Thoughts and Ruminations About Inflation and Shortages
Friday, March 19th, 2010Author Essie Fedhacher
I was doing some mental mullings comparing last month to this in the shopping and food sector. I feel something is afoot and dire. Elsewhere on forums and in the local Midwestern area, things are disconcerting. I don’t think we are that many months away from some dire straits with grub. Sharing my thoughts…Which I will send to some of My People that have been awakened. Sadly, my own two brothers can’t be troubled to prepare. So much of society has been brainwashed and spoiled into inaction by the decades of abundance. BTW especially do what you can to provide for use of potatoes. I grew up on a 240 acre potato farm in No MN. At one time it was the Disease Free Quarantine area for Seed Potatoes. Man, more serious than CA is about people trying to bring in fruits and vegetables. The disease free area is now gone, potatoes are RIFE with horrible diseases, including seed potatoes, and a lot of what is sold in stores (particularly russets and kennebecs) rot down before you can use them. I have worked for three years to get seed potatoes on par with what we raised when I was a kid.) We are going to see a major takedown of potatoes and the ONLY reason that they tend to be cheap in the grocery stores is because they aren’t storing well in warehouses so they hurry up and sell them and they can rot down in someone’s home. Bit trouble ahead. Parsnips at one time were a mainstay but got replaced by potatoes, and I doubt people are going to be thrilled with…mashed parsnips and GRAVY. Or “Loaded Baked PARSNIPS”, lol. Potato blight has been a problem in Europe for several years, now is a problem in the US and ya sure don’t hear it talked about nor addressed. SCF
Today I did a quite massive shopping- stocking in very specific areas – with TSHTF proclivities, and an awareness of The Basics and when we’ll be shoved into a Simpler Time, although it may be chaotic and innervating. I went to W-M (best variety of dry beans) and also Aldi’s. I really hate shopping at W-M, and I literally try not to go out there more than once a month, but like everyone else, I don’t feel I can afford to pay 3 times as much elsewhere just to boycott W-M. Therefore, when I do do some W-M shopping…because I am an observant type, with a compare/contrast manner of thinking and analyzing…I often detect a lot that I have to mentally process after an outing to W-M to see what it means.
Marked difference from last month. I found myself wondering if W-M is in on trying to “bring down” certain well-known brand names by no longer stocking them in their stores and it’ll mean corporate failures and potentially more job losses. The retail “real estate” in W-M nowadays is really weird even compared to a year ago – let alone compared to ten years ago. The sugar aisle, for instance, had a small section, maybe two bags wide, 4-5 deep of “real estate” devoted to C&H Sugar, the other Domino, displayed accordingly and the Great Value brand went on for about 9 ft. literally. One sees the same circumstances in many other areas of the store where old stand-by brands used to take up ¾ of the retail display area, while Great Value Brands took up only about ¼ to 1/5 of display space. This is no longer true. The Lion’s Share – and so markedly discounted from name-brand competitors – that GV items fly off the shelves.
I’ve read about how Wal-Mart is happy if manufacturers lose money to get “in” with Wal-Mart, and in the past, some of them went along with lower wholesale prices to W-M in order to protect their Real Estate…but my instincts are that that is NOT the case nowadays in the retail realm. I think what little space name brand firms get as opposed to the Great Value Brand arena is a take-it-or-leave-it. I have noticed for some months that Hunt’s Brand at the IGA store offers some hellacious sales – I have monitored it – figuring that they are competing against Heinz and Del Monte and the IGA store brand – settling for few profits to get SOME revenue rolling in, protect their retail real estate, AND have an eye toward being last-firm-standing if they can run their competitors out of biz by working on extremely slim margins and fostering brand loyalty with low prices. And there are some, like I, who are tickled pink to buy Hunt’s (catsup/spaghetti sauce cheaper than I can can it from produce in the garden) and eschew Mrs. John Kerry’s earnings from the largess of her Heinz Ancestors, LOL. At the IGA store unless it is weekly specials, frankly, a person cannot afford to shop there. Except for “draw” items used to get people to come through the doors – their merchandise at full retail is higher-than-a-cat’s back. Much of it sits there – and I look and notice…dust…even though I’m sure the night crew traipses around with those fluffy dusters. Chemtrails are a horrible situation on these parts – and dust a tremendous burden to many of us – shopkeepers included.
The center aisle down the center of the store was devoid of product to the point where if one would’ve hollered – might’ve been at risk of an echo. Seriously, a person could ne could have literally had go-cart races down the center aisle of Wal-Mart, which has been so unlike in the past where they had “stuff” crowding center aisles. Their general merchandize seems spaced out to the degree it was like an almost-bald fellow doing a courageous “comb-over” to try to conceal he ain’t got any hair! (Which is being done by a few auto-dealerships too, nowadays, right near the coin shop we run in our “retirement”? They lost their lines of cars in dealership takedowns and it is pitiful to see how they park cars and space them out in a very poor comb-over technique that doesn’t fool anyone…)
It used to be if an item in Wal-Mart wasn’t on the shelf, or, if not as many as you desired, nab a worker in that section and s/he would cheerfully trot back to the warehouse area and bring a trolley bearing more of the item forth to fulfill customers’ desires. I wanted ten jars of an item, inquired about more, as there were only seven, and was told that the “truck would be in later tonight”. Gee, I figured the Walton’s had so much $$$$ that it was “nothing” for them to sock in inventory, especially since this was a Great Value product that there’d be more in the back. Wrong!
For many months now at Wal-Mart, and other stores, I have noticed empty slots which never do get refilled and squinting at the little universal code tabs on the edges of the shelf give a clue to what is missing. Often they NEVER return and nothing else is taking the place of the item, either. Makes me wonder if some are modest (comparatively) firms that had had a take-down and no longer in business. Wal-Mart no longer stocks in the vast numbers that used to be on a shelf for a lot of items – and many of the pharmacies and other grocery stores ‘round town have one, maybe two, of a specific item teetering on the edge of the shelf, none behind it. Obviously watching how much is wrapped up in inventory – and when it sells they hastily reorder for the next customer. Pharmacy shelves have that “bad comb-over look” also.
I also noticed worried-like, dismal, frustrated and frightened, almost expressions of…terror…on grocery buyers’ faces, and then paying attention to what was in my cart in a way that two-three years ago, no one cared, and certainly not enough to comment. About a year+ ago I told preppers to always “have a story” when shopping in vast quantities, for I had noticed people a year ago being inclined to pay attention. Some of them (a lot of unemployment in this area) who were looking askance at a well-filled cart, with something smacking of…jealousy…confronting a well-filled cart. When buying cases of chili beans I burbled about “the family chili cookout” and dithered about making it in an old-time black butchering kettle and what fun we had getting everyone together. Or, in buying up numerous of the same item, I’d “grump” that I was buying up for sisters-in-law, and joke that they should “pay me extra for all the heavy lifting”. I always made a point of paying cash, too, so no teller would be able to say, “Man that Mrs. So and So sure buys a lot of stuff.” And I always did a shtick that gee, I sure hated to shop, so when I could force myself to do it “I make it worth my time”.
Now, in my opinion, when prepping, it is more important than ever to “have a story” and do it as unobtrusively as possible and give out faux information that you’re purchasing for half-the-county not your own in-home prep needs. Startlingly enough, today there was more than the usual “interest” in what I was piling into my shopping cart. I “had my story” rehearsed with the grumbling “I hate to shop; it’s so depressing” blah, blah every-woman’s-fate. I know that when I come back again I’ll have sticker shock over price increases, so I buy more than I need so I don’t hafta come back every week.” They swallowed THAT and agreed. – I was “just like them” they concluded. Uh…NOT! They are sheoples; I’m aware and a Lone Wolf by Comparison.
One woman said, “I could never afford to pay for all that…” as she nodded at my brimming cart. At which point I replied, “Honey, I have to budget for it like everyone else,” and explained that it does work TO budget a big old’ shopping and do it once every few months and not be in the store every week getting bummed out. And what I was buying was not THAT remarkable: lotta bags of various beans, a few of rice, jars of instant coffee, and bottles of syrup – cheap start-from-scratch foods VERY unlike the Convenience Packaged stuff most were purchasing.
I do know that as I left the store and loaded up the van, I was very aware that our local Wal-Mart NO LONGER has a three days’ supply of foodstuffs, which seems to be the Magic Number everyone warns would be the time-frame within which empty shelves would great people following any kind of calamity that rented the “just in time” delivery system. I had planned on buying ten jars of instant coffee hubs likes; there were only 7 on the shelf. It’s little things…and I know that W-M has the staff to keep the shelves filled – but they are not – and I’m seeing W-M no longer keep their warehouse areas as brimful as they used to. One can inquire if they have more in back – and not ’til the truck comes in – whereas in the old days – ask if there was more in back and someone almost gleefully left to go fetch it and restock the shelves as it seemed a break from other boredom of other menial tasks they were doing to walk around the store/warehouse on a mission to keep a customer happy and move retail products.
I also went to Aldi’s, my favorite prep-store, and it had a lot of foot traffic, but more and more people have carts only partially filled, whereas in the past Aldi’s catered to the case-lot folks. I have noticed that there is sort of an attitude of “the have nots versus the haves”. I have gotten wily enough in shopping at Aldi’s that I may fill a cart and pay (they insist on cash or debit cards) and hie on out to the van and load it in – then return for another go-round, and often a third. The only ones then who pay any attention are the checkers – who are wholly convinced of my “I hate to shop” and buying for in-laws, too.
I got back to the coin shop and shared with my husband some of my “impressions” that I found disturbing. Business was slight at the shop. People are BROKE. And Precious Metals (PMs) are like a roller coaster. An elderly couple came in today, she at one time had a great photography biz shooting wedding pictures and senior pictures, and that is a service area where it’s getting rather cutthroat to compete. She and her husband brought in 5 Kennedy half dollars, 1964, circulated, and hubs offered them $5.00 each for “Twenty-five dollars.” The fellow said, “EACH?” Uh, afraid NOT. We told them PMs had taken a major hit in recent weeks, and they left with their junk silver. When he inquired “Twenty five dollars EACH?” it seemed that is what he believed they were worth and he’d get $125 for $2.50 worth face value. Major disappointment. I figured they had more month left than money and were likely wanting to redeem junk silver to purchase medicine or food. No one is buying – no one is selling – which is okay. We don’t do this for “a living”. The buyers are tending to wait for it to drop further into the basement – and in my opinion – we probably aren’t too far from it going into “backwardization” again where no one will sell PMs unless there is a premium attached, and the buyers will have to absorb that premium, and everyone will carp and complain. Buyers want to purchase at basement dip prices, of course, but certainly get hinky and het up if they were offered the basement price for what they already hold, LOL.
Then I come home and turn on the computer and find a thread over on SilverSeekersForum where someone inquired if you had $2000 what should you spend it on now – food or silver in dip stage. It ran heavily to: buy food. I found this a bit…disturbing…for that crowd is quite populated by a lot of day-trader types. When they are saying “buy food!” that represents a major shift in attitude that strikes me as fear-driven by the future and creeping internal instincts that black swans, lame ducks, and vultures are wheeling overhead. What I saw today is not a harbinger of nice things ahead.
Plus, a thought has been pervasive in my mind – a lot, lately – and that is the concept: “Meat as a flavoring, not the main course.” When I was busy canning pork loin last June and beef roasts later on, and telling people about farmers and ranchers culling herds so packing plants were awash in it, I saw the handwriting on the wall. I informed some people that meat would someday be a rich man’s meal; I saw ahead what I see even stronger evidence for now. People are going to become more vegetarian and NOT because they want to – so that even dishes with meat put in on par with stew or vegetable beef soup are going to be almost like a luxury.
I traveled in 4 Midwestern States last summer when the USDA came out with their stats about 400 million additional acres planted of corn and beans. Due to the flooding I started snirkling and hoorahing that and said that they must’ve been counting the first – second – and third plantings. Mid-June I saw entirely too many acres of unplanted mud with a few hardy weeds. My brother who trucks nationwide served as my “eyes” and said it was the same nationwide. Combined with the devastation in California and fields fallow and barren over a little … minnow. Then the lousy harvest season rolls around and Market Skeptic had lengthy pieces revealing what I’d been yapping about since June.
We are lied to sooooo much that it’s quite imperative to look around, take note, observe, and connect-the-dots in order to get a handle on what is really going on.
As I continue to work to bring Order From Chaos in the prepping areas, while some books hit the ravine to molder down into humus, I am carefully preserving my cookbooks and my late mother’s impressive cookbooks. I don’t particularly need them – a seat of the pants cook – putting together meals for harvest crews on the farm when I was 9 years old – BUT there will be those among survivors who will probably be happy recipients of an old-time cookbook as they won’t be able to purchase grub for the family from the deli department, nor will they have boxed convenience foods where you add water and heat.
You name it – I have probably successfully canned and preserved the item – from veggies, to meat, to butter – and about to can some jars of whipping cream so if TSHTF I can mix it with powdered milk and have a decent half-and-half, maybe even make something comparable to Bailey’s Irish Crème. We’ve done “this” for years – but I feel like we are rather in the final lap – racing toward being successful at our prepping or not. I’ve long told people you can’t eat PMs – and now I find it eerie that on the one forum they are suggesting investing in food AND pointing out that even with PMs in hand – no guarantee that there’ll be food you can purchase with it.
IMO people are going to end up returning to a more Great Depression Style of Eating, a time period that wrought some really wonderful stick-to-your-ribs recipes that were pleasing to the taste buds. I read about people with 900# of rice (which they have never cooked – an art in itself, BTW) and they have failed to stock in condiments, spices and seasoning supplies. What some of them who think they are so well-prepared will end up with – will give the term “force feeding” a whole new meaning. Not someone shoving food into a toddler’s recalcitrant stubborn mouth – but shoveling unappealing ‘meals’ and FORCING them into their own faces, LOL. I have even canned up a lot of pepperoni – because there are some foods people will crave with a vengeance.
Essie
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C Harriger says:
March 24th, 2010
12:19 pm
Good information and welcomed. The potato issue is especially helpful to this old German who never met a potato he didn’t like. That was the first item i stocked when i began laying back supplies. Dehydrated/freeze dried.I also found whey milk acceptable so i put some of that in storage. The best prep i did was water storage. Texas is the center for water catchment studies and people come from far away to study that subject. I used my old Y2K barrels and built an interconnected collection system off a metal roof. Of course if it doesn’t rain i am in trouble and down to water rationing. We only get about 17 inches a year in west Texas. Thanks for the writing. C Harriger Lubbock, Tx
Essie Feldhacher says:
March 26th, 2010
8:01 am
Thanks for your input, dear. Everyone knows about the Irish potato famine caused by blight. Tend not to realize how we could have a redux here. Parsnips used to be the big veggie ’til potato tubers came on the scene in ancient days. French fried parsnips? Mashed parsnips and gravy? Parsnip chips? Parsnips are a very acquired taste, IMO, and people won’t relish them as potatoes. I’ve worked for several years using ‘tricks’ I learned as a child on the potato farm to get good stock ourselves. I have looked at the seed potatoes in our region for gardeners. Blech! Horrible diseased stock to plant. Makes me feel the Potato Growers had to keep all their Blue Tag Seed to replant their own acreage and perhaps none to share. I make drop dead good mashed potatoes using part real potatoes and part instant flakes (some are better than others) as an ‘extender’ and lots of butter, milk, tad of sugar, coarse ground pepper, salt, and people like them better than 100% real potatoes mashed, LOL. Those sealed airtight in plastic inside boxes have good longevity.
Lynne says:
March 26th, 2010
11:54 am
Great Story, I never go to W-M I just don’t like the stores.
I get it all the time that I’m a wingnut and they can’t afford to prep. Heck you can’t afford not to do prep. After I got my 6 months of food, I noticed I could buy stuff I would need in the future, IF it was on sale. So I’m saving a lot money. I do have a quick and cheap food prep list for folks that want to start prepping. But that’s all I do if anyone asks about my prep.
I do think food is important, but you need everything you use day to day and week to week. I think most foks forget the soap and Toilet Paper and to have a years worth of that as well. After I did my test on my food storage I found I really missed chips and crackers. So I’m buying extras now and vacume sealing them in 1/2 gal. Jars.
I’m very exited that I can afford a Pressure canner this Summer and I will be able to can almost anything.
One more thing. Buy your spices whole if possible. They last about twice as long.
Essie Feldhacher says:
March 27th, 2010
8:26 am
I’m at the stage, Lynne, where I almost never pay full-retail for anything, as I keep track and buy when stuff is on sale and it lasts until the next time it is on sale (and then some). Ice cream is a case in point – I buy it on sale only – and acquire it whenever it is on sale so Hubs can enjoy it on-the-cheap. Laundry soap is another where I am so far ahead I only replenish when it is on sale. Congrats on the food canner, dear. You’ll love it! IF you can buy it in a store – you can generally make/can it at home. I treated myself to a brand new in the box “backup” canner at the end of the season last year. Pray God I never hafta use it over a wood fire…! And yes, spices. I have a goodly amount of that – Chipotle unground, peppercorns, the stuff you’re acquiring. I read about people with 900 lbs. of white rice stored ahead, probably don’t have a case or two of salt and pepper stored back, let alone flavorings and seasonings, and perhaps don’t even know “how” to correctly cook rice. Destined for some real “blech!” meals, IMO. But can do like the Viet Cong did in ‘Nam years ago and carry bags of rice and put the dry rice in their mouths and suck and chew it for susetence. Plenty of TP is a great idea AND after I had grandkids and discovered “baby wipes” some of those stashed back a good idea as they can facilitate ‘cleanup’ needs even better than t.p. My husband gives me a baaaaaaaaad time as I save the plastic grocery baggies (which are much thinner mil than they used to be) and have those popcorn tins jammed full and set back. He doesn’t appreciate how often a housewife goes for one of those sacks and how handy they are if to contain a soiled diaper for disposal or to give someone bounty from the garden, or even wrap stuff in for long-term storage. Thanks for your input, girlfriend! And keep on keeping on!
Lynne says:
March 27th, 2010
8:52 am
Well as I am 1 of the “Landed Aristocracy of Idaho” I own the wall my back is against. I found I would do better if I depended on myself as much as possible. How strange it is when the “prepared person” is a wing nut in America.
Essie Feldhacher says:
March 27th, 2010
9:47 am
Yes, dear Lynne, we are considered “wingnuts” and “bubbas” and considered miscreants turned loose on Planet Earth in “Flyover Country” as if we types were a blight on society instead of the backbone of this nation. As a one-time novelist and magazine writer I have always been a people watcher and an ‘observer’ using compare-and-contrast thinking methods. In the past year+ I have seen scorn heaped in our direction – with us considered ignorant, and there is a class-warfare which has nothin’ to do with race/creed/color but (supposed) High Society Versus Rural Redneck Lowlifes (dat’s US, dear!) And little do they realize that we “Bubbas” could save-their-bacon (when the time comes) but if they continue to mock and ridicule us, this ol’ gal will become less “forgiving” all the time as the serious insults are hurled.
Back in the very late 1970s Howard Ruff wrote a book detailing what was ahead – and darned if we are not living that out – complete to what he wrote about social fracases that he couched in terms of “gangs” only warned it wouldn’t be like West Side Story. Just last night a friend of mine emailed me with news that in Major Cities there are unpleasant social imbroglios, arrived at via technology, as get-togethers are planned and announced in a flash via text-messaging and younger citizens show up en masse to create major havoc. IMO that is a Sign of the Times and that City Living is going to become increasingly unsafe. City Slickers who are into “preparations” haven’t a clue what is ahead, and how fraught with danger it IS going to be. That “Window of Time” to relocate to safer places is rapidly slamming…shut.
Glad you own the wall against which you have your back covered. Same here. On a good day I’m a kind and gentle soul. On a bad day – testy as a rattlesnake – and as quick and lethal to strike. Which Essie someone chooses to deal with..is entirely THEIR choice. Come in peace and friendship and greeted the same way. Come with evil…and I’m working on being able to “move mountains” and have Dat Ol’ Mountain shift and fall on an evil-intentioned head, LOL. This isn’t a religious site – but this ol’ gal knows that it’s not THREE G’s but 4 G’s: God, Grub, Gold, Guns. (And I bought myself a wrist-rocket, for as a kid I was a deadeye with slingshots made from the crotch of a branch, rubber from an inner tube, a leather tongue from an old shoe for a pouch and a road full of gravel, heh, heh!)
Lynne says:
March 27th, 2010
4:48 pm
Well everyone knows that people in Idaho are mouth-breathing, knuckle dragging member’s of the Aryan Nations.
As described by NPR. Mom’s a little pissed about that, as she listens to NPR a lot. Got her hooked on Beck now working on turning her into a Rush Babe.
I’d love to help folks out with education and training on prepping, but so few listen. I did make a couple of scores that may help folks out.
1. If you have an animal feed mill you may be able to get a great buy on whole grains. I just got 100# of Red wheat and #50 of Cracked Barley for $20.00.
2. For buckets go to your local Grocery store with a deli or bakery and ask if they have “food grade” buckets? I’m getting mine for $1.00. I just give them a little wash with dishsoap and bleach and they work great. No frosting smell.
Kristen says:
March 30th, 2010
1:44 pm
The 4 G’s – God, Grub, Gold & Guns! Amen – I love it!
Essie Feldhacher says:
March 30th, 2010
4:04 pm
Glad you liked that, Kristen. I realized what as “missing” as soon as I heard the 3-G’s. Many people when they figure out what is going on in the world and our nation and realize they need to prep are quite stricken at the onslaught of the magnitude. I’ve found simply saying, “Courage is fear that’s said its prayers…” puts things in perspective. And humor, highly IMportant, too. You may as well laugh, even if it is ‘cop humor’ and macabre and maudlin, heh, heh, heh…!
Linda Brady Traynham says:
March 30th, 2010
4:31 pm
Blissful sigh. Magnificent, Essie, and such great comments and your replies. I suppose you have noticed, too, that stockers line everything up neatly with the front edge of the shelf to give the illusion of plenty? I find “Wally World” useful for three things: “cheap” .22 shells, their excellent G-V potato products, and their G-V Luncheon Meat which is neither too slimy nor too salty, in the lower middle price range. I go there as seldom as possible. I do most of my usual shopping at Kroger’s and Sam’s. I, too, am careful always to have a “cover story,” and fret that Sam’s keeps records of what I buy. BTW…a chipotle is only a smoked jalapeno, but they are still easier to stock than to fuss with making. Spices? There is no such thing as “too much or too many.” Hit your local Asian store for things like red and green curry paste, toasted sesame seeds (A BIG jug for $4 instead of for a couple of ounces), bottled grated ginger and even garlic, and at least a few Indian seasonings. The appearance of “variety” is going to be one of the biggest problems most people face. Sam’s is pretty good for the giant jugs of grated parmesan(yuck! I use only fresh-grated, but am prepared for a time when there isn’t any unless I make it myself.), dried onions(ditto), and “soup base,” aka bouillon. Do not despise lowly, inexpensive Ramen noodles; mixed with whatever vegetables you have and a bit of meat you can make a pretty good meal. Buy pepper corns (preferably the 5-pepper melange!) as though you were trying for the Guiness Book of Records. Ditto salt, sea, iodized, and ice cream/Kosher. When it all goes bad those will be priceless. Do not forget the expression “worth his salt” and the word “salary” come from Roman times, when Legionnaires were paid in salt. People and animals die without it, you know. I’m not with Essie on meat, because the FIRST thing I did when I began prepping was insure my supplies of eggs, meat, milk, and cream! I admit that is a luxury available only to those who have land. Lynne, dear, I’ll write you again privately, but please share your source for the grains, and everybody remember my tip about going to the feed store for Calves’ Milk Replacer instead of spending much more on Carnation. You can can your own milk, of course, although I haven’t figured out a cost effective way to evaporate it. I’m looking forward to making my own marvelous tomato sauce this year–a project that is practical only if someone else is paying your electric bill or you have a wood stove and a small forest, as we do. If you don’t have a hand-crank food mill, get one. There have long been recipes available for catsup, as well, although we use it very seldom. Don’t overlook how vital a very large supply of canning lids will be. In theory we can reuse them, and I do wonder if the proscription against that is sheer hype. If desperate, try, because the worst that can happen is failure to get a seal. Isn’t it lovely being in a conversation with people who don’t think we’re crazy–or those who will be shrieking “HOARDER!” when times are bad? Don’t forget to stock up on plain old Crisco; better yet, the Mexican version, “manteca.” Tryng to keep enough fat in low-calorie diets is difficult. Ideally, of course, we should all get three T a day of the essential fatty acids, which are linoleic, lenolenic, and archidonic, the last being found only in peanut oil. A 2:1 mix of safflower and peanut will do fine. What we “landed gentry,” at least, should be getting on with is a root cellar, preferably a buried, gutted school bus! A great many things will keep for a long time in a dark, sixtish environment, including oils, peanut butter, Velveeta, and cigarettes. Masa Harina so you can make your own tortillas…China Berries to put in amongst flour/pasta/rice to deter bugs…corn husks so you can make your own tamales, the meat for which is seasoned with Pickling Spice! Now, if we can just get through without the alphabet soup guys raiding us and saying (like a B grade movie) “We had to take them down.” we may survive. Luck and the Lord’s blessings on all of you, and keep sharing those great tips. Cary told me that the best way to preserve cabbages is to bury them! Essie, kindly let us know if you come up with a source for disease-free potatoes. Hugs to all, Linda
Essie Feldhacher says:
March 30th, 2010
7:26 pm
Reuse of can lids is supposed to be workable – important for ‘then’ if not for ‘now’ when they are available. Open the can with a very deft touch to avoid bending the lid, wash, and then boil in baking soda. I think that is to “replump” the rubber on the seal. I have tossed back some nice and gently used lids just-in-case.
And yes, salt is a definite must-have. Like matches, one can probably not have too much. It is especially worthwhile to brine meat for a cure if one has to butcher and it’s not cool. I have learned that adding a dash of vinegar to the curing brine helps, too, as the acidic aspects help discourage bacteria. Smoking fish can transform so that a variety of fish that wouldn’t taste so wonderful fried is actually good when seasoned and smoked. My hope is that we meat-and-taters types can continue to eat protein with abandon, but reality dictates that I can see a time when it’ll be in one-dishes (hearty stew types) rather than chowing down on a delectible porterhouse all by oneself, LOL.
Just THINK what it would be like if we all lived in the same township and could get together to aid and abet. Wow!!!
I’m an old hand at catsup, Italian Spaghetti, pizza sauce, etc. in fact, I was doing it before Mrs. Wage’s preparations were available, having turned my hand at it for over 30 years, including making pint jars of tomato soup to use just like the store bought stuff. Now they sell Mrs. W stuff in such teeny-tiny packets that it actually doesn’t afford savings by the time one springs for the high ticket preparations in itty-bitty envelopes….sigh….
Lynne says:
March 30th, 2010
10:29 pm
Well got the feed grain idea from a friend in Arkansas. He bought a ton of corn after reading about the famine in Ireland and folks wouldn’t eat it since it was “Only fit for beasts”. That was his start on prep.
So I started looking around the classifieds especially the free on-line ones and got lucky. Animal feed is ok for human consumption but it’s not quite as refined. For example wheat it’s only “washed” 1 or 2 times compared to human which is washed 3 times. Another buddy said stay away from outs at the mill. Oats require a few more steps for human consumption and aren’t worth the work since oats are still cheap in the store. But $6.00 compared to $45-50.00. I can do a little work. Plus you can sprout gains for what someone called a “square inch” garden.
I guess I am good at finding stuff cheap. I am pretty well prepped so I avoid any panic buying. Plus I live in farm and ranch country so we have several feed mills in the area. I just had to find a mill selling in #50 bags rather than by the ton.
A few items to add:
1.I have several friends that swear by “Solar Ovens” for baking and slo-cooking stuff. Saves your energy bill. I haven’t tried it yet as a good solar oven can be over $200.00. My big purchase this year is a canner. Last year it was a propane oven/stove combo.
2. Diatomaceous Earth (Food Grade) Kills bugs in stored foods, plus a great multi-tasker, Pet-safe flea and insect control as well as a pet wormer. Also good for an outhouse to keep down smells.
3. Ethnic stores Hispanic, Great place for Spices and Masa. Rice and Beans.
4. I know it’s not recommended to reuse the lids but I have several friends that do. If they don’t seal just refrigerate and use first.
5. Coffee if you drink it, the only place in the US it grows is Hawaii. Get lots, I have about 9 months worth and I am waiting for another sale to get me to up to a year. I’m still shopping around to find a good price on green beans, they store better.
I have learned so much this last year. From Protein % in different wheat types to commodities and Government policy. I had only a layman’s understanding of markets and how they affected me. I only knew enough to be dangerous. Now I know enough to know I don’t know enough. But, I have always loved learning, so I’m taking online courses.
I’ve learned from Kellene at http://www.preparednesspro.com/blog
You could call her my prepping mentor. I just tweak stuff to make it work for me.
Essie Feldhacher says:
March 31st, 2010
2:03 pm
We’re fortunate that our dear son is in a tractor club, the yearly Pioneer Days are held in a field right across the road, and he’s been an active member. The events are stupendous – horse pulls, plowing with a hitch, mule pulling contests, and of course old tractors back into the 40s as well as a real steam thresher hooked up and run with pulleys and fed wheat piled onto a hayrack and scooped into the yaw of the thresher by sweating men feeding it riped stalks to display how it parts the wheat from the chaff. A farmer who donates the wheat for the threshing exposition doesn’t want to be troubled putting a few bushel in the granary, so…we do them the ‘favor’ of accepting it and putting it to good use. Dear Husband is an ol’ time “Hoss Trader” type and bak in 1995 we got an excellent manual handcrank grinder for wheat/etc. mint-in-the-box for little of nothing from someone who needed to raise quick cash and came to the ol’ man to strike a deal. The grinder sat around in the box in storage, I never did put it on eBay (this was back in 1996) and – viola! – there it WAS when WE had need for it ten years’ later. We grind it, and son and I use the home-ground whole-wheat about half-and-half when we bake big batches of bread. Yum! Yum!! We are so “provided for” before we even know we have a need…!
Elle, I need to email you about the meat. I can foresee a time when there will be hordes without their…hordes…nothing to give, all primed to “take” and I can too easily imagine a time when a person almost has to bring ALL livestock into the house as you do your Dear Goat Girls. With 150 head of meat sheep….get a tad bit crowded. Factor in turkeys, peacocks, chicken, geese, guinneas…I all too well remember the weird stuff in the 1970s when cattlemen went to herds and found them butchered and the hindquarters/good steaks gone, the rest covered with green-flies. And those even stranger cases where the genitalia was surgically removed – and the whole bovine gone-to-waste. IMO that could happen again. I think of that – and how my gutsy mama used to tell young brides re. spousal abuse (when there wasn’t a name for it), “The bigger they come – the harder they fall.” And also, “He’s gotta sleep SOMEtime” heh, heh, heh. Well we basically DO have to sleep sometime and it’s during those hours we are most at risk. We’re actually ON the same page, dear Linda.
And is a RibEye Steak with Baked potato and tossed salad ever gonna taste GOOD tonight!!! I’m about wore to a nubbin. Lynne mentioned solar ovens. I have in my mind an oven I want my son to weld together for Ma for Mother’s Day, a medium sized iron barrel, on legs, with a trapdoor in it, spacers for rusters (I never throw a good rustern away!) and to have that for outdoor baking and controlling the heat by having coals underneath the barrel on legs, tight enough to heat but not get smokey bread, and to DO six of eight at a time, and “control” the temp by raking coals away from under the barrel, or raking them back under. In my mind, it’ll work. He was a Machinest in the Navy and I’m sure he can improve on my idea – and probably make one for himself!
Today I “took the plunge” – literally – a toilet plunger! And I did up some laundry I’ll no longer “kill” my new Maytag with as I did the one that recently expired after probably millions of spins in the cycle. I used to take household rugs to the car wash, clip them up on the wall and as they’d hang there I’d spray heck out of them with hot soapy carwash spray, then rinse, go like a whirling dervish to toss the drippy ones in a tub, hang up some new ones – wash/rinse/repeat – literally. I raced around like an idiot aware of the timer clicking off quarters. Then I rolled up big rugs and upended them in plastic high wastebaskets to drip and dry enroute home where I dealt with them. It was expensive, and tiring, and I realized their HAD to be a better way. I did it today. A big and hefty tub, five gallon buckets of hot, hot water, a glop of Spic ‘N Span, some dry colorfast bleach powder AND a glug of regular liquid bleach – not enough to damage color – just to eat way at stains. I put rugs in that, used the toilet plunger, then folded them to drip a bit, but them into a rinse water tub, and then hung them over this/that/the other thing if too heavy to go on the clothesline.
Hubs looked at me ‘aghast’ and said, “NOW you’re doing laundry outside?” I said, “Only rugs.” And pointed out I was saving a major reserve of quarters fed to the car wash machine. Not surprisingly, he was okay with that, LOL.
The last ones I did (laid them across the big octagonal wooden picnic table were the large 4 x 8 or whatever size those heavy area rugs are.
I have a big and huge fluffy queen size comforter – white – and I’m gonna find a tub to go in the bathtub shower, put it in to soak in my brew, and then ladle out water and rinse – rinse -rinse. My adoring Rottie and Great Schnauzer are such dear girls and rub along the bed at night to get close to me so the dust ruffle area gets awful and the commercial and expensive machines don’t do squat. I figure I’ve seen enough old movies (with Charlton Heston, LOL) so I can get in a tub of hot water barefoot and pretend I’m stomping grapes and making vino while cleaning a bedquilt. Fortunately no one would DARE “lash me” to encourage me to continue on, heh, heh.
Girls – this is fun! Maybe this can be our “thread” to share some of this stuff and if people discover it – more power to them. We ALL have a lot to offer. The Linda, Lynne and Essie “Gig” and the more the merrier.
Uh…as long as they keep civil tongues in their mouths…AND “Shame on you!” claptrap remarks to themselves if you’re on the same page as to what I’m referring….
Remove the white gloves to backhand people like that. Flesh against flesh stings harder. And a doubled up fist…complete with high-tone hardware – metals and rocks – can rock ‘em back on their heels. Da…stupid HEELS…!
Lynne says:
April 1st, 2010
4:58 pm
I ‘d love to help out gals. I’m looking at starting a blog for folks starting out on Prepping. I prefer the term “Self-Reliance” because I believe it is a better description of what I am trying to accomplish. I will also get to practice my writing skills.
One group of stores that are often overlooked are the “Dollar Stores”. I love going to different ones and pick up 1st Aid supplies, Laundry Detergents, cleaning supplies and little gifts and decorations. The products run from “works great” to “I’m glad I only wasted a dollar on it”. I use put the products I don’t really care for in a “Barter Box”.
These will be items I use for trading.
lynne says:
April 4th, 2010
8:35 pm
Don’t overlook whole grains. It’s food for folks that can deal with the grinding. But if you hand it to most folks they don’t know how to deal with it. You make it into food with a bit of work. Many will refuse food if it’s more complicated than ramen noodles.
I can make anything from basic ingredients. From bread to bicuits, roasts to beans.
I can just imagine if a robber was handed a bucket of beans or grains. I’m pretty sure he or she would have no idea of how to make a meal from it.
Learning how to malt barley and giving Linda reinforced bunny slippers is next on the list of items to do. I want to keep the fur on during tanning of hides.
jlsim66 says:
April 4th, 2010
11:00 pm
I’d love to see a looter given whole grains and see if they could make a meal of it.