SPROUTS SHOULD BE PART OF YOUR SURVIVAL KITCHEN

There’s one necessity that most people haven’t thought about for their survival kitchen. It’s the need for "fresh foods" to accompany all that canned and dried food that they’re storing. It’s not easy to stow away the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables that can give you the living enzymes and vitamins that you need. That’s where sprout growing, an easy skill to learn, can be a life saver in a food shortage crisis.

As you probably appreciate, in a time of emergency, it will be extremely difficult to buy fresh produce at any price. Your own garden will be your best bet at that time. But crises don’t happen on anybody’s schedule, and that may mean months to be able to grow and harvest produce. Also, a lot of us just don’t have the garden space and skills and would have a steep learning curve to get through. That could mean hard times without fresh, nutrient-dense foods.

Well, fortunately for all of us, homemade sprouts provide vitamins, minerals and fiber, necessary for good health.

SPROUTS ARE SO EASY TO GROW.

What you’ll love about sprouts
First, you don’t need a lot of space to grow them. A small space on a table or a windowsill will do fine for growing several pounds of sprouts, and they can be harvested every single week.

And sprouts are so simple to grow that you don’t have to have grown anything before – not even a house plant.

What’s more, they don’t need light to grow, mature really fast, and their growing season is any time that you plant the seeds. So, you don’t have to wait 2-3 months before you harvest – like in a garden. Amazingly enough, you can have ready-to-eat sprouts in 2-4 days! Obviously they’re 100% organic. There’s no way that pesticides or any other harmful chemicals can get into what you’re eating.

You can purchase beans, lentils, alfalfa, sunflower, and other sorts of sprouting seeds at your local health food store. These seeds can last for 2-4 years on the shelf. When you’re ready to plant them, read the instructions on the seed packet. The seeds have to be the eating kind and not the ones for planting. Some seeds used for planting have been sprayed with chemicals. Once you know what you’re doing, you’ll be able to sprout most any dried bean that you have on your pantry shelf.

Here’s the general way that sprouting’s done. You put the sprout seeds into a jar and add water to it. Let the seeds soak for a couple of hours. Then, simply drain out all excess water, turn the jar upside-down and let the sprouts grow.

Every six to eight hours, open the lid, add water, swish the seeds around, thoroughly drain the jar, and replace the lid. Keep the jar upside-down in a storage container under the sink or in a closet. Correct drainage prevents the growth of mold.

How can I eat these sprouts?
Sprouts, like all vegetables, are much more flavorful and nutritious if eaten raw. But, then again, it’s not wrong to cook sprouts, if you prefer them that way.

The best part is that you can eat sprouts with most anything. Add them to salads, sandwiches, and soups. Bake them with your bread or puree them into dips. Here’s a list of possibilities:

Garnishes
Stir fry accompaniment
Bean sprout hummus
In salads
In quesadillas
On pizza
In soup
On sandwiches

Recipe for a curried mashed potato, tomato, and sprout sandwich
Ingredients
2 slices whole wheat or any whole grain bread (best if lightly toasted)
Slightly mashed potatoes, seasoned with a bit olive oil, lemon juice, garlic salt and curry powder
Fresh or canned tomatoes, drained of liquid
Fresh or chopped green chili peppers, optional
Pinch of sea salt (Always use a minimum of salt. See related post below.)
Pinch of black pepper
Slices of red onions
1/3 cup alfalfa or lentil sprouts, rinsed and drained

Directions
- Spread a slice of bread with potato mixture and some tomato.
- Top with sprouts and onion slice.
- Top other slice with choice of chili peppers, mustard, mayonnaise, or soft tofu
- Press the top and bottom together a bit and keep the sandwich chilled until time to serve.

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CANNED COLESLAW, ANOTHER PICKLED WONDER.

Just a month or so ago, I posted a story and a recipe for Boston steamed bread. At the time I said that, with just three items on your survival menu, you could be substantially healthy and full. Those items were: steamed bread, coleslaw, and baked beans. And what made this a survival no-brainer was that all three could be stocked on your pantry shelf. Sure, you would need to do some foot (and hand) work, by either buying these as "regular", manufactured products or canning the foods yourself. This post talks about canned coleslaw, something that you may not have heard of or suspected wasn't even possible. But, of course, it is - more than possible, and it's easy to make.

Cabbage is healthy food.

Now, some of you may either like or dislike sauerkraut. Well, that's a close cousin to the canned coleslaw. The ingredients are just about the same. The difference is that sauerkraut is a fermented food, and canned coleslaw is a lot more like the freshly made side dish that fried chicken, fried fish, and hot dog lovers crave. Beyond that, cabbage, whatever form it's served up in, is cheap, healthy, and available almost any time during the year. In my book, that easily makes it a miracle food. And, for people who really like coleslaw, like I do, having canned coleslaw on the shelf is a tempting idea.

Here's a tip. One way, I've heard of, to get into the canning mode is to make it a social event by organizing a canning group. You get with a few friends to plan, buy, and process some food item together. That helps you overcome some of the inertia involved in trying out a different canning experience. And there may be several reasons that you haven't yet tried out a new canned item, including relatively ignorance of canning procedures, the need to buy a quantity of ingredients that might surpass your canning desires or capacity to store, or just the need for some company in order to undertake what seems to be a huge task. A canning group can help.

I’m including a recipe, and almost all the recipes for canned coleslaw are simple and have the same ingredients. . After all, it is regular coleslaw - minus the mayonnaise. And most everyone agrees that the canned coleslaw turns out every bit as crisp as the freshly made kind. It's pickled on the sweet side, and that's a traditional way - adding acidified syrup to low acid veggies. The result is really pickled cabbage, and it makes great coleslaw. It maintains its crunch, and you could eat it straight from the jar. But that's a lot of pickling syrup. So, you'll probably prefer to drain it well and mix it with mayo. And it can be thrown together in just a minute for a picnic or a potluck dinner.

Coleslaw Recipe for Canning (or Freezing)
1 medium head cabbage
1 large carrot
1 green or red sweet pepper (optional)
1/2 medium onion (optional)
1 tablespoon salt

For the brine syrup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, celery seeds, or dill weed (optional)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Cut finely or shred the vegetables into a big pot. Add the salt. Let stand 1 hour. Drain
water and rinse twice. Then drain again.
Boil syrup ingredients together for a couple of minutes. Make sure you completely melt the sugar and the syrup is clear.

Add the syrup to the vegetables and pack into pint jars. Remove any bubbles that form using a spatula. Process jars in boiling water for 20 minutes. If you're not sure about the canning process, you can pack the slaw into freezer containers and put it in the freezer where it's good for up to a year.

This food is good tasting as is (as pickled cabbage). Or, for the traditional coleslaw taste, it should be drained and mayonnaise added just before serving. That’s what makes canned coleslaw an entirely portable food for a picnic, despite the heat. You carry the unopened can with you and do the final touches to your coleslaw just before meal time.

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Steamed brown bread, a recipe for your survival kitchen

Are you prepared as you can be for a calamity? Natural and man-made disasters often take us by surprise. So, it's a good idea to think about disaster survival preparation long before there are signs of major problems. Here are things that you’ll need for your survival kitchen along with recommendations for some simple foods that will keep your family full and healthy.

Power supply
Usually in emergency situations, the lights go out and your refrigerator, freezer, and electric oven become useless. Now, some of you have a gas oven, and that’s good because you’ll still be able to cook. Just be sure to have some matches in a waterproof container. And, if you have some fuel, an outdoor grill also can help you out – to be used outside the house, of course.

Staples
If there is no food left in the supermarkets or the conditions in the street are so bad that no one in the right mind would make a grocery run, then you’ll need to have a well stocked emergency pantry. Most vegetables, fruits and eggs are edible for a week or so when stored in a cool and dark place. Salt, spices, soda, baking powder, and dried egg substitutes will add a lot of other choices to your rather limited food selection.

Canned and dried foods are lifesavers in these situations. You’ll want to have cans of veggies, soups, canned or dried milk, stews, juices, dried fruits, cooking oil, Parmesan cheese, and a variety of crackers. Your pantry should have at least a 2-week supply of food items that can be stored without refrigeration. Purchase  foods for your survival pantry in multiples whenever you see them on sale, and store them in a cool, dry place.  Be sure to write down the dates that you bought the cans and boxes and rotate the older foods to the front so that can be used along with items in your regular grocery list.

Water
Water is necessary, not only for drinking but also for cooking and cleanup. So you’ll need a good supply of safe bottled water for drinking, cooking, and brushing your teeth. That means you’ll need a gallon of water per day per person in your household. A large garbage can of water or two can be kept in a bathroom for pets and hand and body cleanup. Surprisingly enough, you can wash your entire body and rinse with just a gallon of water, bar soap, and a washcloth. Not so much fun as showering but workable when it’s necessary.

Other items
Besides food and water, your emergency pantry should include hand soap, dish washing liquid, batteries, a radio, pet food, flashlights, candles, matches, and extras for prescription medicines. It’s also good to have a first aid kit and extra clothes and blankets in waterproof bags. You’ll want to have tanks of propane gas, a wood supply or carbon bricks for cooking although you do better to store these items outside the house or in the garage. Start charging your cell phone completely every day, and that way you’ll be sure to have well charged batteries in the event of an emergency. It’s also useful to fill up your car’s gas tank whenever it gets to half full rather than when it’s running on empty.

Recipes for the survival kitchen
For your emergency kitchen, you’ll need recipes based on foods that you have stored on your shelves. Since the power may be out and non-electric fuel will have to be conserved, you’ll want to make meals as quickly as possible. Oven-baked recipes take too long on a barbecue grill, unless you have a surplus of fuel and a tight-fitting cover on your grill. You should choose quick cooking/fuel saving recipes. Look for easy recipes that can be adapted for use with whatever canned or dried foods you have in your emergency pantry.

Now, with that rather extended introduction, we come to today’s topic: foods for the survival kitchen. Three foods, eaten together as a meal, will keep you healthy and full. All three or their ingredients can be part of your survival kitchen pantry, and I recommend them because they provide a good amount of calories, proteins and vitamins. They are:

Bread can be steam cooked in coffee cans

Boston brown bread, also known as steamed brown bread
Canned coleslaw
Baked beans (with or without meat).

I'm writing about the steamed bread today and saving the canned coleslaw for another post. The third recipe I wrote about some months ago but didn't comment on it possibly being a canned item. I’ll tell you how to do that at a later date.

Yes, (some) brown bread comes in a can
Boston-brown bread is a type of dark, somewhat sweet bread that was (and, in some areas, still is) popular in New England and other parts of the East. Traditionally, it is cooked by steam in a can - or any cylindrical pan - and contains a mixture of flours: cornmeal, whole wheat, and rye, and molasses or maple syrup. Most often it’s a quick bread leavened with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Raisins or other dried fruits may be added. The resulting bread is slightly moist like muffins or banana bread. It’s also known as 'hobo bread”, since it can be baked in a coffee can in a few hours over the coals of a fire.

While some people may be turned off by this rather usual looking and cake-like bread, my childhood memories elevate it to the status of comfort food. My Mom, rest her soul, lived through the Great Depression and WW II when fresh bread supplies and fuel often were hard to find. Given that shortages were common, many people kept a few cans of brown bread on the shelf. It was a commercial product that was found at almost any of the larger grocery stores.

Growing up in the late forties and early fifties, I remember that Mom would occasionally buy the canned brown bread and put it in our pantry. At that time, we didn’t have a car, and the nearest grocery store was some five blocks away. While Dad worked, Mom walked with my sister and me the five blocks and pulled a little red wagon to carry the food back home. Sometimes, my sister towed the wagon for a bit, but in general, it was Mom who had to keep the two of us in line while she piloted the red wagon back home with one or two bags of groceries. Needless to say, Mom couldn’t venture a trip to the store when it was raining hard or snowing. Thus, she knew to keep a certain amount of canned foods on hand. Those foods included, among many other things, Boston brown bread.

Now, as I remember, when we ate the canned bread with a meal, it accompanied a plate of corn beef hash or spam and a bowl of soup beans or baked beans. But, sometimes we just opened the can for a snack and ate it with cream cheese or jelly. My sister and I were delighted by the novelty of eating little round pieces of bread. It was usually eaten straight from the can but also could be pan warmed or toasted.

While, today, eating bread from a can may not be so common, the product itself (B&M canned bread) still can be found or ordered on line. It’s a product made up of only natural ingredients, and it’s certainly more wholesome than regular store-bought bread that contains several different chemicals additives. On the other hand, given its sweetness, you probably won’t want to use this kind of bread for sandwiches.

So, now you know that you can buy canned bread as a commercial product with just a little searching. But, maybe, you would like to make it yourself as I learned to do. It’s a fun and easy recipe to make, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. It can even be home-canned and stored for up to a year on your shelves as one of your survival kitchen staples.

Recipe for steamed brown bread
Ingredients
2 cups buttermilk or sour milk
3/4 cup molasses or corn syrup - None of the high-fructose stuff, please.
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole-wheat or rye flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of butter or shortening - Not hydrogenated, please.
Raisins, other dried fruit or nuts (optional)

Preparation
Take out 3 or 4 clean, empty cans. The cans can be coffee tins or large veggie or juice cans. Grease the cans heavily, so the baked bread will slide out.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the milk and molasses. Stir in the flours, cornmeal, baking soda and salt. Mix it well by hand for about a minute. Stir in the dried fruit and nuts, if desired. Pour the dough into the cans, leaving space at the top - the dough rises considerably.

Place the filled cans on a rack in a large canning pot, filled with boiling water up to the rack. Cover the pot with a lid and keep the water boiling. Add water as necessary and steam the bread for 2 to 3 hours. It’s done when a knife stuck deep into the bread comes out clean.

When the bread is done, lift the cans out of the pot and let the bread cool. Then invert the cans and strike the bottom sharply with your hand. The loaves should fall out easily. Slice and serve the bread warm with butter or cream cheese. The fresh bread should be eaten the same day or the day after. It can also be kept for up to 10 days in the refrigerator. It makes a great gift for family and friends. Just tell them to keep it refrigerated and to eat it right away.

Storage
Freshly prepared, this kind of bread can safely be sealed in sterilized pint-sized jars and stored in a cool, dry place in the same way as other home canned foods. All home canned goods stored on pantry shelves should be checked every month or so to make sure the jar seals are unbroken. If you worry about the safety of your canned bread, the jars can be stored in the freezer.

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HERE’S TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH IN 2012 & BEYOND!

Well, as we all know, 2012 is just around the corner. So, whether you’re looking forward to it or have been frightened by vague rumblings about great changes - and maybe disasters, our next year on this planet is going to be 2012. So, whatever it may bring - for better or worse - it’s good to get ready. We can do this best by being healthy and helping others to stay well, too. And that advice is good for any year to come. Here’s my short list of things for you to think about as you prepare to stay well in 2012. All these activities are Earth-friendly and none rely on any sort of consumerism. The goal is for you and yours to be as healthy and useful to others as possible without putting any extra burden on our planet's resources.

Prayers and meditation do a body good
Whether our problems in 2012 are already well known or new to us, we need to be ready to deal with whatever comes. To do that, stress reduction techniques are essential. People who regularly meditate and pray have a brighter outlook and can better face stressful situations. So, plan for meditation and/or prayer to be a part of your daily life. Whether it’s meditation, prayer, reading the Bible, or reading some other inspirational book, just taking a few minutes of your day can clear your mind of a lot of external things. This, in turn, allows us to open our minds and trust in higher powers to bring us peace and guidance. Try to set aside some 15 minutes a day to get quiet, clear your mind of day-to-day worries, and ask for the help that you’re needing to overcome stress and lead a better life. Beyond that, be grateful for all the blessings received. Feel thankful for every single day. This feeling of gratitude benefits our health, increases our sense of connectedness and gives us the psychic energy we need to be friendly and kind to others.

A healthier diet will make a difference
Eating healthy means reducing the proportion of dietary sugar, fats, and meat and eating more fruits and vegetables, topped off with lots of water. You probably already know that eating plenty of produce - especially green vegetables, fruit, nuts, and beans - every day gives the body those necessary anti-oxidants to fight off disease and stop premature aging. Fresh produce also provides the fiber needed to regulate cholesterol and maintain proper bowel function. So, emphasize fruits and vegetables in your meals and snacks, and eat some green leafy vegetables every day.

Water is fundamental to all life, and our bodies are made up of 60% water. People who drink more water during the day report fewer physical complaints and higher energy levels than others who say they drink less water (and usually more coffee and soft drinks). So, aim for drinking at least eight, 8oz. glasses of water a day, and, for health and lower energy use, no plastic bottles, please. Take plenty of filtered water with you in a stainless steel reusable bottle whenever you go out.

Get a move on early and late
A major part of staying healthy comes from daily exercise. Do stretching exercises for at least 20 minutes in the a.m. and take a half hour walk at midday or late afternoon.  Exercising right when you get up is ideal. Set the alarm and get up 30 minutes earlier and start a stretching routine. Stretching helps you maintain strong joints and keep a good posture. Whether it’s yoga, gi gong, or old-fashioned calisthenics, get a move on in the morning and feel better all day.

It's particularly good for you to exercise outdoors. By spending just a fraction of your time outside – walking, jogging, bicycling, etc., especially during the daytime hours, you promote both mental and physical health. So, grab your reusable water bottle and head outside to stay fit among the marvels of nature. Sunlight affects moods positively and stimulates the body produce melatonin, a substance that boost the immune system and helps achieve proper restful sleep.

Make a green-action plan
Take this opportunity to talk to your close family and friends about what you'll be doing next year to reduce your impact/carbon footprint on the Earth. Make a list of things that you could do. Categorize these activities in three columns - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and then, try to think of ways to add them to your lifestyle.

Your goal for next year should be to cut back both your overall energy use and your trash production by 50%. There are all kinds of library reading materials and Internet blogs that can show you how to save energy, reduce your trash output, and salt away a little money in the process.

Stay connected with others in important ways
As humans, we form families, raise our children, and identify ourselves as part of circles of friends, neighbors, religions, clubs and other groups. Connecting with other people and forming close bonds of trust nourish both our emotional and physical health. In the past several decades, many people have become increasingly cut off from others, leading them to feel depressed and isolated. While the Internet helps in some ways to connect people, it just isn’t enough. What really matters for mental health are opportunities for positive, day-to-day interactions with all the physical components of voice, touch, and face-to-face communication.

That brings me to a more specific recommendation for 2012. It’s my opinion that you would do well to learn an art or craft that you can perform on behalf of others. I’m talking about a service that you can do to benefit other people without the use of specialized equipment or dependence on outside energy sources. Call them domestic arts or survival skills or whatever, it’s important to know such things. For example: how to do simple carpentry without power tools, cut hair with only scissors and an ol’time straight razor, cook from scratch over a wood fire, cultivate a small garden, make or remake clothes from what’s on hand, etc. And, of course, I don’t mean that you should necessarily learn a whole set of skills; the point is that real connection among people involves constructive help, and helping means a lot more when it’s person-to-person, without the need for modern technological interventions. Now’s a good time to choose a skill that you like, study how to do it better, and put your talent to practice by helping others.

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COLLECT RAIN WATER FOR GARDEN USE AND WATER EMERGENCIES

Fresh water is an essential part of life, and it has become a scarce resource on our planet. Those of us who have always had just about as much water as we could want sometimes lose sight of this fact. Catching rain water for your garden is one way that you can use less of available running water supplies. Your garden doesn’t require drinking quality water, anyway, and rain water is free with just a little effort, a one-time investment, and some minor maintenance. Your system for capturing rain can be as simple as setting up a big bucket or barrel under a roof gutter downspout. You can then use the water collected this way on gardens or flowerbeds. Other more complex rain catchment systems involve modifications to one or more barrels or storage tanks (cisterns) for above or below ground storage.

Your rain barrel can be quite simple.
One of the easiest and cheapest way for collecting rain water is to use a 55-gallon plastic barrel. These can be purchased from large builder’s centers or even be discards from food manufacturing facilities. Just be sure that the barrels are food-grade plastic (HDPE#2) . One barrel usually costs much less than $100. If you buy one second-hand, be sure that they have only been used for foods or drinks and not for construction or to hold chemical or petroleum products.

There are many designs for rain barrels on the Internet. Here are some general instructions. Turn the barrel upside down, drill a hole for the spout and another hole to insert an overflow pipe. It’s best to set the barrels (and tanks) several feet off the ground on a stable pallette or platform. That way you can use a garden hose directly from the barrel to the garden with a gravity-fed water flow or attach it to irrigation tubing that runs through your garden beds. It’s important to keep overflow rainwater away at least ten feet from your foundation. You’ll also want to cut some wire screen wider than the opening to the barrel and fix it firmly to the top of the barrel with an industrial-strength, rubber band. This keeps large pieces of trash, rodents and insects from getting into your rain barrel.

If you live in a small to average-size house in an area with plenty of rainfall, you may collect several thousand gallons per year. That’s a lot of water. Just remember that the roof should be free of asbestos, tar, and gravel. You don’t want to put that stuff in your garden. And be sure to check to see that there aren’t any local ordinances that prohibit the installation of visible rain barrels or containers. Once it’s built, your rain barrel will need only a little maintenance from time to time. First, you’ll want to check the screen on top to make sure it’s still secure and that it doesn’t have any holes or tears. And, about once a year, it’s a good idea to clean out your barrel. Give it a good scrub with a hard bristled brush and a 1:1 solution of water and white vinegar.

Rain water can be a part of emergency preparedness
In an emergency situation, your local water supply may be shut off for periods of days or weeks, and you and your animals will not survive more than a few days without water. If there’s major trouble, either you’ll have to leave your area completely or have a plan that involves stored water. In some areas, there may be other sources of water from lakes, rivers and wells, but not everyone can get to them or has a means of transporting water. Remember one gallon of water weighs 8 pounds, so they can’t be toted easily from one place to another. Storing water ahead of time is a more reliable solution.

And we’re talking about a lot of water needs. As an estimate, plan for about 2 to 3 quarts per day or about 7 gallons per week per person. Two adults will require about 56 gallons of water in a month (one standard rain barrel) and 168 gallons (3 rain barrels for 3 months).  Even more water is necessary for cooking and sanitary needs.  And, even in places with a lot of rain all year long, one large rain barrel won’t be enough for several people. You’ll probably need to put in a cystern, if you want your rain water storage to last  more than a few days. And, of course, you'll need to  make adjustments for water filtering and purification.

But you can capture a fair amount of rainfall by putting in a valve in your barrel and diverting water by a series of pipes (PVC or hoses) and valves to other barrels. Once the bottom of the first barrel is full, it will start diverting water to more barrels. The great thing about this system is that it works by gravity, allowing rain water to go uninterrupted to the second (and subsequent) barrels. When it starts to rain, the debris from roof runoff falls into the first barrel and tends to stay there. All the other barrels are tightly topped so that there are no more openings where garbage may enter. After it rains, simply close off the valve to the second barrel and drain the first barrel. Use or save the water in the first barrel for general, non-consumption use. Next, empty it out of all visible trash and wipe it dry with a clean cloth. Then, replace the top screen and open the valve to the second barrel, and you’re then ready for the next rainfall.

Since small trash and tiny insects can pass through a regular wire barrier, you’ll need to put a fine-mesh screen over the opening into the catchment container.  You'll also have to purify your water. A guideline for water storage is a mix of 1/8 teaspoon, or about 8 drops, of regular, unscented chlorine bleach to each gallon of water for purification.   If the water has been sitting for more than a few days, agitate it back and forth before drinking. This puts the oxygen into it - something your body can’t do without.  But, drinking water sanitized by chlorine bleach can cause intestinal and other health problems after a few days. So, you’ll have to look for a better purifying method for your stored water. You’ll find a number of good quality filtration systems by searching the Internet. They can be expensive, so look for one that suits your budget.

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WHAT'S IN YOUR PANTRY?

[KITCHEN SAVVY - 10]

A few months ago, a friend of ours moved out of the house where we were staying in South Texas and headed for the Northwest coast. We had known him for seven years, and for short periods, we even shared the same house in two cities in different states. We were truly sad to see him go so far away in his camper-topped truck, accompanied only by his dog. We knew we would miss him a lot.

He planned to camp on the 2,500-mile trip and set out with his truck, filled to the brim with what he considered camping and survival essentials. We figured he would make the trip all right given his gypsy-like past, but we lit a candle and prayed for him, just the same. He did make it, of course, and is doing well out West, according to his occasional phone calls.

I mention our friend because he is a well-intentioned person like the most of us (at least, we try to be), but he made some miscalculations. His mistakes weren’t criminal or sinful in any way. He just thought that whatever he had been doing in the recent past wasn’t going to deliver the future he looked forward to. It was time to move on.

When our friend was almost ready to leave for his trip, he told everyone in the house (and there were a lot of us there) that he was going to leave us some food. And, he did so -- we all received a sort of inheritance. Each of us was given rations, consisting of one or two 25-pound bags of rice and about fifteen pounds of beans. It was clear that he had been using his large bedroom closet as a pantry and had filled it to the top with what he thought would be survival essentials in case some terrible disaster befell the U.S. or, possibly, the entire world. He even admitted to this motivation when he was questioned directly about why he had stored so much food.

Now, our friend didn’t have any well-paying jobs during the years that we knew him, so he certainly had to have been setting aside a good part of his pay each month to be able to buy so many victuals.

He also took lots of bags of beans and rice with him on his trip. The night before he left, he asked me for some recipes for some tasty dishes that he could make using those foods. I was happy to give him some of my favorite recipes – I eat a lot of rice and beans in many different forms. A few days later, when I went to put the rice he left in storage containers, I found that some little bugs were in the rice. Also, having tried to boil some of the beans, after 8 hours of cooking without softening up, I concluded that he had been buying and storing food for many months. (I resolved to see that the food was eaten somehow, and was able to save it by washing the rice several times before cooking – to rid it of any little bugs – and blending and refrying the beans after cooking them.)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not making fun of our friend. I, too, worry about survival, related to any number of possible national or international disaster scenarios and think that preparations are indicated. The point I want to make is that we need to be practical about what would, in fact, constitute our survival food and about how we can manage large quantities of emergency essentials, including importantly, the space where we plan to store so much food.

Thus, the topic of this page: “What’s in your pantry?” By this question, I mean to ask you about your readiness for an emergency.

If some catastrophe caused the rest of your family and you to stay in your home, to avoid a clear danger, would you have the right amount and kinds of food in your “survival pantry? And, would these items last your household for a week? --or a month? -- three months? -- or even longer?

You are probably intrigued by these questions, and I hope you’ll think about answering them for yourself.

My own situation probably isn’t much different than yours. Sometimes I don’t buy enough food to get through an entire week, and then have to return to the store just three or four days after my “weekly” grocery shopping. According to some surveys, that’s the same story for the large majority of Americans. Almost nobody has more than a week’s worth of food in their homes.

We need to do better than that if we are to protect our families from unexpected interruptions in public services for periods of time. As you are probably aware, our supermarkets don’t keep more than a few days of food on their shelves. So, even if a pending disaster were discovered beforehand (and having enough money at the time), we might find the supermarket shelves empty. In that case, heroic runs to buy large quantities of essentials would be useless.

I hope you have come to the same conclusion I have. Storage of the right kinds and amounts of food can be a lifesaver, but you need to be prepared some time before anything happens and have the means to maintain your stockpile for quite a while without having important losses. The only way to do that is to use and rotate foods in your pantry or on kitchen shelves on a regular basis.

And, oh, did I mention the fact that the electric power will also probably be out in a major emergency? That means, that whatever is in the refrigerator and freezer will have to be eaten in the first 24 or so hours or thrown out. So, after that goes, what’s stored in your pantry is all there is going to be available for your household. Safe public water supplies may also be interrupted and that, too, needs to be taken into consideration.

I decided to make my list of survival essentials and think about how I could acquire and store them. For me, survival foods are those with good nutritional value that my husband and I find acceptable and, of course, they must also be in a form that can be stored on shelves for months at a time. That's the only way there would be a food supply ready for us in an emergency. Of course, I do my shopping with a really limited food budget and, so, purchases would have to be done a little at a time. It would also be necessary to continue eating from my stock and then replacing it with new supplies as they are used up.

But there are some other considerations. First of all, our house is small, and we don’t have very much space to store a lot of food or anything else for that matter. Thinking about our needs for the future, I’ve asked my husband to build a storage room that would include a large pantry, as an addition to our house. I've also asked for a cistern, a water purifying system, and a wood stove. He agrees with my ideas, but he told me that, unfortunately, all these things will have to wait until next year – we don’t have the money right now. This further limits what I can buy and store as survival essentials. But I’m determined to begin planning, anyway.

Here, I’ll give you my list of essential foods for my survival pantry (but, of course, my idea of essentials may differ somewhat from yours):


- Grains: rice, popcorn, corn meal, wheat flour, and quick-cook oatmeal.

- Legumes: beans and lentils

- Peanut butter and jelly

- Dried pastas

- Soda crackers

- Dehydrated milk

- Instant/dehydrated potatoes

- Egg substitute (available in health food stores)

- Vinegar, mustard and ketchup

- Sugar, baking soda, salt, pepper, ground cinnamon, and garlic powder

- Vegetable cooking oil and olive oil

- Canned fruit and vegetables, including lots of tomato sauce

- Cans of tuna fish and sardines

- Black tea bags

- Big bags of dog food

- Other things: boxes of large kitchen matches, hand soap, all-purpose detergent, and toilet paper.

Based on this list, I’m going to start accumulating what I think would be a one-month’s supply of essentials for my husband, the dog, and me. That would definitely be an improvement over the way I’m doing things now. At any rate, I know that I can’t store more than that at this time.

What else do I want? A lot – but I’ll have to wait for most things. Here are some intermediate steps that I hope to do while I wait for next spring – and dream about having the storage room, and the cistern, and the kitchen garden.

- Buy and store some garden seeds.

- Get a wood rain barrel, right away (although there isn’t much rain except in the summer, here).

- Obtain a solar cooker and learn how to use it.

- Purchase an olive oil lamp, which can also use any cooking oil.

When I’ve got together all or, at least, most of these things, I’ll be closer to my goal of living a simpler life and being self-reliant in the face of unforeseen circumstances. Whether or not a major disaster ever occurs, the effort I'll make bringing together all these provisions will be a real challenge in self-sufficiency and a great personal satisfaction.

I hope that you, too, will start making plans to obtain and store food and water for a possible wide scale emergency. By knowing the properties, preparation and storage of basic foods and buying what you need for your survival pantry, your household and you will have a measure of security if a catastrophe occurs.

All this leads to my final point. Survival readiness actions, like acquiring and managing a stockpile of food, can lead to greater independence. However, these activities are clearly complicated to organize. Beyond that, emergency preparation, of any sort, goes against what we’ve been conditioned to believe and do in the past several decades. To be self-reliant, you have to be willing to work harder than we’ve become accustomed to. But, remember Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper. Let’s stop being grasshoppers all the time and, like the ant, spend some of our energy preparing ourselves for harder times.