Preppy Prepping

In my continual quest to identify meals of different types that I can add into my Stores meal list (see October 17 Post, “Soup for Every Occasion”), I’ve run across some information that I find helpful. Specifically, different meals require different types of rice. For instance, most Indian-type meals call for Basmati rice, something I have not added to my stores. I have a good supply of long-grain white rice, but no other kinds. I’ve also discovered that I should probably store up Arborio rice. This is the rice used for Risotto, and it’s smaller and plumper than long-grain. Therefore, when cooked, if done correctly, you get a creamy, light, delicious product. I’ve watched enough Gordon Ramsey shows to know that creamy Risotto is a staple in his restaurants. It can also be used for rice pudding. Storing up Arborio rice and Basmati means that I can vary our rice dishes much more. Using rice twice a week, once a week by itself and once a week combined with beans, having different types o...

In my continued search for high protein foods to add to my Stores, I ran across another unique piece of information. A common pond plant, known as duckweed, is currently being researched and is quickly moving into the position of our newest “superfood”. It’s packed with protein, far more by volume than almost ANY other protein source, doubles in volume every 24 hours (making it very plentiful), and can be eaten fresh alone, added to other foods such as salads or sandwiches, or dried and made into a powder to be sprinkled on eggs or any other food to add extra protein. It also can be fed to ducks, as it’s name suggests. I was fascinated! Since we have a backyard pond, I did more research. Turns out, it won’t work on our pond, which has a waterfall. It doesn’t like moving water. But it will grow in any nutrient-rich standing water. It reproduces asexually, like cloning, so it typically doesn’t seed. Some studies seem to indicate that, while it dies off at first frost, some particles drop...

 I haven’t posted in over a year; mainly because I had nothing more to say! People who know me well might find that very comical. But a recent conversation has spurred this Post. I have several friends who are part of a co-op from a store called Breadbecker’s. They are Atlanta-based but ship all over. They sell grains, beans, and other baking supplies. But their grains are unique in that they package the whole wheat berry in Mylar bags with the air removed and, then, in 42-lb. bucket. Before packaging, the wheat berries are treated for pests. The unique packaging, devoid of air and light, and sealed in a bucket away from bugs or rodents, and the whole berries as opposed to just the ground flour, makes these products shelf-stable for many, many years. Add in a hand-operated grinder and you have the basis for bread-making in your Stores. The advantage to the co-op is that you’re grouping orders together to discount the shipping and in order to apply volume discounts. Numerous times n...

All of us are interested in projects we can accomplish for free. One of the best things you can do for your family is to begin composting. Instead of throwing out vegetable peels and scraps, add them to your compost pile. Over time, these scraps will break down and provide lovely organic fertilizer for your gardens. It will cost you nothing, as opposed to store-bought fertilizer, and will decrease trash going to the landfill. What can you compost? No meat and no dairy. But any vegetable or fruit scraps and egg shells can all go in your pile. Think potato, squash, and carrot peels, onion skins, the ends of your celery bunches, pineapple cores, crown (spiky parts on top), and rind, apple cores (unless you save them to make vinegar), orange and grapefruit peels, old salad, and nearly anything you’re putting down the disposal or throwing in the trash except . . . meat and dairy. You can also add grass clippings, leaves, and anything that will decay over time. I started composting a long ti...

Every family should do a threat assessment. This is important so you can prepare appropriately for the most probable emergencies. You can begin by reviewing historical records of your area. For instance,  our city has struggled with flooding in the past due to a river that flows through it. However, another serious flood in our area is unlikely since the known hazard has been addressed with high embankments along the river. But we still have problems with flooding in low-lying areas around the city during heavy rains because the drainage system can’t deal with large volumes. Additionally, we live near a military base and several nuclear facilities. These are all possible threats. In addition to historical data, you should consider things like tornados, hurricanes, droughts, earthquakes, and other acts of God (or nature). The top 8 natural disasters are tsunamis, droughts, floods, earthquakes, heat waves, volcanic eruptions, tornados, and hurricanes.  Volcanic eruption is rare,...

Years ago, I started dehydrating bell peppers and storing them in jars. I find that I use a lot of bell peppers but I’m not going to pay $1 for a single pepper. My father-in-law grows them every year, as do I, and I dehydrate all the excess. All year rounds, I have bell peppers without having to pay a premium. For most things, it’s unnecessary to reconstitute the diced, dried peppers. I can simply add them to soups, casseroles along with the meat, or omelette fixings and they reconstitute really well on their own. Yet, I use them so often, I still have run out of dried peppers a time or two. For every full jar I keep available to use throughout the year, I try to have another stored for long term. Several times recently, I’ve been making something, like a roast with potatoes and carrots, when I really needed celery to add another taste profile. Celery is something I almost never buy, primarily because I use it rarely and, in between uses, it just rots and has to be thrown out. But, on ...

Because we live in the South, where we are happy if we have 1 day of Winter, we do not have a fireplace. We know lots of people who do, but many more that don’t. If you’re one of the lucky families that has a fireplace, you probably have firewood stored up somehow or have a reliable source. If you have a fireplace, but it has fallen into disrepair or you just don’t use it, now is the time to call a chimney sweep. Get that thing up and running; at the very least, get it to where it CAN be used. You have a cooking source and a heating source already in your home. You’re lucky. When my mother was growing up in the frozen north of Alberta, Canada, they used coal oil lamps for light and a single wood-burning stove for heat. They had a huge old farmhouse kitchen that housed their big cast-iron cook stove. This was the only heat source in the house. After chores were finished for the day and dinner had been consumed (in the kitchen), evening life for the family all took place in the one heate...

I’d like to talk a little bit more about water issues. A human can survive for weeks without food, but only 3 days without water. Other than shelter, this is the most basic of needs and should be the absolute first task tackled when trying to prepare for the future. Start by ensuring you have at least a 3-day supply of water for all your household members and pets. From there, continue adding to your storage with the ultimate goal of having 2 months worth of water stored for your family. Keep in mind that you can get by with less than 1 gallon of water per person per day for drinking, but you also need water for cooking, sanitizing, and bodily care. That’s why the CDC recommends 1 gallon per person per day. For a family of 4, you should have stored, at an absolute minimum, 12 gallons of water. But 2 week’s worth, or 56 gallons, would be even better. If you have any warning of a potential loss of water, you can fill bathtubs. This water should last you several days. If you don’t have ba...

Our Grandmothers used them and some of our mothers, as well. However, many people today only own electric kitchen utensils. Gone are the hand-cranked mixers and hand mills for grinding grain into flour. Some families may not even own a hand crank can opener. If the power grid goes down, hand-operated utensils will be essential, so it’s time to take stock of the non-electric kitchen utensils you may need. Let’s start with the 3 mentioned above. I have 3 or 4 manual can openers. I have so many because only one really works. I need to throw out the others and make more space in my drawer. If you have a trusted manual can opener, buy one more. Can openers are difficult to sharpen and really do dull over time. How fast they become useless depends on how much they are used. In any case, have a spare! You don’t want to end up having to use a knife to cut into cans. I recently purchased a “retro” hand mixer. It has a wheel with a handle attached and two beaters that turn when the wheel is rota...

I’m constantly finding out new things from my research,  which I mostly do during the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. For instance, I printed out directions for making a home still (not QUITE as easy as my sons claim), reviewed ways to store meat by salting, which my father’s family in Canada lived off when he was growing up, but is nearly impossible in the South, and stay current on new techniques and ideas from farm blogs and some small-time preppers, like me. One of the blogs I was reading recently mentioned something I had not considered, but is worth pursuing. While at the grocery store, pick up a couple of extra cans of, and watch for good sales on, canned meals that already have meat added. For instance, pork and beans (the better brands contain hunks of ham and ham fat) and canned chili with hamburger meat. While the ratio of meat to fillers may be small, having some cans of these foods will allow you to serve your family a meal containing meat without having to bre...

If there ever IS a catastrophic emergency, fast food will be non-existent. You need to know how to cook nutritious, easy meals for your family. In addition to beans and rice, homemade pasta, and sprouts, an easy meal to make is soup. You can make tomato, vegetable, chicken, ham, mushroom, split pea, potato, squash, pumpkin, beet, lentil, cauliflower, roasted red pepper, carrot . . . and any number of other types. I’ve started making a list of meals that I can stash away so I don’t have to spend time thinking about meal options if and when the time comes. Each day of the week, we will have a different dinner meal. For instance, every Monday, we will have a bean meal. Tuesday will be a rice meal. Wednesday, pasta, etc. . . Thursdays will be soup day. In this list, I’m separating out potential non-meat meals by each of the categories listed above. My goal is to have 12 options in each category so we have 12 weeks of different meals, despite repeating categories on a weekly basis. Essentia...

Have you ever considered that, one day, you might find it necessary to evacuate your area. We live in a relatively safe area of the country where the need to evacuate from floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, or tornadoes is pretty non-existent. But we also live near several nuclear facilities. In the past, our city has hosted evacuees from coastal areas numerous times, including Hurricane Katrina. Shelters have overflowed and many evacuees simply can’t afford hotel rooms, even if any were available. It begs the question, if my family was forced to evacuate, what would we do? After Hurricane Katrina, my family discussed this very issue in detail. There are several concerns that have to be addressed if an evacuation order is issued for your area. First and foremost, how do you go about gathering your family? This was a huge question, since my husband worked at one of those nuclear facilities, a 55-minute drive from our home. We discussed in detail (and never fully resolved, unfortunately) a ra...

People occasionally ask me what type of an emergency I’m anticipating. I have no idea. God said, so I do. He didn’t give me any details, just a few additional directions along the way. Some people are planning for a zombie apocalypse, others think there will be an EM Pulse, still others are expecting nuclear war followed by nuclear fall-out. My only thought is that we may experience a catastrophic failure of infrastructure, which shuts off our power and leads to loss of sewage and water.  Near the first peak of COVID, so many people were sick in our neck of the woods that businesses had to shut down. They were unable to sustain operations with such a limited staff. People positive for COVID were being isolated for 2 weeks, and anyone who had been in contact with them, which usually resulted in many of their co-workers, had to be isolated, also. There were just not enough employees to maintain businesses. If things get really bad in the future from COVID or a variant, or from some o...

I think it’s time we stop and re-assess. I’ve unloaded tons of info and suggestions on you, but let’s pause for a minute and do some deep thinking. The first question you need to ponder is, just who am I prepping for? In my case, my family includes myself and my husband, our three grown children and any spouses/ family they may have (they are all currently single, but I’m hoping and praying for Godly spouses and the gift of grandchildren!), as well as my father-in-law.  Prior to the death of my parents, they were also on this list. However, I have 2 sisters who live in the vicinity and my brother’s widow who lives a 5-hour drive away. In the case of a catastrophic emergency, she would have no one to care for her, and we’d most likely have to get her and move her in with us. One sister and her husband would probably move in with one of their 3 children, all whom live away, but the other sister’s fate in an emergency is uncertain. She and her husband, daughter, son-in-law and, perhap...

 Let’s talk about keeping clean in an emergency - bodies, homes, work surfaces. The CDC recommends storing paper products and plastic ware for your family for two - four weeks for an emergency. Again, we’re having a small stash on hand so you can learn to adapt without being thrown in all at once. To your Stores, you might want to add disposable eating supplies, to include paper cups, paper plates, napkins or paper towels (using paper towels as napkins also gives you disposable towels for cleaning, thus they serve a dual purpose) and plastic utensils. The goal here is to use items initially that can be thrown out while you establish a routine of how to wash dishes with no running or hot water. Soap is a critical product in an emergency. You need it to clean your bodies, clothes, dishes, and wounds. The safest and easiest treatment for scrapes, cuts, bites, etc., is soap and hot water. Bar soap is the easiest product to purchase for cleaning wounds and bodies. Bar soap can also be u...

Years ago, for Mother’s Day, my husband bought me a food saver. It’s one of those machines that seals special bags and can vacuum-seal, as well. The bags that fit the food saver are much heavier than Ziploc bags and are NOT air-permeable, a requirement for long-term storage. The one with which he gifted me also comes with a roll holder at the top and a cutter blade that slides across to cut the heavy plastic whatever length you want. I purchase the rolls, sealed on both sides, from Costco. You can also get them on-line and purchase rolls of different widths. Some of the multi-packs include pre-formed bags, open on only one end. These work well for smaller items that you want to quickly repackage. When I use the rolls and make my own bags, I always double seal the end before I fill. Just in case one seal loosens somehow, I have that second seal for protection. The machine uses heat and pressure to melt the two sides together to form a seal in a thin line. I use my food saver a ton. If I...

My oldest son’s first job was at the local Chick-fil-A. We discovered, in anticipation of the opening, that CFA does something called, “The First 100” at every new store the night before the Grand Opening, which always happens on a Thursday. You have to report to the store by 6 am the morning before the opening and register. The First 100 people that register and several alternates spend the whole day and the night in the parking lot. CFA feeds you breakfast, lunch, and dinner and provides unlimited drinks all day plus games with give-always and lots of fun activities. Throughout the day, they require the attendees to line up and do a count to be certain the 100 don’t leave the property. Early the following morning, they rally the attendees again and the first 100 (and any alternates that have taken the place of disqualified individuals) are given a gift card pre-loaded with 52 #1 meals. Supposedly, you can’t use the card multiple times in the same day, but I’ve found the employees are...

 Regardless of how much food you store, it will never be enough. If there really IS a catastrophic emergency in your region of the country, such as inter-state commerce shutting down or the power grid going off-line, or even the failure of our economy, you will be doing extraordinarily well to have stored up enough to provide food for your family for a full year. The real goal of Stores is to provide for your loved ones for long enough to establish a food-collection system for the future. What that means for everyone is a little different. But the most important thing is to have given this whole idea some mind space and thought. This isn’t something that should send you to a mental health specialist or a cardiologist! We have held multiple family meetings to discuss these issues. We included my father-in-law, who now lives near us, and our grown children. We opened the floor to any tangents one of the attendees wanted to head off down. My father-in-law was very concerned about the ...