Being Prepared - Updated Basic Food List On Page One

It seems we always find each other! I love your smilie.

That's pretty amazing, thanks for sharing that link. I had been wanting to get a personal water filter, and that one seems like a great deal.

100k gallons is LOT, I had no idea there was a filter like this on the market for $20.

We have a few small ones, two for each of us. The preppers Golden Rule, one is none and two is one. If you lose one, you have none. There are many kinds
[link to www.amazon.com]

Last Edited by WhiteAngel on 09/10/2014 09:30 AM

Ugh, I'm a moran, I was typing too fast and screwed up a link in that thread.

I can't go back and edit that link, so I re-posted the thread with a functioning link and a more to-the-point title: Thread: How I grow food year-round despite harsh winters

I know what's going on my Christmas list :)

I'd much rather have a couple of those than my usual haul of socks and underwear.

You need a name with your sign on. You don't have to pay to have that, but it would let you edit and control your threads.

They take up very little room. You need those socks and underwear.

Pretty much all I read on page 1 was about water, and how much about it you don't know....

Unless those soda bottles had mold in them, or rancid crap of some kind, not much need to clean them w/soap. Don't want to drink the soap residue. Don't want to spend a lot of time on them.

The trick to stored water is to run it through a filter, or aerate it. Filtering is best. Not going to impact your filter, but it will invigorate the water.

Don't want to have to drink a lot of bleached water.
Yeah, what you want is PLAIN Hypochlorite bleach, no scent, no-nothing, just plain Chlorox or generic stuff. 8 eyedropper drops treats a gallon, but... unless you're treating Raw Water, no need to treat. City water will have some chlorine treatment already. Just keep bottles out of direct sun, like in a closet or a box.

You want a filter you can clean. MSR Waterworks, Katadyn. The ceramic filter elements are best. Don't want anything with charcoal. Charcoal don't last and eventually stinks. Might use Activated Charcoal, Raw in a fine mesh nylon bag to absorb stink from raw water.

Look for some charcoal capsules at healthfood store so can mitigate food poisoning. Food quality charcoal caps will absorb poisons in the gut.


Clean 5gal paint buckets (new, w/new gasket lid) will keep food in excellent condition for Long Term Storage.

Whole grains, beans, legumes any non-flour you can buy in bulk will store well when you add Dry Ice/CO-2 pieces layered-in as you fill the buckets. One 2# brick of Dry Ice will treat about eight 5gal buckets. Break the dry ice into chips, wrap in a towel etc and break up w/hammer. Fill bucket 1/3 way w/grain and add 5-6 fingernail size pieces of dry ice. Leave last dry ice on top, and place gasket lid loosely over bucket. Allow 30min for CO-2 to gassify and permeate the bucket, then hammer the lid down. Label contents and date, you are all set.

We have eaten 12yr old plus Organic Short-grain Brown Rice and it was like perfect in cooking and in taste.

Just about any canned food will last many years. Found a 10yr old can of corned beef hash and had it today for breakfast. Tasted fine with the 3 fried eggs I cooked up for myself. To get longest life from canned goods, turn them over once a year or every so often. Can also wipe them with cooking oil and they won't rust.

Good idea to have grain mill or two and a meat grinder.



I have written about 15 or 20 different threads on Survival topics here in the archives. Search on my name going back to 2007 and you will find them.


What you really need most is an ability to live self-sufficiently in the days ahead.

Very well said. I have more to add but it needed a lot of editing and almost off to sleep now. Hoping to add more with the info you also posted. I haven't used dry ice, just oxygen absorbers. Didn't want to take the chance with handling the dry ice.

Thank you for your post!

God bless all. Need sleep now.

:s27sweetdreams1:

I heard you can stain your skin brown with walnut hulls.
Info 2nd hand from someone who did it; no info on how.

Your water needs figures are in error.
This is a common error, it is a very Short term survival water requirement. Survival as in being lost and waiting for a rescue party, not a, "there is no help coming" situation.
1 gallon per person, per day is your basic personal water needs only. You can not survive and stay healthy very long using only this amount. Do your research carefully.
You will need additional water for cooking and cleaning dishes and clothing and at least for light personal cleaning to prevent skin rashes and skin diseases.

These are World Health Organization guidelines:

Type of water need Quantities:
Survival (drinking and food): 2.5 to 3 liters per day, Depends on climate and individual physiology.
Basic hygiene practices: 2 to 6 lpd, Depends on social and cultural norms.
Basic cooking needs: 3 to 6 lpd, Depends on food type, social and cultural norms.
Total 7.5 to 15 lpd or roughly 1 to 4 gallons per person per day.
These are for very BASIC needs, not luxury amounts. So you could end up wishing you had a lot more than that.
If storing water add 10% for leakage, spills, etc.

Minimum provision of domestic water containers
Two vessels 10-20L for collecting water plus one 20L
vessel for water storage, (narrow
necks and covers) per 5 person household.

Recommended distances to water sources and much more important information at:
[link to wedc.lboro.ac.uk]
a W.H.O. education and research group.

Last Edited by The Dr. on 07/07/2014 08:33 AM

fantastic lots of wisdom and good advice here

Thank you. It is just a basic short term prep. Most people can't store that much water. I agree that on average, 2 gal per day per person would be best

You can not store enough water. Just purify it instead. Berkey water filters can filter pond water into clean drinking water. Also there is boiling and chemically cleaning water that will help.

Thank you and you are right. We can only store enough to get us a little ways down the road. then you need ways to collect it.

I just have to...

People should pay attention..

Here is a really good video on food storage. It is done by a Mormon but as most of us know the LDS are queens and kings in food storage knowledge. The video was done in 2005. A lot has changed since then and Mylar with oxygen absorbers are very popular. Just make sure you store you Mylar in buckets or hard plastic sides that rodents can't chew through. Listen to the parts about shelf life. These people live by using their storage and BYU has done 1,000's of tests on the safety of long term storage.



Here is the link to the book/pamphlet that she keeps mentioning. A lot of info on here. Let me tell you, I got really excited about the 10+ shelf life of canned meats. This has always been a worry of mine.

[link to everythingunderthesunblog.spam]

Last Edited by WhiteAngel on 07/08/2014 10:07 PM

For later watching! Thanks WA : )

Bump for later.

Nixtamalization needed for corn...(see wikipedia)

Copied from several locations...
-------------------------------------------------------------​-------------------

From what I understand, feed corn is OK, but deer corn is not.

I have corn from the feed store packed in buckets with diatomaceous earth and O2 absorbers, and also organic corn from a grain co-op. I just got the corn from the co-op, and haven't opened it to compare the kernels to those of the feed corn.

.............................................................​.............................................................​..........
Safety and health

Maximum Aflatoxin levels in food- Less than 20 PPB (parts per billion)-Yes it is VERY IMPORTANT

Maximum Fumonisins for Whole Corn - 4 PPM-(parts per million)-Popcorn 3 PPM (parts per million)

.............................................................​.............................................................​..........
Corn is a very good food choice for your storage, however more can be done with it than grinding into corn meal. Grinding raw(not meaning just uncooked but unpocessed) corn into meal does not take full advantage of the grains nutrient content.

The native indians of Mexico, Central and South America would soak and/or cook the kernels in lime water and that would "unlock" many of the B vitamins that would be unavailable otherwise. They would then make the resulting product into tortillas and "masa" which could be made ino tomales or other of the familiar "Mexican Foods" we are familiar with now days. You could then survive quite well on corn and beans that are easily stored for long periods of time.

Corn is a resource that should not be ignored for long term food storage, alot of nutrition in a small package with a long storage potential.

The procedure for limeing the corn is not complicated but it does take a little time.

MAKE IT HAPPEN

-Put 3 or 4 cups of dried corn in a granitware or enameled pan, the lime will react with bare metal so use the coated utinsils.

-Add enough water to cover the corn and about 1/2 again the amount, the corn will soak up quite a lot of the water and, trust me, you don't want the pan to boil dry.

-Add about 1 tablespoon of Pickleing Lime (calcium hydroxide) for each cup of corn kernels. Some people use comercial or home made lye but I like the taste of the corn done in lime better. Stir with a plastic or enameled utinsil until all the limeis dissolved.

-Place on a low heat(just boiling), stirring occasionally and adding water if needed. It takes about as long as it would to cook a pot of beans.

-When the corn can be easily pinched into pieces and it is cooked through, the cookingprocess is complete. Their will be a very thick pastey residue in the pan and you may think that something has gone wrong, but that is the lime and dissolved husks from the corn kernels, its to be expected.

-Rinse the corn(hominy at this point) through a collunder, rubbing the kernels between your palms to remove any loose particles and/or paste from the kernels. Let stand in fresh water for a short while and rinse again until rinse water runs clear.

The corn can be ground a paste to make tortillias, tomales, or anything else desired or can be eaten as is, seasoned with any desired flavorings.

It can also be dried and stored, ground into meal and be cooked as "grits" or made into the tortillias.

I have found that the ground meal adds an interesting twist when moderate amounts are mixed into and cooked in chili.

Whole hominy can be added to soups or added to and cooked with beans to provide a meal with a near complete nutrient set.

We have several hundred pounds of corn stored in sealed buckets with bags of Pickling Lime sufficient to lime the entire bucket included.

Some people may have different process for limeing corn but when you have done it for a while you tend to develop your own procedure.

...........................................................
Deer corn is not safe for human consumption, because it tends to contain high levels of Aflatoxin, which is harmful to humans, but not to deer.

Feed corn for domestic animals is tested to ensure that the aflatoxin levels aren't high, because those animals are meant to be consumed by people.
................................................

Safety and health

Maximum Aflatoxin levels in food- Less than 20 PPB (parts per billion)- Yes it is VERY IMPORTANT

Maximum Fumonisins for Whole Corn - 4 PPM-(parts per million)-Popcorn 3 PPM (parts per million)









[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Thank you for this info!
:book7:

Thanks for this info White Angel.

You are most welcome.

Yay...I finally found this thread again. Bump for later reading