Casaubon’s Book

Sharon December 19th, 2008

Ok, the first thing we’re going to do this week is buy some rice.  Why, you ask?  Because rice has the function of being hypo-allergenic - according to the International Rice Research Institute, it is not possible to have a true allergy to rice - although there are a very few people who have rice intolerances.  But generally speaking, if you store rice in your food storage, everyone will be able to eat it.  This is especially important if you imagine having babies, or ill people - you want easy to digest, and there’s nothing easier to digest than rice. 

A large chunk of the world’s population relies on rice as a staple food, and rice recipes have evolved all over the world - if there’s one thing you can be sure of it is that peasant rice based-cuisines are pretty well developed. 

Now the first and most important thing that I can say is that you have to understand that Brown Rice *IS NOT* actually a whole grain.  You see, when rice comes from the plant, it has a fairly heavy, not real digestible hull on it.  Brown rice is rice with the hull removed, exposing the germ to air.  And when the germs of grains are exposed to air, they oxidize.  So while whole wheat will keep nearly forever, brown rice has a very short lifespan - under a year. 

 Now whenever I say this people note that they’ve eaten brown rice that they’ve stored for several years, maybe it tasted a little stale, but it was fine.  But the problem is that what happens to brown rice isn’t that it gets stale - the oils in the grain go rancid.  And rancid oils are link to various cancers, particularly stomach cancer.  Not to mention that your body won’t get much nutritional value from a food with rancid oil in it, and it can upset stomachs as well. 

People’s ability to taste rancidity varies quite a bit - some people can’t taste it at all, some people can’t taste it until the grain is extremely rancid.  It is very hard to know objectively how good your tasting skills are.  So it is better to be safe than sorry on this subject, and I recommend storing no more than 6 months of brown rice at a time - you could probably go a little longer if you were buying right after the harvest, from an asian grocery store with a quick turnover, but 6 months is probably safest. 

That means if  you want to store more rice than you will eat in six months, you need to store white rice (there is actually a way to store unhulled rice, but I’ll get back into that some other time, or you can look through my old posts on storing grain - this is a quickie, and the answer is complex). This is unfortunate, because white grains are not as tasty or nutritious as whole grains.  That said, however, if you are storing a variety of grains and foods, some white rice will not be a problem.  White rice is just about the only white food my family does store.

Americans tend to see rice pretty much as rice, while in the rest of the world, people enjoy a huge range of flavors, scents and textures in their rice.  My suggestion is that if you don’t live near a place where rice is grown, and must rely on distant rice, you might try an Asian grocer, where a huge variety of rices, all smelling and tasting different, and many with different textures are available, and most will be available in 25lb bags (a Vietnamese friend of mine observes that this is not because his family stores food, but because his family can go through a 25lb bag of rice like lightning - make it the base of every meal, and you’ll see how fast it disappears).

 Generally speaking, typical American rice is long grain rice.  To me, supermarket long grain tastes extremely bland, but it has the characteristic of seperateness and dryness that many Americans like.  Jasmine and basmati rice are both scented rices that improve considerably over basic long grain.  Short grain rices like Arborio or Sushi have a lot of starch and produce a different texture when cooked - they are good for making rice balls or creamy textures.  Sticky rice is something entirely else, a delicious, almost sweet rice with a fascinating texture - it is usually cooked by steaming and we adore it. 

Ok, rice is a fairly bland food - whatever you eat with it, you’ll want to be fairly highly seasoned to provide contrast.  And highly seasoned means a good supply of spices.  If you’ve been contaminated by the idea that spices are doled out mostly by the pinch or 1/8 teaspoon, you may not think you need a lot of spices.  But to me, the secret of good  cooking is seasoning well - and with a fairly liberal hand.  I have no idea why most recipes are so parsimonious with the ingredients that give flavor.

You can probably grow most of your own herbs almost everywhere - either keep some fresh inside or dry your own.  But unless you live in a tropical climate suited to it, you’ll probably need to buy imported spices.  This is not a problem, as long as you can buy fair traded spices whenever possible.  Because spices are dry and even people who cook like I do use only comparatively small quantities, spices are a superb trade item, and a great way for the Global South to connect with the Global North. 

Whole spices keep much longer than ground ones - if you plan to store for a long time, you probably want to grind your own.  You can buy spice grinders, use a mortar and pestle, or, assuming you’ve got power, a small coffee grinder (don’t grind your coffee in it, unless you want it to taste strongly of whatever spice you ground last).  We buy nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, tumeric, ginger and a host of others as whole spices and grind them at need.  You can usually get good deals on bulk whole spices at whole foods and various internet sites.  Ground spices are convenient, but don’t last much longer than a year - and they last best if kept tightly sealed, cool and away from light and the stove.  Me, I’m just not doing without cinnamon sticks for my cinnamon-hot chocolate or vindaloo.

 Finally, I’ve mentioned lighting before, but I think the recent ice storm may be a good reason to remind people that you need a lot of flashlights, solar lanterns or oil lamps to survive an extended power outage.  Now is the time to stock up.

And if you are stocking up, and you don’t mind spending a little extra for a good cause, this is pretty wonderful https://www.bogolight.com/Articles.asp?ID=136

- spend $49 for a heavy duty solar powered light, and they will not only send one to you, but send one to a poor village in Africa, or a charitable program that needs basic lighting.  These are large enough and sturdy enough to light public areas - so they’ll work for your neighborhood blackout barbecue - and to help areas that have minimal lighting get enough.  I am definitely going to be acquiring one!   They allow you to choose between many areas of the world and charitable programs to make your donation. 

Cheers,

 Sharon

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Sharon December 12th, 2008

Ok, this week we’re going to concentrate on storing two things fairly basic to sustainable food systems, bread and seeds.  Or rather, we’re not going to store bread, we’re going to store the components thereof - flour, yeast and salt.  With water, that’s really all you need to make good bread.  And flour is often on sale this time of year - I recently saw 5lbs of bread flour as a loss leader for $1.99.

I generally recommend that people who make their own bread a lot store whole wheat and grind it themselves with either an electric or a manual grinder.  I’m not going there today, in a quickie, but if you eat a lot of bread, and want to store a large quantity of whole grains (because as we all know, white flour isn’t very nutritious), it is wisest to store wheat and acquire a grinder.  The following posts might be helpful - the first describes storing whole grains of many sorts:

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/07/17/the-storage-life-of-grains-major-and-minor/

The second covers grain grinders:

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/03/18/tools-part-ii-grain-mills/

and this one discusses whether you really need one:

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/03/26/what-do-you-really-need/

But today we’ll assume you are simply going to buy flour.  If that’s the case, you shouldn’t buy more than a six month supply of whole grain flours - the reason being that they go rancid.  The oils in the grains are no longer very good for you.  Some people find that they taste awful, but some people actually can’t tell when grains are rancid, or aren’t super sensitive to rancidity, so you might not know, leading you to eat things not so great for your body.  So generally speaking, you don’t want to buy more whole grain flour than you can use in six months.  After that, use white flour (but not bleached - that’s bad for you too). 

Yeast stores for six months to a year in a cool dark place, but longer if you freeze it.  I buy 1lb packages at BJs and freeze several.  Salt stores forever - if you preserve food you might want to get some that isn’t iodized - kosher or pickling salt.  But you also might want to buy a few packages of iodized salt, since that can help with thyroid issues.  Or leave it out, and eat kelp.

If you don’t have yeast, or can’t replace it, you can make sourdough starter, and use that to leaven bread.  Crunchy chicken has a link here to a basic sourdough starter: http://www.thecrunchychicken.com/search?q=sourdough

If you’ve never made your own bread, it can be a little intimidating - the easiest recipe I’ve seen is this one, also at La Crunch’s site: http://www.thecrunchychicken.com/2008/10/do-you-need-to-try-no-knead-bread.html.  But don’t be overly intimidated by the idea of kneading - it is actually a lot of fun. 

For those with gluten or wheat issues, you’ll want to find a good gluten-free bread recipe that works for you, and be able to store the ingredients.  Anyone out there want to post one in comments?

Ok, now let’s talk seeds - which are really part of food storage.  Plus, seed catalogs are the best remedy to winter ever - it is no punishment to have to look at them. 

Generally speaking, you want to order seeds from a catalog specializing in open-pollinated (so that you can save seed) varieties suited to your area.  That doesn’t mean you should never use any hybrids - but you might not want to depend on them for your primary crops. 

The part about your area is important - a seller that does variety trials will be able to give you useful advice here.  And if they buy their seed locally (almost no sellers buy all their seed locally, so be aware of that) it will be particularly adapted to regional conditions and climate.

If you live in the Northeast, here are my favorite seed companies:

Johnny’s Selected Seed is the company I grew up with - I used to steal the catalog from my stepmother’s mail pile and look at the pictures as a teenager.  They are terrific - not cheap, but the quality is extremely high, and they breed some neat things.  Not to mention that when Rob Johnson retired, he sold the company to his own employees.  This is a good company, and they deserve your bucks:  www.johnnyseed.com

For small scale gardeners, Pinetree seeds is terrific - they say their packages are for smaller gardeners, but quite honestly, often the packages are just as big as any others, and much cheaper.  Plus, the catalog is a fun read - even though I’m not a small garden I look forward to it every year, and order quite a lot of things that I don’t need a ton of from them.  www.superseeds.com

Fedco I’ve already mentioned - they are a coop, have the most fun seed catalog ever, and really do a lot of work to make their recommendations useful.  They also one of only a few companies I know of in the seed trade to completely drop all varieties held by Seminis, which was purchased by Monsanto - which, after purchase promptly began dumping open pollinated varieties and stripping our seed heritage.  They too deserve your money for taking a principled stand www.fedcoseeds.com 

Unfortunately, most of the other companies do buy some seeds wholesale from Seminis - which means it is very hard sometimes to know if you are inadvertantly putting dollars in Monsanto’s pocket.  You can call the company and ask where their seed comes from, but some places won’t tell you - honestly, this is one of those cases where we all do the best we can.

High Mowing Seeds http://www.highmowingseeds.com/ is another one I recommend. They grow all their seed locally (to their Vermont area) and while they are expanding their hybrid offerings (unfortunately more and more emphasis is on conventional hybrids, rather than the exciting and unusual varieties they used to emphasize), offer an alternative to Seminis by growing out many of the classic OP varieties, including Waltham Broccoli and Long Pie Pumpkins. They have good prices, good service and they sent me 25lbs of buckwheat within a week of my order. What more can you ask for (full disclosure - the family that runs it are somehow connected to the church my mother and step-mother attend, which is how I got my first copy of their catalog, but I assure you my alliegence is purely to their seed) from a seed company?

In the Southeast:

I feel very kindly and fond towards Baker Creek Heirlooms - their catalog and range of varieties is huge, and even though they aren’t specifically oriented towards my climate, the huge range of OP seeds means that I’ve found some favorites there.  I made my first order from them when the founder was a teenager, operating out of his bedroom - he’s now grown and married and still running it.  I wouldn’t go a season without ordering from them - among other things, they have the best selection of sweet peas ever.  www.rareseeds.com 

Southern Exposure seeds is something I haven’t used much, but I hear wonderful things about their seed if you live in the South - they are based in Virginia www.southernexposure.com

I’ve ordered some varieties also from Monticello, which maintains the varieties of seed actually grown by Thomas Jefferson, or as close as they can get.  Many are flowers, but they have some interesting vegetables as well, and how else could you get this close to history? http://monticellostore.stores.yahoo.net/plants—seeds-seeds.html

For Southwesterners:  I can’t say enough good things about Native Seeds/SEARCH which operates out of Arizona which emphasizes regional native seed varieties.  I wish more of it would do well in my area http://www.nativeseeds.org/v2/default.php

Seeds of Change is sort of the Industrial good guy. They have a very polished catalog, and lots of wonderful varieties. They are not local to me (NM), but I like them anyhow. I’m not sure I totally trust anyone who has a line of processed foods, but they also do a lot of neat plant breeding, and have a great book section. Italian White eggplants produce very well for me here in upstate NY, and Golden Giant Amaranth is both beautiful and a delicious and nutritious grain crop. Their prices are high, and their bulk selection isn’t great, but they are worth a look. www.seedsofchange.com.

For the Pacific Northwest, the obvious leader is Territorial Seeds www.territorial-seed.com.  I like them, and I’ve had good results using varieties adapted to their region in the Northeast.  I will say that I’ve had difficulty getting good information from their customer service over the years - they have declined to reveal the source of seeds, are sometimes slow to send things out,  and when they listed two varieties I had seen elsewhere as hybrids as open-pollinated, I was pleased to think that someone had stabilized them, and then  called and was reassured that yes, they definitely were open-pollinated varieties.  Well, oops, no they weren’t.  Their prices are also high - too high to give mediocre customer service.  But they do provide an important service in their region, and offer some varieties you won’t find anywhere else.

 Other Northwestern options are www.saltspringseeds.com a tiny company I’ve ordered from and liked and the wonderful Northern CA Bountiful Gardens Catalog. Bountiful Gardens is a terrific small seed company that is run in part by John Jeavons, the person who has most devoted himself to figuring out how to feed the world in small spaces. Not only do they have great seed, but they are a great cause. They also have a remarkable variety of compost, fiber and other uncommon crops. For those of you in northern CA and the Pacific NW, this is probably the place to buy, but all of us can get some wonderful things from them. http://www.bountifulgardens.org/.

For the Midwest, there are two wonderful options. 

Sand Hill Preservation Center, run by the amazing Glenn Downs, is devoted to preserving heirloom breeds of poultry and seed. They are a single family operation, and you have to wait your turn for things. But if you can get things from them, you should. They are well worth your dollar, and virtually everything they offer is produced on farm. While you are picking out seed, don’t forget to check out the chickens and ducks - I definitely want some Marans. They do not take internet orders, and they are picky about how things work. But that’s ok - they are such a good cause that we just have to get over ourselves and wait politely for this tremendous gift they are giving us. http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/ Don’t forget to say “thank you” for keeping our heritage alive and our food more secure.

And, of course, in a class entirely by itself, is Seed Savers Exchange, at www.seedsavers.org. You can buy seed from them directly, and they have a wonderful selection. Even if you don’t save seed, you should become a member - the Seed Savers Exchange has been losing members, and more and more people are the only repositories of a particular kind of tomato, or green, or millet or pea. The Irish potato famine and the corn blight of the 1970s should be evidence to us that relying on one particular crop is unbelievably dangerous - we need all the genetic diversity we possibly can get. The people at Seed Savers are keeping our heritage, our history and possibly our food security alive, and they need you at the very least to join up and give them money. But why only do that? Because the very best place to get seed is not from a catalog at all, but from your own garden, or your neighbors. So join seed savers and consider maintaining one or two or 20 varieties of seed yourself. Grow them out year after year, and save a little to trade to others. This is good practice for yourself, and enhances your own security - after all, if you ever couldn’t get seed, having some at home is a big thing. But most of all, it is a way of your participating in the provisioning of the earth.

Are you planning to save seed from a number of crops?  Here’s a piece I wrote on designing a simple, beginner’s seed savers garden that saves seed from the easiest crops: http://sharonastyk.com/2008/03/08/a-seed-savers-garden-part-i/

If you have more seed than you’ll need, you’ll want to store it properly - here’s how:

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/03/19/storing-seeds/

Happy breadmaking and seed selecting!

 Sharon

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Sharon December 5th, 2008

Ok, usually these focus on little things you can do to improve your own food security.  But this week, I want everyone to put a little extra effort into improving the food security of others, at whatever level they can.  What can you do?  It varies based on your income, where you live, how shy you are, etc… but everyone can do one or two or three of these things.

And since I’m asking you to do stuff, I thought I ought to give back a little. I’ve got a signed copy of Kathy Harrison’s wonderful book _Just in Case_ to give away - it is a terrific book, the clearest and wisest guide to getting started on preparedness that I know.  Sign up in comments for a drawing, I’ll let one of the kids pull a name out of a hat, and I’ll send you a copy.  Make sure you mention in your comment that you are in for the drawing, and we’ll draw on Monday and announce the winner!

1. Talk to someone about having a reserve of food - it could be a family member, a friend, a person at church or even someone you meet in the supermarket.  It could be as you are checking out at the farmstand “I know, doesn’t it look like a lot of potatoes - but given the times, it feels important to have some food, in case times get even tougher.”  You can talk to one person or a group of 50 - preach from the pulpit or chat over tea or by the watercooler.  But talk to someone about why it is important to have some food stored up.  You don’t have to discuss peak oil and climate change - you can talk about unemployment and what grandma did.

2. Offer to help someone get started with food storage.  Talk to a neighbor “I just noticed that tuna and rice are on sale - these days food prices are so high - would you like me to pick up a couple of extra bags or cans for you?”  If someone you talked to wants to know more, well, show them/tell them what you’ve been doing.  Start a neighborhood preparedness group, and get together once a month.  Start a buying club, or a food price stabilization group - everyone gets together and tracks the sales, or orders wholesale or helps find good prices. 

3. For those not in the dead of winter like us, talk about the food resources around you.  Are fruit trees going unharvested?  Could they be gleaned and given away to the food pantry or shared with friends?  Are there wild foods you could introduce a friend, a neighbor, a niece or nephew too “Look, honey, that’s lambs quarters.  It doesn’t look like they spray here or it is too near the road, so let’s pick some for a salad.”

4. Give the gift of food security.   Trying to figure out what to give people for the holidays?  What about a gift certificate to the local farmer’s market or a membership in a coop, a basket of produce from your garden or root cellar,  a book or class on food storage and preservation?  Perhaps you could give a young person you know with their first apartment the gift of an afternoon of “setting up the pantry” - you can help them shop, clean and set up.  Or perhaps you might teach a friend how to can, dehydrate or make gifts of food.

5. Donate locally.  Give food, money, and whatever else is needed to local charities. Keep a close eye on your food pantry - particularly after the holidays.  If you don’t have money to donate yourself, at least spread the word that the battered women’s shelter desperately needs food and toiletries, that the soup kitchen needs someone to bake bread, and that the animal shelter needs kibble.  One charity I like is www.seedalliance.org - they give free organic seeds to prison gardens, food pantry gardens, school gardens - anyone who needs to learn to grow food.

6. Help someone in need directly.  Maybe you don’t have money, but you’ve got an extra coat, some home canned food that you can’t give through the food pantry, and you can give someone who lost their car to the Repo man a ride to pick up her son at daycare.  Ask around through religious institutions, social service programs and schools, and you’ll find someone you can match up with and help.

7. Don’t forget the world’s hungry.  As things get bad here, the food crisis has gotten knocked off the front page.  That doesn’t mean it has gotten better - the world is full of desperately hungry people right now, and they need our help.  Donate money - my  favorite programs are the heifer fund www.heifer.org, and the Mennonite Central Committee www.mcc.org, but you may have your own.  Feel free to suggest more in comments.

8. If you don’t have money to give, or even if you do, make sure you also remind governments to keep their commitment to the World Food Program and the world’s starving people.  We’re throwing billions away on keeping the rich institutions - but the US and other nations haven’t ponied up their promised donations to keep people from starving to death.  DO NOT let them get away with it.

What Else?  Anyone have any suggestions?  How many of these can each of us do this week?  And don’t forget to put your name in for the drawing before Monday!

 Shalom,

 Sharon

• Food Storage , food storage quickie
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Sharon November 21st, 2008

Well, it is time to take advantage of the holiday sales to stock up - maybe even for next holiday, when harder times are coming.  This week we’re going to focus on the deals that are out there around Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Grocery stores usually are willing to take a certain loss this time of year, on the expectation that people will spend more.  My guess is that the margins are tighter and the deals may not be as good, but they will probably still be out there.  Here are some things to look for, and some ways to use them outside the holidays:

- Baking Materials - Baking powder, the “sweet” spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, allspice, etc…), flour, cocoa,  sugar, pie cherries, etc….

Obviously, you can think of uses for flour (remember, whole grain ground flours don’t keep that long, so don’t buy more than a six month to 1 year supply) and the rest - most of this stuff doesn’t go on sale very often, so now is a good time to stock up.

- Canned Pumpkin, sweet potatoes and squash.  Skip the ones that are already sweetened and have marshmallows in them, but the ones that are just the pureed vegetable are pure gold.  Rich in vitamin A, they can replace fat in baked goods, and give them a golden color and delicious flavor, and adding a light sweetness.  We add pumpkin to bread and biscuits, to lasagna (surprisingly good), make pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake and pumpkin pudding along with pumpkin pie.  The whole vegetables are also often a good deal around now, and are even better, because they come with the delicious and highly nutritious seeds.

- Turkeys.  If you have a lot of freezer space and reasonable confidence in your power situation, or if you are handy with a pressure canner, and your grocer is offering a deal like a free turkey or dirt cheap one, now’s a good time to get an extra or two, and cut them up or can or freeze them.  I’m not a big fan of industrial meat, but for those who are worried they might not have any meat, this is a good time to get a little ahead.

- Root vegetables. Your local farmstand may well be offering good discounts right now on those veggies that most Americans eat only at the holidays - Parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, etc….  They all keep in a nice cold spot, so stock up, and look around on the net for some recipes.

- Chocolate chips.  Need I really make a case for this?  Chocolate keeps easily a year, and the occasional batch of chocolate chip cookies is the closest thing to universal comfort food on the planet.

As for a non-food item, this week, I’m going to remind you to have a couple of good quality manual can openers if you have any canned goods at all. I’ve never used an electric can opener, but I’m continually surprised by how many people don’t have one.  And manual can openers can wear down - so having a spare somewhere accessible isn’t a bad idea.  Heck, there’s a decent chance the can opener will be on sale this week too!

 Cheers, 

 Sharon

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Sharon October 24th, 2008

Ok, I have no idea whether the fact that world markets are falling like stones and Karl Denninger started drinking at 5:30 am means anything.  Could be a big deal, could not be - my bet would tend to be on “big deal” but y’all know I have predilictions in that regard. But now is as good a time as any to call for an inventory - how are you situated?  What’s missing?

Now let me be clear - I’m not suggesting you should panic at all.  Even if we are having a stock market crash, the reality is that the present economic model of “a rising tide swamps all boats” will probably take a while to trickle down to most of us.  If you’ve already lost your job or are in crisis, you may not be able to do much - but inventory of your resources is valuable even then.  What I’d suggest for those already in crisis is to begin to consider your options - could you consolidate housing?  Take in a boarder?  Take a job outside your field?  There are a lot of things you can’t control right now, but you might as well take control of the ones you can.

 If you are just beginning to store food, look at these posts:  The first explores the very basics, for people on a low income.  The second covers things in more depth, and the third explores other cheap ways to get food.  I’ve also included my suggestions for food storage shopping if you ever have to do it in an already developed crisis, as the last piece here.  Note, that I really recommend you *not* wait that long.

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/10/17/friday-food-storage-not-quite-so-quickie-5-week-beginner-food-storage/

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/03/04/food-storage-101-part-i/ 

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/07/15/food-storage-on-no-budget/

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/10/02/crisis-shopping-food-storage-when-you-havent-been-storing-food/

If you’ve been working on this, but you don’t feel you are ready, here are some questions to ask yourself, and some possible remedies.

1. Do I have staple foods that I can rely on as the basis of my meals?  A staple is a nutritious starch that contains some protein as well, and that can meet most of your needs.  It could be a grain - most Americans rely on bread for our staple starch.  But it can also be oatmeal, corn (if you are primarily relying on corn, it must be corn that is nixtamalized, so that you won’t get a major nutritional deficiency - you only have to worry about this if you are mostly eating corn, not if you eat an occasional meal of tortillas - so if you are storing whole corn, know how to process it, and if you are buying cornmeal, buy masa, not plain corn meal), barley, quinoa - or root crops.  You can also rely primarily on potatoes, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, turnips and other roots, or a combination of those.

You can order bulk grains online or through a coop or whole foods.  This time of year, you can often get a 50lb sack of potatoes or sweet potatoes quite cheaply.  Ethnic markets often have good deals on grains as well.  Don’t forget popcorn and pasta.

 Here are a couple of posts about staple foods: http://sharonastyk.com/2008/07/17/the-storage-life-of-grains-major-and-minor/

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/03/11/living-the-staple-diet/

2. Do I have protein foods that can supplement my staples?  This is not as important as the staples - if you had to, you could get along quite well with just a starch for some time, but you wouldn’t enjoy it.  And diabetics, hypoglycemics and others would struggle with this.  For most people with normal diets, you need about 1/3 to 1/4 protein dense foods.

What are some choices here? The traditional choice is some kind of legume - beans, split peas, lentils, cowpeas.  You could buy dry milk - mixed with oatmeal, or into flour in a dairy bread recipe, that would be enough to sustain you, but it gets kind of boring.  You could can your own meats and fish, or buy pre canned meat and fish that your family likes if you like meat.  You could also add seeds - sunflower, flax, pumpkin seeds, or nuts like almonds or filberts.  Powdered eggs don’t taste very good, but they will allow you to bake, and add necessary protein.  Or perhaps you have eggs, if you just store enough chicken feed.  What you do is up to you and your budget.  Think about foods you know your family will eat and that they like.

 3. Do I have some fruits and vegetables to add flavor, fiber and nutrition?  The two hardest to cover vitamins are vitamin C and A.  So choosing C and A rich fruits and vegetables to add to your storage reduces the danger of both nutritional deficiency and constipation.  For vitamin A, canned pumpkin, squash or sweet potatoes, or fresh stored orange vegetables are the best option.  For vitamin C, dried elderberries or rose hips are an excellent source.  You can and should also have some seed that can be sprouted for fresh green vegetables if you live in a place where you can’t easily go out and forage a safe, unsprayed supply of greens (dandelions, plantain, chicory, etc…) all year ’round.  Or you should have them if you don’t know how to recognize those foods.  Wheat seeds are easy to sprout, but you might prefer broccoli, radish or others.  These can be bought online or at a supermarket or health food store.  I would recommend more vegetables and fruits as well - either dried, canned or kept in cold storage.

4. Fat.  You need some cooking oil.  You probably already have preferences on this, but most oils will keep a couple of years in a cool dark place.  Oh, and everyone will probably want some salt (salt is necessary for life, so buy a few boxes) and sweetener.  These are cheap and useful at making food palatable.  Add in as many inexpensive spices as you can afford, or as many home-dried herbs as you can gather.  These make the difference between survival and misery.

4.  Do I have the basic ingredients of making meals we eat?  Think about what you actually eat for breakfast, lunch and dinnner.  Do you like granola?  Well, then you need some oats, nuts, maybe a bit of honey and oil.  Can you not imagine a meal without bread?  Make sure you have yeast and salt.  Think about what you need in terms of the things that make you happy. 

5. Do I have water stored?  This is an easy one - go raid your neighbor’s recycling bins and fill the bottles with water.  If you don’t plan to rotate them every few months, add a drop of bleach to each one.  All done.  Now make sure you have something to flavor the water, because stored water tastes a little icky - you can get tang, which has vitamin C, tea, coffee, or just go pick some mint to add to your water.  Think again about what you need to feel good.

6. Do I have multivitamins at a minimum?  What about other supplements that I might need?  Our family keeps not only multivitamins for kids and adults, but also vitamins C, E and fish oil capsules (the latter don’t keep long).  Do I have a reliable way of getting necessary medications?

7. What about basic hygeine items?  Think soap, shampoo, toothpaste and tooth brushes, vinegar or some other cleaner, laundry detergent or borax, as well as toilet paper.  You can substitute for some of these - you can use diluted Dr. Bronner’s soap for almost all these needs, baking soda in place of tooth paste and deoderant, and use cloth for toilet paper if need be, but if these items will make you happier and more comfortable, store them.  Make sure you have plenty of soap!  Washing hands will be essential.

8. If my basics are covered, are there luxury items I’d like to add?  Are there things my family needs or wants that would be useful? If the crisis overlaps holidays or festivals that are important to me, are there ways of storing items to allow us familiar treats or special foods?

Have I prepared for household pets and livestock?  Do I have adequate food for them, or ways of making a nutritious diet for them out of my stored staples? 

9. Do I have warm clothes, blankets, a way of heating myself, my home and/or food?  Do I have flashlights and batteries, a cell phone charger? How will I cook, bathe and do laundry without power?  That is, am I ready for an emergency?  My claim is not that we are facing an immanent one, but that we’ve already seen an increase in emergencies, and a slow down in our response to them - being able to take care of your own needs.

Am I prepared to deal with basic medical needs, or to handle an acute situation when I cannot reach a hospital or when they are overflowing?  Do I have a book on first aid, or better yet, have I taken basic first aid, CPR and medical response classes?  Do I have a good first aid kit?  Does my household have a supply of basic OTC medications, and perhaps a broad-spectrum antibiotic (and the wisdom to use it only when truly necessary?)  Do I know how to handle the range of basic injuries?  Check out Chile’s first aid kit info:  http://chilechews.blogspot.com/2008/10/building-first-aid-kit.html

10. Do I have mental health needs met?  That is, can I handle the stress of a difficult period - a job loss, service loss or other crisis?  Do I have ways to keep busy, to feel productive?  Do we have games and educational materials to keep kids entertained and learning?  Does my family have the habit of supporting each other through difficult times - do I have a strategy for dealing with stress productively?  Do we have ways to have fun - music, games, sports equipment, books whatever our family likes to do?  Can I not panic, and keep a sense of perspective

Again, none of this should panic you.  Answering “not yet” to some of these is not the end of the world. It should simply move you towards the next step, and the next.

Shalom,

Sharon

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