M.D. CREEKMORE

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Here you will find articles about emergency preparedness and prepping including articles on prepper food, prepping checklists, home defense, bugging out, bugging in, and the best prepper gear ideas.

How to Store Water for Emergency Preparedness (and It’s Purification)

Prepper water storage tips

Without the threat of severe weather or the need for immediate emergency medical care, potable water will be your first concern following any type of disaster. I always advise my consulting clients to strive for at least three independent sources of water for cooking and drinking. For example, stored water, a water well, and a rainwater collection system.

I cannot stress enough the need for reliable water sources. Without water, most people will die in only 3-4 days – a lot sooner if the weather is hot and you have no shelter, or you have to do a lot of physical labor or activity. So how much water do you need for emergency preparedness and how to you store it?

The answer to the question is that a person needs about two quarts of water per day to stay healthy barring extreme weather or a lot of physical exertion. Adding a minimum of one gallon of water for cooking, cleaning, and sanitation, a medium-sized family of four requires almost 30 gallons of water per week at a minimum just to stay alive. That is around 1,440 gallons per year. This water can be stored in a number of way including five-gallon water jugs for smaller amounts and cisterns for larger amounts of water storage for emergency preparedness… 

Unfortunately, most preppers do not have enough room to store 1,440 gallons of water. Therefore, I suggest that you strive for, at a minimum, 55 gallons per person. If you live in an arid region of the country, I suggest you double or triple this amount.

You will also need to have several different methods of water purification available to you. We will go into detail about water purification methods in the following paragraphs, as well as how to store water long-term.

A Death by Contaminated Water: A few years ago, my grandfather told me a story that illustrates how deadly contaminated water can be. It happened in the summer of 1934 when he was only 9 years old. He was out in the fields gathering corn with his dad, brothers, and sister.

He said it had to be at least 100 degrees because the sun was bright in the sky and the sweat burned his eyes as it dripped from his forehead. His eleven-year-old sister got thirsty, and instead of going to the house to get water, she drank from a nearby stream. She died a few days later.

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that a cow from a nearby farm had died upstream from where she drank, contaminating the water. They used the water from that same spot for years with no ill effects, so they thought it was safe, but it was not.

From U.S. Army Field Manual 21-76

By drinking non-potable water, you may contract diseases or swallow organisms that can harm you. Examples of such diseases or organisms are:

  • Dysentery – Severe, prolonged diarrhea with bloody stools, fever, and weakness.
  • Cholera and typhoid – You may be susceptible to these diseases regardless of inoculations.
  • Flukes – Stagnant, polluted water – especially in tropical areas – often contains blood flukes. If you swallow flukes, they will bore into the bloodstream, live as parasites, and cause disease.
  • Leeches – If you swallow a leech, it can hook onto the throat passage or inside the nose. It will suck blood, create a wound, and move to another area. Each bleeding wound may become infected.

Moreover, pollutants from human activities often find their way into the water – e.g., trash, animal feces, fertilizers, herbicides, oils, heavy metals, salts, and pollutants from vehicles etc. It’s impossible to tell with 100% certainty what water is safe to drink without laboratory testing.

There are, however, some general guidelines that can help. Running water is generally safer than still water. Below are tips to keep in mind as you look for water:

  • Look for clear water.
  • Avoid water that has algae growing in it.
  • Avoid discolored water.
  • Avoid water from marshes/swamps.
  • Avoid cloudy water.
  • Avoid water that has an odor.
  • Avoid floodwater.
  • Water always flows downhill.
  • Listen for the sound of frogs.
  • Never eat snow without first melting it to avoid speeding up hypothermia.
  • Freshly fallen snow on a clean surface is fine but old snow might be contaminated with bacteria.
  • Never drink water from a lake or stream that is near or downstream from agricultural land, factories or mines.
  • Rainwater is perfectly drinkable as it falls from the sky.
  • The safest way to treat questionable water is to first boil it and then filter it.

Water Filters

berkey filterThe spring water where I live runs in a constant flow from the side of the mountain and it is as clear as bottled water; however, I will not drink it or use it for cooking without first running it through my Berkey water filter. A good water filter is necessary, and one of the very first survival preps that you should invest in. I suggest that your first choice is a Berkey water filter system.

My father and grandfather used to drive out to my place most weekends and fill their jugs from the spring – they drank and cooked using the water without any filtration or other purification. They have never had any trouble. Still, I prefer to filter all of my water before drinking.

The Berkey filters are extremely effective at removing pathogenic bacteria, cysts, parasites, chemical contaminants, and impurities. The elements have an indefinite shelf life and will filter at least 3,000 gallons of water before needing replacement. My filters are stored in zip-lock bags inside a small plastic tote.

Boiling Water

boiling water for purification

Boiling water is one of the surest methods of water purification. This method of water purification will effectively kill viruses and bacteria. However, boiling will not remove chemicals and other pollutants such as lead, oil, and fuel.

To purify water by boiling, all you need is a heat source, a suitable container, and water. Bring the water to a rolling boil to kill any viruses or bacteria that may be present. Contrary to what a lot of survival “experts” say, you do not have to boil the water for five to ten minutes in order to kill any viruses and bacteria that it might be harboring. All that is required is that the water reaches a rolling boil.

Warning: boiled water tastes stale; however, the taste is improved greatly by pouring the water back and forth between two containers to re-oxygenate it.

Sodis Method of Water Purification

The Sodis method of water purification is one of the simplest and most cost-effective water purification methods available to the prepper or anyone needing potable water; however, like boiling, the Sodis water purification method does not remove chemicals, metals or other solids. All you need are plastic (PET) or glass bottles, water, and sunlight. The image below from https://goo.gl/m03zMY explains it better than I can in words (image used with permission).

Water Purification Tabs

Water purification tabs have been used by hikers and the military for years. They are a lightweight and portable way to effectively purify water for safe consumption. However, like boiling and the Sodis method, these tabs will not remove chemicals or metals.

The military suggests adding two tablets to a quart of water and letting it sit for thirty minutes or more before drinking. However, there are a number of different brands of water purification tablets on the market and you should follow the exact instructions for the brand you are using.

Purification with Bleach

water purification with bleachWater purification with bleach is one of those methods detailed in every survival book and any article that even hints at ways to purify water. However, it is not my first choice. If possible, I would use another method such as boiling or Sodis.

Water treated with bleach (only use unscented bleach) tastes like, well like bleach. Long-term use may lead to an increased cancer risk. I do not like it and will not use it unless no other alternative is available. Add four drops of unscented bleach (or two teaspoons per ten gallons) to each two-liter of water and let stand for 30 minutes before using.

Making Urine Drinkable through Distillation

Urine can be made drinkable (and clean) via simple distillation, which will also work for seawater. However, the downside to distillation is that it takes a significant amount of energy to boil the water for the duration required.

Pre-filtering

No matter what water purification method you use, it is a good idea to “pre-filter” any dirty or murky water. You can use a coffee filter, a clean shirt, or a bandana. This will help remove any larger particles from the water, making it more potable and increasing the life of water filters used.

Tips for Storing Water in a 55-Gallon Plastic Barrel

55 gallon water drum for catching rain waterAs for water storage, I have six five-gallon containers that I bought at Wal-Mart in the sporting goods department. I have also set up a 200-gallon rainwater catchment system and another 55-gallon food-grade barrel that I installed to catch water runoff from the roof of my chicken coop. I use this water for my chickens, but of course, if needed, I could filter and drink it too.

If you live in one of the drier desert regions, water would be a major concern and that may necessitate the storage of thousands of gallons of water for an emergency. A rainwater catchment can be as sophisticated as the one pictured below or as simple as purchasing a livestock watering tank or kiddie pool and catching the rainwater from your downspouts.

You can also rig tarps or plastic sheeting to funnel the rainwater into the containers. Do not store water in used five-gallon milk jugs. They are not strong enough for long-term storage and will break down and leak.

The five-gallon containers sold in the sporting goods section of most department stores work great as do the 55-gallon food-grade plastic drums. Just be sure that the drums are clean and contain no harmful chemicals before filling. If you must use small containers, emptied 2-liter soda bottles work well. They are stronger than the aforementioned milk jugs, have better lids, and are more convenient to use.

rainwater-catchement-system

A Note about Tap Water for Long-Term Storage

tap water long-term storageIf you are storing tap water from a municipal water system, there is usually no need to add bleach as suggested by some writers. Water from the municipal tap already contains enough chlorine to prevent any bacterial growth and can be stored without any other additives.

When putting water away for long-term storage, I use a Water Preserver Concentrate from Amazon.com instead of bleach. Water preserver concentrate will extend the storage life to up to five years.

Choosing the Right Retreat Property to Ensure Water Independence

When buying a retreat property, your first consideration should be to secure a reliable, non-grid dependent water source. The best source would be a deep well (have it tested before using, especially if it’s an old well). The next best option would be a full-time spring. And finally, the next best option would be a river or creek, or even a pond or lake.

All water from ponds, rivers, and streams should be treated as if it is contaminated with the worst pathogens, just to be on the safe side. Better safe than sorry, I always say.

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How Do You Handle Emergency Food Storage?

by Moira M

As I write this, we are in the middle of Winter Storm Jonas. There is 13″ of snow in the yard and the closest paved road is five miles away. I haven’t been off the property in five days and did not make a trip to the store to stock up for this storm. Doom and gloom time? Not really. The power was out for about 12 hours this morning. We had coffee, bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast courtesy of the propane camp stove. If necessary, we could wait here happily for the next week or two eating a variety of foods with or without electricity. I always wonder how it would be if we ever had to put our preps to actual use. So far I’m pretty pleased with how we have handled the little mini-crises we have had.

What is the best way to handle emergency food storage? The answer is different based on your situation. Your budget, your family size, your storage area, your special dietary needs, and your location all affect how you handle emergency food storage. But there are some common ideas that everyone can use.

The first rule is that anything is better than nothing. If you don’t have any food in the house, you are completely unprepared for emergencies. While some people may not believe there are people with no food in the house, consider college students (especially in dorms with meal plans for the cafeteria) and singles living in large cities. Everyone needs to have at least a three-day supply of food for something as simple as a hurricane or blizzard. Even a case of the flu could keep you stranded at your house for a few days.

Four Factors of Food Storage

It is important to consider four factors with food storage: shelf-life, calories, nutrition and morale. All four play a vital role in emergency food storage.

Commercially prepared food is usually marked with an expiration or best by date. Many people consider it safe to eat foods after the actual expiration date as long as the packaging is secure, and the food looks and smells good. If you were starving after a disaster, I’m sure you would agree. However, that would be one of the worst times to get food poisoning. Obviously, the food doesn’t instantly go bad at midnight on the date stamped on the package, but how long after is questionable and likely varies from can to can. Home processed foods may be even more in question due to the many factors that can influence the process of canning, dehydrating, sealing, etc. Choosing foods with the longest shelf life and using the oldest food, while replacing it with newer food is a good plan.

The current suggested diet in America is 2,000 calories per day for an adult. Many diets, designed to help lose weight, recommend that you not dip below 1,200 calories per day. You could possibly aim for 1,500 calories per day as long as the adults were not performing a lot of physical activity, such as waiting for a storm to subside. Those performing physical activity such as clearing debris from roads, cutting and splitting firewood, and hiking may require in excess of 2,000 calories per day. If the disaster was very short-termed then the calorie deficit would likely not matter much, but over the long-term physical problems would appear.

Everyone should be familiar with the effects malnutrition has on the body. Like calorie intake, nutrition probably doesn’t matter very much over a short-term disaster. In long-term disasters, it may matter very much. Proper nutrition is important to good health. Likely if you were unable to resupply with good food due to a long-term emergency, you would also not have access to good medical care either.

Morale is often overlooked in food storage discussions. Remember that mental health is important as well, so be sure to include items that your family likes as well as some treats as part of the supply.

How Do You Decide What to Store?

The simplest method to start storing food is to simply pick up a few extra items each time you shop. Choose items you use regularly that have a shelf life of at least one year. When you buy another of that item, you put the newest one in storage and move the older one into the cabinet for use. This has the advantage of being easy to do and allows you to take advantage of items you find on sale. However, it may result in a bunch of assorted ingredients that may not make a normal meal. Gummy bears, green beans and a tin of sardines is better than nothing, though.

Another fairly simple method is to choose one meal your family likes and on each shopping trip, purchase the ingredients to make it three times (or six, or twelve, etc.). This allows you to build a stock of complete meals that your family enjoys. It is flexible in that you can purchase as many sets of the meal as you can afford at the time. Over the course of a year, you would have several days’ worth of a variety of meals that your family likes. You may not be able to take advantage of sales as easily, but it is a pretty solid plan.

An easy, but more expensive way to amass food storage is to purchase commercially prepared freeze-dried/dehydrated meals. You’ve seen these meals in your sidebar advertising if you do an internet search for anything related to prepping. They can be found in catalogs and in the camping section of Wal-mart and sporting goods stores. You can purchase one meal or a sealed container with a multi-day, multi-person supply depending on your needs and budget. Most of these allow you to open the bag, add hot water and wait a few minutes. Those who like these meals note that they are easy, relatively light-weight, very long-term storage, and delicious. Doubters point out that they are expensive and may contain questionable ingredients for preservation.

The final food storage method I’ll address here is what I’ll call the basic ingredient method. You purchase items like flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, powdered milk, and so on. Even more basic would be hard wheat berries, dried corn or popcorn, and other grains which must be ground with a mill before use. The original items generally have a much longer storage life than a commercially prepared mix. They are versatile because you can make many things with these ingredients. The downside is that if you must store recipes unless you and everyone with you can cook from scratch without them. These items generally require more preparation, longer cooking time and perhaps more equipment compared to the simplicity of opening a can of prepared soup or adding hot water to the camper meal noted above. If you choose this method (and I recommend it as part of your plan), remember to have a trial run of the recipes from time to time. You need to make sure you have what you need. In a disaster, you can’t run to the store for milk and butter, or anything else.

My recommendation is to do all of these together and monitor your supplies to make sure you can make a variety of meals in various circumstances. A friend of ours approached food storage simply. He bought several month’s worth of rice and bouillon cubes. I will admit that this will keep bellies full. However, after a few days, I’m guessing they’ll want something other than rice and bouillon. It is great that he did something – which is again better than nothing! Now that he has taken that step, he can add more items bit by bit. Canned or dehydrated meats and vegetables, plus some sort of bread would be great additions and allow for a bit of variety in his meals.

At first, I looked down on the fancy freeze-dried meals for prepping. Who really needs easy beef stroganoff in a disaster? I can make bread from scratch, thank you very much. Then I realized that these meals are the take-out/frozen pizza night solution for an emergency. If you’ve had a busy day clearing a giant tree that fell in your yard, do you really want to make a meal from scratch? Instead, you can do something simpler and quicker, whether it is boiling pasta to serve with canned sauce or adding the boiling water to the easy beef stroganoff. I’ve tried several of these meals now, and they really are quite delicious. Say what you want about powdered eggs. These people add meat and other flavoring, and they are wonderful. It doesn’t line up with my plan to eat fewer processed foods, but there is a place for that convenience in my food storage. Using all of the methods together gives you the greatest flexibility. You get complete meals, variety and flexibility, and convenience all in your food storage.

How Is Your Food Packaged?

This is also a good time to consider how your survival food is packaged. We’ve all seen the massive containers of food in bunkers on movies. A number ten can is contains about 110 ounces of food. If you don’t have access to refrigeration, you have to eat it all before it spoils. That may be possible if there are a lot of you, but not as easy if you are a couple or small family. The small amount of money you save by buying one larger can instead of eight smaller cans really isn’t worth it at that point. Also, you can more easily transport, share or trade your supplies if they are in smaller containers. (Some of you may be thinking that you’d never share in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Remember that it may be a blizzard and your elderly neighbors ask to borrow a can or two of soup to tide them over a few days. It is probably a better idea to build neighborhood goodwill by helping and a small can says you had a little extra where a bigger can may identify you as a prepper, and thus a target, in a real disaster).

The food must be securely packaged against air, humidity and pests. If the original packaging isn’t secure, repackage the food. This allows you to break up bulk purchases into smaller portions. I love to use my FoodSaver to seal food in mason jars or in plastic bags. The sealed bags can be placed in food safe buckets to deter pests. I’ve seen a tip recently to pour salt into the bottom of the bucket before adding the sealed bags. The salt absorbs moisture and is food safe in case of ingestion. Depending on the storage condition, the salt could be used for food preservation in the future. Many people use mylar bags with vacuum sealers and/or oxygen absorbers to store food in various quantities. These mylar bags are often stored in food safe buckets as well. We’ve stored rice and other such food in clean, dry two liter bottles. There are many options. Consider what you are storing, where you are storing it, and how you’ll be using it. Do your research and actually test your methods now while you can go back to the grocery store if your plan fails.

How Do You Track Food Storage?

I prefer to use a spreadsheet. I have columns for quantity, category, description, expiration date, size, calories and total calories (quantity times calories). I have tabs for home canning, professional canning and other goods. This allows me to see how much I have of each item and calculate how many day’s worth of calories I have. I’m able to sort by expiration date and know what I need to work into the menu over the next week or so. I can review the list and see what I need to restock on the next store trip. You can use the spreadsheet to re-inventory the food storage.

You can place a printout of the inventory in your food storage area so that you can update it as you add or use items. You can also put a white board or chalk board up to note added or used items and update your spreadsheets when you have the time. If other people in the household will be getting items from your food storage, then you should make it as simple as possible for them to record updates.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure that you do track your food storage in some way. Be sure to use items or donate them to charity before they expire. Be able to calculate how long your food storage will stretch. You may be unhappily surprised at how fast it will go!

What Do You Need Other Than Food In Food Storage?

There are many things other than food that you may need for food storage that isn’t food:

  • Vitamins – Vitamins may be a good option in an emergency when you may not be getting the proper nutrition on a regular basis. This might be even more important for children and expecting mothers.
  • Meds – Everyone should have a good first aid kit plus medicines to treat the usual illnesses, and the best place to keep it may be with food storage. It may be helpful to at least store medicines to treat acid reflux, indigestion, and other food related problems with your food storage. Plus, burns and cuts are known to happen in normal kitchen tasks, and may be more frequent when cooking with alternative fuels and light sources.
  • Grain Mill – If you store wheat berries or corn kernels, you would use this to grind them into flour or corn meal. The wheat berries and corn kernels have a longer shelf life than flour and corn meal but naturally require more work on your part. Electric models are easier when you have power, manual are useful in power failures.
  • Meat Grinder – If you want to process meat into ground meat or sausage, this is the tool. Again, electric models are easier when you have power, manual are useful in power failures.
  • Canning Jars and Equipment – If the power fails, you may be able to salvage perishables in your refrigerator and freezer by canning them. You can use a pressure canner or water bath canner with alternative fuel sources like propane and wood fires. For really long-term disasters you would need canning jars to preserve food to last all year.
  • Dehydrator – If you have a dehydrator that you can run on alternative power, you may be able to use it to salvage refrigerator and freezer items as well. In the right weather conditions, you can dehydrate food on screens in the sunshine. Note – laying the thinly sliced food on one screen will work, but if you get a little fancier, you can hinge two framed screens together. This way bugs don’t start a conga line on your dried tomatoes.
  • Seeds – If something interrupts the supply chain you may need to grow your own food. Make sure that they are heirloom seeds so that you can use the seeds from this year’s crop to grow next year.
  • Livestock – This isn’t a possibility for some, due to where they live. I suggest starting with a few hens, which make great gateway livestock. Hens can provide fresh eggs, which is a great ongoing, fresh and nutritious food. Goats, sheep and cows can provide milk and meat. Remember that a dairy animal is a big commitment, because they must be milked once or twice a day without fail.
    Note – you do not need a rooster to get eggs. Hens lay eggs with or without a rooster. If a rooster is present, you may get fertilized eggs. This is great if you want to make more chickens, but traumatizing if your child is making brownies (maybe scarred-for-life traumatizing – I know someone who won’t eat eggs after this sort of thing and it has been thirty years). I’ve heard it said that if you refrigerate fertilized eggs on day one, nothing develops and you’ll never know the difference. It is a matter of personal preference whether to get a rooster (can make more chickens to resupply meat and eggs), or not (no additional chickens, but also no “half baby chick/half egg” and no crowing). A compromise would be two coops or a divided coop.
  • Pet food – my dogs would be ecstatic if I ran out of dog food and had to feed them people food. Other people’s dogs have allergies that would cause trouble. Lay in a supply for any household pets and livestock you have.
  • Lanterns, Oil Lamps, or Candles – If you want to cook early or late in the day, you’ll need to be able to see to cook, eat, and clean up after!
  • Paper goods – I generally avoid the waste of disposable plates, napkins, cutlery and cups. However, in an extended power outage there are times you need a break from the dishes. This is especially true if you are on a well, and have to use a generator or hand pump to get water (perhaps more so if you have to carry it from a river and filter/boil it first).

Random Tips

Practice cooking, especially with foods you store for emergencies, but really any practice is better than none. An emergency is really not the best time to learn. You may waste food you need to last through the emergency. Also, you will identify things you need to add to your food storage, such as spices, water supply, alternative cooking methods and so on.

Plan meals to reduce waste. If you don’t have access to refrigeration, only cook enough for one meal. If you can refrigerate foods (like outdoors in winter, in a sealed container in a spring or river) then plan to have vegetables, with or without meat that can be combined into a soup or stew the next day. This is good advice generally. Check your perishable food once or twice a week and plan a meal to use up produce, dairy, and leftovers before they spoil.

Include foods that don’t require cooking. If you go camping and rely on a campfire for cooking, you understand the need to have food that won’t require you to keep a fire going all day long. You may want to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, peanut butter crackers, along with fruit (fresh or dried) and other such foods. This is also great for if you’ve had a long day working and just need to eat as quickly and simply as you can.

When camping, I like to keep cleanup simple. After dishing up the food, I fill an empty pot with water. This can be the cast iron Dutch oven you just made dinner in or a spare pot. When you’re finished eating, you have hot water ready to wash dishes!

What Do I Make With Food Storage?

I suggest everyone make a folder of recipes to keep with the food storage. That way you will have a custom set of recipes that you have everything to prepare (because you have been storing it, right?) and that your family likes.

Old cookbooks are great as well. They assume that you will cook with original ingredients instead of mixes. They are also less likely to include modern electrical appliances like microwaves and food processors.

How to bake over a camp fire: I use a cast iron Dutch oven. The edges of the lid are curved upwards so that coals can be added to the top for baking. Using a lid-lifter (a cast iron stick with a hook on the end) the lid can be carefully removed and replaced so that food can be checked without coals falling onto the food. Mine came with a small rack that fits inside the Dutch oven. A metal pie plate can be placed on top of the rack to create a baking atmosphere in the Dutch oven and prevent the bottom from scorching before the food has baked through. If you don’t have a rack, you can improvise  With a little practice it works very well.

Here are some recipes from my collection. Dehydrated or canned versions of various ingredients may be substituted.

Survival Bread

2 cups oats
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 cup sugar
3 Tbl honey
3 Tbl water
1 pkg. lemon or orange Jell-O (3oz)

Combine oats, powdered milk and sugar. In a medium pan, mix water, Jell-O and honey. Bring to a boil. Add dry ingredients. Mix well. (If the dough is too dry, add a small amount of water a teaspoon at a time.) Shape dough into a loaf. (About the size of a brick.) Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Cool. Wrap in aluminum foil to store. This bread will keep indefinitely and each loaf is the daily nutrients for one adult. To prepare this over a fire, place the loaf in a pie pan on a rack inside a Dutch oven. Place over coals and move coals to the lid of the oven to bake.

Recipe Note – I had to add quite a bit of water to make this into a dough – I’d say about a half cup. Also, this could be made in a Dutch Oven over the fire if desired.

Cornbread

1/2 cup butter (1 stick – divided)
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk plus 1 Tbs. White Vinegar, let stand a few minutes; or just use the milk as-is)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
Optional – 1/3 cup sugar (I don’t put sugar in my cornbread, but some people do)

Begin by preheating the cast iron skillet over the fire while you get the cornbread mixed. Melt 6 Tbs. butter in the skillet. Keep an eye on the butter so it doesn’t scorch.

In a bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, baking soda, cornmeal, flour and salt. Pour in the melted 6 Tbs. butter from the skillet. Stir to combine thoroughly, but don’t beat.

Put the remaining 2 Tbs. butter in the skillet. Slide it around with a spoon or rotate the skillet to coat the entire bottom and about an inch up the sides. Don’t burn yourself. Once the butter is melted and the skillet coated, pour in the cornbread mixture. Put the skillet over the low coals and put the lid on. Add coals to the top. Check it after about 15 minutes. It may take up to twenty, but you don’t want to let it burn.

You may have to turn the skillet during cooking or move it to warmer/cooler spots of the coals as it cooks to maintain an even temperature. Using a lid lifter, carefully check for doneness and remove from heat when ready. See my earlier posts for a more thorough explanation of baking with cast iron.

To bake this cornbread in the oven, you follow the same recipe. Place the cast iron skillet with 2 Tbs. butter in the cold oven and preheat to 375. Mix the remaining ingredients and carefully pour into preheated skillet. Bake for 15-20 minutes until crust is lightly browned (and usually cracks will appear in the crust). You don’t use a lid on the skillet when baking in the oven.

Basic Bread

5-6 cups all purpose flour
2 packages of active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp. yeast from a jar)
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
2 cups warm water (120-130 degrees)
Cornmeal
1 slightly beaten egg white
1 Tbs. water

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, the yeast, the salt and the warm water (the water is a little warmer because you are compensating for room temperature flour).Stir thoroughly to combine ingredients, scraping the edge of the bowl as you go. Continue to stir until thoroughly mixed and the gooey dough begins to pull apart in strands when you pull the spoon away. Mix in another 1-2 cups flour. You want to use as little flour as necessary to get the dough ready for kneading. You’ll add more flour as you knead and too much flour causes all kinds of problems in baking bread – tough crust, too dense bread, etc.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. Add remaining flour a little at a time when the dough gets sticky as you knead.  Shape dough into a ball. Place dough ball in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a cloth and put in a warm place to rise.

After the dough has roughly doubled in size, punch it down (push it down with your hands) and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide it in half and cover with a cloth. Allow it to rest for about 10 minutes.

If you are able to bake this bread in a Dutch oven with the pie pan on a rack arrangement, that may work best. If not, put it directly in the Dutch oven and bake it – you’ll just need to flip it half way through cooking. Bake over the fire for about 30 minutes and add more time as needed.

Chicken Corn Chowder

3-4 medium potatoes or can of potatoes
1 onion or dehydrated onion flakes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can corn
1 can chicken (can be omitted if desired)

For fresh potatoes, boil potatoes and onion in just enough water to cover potatoes. When potatoes are tender, reduce heat to simmer and add remaining ingredients. Drain corn and chicken first, if desired to have a thicker soup. A bit of cornstarch may be added to thicken soup if desired.

If you use canned potatoes, simply add all ingredients along with all liquid from cans and simmer until warm and flavors mingle. Add a bit of cornstarch to thicken if desired.

For either recipe, add salt, pepper and garlic salt to taste.

Note that other ingredients may be substituted, depending on what is available. Also, this recipe may be placed in a pie crust for a delicious pot pie. Use what you have and try to mix flavors that sound compatible to you.

Chili

1.5 pounds ground beef (venison, pork sausage, or a combination would work too)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped (or sweet peppers, or add hot peppers too if you like them)
2 qt. diced tomatoes
1 pt. tomato sauce
1 can kidney beans, drained (completely optional for those who don’t put beans in chili!)
3 T chili powder (you can use a chili seasoning packet if you prefer)
1 T garlic salt
a few fresh chopped tomatoes from the garden

Get a good bed of coals. Place a sturdy grill over the coals or set up a tripod or other cooking ensemble. Suspend a cast iron Dutch Oven over the coals and start cooking.

Sauté the onions, garlic and peppers. Brown the ground beef or other meats. Then add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans and spices. Stir together. Let the chili simmer, stirring occasionally

Let the chili simmer slowly, stirring occasionally. Make sure it is over a good, warm spot on the fire, but not boiling violently or sticking. Let it cook down until it thickens and the flavors merge. You can eat it after a half hour, or let it simmer for hours. This makes great leftovers if properly refrigerated.

Approaching Food Storage with Skillet Stretchers

by Denise H

Skillet stretchers

When I first started my food storage and rotation, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of food necessary to feed an average family of four for an extended time. I took the yearly plan, broke it down, and then multiplied it by the numbers of persons who would likely be on my doorstep.

Let’s think for a few moments about these challenges – I know that those who periodically depend on my assistance now, given an emergency, will likely be in need again. I certainly need to provide for my family, however, there are those who are simply unable to be prepared due to extreme limits in their abilities. My extended family includes those with whom I have regular contact, as well as “blood relatives” through a common Savior.
Some of those, have finally discovered their own need, to make some preparations for those around them.

I have tried to encourage them with information and short-cuts to deal with storage challenges. The more people who are better prepared, in the event of interruptions in services and supplies, the less likelihood of a severe life-threatening lack of basics. Preparing for an unknown number of persons presents challenges, as does preparing for larger- family needs. Somewhere I may have to draw the line, but for the short- term I have chosen to prepare what I can against the day of a lack of what are presently easily obtained supplies.

A disaster is very real when it affects an individual you know, or where you are. TEOLAWKI-may be a family emergency where all funds must be diverted to assist someone with critical need…or it can be a regional event, like one we experienced a few years back with a massive ice storm. No one came to feed us, or to verify we had essentials, during those 10 -12 days we were without power. Nor did we expect it.

I looked at serving sizes, by the American Diabetic Association, looked at the usual amounts we consume of certain foods to determine if these amounts would be sufficient, and decided they were a rough guide for the actual amounts we would require, to keep from starvin’ plum to death, but would not be sufficient to do a days labor in our garden or some other type of physical work. The doubling of recommended amounts is closer to what we will require for more than mere existence.

We have limited resources and space to store foods due to heat and humidity. I began by determining how long our basic staples lasted. (Flour, sugar, cornmeal, tea, coffee, pasta, rice, oatmeal, beans)Then, I began making a list of the foods we could eat regularly, by easily changing the flavors with various seasonings. Food fatigue is an on-going battle for our family.

Breakfast is not a problem. It is the meal we can eat any time of the day. A little flour, baking powder, sugar or Splenda, oil, cinnamon and egg powder, with water to mix -will make pancakes. Syrup, honey, jelly or peanut butter are all good with them. Oats can be made with sugar/ Splenda / stevia, and olive oil in 5-8 min, topped with a little sugar, cinnamon, or raisins…or peanut butter added for more protein. Rice, can be served with cinnamon, sugar, and milk as well. The oil added to each should be the very best Olive, Grape Seed or Palm Oil you can purchase to assist in the balancing of the fats in your body. Cheaper oils will exact a price on your health. We discovered this when I used peanut and corn oil for a month…and labs were done at the end of that month. We corrected this with the return to Olive oil.

Next, I began working from the list of staples to determine how much of each was required to make each entre’. I noted that textures and flavor of the famous one box dinners were in two items, the pasta/rice variation, and the spices. Many of the additives in those diners were un-digestible to certain members of our family, and no one wanted to continue with the boxed versions available. We were often hungry after consuming the allotted portion. Most were too salty and too spicy unless we added more pasta and meat. I found I could kill two birds with one stone- cutting the intolerant items and adding portion size.

I made list after list, and lists to keep up with the lists- until I found this quick method for making skillet stretcher meals. It has made buying long-term food options easier, our food dollars stretch further and has given me a method to use to prepare ever-changing meals on a daily basis that are both nutritious and filling.

Lists? Oh yeah! Have they ever changed! Now, I have an urgent list-things for immediate replacement, a list of monthly needs and a list for quarterly needs. I rotate my long term foods, with a regular use for the variety they provide. Bought canned goods, meats, and most vegetables are rotated, by date as well. Tomatoes, tomato products, and fruits that are canned get special attention, but most fruits for longer term storage are dehydrated, with raisins, prunes, dehydrated tropical fruit mix and coconut being our favorites.

Our pantry is based on staple foods.. flour, sugar, rice, oats, pasta, beans, coffee, tea, seasonings. Healthy cooking oils, (which I daily use in the place of butter. And creamed shortening) round out the list. I keep a certain amount of basics out for daily use. I use these with the meats I have available from fresh purchases, harvested or canned meats, and a supply of condiments, seasonings and preferred vegetables.

Monthly usage amounts include Coffee 2 lbs, tea 100ct bags,10-15 lb.SR Flour, baking powder,5 lbs sugar, a 550 serv.(generic) Splenda, 5 lb cornmeal, 6 lbs oats, 8 lbs rice, 10 lbs pasta, approx. 30-35 lbs of assorted meats, 20-36 oz Olive oil, and 24 oz grapeseed oil.. 40 cans vegetables, Seasonings: the one we use most is cinnamon@ about 3 oz per month. Rounding it out is,2-24 oz natural peanut butter, 2 each grape and strawberry jelly,4 doz eggs, 3-6 packs each of ramen, mac and cheese, and chicken noodle soup.

I have 4 lists I use for preparing a meal/main entre’.

The first one is all meats and Oils…I include every meat we like and have available some part of the year. Canned 3-5 oz varieties of ham, chicken, tuna, turkey, kipper, sardines, larger cans of Spam, Treet, Tripe.. salmon, processed meats, polish and summer sausage, and fresh meats of all varieties…pork- loin, bacon, sausage, and ham. beef, steak, cubed or roast, chicken or turkey parts or whole Chicken stock, beef stock, bone broth, and chicken, beef and tomato bullion.Oil selections include canola, olive oil and grape seed oil.

The second list is all grains- kinds of pasta of spaghetti, rotini, shells, both large and small, elbows and bow-ties. three kinds of rice, white, Jasmine and brown and egg noodles, Ramen….a few boxes of mac and cheese.

List three includes seasonings and prepared sauce mixes. Spaghetti, chili, and taco seasoning powder packs, with the ingredients these mixes call for in basic prep. instructions including …Spaghetti sauce, tomato products of all kinds, diced, sauce and paste, gravy and white sauce mix, sea salt and a high potassium salt replacer, black, red and white pepper, dehydrated powdered vegetables, onions, bell pepper, garlic, celery, carrots, basil, parsley, sage, oregano, bay leaves, nutmeg, cinnamon…and items to make glazes from- honey, molasses, Karo syrup, red plum jelly, orange extract, worcheschire sauce, soy sauce, canned prepared chili, green chili peppers sweet relish, sliced pickles of two or three kinds.

List four includes vegetables to add to main entree’s – this list sometimes overlaps…When this happens I double or triple the amount, if possible on that item. This list includes mushrooms, tomatoes, whole kernel corn, sweet peas, carrots, olives, mixed vegetables, dehydrated or frozen vegetable mixes, canned beans of several kinds.

In addition to these to be included into the entree’s, you will need additional vegetables for a side dish…instant potatoes, dehydrated vegetables, canned vegetables., and a fruit for a dessert if wanted. All this is, completely dependent on the number of persons being served and your desires for that meal.

When I buy, I buy maybe 4 of each item, enough to have the item 4 times, like I am preparing for a large family gathering. No one becomes worried they will be unable to obtain pasta after they see my cart. I make it a policy to never clear the shelf of an item unless I have an immediate need. When 2 of the purchased items are used, I put it on the list to buy 4 or 6 of them again, always rotating…the just stocked with the oldest on hand. Once I have a months supply of meals, then I begin to obtain the amount I can fit in a container for longer term storage.. and prepare it accordingly. once and then again….after 6-9 months, I begin to rotate this as well, depending on how I prepared it, and what I have learned in the process.

Most of my recipes for a skillet stretcher begin with 3/4 lb of pasta, 3/4 lb of ground chuck or turkey, browned in olive oil….To either I will add a selection of a sauce…white, a gravy or tomato based, then spices, then select vegetables… to add into the dish or to serve as a side.. This amount will make 4 reasonable portions which include at least one vegetable, but often 3 or four. Usually, I serve one vegetable on the side, and two if the portions of the entre’ are smaller.

Spaghetti, made with seasoned ground chuck, mushrooms, diced tomatoes, dehydrated bell peppers, onions, fresh or powdered garlic served, with string beans on the side, is just one of our favorites. If we desire it to be Mexican inspired I’ll add a small can of green chilies or a small can of mild rotel in addition.
No spaghetti sauce? No problem, spaghetti seasoning packets are easy to store, to use you will need tomato sauce or paste and diced tomatoes…. a little extra Italian spice either pre-mixed or just a little basil and parsley. If you have tomato powder, it could be used in place of sauce or paste.

It is really easy to start this system. Using this method can enable you to quickly boost supplies of entire meals. Start with two or three of your favorite stretcher meals, obtain supplies to prepare each of them 4-6 times. Prepare them twice, restock for another set of three – six meals with the money you saved. I try to buy in multiples of 6, but will buy in 12-24 if sufficient stock is on the shelf, especially when it is a versatile ingredient.

“Don’t know what you want” kind of a night? Then start with little choices, shells, rotini, elbows or bow-ties…chicken beef, pork, ham… Do you need something with creamy, spicy, tomato or cheesy sauce base? You can make something to suit everyone with the same basic ingredients, just alter the seasonings. To get you started, here are three recipes we use. These are specifically for my family if you like highly spiced foods add more seasonings accordingly.

Basic Hamburger Stretcher Skillet. Larger family recipe.

  • ….In small saucepan.. put measured Rotini, 3/4 lb (1-1 1/4), Add warm water, Use just enough to cover contents.
  • Add 1 Tbsp Olive oil and 1 TBSP. chicken bullion powder,
  • Cook… at a low simmer for 7-10 min. until just tender.
  • Allow… to sit in remaining water, while meat finishes browning and Do not drain.
  • Next:.. In large skillet.. put Hamburger meat,3/4 lb-(1 1/2) lb. chuck or ground turkey,
  • Brown in 2 tsp (1 Tbsp) of Olive oil. with 1 tsp ( 2 tsp)Onion powder,
  • 2 tsp,(3 tsp) garlic powder, 1 tsp, celery leaves, and 1 tsp. parsley leaves, crushed.
  • When both pasta and meat are completed as above,
  • To the skillet, Add 8oz(15)oz.. tomato sauce, one 15 oz can of diced tomatoes,
  • 6 oz. sliced mushrooms, and a package of spaghetti seasoning mix,
  • Mix in well with meat…then, Add pasta. Stir it in well and heat through.
  • Add cheese last- (I add after portion for lactose intolerant has been removed.) Heat until cheese is melted.
  • Check to see if salt needed- after adding cheese. We like this with garlic bread and sweet peas or string beans.

Basic Tuna Helper

  • For the recipe, I use a pre-packaged box of generic mac and cheese + 1/2 lb of extra elbows.
  • (May instead use 1 and a half pounds of elbows with a jar of cheese sauce. or Velveeta..)
  • 1 Tbsp. Olive oil, or grapeseed oil. 1 Tbsp. Chicken bullion granules.
  • 2 cans of Oil packed Tuna, 15 oz., can, sweet peas
  • Cook, Pasta with oil and bullion with just enough water to cover – on medium heat, until pasta is done,7-10 min. Do not drain,
  • Then, add tuna with canning liquids and sweet peas with liquids.
  • Heat until it returns to simmer.
  • Add Cheese sauce (2-3 Tbsp.), or cheese powder from mac and cheese box, and stir in until melted,
    check for saltiness.. may not need it.

Quick Chicken Stew

In 3 Qt pot. Combine…4 cups water,1 1/2 tsp chicken bullion, gran., and 1 C. diced chicken. (I used baked leftovers) Allow to come to a low simmer. ….and begin adding oils and spices…2 tsp grapeseed oil, + 1 Tbsp. Olive oil,
1 tsp each of dried crushed basil, crushed parsley flakes, celery seed, poultry seasoning, onion powder……and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Then add 15 oz can sweet peas and 15 oz. carrots with canning juices. Allow to return to simmer. Add 1 1/2 cups uncooked small pasta shells. Cook until pasta is tender. Check flavor for saltiness. Add pepper if desired. Makes about 2 qts. Serve with toasted cheese sandwich or over biscuit.

For more food storage and cooking ideas please check out The Prepared Prepper’s Cookbook: Over 170-Pages of Food Storage Tips, and Recipes from Preppers All Over America!

Concealment Strategies Against Social Unrest, Theft, or Confiscation

secret rooms and security

By Joel Skousen

It does little good to spend a lot of time and money in preparing for difficult times if you don’t also plan on securing those supplies against the very threats you are preparing for.   Severe social dislocations caused by war, economic problems, or widespread natural disasters are almost always accompanied by looting, theft, and increased criminal behavior—sometimes in large mobs that even police cannot control.  We need to plan ahead on how to deal with those threats without resorting to violent confrontations, which should be a last resort.

We also have to consider government’s propensity to confiscate stored supplies when in short supply.  There is still a 1950’s law on the books that gives the government the power to declare anything in short supply as “hoarding.”   In the March 3, 2012 edition of my World Affairs Brief,  I covered the relevant sections with the Defense Production Act of 1950 that affect personal storage:

“Sec. 102. HOARDING OF DESIGNATED SCARCE MATERIALS [50 U.S.C. App. § 2072]

In order to prevent hoarding , no person shall accumulate (1) in excess of the reasonable demands of business, personal, or home consumption, or (2) for the purpose of resale at prices in excess of prevailing market prices, materials which have been designated by the President as scarce materials or materials the supply of which would be threatened by such accumulation.”

The wording implies that the government is taking action against those that start to hoard for profit once something gets scarce in a crisis, but notice that there is no provision for acknowledging or exempting stockpiles that were accumulated before something was declared scare.  That’s what is dangerous about this wording. And there are severe penalties for getting caught “hoarding,” regardless of when your supplies were purchased:

“Sec. 103. PENALTIES [50 U.S.C. App. § 2073] Any person who willfully performs any act prohibited, or willfully fails to perform any act required, by the provisions of this title or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.”  

As you can see, it is wise to prepare to conceal your supplies from the government as well as from desperate people who may turn to looting and theft in order to survive.

In this article, I’m going to talk about strategies for concealment rather than specific designs—which have to be customized to each specific situation, and shouldn’t be published anyway, lest they become compromised.

Remember too that you must be prepared to secure people as well as your supplies.  Social unrest and even government may be a threat to your person as well, and your supplies won’t do you any good if you are dead.   A well designed safe room can provide for both protection of people and your essential supplies if they have temporary living facilities included for an emergency where you may need to get out of harm’s way.

Principle 1: Select the space for a secret room where that space isn’t obvious without detailed measurements.   I’m not talking about concealing the entrance here but rather picking a space within a cluster of rooms where one can’t tell easily that there is unaccounted space somewhere in the middle.  Large homes are more amenable to hiding a room in a complex of other rooms, wherein the presence of several twists and turns of hallways, it’s impossible to keep track of where you are, let alone the size of rooms around you.

For smaller homes, let’s suppose you have two rooms of equal size along a common wall, and the doorway to each room opens from a common hallway.  You want to create a secret narrow room within one or both rooms.  If you shorten the back wall of one room and not the other, someone opening the door of each room and looking in at the back wall can easily tell that the wall of one room is closer than the other.  But if you put the secret narrow room between the two rooms (shortening both rooms equally), no one can tell that there is extra space between the adjoining walls of both rooms without measuring.

It’s even easier to conceal a secret room in a basement if you carve out space under the garage or an outside deck since no one expects there to be basement space under these two structures.   This is easier and less labor intensive if done during initial construction of the home, but the downside is that the space shows up on the building plans on file with the county or city.  If you do it as a remodeling, shoring up and excavating by hand, the better your chances are of doing this in total privacy.

Principle 2: Make sure you can get to your secret room quickly and privately.   It does little good to have a secret room (for either storage or personal safety), if you can’t get to it easily and in private, both for loading in supplies and to access in a crisis when others may be watching.  This is one of my main objections to backyard buried shelters, with a hatch type door in the ground in the backyard that is your only entrance. People can observe not only the burial of the shelter during construction but your many trips back and forth loading it with supplies.  When you need to get inside during a crisis, don’t be surprised if the entrance is surrounded by people wanting inside too.

Even if designed inside of a house (which I prefer), I like to design the home in such a way as to get to the safe room or concealed storage room without transiting open rooms, front hallways or main staircases. In an intrusion, your access to those public areas may be compromised, so you need to provide alternate access.  If you have a home without a basement, try to carve out space near your master bedroom so you can gain access easily without venturing outside the safety of your room.

In two-story homes, I also like to design ladder wells where kids can get down to the parent’s master bedroom without using the stairs, and from there to the shelter.  Building codes don’t like penetrations through floors, so sometimes you have to do this after the home is finished, as a minor remodel.

If your secure room is in the basement, try to devise a trap door entrance from your bedroom closet that gets you directly down to the basement without using the stairs.  That requires some sort of ladder, but my preferred way is to design a trap door from a master bedroom closet that comes down over a set of basement shelves where I can use the beefed-up shelf edges as a ladder.  I simply design the front reinforced edge of the shelf as a 1” x 2” board that protrudes above the shelf rather than below, giving me a handhold as I climb up or down.

Principle 3:  Use double concealed entrances where possible:  Whenever possible in my design of high-security homes, I like to have a concealed storage room or closet in front of any safe room.  Both rooms have concealed entrances.  The would-be intruder has to find not just one secret entrance, but two, and the latter is unlikely because once the first room is found the person thinks, “I’ve found it.”

This is especially effective if you do keep some “throwaway” valuables in the first room to give some sense of satisfaction.  Naturally, you shouldn’t use the same type of concealed entrance scheme for the first room as with the second one.

Principle 4:  Think outside the normal:  The previous idea is an example of designing concealed entrances that fool people.  So is placing a basement below a garage where people don’t usually expect to find one.  But you can get even more sneaky by providing the entrance to a concealed room on the floor above or below.  Now, that’s hard for people to conceive of, let alone discover.

Principle 5:  Keep the number of persons involved small:   Constructing secure rooms is difficult to accomplish with any privacy if you have to hire it done.  The more you can do yourself, the better in terms of keeping them from being known to others.  It’s even worth learning new skills than taking the easy way out and hiring it done.  Now, I realize that is not possible with many people, so if you need to hire something down, use an older handyman rather than a big contractor who is going to bring in hired labor—which are mostly young guys who talk about any new they are doing.

If you are doing something with new construction that involves building permits and a contractor, design the basic structure of the rooms, but label them as storage.  Finish out the rooms and build the concealed entrances after the occupancy permit is issued when you can remodel or finish in privacy.  During the building process, you may observe one or more workers that are a cut above the others, who you may be able to hire on the side to do addition work later.

You also have to be careful about talking to your own children about secret rooms.  Kids love the idea of secrecy and will run around telling all their friends about the secret room in their home.  It’s better to not tell them or show them these things until they get older and you can trust them to not tell others.

Building Concealed entrances:   While I don’t have the space to get into specific designs, here are a few hints:

  1. Hinges are the most difficult things to conceal in swinging cabinets.  I prefer pivoting pin-type hinges embedded into the top and bottom of a cabinet, which are completely invisible. I show these types of designs in my books (see Bio)
  2. Avoid putting castors or rollers on the swinging side of concealed cabinets to support the weight. They will make marks on the floor that can reveal that the cabinet or shelf swings out.
  3. Pins or latches to open the secret door or cabinet can often be concealed behind the edge of an adjustable shelf. Just lift up one side of the shelf to withdraw a locking pin for opening.
  4. Make sure you provide a second locking mechanism on the inside of the concealed entrance so that once inside, you lock yourself in and disallow anyone else from opening the concealed door even if they find it.
  5. Use a steel door in a steel jamb (14 gauge steel ) for the actual door into the safe room. This way, if someone finds the concealed entrance, they still can’t easily breach the room itself.   Usually, the concealed cabinet must swing out, and the second steel door swings inward to avoid conflict.

Be wary of using published designs on concealment such as books like “How to Hide Anything.”  Once published, others will know about them.  It’s ok to read about what others have done but try and design your own variation. If you study the idea behind the concealment technique, it is easy to think of ways to modify or change them to suit your needs.

You might also like:

Bio: Joel Skousen is the publisher of the World Affairs Brief, and weekly news analysis service, and a designer of high-security homes and retreats.  He has published three books on the subject:  The Secure Home, and The High-Security Shelter.  He is also the author of Strategic Relocation—North American Guide to Safe Places.

The Best Survival Foods to Buy at The Grocery Store

best survival foods to buy at grocery storeOver the years I’ve consulted with many clients through my consulting business who know that they should stock up on food, water, and other needed gear but they’ve become so overwhelmed with all the “prepper foods” and “prepper gear” suggestions that are being promoted on nearly every survival blog and prepper website that they don’t know where to start – so they contact me for help.

I love seeing the look on their faces when I tell them that they don’t really need all of that stuff or need to order anything online because everything needed to prepare for a local disaster or even a total SHTF event can be found and purchased at their local Wal-Mart.

Prepping should be a simple and low-cost expenditure, unfortunately prepping has been made into a business where you’re intentionally led to think that you have to spend thousands of dollars on long-term storage foods, firearms, bug out vehicles and other related gear, when in reality everything that you really need can be purchased quickly and cheaply at your local Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Below I’ve put together a 20 step prepper’s checklist that once completed will make you better prepared than probably 95% of the U.S. population – all at a fraction of the price of purchasing an equal amount of foods and gear from the prepper supply vendors that you see promoting their products everywhere online nowadays.

You can do all 20 steps at once if you want or you can divide each step into separate days, weeks or months. But you need to get it done as soon as possible. Keep in mind that this is only a starting point and isn’t presented here as a completed end-all list. Prepping is a lifestyle and you’ll always be working on and improving your skills and adding to and or altering your supplies.

Now let’s get started…

1. Head to the nearest Wal-Mart and pick-up 20 lbs. of white or brown rice (white rice stores longer but brown rice is more nutritious) and 20 lbs. of pinto beans. White rice has a better storage life while brown rice has more nutritional benefits – your choice.

2. While you’re there grab 5 lbs. mixed beans, 5 lbs. of white sugar, 5 lbs. of iodized salt, one gallon of olive oil (can be frozen to extend shelf-life), 5 lbs. oats, 10 lbs. each of white or wheat flour and cornmeal.

3. Now head over to the canned foods and pick-up 20 cans of canned fruits and 20 cans of canned vegetables. Be sure to buy only those brands and contents you normally eat and nothing exotic. No need to shock the senses.

4. Now over to the canned meats. Pick-up 20 cans of various meats, salmon, stews, spam, and tuna. Again buy only those brands with contents you normally eat and nothing exotic.

5. Okay. Now to the to the peanut butter shelf and toss two 40-ounce jars in the cart. The listed shelf life is just over two years and each jar has over 6,000 calories. Peanut butter is an excellent instant survival food.

6. Over to the powdered drink mix – go on I’ll wait…Okay, pick up two 72 Ounce Tang Orange drink canisters (provides 100% of the US RDA vitamin C requirement per 8 oz. glass). Also, grab six 19-Ounce Containers of Kool-Aid Drink Mix.

7. Off to the vitamin and supplement aisle, pick up 400 tablets “one a day” multivitamin and mineral supplements. I buy this brand at the local Wal-Mart – comes in 200 count bottle for $8 each.

8. Now to the department, we all love – sporting goods. Go to the camping aisle and pick up 4 five gallon water containers. Fill with tap water as soon as you get back home.

9. While you’re there buy 250 rounds of ammunition for your primary defensive weapon. More if you can, but this will be a good start. Also a good universal cleaning kit.

10. And while you’re in the sporting good department pick up the best flashlight you can afford, extra batteries and bulb. Also, grab two boxes of wooden matches and several multi-purpose lighters. Don’t forget to date, use and rotate – remember first in first out. Let’s get started. What would you add to the list?

11. Go to back the grocery department and pick up 5 lbs of powdered milk or the equivalent of canned, now go over to the next aisles and throw in 5 lbs of rolled oats and a case of Ramen noodles. Ramen noodles aren’t the most nutritional food but they are cheap, add bulk to the diet and store well –  just don’t rely on them to provide all your nutritional needs. And don’t forget a good manual can opener.

12. While you’re in the grocery department be sure to pick up an assortment of spices to taste, such as Basil, Chili powder, Cinnamon, Garlic, Sage, Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme and Black Pepper. Spices can go along way toward making unfamiliar foods palatable. Also, while you’re in that area add 5 or more lbs of salt to your shopping cart, as you know salt has 101 uses.

13. Okay, counting what you bought during our first trip to the shopping center, that should do it for the grocery. Now go over to the area near the pharmacy and pick up 3 large tubes of toothpaste, 3 brushes, 100 double edge razor blades, (note: if you don’t have a razor you’ll probably have to order one from Amazon.com and don’t forget a brush and bowl), I’ve used this type razor for years and think it is a cheaper long-term solution than disposable.

14. While you’re there, add the most comprehensive first-aid kit that you can find to your cart and don’t forget over the counter pain meds (Tylenol, aspirin etc.). If you’re a woman (or have one in your life) go over a few shelves and pick up enough “feminine” supplies to last three months or longer.

15. With all that food in your pantry its only a matter of time before you have to poop. I know, its shocking but we all do it.  If you have a water source such as a stream or lake nearby you can still use the toilet in your bathroom, all you have to do is manually fill the tank in back and flush as usual. If this isn’t an option, you’ll need to look for other alternatives such as the Portable Toilets sold in the sporting goods department or making a  sawdust toilet from a five-gallon bucket.

16. What’s next? You guessed it toilet paper. If you poop you need to wipe, if not you probably need to start. You could use a corncob, cloth, Roman sponge on a stick or paper from discarded books or newspapers but I would wager most of you prefer the softness of Angel Soft. Get enough to last at least a month, more if possible and remember women need more than men so plan accordingly.

17. While you are in that area of the store pick up a supply of disposable plates, bowls and plastic utensils. Don’t go overboard here but having a small stockpile of these items on hand can save a lot of water that would otherwise be used to wash dishes. Also add two or more gallons of regular, unscented bleach to your cart.

18. This is a biggie and can’t be done (legally) at the department store pharmacy without the signature of a doctor – that is stocking up on prescription meds.  Getting more than a 30 day supply, at least in the U.S., can be difficult if not impossible. But there are ways to get most of what you need for long-term survival. See this book (note: some of the information in the book is dated but there is still good advice to be found).

19. Now push your cart (man this thing is getting heavy) over to the hardware department of the store and pick up a carpenters hammer, vise grips, adjustable wrench, screwdriver set, duct tape, electrical tape, ax, pry bar, crosscut saw, hacksaw and a large can of WD-40. This is your bare minimum survival toolkit.

20. After you get your toolkit, go over to sporting goods and in the camping supply aisle pick up a propane camp stove and 5 or more 1 pound propane cylinders or a bulk 20 lb tank and hose adaptor – yes the pressure in the small bottles is the same as a 20 lb cylinder or even 100 lb tank, just be sure to get the proper adapter and hose assembly. Another alternative and the one I prefer is the Volcano Stove because I can use propane, wood, and charcoal.

21. Okay, we are just about done  – only a few more steps you’ll be out the door and heading home. You’ll need a way to keep in touch with your group so go to the electronics department and pick up the best two-way radios that you can afford – I have these. Don’t forget a battery-powered radio and extra batteries for both. While not necessary, I prefer a radio capable of receiving AM/FM and shortwave broadcasts – I have this one.

This shopping list will have you better prepared than probably 90% of the U.S. but it should not signify the end of your preps only a good start. There’s always something to do and learn never become complacent – remember the quote “On the plains of hesitation lie the bleached bones of those who on the very threshold of victory sat down to rest, and while resting died.”

best survival foods to buy at grocery store

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What did I leave out? What would you add? Let us know in the comments below.