Here are those thoughts:
My thoughts on prepper food storage:
Naturally, I have a few more thoughts to add to what I said during the net meeting 03/22/17. So here it is:
The first is about the actual question of the net meeting. How to decide how much food for how long. Well, I do no-cook, easy to eat, nutritious foods for situations where I may have to be away from home. Three day packs, week-long packs, and up to two weeks if I can supplement the foods with wild foods or from stores or whatever.
Longer than two weeks, up to two months, if I am home, I work out of the pantry, with my normal diet. Over two months, it is still shelf stable grocery store foods, with some additional items of specialty LTS foods for those grocery store foods that do not have a good shelf life. That gets me up to about a year. I should be well into providing for long term supplies of fresh foods by then.
But I want plenty of LTS foods to get me through times when harvests are not good, or when I might have to pack up and move, lock, stock, and barrel, where the light weight and good packaging of LTS foods make that easier.
To facilitate long term food production, besides looking for a farm to buy, buy into, invest in, or put in some sweat equity for a portion of the food produced; I launch seed bombs here and there around the area, using only non-invasive plants, as well as occasionally planting a guerilla garden when the opportunity presents itself.
Also, whenever I am out and about, I am always on the look-out for good hunting and fishing areas, and areas with useable wild plants.
The second is my thoughts on protein needs in the PAW. The following ideas give some of my ideas of how much food per person for the time frames mentioned above.
About one half gram of protein per pound of lean body weight. Not total body weight. A lot of people have a body fat mass of about 20%, leaving about 80% lean.
A 200 pound adult male with 80% lean body mass would be about 40 pounds body fat mass to 160 pounds of body lean mass. That would be 160 x ½ or 80 grams of protein per day for average activity. Doing heavy physical labor, as is likely, or if a woman is pregnant, I’d add about 25% more, bringing it up to 100 grams of protein per day.
That can be a lot of meat. Some ways to get quality protein:
Most beef cuts are ~7 grams of protein per ounce
Most pork ham is ~6 grams per ounce
Most fish fillets are ~6 grams per ounce
Most large eggs are ~6 grams protein
Now, this is high quality protein. Meat. Low quality protein and carbohydrates, without enough healthy fat won’t cut it. The majority of the diet should be healthy fats like coconut oil, seeds, nuts, etc., with good proteins, and then carbs from primarily high fiber fresh vegetables.
If eating high fiber carbohydrate vegetables most people will need ~50% to 75% of quality fats in the diet. Sometimes more.
So calorie wise, in a 3,000 calorie per day diet, @ 50% fat diet, healthy fats should provide ~1,500 calories, high quality protein ~400 calories, and healthy carbs `1,100 calories.
In the same 3,000 calorie per day diet, @ 75% fat diet, healthy fats should provide ~2,250 calories, high quality protein ~400 calories, and healthy carbs ~350 calories.
Cutting back to about half your normal daily intake for one day once in a while though is good for you. It seems to help the brain the same way exercise does.
Adjust calorie intake according to physical activity, weight, and metabolism. And adjust things for when you have to use some low quality proteins, less healthy fats, and lower fiber carbs.
When it comes to long term food supply, you really need a homestead or farm where you can grow your own. But if that is out of the question, at least for now, here are the top ten types of foods I would stockpile. I did types because I don't think anyone could eat the same ten individual foods for ten years. Since it is for a ten year span, it is all long term storage (LTS) foods. You can substitute equivalent STS foods from the grocery stores for the first two to three years.
1. Freeze-dried Meats. A lot of meats of several types. Heavy on the beef.
2. Powdered Milk, eggs & other dairy products
3. Fats/oils - Coconut oil
4. Salt (both for the table and food preservation)
5. Grains and legumes (corn, wheat, rice, lentils, oats, beans) (get a good grinder that will handle all of them as well as nuts, and an oat flaker)(add a pasta maker to the kitchen tools, too)
6. Fruits (lots of fruits)
7. Sweeteners (sugar [for table and food preservation], and honey)
8. Vegetables (particularly tomato powder [pasta sauces] and various forms of potato [to stretch meats]
9. Selection of leavenings, seasonings, spices, herbs, flavorings, etc. (particularly pasta & chili sauces as well as your most used items)
10. Comfort foods (cookie, cake, muffin mixes and candies, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc) This will vary from individual to individual. Mostly it is a sweet of some kind, though for me, a good meatloaf is a comfort food. Of course, chocolate is too, but it isn't the only comfort food I have. The comfort foods help break the monotony of the same old thing over and over, but it isn't the only recourse. Having a variety of foods is essential, especially with children involved.
I uploaded a simple spreadsheet that I use for comparing long term storage foods (LTS) from commercial sources. The list is not comprehensive, as it only contains items I consider for myself. But it has space to add your own items. It is not a planner, like some of those available. It is more a reference list to hold information on products and sources. The links in the column on the right side of the upper part of the spreadsheet were checked the day I posted this and were all active. The links on the lower section for STS foods were not checked and might not work. But it simply an options list anyway, and the items can usually be found with an internet search. Feel free to use the spreadsheet as you wish, modify it, and just delete it if you find it useless.
Water storage: The minimum recommended water storage of 1 gallon per day per person is simply not enough out here. It is not adequate for most places, actually, when you figure actual use. I store 4 to 5 gallons per day for two weeks for myself, plus some extra for humanitarian hand out.
And while storage for 2-weeks, 2-months, or even 2-years is not enough. You need to have some long term sources for water, and the means to not just filter, but to purify it, in large enough quantities to supply yourself, your family, any guests you might have, and any pets and/or stock you have. It is much preferred to have two or more of these sources, even if one of them is not exactly close.
While having food and water available is great, and some of it will be edible without cooking, you will be wanting to cook hot meals regularly at times. There are a few force multipliers when it comes to cooking. Most will reduce fuel use, reduce cooking time, or both.
1. Solar oven – Uses the sun to slow cook foods, and to pasteurize water
2. Pressure cooker – Uses a minimum of fuel to cook foods quickly
3. Wok – Uses very little oil, but can cook a wide variety of foods quickly. And for those items needing boiling water to cook in, a wok is a pretty good way to get water hot quickly, as the flames are coming up around the sides as well as on the bottom.
4. Thermal oven – An insulated box or bag wherein a pot of food is brought to a boil and cooked for a short time, and then inserted to finish cooking over time.
5. Vacuum bottle cooking – Like the thermal oven, liquid or semi liquid foods (soups/oats/rice/etc.) is brought to a boil and/or cooked for a short while, and then placed in the vacuum bottle to finish cooking over a few hours
Now, if you do not have these options, and cannot use your inside cooking facilities, sometimes an outdoor propane or charcoal grill will get some cooking done. Never take them inside, though. Grills are not very efficient, but they will work.
If you do not have an outdoor grill and do have a sand box for the kids, especially a covered one, it is a good place to build an outdoor fire that is not too likely to spread, and doesn’t take much prep to use. Even better is to have a large steel container, such as a 36” wok, in which to build a fire that can be contained even better, and controlled easily. You can use wood or charcoal either one. And a couple of other options that I won’t mention here, as they are not without some dangers. With a piece of expanded metal over it, or some other type of grate, pressure pans, woks, and all the normal cooking implements can be used easily and safely. And having a large, deep sandbox has many other advantages that I won’t go into at the moment.
You can do something similar if you have brick, stone, or concrete flower boxes, especially those a couple of feet or more tall. By removing some of the flowers, to expose the earth, you can have a fire pit quickly and easily, much as with the sandbox.
Another aspect related to prepper food storage is how much food to store per person for a given time period. When it comes to going by the standard servings listed by some of the food producers, you could easily wind up woefully short on food. Many of the packages offered provide only 1,200 to 2,000 calories per person per day. And much of that is what I consider filler material. They count everything, including the sugars in drinks and such.
How much is actually needed boils down to how much work is expected to be performed and under what conditions during any given event. 1,200 calories a day might be fine for children not doing much, but people working hard, especially in high stress or severe weather may need 3,000 calories a more per day. I shoot for 3,500.
And don't forget to get quite a few of those calories from various fat sources. And try to get as much of your protein in the form of meats as possible. It is a much higher grade of protein than mixing and matching rice, beans, and the other staples. You still need them, but do as much meat as you can, up to 100 grams in that 3,000 calorie diet.
So when you calculating how much food you have for a time frame, count the calories from the ‘real’ food, and more or less ignore the adjunct foods like drinks, and other foods that do not provide much in the way of actual usable nutrition. You will find that that 1,200 calories might be closer to 800 to 900 calories of useful nutrition.
For sure, never go by the packaged servings listed. Actually count the calories. Too often the sources wind up implying that their serving is a meal, when it is actually just part of a meal. 300 servings does not always (and seldom does) equal 300 meals. You will probably need three or four servings of different foods to actually make a filling, nutritional meal.
And remember that very few of these packages include fats, spices and flavorings, and some other extremely important food preparation and nutritional additions. So be prepared to flesh out any packages you might buy, with individual additional items.
Since part of the long term food supply involves fresh foods, here are some of my thoughts on Root Cellars, which is one way of keep some types of foods.
When installing the more or less standard buried root cellar, be sure to make arrangements to control air flow and humidity levels in the cellar. You will often need a source of moisture to keep the humidity at the appropriate level for the foods you are storing.
Usually arranging the various foods on the shelves can take advantage of the layering effects of air and have those plants that need specific temperatures at the right level for them, while others are higher and warmer or lower and cooler. Other times you might have to divide the root cellar into sections with their own air flow and moisture controls to keep them at ideal levels for some crops. Some products need very specific storage conditions and cannot be stored together.
I have mentioned some options for root cellars in the past in various conversations. While an underground, or partially underground, root cellar is ideal, there are some options for those that do not have that option open to them.
One way to get a small ‘root cellar’ is to gut the mechanicals out of a well insulated refrigerator or freezer, put it on its back on the ground, and then mound up around it with earth or straw bales. By adding a few easily removable and replaceable layers of insulation on top, you can have a fairly effective small storage space for root vegetables.
You can do something similar with just the straw bales, but that requires building a suitable heavily insulated door for access into the cavity created by the straw bales.
A search on the internet will turn up a multitude of root cellar alternatives and information.
There are some specifics that need to be noted. Some things should not be stored near each other. Some should be stored completely separate from everything else. Again, you can find most of this information on-line or in a variety of root cellaring books.
Here are some examples of requirements for different items:
Cold and moist storage
32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit
80 to 90 percent relative humidity
Apples (separate, contained or vented)
Grapefruit
Grapes
Oranges
Pears
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Jerusalem artichoke
Kale
Kohlrabi
Potatoes (separate)
Cabbage, Chinese (outgasses)
Cold and very moist
32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit
90 to 95 percent relative humidity
Beets
Brussels Sprouts
Peppers, hot
Parsnips
Radish, winter
Rutabaga
Turnip
Peas (airtight container)
Popcorn (airtight container)
Cabbage (outgasses)
Cool and dry
32 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit
60 to 70 percent relative humidity
Beans
Garlic (outgasses)
Onions (outgasses)
Warm and dry
50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit
60 to 75 percent relative humidity
Pumpkin
Squash, winter
Warm and moist
>50 degrees Fahrenheit
80 to 90 percent relative humidity
Potatoes, sweet
Tomatoes
Some of the long term animal protein sources for a large estate, homestead, or farm.
Might as well start with the little guys first. Rabbits. Only some of them are not so little. Even in many suburban areas rabbits can be raised legally. Most are relatively easy to raise, easy to harvest, and there are hundreds of ways to prepare them for the table.
The breed one will want will vary with just how much meat is wanted at a time, the amount of time that can be spent tending the rabbits, the availability of the breed, and support for it in the area.
Some rabbit breeds do well on commercial feed, some rabbits do better on appropriate greenery. Some can even be ‘pasture’ raised, but must have penning that goes well down into the ground and completely under the entire rabbit raising area. Otherwise nice roomy hutches are the norm. One thing is that they can be very sensitive to both cold and heat and must be protected from both.
Another small stock class is fowl. Primarily chicken. Much the same applies to them as to rabbits, only with a few more restrictions. One must decide if meat or eggs are more important when picking a breed of chicken, or if one wants a dual purpose breed. Different areas host different breeds better than they do others, and this is always a factor.
And since, for preppers, a new batch of chicks each year from a breeder is not really a choice, at least a few chickens should be allowed to go broody to keep producing additional chickens. This is another factor in breed selection. Enough good eggs; enough good meat; and good brooding, but not too good. Or, in some cases, a mix of breeds, with a broody breed that will take eggs of another breed. That also calls for a rooster in residence.
Chickens can be raised free range in some areas, others require good overhead protection from predators.
Two other small stock animals suitable for preppers are sheep and goats. Each requires specific types of housing, care, and feed. Both have advantages for preppers, and disadvantages.
Milk and meat from goats, and some breeds provide fibers for fabric. Sheep, of course, can provide wool and meat.
Some disadvantages are they can be somewhat labor intensive for what they provide, and, to put it bluntly, they are smelly. This can be a major factor if living in close spaced communities.
If a family has specific needs for these products, and have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to take advantage of them, and the negatives are not too extreme for them, then sheep and/or goats can be a very good choice for the prepper.
Next on the list is swine. They are one of the easiest food animals to care for, are good producers, and their meat is highly prized. Some of it is very easily preserved by the traditional means of smoking. They can be useful to help clear land to be put into production, and fertilize it in the process.
However, it takes good hog fences to keep them contained, and when they have piglets, sows can be a danger to anyone that gets between them, especially if a piglet squeals. And small children should never be allowed around pigs of any size if not closely chaperoned. Children can certainly help care for swine, but need to be outside the fence when doing so.
Like the other animals, there are many breeds available, suitable for different uses and areas.
Now, the bovines. There are two classes here. Milk cows and beef cattle. But this is one case you can have both in a package. As a milk cow must throw a calf once a year in order to produce milk, there is a built in beef source in addition to the cow’s production of milk. The calf can be raised to butchering size and harvested.
However, this creates two problems. One needs access to a bull to service the cow each year. If there are other people with cattle in the area, it is less of a problem. And a milk cow needs milking twice a day, every day, while producing milk.
The other major factor with bovines is space and feed. It takes about 2 ½ acres of good pasture to raise a milk cow and calf and a great deal of water. We do not have a lot of ‘good’ pasture in this area, and water is often a problem. Something to think about.
That is just a few ideas about some possible animals a prepper might raise in this area. But raising them is only part of the subject. When it is time to harvest, a prepper must be prepared to do so, and then preserve the meat. Each of the animals listed has specific harvesting techniques, including things like sheering sheep or goats, in addition to the actual butchering process.
Some are simple, like rabbits. Some are a bit of a pain like plucking chickens the old fashioned way. You need lots of hot water to scald a hog. All of the animals call for several sharp knives to be used. Often also a saw or axe to cut bone.
Besides the meat that is harvested, a prepper cannot afford to waste any of the by-products, so provisions must be in hand to process these.
People have been raising food animals for eons. There is no reason preppers in this area cannot do it as well.
If anyone has any comments or questions, please feel free to post them up.
As always, everything is just my opinion.
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