This article was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper
Feeding your family when you’re flat broke isn’t easy but it can be done. What would you do if you suddenly need to prepare for a lean month ahead on a tight budget? Imagine you only had $400 or so to purchase all food and essentials for your whole family for a month. How would you cover the necessities?
This is a question on a lot of people’s minds right now. Most – if not all – states are paying out February’s SNAP food benefits early to make sure that folks have something to eat during the month ahead. That means any money they get now has to be stretched to feed their families for at least 6 weeks. As well, as the government shutdown continues, 800,000 federal employees will also continue to be without a paycheck.
As usual, in an effort to deter the people who feel compelled to cheer about the misfortune of others, please remember that a lot of people receiving assistance for food are the elderly, the disabled, veterans, and children. This article explains how a lot of food stamp recipients may not be the “welfare queens” you’re envisioning.
Today’s article was written to help anyone who finds themselves in difficult circumstances. I hope it helps you make it through the rough spot.
Surviving when your budget is severely limited
Here’s an article on surviving the shutdown and here’s an article on surviving when you can’t pay your bills.
Now…about the stuff you need to buy. The lists below are specifically food, but keep in mind that there will be other needed supplies in the month too. Don’t forget about toilet paper, soap, shampoo, feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, dish soap, and any other essential that your family may require.
When choosing what to purchase (and how much) consider the appetites and preferences of your family. Yes, even when money is tight, you can purchase food your loved ones will enjoy. You aren’t being punished – it’s just a rough spot.
I just put together a PDF guide called The Flat Broke Cookbook: Thrifty Meals and Shopping Tips for Tough Times to help you through this with some tasty, inexpensive meals and shopping tips.
This cookbook is FREE to anyone who needs it and available for $5.49 to anyone who wishes to purchase it.
Here’s how to get it:
If you need a free copy, no questions asked, drop us an email at daisyluther2 at gmail.com with the subject line FREE COOKBOOK. It may take us a day or two to get this out to you but I promise every person who needs it will get it.
If you would like to purchase a copy for $5.49 go here: https://sowl.co/6AJ7P
The book has loads of thrifty recipes and leftover ideas to reduce waste, as well as some shopping tips for getting through a lean month or two.
Some frugal food tips
Your menu this month may be a little different than what you’ve been used to before. Food may take more hands-on time to prepare.
- Cook from scratch. Remember when you’re buying food, either you’re doing the work or you are paying someone else to do the work. This month, you’re going to need to do the work. Here are some tips on cooking from scratch.
- Stretch your ingredients. Be ready to stretch your ingredients by making soups, stews, and casseroles.
- Don’t plan on eating low-carb this month. Unless, of course, you have a health condition that requires a low carb diet, plan on adding more grains and starches to your diet during a rough spot.
- Use your leftovers. Plan to use every single bite of food, including small amounts of leftovers.
- You probably won’t be able to eat organic. If you normally eat nothing but fresh, organic goodness, this month is going to have to be different. If times are really really tight, you are going to need to loosen your standards to survive.
This article talks about making healthy choices when you’re broke but if you are rock bottom broke, you may have to go even cheaper. So when I recommend canned fruits and veggies here in a minute, I don’t want to hear “But you’re supposed to be the organic prepper.” Sure. I am. I care about BPA in canned goods. But I’m also a sensible and realistic prepper and I care about people having something to eat. Just make the best choices you can while still staying fed, okay?
Protein
When you’re broke, protein is going to be the most costly part of your menu.
- Meat: When your budget is super tight, don’t expect meat to be the main dish. I’m not saying you have to go vegetarian, but calorie for calorie, meat is very expensive. Use less meat than you normally would and make it an ingredient instead of the star of the meal. Go with less expensive cuts and cook them for a long time: stew beef, ground beef, chicken quarters, etc., are much less costly.
- Eggs: Eggs are a very inexpensive and healthy source of protein. Walmart has huge flats with 30 eggs for a very reasonable price. I suggest you grab a few of those and think about breakfast for dinner.
- Beans, beans, good for your heart. I absolutely love beans and strongly recommend them. Proper soaking and rinsing can reduce the resulting flatulence. Go with dried beans instead of canned for greater savings. If your family members don’t like beans, they might prefer refried beans or bean dip. Worst case scenario, you can puree cooked beans and add them to a soup.
- Peanut butter. Peanut butter is a tasty protein source and most kids love it. (Assuming there are no allergies, of course. ) Grab a huge jar and if possible, go for one that is more natural. Skippy and Jif both have a line of natural peanut butter without a whole lot of additives.
- Canned tuna: Beware of eating this stuff non-stop because of high levels of mercury, but some canned tuna will add much-needed protein to your menu.
- Lentils and split peas: Both of these are high in protein, dirt cheap, and easy to turn into delicious soups.
Fruits and Vegetables
Produce is a very important part of a healthy diet. Without it, you’re at risk for all sorts of deficiency diseases. When shopping once a month, plan to eat your fresh stuff early in the month and then move on to your frozen or canned goods.
- Apples: If the price is reasonable, grab a large bag of apples. This will provide you with some fresh fruit.
- Applesauce: This is a great addition for later in the month when the fresh stuff is gone. To save money, look for large jars of applesauce instead of the little individual packets for lunch boxes. Go with unsweetened applesauce.
- Canned fruit: Get fruit canned in the lightest syrup possible, or fruit canned in juice. Just because you’re broke doesn’t mean you need to eat 10 pounds of sugar per day, right? Canned fruit is a nice addition to pancakes, waffles, or oatmeal. Reserve the juice for baking.
- Overripe bananas: If your store has a last-day-of-sale bin for produce, you may be able to grab some overripe bananas. Get these and take them home for banana bread.
- Carrots: I’m not talking about baby carrots here. I’m talking about those huge bags of grown-up carrots you’ll need to peel and slice yourself. Remember earlier when I told you that you’re either spending time or money? Carrots are a perfect example of that. Peel them, slice them, and keep them in a bowl of water in your fridge for yummy snacking.
- Onions: A big bag of onions will help you flavor up your home cooking this month.
- Garlic: Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy garlic already chopped up in a jar. Grab enough garlic to spice up your food over the course of the month.
- Cabbage: Depending on the time of year, a few heads of cabbage will get you far for very little money. You can use cabbage in coleslaw, salads, soup, or casseroles. You don’t need to get fancy – just go with the plain, ordinary green heads of cabbage if they’re the cheapest.
- Canned tomatoes: My favorite canned good is canned tomatoes. I like to get a variety of crushed and diced ones. These can be used for soups, chili, casseroles, and sauces. Canned tomatoes are a nutritional powerhouse.
- Frozen vegetables: At my local grocery store, I can get bags of frozen vegetables for a dollar each, and sometimes less. If you have the freezer space, this is the way to go. I suggest you grab at least 30 bags of veggies that you know your family will enjoy. Our favorites are peas and carrots, green peas, corn, cauliflower, broccoli, chopped spinach, Brussels sprouts, mixed vegetables, and green beans. With an assortment of frozen vegetables, you can make all sorts of great stuff.
- Whatever is in-season: Every season, there are fruits and veggies that are at their ripest and least expensive. What is in season depends on when your personal financial catastrophe occurs. Here’s an article on in-season winter veggies.
It’s important to get enough produce for 2-3 servings per day at the minimum. I know all the health experts tell you 5-8 servings but you may not be able to swing that. Also, potatoes would really be considered a carb but since you find them in the produce department, I added them to this list.
Dairy
If you consume dairy products on a daily basis, you’re going to still want to consume dairy products when times are tough. (Cream for your coffee, milk for cereal, a beverage for the kiddos).
Generic milk by the gallon is your least expensive way to go for this. You can make all sorts of things from your gallons of milk, like homemade yogurt and cottage cheese. (Instructions are included in the book.) I suggest you put aside enough cash to be able to pick up a gallon of milk weekly. If you don’t already have powdered milk, this isn’t the time to buy it. It tends to be a lot more expensive than fresh milk.
Milk with lower fat can be frozen. Be sure to remove at least one cup of milk from your gallon jug to allow room for expansion. This works best with skim milk. Any milk with fat will need to be shaken each time you use it.
Grab cheese by the block for the least expensive option. Because we really enjoy cheese, I pick up 2 large blocks for a month. I cut each one in half and package them up separately. I freeze 3 and keep one in the fridge. Remember, cheese is a condiment during difficult times, not the main course. You simply cannot afford cheese and crackers for dinner.
Carbs and Grains
I know this is a wildly unpopular ingredient these days, with all the low-carb and keto diets out there, but grains are the great stretchers of your pantry. You can take one serving of leftover chili and feed your entire family with it when you mix it with rice and perhaps a little bit of cheese.
Buy your grains in the biggest packages possible for the most savings. Forget about “instant” anything – these items are often totally stripped of nutrition, and again – you are spending time, or you are spending money. Here are some of the grains to look for:
- Brown rice
- Pasta
- Oats
- Quinoa
- Barley
- Flour
- Cornmeal
There are lots of other grains, but these are inexpensive, versatile, and easy to work with.
And don’t forget the humble potato. A couple of bags of potatoes can get you through a rough time. Potatoes are filling, can be cooked in a lot of different ways, and most folks love them. Leave the peel on for added fiber. Store them in a cool, dark place away from onions for the longest life. Even when they’re sprouting eyes, you can eat them though – just cut out the sprouting parts.
Basics
To turn your raw ingredients into meals, you’ll need a few basics, too.
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Yeast (if you are going to bake bread)
- Spices
- Sugar, Syrup, Honey
- Fats (Cooking oil, shortening, butter, lard, etc.)
- Vinegar
- Salt and pepper
How much should you buy?
This is the tricky part. How much to buy has a lot of variables and only you can identify them.
- What do you have on hand?
- How big is your family?
- How hungry is your family?
- How picky is your family?
- How long do you expect the budget to be tight?
The best option is to do some meal planning before you go shopping. This should help you identify how much you need for main meals. Don’t forget to add extra for lunches and snacks!
Getting through a rough spot
I know it’s scary to face financial problems, but you will get through this. I know it feels like the rug has been yanked out from under you. But the way you handle these difficult times is the way you will handle a disaster that is even more serious and long-term. Your determination to get through it means everything and I hope that my book can provide you with some of the tools you need to make it happen. Please don’t be shy – I really want to help. I’ve had tough times myself and I know how awful it can be. If I can make it easier for you, I’d be honored.
I know you can do this.
In the comments, does anyone have suggestions for other cheap and thrifty ingredients that folks on a limited budget should pick up?
Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.
Daisy is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her websites, The Organic Prepper and DaisyLuther.com She is the author of 4 books and the co-founder of Preppers University, where she teaches intensive preparedness courses in a live online classroom setting. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter,.
Great article & reminder. Years ago my wife and I had to crawl out of a debt hole. Your ideas work. We ate like that for many years.
Great article Daisy. Also, people should consider cutting back on their portion size, chewing their food longer, and eating slowly. Vitamin & mineral supplements are NECESSARY. If your body has the nutrients it needs you will not crave food.
Saliva actually activates many nutrients so that you get more of what you need from food that is NOT as nutritious as it has been historically .
Americans eat too much. Try eating only twice a day. Late morning (brunch) and evening. I do. It maintains my weight at a healthy level and I am never hungry because I take a vitamin & mineral supplement every day, and with every meal.
Rarely do I ever want to eat or drink the bad stuff. That desire is just not there anymore and I attribute that to the supplements. 🙂
Non conventional sources:
-Fishing, trotlines.
-Hunting, bow, cross bow, silent. Poaching is prime hobby for poor folk.
-Traps. Build them yourself. Set many more than you think you need. Check them all 2 o 3 times daily.
-Fresh road kill. Favorite hobby of Montanna. Get it fresh. (There have been gun fights over road kill elk. Really. Fist fights common.)
-Dogs, cats, neighbors you don’t like provide. Not your own.
-Many cities and churches have stocked food pantries and soup lines for homeless. No time to be proud when your babies are hungry.
-Shoplifting. Babies eat always. No exceptions.
(My education: I’ve never done this myself. I worked in store as school kid and saw people do it. I would only turn in the morons stealing high dollar red meats so they could re sell. (I tackled a few in parking lot, waiting on cops arrival. In old days men could be men. Manager was grateful. Not firing us as would likely happen today.)
The young single mothers and those boosting baby food, diapers. I never saw nothing. Never said nothing. Free pass.)
All the above other methods have kept me well fed and healthy at various times and through challenging times. Few more that I don’t want to give away to johnny law.
But when it comes to feeding your children.
Be open and creative to non standard moral boundries. I say this, “mine will always eat.”
Best method is learn from the squirrel.
Store food for future use while available.
Be ready for lean times and famine.
Coupons. Store coupons can feed you something. There are online sources now.
Garden, keep chickens, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, good poor man feed your family crops. Learn skills Now.
Build or gather traps and fishing trotlnes now.
Learn and practice the bow and cross bow Now.
All i’m willing to give up. But there are other ways to eat.
good luck
GREAT IDEAS!
bro, you need to do some research on depression era hunting and trapping.
There wont be anything to hunt/trap after a year or so. Same for roadkill. Texans ate everything that moved in the 30’s, nearly wiping out the rodent population. Think hunting is feasable, then you’ve nevr been out on opening day of deer season where its too crowded to hunt.
And are you seriously suggesting eating the neighbors or did I misread that..?
Dogs, cats, PROVIDED by your neighbors that you don’t like.
Clearer now?
But read russian history.
Read the true face of communism.
Good people did dispicable things to live. For thier children to live.
Everyone here must read this book:
(Your teenage children must read this book to be considered educated.)
Book: was on amazon
——————————————–
“Execution by Hunger. The hidden Holocaust”
by Miron Dolot
——————————————–
exerpts–
Seven million people in the “breadbasket of Europe” were deliberately starved to death at Stalin’s command. This story has been suppressed for half a century. Now, a survivor speaks.
In 1929, in an effort to destroy the well-to-do peasant farmers, Joseph Stalin ordered the collectivization of all Ukrainian farms. In the ensuing years, a brutal Soviet campaign of confiscations, terrorizing, and murder spread throughout Ukrainian villages. What food remained after the seizures was insufficient to support the population. In the resulting famine as many as seven million Ukrainians starved to death.
NWO communist/Dems have same and worse planned for you.
Remember how many lying phony articles here said that Venezuela’s problems were because of Communism. Well I said over and over that was a flat out lie and that US and Western economic sanctions were to blame for Venezuela’s economic troubles. Again I am right, and this again is confirmed by Dave Hodges of the Common Sense Show. Read what he just said.
Dave Hodges – I want to clearly point out that the Venezuelan economy and diminishing food supply was the original work of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Obama. I previously covered on The Common Sense Show, that Clinton blackmailed Venezuela’s neighbors to cut of trade and mostly stop any shipment of food. Clearly Clinton was using food as a weapon against Venezuela. It is my belief and the belief of some of my sources that Trump inherited this problem is trying to make the best of a bad situation.
In October of 2018, the BRICS connection is undeniable and it has the Chinese fingerprints all over this. Within the past several months, I have covered how the Chinese have partnered with BRICS member, South Africa to take farmland from white farmers and split the mineral resources from the land. Does the Chinese oil treaty with Venezuela foretell China’s intention to defend Venezuela against American imperialism? As I have discovered, the BRICS and the Axis of Unity are basically one in the same organization and their organizational intent is identical, the destruction of the United States.
As a reminder, the BRICS are nations who are dedicated to overturning the use of the American “Petro” dollar as the World’s reserve currency and replace it with gold-backed sales of oil. This deal was first cemented by Russia, the buyer of oil, and Iran, the seller of the oil. This conflict underlies the Federal Reserve’s desire to effect a series of regime changes in the Middle East, most notably Syria and Iran. Link: ht tps://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/americas-enemies-are-coming-into-clear-focus/
***See folks listen to what I say, not these Low IQ articles here propping up CIA Propaganda to demonize Venezuela’s Government. Its NOT about Communism, but how the US and Western influence destroys nations from within economically. And all for what? OIL and POWER and GREED, and that’s it. Don’t be a fool, get the facts..
Nope. Venezuela’s problems are due to Communism, and you know it and everyone knows it and you know everyone knows it, you pathetic lying fool. Now drop dead and go burn in Hell with your buddies Hugo Chavez and Kim Jong Il and Karl Marx and Josef Stalin, you sociopathic goose-stepping rectum-sucking Commie-Nazi traitortwat.
Drop dead, Chavista propagandist.
So are you advocating for Venezuelan politics. Well I can tell you this, I was there about 10 years ago and you can blame the Venezuelan people for the situation they are in. The people wanted free stuff and voted for the person who said they would give them free stuff. They gave up there means of self defense, they gave up their freedoms and they gave up the rights, to an official “Chavez”, who promised them free stuff. They did it to themselves, lets not blame this on any one else. Hitlery or Abozo. They did it to themselves and if we are not careful, here in the US, we will head down that same road ourselves, and then who we going to BLAME.
Socialism is fatal disease. As are American politicians (both elected & deep state). So if you have Cancer and AIDS at the same time they BOTH destroy you…Just because Hillary and the deep state may have been (or are) screwing with that Latin American seethole doesn’t make socialism any less suicidal.
2018???? this started in 2010 with Chavez and his self proclaimed “economic war”. He though he had the oil money backing his socialist state and he could blame other countries for the shortages and lack of material when suddenly shale oil hit and tanked the market. Suddenly there wasnt enough revenue to feed his own people, much less keep a socialist state working.
stop thinking the BRICS are benevolent nation states, by the way.
Great article! Plus, I’m happy to say that I just bought your book “The Flat Broke Cookbook: Thrifty Meals and Shopping Tips for Tough Times” for inexpensive meals and shopping tips.
In order to make it through the tough times ahead we will all have to be frugal and make do with less. I just read that many people in Cuba have money, because they work in the tourism industry, but the shelves are empty, so there is just nothing to purchase.
This is a soup from WWII when fresh food was hard to get in Maine. It’s the recipe my grandmother taught me, in person, while on leave at Christmas.
One can of evaporated milk
One can of creamed corn (she like Delmonte)
One onion, diced
One or two potatoes (peeled or not, cut into cubes)
Sauté the onion with whatever oil / butter / lard / bacon grease you have. Once they are soft add potatoe and water to cover and cook until soft. Add the evaporated milk and creamed corn at the end until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.
I like using bacon or a piece of smoked ham in this soup. If you live on the coast this is an excellent chowder base for clam chowder or any other firm fish.
I make mine with low-sodium chicken stock, now.
This makes enough for me to eat for three or four meals, so this is enough for a family of 3 or 4. It won’t be gigantic portions, but it’s filling and warm and easy to make. You only need one medium sized soup pot.
Corn chowder,,,
Good stuff!
Due to the Government Shutdown:
*The FED EBT Government Snap program will be sending recipients 2 months payments on January 20th, instead of just January. Both Jan and Feb payment will be paid in Jan. Watch the run on food come the 20th of the month when people go all buy up 2 months of food on the same day to make sure their cards work.. Also…
*About 2500 stores across the country are no longer able to take EBT payments because their licenses lapsed during the shutdown and cannot be renewed until the government resumes. 43.6 million people rely on food stamps.
I guess they shouldn’t so many kids they can’t feed huh? There was an old woman who lived in a shoe……
To be fair, Genius, some people have kids in better economic times. It’s only LATER that they run into trouble.
good points, both of you.
because you know, they use all those food stamps for food, not selling or trading them
pff.
shadow economy of the poor neighborhoods is about to take a hit. alternative- steal shit from the “haves” ie you and I.
Philosopher Deplorabilis, thanks for this recipe it’s great timing. I just bought four cases of creamed corn and I’m looking to add more. Plus, always looking for good and easy potato recipes.
Yeah absolutely. That’s chowder-base. Say you lived by the sea, then any kind of common shellfish like limpet could go in there and have a side of seaweed or bull kelp. You could debeard some river mussels and cook them and add that too.
Try seaweed salad (wakame)sometime. That is delicious in my opinion.
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Glad everyone enjoyed the recipe!
My grandmother was an amazing woman. She could do everything and never complained. I remember her butchering a chicken for Sunday dinner. She made fried chicken, fresh bread, fresh lemon meringue pie, and there would have been fresh biscuits or rolls, too. After all that she would sit in her rocking chair and do fancy work: anything from an afghan to embroidery to tatting (which she also taught me) to crochet on the edges of her pillowcases and top sheet.
Evaporated milk is often overlooked these days, but is a good prep item as it is shelf stable.
If nothing else, you can cook the neighbor’s little yappy dog.
And for about 25 bucks you can make 3 gallons of 100 proof shine! Much less than the liquor store! Pick berries and make wine super cheap too! Just because yer broke don’t mean you have to be sober! 😛
Recipe for cheap ass sugar shine:
Mix 10-12 pounds sugar with warm water to the 4 gallon mark on a 5 gallon bucket. Let cool to 95 degrees. Add 7 teaspoons fermax yeast nutrient and mix then add 2=3 teaspoons of distillers yeast. When fermenting stops run it in yer still normally and there ya have it! Add flavorings to make shnapps etc. Root beer extract is very good and cheap too just sweeten to taste with more sugar. Every good prepper needs about 400 lbs. of sugar, 2 pounds of distillers yeast, 8 pounds of fermax, 1 gallon of various flavorings. Basic still setups are under 200 bux on ebay with NO paperwork. HOP TO IT!
And buy some silver while yer at it too!
Why are you still reading this? Hurry up Dammit!
One should never confuse construction materials(in this case paint thinner)with drinking alcohol!
bah. spend the $ on food/ammo/warm clothes, unless you’re a drunk and cant live without it.
Priorities.
How much water? Do the potatoes get drained before adding the other items?
Use enough water or stock to cover the potatoes plus a little bit (for evaporation while cooking).
No, you don’t drain the water. Potatoes have natural starch and that’s help thicken the soup. Same for the creamed corn.
Once the potatoes are tender, reduce the heat to low and stir in the creamed corn and evaporated milk. Keep on low or the sugars in the corn and milk will burn! Not good! It only takes a few minutes until the soup is heated through, then serve.
I like adding cheddar cheese. Crackers of any kind would be good. Or bread. Pretty much anything to make a meal. Salad and garlic bread and you’re done!
Thanks for asking for a clarification. I’ve been cooking 30 years now and forget some of the basics!
I only add grated cheese after the soup has been served and is in a bowl! Don’t add to the pot it’s impossible to reheat and will turn into a clumpy mess!
Same for crackers. Those are for on the side, once the soup has been dished up. People can pick their own topping: cheese, crackers, hot sauce. chiles, bacon bits. Whatever you have on hand and what suits your taste.
Do you think your chowder recipe would go well with Surströmming?
Don’t they have Amazon in Cuba? I hear Amazon will bring your groceries to your door with drones.
Top Romin noodles were invented in Japan after WWII when all the Japanese were starving. The cheap noodles stayed off starvation for the Japanese. There are dirt cheap, super easy to cook, and are OK tasting.
Load up.
Buckwheat is a poorman’s grain. Buckwheat is grown to penetrate the soil deeply, and then either till under or harvest it. So after you di that, you end up with better soil and your plants get nutrients and water more easily.
The buckwheat is gathered and ground and then it makes a fine flour for making “soba” noodles. It’s a rapidly cooked noodle and eaten by millions every day as it the most common soup and heavier than ramen.
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Buckwheat is a very valuable staple food, eastern European and slavic peoples got strong on it, much like Scots got strong on oats. It should not be despiseed, rather, Americans should learn to grow and eat it. American ordinary folks have much more in common with Siberian folks than with the multi million tech gurus and popes wanting to “guide” our civilization in the direction they like.
i like to improve top ramen by adding a few pieces of leftover meat, like ham, steak, spam….
Romain noodles have zero nutrition. Its just filler of stuff.
Empty calories, zero nutrition. Correct. It’s typical industrial food, with enough taste added to make it addictive. If you had to subsist on Ramen you would quickly develop severe diseases such as Beri-beri which orientals often got in the 20th who had not much else besides white rice.
So the Japanese didn’t know about noodles before WW II?
Sounds strange, in view of the fact that the Chinese have had noodles for many centuries.
You and your doomed children are going to have to learn to grow your own food NOW…..OR YOU WILL DIE!!!! it is that simple.
This is just one of many videos I do on our “AHRENS PERMACULTURE SUSTAINABLE FARMING” YOUTUBE CHANNEL that will help you and your COWARD AMERICAN family survive the COMPLETE DESTRUCTION COMING for damned and doomed New Babylon America!!! The Lord and I still loved the damned and doomed dumbed down toxic dump American COWARDS and their doomed children, so we will still do all we can to save the AMERICAN COWARDS from Satan and complete destruction!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJ6m4g8YoQ
Thanks for the insults. I bet you have a lot of influence on folks with that testimony. Bond Servant? More like Arrogant Jackass.
Kudos to my fellow, arrogant jackasses and religious nut jobs.
On a good day — the best day — can we expect useful, social support, from anyone complaining. 🙂
“Thanks for the insults.”
Be tolerant, he is actually trying to be nice and do you a favor.
Your videos might… and I say “might” with a grain of salt…. be worth watching except for the fact that you are a religious nut job. There is obviously no walk with Christ in your life, just self righteous indignation.
I think that you would put up with the facial-tattooed, cannibalistic, Queequeg character from Moby Dick, if he had something you want.
he MAY even put up with nancy…..
good info. is still good info.
i don’t care from what source, long as it works.
besides, i’ve been called much worse.
some of what he says is correct.
some times medicine is bitter, not sweet.
Amerikkans of today are by and large spoiled, complacent, seekers of pleasure, seekers of entertainment, soft, self intitled. They live in a false media narrative, fake reality. World of make believe electronic screens, cell phones. What will they do if lights out? Do they have skills, tools, knowledge, to take care of themselves? No.
“Virginia, there is no Santa Clause.”
Snowflakes, government daddy is not there to save you.
You are on your own. You and God. If you want God to feed you. He might. But you better stock up, learn to fish, trap, hunt. Garden and small livestock most important.
Religous nut, rude, crude, crass? Maybe. But he is also correct.
My dad said, “son. listen up. or pay the price. your hide. won’t be mine. so listen up boy.’
dad was nearly ALWAYS right. yes, i paid the price. now i listen up.
same for you.
God gave us all a path. try to follow or not. only you pay the price. your hide. now i listen up. already paid price of listening to you wise guy worldly ways types. no more following ways of your technology world.
tech is the beast control, surviellance, kill system. avoid all AI-5G-Tech. avoid it all. cell phone and 5g, AI, Robots, are all here to kill you. listen up or pay price. your life.
gardening potatoes
chickens
rabbits
goat
tools, ammo, medical goods, clothing
water
are you ready?
He makes a good point (but his presentation needs work LOL) that I/we “are going to have to learn to grow your own food NOW…..OR YOU WILL DIE!!!! it is that simple.”
There is just no way to store enough food for a really long term SHTF emergency. Subsequently, growing a staple food will be required in order to survive.
Are potatoes the best SHTF crop? My brother and I plan to find out this year. I have a small back yard, but it should yield enough potatoes to feed a family of 4 for at least 1 year.
Hundreds of lbs of potatoes can be grown in black plastic bags. Video on youtube. 🙂
Justice,
I would be sincerely interested in how that turns out (this is the SHTFPlan after all)… and please share with us the method you use to grow them.
Stuart, will do. My brother is going to grow them the regular way (till and plant straight in the ground) and I am going to try raised beds and using tires. My back yard is shady, so it will be interesting to see how they do in that environment.
We would like to try different methods of fertilizing. One being “natural” compost (apparently saw dust/or maybe peat moss and used coffee grounds) and the other being 5-10-10 fertilizer.
I am hoping that this will give me “food security”. Also, as someone on here pointed out (many thanks) potatoes are a great stealth crop. Most people could not tell the difference between a potato plant and a weed.
Oh Dear Jesus…YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE FERTILIZER…Please, please, please learn about Permaculture and Hugleculture and you will understand why the PSYCHOPATHS sell you that man made fertilizer INSANITY. problem for you will be also, when the PSYCHOPATHS cut the power there will be no Home Depot to buy the
Dear Jesus, stop, stop, stop with the man made soil killing microbe murdering 5-10-10 “fertilizer”. For the love of God, his soil, and his creation-Grow with PERMACULTURE and HUGLECULTURE techniques, which is the way the CREATOR grows food and EVERYTHING ELSE, and you will have no need of man made soil killing microbe murdering “fertilizer” chemical horror. By the way-How are you going to get that UNSUSTAINABLE soil killing microbe murdering man made 5-10-10 fertilizer chemical horror when the PSYCHOPATHS cut the power??????Home Depot will already be looted and gone….LEARN HOW TO COMPOST, AND USE HUGLECULTURE RAISED BEDS FROM NATURAL MATERIALS YOU CAN FIND ALL OVER THE FOREST(leaves, sticks, logs, grass clippings, food waste, coffee grounds, etc, etc)-THAT IS ALL YOU NEED, PERIOD, END OF STORY, EVERYTHING ELSE IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME LIKE BUYING 5-10-10 MAN MADE MICROBE MURDERING CHEMICAL FERTILIZER!!!!
i HEAR you can grow a LOT in a 5 gallon bucket. put a few eyes with dirt in bottom, when they start growing, add more dirt and eyes, and keep going until the bucket is full to top. i suppose it takes a few days in between, to get sprouts above ground.
buttcrackofdoom, interesting. I have two large planters that I am going to use. Now I will also try 5 gal buckets. God knows if the SHTF long enough I will have 100’s of those available to use!
i THINK it was here i first heard of it….google it to get a better description/how-to than i gave…..but i think you get the idea.
Maybe, but I am certain they will recognize a potato when they see one.
Kids 14 and older? need to get odd jobs, like both bros did circa ’60’s and help out. Teens today are sorry, lazy and self absorbed-selfish losers. Don’t breed ’em if ya can’t feed ’em,, put ’em in foster care, or boot 18 and over ones out on their own.
Thank you. Truer words were never spoken.
Better yet, sell them for medical experiments! 😛
Good subject, but $400.00 a month for food plus necessities isn’t flat broke just limited.
A large bag of baking soda from Costco with some coconut oil and food grade hydrogen peroxide diluted to 3% makes toothpaste that is free of nasty chemicals.
Teeth can be brushed with plain water as well.
Clothes can be washed without soap.
People only need fresh water to clean themselves. Soap and shampoo can be eliminated from the budget without much of a problem if you bathe, shower, or wash vigorously with a wet towel.
Why though? I can get all that stuff at 99 cent store for a buck.
Toothpaste included.
When bathing, use a little baking soda and water on the important stinky parts and…
you won’t stink. 🙂
it works great–try it!!
baking soda is fairly cheep in bulk
Grandee: thanks, I got a stinky hubby! Get a body powder w/ baking soda (read ingred.) and use it after showering.
Ordinarily sweat doesn’t stink. It’s the bacteria, often proprionic bacteria that smells. Your standard coping mechanism is apple cider vinegar (with mother) as that has bacteria in it which competes with the proprionic and the acid also makes it a hostile environment. That dries and then vastly reduces any smell. That is the same mechanism for killing mold and fungus as well.
When you start to fast on a diet of produce, then stinky sweat often comes out in the first seven days. Then passes. Some sort of toxins are released. So when starving then that is one thing that can happen.
Your stinky hubby will be glad to hear you got one.
In the past, ancient peoples used to collect urine to make ammonia which was a basic ingredient for cleaning products. Nature provides for everything!
I buy a gallon of fancy shampoo that lasts me two years. Maybe longer.
Never thought about washing clothes without soap. I buy large containers that last month’s.
I do hang many things to dry in my second bathroom over the tub (I have four adjustable shower curtain rods that I put over the top that are heavy and stable). I only use my dryer, most of the time, for sheets and towels. Everything else pretty much hangs to dry.
honeypot: in the deep south you DO use laundry soap, lots of sweating down here!! Showering: small amt soap needed, people again, do sweat in 90 plus heat.
Lot a salt in those ramen noodles….eat them sparingly.
use the little flavor packet for flavoring a BIG pot of soup with lots of left over veggies and meat
use the ramen noodles, broken up, as part of the carbs in your BIG pot of soup
Could be plenty of MSG in those packets. Alternative is buy fine egg noodles, labeled NON GMO. Buy chicken and beef flavored bouillon with NON GMO and it would be a lot healthier. Also learn to make dumplings in gravy, Knefla (recipes online), and add flavorings. Dough recipes were used frequently by the German settlers and the Ukrainian settlers.
Also LOADED with MSG. A major cause of migraines.
true. but when starving…
No workieee…..no eateee. Starve to death then.!!!!
Rice, eggs and Spam.(breakfast)
Rice, beans, and Spam.(dinner)
Rice, milk, sugar, and cinnamon.( desert)
Get the idea?
A mix of Hawaiian and depression era foods.
Speaking of depression era foods, look at this video.
This lady is dead now, but she made a number of videos about cooking during the depression.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51VhG8MKxJY
used to watch her cook! she was awesome!! sorry to hear she passed!!
Roots, dried at low temps for a cureall remedy, roasted for coffee, and used in stews. Flowers in baking. Familiar weeds, etc, are also used to cleanse the insides of small animals, being kept for slaughter.
Pipinola,,,
Here in the islands i suppose folks could starve,, i can find all sorts of stuff to eat even on the side of the road,
Rice pudding,,
If i was in real bad straights, i would head for the remote coastline areas, lots of caves and shelter, and there is tons of food in the ocean, we have a stretch of coast on the SE side that would be ideal for disappearing, the farther east i go there is fresh running streams too with all sorts of aquatic life, i cant understand why a person would head for town and hang with the other homeless if they were down and out, personally i would go Robinson Crusoe before i would wander around in a populated area.
OK, so the wife is working to pay the daycare instead of staying home, who’s got time to shop, just pick up some fast food on the way home. We can’t possible eat “poor peoples food”, what will our neighbors say? Do these idiots not have any backup plan, or will they always look around for someone else to save them. Personally I hope the whole thing falls. I cannot believe that government workers have absolutely no savings, no relatives to borrow from, no balances left on their credit cards, no home equity lines of credit available. Either its a big fake sob story (and by the way these folks WILL get paid, just later on), or a large portion of the country appears to be dumber than a stump..
Liver n whole eggs. Two of the most nutritionally dense foods. Good for offsetting processed nutritionally deficient foods.
Never forget the potatoes either.
Considering its function, liver was always akin to eating an oil filter to me. Never could understand it.
Liver tastes like an oil filter. My dad loved liver, but only when it was swimming in butter and fried onions.
The liver produces invaluable enzymes otherwise metabolism wouldn’t work. Metabolism is the most important aspect of biochemistry.
If you can, use calves’ liver as the flavor is milder. You soak the liver in milk and this pulls out that bad taste. Then typically you add a little egg and dip that in flour, salt, and herbs. And fry that in a little oil.
Our ancestors didn’t waste nothin’.
Cow’s liver is not as edible and not as healthy as the liver’s other function is as a major filter for the blood.
rellik,
I can’t argue with that. ANYTHING tastes good swimming in butter and onions!
and if all else fails…..SMOKE the muhfugguh!
BTW….let’s not forget…..there’s a LOT of people out there that probly don’t NEED to eat…..for quite a while….
Try Tut Ankh-Amun’s mummy.
Alpha wolves tend towards organ meats. Some argue because its the softest and easiest to access. If you look into organ meat nutrition it should be clear that there is a definite plus over skeletal muscle. Liver is high in Vitamin A. Lungs, Vitamin C (questionable why wolves would want as most mammals other than us and guinea pigs make plenty vit C themselves other than lots of nutrients are absorbed better in presence of Vit C).
There is also Glandular Theory to take into consideration where if you have a bad heart, eat heart. The theory holds that you can eat for the needed building blocks of a weak organ.
Alpha wolves need to maintain dominance in order to breed as almost always it’s the alphas that do.
Nutrition is paramount to remain in charge and healthy in their world as in ours.
Wolves also eat the predigest (stuff the other prey had in its stomach and intestines.) If a rabbit was kind enough to let itself be caught, it could be kind enough to allow the nutrients it was extracting from plant matter to be predator friendly and even desired.)
I love liver personally. Heart, never had only because I don’t want to work with the densest muscle in a body and not get it tender.
A good diet can replace the need organ meats, but if times are tough, can one put together a diet good enough without them when they are available?
F%$# surviving. Thrive if you can.
I grew up eating liver and onions in sauce. Loved it!
I have also had fresh venison liver and heart, quick grilled over a wood fire: nothing better! The best way to eat heart is when it is fresh.
I don’t know if my grocery store (Kroger) even sells fresh liver anymore.
Fresh deer heart on a woodfire in a skilet is GREAT. People don’t know because they find the idea too much to handle.
I have only had it one time. I’ll never forget that meal! It was amazing!
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Most people are very surprised how much they like it. It’s better than the “backstrap” which is the next thing that is harvested.
In my opinion, these wild creatures allow you the rare opportunity to taste wholesome meat as it used to be before commercial farming rather ruined things. That was inevtable due to overcrowding. Free ranging is essentially coping Nature and how animals live in the wild EXCEPT that animals will starve in the wild which culls the weaker ones.
Theres a reason the call that crap offal,, cause its awful,,
the awful offal 🙁
Our ancestors ate most offal but with varying degrees of being edible. The one offal I would just toss is TRIPE as that is disgusting. I have never eaten tripe prepared in any way that was not revolting. I would rather eat garden slugs that had been boiled then eat tripe.
The casings for sausage and chiterlings are from intestines. But the job is so NASTY that I doubt you mess with it. It’s too much risk.
Brain sandwiches are still served here in some old diners but honestly, that is not a great idea.
Most generally you eat the heart, liver, sometimes the kidneys, and the rest might be chum when fishing or catching crawdada in a wire basket, or a fishing trap, or a crab basket.
A little offal might get mixed in sausage, but see as above as casings will be a problem.
The reason you don’t eat brains is prion disease either mad cow or kuru. A prion is very strange as it’s not a microbe but a misfolded protein. This misfolded protein disrupts other protein folding and so creates a cascade effect.
It’s unsafe and generally country folks eat brains fried so it’s just a survival coping mechanism to gain fat calories.
htt ps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion
Any crazy person during a collapse who considered eating longpig is likely to end up with a prion disease as has happened in New Guinea among the head hunters.
Wrong analogy about the liver.
The kidneys are your oil filter.
Think of the the liver as a chemical reactor vessel that also has the ability to send out other chemicals to remote places.
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It’s not a filter. It changes, transforms molecules into other molecules. It’s a chemical plant.
Eggs: Eggs are a very inexpensive and healthy source…….
James Townsends, a historical re-enactor did a video on historical food preservation for chicken eggs.
Shows how people in the 1700s and 1800s perserved eggs. Back then egg producing chickens only laid eggs seasonally, not year round like today (genetically modified chickens).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUYgguMz1qI
John Stiner, I love this guys channel. He is REALLY “Old School”!
Jas Townsend and Son’s Lemon Cream is outstanding.
I tried with limes as well but limes are too mild for the recipe. It needs to be lemon.
According to my farmers’ market egg supplier, year-round egg production is the result of artificial lighting, not genetically-modified animals. She lets her hens rest during the winter, so they produce for more years.
I once bought a laid-out veteran hen from her, as a “stewing chicken”. Apparently, simmering it for just one whole day wasn’t enough to make it tender!
Back in the 19th century people used “water glass” to preserve eggs. Look it up.
I love broccoli but the store bought frozen variety is mostly stems and thus should be called broccoli stems on the packaging. False advertising.
If you had nothing but:
Rice
Lentils or pinto beans (but they need more soaking)
Powdered milk
Multivitamins
Sugar
Flour
Oil
…then your family could survive. It’s that simple. That inexpensive diet is how they feed refuges in refugee camps. You would supplement that with wild edibles like wild violets and dandelion and catch a rabbit or squirrel to have a little meat once a week.
And you would make it. It’s not rocket science.
If you can learn 20 wild edibles like plain old white clover blossoms which helped the Irish to survive,then you can make it.
When those maple seeds are soft and tender, the kind that spin when they fall that every child plays with, those “samaras” are an edible treat.
ht tps://www.ediblewildfood.com/blog/2013/01/maple-tree-seeds-survival-food/
There is food everywhere, but most of it is very low in calories. Learn the exceptions that are abundant like acorns. Learn the sugar sources like maple and birch syrup.
Thanks!!! Great article!
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96lKTwGxyUc
Americans used to eat chicken gizzards and the South Koreans still eat them. Poultry have crops and gizzards to help them digest as they lack the teeth that mammals have.
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO9rME1iHbw
Most generally you want to “brine” chicken which improves the flavor and permeates the flesh. It’s just water salt and a little vinegar. Some fussy people like dark meat better when it’s brined. Overall it keeps chicken moist that is fried.
Frying boosts the calories due to oil and is a survival tactic as much as flavor enhancer.
All I do is cook from scratch. I make great beef stew where I cook the meat in a small pressure cooker. I found we like chicken thighs more than chicken breast. I dice up chicken thighs and use them in chicken and dumplings. The gravy base is made from the broth and chick pea flour. This is what we’re having tonight! I would suggest investing in a small pressure cooker. I’ve had mine for about 12 years. The secret to the seals longevity is that I always leave the lid open so the seal can breath when not in use. I’ve never read your cookbook, but do you have a recipe for meatballs and gravy…the potatoes are cooked separate, the meatballs are baked and then combined. Yum! (Had that last night)
Yes, I don’t know why people think you have to use chicken breasts as chicken thighs impart a better flavor in some dishes and they are cheaper.
I think if people tried duck or goose recipes, they would get a powerful hankering for eating them regularly. Geese are delicious in stew. It’s making me hungry just thinking about it. Dusk when moist is terrific.
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Duck stew is great with some hearty no kneed bread.
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No Kneed Bread
Mara,
I grew up eating chicken gizzards. They are better than McNuggets.
They were a “treat”. They are hard to find these days.
I have 14 chicken gizzards, but I prefer my daily 1/2 dozen eggs, if you get my meaning.
People are so spoiled now and finicky. If you just served them without telling them, they will like it and never know until later. If you raise kids around that, then they will turn out much better versus crazy standard teenagers.
you hit the nail on the head….americans can’t seem to understand that fat is what gives steak it’s flavor, the blood in dark chicken gives better flavor, and so on. feed it to em in a form they don’t see and they like it. i am often feeding guests things they aren’t used to eating, and most often they end up liking it….stuff that i grew up eating, and we were poor….hell, they won’t even put sumthin’ on the stove….gotta be heated in the microwave, or they aint interested….here’s MY list, taken directly from my pantry….
macaroni
rice
pinto beans
canned fruit like peaches, fruit cocktail, pears, apricots
peanut butter
tomatoes and tomatoe sauce
cornmeal
flour
sugar, brown sugar
tabasco sauce
oats
BBQ sauce
popcorn and seasoning
olives, black
canned chilli
canned soups…my favorite, cream of mushroom
milk, dried, evaporated, and condensed
cake mix, 7up or sprite, and canned fruit…to make cobbler, apple or cherry is MY faves(google that)
canned veggies
honey
syrup
vinegar
shortening/corn oil
soy sauce…teriyake
beef/chicken bullion
baking soda, baking powder, yeast
salt
pepper, garlic salt, chilli powder, chile powder, italian seasoning, cinnamon, ketchup, mustard mayo.
instant coffee, tea..creamer
hard candy, chocolate
tuna, spam(don’t stack it very high)
powdered eggs
well, that’s enough for now….u guys add to it and i will see if i want to add anything to MY stores…remember, this list is like a thousand lawyers chained to eachother at the bottom of the ocean……a place to START…..oh, and i wish eppe was here….don’t forget him
oh, and get yer “joy of cooking” cookbook, you won’t regret it….my stepson made me promise him mine when i die.
most excellent list
looks like mine 🙂
thank you! you have a lot of great contributions too. thank you for that. it’s why i keep coming back.
Grandee is charming as well as knowledgeable.
what…….i aint got no charm?….hee hee….i resemble that remark!
I could do it on 400 right now without even thinking. What is this, a joke or something?
This is a question on a lot of people’s minds right now. Most – if not all – states are paying out February’s SNAP food benefits early to make sure that folks have something to eat during the month ahead.
Oh that’s fucking brilliant.
These cretins are not well know for their budgeting skills, or else they wouldn’t be on the fucking program to begin with.
I predict a huge spike in sales of Oreos, soda, candy bars, fast food, Twinkies, potato chips, and beer. And then much wailing about where’s our money in the month ahead.
please remember that a lot of people receiving assistance for food are the elderly, the disabled, veterans, and children.
Point taken, point taken, point taken… and not my problem.
17 forms of birth control and you still cant figure out what end it goes in or something? Miracle you can even figure out how to HAVE kids.
Ramen noodles breakfast of champions AND DONE!
Also you can get 3 pounds of chicken thighs “for outdoor barbecuing” at Ralphs for like 6 bucks. Last one person almost a week.
Water. As in tap water.
TADA!!!! $96 in chicken + $32 in Ramen. I fed a family of 4 for a month. I’m fucking amazing. $128.
You’re giving me $400 to play with? Shit! I mean ok! I’m rich, a-holes!
Perspective. It’s what’s for fucking dinner. Yes, I’ve had to do this before a few times. It was called MEDICAL EXPENSES. I’m not saying you can live a year like this. But 3 months? Sure.
But you know, I’m raised to believe I don’t “deserve” jack-shit and if I fail I die in the gutter alone so… I MEAN… PERSPECTIVE.
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH7F2b_bpjo
htt ps://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/edible-plants-you-can-find-in-the-wild-or-your-backyard
htt ps://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/surviving-in-the-wild-19-common-edible-plants/
ht tps://www.outdoorlife.com/15-wild-edibles-you-can-forage-for-in-fall
Everything has a season and mostly it’s fall for wild edibles with some in summer. Cultivated plants are the same way : mostly autumn and some in fall.
It takes time to plants to mature. So thieves are going to pay a visit at harvest time…if they survive that long as in poor times, desperate ordinary people become thieves.
Most wild edibles are low calorie and so you are filling in vitamins and minerals. But in autumn there are ones providing more calories and protein and fat.
A lack of fat and sugar makes people twitchy and desperate. That is when they get scared that starving will be persistent and that overcomes their moral restrictions.
fruit….apples and oranges right now…cherries, peaches, nectarines coming in a couple months….pears after that….buy what’s CHEAPEST per pound….and shop the sale ads, buying only what’s on sale(a case or two, or TEN, in my case)….buy a LOT of what’s on sale, and eventually you don’t have to leave the house very often. cherrie pie filling right now at 99c store…..99cents, add a box of yellow cake mix, and a can of 7-up, and you got a great desert….learn to do dump-cake. some stores have sales one day a week..TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM!!
even better – find a produce stand and buy in bulk, then can it.
I buy in bulk thru our church contacts in Texas and Calif. and Michigan. I have enough canned fruit to last over a year. I have even canned mandarin oranges from Calif. Yummy
problem here in calipornia…..produce stands charge a LOT more than shopping at store sales. i miss my old oregon coast younger days…
This was an absolutely great article!
Every one should read and follow its advice whether you are broke or not.
Two stats that, when placed side by side, show how wasteful Americans are:
79% live paycheck to paycheck in America
40% of food is wasted in America
if you are living paycheck to paycheck, WHY are you wasting 40% of your food??????????????????????????????
PERFECT, grandee!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXxzLMXbCQ0
Any 11 year old can make zuchini bread.
2-3 plants will produce an enormous amount of zuchini if you pick them when a little smaller than cucumber sized. The standard beginner’s mistake is they failed to look closely as they start coming in and then find a HUGE woody one that is edible.
Pick simple to cultivate plants like tomnatoes, cucumber, bitter melon, potates, leaf lettuces, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, green beans, etc. Anyone can grow those if they routinely water and watch for pests.
Seeds for growing sprouts and microgreens are super cheap and provide the best nutrition on the planet for literally pennies. You can get a 40 to 50 lb bag of sunflower seeds from Home Depot, Walmart, etc for around $20 and eat the the most nutritious food on the planet for about $0.02 to $0.03 se of 7 Day old sunflower shoots. Sprouts and microgreens are 4 to 100 times more nutritionally power-packed than their full-grown counterparts and are ready to eat in around six or seven days and you can buy other in bulk by the pound on Amazon and seed companies fairly cheap which will majorly impact your health and your pocketbook in an extremely positive way. Started growing them now and impact your health in a positive way and spread the word as this is the most important superfood to be consuming and by far the cheapest for fresh live organic food
Sheep herder, I like your post!!! Thanks! I haven’t sprouted for a long time and didn’t realize Amazon had great deals.
Sprouts and microgreens are the cheapest and most powerful Foods on the planet and should be the Mainstay of our present diet to fight disease and find seeds by the pound very cheaply on the internet and you have superfood sprouts and microgreens grown in six or seven days and seeds to last you for years extremely inexpensively!
Great article. I do what I call back to back cooking. I use any leftovers from one day to create or add to the next days meal.
I forgot to mention…When we cut up the raw chicken thighs for the stew, I take the bones and skin, put them in the pressure cooker for an hour at medium heat. Even the bones are cooked down. I strain the broth from the bones and either put the broth in quart jars for the frig to cook with or I put the cooled broth in containers for the freezer. I also buy wings when they are on sale and cut them up myself. I save the tips for chicken broth! Chicken gizzards and hearts are great when cleaned, (watch for that inner casing and remove it) pressure cooked with a little salt, then pulsed in the food processor for a couple seconds or rough chopped. I combine them with broken up home made biscuits, eggs, sauteed onion and celery and make a dressing.
one suggestion is beer breweries use barley which is a perfect food and they have no use for it after cooking and extracting the sugars from it. it’s free and easily obtained. it’s like oat meal only barley. 10 lbs will go a long way when used either as an addition or straight as a cereal.
There’s a USDA Thrifty Food Plan (easily found on the Internet), which says that you should be able to feed an adult for $42.50 per week (2018 prices). They have a PDF cookbook with two weeks of meal plans and recipes. And it doesn’t require digging dandelion greens out from under the snow. (In truth, I’ve found dandelion greens to be worth cultivating in my Maryland garden. They’re ready for harvest long before any annual crop, especially if given some protection from frozen-leaf trauma, and I add them to omelets. Cooking removes the bitterness.)
Don’t overlook oatmeal for breakfast. Bulk rolled oats are much cheaper than single-serving sweetened packages.
Has anyone tried cooking with grain sold as livestock feed?
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOE5mjaH5r
Bagels are easy but are dunked in hot water first then baked, so it’s just one extra step. And if you didn’t have an oven, you would bake them outside using a dutch oven.
htt ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeJe_uUWU_U
Dutch oven bagels
htt ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfObqgc0TnQ
It is way easier to make Lebanese Mountain Bread or Pita Bread. Realize that firewood may be in short supply if the SHTF and everyone is gathering it. In fact, expect arguments and people stealing firewood out of desperation.
Long cooking times means way way more fuel is needed. You most likely need that wood to heat up your home in winter. In wartime when firewood runs out, people bust up found junk items and even furniture. Your husband is going to be perturbed if family members are wasting firewood that he has to fell a long ways off and haul back just to begin to cope.
Expect dumb people to burn firewood inside without a proper draft. Expect house fires from unattended candles. Some dolt then causes a neighborhood fire and the SHTF and there are no firemen, just neighbors pitching in.
Your other best cooking method is haybox cooking.
htt ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mskk2ZTts
There is also an item called a wonderbox cooker. It’s essentially a stuffed fabric bag that does the same thing as a haybox. But if you don’t have hay, this might be an option. There are various patterns out there. Here’s one to get you started. ht tps://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Wonder-Box-CookerCooler/
what about the zombies?……can’t they SMELL that deeeelishous bread bakin’?
Leaves, roots, and seeds from store vegetables just keep growing, if you’re fastidious.
I literally might have to feed liberal relatives, now.
Everyone says it can’t happen, here. So noone is prepared for March.
Why would you feed them if they haven’t prepared? I have some relatives like that and these are my household rules: you are a guest for three days and three nights. After that you either leave or sign a rental contract. You either pay to live on my property or you perform manual labor.
Yes, I also have a rental contract for the barn that includes a blue tarp and a moving pad.
Why am I such a hard ass? Because liberals have an entitlement attitude and will use you unless you make your expectations crystal clear and, by crystal clear, I mean in writing, they get a copy and you get a copy. That way, when they throw a fit and decide to take you to court you have a legal contract.
My liberal relatives haven’t done anything for me. Zero. I’d have to see a helluva lot of initiative start coming from them and I don’t see that happening anytime soon. None of mine have listened to me about saving money or other basic life skills and they think they could show up at my house and expect a handout? LMFAO. I have some great-nieces and great-nephews I haven’t met, but, based on their parents I doubt they have any skills or are capable of learning or working hard. I’d be willing to give the younglings a chance. My way or the highway. Work or starve.
I have inlaws who will expect me to feed them because they know im always prepared for everything,
They are in for a rude awakening, they will learn how to work in the fields, they will work or they can go, and when they try to come back with yhe authorities, because i made em work, its going to be ugly, i will burn everything rather than be subject to seisure,
I would start telling them now, then. No free ride at your place! I thought I would get a lot of grief for this post, but I’m serious.
Some places you might not need a lease. If you live in a liberal area, you do, just to protect yourself from a liberal snotflake throwing a hissy fit.
Nice to know I’m not the only hard ass here, Nailbanger! Your place sounds like mine! It ain’t the local welfare office, for damned sure!
pfft! if things get bad, they will eat YOU, rather than search elsewhere….you BETTER not forget that…
Phil D:
You might be surprised that many States/Cities have well defined “Tenant’s Rights”
In some cases just allowing someone to stay overnight in your place confers those rights magically upon the visitor.
To get them to leave you have to go through the eviction process which often takes 30 days.
How did we get here….?
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You worry about your relatives, and I’ll worry about mine.
htt ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xs7_EIC5iI
Be careful or you will get a lye (chemical) burn. You are going to quickly run out of things like Bar Keeps Helper or similar cleaning agents.
And, the fumes burn. (Think oven cleaner.) People who use this chem have a very particular sunburnt kind-of complexion.
You take a lot of water, and the tinest amount of hardwood ash like a 1/4 pinch. You get a very dilute solution. Then after wiping off, you pour water your body. That was the typical way a mountain man took a bath.
They would exfoiliate the feet with fine river sand as well.
People talk about making soap, but the problem is generally you are eating all the fat you can find, so it never accumulates. That is why soap was made when people raised animals and they likely had fat rendering going on simutaneously for making candles too. They likely were making their standard lard AND pearl lard for baking at the same time.
The other standard for cleaning was to gather fresh pine needles in a container and pour boiling water over it. Let it steep and cool. Then after a couple days, drain off the needles. That fluid then is for cleaning.
“Fuller’s lye”
The solution feels soapy, between your finger tips, but the soap is you.
They would save actual urine, since ancient times. When the sediment settles, it becomes clear as water, and has the sharp smell of ammonia.
These are caustic irritants with the potential to bleach clothing and kill your plants, in high concentration.
htt ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cd_PjLbBqY
The standard emergency food is grass seed that can easily be found in meadows in summer as the wild grasses “bolt” and go to seed.
BUT it cannot have any black rust on it whatsoever as that is ergot. In history, careless people ate things like rye grass seed that was contaminated which makes you sick, causes a miscarriage, makes you halucinate, just go whacky.
But when starving, you just collect grass seed and add some hot water and get useful calories and protein.
Our ancestors always ran out of regular flour and “stretched it” with this and white clover blossom and cattail root. You can sort of do that with pine cambium but won’t like the taste.
A good way to get sick is eating too much pine cambium which will bind you up.
htt ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATxyhPn6uHY
This is what grass seed looks like when ergot fungus (rust) is growing on it. Avoid any grass seed that is black.
ht tps://wildfoodism.com/2015/04/02/how-to-find-and-identify-morel-mushrooms/
Morels are the only easily identifiable mushrooms that beginners should attempt as others can be quite complicated.
But people have spots that they claim each year (even on publiic land) and get feisty if anybody gets there first. Why? Because they are delicious.
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeQ4_47eaPA
Even this child likes morels whereas lots of kids will refuse even delicious portabellas.
Those who don’t like liver might enjoy this recipe. Cut liver in 1/4″-1/2″ cubes. Dust with flour & fry in oil or fat. Add cut up cabbage, some celery if you have onions & some tomatoes…fresh, canned, soup, or catsup. Add a bit of water to steam veg. Put a lid on & cook slowly until cabbage is soft. Most people have no idea they are eating liver.
Another thing to do is save all your potato & other veg. cooking water. Add to soup, biscuits etc. Lots of vit. minerals & flavour in that water.
What poor folks did during the depression broke down to two things.
1. If they knew how to identify wild edibles, they would teach kids say 10 year olds, and these little guys would get squirrels and rabbits and make fishing traps, and then eat some and trade the rest with a neighbor.
Like when the fiddleheads come in, or go to the blackberry patch, or go pick up walnuts, etc then that fed them, directly or directly.
In wartime, people ate snails and even slugs (which you really out to limit as a slug can eat things which would make you sick).
2. If you could do anything like split wood and bust up kindlin’, you would offer that to get a sandwich for your kids. And then older folks who can’t do it, might feed several of you.
Most likely some older person needs roof gutters cleaned out of debris. Fences need mending. The lawnmower’s rope is broke. Deadwood is all haphazard in the yard. Leaves need raking. Snow is built up on the walks. Firewood needs hauling in. ETC.
Produce goes bad at the grocery, but they know people will go through items they put in the dumpster. A better deal is to ask them if they need some odd job done and take it in trade. Meat goes bad. Cans are dented. Bread is two days old.
Really respectful humble people with their child present will likely get some food versus being a single guy making himself a spectacle and a nuisance.
my wife just happened to standing here when i started reading this and we talked back and forth about some of our lean times and you hit it on the head. we have with our three kids back in the day ate lots of eggs and spuds, hamburger or tuna. still one of my favorite meals is tuna casserole or beans, etc. i thought 400. bucks now isnt bad for a month.
htt ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRwE6ORotWo
A couple of responsible kids with flashlights can go to a swamp and come back with enough frog legs to make a meal. Then they have bait as well.
You could catch crawdads with the bait.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M8keyy82G4
Guys can go for turtles as the water can be deep and they might be snappers…so not something for most kids to try. Only a sharp common sense teenager could do that. The big ones can be very muddy tasting.
If you are flat broke, you are eatin’ anything and everything. Like carp fishin’ which ordinarily people turn up their nose to. Carp like corn as bait.
Gophers and similar creatures were eaten by hobos during the Depression. Anything looks like regular meat in the stewpot where longer cooking breaks down the muscle. Roman soldiers ate lots of critters like roastin’ rats.
There is a funny scene in Oh Brother Where Art Thou where three convicts are grillin’ gophers.
Why grill? Honestly that is wasteful during a collapse as the juices and fat drip which is crazy when starving. That’s your gravy.
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRDVmulu6ww
The best is catching a porcupine which generally people like versus other game. ‘Not too many complainers after going a week without food. The longer you go without, the weaker you get, so a fella coud get so weak he can’t trap or hunt. Then you’re screwed. Within a day of doing without, you have to be scouting for game…and doing it quietly.
A whole porcupine stewed with some roots might keep you alive for a week.
Your goal is to eat like a madman as winter is approaching as there will be no wild edibles and it would be stupid to roam around wasting calories and maybe getting hurt or sick. When winter comes and the SHTF, you are hunkering down.
Who doesn’t have a 20- or 25-pound or even 50-pound bag of rice in the garage? Bags on beans are cheap on sale. Yeah, you have to soak them overnight.
10-bag of flour and butter and you can make biscuits and gravy with milk. Biscuits are easy, drop or rolled. There is no reason anyone should be buying crap biscuits-in-a-can!
I have been poor. In 1989, after moving to a new state, had a few hiccups and spent some time at the Y and ate at soup kitchens. That was for about ten days and it was the last time I was ever in that situation. Later, in college, I volunteered at a local homeless shelter and have given food to the local food bank over the years.
There was a time when most people didn’t eat meat unless it was Sunday. Beans have lots of fiber which most yanks don’t enough without supplementation.
Most people don’t know how to cook, anything. Ever watched “America’s Worst Cooks?” There are some really stupid people out there, folks. Beyond stupid. Most people warm up or reheat food or eat out. The richer you are the fancier the place you eat out at. Even the poor can eat out at McD’s or Taco Bell (if you consider TVP food).
Because a meadow is full of grass seed and insects, rodents will make their home there. This means snakes will be there too. A couple of guys wearing boots will take opposite ends of a field and walk back and forth, row by row, and meet in the middle. The snake will slither toward the middle (if present) and since flushed out, all you need is stick with a fork in the end to push their head against the ground. When they strike, they will aim for your feet and ankles. Only a fool would try this in sandals.
When you do that walking back and forth in an intentional way, this also was how some Native Americans drove grasshoppers to then be collected. If alone by themselves, they walked in a concentric circle…which drives them toward the middle.
Otherwise on a morning when it’s cool, they will be sluggish as they are cold blooded, then again you pin their head with the forked stick.
Naturally hawks will be waiting in trees along the periphery of the field, and they will be excited by you flushing out prey for them and may try to take the snake too.
You remove the head and tack up the snake and peel off the skin in one slow steady tug. They are very bony with many fine bones that the muscle is attached too. The best way is to make a soup so nothing is wasted.
Water snakes are liable to have little fish inside their gut.
The main thing is watch where you leave the head because that will keep moving for a time and it might be venomous. A snake bite often causes necrosis so you must not get bit. Under primitive condition that is a very dangerous situation if the snake is venomous.
When you grill a snake, you are apt to overcook it. You never want to take a critter and then not eat it. The snake is managing the rodent population so therefore when taking it, they will mutiply more until another one moves in. So maybe in a month or so, you do this again.
Snakes like the protection of brushpiles which shield them from a hawk. If there is a meadow and a water source, then they are likely somewhere within.
Snakes are clever hunters and mostly when pursued they will make a straight beeline away from you to evade at the fastest speed. That is unless there is cover. You should fully expect an irate snake to turn back after no longer being pursued and try to bite your ankles. The snake was present as it had water and a ready food source in that area, and will not give that up easily.
I was looking it up and apparently Southeast Asians most frequently eat snake in soup. My guess is for the exact same reason.
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Making pectin
Making apple cider vinegar
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These are both great sincere prepper teachers.
you must be a tippy-tip-top contributor, maranatha…..and it’s very much appreciated!
The only reason I am posting is a lot of would be preppers have got it in their heads that they have to buy everything rather than go harvest it or make it.
When the SHTF, your supplies, like purchased food, is your EMERGENCY food, so you you collect all these food items like gopher and then use that to stretch your supplies.
Otherwise you will run out because when everybody is bustin’ their butt, they eat MORE, not less.
I think things will get very bad as the Democrats are openly satanic like Kamala Harris who says anti-Christian things every day, yet announces her candidacy for the presidency in 2020.
Those upright pro-life Kentucky teenagers have been villified and pilloried on Twitter by satanic scum.
i figger every person i help to get into preppin’, is one more that won’t be bangin’ my door down when the bell rings….
The Turtle Man of Kentucky
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There’s plenty of box and snappers in ponds and lakes. A family of them will come out and line up on a partially submerged log and “sun” themselves.
Country folks traditionally ate turtle and turtle soup in late summer when they matured. The big ones often taste muddy so why bother? Plus the big uns are mean and feisty if snappers. That’s a good way to lose a finger.
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Cleaning a turtle.
This is about as redneck as you can get.
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Zack is a Mainer and won on the Alone TV series.
Believe it or not, there are still people who don’t know the basics about shopping.
1) Shop at the cheapest grocery. This is not the time to be fashion conscious or afraid of “what it will look like” shopping “below your status.”
2) Buy Store Brands, but check unit prices and sales of premium items. They might actually be cheaper for a few days because of specials or company promotions.
3) Buy quantity. Bigger bags are GENERALLY cheaper per ounce, but depending on sales might not be. Read the labels and the unit pricing on the shelves.
4) Pick up and read the store’s sale flyer as you come in. Might have a special on the item(s) you need.
5) Use the newspaper coupons, but only if they actually save you money. Do the math!
6) Don’t shop when you are hungry. And don’t even look at the items next to the check out lines.
7) If possible, don’t bring the kids. Children’s TV advertising is very influential. What parent hasn’t caved?
8) Plan to make lunches for yourself and bag lunches for the kids. That means you need to do a menu plan for the entire month. Focus on nutrition and what the kiddos will actually eat. This is not the time for new items or risking them tossing food in the trash. You cannot afford waste.
9) Plan on a nutritious soup as the focus of every evening meal. You can often find slightly wilted fruits and vegetables, day old breads, etc., that can go into a tasty soup. We keep a “Stock Pot” or “Stone Soup” on the stove bubbling every day and just keep adding yummy bits to it as we go along. Never tastes quite the same twice. Leftovers cannot be tossed. PLAN in advance on how you will use them.
10) Don’t forget to look for Manager’s Specials. Safeway has a section in the meat department where they put even expensive cuts that are close to their expiration date. Usually 30-50 percent off. Many stores have these scattered around the store, not just in one section.
11) The Sell-by date is NOT the Use-by date, esp. for dairy. I often use even soured milk (that has been kept refrigerated but has “turned”) in cream soups, cheese sauces for potatoes, etc., any place you would normally use sour cream. What is soured milk if not sour cream?
So there’s all these critters that our ancestors ate, from Colonial times to even a few decades ago. There are Civil War cookbooks even military ones with recipes for the following.There’s oppossoms, raccoons, gophers, snakes, frogs, various trash fish like catfish and carp, turtles, porcupine, squirrels, rabbits, ducks, geese, deer, doves, etc.
But the issue is not that you can harvest these critters but based on your region, if you start culling them, then many will either perish or leave. If you start taking the mature ones while they have offspring, then those offspring will perish. If you take them when they have matured, then again…those did not create a new generation, so you severely cut their numbers.
But then consider if every Tom, Dick, and Harry starts hunting, trapping, and fishing…just willy nilly, then there will be not only a bunch of loud morons running through the meadows, forests, and hills, but that will drive wildlife further away.
Wild turkeys strut around here, but they will just leave with too much human activity. It can be thick with deer, but they aren’t just standing still waiting to taken, but alter their activity based on human presence.
Many critters are in quiet areas and have made a habitat, and reproduce. But with persistent disruptions and regular firearm use, and abandoning basic self-limiting harvesting, then these bozos will ruin hunting, fishing, and trapping.
Country folks rely upon their own cultivated crops and gardens and livestock, and take these in season. And they know what wildlife there is around them. And they walk the land and take some wild edibles. They don’t just PLUNDER the land, or there won’t be any wild critters. They take ones that threaten crops or livestock due to nuisance or predation.
Personally I think this plundering is a big issue in places like the northeast and the whole Atlantic Seaboard and in California, and probably Texas. If the SHTF, and everyone throws out the game and fishing laws, then these critters will be scarce. Most likely such plundering will flush out critters and drive some inland and many will perish in new habitats due to elements lack of a reliable water source. Or some will perish based on the season and inability to secure a den.
Even in rural Kentucky we can’t or shouldn’t take it all. That’s why black bears are scarce and when the prey is scarce, then wildcats and cougar get scarce and move on away from humans.
Maranata
23 out of 72 posts so far. new record? more to come i’m sure.
Self professed expert on anything and everything under the sun
btw: thank you to poster about chowder recipe. i will try.
Markets about to crash.
are you ready?
new war about to start.
Iran?
are you ready?
everything you believe is a lie.
electromagnetic plasma event-EMCO look it up.
You just don’t get it. You wasted your own comment and posted nothing that is useful, yet criticize my useful posts.
What a dolt. Get with the program.
When the economy is bad, then poaching always increases. Some dolt who never uses their firearm elects to try hunting when they lack a hunting license and tags and shoots just any old time. And maybe they see movement and it ain’t a deer but a another hunter. Or they shoot and the shot fires just over the head of a now very irate farmer or homesteader.
Poachers shoot when they don’t have a clear shot and then the wounded animal just limps along until it dies and it’s a horrible cruel waste as the dingdong can’t find it as he can’t track. It’s most likely thirsty and dies in a creek and fouls the water. I mean obviously deer suffer in winter from lack of food but that kind of situation messes it up for all hunters.
It’s the 19th and allegedly the SNAP reciprients get their last EBT credits. So the groceries should be hammered by last minute shopping due to the government shutdown.
Will there be empty shelves in the short term?
Here is how SNAP credits are usually recharged each month based on case number and thus STAGGERED so groceries arenot SLAMMED all at once.
But instead, since they released SNAP benefits a month early, is it still staggered? Who knows?
Kentucky
Monthly Benefit Issuance Schedule
Date: 09/08/2015
Benefits are made available over the first 19 calendar days of every month, based on the last digit of the
client’s case number:
Case number ends in 0 = benefits available on the 1st of the month
Case number ends in 1 = benefits available on the 3rd of the month
Case number ends in 2 = benefits available on the 5th of the month
Case number ends in 3 = benefits available on the 7th of the month
Case number ends in 4 = benefits available on the 9th of the month
Case number ends in 5 = benefits available on the 11th of the month
Case number ends in 6 = benefits available on the 13th of the month
Case number ends in 7 = benefits available on the 15th of the month
Case number ends in 8 = benefits available on the 17th of the month
Case number ends in 9 = benefits available on the 19th of the month
30 million kids are on school lunch programs and some eat school breakfasts…and nobody is talking about how that will be affected.
23,000 US soldier’s families are on the SNAP program and of course the 80,569 US Coastguard (active plus reserves) already aren’t getting paychecks and so they can’t use either of the other programs.
13.1 million eat breakfast at schools.
Ya I know. Their worthless parents force me at gunpoint to pay for it and the skool too!
I think poor people who never ever used church foodbanks will start doing so meaning these are going to get slammed as will the church clothing closets and programs for single moms like diaper assistence.
The way most churches operate, they do not typically give rent and utility assistence as they would be so covered up that nothing else would get done. The churches allocate funds as a budget item, and these go to a designated nonprofit who largely focuses on that aspect. But most don’t know and so the new folks will waste their time and the churches’ personnel time before finally going to the proper nonprofit. It will be a communication issue and likely to go FUBAR.
You might raise this with your pastor or church governing body to anticipate and respond accordingly to this rather than reacting and being with inadequate supplies and volunteers.
So as above, that’s 43.1 million extra meals through the curtailed school meal program x 5 school days so 215.5 million meals every week that almost surely will target church food banks.
This is all unbudgeted demand so figure $2 a meal for supplies and that’s $431 million per week. There is no way churches can manage that. And that is just public school meals….which is a drop in the bucket.
Well thank god for abortions or it would be 10X worse!
Soup kitchens are likely to get slammed due to much higher than ordinary demand and seniors and disabled people who count on hot meals will learn some ugly truths. Kind hearted Christians might want to visit some neighborhood widows to make sure they are coping okay.
If you are a SNAP beneficiary then getting food today, then some might realize there will be no EBT credits for March so they might ration what they got, and fill in early by using these volunteer services to stretch out the rest. ‘Seems logical.
That means a big demand might begin NOW not later as expected.
htt ps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_reservations_in_the_United_States
One of the affected populations are the 326 Indian reservations across the nation as cuts due to the shutdown are e affecting food and medicine and medical personnel out of the Indian Health Services.
If your church food bank is near these you can expect a big jump in demand.
That’s 800,000 people who are affected.
They can hunt Buffalo at walmart. Theres tons of them there (literally)!
Genius,that tis very distasteful!
About on the level of saying nothing wrong with refried beans in regards to the gas pipe explosion in mehico due to thieves!
The WIC program runs out of money the first of March and that affects 8 million but with the multifactorial issues due to thengivernment shutdown, an estimated 15 million are affected.
Powdered milk and cloth diapers are the way to pinch pennies but contingent on washing facilities and clean water. The latter a huge unacceptable risk in some cities
Thank god for abortion or it would be 10X worse. PAY FOR YOUR OWN DAMM KIDS YOU BUMS!
Not only is Section 8 housing affected, but transitional amd situational housing for the homeless is affected. So any homeless shelters, that operate by including government money in their budget, will have painful decisions about cutting staff and programs and how many clients they can service. That is a huge public health risk in winter time.
This most affects homeless veterans as single guys have the fewest programs they can get in as priority is given for single moms with children.
These guys already have it rough as many are private church run facilities where they do odd jobs and pay to stay in the facility or else the facility would just shut down. Every month these places either go belly up or struggle to keep the lights on. And finding an odd job in winter is unlikely.
If in that situation, some churches operate campgrounds for the homeless. Typically cold water is provided…and there is usually firewood access so standing dead wood is adjacent or on the property. Living in a tent during flu season with inadequate heat and food is a recipe for illness.
One of the issues with college students is they cut corners and suffer in silence by not eating. So they attend some community college and work but have an insecure housing arrangement by doubling and trippling up on roomates. Christians have found frequent issues where they were not utilizing the EBT program or foodbanks due to stigma.
People fall through the cracks and lack a stable parent situation so they are on the edge of homelessness or squat somewhere or are illegally camping or living in their cars.
So what? Makes them tougher. I have been in that situation and I didnt get food stamps. Too damn bad. Quit skool then ya fookin pansies!
Potatoes are a root crop and as such if you live on spent farmland ie it petered out so it was sold off as homestead lots or worse as a suburb, the “hardpan” is a common issue. Basically the overuse of chemical fertilizer created a tough layer and you will not get good root penetration.
You have to dig extra deep to remedy that like the French biodynamic method of double digging. Or you plant buckwheat or rapeseed (canola) and likely till under.
If you have a heavy clay soil, it packs so tight that it also is problematic for root crops. Say carrots will “fork” and be puny.
In that case, you mix in river sand to bust up the clay plates. Mother Earth News ran a homestead in North Carolina, I think back in the late eighties using that method.
So you may be better off using the Mexican potato tower method which is similar to the straw bale method.
People have funny ideas about the nutritional quality of potataoes. Yes, they are important but have limited calories and nutrients and people exagerate their value. Look it up and calculate how many potatoes you would need to get sufficient nutrients for an average guy.
The Irish ran into a major problem as they focused on potato production and that led to issues culminating in the great Irish potato famine.
ht tps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)
(1845-1849)
A whole bunch of folks who live in the suburbs think, “no problemo, I will just make a garden if times get tough…” they don’t realize that busting sod is miserable on heavy clay soil. You can try a good rear tine Troy-Bilt tiller and even that might not be able to bust up the sod. You might have to have a guy come in with a small tractor.
In the old days, some poor farmer was trying to hitch a mule and plow that clay and a greenhorn was liable to get hurt. You would need an ox to get through it and go down deep enough.
Otherwise it means a whole lot of cussin’ and double digging it. You spade it out, then whack a mattock on the subsoil, and then spade that out, then blend the two soils together. Heavy clay is awful because it will form a bunch of clods that are impervious to water. Meanwhile you are mixing in river sand.
A lot of spent farmland in the sububs has very low levels of humus and in a collapse situation you won’t have chemical fertilizer and most likely won’t have animal manure at first. All you have is diluted_urine and that stinks. It will grow your crops though.
You need rabbit manure as that is ideal. Realize if you don’t have a truck and access to cow or horse manure, then how will you haul it to your site??? That is very heavy.
Don’t put this stuff off as it is way easier now then after a collapse. It might take three years before you remedy your soil good enough that it truly is fertile.
htt ps://homeguides.sfgate.com/break-up-clay-soil-gardening-45316.html
ht tps://www.finegardening.com/article/improving-clay-soils
Good luck. Lots of gardeners started off with poor soil. It takes awhile before it’s anything close to loam. That will way down the road.
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This is not a job for soyboys.
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Watch what happens when rain falls on clay soil versus silt or sandy soil. This will really change your watering. When rains on clay soil in suburbs, it runs off and doesn’t penetrate. And then it will pool which will kill your plants.
That’s why you add sand to help it drain. That’s why you add manure and later compost, and even till under. You are trying to rapidly create humus so it absorb some water instead like silt
If it’s sandy soil, there is inadequate clay and so it drains too fast.
So when you dig up your garden beds, you have to plan where that water is going to go so this means evening out the surface. Otherwise, it’s going to always flow to that low point.
Muching is going to soak up some of that water and then slowly evaporate to disburse it. Plus that will cut down on weeding. Some people will take old two liter bottles and turn them upside down and the water slowly drains to the soil as poor man’s drip irrigation.
Try this for a start,many articles like it,can be done: ht tps://seasonedcitizenprepper.com/feed-a-family-of-4-for-1-year-for-less-than-300/ ,as always spacing between https to avoid the dreaded “moderation game”,hope this helps folks.
thanks–cool sites
Brushing teeth with water and salt works very well, too. Did it for years when I could not afford toothpaste.
Buy milk, juice, etc in the largest containers possible.
Raw milk can be stored for MONTHS. The adulterated, pasteurized, homogenized, poisoned slop labeled ‘milk’ rots in short order no matter how you store it.
Years ago I learned my source for milk was leaving the business. Since I did not have another source, I FILLED my refrigerator with about 30 GALLONS of milk. I was drinking that milk for MONTHS and it lasted until I found another source.
I have not had a refrigerator in years, but I still buy milk by the gallon, which takes about a week to use. Since I have no refrigeration, I simply put the jugs on a BARE CONCRETE floor (preferably in an unheated room) which keeps the milk from going sour. I do the same thing with juice, and even after 2 weeks a partially used jug of juice is STILL drinkable. Note that I said ‘juice’, NOT that watered-down, poisoned, juice-FLAVORED sugar water labeled as ‘juice.’
Buy cow hearts for meat. They are cheap, tasty, and nutritious. Same goes with tongues, if you can find them.
Chicken gizzards are another low cost nutritious meat, if you can find them.
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When you diet, you immediately get frustrated as the pounds just don’t seem to want to come off. That is a survival mechanism which dampens metabolism to preserve your life.
You prioritize who most needs food, and since the majority of American adults are either overweight or they are obese (a different category that exceed the attribute of being overweight), then those folks can survive quite a long time without as much nutrition.
This typically means kids get first dibs on food and nursing moms.
When you enter a fasting state, there is glycogen in the liver and in the muscles as fast sources of energy. That gets liberated first.
The body needs water to perform metabolism, so the next thing that gets liberated is water weight.
Then the brain affects blood sugar levels as the brain has to maintain consciousness and allow the body to work. If you eat a little something sweet to maintain blood sugar, then you can keep fasting. You probably will start getting headaches though if doing work and fasting.
When blood sugar is high, then the brain won’t have to trigger gluconeogenesis ie it won’t have to make blood sugar rise. The primary way the body makes this is by breaking down muscle. That is very counter-productive during starvation.
Instead when fasting, you want to trigger lipolysis which is the breakdown of fat. That can only happen when the brain sees adequate glucose in the blood. Which is why you eat a little something sweet and probably a handful of almonds.
So when fasting and you have a little something just to keep working, and yet you are rationing to make it last.
Obviously if the power goes out, your priority is to eat what will spoil or go stale first. And it’s better to eat it than waste it, right?
Then realize that any excess protein eaten that exceeds what a person requires, then is excreted by the kidneys and so wasted. A bodybuilder will consume much more proteinas they are trying to gain muscle mass by strenuous daily exercise and switching muscle groups to exercise all muscles but resting them as well to grow and then tear down and then grow.
A normal person during a collapse is not doing that, but trying to maintain muscle, not grow it. Don’t waste protein but eat protein that is frozen and refrigerated as it will go bad.
It actually would be smarter to trade refrigerated meat and get canned meat as eating excess will just be wasted through this excess kidney elimination process.
Obviously preppers will try to pressure can it as the collapse begins.
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The smart prepper lady realized that if she had an emergency, like a power outaged that lasted over days, you would run out of fuel and would need to do emergency pressure canning under adverse conditions yet you must ensure safety.
When canning properly, there is almost nil chance of botulism. They did several studies showing extremely low incidents rates. So it’s possible but work out what you would do. It most likely would take at least three people figuring out how to safely thaw meat, and butcher it, and clean everything, and get enough fuel, and maintain a fire, and properly can things.
When the brain sees a steady decrease in calories, that indicates progressive starvation, so the brain dampens metabolic processes to conserve energy.
When the brain sees a steady increase in calories, that triggers a progressive gain, and so will not dampen metabolic processes.
If you eat 800 calories, then 1200 calories, then 2000 calories, the brain will see a steady gain of caloric intake and metabolic functions will NOT slow down. Thus the body will note a deficit of calories so burn fat to make up the deficit. This is a great survival lesson.
Whereas when people crash diet, the loss of calories dramatcally slows down fat breakdown (lipolysis), so fat is preserved and people feel BLAH as they are plateauing.
So the best way when rationing is the 800 calories, then 1200 calories, then 2000 calories, then eat normally (mostly for a morale boost), then back to 800, then 1200, then 2000. Rinse repeat.
When managing a tribe and trying to defend against invaders, you have three groups who are at various stages of this diet so some of your best soldiers are always at peak calories and ao your primary defensive force.
If everyone is dieting at once to rationed levels, then work will not get efficiently accomplished and you will not have some strong soldiers, but all progressively weakened people. That is a very dumb way to ration food and will cause stealing of food and an inability to maintain watches and likely cause a breach of defenses. Then everyone is in a foul mood at the same time and you will have irritable people based on various levels of mental coping ability then starting pointless bickering. That turns to arguments or worse. Accusations start occuring.
This is not politically correct, but accurate that ladies who all live together begin to synchronize their cycle and so a bunch or irritable ladies all at once is highly conducive to bickering.
The brain induces thirst to maintain blood volume for efficient pumping for circulation.
Starving people innately drink more water than is necessary to fill their bellies…at first. But when exhausted and depleted of calories, lose their ability to determine dehydration onset.
The color of your urine is an inducator of the following.
1. Dehydration leads to darkening of metabolic waste due to concentration.
From very minutely colored to straw colored.
2. Then progressively orange.
3. Then dangerously brown and even with blood.
4. Kidney failure
When you eat protein, the body needs various amino acids in the protein sources. At the ends of amino acids are amines which are Nitrogen Hydrogen groups (NH2). The body converts that to urea for excretion by the kidney into the bladder.
Your body has no use for that urea.
The pigments are the byproducts of things like the breakdown of blood. Your body ordinarily is making new blood cells all the time.
So if you get insufficient iron, then you harm this natural process of rebuilding blood cells and get anemia.
If anemic and trying to do work, you have less oxygen carrying capacity and already are starving/rationing, so you get very inefficient at working.
If your blood sugar is low, you are dehydrated, and your iron is low, you are dangerously close to losing consciousness while working.
Your immune system is mostly made of white blood cells and as you starve, the body has other priorities, so you risk an infection.
Under collapse conditions that are less than sanitary, plus the above, first the ladies and children get bladder infections, then the guys. You have inadequate clearance of waste plumbing. Make sense?
Likewise lack of proper diet leads to constipation and similarly people get infections as it’s backed up and not being expelled properly. This generally starts with children first.
At the very onset of any burning sensation when micturating, you should immediately assume a low level bladder infection. Ordinarily it is a nuisance. During a collapse, it can progress up the ureters to the kidneys and you start having blood pass in the urine with extreme pain.
The kidneys control blood pressure and you are risking a life threatening situation.
Anyone prone to this should acidify their urine by eating routine acidic foods to ensure it doesn’t happen. Having cranberry extract is really a mandatory prep as it acidified and coats the lining of the urinary system. Nobody knows why it helps cystitis but most ladies will get some relief.
Honestly some guys are babies when it happens as they have likely teased their wives/girlfriends when they had cystitis and then are SHOCKED when it’s so painful and happens to them.
If the pain is in the kidney region in the back, it’s likely it’s a kidney stone. If you eat lots of wild edibles like meadow plants, then these have high oxalic acid content, and they can cause a large increase in kidney stones.
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Red Lentil Curry is a fast to prepare, healthy, frugal dish that is loaded with immune system enhancers like garlic, onion, ginger, and tumeric. And it contains hot peppers to kill parasites. It’s prepared over a bed of rice.
Remember to save that water and incorporate it or use it for some purpose like watering plants or for the compost to stay moist. You never waste water in a collapse situation.
It’s arguably the best dish you can serve that is filling, that staves off illness, that isn’t complicated, doesn’t require as much water and prep time as pinto beans, etc.
You can serve it with wild edible greens to round out calcium, iron, vitamin K and C, by eating a salad.
The goal is to regularly normalize your immune system during influenza season to prevent an infection from taking hold. You never want a weak immune system or to have an overreactive cytokine storm situation which can happen with some infections.
When cooking, you want to minimize how much effort it takes to reduce your fuel needs (firewood) plus you will have plenty to do. You most likely make two meals with leftovers as lunch. You lack refrigeration during a collapse, so all you have is a root cellar or evaporative cooling in some arid regions, and snowpack and ice in winter.
You can chill drinks in a cold stream but carefully clean the exterior that comes in contact with your mouth and hands. Something upstream may have perished in the water causing a high bacterial count.
If you have a spring, you can build a springhouse and with insulation that is how dairy foods were maintained for a little bit longer.
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Despite all your careful (and hopefully not careless) planning, in winter…the food cache runs low as nervous people cooped up nibble more. So you are going to also have near zero wild edibles and so few vitamin and mineral sources.
To cope, you sprout common dried foods like beans, lentils, and rice and some seeds like radish. These then can fill in your dishes as well as eaten raw. They are rich in vitamins.
Making some hearty bread like bagels reduces nibbling. Next year, collect more nuts as they are satisfying to stave off hunger.
Expect significant weight loss. It’s a bad situation. There’s a race against time for being able to forage for some wild edibles versus when you can start your garden again and largely based on frost and ground temperature and if snow accumulated and if unexpected rains delayed preparing the soil.
You do not want to be in this situation of progressive weakness when serious spring work is ahead versus the hibernation of winter. And you might stumble around and find nothing for your trouble and get sick on top of this. You could end up debilitated and unable to haul wood and water.
Many animals are very weak that you find and may have discolorations in their liver indicating that they are not appropriate to eat. Therefore the energy spent to catch them was a waste of time and may doom any offspring.
At first kiddos will get hair breakage as a sign of starvation, deep set eyes, a listless appearance, and when the liver is really set back, then a failure to make enzymes and distended bellies. That is kwaishikor.
Adults will get very lean, listless, hair breakage, bleeding gums, loose teeth, emaciated, etc. You can see all their ribs even in their backs. Brittle bones are possible especially in older folks. Expect people to need a staff to walk from catachexia and hypoglycemia and staggering.
A severely malnourished person has issues even eating solid food, may lose any valid sense of hunger when food is available, their teeth ache and may fall out, they may gorge themselves and then vomit, etc.
You ideally eat five meals with three healthy and two snacks when doing LOTS of labor.
A malnourished person needs seven tiny meals to try to get gut motility operating again. The normal process of peristalsis is dysfunctional and digestive enzymes are in far less supply and their body is so fragile. They may get bound up or get the runs from the sudden rich food after eating almost nothing.
They can end up perishing because it’s too late as their organs are damaged like their heart valves. A mother and father can ration their own food too low to preserve their children’s lives, then the parents, most often the mother, can perish right when things are turning around.
The telltale sign is the fat pads in their cheeks are gone and their face sags and their spirit is about broken as they have lost hope.The skull becomes much more pronounced.
Please have plenty of food now.
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In early spring, which can be as early at the 3rd week of February in Kentucky, the bass and carp that are large are not just hungry, they are HUNGRY for meal and are more to bite on anything temping like some corn.
Many fish like the filtrate from frozen peas that are in sock as the water warms them up and they stir up the fish. They will come in curious what that is in the water as it’s far different than what they are used to detecting.In summer, peas seem to even excite fish for some reason. I reckon they like pea soup.
This will flush a lot of fish out and improve your chances.
Carp is a decent meal when smoked.
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Peas as bait.
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Same thing.
If you have an aquarium try feeding them peas. I don’t know if they smell or taste them, but they get very excited by them. A little of that filtrate gets in the water and can even bring in schools of fish in the ocean.
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Bass fishing with corn.
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You can put corn or peas as chum in a tight net or sock and this gets them riled up to a fishing spot. Somehow they can taste it. Then they will strike on actual bait on a hook. Or catch them in a fishing trap.
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Fiddleheads are the new ferns coming up from an established bed of ferns. You can’t eat them all the time (as you would get health problems), but they are a spring treat. People in Maine are crazy about them and they are sold in the grocery store. I was shocked the first time I saw this as you don’t ordinarily see a wild edible in grocery stores.
When they come up and you eat some sauted in the skillet, then it’s officially spring and hope is in the air. You made it through another cold winter.
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Most people don’t bother to collect birch syrup as it has a taste like wintergreen. It’s a survival food that a sweetness that can make other food pallatable.
Our ancestors used wild edibles to “stretch” their cultivated ingredients. You put a lot of them into stews to boost calories and then hear less complaining. Every little bit helps. Or the wild edible is served on the side.
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When the cattail pollenheads first come in, some people get ’em early and then they sorta taste like corn on the cobb. Others will catch them before they start to cast pollen so they are a tad more mature. Others like the pollen shaken into a bag and then stretch the flour with cattail pollen dust. The point is to go harvest it or it will be wasted
Your children will probably like them.
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Cattails like swampy areas so while there, you are apt to see great blue herons. They can have a magnificent wingspan and it’s a beautiful sight for children to see.
If they are around, then there is plenty of wildlife to catch. Their presence is alerting you that it’s a vibrant active biological region.
Ever smelled a wet dog? It’s a strong smell and yet human being don’t think of their own scent when setting snares/traps.
That is your number one way to acquire food yet if your odor is adhering to your trap/snare, then it’s unlikely that any creature other than a curious raccoon will even bother checking out what’s amiss. Raccoons will get peturbed by the presence of food, especially a young one, and will keep trying just to figure out the puzzle. The same is true of some squirrels.
Pine, dirt, and mint all work to block your scent.
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Most soaps have either unnatural scents or the scent would be alien in the habitat at that season, so you need plain unscented soap. Putting your huntig/trapping coveralls in a plastic bag with dirt in it, at least overnight, will cover some odor.
De-scent your hands as well as you will end up tainting the trap/snare.
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Do you recognize this very common tree that grows east of the Mississippi River? It’s the eastern redbud often called the Judas tree. It is a common ornamental that is planted like like dogwoods so that they are harbingers of spring.
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These have edible heart shaped leaves plus valuable pea pods.
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I bet you recognize it in this video.
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This Christian lady is a real sweetheart and discusses eating the redbud flowers.
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Wild onions/wild garlic to flavor your beansand rice or fried taters.
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Wild ramps have a stronger onion flavor and are good sauted in lard.
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This video is very good for identifying them.
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Shagbark hickory
Go collect early if you hope to get them as otherwise the squirrels will.
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Most people don’t mess with collecting beechnuts but in a survival situation, you should.
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You are going to find these very common trees east of the Mississippi River.
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Blue gill are easily caught little morsels.
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They are something small kids can catch and land with ease.
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There is nothing more irritating than catching a large fish and then they break the line due to their weight and wigglin’ to get free. You need to have or make a landing net. If you are starving, and then lose three fish because you ignored my advice, then you’ll be cussin’ up a storm. Imagine your kids going to bed hungry all because you didn’t have a landing net.
You hook ’em and let them wear themselves out and then reel in very deliberately, and still the line will snap after artfully catching them…all because their weight then puts a strain on the fishing line. Ideally have somebody help you land it.
Some folks will yank and toss em to shore when lacking a landing net. They sorta flick em to shore.
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Here he wore out the fish without a landing net but risked being “finned” and in a survival situation, getting finned can turn into a nasty infection.
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Getting finned and then you’re likely going to lose the fish as he flops back in the water.
If there are a lot of fish present, then a cast net will get more fish at once.
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You still need lots of luck as there may be a valid reason the fish are elsewhere.
Chumming the water prior (maybe the day before) bring them to that fishing hole so you aren’t wasting your time.
Maranatha post count is rediculous.
No one has that much to say.
M. Go find a friend, buy a dog or 6, do some chores.
But the M drivel makes this site no longer worthwhile to visit. There have been many posting over the many years that have been useful with actionable info. My thanks to those who have had a positive contributions with their posts. And the entertainment value of the nut jobs. you know who you are. Best wishes to you all.
But I refuse to read through 75 posts by one Maranatha on a single article. I’m no longer visiting this channel.
I have tried to make positive contribution. But my posts seem to all be censored. Never appearing. And the censorship by this web site of other interesting, even if controversial comments. And non stop Maranatha posts. I’m buying metals today elsewhere, just because this site now annoys instead of informs with useful, actionable info.
…. yeah i know. “Don’t let door hit me in ass. It is your private site. And “Disqus” is cause of everything.”
door won’t hit me in ass. i’m out of here. After many years. In fact I might start my own site. A no political correct open discussion forum. No censorship. Free speech. Open discussion. Like the old bbs days.
Maybe I’ll pay advertise here to invite you to my site. who knows? But this site no longer serves or has original flavor. I’m not fan of change.
And you also have nothing practical to say. There isn’t a useful tip in there.
There are a whole lot of would be preppers who don’t actually know how to do anything useful, just open a can of food they bought.
They can’t identify a tree.
They can’t hook and land a fish.
From now on, if I ask a so-called prepper if he or she can identify 20 trees and 20 wild edible meadow plants and their many uses, and they say no, then I am call them “can-openers”.
Maranatha, thank you for your posts!!!! Do you have a website????
NOPE. I just became a prepper before that was even a word. I was a prepper back in the sixties.
This is a great website. Support Mac.
Find a mentor and learn every ancestral skill you can. Doom is definitely coming. Never react. Always respond…appropriately and morally and spiritually.
The best way to find a mentor is this.
“I am ignorant…but I want to learn ancestral skills. Can you find it in your heart to teach a respectful young person?”
Any good teacher will be glad to have such a student. You will then remind them of how they began such an endeavor.
Sincere respectful humility is a rare attribute in a sinful prideful world that is utterly lost.
Dont forget stirfrys. They can be really good fridge cleaners to avoid waste. Everyone goes in the pool. One of my fave coinsavers is to buy turkey on sale. I can get it for under a dollar a pound several times a year AFTER Christmas or Thanksgiving. I bone the breasts, thighs and wing drums and grind. Makes great burgers, stews, chilis and add curry and coconut milk often. Local Chinese markets sell trays of ground chicken for about $1.50/lb and I mix meats to stretch. Meatloaf made from beef, chicken and turkey does not need eggs or breadcrumbs to hold it together. The turkey has enough binders on its own so saves on egges etc. I use cabbage and beansprouts and whatever green stuff is available. And dont forget the humble cabbage roll. And they freeze well. Try baking some chicken legs(often on sale) in your spaghetti sauce. Delicious meal and adds flavor to your spag sauce. I hunt and fish and have been doing most of this for a long time. Good luck everyone.
A lady has more body fat due to her breast-tissue. Not only are her ovaries making hormones as well as the hypothalmus master gland as well as the adrenals, but any fat acts as a secondary endocrine system in the gut.
Similarly when overweight and then obese, this large fat as an abominal mass significantly creates excess estrogen. This is why it causes feminine attributes and causes people to have less emotional control. They are more apt to be depressed and cry at the drop of a hat.
So in an emergency situation, that negatively impacts team cohesiveness. These folks are apt to make snap emotional decisions even risky harmful ones.
However, being overweight is a survival instinct mechanism as well. Our ancestors knew that winter was “starving time” and so would intentionally eat more to have a fat reserve so they would survive.
As you starve, this fat loss initially makes you have poor judgement and as it persists, an increasing panic, and it can lead to nervousness and loss of control, and desperation, and then people override their morals just to stay alive.
You aren’t just lighter and nervous but sleeping is disrupted. People lose the ability to discern the reality of their health conditions. Infection sneaks in. Dehydration is ignored. Overrationing that makes no logical sense then can doom you. That is especially bad to either pass out from hunger when there are still food reserves OR the food is going rancid and it would have been better not to waste it.
You never throw away food. In a survival situation, you don’t get tenderhearted and throw fish back in because you feel full. Just because you are catching lots of fish on trotlines today, does not mean you will tomorrow.
Ladies are generaly smaller frame and lighter and are very prone to poor decision making by self-sacrificing and thinking they can tough it out. It generally is better if the guys who are big and have some fat reserves to taper off instead.
BUT a lean muscular guy who tries to carry everyone’s load is actually being foolish in group dynamics. An athlete is most prone to passing out as they have low levels of fat, thus few reserves. They are most likely to volunteer for extra watches and to carry more firewood, and that nonsense will mess up a tribe. He or she is much more likely to get low blood sugar while starving. A dysfunctional tribe becomes over-reliant on that athlete.
If you run into fleeing urbanities, you never let them know your total food situation and you actually have to be stingy because you don’t know the length of time that the disaster will persist. And balance that practicality against your morality and spirituality. If you help everyone, you help no one as you exhausted your food cache.
Things which provide a little nutrition.
Blue lichen gathered from rocks. You clean and treat them with vinegar, you boil it into a soup. It ain’t much.
Grasshoppers, crickets, locusts abdomens are dried and you put that in soup as a protein powder.
Snails are deslimed, and cooked in oil with garlic. This tastes good. Cook it well done.
Worms can technically be eaten but it’s a lot of trouble to remove the alimentary canal which oif course has soil in it. Good luck as most everyone can’t handle it.
Wood lice are tiny but add a shrimp flavor. These are rolypoly bugs.
Wood larva are white catapillar like grubs which can be fried in oil and garlic.
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How to purge crawdads
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A crawdad boil Louisiana style
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Escargot
Snails should be similarly purged.
You purge to remove their digestive contents and reduce bitterness.
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How to purge crawdads
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A crawdad boil Louisiana style
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Escargot
Snails should be similarly purged.
You purge to remove their digestive contents and reduce bitterness.
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How to clean river mussels and de-beard them. The “beard” is really the way they attach themselves to rocks. You toss the open mussels that don’t close as those are dead. The ones you buy in the store have mostly been de-bearded.
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Preparing and cooking periwinkles which are a kind of snails.
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How to prepare a fish head for soup/stew. Don’t waste it and at least try it. I bet you like it. This might be your breakfast or lunch.
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Purging and cooking limpets
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Most of the American caviar ie fish roe or eggs comes from Kentucky. I think it’s funny that hoity toity rich snobs are eating something from us backwoods folks.
It tastes good on a hearty toasted European style bread.
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Catfish noodling
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Florida redneck-style fried fish roe
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He wore her out and then has to be careful not to break the line.
The only fish eggs you can’t eat are gar as they will be toxic.
The primary Kentucky caviar is from paddlefish or sturgeon.
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It’s very technical to catch these and if you are lucky enough then you sure do not want to lose that many for sure meals because it might save your family’s lives.
They exceed the size of standard landing nets so have to be sharp to land ’em.
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Even if you lacked a firearm, there are other ways to hunt and fish.
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Game taken with a slingbow.
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Feral hog taken with a slingbow.
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Fishing with a slingbow.
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A porcupine taken by a snare. That is a delicious meal.
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A snare that is not under tension, but the critter gets hung up in it. Otherwise you pull back a sapling to create tension and then a trigger that releases that to snap the neck.
Of course some coyote or feral dog will come along and thank you for the free meal, so you check these at least twice a day or more. They are going to make a squawk so you’ll know something is up.
Lots of critters make noises that sound scary in the night. It can sound almost human.
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These are rabbits sounds when caught or wounded so ever predator will come investigate. You don’t want them to suffer.
It’s going to make you sick the first time if tenderhearted.
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The historical way our ancestors could catch fish using walnut husks. This is for theoretical discussion only. It binds to their gills and they can’t breathe so come up for air, where one could theoretically net them.
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All over the world, ethnic people developed the art of taking a straight or slightly bent stick that is “squaw wood” sized and walk along quietly at sun up, and then as you walk along a meadow, you will find rabbits. They will FREEZE and hope that their stillness will let you overlook them. That response gives you a second to use that throwing stick thrown horizontally
Similarly poachers use a bright light in the eyes of a deer to then use their firearm. That is “jacking”.
This is a theoretical and historical discussion only.
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When dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I was in 3rd grade, I made and threw my first “bolo” (also called bolas).
They are used by various ethnic people around the world as a hunting weapon to snare small game.
This is a theoretical and historical discussion only.
Knacklebrod is a Scandanvian cracker with spelt and seeds that is their version of hardtack that is not so tough to chew.
Civil War soldiers due to scurvy often broke teeth on hardtack and would soak it in hot chichory beverage to make it easier to consume.
Italian panforte is a delicious nutritious fruitcake that doesn’t typically go rancid.
Wheels of Steel is an old hippie form of health bar that could be for breakfast or a snack. It’s made from standard prepper items and is a peanut butter oatmeal raisin cookie. It would be an excellent provision for guys in hunting parties.
The Greatest Commandment
(Deuteronomy 6:1-19; Matthew 22:34-40)
28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is , Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: 33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question .
Mark 12:28-34
Don’t tell me that you are a Christian and that you love your neighbor as yourself IF you cannot be bothered to teach a man to fish rather than just giving a man a fish.
Which demonstrates more love (agape in the Greek)?
The word for commandment in the Greek is entole and it means order or law. A commandment is an ORDER FROM YAHWEH. A law in the Bible is an order that MUST BE ACCOMPLISHED to be a believer. YAHWEH personally ordered a believer to do something.
You have no choice but to obey. Disobedience is being a rebel, thus indicating that one is NOT a believer.
We are in the End Times and it is the duty and privilege of all faithful Christian believers who love the TRINITY ie the ELOHIM to then bend the knee and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and then daily follow the personal commandment given by Jesus.
If you would only read and believe one chapter of the Bible, in Matthew 25, Jesus tells faithful believers to prepare, reap a bounty for the Kingdom of Heaven, and help one the least of these.
That is your duty and privilege as a Christian.
The Sheep and the Goats
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed
thee ? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Matthew 25:31-46
Otherwise if you fail, you will end up in Hell with Lucifer and the demons.
The faithful sheep listen to their Good Shepherd and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The faithless rebellious goats did what they wanted and rebell against orders and enter Hell.
That is what Jesus says in the Bible. The surest road to Hell is to fail to help one of the least of these.
Note what the rebellious goats say. They know that Jesus Christ is LORD. In their hearts they knew it and with their voice they acknowledge it.
They know who is the Messiah and yet they disobeyed orders.
When the SHTF, one of the most important things you can do is ENSURE YOUR WATER SUPPLY. After 72 hours with no water, your family will start to perish.
Foolish people will start wasting water.
Foolish people will be shocked and think, “The water can’t really be off, can it”?
Foolish people will fill their bath tubs and sinks and drink that bacteria contaminated water and make their families sick.
Foolish people will fill up milk jugs which have caesin protein in it and create bacteria which again will make their family sick. Milk jugs contaminated with caesin CANNOT be removed. They also are structurally weak and will break and leak.
Foolish people will get water from local streams that are filled with parasites, agricultural runoff containing herbicides and pesticides and fecal matter. Good luck filtering these out.
Intelligent people will gather rainwater and ensure it doesnot evaporate.
Intelligent people ahead of time have plastic tarps and ropes and poles and gather away from debris from trees and birds.
Intelligent people have water cachement.
Intelligent people know how to off gas the chlorine to know how pure the water.
Intelligent people have already checked their hot water tank valve for corrosion/rust and know how to drain it.
Intelligent people can safely clean their washer until it is pristine and free of soap and bacteria, then store a lot of water inside.
Intelligent people have waterbobs so they can safely fill that bladder with a LOT OF CLEAN POTABLE WATER IN THE CHEAPEST POSSIBLE WAY.
Intelligent people have a way to haul water and have containers.
Intelligent people know where the water tank is for their neighborhood.
Intelligent people have at least a sandpoint well.
Intelligent people have a good portable water filter NOT just a Brita.
Intelligent people can make a slow sand filter.
Intelligent people have a set up for boiling water outside with a source of fuel.
The difference between a surviver/prepper and the ignorant urbanite is one can merely outsurvive the latter.
72 hours later, a lot of dehydrated people will stagger out in vain looking for water.
7 days later, starving people with low blood sugar and dehydration effects will be near delirious.
Your goal is to outlast the ignorant. If you have 2-4 weeks of food when the SHTF, you are better off than 95% of urbanites.
A wolf is chasing two rabbits. The rabbits are screaming at each other.
One rabbit says, “Gosh I hope we can outrun the wolf”.
The other rabbit says,”Gosh I hope I can outrun you”.
The second rabbit survives. All he needs to do is evade the wolf long enough that the wolf has no food and water. The slow rabbit is not so fortunate.
Your fall back meal will be soup or stew. Whatever wild edible plants you find will likely requre less cooking time that your main ingredients due to size. But your wild edible game meat or fish are never as for sure items, which means you should plan that soup or stew for your evening meal. You might luck into these or not and it takes a lot longer to dress a pocupine, butcher it, and then cook it than some fish. This means you have to be adaptable on how you are preparing it and what kind of pots.
Plus insects are probably not last minute but powdered thickeners. However wood grubs l, which can taste like corn, might be a side dish.
Think, your husband or wife is out in the field and cannot communicate with you, so you may have to wing it and make a judgement call and do without.
Then you might have to hustle as you have no refrigeration so someone may have to immediately string up a deer and drain blood, remove viscera, and butcher, and and and. It’s a lot of unexpected work. Plus that means scraping and tanning. And maybe you already planned the next day’s chores.
All of which could mean a very long day, but very full bellies for several days. You could end up not sleeping, then bright and early the sun is up and you have chores.
When adding noodles to fill in, only make enough for two meals because more added just soaks up your broth. The same is true for rice. You keep it seperate.
By cooking the meat in the stew/soup, the calories will be hugher as fat is not lost. A skimpy stew needs some grease, lard, or oil added to get the calories higher.
When seasoning, add them last as a general rule. If you add too much salt, add a raw potato and it will gather up some of the saltiness.
You plan your meals so you are properly rotating or else you will start running out of ingredients like yeast and salt. Also that means whoever is hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering wild edible plants KNOWS what you had planned and so several days early is looking for some ingredient.
Sometime you have luck or just run into some treat so you have to adapt or just waste food which is nuts.
You can soak beans longer and then they are ready, or forget and then they are tough to properly cook. And if you have old beans that didn’t get rotated, plan on longer soaking. Generally you soak and then toss the water, then put in fresh so that less burping/farting occurs because as people get older and under survival conditions, your liver may not properly make enzymes to break these down. Otherwise it can get very very uncomfortable and unpleasant when eating beans twice a week or more.
Really stubborn beans get get soaked in some baking soda in the water and tossed. HARD AS ROCK beans get soaked for a day in water and even boiled with baking soda, toss the water, then cook as normal. You should still be able to eat old beans.
If you season too early with beans, it interferes with the skins and makes them tough. Baking soda in the water is tossed so it doesn’t toughen up the skins as that be counterproductive.
Do not only store beans or rice or morale will go to Hell.
At least once a week cook an apple dessert so your family has something to look forward to. Try to make it a set day because they will be looking for to Cobbler Day. Such a little thing is a big deal under stress.
You are trying to manage your fruit and sugar so that every birthday and holiday has a dessert and if you mess up, well morale goes out the window because that might be the only present they get. Say you ran out of your last peaches and your seven year daughter gets no pie. Well she is going to cry and you will feel like a bad parent. Things are already tense.
Having some hidden hard candy or cocoa for emergency use, and some whiskey and some coffee for the guys is going to make you seem heroic. You hide that for when something is dire and you have to help them cope.
To make a skimpy broth seem more substantial, you need some roux. You take a pan and melt some butter or lard or add some oil. You add some flour and with a whisk you smooth it out and let it cook a little. Then add the broth to it make gravy. Watch the saltiness as the broth and the butter and the lard will all have salt.
Most generally when hungry then people like the food a little saltier than normal.
Don’t screw up and add flour to a hot soup as that create cooked lumps which no one likes. Make a roux and add some liquid and add that mixture to the soup.
Sometimes you are in a rush and throwing something together fast. That’s when you make chicken amd dumplings with some mushrooms. Or do not go through all the prepared canned food but save it back so that if you have stretch your food, say when you have company, then you can make it work. Or maybe you are sick and then they open a can and eat that. You generally are screwing up eating prepared food too early.
You should start gathering wild edibles from Spring to the last part of Autumn and using up perishables. Not using cans that can save your life in Winter. And your hunting party might need some canned food and what if there is an accident and they are delayed.
Otherwise you have your birch and maple syrups that rise amd can be harvested.
Now, you very well might have to eat canned food when there are security issues when cooking odors will draw attention or it is unsafe to go out due to contagion. Use your head and make a judgement call.
Historically Japanese soldiers in WW2 passed their cooking smoke over multiple grates, sometime dampened, and that helped hide their cooking as the smoke got absorbed. And some hid out for 10+ years so it can be done.
It appears the government shutdown has temporarily abated for three weeks. This is your opportunity to remedy your situation because in three weeks, we will all together as Americans be right back here again.
There is no excuse because you now know this is so. If your family is hungry, then it will be your own fault as I have unselfishly given you numerous ways to cope.
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It takes a lot of time to start a cooking fire from scratch. I don’t know about you but I value my sleep. If the SHTF and it’s cold outside, and you are gathering firewood and splitting it and making kindling, plus everything else and maybe sleeping outside in a tent, then the last thing you want to do in winter or when rainy is start a fire from scratch.
You bank your coals.
Your standard cooking fire will be a Dakota Hole to burn most efficiently with the best heat and least waste and least visible.
If you have bricks, you build a rocket mass stove and that retains heat and is even better and steady temperature and burns even more efficiently.
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A Native American would not generally make a fire that could easily give away his or her position at night. Your fire could be seen for MILES across a plain or meadows.
By building a berm of soil or rocks, even this will be less detectable yet provide heat and be a cooking fire.
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Short term, this rocket stove made from bricks will easily work for most meals.
Building a large unneccesary fire means inevitably going in search of dead wood and hauling it back. Just try doing so as little as 200 yards away. That would be flat out stupid and progressively it would get worse.
When Zack is talking about a piece of “feathery” burnt wood that easily takes a spark from his flint and steel, that was called “burnt punk wood” by our ancestors.
They would find some old rotten tulip poplar, for example, and out that in their tinderbox. Then start coals in that, and transfer that coal to their tinder to fight a fire. This was the standard way to consistently get a fire going from scratch.
Kids frequently got up and started a fire by using banked coals which is way easier. It was a standard chore. Mommy didn’t wake them up with breakfast already. If they wanted to eat, they better get up and have a fire ready so Mom could cook or they cooked breakfast as a chore.
Immediately after starting the fire and ensuring it was going, they were out the door to milk, draw water, get kindling, chop wood, etc. They might work eight hours easily every day or more and were relieved to go to school as an escape ftom chores. They might work two hours before walking to school.
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The standard way our ancestors baked was using a “cobb oven” made out of hardened fired clay.
This burns very efficiently to save firewood. You want to minimize baking though unless you have large amounts of meat to process.
One such cobb oven could service a whole tribe by staggering cooking times. Many cobb ovens would deforest an area and cause conflict.
The standard way to raise the temperature of a coal to light some tinder is to find a hollow tube around the house or make a blower from hollow sumac which has an easily removed “pith”. That is way easier than huffing and puffing and maybe catching your beard or hair on fire.
If you are around cows, then the way some ranch hand typically started his fire was with desicated cow pies. These burn consistently hot with little ash and is the standard around the world among those who raise them.
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You merely pick up the lighter sun-dried ones. It doesn’t smell bad and beats chopping and stacking and hauling firewood.
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Historically our ancestors built summer kitchen so the hest from hearths and woodstoves would not be intolerable in summer time.
Smart folks built screened in patios where there was a sink and woodstove and a fire pit/smoker and thus heat was ventilated. This was very common in my region and served as a natural place for family gatherings in summer and away from insects. It’s less expensive but not appropriate for cold climates.
Otherwise one could build a summer kitchen in basements where it was naturally cooler.
Or these summer kitchens were set off by themselves as seperate buildings so the main house was cooler as the thermal mass of the hearth and building absorbed so much heat that it cintinued to radiate.
It’s late January and unseasonably cold across the Northeast and upper Midwest by an average between 20-40 degrees F.
Let’s say the SHTF and you lose power and have to cook outside. You have very limited fuel and firewood.
You primary responsibility is to keep your family warm, and the old standard way to do so is use plastic wrap on your windows to reduce drafts. Yet still the temperature can get as low as 30 degrees or lower inside as the temperature falls.
The next logical way is to put everyone in the same bedroom and try to keep that area warm in some manner like a kerosene heater. But your fuel is limited and you have no idea if you can acquire more.
The next thing you can do is make a cocoon. You pile into arranged mattresses and then insulate your family by piled mattresses put on top of them. People have successfully stayed alive by doing this.
Whatever firewood you have is limited, and you have no idea how long it has to last, so after gathering all the firewood you can, then you look for standing dry seasoned wood to burn. Then you stack and cover that.
You then resort to haybox cooking as that requires the least firewood.
Our ancestors didn’t have electricty or natural gas but typically had fireplaces and woodstoves. Still, the weather in winter could always get worse or last longer so they had to ration firewood to make it last. People coud get seriously hurt by trying to harvest firewood and haul it back.
So what they would do is use minimal wood to heat up a stew or soup to boiling, then transfer the pot to an insulated container, often filled with straw, then cover that. The insulation helps maintain the internal temperature and keeps cooking the meal.
Mist preppers have insulated coolers and could easily rig up something. If you had a cardboard box and styrofoam, then you could make something work. Everyone has a laundry basket and blankets. It’s not as efficient, but you drape a blanket over a laundry basket, put the pan in the center of the laundry basket, and then drape the ends of the blanket over the cook pot and stuff around it.
This would be your standard cooking method to conserve firewood until it is far safer to go outside.
Adapting like this might vastly improve your family’s chance at survival. If the SHTF, smoke billowing from a fireplace is a dead giveaway that folks are inside. It may not be an option to start a fire. One primary way to force people outside was to block a chimney so smoke had nowhere to go.
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Haybox cooking using the blanket and laundry basket method.
When doing this, beginner cooks will want to peek but if they do so, they evacuate most if the heat and then it has to heated to boiling again.
Obviously if meat is in there, it was seared first, then add the other ingredients, and bring that up to boil.
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You can make something aproximating bread using the haybox method but of corse it won’t have delicious crust. Typically while you have your rocket stove going outside, you make fast flatbread in a skillet instead like Lebanese Mountain Bread or Pita Bread. Those cook very fast.
Staying Clean in Wintertime
You all have to wash up and stay clean or otherwise you are all living in such close quarters that will get sick. The most likely scenario is diarrhea and vomiting plus influenza.
So you are boiling water on your rocket stove, and bringing it inside and using basins to wet wash cloths and rationing soap, then rinse off. It’s the old pitcher and basin method. You will rapidly go through wetwipes.
Likewise you have cutting boards, kitchen tools, pots, pans,dishes, and cups, and all of these need cleaning. Pits will have lamp black on them from the wood fire.
And you still have laundry to do. So you need hot and cold water for that. You mostly soak overnight your clothing having pretreated it with some oxidizing cleaner. And using minimal soap as you are rationing. And then adding some hot water to rinse it. And then handwringing it.
Luckily there is little humidity in winter so then it needs to dry, but without heat, it can freeze in a cold house. It may take much longer that you exect to get fully dry clothes. This is why having a kerosene heater helps. You most likely will press still damp clothing between two towels to blot them first and get as much moisture out as possible.
You save this water for flushing as long as the sewers work, which you pray is never an issue in wintertime.
Otherwise every single cold winter day, someone is taking chamber pots outside. You did dig holes before the ground got hard from the cold, right?
Ideally you keep urine and fecal matter seperate because when mixed these will not readily break down and so the stink will last much longer. Believe it or not, if well hydrated and not ill, then urine is sterile and a little helps with the laundry just as ammonia is used for cleaning.
You do not want to show obvious signs of human activity if the SHTF and it’s dangerous outside. Yet you still have many activities you must accomplish every single day without running water.
And realize that if the water pressure doesn’t work, but some is still present, and it gets freezing cold, the pipes can still burst. You can’t let that happen.
What are your plans for gathering water in wintertime? You planned for this right?
Your two standard cleaning items are castile soap and apple cider vinegar with mother in it.
Any castile soap, like Dr.Bronners peppermint, is bracing, concentrated, the standard backpacking soap so proven in the bush (the most common way to stay clean on the lengthy Appalachian Trail), and a little lasts a long time. You dilute it down and then can easily clean up and it doesn’t create too many suds either.
Obviously that pleasant smell helps with body odor and also for flushing or using that leftover greywater for rinsing chamber pots.
The vinegar added to your basin water helps kill unhealthy bacteria and fungus/mold, yet doses your underarm region with healthy helpful bacteria to crowd out the smelly proprionic kind.
Note than when it’s freezing cold, if you hate to go outside or use the chamber pot, using a dedicated used water bottle, then becomes a brief hotwater bottle that takes off the inevitable chill.
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Johnnycakes are a standard corn with a little flour flatbread that our ancestors ate. They are easy to prepare and ideal with soup or stews. They are fast to make and often using a little fat drippings to boost the calories to help survive.
They can be plain, sweet, or spicy.
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Northern beans and hamhocks is a standard country dish that you would likely eat once a week. It typically has a bay leaf or two based upon how old they are (these diminish in time). Bay leaves add a savory flavor. Traditionaly a dash of hot pepper or coarse ground black pepper is added.
It fills up your belly for not much money and goes well with johnnycakes or sweet corn muffins.
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Crumpets are a yeast/flour with milk mixture cooked as a flatbread so it’s sort of a hybrid. Traditionally cooks saved up their tuna tins and after carefully cleaning them, these served as free molds.
A crepe uses a lot more milk than a pancake making it very thin and useful for rollups with scrambled eggs in the center. It’s a function of how low your flour supply has gotten.
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English muffins are heartier version with less milk than crumpets. Some versions use those same tuna tins as the mold and others use a stiffer bread requiring no mold. Don’t make them too thick, or then you have to finish them in a dutch oven.
Traditionally you use a fork to split them creating an irregular surface and toast these.
Obviously you are making a little extra so you use any flatbreads for a quick lunch.
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Egg and cheese rollups that you could toast in a dutch oven.
Having some boxes of velveta means you have some shelf stable cheese food that you can substitute in recipes like this. Or canned parmasan cheese.
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For some reason, when taking lots of kids camping over many decades, they would prefer plain old Velveta cubed in pasta to make mac and cheese. I have no idea why as homemade macoroni and cheese is so much richer and more delicious.
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Dim sum or “pot stickers” are Chinese dumplings. You can easily make the dumplings from scratch; you don’t need wrappers.
The pork variety is the most familiar to Americans but traditionally there would be many different kinds so that it was a surprise what you were eating and using up ingredients.
They are steamed or pan fried based upon the availability of cooking oil.
There are several wild edible tubers that one can harvest after doing some digging. These plants store carbohydrates in the autumn and then after winter, these plants use that stored energy to allow for new green growth beginning in the spring. In this way, these plants renew themselves, rather like hungry preppers in winter sustain themselves on stored food in their pantries until spring.
That is a problem because when you harvest the tuber/root, you doom that plant, so one has to judiciously harvest ie thin out some tubers or else you kill of the group such that you can no longer harvest from that region.
Meanwhile, you ate a food source that likely was feeding wildlife and insects, so that has a cascading reaction for what animals are available for trapping.
Realize that the following tubers mostly just help stretch your food cache as they calories they provide are small but they can provide valuable vitamins and minerals.
Cattail root and kuzu root are very starchy and these can be dried, then pulverized,then that soaked in water, and you drain off the water and what is left behind is starch and that is lightly dried. Then that stretches your flour up to 50%. I don’t think you would want to just roast these and if you ate too much roasted cattail root, it will give you a very uncomfortable stomach ache due to the fibers.
Hopniss are small Indian potatoes. If you can find enough, you can make a small side dish.
Chichory and dandelion roots can be eaten but they have scant calories. You most likely will dry them, roast them, then pulverize these to stretch your coffee. I suggest you try this first as a simple project as many like the flavor. Roasted chichory is sold next to the coffee beans. I like it but not everyone does. It has a peculiar bitterness and yet a delicious addition.
These are the most important ones and they are of limited value. Please don’t think you are going to sustain yourself on wild edibles. Even experts can rarely find enough to get 25% of the 2000 per day to survive and that isn’t counting the work needed to find, harvest, and prepare them. That can zero out their value.
This is why our ancestors switched from hunter-gatherers to herdsmen and farmers. And the preponderance of calories that the hunter-gatherers collected was in MEAT and FAT, so right away you vegans are going to have a lot of trouble unless you adapt.
When the SHTF, you are going to run out of coffee and then black tea. And since like most Americans, you routinely drink these, when you stop, you start getting headaches. That is going to last for two weeks due to changes in vasoconstriction. And not only is that going to change, but routinely dosing yourself has resuted in changes in your gut motility. That means the pattern in making #2 will be quite slowed down.
This is going to cause some uncomfortable changes and obscure heath symptoms as you won’t be sure what exactly caused them.
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To most efficiently make coffee and save fuel and stretch how long it lasts, you switch to the cold brew method. That results in a stronger brew using less grounds and there is no need to start a fire.
You may find that very inexpensive coffee made as cold brew tastes better than using the automatic drip or the French press method.
When the SHTF, at no time will everyone be asleep. Someone will keep watch and then wake someone else up to finish the watch. And you can bet when there is activity outside, and you are uncertain if it’s an animal or a human, then all of you make be awake with the men…hyperalert. You may get quite ragged due to lack of sleep as migrating urbanites pass through. And then you have theft issues or worse like squatters and poachers.
When the SHTF, food will be a constant worry. And you are most likely going to eat every bit of fat and grease and edible oil that you have. Why? Fat has 9 calories per gram whereas carbohydrates have 4 per gram. Why do you suppose our ancestors ate so many fried foods?
This means while you theoretically imagined making soap, historically that was only possible when a large animal was unexpectedly taken or when harvesting livestock or intentionally harvesting oil-bearing seed plants through a press to extract oil. The latter was rare as then leftovers were mainly only useful as fodder and then only if the livestock would eat it. In many cases, like in soybeans or sunflower seeds, it’s better to just eat the soybeans or sunflowers.
The way to cope was by using bracken fern roots.
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The roots when crushed and immersed in water create a mild soap as they contain saponins. These bracken ferns are the most likely soap-bearing plants you are going to find, and they are found in forested regions and in shady transitional areas between forest and meadows. They often grow at the foot of cliffs and in ravines.
That soap concoction then can be used as a shampoo. It’s very mild so was often used to wash underwear or intimate apparel or things you washed on the “gentle cycle”. This was a standard way the Brits washed up during WW2.
Some of you may have yucca growing in your garden or live in the southwest where it can be commonly found. That also is high in saponins.
Other than that, the seeds of the horse chestnut tree are high in saponins.
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The American Horse Chesnut is fairly easy to identify.
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The above link is very helpful as amateur naturalists and farmers report in when they find various species. Here is a map showing how common Horse Chestnut is east of the Mississippi River. Plus if there is state park nearby, someone probably planted one.
If we are going to war in Venezuela since there are Russian security forces there, and meanwhile we are near a state of civil war in the US due to insane Demonrats, then why have you not store food, water, and ammunition yet?
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LOOK AT THIS US MAP. If you live in the Northern part of the USA, you better have at least two weeks of food as a backup beyond your standard pantry supply.
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“You had your whole life to be ready. Why aren’t you ready?”
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At the bottom of the page, Mac posted the dedicated IP address for the site. Why did he do that?
When the Internet began as Arpanet and then into the late eighties, some websites still used this type of URL instead of shtfplan.com.
It’s been theorized in military tabletop exercises, that during a collapse one type of information war would first eliminate the URL lookup and thus 95% of internet users who be unable to use the Internet.
WRITE THOSE NUMBERS DOWN. When everyone else might not have internet access, some of you still might and pass along valuable intel.
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Just like you would be starving and hoping for some luck in wintertime, some goofy fish is HUNGRY as there is little to eat and they are living on stored fat.
If you can find what they like, they may against their better judgement then strike on almost anything. A little chumming might make lots of them come in.
The problem is it’s BITTER COLD and so are you if facing wind chill, so you need a set up.
Watch as after that trouble he loses the fish because he failed to use a landing net and the fish floppin’ around broke the line. That might be the only meal that week so a fatal error.
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It’s only 18 to 48 degrees here (just cold at night), so there still are fish to be caught in Kentucky.
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If it’s not that cold, and everything is set up, then IF you can start a fire after being a dingdong and falling into cold water, then you can recover.
It’s mostly fatal…as the shivering response makes small precise movement impossible and your judgement is too clouded.
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When the SHTF, it’s been hypothesized that many people in the cities will turn their pets lose. This means a lot of small dogs and cats will fall prey to other feral dogs. Some city folks think that a domesticated animal, particularly a large dog, can hunt enough to make it, so they are likely to release them in state parks and in the rural regions bordering cities.
Dogs naturally will form packs. So you should fully expect to have to deal with them as they may attack your livestock, your pets, and the ones who were domesticated will sniff around the homestead and your family.
Be wary because while you might be able to adopt one, if they are in a pack, that is extremely dangerous due to rabies and disease and dog bites.
The safest way is to loop a rope through a length of PVC and loosely knot it, and then loop their neck and pull so they are safely away from your limbs. A dog bite under ordinary circumstances is usually not that bad but certainly can be with large dogs particular pitbulls and german shepherds and dobermans who have gone semi-feral. Little runty dogs will bite out of terror.
If the SHTF and food is scarce, and the dog is very wild, most likely you have to put them down. That makes me sick to even consider it.
A dog bite under emergency circumstances would tear a vein or artery and you likely would get a terrible infection and risk losing the limb. You could make a heavily padded sleeve but it would be unwieldy to manuever.
That would be a very dumb way to die and if a parent dies under emergency conditions, you doom the survivors. Plus you wasted extremely valuable medical supplies that cannot easily be replaced. The latter alone could ruin your family.
Dogs and cats under emergency conditions with limited food are likely to eatc leftovers, offal that you likely won’t want to eat, some bones but be careful of bone shards in poultry due to splintering.
Cats will start hunting birds and rodents like mice and chipmunks. Dogs ordinarily would eat lots of mice, a snake, a squirrel, or rabbit. Watch ’em because if they tangle with a coon or a porcupine, they can perish from the injury but typically from the infection. Never underestimate how feisty a coon can be. They are clever and fierce.
‘Course hungry dogs will prey on cats and runty dogs too.
In the country, a hungry red tail hawk will certainly try to attack little dogs with their talons and rip their abdomens. Turkey vultures usually look only a carrion and if they a wounded animal, will circle above. So if your small pet is hurt and lost, look up for signs of vultures who may alert you where your pet might be.
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A cat or dog will eat a mouse whole, but cats will decapitate them and play with it and leave it on your back porch because they are proud hunters.
The problem is this can make them sick obviously due to the critter being unclean and consuming the digestive tract.
There isn’t much to butcher a mouse. You just remove the intestines/bladder.
So a big concern when the SHTF is that a feral cat or dog could end up infecting your own pet and bringing the contagion back to your homestead. Obviously if your pet switches to eating game animals then you have to watch that they are diseased in any way.
A truly feral dog will dig a den on a hill with loose soil, one that overlooks a meadow and near a wooded area and water access. A semi-feral being so conditioned to be around humans is likely to find some abandoned buildings especially if dropping a litter. Both are dangerous but the latter is apt to approach your family.
You have to be vigilant as it will inevitable affect your pet as they may innocently go check a dog pack that they attempts to harm your pet. You should fully expect issues with parasites from any feral animals as you pet will naturally be inquisitive. Such events can be dangerous for your family as a vector of transmission.
Coydogs are the offspring of feral dogs and coyotes and while coyotes typically will not come near humans, coydogs will. Both will attack pets.
Any increase in predators will affect your trapping severely.
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Just because dogs can eat a rabbit and survive, does not mean that dog is healthy.
A dog that is desperate for nutrition will even eat fecal matter trying to get it. They will use instinct to eat plants to get it. They will eat insects and fish if they can catch them.
This is why if you are struggling and have a pet and cannot afford dog food, you will diversify their diet but still supply protein, fat, and carbs and many vitamins and minerals from your leftovers. Otherwise they will have greatly reduced lifespans and suffer and perish.
Dogs love a little milk (like up to two tablespoons for a large dog) but too much will make them vomit. They love a little egg as well.
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Here is a tool to pick fruit that is high up, but you can easily make your own.
Blackberries grow in briars and older locals know where to look.
When you are broke, you might ask if any older person (especially at church) has fruit trees. Lots of times they don’t mind if you pick and then help them get the crop in. Mostly they want you to be careful. Locally apples, peaches, pears, cherries, and plums are common. As people get older, especially widows, they can’t do it anymore.
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Here is what pawpaws look like but racoons, oppossoms, and squirrels like them and chipmunks will feast on the fallen ones. They bruise easily when ripe and so they are never in a grocery but you might find them at a farmer’s market.
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Honey locust trees are usually found as a budding amateur naturalist is walking around and hears the buzzing of delighted bees.
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Eating milkweed pods
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Black walnuts have a green husk that as it ages turns brown-black. That part has iodine in it as well as being the way our ancestors trapped/netted fish using jugalone (it binds totheir gills making ’em helpless. It also is the way our ancestors made black dye. It stain your hands so use gloves.
That dye would be an ideal way to camouflage your clothing.
ht tps://grandpappy.org/hfoodgen.htm
Grandpappy was an old church elder/preacher and wise man, and he knew a lot about saving money and wild edibles. I think he passed.
htt ps://grandpappy.org/hfoodgen.htm
Granpappy (Robert Atkins) was a church elder/preacher and wise man, who knew how to save money and recognize wild edibles. I think he passed.
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A raccoon is a smart puzzle solver that gets around and explores and is an opportunist omnivore. It will eat fish,crawdads, insects, fruit, most anything. If you watch what they eat, that a good way to become aware of what might be available.
Of course you can eat them as well, breaded and fried, as well as in the stewpot.
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Most likely you’ll feel guilty because their cute. They can awful mean though so don’t let appearances fool you or your family.
They have an eerie knack for disabling a trap as if they appreciate the snack and want to honk you off.
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Chokecherries harvested, dried with maple syrup,and turned into fruit leather.
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The Wooded Beardsman and family collect freshwater clams.
dumpster dive…tasty…u don allow my shit than u be big hipp..a critz…..suck it….mr.mac slave o
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If it’s cold outside, and you have some water you wish to freeze to make ice, but lack the time to wait, then when water is shaken, it will generally freeze.
The same trick works for boiling. If water is in a pan and being heated up, then mild movement of the pan will accelerate boiling. Obviously a lid increases pressure and does the same thing.
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If you had no fire but needed boiling water, and had a vaccuum pump, even a hand vaccuum of some kind, then water even near room temperature will quickly boil based upon how many inches of mercury you can draw (that is the measurement for vaccuum versus pounds per square inch ie psi for pressure).
The better the vaccuum, the lower the water temperature can be to do this experiment.
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If you can draw a continuous vacuum on room temperature water, first it will boil, and then the steam will be drawn away as well as the heat, and that induces a phase change and turns the water into ICE.
THAT IS A VERY USEFUL TRICK.
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Around the world, Christian missionaries will show local villagers how to use a solar oven to cook meals without fuel. They are easily made and if you turn them with the sun’s movement, then they can be very effective. They can be inexpensvely made as above.
If one had an old tire and a sheet of glass (like a storm window), you can make something similar.
Soldis is the standard way to sort of purify water by heating up water in a jar and putting it on a hot roof. Then after treatment, most pathogens will be eliminated but of course this won’t deal with agricultural runoff. You still should filter it.
If one had a second story window leading to a patio or roof access through a dormer, then one might use that to go outside with less risk when the SHTF. So you could use a solar oven in that manner from the roof.
Obviously that would be an ideal way to recharge solar lanterns each day so you have useful safe light instead of flashlights and candles.
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Some preppers cook quickly using a fresnel lens. This intensifies the sun’s rays. This is so fast and so eliminates the sun tracking and slow speed of standard solar ovens.
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Boiling water with a fresnel lens.
A pocket freshnel lens is flexible and often sold as a way to magnify reading material and it weighs almost nothing and is superior to a magnifying glass.
They sell three for five bucks online. They often are on counters at optometrists.
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Hibiscus grows in most every neighborhood in Western Kentucky. It is a refreshing and calming tea and commonly used as a beverage around the world. It generally is sweetened so you could use maple syrup.
It is so calming that it is a useful substitute in moderation if you run out of heart meds but be responsible and look up contraindications.
Believe me, if the SHTF, you need calming tea. You will have worried little ones and restless nights.
People in your tribe going 24 hours without sleep lose effectiveness. That is no good when the SHTF
Green tea bought in bulk is inexpensive and has some caffeine but also has many phytochemicals that promite alertness without feeling a buzz. I highly recommend drinking green tea and it also has valuable antioxidants to lessen inflammation, which is the suspected major component of disease states.
You definutely need tea which helps one to be alert.
Some time ago, scientists discovered that the olfactory nerve is connected to the limbic system. That brain connection results in memory storage. This is why when your grandma made cookies, you stored happy memories, and so when you smell the k these memories resurface.
When one is learning anything like medicine or ancestral skills, or a language, if one has a little orange oil or rose oil, and takes a mild gentle sniff, it helps lock in the memory. This is a very useful tool when trying to assimulate countless details. That is very helpful when trying to learn about prepping.
Drinking some green tea and using this smell-brain-memory connection together is synergistic ie greater than the sum of its parts.
Try it. Additionally some amino acids greatly faciltate learning. So eat healthy meals.
Cramming seldom helps as then no long term memory is implanted. You want to actually be able to assimulate everything you learn, because when the SHTF, you will have ENORMOUS RESPONSIBILITIES and your family and tribe is counting on YOU. You cannot falter and say I don’t know. You better know or your tribe will perish.
Green tea is a very inexpensive beverage when purchased in bulk. It makes you very alert and you definitely will need that. It has valuable unknown phytochemcals though some have been studied. It also has important antioxidants for fighting inflammation.
ht tps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28056735/
htt ps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140407101545.htm
The proposed theory is that caffeine and L-theanine and EGCG act synergetically to promote mental clarity. Any student or any older person, might gain a benefit from drinking green tea. If you aren’t crazy about that as hot tea, you can brew it with others flavors and drink it chilled and sweetened…but of course that adds to the cost.
A long time ago, scientists discovered that certain smells helped the limbic system to lock in memories. That has a huge impact on learning anything like ancestral skills.
You have to assimulate and you need a way to do this as fast as possible. If one sniffs a little rose oil, just a tiny bit wafted toward your nose, or orange oil, it helps lock in whatever you are studying.
It works. Try it. Otherwise it will take decades to accumulate practical knowledge.
PROOF
htt ps://lions-talk-science.org/2014/10/08/smells-ring-bells-how-smells-can-trigger-emotions-and-memories/
htt ps://www.inc.com/ariana-ayu/can-you-smell-your-way-to-a-better-brain-science-says-yes.html
htt ps://www.csus.edu/mcnair/_all-scholars-articles-photos-webpage/11_2009_2010/journal_2009-10/rachanee_jackson_csus_mcnair_2010-11.pdf
You young preppers do not have decades to assimilate ancestral.skills. At most you likely have 2-3 years. I wish I could help you.
By eating breakfast meals anytime, you can save lots of money.
French toast with jam or powdered sugar.
An orange julius is just orange juice and milk in equal proportions, a little ice, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar.
A sausage biscuit/english muffin/bagel. Or add slab bacon and a scrambled egg and cheese…all based on how hungry you are.
Slab bacon is in the butcher department and sometimes made in house and is thicker and better quality and cheaper than commercial bacon.
Likewise small groceries may make their own sage sausage.
Pancakes
Scapple
ht tps://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/scrapple-recipe0-1949580
Bake or microwave some potatoes. Refrigerate them overnight. Dice with onions. Pan fry them and serve with scrambled eggs.
It’s very hard to make good hash browns as inexpensively as prepared ones.
Smoothies typically are juice and vanilla yogurt, milk, and a banana to thicken it.
Steel cut oatmeal.
Real muesli
htt ps://www.thekitchn.com/muesli-recipe-260252
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As far as I know, there are three main ways to make European yeast bread when you have no yeast.
Sourdough (which I am not a fan of unless it is Amish Friendship Bread which is more like a delicious cake).
The Austrian and Japanese method of gathering yeast from raisins or persimmons.
Salt Rising bread which requires milk and uses a safe version of Clostridium bacteria.
The link shows how to get yeast from grapes. You would have better luck finding wild persimmons as the birds will get to most of the grapes unless you have a secret spot.
Bread being present has a very calming effect on morale. It fosters the semblance of normality ie “things can’t be that dire. We have fresh baked delicious bread!”
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Amish Friendship Bread starter
Tips
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When you start making it, you are committed to keep making it, thus after a month and a half, people get tired of it even though it is delicious.
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Salt Rising Bread Starter
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Salt Rising Bread from an expert.
In Western Kentucky, it used to be a major compliment if you met a pretty young Christian girl with ancestral skills, and if you were handsome and had ancestral skills ie “handy”, and attended Church regularly ie TWICE ON SUNDAY AND ONCE ON WEDNESDAY. And her pa liked you, then she would make homemade pie.
If you were good at courtin’ and romantic and she thought you were a catch, she would show off and make salt risin’ bread.
It is not a bread for beginners. She had to have some genuine skills.
If she really thought you were martiage potential, she would show off her sewing, crewl embroidery, needlepoint, quilts, knitting, and if you praised her…
She made fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. Then showed she knew how to can and garden.
If she was great around kids and friendly and kind, BUDDY YOU MARRIED HER.
Easy frugal recipes
Fried Rice
Broccoli Beef
Kung Pao Chicken
General Tso’s Chicken (often with orange peel and really a Chinese-American dish)
Thai Noodle Salad
Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes
Tuna Casserole
Chicken Broccoli Casserole
Hamburger Patties in Mushroom Gravy with Panfried Potatoes and Onions
Salmon Patties
Potato Skins
Scalloped Potatoes
Chicken Noodle Soup with hearty no kneed European bread
Ideally you want to eat free range chicken, but that is expensive. However, when making fried chicken, the very best is made from the free range variety.
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Here is how to either slice a cutlet or how to pound using the FLAT side of a meat mallet. NOT the other side which will dry out poultry.
Chicken has a high bacteria count that goes WAY UP when it’s near expiration date. You always cook chicken well done.
To save money you can buy the shortdated kind BUT you can buy it frozen as breast in large packs and that has a significant savings.
You are better off buying fryers and learning how to cut it up the right way. Then using these for various recipes or using a whole roasted chicken.
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This is the correct standard way to cut up a chicken. But not creating the “keel”. The keel and what the French call the “oysters” are the best most flavorful parts.
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How to roast a chicken laying down.
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Beercan Chicken on the grill.
You can buy a foofoo rack but a can will work. Thebrackdoes all better placement of fresh herbs though. The chicken is very moist but very crispy.
Certain cuts of beef are quite tough, yet are less expensive, but unless you know how to prepare them, they can be quite inedible.
You can alter the flavor by a dry rub, a vinegar and oil marinade with spices, by vinegar and salt water “brining”, by smoking, by slow cooking in a crock pot, etc.
Stew meat is often purchased so it’s convenient, but chewy as it’s made to be seared ie dredged in flour and cooked in a little oil first, then put in the crock pot.
The sure fire way though, that is less expensive, is to get an inexpensive round steak, and use a meat mallet.
Veal can be tender, but typically it still needs this percussive technique.
A cook who neglects this, might make a delicious meal, but if the meat is still tough, it’s a waste of their time.
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Using a meat mallet on beef. I wrote a lengthier version about types but Discus ate it.
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How to use a meat mallet on veal.
When doing this on round steak, you use the pyramid side to break the connective tissue. With veal, you use the flat side.
It is important to teach young people, from an early age, how to cook. It’s quality time as a parent or grandparent. And much of the time they are watching and you are silent.
Young people, especially from 11-14 and then later at 17-21 have lots of things they are wrestling with. They also do not like uncomfortable silence as there is a lot of noise in their lives. So if you quietly work, they will start telling you things that are on the heart…to fill up the silence.
You echo what they say like this.
“Grandpa I met this boy…”
“Oh….you met a boy…”
PAUSE
“Grandpa, I think he likes me…”
“Oh….you think he likes you…”
PAUSE
“…but I am uncomfortable because…”
Now the more you talk and the more they talk, they will risk telling you what are they are worried about.
So this is not just about them learning how to cook, but much larger lessons about maturity and relationships, and underage drinking, and parties, and GOD, and Jesus, and what it’s like to be engaged, and married, etc.
The old ways of learning ancestral skills are not just about ancestral skills…but about mentorship and building trust and them seeing a responsible mature healthy spiritual role model.
Consider how much time is involved just to start cooking.
Say you are making an apple pie. This means you know where the old now wild apple tree is so you hike out there, bringing a way to haul it back, and you have to gather many so they are not taken by insects and animals.
Then you bring them back, clean them, amd likely start canning at the same time.
You grind up some flour from your stored wheat. You look through for the vanilla extract that you made yourself from cognac and vanilla bean. You find a sweetner that is likely honey yu found at a real bee tree z(basswood) or from tapping a maple tree. You had milked the cow and churned butter…
You get the idea. Now in those older days, your daughter or son would be with you every step of the way. And they knew how to do all of these things. There was no going to the grocery store as that was for rich people and only rich people went to bakeries.
A young daughter or son knew how delicious apple pie was and how important it was for family morale and so they judged suitors and young prospective wives on their ability to meet the same the same qualities in their mother or exceed them.
You were mature when you demonstrated comprehensive ancestral skills, not just because you were 18.
Meanwhile all that took time and so you had many many discussions with your parents and talked about other things like Jesus, GOD, courtin’, how to be a good father, how to be a good wife, life strategies, how to save money, what species were disease resistant, what animal diseases looked like, etc.
Young people are disconnected from the Earth and no longer consider themselves intimately connected to the Earth, and thus have no ancestral skills, and no conversational skills, and don’t know any history…not the genuine kind.
They feel detached and divorced from YAHWEH.
But their parents in the urban centers are the same way.
It’s spiritual sickness that is the conclusion of an absence of very normal practical skills.
A pie does not come from a grocery or bakery. A pie comes from a remarkable amount of planning and strategy and knowledge and love using very practical skills that takes a lot of time. You made a pie a commercial enterprise. How bizarre.
We stopped doing normal activities to crunch numbers in a sterile artificial office and sitting at a desk. And then we wonder why their is so much despair and depression.
You are flat broke, but not in the way the article is discussing.
America is flat broke physically, as lack of exercise to gather the ingredients…does not exists…not very much…anymore. And so people get fatter and fatter, heavier and heavier, yet are malnourished.
America is flat broke mentally, as people are depressed and despair, and feel disconnected from YAHWEH’s creation. And though the answer as to why and the remedy is so obvious…they can’t figure it out.
America is flat broke spiritually, as people tried atheism, agnosticism, paganism, gnosticism, and so stopped helping the least of these. Churches became places to work the room to drum up business like moneychangers in the Temple. People stopped caring…then wondered why people stopped caring.
Why is your family hungry? Why are you hungry?
I hope you puzzle it out. Mentoring is like taking a meat mallet to veal.
1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Hebrews 13:1
Spirituality is not selfish; spiituality is selfless.
Spirituality is not what you think; spirituality is what you do.
Spirituality is not about feelings and pleasure; spirituality is about labor and sacrifice.
A good cook is engaging in a ministry of hospitality by entertaining strangers who might be angels…unawares.
ht tps://www.browneyedbaker.com/bread-and-butter-pickles/
When I was a kid and dinosaurs roamed the Earth,my great-grandfather got perturbed, he wouldn’t cuss, but would say something like, “She’s so dumb, she can’t make pickles!”
Well, most city people don’t make pickles anymore, but everybody used to do it in the country. Some nine year old little child helping out her mom, might have made a batch of pickles.
Only rich people bought pickles, condiments, and jellies/jams/preserves. Mmmm fresh peach preserves. I can still taste ’em. Homemade preserves are terribly expensive when they shouldn’t be.
Y’all would have to make pectin or corn syrup from scratch if the SHTF. The former is made from apples; the latter is made from corn stalks.
Anyhow, the ladies of the houshold would get out a Mandoline slicer, typically the least expensive kind, and start dicing like crazy, and be very careful as otherwise you would get a nasty cut on your hand.
Mandolines have been around since the late eighteenth century and originally were invented in France.
Frankly if you walked into a Walmart and asked where the Mandolines are, they probably wouldn’t know what the heck you are talking about. They are extremely useful when salad is a near daily meal addition.
The safest ones have them built into a lid on a constainer and use a protective device for your hand.
Old grannies used just a clean dish towel to remove water when you washed leaf lettuce. They would have thought it plumb silly to use a spinner which uses centrifugal force to spin the lettuce/spinach to cast away the excess water. However if processing a lot, they sure are handy.
ht tps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salad_spinner
They have been around since the 19th century but were common 70s kitchen devices in a church setting where you might be making food for 120 people.