Hypothetical Doomsday Scenario

[dmccarty]

I don't think beans and rice would help much without a heat source to cook them and water. Most hardcore survivalist say water will be the problem if a catastrophic event happens. Even MREs would need some type liquid to wash down. But we as humans cannot exist without water, no water and stockpiles of food would be useless. So food supplies beyond three to seven days in the event a catastrophic event occurs would probably not insure or prolong our existence.

If you don't have water, the MREs are not going to help you last very long. Now, maybe the Calvary will ride in at the last second per Soundguy's movie, but it ain't likely. Survival requires prioritization of resources. Water is almost always number one. The only exception would be environmental extremes were the lack of shelter would kill you quicker than lack of water. The advantage of beans and rice is that they are very healthy, can be stored safely for long periods, and they are cheap. MREs are bulky, heavy and expensive. One can buy and store far more meals/calories with beans and rice vs MREs.

How many MREs, at one meal each, can fit a five gallon bucket? A dozen? Two dozen? You can get about 35 pounds of beans in a five gallon bucket. We eat at least 10 meals off a pound or two of beans and a bit of rice. 35 pounds of beans is going to last a long time compared to 35 pounds of MREs.

MRE's are good when you are on the move but they are also bulky and heavy. If the SHTF you really don't want to be moving. One would want to be in a place with shelter, water, resources, and some security. Moving is NOT what one should be doing. If I had too, I could dip water out of our well but it would be a PTIA. We had a TBN discussion about hand powered well pumps late last year which brought out some designs for cheap pumps as well as some very expensive ones. I wish I had one. If we ever get some extra money, I might buy the hand pump for the well. We just had one of our longer power outages and we just went to the store to buy a gallon or two of water. We were tapping the 80 gallon hot water heater for H20 but we have high mineral content and it was just easier to drive to town to get water than filter. Not having easy access to water is a PITA.

Now if one is really wanting to be prepared, get a dehydrator! Talk about weight reduction, calorie compaction and long term storage! :thumbsup: We bought a dehydrator recently and I wish I had bought it years ago. It has easily save us a $100 in a short period of time. I can dehydrate three pineapples that will then fit in one sandwich zip lock bag. I think I could get four pineapples in the bag but I have not tried. We dehydrated 16 pints of Blueberries last weekend that easily fit into a gallon zip lock bag and weigh nothing. The bag is not full either. We are gaining experience with the dehydrator which has nine trays. I think we could dehydrated 2.5-3 pints of Blueberries per tray, or 22-27 pints in total. Instead of Blueberries one could use Apples, Strawberries, etc, in the same amounts. THAT is a lot of food, healthy food with lots of calories that weighs nothing. We should have bought one years ago.

If someone is really serious about preserving food for Doomsday, hunting, hiking, boating, camping, or just storing food, a dehydrator is wonderful! Much easier than caning! :thumbsup:

Later,
Dan

 

[brin]

If someone is really serious about preserving food for Doomsday, hunting, hiking, boating, camping, or just storing food, a dehydrator is wonderful! Much easier than caning!

Later,
Dan

Dan, Would you please post the brand of the dehydrator and where you bought it....Thanks

 

[Car Doc]

Bob, fwtw we bought a cleapo china model from waly mart for $35 maybe presto brand dont remember? Its plastic and has a little low wattage heater in side and a small fan and several plastic shelves it really works great use them out in the garage is my tip on that.

A better model would be nice but we didn't know if dehydrating foods was in our plan turns out it sure is they are excellent. A vacuum sealer is also invaluable once the stuff is dehydrated it is water proof once sealed and should last a long long time.

I also have a buddy that bought a freeze dryer he is really dedicated to long shelf life of food. My opinion is he will be eating all the stuff he prepares now when he is old to survive on but hey its the idea one way or another haha.

Diesel storage where people cant find it is pretty high on my list of future mods to my survival plans. It just makes good sense with the cash flow problems these days people steal anything thats not tied down it would still be a practical useable project. I have another spare 300 g farm tank (very cheap these days also) I plan on using and coat it good with tar etc and bury in under the ground somewhere safe and inside a building maybe under the dirt floor just some ideas I have...

And I am 100% behind the idea of beans we buy pintos by the 8# sack every chance we get that is a very good plan Dan is talking about lots of folks are in on that smart idea!

 

[Soundguy]

also.. there is an outfit selling freezedried stuff packed in mylar coated hi mil plastic individual serving bags, packed in sealed tins. lasts 25ys...

 

[brin]

And I am 100% behind the idea of beans we buy pintos by the 8# sack every chance we get that is a very good plan Dan is talking about lots of folks are in on that smart idea!

Cardoc Thanks for the infor on dehydrator ...I have checked on Walmarts site...looks good...How does that work ? Once you dehydrate something...veggies or meat...do you have to refrigerate it or can it be stored at room temp in the pantry ? By the way....I agree we have bought some beans and rice as well...only makes sense...we have a spring fed lake and many ponds all around us...and you boil the water, beans and rice...better than starving and you have your protein and starch...a bonus would be a squirrel or deer meat etc..added into the pot...OK...even a possum...I mean if times are tough...you do what you gotta do....LOL

 

[dave1949]

Cardoc Thanks for the infor on dehydrator ...I have checked on Walmarts site...looks good...How does that work ? Once you dehydrate something...veggies or meat...do you have to refrigerate it or can it be stored at room temp in the pantry ? By the way....I agree we have bought some beans and rice as well...only makes sense...we have a spring fed lake and many ponds all around us...and you boil the water, beans and rice...better than starving and you have your protein and starch...a bonus would be a squirrel or deer meat etc..added into the pot...OK...even a possum...I mean if times are tough...you do what you gotta do....LOL

Dehydrators are also great at making "fruit leather" - dried fruit juice and pulp. Lots of vitamins and minerals in that. If you look at enough models, you can find dehydrators that will do meat jerky too. It's usually a matter of buying some optional drying tray types.

In a survival situation, a solar dehydrator would be preferred. Eat some fresh possum, eat some possum jerky :laughing:

 

[k0ua]

Um... dried 'possum..you bet.. Usn's hillbilly's eat that all the time down here in the Ozarks. You know I saw a 'possum crawl out of a dead horse carcass one time.. and I have never longed for the taste of 'possum flesh. I have eaten groundhogs. Rabbits, Squirrels, I might eat a Raccoon, not sure on that one.. but I am gonna have to be pretty hungry to chow down on a 'possum. Oh.. no dogs or cats either (that I know of, I try to stay away from the Chinese places:shocked

James K0UA

 

[schoolsout]

Dan, Would you please post the brand of the dehydrator and where you bought it....Thanks

Ditto

Been looking at some of the ones in Cabelas for a few hundred $$$
Had a cheap one, used it for a year and then it crapped the bed.

Buddy has a dehydrator setting on his oven and has done a lot of venison in it. Works pretty well, too.

 

[Car Doc]

Well I see Dave and Bob and James are hardcore survivalist's they sure wont go hungry. I would probably starve if I didn't have "normal" eats like deer, cow, fish, game birds, mre's, beans! :laughing:

 

[dmccarty]

I have been planning on starting a thread about the dehydrator we bought and how we have been using it. I will try to start the thread tonight or the next day or so.

We bought the nine tray Excalipur. If you clicked into the special for hunters they gave you a 10 year extended warranty, a free shipping, dehydration guide, and few more things. Looks like the special expired at the end of last month. The special was a better price you could get on Amazon or anywhere else. The price was about $300 but I also bought another book on Amazon and we just bought some nonstick trays from Amazon as well. I have not tried they tray from Amazon but they were 9 for $25ish vs $80-90 from Excalibur! The ones from Amazon appear to be the same material minus the company's name.

We have been drying fruit primarily but I have done some jerky which was very good. Fruit leather aka roll ups are pretty easy. Put the fruit in a food processor, whiz the heck out of it, pour on rack, smooth out, and dry. Since we do not have the non stick trays we have been wrapping plastic wrap on the racks. This works but the leather sticks to the plastic wrap, you can have some wastage and it can take time to peel off. A better idea, besides the non stick trays, would be to try parchment paper whose width fits the trays.

How long does the food last? I honestly don't know since we eat it up pretty danged quickly. I do have some Blueberry fruit leather on my desk that is about four weeks old and is just fine. I made some flax seed crackers that I did not dry enough and those danged things were growing a new life form after a week! Dried Apples that are as old as the leathers are just fine. For real long term storage I would think one would dry to below 20%, seal in a vacuum sealer, store in a Mylar bag with O2 and moisture eaters in a five gallon bucket.

We bought the dehydrator to make dried fruit and jerky. We plan to plant Blueberry bushes and Apple trees in the fall. The dehydrator can process A LOT of food pretty easily. We just did 16 pints of Blueberries last weekend at two pints on eight trays. Part of the leaning curve is figuring out how much food you can process at one time which means how much can you get on a tray. With Blueberries, I think we can get 2.5-3 pints per tray or 22-27 pints! Cored and slice Apples are about two per tray. It looks like any Apple sized fruit works out to two per tray. We have done Mangoes at two per tray and huge Papaya's take up one rack for one fruit. I think Apple leathers will work out to about 2.5-3 per tray as well. Pineapples are one per tray.

I have been making crackers out of Flax seed, Sesame seed, Almonds, rice flour and sunflower seeds. Pretty simple stuff.

The Excalipur uses at most 600 watts. The wetter fruits like pineapples take 8-12 hours to dry depending on humidity and the wetness of the fruit. We put the dehydrator on the porch so that the noise, heat and humidity is not added to the house. It is not that noisy if you had it in a utility room. In the winter we might run it in the house since then we would want the heat and humidity. :laughing: I doubt the Excaliper uses 600 watts when it is 90 degrees out side and it is running at 135, but worse case, that is only 6,000 watts over 10 hours or 6 KWH. We pay ten cents a KWH so we might be paying 60 cents to dry two apples and 16 pints of Blueberries or four Apples, four Mangoes, two Pineapples, a Papaya, and four pints of Blueberries. 2.5 pounds of London Broil took up 2-3 trays when I made jerky.

We eat quite a bit of dried fruit and that stuff is expensive. I figure in one month we have saved about $100. We DO eat quite a bit of dried fruit! :laughing:

Let me repeat that it looks like Excalipur runs specials on various pages on their site. The specials might not be real obvious so it pays to click.

I will start up the dehydrator thread soon.

On Edit: Good gracious I am a wordy blankety blank. :laughing: I was trying to keep this short....

Later,
Dan