Hi Everyone,
NOTES:
* Get a free copy of a 1930 Relief Society Cookbook, from the Nauvoo Mercantile. 75 pages of recipes. It is a collection of recipes donated by women living in Rexburg, Idaho. 1930 The Relief Society Cookbook – FREE Download
* My tomatoes have sprouted. I take them out in the sun and wind every day for a few hours. This helps them get strong and not “leggy”. If you live where there is very cold weather, you can keep them under a grow light, but put a fan on them for about an hour a day.
So WHY would you even want to do this? Isn’t it much easier just to buy them at Home Depot? Well, of course, it’s easier. But then you are limited to what Home Depot has to offer. You can see I’m growing several types of “canning” tomatoes, a few salad tomatoes, and even some “Candyland” tomatoes which are so small that you just stand at the bush and pop them into your mouth. They never even make it into the house. Plus, I LOVE fussing over those little babies. It is exciting to see them grow.
LONG TERM FOCUS: Oats
Oats are just one choice for storing “whole grains”. Other choices include: amaranth, barley, rice, corn (cornmeal, popcorn, etc), quinoa, rye, spelt, and wheat. Whole grains contain fiber and other nutrients. A good goal is to have 1/2 of the grains you eat should be whole grains.
“The protein in oats is higher than that in wheat or rice. The protein in oats is nearly equal to meat, milk, and egg protein.” (Food Storage Powerhouse, Orgill, p34) Oats also provide vitamin B1, phosphorus, manganese, biotin, and other vitamins and minerals. This is one reason it’s a good storage choice.
Oats, in general, include: rolled oats, steel-cut oats, whole oats (they look a lot like wheat and can be sprouted, or cooked as is), and ground oats (like flour) can be used to make pancakes or other
bread type items.
Oats are cooked 2:1 – two parts water and 1 part oats. (I like a shake or two of salt) and they are perfect for using a thermal cooker. This includes something like this:
Sunpentown Thermal Cooker – ST-60B: Rice Cookers: Home & Kitchen (6 quarts) or a thermos, or a wonder box (Wonderbox Oven Pattern) . There are a lot of YouTube videos on making a wonder box. Basically, it’s just a big bag that nestles the cooking pot and keeps the heat in. I made oatmeal in a thermos once, and just let it sit overnight. It was perfect in the morning, just messy to clean up. LOL.
SHORT TERM FOCUS: Breakfast Cereal
Have you tried buying Rice Krispies lately? The stores were out of them for months, so I finally looked it up. Evidently, Kelloggs was having difficulty getting product and then there was a labor strike. BUT, happy news, I found them at Winco last week!!! Can’t wait to make some Rice Krispy treats. I try to keep 5-6 different boxes of cereal on hand. If you do, you MUST rotate them!!! Cereal only lasts about a year. It gets stale. I DO tape up the ends so that the pantry moths can’t get it. It has worked for me.
72-HOUR KIT FOCUS
* I found this link on making a 72-hour kit that fits into a milk jug: How to Make a 72 Hour Kit
It really doesn’t matter how big your 72-hour kit is, what matters is that you are prepared for what YOU think will matter most – even if it’s just some extra water, a pair of walking shoes, and some granola bars. Next time you buy a new pair of tennis shoes, stick your old ones in the trunk. If you have to walk home in high heels, your feet will thank you!!!
MISC FOCUS:
Everyone should have a Silcock key. A Silcock key will help you find water in an urban situation. HAUTMEC 4 Way Silcock Key PL0028
Here’s a great video about using one. Sillcock Key: Counting Water Spigots In The City – YouTube
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
Oatmeal Bread
This recipe is from the 1930 Recipe Book attached below.
1 c. milk – Scald milk and pour over
1 c. rolled oats
Add:
2 TB sugar
1 TB shortening
3/4 tsp salt
Let cool to lukewarm and add
1 packet yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp) previously dissolved in 1/2 c. lukewarm water.
Add flour to knead
2 1/2 c. flour
Let rise. Knead and shape. Let rise again and bake. (No temperature or time is given. LOL I guess everyone at that time already knew what to do!)
Chewy No-Bake Grain and Oat Bars
This one comes from epicurious.com
4 TB unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 c. mixed unsweetened puffed grain cereal, such as corn, rice, kamut and/or millet
1 c. old fashioned oats
1 1/2 c. dried fruit, nuts, seeds, unsweetened shredded coconut and/or chocolate chips
Toss everything in a large bowl (except chocolate chips) in a large bowl with your hands to evenly distribute.
Bring
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. honey 1/2 tsp salt
4 TB butter to a boil in a small saucepan and let cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in
1/3 c. creamy nut butter and
1 tsp vanilla
Stir until smooth. Drizzle over puffed rice and stir with a large rubber spatula until everything is evenly coated. If using chocolate chips, let the mixture cool about 5 minutes before mixing in.
Scrape mixture into prepared dish and press and compact down into an even layer with buttered hands. Let cool at least 1 hour before cutting into bars.
Here is a note from someone in the Southeast expecting a big storm:
“We are at an elevation calling for almost 2 ft of snow. Fortunately, our prepping lifestyle has us ahead of the game. I cleaned all the oil lamps and made sure they were filled and ready to go today. All of them are antiques. This one is my favorite little lamp. It can sit on a table or the base can be flipped to the side to hang on the wall. Not just functional but pretty. You don’t see that in things made today. And I think I paid $6 for it at an antique shop.
We also have a battery-run shower head, Our camp lantern, generator, fans that run on batteries, a wood stove, grill, gas stove. And of course a ton of food. We ran out today to pick up a few luxury items from the store and there were SOOOOO many people out trying to find heat sources, food, lights, etc. Half of them looked totally lost. Our grocery store still had plenty of food but in the next town over the shelves were bare and there were no generators left. No propane or kerosene heaters, very few lamps or lanterns or candles to be had. I just pray that everyone gets through this snowstorm safely.”
Being prepared is simply looking ahead to the next storm, or power outage, or truck strike, or earthquake, or flood, or volcano, or zombie attack. It’s getting ready today for what may happen tomorrow.
Marti
Other than the food, what will your pet need if you can’t get to the store? Medications? Ask the vet for an extra month or two. Kitty litter? We do have a litter box inside, but mostly the cat roams the neighborhood. So we don’t have any litter stored (although it does have other uses, especially in emergency sanitation situations).
Prepare a cookie sheet by spreading butter to cover the bottom. Sprinkle 3/4 c. finely chopped almonds over the bottom of the pan.
The only safe place to survive in place through most disasters is probably an underground bunker. Of the estimated one percent of people in America prepping today, there’s perhaps less than one percent of those preppers in a position to have an underground bunker. Let’s face it, that’s not a likelihood for most. Our homes, though, are our castles, as they say. We fortify the walls and security. We store and conceal our preps. We dim the lights, quiet our noise, and keep the curtains and blinds drawn. Many preppers stop there, reasoning that their windows and doors are the locations of their final stand against whatever the world throws at them, and it is the place of their last stand for them because they have no plan to escape when they need to.
Have a plan for yourself to bug in or bug out. Have a plan with your loved ones that has both a rendevous point and a plan to get home from any of the cardinal directions around you. Discuss the “what ifs” around the most likely disasters you may face. Make it a point to know more than one route to any destination and to have more than one means of conveyance. If you rely solely on traveling down the highway in your car, what will you do when the weather or a downed bridge prevents you from traveling that route. Thousands were recently forced to overnight on a freeway in Virginia after a winter storm forced its closure. Fortunately, there have been no reports of deaths or injuries, just a major inconvenience for those stranded. They got lucky. I’m sure many that went through that ordeal now realize the value of having the proper gear in their vehicle and hopefully plan to deal with a situation like that should they face it again. 
Your home is always the default first choice of where you should ride out any disaster. Conditions might keep you from getting home or may force you to flee your home, but in most scenarios, your home is going to be the safest shelter for you through a disaster. As such, make sure you have the basics to last the duration. Have enough stored food and water if you’re starting out being prepared to last you a minimum of 3-weeks, ideally 3-months, or even longer. You don’t want to know the municipal water supply isn’t flowing during a disaster. You might not hear the boil order that was issued if lines of communication are down. You don’t want to open your refrigerator during a disaster only to discover that you’ve developed a lifestyle of living off takeout. What will you do then? Make ketchup packet soup?
We will link to some of our other blogs on bugging-out, choosing a location, and building a bug-out bag. Still, we think it is also essential to cover a few essentials that you absolutely cannot afford to overlook. First, have copies of crucial documents in a zip-lock baggy. If the world is in utter chaos, it won’t matter, but if there is any structure or order at all, you may need these documents to prove your identity, re-establish yourself, access services, or find out information about your relations. Don’t throw out that expired license or passport, as the expiration date won’t matter if you are merely trying to establish your identity. If it does get stolen from you, the expired date will keep criminals from using it. Second, have a basic map and a good compass. You may know your town like the back of your hand, but a disaster of significant scope can lay waste to the landscape and make landmarks challenging to find and discern. As I have said in other videos, pass on maps of your country, state, or province in favor of more detailed maps of an area ranging a circumference of little more than a hundred miles around you. The fact is that after a major disaster, your world and your ability to navigate it will shrink. You may only be able to travel a mile per day, not the usual 20, 40, or 80 miles you typically commute daily.
From the time before a disaster through the aftermath of a disaster, and all along the way, you have to evaluate your decision to stay or go constantly. The high point of a disaster isn’t always in the moment that it strikes. The zenith may be long after the initial disaster and far from the original epicenter. A truck or rail car containing chemicals might have an initial disaster radius of a few hundred feet, but the chemical cloud coming your direction might stretch for miles and miles, many hours later. Sometimes you won’t have the option to bug out because that time will pass for you. If you weren’t ahead of the herd and decided earlier to stay behind, the opportunity for you to leave might have passed. Perhaps roads and bridges are impassable, or highways are stalled with others fleeing. Once you decide to stay, you might lose the ability to change your mind later. Still, there are situations where the environment will necessitate your choice, regardless of how bad and dangerous the decision to leave has become.
One of the saddest stories I heard was after Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was flooded and a lot of people were moved to Houston. One mother of two babies in diapers had nothing. She was left to beg on the street for food. But also diapers. She talked about having to scrape out the diapers and put them back on her babies. She talked about going to gas stations and trying to get people to help her. 
Fold some up and keep it in your kit. 
Time to think about pets this month. I DO have a pet. I do NOT have a year’s supply of food for my pet. BUT, I “DO” have some storage. I have 2-3 extra bags of food at any one time, and I just rotate them. I think I will try to store a few more, maybe take our cat’s food up to 3 months’ worth or so.
least one of the kids got a tin full of play dough.
The general rule of thumb is to store 1 gallon of water per person, per day…and that’s just the bare minimum. 2 gallons is much more advisable. Also, don’t forget your pets. So if we start with 1 gallon of water, you can pick up 1 gallon water containers at your local store. Please remember that since these are in a clear container, bacteria and algae can start growing inside the container requiring filtration and purification. If you start off with these 1 gallon options, be sure to store them in a cool, dark dry place and rotate them every 6 months or so. When you’re ready to step up to a better option, we would recommend simple 5 or 7 gallon water containers that are BPA free, food grade, and have a dark wall. If properly stored, these can last for many years. The advantage with these options is their mobility. If you want a more permanent solution that can hold more water, you might want to consider a 55 gallon drum. 
calories of consumption per day for adults. Any less than 1200 calories and you’re starting to starve. Most would be ok with roughly 2000 calories per day if not exerting themselves. But realistically, after a disaster, it is very possible you’ll be moving a good deal more, especially if you’re needing to walk long distances or do strenuous chores. For this, expect to need roughly around 3000 calories. Ideally, a balance of macronutrients (fats, carbs, and proteins) can be had through a combination of these various food items that you can stored away.
down, being able to properly discard of human waste is a consideration that many overlook. Simply defecting or urinating in your backyard without a proper setup is a sanitary issue waiting to get out of hand.
There are a few things you need to consider when thinking about cooking after a disaster. Who do you want to know that you have food and a means to cook and how much fuel do you have stored up? Both factor into what approach you’ll take. For those starting out, my recommendation is often to simply get a camping stove with propane. Or you can use something like a rocket stove which can be fueled with small amounts of biomass that you can find laying around most areas such as twigs and other dried material. We usually discuss utensils to have on hand, but if you’re staying home, you should have the basic pots, pans, forks, knives, spatulas, etc. 
and old age. Simple things you can purchase now are AA and AAA batteries. We have switched my electronics over to devices that can be powered through a USB plugin so having a simple hand crank to charge them or a solar panel would be an option. If you go the solar panel route, best to have a small battery bank that can be charged. Entry-level solar panels combined with a small battery bank could be enough to keep your cell phone or other small electronics powered. The next step up is picking up either gas or solar generator. We have both options and the cost of these varies widely. We would recommend watching my video entitled “How Much Power Will I Need to Survive?” which goes into great detail breaking down wants versus needs when it comes to power generation. If you’re just starting out, something like a Champion dual fuel generator from Costco would be a good starting point. Solar generators are nice, but they’re expensive and don’t provide on-demand power like an internal combustion generator. On the other hand, they produce no noise or fumes if you’re wanting to keep your ability to produce power to yourself and with solar panels, you have a renewable, infinite power source.
If you were to go to a store and the power was out or charging your card was not available, then what? We have increasingly become a cashless society and we’ve become accustomed to charging purchases with our credit or debit cards. Having a backup amount of cash on hand broken down into small denominations will allow you to make purchases when simply charging your card is not available. Again, make sure you store small denominations of 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s. If you only have 20’s, 50’s, or 100’s, someone may not be able to make change for you.
you can also pick up local stations and national weather services. When most people get started in prepping, picking up a HAM radio, namely the BAOFENG UV-5R is a popular choice. While there are much better options on the market and we plan on doing a comprehensive video on this early next year, it’s a starting point. HAM radios are a popular option as you can potentially communicate far distances if you can pick up a local repeater. We also keep a Garmin inreach mini which allows me to communicate via text over satellite (a monthly fee is required for this service) and we just recently picked up the Starlink satellite service. As long as you have a power source and a view of the sky, you can get full internet access. This also requires a monthly service fee.
OPSEC stands for operational security. After a disaster, keeping your information as to what you have is important. Why? Normal, everyday kind people are capable of acts they themselves could not fathom under the wrong situations. If you or your children were dying from dehydration or starvation, would you do anything to prevent this from happening? Depending on how long the disaster goes or how desperate opportunistic individuals become, keeping your preps private is a critical first step. 
* 
things. A professional cook told me once that he adds a small amount of powdered sugar to his Krusteaz pancake mix. Sneaky. But it IS really good! It’s on sale this time of year (only about $.70 a pound at Winco). Just stock up. Four or five 2-pound bags will probably last you at least 6 months if not the whole year.
I’ve seen two recipes in the past day or so that are very similar. They are for a “soup” called Scotch Broth. It is a bean and rice stew. The ingredients are easy to buy and store. The LARGE amounts will make enough to feed 4 people for 6 months (one meal a day). The SMALL amount will fill 1-quart jar. It will make one meal for a family. Beans and rice make a full protein, so it is very nutritious. The thing that caught my eye was that I could put them in 1 quart Mylar bags and give them as gifts. For my kids, I can make up several Mylar Bags and know they will have food in an emergency. 
In this video, I will make a simple batch of fragrant soap using oil, and sodium hydroxide, commonly known as lye. Because there is some chemistry here to get it right, I have done all the calculations for you. Lye is highly corrosive in its pure state and can cause chemical burns, so you will want to wear hand and eye protection and even a mask. You will also want to mix these chemicals in a well-ventilated area or outdoors, as the sodium hydroxide can give off poisonous gas. Don’t let this scare you, though. You won’t have to worry if you practice reasonable safety precautions, as I will outline here. I will take you step-by-step through what you need, the recipe and method, an example of a usable failure, and then a bit of the history on soap, fats, lye, and my shocking theory about the origin of soap. By the end of this video, you will have a batch that works that you can play around with and tweak however you like. Since these oils are shelf-stable for about 24 months or more, you could get a kit for soap-making boxed in your prepping supplies. The soap itself is also shelf-stable for almost two years so that you can make all the soap you would need for two years in just about an hour.
for an additional two minutes until all oils are as one. Pour the oils into your mixing bowl and set aside. 
With safety goggles, gloves, and in a well-ventilated area, begin to slowly add the sodium hydroxide to the water, stirring each time until fully dissolved. You never want to pour the water onto the lye. Mix it slowly into the water. Dumping the lye in can result in a volcanic reaction of a caustic chemical. Use lye carefully. If you have ever worked with super hot chili peppers, it is like that, but instead of just a long burning sensation, you will have actual chemical burns and searing pain. Practice good safety. I discuss more about lye, specifically, at the end of this video.
If you use fresh herbs like lemongrass, sage, lavender flowers, or wood shavings, you will fold those in last. Realize that the high lye ratio can alter the look and feel of your soap, oxidize the ingredients and give you something other than planned. Here my super green matcha tea ended up making a brown soap, but the color mellowed to a greener tinge after a few days.
Once you have a good pudding consistency, pour your soap into the molds you are using. I have a 
present one theory here that I haven’t seen anywhere else: soap making comes from animal sacrifice. A fattened animal was burned in a fire. That created the combination of fats and wood ash containing lye. Very likely, the revered sacrificial ashes may have been gathered up, combined with a bit of water, perhaps clay, and soap was born. Nobody knows, and cultures that used every bit of an animal weren’t likely to waste the fat by mixing it with ash, so that’s as good a theory I present here as any other theory.
industry as much as it was a necessary household chore in America. Today, soap making has become a hobby and side business for many who have re-learned this skill.
Any fatty oil will work, but different oils will have different results with regard to hardness, cleaning ability, conditioning, bubbles, lather, and creaminess. Most people don’t use vegetable oil because the actual mixture of oils may be unknown, so getting the right lye concentration may be difficult. The fatty acids are linoleic, oleic, stearic, palmitic, lauric, and myristic. Different oils and fats will have different quantities of those. These medium-chain fatty acids will react slightly differently when lye is used. An all-tallow soap lacks 4 of these fatty acids. The result would be soap with almost no cleaning or bubbling aspects. An all coconut oil soap lacks two of these fatty acids and would be great except for the fact that it wouldn’t condition your skin at all. Plus, in a grid-down situation, you may find it easier to access rendered fats from hunting than you would to harvest it out of coconuts. So, you should practice making soaps with different types of oil combinations. Get familiar with the process and results, then focus on a soap recipe based on the oils and fats you could access after a grid-down situation.
Lye is harmful because it is caustic. If it can create saponification of fats, it can do the same to the fats in your body. Don’t eat soap, obviously, and handle all chemicals with caution. Once the chemical reaction of saponification is complete, and the soap has cured, the caustic nature is significantly reduced. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be rubbing it on your body. As it is soap, though, it can still sting if you get it in your eyes. It is still harmful if ingested. Still, lye is used in some food-making processes. I guarantee you that you have used soap made from lye or some even more dangerous chemical, so don’t fear the lye. Just take proper precautions when using it in its refined state. There really is not a substitute for lye in this process. There are some methods for using plants rich in saponins, but those are harmful to fish in high concentrations and much more challenging to extract, formulate, and use properly.
Having a meal ready to go in just 5-minutes with just the addition of a bit of water is an obvious game-changer. You don’t even need water for this one. You could crunch on it right out of the bag if you had to. Whether you are amidst a disaster or on the road fleeing to a safer location, freeze-dried foods provide a super lightweight meal ready to eat. Even if you just rehydrate a meal in 5-minutes instead of spending an hour or more cooking it after work, you save time, money, and you get better nutrients by eating food you made yourself instead of snacks pressed and fried off an assembly line.
here. By October, the price of the same ground beef was at a national average of $4.71 per pound. This is the cost-savings against inflation you realize when you start freeze-drying. Right there, I saved $5.37 in just one month. That is where a freeze dryer will pay for itself, in inflation alone. If you buy 10 pounds or more of ground beef and process it now, it’s as good as gold in appreciation in your pantry, as far as I am concerned. I am probably like you, though. When I spend this much on beef, I cook some now, freeze some in zip locks for quick meals, and freeze-dry the rest, over half. Forget couponing. This is the way to save money.
To the cooking beef, I add one onion that I dice. I add one heaping tablespoon or so of minced garlic. Then, I add one heaping tablespoon of taco seasoning. Taco seasoning comes in many forms. You can’t mess this up. Sometimes I use commercial mixes. Sometimes I mix my own. I add a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes for just a little extra flavor. Because I waste nothing from my garden if I can help it, I had dried tomato skins from when I processed tomatoes earlier in the season. You can use a tablespoon of tomato paste or a can of tomatoes or whatever. Again, you can’t mess up taco meat unless you over salt or spice it. I add these powdered skins to the meat.
because I don’t think the sensors can manage all that. Here I am doing all meat because meat has similar cell wall structures. Third, if you plan to long-term storage your food, always set your trays to warm. If you pull them out ice-cold, you will have immediate condensation on the trays and your food. Moisture will kill your shelf-life.
That’s awesome for your prepping supplies and prepping inventory.
Follow this site for more freeze-drying hits and misses.
Skills and knowledge travel with you. Memories and thinking have no weight. Some of my equipment is heavy. Even carrying a backpack full of food, water, and gear will wear you down and slow your progress. We don’t know what you can regularly lift, but we put our heavy gas generator on wheels. Sure, we could lift it in and out of my bug out vehicle and take it with us if we had to, but it’s not something we’re going to want to do if we’re also worried about our personal safety at the same time. It’s not something we will want to do if we don’t want to risk a minor muscle strain that could hamper my ability to get to safety. Our Solar Generators will be far lighter and more practical in a grid-down situation, and they will provide me limitless energy in small amounts.
If you know how to do it once, you can do it again. Someone might even supply the raw materials for you or go and get the raw materials for you in exchange for your work. In this way, skills are a commodity. If money were to become completely worthless, skills would hold their value. If you have a sewing needle and some thread, but you lose the needle, you will wish you knew the Bushcraft skill of fashioning a bone needle. If your fire rod falls in the fire or you lose it out of your pocket, you will wish that you knew what flint looks like in its rock state. If you lose your only fish hook, and if you have ever fished, you know how often that happens; you will wish you learned how to fashion a hook out of a can pull tab, wood, or bone. The fact is that tools and gear have a single lifetime of utility. Knowing how to make tools, having that skill allows you to replicate and fashion tools out of nature. You will never be without the components of fire. You will never be without a fishhook, a spear tip, a length of rope, a shelter, and so forth. 
Skills cannot be stolen, but gear can be. Gear will make you a target for some during desperate times. After a disaster, start up that gas generator of yours or fire up your barbeque and see how many people start peering over your fence or heading your way, following their ears and nose. Desperate people will take desperate measures and won’t give a second thought about taking from you when they are in survival mode. On this fact alone, many approach security solely from the perspective of having more weapons and bigger weapons than those around them. Many of those armed survivors are also the ones who don’t holistically look at their gear. In the aftermath of a large-scale disaster, yes, they are pretty secure, but they might also become a marauder to stay alive and get the things they overlooked in their prepping inventory.
Our gas generator is only good as long as we have gas. Our knives are only good if they’re sharp. Ropes are great, but knowing how to make a rope in the wild, that’s a bushcraft skill that you can genuinely use. Learning how to tie knots takes a rope from just a long piece of string to a useful tool. Usability is the most significant factor when it comes to gear. Will your gear function? Do you know how to use it? Will it save you more calories than it expends? How long of a life expectancy does the gear have? Matches or flint and steel are only as good as they last. You need to stretch the tool that is a match or Ferro rod by knowing how to create a good kindle and tinder. If your gear has just one application, is it that good? Is it worth the weight? 
Even in an urban metropolis, you walk by hundreds, if not thousands of edible plants. Many plants have edible roots. Do you admire your neighbor’s Canna Lilies? Did you know the rhizomes can be eaten raw, boiled, or baked and have a taste similar to a water chestnut? That would be great to know if there were no other food sources available to you. It would also be great to know your neighbor’s Hydrangea flowers have a small amount of cyanide in them and will kill you if you eat them. There are many plants you can eat and more than a few that will make you sick or kill you. Get in the habit and mindset of learning the plants around you, on your walks, in your neighborhood, and your region. Learn how to grow and how to replant. It’s now understood that the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest took plants they foraged from and planted them around their settlements. Foraging and gardening are logically related to each other. Know what you can eat and even do a little foraging where you can to try out a few recipes. Plant a piece of your yard or your balcony with some sunchokes. Just avoid areas that may be sprayed with pesticides or weed killers, and maybe leave your neighbor’s flowers alone for now.
Whether it’s beer, pickling, or kombucha, understanding the basics of fermentation will allow you to make food edible and preserve it over the long haul. A fermented drink is its own microcosm, and it doesn’t like foreign bacteria. A beer that has been properly bottled will keep for a year or more because of its pH and alcohol content. That is commercial beer. We have drunk homebrews far older than that. A really strong mead or wine will keep for decades if kept cool and in a dark place. The oldest wine in existence today is from 325 AD. The Speyer Wine Bottle was found in 1867 in the tomb of a Roman soldier. While that one probably isn’t drinkable, some over 200 years old wine is still quite drinkable. Fermentation is taken to the next level through distillation, and alcohol can provide you with combustion, sterilization, and just a good stiff drink now and again.
One of the first lessons you learn when it comes to building a bug out bag is that the less skills you have, the more gear you will need to compensate. As you develop skills, the gear you once deemed as necessary begins to decrease. Learning how to build a shelter in the wild, hunt, fish, forage, start a fire, process a kill, are all skills you should aspire to learn by hands on experience. The average person in the wilderness would be dead from dehydration, starvation, or exposure in mere days. Bushcraft is merely the skills needed to live in the wild. Think primitive and rugged camping. Knowing how to tie a knot, build a lean-to, or turn a tarp into a tarp tent all fit that category. Being able to start a fire or a smokehouse fits this category. When it comes to bushcraft, there’s theory and practice. Even if it works and you are reading about it, it is still a theory until you put it into practice, at least once. Bushcraft skills will get you home after a disaster. They will help you get out of a disaster zone. They will keep you alive. Hopefully, you won’t ever get to the point where you are naked, afraid, and lost in the wild, but if you do, you will be glad you spent the time learning some bushcraft skills. And please, don’t mistake watching a bushcraft video on YouTube as actually knowing how to do it. Learn from it for sure and actually get out and do it.
Fiber arts is a broad term that includes rope-making, spinning of thread, sewing, needlepoint, knitting, macrame, weaving, felting, rug-making, crocheting, basket-making, knot tying, and all those kinds of entanglements. Before you could catch fish effectively, you needed someone to make a net or tie a line. Before you could keep warm, you needed someone who could stitch together animal pelts or weave a tunic out of smashed hemp or papyrus fibers. The ancient Egyptians used papyrus to make paper, baskets, sandals, mats, rope, blankets, tables, chairs, mattresses, medicine, perfume, food, and clothes. Most indigenous people in North America made their clothing from agave plant fiber. Ancient cultures from subtropical regions worldwide, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt, and India, gave the world cotton. Whether stitching a wound or making paper, knowing how to work with fibers provides you with unlimited possibilities.
Knowing how to administer first-aid is crucial. Learning how to stitch a laceration takes that a step further. Knowing what plants can form an anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory poultice to keep the wound from getting infected takes it all a step further. Medical care after a disaster or in the aftermath of an SHTF situation isn’t going to be reliably available. You will also probably need to do much more than band-aid a child’s skinned knee. Any study done in this field, from formal CPR training to the medicinal uses of plants, is time well spent. You don’t have to be a doctor, but understanding how to lower a fever or fight infection could be a lifesaver to you. That doctor would be more apt to exclaim, “if I only had the proper medicines and tools.” I’m not saying that you should forego medical care now to try out some herbal, folksy remedies. Many of us live at a time where medicine is highly advanced, albeit pricey, but you would be well-served to know little things like the fact that white willow bark contains Salicylic Acid. Do you know that we get Aspirin from that? Do you know what a white willow tree looks like? Combine your learning with a bit of foraging now and again, and you will have the skills you need when you need them.