Anyway, I often forget how few people have done any sort of provisioning, especially for time frames of more than a few days. I also forget how few people cook! Anyway, the following website can be a big help to get a grasp on what you need to pack away to be sensibly prepared.
http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm
By the way, get a load of that crazed vacant stare of the woman at the bottom of the page! Dang, don't she look Redeemed! Or something. . .
Don't forget that many of these survival foods take a great deal of preparation time and fuel to prepare! Don't be thinking you're going to be cooking a pot of beans over an open fire with wet wood in the rain--and get any sort of sensible results! Think ahead, it's a bigger issue than many take seriously, and we may well be playing for keeps.
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5 comments:
I find that three basic types of food work for me in the sense of provisioning.
1. On-The-Move. essentially 'fast food' for when you really cannot take the time. MRE's are an examples, retort packages from www.ishopindian.com are another (and tastier) version. Naturally, these are the most expensive category.
2. Easy prep. such as mixes, dehydrated ingredients etc. These can take semi-prepared basics like pasta, cous-cous, potatoes and with a prepared mix from a can or box, make a good and tasty meal in short order. Less expensive than 'fast' meals, but not yet the bottom of the cost range, though they usually require much less fuel to prepare and that IS part of the mix.
3. Meals from the very basics, rice, grains, sprouts, fish, greens/veggies. This is where the best food really comes from and interestingly it's generally the least expensive - as long as you do not count the time and fuel budget. The Back to Basics or the Carla Emery Cook Book are good places to begin.
What's ALWAYS missing: When I taught survival, I'd make hte point of bringing good, 'third world' spices. Look, while students were eating boiled tree-rat, boiled greens, if they were smart, boiled onions, I was making 'squirrel tikka-massala' ha ha. The aroma of Indian spiced survival chow has a BIG effect. I'd eat a bit of my meal while lecturing the salivating throng, then produce some spices for everyone. Good spices turn almost anything into food. I'd tell them "If you're going to be eating third world, bring third world spices.
COOKING FATS and oils..... this is very, very tough to supply and often supplies dry up quickly in tough times. I recommend 'ghee' which is an Indian cooking product made from butter. It store seemingly forever, tastes GREAT and gives you essentials of fat and other animals 'things' the you need. People forget that cooking requires fats/oils for full nutrition and especially for great taste. Butter + heat + "X" = food.
Now, I'm hungry....
RadioRay ..._ .-
I can't say how pleased I am for Jay to finally be taking advice from the Mormons.
Seriously though, those guys have their shit together when it comes to food storage. You should see my folks' basement.
You can't lose on a big bucket of Mae Ploy curry pastes!
Actually, the mormon thing is stupid, really, as who wants to eat 150 lbs of wheat. I understand it's practical. More importantly, it gives you an idea of the pounds you need, and it's bigger than you thing.
It would take 100 gallons of fuel to cook all that.
Yeah, the fuel is gonna be a big problem. I may try to convince them to get their hands on the kind of cooker you built. And then, hell, maybe throw a ton of charcoal in the basement with it.
I'm not sure exactly what scenario they're planning for, but I'm pretty sure they expect to always have electricity to cook with.
You can cut the cooking time and fuel required to cook pinto beans, rice etc. by soaking overnight and by using a pressure cooker a rocket stove would be perfect for this.
http://fastcooking.ca/pressure_cookers/cooking_times_pressure_cooker.php
You can bake a loaf of bread in a dutch oven also good on a rocket stove.
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