Practice using your preps?

[Jamie Jackson]

I know many here at TGO are active, to one degree or another, in working towards lessening their dependence on structured entities (i.e. .gov) and working towards self sustainment.

One of the many things we do, besides gardening, canning, dehydrating etc, is to incorporate the use of some of our stored items into everyday use.

A minor example happened just yesterday. My bride of 30+ years mentioned she'd love some homemade chicken soup. Great cold weather heart warming food!

I have some home canned turkey in the pantry, but used one of the many vac sealed bags of chicken we have in one of our freezers (purchased in bulk when on sale). The veggies were dehydrated sliced carrots (Honeyville Farms 2011), dehydrated celery (Honeyville Farms 2010), dehydrated green bell peppers (our Excalibur Dehydrator 2010), fresh onions (WTH...we had them on hand). We have a shelf area dedicated to vac sealed containers of various pastas... so grabbed a bag of egg noodles to toss in at the end of the process. We keep bulk stored seasoning as well...salt, whole peppercorns, Old Bay, Tony's, and Seasonall...in the basement pantry.

We have a dozen plus jars of dehydrated vegetables on the lower shelf of an island in our kitchen that we use on a regular basis. We keep buckets of various dried beans, rice, flour and cornmeal in our kitchen pantry and everything stays in rotation.

 

Anyone else incorporate their long term and intermediate term stored items into their everyday life?

It doesn't have to be just food. What do you do to insure your preps are in order and you are comfortable with your ability to use those items?

 

 

[ReeferMac]

That's great Prag!

I grew shell beans for the first time this year, dried them, stored, and used them a half-dozen times cooking various meals. It was a success! This year I plan on planting far more beans, drying and storing again. I may even try a few varieties.

I also grew rice, but have run into a roadblock trying to de-hull it. No easy way short of investing in a mechanism, aka grain mill, and I just can't justify the $$$ yet. Would be better served putting up a couple cases of bullets, but I'd digress.

It is however great to hear that 6-8 year old dehydrated produce worked will. I probably have some stuff in the back corner of the freezer that age as well!

 

- K

[Ronald_55]

Best I am doing so far is rotating out ammo. The rest of the family is not on board, so I get odd stares when I start talking about stuff. Funny thing is, I am the IT guy, you would think I would be the one less likely to think this way. I am planning more of a garden this year. We have not done much the last few years. I do have a lawn full of yard onions, so I might just collect them too. Lol

 

[n0rlf]

Pack and foget does you no good! Use it or lose it is a good way to look at it. Try to practice the skills you learn and rotate stock as well. Rotating is good but building even more is better. I must admit that I am way behind where I want to be due to building the house and BOL. Very little gardening I can do here but once we are on the mountain full timw my wife and I have the spot picked out, ready to go with a water system and will be planting like mad. 

Wife has been doing container gardening until we get moved up and has done great. Almost enough to get us through the year for the basics. I have been using the buckets from Firehouse Subs as they have a great sealing lid and I am a cheap SOB. At $2 each they are cheap enough for a lot of supplies. Rice, Beans, flour, salt, etc...

Seal a bag, fit it into the bucket, fill it then vacumn seal it.  Seal the bucket and it keeps a long long time. We used 3x5 index cards with holders hot glued to the buckets to label contents. Bottom line is use the skills or lose the skills! Practice now as later is too late.

[Jamie Jackson]

You are a bolder man than I am trying to grow rice K.! 

I've probably mentioned this before, but store brought dried beans, like red kidney beans from Walmart or Kroger's make great "seeds". I usually get better than 80% germination and no beans taste as great as fresh picked red kidney beans!

 

Don't give up on them Ronald. Increasing your gardening can lead them to figuring out how to store the extra bounty...maybe canning or dehydration? Ease them into it buddy.

Those yard onions are delicious, potent in their garlic like flavor, but really make a tasty addition when sliced thin, sauteed, and used in soups and stews.

 

100% agree nOrlf!  Good suggestions on the buckets too. I've gotten quite a few free 5 gallon icing buckets from Kroger's and Ingle's bakeries over the years...just gotta wash them up.

[SWCUMBERLAND]

23 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

Best I am doing so far is rotating out ammo. The rest of the family is not on board, so I get odd stares when I start talking about stuff. Funny thing is, I am the IT guy, you would think I would be the one less likely to think this way. I am planning more of a garden this year. We have not done much the last few years. I do have a lawn full of yard onions, so I might just collect them too. Lol

 

Will any of them be helping you with the gardening other than the eating of it?

I'll be blunt, that lot sounds like not only will they be jumping on board when SHTF , but trying to decide how to divvy YOUR efforts up. For the which I suggest that you tell  them who the commander is on board a lifeboat.

[SWCUMBERLAND]

On 1/15/2018 at 12:38 PM, n0rlf said:

Pack and foget does you no good! Use it or lose it is a good way to look at it. Try to practice the skills you learn and rotate stock as well. Rotating is good but building even more is better. I must admit that I am way behind where I want to be due to building the house and BOL. Very little gardening I can do here but once we are on the mountain full timw my wife and I have the spot picked out, ready to go with a water system and will be planting like mad. 

Wife has been doing container gardening until we get moved up and has done great. Almost enough to get us through the year for the basics. I have been using the buckets from Firehouse Subs as they have a great sealing lid and I am a cheap SOB. At $2 each they are cheap enough for a lot of supplies. Rice, Beans, flour, salt, etc...

Seal a bag, fit it into the bucket, fill it then vacumn seal it.  Seal the bucket and it keeps a long long time. We used 3x5 index cards with holders hot glued to the buckets to label contents. Bottom line is use the skills or lose the skills! Practice now as later is too late.

Firehouse Subs in TN? I AM emigrating to the Promised Land !

But yes, working as much of your preps into your 'everyday' is only sensible.

Bucket gardening will be my preferred way til I can get the land I want. While I have a Foodsaver setup, I also have a Ball Blue Book and will be canning as well as sealing as fast as I can once set up.

ALAS BABYLON had a very silly thing about making up a carton of luxury foods and hiding them away. Then, too, AB was as stupidly optimistic as WARDAY.   But you are absolutely correct... use it or lose it.

SWC a/k/a KI7CIL