Category Archives: __3. Food & Water

Cooking with aluminum foil – on grill & campfire

(Survival Manual/3. Food & Water/Cooking with aluminum foil – on grill & campfire)

A.   Cooking Around the Campfire: 9 Easy and Delicious Foil Packet Recipes
July 20, 2010, The Art of Maniliness, by Brett & Kate McKay
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/07/20/cooking-around-the-campfire-9-easy-and-delicious-foil-packet-recipes/

Foil Packet Cooking Tips
•  Use heavy duty foil. You don’t want the foil to rip and have ashes get in and your dinner leak out. If you use regular foil, double up on the sheets. If your food is heavy, and/or if you plan to eat directly from the pack, it’s a good idea to double up even on the heavy duty sheets.
•  Spray the side of the foil on which you’re going to place the food with cooking spray before you add your ingredients and seal it up.
•  When placing your ingredients on the sheet of foil, always put the meat on the bottom as it takes the longest to cook.
•  Cook your foil packet on the fire’s coals, not in the fire itself. Ideally, you want to place the packet on a bed of coals about 2 inches thick.
•  Hard, raw vegetables like carrots and potatoes take a long time to cook. If you don’t want to wait, use the canned variety.
•  When cooking meat, throw in some high-moisture veggies like tomatoes and onions. This will keep the meat from drying out.
•  Cooking times will depend on how hot the fire is and the kind of food in the packet. I generally err on the side of cooking it too long-this is the kind of food that you don’t need to be overly delicate with. Flip the packets over a few times during cooking, and open and check on how the food is progressing from time to time.
•  When it’s finished cooking, open your foil packet carefully, as it’s full of hot steam!

Making Your Foil Packs
Making a good foil pack is essential to foil dinner cooking success. There are a couple of different kinds of foil packs you can make depending on what you’re cooking.

The Flat Pack
The flat pack is best for foods like meat where you’re looking for more browning than steaming.
1. Place the food in the middle of the sheet of foil. If you needed to mix the ingredients up, do so in a separate bowl before transferring it to the foil.
2. Tear off a sheet of heavy-duty foil that is about twice as long as the food you’ll be wrapping. It’s better to overestimate the length than place your food on it, start wrapping it up, and realize you don’t have enough foil to keep everything in and make your folds.
3. Bring the long sides together in the center and crease them together, making tight folds until the foil is flat next to the food.
4. Tightly roll up the shorter sides until they meet the food.
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 The Tent Pack
The tent pack provides a pocket of air that allows for greater steaming. Thus, it’s best for foods you want steamed more than browned like fruits, vegetables, and meat/vegetable combos.
1.  Tear off a sheet of foil just as you would for the flat pack.
2.  Place the food in the middle of the foil.
3.  Bring the long sides together in the center and tightly fold them together towards the food. This time, stop folding a few inches before you get to the food, leaving a pocket of space and creating a “tent.”
4.  Tightly roll up the shorter sides, again leaving an inch or so of space between the end of the fold and the food.

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B.  Nine easy and delicious foil packet recipes
You don’t have to limit foil packet cooking to camping. All of these recipes are also good when cooked on the grill. It’s an easy way to grill veggies. Below, I took some squash and zucchini and mixed it with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. Very nice.

I’ve tried to give somewhat exact measurements here, but honestly I just eyeball it, and I recommend doing likewise. Foil packet cooking is not an exact science. And these recipes represent just the basics-you can add all sorts of variations to them. The foil is your camping canvas and you can do whatever you’d like with it. All servings are for a single person unless otherwise indicated. Just double or triple the measurements according to your needs.

[Above: Two meat and vegebable meals.]

The Classic: Hamburger and Vegg-All
This is my go-to foil dinner recipe.
•  ½ lb ground hamburger meat
•  ½ can of Veg-all or other mixed vegetables
•  ½ can can of cream of mushroom soup
•  spices and seasonings
Mix together the above ingredients with spices and condiments to your heart’s content. Place the mixture on the center of a sheet of foil, wrap in a tent pack, and place on hot coals for 25 minutes.

Sausage and Eggs
•  1 frozen hash brown patty
•  2 eggs, scrambled, uncooked
•  2 frozen sausage patties
•  spices and seasonings
•  Cheese (optional)
Crimp the sides of your sheet of foil so that the eggs won’t go anywhere when you add them. First place your hash brown patty on the foil. Then place the eggs on top of the hash brown patty. Then place the sausage patties on top. Season with spices and condiments and wrap up in a tent pack.
Place on hot coals and cook for 15 minutes. Add the cheese when it’s ready (it turns out better than cooking it in the pack).

Muffins in an Orange Shell
Making muffins this way isn’t actually easier than baking them up at home, but it is infinitely cooler.
•  6 oranges
•  1 package of just add water muffin mix
Mix up the muffin mix as instructed. Cut off the quarter top of the oranges. Carefully scoop out the pulp; do not break the skin. Pour the muffin mix into the oranges. Wrap the oranges in foil, crimping the foil around the hole at top of the shell, but leaving it open.
Place the oranges upright in a stable position on hot coals and cook for about 10-15 minutes.
Makes six servings. Well, if you’re someone who can stop at one muffin.
Note: You can also cook eggs this way, but you’ll want to cover the whole orange shell with foil.

Chicken Casserole
•  1 chicken breast
•  1 cup of broccoli
•  1/2 cup of prepared rice
•  1 can of cream of chicken soup
•  ranch dressing
•  cheddar cheese
•  spices
Pound the chicken thinly as chicken can take awhile to cook.
Mix together the broccoli, soup, and cheese. Add spices and condiments. Place the chicken breast on the center of the foil. Top with the soup mix and then rice. Seal in a tent pack.
Cook on hot coals for about 25 minutes (The thicker your chicken breast, the longer it will take).

Catch of the Day
Fish that you caught with your own manly hands and filleted
•  ¼ cup of onions
•  1 tablespoon of butter, melted
•  lemon juice
•  salt and pepper
•  parsley
•  dillweed
•  paprika
Mix the melted butter with a dash of lemon juice and the above spices to taste (with the exception of the paprika). Place the onions on the foil sheet. Place the fish on top and sprinkle with paprika. Wrap the foil in a flat pack.
Place on hot coals and scoop some hot coals on top of the packet. Cook for 15-20 minutes.
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[Above: Aluminum foil wrapped packages of vegetables.]

Apricot-Glazed Pork Chops
•  1 boneless pork chop
•  1/3 cup apricot preserves
•  1 tablespoon soy sauce
•  ½ package frozen stir-fry vegetates
•  garlic powder, salt, pepper
Mix together the apricot preserves, the soy sauce, and any seasoning you’d like to add. Place the pork chop in the center of the sheet of foil. Spread half of the apricot sauce on top. Put the veggies on top/around the pork chop. Pour the rest of the sauce over the whole thing. Wrap in a tent pack. Place on hot coals and cook for 20 minutes.

Thanksgiving Dinner
•  1 turkey cutlet
•  1 cup of prepared stuffing
•  ½ cup of turkey gravy
•  ½ cup of green beans
•  ¼ dried cranberries
•  salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram
Place turkey cutlet on sheet of foil. Put the stuffing on top and the green beans around the cutlet. Pour gravy over everything and sprinkle with the dried cranberries and seasonings. Wrap in a tent pack and place on hot coals for 20 minutes.

Corn on the Cob
•  4 ears of shucked corn
•  ¼ cup butter or olive oil
•  Parmesan cheese
•  ½ teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
•  salt and pepper
•  4 ice cubes
Place the ears of corn on a large sheet of foil. Spread the butter on top. Sprinkle with the seasonings and Parmesan cheese. Put the ice cubes on top. Wrap up into a tent pack. Place on hot coals and cook for 20 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

Pineapple Upside Donut Cake
Every delicious foil dinner deserves a delicious foil dessert. This is an awesome one.
•  1 ring of pineapple
•  1 tablespoon butter, softened
•  1 tablespoon brown sugar
•  1 cake donut
Place donut on sheet of foil. Mix the softened butter and brown sugar together and spread it over the donut. Place the pineapple ring on top. Wrap the donut in a tight flat pack. Place on hot coals and cook for 5-7 minutes.

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C.  More grilling with tin foil  recipes:
From  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/50-things-to-grill-in-foil/index.html

[Above: Left, 3 pouches, each with a different vegetable medley. Right, foil broiled potatoes with diced onion.]

Vegetables:
Baby Beets Toss 1 pound halved baby beets with olive oil and salt on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over medium heat, 30 minutes. Toss with vinegar, mint and feta.

Roasted Broccoli Toss 1 head broccoli florets, 2 sliced garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and salt on a sheet of foil. Arrange in a single layer and form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 10 minutes.

Baby Carrots Toss 1 bunch baby carrots, 1 chopped shallot, 1 teaspoon chopped tarragon, a pat of butter, and salt and pepper on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 15 minutes.

Mexican Corn Brush 4 ears corn with melted butter and sprinkle with cotija cheese, cayenne and lime juice; seal in individual foil packets. Grill over medium-high heat, turning a few times, 15 minutes.

Italian Corn Make Mexican Corn (No. 31), replacing the cotija cheese with parmesan and the lime juice with lemon juice.

Jalapeno Poppers Remove the stems from 8 jalapenos; scrape out the seeds and stuff with muenster cheese. Toss with olive oil, salt and 1/4 teaspoon each ground cumin and coriander on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, turning often, 10 minutes.

Portobello Mushrooms Toss 4 portobello caps, 4 smashed garlic cloves, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, salt and chopped parsley to taste. Divide among 4 foil packets. Grill over medium heat, turning once, 10 minutes.

Potatoes with Bacon Toss 1 pound halved baby potatoes, 1 chopped bacon slice and salt on a sheet of foil. Add 2 tablespoons water; form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 20 minutes

Baked potato Poke each potato several times all over with a fork. Smear each potato with 1 tablespoon of butter, then double wrap in aluminum foil. Bury the potatoes in the hot coals. Allow to cook for 30 to 60 minutes until soft.

Potato Gratin Toss 2 thinly sliced peeled potatoes, 1/4 cup grated parmesan, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Arrange in 4 to 5 layers on a sheet of nonstick foil. Drizzle with 1/4 cup cream and form a packet. Grill over medium heat, 25 minutes.

Succotash Toss 1 pound thawed frozen lima beans, 2 cups corn, 1 diced red bell pepper, 2 sprigs thyme, 2 tablespoons butter, and salt and pepper on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 10 minutes. Open and stir in 1/4 cup cream. Reseal; grill 10 more minutes. Top with chopped parsley.

Pattypan Squash Toss 1 pound pattypan squash, 1 bunch chopped scallions, olive oil, and salt and pepper on a sheet of foil. Arrange in a single layer and form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 15 minutes. Top with chopped basil.

Spicy Scallions Toss 2 bunches scallions, olive oil and a pinch of cayenne on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, turning a few times, 15 minutes. Serve with lime wedges.

Tomatillo-Pineapple Salsa Toss 3/4 pound diced husked tomatillos, 1/2 cup diced pineapple, 1 each minced jalapeno and shallot, and 1 tablespoon olive oil on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over high heat, 12 minutes. Stir in some chopped cilantro.

Ravioli with Zucchini Make Zucchini and Tomatoes (No. 20), dividing the ingredients between 2 sheets of foil. Top each with 4 ounces frozen cheese ravioli and form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 12 minutes.

Zucchini and Tomatoes Toss 2 sliced zucchini, 2 diced tomatoes, 4 smashed garlic cloves, olive oil, basil, and salt and pepper on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over high heat, 10 minutes. Top with grated parmesan.

Fruit:
Glazed Peaches Toss 4 quartered peaches, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, and cinnamon to taste on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 12 minutes.

Apple Dumplings Mix 1/2 stick softened butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 teaspoon apple pie spice; stuff into 4 cored apples. Wrap each in 1/2 disk refrigerated pie dough; seal in individual nonstick foil packets. Grill over medium heat, turning a few times, 30 minutes.

Meat
Jerk Chicken Wings Toss 6 split chicken wings, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and 3 tablespoons jerk seasoning on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over high heat, turning once, 25 minutes. Top with cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

Lemon-Herb Chicken Toss 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, 1/4 cup chopped mixed herbs and 3 tablespoons each olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl. Divide among 4 foil packets. Grill over medium-high heat, 12 minutes.

Paella Combine 1 cup uncooked Spanish rice mix, 1 1/4 cups chicken broth, 6 peeled large shrimp, 2 skinless chicken thighs, 2 ounces sliced dried chorizo, 1/4 cup each pimiento-stuffed olives and roasted pepper strips, and 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika in a disposable pie pan. Drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with pepper. Seal the pan in foil. Grill over medium-high heat, 30 minutes.

Meatballs Mix 1 pound ground beef with 1 egg, 1/4 cup each breadcrumbs and grated parmesan, 1 minced garlic clove and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper in a bowl. Roll into 1 1/2-inch balls. Arrange in a single layer on a sheet of foil; top with 1/2 cup tomato sauce and form a packet. Grill over high heat, 20 minutes.

Asian-Style Ribs Mix 1/3 cup each hoisin sauce and ketchup, 4 teaspoons Sriracha and 1 1/4 teaspoons each salt, sesame oil and rice vinegar. Coat 2 pounds baby back ribs with the hoisin mixture; place in a single layer on a double sheet of foil and form apacket. Grill over indirect heat, covered, turning occasionally, 1 hour.

Glazed Pork Mix 1/4 cup peach preserves, 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard and 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce. Season 1 pork tenderloin with salt and pepper and coat with the peach mixture; seal in a foil packet. Grill over high heat, turning, 18 minutes.

Garlic Shrimp Mix 1/2 stick softened butter, 1 cup chopped parsley, 2 chopped garlic cloves, and salt and pepper. Toss with the juice of 1 lemon, 1 pound unpeeled large shrimp and a big pinch of red pepper flakes. Divide between 2 foil packets. Grill over high heat, 8 minutes.

Lobster Scampi Make the butter mixture for Garlic Shrimp (No. 8). Split 4 thawed frozen lobster tails lengthwise; spread the cut sides with the butter. Divide between 2 foil packets. Grill over high heat, turning once, 10 minutes.

Mussels Toss 2 pounds mussels, 1 shaved fennel bulb, 8 halved cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cup white wine, 1/4 cup olive oil, a pinch of red pepper flakes and salt. Divide between 2 foil packets, leaving extra room for the mussels to open. Grill over medium-high heat, 10 minutes.

Portuguese Clambake Toss 2 pounds small clams, 1/2 pound each sliced small potatoes and linguiça or andouille sausage, 8 small rounds corn on the cob, 2 sliced garlic cloves, 1/2 cup beer and a drizzle of olive oil. Divide among 4 foil packets, leaving extra room for the clams to open. Grill over medium-high heat, 25 minutes.

Fish Provençal For each serving, pile 1 halibut fillet, 1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes, some shaved fennel, 2 olives, 1 teaspoon each capers and chopped garlic, and the juice of 1/4 orange on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 10 minutes. Top with olive oil and chopped basil.

Mexican Fish For each serving, pile 1 tilapia fillet, 1/2 cup fresh salsa, 4 olives, and olive oil and lime juice on a sheet of foil. Form a packet. Grill over high heat, 10 minutes.

Mustard-Dill Salmon For each serving, layer a few lemon slices, 1 salmon fillet and some dill sprigs on a sheet of foil. Sprinkle with brown sugar, salt and ground coriander; spread whole-grain mustard on top. Form a packet. Grill over medium heat, 12 minutes.

 [Above: Left, checking the progress of a bag of mixed vegetables. Right, making pop-corn in a foil covered, ‘any kind of pot or pan’.]

Other:
Popcorn
Combine 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and 1/4 cup popcorn kernels in a disposable pie pan. Seal the pan in foil, making a dome shape on top. (Use 2 sheets of foil, if needed, to cover.) Grill over high heat, shaking, until the popping stops, about 8 minutes. Season with salt.

S’mores Popcorn Make Popcorn. Toss in a bowl with 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and 1/4 cup each confectioners’ sugar, crushed graham crackers and mini marshmallows

Quesadillas Sprinkle shredded pepper jack cheese on one half of a flour tortilla; top with chopped rotisserie chicken and cilantro and fold in half to close. Repeat to make more; seal in individual foil packets. Grill over medium heat, turning once, 5 minutes.

Cheesy Garlic Bread Mix 1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese blend, 2 tablespoons softened butter, 1 grated garlic clove and salt. Halve 1 loaf French bread lengthwise and place cut-side up on a sheet of foil. Spread with the cheese mixture and form a packet. Grill over medium-high heat, 10 minutes.

Bread Pudding Whisk 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon in a bowl. Add 4 cups bread cubes and 1 cup berries; soak 30 minutes. Butter a sheet of nonstick foil and add the bread mixture; form a packet. Grill over indirect heat, turning a few times, 35 minutes.

Upside-Down Cakes For each cake, mound 1 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar and 1 tablespoon butter on a sheet of nonstick foil. Top with a pineapple ring, a maraschino cherry and an upside-down small shortcake shell. Form a packet. Grill sugar-side down over medium-high heat, 12 minutes. [Photo at right.]

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Setting up a Mobile Kitchen

June 2016, by Mr. Larry at 4dtraveler.net

cook on deckRecently, I was recalling back a few years earlier,  to  when Hurricane Ike came through my home town and knocked out the electric power. I remembered setting up the families Coleman propane camp stove outside on the deck, being aware of the toxic carbon monoxide fumes that would have accumulated from cooking inside.

We adults huddled over the camp stove cooking our meals. The two burner stove sat on a metal planter stand, while our work space consisted of a small wooden box about 18 inches long. We heated water for our traditional morning’s cup of coffee, fried eggs, warmed ‘microwave bacon’ in a skillet and browned ‘toast’;  everything was pretty much eaten cold.

Later in the day, we boiled canned soup, had peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and heated Dinty Moore stews and other canned meals for supper.

Often, especially in the early mornings, while my partner cooked, I ran back and forth between kitchen and deck, a flashlight in one hand, bringing out a jar of dehydrated coffee, then our silverware and plates, peanut butter, salt and pepper, jam, peanut butter, the bread….

Every meal required items be brought out of the house and returned, each one or two items meant a separate trip through the house, into the kitchen, then back out to the deck. It was exasperatingly inefficient for the two of us; there was no organization, nothing was handy. We had the physical supplies, but the flow of materials needed to prepare emergency meals, ‘on the fly’  had never been thought out.

We had everything needed in the house to deal with an emergency meal, but for what turned into almost a week long power outage, the items needed to process the food were never really ‘handily available’.

Think about it. Every item used in the kitchen to process a typical meal is handy: the  knife, fork and spoon in a drawer or on the cutting block, a pot or pan in the lower cupboard, a bowl, plate cup or glass in the higher cupboard, salt and pepper shakers are on the kitchen table, the spice tray/rack  is here, paper towels or dish cloth are near by…Everything is handy, just a step or two in any direction and the item is put in use, then left sitting on the sink counter for further use or washing.

But when you set up an emergency stove outside on the deck, balcony or in the yard–non of your  food preparation and cooking  paraphernalia are available. In order to cook anywhere other than in your dedicated kitchen space, you’ll need to move a lot of small specialty items back and forth to and from the worksite .

After the storm, and as the months passed, the realization that there wasn’t a proper sizedbench surface to cook and work on, prompted me to make a six foot long bench (See image). The bench would be for guests and ourselves to sit on when  visiting, but it would double as a work surface for our: propane stove,  propane oven,  canned fuel hot plate (for the coffee),  other food preparation items  and as a workspace.

Although I didn’t spend much time thinking about the situation during daily activities, what continued to eluded me, was how to avoid the disorganized ‘running back and forth’ for food prep items.

I recalled that when the electric power was out, it was a slightly confusing and disorienting time, due to a) the disruption to our daily schedules and activities, b) unaccustomed temperatures, and adding to the problem, was c) trying to assemble the needed cooking items in an efficient and handy way to process our meals and eat in, d) an attempt to retain a low stress environment.

One day recently, I watched a woman in a You Tube video discuss having made up a small mobile kitchen for her thermal cooker, her idea provided a catalyst for me.

I re-watched the ‘mobile kitchen’ portion of the video again, stopping the clip every couple seconds to write up and expand on her list.

For the next couple of weeks, I read articles on the Web about what food prep items people typically  take camping, backpacking, and have on hand for emergencies.

The list grew.

The concept expanded beyond utensils one would want handy for a meal cooked in a ‘thermal cooker’, as the video showed, to cover most cooking situations. The updated Mobile Kitchen concept included: cooking with pot and pans, frying, a variety of food types being processed, and had to handle several consecutive meals prepared under emergency conditions.

I examined the cookware needed to prepare meals for 3-4 persons and ordered ALOCS 3-4 person outdoor cooking pot set, (Amazon.com, see below).

I studied common spices and made a list from discussions on YouTube;; camping, emergency web discussion groups. A master list was made of the most widely suggested spices to have in an outdoor/emergency situation, outliers were removed and some personal favorites added.

In order to have a small amount of multiple spices handy for short term cooking, I ordered some 1 oz and 2 oz dry storage plastic jars with snap lids, and several empty 3.4 oz TSA approved liquid containers (all very cheap from Amazon.com).

Several cooking adjuncts were added to the spice list, including: vinegar, cooking oil and honey, which went in the 3.4 oz liquid containers.

I found design ideas for spice labels on the Internet, then made my own using existing sheets of Avery envelope label blanks. Tape would have worked as well for labeling. Likewise, is only a few spices were being gathered for the mobile kitchen, one could simply add an entire spice bottle or tin.

Most of the items needed were bought at Wal-Mart.

Finally, I took a general measurement of everything while it was roughly stacked,  to determine the approximate size of containers needed to pack it in. The boxes needed were found at my local Wal-Mart superstore. Everything was subsequently put together and photographed  and is listed below.
The result is a broad capability, Mobile Kitchen.

I recommend using a butane stove for indoor cooking. Using much less toxic butane fuel you can set the stove right on your current (electric) kitchen stove top or cook on the sink counter top, as  you wish. Let the ‘chimney effect’ draw what little fumes there are up the  kitchen exhaust vent, or crack a window briefly when cooking on the sink.

The images below show my Mobile Kitchen contents, butane stove, cookware and spices.
I hope this article helps with your preps.
God Bless America.

The Mobile Kitchen

The Mobile Kitchen was developed as a means to efficiently bring cooking and food preparation paraphernalia to a central location, for cooking in an emergency situation. It would work for preparing food: Indoors, on a porch, deck, patio, picnic table, curbside or for ‘car camping’. It is not designed as a long term survival kitchen, but could easily be expanded for longer term needs.

MK topPreparation apparatus tub components (At left in the image above)

MK sideCooking & Eating utensils tub components (At right in the image above)

Preparation apparatus tub
2 ea. Sterilite 27 qt latch box, clear plastic, 12”W x 13”H x 16”L, ~$5.50, Walmart
1 roll paper towels
1 box quart Slider baggies, 20 ct
Cloth items in gallon baggie: kitchen hand towel, dish towel, dish cloth, hot pad, 2 clothes pins, 10 ft cordage.
Spice box: (Tupperware type muffin storage container), various spices see inventory below.
Whisk
Bowl scraper
Small grater
Plastic scoop, mixing spoon, slotted spoon, and spatula. ($0.88 ea. Walmart)
Strainer
1 measuring cup, plastic
Measuring cup set, 4 pc: 1/4 to 1 cup.
Cutting board, red, 8.5″x11″ plastic
Can opener
Peeler
Digital food/ liquid thermometer
Kitchen scissors
Paring and Utility knife
Sanitizing: Gallon baggie containing: 9 oz Dawn dish soap, 7.5 oz bottle hand soap, Scotch Brite scrub sponge (cut in half).
Cooking & Eating utensils tub
Sterilite 27 qt latch box, clear plastic, 12”W x 13”H x 16”L ~$5.50, Walmart
2 each, 12 oz foam insulated coffee mugs
Faberware coffee percolator, stainless steel, Yosemite, 8 cup, $20 Amazon
2 Stainless steel round, divided dinner plates, 11″ dia., $5.50 ea Amazon.
2 each 1/2 quart stainless steel bowls, 2.5″H x 5.5″ dia., $5 ea, Amazon
2 sets table ware: stainless steel knife, fork, sml and lge spoons.
Box of 48 pc, 16 sets of plastic knife fork and spoons.
Baggie with three sm. boxes of (96) matches.
ALOCS 3-4 person outdoor cooking pot set, rigid aluminum, includes: Kettle = 3.3 cups (2 large cups of coffee)Small pot = 5 cups (1 quart, plus)Large pot = 9 cup (2 quarts, plus)7.5″ fry panSm lid fits sm pot,Lge lid fits lge pot and fry pan.$47 Amazon, see image below.
Other Items
GasOne GS3700 butane stove, for indoor/outdoor use, comes in a hard shell, plastic carry case. $24 Amazon.

 ..

Notes:
> Neither of the two Sterilite totes are full when the kit is assembled, leaving room for situation specific expansion.
> Most of the common items in the Mobile Kitchen were bought in Walmart’s Kitchen and Houseware Depts. A few of the items cost $0.88 each, other’s $1.00 and a couple up to $3.50.

Related videos:
> GasOne butane stove: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0DcqUDFhg
> ALOCS SW-C06S cookware set. This video is not in English, but does show the relative size, volumes and use of the equipment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvG2zycRO5c
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 ALOCS cookware
ALOCS 3-4 person cookware

 GasOne GS3700 butane stoveGasOne GS3700 butane stove

 MK spice boxSpice Box

MK spices
Spice containers carried in the spice box: Baking powder, Bouillon Cubes, Cayenne Pepper, Chili Powder, Cinnamon, Cooking Oil, Curry Powder, Garlic Powder, Honey, Italian Seasoning, Dry Onion Flakes, Onion Powder, Black Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes, Poultry Seasoning, Salt, Sugar, Vinegar. (Volumes: About 1 Tbsp for dry goods and 3 oz liquids)

Spice Notes:
> The great thing about spices is that they never actually spoil. But over time, spices will lose their potency and not flavor your food as intended and you may need to experiment on how much more spice needs to be added.
> As a general rule, whole spices will stay fresh for about 3-4 years, ground spices for about 2-3 years and dried herbs for 1-3 years.
> Spices that have been in the pantry for 5 years won’t make you sick, but will just lose their zest.  The best way to store spices is in air tight containers, preferably a dark container and in cool spaces away from moisture such as a stove or sink.  Even in doing this, most of your ground spices only last about 2 years.

 Faberware 8 cup coffee percolatorFaberware 8 cup coffee percolator

  MK  packed1Mobile Kitchen and butane stove ready for service

Be safe, be well.
Mr.Larry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Water

(Survival manual/3. Food & Water/Water)

The Rules of 3:
In any survival situation, prioritize your activities to protect yourself from the closest, most pressing element in the Rules of Three. If you are in an area with extreme temps seek to protect your core temp then look for water, if you have adequate temps/shelter and water, look for food…

Rules of Three table

3 minutes You can only live about 3 minutes without air/breathing.
3 hours You can live only about 3 hours exposed and unprotected to extreme temperatures. Hyperthermia (body core rises to about 103F-106F, and usually is slower to kill). Hypothemia  (body core declines to 87F-90F, can occur quickly if the body/clothing is wet freezing rain or submersion, then exposed to freezing or near freezing air temperatures).
3 days You can only live about 3 days without safe water.
3 weeks You can live only about 3 weeks without food.
3 months Death may follow without socialization after about 3 months.
3 years Apathy/Disinterested: May only live 3 years without an interest or goal in life

WATER

 Water should be one of your top priorities  in a survival situation, as a lack of water causes dehydration, lethargy,  dizziness, headaches, confusion, and ultimately death. Even mild dehydration  makes a survival situation even more difficult, as it reduces endurance and  impairs concentration.

Symptoms of Dehydration
a)  In the early  stages of dehydration, there are no signs or symptoms; early features are  difficult to detect, but include dryness of mouth and thirst.
b)  As dehydration increases, signs and symptoms  develop, including: thirst, restless or irritable behavior, decreased skin torpor,  dry mucous membranes, sunken eyes, and absence of tears when crying vigorously.
c)  The negative impact of dehydration saps your energy and  makes you feel fatigued. Studies  show a  rapid acceleration of this effect. At just 2% dehydration, the levels of  physical performance can decline by 5 – 10%; while at 4% or more dehydration,  the levels of physical performance can decrease by 20 – 40%. Researchers  reported that test subjects showed a decline in mental alertness, arithmetic  ability, visual perception, short-term memory and reasoning ability. These   effects were often accompanied by increased tiredness and headaches.
d)  The  message is clear. In order to prevent a reduction or decline in your mental  performance or levels of concentration, you must try to drink  enough water throughout the day. Concentration and mental performance which are very  important in your everyday life are even more so  in a survival situation. If you expect to be  efficient,  productive and stay alive in  a fearful, disorienting situation, you need to make sure your mental  performance is unaffected by dehydration. Water is vitally important in keeping  you properly hydrated for this purpose.

Symptoms of early or mild dehydration  include:
–  flushed face
–  extreme thirst, more
–  than normal or unable to drink
–  dry, warm skin
–  cannot pass urine or  reduced amounts, dark, yellow
–  dizziness made worse when you are standing
–  weakness
–  cramping in the arms  and legs
–  crying with few or no tears
–  sleepy or irritable
–  unwell
–  headaches
–  dry mouth, dry
–  tongue; with thick saliva
–  Another surprising thing about dehydration is one of the most common
symptoms – not feeling thirsty in the first place.

Some Water facts:
–  75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (This  probably applies to most of the world’s
population.)
–  The thirst mechanism is often so weak in the  chronically dehydrated that it is often mistaken for hunger.
–  Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism  as much as 3% (this doesn’t sound like much but this is very significant).
–  A University of Washington study discovered that a  single glass of water eliminated midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of  dieters taking part in a study.
–  Lack of water is the number one cause of daytime fatigue.
–  A mere 2% drop in body water can affect mental alertness and tolerance for physical activity
–  Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, reduces the risk of breast cancer by 79%, reduces the risk of bladder cancer by up to 50%.

Drinking water in an urban survival situation
If the water went off tonight, what kind of  plans do you have in place? As with everything else in your survival plans, your  water supply should be broken down into 3 phases: a short term, medium term,
and long term solution.
Short Term – this is your  bottled water. Most people have a couple cases of bottled water on hand . On a trip to the grocery store most people buy a case  or two of bottled water for guests or parties.  Some survivalist stockpile water in 35 or  55 gallon drums.
If the municipal water fails, your bottled and  stockpiled water will be used first. Bottled water is convenient, you just un-screw the top of  the bottle and the water is ready to drink. Most people like to take the easy  way out, and bottled water is about as easy as it gets.
Medium Term – this level relates to your water filters, which may include Berkey, a Katadyn Base Camp unit, or a  lightweight backpacking water filter, ie., McNett Aquamira Frontier Pro  Ultralight Water Filter or similar. Sooner or later, the filter is going to  reach its lifespan, and that is it.
Long term – means a private water well  or a bulk storage system. This could include water wells on farms, or rural  water wells where people do not get city water.
Now that we are past the three layers of  water preps,  “Where do you get extended water supplies in an  urban survival situation? Answer: local ponds, streams,  creeks, rivers, lakes, rain fall collection, ditches, bayous…

Where I live, there is a  small wooded area with a small pond.  Using my bicycle  I could ride the two mile round trip to  the pond, use a 5 gallon water container to retrieve the water, bring it back home and  run it through my Berkey water filter. It is only a few hundred feet to a normally dry stream bed  that flows for several days after every 1/2 inch+ rain.

River water – Another example, a river could be just a  few miles from your house.  Using a bicycle you could cycle to the river,  bring a five gallon container (42 lbs. filled), collect the water from the river, cycle  back home and run the water through a filter.

Rain water – Once my 65 gallon ‘rain water  storage drums’ run out of water, they could be positioned under the down spout  of a rain gutter.  But this only works if you live in an area that receives rain fall  every few weeks.  If you do not have rain barrels, use clean, lined trash  cans, or five gallon buckets.  If nothing else, refill those water  bottles that were used when the event first started.

WATERBOURNE DISEASES

As sewers fill and start to back up, people will begin doing their “business” outdoors.  The problem here, is when an area receives rain, the sewage will be washed  off and into the local streams and ponds.

Some waterborne  diseases are:

Cryptosporidium Dysentery
Giardiasis Legionellosis – Legionnaires disease and  Pontiac fever
Shigella Salmonellosis – Salmonella (mostly  foodborne)
E. Coli Hepatitis A – food and waterborne
*See symptoms and treatment for waterborne  diseases in Medical/Disease/Waterborne disease

Pathogens  from the following 4 categories  might be found lurking in waters from lakes, rivers and streams inside the U.S.
1)  Protozoa and cysts (Cryptosporidium parvum,  Giardia lamblia). Single-cell parasites; tiny (between 1 and 20 microns. A  micron is 1-millionth of a meter, or 0.00004 inch. The period at the end of  this sentence is roughly 500 microns.)
2)  Bacteria (Escherichia coli (E. coli), Salmonella, and many others). Very tiny (0.1  to 10 microns).
3)  Viruses (hepatitis A, rotavirus, enterovirus, norovirus). Exceptionally  tiny (0.005 to 0.1 micron). Caused by human waste.
4)  Occassionally, Parasitic  worms. (which are macroscopic in size and easily filtered out)

MUNICIPAL WATER STORAGE GUIDELINES

If  you choose to package water yourself, use the following guidelines:
Containers
– Use only food-grade  containers. Smaller containers made of PETE plastic or heavier plastic buckets or drums work well.
–  Clean, sanitize, and  thoroughly rinse all containers prior to use. A sanitizing solution can
be prepared by adding 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of liquid Clorox or other Household  Chlorine Bleach (5- 6% sodium hypochlorite) to one quart water. Only household  bleach without thickeners, scents, or additives should be used.
–  Do not use plastic milk  jugs, because they do not seal well and tend to become brittle over time.
–  Do not use containers previously used to store non-food products.

Water Pretreatment
If for near term use (few months), water from a chlorinated municipal water supply does not need further  treatment when stored in clean, food-grade containers.
Non-chlorinated water should be treated with household bleach, as follows: Add 1/8 teaspoon (8 drops)  liquid household chlorine bleach (5 to 6% sodium hypochlorite) per gallon (4 liters)  water being treated. Only  household bleach without thickeners, scents, or additives should be used.

Storage
–  Containers should be  emptied and refilled regularly.
–  Store water only where  potential leakage would not damage your home or apartment.
–  Protect stored water from  light and heat. Some containers may also require protection from freezing.
–  The taste of stored water can be improved by pouring it back and forth (causes aeration) between two
containers a few times before drinking.
–  For long term storage of 1 year, use household bleach to treat tap water from municipal sources. Add bleach at 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons to ensure the water  remains drinkable. Rotate the water in storage tanks annually.

PURIFICATION OF NON MUNICIPAL WATER

A.   Boiling
Boiling  is the safest and best method for purifying  running water that you’ve gathered from natural sources; it kills all the organisms in the water. It doesn’t require  any chemicals, or expensive equipment — all you need is a large pot and a good  fire or similar heat source.
–  Cloudy water should be  filtered before boiling, or add bleach. Filter the water using coffee filters,  paper towels, cheese cloth or a cotton plug in a funnel.
–  Cover the container and  bring the water to a rolling boil for one minute. Allow the water to cool with  the cover on, which further helps to disinfect the water. Boiling kills common  harmful bacteria such as Guardia and Cryptosporidium; however, this process will not remove foreign contaminants such as radiation or heavy metals.  Let the water cool before drinking.

While you may think any water will do in a  pinch, water that is not purified may make you sick, possibly even killing you.  In a survival situation, with little or no medical attention available, you  need to remain as healthy as possible. And a bad case of the runs is terribly  uncomfortable in the best of times!

B.  Pasteurization
Pasteurization kills only those organisms that cause harm to humans. The process involves heating
water to 149F for 6 to 20 minutes, or to a higher temperature for a shorter time. Cover the container while heating and allow it to cool with the cover in place, which further disinfects the water.

It has been known since the late 1880s, when Louis Pasteur conducted groundbreaking research on bacteria, that heat can kill pathogenic (disease-causing) microbes. Most people know contaminated water can be made safe by boiling. What is not well known is that contaminated water can be pasteurized at temperatures well below boiling, as can milk, which is commonly pasteurized at 71°C (160°F) for 15 seconds.

The chart below indicates the temperatures at which the most common waterborne pathogens are rapidly killed, thus resulting in at least 90 percent of the microbes becoming inactivated in one minute at the given temperature. (The 90 percent reduction is an indicator frequently used to express the heat sensitivity of various microbes.) Thus, five minutes at this temperature would cause at least a 99.999 percent (5 Log) reduction in viable microbes capable of causing disease.

Pasteurization temperatures

                                      Microbe                                                    Killed Rapidly At

  • Worms, Protozoa cysts: Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba….…….… 131°F (55°C)
  • Bacteria: V. cholerae, E. coli, Shigella, Salmonella typhi; Rotovirus……140°F (60°C)
  • Virus, Hepatitis A………………………………………………………………..149°F (65°C)

Significant inactivation of these microbes actually starts at about 9°F (5°C ) below these temperatures, although it may take a couple of minutes at the lower temperature to obtain 90 percent inactivation.

C.   Distillation
The process involves boiling water and then collecting only the vapor that condenses. The condensed vapor will not include salt or most other impurities. To distill, fill a pot halfway with water. Tie a cup to
the handle on the pot’s lid so that the cup will hang right-side-up when the lid is upside-down (make sure the cup is not dangling into the water) and boil the water for 20 minutes. The water that drips from the lid into the cup is distilled.
Supplies Needed:
–  Large stockpot with lid
–  Small roasting pan rack
–  Potholders
–  Water
–  Glass bowl
–  Air tight containers

Step 1 – Preparation
First, place the small roasting pan rack  in the bottom of your stockpot. This is done to keep the bowl off of the bottom  of stock pot and above the water line. Next fill your stockpot with water  from your sink, but not so deep that it will spill over into your bowl when sitting on the rack. An inch or so below the top of the bowl will be sufficient. Place the bowl in the pot. Be sure that when you place your bowl in the pot it does not become immersed. Cover with the lid and you are ready to boil the water.

Step 2 – Boil
Turn on the stove on high and allow the water to come to a boil. Carefully check after a few minutes to be sure the steam is catching on the underside of the lid and dripping in the bowl. The lid must be tight for this to work. Continue to boil the water until your bowl has caught enough steam to bottle. Do not allow the pot to completely boil dry. You now have distilled water.

Step 3 – Cool and Bottle
The water will be very hot, and it is best to allow the pot and bowl to cool for easier handling.
Carefully remove the bowl of distilled water using potholders to be sure you don’t get burned. Pour into airtight containers for storage.
Read more: <http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-distill-water-in-3-steps#ixzz1Gy06gIdI>

D.   Chlorination
Purify the water by adding liquid household chlorine bleach, ie, Clorox.
–  If boiling is not possible, treat water by adding liquid household bleach, such as Clorox or Purex.
Household bleach which is typically between 5-6% chlorine. Avoid using bleaches that contain perfumes, dyes and other additives. Be sure to read the label.
–  Place the water (filtered, if necessary) in a clean container. Add the amount of bleach according to the table below.
–  Mix thoroughly and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes before using (60 minutes if the water is cloudy or very cold).

Treating Water with a 5-6 Percent Household Liquid Chlorine Bleach Solution   

Volume of Water to be Treated Treating Long Term Municipal or Well Water:Bleach Solution to Add Treating Cloudy, Very Cold, or Surface Water:Bleach Solution to Add
1 quart/1 liter 3 drops 5 drops
1/2 gallon/2 quarts/2 liters 5 drops 10 drops
1 gallon 1/8 teaspoon 1/4 teaspoon
5 gallons 1/2 teaspoon 1 teaspoon
10 gallons 1 teaspoon 2 teaspoons
57 gallons (rain water tank) 5.7 teaspoons 11.4 teaspoons
Conversions: 3 tsp=1 tbsp;   12 tsp=1/4 cup;   4 tbsp=1/4 cup.1/8 cup household bleach  will maintain long term purity in 60 gal. water. ¼ cup will kill pathogens  in 60 gal. filtered surface water even if cloudy and/or very cold.1 quart household bleach  will purify about 1000 gallons of filtered surface water.


E.   Commercial filters for Camping and Emergency
Outside of boiling polluted water, commercial purification/filter devices made by companies such as Berkey, PUR or Katadyn are the best choices for treatment.
Probably the best filtering devices for survival retreats are the model where you pour water into the top and allow it to slowly seep through the media into  a reservoir on the bottom. No pumping is required.

According to the EPA there are two definitions for devices removing contaminants from water: A ‘Filter’ is referred to as a 4 Log device removing 99.99% of contaminant, while a Purifier
is a Log 7 device removing 99.99999% of contaminants.  A Log 4 filter is probably sufficient for many
conditions.

Portable filters currently on the market will provide various degrees of protection against microbes, but are generally meant to be used in conjunction with other forms of disinfection for greatest protection from pathogens.

1.  Group water filter: For small groups or just lots of water, the Katadyn® Base Camp water filter offers gravity-fed water filtration. Description:

  • 2.6 gallon water bag with roll-top and side-release buckle, closure fills quickly and hangs easily, produces up to 2.5 gallons of treated water in 15 minutes. Delivers approximately 16 oz./minute, includes a 48 inch Outlet Hose, On/Off Output Hose Valve.
  • Fill the filter from a bucket or other vessel instead of trying to use the filter bag itself to retrieve water from your source.
  • AntiClog Technology: 129 square inches of pleated 0.3  micron glass fiber media gives higher water output, and less frequent cleaning.
  • Pleated glass fiber element removes bacteria, protozoa and cysts from the drinking water; including Salmonella, Colibacillosis, Vibrio cholera, Amoeba, Schistosoma (Bilharziasis), Giardia, Cryptosporidium
  • Active Carbon Core: reduces chemicals, pesticides, unpleasant tastes, and odor from water
  • Cartridge Capacity: 200 gallons (750 liters) depending on  water quality (use of filter protector will extend cartridge life)
  • Long 48-inch output hose with on/off valve controls and  directs flow of filtered water where you need it. Hang the water bag/filter as high as possible (6 ft) and collect purified water from as low as possible below the filter to maximize the water pressure through the filter.
  • If the flow rate starts to slow down, put a liter of clean water in the bag, shake it around and dump it out to rinse the filter and pre filter from silt and debris.
  • http://www.practicaloutdoors.com/files/finalreport.pdf (pg 248)

The Katadyn Base Camp filter provides the following protection:  >6 Log against bacteria, None against virus, 3 Log against Giardia cysts and 3 Log against Cryptosporidium oocysts.  While this is a good filter, the cleaned water should be additionally treated  chemically or by boiling to achieve purity.

2.   Household water filter
Specifications of the PUR 2-Stage Cartridge Water Filter (set in the refrigerator),  only a 3 Log device (99.9%).
Pur 2-Stage Dispenser DS-1800. The PuR 2 Stage Water Dispenser provides dual filtration using a two-step process. The first step reduces lead, copper, chlorine, sediment, chemicals linked to cancer (TTHMs, Benzine), bad taste and odor. The second step uses a Pleated Microfilter that removes
99.9% microbiological cysts, cryptosporidium and Guardia. It reduces cadmium, cryptosporidium, Guardia, lead, mercury, asbestos, copper, zinc, and sediment 96 to 99.9 percent; plus lessening
chlorine levels and discoloration. PUR’s filters are made with activated carbon to reduce chlorine and sediment, and include an ion-exchange resin that helps eliminate lead and copper. For best results, filters should be changed every 40 gallons. While PUR filters rid water of many chemicals, coloration, and bad flavors, they do not soften water or remove fluoride.

Because the PUR dispenser is not large and the filter is only a 3 Log device (99.9% microbe removal rate),  in a survival situation you would need to prefilter contaminated water, possibly with a coffee filter, then purify the pre-filtered water with household bleach– prior to pouring it into the PUR
dispenser for its final filtration. The steps would be: collect polluted water, run it through a coffee filter, purify with household bleach (see water treatment table above), then pour into the PUR dispenser–then pour it into your Berkey! :-)

Remember, given the opportunity, and for  the  safest drinking water, you should  pre-filter and  purify all your collected water — prior to using a commercial water filter. ‘Bulk’ purification can include boiling or chlorination.  You don’t want to become ill with vomiting and diahhrea (norovirus induced stomach flu), or contract some other waterborne disease then either be unable to travel or know there is no medical attention available during a survival situation.

2. Household Water Purifier
Berkey water filters-  
My ‘Royal Berkey model’ is a 9-1/2 inch diameter by 24” tall, stainless steel two part, covered cylindar which stores 3 gallons water. It has a filtration rate of 4 gallons per hour with its standard 2 Black Berkey filter elements (4 elements can be used to increase water production rate). My unit has the optional 2 PF-2 Fluoride filters for Fluoride removal. The 2 Black Berkey filter elements will purify 6000 gallons water. Can handle a maximum of 12 people basic water needs. {See photo at top of page. Google, ‘Berkey Water Filters’]
The ‘Black Berkey’ purification/filter elements (a 7 Log device, 99.99999%) remove or reduce the following:
–  Pathogenic Bacteria and Cysts (E. Coli, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Raoltella Terrigena) – Reduced to > 99.999% (100%)
–  Viruses (MS2 – Fr Coliphage) – Reduced to >99.999%
–  Parasites – Reduced to > 99.9999%
–  Harmful or unwanted chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides
–  Chlorine – Removed to Below Detectable Limits  (99.9999999%)
–  Detergents
Organic solvents removal
–  THM’s (Trihalomethanes – Bromodichloromethane, Bromoform, Chloroform, Dibromochloromethane) – Removed to Below Detectable Limits (99.99999%)
–  MTBE’s (Methyl tert-Butyl Ehter) – Removed to Below Detectable Limits
–  Other VOC’s – Removed to Below Detectable Limits

–  Cloudiness removed
–  Silt removed
–  Sediment removed
–  Radiologicals  – Radon 222 – Removed to Below Detectable Limits
–  Nitrates & Nitrites, Greater than 95% reduction
–  Heavy metals – Greater than 95%
–  Fluoride- With PF-2 fluoride filter, Fluoride reduced greater than 95%
–  Iron
–  Foul tastes and odor

 OPTIONS FOR CHEMICALLY PURFYING WATER

There are many options for purifying the water among which are:
Polar Pure – contains iodine crystals, has an almost indefinite shelf life if kept tightly sealed, and very inexpensive per dose cost, requires measuring the dosage using the cap (which can be imprecise).
Potable Aqua – contains iodine tablets, shelf life of up to four years if properly stored – if they’ve turned a light green don’t use, moderately expensive per dose cost, easy to administer doses (two tablets per  quart of water).
Micropur MP1 – contains chlorine dioxide tablets, has a shelf life of at least four years, moderately expensive per dose cost, and comes in easy to administer doses (one tablet per quart of water).

DIY (do it yourself) water purification chemical treatment
a)  Simple household bleach (Clorox) – 2 drops per quart of water (assuming a bleach solution of 5-6% hypochlorite). You should double the dose for cloudy water. The shelf life (full strength) of household bleach is only about 6 months, so replace at least annually. Use an eye dropper
to administer low volume dosages. Clorox has a very inexpensive per dose cost. (see  table, ‘Treating Water with a 5-6 Percent Household Liquid Chlorine Bleach Solution’  above)
b)  Tincture of iodine – 5 drops per quart (assuming a 2% iodine solution), may wish to double the dose for cloudy water, almost indefinite shelf life if properly stored, must use a dropper to administer dose, modest per dose cost.

General water treatment:

  • All the above methods are effective at killing bacteria, somewhat effective against viruses, and of limited value against protozoa cysts. Cryptosporidium in particular is resistant to halogen treatments; however, it is removed by the Katadyn® Base Camp water filter.
  • Most treatments only require 30 minutes. However, very cold water (i.e., less than 40 degrees F) should be allowed to sit for 2 or more hours, or be treated with a double dose.
  • As far as taste, all will introduce some chemical taste into the water. In a very unscientific taste test of chemical treatment methods, my own family (original author) concluded that iodine-treated water was by far the worst smelling and tasting, bleach-treated was second, and water
    treated with Micropur MP1 ready-to-use tablets was the least objectionable.
  • Finally, you can add Kool-aid to treated and filtered water to improve the taste. Not only will it help to mask the chemical taste, but the ascorbic acid (vitamin C) converts the chlorine or iodine to tasteless chloride  and iodide.

Gathering Rainwater (example volumes used below)

  • 1 inch of rain per square foot = 1/2 gallon water.
  • A 10×10 tarp with 1″ rain (100sq ft x 0.5) gathers 50 gallons
  • A 10×10 tarp with 1/4″ rain (100sq ft x 0.25) gathers 12 gallons
  • A 12×14 tarp with 1″ rain can gather 84 gallons
  • A 12×14 tarp with 1/4 rain can gather 21 gal
  • With both a 10×10 and a 12×14 tarps in use and 1″ rain you could collect 134 gal, with 1/4″
    rain, 33 gallons.

Rain water is not safe as collected and should be treated by one of the methods previously described.

Homemade water prefilter
A ‘pour-though’ filtering systems can be made in an emergency. Here’s one example that will remove many contaminants:

1.  Take a five or seven gallon pail (a 55-gallon drum can also be used for a larger scale system)
and drill or punch a series of small holes on the bottom.
2.  Place several layers of cloth on the bottom of the bucket, this can be anything from denim to an old cloth table cloth.
3.  Add a thick layer of sand (preferred) or loose dirt. This will be the main filtering element, so you
should add at least half of the pail’s depth.
4.  Add another few layers of cloth, weighted down with a few larger rocks.
5.  Your home-made filter should be several inches below the top of the bucket.
6.  Place another bucket or other collection device under the holes you punched on the bottom.
7.  Pour collected or gathered water into the top of your new filter system. As gravity works its magic, the water will filter through the media and drip out the bottom, into your collection device. If the water is cloudy or full of sediment, simply let it drop to the bottom and draw the cleaner water off the top of your collection device with a straw or tube.

(If you have a supply of activated charcoal, possibly acquired from an aquarium dealer, you can put a layer inside this filter. Place a layer of cloth above and below the charcoal. This will remove other contaminants and help reduce any  unpleasant smell or taste.)

While the home made prefilter is not be the best filter method, it has been successfully used in the past. For rain water or water gathered from what appear to be relatively clean sources of running water, the system should work fine. If you have no other water source than a contaminated puddle, oily highway runoff or similar polluted source, the filter may be better than nothing, but is still not a very desirable option.

Once the system has been established and works, you must remember to change the sand or dirt regularly.

My (2) rain water storage barrels
Product Description:The Algreen Cascata Rain Water Collection and Storage System combines the timeless aesthetic elegance of ceramics with the enduring durability of modern plastics. This 65-gallon ‘rainsaver’ is  constructed from tough, roto molded plastic able to withstand extreme temperatures and will not chip, fade, or crack over time. The environmentally friendly rain barrel comes with a 6-foot garden hose with shutoff nozzle, corrosion-proof screen guard, brass spigot, and easily removable crown planter on top. It’s double-walled for supreme strength. The hose hangs neatly on the
attached hook. The rain barrel measures 24 x 46 inches.

Product Features:
–  65-gallon rain barrel with timeless looks and extreme durability
–  Made from roto molded plastic that won’t chip, crack, or fade
–  Double-walled for extra strength and durability
–  Comes with screen guard and removable crown planter
–  Measures 24 x 46 inches

Each rain barrel contains 65 gallons, with a total storage capability of 130 gallons.
For drinking water, the household needs 1 gal/person/day, or one full barrel for two people per month. The second rain barrel is for a month’s general maintenance: dish washing, occasional light laundry and sponge bathing[1].


[1]  This is why a small quantity of plastic eating utensils, paper plates, napkins and
premoistened handi-wipes should be added to your emergency food supply.

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Filed under __3. Food & Water

Introducing the Solar Oven

(Survival Manual/ Food & Water/ The solar oven)

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[My Global Sun Oven: Set up in the yard, currently cooking a whole chicken, bakes excellent home-made bread, boils corn, makes stews…Mr. Larry]

A.  Benefits of solar cooking
Pasted from: http://www.sunoven.com/sun-cooking-usa/why-use-it/benefits-of-solar-cooking
•  Cook for free:  Bakes, Boils or Steams Any Kind of Food with the Power of the Sun – No Fuel Needed!
•   No learning curve: Create your favorite recipes as you feast upon natural sun baked treats!
•  Just like your home oven: Reaches Temperatures of 360° to 400° F!
•  Totally Safe – No Danger of Fire – Never Burn Dinner Again!
•  Versatile – Easy-to-use, Portable as a Small Suitcase!
•  Satisfaction GuaranteeIf you are not completely satisfied with your SUN OVEN® you may return it within 30 days of the date you receive it and you will receive a refund. [Offer from the Sun Oven website]

Cooking in a SUN OVEN® is easy, fun, natural, and nutritious, while helping the environment. SUN OVENS® are ideal for everyday use in your back yard, at picnics, while camping, or in the event of a power failure. They can help keep your house cool in the summer by keeping the heat from cooking outside.

Even though it is called an oven, food can be baked, boiled, and steamed at cooking temperatures of 360° F to 400° F. There is no movement of air in a SUN OVEN®, allowing food to stay moist and tender and flavorful. Sun-baked roasts are tastier and more succulent, and sun-baked bread has unparalleled taste and texture. The aroma of food sunning itself in a SUN OVEN® is sure to please your senses.

Temperatures in a SUN OVEN® rise slowly and evenly, allowing complex carbohydrates time to break down into simple sugars, emanating subtle natural flavors. The even temperature of the SUN OVEN® prevents burning, so you do not need to stir your food while it is cooking.

There are two ways to cook in a SUN OVEN®. If you refocus the oven to follow the sun every 25 to 30 minutes, cooking times and methods will be very similar to cooking with a conventional stove or oven. Or a SUN OVEN® can be used for slow cooking, much like a crock-pot. You can prepare your dinner, put it in the SUN OVEN®, point the oven where the sun will be approximately halfway through the time you will be gone. Leave, and come home to a tasty, slow-cooked dinner. If you run late, there is no need to worry; the SUN OVEN® will keep your food warm, moist, and fresh for hours.

My unit was purchased from Amazon.com
Global Sun Oven – Solar Cooker by SUN OVENS International, Inc.
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
Price: $259.00 (no tax)

VIDEO LINKS: (Page with 10 brief videos showing the use of a Sun Oven:
http://www.sunoven.com/sun-cooking-usa/how-to-use#whatis

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YOUTUBE (Jack Spirko of “The Survival Podcast” cooking a roast on the Global Sun Oven)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSHL39DMD9k&feature=related

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Explanation of the Global Solar Sun Oven’s Function: 
•  The Global Sun Oven® will quickly reach temperatures of 360 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit!!!
•  When the Global Sun Oven is focused in the sun, the interior of the oven is heated by the sun’s energy.
•  Panels of polished metal flare out above the oven and direct the suns rays into the oven chamber where the heat is trapped, much like the heat captured when windows of a car are closed.
•  The black surfaces on the inside of the oven capture and transform the sun’s energy into a radiant energy wave length that cannot escape the oven chamber.
•  Direct and reflected sunlight enters the oven chamber through the glass door. It then turns to heat energy when it is absorbed by the black inner-shell and the levelator device.
•  The light energy absorbed by both the dark surface, and thick steel walls of the The Global Sun Oven Roasting Pot, [or other dark pots], and the oven’s dark interior is converted into longer wavelengths of radiant heat energy. Most of this longer-wavelength radiant energy cannot pass back out through the glass, ensuring more efficient cooking.
•  Food will not stick or burn… because the      solar heat is radiated throughout the cooking oven and does not come from a single direct source; no hot spots created by harsh burners or heating elements.
•  Food does not even have to be stirred – PLUS the Sun Oven is an excellent tool for boiling water. Cooking times are about fifteen minutes longer than with conventional ovens.
•  The oven will generally reach its maximum temperature as it is being preheated. The temperature drops slightly when food is placed in the chamber.
•  Note: The Sun Oven works even in subzero air temperatures, as long as the sun is out, the oven will capture the sun’s energy and cook as if it were a tropical day. The oven will heat up quicker on clear, low humidity days.
•  The Global Sun Oven is equipped with a built-in levelator device, an inner shelf that pivots to always keep food level and avoid spills while the oven is being refocused. The levelator is easily removed to make cleaning easier – or expand the baking area!
•  The four mirror finished anodized aluminum reflecting panels fold in and are easily secured with a heavy-duty strap. Convenient suitcase style handle allows for hassle-free handling – rugger construction,compact size, and low weight make transport or storage a breeze!

 Product Benefits:
• Perfect for crock pot style cooking while busy or at work
• Superior cooking; virtually every food tastes much better!!!
• Captures the nutritional benefits of all natural cooking
• Bake breads, casserole, etc – without heating up kitchen!
• Facilitates enhanced cooking worldwide – from ice fishermen in Minnesota baking their catch on a frozen lake, to desert dwellers in Kuwait baking lamb – from women in rain forests of Africa who can’t find wood to cook with – to deer hunters in North America who love moist venison – Sun Oven cooks!

 Product Features:
• Cooks with the power of the Sun – no fuel needed!
• Uses source of power that never fails – the energy of sun
• Cooks any foods – no special recipes are required
• Reaches temperatures of 360 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
• Levelator inner shelf pivots to always keep food level
• Levelator easily removed to expand the baking area
Built in leveling leg on back allows for easy sun tracking
• Rugged construction – built for years of trouble-free use
Strong plastic case – both durable and easy to clean
Outer shell made of a highly durable ABS plastic
• Reflexo specular finish reflectors plus tempered glass door
Reflectors made with mirror finished anodized aluminum –  will not oxidize, rust, or corrode
• Black inner shell is formed from aluminum coated with non-toxic, high temperature powder coating
• Coating is baked on and does not emit any toxic fumes – like other industrial paints or coatings
• Oven interior is double-walled and lined with thick batt of non-toxic fiberglass insulation
• Gasket that seals the oven chamber is made from patented material specifically designed to withstand UV radiation
• Gasket forms an air-tight seal to hold heat in while preventing out-gassing from building up in the oven’s chamber
• Stained wooden bezel made of milled kiln dried hardwood
• Reflecting panels fold in and are easily secured with strap
• Carry it anywhere – as portable as a small suitcase!
• Convenient suitcase-like handle – weighs only 21 pounds!!!

OPTIONAL: Black Graniteware, oval-shaped roasting pot; 3 Quart, This black ceramic-coated, all steel roaster is perfect for use in The Global Sun Oven®. The 3 quart size is ideal for most meals using solar cooking, and fits precisely inside The Global Sun Oven with maximum use of interior oven space. Roasting Pot dimensions: 9 3/4 x 5 3/4.
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B.  Emergency Food Preparedness by using a Solar Oven
http://www.solarcooker-at-cantinawest.com/emergency_food_preparedness.html

When natural disasters or unforeseen events occur, you know that being physically prepared for an emergency with backups and reserves of food, water, power and shelter is usually the difference between security and peace of mind, or uncertainty and possible tragedy.
We realize of course that conditions within any locale at any given time may not be favorable for using a solar cooker.
Stormy, cloudy and violent weather will most surely make it difficult, even impossible to use a solar oven. But, as everyone knows, these conditions will not always be present; in fact they are usually very short in duration.
The resultant effects of events such as; power outages, tornadoes, storms and such usually leave many hundreds and thousands without the basic necessities that are so common and vital to our customary standard of living; these usually include power, clean water, shelter, food and medical care.
A solar-powered oven can address several of these emergency needs in varying ways and with great results.
•  Clean Water, a most vital resource, can become contaminated through a variety of disruptions or compromises to the culinary water system in a city or town of any size and sickness can result because of it. Boiling water to remove the impurities is the best and most common way for individuals faced with such conditions, but not always are there means available to do this. Without electricity or other fuel sources it would be impossible to obtain the heat levels necessary to boil water. But with a solar cooker you can easily purify enough water to meet the drinking needs of the average family. In fact is, it is not even necessary to bring the water to a complete boil since you can sterilize the water by merely pasteurizing it, thus increasing the amounts of water that can be purified in a day.
•  A solar oven can also be used to sterilize other items as well, such as medical instruments and cooking utensils. In some third world countries where there are epidemics of grain infestation, solar cookers have been used for sterilization of various grain staples.
•  A solar Parabolic Cooker can be used to pressure cook as well as do pressure canning and even run a solar water distiller with the right parts and equipment customized to a parabolic cooker.
•  Solar ovens can be used for such needs as warming or drying clothing articles, drying fruit and vegetables (at ventilated lower temps) melting wax for candles, beekeeping wax melting. And a solar parabolic cooker can be used for warming the body and hands in cold weather as well as warming/heating pipes for air and water heating.
•  The foremost reason for including a solar cooker amongst your emergency supplies is of course; to be able to cook your food when there are no other means available of doing so.

*VIDEO LINK (16 videos: a variety of solar ovens and their uses):
http://www.solarcooker-at-cantinawest.com/solar_cookers_videos.html

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Filed under Survival Manual, __3. Food & Water

Trapping

(Survival manual/3. Food & Water/ Trapping)
See also my post: (Survival manual/ 3. Food & water/ Food resources for extreme hardship: Dog, cat, roadkill… )

A.  Rat Traps
In order to get your head around the concept of  ‘rat for  supper’, read, When All Hell Breaks Loose © 2007 Cody Lundin, published by Gibbs Smith, Publisher, Layton, UT, 450 pages.
•  Victor rat (not mouse) traps are good for squirrels and rabbits when properly placed and they cost under $3.50 each.
•  For survival purposes, a rat trap will work for ground squirrels too
•  Use soft cat food or peanut butter as bait as it seems to work best, just make sure you dig a small hole and cover it with leaves and you should be good.
•  A rat trap will provide dinner in a pinch.
•  You may also use them to trigger bigger traps with a pressure plate and a stiff wire to the rat trap – when the rat trap goes off it springs the larger trap.
•  Use peanut oil to grease the traps.

Dressing rat:
(squirrel, ground squirrels)
Excerpted from: http://www.earthportals.com/Portal_Messenger/ratfordinner.html
I was very unprepared on how to react to these rats on the table directly in front of me. But there they were, big brown furry rats just lying there awaiting to be prepared for a delicacy.
The cleaning and preparation for cooking rat is quite a process. The small feet and tail are first cut off on a wood chopping block. Then a cut is made behind the ear so that it is possible to pull the fur off of the main body. After that is done the head is cut off as the head is held onto when pulling the fur off of the body.
The rat is then washed in water and a cut is made along its belly to remove all the intestines. The liver and the heart are kept inside the body.

The rat is then spread open and placed either on a grill, for cooking over an open flame, or the smaller rats are ready for the wood chopping black. The smaller rats are left on the grill just long enough for the meat to be cooked, but still medium rare.
Then the small rats are chopped up very finely on the chopping block, small bones and all, until a sort of fine ground meat is made into a paste.
The heart and liver are removed before it is chopped up and placed in a separate dish. [Image at right: BBQ rat.]

Before the rats are prepared for cooking, about two small cups of red chili peppers are ground up with a mortar and pestle until a red chili paste is made. It is this chili paste that the finely chopped rat meat is added and then cooked in oil in a wok. A great deal of garnish and other spices are added which are mentioned in the recipe at the end of this short story. The larger rats were completely fried with a burnt like look to them as they were also basted with a chili sauce. Once at the dinner table I had to keep in mind I was going to eat a Thai delicacy so my first bite was accompanied by a strange feeling that I was not going to like this delicacy at all. Once the rat meat was in my mouth I began to chew. The first taste I experienced was the very distinctive hot chili flavor, which was a welcomed friend to my taste buds, but I knew the rate meat was about to make its appearance on my tongue. The meat was very tender and not at all wild game tasting. In fact the meat was very sweet, very much like rabbit meat or frog legs. I was satisfied I could continue eating my first piece of rat meat, and went about picking every last piece of meat off of the small bones.
It amazes me how we all grow accustomed to food from cultures we are familiar with and how uncertain we feel when approached with a new cultural taste treat.

Recipe for ground rat meat and chili paste:
Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup fish oil
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1-1/2 cups of dried red chili peppers
  • 4 long green peppers
  • 8 large bay leaves
  • 1/2 cup holy basil leaf
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 4 chopped garlic cloves
  • 4 small rats

Initial Preparation:

  • With a mortar and pestle place the 1-1/2 cups of dried red chili peppers, and begin to mash until a red paste is achieved. Add a tablespoon of water to make moist.
  • Chop garlic cloves.
  • Place bay leaves in a small bowl of water. Roll two bay leaves at a time and then thinly shred and place in dry dish. Do for all 8 leaves – two at a time.
  • Place holy basil leaves in a small bowl of water.
  • Dice long green peppers. Do small cross sections so look like wheels and place in dry dish.
  • Skin 4 small rats. Clean and place heart and liver in separate bowl.

Cooking preparations:

  • Place oil in a wok over an open flame and heat
  • Place small rats on a grill, and lightly cook over an open flame on both sides until medium cooked. Do not cook well done.
  • Mix red chili paste with hot oil and stir well.
  • Finely chop rats on a wood chopping block over and over until makes a smooth ground meat texture. Be sure to chop all the bones well.
  • Add chopped rat meat to the red chili paste and oil and stir well.
  • Add diced green peppers and stir well. Let cook for 5 minutes.
  • Add 1/2 tablespoon of salt.
  • Add whole liver and heart and sir in.
  • Add holy basil leaves to mixture and stir in well and let cook for another 5 minutes. Be sure not to burn the chili paste – add a little water if necessary to keep moist but not runny.
  • Add chopped garlic cloves
  • Add shredded bay leaves and stir in and cover and let simmer for 5 minutes or more to let all the flavors mix well.

Serving:
Serve ground rat meat on an oval dish with livers and heart on the top. Circle with garnish of basil leaves and halves of lime. Serve with white rice. The flavor will be hot and tangy with a mild crunchy chew to it. It is not to be considered the main dish, but a nice hot and spicy accent to other prepared dishes. Very good on crackers.
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.B. Conibear Traps
From Captain Dave’s Survival Center, Buckshot’s Trapping Tales, see:  http://www.captaindaves.com/buckshot/110.htm
#110 conibear, this trap is 4-1/2 by 4-1/2 ” with a single spring. It’s very popular among trappers because they’re easy to use and reliable quick kills for muskrat, mink, rabbit, squirrel, and some of the larger weasels. [Image below: a #110 Conibear trap]

#220 conibear, this trap is 7″ by 7″ with double springs and requires a setting tool to compress the springs. The #220 is popular among the raccoon trappers and is also used to catch raccoon, otter, muskrat, mink, squirrel, rabbit, and ground hog (woodchucks). Care must be used with this trap because if a dog or house-cat sticks his head in there, they will die quickly just like a raccoon. Some states have regulated this trap, so if set on land they may need to be in dog proof boxes or at least 4 feet off the ground.

#330 conibear, this trap is 10″ x 10″ square with double springs, this is the most powerful and is NO kids toy. The same setting tool that can be used for the #220 will work for the #330. What a wonderful beaver trap. I have trapped 100’s of beaver with this trap. The trap was designed for beaver but can also be used for otters, raccoons, and snapping turtles.

Just as there is no one perfect gun, what trap that suits you best depends on where you are in the country. What animal has the highest population in your area? In general, a great survival set-up would be 6- #110 for the smaller animals, 4- #220 for medium size animals and 2-#330 for beaver size animals. This batch of only 12 traps should keep you in meat and fur just about anywhere in America.

The #110 Conibear is a wonderful little trap. I caught my first muskrat with one back in 1975. The trap is 4 1/2″ by 4 1/2″ with a single spring. To set the trap you squeeze the spring down and open the jaws bringing them together. The trigger is made out of two thin pieces of wire connected to a folded piece of metal on the top jaw. There is a slot in the middle of this piece of metal where the second piece of the trigger hooks on. There are three settings and I generally used the middle one. You flip the top trigger and hook on the middle setting, now before you release pressure from the spring make sure your hand is clear. The easiest way is to set it down on the ground upright and hold your finger on the top trigger and release the pressure from your other hand. Now the trap is set. Just play around with it for a while until you get use to setting them. Take a stick about 18 inches long hold one end and with the opposite end push on the trigger. The trap may fire or it might fall over. Try it both ways holding the trap spring to keep the trap from falling over and unsupported. The reason I wanted you to do this, is so you could see first hand why the trap HAS TO BE STABILIZED. This is very, very, important on Conibear style traps. I don’t care what size, you have to stabilize them! What this means is the trap is designed for the animal to stick his head in. Well, the trap has to be supported or it will fall over and spring off without catching the animal. Now, you just educated that animal to be scared and trap-shy of traps and he will be much harder to capture.

One way to make a great stabilizer for the #110 Conibear is either buy lath boards, or if you know of someone remodeling an old house and their ripping out the old lath board, so they can put up drywall, they will probably give you all the lath board for the asking. I cut mine 12-18″ long (it is not critical), sharpen one end to a point, let them weather if they are new, you now have an easy-to-use stabilizer. Remember , this is for stabilizing the trap and not to be confused with a stake.
[Image left: #220 Conibear trap, staked and stabilized.]
Take the lath board and at about a 45 degree angle, push the stake into the ground between the compressed spring and the open part of the two jaws. You want a downward pressure on the trap to keep it from being knocked over. Now, try pushing the 18″ long stick on the trigger. The trap should fire, closing on the stick. Remember to keep your hands back — these little trap hurt if they whack you one.
Of course, there are several ways to stabilize these traps, you can use two sticks and form a X over the top of the trap, you can weld a 6″ long piece of 1/4″ stock to the rivet, or if setting in boxes you can notch the box, etc.

 Where to set the #110
The #110 can be used three different ways: den entrance, trail set, and bait set.

1.  Den entrances for cottontail rabbits. The best way to learn how to trap, is wait until first snow and track the rabbit to its den hole. Then place the #110 over the hole at whatever the angle of the hole is. You may have to make a small stabilizing stick on the spot. Place two 2-3″ long approximately 1″ diameter sticks on the bottom jaw this will keep the trapping from freezing to the ground. Take the chain off to one side, out-of-the-way and wire it to a tree or handy branch. The next time a rabbit comes out or in the hole, he is caught.
2.  Heavy brush piles will have a beaten path in the snow where the rabbits run and hide. Pick the spot with the most tracks and find a spot that is just about the size of the trap, all narrowed down with a top stick to keep the rabbits from jumping over. Place the trap there, if you have to you can add a couple of side sticks to help narrow it down and a top stick. Set the trap upright, so if the rabbit wants to get in the brush pile his only choice is through the trap.
3. Another way to get rabbits — and this will work on all rabbits — is with an old stove-pipe 6″ in diameter. Take a piece 12″ to 24″ long and cut a notch in the side for the spring to slide in, about 3″ long, then bend the pipe down a little smaller, then the trap on both ends. Now, you slide the trap in making sure it fits snug, two traps, one on each end. Test to make sure there is enough room for the trigger to fire. Always test your pipe with a trap in it first. You may have to take a stick or two to close off the end opposite the spring, just make sure that the only way to get in the pipe is through the trap.

This stove-pipe trap will work on squirrels , muskrats, ducks, rabbits, anything that can fit in the pipe and your bait attracts. Now wire the chain off to something solid. Place near berry bushes in the woods for rabbits and game birds. Around marshes, lakes, river, streams, etc. for muskrats, ducks, etc. All you do is take bait such as corn and make a trail going in each end to a pile of corn in the middle of the pipe. Of course, remove the trap before you place the corn in!! Pheasants, grouse, quail, etc. will go in for the corn, so will coons , so make sure you wire it off to something solid or the coon will run off with the trap. A big coon will just power his head out but smaller coons will be alive and in a bad mood when you arrive. I don’t think the trap would kill a pheasant, but I know it will flatten the smaller game birds. Check the trap once a day. Mice will steal the bait so don’t get upset, just re-bait or move the trap.
Pasted from: http://www.captaindaves.com/buckshot/110.htm

 New traps
When you buy new traps they are coated in a grease. You need to remove this. I wash them well with dish soap and scrub, others simply place new traps in the dishwasher.

After removing the grease, adjust the traps. The pan is the part an animal steps on to fire the trap on their paw. There is a screw that adjusts how much pressure is needed to fire the trap. You need to adjust this so the pressure is not too light and not too heavy. You will want it a little heavy for coyotes though, and very light for raccoons and between this for foxes. Foxes – take 1-2 pounds of pressure to fire the trap, raccoons 1 pound or less, coyotes 3-4 pounds except small coyotes such as Texas ones, same as fox.

The dog is the metal piece that fits into the notch on the pan that holds the trap in the set position until an animal steps on the pan. The dog must fit into the notch properly and allow the trap to fire quickly. The pan notch can be filed to make the notch much smaller, this allows a crisper firing of the trap. Also the pan must be level with the set jaws, not sticking up or too low. If the pan is setting too high when set, bend the base that the dog is attached to, inward.

After making these adjustments, set the traps outside to get a light rust coating. Once rusted you can dye in walnut hulls or logwood crystals. Logwood can be purchased from a trap supplier and has directions on the bag. Walnut hulls- just collect a bunch of them and put in a big pot of water. Put your light rust coated traps in the pot with either the logwood or walnut hulls and simmer for 30-45 mins.

Once they have taken the dye you can remove the traps and hang them up to dry. After dry you can either use as is or wax them as well. Waxing helps keep the dye on and resists further rusting if the traps are set in the ground a while to try to catch an animal. Waxing involves clean white paraffin wax melted down and kept below the boiling point, and the traps are immersed in it until the traps have taken the wax on as a thin coat, and no more white shows on the traps in the wax dip, from the wax. Remove the trap and hang to cool, when cooled, remove the wax on the tip of the dog and the trap pan notch.

Staking traps
In areas where coyote may be caught – always double stake or use a large grapple with long chain or heavy drag ( both of which require some tracking of a caught animal and also require suitable brush for said animal to tangle in), or a cable stake such as sold in the supply catalogs. Make sure all staking connections are strong. Do not just wire the end of the trap chain to something.
Foxes– a single 24″ rebar stake with a welded nut or washer top is all you need,driven through the swivel end on the trap chain, unless there are some coyotes in your area, then see above.
Raccoons, same as fox, however in water I use the trappers tie wire sold in the catalogs, 11 ga or 14 ga (use 11 always if you have big coons such as in New England or the lakes). I will wire the trap chain end to a drag such as a cement block.
Bobcats– often coyotes live in the same area, so stake as for coyotes, or use the grapple or drag system if you have the brush and extra time to track.

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.For further information read: Buckshot’s Complete Survival Trapping Guide © 2009 by Bruce ‘Buckshot’ Hemming, published by Bruce Hemming, Gackle, ND, 157 pages.
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C.   Simple Survival Snares
Pasted from: http://www.simplesurvival.net/snares.htm
When it comes to procuring meat in the wild, you will have to work for your next meal. Usually, it takes a lot of work and then you will most likely have to lower your meat standards a bit. You may prefer beef, but in the field, you will be lucky if you dine on squirrel or rabbit. Animals are difficult for the inexperienced hunter to catch. They are very shy of man and often their senses are highly tuned toward survival. However, you can trap most small game, if you know what you are doing.

There are all kinds of traps that can be made in the bush. Some use boulders, huge logs, deep pits, and so on. Those are more work than they are worth. Well, at least they are for the average person who needs meat quickly and is not hoping for a lion, bear or other large game. We will concentrate on small game. Mainly because they are easier to trap and they are more abundant. Not to mention, they are less dangerous to catch.

The most common method of catching small game is by using snares. Snares can be made using line, cord, wire, or even vines. I can tell you from experience, it will take a lot of traps to yield one animal. Unless you get lucky and discover a place that is full of small game! I recommend you set them out by the dozens and check them first thing each morning. Try to find small game trails, which are small trails through the grass and weeds. Often, rabbits and other small game use the same trails over and over to move to food and water sources. Like man, they are creatures of habit. You may also find trails that lead into briar patches, thorn bushes and other types of brush. Small game uses those types of places as protection, or places to hide. They are good places to put a snare as well.

Snares can be purchased ready-made, with a locking loop. Or, if you prefer, you can make you own from wire, string, cord or vines. I have found wire to work the best and as you may have guessed, vines work less effectively. But, in a survival situation, if you don’t have an item with you, then you must use what Mother Nature provides, or do without. I carry about 50 feet of snare wire and about 25 feet of parachute 550 cord. The parachute cord is nylon and has strands of smaller “string-like” cords inside. I simply cut the cord and remove a single strand of the smaller cord and use it to make my snares with. It is small, light, and very strong.

When making a snare there are two very common designs. One type of design simply holds the animal at ground level and may or may not strangle the victim. The second design will flip the animal into the air and hold the carcass off of the ground. Of course as the animal is held off of the ground it is strangled to death. While they are both are easy to make, each design has strengths and weaknesses.

Both designs require the loop in the wire, cord, string, or vine, to tighten and hold the animal. The loop (see the illustration) should be free moving. This free movement allows the loop to tighten as the animal struggles or moves forward into the snare. With the flip-up design, movement of the wire will trigger the device and fling the animal into the air, which using the animal’s body weight tightens the loop. Make sure the loop has free movement.

In both types of snares you should set the loop diameter for the type of animal you hope to catch. I am using the most common small game here, due to the fact that they are most abundant. Additionally, keep in mind that different animals require the loop diameter to be different sizes and to be placed at different heights on the game trail.

  • Rabbits: the loop should be about four inches in diameter and placed about two inches above the trail.
  • Squirrels: the loop should be about three inches in diameter and two to three inches above the trail.
  • Beavers: make the loop about five inches in diameter and place it about one to two inches off of the ground.

For the holding snare, let’s say for a rabbit, you make a loop (about four inches in diameter) and place it about two inches above the center of the game trail. Make sure the end of the snare wire, opposite the loop, is secured to a bush, stake, or other stationary object. Make sure what you use to secure the snare cannot be pulled away by the animal. Then, if needed, use brush, logs or other debris to make a funnel toward your snare. In other words, force the animal to the snare and do not allow them to go around it. Since most animals will continue to use a trail they have used daily, this should not be a big issue. But, by using the tunneling affect the game will usually continue down the known trail. The animal’s head will then enter the loop and as it continues to move forward the loop will slide and become smaller. Eventually the loop will be so small is size the animal cannot get out. Any struggling will only tighten the loop. Thus, you have dinner.

In the flip-up snare the principle is the same as far as tunneling the animal. The difference is when the animal’s head enters the snare it will eventually pulls the wire far enough to trigger the flip up part of the trap. At that point the animal will be flipped into the air and strangled. The diameter of the loop and the distances off the ground remain the same in this snare as in the other.

To make a trip snare, you need a flexible limb or bush, the snare wire, a trigger and a method to hold the trigger. The illustration shows a couple of examples. I do not recommend this type of snare in extreme cold because the flexible part of the trap often freezes in place and does not function as a spring any longer. If the weather is really cold use the standard holding snare.

[Above: Various snare, deadfall and spring traps.]

I stated early in this article to check your traps each morning. This is important to remember. Some animals, if snared by the leg, will actually chew the limb off to get out of the trap. While I have no problems snaring my dinner, I do not want to cause pain or suffering to any animal. My goal is to kill the animal so I can survive, not to inflict pain.

When you approach the snare you will usually see right off if it has an animal. If an animal is there, use a club or spear to kill it instantly. Most animals caught in a snare will be dead already, but be prepared. The choice of ‘how’ is yours, but keep in mind to kill quickly. Many animals, even small game, will be capable of inflicting pain on the person checking the snare. They may bite, scratch or claw you.

For some of you, snaring an animal may not be a very pleasant task. It may prove to be even more difficult to kill an animal so you can eat. In today’s society we are rarely involved in the processing of our meals and it can be a shocker for some folks. I can understand your views, but in an emergency, you will need the fats and protein the animal will provide. Something must die so you may live. Survival is not a game. In a real survival situation your life may very well depend on your ability to snare game, eat insects, or even the eating of certain plants you may not like. It is necessary for your survival. Can you do what it takes to survive? Can you make a snare?

Snare Cable sizing
 See: http://www.raymondthompson.com/page/www.thompsonsnares.com/page/cable-sizing.aspx
We offer a full line of snaring products in six diameters of steel cable and two diameters of stainless steel cable.  The cable sizes with our Thompson Snare size reference number are listed below along with recommendations for use to capture various species of animals.

Size:     Cable Diameter:               Target Animal:
00         1/32 inch stainless        very small game and birds
0            1/16 inch                         mink, bobcat, small raccoon, rabbit, fox
1             5/64 inch                        bobcat, fox, lynx, coyote, large raccoon
2             3/32 inch                       beaver, otter, lynx coyote
3             7/64 inch                       cougar, medium bear, wolf, alligator
4             1/8  inch                         cougar, large black bear, wolf, crocodile
5             5/32 inch                        large black, grizzly & Kodiak bears
4SS        1/8  inch stainless        feral hogs, alligator

When properly set, Thompson Snares are guaranteed to hold the animal which they are recommended.  Many professional ‘snaremen’ have used smaller sizes with excellent results.

See also Dave Canterbury’s web site, The Pathfinder School at: http://www.wildernessoutfittersarchery.com

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Filed under Survival Manual, __3. Food & Water

Developing a survival food list

(Survival manual/3. Food & Water/Developing a survival food list)

FOOD

The Rules of 3:
In any survival situation, prioritize your activities to protect yourself from the closest, most pressing element in the Rules of Three. If you are in an area with extreme temps seek to protect your core temp then look for water, if you have adequate temps/shelter and water, look for food…

Rules of Three table

3 minutes You can only live about 3 minutes without air/breathing.
3 hours You can live only about 3 hours exposed and unprotected to extreme temperatures. Hyperthermia (body core rises to about 103F-106F, and usually is slower to kill). Hypothemia  (body core declines to 87F-90F, can occur quickly if the body/clothing is wet freezing rain or submersion, then exposed to freezing or near freezing air temperatures).
3 days You can only live about 3 days without safe water.
3 weeks You can live only about 3 weeks without food.
3 months Death may follow without socialization after about 3 months.
3 years Apathy/Disinterested: May only live 3 years without an interest or goal in life

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DEVELOPING A SURVIVAL FOODS LIST

How Much Food do you Need?
1.  A good rule of thumb for calorie intake is the same rule used by athletes when losing or maintaining weight; check your weight then multiply it by ten. (example, my weight 162 lbs. x 10 = 1,600 cal per day). If you weigh 200 pounds, this means you will need at least 2,000 calories just for your body to remain healthy in an inactive state. If constantly active (which is likely) you will need more than 2,000 calories to remain in good health. Never scoff at calorie counting, it may save your life. For home storage, I recommend at minimum, a one year supply of food. Stocking more, especially for trade, is preferable.
2.  The second  answer: You can never have too much food stored away for hard times.
How much is the minimum for you is an answer you’ll have to come up with after reviewing your thoughts about the future. Will three days of food be enough, as many suggest? Or do you need a year’s worth? It is suggested that two weeks or more is the minimum for anyone in any potential survival situation. One to three months? Now you’re talking. A year? Let’s hope you never need it. A year may be excessive for most, but then, better safe than sorry.
Why should you stock up on so much food if the worst you’re planning to prepare for is a heavy winter storm? Several reasons:
•   It may take a while for store shelves to be replenished. Think back to the heavy storms that hit the East Coast in the winter of 1995.
• 96. 30 inches in cities such as Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia shut the city down for more than a week. And the trucks carrying supplies were stranded on the side of an interstate highway somewhere in the Midwest.
•  You may be asked to feed friends or neighbors. Think how you’d feel if on the sixth day of the storm you and your family were enjoying a delicious, rich, beef stew while poor old Mrs. Frugal next door was down to a used tea bag and the bread crusts she usually gives the birds? Or what if friends were visiting for the weekend and unable to return home because of the inclement weather, earthquake or other emergency?
•  Food rarely goes down in price. What you buy now will be an investment in the future. If you shop carefully over time, you can lay in stores of goods on sale or at warehouse club prices.
•  You will be protected from price gouging. Do you really think the last load of milk and bread into the store before the storm hits will be discounted? Shelves are often cleared out right before a blizzard or hurricane is set to hit. And food isn’t the only item likely to be in short supply; one grocery chain reported that when storm warnings went out, they sold more rolls of toilet paper than there were people in the city. Batteries, bottled water, candles and other staples are also going to be in short supply.
• You will be prepared for a crippling blow to our food supply system. As I write this, many are predicting our food supply is tottering on its last legs. Whether it’s a drought (like we saw in 1996 in Texas and Oklahoma), a wheat blight, the destruction of traditional honey bees necessary for crop fertilization or simply the world’s exploding population, they will tell you our food system is falling apart.

The dry matter of food
The Utah State University Cooperative Extension recommends storing one pound of dry matter per person per day as part of a long term food storage plan. “Dry matter” consists of most food products you would store, including rice, legumes, dried milk, flour, pasta and sugar, among other items. One pound of dry matter will provide approximately 1,600 calories. The way your food supply is packaged will greatly affect the length of time it will remain a safe and viable energy source. For example, dried milk and freeze-dried fruits and vegetables should be stored in nitrogen packed cans for maximum preservation. Your entire food supply should be stored in a cool, dark and dry environment in secure packaging to prevent spoilage and pest infestation.
Remember, 1 pound dry food contain about 1600 calories= 1 lb/person/day.

Spices/Oils/Flavorings
Food not only nourishes our bodies, but can also nourish our mood and spirits. Therefore, it’s important to include flavors and foods that are familiar so they can provide a source of morale and comfort during stressful or emergency situations. Most cooking oils, spices and seasonings will last several years if stored properly. Dried coffee, tea and cocoa will also have extensive shelf lives when kept well.

Other Items to Consider
In addition to food and water, you’ll also need supplies and tools to be able to prepare and serve meals. Don’t forget to include pots, pans, utensils, a can opener, a grain mill, plates, bowls, glasses and a some sort of cooking implement such as a grill or camp stove. Fuel for your cooking implement will also need to be readily available or stored. Vitamin and mineral supplements will ensure that each person will receive proper nutrition, particularly if part of your food supply becomes contaminated and unusable.
Lastly, be sure to store food and additional water for family pets.

General Shelf Life of Foods for Storage
Use within six months:
Powdered milk (boxed)
Dried fruit (in metal container)
Dry, crisp crackers (in metal container)
Potatoes

Items that may be stored (almost)  indefinitely (in proper containers and conditions):
Wheat
Vegetable oils
Corn
Baking powder
Soybeans
Instant coffee, tea
Vitamin C and cocoa
Salt
Noncarbonated soft drinks
White rice
Bouillon products
Dry pasta
Powdered milk (in nitrogen-packed cans)

Use within one year:
Canned condensed meat and vegetable soups
Canned fruits, fruit juices and vegetables
Ready-to-eat cereals and uncooked instant cereals (in metal containers)
Peanut butter
Jelly
Hard candy, chocolate bars and canned nuts

An easy approach to long-term food storage:
1.  Build up your everyday stock of canned goods until you have a two-week to one-month surplus. Rotate it periodically to maintain a supply of common foods that will not require special preparation, water or cooking.
2.  Buy a supply of the bulk staples listed above.
3.  From a camping equipment store or on-line business, buy commercially packaged, freeze-dried or dehydrated foods. Although costly, this will be your best form of stored meat– buy accordingly. Remember the ditty:  ‘A case if you can, a can if you can’t.’  Buy long term nitrogen packed foods by the ‘case’ if you can afford them, or  stock up with canned goods if you can’t.

Survival foods discussion
Analysis of historical data from selected US cities during the 1918 pandemic suggests that duration of implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions are associated with mortality rates. Pandemic waves may average about 6-8 weeks; however, an extended wave may occur; communities should be prepared to sustain themselves for up to 12 weeks in a Category 4 or 5 pandemic.
Previously, Federal guidance called for three days of food and water for emergency situations. In response to pandemic flu, two weeks of food is probably the minimum for anyone in any potential survival situation. A stockpile of one to three months is probably a more realistic inventory for prolonged social distancing in response to pandemic flu. A year? Let’s hope you never need it. A year may be excessive for almost any purposes. This food reserve should not include food in your refrigerator or freezer, because you cannot count on those items remaining edible for more than a day (fridge) or three (freezer), at most.

You can survive over a week without food, but only 3 days without water. Roughly 70% of the adult human body is made up of water. FEMA suggests storing at least one gallon of water per person per day. A normally active person needs at least one-half gallon of water daily just for drinking. A two-week supply of water would be sufficient to deal with a worst case scenario in which there was a temporary interruption of the municipal water supply. Otherwise, tap water is safe to drink and poses no risk of transmission of flu virus.

General food storage: concepts & guidelines
a)  According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), food can be safe forever from a food borne-illness standpoint – but if shelf-stable food has been on the shelf for an extended period of time, you might not want to eat it because the quality may not be good. In this case, the “best if used by” date on the label of the product is an indication whether or not the quality of the food is good.
b)  Food quality deals with the taste, texture, and nutritional value of food.
“Shelf-life” is the length of time food will retain most of its nutrition and flavor. Food that may still be safe to eat may have lost much of its nutrition, if stored past its shelf life. Things that cause food to go bad are moisture, oxygen, insects, and animals getting into the food.
c)  Cans of food from the super market make good storage foods, but you should use the oldest ones first and replace them. This is called “rotating” your food. The easiest way to do this is to put the date that you bought the food on the top of the can with a magic marker. This makes it easy to use the oldest first. Canned foods will keep for at least one year, if kept in a cool, dry place and not allowed to freeze.
d)  Some foods, such as canned foods, have a product code stamped on the bottom or top of each container providing information such as “best quality date” or “use by date,” the name of the plant where the food was manufactured, and the lot number. The code number may not be consistent from one manufacturer to another. For instance, food manufacturers may indicate the “use by date” as month and year (APR00) stamped on top of the can. APR00 means the food should be consumed by April of 2000. The first letter and number (corresponding to month and year) of the stamped code also may indicate “use by dates.
e)  When in doubt throw it out! Never taste food to determine its safety! Check canned goods to see whether any are sticky on the outside. This may indicate a leak. You will have to evaluate each item separately. Food may be spoiled without a detectable off-odor.
f)  Food that is temperature abused will spoil rapidly as evidenced by off-odors, off-flavors, off-color, and/or soft texture.
g)  Dried fruits have a long shelf-life because moisture has been removed from the product. Unopened dried fruits may be stored for 6 months at room temperature.
h)  Canned vegetables can be stored in a cool, dry area below 85°F (optimum 50°F to 70°F) for up to one year. After one year, canned vegetables may still be consumed. However, overall quality and nutritional value may have diminished. Discard badly dented, swollen, and/or rusty cans.
i)  Dry milk may be stored at cool temperatures (50°F to 60°F) in airtight containers for one year. Opened containers of dry milk, especially whole milk products, should be stored at cold temperatures to reduce off-flavors. Reconstituted milk should be handled like fluid milk and stored at refrigeration temperatures if not immediately used.
j)  Canned evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk may be stored at room temperature for 12 to 23 months. Opened canned milk should be refrigerated and consumed within 8 to 20 days.
k)  Rice Dream is rice milk in boxes, similar to juice box packaging. They come in 8 ounce, 32 ounce and 64 ounce sizes. It tastes great with cereal, and for use in cream based soups. You can even fix yourself of chocolate milk using Rice Dream. Rice Dream has a long shelf life, generally the date stamped is one year ahead from the day you purchase it. However once you open it, it needs to be refrigerated and it tastes freshest if used within 4 or 5 days. The manufacturer says it will stay fresh in the refrigerator for 7 – 10 days, however the 5 day mark is the longest period time it retains its full freshness.
l)  Commercial bottled water has an extended shelf-life of one to two years due to extensive water treatment (filtration, demineralization, and ozonation) and strict environmental controls during manufacturing and packaging. Bottled water should be stored in a cool, dry place in the absence of sunlight. Household tap water has a limited shelf-life of only a few days due to the growth of microorganisms during storage.
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BULK STAPLES

Bulk Staples:
Grains, beans and rice, cornmeal, baking soda, legumes, salt, honey,  sugar,  flour, yeast, pasta, dehydrated dairy products and eggs.

Ways to Supplement Your Long-Term Stockpile
Bulk staples offer a limited menu, but you can supplement them with commercially packed air-dried or freeze-dried foods and supermarket goods. Rice, popcorn and varieties of beans are nutritious and long-lasting. The more supplements you include, the more expensive your stockpile will be.

Bulk food storage
A half a cup of dried rice, a little less than half a pound, is equal to roughly 1½ cups of cooked rice. That is a lot of rice per person, so no one should be very hungry. Rice and beans twice a day for a month will provide almost all the nutrients a body needs.
The question is, “How much beans are needed?” Figure one half of a 15-16 oz can of beans/ person per day. (1 can/2 people/day) It’ll keep you alive, but you won’t thrive.
If you get dried beans, figure ¾ cup dried volume per meal, or 22 cups/month (1 gallon=16 cups), hence, a 5 gallon container would hold a volume of dry beans to feed one person 3-1/2 months.
The drawback to dried beans is that they have to be soaked for 24 hours, so you will have to start soaking beans 24 hours in advance of each meal which is a pain.

How much rice & beans to store:
(Equivalents: ½ cup dry rice = 1/2 lb. dry rice= 1-1/2 cups cooked rice)
•  1 person x 0.5 lb rice (1/2 cup) /meal x 2 meals/day = 1 lb (1 cup) dry rice/person/day
•  1 lb (1 cup) rice/person/day = 30 lbs (30 cups) rice/month
•  30 lbs (30 cups) rice/person/month divided by 16 cups/gallon = 2 gallon volume dry rice consumed per month
•  A 5 gallon plastic bucket holds  80 lbs (80 cups) rice which is 2-1/2 months (80 days) for one person; or almost 1-1/3 months (40 days) food for two people. (if that’s all you had to eat)

A year’s supply of rice:
•  1 person on a 100% rice diet would need 350 lbs rice per year, 5 each 5 gallon buckets filled with dry rice).
•  On a 1/2 rice and 1/2 bean diet one would require an annual supply of  175 lbs rice (2-1/2 each 5 gal buckets) per person. Same volumes for combinations of rice, dry beans, legumes and peas.
•  2 persons 700 lbs rice or 10  each 5 gallon buckets, at half fare 350 lbs or 5  each 5 gallon buckets. Same volumes for combinations of rice, dry beans, legumes and peas.

For each volume of dry rice you should have a similar volume of a combination of beans, legumes or peas; a 1 gallon volume of dry rice goes with a 1 gallon volume of dried beans.

Dry bean storage
•  Equivalents:  For most beans: 1 pound dried beans = 2  cups dried, which yields  4 to 5 cups cooked beans.
•  1 lb dry beans/peas=5 cups cooked=5 days food as a rice accompaniment.
•  6 lbs dry beans/peas=1 month supply/ person as rice accompaniment.

Canned beans storage (15-16 oz can)
•  1 person ½ can/day or 15 cans/person/mo
•  2 persons need one can/day, 30 cans month

Beans & Rice priced during ‘good times’ at TheReadyStore.com, Saratoga Farms brand:
•  Long grain white rice value bucket, 47 lbs,  packaged in a 6 gallon sealed plastic storage bucket, containing 384 each ¼ cup servings, with a 20 to 30 year shelf life, $92.49.
•  Bean Sampler case of 6 each #10 (gallon size) cans with: 2 cans pinto beans, and one each kidney beans, navy beans, black beans, refried beans,  $88.25.
http://www.thereadystore.com/food-storage/saratoga-farms-long-grain-white-rice-valuebucket
The 6 gallons each of dry rice and beans provide 1 person with 3 months of bland, basic food. As Crocodile Dundee said, Yeah, you can live on it

Traditional & inherently long-lasting food items for storage
Did you know that with proper storage techniques, you can have a lifetime supply of certain foods?  Certain foods can stand the test of time, and continue being a lifeline to the families that stored it.  Knowing which foods last indefinitely and how to store them are you keys to success.
The best way to store food for the long-term is by using a multi-barrier system.  This system protects the food from natural elements such as moisture and sunlight, as well as from insect infestations.
Typically, those who store bulk foods look for inexpensive items that have multi-purposes and will last the long term.  Listed below are 11 food items that are not only multi-purpose preps, but they can last a lifetime!
•  Honey: Honey never really goes bad.  In a tomb in Egypt 3,000 years ago, honey was found and was still edible.  If there are temperature fluctuations and sunlight, then the consistency and color can change.  Many honey harvesters say that when honey crystallizes, then it can be re-heated and used just like fresh honey.  Because of honey’s low water content, microorganisms do not like the environment.
Uses: curing, baking, medicinal, wine (mead)
•  Salt: Although salt is prone to absorbing moisture, it’s shelf life is indefinite.  This indispensable mineral will be a valuable commodity in a long-term disaster and will be an essential bartering item.
Uses: curing, preservative, cooking, cleaning, medicinal, tanning hides
•  Sugar: Life would be so boring without sugar.  Much like salt, sugar is also prone to absorbing moisture, but this problem can be eradicated by adding some rice granules into the storage container.
Uses: sweetener for beverages, breads, cakes, preservative, curing, gardening, insecticide (equal parts of sugar and baking powder will kill cockroaches).
•  Wheat: Wheat is a major part of the diet for over 1/3 of the world.  This popular staple supplies 20% of daily calories to a majority of the world population.  Besides being a high carbohydrate food, wheat contains valuable protein, minerals, and vita¬mins. Wheat protein, when balanced by other foods that supply certain amino acids such as lysine, is an efficient source of protein.
Uses: baking, making alcohol, livestock feed, leavening agent
•  Dried corn: Essentially, dried corn can be substituted for any recipe that calls for fresh corn.  Our ancestors began drying corn because of it’s short lived season.  To extend the shelf life of corn, it has to be preserved by drying it out so it can be used later in the year.
Uses: soups, cornmeal, livestock feed, hominy and grits, heating source (do a search for corn burning fireplaces).
•  Baking soda: This multi-purpose prep is a must have for long-term storage.
Uses: teeth cleaner, household cleaner, dish cleaner, laundry detergent booster, leavening agent for baked goods, tarnish remover.
•  Instant coffee, tea, and cocoa: Adding these to your long-term storage will not only add a variety to just drinking water, but will also lift morale.  Instant coffee is high vacuum freeze-dried.  So, as long as it is not introduced to moisture, then it will last.  Storage life for all teas and cocoas can be extended by using desiccant packets or oxygen absorbing packets, and by repackaging the items with a vacuum sealing.
Uses: beverages, flavor additions to baked goods
•  Non-carbonated soft drinks: Although many of us prefer carbonated beverages, over time the sugars break down and the drink flavor is altered.  Non-carbonated beverages stand a longer test of time.  And, as long as the bottles are stored in optimum conditions, they will last.  Non-carbonated beverages include: vitamin water, Gatorade, juices, bottled water.
Uses: beverages, flavor additions to baked goods.
•  White rice: White rice is a major staple item that preppers like to put away because it’s a great source for calories, cheap and has a long shelf life.  If properly stored this popular food staple can last 30 years or more.
Uses: breakfast meal, addition to soups, side dishes, alternative to wheat flour
•  Bouillon products: Because bouillon products contain large amounts of salt, the product is preserved.  However, over time, the taste of the bouillon could be altered.  If storing bouillon cubes, it would be best repackage them using a food sealer or sealed in mylar bags.
Uses: flavoring dishes
•  Powdered milk – in nitrogen packed cans: Powdered milk can last indefinitely, however, it is advised to prolong it’s shelf life by either repackaging it for longer term storage, or placing it in the freezer.  If the powdered milk develops an odor or has turned a yellowish tint, it’s time to discard.
Uses: beverage, dessert, ingredient for certain breads, addition to soup and baked goods.

Comparing the various food storage processes
The main difference between commercially prepared foods sold in grocery stores and specially prepared “survival” foods is the shelf storage. You can’t store grocery store items for five to ten years, as you can with specially freeze-dried or sealed foods packed in nitrogen or vacuum sealed. As a result, if you go with a larder full of grocery items, you can’t develop your food stash and walk away. You need to rotate your stock, either on an ongoing basis or every two to three months. This will ensure you have fresh food (if you can consider canned and dry food “fresh”) and do not waste your food and money.
Advantages of canned vs dehydrated foods:  Canned goods are less expensive – Canned goods bought in bulk are roughly, pound-per-pound of finished product, about 25% of the cost of the same product offered in freeze-dried or dehydrated form. Canned foods seem to take up a little more storage area. That’s a small sacrifice when you think about the amount of money you’ll be saving.
Canned goods generally have more calories – It’s difficult to make a direct caloric comparison between freeze-dried/dehydrated foods and canned foods, but it is generally true that canned goods contain more calories in the form of fats than freeze-dried foods. Published food values support this contention.
Canned goods already have water for preparation in the can. Freeze-dried/dehydrated foods have no water content. This means that on top of the drinking water you’ll need to store, you will have to store extra water for your food preparation if you have freeze-dried or dehydrated foods.
Other advantages – Canned foods have a good shelf life, they’re available at virtually every market, and you are already familiar with the preparation since these are foods you frequently eat.
Meals Ready to Eat:  Certain items such as MRE’s are excellent for emergency situations, because they come out of the package ready to eat, with no cooking needed. MREs do not provide as much roughage as you need, which can lead to digestive problems after a week or two of eating nothing else. MRE entrees are excellent supplements, because prepared sets of #10 cans are primarily vegetables, pasta and grains, while MRE entrees are usually meat-based. You may also want to add a few special items, such as hard candy or deserts, to reward yourself or for quick energy. And don’t forget to add vitamins and mineral supplements.
Freeze dried vs. dehydrated: Many people are unsure about the differences between Mountain House freeze-dried foods and dehydrated foods. Both foods are perfect for long term storage, offering about the same (30 year) shelf life when packed in #10 cans. The real differences are detailed below:
Taste: Dehydrated foods are without any seasoning or additional ingredients. Dehydrated foods require cooking and seasoning. Most dehydrated foods will benefit from added seasons. You can add any ingredients or topping to dehydrated foods. Seasoning is recommended simply for taste.
Most freeze-dried foods are contain a multitude of ingredients and seasonings. Nothing more is needed, just a little time in hot water to rehydrated them and have them ready to eat. They are pre-seasoned, pre-cooked and pre-mixed with other ingredients, making them the fastest, easiest and tastiest foods available.
Cooking:  Cooking is very simple. Measure out the amount of ingredients you wish to make (depending on the number of servings you want) and dump into hot water. Cooking time is usually around 10 – 15 minutes for most foods. This applies to all the Mountain House freeze-dried foods.
Ingredients:  Freeze dried food is usually an “entree”, containing multiple items for a complete meal. Most dishes have several items included within them and you don’t need to do any other cooking or adding ingredients to make a complete meal. Because it’s freeze-dried, you simply add hot water, or add the product to hot water and cook for about 10 minutes. This rehydrates the food completely and it’s ready to eat!
Dehydrated foods are usually single ingredients. You can mix any dehydrated food with any other food product for a combination of tastes, textures and varieties.
Freeze dried food are the easiest and tastiest food made for long-term storage. If you don’t like to cook and want great food with a great taste, freeze-dried foods are the hands down winner.
Shelf Life:  Freeze dried foods advertise a 25 year shelf life. Store your food storage in a cold (or cool) dark place out of direct sunlight, preferably at a constant temperature. Dehydrated foods in #10 cans will store about the same length of time.
Space Requirements:  Storable foods, whether freeze-dried or dehydrated foods, are very compact, way more compact then canned foods. There is no excess water or fancy packaging, no empty air spaces. An entire years supply can be fit into a 2 ft x 3 ft area, stacked 5 ft high. Or under the bed, in a closet, in the pantry, in the basement. These foods are concentrated, because the water has been removed before packaging. A single can contains 8 to 16 servings.

With Mountain House freeze dried products and a one-burner stove, or candle to heat water (cold water can be used in a pinch), you can still enjoy a hot, satisfying meal in less than 10 minutes.

Just-In-Case: The complete 7-Day food supply for one person, in one box  Mountain House Brand quality freeze-dried foods.
•  28 Mountain House freeze-dried food pouches.
•  17 kinds of Mountain House freeze-dried foods in the kit.
•  Three full meals per day, in easy-to-serve pouches.
•  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner items in the same box.
•  Freeze-dried flavor & nutrition in foil pouches with a 5-year storage!
•  No cooking required. Just add water, and presto! These one-week supply kits are Freeze Dried, and that means that an entire week’s food supply weighs only 9 pounds!

The 7 day Just-in-case boxed supply kit contents:

Breakfast
–  4    Granola with Milk and Blueberries
–  3    Scrambled Eggs with Bacon
Vegetables
–  3    Garden Green Peas
–  4    Whole Kernel Corn
Lunch (16 oz Pro-Pack)
–  1    Rice and Chicken
–  2    Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
–  1    Hearty Stew with Beef
–  1    Chili Mac with Beef
–  1    Pasta Primavera
–  1    Beef Stroganoff with Sauce & Noodles
Dinner (20 oz Entrees)
–  1    Noodles and Chicken
–  1    Chicken Stew
–  1    Mexican-style Chicken and Rice
–  1    Lasagna with Meat Sauce
–  1    Macaroni and Cheese
–  1    Turkey Tetrazzini
–  1    Sweet and Sour Pork
Mountain House JUST-IN-CASE (one week food supply). Price: $109.95 (Retail price $125 – A $145.65 value;  May 2011)

The #10 Cans (gallon size) of freeze-dried foods have the longest shelf life available up to 25 years! Each can is coated with a protective enamel inside and out for double protection, including the lid. The can’s contents are protected until you are ready to open and use them. After opening, use the contents with a week for best results and taste; using the convenient resealable plastic lid between uses. Treat any leftover food as you would fresh food. Mountain House freeze-dried foods are packed in airtight NITROGEN PACKED #10 cans or pouches. Up to 98% of the residual oxygen has been removed. The unique Mountain House canning process uses both vacuum oxygen removal and nitrogen flushing.
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LONG TERM BULK FOOD STOCKS

1.  Stocking up made simple: Buy what you can afford. Buy the kinds of foods or entrees that  you’re familiar with.
•  Buy foods on special, from warehouse stores, feed and grain supply stores, name brand packages from on-line distributors.
•  Organize your buying for 3-month increments.
2.  Rough guide to developing a deep storage plan (one year supply per person):
•  300 pounds hard red winter wheat (you’ll need a grain mill)
•  100 pounds of legumes
•  75 pounds of other grains (rice, corn, millet,  buckwheat, etc.)
•  35 lbs. cereal: whole rolled oats, grits, quinoa and similar dry grains processed for making gruel or hot cereal will last much longer
•  35 pounds pastas (lasagna, egg noodles, spaghetti, wheat, veggie)
•  100 pounds of dried and canned fruits and vegetables
•  50 pounds of dried/ canned milk, and freeze dry/dehydrated cheese and butter
•  50+ pounds of canned fish and freeze-dried beef, turkey & chicken
•  Eggs, 25 dozen powdered and/or freeze-dried
•  25 pounds of honey
•  25 pounds of salt for cooking / preserving
•  25 pounds of cooking oils
•  5 pounds each of baking powder / soda and yeast
•  Multiple vitamin and mineral supplements and extra vitamin C
• Treats; chocolate, coffee, nuts, dried fruit
3.  Developing a workable food supply list
The following survival food list will help determine what  to have on hand in the event of a widespread disaster or upheaval. The easiest way to get these foods is to order pre-measured long-term storage food. This food will be packaged based on the amount of people that need to eat.
(# = pounds per person per year)

Grains:
Beans (pinto, red, navy, black, white, lentils, split peas): 200#
Rice (brown, white): 50#
Barley: 50#
Quinoa: 50#
Oatmeal: 25#
Corn (whole kernel): 25#
Cornmeal: 25#

Baking:
Cooking oil: 2 gal
Shortening: 6#
Flour: 25#
Baking soda: 10#
Baking powder: 5#
Vanilla extract: 3 oz/person/year
Canned Yeast: 5#
Powdered Milk: 50#

Sweets:
Sugar (white, brown): 75#
Honey: 35#
Dried fruit (raisins, dates, prunes, figs, etc): 25#
Fruit preserves/jams/jellies: 6#

Seasonings:
Iodized salt: 5#
Black pepper: 5#
Minced onion: 10#
Minced garlic: 5#
Garlic powder: 2#
Plain salt: 100# (useful for preserving, toothpaste, saline solution, throat gargle)
Bouillon cubes: 50/person/year

Miscellaneous
Peanut butter: 5#
White Vinegar: 2 gal (preserving, cleaning and health)
Apple Cider Vinegar: 2 gal (multiple uses)
Household bleach 2 gal.
Packaged Foods
Pasta boxed dinners (Mac’n’cheese/Hamburger Helper): 25 boxes
Ramen noodles: 48 packages

Drink Mixes
Tea (black, green, herb): 1000 bags/person/year
Coffee: 25#
Kool-Aid: 50 pkgs
Hot cocoa mix: 100 single-serving packs
Apple Cider mix: 100 single-serving packs

Canned Foods
Vegetables: 100 cans
Fruit: 100 cans
Meat (tuna, spam, chicken, meat spread): 75 cans
Soup: 50 cans
Milk: 25 cans

Joseph in Egypt (ca 1900 BC)
Relating the decline in global grain storage volumes with the Biblical story of Joseph in Egypt (more likely Im-Ho-Temp):
Joseph found himself standing in front of the most powerful man in that region, who knew about him and his reputation; when it came to dream interpretations. The Egyptian ruler asked Joseph a question: “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it?”  — Joseph remembers to stay humble stating: “I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”
After Pharaoh had heard Joseph’s reply, he began to tell him about his dreams: “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile, when out of the river there came up seven cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows came up — scrawny and very ugly and lean.
“I had never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt. The lean ugly cows ate up the seven fat cows that came up first. But even after they had ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; so they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.
“In my dreams I also saw seven heads of grain, full and good, growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads sprouted, withered and thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but none could explain it to me.”
After Joseph had heard about the dreams, he gives his interpretation: “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream.
“The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine. It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what He is about do. Seven years  of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them.
“Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe.
“The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon. And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him charge of the land of Egypt.  “Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food.  “This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.” (Genesis 41:25-36)

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Dry foods and their long term home storage

(Survival Manual/  3. Food and Water/ Dry foods and their long term home storage)

A.  The Survival Food Pyramid
Survivalcache.com
Pasted from: http://survivalcache.com/survival-food-pyramid/

From personal experience I know, when you first get into surviving/prepping the information thrown at you can be overwhelming. The Survival Food Pyramid will get you started stocking food in a logical, simple, and economical way.
Everyone who has a basement full of canned goods and a survival garden started somewhere. We will help get you started.

The Concept
The top of the pyramid is for stocking the smallest amount of food for the shortest amount of time. The idea being that someone who is completely new to prepping can start with a cheap and easy goal and build (downward) from there.

This pyramid will keep you from spending time and money on preps that, while they may be useful overall, are pointless to you right now. How much of a 50 pound bag of flour or rice will you use in a 3 day long power outage? Prepping in complete, logical steps is the smart way to go.
dryfood pyramid1

Immediate
If you are new to prepping, or you are experienced but find your supplies jump all over the map, start by stocking enough food and supplies for a 3 Day Emergency. This can be as simple as a single trip to the grocery store. Buy a 3 day supply of food for you household (be sure to get things with a long shelf life) and place it somewhere other than your pantry. (See our selection of Mainstay Food Bars – they have a 5 year shelf life and come in 1200, 2400, 3600 calorie packages)

If you have a typical local situation, such as a major snow storm or power outage, you won’t be one of the people raiding the grocery store.
Be sure to include at least 1 gallon of water per day, per family member, and something to cook on, like a MSR Whisperlite stove, with fuel. 

Extended
The extended food preps simply build on the immediate preps. On further trips to the store, add a few food items to your 3 day cache each time and you will soon have enough to survive for several weeks. Perhaps choose a dedicated closet or other area to stock your preps.

Remember that the extended survival food supply is going to need regular cooking supplies to be stocked, such as oil, flour, sugar, spices, etc. You will also need larger water containers to support not only drinking and cooking, but hygiene.

Long Term
Long term food preps mean there has been some type of major disaster and there won’t be any trips to the store for months.. This step moves on from basic stocking, to self sustaining.

You will have to have stocked bulk supplies of staple foods for cooking, like flour, wheat, sugar, and canned goods. A large fuel supply, or alternative cooking method will have to be used, and hunting if it is available. You will also have to have an alternative water source such as water collection, filtration, and recycling.

Perpetual
The perpetual food supply is for total collapse from which there is no coming back or voluntary off grid living indefinitely. You must have a self sustaining food supply, like a garden with heirloom seeds and large hunting area. You must also have a natural water source other than anything you have stocked.

*Take Note
All of the time periods and recommendations in the pyramid are general. There are no specific rules. You immediate preps might last you a week. Your extended preps might run out in a month. It all depends on your situation, and what you have stocked.

.

dryfood pyramid2

B.  Bulk Food Storage 101: Using Plastic Buckets and Mylar
25 Apr 2013, AmericanPreppersNetwork, By Ann Weinstein
Pasted from: http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2013/04/bulk-food-storage-101-using-plastic-buckets-and-mylar.html
dryfood pkg4

New to prepping?  Wondering how others use those large buckets and Mylar bags for food storage?  Wonder no more.  The mystery that is Mylar will be revealed in three easy phases.

Phase 1) Plastic buckets are generally used for bulk storage because they’re fairly rodent proof.  They tend towards water impermeability, but they’re not always great at that.  What they really do is keep the mice and rats out of your food.  Important thing, right?

Phase 2) The second layer of the food storage is a plastic Mylar bag. Mylar evolved out of the NASA space program and is a really cool material which is used everywhere.  It’s an interior layer of polyester and an exterior layer of evaporated aluminum that has the ability to keep all moisture out of the things you store inside it.  It is not, however, strong enough to be used on its own – you need an exterior layer.

Phase 3) The third thing that goes into many Mylar bags is something to kill bugs.  I use oxygen absorbers.  You can purchase these purpose made, or you can simply buy off the shelf hand warmers at the end of the winter season.  Either way, the iron filings/powder will reduce the amount of oxygen left in the bag after it is sealed, thus reducing the ability of vermin to live in your stored food.  Alternately, you can look at a food grade diamatacious earth to add to the bag.  This product gets into the shells of insects and sucks the moisture out of them, causing them to be incompatible with life; read as, not eating YOUR food.  These should be used only in food stuffs that are biologically reactive; this means that if  moisture gets into it, will it get wet & hard (like salt & sugar) or will it mildew?  If it mildews, toss one of these puppies in there.

dryfood pkg1

Instructions:
Step 1– Get plastic buckets.  I get mine free from my local grocery store bakery.  These are food grade.  However, when you are using Mylar, you have the choice to use other materials that are not, such as dry-wall buckets.  Food grade plastic will not leach any chemicals into your stored food.  Other buckets might.  Use these at your own risk and with your own best judgment.
Step 2 – Purchase Mylar bags and insert into the bucket.  Fill with what ever food product you are storing.
Step 3–  Open O2 absorber and toss into bucket.

dryfood pkg2

Step 4– Press all the air you can out of the top of the bag.
Step 5 – Have, on hand,  a hot iron and a board.  Flatten out bag at its seams and use iron to seal the bag.  Mylar adheres to itself with heat, so just iron it shut dryfood spoiled riceand double-check that no air is able to get in and out – I do this by flattening the whole thing down as I fold the extra material into the bucket.  If there is a little bubble of air pressing back at me, it’s a good seal.  Alternately, you could pull the extra material up and see if it sucks air back down into the bag.
Step 6 – Put lid on bucket
Step 7 – Label and date so that you can rotate the stock.

Other handy tips:  A bucket wrench is your friend when it comes to opening these puppies back up.  Mine lives in my tool drawer.  It cost about $5 at the hardware store.  It looks like this:

If you choose not to use Mylar, sometimes you get moisture in a bucket.  It will mildew and cause rot.  It looks like this on rice.  Use of Mylar will prevent this problem in most cases.

YouTube.

To see how the sealing process works check out, “Sealing mylar bags for storage” at YouTube, click the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk9b0dAtJ80

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Emergency water treatment techniques

RainMan(Survival Manual/ 3. Food & Water/ Emergency water treatment techniques)

Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water
<http://water.epa.gov/drink/emerprep/emergencydisinfection.cfm>

USE ONLY WATER THAT HAS BEEN PROPERLY DISINFECTED FOR DRINKING, COOKING, MAKING ANY PREPARED DRINK, OR FOR BRUSHING TEETH
1.  Use bottled water that has not been exposed to flood waters if it is available.
2.  If you don’t have bottled water, you should boil water to make it safe. Boiling water will kill most types of disease-causing organisms that may be present. If the water is cloudy, filter it through clean cloths [and/or coffee filters Mr. Larry] or allow it to settle, and draw off the clear water for boiling. Boil the water for one minute, let it cool, and store it in clean containers with covers
3.  If you can’t boil water, you can disinfect it using household bleach [Regular Clorox-Mr. Larry]. Bleach will kill some, but not all, types of disease-causing organisms that may be in the water. If the water is cloudy, filter it through clean cloths or allow it to settle, and draw off the clear water for disinfection. Add 1/8 teaspoon (or 8 drops of regular, unscented, liquid household bleach for each gallon of water, stir it well and let it stand for 30 minutes before you use it. Store disinfected water in clean containers with covers.
4.  If you have a well that has been flooded, the water should be tested and disinfected after flood waters recede. If you suspect that your well may be contaminated, contact your local or state health department or agriculture extension agent for specific advice.

Boiling
Boiling is the surest method to make water safe to drink and kill disease-causing microorganisms like Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium, which are frequently found in rivers and lakes.
These disease-causing organisms are less likely to occur in well water (as long as it has not been affected by flood waters). If not treated properly and neutralized, Giardia may cause diarrhea, fatigue, and cramps after ingestion. Cryptosporidium is highly resistant to disinfection. It may cause diarrhea, nausea and/or stomach cramps. People with severely weakened immune systems are likely to have more severe and more persistent symptoms than healthy individuals. Boil filtered and settled water vigorously for one minute (at altitudes above one mile, boil for three minutes). To improve the flat taste of boiled water, aerate it by pouring it back and forth from one container to another and allow it to stand for a few hours, or add a pinch of salt for each quart or liter of water boiled.

If boiling is not possible, chemical disinfection of filtered and settled water collected from a well, spring, river, or other surface water body will still provide some health benefits and is better than no treatment at all.

 Chemical Treatment
When boiling is not practical, certain chemicals will kill most harmful or disease-causing organisms.
For chemical disinfection to be effective, the water must be filtered and settled first. Chlorine and iodine are the two chemicals commonly used to treat water. They are somewhat effective in protecting against exposure to Giardia, but may not be effective in controlling more resistant organisms like Cryptosporidium. Chlorine is generally more effective than iodine in controlling Giardia, and both disinfectants work much better in warm water.

Chlorination
1.
Clorox, Purex (or other brand) household chlorine bleach: regular, non scented, no dyes or additives, that contains a chlorine compound to disinfect water.chlorination clorox
Do not use non-chlorine bleach to disinfect water. Typically, household chlorine bleaches will be 5.25% available chlorine. Follow the procedure written on the label. When the necessary procedure is not given, find the percentage of available chlorine on the label and use the information in the following table as a guide.
•  If boiling is not possible, treat water by adding liquid household bleach, such as Clorox or Purex. Household bleach which is typically between 5-6% chlorine. Avoid using bleaches that contain perfumes, dyes and other additives. Be sure to read the label.
•  Place the water (filtered, if necessary) in a clean container. Add the amount of bleach according to the table below.
•  Mix thoroughly and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes before using (60 minutes if the water is cloudy or very cold).

Treating Water with a 5-6 Percent Household Liquid Chlorine Bleach Solution   

Volume   of Water to be Treated Treating   Long Term Municipal or Well Water: Bleach Solution to Add Treating   Cloudy, Very Cold, or Surface Water:Bleach   Solution to Add
1 quart/1 liter 3 drops 5 drops
1/2 gallon/2 quarts/2 liters 5 drops 10 drops
1 gallon 1/8 teaspoon 1/4 teaspoon
5 gallons 1/2 teaspoon 1 teaspoon
10 gallons 1 teaspoon 2 teaspoons
50 gallons 5 tsp(1.6 Tbsp) 10 tsp(3.33 Tbsp)
57 gallons (rain water tank) 5.7 teaspoons(1.9 Tbsp) 11.4 teaspoons (3.8 Tbsp)
Conversions: 3 tsp=1 Tbsp; 12 tsp=1/4   cup; 4 Tbsp=1/4 cup.
•   1/8   teaspoon and 8 drops are about the same quantity.
•   60   drops per tsp; 180 drops per 1 Tbsp
•   1/8 cup (2 Tbsp) household bleach will maintain   long term purity in 60 gal. water.
•   ¼ cup will kill pathogens in 60 gal. filtered   surface water even if cloudy and/or very cold.
•   1 quart household bleach will purify about 1000   gallons of filtered surface water

 

Notes:
•  Do not use non-chlorine bleach to disinfect water.
•  Typically, household chlorine bleaches will be 5.25% available chlorine. Follow the procedure written on the label.
•  When the necessary procedure is not given, find the percentage of available chlorine on the label and use the information in the following table as a guide.  (Remember, 1/8 teaspoon and 8 drops are about the same quantity.)

Available Chlorine Drops per Quart/Gallon of Clear Water Drops per Liter of Clear Water
1% 10 per Quart – 40 per Gallon 10 per Liter
4-6% 2 per Quart – 8 per Gallon (1/8   teaspoon) 2 per Liter
7-10% 1 per Quart – 4 per Gallon 1 per Liter

.
If the strength of the bleach is unknown:
•  Add ten drops per quart or liter of filtered and settled water; or double the amount of chlorine for cloudy, murky or colored water or water that is extremely cold.).
•  Mix the treated water thoroughly and allow it to stand, preferably covered, for 30 minutes.
•  The water should have a slight chlorine odor.
•  If not, repeat the dosage and allow the water to stand for an additional 15 minutes.
•  If the treated water has too strong a chlorine taste, allow the water to stand exposed to the air for a few hours or pour it from one clean container to another several times.

2. Using granular calcium hypochlorite to disinfect water
•  Calcium Hypochlorite is widely available for use as swimming pool chlorine tablets or white powder that is much more stable than chlorine. This is often known as “pool shock”.chlorination Poolife1chlorination Poolife2
•  Calcium hypochlorite is one of the best chemical disinfectants for water, better than household bleach by far. It destroys a variety of disease-causing organisms including bacteria, yeast, fungus, spores, and viruses.
•  A 1-pound bag of calcium hypochlorite in granular form will treat up to 10,000 gallons of drinking water.

 EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency
Procedural excerpt  below pasted from: <http://water.epa.gov/drink/emerprep/emergencydisinfection.cfm>

Calcium hypochlorite Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water Procedure
•  Add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately ¼ ounce) for each two gallons of water, or 5 milliliters (approximately 7 grams) per 7.5 liters of water.
•  The mixture will produce a stock chlorine solution (of approximately 500 milligrams per liter, since the calcium hypochlorite has available chlorine equal to 70 percent of its weight.)
•  To disinfect water, add the chlorine solution in the ratio of one part of chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water to be treated.
•  This is roughly equal to adding 1 pint (16 ounces) of stock chlorine to each 12.5 gallons of water or (approximately ½ liter to 50 liters of water) to be disinfected. (Add 2 quarts stock solution per 50 gallons of water to be treated)
•  To remove any objectionable chlorine odor, aerate the disinfected water by pouring it back and forth from one clean container to another.

Safety
•  Granular calcium hypochlorite is corrosive and dangerous.
•  Eye protection is a must when handling CH.
•  Gloves and a dust mask are not essential, but it is wise to use them.
•  Handle the powder in a well-ventilated area without wind.
•  When dealing with corrosive chemicals it is always a good practice to have a 5 gallon bucket or sink full of water nearby to submerge your head, body or arms in case of an emergency.

When mixing CH add the CH to the water not vice-versa. It is important to go from dry to weak solution (less than 20% chlorine by weight) as fast as possible. If you only add a small amount of water to the CH it will release hazardous amounts of gaseous chlorine. If you feel a strong burning or stinging in your eyes, throat or lungs at any point, evacuate to fresh air immediately, chlorine can be deadly and was in fact used as a chemical warfare agent in WWI.

chlorination nalgeneCH is a fire hazard when heated or mixed with certain organic compounds which will not be mentioned. Basically, don’t let this stuff touch anything but plastic, glass and stainless steel and you’ll be good to go.

Polyethylene (LDPE or HDPE) containers are the preferred method of storage, as this is what the CH manufacturer’s packages are made of. Nalgene makes HDPE containers that are available at most sporting goods stores (the squeezable Nalgene, look for HDPE, LDPE or UVPE marked at the bottom.)

[This is an important article to print and place in a folder for possible future reference. Mr Larry]

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Food resources for extreme hardship: Dog, cat, roadkill…

(Survival manual/ 3. Food & water/ Food resources for extreme hardship: Dog, cat, roadkill…)

Disclaimer:
Personally, I’ve never eaten dog, cat or roadkill and I’ve never heard a specific story of anyone in the US who has.
The oddest meat I’ve even eaten was from a package of horse meat my mom bought from the grocer in about 1950. I have had dog and cat pets in the household for most of my life and never considered them any less than junior members of the family.
With that said, the purpose of this post is to provide the awareness that other people’s do in fact eat dog and cat, it’s simply part of their cultural norm. AND this article is meant to show you alternative food source possibilities, so that if there occurred an absolutely horrific collapse of human social systems, you might survive on what is now considered taboo and frankly, disgusting to think about, food resources. “Bon appetite!” Mr. Larry.

A.  Butcher—Dog, cat, rabbit, etc.

1. Catch, Kill, Cook, Eat!
16-22 March 2000, by Dan Savage
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/catch-kill-cook-eat/Content?oid=3455
Back in the Stone Age, the average meat-eater was slimmer and trimmer than the average meat-eater today. Before there were QFCs and Safeways, cavemen and cavewomen couldn’t just stroll into the meat department at the supermarket to pick up a choice cut. No, Mr. and Mrs. Caveman had to CATCH something, KILL IT, and COOK IT before they could sit down and EAT IT! Mr. and Mrs. Caveman were fit because going out for dinner meant chasing large animals around savannas, or stalking small animals through the bush. All this chasing and stalking burned more calories before a single meal than most modern carnivores burn in a week at the gym.Mr. and Mrs. Caveman wouldn’t know what to make of modern carnivores going out for dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Modern Carnivore sit on their fat, greasy asses in dimly lit restaurants, ordering cuts from animals most couldn’t pick out of a lineup, let alone pick off with a spear. In addition to being fatter and lazier than Mr. and Mrs. Caveman, Mr. and Mrs. Modern Carnivore are also keenly hypocritical, keeping some animals as pets, while happily sending other animals off to be slaughtered by poorly paid illegal immigrants.

But just because you live in an urban area doesn’t mean you can’t know the calorie-burning joy and satisfaction of CATCHING IT, KILLING IT, and COOKING IT before EATING IT. Forget that step class, Mr. Modern Carnivore! Get off that treadmill, Mrs. Modern Carnivore! And throw away that Thighmaster! Your friends at The Stranger have assembled a step-by-step guide to hunting in the urban jungle. Just follow our four easy steps — CATCH, KILL, COOK, EAT — and you’ll quickly connect with your inner caveman or cavewoman while staying effortlessly slim and trim. Have a good workout, and… bon appétit!… (read the rest of the preceding article at the web site provided above)

2.  Dog meat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat

This article is about human consumption of dog flesh and parts.

Dog   meat
Nutritional   value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 1,096   kJ (262 kcal)
Carbohydrates 0.1   g
–   Dietary fiber 0   g
Fat 20.2   g
Protein 19   g
Water 60.1   g
Vitamin   A equiv. 3.6   μg (0%)
Thiamine   (vit. B1) 0.12   mg (10%)
Riboflavin   (vit. B2) 0.18   mg (15%)
Niacin   (vit. B3) 1.9   mg (13%)
Vitamin   C 3   mg (4%)
Calcium 8   mg (1%)
Iron 2.8   mg (22%)
Phosphorus 168   mg (24%)
Potassium 270   mg (6%)
Sodium 72   mg (5%)
Ash 0.8   g

Percentages   are relative to
US recommendations for adults.
Source: Yong-Geun Ann (1999)[1]

Dog meat refers to edible parts and the flesh derived from (predominantly domestic) dogs. Human consumption of dog meat has been recorded in many parts of the world, including ancient China, ancient Mexico, and ancient Rome. According to contemporary reports, dog meat is consumed in a variety of countries such as Switzerland, China, Vietnam, Korea. In addition, dog meat has also been used as survival food in times of war and/or other hardships. The Donner Party, stranded in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the height of the Mexican-American War, is a noted example of having eaten a pet dog for survival purposes, though it became more known over the years due to cannibalism.

In contemporary times, some cultures view the consumption of dog meat to be a part of their traditional cuisine, while others consider consumption of dog to be inappropriate and offensive. In response to criticisms, proponents of dog meat have argued that distinctions between livestock and pets is subjective, and that there is no difference with eating the meat of different animals, while countering that those critical of dog meat consumption are guilty of cultural supremacy, if not racism. Eating dog is forbidden under both Jewish dietary laws and Islamic dietary laws.

How to Cook Lemongrass Dog
Last update 24 April 2012, wikiHow
http://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Lemongrass-Dog

Lemongrass dog is a very popular Vietnamese dish! Tender dog meat coupled with savory, citrus lemongrass sauce is sure to satisfy any cravings for Vietnamese cuisine. It should be noted, however, that eating dog meat is considered taboo in many countries. Make sure not to offend anyone if this is the case.
[Photo below- right, dog meat on sale at the Kyungdong Shijang Market in Seoul, South Korea, a country where dog meat is common.]

Ingredients

  • 2 lb dog meat
  • 4 3′ stalks lemongrass
  • 3 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce (aka. nuoc mam)
  • 2 tsp lime juice
  • 1/2 tsp lime zest
  • Jasmine rice (if desired)
  • Rice vermicelli (if desired)
  • Baguette (if desired)

Steps
1. Acquire two pounds of dog meat. Try to ensure that it is from a medium-sized dog. The breed does not matter, unless you have certain preferences. Usually, the local flea market will have six or seven stands that specialize in dog meat.
2.  Mince four 3-feet stalks of fresh lemongrass. (Alternatively, use an 8 oz. package of frozen minced lemongrass.)
3. Mix the minced lemongrass with three tablespoons of Vietnamese fish sauce, two teaspoons of lime juice, and a half teaspoon of lime zest. A recommended brand is Three Crabs Brand, but all in all, fish sauce tends to taste the same.
4. Chop the dog meat into 1-inch pieces. Add the lemongrass marinade and stir. Leave the mixture refrigerated overnight.
5. Either sauté, steam, or grill the meat. A recommended way to cook this dish is to skewer the meat chunks and roast it in a rotisserie oven.

 Tips
• 
You can serve this dish with rice vermicelli, jasmine rice, toasted French bread, etc.
•  You can substitute chicken meat for dog. It is just as tasty and you can even prepare lemongrass chicken for your neighbors.

 Warnings
Cultural acceptance of the consumption of dog meat varies from country to country. In many places, doing so is considered a taboo and may potentially be illegal (It would be advisable to check local laws regarding this issue). If this is considered a local taboo in your area, make sure you do not offend anyone. Some cultures such as those of the U.S. and the U.K. consider dogs to be companion animals and not livestock. Please be discreet about this.

3.  How to Cook a Cat
http://www.ooze.com/ooze13/cats.html
__a)  Preparing the cat for consumption
Since cat meat isn’t commercially available in the United States (and illegal to boot), you’ll probably have to prepare cat yourself. If you live in the more enlightened domains of East Asia, and can purchase cat at the local market, you may want to skip this step and proceed to COOKING YOUR CAT.
First, get a large cutting board and lay out your cat. Lop off the head, the tail and the feet with a sharp butcher’s knife. These parts of the cat contain little usable meat, so toss them aside.
Next, make a longitudinal incision on the cat’s abdomen. Reach your hand (wear gloves!) into the body cavity, and remove all of the internal organs. Discard them- especially the liver. It may look tasty, but the liver of a felis domesticus is frequently too toxic for human consumption.

Skinning your cat
There’s more than one way to skin a cat- our exhaustive research uncovered two. On this site, two High School students meticulously guide you step-by-step through skinning a cat – complete with diagrams. To summarize, use a sharp knife to trim off the skin, and pull it back, snipping away at the muscle tissue.
Gourmands like to skin their cats differently. They shun using a skinning knife, calling it crude. They recommend you grab the loose skin around the head stump, and using a pair of pliers, peel it back off the carcass like a banana, rolling it off the body. The final step before cooking is to wash the meat of stray gristle and hairs. Nobody likes cat hair in their food.

_b)  Cooking your cat
Now you are ready to cook! One USENET account recommends placing a cat in a very high-powered magnetron microwave. This device supposedly can cook a cat in approximately 10 minutes- the proteins are denatured (cooked), and sugars caramelized by microwave heating. The cat may be “cooked” but will it taste good? If you’ve ever tried to microwave a raw hamburger, you’ll know the answer is “no.” For the best taste, our reader inquired about possibly slow cooking a feline. That’s exactly what we at PWEETA recommend- a slow cooked Beer Roasted Cat. Other cat recipes you may enjoy are classic Cat Tamales, Cat in Spicy Ginger Sauce, and Cat Au Gratin.

Beer roasted cat
1 cat cut into roast
1 can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup
1 cube of beef bouillon
1 clove of garlic
1 dark Beer
Cover and soak cat roast in salt water for 24 hours. Drain water and then cover and soak in beer for 6 hours. Drain and place in crock pot with your cans of soup. Add a clove of garlic, and a cube of beef bouillon. If you start to slow cook the cat in the morning with your George Foreman Cooker, you’ll have finely cooked feline in time for supper.

If a slow cooker is not available, a cat can be baked at 350 degrees for 2-3 hours in a conventional oven and still come out pretty good. Beer Roasted Cat is fantastic served with mashed potatoes, collard greens, and fresh, homemade egg rolls. When planning a full meal just remember – cat is a course best served hot!
1 cat cut in serving-sized pieces dusted in flour with salt and pepper
1/4  c. extra virgin olive oil
6 artichokes
2 ea.  1/4″ thick slices of slab bacon, diced
1  small sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, diced
1 lemon
3 small tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/2 c. dry white wine

Cat may not be the most glamorous, or tastiest of game meats, but with a little thought and preparation, Baked Cat can make the belly of the persnicketiest diner glow with home-baked goodness.

Cat Braisé
http://catrecipes.com/recipes/braisedcat.html
[PETA Does NOT approve of the catrecipes.com website]
•  Snap the leaves off the artichokes until only the tender inner leaves remain. Snap off the stem. Trim the remaining green bits from the bottom of the artichoke, and cut off the inner leaves in a bunch at the point where they are very tender. Pare the tough green outer layer off the remaining stem, pairing the stem into a point. Now cut the artichoke bottom into quarters and remove the choke with a sharp knife from each quarter. Rinse to remove any traces of foin (“hay”) and drop them into a bowl of water acidulated with the juice of half a lemon.
• Heat 2 T olive oil in a large heavy casserole or Dutch oven. Dredge the cat pieces in seasoned flour, shaking off excess. Brown over medium heat, turning regularly, until golden on all sides. Remove cat pieces to a plate and dump any oil remaining in the pan. Add 1 T of the remaining oil and the bacon dice. (Omit bacon if you only have access to the thin-sliced vacuum packed supermarket variety.) Sauté until cooked but not “crisp”. Add the remaining T of oil and the onion and carrot. Sauté for 5 minutes, then add the artichoke quarters and the garlic, stir one minute, and add the tomatoes and the white wine. Turn up the heat and reduce until syrupy, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. Lay the bouquet garni on top of the vegetables. Arrange the cat pieces on top, together with any juice accumulated in the plate.
• Pour in enough broth to come halfway up the sides of the cat pieces. Cover and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer over very low heat about 1 hour or cook in the oven at 350 degrees for the same amount of time. The cat should be just tender and part readily from the bone. Don’t overcook or it will become dry. Check the liquid level frequently and add more broth if necessary. Turn the cat pieces once.
• When done, remove the cat pieces to a warm platter and arrange the vegetables, removed with a slotted spoon, around them. Cover and keep warm. Strain the remaining pan juices into a smaller saucepan and reduce over high heat, skimming frequently, until reduced by 1/3. Pour over the platter and serve immediately. Sprinkle with finely chopped flat-leaf parsley if you like.

Beer Can Cat– Includes a Beverage!
http://catrecipes.com/index.html
Ingredients:
1 cat
1 can of beer (any brand)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

Mix spices and rub over cat. Drink half the can of beer and then place beer can into rear of cat and stand cat tripod-like on BBQ.
Rotate in 30 minutes. Cook for a total of one hour.

.

B. Road Kill

1.  Road Kill: It’s Fresh, It’s Organic, It’s Free (and now, it’s DELICIOUS!)
© 2009 Chelsea Green Publishing All rights reserved.
View this story online at:< http://www.alternet.org/story/141595/&gt;
Pasted from: http://www.masterjules.net/roadkill101.htm

How broke would you have to get to eat roadkill? You know, ‘street pizza’.
Don’t freak out. This isn’t a sensationalist necrophilic bizarre fetishized kind of thing.
It’s legit. Actually, depending on several factors, it can be perfectly safe (and entirely affordable) to eat meat that has been left by the side of a highway or county road.

In fact, there may be not much of a difference from a deer you hunt, and a deer you kill accidentally. Now, this may sound a bit extreme to you. But according to Sandor Katz, lifelong activist and food lover, roadkill has been a source of food for poor people since cars were invented. So, don’t be classist. At least read more about it!

The following is an excerpt from, The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements by Sandor Ellix Katz. It has been adapted for the Web.

If you pay attention and look at the road while driving (or, even more so, while walking or biking), you will inevitably encounter roadkill. Animals moving across the landscape are often unavoidable prey at fifty-five miles per hour. Little systematic counting has been done, but extrapolating from data collected by road crews in Ohio, one analysis estimates there are an average of more than one hundred million roadkill victims in the United States each year. Dr. Splatt, the pseudonym of a high-school science teacher who for thirteen years has organized students around New England to participate in a roadkill census, comes up with a very similar estimate of 250,000 animals killed by cars in the United States on an average day. Some people see food in these unfortunate victims of our car culture and regularly pick roadkill up off the road to take home and eat.

A few passionate souls I have encountered eat roadkill almost every day. My neighbors Casper and Pixey bring roadkill stews to our potlucks. For a while they did their frying in grease rendered from a roadkill bear they came across in the mountains. On one of my friends Terra and Natalie’s visits, they had strips of roadkill venison splayed across their dashboard drying into jerky.

When I first met Terra, she was vegan. Then she and her boyfriend Ursus — who has the word vegan tattooed onto his shin — discovered roadkill and quickly became roadkill carnivores. In her zine, The Feral Forager, Terra explains how they came to start eating roadkill:

Our first feral feast of roadkill was on spring equinox of 2002. That past winter we had experimented with skinning and tanning, using a possum and a raccoon we had found on the roadside. . . . On spring equinox we were driving in the suburbs of a large southeastern city and spotted a fox dead on
the roadside. Our first thought was what a great fur it would make. We scraped it up (it wasn’t very mangled at all) and took it to our friends’ house downtown, and Ursus skinned it in the backyard while our friends assisted. When it was all done and hanging gutless and skinless from a tree, it was like
some collective epiphany: why not eat it? There was a great firepit there and several willing “freegans,” along with a few pretty hardcore vegans (including Ursus) who raised no protest. After a couple of hours on a spit, the grey fox was edible. I guess it was something about the start of a new season — it was
almost ritualistic, without trying to make it so. Some stood by and watched while four or five of us feasted on the fox. Ursus, a hardcore vegan, was perhaps the most voracious. There was something primal about his eating — like a wild man caged for years eating only bagels and bananas. Ursus tanned
the skin and later wore it around his neck like a scarf.
Terra, Ursus, Natalie, and other members of the Wildroots Collective in western North Carolina now eat roadkill nearly every day, have a good supply put away in a freezer, and have tried dozens of different species of animals found dead on roadsides.

The Wildroots folks have become enthusiastic promoters of roadkill and work hard to spread information and skills to empower other people to tap into this huge available food supply. Members of the collective do a good bit of traveling on the do-it-yourself skillsharing circuit, teaching people how to judge the edibility of a dead animal on the road and guiding them through the experience of skinning and cleaning a small animal. At the 2005 Food For Life gathering at the Sequatchie Valley Institute/Moonshadow, one of the most memorable events was the hands-on roadkill workshop, in which we learned about the cleaning, skinning, and butchering of roadkill animals. The Wildroots folks brought a roadkill groundhog with them, and our friend Justin, another roadkill enthusiast, brought a squirrel he had found on his bike ride to the gathering.
(The more slowly you travel, the more you notice not only roadkill but all sorts of roadside harvesting possibilities.)

People enthusiastically took front-row seats to see these animals get skinned. Some people shuddered in horror, had to look away, or otherwise expressed their squeamishness. But most people watched quietly, fascinated, as Natalie coached Dylan, a previously uninitiated thirteen-year- old (there with his family) through the skinning of the squirrel, and Jenny and Justin skinned the groundhog. Direct experiential education like this can be transformative. Laurel Luddite wrote about her first roadkill butchering experience, “The responsibility made me nervous at first. As I cut I began to feel confident that not only could I butcher this deer, but I could also fulfill my need for food whenever I saw some lying by the side of the road.”

Roadkill has been a source of food for poor people since there have been cars. In American culture eating roadkill generally has a pejorative classist connotation, epitomizing ignorant hillbilly behavior. Now Wildroots and other enthusiasts are embracing roadkill with a political ideology, rejecting the values of consumer culture by “transforming dishonored victims of the petroleum age into food which nourishes, and clothing which warms.” Beyond ideology, they are spreading practical information and skills to empower people.

2.  Terra’s zine, The Feral Forager, offers a basic primer for safely eating roadkill
Picking up roadkill is a good way to get fresh, wild, totally free-range and organic meat for absolutely free. When you find the roadkill you should try to determine if it is edible or not. If you saw the animal get hit then it’s obviously fit to eat (although you may have to put it out of its misery). If the critter is
flattened into a pancake in the middle of the highway then it’s probably best to leave it. Most of the time (not always), good ones will be sitting off the road or in a median where [they aren’t] constantly being pulverized.

Sometimes it can be hard to determine how fresh a carcass is. A lot of factors can contribute to how fast the meat spoils, especially temperature.
Obviously, roadkill will stay fresher longer in colder weather and spoil faster in warmer weather. It’s best to go case by case and follow your instincts.

Here are some considerations to help you decide:
•  If it is covered in flies or maggots or other insects it’s probably no good.
•  If it smells like rotting flesh it’s probably spoiled, although it is common for dead animals’ bowels to release excrement or gas upon impact or when you move the carcass.
•  If its eyes are clouded over white it’s probably not too fresh (though likely still edible).
•  If there are fleas on the animal there’s a good chance it’s still edible.
•  If it’s completely mangled, it’s probably not worth the effort.
•  Rigor mortis (when the animal stiffens) sets in pretty quickly. Most of the animals we’ve eaten have been stiff. There’s no reason to assume the animal is spoiled just because it’s stiff. . . .

3.  Potential Risks of Eating Roadkill
One of the most severe risks of roadkill is rabies. In order to assure your safety from this deadly serious brain inflammation, you may want to use rubber gloves when gutting and skinning any warm-blooded animal (warm blooded as in mammals and birds, not in regard to blood temperature). If you don’t feel the need to exercise this absolute caution, at least make sure you don’t have any open wounds on your hands or skin that touches the animal. Roadkill is usually safe from rabies because it dies quickly when the animal dies. Also, rabies will cook out of the carcass. Generally speaking, boiling the animal first (rather than just grilling it) is a good idea, especially if it’s a notorious rabies carrier (like raccoons, skunks, and foxes).

Sandor Ellix Katz is the author of the newly published The Revolution Will Not Be  Microwaved and Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of
Live-Culture Foods (Chelsea Green, 2003). He travels widely teaching people about food preservation and alternatives ways to get nourishing food. A native of New York City, he lives in Tennessee.

4.  Road kill cooking tips
a) To feast on free meat, YOU NEED THE NERVE to park at curb, wait til no one’s looking, then safely pull the corpse into the car. USE a paper or plastic bag over your hand. Set on newspapers. If the corpse was a meat eater, don’t pick it up. Cats, dogs. Just birds and animals with hooves. Recently I picked up a wounded Possum, gave it water, fruit but it died. I was too cowardly to peel it, gave it a Christian burial. Well, we’re only a few months into the GREAT DEPRESSION, not hungry enuf.
b) RITUAL CLEANSING. Drop corpse into sink of water. SEE WHAT CRAWLS OFF. A lotta stuff WILL but don’t let that get you. It’s wild life.
Nothing more or less. Humans have eaten wild life for millenia. Use strainer, pick the moving bugs off, dump in yard. I do not knowingly kill any wild life.
c)HOW TO PEEL. We who do not regularly slaughter animals call removing the skin ‘peeling’ as the only thing we’ve ever peeled is a cuke. SHARP SHORT PARING KNIFE. INSERT A new kind of “ZIPPER” down its front –from google to zatch. Remove meat from peel. Whether it’s a pidgeon or a
deer, peel it. Skin it. Whatever.
d)BURY the “peels” deep in COMPOST PILEas your family would look very unkindly at animal corpses especially with faces…being brought home and cooked in pots they use for oats in the morning and remains lying around the yard or looking up at them from the bottom of trash cans. This I know. I learned to adore ‘berdolagas’ in Mexico where maids cooked it saying that it was a great Spring delicacy, and instantly recognized purslane when I came back to USA with 4 babes and saw it growing on the curb outside our rented shack. My kids would say ‘mom, dogs pee there.
They’d then ask, “are we that poor?’ their bewildered faces turned up to me in horror. I tried to be a good mommie and not give them complexes. Instead, I took purslane seed at summer’s end and planted it in our back yard garden. But the confounded stuff would only grow on sidewalk cracks and curbs. I learned to pick purslane by flashlight.
e) 99% of road kill is only useful for pets. You should get so lucky you’d find a deer before the blood clotted. If blood is clotted, next stage is larvae. FLY LARVAE means two days old, don’t eat it. Suggested method for cooking meats for pets is adding carrots or greens to the soup. Carrots require 30 minutes, tough game meat …one hour at a slow simmer. A fast boil toughtens meat. Lower the better. Greens go in last 5 minutes.
f) Slow cooked meat is pulled off the bone when cool, carrots smashed or grated into it.
g) There’s a pound of snails a night in the average garden. Flashlight, bag. Simmer in salted water, 4 min. Turn off, cool. Pull out of shells.
Manicure instrument helps. Saute in chicken fat 10 seconds, garlic powder. Your friends will let you in their yard when you’re out.

5.  Eating Road Kill
July 16, 2010, FireSteel.com, Survival Topics, Written by Ron Fontaine
http://www.survivaltopics.com/eating-road-kill/

During the last Great Depression in the 1930’s, “road kill” was considered a table delicacy for many who would otherwise be going without meat. Deer, various birds, rabbit, bear, raccoon, even porcupine and a variety of other animals killed by vehicles and left lying on the side of the road became an important source of protein for many a family.

An important feature of road kill is that the hunting has been done for you. There the animal lay; all you need to do is pick it up, skin it out, and cook it up. A gift from the Gods a hungry man should not pass up!

[Photo: Road Killed Deer.During times of need, many people have considered road kill to be a “windfall”. This whitetail deer was struck by a vehicle while trying to cross a country road. As long as the kill is fresh and the animal was healthy, its meat is perfectly safe to eat. As with all meat, be sure to handle and prepare it properly before consumption.]

You Won’t Eat Road Kill?
Don’t think you could eat road kill? That’s simply because at this time you can afford to snub your nose at such easy free meat.

Sure, right now many of you are squeamish at the thought of eating road kill. After all, your stomachs are regularly full and probably have been for all of your life. You likely have never experienced firsthand what it is like to go hungry for several days straight – or even weeks. Your cupboards are well stocked, and as much food as you could possibly want is waiting for you at the local grocery. That could all change.

During times of natural and manmade disaster or economic collapse food sources can quickly dry up. It’s amazing how preconceived food prejudices are soon rejected when real gnawing hunger sets in. After a few months without enough food and you will think nothing of eating insects, worms, rats, or anything else that comes your way. Served with wallpaper paste a nice road kill raccoon roast would be a seriously welcome addition to the dinner table.

When you think about it, what’s the difference whether that animal was dispatched at the meat processing plant, by a hunter in the forest, or a speeding automobile? None. As long as the meat is reasonably fresh and well cooked it will not matter one iota how the animal met its end. What does matter is feeding yourself and your family; road kill could put meat on the table when food is scarce and your survival is at stake.

Road Kill is Good Food
Road kill is traditionally accepted mealtime fare in many areas. In my neck of the woods moose are almost daily hit by motorists speeding through moose country. Referred to as the “bull of the woods”, moose are often afraid of nothing and are frequently encountered crossing roads. Besides totaling the vehicle, a 1000-pound moose is usually severely injured or even killed. As you can imagine a moose of this size has considerable quantities of meat. In some cases these road killed moose are given to poor families, charitable organizations, or even the owner of the vehicle that hit it.

As when you shop for meat at the supermarket, you want to insure your road kill meat is fresh and has not “gone by”. Although obvious signs of potentially spoiled meat include smell and the presence of scavenging insects, maggots, and the like, meat can also be spoiled without these signs. You must cook all meat thoroughly in order to destroy any disease-causing organisms or parasites.

If you find road kill on a stretch of road you had just passed over several hours before, then chances are your road kill is reasonably fresh and you are in meat. As in all things, the best survivors are aware of their environment and open to opportunity as it presents itself, however unexpectedly. Road kill meat is a potentially valuable resource in times of need and not to be overlooked by the hungry survivor

See also 4dtraveler post: (Survival Manual/3. Food & Water/ Trapping)

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Seven secrets of Dutch oven cooking

(Survival Manual/3. Food & Water/ Seven secrets of Dutch oven cooking)

Issue #47, September/October, 1997, Backwoods Home magazine,   by Roger L. Beattie   Pasted from: <http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/beattie47.html&gt;

Squatting heavily in dank basements, drafty attics, and dusty, cluttered garages, these three-legged hulks from a bygone era wait impatiently to release their treasures. Until then, they are pitted by time and tarnished by neglect. For those who will uncover the mystery, their gaping caverns can once again be brimming with magic.

From the birth of our nation, Dutch ovens have been an integral and versatile part of Americana. Sadly, today’s high-tech hustle-and-bustle lifestyle has all but forgotten the art of “leather-glove cuisine.” The coal-black cast iron ovens appear outdated, unfriendly, and forbidding. Interestingly however, with seven simple secrets revealed, the beginning camp cook and the consummate backyard chef can utilize these forgotten friends to produce a marvelous and unforgettable variety of succulent delicacies.

Dutch ovens owned by cooks who understand their subtleties are kept in places of honor, sanctuaries reserved specifically for them. On the other hand, ovens owned by cooks who can’t seem to keep the potatoes from burning to the bottom or who can never get the chicken to look anything but a pasty white, are quickly relegated to some obscure location where they will be “out of the way.” For the unsuccessful current user, the interested but uninitiated, or anyone who just wants to cook better, the seven secrets outlined below will provide a firm foundation for the creation and consumption of mouth-watering Dutch oven meals fit for even the most discriminating palates.

Secret 1: Choosing wisely
When deciding on a Dutch oven, there are a few important guidelines to keep in mind. A common question is, “Should I buy cast iron or aluminum?” Both have some advantages. Aluminum Dutch ovens weigh about one-third less than their cast iron counterparts. They require no curing, and, like the cast iron pots, can be used over open fires, buried underground, or used with coals or briquettes. However, aluminum Dutch ovens do not retain heat as well nor distribute it as evenly as cast iron. The flavoring of foods produced will also be different. Aluminum ovens sometimes give a chalky flavor to foods, whereas iron ovens give a smoked flavor to foods. Most Dutch oven aficionados use only cast iron ovens.

When buying a cast iron Dutch oven, whether new or used, look carefully at these five important areas:
1. Only buy Dutch ovens with legs. Some are manufactured with flat bottoms and are far more difficult to use. The three legs should be cleanly attached to the bottom of the oven, never cracked, bent, or broken off.

 2. Check the fit of the lid. It should lie flush with the lip of the oven all the way around, with no significant gaps.

 3. Check the casting, or thickness, of the metal, especially around the rim. There will be some inconsistencies. However, areas that are 15% (or more) thicker or thinner than the remaining areas will produce hot or cold spots during cooking and cooling. This variance in thickness will also make the oven much more likely to crack or warp.

 4. Make sure the lid has a loop handle, cleanly attached to its center.

5. Check the bail (the wire handle) attached to the oven itself. It should be easily movable and strong enough to use for carrying or hanging a heavy pot full of stew without difficulty.

If these five areas pass inspection, you’ve got a good Dutch oven.

Another purchase consideration is the size of the oven. Dutch ovens range in size from 8 to 22 inches in diameter. The most commonly used are 10-inch, 12-inch, and 14-inch ovens. The larger ovens hold more if you’re cooking for large groups, but they are huge, heavy, and hard to handle If you only buy one oven to get started, pick a 12-inch. Later you can add a 10-, 14- or additional 12-inch ovens.

Secret 2: The miracle cure
Once you have an oven, it must be cured. This process will keep your oven from rusting and produce an interior coating that will prevent food from sticking. The process is very simple. If you have an old rusty oven, scrub it well and use a fine-grade sandpaper to clean up and expose the entire surface, inside and out. Once the metal is exposed—or if you are curing a new oven—wash the entire oven well with hot soapy water. This will remove the waxy coating from a new oven and the fine metal dust remaining in an old reconditioned one.

Next, heat your Dutch oven, with the lid on, to about 200° in the oven in your home. (You can also do this in a fire, with coals or briquettes.) While the oven is hot, pour or drop in a small amount of oil, shortening, or lard, and while wearing oven mitts or heavy leather gloves, use a clean cotton cloth to wipe the entire surface well, inside and out, to coat it with the shortening, oil, or lard. When the oven is coated, heat it to 350° for an hour. If you do this in your house, expect some smoke. After an hour of heating, let the oven cool slowly. Force-cooling a cast iron oven by putting it in a freezer, snow bank, or outside during a cold rain, can crack or warp it.

Once you have your oven cured, it is ready for cooking. However, after each subsequent use and cleaning, you maintain and strengthen the cure by wiping a very light coat of oil, shortening, or lard over the dry, warm oven.

The proper cleaning of a Dutch oven is a favorite topic of many cast iron cooks. Some say that excess food must be burned off by turning the oven over in a fire, or by putting the lid on and heating the oven until the food residue inside is burned to a black crust or dust (like a self-cleaning household oven). Others claim it is a mortal sin to use any kind of soap when cleaning Dutch ovens. All, however, agree that you never scrape or scour a Dutch oven. Using metal utensils or wire scrubbers or brushes can remove the curing and allow food to stick in the exposed areas unless the oven is re-cured.

Most frequent Dutch oven users have found that wiping out excess food with a paper towel, then washing the pot with hot soapy water and a sponge will produce a clean and sanitary oven. Remember, after cleaning, be sure to dry the oven completely, then wipe a light coat of your chosen oil over the entire surface of your oven, inside and out, legs included, using a paper towel or cotton cloth. Soon your oven will have a beautiful dark brown or black coat that will be amazingly easy to keep clean.

If you use too much oil while curing or after cleaning your oven, it will become apparent the next time you use it. Each time you take out the oven, remove the lid and smell the inside. If it smells a little rancid, you used too much oil, but don’t worry. Just heat up the oven on your stove or over a fire to allow the oil to melt down and puddle in the bottom of the pot. Wipe out the old oil with a paper towel and you’re ready to go. There is no need to clean the oven again before using.

Secret 3: Power tools
You will need all the usual utensils required for cooking, such as spoons, forks, spatulas, etc. However, when you pick utensils to use with your Dutch ovens, choose items made of wood, plastic, or Teflon. Metal utensils tend to scrape off the curing when hungry eaters try to dig the last bite of food out of the oven. If areas do get scraped to the bare metal of the oven, you’ll need to re-cure it.

In addition to the utensils you are familiar with, there are other tools unique to Dutch ovens which will make your efforts safer, easier, and more successful.

1. You will need a pair of loose-fitting leather gloves long enough to cover your wrists.
When leather gloves get hot, loose ones can be flipped off easily and quickly. Tight hot gloves will stick and burn you. Some people prefer welding gloves (gauntlets), but any good thick leather gloves should do fine. Wear these gloves when working with your ovens. They will prevent numerous painful burns, dropped ovens, and ruined meals.

2. Another tool you will need is a lid lifter. There are a number of lid lifter designs to choose from. The most typical is a wire-handled hook. Many of these hooks have a small bar welded horizontally a short distance up the handle from the curve. This is to keep the lid from tilting from side to side while being lifted. Hook lifters can be very ornate or simple hay-hook-like designs. Probably the surest lid lifter is a more recent design which combines the hook with a three-legged brace. The three legs fit flush against the top of the lid, and the hook goes down the middle of the legs and under the lid handle. With this type of lifter, the hook is pulled up to tighten the lid against the three legs of the brace. This design is steady and excellent for keeping coals and ashes on the lid from accidentally becoming additional garnish for the dish being prepared.

3. Lid holders are also a necessity.This tool may be anything from a clean brick to a three- or four-legged wire rack. It is used to keep hot lids off tables and counter tops or out of the dirt when the cook is adding spices or checking the progress of meals cooking.

4. Long-handled tongs are an invaluable addition to your Dutch oven tools. Even a cheap stainless steel pair will last indefinitely. Tongs are used to place, add, or remove coals as necessary. Attempting to position coals with sticks, pliers, etc., often results in poor placement, burned hands, and generally miserable experiences.

5. A small shovel is also important. This small tool, a garden shovel or fireplace shovel, is used for moving coals from a fire, digging a long-cook pit, or burying excess extinguished charcoal.

6. The last special tool you will want to consider is a whisk broom.The broom is used to brush the dirt, ashes, etc., off the lid and side of your oven in preparation for serving. This makes the possibility of ash-flavored beans remote and cleans up the ovens nicely to prevent carrying dirt or charcoal into your camper, cabin, tent, or kitchen.

Secret 4: A fire in the belly
Here’s a secret that even most seasoned outdoor cooks don’t know: You can prevent burned bottoms, raw tops, and dried-out foods by using properly sized and spaced coals to control the interior oven temperature. Virtually all baked goods can be baked successfully at 350°, which is the ideal temperature for a Dutch oven. To establish and maintain this temperature, the first thing to remember is to use coals from a fire that are roughly the same size as charcoal briquettes.

Or, for more consistency, use briquettes. Charcoal briquettes will burn longer and more evenly than coals from a fire. Use the best briquettes you can afford. There is a difference in quality, and the more expensive brands are generally worth the additional cost.

The number and placement of the coals on and under your oven is critical. The optimal number of coals used for any oven is based on its diameter. For example, if you are using a 12-inch oven, you will need two coals per inch, a total of 24. More coals will likely burn your food and less may necessitate too long a cooking period.
To determine how many coals go under and how many go on top, remember the magic number 2:
•  2 coals per inch of oven diameter
• place 2 more coals than the oven size on the lid, and
• place 2 less than the oven size under it.

Example: For a 12-inch oven, 12 – 2 = 10 coals under the oven, and 12+2=14 coals go on the lid, for a total of 24. The same formula applies to all ovens. A 10-inch oven should have 8 coals underneath and 12 coals on the lid. A 14-inch oven should have 12 coals underneath and 16 coals on the lid.

The placement of the coals is also an important part of proper heat regulation. The proper layout for coals or briquettes under the oven is circular. Coals should be approximately one inch apart in a circle under the oven. Never place coals directly under the center of the oven. If you do, you will create a hot spot and burn whatever you are cooking. By placing the coals in a circle, the natural conductivity of the oven will distribute the heat evenly and effectively.

The coals on the lid of the oven should also be placed evenly in a circle along the flange of the outer lid. However, four of the coals should be placed toward the center of the lid, two on either side of the handle. This coal placement will produce an even, consistent temperature within the oven of approximately 350° and maintain that heat for up to two hours.

In the event that you need to generate a higher temperature inside your oven, “cheat up” the coals. Additional coals placed two at a time, one on the lid and one under the oven, will add another 50°. Two additional coals top and bottom would bring your oven’s temperature up to 450°. It is extremely rare to need a temperature of 450°, and you should never need one higher than that.

Secret 5: A cut above
Meats prepared in a Dutch oven are delectable. They have a flavor and aroma you will never duplicate using any other cooking method. While the taste is always exquisite, some Dutch oven users have difficulty producing a visually appealing meat from inside the steamy oven. The secret is simple: regardless of the spice and flavorings you use on any meat or poultry, always brown the meat first.

To brown the meat, place some oil, bacon, or any fatty item in the hot oven to produce a good covering of oil on the bottom, heat the oven, then put the meat you want to cook in the oven and sear or brown it well. This will seal in natural juices and provide the outer texture and color more typical of grilled or fried meats. Once the meat is well browned on all sides, drain off any leftover fat drippings, add whatever seasonings you like, put on the lid, and cook the meat for 30 to 35 minutes per pound of beef, pork, or lamb, or 25 to 30 minutes per pound of poultry.

Secret 6: Garden pride
Garden vegetables are a magnificent addition to any Dutch oven dinner. Most Dutch oven vegetables are prepared in a sauce of some type, but they may be steamed or boiled as you would on a traditional stove. However, if you choose to bake or roast Dutch oven vegetables, they should cook for approximately three minutes per inch of oven diameter. A l0-inch oven full of squash should cook for about 30 minutes, a 12-inch oven full for 36 minutes. Vegetables to be cooked in sauces, such as sour cream potatoes, broccoli in cheese sauce, or new peas and potatoes in white sauce, should be brought to a rapid boil first, the water discarded, the sauces added, then baked for the proper time noted for other vegetables.

Secret 7: If you knead the dough
Good Dutch oven breads seem to be a rarity. However, marvelous corn breads, biscuits, rolls, and sourdough loaves are surprisingly easy to perfect in the old black pot. The larger the oven the better when it comes to cooking breads. A 14-inch oven serves nicely to produce three loaves of bread or up to three dozen rolls or biscuits. To successfully brown breads, however, you must alter the cooking process for the last five to eight minutes of the traditional 25-30 minute, 350° baking time.

First, put a light coat of oil on the interior of a cool oven (including the lid), and let the rolls or bread complete their final rise in the oven prior to applying the coals. Second, place the oven on the coals with the proper number of coals on top as noted earlier. (Remember: no coals directly under the center of the oven.) Third, when there are five to eight minutes left in the cooking time, lift the lid, lightly brush the tops of the breads with butter, replace the lid, then take all the coals from under the oven and distribute them evenly on the top. With all the heat now on the lid, check the bread every couple of minutes until you think it looks perfect. After brushing the coals and ashes from the lid, remove it, tilt the oven over a bread board, and your perfect bread will gently fall out.

Now that you know the seven secrets, here is a trio of fabulous tried-and-true recipes you can easily make with your old, new, or reincarnated Dutch oven.

 Prairie chicken
Using the correct number of coals under the oven, brown both sides of enough clean, uncoated chicken pieces to cover the bottom in a hot Dutch oven with a bubbling ¼ inch of oil. When the chicken is browned to your liking, remove the excess oil from the oven and discard. Season the chicken generously with the following pre-mixed coating:

2 Tablespoons each, parsley flakes & thyme
1 Tablespoon each, marjoram, oregano, celery salt, & rosemary
1 teaspoon each, garlic salt, onion salt, ginger, ground black pepper, sage, & paprika

Put lid on oven, arrange coals as noted earlier (top and bottom) and cook for 45 minutes to one hour.

Italian zucchini
Coat and marinate zucchini or summer squash (one per person) for 30 minutes in a mixture of ½ olive oil and ½ lemon juice (A half cup of each will coat enough zucchini for 20 people.) Place one layer of the marinated vegetables in the bottom of the Dutch oven. (A 10-inch oven works great for up to 15 people.) Sprinkle salt, pepper, and a good coating of grated Romano cheese over the layer, then repeat the process, layer upon layer, until all the zucchini is used or until the oven is almost full. Sprinkle extra Romano cheese on the top layer. Place the lid on the oven and cook as noted earlier with the proper number and placement of coals. Cook for 30 to 35 minutes. This is a marvelous tart and tasty vegetable treat, guaranteed.

Trailside beans
½ pound bacon, sliced in small pieces
½ pound ground beef
½ diced onion1 diced red bell pepper
1 diced green bell pepper
Two 33-oz. cans of pork and beans
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup of Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons of white vinegar

Cook bacon and ground beef well in a 12-inch Dutch oven. Use 24 coals all on the bottom to start, then separate and place the coals as noted earlier during the baking stage. Before removing excess oil, sauté diced onion, diced red bell pepper, and diced green bell pepper with the meats until the onions and peppers are soft. Drain off excess oil. Add pork and beans, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and white vinegar. Stir well, place lid on oven, and cook with repositioned coals for 90 to 120 minutes.

Check for moisture content every 15 to 20 minutes. (Some ovens allow too much moisture to escape.) If there is not a soupy layer of liquid covering the beans, add water, a little at a time, and stir to maintain the moisture content.
Eat this with hot biscuits and jam, and you’ll understand why cowboys always looked so happy on those long, hard, dusty cattle drives.

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