*NEW SERIES* Months Without Shopping
I have been looking at some current practices like freeze drying and MREs ("Meals Ready to Eat"). I’ve also looked for inspiration in the records of those who had to rely on food stores and working together: our pioneer ancestors, and those who lived through WWI and II through rationing, Victory Gardens, and Community Canning .
Since it is still winter, we’ll be starting with by taking a look at how folks in the past utilized the vegetables and fruits that stored well or could be easily preserved to get them through what could be literally life threatening in what they called the “Hungry Months.”
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Posted on 2.28.21
MONTHS WITHOUT SHOPPING: The Framework
As a boy I grew up surrounded by a religious community where the idea of being prepared for the future was deeply ingrained in the culture. I was constantly exposed to canning, freezing and home gardens but being of a rebellious nature I squandered the opportunity to learn those skills from experienced hands.
It wasn’t until I had lived through a forest fire, economic down turns and 2 major floods including the collapse of the Teton Dam that wiped out my boyhood home, did I realize how important it is to not only have a supply of food on hand but skills to grow and preserve food, and have a network like minded folks for support. I observed different groups struggle to rebound from disasters, both personal and wide spread. I observed that groups and individuals who develop networks that share skills and resources and had practice working together in some kind of community building activities had greater resilience and rebounded much faster. I look back to 1998 as the year I became deeply involved in being prepared, and not being a “Prepper.” In 1999 I decided to begin preparing for the much anticipated Y2K event of Mid-night, January 1, 2000.
As an experiment I went all in. For one week starting 1/1/2000 I lived without using electricity, stored water for drinking and cooking, assuming that the sewers still worked, I used rainwater to flush. I also assumed that I should eat from the freezer first, since at the end of a week everything would probably be melted.
I kept all kinds of notes, most of which were overkill and not that useful, but I did see a lot of trends:
The amount of things I had stored might have lasted a few weeks if I was lucky.
I could see that by the end of a month I would have been down to pickles and jam, and a really bad bottle of wine.
Mostly I had commercial prepared things and very few basic ingredients.
Of the commercial things I had no variety. It looked like a crazy Costco Impulse Buying Trip, which of course it had been. 24 cans of clam chowder, eight can pack of olives, 2 four packs of chicken meat, 26 packs of tuna fish, huge boxes of pasta, and 10 pounds of brown rice.
Basic ingredients that have multiple uses (for example canned tomatoes in various forms, meat or vegetable broths) might have been a better use of storage space and resources.
In December, 1999 we saw panic buying. 20 years later one is tempted to laugh but we saw similar panics in March, 2020 and, again in September and November, as waves of COVID-19 hit and stay-at-home orders were issued, partially lifted, and reissued.
Posted on 3.3.21
It was clear from experiences in January, 2000 that I need a more balanced approach. I began by comparing what resources are recommended by different groups:
- In 2000 FEMA and local Emergency Management .recommended a supply for 3 days of foods that can be used in a "grid-down" type emergencies. So things like: peanut butter, dried fruit, canned juices, non-perishable milk, High-energy foods. Currently FEMA recommends supplies for much longer periods like a month.
- Doomsday-type Preppers recommended a whole lot of expensive dry food, Meals-Ready-to-Eat type supplies. The number of companies supplying these kinds of products are huge, and “Let The Buyer Beware."Also there's a heavy reliance on fortification and being "self-sufficient."
- The last resources checked were religious groups that encouraged planning to live long-term from the family pantry and stress community. The Amish, Hutterites and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 2019 I’d begun to work on a program to share what I’d learned about food storage that I’ve been able to personally test through this experiment. Here are a few general principles I started from:
We have no way to gauge how long a shortage of goods and services may last.
A food emergency might be a full blown grid-down with evacuation or shelter in place.
It could also be a long series of shortages as supply chains get interrupted and then restored, cycling over and over.
Research shows that a diet strictly of MRE and other freeze dried foods is bad for overall health. It also lacks variety which can be psychologically damaging.
A strictly commercially prepared set of supplies can be incredibly expensive.
Stocking your pantry a little at a time is the most practical approach.
Prepping for a year assumes a lot of storage space.
We need to be aware of over preparing with large quantities of something like grains. If you are not sure you will eat all that wheat before it loses nutrients, taste, or starts going rancid you may want to buy less.
Make sure you know how to store each product.
Even commercially canned products have a lifetime. They are often safe to eat past the “Best Buy” date but, “This too shall pass.”
The best survival/resilience plans are integrated into our lives like gardening, canning parties, barter, bulk buying groups, gleaning programs, tool libraries, and other programs that involve connecting in the community.
This gives a framework of how this all started for me. The next installment covers where our next steps will lead us.
Posted on 3.21.21
As my friends point out, sometimes I tend to be a bit “Thinky” in my approach to writing, jumping down the theoretical rabbit hole with both feet, so I’d like to thank everyone who has rode along with me so far on the journey that is the Months Without Shopping series. You’ve been very patient, but now we get down to some hands-on work.
Our first practical step is an exercise (completely voluntary, of course) for 1 week where you record everything you eat. It isn't like a food journal where you record your exact amounts, calories, and nutrients, that is a very different exercise. This exercise is to help you take a look at what you regularly eat and what you enjoy eating.
The biggest mistake many folks make in planning their pantry for emergencies is stocking up on foods they would never eat regularly, but someone told them they should have. An emergency is not the time to radically change your diet unless circumstances force you to. There is already more than enough stress to go around and adding more won’t help you to make wise decisions for your health, safety, and that of your loved ones.
So you don’t need to count calories at this point but I suggest you record the meal, snack, or beverage. Next week we’ll take a look at how we can use that information to plan stocking your emergency pantry. The objective is to create a plan that includes both long and short term emergencies with either premade foods or basic ingredients. In any type of emergency, you want to be able to approximate the meals that are comfort food for you.
I have included an example of a form you can use, and a template to download and copy. Use these forms, or let them guide you to record in your own style. The forms I will use in this series will be interconnected, so please review the instructions and sample so you get a sense of what kind of information you are trying to record, and how - the more easily to move forward into the next step.
Exercise 1 - Meal Recording (Excel Workbook)
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Posted on 3.28.21
The circumstances creating an interruption of the supply chain and the food shortages it creates will determine what form(s) of food storage will be most useful. In our scenario we will assume we have prepared several alternative methods of preparing food,(examples include: charcoal grill, camp stove, gas grill) and water (bottled, bulk storage, water purification). It is important to make sure you have food stored in a balance of different forms. All frozen food won’t be useful in the long term in a grid down situation, all canned goods won’t cut it in an evacuation, etc.
We always need to keep reappraising how our plans are working even if we have a lot of experience. Art Rude, one of the authors of The Lost Superfoods book and newsletter recently shared his experience when he took a close look at his family’s food stores and discovered he had nearly 400 cans of food near their expiration date. He and his wife decided that they would try to use them all and not waste food. Here are some of his observations after eating only commercially canned food for a month.
“We were able to put together nutritious meals, but we needed more calories and more variety. Toward the end of the month the variety of foods shrank, and we were eating green beans, peas, carrots, and tomatoes over and over again.
"I cannot stress enough how important spices, seasonings, and stock cubes are. In the future, I will stock a large variety. All those cans of tomatoes would have been more interesting with spices to make pizza and pasta sauce, or even just by adding a little balsamic vinegar.
"We missed the pasta, fresh vegetables, potatoes and butter. I learned how important our vegetable garden is and how much we enjoy many of the foods we eat every day.”
https://www.facebook.com/lostsuperfoods/
To move forward with our own planning, here's the next step - breaking down the meals we recorded last week into different parts. Please select 3 meals from the list you created last week and categorize how the item or the components are stored. As an example if you had soup, did it start as a can, frozen, a dried package mix or home made from various ingredients you have store or fresh.
We've made another helpful spreadsheet for you to download, or use as a guide in this next step:
Excercise 2 - Categories Blank (Excel Workbook)
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Posted on 4.4.21
MONTHS WITHOUT SHOPPING: More Detail!
In his book The Lost Superfoods, Art Rude suggests this idea (some paraphrasing for length) “We were able to put together nutritious meals, but we needed more calories and more variety. Toward the end of the month the variety of foods shrank, and we were eating green beans, peas, carrots, and tomatoes over and over again.”
Having most of your meals ready to eat in cans or frozen is great if you have a large space for storage, a large freezer or two, and the power never goes out. I am a proponent of being flexible and, to me, that means storing basic ingredients like vegetables of all kinds, meats and fish (if you're an omnivore), grains, pastas, and lentils. And in various forms: canned, frozen, bulk, dehydrated and even some freeze dried. These basic ingredients can be combined in a multitude of ways to create your favorite recipes to supplement pre-made meals, help keep costs down, and save on storage space.
But first we need to know what ingredients we use the most in the meals that work best for each of us.
Exercise 3 of Months Without Shopping is to break three of your recorded meals down into basic ingredients. Assume that you have a good stock of spices and herbs to add variety as well as vinegars and sweeteners.
Here’s this week’s helpful spreadsheet for you to download, or use as a guide in this next step:
Exercise 3 - Ingredients Blank (Excel Workbook)
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Posted on 4.7.21
MONTHS WITHOUT SHOPPING: About Food Shortages
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| Food lines in Britain during WWII (Wikimedia Commons) |
This can be a good thing because it means not everything is as potentially disastrous as Doomsday Preppers would have us believe, but it also means that there isn’t one nice, clean prescription that fits everyone or every situation.
I am working to develop a method folks can use to come up with a plan to make the process of being prepared easier to tailor to their needs. Here are the things I feel it will help to consider.
The Types of Emergency/Shortages
A food emergency might be caused by a full blown, grid-down, infrastructure destroying event with evacuation or shelter in place. It could also be a long series of shortages as supply chains get interrupted and then restored, and disrupted again; cycling over and over. Each can require different responses.
Bug-out:
Major destruction and disruption, ‘hit the ground running’ because it requires evacuation so supplies need to be portable. MREs, DIY Backpacking Dehydrated meals
Two Weeks:
A disruption that might isolate folks at home for up to a week or two. A major snowstorm that cuts off travel is an example. But even if power and water are temporarily cut off, sheltering in place is the most appropriate response.
Recurring Shortages:
Recent examples are the shortages of TP, flour, yeast, canned soup, and canning lids and jars. These cyclical events are caused by waves that impact production and delivery, but infrastructure is OK. Unfortunately, the effects of the events causing the problems are often not seen till months later.
Long,Term Recurring Shortages:
The Great Depression springs to mind. This ‘new normal’ which a series of recurring shortages can cause - stretching out, possibly for years.
What is suggested for each Type of Shortage:
Bug Out:
- Some limited version of everything needed to evacuate
- Commercially produced MREs and/or DIY dehydrated camping meal
- Snacks
- Water
Two Weeks:
- A minimum of two weeks featuring a variety of shelf stable foods
- Offering 3 meals a day and a couple of snacks
- Target of 2000 calories a day minimum,
- Some frozen (Eat first in case of grid down)
- Some commercially or home canned
- Some dehydrated and freeze dried
- Bug Out supplies on hand in case things go further South.
Recurring Shortages:
All the points mentioned above. What I envision is that power, water, and sanitation are available but some major parts of our regular diet may not be. This is truly where the well-stocked pantry comes into play. A good supply of frozen or dehydrated items, even in non-emergency situations are great to have on hand if you run out. I suggested that it is best to buy very long term storage versions of eggs, dairy, and meats as freeze dried. I will be discussing why and how to repackage these items safely in a later article.
Long, Term Recurring Shortages:
Like in the Great Depression there is still a supporting infrastructure and food is available but it may not have variety or have the best nutrients. This ‘new normal’ could stretch out possibly for years, enough time to engage in some gardening, gleaning, bulk buying, barter and trade. It will be best to include all types of foods mentioned in a healthy mix and reasonable amount.
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So as you are participating in the exercises in this series, you can begin to see that we are working towards a granular understanding of what your pantry needs really are, the better to plan you home preservation priorities, your garden, or even work cooperatively with your neighbors.
More to come . . .
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Posted on 4.11.21
I was looking back through our previous posts for a couple of good examples of recipes that lend themselves to substitutions and ran across our very first article on substitutions using a Food Network recipe for Coconut Curried Butternut Squash Soup and decided it would work great if I elaborate a bit on how decisions were made on what to substitute.
It was originally posted almost exactly a year ago when we were just getting used to the lockdown and food shortages and hoping we had a well stocked pantry. I really love this recipe but when I went to make it I discovered I was short on a lot of the usual fresh ingredients but I had plenty of alternatives. So this batch was completely made by looking at what was available in the pantry.
First we’ll take a look at the options for substitution, add some notes about each ingredient, and a recap of the choices I made for this batch. By the way, if your device is hyperlink challenged, you can find a helpful chart and the original article at https://preservefoods.blogspot.com/p/substitutions.html
- Butternut Squash: A real staple in the pantry because of its flexibility as an ingredient; it can be stored whole for months, and frozen, dried, and canned. Fresh, freezing, or dehydrating are easy but at home squash can only be pressure canned.
- Please see our post on Safely canning Winter Squash, "To Preserve or not to Preserve? Winter Squash Wisdom" from October 2015 (Dang!)
- TheKitchn.com https://www.thekitchn.com/two-ways-to-freeze-winter-squash-178166
- The BackpackingChef.com https://tinyurl.com/4e3j66aj
- Olive Oil: For most recipes almost any good cooking oil or butter will do. Oils and butter can be frozen for convenient serving in ice cube trays then sealed in freezer bags Herbs and garlic can be frozen in oils or butter in cubes.
- Notes: Herbs and garlic should not be stored in oils unless frozen because of risk of botulism.
- Freeze Dried Butter Powder is great for flavoring but won’t melt for frying.
- Diethood.com https://diethood.com/freeze-fresh-herbs-olive-oil/
- Salt, Pepper, and Curry Powder: Spice of all kinds, including salt and pepper, are essential as well as vinegars and sweeteners. If you have a well stocked spice rack you don’t need to spend a fortune on a jar of a spice mix that you only use a couple of times a year. Recipes can be very simple and easy to make up to the more complex recipes that toast the spices and hand grind. I've prepared some resources for making your own curry powder, from easy to more complex. Curry Powders Recipes
- Carrots: Can be stored in all forms, fresh to home pressure canned. See general instructions for rehydrating if dried
- Celery: Doesn’t can well. Fresh, frozen or dried best. See general instructions for rehydrating dried vegetables.
- Garlic: As mentioned above can be frozen in oils or dehydrated.
- Onion: Doesn’t can well. Fresh, frozen or dried best. See general instructions for rehydrating dried vegetables
- Coconut Milk: If you run out of canned you can make your own by pureeing dried unsweetened coconut flakes in a blender with water. https://nouveauraw.com/raw-recipes/smoothies-juices-nut-milks/coconut-milk-cream-using-shredded-coconut/
- Parsley Garnish: I personally don’t care for parsley, but I always have a small pot of chives and a pot of green onions growing on the back porch even in winter. Any of these can be dried.
IN 2020:"What I Did Last April"
Based on what I had in my pantry (since I was making it up from ingredients that were available, and it was made just for me) I made a smaller batch with a number of substitutions. Just like traditional cooking, my recipe didn’t have exact measurements but I made it based on taste and experimentation.
- Butternut Squash: I had pints of home pressure canned chunks in chicken broth. Measured the broth, and only had to add a half cup of excess broth I had frozen to make the recipe work
- Chicken Broth: From canned squash and frozen
- Olive Oil: Stored in fridge
- Salt, Pepper: From my spice stores
- Curry Powder: Made a small amount from spice stores for this, and another recipe the next week. I had time so I toasted the spices.
- Carrots: Had some stored in basement
- Onions, Celery: From Dehydrated
- Garlic: Chopped stored in oil as ice cubes. Defrosted and saute the onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and curry powder
- Coconut Milk: Made from dehydrated
- Chives and Pepitas: Fresh chives, stored pepitas
HELPFUL NOTES AND RESOURCES:
- Using dehydrated or freeze dried items. Almost always need to be rehydrated if not cooked in recipe
- https://www.backpackingchef.com/dehydrating-vegetables.html
- https://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Rehydration-Chart_ep_40.html#:~:text
- Our original post & helpful chart https://preservefoods.blogspot.com/p/substitutions.html
- The full original recipe can be found at https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/coconut-curried-butternut-squash-soup-3415383
- To Preserve or Not to Preserve: Winter Squash Wisdom" https://preservefoods.blogspot.com/p/posts-of-interest-archival-pre-2020.html
Absorb all this, and check out the resources and links that interest you. Consider how you might create pantry options for the ingredients that you use the most. Exercise #4 will be coming tomorrow (4.14) and will involve applying these ideas to your working ingredient list from Exercise #3. STAY TUNED!
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Posted on 4.14.21
You've broken down your meals into ingredients - you know what you need. Now what do you do next? Analyze what you have. Are you keeping the sorts of spices and staples that will enable maximum pantry flexibility? Or are your shelves full of things you bought and only used once, if at all?
The Substitutions worksheet allows you to further evaluate your needs, and to envision what your options might be. We recommend that you take your Ingredients List worksheet from Exercise 3, and use the Substitutions sheet below to identify what options you might use to prepare that meal item. We suggest that you use and X for options that you currently have, and O for options you could easily have and (importantly) would use.
Do you begin to see how you can re-envision your pantry planning? Have you grabbed a shopping bag, but started to fill it with things you'll never use instead of heading out the door to buy more? You are one step farther along the way. This is the place were we got the most excited - when we saw how much we could improve our pantry's actual effectiveness, instead of just "having food."
Exercise 4 Substitutions & Options (Excel Workbook)
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Posted on 4.29.21
MONTHS WITHOUT SHOPPING: Applying the Journey
In previous posts I discussed how I came to be interested in gardening and food preservation as a way to be better prepared. When I was diagnosed with advanced Type 2 Diabetes I had a major shift from dealing with what might happen someday to a very real and immediate personal emergency. “What could I do to slow the progression and regain some control?"
It started with examining my diet and shifting to more whole foods, reducing simple carbohydrates and, most important, paying attention. It has been a process and not always successful, but I feel I’ve final have gotten a handle on what I can do.
Fruits and vegetables are the key. Fortunately, I enjoy gardening so I use my backyard garden and trade with other gardeners. To ensure I have produce year round and help avoid wasting this precious commodity I strive to freeze, can, and dehydrate as much as possible during the growing season. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve come full-circle: back to my
This year I am focusing on tomatoes, green beans, shelling beans, zucchinis, summer squash, and greens like kale and chard in my garden. I will also be continuing to trade with fellow gardeners and gleaners for small amounts of corn, carrots, turnips, and other root vegetables. I’ve already purchased, frozen and pickled asparagus. I will plant cucumbers for eating fresh, and buy or trade for locally grown for pickling. The zucchinis and summer squash are destined to be made into low-carb chips to take the place of my corn chip addiction. Everything else will be preserved by all the ways we’ve discussed and be available to support my healthier diet in the coming year. (Click on video for more about low-carb chips)
I hope that you have found this journey useful as well. I hope that it changes how you look at your own food consumption, and that you see opportunities for you in the food preservation topics we share. I would love for you to share the things that you have learned along the way - you never know what will be useful or insightful to someone else. Please use the comments section at the bottom of the page to share.
More options! Good health!
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