Survivor Food Management

[whitetrashmama]

I have been experimenting with becoming as self-sufficient as possible on a very low income and living in a semi-urban setting (apt with small front & back yard, Gulf Coast of USA)

I suppose there must be a number of threads on this topic, but I did not see any in a quick glance so please link me to one if you are already talking about it.

I have found some interesting positive side-effects of my experiment. One thing is that I was obese when I started and I found that my focus on the outer world relations of my food issues allowed me to diet without the obsessiveness that broke all my weight-loss efforts in the past. I also saw ALL my nuisance health issues evaporate as I went from obese to slightly fat. These included acid reflux, poor circulation, etc. I seem to have leveled off in weight and now am doing well.

I got rid of my refridgerator and use a chest-freezer and an insulated cooler in order to reduce my utility bill and also to move toward less dependence on rerfidgeration. In a crisis in which power supplies are limited, a chest freezer will hold the food for a few days longer than a fridge (which is almost an immediate loss) and so there is time to quickly cook up and distribute food that is in danger of spoilage. If a person has a generator, the freezer can be a good thing, too.

Did you know you can freeze eggs? Scramble a dozen eggs with about a half-cup of milk and then pour the raw-egg mixture into a dozen muffin cups , (thus getting each egg back.) Once they are hard-frozen, pop them out like ice cubes into plastic bags and keep in the freezer. (In any ongoing civic or natural crisis, eggs are one of the first foods to disappear or become expensive, therefore a good supply in the freezer should be set up while eggs are still available.)

 

[Mr. H.]

Does that make your eggs taste like muffins?

 

[paravani]

(In any ongoing civic or natural crisis, eggs are one of the first foods to disappear or become expensive, therefore a good supply in the freezer should be set up while eggs are still available.)

In any disaster scenario, the first thing to go is clean water. Most Americans depend on public water supplies, and disaster scenarios like major storms and earthquakes destroy this lifeline, either by polluting the water or by breaking the pipes that deliver it.

Adults can live for weeks without food, but only three days without water; then your kidneys shut down and you die.

The recommended minimum water for drinking and hydration is 1/2 gallon per person per day. So if it's just for you, a month's worth of drinking water is 15 gallons. If you have a family of four, then a month's worth of drinking water is 60 gallons.

If you live in an area with streams and lakes within walking distance, then you can prepare for emergencies by storing water filters or water purification tablets instead of water. I live right next to a pristine mountain stream, so I just have filters and tablets, enough for ourselves plus neighbors who aren't prepared. (However, I suspect most of our neighbors are as well-prepared as we are.)

-- Paravani

 

[g5000]

I keep stacks of cases of bottled water, rotating the newest cases to the bottoms of the stacks and consuming the older ones first. I replace the ones I consume so there is always a fresh supply of bottled water on hand.

I also have a lot of canned goods. There are many foods which require no cooking to eat. Tuna and peanut butter, for example, and both are high in protein.

I have two chest freezers which I have filled with slaughtered beef I buy locally, along with chickens, bacon, and various other items. A chest freezer is ideal for buying things in bulk when they go on sale. I don't own them for a disaster. I own them because the ability to buy sale items in bulk means the freezer pays for itself very quickly, and then it is all savings from there. I might drop hundreds of dollars on part of a cow, but in the long run I save hundreds more.

And things like bacon flucuate wildly between $2/lb and $7/lb. So I stock up when it drops to two bucks.

And chest freezers are cheap and economical.


It is important to properly rotate your goods if you have a lot of stored food. Move the longest expiration dates to the back of the shelf.

.

 

[whitetrashmama]

Chest freezers are of course dependent on electricity but you can extend their usefulness if an outage is expected by insulating them with extra covering. This can be stored in a garage or attic until needed.

Something i have not done but would like to do is get an alternative power source like solar that could be connected only to certain appliances such as the freezer.

On water: I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of rainwater that accumulates even in a semi-arid area like this part of Texas. I have a collection of 15-gal coolers around my garden that I store it in, and one storm provides a lot! I don't use it in the house because it comes off the roof where squirrels and other critters have peed etc, but in a real emergency it could be filtered and boiled. As it is, it provides a good source for the garden.

I've been talking to neighbors about this and we are beginning to grow as a community with some understanding of who has what and who can cook large amounts of what. I was given a joint of venison to "do something with" recently and we are all now enjoying the stew. We're spreading our container gardens around, too. Five-gallon paint buckets with holes drilled in are great for the renters with just a little porch space!

 

[Connery]

Does that make your eggs taste like muffins?

They come out a little poofy..like this...

..look at them babies!!!!!

 

[whitetrashmama]

**lol @ connery!** almost look like popovers... but that is because you must'cve misttok your oven for your freezer! Actually, I forgot to thaw an egg out soon enough and then put it in the oven and got a similar result. It was edible as if it were a very bad quiche *LOL* but hey, if it were doomsday morning, that would've been great!

BTW, anyone notice the priceyness of turkey this T-Day? I found a bargain in our store on lamb and so we had rack-of-lamb instead. It was good, with spearmint from the garden in the mintsauce.