Do you know how to prepare for an emergency? It seems that every other day we hear about another earthquake, flood, hurricane or tornado somewhere in the world. Would you be ready? What if a natural disaster emergency strikes your neighborhood? I know I’m not prepared and have to get cracking on this.
Recently on my Facebook page I asked my readers to let me know what questions I could try to answer for them in the upcoming Kitchen Kop Newsletter that I was working on. I got several questions similar to these:
- Ayrielle wrote: “What kinds of real food can a family stockpile/have on hand for an emergency situation when there could be extended power outages?”
- Dede wrote: “I second the emergency situation question. Namely – what can we stockpile when we’re snowed in our homes for a week during the winter during one of Georgia’s ice storms?”
Instead of including it in the newsletter, I decided to do a whole post on this topic instead; but as I said, this isn’t something I’ve been especially good about myself. Thankfully, I found exactly what I was looking for on Kimberly’s blog, where my online friend, Peggy, wrote a guest post on this topic. There’s a link below, after the following excerpt:
When we lived in California, we kept gym bags full of supplies ready to go in case of emergency. We also kept canned food under each of the beds. We knew from experience that a major earthquake could leave us without power, water and public services for days, or that we might need to evacuate to an emergency shelter on short notice. I stocked up on things like Spam, dried milk, and canned veggies because the emergency services brochures recommended them.
These days, in my real-food kitchen on the other side of the continent, I haven’t thought much about emergency food supplies. And that is dead wrong. No matter where you live, there is good reason for setting aside food and water in case of an emergency. I learned my lesson, thankfully, before the disaster struck my home.
Here’s the link, and thank you Kimberly & Peggy!
Nashville flood points to the need for household emergency preparedness!
After reading, come back and let us know if there’s anything she missed that you would suggest doing to be ready for a natural disaster??
- Visit Peggy’s blog at LocalNourishment.com
- See Katie’s recent post on this topic: Making a bug out bag
- Did you see my interview with Kimberly & her husband, Keith?
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Kelly,
I bought the Wheat Belly Book and while I like the message a lot and think it is a fascinating read, the cookbook section leaves much to be desired. Can you imagine, the recipe section makes frequent mention of the microwave! I can’t imagine taking my flax seeds that should not be heated and then putting them in a microwave to nuke all the nutrition out. But the ideas are good and so it will be fun to make some new recipes using the principles.
Donna Bauman
Donna, is there any chance you’d be willing to copy and paste your same comment over into the post on Wheat Belly? That way Dr. Davis will see it, and maybe keep it in mind if and when he does a revision on his book!
(Here’s the link if you want to jump over there: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2011/09/lose-your-man-boobs-your-bagel-butt-and-your-wheat-belly-part-2-q-a-with-wheat-belly-author-dr-william-davis.html)
Thanks!
Great Post Kelly,
I have been working on this as well. I stocke up on canned tuna, salmon, and chicken from Trader Joe’s – at least I know it is half way decent meat and not in BPA cans. I wish we had one closer to us! I think the cash idea is great – but I think that more than $1oo may be safer – going for a couple of weeks without electricity or atms, you may need more than that.
I think for the water filtration we will buy a small portable berkley filter which we could use at the house if needed and if we had to leave town.
I as well try to not go below a 1/2 tank in the car. If there is an emergency the last thing you want to have to do is wait in line to get gas.
Can’t wait to see others ideas!
Kris
Another good idea for meats is to home can the chicken and ground grass-fed beef you’re using — it’s pretty simple to do with a pressure canner and all it takes is a little time and the courage to try it the first time. Then all your meats are cooked and ready to eat. I do this whenever I find chicken breasts on sale at $1.65/lb and by using a can on occasion when I don’t feel like cooking too much it gets rotated through regularly.
This has been a concern for us as well. I decided it is worth *some* compromise to ensure adequate stored food, but I have to be smart about it. My biggest concerns were making sure there is halfway-decent protein and fat available. I found canned butter (from New Zealand – pastured cows there!), for instance, and also canned mild cheddar cheese (from Australia). I’m not going to pretend these are as good as the fresh butter and cheese I get from our dairy farmer, but they are still full of necessary animal fat! I consider Spam an acceptable compromise, but not as an ONLY meat; I have also stocked up on canned tuna, chicken, ground beef, beef chunks and turkey. These aren’t as awesome as the meat form our local rancher, but they don’t have any weird additives and they are shelf-stable for a very long time.
We have dried beans, rice, gallons of olive oil (in metal cans, and I go through enough that rotating that stock is easy), freeze-dried vegetables, canned tomatoes, some canned beans and vegetables (also acceptable compromise IMO), peanut butter… But I will *NOT* purchase powdered or canned milk or eggs. If we can’t get those fresh, they aren’t worth having!
I agree!
Kelly,
So important to be covering this! I did a whole series on real food preparedness in the spring, actually, with a post for each food group with preservation ideas: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/tag/preparedness/
Thanks for linking to the bug out bag post!
Katie
Oh good, thanks for sharing that link!
How funny… I just woke up thinking about this this morning. I listened to an interview last night about a solar storm that is coming in 2012 — they say it could knock out power for months on end.
There are some great ideas in that article you linked to.
The most important thing is water. They say you should keep 2 gallons of water on hand for each family member for a minimum of 3 days but ideally 1 month.
I need to read more about the Berkeys. If you have a pool in your backyard, you can actually use that water (or rain water from barrels or water from your hot water heater) but you have to find a way to purify it without electricity.
I am looking into getting or making a solar cooker and a solar dehydrator. I also think a solar generator would be very smart. I’m very interested in solar power including solar water heating and solar panels (we get 5+ hours of sun per day in LA, and we’ll get 6+ hours of sun per day in Vegas).
I like the idea of pressure-canning meat. You could do broth too.
Having a small garden and chickens is a good thing, too — fresh eggs.
We also almost always have on hand:
Canned fish
Canned meat (liver pate)
Homemade beef jerky
Lots of soaked nuts and dried fruit
Iodine and chlorella (iodine will purify water; best to use in conjunction with distillation and iodine and chlorella should be taken in case of a nuclear accident)
A 5 gallon bucket of coconut oil (coconut oil is a good food source, has a super long shelf-life and it is also good to kill viruses that you can get from drinking or bathing in dirty water)
Aged cheeses like Parmesan can last for weeks or longer without refrigeration. If you live in a cooler climate, a root cellar is a great idea. You can keep cheese and all kinds of ferments as well as root veggies for a long time.
The dried coconut milk from Wilderness Family Naturals would also be a good idea.
I am also planning on getting a non-electric grain mill and also a hand flaker for oats. It’s easy to store large containers of wheat berries and oats. And with a solar dehydrator and/or oven, you can make bread, crackers, cereal, etc.
I’m interested in learning about how to preserve meats with salt, etc. If the power goes out for an extended period of time, we would lose all the meat we keep in the freezer.
Here’s some interesting ideas re: preserving meat and fish:
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=57040
In Holland, the raw herring they eat is kept in brine (salt water) for months on end. No fridge necessary.
As much as I hate the idea, I think getting a gun is very smart.
Curious to read other ideas.
Geesh Ann Marie, you’ve really been thinking about this! It’s so difficult to know how MUCH of this stuff to do, though, since it can be costly and super inconvenient, which I know I know, it would be worth it in an emergency…
On the gun issue, I’m very curious what everyone thinks about this especially since Kent has brought it up before. It just makes us SO nervous with the kids… No matter how careful, accidents happen. Maybe I’ll post this on FB and see if we get some good input.
Kel
Allready been there for several years. I carry a Ruger 357 revolver. A 22 long rifle is also handy for shunks in hen house. Been having skunk issues so every night have to grab rifle and head out to barn and blast away. Last nite 3 skunks got 1, rest are on death row if they tresspass again…
I live in Seattle and I’ve told my husband I think we should take a gun safety course and purchase a firearm for that very purpose.
Paul, I like that idea to take care of all the critters that feasted on our garden all summer!
Yes.
My husband and I both took the conceal carry class and both own guns. We live in the middle of nowhere and any “situation” would be over by the time any sherrif showed up. Also, there are lots of wild animals in the area (we’ve had to take care of a few snakes so far) so we need to be able to protect ourselves and our children and soon, our chickens. I think it’s wise to know how to safely use a gun (it can be used against you if you don’t know what you’re doing) and to have one or two on hand.
yes!
For hunting purposes, sure.
I’d suggest to your reader that they visit Homesteading Today dot com, and there they will find a tremendous amount of information regarding which foods to store, how much, and how to cook with them without power and so forth. Tremendous online resource for those that visit. I could fill many pages with suggestions and ideas myself.
I forgot in my “canned protein” list to also mention sardines packed in olive oil, wild-caught salmon, and even some little canned shrimpies! We also have a pretty good supply of raw nuts in one of our freezers so that they are in suspended animation until I’m ready to deal with them…
Although I realize canned coconut milk is not ideal, I have also included a supply of that because it has more good than not-good about it. And I also have some canned fruits, but I am careful about the ingredients and sugar levels in them.
Although I would LIKE to be able to feed my family ideal food all of the time, the fact is that an emergency situation would likely require some compromises. The point, to me, is to figure out which compromises are acceptable.
Also, we have a lot of heirloom (non-GMO) seeds in a freezer – about 30 varieties of fruits and veggies. We don’t have a garden at this time, but if we needed to do so, we could.
Yes. Take a gun safety course if you need to (kids, too), and store them appropriately.
If you’ve taken the time to prepare for an emergency, but have failed to prepare to protect yourself, your family, and your supplies, how prepared are you? Also, it is our right to bear arms. The continuity of our rights is maintained by their regular practice. Every person of age in this country should have one.
I’m 67 and on my to-do-list is a firearms course. I feel like you, Kelly, the idea of having a gun is scary, but unfortunately maybe the idea of NOT having one is even scarier.
Regarding Firearms Safety I took an amazing course in Fire Arm Safety at Frontsite, they have training sites in Fresno CA and outside of Las Vegas, near Parump… Amazing classes, they really did a great job with the females esp, I will take my mom and daughters someday they were that good.
Check out the Green Polka Dot Box, their prices are awesome for preparedness and they have whole sections of their site dedicated to it and for people in Utah you can buy in Bulk. Right now, if you watch the video you get a years free membership… The prices for Organic food are some of the best I have seen, plus if you tell others you can get additional discounts and credit toward your purchases. Only a few days left to sign up for free.
http://www.greenpolkadotbox.com/invite/5828/
On the gun issue, I would really like to say that in the case of an emergency (especially an extended one) Where the possibility of others stealing from you could become a reality; I personally feel that it would be counter intuitive to resort to violence to protect your “stockpile” from others. Rather I would think that there are ways that trades can be made or mercy can be shown on those less fortunate… The best bet is to create a community of awareness with those that live closest to you and work together to put plans into place so that you can stand together for the good of many.
As to preparedness I would also suggest having books on hand and teaching children and yourselves about wild food foraging; there are thousands of plant species around us that could feed us in the case of emergency.
Let me just say however that I believe in the right to bear arms and protect your own family from the violence of others.
Everyone in the country needs a gun, to put down a suffering animal, a varmint or for harvesting your meat. As far as protecting my food, I just couldnt kill someone over food, I will share and then teach everyone to eat wild edibles. Kathryn, I live near Seattle, if you feel unsafe, you should have a gun.
I teach classes on storing food, many have made a bussiness out of putting together packages for people to buy, they are usually very expensive and not nessessarily food you would eat. Its easy to store food you already eat, (assuming you eat natural food) up to 30 years.
Everyone should own a gun and know how to use it properly. My husband was given his first rifle and shotgun at age 12, and one of our grandsons was given a combo rifle/shotgun on his 13th birthday so he could go hunting with this dad. They hunt to fill the freezer.
Absolutely. And don’t forget the ammo.
I also was very apprehensive in getting a firearm for protection, even after spending 2 years in the Air Force. I had a very traumatic incident when I was a pre-teen, where my best friend accidentally shot and killed his 5 year old sister, so I’ve never wanted guns in the house with my children. After lots of research, and getting comfortable with a firearm, fire-arm safety classes for the children (like what to do if they see a gun and don’t know if it’s real or fake), and knowing that we would have to be very very careful in carrying and storing the weapons, we decided to get a few. We plan on moving to the country, being self-sustaining, and raising our own food (meat and veggies), and we knew that we would eventually have to become knowledgeable and comfortable with a firearm in order to protect our livestock and poultry. My husband and I both have CHLs now, and try to keep our skills up to date by trips to the shooting range. Next we’d like to learn to hunt, to help stock the freezers (wild turkey and such).
I’d consider a gun for hunting. For killing other people, no. I like the above statement about sharing. For those of us who can, let’s think of our neighbors when we stockpile. (I know it may be naive. Starvation brings a new mindset over what we are willing to do to eat. I guess I would rather suffer at the end than cause suffering for others even knowing my starved-mind will regret this choice. But I also have to live with myself between now and then.)
THANK YOU for this. I have been doing food storage & preparedness for a little while now. Since changing my diet and eating habits for the better, I had no idea what to store. This gave me a few ideas to work with, and then perhaps my brain will unblock and I will come up with more.
I grew up around guns and my Dad always made sure we knew how they worked and that we shot them ourselves, with supervision of course. Doing that, there was no worry that we would play with them or hurt ourselves by being curious. If you are still nervous, get a gun safe. Also, consider that stockpiled ammo could be used for bartering purposes should the situation warrant. As others have said, you may need it to hunt for food so you would only do that if you had enough.