So eat what you store and store what you eat - rotate your storage – and have fun!
Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee any used buckets, food product, or results. Food will go bad given enough time, light, moisture, heat, and other environmental conditions. Even without the environmental factors, given enough time, all food will go bad. Double sealing with mylar bags inside your buckets will increase the efficacy and success rate of dry bulk food storage, however, it also increases the cost.
Steve “Sasquatch” Mayka is a Survival and Disaster Preparedness Consultant. Through more than a decade of continuous study, he has developed a holistic approach to preparedness that is based on budget, moderation, and continuous practice. He gives monthly talks in his community on various subjects related to prepping and survival and consults clients on the subjects of Disaster Preparation, Self Sufficiency and Homesteading. He can be reached at [email protected]. Look for videos on Youtube under the name: trackthesasquatch in the near future.
Growing and Processing Raw Wheat Sprouts
by Carrie Milandred
There are several steps to processing this food but it takes only a few minutes. You probably already have most of what you need but you should equip yourself with what you lack.
First, get your sack of wheat. You will also need a narrow-mouthed thermos bottle. Don’t be tempted to get the wide-mouthed thermos. It holds less and the cap has a wider surface, which keeps it from holding the heat of the near boiling water you need for actual cooking. If you do not already have one, you should be able to pick one up for around $20.00.
Next, you need two-quart jars. Mayonnaise jars or similar will do. To cover them, get some nylon window screen from the hardware store and cut two six inch by six inch squares. Put four ounces of wheat in each jar, then place the screens over the jars and secure them in place with large rubber bands. Fill one jar one-third with water and set it near the sink overnight.
Next morning pour out the soak water and drink it. It is vitamin-rich and a good morning tonic. After the first draining, flood the wheat about every four hours before bedtime and drain it. The idea is to keep the wheat moist.
At the last flooding on the first day - just before bedtime - flood the second jar and let it set overnight like the first. The next day, drink the water and treat the second as the first, flooding both every four hours or so.
On the second evening, the first jar of wheat will show sprouts protruding from the ends of the grains. Now it is ready. It is part grain and part fresh vegetable. Its protein and vitamin content is higher and it is now a more complete food, rich and amazingly nutritious!
Empty the sprouted grains into a two-cup measure and put four more ounces of wheat in the jar - flood and set aside overnight as before. Now you have a routine taking up no real time and producing a fantastic amount of food for little cost.
With the sprouted grain in the two-cup measure fill it with water to the two-cup mark. Then, pour it into a saucepan on the stove and add two more cups of water and a few shakes of salt to keep it from tasting flat. Heat it to a boil, which takes about five minutes. You will need a funnel to pour the water and the grain into the thermos. Take a clean 1-gallon plastic bottle (milk, bleach, vegetable oil, etc.) and cut it in half. Use the top half for the funnel.
Fill your thermos with hot water to preheat it and then pour it out just before filling with the grain. While the grain is still boiling, empty the pan into the funnel and so into the thermos. You will have to use a spoon to push part of the grain from the funnel into the thermos, as well as some of the grain from the pan. At any rate, do it quickly so you can cap the thermos to contain the heat.
Cap then shake the thermos and lay it on its side (so its contents don’t bunch up) and leave it overnight. The following morning, pour the contents into a blender and pour out part of the liquid into a cup. Drink the liquid as it is rich in vitamins.
With just enough liquid to cover the grain, turn on the blender at low. Then increase the speed until the grain is all ground to the consistency of oatmeal. You can add cinnamon or any other flavoring if you like, but you will find it has a delicious taste of its own.
You do not need much sweetener, as the sprouting creates quite a bit of wheat sugar. You can add cream if you like, but I like mine plain.
You will be surprised at the energy you feel even a few minutes after eating. Not only will it enable you to be more energetic and alert until lunch-time, but it will also be an excellent weight adjuster.
People have been eating roughly ground whole wheat for thousands of years. The rough bran from whole wheat and coarsely ground corn kept the intestines of common folk free from any carcinogenic buildup. The same goes for oatmeal, which has recently been touted as the perfect, high-protein, bran food.
Cooking off the Grid with Solar Power
by Lisa Bedford, The Survival Mom
How long can you go without craving a hot, homemade meal, eating only cold rations and snacks? If you’ve ever been without power for more than just a couple of days, eating cold ravioli or tuna out of the can gets really old, really fast. Most survival minded people realize, better than most, that it doesn’t take much to disrupt the flow of electricity we depend upon for cooking. A natural disaster or freak weather event can turn the most modern home into a survivalist camp within a few hours. Electricity can also be interrupted by man-made crises, such as civil unrest, terrorism, or an EMP, making that hot meal a rare treat.
A popular slogan among survivalists and preppers is, “Always have a back-up for your back-up.” When it comes to cooking, what is your back-up for your back-up? Do you have more than one way of cooking a hot meal when the power is down?
As long as the sun is shining and the sky is relatively clear, a solar oven can serve up a delicious pot of rice and beans and brownies for dessert without requiring any fuel. In fact, its dependence on the sun as its only source of fuel, is the reason every home should have a solar cooker. Solar cooking is an unbeatable back-up for making sure there’s a hot meal on the table three times a day.
There is something new under the sun. Solar cooking and using the sun to preserve food has been around for hundreds of years, but only in modern times has the use of solar cookers become widespread both in the survival community and among communities around the world with unreliable electrical power. Its advantages are obvious.
There is no need to store additional fuel. Sunshine is free, unlike propane, butane, gas, and other fuels.
It’s possible to store several months’ worth of food, but storing all the fuel you might need isn’t as easy.
Once paid for, there are no other expenses involved and maintenance is simple.
1. There are no dangerous fumes or safety issues to worry about.
2. A solar cooker can be used for every type of cooking, except frying.
3. Food never burns in a solar cooker.
4. During hot, summer months, the use of a solar cooker helps keep the kitchen, (and the cook!), cool.
5. Over time and with frequent use, the use of a solar oven will save money on the electric bill.
A solar cooker for every home
A solar cooker is a must-have as a back-up method for cooking food. It is the single most self-reliant way to cook food and heat water, and has the additional advantage of being a DIY project if there’s a handyman (or woman) in the family.
Commercially produced solar cookers, such as the Global Sun Oven and the Sport Solar Oven, are perfect for the prepper who is too busy for even one more DIY project. Depending on the brand you choose, these stoves have consistent quality construction, are designed to reach temperatures for the quickest possible cooking results, and have features for enhanced usability, such as interior thermometers, large reflecting panels, and a weather resistant design.
However, some of these ovens carry a price tag of $300 or more and can be large and bulky. In a Get-Out-Of-Dodge scenario, there might not be room for my Sun Oven in the back
of our Tahoe, and if I ever had to cook for more than my family of four, it would be too small. That’s one of the limitations of a store-bought solar cooker. You’re stuck with a standard size that may be too small, and your budget may not allow for a second cooker.
The Solar Chef by Rose Kern
On the other hand, a DIY solar cooker can be customized to your specific needs. One friend used a large ice chest on wheels for her solar oven. She could wheel it to any location in the backyard and she chose a size that could accommodate as many as four baking dishes. Another ingenious DIY plan that can be found on the internet uses a 5 gallon bucket and a reflective sunshade. Total cost? Not much more than five bucks, if that. The advantage of many DIY solar cookers is that they can be dismantled for convenient transport, and all of them require materials that are already in most garages. Plans for homemade solar cookers can be found on dozens of websites and demonstration videos abound on YouTube.
[Editor’s Note – View our guide to DIY solar cookers, including various designs at: www.survivalist.com] The DIY solar cooker comes with a few disadvantages. If the design doesn’t maximize the amount of sunlight available, you may end up with nothing more than a hot silver box sitting out in your yard. I recommend testing and tweaking any DIY design until it consistently reaches 350 degrees or more. Reliable temperatures will help you plan mealtimes and insure that foods reach temperatures that will deter any bacterial growth. Another issue with the DIY cooker is its durability. If a slight breeze knocks over your cooker and pot of beans, you’ll know you need to fine-tune the design for added stability.
Getting started with solar cooking
Regardless of which solar cooker you settle on, some foods are easiest for getting started. Be sure to keep a log of foods you cook, time of day you begin cooking, and the length of cooking time required. This log will be a huge help to you as you branch out and begin cooking a wider variety of foods.
Hard boiled eggs. Place eggs on a dark colored towel or inside a dark pot inside your cooker. After 20 minutes, check one egg for doneness. Solar cooked hard boiled eggs will be softer than those cooked in a pot of boiling water.
Rice. Rice is either cooked or it’s not. It’s probably the easiest food to experiment with when you’re new to solar cooking. Combine rice and water in a covered pot. Check for doneness after 25 minutes. A package of Rice-a-Roni works just as well for your experimentation.
Brownies. Yes, brownies! Mix up a batch of your favorite store-bought or homemade recipe, pour it into a dark, greased pan and place it in your solar cooker. Use the baking times recommended by your recipe, test for doneness, and leave in for additional minutes if required. I’ve found that solar-baked brownies are usually finished in the same amount of time as oven-baked.
Water. I’m almost embarrassed to suggest heating water in your solar cooker, but having a way to pasteurize water could be very important. Check the temperature of water after 30 minutes. At 149 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius) all germs, viruses, and parasites are killed. This information, along with your solar cooker, could be one more way to insure safe drinking water in an emergency.
Like any new skill, the only way to learn how to cook with a solar oven is to just do it. For most dishes, allow at least an extra 30 minutes to your cooking time.
Ten Top Tips for Solar Cooking
1. Solar cooking isn’t an exact science. It requires a bit of trial and at least a few errors to determine the correct cooking time for any food.
2. Always use dark pots and pans with any solar cooker. If you must use a light colored or shiny baking dish, cover it with a dark colored hand towel.
3. Thin-walled metal baking dishes work best in a solar cooker. They will heat up more quickly and lessen the amount of cooking time needed.
4. A thermometer is a must-have for a solar cooker.
5. Allow your solar cooker to pre-heat for 15-20 minutes. Pre-heating will shorten the cooking time a bit. Just be aware that the interior of your cooker will be hot, so be sure to use pot-holders.
6. Always use a baking dish with a lid for all your solar cooking. The lid retains important heat and moisture. There’s no need for a lid if you’re baking. Pies, brownies, cookies, cakes, and bread won’t require a lid.
7. If you’re cooking meat, make sure the interior of the oven reaches at least 180 degrees. Again, a thermometer is a must to insure food safety and predictable cooking times.
8. Use the ‘slow-cooker’ method when you’ll be gone all day. Place the solar oven so that it faces directly south. Pop in your baking dish, close the lid, and by dinner time, you’ll have a hot, delicious meal waiting for you.
9. Moisture will likely collect inside the cooker during the cooking process. Wipe the inside dry before storing it.
10. Turn your solar cooker into a food dehydrator by propping open the oven door by a half-inch or so. This allows moisture to escape while the interior of the cooker retains heat.
If you’re new to solar cooking, prepare to be amazed. There’s nothing quite like placing a baking dish in a box out in the sun and coming back later to a fully cooked and delicious meal. A prolonged power outage doesn’t mean the end to hot, nutritious meals when you have a solar cooker as a back-up.
Lisa Bedford currently writes and blogs as TheSurvivalMom (http://thesurvivalmom.com/) and has an international following, with thousands of readers each week. Her blog and preparedness lifestyle have been featured in Newsweek, The Arizona Republic, and in numerous radio and TV interviews. She leads a host of SurvivalMoms who are determined to protect and provide for their families, no matter what. Lisa believes in the power of being prepared for an uncertain future and teaches classes to help others learn these same skills.
Home Distilling - The Spirit(s) of Self-Reliance
by John Burks
“Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.”
- W.C. Fields
Mankind has been fermenting sugars into alcohol in the form of beer as far back as there are records - and probably longer. Beer was a contributing factor to both the birth and growth of civilizations the world over. Those crafty Greeks, however, were the first to condense the alcohol through distillation, producing the earliest forms of what we know today as “spirits”. Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States produced their own spirits and George Washington had a thriving whiskey business. Whiskey was even considered currency in the wild, unsettled frontier regions of our growing country.
The most obvious use for distilled spirits, in a post SHTF type scenario, is for trade. Studies have shown that even in bad economic times, alcohol sales remain stable and occasionally even rise. And no matter how well you are prepared, there will invariably be something you need to trade for.
Besides trade, the commodity has infinite uses. From the obvious “self-medication” uses (stress and/or pain relief), to legitimate medicinal purposes such as the sterilization of wounds and instruments, two more “industrial” uses as a solvent or as a fuel product. The still itself can also be used for the distillation of water when there are contaminants present that can’t be eliminated through boiling, filtration or chemical additives.
The skill of building a still and producing the commodity is, in itself, a valuable resource. Imagine the scene in Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven’s Lucifer’s Hammer, where they are interviewing refugees for useful skills before letting them into the camp. The guy holding up his hand, knowing how to produce ethanol, is guaranteed to get in. Right along with the doctors and nurses.
The first thing a potential home distiller needs to know is; right up to the point that the SHTF, home distilling is absolutely illegal in the United States and there are currently no major movements trying to change that. Home brewing and wine making are legal - within limits - but there are no ifs, ands, or buts about the legality of distilling.
Don’t be fooled by the reasoning for this prohibition. Distilling, (contrary to what the governm
ent says), can be done in a perfectly safe manner and produce a perfectly safe product. What the government doesn’t get from home distilling - and the main reason why it’s illegal for you to do as the Founding Fathers did - is tax revenue.
The next three things you need to know are; copper, glass, and stainless steel. Nothing else should touch your product at any stage. Alcohol will leach pure grade nastiness from plastic. Those building stills from PVC pipe for anything other than non-consumable fuel purposes should go ahead and skip the slow pain and find an easier way to commit suicide. The only exception to this is the use of food-grade plastic in siphon and drain tubes.
Home distilling consists of two basic phases: (1) creation and fermentation of your ingredient mix, (known as a mash) and (2) distilling of your mash. For the purposes of this article we’ll stick with five gallon mashes because they are easy to transport by hand and the equipment needed to create and ferment them is readily available, both online and in home brewing stores.
You will need a six gallon carboy, (which is just a fancy name for a glass jar), and an air lock to ferment the mash. You’ll also need a ten-gallon stainless steel pot, which will serve as the base of the still and be used to make the mash.
Mashes are made from a wide variety of ingredients. Vodka from potatoes, whiskey from corn and rye, brandy from fruit wines, rum from sugar cane… the varieties of recipes for alcohol, are as diverse as they are for food. For the purposes of this short article, we’ll keep it simple and cheap. The basic ingredient in any mash is sugar, so we’ll use that. For a five-gallon mash, warm two gallons of water in your all-purpose ten-gallon stainless steel pot and add ten pounds of sugar. You don’t have to boil the water, just heat it enough to dissolve the sugar completely.
Survivalist Anthologies Volume 1 Page 13