This article was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper
Have you ever waited too long to prepare for an emergency and then you get to the store and the supplies you need are gone? The shelves are nearly bare because a horde of other locals got there first? If you need to get some last-minute emergency supplies but your original choices are gone, here’s what to buy when the shelves are almost empty.
This morning, a couple of days before the advent of Hurricane Florence, I drove to a nearby large city because I was curious to see whether others in the area were feverishly preparing and if so, what supplies were sold out first. We’re pretty well-supplied so I wasn’t there to shop. I was there to see what was missing and what last-minute emergency supplies could be substituted in their place.
I stopped by a Kroger first and the line was absolute insanity. I couldn’t even push a buggy through the store because it was so crowded. A quick perusal showed that bread and water were basically gone.
Then I went to Wal-Mart. I didn’t go to the one in the neighborhood where there tends to be more crime. I went to the “nice” Wal-Mart in an affluent area. There, it was busy, but there was enough room to move around and gather some information.
In this article, I’ll suggest some last-minute emergency supplies you can purchase in place of the ones you wanted if you’ve waited too late to shop. To do this, you’re going to have to cast away your plans of being organic and healthful. If you’ve waited this long, you’re stuck with what’s left. So please don’t write to me aghast that I suggested conventional crackers instead of volcanic ground chia seed ones, okay?
My suggestions assume that you may or may not have the ability to boil water and heat things up, but you probably don’t have anything more elaborate than that.
What to buy when the store is out of water
Here’s a photo of the water aisle at the local WalMart that I took two days before Hurricane Florence was due to hit.
There are lots of other options if the water aisle looks like this. They may not be as healthy but they’ll keep you from dying of dehydration.
- Sports drinks (like Gatorade)
- Flavored or sparkling water
- Juice boxes or individual bottles
- Soda pop (not too much though because that can be dehydrating instead of replenishing)
- Vegetable juice
- Premade iced tea
A good trick here is to go to the aisle where people get individually packaged stuff for their kids’ lunches. You’ll find all sorts of beverage pouches and plastic bottles of drinks here.
I warned you – not the healthiest, but healthy is no longer available. Trust me when I tell you it will be far better than having nothing available to drink. Oh – and don’t forget the wine. It won’t really rehydrate you, but you won’t care as much that you don’t have water.
Finally, buy containers. You still have running water, right? Buy containers, wash them, and fill them up before the storm hits. No one is going to be sold out of containers unless you specifically look for “Water Containers.” Grab mason jars, pitchers, canisters, etc. Just make sure they’re food safe and you’re good.
What to buy when the store is out of bread
Here’s the photo of the bread aisle. My friend asked what they had against Nature’s Own bread since there were a few loaves of that brand left.
So if you are insistent that you must have the makings for sandwiches, it’s pretty easy to go beyond the loaves you see here. Other options are:
- Hamburger or hot dog buns
- Pitas
- Tortillas
- Bagels
- Muffins
- Crackers
All of these things were still available abundantly when I was at the store today.
What to buy when the store is out of canned food
I don’t have a very good picture of the semi-empty canned food aisle because a lady (and I use that term loosely) hit me with her cart and then glared at me while I was taking photos.
The things that were gone first were items like canned pasta meals, soups, and chili. That makes sense because they’re pretty reasonable meals when heated up slightly, and can even be eaten cold out of the can in a worst-case scenario. If your desired canned goods are not available, look to these items:
- Canned baked beans (tasty right out of the can at room temp
- Canned refried beans (spread them on those tortillas you got because the store was out of bread
- Canned V-8 and a can of mixed vegetables (turn that into soup)
- Canned potatoes (Mash them up or put them on the grill)
- Canned fish
Or move away from the regular canned goods and see what they’ve got over on the International Food aisle:
- Noodle bowls that just need boiling water
- Soup that may not be as familiar
- Small cans of salsa or enchilada sauce
Look in other areas for shelf-stable food, especially the aisle I mentioned above for drinks – school lunch box food. With small servings, you don’t have to worry about leftovers spoiling.
- Pudding
- Applesauce
- Pouches of precooked rice (some have beans and other vegetables mixed in)
- Peanut butter
- Breakfast cereal
- Granola bars
- Jerky
- Candy
- Veggie chips
- Potato chips
- Pre-popped popcorn
- Fruit cups
- That squirty yogurt you get in pouches (the shelf-stable kind, not the refrigerated kind)
- Vienna sausages
- Pre-cooked bacon
You get the idea. Go out there and be creative. Scan every aisle to look for things that won’t spoil that your family will eat. I know whenever I’ve grabbed this kind of stuff, my girls have been thrilled since we don’t usually keep junk food in the house.
What to buy when the store is out of batteries, flashlights, and emergency candles
I forgot to grab a photo of this, but the camping aisle was pretty barren. Here are some alternative suggestions.
Scented candles – I hate them passionately, but you can choose the most lightly scented ones there – better than sitting in the dark.
- Tealights
- Decorative jar candles
- Headlamps
- Shop lights – the LED kind will last for a long time
- Batteries – see if there are any rechargeable ones and charge them before the storm
For supplies like this, think about non-traditional stores:
- Hardware stores
- Home decor stores (I’ve scored unscented candles at TJ Maxx before)
- Toy stores
- Automotive stores like Napa
- Corner stores or 7/11 may have batteries
- Feed stores often have lanterns and flashlights
- The dollar store
- Electronics stores will probably have batteries
- Drug stores
- Liquidation stores (I found some really bright LED lanterns for $5 each at a place called Hamricks, a Southern franchise)
Don’t forget these other last-minute necessities:
- Heavy duty garbage bags
- Bleach
- Hand sanitizer
- Paper plates
- Plastic cutlery
- Pet food
- Essential medications
- Cat litter (even if you don’t have a cat)
- Something to do (I grabbed some yarn ot start on my holiday projects)
When the store is out of last-minute emergency supplies you wanted
Don’t despair if you can’t the last-minute emergency supplies you wanted. It just means you’re going to have to be flexible and creative.
And when this disaster is over, think long and hard about the things you wished you would have had. Make yourself a list and start buying these items and by the time the next disaster rolls around, you’ll be much further ahead.
You’ve got this!
Some last-minute resources
These two books may be of help. They are PDFs so they’re instantly available for you to download.
The Prepper’s Hurricane Survival Guide contains last-minute tips to secure your home if you’ve waited too late. It also tells you what to expect before, during, and after a hurricane. Order here for $9.49: https://sowl.co/7l0QI
The Prepper’s Book of Lists provides you with checklists of the supplies you need and steps you should take for a wide variety of emergencies. Order here for $9.49: https://sowl.co/jFrR7
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,.
Because there are so many struggling poor people, here is the cheapest nutritionally complete for the price list.
http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2012/08/a-year-of-food-storage-for-300-for-a-family-of-four.html
It ain’t great but will keep you alive. You need to add powdered dry milk, herb tea for the kids and sweetener like honey, and black tea for the adults to stay awake on watch. You all NEED vitamins as stress requires higher levels to support your immune system.
Lentil rehydrate fast. Pinto beans do not. For gosh sakes buy some flour, yeast, and some canned apples. A little treat vastly improves morale.
To boost calories, you can add a spoonful of lard to the stew pot. That’s what our ancestors did.
If you already have food and your kids are scared and not eating, add a dollop of protein powder to something applesauce.
Fear is a normal human emotion as a survival mechanism of the fight or flight response.
Being afraid is NOT normal and is infectious.
Dads and husbands must remain calm. Being calm is infectious as well. Be a tower of strength. Your wife and kids will notice and admire it. My wife used to call it, “big shoulders to count upon.”
The old school pragmatic way to cook outside, like for camping, in lieu of proper equipment is Roughing It Easy by Dian Thomas in 1974. And yes I bought it when it came out.
It’s pretty clever and a way to cook like on your car engine block while fleeing the hurricane. That way, your foil wrapped meal is done when you take a break and you save money and didn’thave to build a fire…as firewood acquisition maybe difficult. Every dingdong cooking outside will waste wood and then it runs out. There is not an endless amount of seasoned wood in a campground in autumn as higher numbers go camping.
We used to place our C ration cans on the exhaust manifold of our jeeps, trucks, and generators to heat up the contents. A hot meal is a great morale booster!
I’ve used a kerosene heater to heat up hot sake (rice wine) during ice storms. That was very popular.
Good times.
Mulled wine is good in autumn and winter. Y’all might try that. Your wife will appreciate it. It shows you’re making a romantic gesture especially when it’s stressful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d8AMhOtM6I
I thought those were Krispy Kremes. Lol.
Ms. Luther, this is a fantastic article and I appreciate your actual presence in the retail madness; that’s the way to be sure about your data.
In my area water is available at all the “dollar” stores. This includes Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General. All these stores carry food; Dollar General actually has fresh produce and name-brand frozen food. While the “media” may say the economy is great, we all know it isn’t. These stores are where many people buy the bulk of their groceries because the prices are lowest. Including me, the cheapie.
Back when I was a kid they used to call them dime stores. lol
Though most of this is So Ok obvious, it ‘s one of Luther’s more entertaining articles. A little humor always helps.
And BEER!!!!!
Rum, vodka. Takes up way less space, but yes, BEER !
Us Preppers are already prepared, so we head to the strip joints for the half price lap dances and .50 cent cold draft beers. The place is mostly empty, so we get all the girls to ourselves. Hellva deal. 🙂
I always like to warn folks about the STDs they’re gonna get when they participate in such.
Those places are crawling with it.
During the hurricane, don’t forget your rubbers!
A woman once confided in me that she got a vaginal magot infestation from a Hispanic dude that slept naked on the top of his tenement. Turns out flies lay eggs on the scum under the foreskin of their uncircumcised penises. They all slept like this, in the heat of the summer.
The doctor told her she would just have to wait until all the baby maggots hatched into flies. Bzzzzzz.
From that day on I was a monogamous man. Freaking eeeewwweee.
Imagine doing a maggot infested woo woo. Ahhhhhh. Ok I feel better, I vomited not my mouth a little.
now THAT one is gonna be hard to unsee!
off-topic(yours)
here’s MY food list….i went through the pantry and wrote down everything i saw…..it might give some ideas……when the shtf, i will have plenty to eat, and…..huh huh……you WON’T(think doomsday preppers, one of MY favorite moments on that show)
you might not realize how important some of them are.
macaroni
rice
pinto beans
canned fruit like peaches, fruit cocktail, pears, apricots
peanut butter
tomatoes and tomato sauce
cornmeal
flour
sugar, brown sugar
tabasco sauce
oats
BBQ sauce
pancake mix
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, 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…..
Anyone with a lick of sense can whip up an edible meal if they add cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup. I mean you could add offal or insects or snails and some wild meadow greens and taters and onions and have a stew.
Better than Bouillion is a soup base like restaurants use. That stuff is terrific and when company drops by (which I love that people feel comfortable doing) and you can make some chicken noodle soup out of a few ingredients. Then bake bread and have a salad and everybody is content. It’s a rich stock that is ten times better than buying a carton of stock. It may actually be cheaper.
Anyone can make good soup as long as the broth is great. If their broth is no count, the soup is horrible. You can make broth very easily if you start with a whole chicken. Use the haybox metyod to cook it. That totally demystifies the process.
i sure could use a GOOD neighbor, marantha!
After the hurricane passes, you usually get too much rain. Your water resource,( indoor plumbing) may be gone. Rain catchment in barrels or whatever you can manage is recommended. You can use it to flush toilets, and take baths or showers in it. It can also be used to drink, filtered first of course. Even it you don’t need rain water, catch some anyway. It’s great for putting out fires, especially when the Fire Dept. is rescuing people and putting out other fires. And lastly, extra water may be needed by neighbors who are short, and it’s good way to know neighbors better, and bring a little prepping awareness to them.
Thank you Sean for an intelligently written practical post.
New people always frequent prepper sites trying to convince themselves to start. Not everyone who reads these posts are hardcore preppers yet. Ideally we encourage new people.
Bring fistfulls of one hundred dollar bills to afford it all. A big boost to gouging retailers. Those on food stamps will get a one time big increase post storm. After the Florida hurricane I got a $375 one month payout after normally getting $15 a month.
After the hurricane in Houston I bought lots of Home Depot stock at $150, it’s $205 now.
They are expecting over 200 billion in damage, which they will spend where to fix it?
Small companies will be bust, but HD will rapidly rebuild and rush supplies to the disaster.
Just saying.
I bought it as a short term investment, but the SH It just keeps hitting the fan.
I know people who are not evacuating and are ready to hunker down and ride out the storm. They were not among the sheeples scrambling for supplies or fighting over a loaf of bread or water because they were ready before this. They are more concerned about looters. With over a million people already on the move, the looters are laying low until they can strike. If people could fend for themselves for a week, have the skills and supplies, they would be fine. The storm seems to have already weakened a bit- I get why the officials are proactive as they have learned from the past, but it’s sad to see that the majority of people have not learned a thing when it comes to preparing for these events.
Tex.. That’s all fine if you are living in high ground or even a high rise building. A storm surge like 20 ft during the high tide time frame, could wipe out millions of people on the coastlines and their homes. I fear storm surges way more than 150 MPH winds. Been there did that when I lived in Tampa a block from the bay and my first floor was only 8 Ft above sea level. Nothing funny about it. I got lucky several times, and just did not have any problems. I since sold the over priced house and moved away and upland and now I am 44 to 47 ft above sea level, and half hour away from the Gulf coast storm surge flooding problems. Living near an ocean coastline is freaking dangerous in a hurricane.
@TharSheBlows
I completely agree with what you said. Being aware and able to assess your threat is important. Living near the coastline is completely different to the many who live out in the burbs. When hurricane Harvey hit, we knew people who needed help, not because they flooded, but because they had no preps. My main point is to have supplies on hand for any emergency, so you can make the right choice for your family. Looting is a very real problem and we have witnessed that with Harvey and Katrina.
During one storm we had a freind in need, we had a generator, they were flooding, we were not. Try as we might, we simply could not cross the rivers between us. It was a lesson in failed evacuations.
If we needed to, we were already screwed. Even the interstates were closed.
The rule of storms. You are getting out before the storm hits, not after.
@Plan twice, prep once
Yup. That’s what happened with our friends too. They did not flood but the surrounding areas were flooded in Houston and they were stuck. They couldn’t get out. Thankfully, they learned a lesson in preparing and now have the basics stocked for emergencies. We are living in interesting times and it only makes sense to have preps and back-up plans. Meanwhile in North Carolina… I read this morning about people wearing utility vests knocking on doors and businesses and telling them to evacuate- The only problem is they are looters. No matter how much we have improved in our responses to these storms, people need to pay attention, have preps and plan:)
I remember being young and newly married and money was tight. Not everyone has camping gear. You have to figure out how to do it cheaply at first. I mean I had some since I had been camping all my life but I bought it used and piecemeal.
The first time I went to a hotel, my wife and I were carrying paper sacks as we did not own luggage. We had the nicest bellhop who insisted he carry them and refused to take a tip. I gave lots of business over decades because of that gesture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I8bSkYuOJ8
You can cook using a charcoal chimney and many people have one. It burns hotter with less wood and is ideal for one pot cooking. I would take it if fleeing.
The easiest way to haul loose items is a storage bin. That is very handy when camping. In a pinch, you dump it in the car, and can haul water and wash and rinse in one. You can do laundry in one. You can haul clothing in one. It’s very useful.
Don’t wait too long to pull over to find a camping spot. Even if you are lucky and find one, it’s dark, one of you is setting up the tent, the other is cooking as everyone is hungry.
Plan for a midmorning and afternoon snack. A little milk like hot chocolate before bed gets the kids to sleep.
If you’re the husband, you are going to be very sore and short of sleep as you are busting your butt. I definitely would keep watch and sleep with a knife and a handgun.
When camping, I never had anyone steal items, but you might as 1.5 million are bugging out. Make friends with people you trust, ideally going together with family, and or watch over someone else’s stuff when they go take showers. Reciprocity helps. When half of them leave, send half of your party with them. Then switch off.
Generally when I left the campsite, it was in better shape than when I found it. That’s how I was raised. So when a young couple came in, I would tell them to take my site as it was clean, had firewood, and therefore the husband didn’t have to haul any back. Otherwise he had his wife and baby while doing so. If they didn’t have any rope, I left my clothesline.
When a young couple or really anyone arrived late, if we had food ready and they were struggling, we fed them and I would go over and help the tent with the tent. They most often didn’t have a lantern. They rarely had a pop up oven.
I don’t know why people stop stopped being neighborly. It’s pretty great to meet strangers and for tired hungry folks to drink a cold beer and eat a hearty meal and have help rather than having a crying baby, trying to stake a tent with a flashlight, and eating a late miserable supper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cin_GG1U1Vs
If you had a charcoal chimney, a skillet, and a small sauce pot, a young couple with have everything they need to cook. I recommend a metal spatula, a metal spoon, a pair of channel lock pliers, and an oven mit. The pliers are in case things get too hot and or you need to relocate some very hot.
If you have a funnel and your coffee filters, you put the ground coffee in the funnel. You boil water, and pour it into the funnel slowly. Hard to get going without coffee. Black tea is a lot easier. They make a coffee singlet ie coffee in a teabag but it’s expensive.
As long as you have salt,pepper, garlic, basil, and hot pepper flakes, you can make some soup or stew.
A cutting board and a knife is essential. Throw a car mat on the hood of your vehicle, and use that as the base for your cutting board. Then wash it off. You generally have a picnic table but you need that space for other food prep and somebody is always sitting there. This is way better when cutting meat versus doing that where people are going to be eating.
A car can get quite warm. You can let bread rise in it. Look up your no kneed bread recipes. Flatbread is way easier. Hummus is quite delicious and cheap to make.
An el chepo rope hammock is pretty nice for snoozing. Every time I put up one camping or at summer camp, it was always full of adults or kids taking a nap. Sometimes there were teenagers spoonin’ in it and I pretended not to notice.
It is very handy if you have a cheap daypack. You can put fifty lbs in it like grocery or laundry or even wood to haul back. Once living internationally, I routinely walked five miles carrying groceries one way.
A husband can easily wash and hand wring all the laundry. I did it routinely for many months and everything dried on the clothesline. Clothes actually smell better this old fashioned way.
If you end up staying long term, make friends and work together as that is wayyyyy easier versus three couples individually doing it. If you have family with several adults, then one couple can still have some private time, and sneak off in the woods. Or two adults gather the kids while mom and dad take a nap. Ahem. Otherwise, you’re going to get a might irritable.
SPAM once more is the staple in Florida when something is coming. No joke. When Irma was on her way, not one single can anywhere to be found. Even ‘Treet’ was virtually all gone. As were the other psuedo-SPAMs (and yeah, there’s a bunch of them…. who’d-a thought?). Truth – healthy or not – SPAM just isn’t bad at all. 2nd to SPAM – every can of pork ‘n beans and/or chili…..’poof!!; also missing from shelves. Call me old-school; but really…, what’s wrong with just filling clean containers with water from the tap? I prefer rinsed well ‘Clorox’/bleach bottles myself. Must have 80 gallons stowed under a bed here. If the “S” does ever HTF, we’ll all be happy to drink well-water, or any water that’s clean.
Heartless, pork ‘n beans and chili I always have on hand. Last time I tried some spam it made me sick. Maybe just a bad one out of the batch but I haven’t touched spam since then. A good snack to have even when things are ‘normal’ is meat sticks. Old Wisconsin Beef Sticks with crackers make a really good snack.
Kippered beef steak is pretty good. You could make it yourself. I used to keep some on hand when we went sledding in winter. That and a litte, cheese and crackers made a handy meal. Deer sausage is common here. It tastes pretty much like a summer sausage you serve to guests at a party.
dukes sausages are available at costco again. very good shtf food/trail food.
Spam is a staple for schleps with no creativity living in the city. Its a salty pink slimy gelatin with unknown animal body part chunks, stuffed in a disguised steel container and stuck on a shelf in the food department.
No thanks, plenty of fresh live game here on the property if I need to for real protein. Deer, Turkey, raccoon, rabbits, birds, and fish out of the lake and canal. And I have dozens of ways to harvest it. Fishing poles, nets, Live box Traps, spring traps, conibear traps, pull trigger box trap, wire snares in all sizes, cross bow, various pellet guns pistols and a pellet rifle @ 1200 FPS .177, .22 pistol and rifle, multiple shot guns a size shot cartridges, rifles, pistols, etc…
And a dozen other ways to cook it, big BBQ gas grill, charcoal smoker combo, small charcoal grills, open pit camp fire using a folding heating rack, and cast iron or Dutch oven cookware, propane gas stoves, and many other smaller camping stoves using alcohol or wood or coal, and rocket stoves using cement blocks and a various combo of grills for a stove top. I still have a propane stove / oven combo, I have not even used yet still in my storage shed for baking and I have an extra 2 burner stove just as a back up when the other rusts out. And an unlimited supply of lots of fire wood and plenty of tools to split it and chain saws, fuels etc.
Nobody’s going hungry here, with 5 gal buckets of food stored in mylar bags, canned food, Canned salmon, MRE’s, Freezer food, etc. Also learn how to dehydrate and smoke meat for jerky. No Spam here folks.
I likes Taylor Ham…. Yum.
The typical hot water heater is good for 40 gallons of water. Tuna (get some of the individual mayonnaise packets as they don’t require refrigeration), canned Salmon and crackers.
Very good suggestions by everyone here. My only suggestion is it’s best to have all of the items stockpiled ahead of time 24/7/365. I always have those items on hand and still stacking.
Funny Dep R, you have not once yet mentioned fish crackers. lol Thought that was your go to staple?
Asscrack peanut butter. Spread on crackers. Yummers.
Solar pathway lights are an excellent form of lighting. A power tool radio (charger) is a great way to stay informed but also break the monotony of the darkness. Once of the least known items is dehydrated water as it is often ignored at the grocery market. Add just a little water and viola, you have water. Good luck to all of you and know this could easily become and ugly event. Stay safe and don’t chance it. Your little SUV is no match for the water, turn around… God speed.
When there is a national weather event like this, then new folks get interested in prepping. And then they usually get interested in camping. Then vacations are inexpensive as their housing and cooking is inexpensive. And you can rent canoes at first. Or get some inexpensive fishing gear.
Ultimately then these young people, most often single guys and young couples, then start asking about ways to expand and learn ancestral skills like basic gardening in containers.
There is a method to the madness. I wish churches would do this mentoring. Already young couples take classes when considering marriage.
If you’re a prepper of a decade duration, 20 people will ask the same questions. Now multiply that out over many decades. Some people are not good mentors as they are not good patient teachers.
At first, they have no idea about simple things. They can learn a lot on a four day trip though. If you make friends with a young married couple, you can invite them to tag along on your next camping trip. It costs them nothing but whatever adventure expenses like going spelunking…or white water rafting. They’re broke and this is the ONLY way they can take vacation. It creates a strong healthy friendship. And someone likely taught you.
With all the single parents, these young couples have often never had any practical experience as their mothers were harried and their fathers were absent. If you want prepping to continue, then be a good sport and mentor them.
the boy scouts is a GREAT way for a kid….OR an adult, to learn to survive….
Yes, I knew several Eagle scouts. I considered it growing up but there wasn’t enough free time. In the old days, the father took it very seriously and made sure their sons were respectful, knew ancestral skills, worked on their merit badges, and often volunteered. Now that organization is full of homosexuals and leftists and horribly politicaly correct.
The same was true of the Girl Scouts in the old days. There was a coed Chrustian group called Explorers in high school and lots of guys met their wives there as it was wholesome, full of devout, committed people, and the young ladies were lovely, sweet, and charming. Now I’m curious if that group still exists.
well, our scouts aint got those problems….we do just fine.
https://www.exploring.org/about-us/
Here is the group I was talking about that was co-ed and aimed at high school teenagers and used to be comprised solely of Christians. It’s a spin off of the Boy Scouts.
Sadly it seems to be co-opted by the homosexuals as they have the “sexual orientation” aspect written into their mission statement.
Everything is being ruined. I really don’t see why anyone would send their kids to public school anymore.
TrailLife USA is the Christian version of the Boy Scouts.
https://www.traillifeusa.com/generalfaqs
American Heritage Girls is the Christian version of the Girl Scouts.
https://www.americanheritagegirls.org/
I don’t see a co-ed version which is a shame.
One thing really caught my eye, under shelf stable foods was
“Pre-cooked bacon”.
I have a stash of Yoders cooked and canned bacon but it is almost impossible to find. I’ve only seen it on-line, and it is VERY pricey.
Is there another source of shelf stable bacon that is sold in stores? Anybody out there know?
There is no approved method for canning bacon. That’s a constant prepper question.
Yes you can make it yourself, but is it perfectly safe? Nope. It’s a shame because all they need is a good univerity with an agriculture program to have a microbiologist do cultures over a year.
Any longer and the bacon fat disintergrates.
Either make your own bacon or a good country grocery will have a frugal butcher who makes it. It’s slab bacon and far cheaper in cost but higher in quality. I’ve always used that versus commercial garbage.
Then when you can either, it’s far SUPERIOR and way cheaper than buying Yoders.
You wrap it in towels. I wonder if somehow you coud put in a food grade dessicant and it would stay crispy? Maybe putting it in a dehydrator so it’s air tight, then canning that?
I pressure can my bacon using parchment paper.
That sounds smart. I reckon the bacon grease is saved in parchment versus absorbed in the paper towels. The towels make good fire starter.
There’s a French style of cooking fish in parchment paper.
We had a guy’s weekend at church, which I organized, and we went camping and canoeing and one guy insisted we have bacon at EVERY meal. It was funny as we all were laughing and cooking seven straight meals with a pile of bacon on the table and we gobbled every bit of it up. I mean we had a regular hearty course of meat AND bacon too. And it was very high quality kind.
I buy precooked bacon at SAMs club. It requires no refrigeration until opened, but I freeze it anyway. Frozen it keeps forever.
The shelf life is huge. In a SHTF situation, open it and eat it.
If you are eating wild game you will need the extra fat. Wild game is often too low in fat. Have bacon fat.
PTPO.
Can you tell us the name of the product?
Sams on-line seems to only have stuff that
requires refrigeration.
Thanks!
Bacon wrapped deer hearts. Yum!
The Brits who were smart in WW2 would hide a pig and feed them scraps that couldn’t go in the compost pile. And likely had lard because of it.
The reason feral pigs exist is during the Civil War period, lts of folks free ranged their pigs on acorns. They they took off.
Some of y’all would be huntin’ ’em when the SHTF. Some places in America have enough of them, that the game warden are thrilled for folks to get ’em.
https://www.cooksinfo.com/british-wartime-food/
The little known history of English Pig clubs during WW2.
It could happen here. The Brits were is bad shape as they imported so much food as people had stopping growing food despite a long history of gardening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42jC7y8b2VI
It s not as dry as jerky and generally people like it better. It’s easier to chew. You can plump it back up with some water or cut it up with some stew or soup.
That’s My Old Kentucky Home playing in the background. When a Kentuckian is far away from home, and hears that song, they can get very homesick. The same thing happens when we hear Bluegrass.
I grew up dirt poor. I like spam and vienna sausages as there were times we had no meat and we were lucky to eat such things. Sometimes even to this day I like a fried egg, skillet cooked spam, and cheese sandwich on toasted bread. That is a giod sandwich if horseradish is on it ad especially with fresh spinach,onion, a homegrown tomato.
Back a million years ago, we never had any money for candy ordinarily. It was a big deal to get a candy bar and it didn’t happen often unless I made all A’s in school for the year. My mom’s friend was kind and if we visited she would give us fifty cents or a dollar each and we would walk down to the five and dime and buy weeks of candy. Weeks. Eating a piece a day. I remember feelin’ pure joy over such a little thing and walking together and laughing together was half the joy.
Kids are so spoiled now.
Maranatha,
Brother, been reading ya for awhile now and this one struck a cord. 🙂
Yea, I remember getting a few cents and walking ’bout a mile to ol’ Miss Wittney’s store. Just a Lil’ store (no bigger than small room) to get penny candy or fishing hooks.
This lady must have been 100 years old when I was knee high.
I went back when I was in my 20’s and she was still there. 🙂 Those memories are still here. Great times brother.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane tonight.
Y’all be safe. 😉
Thank ya kindly Brother. Hopefully you shared some of that penny candy with a cute neighbor.
🙂
“Have you ever waited too long to prepare for an emergency?”
No.
Next article…..
Don’t forget flashlights and have plenty of batteries on hand. Some lanterns are rechargeable.
Headlamps are also a must as they free your hands from having to hold a flashlight.
Even very inexpensive lights you can pick up at Lowe’s or Home Depot or Harbor Freight are good to have on hand for the kids.
Lithium AA and AAA batteries are a must as the chemistry of alkaline batteries won’t work in the very cold.
Hopefully and ideally, you won’t need to buy anything when the shelves are almost empty.
Keep in mind that everything will fly out of the stores if/when the Banks close, if there is any type of serious financial crisis, and possibly if a Third World War starts.
Don’t stop praying, trust God, and live out your Faith.
Dole pineapple juice comes in a can. Diced pineapple pieces have a lot of juice.
Fruit juice is high in sugar but it is a good idea for short term when food is scarce
and water is not available.
Honey baked beans with bacon is really good out of a can. Canned Ravioli varies in quality. Find a good quality product and you have an out of the can meal with a little meat. Mayo and mustard go a long way to making canned tuna and canned chicken more enjoyable.
Spices.
Dried garlic, dried onion, Italian seasoning, turmeric, black pepper, red pepper, any season mix you enjoy, and of course salt, sugar, maple sugar, and honey. Dried butter and dried cheese are other ways to improve taste.
If necessary, you could live off water and dried spices for weeks or even a few months. Boil up a homemade broth from water and spices. Grab some pre made broth off the grocers shelf. It is mostly water. Add whatever you have and soup is on the menu.
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I forgot: canned olives and canned mushrooms; olives for the canned tuna and mushrooms for the canned chicken, soup, or straight from the can.
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I hear people all the time who weigh way too much claim they can’t afford to prepare. Skip a meal and instead put something away for a rainy day. Apparently they aren’t far off.
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Lettuce leaves can be used in place of bread.
Red onions keep for about a week without refrigeration.
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I wish we grow pineapple as that is a favorite. Pineapple is full of digestive enzymes. It’s something that will naturally marinate chewy meat. It also is a food that cleanses the palate so when cooking a big meal with many courses, a little dish of fresh golden pineapple then serves as a break before the next course.
Pineapple has bromelain in it. A lot of runners take bromelain and it increases their lung capacity. If somebody had asthma and had some pineaple on hand or bromelain, then they might try experimentally giving the patient a little. They may start breathing easier.
Scientific evidence of the effect of bromelain.
https://restorativemedicine.org/library/monographs/bromelain/
A lot of y’all with chronic pain, say arthritis or back problems, fibromyalgoa, etc MIGHT be helped with very inexpensive bromelain. Twenty percent of Americans have chronic pain especially as they get older and have bum knees and herniated discs.
Try a little you can find locally and see. Maybe throw it your preps. Otherwise y’all can drink honeysuckle tea. That’s generally safe. And if you can’t find honeysuckle flowers locally…I’m astonished. That is good for acne wash, cleaning an infection, recovering alcoholics forced to get clean and sober, etc.
http://www.primallyinspired.com/how-to-make-honeysuckle-tea/
Heck, a smart five year old can identify honeysuckle.
Every gardener knows that water in a hose can heat up in summertime especially when the sun is intense. Use that. Fill your hose with water and lay it out against something black, and it will get warm. Now you have hot water that someone can wash up with. If at home, with some help, you could run it out on the roof or an upper patio, and then even rig up a spray of water using gravity.
I saw a real clever situation where a feller spray painted a hot water tank, and then waited until it got hot, and people used that for showers. Then he filled it back up.
If you’re home and you have an ounce of ingenuity, and your sweet wife is complaining and your daughters, well I don’t know about you, but I enjoy being the hero and figuring out how to accomplish it. Help of prepping is not necessarily planned but making it work.
You have to have tools and some basic gear to do that though. Can’t MacGuyver without tools.
If you got everything situated, and you knock on your neighbor’s door to see if they are okay, and needing a hand, or bring veg soup, that is currency. It’s a lot easier to get a hand if you already lended a hand prior.
I love when neighbors help neighbors. As a kid, I liked using my strength to help push people’s cars out when stuck in the snow. There’s a funny thing. When you do it, others will join in. It takes one to start and is infectious and there is a lot of laughing and goodwill from it.
Some of you will discover after an event like a hurricane that you have to leave due to severe water damage. You wanted to bug in because money is tight and you were worried about looters. But you can’t.
Some of you bugged out, but can’t indefinitely stay in a motel at $50 a night. You will run up outrageous credit card bills. And you are broke…and maybe have no job as it was lost inthe hurricane.
What you might do is minimalist camping. That started as a phenomena in America in the midseventies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og2hRkqiF8k
What people did was look to the Great Depression and how their ancestors coped. Some of which were young men who became hobos. Other times they were families living in Hoovervilles which were ramshackle shanties made from salvaged items from junkyards.
A minimalist camper will make gear as they have no money to buy gear. Like you can’t afford cookwear but you can use ziplock bags. Or you might use 2 liter bottles. You don’t have a tent, but you can afford two tarps. You don’t have sleeping bags, but you can rig up something that will work from sheets and blankets…especially polar fleece which is light and very warm.
I ran into lots of minimalist campers in the seventies because at first I was a minimalist camper myself. Originally camping gear was expensive although Sears had some aimed at families and often with Sir Edmund Hillary’s approval as he was a famous mountaineer.
And if you need something, you borrow it. And maybe you’re camping in the backyard of friends and family, but can take showers and eat there once a day.
You make a hobo stove. You make a lantern. You want it want it to be warm so you make an ammo can stove, but you’re going to need vent piping. Those are very warm. But at first you might be making a Dakota Hole fire like the Native Americans to cook on. And an open fire with a homemade fire reflector. You will find BONE DRY rocks and heat them up in the fire and likely bury them under the dirt a little and it radiate heat through the night. If they wet, they can BURST as the steam is released.
Originally, lots of Boy Scouts made gear to be frugal. There are lots of videos on how to make stuff work until you can better your situation.
The government will organize assistance but it takes time. Churches will try in the interim. Some already have homeless camps where you have a spot, firewood, and water and that is all. It sure is better to get organized with four other families and go to a National Forest that has free camping and or backpacking. The problem there is burn rules as this autumn and so fire risk. 1.5 million potentially fled. If everyone goes to the same place,the locals will be innundated. Be smarter.
Churches routinely have clothing closets and foodbanks. Use them. That is why they are there. They also have diapers and wipes and ointment and things for babies.
The Italians say “Having company is like fish. It stinks after three days.” Stay calm and don’t lose your cool. It is way easier to stay outside then have your immediate family and your hosts rubbing each other the wrong way over something silly like crowding in the refrigerator.
Find a way to return the favor like cooking for them. Taking showers after when they all have all gotten ready for school and work. Nothing is worse than making the hosts have inadequate hot water. His wife and daughters will complain.
You can either “rough it” and have a memorable adventure and pull together as a family, or be miserable and end up hating each other. The latter is no good. You’re going to have to bite your tongue as everything is DELAYED like government assistance and insurance reimbursment and construction finish dates etc.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/dispersed-camping-in-natl-forests-503960
More about free camping in the National Forests aka “dispersed camping”. It costs nothing but they provide nothing: no water, no picnic tables, no restrooms, no showers, and no fire pit.
What you do is go fill up your water containers nearby, and take the family to the restrom/showers. It’s a little problematic hauling stuff in but backpackers routinely use them and there are trails. You should have no issues finding a good site. Obviously four families who go together have a measure of safety.
I’ve used them in the past and never was hassled. You rarely see people. The entire primitive campground sites and RV sites can be packed and the dispersed camping can be entirely empty.
The National Forests are HUGE. But the actually designated dispursed camping can be limited. You should always consider how to handle accidents. The further you go in, the further you have to haul someone out. Sometimes you find great campsites immediately upon entering and there is a specific parking area for your party.
If guys who are handy (like millwrights) would make ammo can stoves, especially guys living near the affected area, then a lot of these folks could stay warm. I would hope than almost all guys who are preppers have these tools already.
It could be awhile and in worse case situations, the response will be slow as there are so many potentially affected (5 million) and so people are going to fall through the cracks.
And if it turns cold then sickness follows due to depressed immune systems. And wood will abundant but green so unseasoned and unsuitable for burning. And careless management may not consider that people may homeless may need the dead wood to burn it to stay warm.
And when people who are not used to burning fire and cooking outdoors, accidents happen and injuries and worse problems. All of you first respiders are going to see that play out. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Nothing is wrse then burned kiddos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LgArTl_BSU
Remember you can make some something work for cooking like a brick rocket stove, but for warmth and cooking, you might build ammo can stoves.
It MUST be vented due to carbon monoxide and thus the tent must have a draft to ensure that doesn’t build up.
I don’t necessarily agree with their politics, but the Wilderness Society has a pdf of simple camping recipes including directions. I reckon some of them might be tasty and simple and useful. There’s a very easy beer bread recipe in there…incase you didn’t have yeast.
Our ancestors would take some raisins or dried persimmons, but them in water, and close it up loosely. It will develop a yeasty solution as yeast naturally deposits on these. So you can generally make that in case you’re tired of sourdough and the baking powder ran out.
It’s an Austrian method.
https://www.cuisinefiend.com/414/wild-yeast-water-bread
This explains this Austrian method of gathering and magnifying the wild yeast that deposits on raisins.