs out?” It’s very easy to imagine shortages of all fuels, including gasoline and diesel, even as a temporary condition. As another alternative, I suggest giving some thought to how you’ll prepare food and heat water without any liquid or gas fuel whatsoever.

One option is a solar oven. A solar oven can be as simple as a box lined with aluminum foil or, my preference, the Global Sun Oven. If you’re like me, anything that is overly complicated or inconvenient is rarely used, and that is why I love the Sun Oven. It’s portable enough to be taken on camping trips, light enough for my kids to carry, and the set-up takes less than a minute. As long as there is sunshine, this baby can cook anything from hard boiled eggs to roasted chicken to casseroles and cookies. I learned that I can make homemade chicken soup with a simple combination of noodles, veggies, water, and raw chicken. Yep, raw chicken. As the soup heats up and cooks, the chicken and water create a rich broth, so I don’t have to use canned broth or bouillon cubes for flavor.

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If you intend to cook anything after the SHTF, you’ll need a way to heat it, right?  If we’re in a TEOTWAWKI scenario, likely your electric stove won’t be electrified and eventually your gas stove will run out of gas (either natural gas or propane from the tank in the yard).  Then what?  You’ll have to cook by some other means.

Camp fire:  Campfire cooking is probably the oldest method of cooking foods, dating all the way back to the cavemen and still used today by family campers everywhere.  It’s also one of the easiest.  Simply place a ring of rocks or bricks (bricks are best for their evenness if you can get them).  Then build your fire inside.  You can place a simple grate over the fire for “grilling” or place a kettle on the grate for boiling, or place a skillet for frying.  You can also use a spit to roast meats and wild-caught game.  It’s best to practice ahead of time so you don’t ruin precious supplies later on.  If you haven’t already, give campfire cooking a try the next time you and your family take a camping trip – it’ll be great practice for later on.  Try getting a collapsible camp oven (Coleman makes a great one at a reasonable price) to use on the campfire for baking breads, biscuits, just about anything you’d normally make in a traditional oven.

Camp stove:  Propane camp stoves simulate the same cooking experience as a traditional gas stove, found in most kitchens and are great emergency items to have on hand.  The biggest drawback, however, of camp stoves is that they too will eventually run out of propane which will render them useless.  If you plan on using a camp stove, be sure to stock up on LOTS of those little propane canisters.

Wood cook stove:  This is my favorite by far.  We recently installed a wood stove in our house.  We have a gas fireplace but realized that we can’t cook on it and of course we’d run into that pesky problem of no gas.  We opted for a wood stove that is primarily used for heating but whose top gets hot enough to cook on.  We watched for sales and found great deals on cast iron skillets and a dutch oven.  While we have natural gas in-floor heating in addition to the gas fireplace, we haven’t used either since we installed the wood stove.  So not only has this stove helped us prepare for even worse times, but it’s saving us money in the meantime.  So far I’ve used it to make yogurt, beef roast, chili, stew, soup, and even bread (using my little Coleman camp oven).   Just like cooking on an open campfire, it takes some practice.  You need to work at regulating the temperature to cook with the wood stove but, speaking from experience, it is doable.  And if you’re anything like me, it’s a thrill!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve squealed with excitement when something turns out!

Fireplace:  Another old timer’s favorite is cooking with the fireplace.  If you plan to do this as part of your TEOTWAWKI preparations. be sure you have a wood fireplace else your plan will fall apart.  Then practice, practice, practice until you figure out what works best.

One additional note: be sure you have all of the tools you’ll need ahead of time.  These might include:  a chainsaws, axes,  and hand saws to cut wood, fire pokers, hangers for pots and pans (to hang them over the fire), cast iron skillets (your Teflon won’t last long on a wood fire!), pot holders, small shovel to shovel out the ashes, and matches.

What will we do without our coffee?

First and foremost, if you want to make sure you have coffee after the SHTF, be sure to add it to your list of items to stock up on.  The old timers also saved their coffee grounds each day.  When their supply of fresh coffee ran out, they began reusing the used grounds to leach every last bit of flavor and caffeine out of them and stretch their supply of coffee.

But once it was totally gone, they used the following in place of coffee:

Beans

Peas

Barley

Corn

Dried potatoes

Rye

Wheat

Toasted bread

Dandelion roots

Burnt sugar

Personally, none of the above sounds very appealing so I’ve added lots and lots of coffee to our stores!

Since yeast will likely be hard to come by in a TEOTWAWKI scenario, we need other ways to make one of our main staples…bread!  Sourdough is the time-honored way to get around the need for traditional yeast products.  Here’s how it’s done according to the old timers:

Using a ceramic or plastic bowl (do NOT use metal) add 1/2 cup warm water and 1 tsp sugar.  Sprinkle 2 ¼ tsp yeast into the water mixture and let stand for about 10 minutes or until the mixture is bubbly.  Stir in 1 ½ cups water and 2 cups of flour.  Beat until smooth.  Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave sit overnight at room temperature (80 degrees is better if you can get it).  The next day, add 1 more cup flour, 1 cup milk, and ½ cup sugar.  Beat until smooth.  Continue stirring each day for 5-10 days, keeping covered at room temperature.

Your starter should be the same consistency as thin pancake batter.

If the starter turns purple or orange (a light yellow is expected) toss it out and start over.  Purple or orange starter will make you sick!

If the starter is not used every day, “feed” it weekly by adding equal parts flour and water.

To use the starter:

Bread:

1/2 cup sourdough starter

1/2 quart warm water (about 100 – 110 degrees)

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp salt

2.5 Tbsp oil

6 cups flour

Add ingredients to large bowl in order given.  Stir to blend.  Turn out onto floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic.

Let rise in warm place in greased bowl, covered, until doubled.  Knead again and divide into two equal parts.

Shape each section into loaves and place in greased loaf pans.

Let rise again (until doubled).

Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Don’t forget to feed your starter!  For every cup of starter you use, add back ½ cup flour and ½ cup water.  Store your starter in the fridge.  As long as you keep using and feeding your starter it should last you forever.  There is a bakery in San Francisco that has been using the same sourdough starter (aptly named “Mother”) for well over 100 years.

Oh the possibilities!

Canned/jarred goods:  Obviously, just leave them in the cans and jars – there’s nothing more to do with them than that.

Dry goods:  Anything that is dried and comes in something other than a sealed can or jar (powdered milk, pastas, flour, wheat, rice, lentils, split peas, oats, oatmeal, sugar, beans, baking powder, baking soda, and on and on and on!) needs to be transferred to another container for longer term storage.  Here are some ideas:

Buckets:  Be sure the buckets you use are food-grade.  The buckets you’d pick up in the hardware section of most stores are NOT food-grade and could contaminate your foods.  The best advice I can offer here is to check them and then double-check them before putting your food stuffs in them.

Bucket sources:

Grocery store:  Check your local grocery store’s deli and bakery departments.  Most receive frosting and other items in 5-gallon buckets, which are of course food-grade.  Most stores are glad to have someone come along and take them off their hands.  Some stores will give them away, others will charge a nominal fee.

Five Star Preparedness:  I’ve checked all over the internet to find reasonably priced buckets.  Prices range anywhere from $5.00 per bucket to $17.00 per bucket depending on the supplier.  I finally settled on Five Star’s $2.00 buckets.  They need to be washed when they arrive but they were by far the best deal I found.  But look around on your own.  You may find a better deal.

Tubs and non-food-grade buckets:   You can find large storage bins, buckets, and trash cans in most big-box stores.  However, these non-food-grade containers MUST be lined with food-grade material (Mylar bags or food-grade plastic bags) to avoid contamination of your food.  I don’t have a great source for either the Mylar or food-grade plastic bags so you’ll want to search around for them.

Packing your buckets or bags inside buckets:  It’s important to make sure you add one of several things to your repackaged food to keep out bugs and oxygen.  Both will be detrimental to your stores.  Common “additives”:

Dry Ice: Dry ice works great to seal your buckets.  To do so, place the dry ice (about 2 ounces per 5 gallon pail) in the bottom of the bucket, cover with a paper towel, add your food stuffs, snap on the lid.  As the dry ice dissipates, it will suck the oxygen out of the bucket, and as long as you have a good seal (rubber gasket or even a layer of plastic wrap draped over the top of the bucket will do) on the bucket, will seal it for you.  Drawbacks to dry ice:  it can be hard to find depending on where you live and it doesn’t kill insects.

Oxygen absorber packets:  These work similarly to dry ice and can be found online.  Check manufacturer’s instructions for use.

Diatomaceous Earth:  I prefer diatomaceous earth over the other options because it sucks out the oxygen AND kills any bugs or eggs that might be in your food now and it will deter any future bugs from entering.  To pack with diatomaceous earth, simply put a spoonful (about a tablespoon) into the bucket with your goods.  I sprinkle about 1/2 tablespoondiatomaceous earth on the bottom of the bucket, add about 1/2 of my food, sprinkle a little more diatomaceous earth then add the remainder of my food and snap on the lid.  There are likely more sources for diatomaceous earth but the one I prefer is Five Star Preparedness.   Diatomaceous earth is edible so there is no need to try to keep it separate from your food.

Whichever method you use, be sure to fill your bucket (or bag that goes into the bucket) up as close to the top as you can, leaving just enough head space to snap it shut.  Oxygen will ruin your food in the long run so you want to get as much of it out as possible.

One year’s worth of food for the entire family is the general rule of thumb for emergency/hard times food storage.  I guess you could say I took a roundabout approach to figuring out how much we needed to stock.  But I like the results of our stores.

First, I took the following into consideration:

1)  Did we want to live on rice and beans alone or did we want variety as much as possible.  We wanted variety!

2)  Was it worth the extra space and money to have a few “just for special” items on hand for when everyone  is sick of the same-old and crabby?  In my opinion…YES!!!  By special items I’m talking about chocolate chips, some chocolate milk drink mix, some candies, and so on.

The LDS folks have got some great info on how much food and what kind of foods to store.  We used the calculator provided by the LDS and then we went one step farther.

First, we got everything that the LDS calculator suggested.  Then we sat down and looked at our family’s typical meal during non-emergency times.  Our meals usually look about like this:

1 serving of protein

2 servings of fruits and vegetables

1 serving of carbohydrates

If you have a family of four that eats similarly, to calculate one year’s supply of those items you multiply:

4 (family members)

x 3 (meals a day)

x 7 (days per week)

x 52 (weeks in the year)

So in the above example, for a family of four for one year, you would need:

4,368 servings of proteins

8,736 servings of fruits and/or vegetables

4,368 servings of proteins

Of course some of the items from the LDS calculator will fill in some of these needs (for example, beans and rice eaten together gives you a complete protein and the flours and grains count for carbohydrates).

For our stores, after calculating what our family truly eats and how many servings we truly needed for one year, we subtracted out the items we’d already gotten from the LDS-calculated list.  Finally, we went about filling in with a variety of canned fruits, vegetables, and meats.

It’s important to only store what you eat (what you are willing to eat) and eat what you store.   Let’s look at this another way.  If you store things you won’t eat, they do you no good so you might as well not bother stocking them.  Plus, if you don’t eat from your food stores, they will eventually spoil.  You need to rotate those food stores while keeping stocked for TEOTWAWKI.

Here’s what I do:  I have several shelves in an out-of-the-way-place, which are devoted to our food stores.  Everything is neatly organized by type (grains, proteins, fats, etc.) and then within those main categories is each variety.  So within the grains area I keep wheat, flour, lentils, split peas, and so on.  Within the proteins category I keep all of my canned turkey, beef, chicken, and tuna.  All of the tuna is kept together, all of the flour together, etc.

I make one trip per month to a bulk foods store (I shop Modern Country Supply) for wheat, whole dried corn, gluten, and other grains.  I make one trip per month to a warehouse store like Costco or Sam’s Club for canned goods, flours, fats, and fruits and vegetables.  During the month I “shop” from my food stores, noting what I’ve used that month so I can replace it on my next trip.  Our food stores also include extra quantities of EVERYTHING.  This way if I’ve used tomato juice from our stores and then the SHTF before next month’s trip, I still have a year’s supply of everything when it hits.

I do also fill in with perishables once a week at the regular grocery store.  These trips bring back things like milk, eggs, cheese, and other fresh items that I can’t get in bulk or that we can’t eat fast enough if bought in bulk.  I don’t count on having these items once the SHTF though.

It’s also extremely important to keep an inventory of your food stores so you know what you have and what you need more of.  This is very easy to do by setting up a simple grid or spreadsheet.  You’ll want to track the following (at a minimum):   Item, size of container, and quantity of each item.  Your inventory might look something like this:

You can even take your inventory sheet one step farther and add your purchasing source and price. Be sure to keep a copy of your inventory near your supplies and make it a house rule that anyone taking from the supplies must subtract what they used.  This way your inventory is always accurate.

Over the weekend a friend asked me how they could possibly inventory the goats and chickens they keep and should they count toward their food stores.  My answer…ABSOLUTELY they should!  Many of us wish we had room for livestock because they very much count toward how long we can survive after an economic or societal collapse.  So how so you inventory the livestock?

Here’s what I suggest.  Calculate how much milk the goats produce in a week, how many eggs the chickens produce in a week, calculate that out by 52 weeks in the year, and you have your milk and egg inventory for a year.  This method will work for whatever livestock you have that offers reproducible goods.  So if you come up with 90 gallons of milk per year produced by the goats, you can subtract this amount of milk from your needs list.  Or, add it on anyway and you’ll have an even greater stock of supplies.

Don’t let the volume of food stores needed scare you though.  Just chip off a little at a time depending on what you can do financially.  If you need one can of green beans, buy two and set the second one aside.

Here are some of my favorite places for finding some of the harder to find items:

Sam’s Club (will need to be a member to view pricing in your area)

Walton Feed

Alison’s Pantry

Amazon

Emergency Essentials

Five Star Preparedness

Modern Country Supply

In another post we’ll talk about how to store all of your supplies.

Eggs are a staple and are also necessary to make many of the products we eat on a daily basis. But how can you get eggs after the SHTF if you don’t have chickens? How about making your own powdered eggs ahead of time?

Here’s how:

Scramble eggs in a bowl.
Pour into a large frying pan.
Cook until well done.
Drain on paper towel to get rid of any remaining grease.
Chop eggs into fine pieces.
Spread evenly on baking sheet.
Bake at 110 degrees for 10 hours or until eggs are completely dried.
Using a blender or food processor, process eggs to fine powder.
Store in airtight bag, food-grade bucket, or jar with tight fitting lid.

To reconstitute eggs: Mix equal amounts of powdered eggs and water.

Using dried eggs in recipes. 1 egg equals 1/4 cup egg. So for every 1 egg in a recipe, use 1/4 cup reconstituted eggs.

Dried eggs can be stored for up to one year.

Calculate your daily caloric needs to make prepping and meal planning for after the SHTF easier at Free Dieting.