Preppers Storage of Emergency Food

Dry Food Storage

These pails are one of the ways we store our dry food for emergencies.

They stack so there's little unused space.

They are rodent proof.

They provide a dark area for the foods stored inside.

They are easily labelled with markers. We label with the name of the food item, the amount and the date stored. We also use a symbol to indicate that oxygen absorbers have been placed inside.

These pails are great for such items as bags of pasta, wheat, corn, oatmeal, Kraft dinner, beans and so on.

We buy in bulk, then we open the containers and pour them into these pails. The only items we don't open before placing inside is bags of pasta.

All opened food items get oxygen absorbers and I'll talk more about those important items in a future blog post. 

These sealed pails are waiting to be moved to our storage room. Remember many of your food items need to be kept cool and in the dark if possible.  Pasta can survive extreme temperature changes but most dry foods cannot.

Abandoned farm becomes chicken hell

Dozens of dead chickens have been found at an abandoned free-range egg farm where starving birds are suspected of turning to cannibalism.

About 50 carcasses were found at the rural Martinborough property last month after council inspectors were tipped off by a concerned neighbour.

The few surviving birds were found living without supplied food, in manure more than half a metre deep, according to a neighbour.

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The Urban Chicken Backlash

At this point in the locavore narrative, urban chicken-keeping has vocal advocates and an adamant opposition. Some cities welcome backyard poultry with open arms, while others are more skeptical. As the practice grows, the two sides seem prepared for a long, drawn out war on the value and propriety of chicken-keeping within city limits.

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The Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival April 13th through the 15th.

The Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival will be held in Moulton April 13th through the 15th.

Choose chicken. Not beef.

A study published in the journal Stroke concluded eating lots of red meat raises the risk of having a stroke while eating poultry lowers it.

Need chicken recipes? Try Ollies Yummy in Your Tummy

‘Obama Fried Chicken’ restaurant spotted in Beijing; KFC considering legal action

A restaurant called “Obama Fried Chicken” has been spotted in Beijing.Read More

Does banning chickens make sense?

Nr 1: The domestic dog: a wolf descendant whose bite is responsible for about 1000 hospitalizations per day (mostly facial injuries of kids), and 34 deaths in 2010 in the USA alone. Known for producing loud noise at all hours of the day, often roaming freely and leaving unsightly and smelly poop everywhere. Perfectly legal in Nelson.

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Farmer's chickens lay green eggs

Just a little story about a farmer and his chickens.
Farmer's chickens lay green eggs

First Potatoes From the Vegetable Garden

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Our Yukon Gold Potatoes from the vegetable garden. This is our first attempt at growing potatoes and we're pleased with the result!

I made mashed potatoes from this batch and they were yummy!

Chicken Bone Chain Reaction

A man who initiated a four-car pileup by tossing a chicken bone across a busy thoroughfare in England was conditionally discharged. While standing on the sidewalk, Andre Varciana tossed the remnant of a KFC snack pack at his pals who waited on the road divider, prompting an unmarked Criminal Investigation Department police car to slam on the brakes. Other cars followed suit, causing a chain reaction of fenderbenders and minor injuries. One vehicle wound up on its roof.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/chicken+bone+cross+road+cause+multi+collision/5176430/story.html#ixzz1TVc2DsAd

Yellow Pepper in the Garden

Yellow Pepper

Yellow pepper growing nicely in the garden! Not sure how much longer until it can be harvested but hubs is keeping a close eye on the vegetables.

Bear breaks into car for chicken nuggets

Leroy Griego couldn't make the story any better even if he wanted to.
"A bear destroyed my car looking for Chicken McNuggets," he said. "I'm shocked."

When he parked his car in front of The Palace Hotel on Broadway -- after returning from a four-day excursion in the wilderness -- he didn't expect the reaction from passers-by.

"What happened?" asked one onlooker.

Griego told the person he thought his car had been vandalized when he first saw it.

"It looked like hooliganism at its finest," he joked.

But once he pointed to scratch marks and pulled out some brown hair from the passenger seat, the group of about five people that had gathered figured out what happened.



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More space for hens

The Humane Society of the United States and the United Egg Producers are joining forces to ask Congress for new federal standards for all commercial egg producers.

The proposed legislation would require that the tiny hen cages now used be phased out and replaced with cages that give each hen almost double the space they generally have now.

Bears Like Chicken

A black bear that had been making unwanted visits to chicken coops in a California neighborhood had to be killed as it was attempting to break into another coop. You cant really blame the bear as we all like chicken.

Would You Eat A Four Legged Chicken

A four-legged chicken is waiting to find out its fate. A slaughterhouse in Isreal is waiting to hear from a Rabbi to see if it is kosher to eat it. I dont know about you but I would not want to eat it.

Harvesting and Drying My Garden Herbs

Rosemary & Oregano

Today I harvested some of our herbs from the garden. Sage, Oregano, Rosemary and Thyme were growing well. In fact my Thyme is flowering!

I cut the herbs early in the morning. Not so early that they were damp from dew but a bit later after they were quite dry.

I love the smell as I cut them and placed them on paper towels inside my wicker basket.

Herbs on Paper Towels

Next I shook the herbs to get rid of dust and bits of debris, then I placed them all on paper towels. I wanted to be sure they were fairly clean and dry before bundling them for tying.

Herbs Drying on Racks

Herbs are tied together in small bundles, then hung upside down to dry on my antique towel rack in the kitchen.  You would not believe how good it smells in there!

The tea towel is placed to stop direct sunlight from hitting the herbs. It's a south facing window, not the best spot for drying herbs but it's the only place where I have the wooden racks that are perfect for drying.

Survival Planning: Vinegar, a Potent Food Storage Item

Vinegar the magical food item. That's what I call it. It's something you should have on hand for long-term food storage.

What can you do with vinegar? Vinegar can be used as a disinfectant. Put it on wounds, or with your laundry, or dilute it and wash floors and bedding with it.

Vinegar has medicinal properties and is useful for treating bedding in a sick room. In the 19th century vinegar was an important item for ships' surgeons to have on board. Entire ships were disinfected using vinegar and water to wash floors and bedding and clothing.

Vinegar was in use as a healing medicine and antibiotic in ancient Greece and during the Civil War. 

You can also make a salad dressing with vinegar, oil and sugar.

Indigestion can be treated with a dink of vinegar and baking soda.  Yes the old "Make a volcano for science fair" trick. But if you drink a bit, it helps a burp and thus relieves the indigestion. It works better if you use apple cider vinegar.

My father used to drink a small glass of vinegar after every meal. He claimed it helped him digest his food! And my grandmother swore that a tiny glass of vinegar daily helped thin the blood. Who knows, maybe there's some truth in these old home remedies!

Our Onions are Popping Up in the Vegetable Garden

The Onions we planted are coming up! Considering we've never done a vegetable garden before this is pretty cool.

Did I mention that I can't weed due to physical challenges, and hubs refuses to weed? So our garden is being left to nature and our crossed fingers!

Now if only we had a root cellar.... 

Yay for Chives!

The chives that hubs replanted for me are doing well in the new vegetable garden.

They'll come up every year and should spread nicely too. I don't use a lot of chives in my cooking but they do go nicely with eggs or baked potatoes with sour cream. Mmmmm...

Besides they look pretty and they smell good!

If you haven't planted chives, you might want to try. They're hardy, easy to grow and they survive even the harshest Canadian winter.

Survival Planning: Storage of Food Items

Storage of your food items for a crisis is very important. You want to keep them all together if possible and in a convenient spot. You also want to be sure your food doesn't spoil so you need a dry spot and it has to be rodent and insect free.

I keep most of my food stores in a basement room which has the heat and the overhead lights turned off. I protect the food items from insects and rodents and dampness by placing most of them in sealed tubs.

I label the tubs so that I know what I have on hand.

I also have curtains up for the powdered items, spices and other light-sensitive items. The curtain means  that they are kept in the dark.





I keep most of my extra spices in a pantry in my kitchen. This pantry has quite a bit of room for jars of day to day spices and extra jars.  Some extra spices are kept in my basement room in the dark.

I store many different spices as I want to be able to jazz up my main meal of beans, rice and tortillas with different flavors. So one day I might make curried beans and rice; another day I could do chili flavored beans in a tortilla.

The more spices I have, the more variety in taste I can provide to what would otherwise be some pretty boring meals for my family in a long-term emergency situation.

I also keep lots of boullion cubes on hand. They make a great taste addition to any soup or stew and are high in salt (a basic survival need). You can also cook rice in water with a boullion cube for a change of taste. And best of all you can toss one in some hot water and make a nice broth, flavorful and gentle on your stomach.