Check out this great contest from Jeff “The Berkey Guy”. It is open for a few more hours. Sorry for the short notice!
Royal Berkey Water Purification System
Here’s your chance to win a ROYAL BERKEY® Water Purification System!
We’ll (LPC Survival) be giving away that system to (1) Lucky Fan…will that be YOU?
Retail Value of Royal Berkey® Water Purification System: $283.00
Give-Away is only open to Residents in all 50 USA
(Items will only ship to addresses within 50 USA)
Click this link to enter the contest and obtain the details.
Direct link to the giveaway is: http://www.directive21.com/royal-berkey-give-away/?utm_source=February+Newsletter&utm_campaign=February+NL+2013&utm_medium=email
ATTENTION ALL READERS OF THE PREPARED NINJA!
Please give a warm Prepared Ninja welcome to the newest supporter of our site, Ready Made Resources. The folks at Ready Made Resources have been in business for over 17 years now and provide a one stop shop for anyone looking to be prepared for any type of emergency. From Mountain House long-term storage food to night vision goggles and everything in between, Ready Made Resources has it all! Not only do the professionals at Ready Made talk the talk but they walk the walk as well with their storefront sitting on 25 acres in the great Smoky Mountains powered by solar and wind energy.
Whether your needs are great or small, you will not be disappointed by the customer service and level of attention that you will receive from the staff at Ready Made Resources. I would encourage everyone to consider going to Ready Made Resources for all of your survival and prepping needs. Ready Made Resources cares about their customers and about preparedness and it shows.
Don’t miss out on the HUGE Mountain House sale going on now through November 5th! Click the banner in the left sidebar to be taken directly to huge savings and free shipping! Don’t forget to check out all the other premier products that Ready Made Resources sell to complete your preparedness needs.
Photo Credit: self-sufficient-blog.com
There are some great tools out there on the internet and some of those tools include food storage calculators. I think the most important thing to mention up front is the fact that these calculators are a guideline and are only a starting point of what a family might plan on obtaining if they were going to purchase an entire year’s worth of food. Each family is different and some of these foods will not be eaten by everyone. I can tell you for one that I do not, nor will I ever, have lentils in my food storage. Ain’t gonna happen! With that being said, a food storage calculator can give you an idea of how many pounds of legumes that you should have for your family of four and this will let you know what you should shoot for. You can just get something else instead of lentils. I know I will!
The following websites all have food storage calculators or other information that I found interesting and extremely educational:
Ready Nutrition – Survive & Thrive Food Storage Calculator
- The Survive & Thrive Food Storage Calculator allows the user to calculate custom food storage for individuals and families for adults and children ages eight and older and children ages seven and younger. The time period of food storage can be calculated starting at one month all the way up to five years. Categories of food storage include legumes, grains, sugars, fats/oils, kitchen essentials, and dairy.
There is also a great list on the Ready Nutrition website that I absolutely love. It is by the site owner, Tess Pennington and is as follows,
“First Time Shopping List for an Emergency Food Supply:
1. 10 lbs. of white or wheat flour (both would be better. Remember the Prepper Golden Rule: 1 is none and 2 is 1). Those of you who have wheat allergies, click here for alternatives.
2. 10 lbs. of corn meal
3. 5 lbs. of oats
4. 20 lbs of rice (white rice stores better than brown rice)
5. 12 lbs of pasta
6. 20 lbs of beans (pinto beans are usually packed in heavier quantities)
7. 5 lbs of mixed beans (lentils, mixed bean soup, black beans, etc)
8. 5 lbs of sugar
9. 2 lbs of salt
10. 1 gallon of cooking oil
11. 2 large containers of peanut butter
12. 5 lbs of powdered milk
13. 1 lb of baking soda
14. 1 lb of baking powder
15. .5 lbs of yeast
16. 1 gallon of vinegar
17. 1 gallon of drinking water per day (*I would round-up here. You can never have too much water.)
18. 1 gallon of bleach for sanitation and treating water”
The Food Guys - Food Storage Calculator
- From thefoodguys.com, “The following calculator will help you figure the minimum food storage amounts needed for your family. These amounts are based on the recommendations listed in the LDS Church’s Home Production and Storage manual. These figures are recommendations, and are basic year supply minimums only. You will need to choose the best options and foods you should store for your family.” This calculator will allow you to calculate your families basic food storage needs for a year based on adults and children aged seven and older and children aged zero to six in the categories of Grains, Legumes, Fats/Oils, Military/Dairy, Sugars, Cooking Essentials, Fruits, Vegetables, and Water.
Provident Living - Food Storage Calculator
- Calculate food storage needs in the groups of Grains, Legumes, Dairy Products, Sugars, Leavening Agents, Salt, Fats, and Water for the number of weeks that you want for the number of adults and children over 12 and the number of children under 12.
Food Storage Made Easy – This resource is not a food storage calculator but does have a plethora of information on food storage and how to make it easy. I think that is where the name comes from? There is also an email list that you can sign up for that will get you periodic emails that include baby steps checklists that break down the process of long-term food storage into easy to swallow pieces. [Insert snare drum and cymbal sound bite here for comedic effect.] There is a food storage calculator on this website that is a little more inclusive than some of the others but it is in an Excel spreadsheet format which I find to be less user-friendly than some of the others at the same time.
I hope that some of these tools are useful and provide you and your families and loved ones the resources needed to survive the tough times that may be ahead.
If you know of any additional resources that can assist the preparedness community in storing food in being ready for difficult times please share them in the comments section below.
Photo Credit: howstuffworks.com
There are many websites that are dedicated to dehydrated and backpacking style foods. The design of these foods is have food items that will last for long periods of time and most of the time be able to be stored without refrigeration. As a result of these features, backpacking foods also double as ideal survival foods. Many of the previously mentioned websites will provide expertise and recipes that will allow you to make your own survival foods. But wait, there is more! If you read this article right now, I will provide a few links to valuable resources that will allow you to create your own survival foods should you choose to. OK, so it is obvious that you will not be required to read everything now to take advantage of the links provided but it did add a little infomercial excitement!
One of the primary needs to complete many of these creations is a dehydrator or means of dehydration. This can be achieved through purchasing a dehydrator at one of your local big box stores, buying a higher end dehydrator, or even through solar dehydration. The local chain retailer will likely offer you an affordable dehydrator that will work fairly well and can be acquired for around $50 in most cases. There are also many high end dehydrators that are designed to withstand heavy use for longer periods of time. Which option is better for you is really what it comes down to.
Solar dehydrating is a popular choice as a method for food preservation in underprivileged countries and as a result of this fact, there are several well researched articles that come from humanitarian and charitable organizations around the world. Many of these article go into great detail on the specifics of how to properly dehydrate foods using the sun. For those that are interested in dehydrating foods but might be interested in building their own, plans can be found online for this route as well. The advantage of making your own dehydrator is that you are able to make it almost any size that you want. When I was a kid, my family used to dehydrate fruit by what seemed to be the wheelbarrow full in the dehydrator that my dad built.
If a dehydrator is not part of your present equipment inventory and will not be a part of your life in the near future, do not be discouraged! There are still plenty of survival foods that can be made without the ability to dehydrate. The following are some great resources that I have found for creating your own survival foods at a fraction of the retail cost:
Quiet Journey – A website dedicated to camping and paddlesports, there is also a large collection of recipes that would make ideal foods for survival as well as your outdoor adventures. Some of the more interesting recipes that I saw were big boy burritos, cinnamon buns, and best camp spaghetti.
Dehydrate 2 Store – This is a literal wealth of dehydrating knowledge. Not only does this site include many recipes that can be used to create your survival rations, there are also many tips to help you. Make sure you check out their videos! Some of the recipes that intrigued me included the baked potato, pork fried rice, and instant oatmeal packets.
Backpacking Chef – Some of you may remember an earlier post about the ‘Practically Free Survival Stove‘ which came from the BackpackingChef. Well not only is this a great resource on how to make a survival stove, but also an invaluable place to find information on dehydrated foods, how to make backpacking meals, food packaging, and even how to plan your meals for your time on the trail. Make sure to use Chef Glenn’s recipes to create your own survival foods. Don’t leave without checking out how to make “bark” which can be used for stand alone foods as well as for soup, stew, and sauce bases. There are definitely some foods here that could be used to create some gourmet inspired survival foods.
These are some of my favorite sites for information on making your own survival foods and dehydrated food in general. Do you know of any websites that should be added to this list? Please leave a comment and let me know what I missed.
Life is full of opportunities, it is just a matter of finding them…at least that is what I have been told. When I saw the plans for this smokehouse recently, I saw an opportunity.
Opportunity #1
If there ever was to be a societal collapse, it is reasoned by many that opportunities to harvest meat are likely to become few and far between. Once the reality of the situation sets in, fish and game regulations and even the concept of private property will likely have little to no meaning as the “every man for himself” mentality takes hold. Individuals will only be concerned with providing for themselves and their families/loved ones and will begin killing whatever protein they can find, even going onto other people’s property to go after cattle, chickens, etc. However, if there is a collapse, will there be damage to the infrastructure? Will it be temporary or permanent? If there is a lack of power there will not be refrigeration or electricity to use to preserve food for any length of time. A perfect solution for preserving proteins in a situation like this is a smoker or smokehouse!
What happens if society manages to hold itself together? You will still have an awesome smokehouse that you can use to make your Thanksgiving turkey, homemade jerky, smoked sausage, ribs, brisket, pork butt, fish, or whatever else you can possibly think of.
Opportunity #2
Thousands upon thousands of smokers are sold in the U.S. every year and this could be your chance to cash in! If you are a handy person, there is a definite opportunity to make money here. I believe the key is to make a superior product that will not fall apart. This particular smokehouse already has a far greater capacity than any readily available commercial smoker. The gentleman that published the article and plans state that they built their smokehouse for $170 which includes the propane burner. It is conceivable that a profit margin of 50% or greater could easily be obtained for this product, especially if the customer is required to provide their own burner or heat source.
The business model that comes to mind for me would be to make one of the smokers and take it to local farmer’s markets, co-ops, feed stores, and maybe even the local sporting goods or hardware store to set up as a display. It is possible that a scaled-down model could be constructed for this same purpose. In addition to the display smokehouse, you of course would need to place your contact information, prices, how to place an order, etc. so that a potential customer could get in touch with you. As the manufacturer of this smokehouse, you would have the obligation to ensure that all the materials that you use are safe to be utilized in this application but that seems to be the biggest liability of this project.
Opportunity #3
Using a model that is almost, if not exactly identical as opportunity #2, smokehouse kits could be manufactured that are designed to be put together by the purchaser. This would allow for a lower purchase price which would make the smokehouse more affordable for the consumer but at the same time would result in a lower production cost. The end product is one that more consumers could afford while maintaining profit margins over 50%. The downside to this opportunity is that you have the potential to lose some of your market as a result of buyers that have no interest in completing any of the assembly themselves.
Opportunity #4
Use the smoker as part of community building by preparing great meals for the neighborhood at your block parties! It can even be part of your survival groups preparations for long term planning.
The plans for this smokehouse are free, where other smokehouse plans and designs can cost up to almost $50! On top of the many uses for this smokehouse, it can run off a variety of fuels from propane to charcoal all the way to wood that can be scavenged from local sources. If you like smoked meats and have preparedness in mind, this smokehouse could be the answer to all of your desires and potential problems.
Photo Credit: SueBee Honey
I recently came across an interesting tidbit on the Mother Nature Network about forever foods which I found to be quite intriguing. The premise of forever foods is that certain foods as long as they are properly stored, can literally last for decades. Even after they have been opened! While they might not literally be foods that last forever, they are likely to last far longer than the average person would ever feel comfortable using them. Like all foods, normal storage practices such as placing items in a cool dark place and in air tight containers should be utilized. Here is the list of 10 forever foods from Mother Nature Network:
1. Sugar – It doesn’t matter what kind of sugar it is, sugar does not support the growth of bacteria.
2. Pure Vanilla Extract – Just like it says, it must be PURE vanilla extract.
3. Rice – Types of forever rice include white, wild, jasmine, arborio, and basmati. Brown rice is not a forever food because of its higher oil content.
4. Corn Starch – You’ll never have thin gravy because corn starch is a forever food!
5. Honey – Like the vanilla, to last for years on end, the honey must be pure. I hate when honey gets crystalized though, so check out the link below to the original list at Mother Nature Network for some great tips on how to deal with grainy honey.
6. Hard Liquor – This makes a lot of sense from many perspectives. Liquor can be used for drinking, cooking, medical purposes, and even for bartering. Make sure that you keep plenty of booze in the cupboard, it could be part of your investment strategy for 2012!
7. Salt – Great product to have around and cheap to buy, plus it never goes bad. Seems like you can’t go wrong with salt!
8. Corn Syrup – Even though Mayor Bloomberg would make all corn syrup illegal, there is good news…corn syrup will last forever so you can start storing it now in case there ever is corn syrup prohibition.
9. Maple Syrup – In order for this to be a true forever food, maple syrup has to be refrigerated or frozen.
10. Distilled White Vinegar – Vinegar is awesome! I must say that. It has a myriad of uses, including some that I have covered before. With applications from cooking to cleaning and almost everything in between, I am not sure that you can have too much vinegar in the pantry.
The list of forever foods and some additional information about them including best storage practices, why they last so long, and what some of their uses are can be seen in the Mother Nature Network article.
If you have any comments or additional information on these or other forever foods please leave your remarks in the comments section below.
