Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: neviander on January 09, 2010, 11:59:41 AM
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As far as emergency food supplies go, this looks like a good deal:
http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/foodpak1.aspx
This deluxe one-year supply unit, along with a multivitamin and 4 gallons of cooking oil you add yourself, supplies all the nutrients you need to stay well-fed for a full year. The foods are all dehydrated or dry, packaged oxygen-free, and in this very compact form will store well and require minimal storage space. This 802 lb unit comes in 13 cases and 9 six-gallon Superbuckets. Storage area required is just 33 cubic feet (stacking example: 13" by 74" by 59".) The Mix-A-Meal Cookbook is included with FoodPak 1 with 110 pages of recipes for cooking with dry stored foods. Scroll down on this page for itemized contents of FoodPak 1.
FoodPak 1 will also serve as a 6-month supply of food for two people, a 3-month supply for four, and so on. Sealing lids are provided for all #10-size cans, so that they may be re-sealed after opening. FoodPak 1 offers a real abundance of long lasting, flavorful & nutritious food, and represents a value we don't think is equaled elsewhere... a lot of great food at very reasonable cost, delivered right to your door!
Cost is $1241.00. Considering what you get, that seems like a really good deal.
What experiences, with reconstituting food, do the peeps here at APS have? Given the Marxist formula for economic collapse that our government is following, to a T, storing food and just about anything else seems like a really good idea.
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Stored food is unsustainable. Eventually, it will run out.
If you're really worried, learn to garden. And, learn to can your own food. Can ahead for storage and to help you get through lean times. For that $1200 you could start a heck of a garden. You could easily get set up for canning and then buy vegetables and fruits to get started.
Look at the crisis in Argentina in the late ninties as an inspiration for your planning. Expect to be able to still get food, but for a much higher price.
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While having a few weeks food on hand is not a bad idea (cheaper if you know what you're doing), it's not a "magic fix." As Jamis said, gardening is good. You'd do well to invest in knowledge and skills more than just canned food and bullets.
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Gardening is more ideal, but while I still have a job, and my wife is schooling, there really isn't any time to tend to a garden right now. I suppose the backup food would be a good buffer if I ever did find myself unemployed, with no prospect of a new position, while I started my new garden :)
...which raises another question. Which has the better shelf life, canned, or dehydrated?
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Beans, salt, water ;)
Onions are nice too =)
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spam for flavor
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Gardening is more ideal, but while I still have a job, and my wife is schooling, there really isn't any time to tend to a garden right now. I suppose the backup food would be a good buffer if I ever did find myself unemployed, with no prospect of a new position, while I started my new garden :)
...which raises another question. Which has the better shelf life, canned, or dehydrated?
Canned I would suspect. You could pick up good produce at the local market and can up a decent supply for much less than that survival kit.
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Notably missing:
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ft1.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AC_BNvLNd0SElMM%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fshortformblog.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F08%2Fbaconinacan0828.jpg&hash=9c2af61be7be6d89d4a61678b35ad95913f637a2)
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spam for flavor
Or a .243 and a spotlight ;)
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Those of us in apartments don't have the opportunity for a garden... =|
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Those of us in apartments don't have the opportunity for a garden... =|
Lots of people with houses don't have the opportunity for a garden, either. Leastaways not one substantial enough to feed your family.
And even if you have a garden, a sizable pile of stored food is still a pretty good idea. A man can get mighty hungry waiting for the harvest.
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What he said. From "The Backyard Homstead" by Carleen Madigan (Ben Recommends), ballpark figures for a quarter acre diversified garden / livestock plot:
50lbs wheat
280lbs pork
120 cartons eggs
100lbs honey
25-75lbs nuts
600lbs fruit
2,000lbs vegetables
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Ne'er mind. I misunderstood.
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50lbs wheat
280lbs pork
120 cartons eggs
100lbs honey
25-75lbs nuts
600lbs fruit
2,000lbs vegetables
Good grief, a quarter acre to cultivate all that, or just to store it?
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That sounds overly optimistic.
Not to me. I would say she's being conservative. That's a few pigs born per year. A couple of peach and orange trees will give you closer to 1000lbs of fruit. A walnut tree will give you triple the nuts she quotes. Her grain field is 20x50', which should easily yield more than 50lbs.
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Good grief, a quarter acre to cultivate all that, or just to store it?
It's all in the usage. For the front yard, check out how many edibles can also pass as ornamentals. Using potatoes as a border, for example, looks nice and can give you a hundred pounds or more of extra food.
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Those of us in apartments don't have the opportunity for a garden... =|
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_foot_gardening
You can do a lot in a small space. Potatoes can be grown in a 55 gallon drum. Learn everything you can on a small scale, then you can apply it to something larger later.
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While doing regular shoppinig at the store, just purchase a couple of extra items that you are used to eating. Rotate your stock. Maybe check the health food stores for certain items for long term storage, such as canned flour, corn meal, oil, and salt, in cans, not bags that would be able survive a soaking if needed.
Salt - a very good easy way to preserve your meat from the freezer if you lose power for days. Learn ways to capture water. Some areas the water is not a problem but some places (desert) it can be a big problem. Learn your area and see what you may be able to utilize,if needed.
Collect, or learn, some real basic recipes that you can make on an open fire. Firearms of course, with ammo for food and protection, depending on where you are.
Learn some wild foods that can be utilized if needed.
As a town dweller, I'd more or less SOL without gov assistence except for self protection, except what food and water that would be on hand.
Learn basic servival skills.
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Learn to like Long Pork, and don't be afraid to poke your fat friends in the ribs every now and then for tenderness. =D
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Learn to like Long Pork, and don't be afraid to poke your fat friends in the ribs every now and then for tenderness. =D
And, people are both slower and less crafty than your average white tail.... =D
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Tongue in cheek comments aside, you'd honestly be better off building your own one year supply yourself, rather than spending that money on a kit. For one thing, you have no idea how your bodies will react to the food in that kit. High stress can be rough on the digestive system. Eating unfamiliar food will make it worse.
When you go to the store, buy extra, and put it back. Build it up and rotate it. Write down the meals your family likes to eat, and figure out how often you eat them. Then break them down into ingredients. Multiply the amount of ingredients needed in a month to figure out a true figure for a 6 month supply, or a year(or two, or three). Build your supply as you can(though if you can shell out $1200 for a ready made supply, you can do most or all of it at once.
Meanwhile, learn to garden. A major catastrophe is not the time you want to learn to grow food. It isn't as easy as just pushing seeds into the ground. If you don't have a yard, read up on hydroponics. Lots of good info out there.
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In the "links I never thought I'd be posting on APS" dept...
Raising catfish in a barrel:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4474959_raise-catfish-barrel.html
There are perils if you aren't careful though...
http://www.freewebs.com/clarkshomestead2/catfishinabarrel.htm
Here's a .pdf of the original 1973 article that kicked the whole thing off as far as I can tell...
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/06_Prep_tips/Raising.Catfish.in.Barrel.pdf
Speaking of backyard food...
The best scientific look at raising rabbits on a small scale I've found:
http://pan-am.uniserve.com/pg000031.htm
As others have said, knowledge>stuff, assembling your own food stores>buying pre-made. If you live in an area with a high Mormon population they have a lot of good resources for setting up a one year store.
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That at home aquaculture barrel is pretty cool :cool:
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Those of us in apartments don't have the opportunity for a garden... =|
Don't you have a balcony ???
Remember to space your pots of corn thirty inches apart :lol:
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if you can setup the bed system, this will save you a lot of time [popcorn] (http://www.squarefootgardening.com/) but you pay cash for every minute you save [tinfoil]
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if you can setup the bed system, this will save you a lot of time [popcorn] (http://www.squarefootgardening.com/) but you pay cash for every minute you save [tinfoil]
Got any large manufacturing facilities nearby? They generally have to pay to have the scrap pallets and crates hauled off, so if you can find the right person to talk to, they'll be more than happy to load you down with all the wood you can carry. Take a wrecking bar. Catch them at the right time, and 1x12s, 2x12s, and other extremely useful sizes can be plentiful. I've made chicken coops, a square foot garden, and a lot of shop jigs from the scrap bin at our local pump-and-fittings manufacturer, and I've got some 4x4s in the back of the Blazer waiting to be cut down to lathe-workable lengths.
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That's what we did last summer =)
The big cost was for the peat moss and perlite. We have plenty of manure, and we had a bunch of 1x6 boards from an old corral that I tore down for a neighbor a few years ago. It worked pretty well except we again had a very short "summer" between frosts. We need a greenhouse. =|
The other problems we have (besides the lack of anything like "soil") is that our well water is not particularly good for plants, and of course the deer ravage anything that isn't well fenced. ;/
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i use old sliding glass doors for green houses
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My favorite snack is pretzels which come in a nice plastic jug, about 2 gallon, with a screw top. I put rice, beans, etc in them with a couple bay leaves to keep out bugs, and seal with that plastic wrap that sticks to the mouth of the jug. Packed like this will keep for a long time. Sam's club and Costco have rice and beans in 50 lb sacks which can be stored in smaller handier containers. Canned goods, we only buy what we like, are rotated through our pantry. I buy kosher salt and keep it in glass canning jars with a sealed lid. Go to Leamans non electric catalog. They have a bunch of stuff that can be used for survival. Down at my camp, I have been planting fruit trees over the last 6 years. I have 26 trees in peach, apricot, necterine, pear, apple, plum, and fig. The peach and pear trees are starting to produce. Once I get moved down there I will have a garden and chickens. Be inovative....chris3
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i use old sliding glass doors for green houses
Good idea! Now all I need is an airgead to replace the sliding glass doors in my house with something more substantial ;)
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there is a plant about 15 miles from me that buys the small pallets and builds the standard sized ones. so unless you own or maybe work in a plant your not getting any that haven't been stolen from someone. =( oh and it might pay to soak some in water for a week or so and have it tested. might be some arsenic or formaldehyde. i would hate to be feeding that to someone i cared about [tinfoil]
oh and for potatoes you can start them in a tire, and as they grow add a tire and more compost/dirt =D and some bush blue lake beans (http://www.goestores.com/catalog.aspx?storename=premierstarcompany&DeptID=45793&ItemID=1054574&detail=1) are some good eating, and i like the way the plants look (http://www.hffinc.com/Beans.htm). get the purple(ferry morse (http://www.ferry-morse.com/index.asp) doesn't have 'em this year :mad:) if you are like me and have trouble seeing beans to pick 'em. [popcorn] these are the best chili onions (http://www.goestores.com/catalog.aspx?storename=premierstarcompany&DeptID=45793&ItemID=1053035&detail=1) i have found(can't buy them anymore though[dang bloomin' onion]) and if you have kids, you need to plant some of these (http://www.goestores.com/catalog.aspx?storename=premierstarcompany&DeptID=45857&ItemID=1067177&detail=1) =D
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So how much food can you realistically grow in pots on your deck or in a small plot garden (say, 15x15 feet)?
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So how much food can you realistically grow in pots on your deck or in a small plot garden (say, 15x15 feet)?
At least a couple meals worth =|
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We need a greenhouse. =|
I build a small (4'x8') one last spring. I'll probably do another this year because I thought it worked out so well.
Four 10' long sections of .5" PVC pipe bent into shape and secured in with some U-bolts and clamps to hold it all down.
Edit: Removed picture because it was too large.
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So how much food can you realistically grow in pots on your deck or in a small plot garden (say, 15x15 feet)?
A lot
I have a 20'x12' garden and I get several 100lbs of food each year from it.
I grow Tomatoes, peppers, onions, green beans, cabbage, onions, radishes, lettuce and kohlrabies. Its all about starting early and rotating in stuff as stuff gets pulled out. I can get two bean crops easily in Iowa. Plant in May and replant in July for a fall harvest.
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there is a plant about 15 miles from me that buys the small pallets and builds the standard sized ones. so unless you own or maybe work in a plant your not getting any that haven't been stolen from someone.
At least here, most of the companies don't want to pay to ship an empty odd-size crate or pallet back across the country or around the world. The standard-size pallet vendor doesn't want anything back unless it's in top condition either, so one split board or pulled-through nail and their rep will toss it in the dumpster.
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i get pallets literally by the 100's for free one of the best places is a wine shop
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So how much food can you realistically grow in pots on your deck or in a small plot garden (say, 15x15 feet)?
You'd be surprised. My back deck offered quite a variety last summer, as an adjunct to what was growing in the back yard. It was somewhat of an experiment, to see if they would get root-bound in such small confines. Were I so inclined, I'm sure I could've added many more plants on the available floor space.
As it ended up, I grew approximately 2 dozen different potted vegetable types and herbs, including tomatoes, chives, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, regular and Japanese eggplant, basil, cilantro, and rosemary.
Bernie checking out the pepper plants:
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmauser98.com%2Fberniepeppers.jpg&hash=3b3abab0d4900be665907ae5ca5de3143bc5788e)
Chives and rosemary:
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmauser98.com%2Fchivesrosemary.jpg&hash=3392bb26b505687e11fe416f65f7a7b68e82dff7)
Japanese eggplant blooming:
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmauser98.com%2Feggplants.jpg&hash=807eef3eae4ee0eb2b8e84513495fa4869b9e0ac)
Heirloom tomatoes and basil:
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmauser98.com%2Ftomatoesbasilcilantro.jpg&hash=3d649bbf97c9740f042740f820e88756c7326a03)
Potting mix was a blend of sterilized cow manure, black topsoil, and Miracle Gro potting soil in equal proportions. After the tomatoes started blossoms, I added two or three Jobe's plant spikes to each pot in order to keep them energized during tomato production.
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A lot
I have a 20'x12' garden and I get several 100lbs of food each year from it.
I grow Tomatoes, peppers, onions, green beans, cabbage, onions, radishes, lettuce and kohlrabies. Its all about starting early and rotating in stuff as stuff gets pulled out. I can get two bean crops easily in Iowa. Plant in May and replant in July for a fall harvest.
In Iowa =(
We've had two summers in a row with hardly 10 weeks between frosts. Never got any beans at all last summer - they were just blooming nice when the frost hit in September.
I get a real kick out of the enviro types who want all the cows to go away and replace them with "vegetables" ;/ The only thing this country out here is good for is rangeland. (now I sound like GW McLintock =D )
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Tallpine,
Aren't you supposed to say something along the lines of, "Salad? That's what food eats!" =D
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With a little work, pallets make pretty good firewood.
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With a little work, pallets make pretty good firewood.
Especially since they are mainly made out of hardwood. There's a pallet factory down the street from me where a person can pay $5 and haul as much wood pieces as they can away, I don't have a wood fireplace, but have burned this stuff int he fire pit in the past.
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Especially since they are mainly made out of hardwood. There's a pallet factory down the street from me where a person can pay $5 and haul as much wood pieces as they can away, I don't have a wood fireplace, but have burned this stuff int he fire pit in the past.
If you're specifically looking for pallets (either for stacking stuff or to bust up for other purposes), check Craigslist for your area. When we moved this past summer, I found a warehouse via CL not too far down the road from me - Manassas, it was - which was practically BEGGING me to take more than the half-dozen pallets I needed. "Tell your friends, if you know anyone who needs some, just come by and pick 'em up, or else I have to haul 'em out to the dump!"
Never thought of using them for Square Foot gardening - but then, I've never really considered doing SFG itself, either... Thinking about it some now, though. The wife and I need to eat better, and we enjoy fresh herbs, spices, and veggies. Both of us have black thumbs, though - we've each killed Aloe Vera plants given to us by our respective families, and the two of us together neglected an *AIRFERN* to the point of wilting. It's supposed to be IMPOSSIBLE to kill one of those. So, I don't know if we'd be up to actual, real GARDENING. =D