Chapter 4 - #3 Need – Food

Instant Storage Stockpile

Our next need is food. The average American consumes anywhere from 2,500 calories to 3,790

calories per day, depending upon whose statistics you choose to believe. Compared to that, the US

government recommends that the average man eat 2,700 calories and the average woman eats

2,200 calories per day. Activity levels, body mass and diet affect this, so keep in mind that these are

merely averages.

If we eat less calories than we need, our body has to look elsewhere for the energy we need. So, it

will turn inwards, using the stored energy we have in fat cells. If there is no energy stored in the

body, it will start consuming itself, breaking down proteins into the simple sugars we need to burn

for energy. At that point, starvation has set in.

The average American has a long way to go before reaching the point of starvation. Once again,

depending upon whose statistics you believe, the average American can live anywhere from 30 to

100 days without food, without harm, due to the energy we have stored in our bodies.

Regardless of how much fat any of us are carrying, eventually we'll all reach a point where we run

out of energy for our bodies to consume. We'll run out of essential nutrients long before that,

developing health problems and possibly even attacking muscle in order to get the protein that we

need. Before that happens, we'll find ourselves without energy, struggling to do normal activities

and losing our ability to think clearly.

So, after an absolute maximum of 30 days, we need to have food to survive. In a typical survival

situation, it may actually be much less than that, as we'll be working harder and burning much more

energy than normal. So, any survival plan must include a goodly stockpile of food for ourselves and

our families to eat.

Building Your Food Stockpile

If you talk to the average person on the street, asking them about prepping, most people who aren't

preppers will talk about stockpiling food. When people start prepping, that's usually the first thing

they think about doing. There's nothing wrong with that idea, as you're going to need a lot of food to

survive for any length of time. For most preppers, the act of stockpiling food is something that never

really ends; they just keep adding more and more.

The big question here is "How much food do you need?" Unfortunately, that's a question without an

answer. Since none of us know what sort of emergency we're going to face, we don't know how long

we're going to have to survive off of that stockpile.

When hurricanes Katrina and Sandy struck it was days before the government was able to offer

people any help. It took well over a month to get electrical service back to everyone and it took a

couple of months to get the supply lines fully functional once again. Those were just regional

disasters, what would happen if we were struck by a major disaster that hit the whole country? How

long would it take for supply lines to be back in place again?

One of the worst possible scenarios we can face is an EMP. Experts say that if an EMP attack were

made on the United States, it would take two or more years to restore electrical service to the

country. Considering that 90 percent of the people would die in the first year, that sounds like it

might never get restored. In such a case, how much food is enough?

This is why preppers never really finish their food stockpile. No matter how much you have, a little

more might be a good idea. But many stop after a year, working under the assumption that they will

have some other means of harvesting food within that year.

I would suggest starting out by creating a one month supply and then adding a month at a time until

you reach a year's worth of food stocks. Once you get there, you can review the situation, as well as

the other things you are doing to ensure your family can continue eating, and decide whether you

need to keep adding to your stockpile or not.

So, how do you do that?

To start with, you need to figure out how much food your family needs to eat in a crisis situation.

There are several ways of doing this, but the easiest is to create a two or three week detailed menu

for everything your family would eat in a survival situation.

Here we run into our first problem. We have to assume that in a survival situation, we won't have

electrical power. So, the survival menu that we create must be based upon foods that we can store

for a long period of time, without electricity. In other words, no fresh fruit, no fresh vegetables and

no frozen meat. For that matter, we'd better not count on any of the frozen prepared foods we are

used to eating.

For that matter, there's a lot of food that your family may be accustomed to eating, which you won't

be able to store for a survival situation. Much of the prepared food, junk food, snack food and

breakfast food we are used to eating all the time won't store for a prolonged period of time, no

matter what you do. You're going to have to go back to the basics and work from there.

I'll give you a list of foods that you can buy to store for a survival situation in a moment, but let's get

back to the menu. You're not only going to have to come up with the menu itself, but the recipes

you need for the foods you are going to store. Since you won't be able to buy or store much of what

you're family is used to eating, you're going to have to find other things to eat, which will not only

provide the necessary nutrition, but be something your family will be willing to eat with minimal

complaints.

Based upon your menu and those recipes, the next step is to create a list of everything you'll need to

have, in order to make that two or three weeks worth of food. You'll have to bake your own bread,

so you'll need to include the ingredients for that. In fact, you'll basically have to make everything

yourself, so you have to break everything down to the most basic ingredients. Don't miss any of

them.

Simply multiplying that list by the number of weeks you're trying to build a stockpile for will give you

a pretty good idea of how much of everything you need, in order to have enough food to feed your

family through a crisis.

So, since we have to avoid fresh and frozen foods, as well as our favorite prepared foods and junk

food, what types of foods should we plan on buying?

Proteins:

Canned meat - There are a number of types of canned meat available, including canned

tuna, SPAM, canned chicken, canned beef and salmon. While not as good as fresh, you can

make great soups, casseroles and stir-fry out of canned meat.

Textured vegetable protein (TVP) - Granted, it's not as good as meat, but it's better than

nothing. I wouldn't recommend eating it as it is, but once again, it works out great in soups,

casseroles and stir-fry.

Dried meat (jerky) - Meat dries well as jerky, which will keep for a long time, if properly

made and packaged. It can be rehydrated for cooking with.

Summer sausage - Cured meats, which is what lunchmeat was originally called, are

preserved for long-term storage. You have to be careful about this, as not all will store for a

prolonged period of time.

Nuts - A great source of protein and useful for baking or just eating.

Peanut butter - Not only a great source of protein, but a great comfort food as well,

especially for kids.

Beans - For much of the world, beans are a prime source of protein. While we Americans

aren't used to using it for protein, it can make a great addition to a survival diet.

Cheese - Another great source of protein, although a bit hard to store. To store cheese,

triple dip it in paraffin, allowing it to cool each time. One nice thing about cheese is that

when it turns moldy, it's only on the surface, you can cut the surface off and the cheese

inside is perfectly good to eat.

Carbohydrates:

Grains - You'll need flour for baking. Ground white flour doesn't store well, but if you buy

unground whole grains, it stores much better. You'll need to have a mill as well, so that you

can grind the grains to flour in order to use it.

Pasta - Pastas can be used in a large variety of ways and store well for a prolonged period of

time. I'd recommend storing a variety of different forms, for use in soups, casseroles and

Italian dishes.

Rice - A common source of carbohydrates around the world. Brown rice stores better than

white rice, but both are usable.

Granola - Granola stores well and is an excellent breakfast food. It can also be used for

making your own trail mix by adding dried fruit and nuts.

Breakfast cereal - Breakfast cereal really doesn't store all that good and is bulky. However,

the simpler cereals will store. Remember though, the only milk you're going to have to eat it

with is powdered milk.

Fruit and Vegetables:

Canned vegetables - For the long term, you're going to want to get a vegetable garden

growing; but in the short term, canned vegetables are your best possible selection. The nice

thing about canned foods is that you can basically ignore the expiration date.

Canned fruit - A great source of carbohydrates, as well as vitamins.

Dried fruit - Good for baking and snacking, dried fruit keeps well if it is properly packaged.

Spaghetti sauce - I'd recommend stocking up on a lot of spaghetti sauce, especially if your

family likes Italian food. It covers most other flavors, so can be used to get your family to eat

squash and other things they may not be used to eating.

Cooking Essentials:

Bullion - I'd recommend stocking quite a bit of beef and chicken bouillon, as it can be used to

make soup stock. This will allow you to use a wide variety of foods to make soups. You can

buy bouillon in bulk or restaurant packaging, saving considerably on the cost.

Mushroom soup - If your family likes casseroles with mushroom soup on them, then I'd stock

up on this as well. Like the spaghetti sauce, it's great for hiding unusual flavors.

Dry milk - Nobody likes dried milk, but you'll need to use it for baking.

Powdered eggs -Like the dry milk, not a favorite, but necessary for baking.

Salt - Salt is the most basic spice, as well as a necessary ingredient for preserving foods. If

you buy it in bulk, it's much cheaper.

Spices - The right spices allow you to make one thing taste like another, at least to some

extent. This might just be the saving grace to get your family to eat things they are not used

to eating. Even basics like rice and beans can be made to taste better if spiced well.

Sugar and Honey - Both sugar and honey keep virtually forever. Sugar often becomes the

first food staple that people start looking for. Like salt, sugar is used in preserving foods,

although just for fruit.

Cooking oil & vegetable shortening - Necessary for baking and cooking. Fats can be hard to

come up with in a survival situation, so stock plenty.

Baking essentials - Baking powder, baking soda and yeast will be needed for baking breads

and other goods. Remember, you'll be baking much more than you're used to, so you'll use

much more than what you normally would.

Final Ingredients:

Coffee - This might be your most important survival food, especially if you have family

members that are not human until they've had their second cup. It could help prevent many

an argument.

Hard candies - Useful for extra energy, a pick me up and a reward for kids. Most candies

won't keep well over a long period of time, but hard candies will, if moisture is kept away

from them.

That list may seem rather extensive, but it leaves a lot of things out that we're used to eating. If

there's something your family wants, that I've left off the list, see if you can manage to package it in

some way that allows you to store it for a prolonged period of time. The problem is, those things

probably won't keep for an extended period of time, no matter what we do to try and preserve

them.

One way around this problem is to rotate food stocks. If there's something your family may want to

eat, which won't stay good for 20 years, no matter how you package it, but will last a year, then buy

a year's worth. Then, every time you go grocery shopping, buy some of that item, put it in the back

of your stock and grab an equal amount off the front. That way, you get to use it as part of your

survival stock, because your stock of it never goes bad.

Packaging Food for Long-Term Storage

Pretty much all the food you buy in the supermarket is only packaged for short-term storage. The

manufacturers assume that you are going to use their products within a few months, and package

them accordingly. Unfortunately, that means that those same food products won't last long enough

when stockpiled for a long-term survival situation.

Even foods which are vacuum sealed in plastic won't last for a long period of time, as air can actually

migrate through most plastics, albeit slowly. We had bought a bunch of summer sausage on sale one

year after Christmas, expecting to put it in our survival stockpile for meat. It lasted for about two

years and then it went bad, even though the summer sausage was preserved meat.

The one exception to this is canned goods. Regardless of what the expiration date says on canned

goods, they will last 20 years or more. So, if you buy canned goods or can your own food, you have

food that you can store more or less indefinitely. The one exception is if it canned in a plastic jar. We

find that apple sauce canned in plastic jars, is only good for about a year. So, like some other foods,

we are forced to rotate our stock of apple sauce.

Okay, so canning will take care of all wet foods, but that's it; you really can't can dry foods. Although

there is a "dry canning" method that is done in the oven, rather than in a canning pot, there isn't

much history with it, so nobody is sure yet whether it will store foods for a long period of time,

without the risk of them going bad.

Nevertheless, there is a method of packaging dry foods which has been developed, which will store

them for a prolonged period of time. For most dry foods, you can count on them lasting 20 years, if

you follow this method. You will need:

Food grade five gallon buckets

Six gallon aluminized Mylar storage bags

Hair straightener or clothes iron

Canister vacuum cleaner or an upright with a removable hose

Oxygen absorbers

Rubber mallet

Permanent magic marker

As you can tell from the short list of supplies, this isn't a complicated method to use. The basic idea

is to vacuum pack the food in the aluminized Mylar bags and seal them in the buckets. Oxygen

absorbers are added inside the bag, with the food, to draw out the oxygen, so that nothing can live

in the bag. The five gallon bucket is strong enough that insects and rodents can't chew through it.

Aluminized Mylar is about the most air-proof plastic bag that you can get. This is the same material

that the fancy Mylar balloons with printing on them are made out of. Whereas helium will pass

through the walls of a normal balloon within a day, it stays in the Mylar balloons for several weeks.

Oxygen molecules are much larger than helium ones are, so if they hold helium in that well, you can

imagine how well they hold oxygen out.

Oxygen absorbers, as well as the aluminized Mylar bags can be purchased from a number of online

suppliers. You can buy food grade plastic buckets from your local building materials center. They are

white, to distinguish them from those that aren't safe for storing food.

You have to be careful working with oxygen absorbers, as they are very fast acting. They are

packaged with an indicator in the package. This indicator, which is a colored tablet, changes color

when enough oxygen has seeped into the package to render the oxygen absorbers useless.

Because they are fast acting, you can't just leave a package of oxygen absorbers open on the table,

while you are working with them. You literally have to work as fast as you can, so that they don't just

absorb the oxygen out of the air and become saturated. Ideally, you should have one person on your

packaging team whose whole job is to work with the oxygen absorbers, so that they can put them in

the buckets and reseal the package while waiting until the next one is needed.

Since we're talking about storing food in five gallon buckets, we're obviously talking about storing it

in bulk. You'll want to have plenty of food to work with, before we start this project. I typically try to

do ten or more five gallon buckets at a time, and only order the oxygen absorbers I need for those

buckets.

1. Start by opening the aluminized Mylar bags and putting them inside the buckets. Fill them

with food, to about one inch below the top edge of the bucket. Fill all the buckets before

going on to sealing them.

2. You might want to mark the sides of the buckets at this time, showing their contents. Don't

wait, or you'll probably have trouble remembering what's in each of the buckets.

3. With the hair straightener or clothes iron, heat seal the top of the bags, leaving a hole open

that's just big enough for the vacuum cleaner hose to fit into. Although there will be about

ten inches of material sticking up over the top of the bucket, you only need to seal a strip of

about two inches. Leave the rest so that you can reseal the bag, once you remove some of

the content.

4. Put an oxygen absorber in each bag. The person who handles the oxygen absorber should

reseal the bag of oxygen absorbers immediately. Please note that from this point until you

have the bag sealed, you need to work as fast as possible.

5. Put the end of the vacuum cleaner hose into the opening left in the top of the bag and suck

out as much air as possible. You don't want to push the hose down in far enough that it

sucks out some of the food, just enough to get past the seal.

6. Once as much air as possible is sucked out of the bag, pull the hose out of the bag. Using the

hair straightener or clothes iron, heat seal the opening, so that the whole bag is sealed.

7. Breathe a sigh of relief that you did that fast enough.

8. Fold the top of the bag down into the bucket and put the lid on. Use the rubber mallet to

drive the lid down onto the rim of the bucket. You will be able to hear the difference when

the rim of the bucket encounters the rubber seal on the lid.

There is an actual lid removal tool available for removing the lids off of five gallon buckets. While not

absolutely necessary, using it is much easier on your hands, than removing the sealed lids without it.

You may want to consider buying one of these tools.

Your finished buckets of food need to be identified, if you haven't already done so. It is a good idea

to mark them on several sides, as well as the top, so that you can see what's in it no matter what

angle you're looking at it.

Store your sealed food in a cool, dry place. Basements are ideal, as they are usually cool and unless

you have a flood, they should remain dry. Of course, food stored in this manner will float if your

basement floods, so you won't lose it. Keep an inventory of what food you have stored, as well as

where you have it stored, so that you can find it easily in the midst of a disaster.

A Bit More on Food Preservation Techniques

The method we just talked about works fine for dry foods, such as grains, dried beans and pasta, but

you can't use it for all your foods. You will actually need to use a combination of different storage

methods, to be able to stockpile all the foods you need.

Salt and Sugar, the Magical Preservatives

Before we get into talking about specific food storage techniques, I want to take a moment to talk

about salt and to a lesser extent sugar. These are nature's preservatives and when used properly,

will protect just about any food from the danger of bacterial eating it and making it unfit for human

consumption.

The secret that makes salt work for preserving food is something called osmosis. When salt is

concentrated in an area, it causes water to pass across membranes in order to equalize the salt level.

Since all living matter is made out of cells, which are surrounded by cell membranes, that means that

the salt draws the moisture out of the food.

This is a key component of many methods of food preservation. Salt fish, for example, is packed in

salt to dry it. Once the salt has drawn most of the moisture out of the fish, it is sun dried to finish the

process. By then, the fish has absorbed enough salt that bacteria can't survive on or in it.

When bacteria come into contact with salt or with food which has been preserved with salt, the salt

does the same thing to the water in the bacteria cells that it does to the meat cells, drawing the

water out. Once enough water is drawn out of the bacteria, the bacteria dies. So, any type of food

preserved with salt will kill bacteria, preventing the bacterial from making the food spoil.

The exact same thing that happens with salt also happens with sugar. That's why some types of

dried fruit seem to be encrusted in sugar. The sugar is protecting the fruit from bacteria, killing any

that come into contact with it. Although the natural sugar in the fruit isn't enough to kill the

bacteria, the added sugar is.

Please note that the salt and sugar will only protect the food from bacteria, not from insects and

rodents, although salt will prevent some insects, such as ants, from eating foods. In addition to the

preservation techniques used, proper packaging to protect from insects and rodents is required.

Dehydrating Food

Many types of foods can be preserved by dehydrating them. Meats, fish, fruit, vegetables and even

herbs can be dehydrated to preserve them. In the case of meats, fish and fruit, salt or sugar is used

in the dehydration process, in order to protect the dried food from bacteria.

Dehydration is an old food storage technique, old enough that we really aren't sure when it started.

The oldest known drying of meat (actually fish) goes back over 500 years in northern Europe.

Nobody knows when the American Indians started making Jerky, but it was long before the white

man ever stepped foot upon the New World. Dried grains and other foods have been found in tombs

over 2,000 years old.

Foods can be air or sun dried, but you'll do better in buying a dehydrator or making a solar

dehydrator. Either one will work about the same. The main difference is where the energy for the

heat is coming from.

If you buy an electric dehydrator, spend the extra money for a quality one. The main things you need

to look for are adjustable temperature and a blower fan. These will help ensure that the food you

are dehydrating is warmed evenly, so that it dries evenly.

My wife and I used a cheap dehydrator for years that didn't have a temperature control or a blower

fan. It merely had a heating coil in the bottom, with several round trays that stacked above it. While

that dehydrator worked, we had to rotate the trays through the stack during the day, in order to get

the drying action even. When we finally broke down and bought an Excalibur dehydrator, we found

that not only could we dehydrate foods faster, but that it came out better.

Before dehydrating anything, check a recipe book for dehydrating. Some foods will need special

treatment, before drying. Fruits, vegetables and herbs can usually be dried by simply cutting them

and arranging them on the trays in the dehydrator. Turn it on and allow the heat to wash over the

food for the recommended time, until the food is finished drying.

Meats and fish are more complicated to dehydrate than fruits and vegetables, but not real bad. The

first stage in the process is to trim off all fat, as the fat can turn rancid. Once that is done, you want

to marinate the meat or use a rub on it. In either case, you are applying a combination of salt and

flavorings to the meat, as part of the preparation process. Obviously, the salt is the more important

part of this step. Make sure that if you use a rub or marinate that you do so consistently throughout

the whole batch of meat. You'll need to turn the meat several times as it marinates, in order to

ensure that all surfaces come into contact with the liquid.

Meat that does not receive enough salt during the marinating or rub stage will not last, even if it is

dried properly. The meat needs the presence of the salt, to kill any bacteria that come into contact

with it.

Dehydrated meats can be kept for a fairly long time, if they are stored properly. The method

mentioned for storing dried foods can also be used for storing meats, once they have been

dehydrated. They won't last as long as other foods, but they can last a couple of years.

The easiest way to store dehydrated meats for a long period of time is to freeze them. Frozen dried

meats will store indefinitely. Then, once a disaster happens and power is lost, the will still last for a

couple of years, based purely upon the drying process of turning them into jerky. Just make sure

they are stored in airtight containers when removed from the freezer.

Canning Food

Canning is the proven method of storing all wet foods, especially fruits and vegetables. You can use

canning to preserve meats as well, but they must be canned at a higher temperature than fruits and

vegetables. So to can meats, a pressure canner is required.

The idea of canning is to create an environment in which anything that can damage the food is killed

and seal the food into that environment. Bacteria and protozoa die at 158 degrees Fahrenheit, so

raising the temperature of the food above 158 degrees will eliminate any bacteria and protozoa in it.

At the same time, that will kill insects, insect larva and insect eggs, ensuring that they can't grow in

the food. The food is canned in a glass jar with a metal lid, so it is protected from any rodents or

insects eating their way through the container and the food is underwater, preventing it from

oxidizing. Finally, the jar is vacuum sealed to maintain that safe environment.

Canning is so well established that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has done extensive

experimentation on it and developed extensive data for use in developing recipes. Essentially all

canning recipes are based upon that experimentation, ensuring that all canning recipes are safe.

The most important part of canning, besides ensuring that everything is clean, is heating the jars of

food being canned. It isn't enough that the water bath reach 160 degrees, the contents of the cans

must reach that temperature. To ensure that, the jars are left in the hot bath for a minimum of 20

minutes. This allows the heat from the water bath to heat the contents. When the jars cool, the lids

are naturally vacuum sealed on.

To can meats, a higher temperature is used to ensure killing any bacteria or other pathogens in the

meat. Since water boils at 212oF and won't rise above this temperature, a pressure canner is used.

By putting the contents under pressure, the water actually boils at a higher temperature. As long as

you follow the directions in the recipe, the canned meat will be safe.

Pickling is used in conjunction with canning at times. In pickling, the food is allowed to sit in an acidic

bath, along with herbs. For acid, vinegar is most commonly used. The acid and herbs affect the flavor

of the food, changing it. "Dill pickles" as we know them, are actually pickled cucumbers. Some

melons can be pickled as well as meat. Corned Beef is actually pickled beef.

Smoking Meats

Smoking can be used to preserve meats, cheeses, poultry and fish. Today, most smoking is cold

smoking, used only to flavor the meat; however, in times past, they would hot smoke, preserving the

meat as well as flavoring it.

Let me be clear here, cold smoking will not preserve meat, only hot smoking will. It is important to

understand this difference. Not only does the meat have to be hot smoked, but it also has to be

marinated in brine first, so that it is saturated with salt, before it is smoked. Otherwise, it will not

keep. This process of soaking the meat in brine is called "curing" it.

The first step in smoking meat is always to marinate it in brine for at least 24 hours. Some recipes

actually require injecting brine into the meat as well, because soaking it in brine only gets the outer

layer of the meat saturated with salt. For smoked and cured meats (cold cuts) salt is mixed

throughout the cut up meat, before it is stuffed into the casing, to ensure that bacteria can't survive,

even without the smoking.

Like with dehydrating meats, it is necessary to remove all the fat from meats that are going to be

smoked in most cases. There are exceptions, such as bacon, ham and some cured meats; but in most

cases if the fat is left on the meat, it can become rancid. Smoked fat will not become rancid, so

leaving it in place is no problem, if the fat is properly smoked.

The first stage of the smoking process is always cold smoking. This is accomplished at a temperature

of 68 to 86oF (20 to 30oC). In this stage, the smoke flavor is imparted into the meat. Proteins on the

surface of the meat react with the smoke, forming a skin of pure protein, which is impervious to

bacteria. This cold smoking stage takes about an hour to an hour and a half per pound of meat in

each chunk (not total meat weight); it will vary slightly, depending upon the type of meat being

smoked.

Once the meat is cold smoked the temperature is raised for the hot smoking portion of the process.

Hot smoking occurs at 200 to 225oF. This is hot enough to actually cook the meat, as well as kill any

bacteria or other pathogens inside the meat.

The actual time for the hot smoking potion will depend upon the type of meat and the weight of the

chunks. It is necessary to raise the internal temperature of the meat to one high enough to cook the

meat to the center, killing the pathogens. You can't use a meat thermometer to check it either, as

puncturing the protein skin of the smoked meat will allow bacteria access to the meat inside.

Smoking is a slow-cooking process, like cooking in a crockpot. That explains why smoked meats are

so tender. The higher the internal temperature of the meat, the more tender it will be.

As with canning, there are a wide range of time-tested recipes for smoking meats. If you decide to

smoke your own meats, be sure to find a good recipe which has been used successfully before and is

in agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's guidelines. You can check for minimum

times and temperatures at the Dept. of Agriculture's website: www.foodsafety.gov.

Refrigeration, without Electrical Power

It's a good idea to assume that electrical power will be lost in any disaster situation. Of the

infrastructure we depend upon, the electrical grid is the most delicate and the most easily damaged.

So there's a very real chance that electrical power will not be available. One of the things that will

cause us to lose is our refrigeration. However, refrigeration existed long before electrical power in

homes did and we can go back to some of the methods that our forefathers used.

Granted, those methods weren't as good as modern electrical refrigeration. Nevertheless, they did

work. They allowed our ancestors to store fresh foods for longer than they would have been able to

if they just left the foods out, just as our refrigeration allows us to do.

Before electrical refrigeration became popular, most people in developed countries used ice boxes.

These insulated cabinets were powered by ice, making them essentially the furniture version of the

ice chests that we might take to the beach or on a picnic. Ice was harvested from lakes and rivers in

the wintertime and kept in ice houses. During the warmer parts of the year, that ice was delivered to

people for use in their ice boxes.

Unless you happen to have an ice house full of ice handy, that's not going to work for you and I. So,

we need to go back even farther in history, to the time when people didn't use ice boxes. During that

time, they would try to keep their fresh produce and dairy products underground, where it was

cooler. If they had a cave on their property, they would use that for cold storage, if not, they might

use a well.

The Root Cellar

People who didn't have a conveniently located cave on their property could still have natural

refrigeration by digging a root cellar. This is nothing more than a man-made cave, intended for use in

storing produce, so that it lasts longer.

The root cellar works under a very simple principle of thermodynamics. That is, that heat rises and

cold goes down. That means that anything underground is going to be cooler than things that are

above ground, unless it is so far underground that it reaches a geothermal layer; not a problem with

a root cellar.

The root cellar would be cooled by the cooler night air, the coolest of which would go down into the

cellar, following the laws of physics. Once there it was trapped and would stay. When the sun arose

and heated the ground around the root cellar, the ground itself acted as an insulator, helping to

keep the cellar cool. Even if the door of the cellar was opened, the cooler air would stay in the root

cellar, keeping the food stored there cool.

Root cellars still work for those who want to invest the effort in making one. A simple root cellar can

be made by digging a hole in the ground and putting a plastic storage bin in it. Produce can be put in

the bin and the bin covered with straw to act as an insulator. A piece of plywood or an old door can

be placed above it, to protect the root cellar from scavenging animals.

A variation of this is to use an old refrigerator, burying it, laying on its back, with the door facing up.

That gives you an insulated root cellar, which is protected from bugs and rodents getting into it and

with an insulated door at ground level.

While this sort of simple root cellar will work, it doesn't provide a lot of room for storing food.

Digging an actual root cellar into the ground would be better, providing more space for more

produce. If you are going to grow a vegetable garden to supplement the food that you are

stockpiling, a good root cellar would be a wise investment.

A typical root cellar is somewhere between six foot and ten foot square. It can either be dug into the

ground, or if you live in a hilly area, you could find a spot where you could build it into the side of the

hill. Remember, the lower down it is, the cooler it will stay.

You will need to shore up the walls of the root cellar with something to give it strength. Cement

blocks are the least expensive way of doing this. Of course, a lot depends upon how much you want

to spend on your root cellar. To build a good one, dig a hole large enough for the cellar and pour a

cement floor. Build the walls out of cement blocks and then pour a cement roof. Cover it all over

with dirt, leaving an access for the stairway.

If you build a root cellar by digging a hole in the ground, you'll need some way of pumping water out

of it. Water tends to fill holes in the ground and will destroy your produce if not pumped out. It

would actually be better to have a layer of gravel under the floor slab and pump the water out of it,

rather than allowing the water into the root cellar itself. However, a root cellar built into the side of

a hill won't have a problem with this, as the water will flow down the hill.

Designs of root cellars can vary greatly, depending upon the room available. Another easy way to

make a root cellar is to close off a corner of your basement, turning it into one. You'll need to

provide access for the cool night air to make it inside the root cellar from outside, as well as

insulation from any indoor heating that might reach your basement.

The Zeer Pot

A simple refrigerator can be made that uses evaporation for cooling. These have been in use in

Africa for centuries and are extremely easy to make. On an average, they will keep produce fresh for

three to four times longer than if the same produce is left out on a table, where it is exposed to the

ambient temperature.

To make a zeer pot, all that's needed is two unglazed ceramic pots, with one being sufficiently larger

than the other that the smaller can nest inside the larger. The space between the two pots is filled

with sand, leaving the top of the inner pot level with the top of the outer pot. The sand should stop

about a half inch to an inch below the level of the two pots rims. If either of the pots have holes in

the bottom, as is common for flower pots, the holes need to be plugged.

The pots can be of any size, just as long as they will nest together. Typically, pots are used which

allow for a layer of sand between them of one to two inches. Any more is unnecessary. A zeer pot

will keep the produce inside 20 to 30 degrees cooler than the ambient temperature.

To use the zeer pot to keep food cool, water is poured into the

sand, filling it entirely. This water will seep out through the outer

pot, making the clay wet. The water will then evaporate off the

outer surface of the pot, absorbing heat from the pot to do so. This will drop the temperature of the

pot and its contents, cooling whatever food is placed within it. This is especially effective if there is a

breeze blowing.

It is necessary to add water to the sand regularly, so as to keep the sand saturated in water. If it

dries, the pot stops cooling. Covering the top of the pot with a thick wet cloth, such as a washcloth,

helps it to stay cool, blocking the hot air from getting to the produce inside the pot.

There is actually a company in India which has taken this idea a step further, making small

refrigerators that work by evaporation. The space between the inner and outer wall of the

refrigerator does not have sand in it, but is left open, to be filled with clean drinking water. That way,

the refrigerator provides not only a means of keeping produce cool, but is also a water cooler,

providing the family with chilled water to drink.

Alternate Cooking Methods when the Grid is Down

Not only will we lose refrigeration when the electrical grid goes down, but also our normal means of

cooking. People who have a gas range in their kitchen may be able to cook for a while, until the

pressure in the gas lines drops, but people with electric ranges won't be able to cook at all... at least,

not in the same way they are used to.

Cooking is essential, as many of the foods we eat are not in an edible form unless they are cooked. In

addition, cooking kills microscopic pathogens that might be in the food. Food poisoning comes about

when people eat food that has not been properly cooked, leaving alive dangerous pathogens.

Although our stove may be down due to a loss of electricity, that doesn't mean that we are without

any way of cooking. Most American households have a barbecue grille, which makes an excellent

emergency stove when the power is out. You can use pots and pans on a grille, just like you can on a

stove, although the open fire may damage the finish on the outside of the pots, if they have an

enameled finish.

The problem with using a barbecue grille is that of fuel. Most people don't stockpile a large amount

of charcoal in their homes, as it takes up a lot of room and must be protected from getting wet.

Likewise, few people have more than one canister of propane for a propane grille. However, both

propane and charcoal grilles can also be used for cooking with wood. Cooking with wood may

damage the gas injector element in a propane grille, but these can be removed and replaced.

Wood - the Easiest Option

The easiest long-term cooking option is to cook on wood. As a fuel, wood is plentiful in most parts of

the country, is relatively easy to harvest and is sustainable. If you are going to be heating your home

with wood, cooking with wood is a logical step to take. There are several ways of going about

cooking with wood:

Fireplace - If you are heating your home with a fireplace, then it makes sense to also use the

fireplace for cooking your food, as this eliminates the need for a separate cooking fire. In

olden times, they usually had larger fireplaces, so that they had room for cooking.

Nevertheless, you can still cook in most modern fireplaces. Adding a crane to the side of the

fireplace, provides a hook for you to hang a pot on for cooking.

Wood-burning stove - In olden times, when people had a wood-burning stove, they cooked

on it as well. The stove had a flat top, with actual burners set into it. That allowed access to

the inside from the top, as well as from the door in the side. Modern wood burning stove are

more intended for use as a heater and may not work as well for cooking. If the top of the

stove is insulated, the top may not get hot enough for cooking.

Of course, there are wood-burning cooking stoves that are still available on the market, but

these are rather expensive. Unless you are building a home out in the country, where fuel is

a problem and you are likely to cook over wood, this might be too much of an expense to

consider.

Fire pit - The modern fire pit is a rebirth of the old fire pit that was used before fireplaces. It

is essentially a fireproof basin that you can place a fire in. Today they are usually used

outside on a patio or deck, but in ancient times they were placed in the middle of a room,

with a hole in the roof to act as a chimney.

You can buy commercially made fire pits that are made of metal or make your own out of

landscaping stones. If you make your own, you'll need a bed of gravel or cement first, to

keep the fire off the ground. Then, build a ring of stones to contain the fire. In this, it is much

like building a fire pit for camping in the woods. The pit should be at least 12" deep, to keep

the fire in. Buy a metal grille to put over the top so that you can cook on it.

Of course, with any means of cooking over wood, you'll need a goodly supply of firewood or charcoal

that you can use. In parts of the world where they still cook over wood, it is common to keep the fire

going all day, so that it doesn't need to be lit for the preparation of each meal.

Making Charcoal

It's fairly easy to make your own charcoal, if you prefer cooking over that. Actually, even when

cooking over wood, what is typically done is to allow the wood to burn down to coals and cook over

the hot coals. By making charcoal, you actually save time in the cooking process.

To make charcoal, you'll need a closed metal container. The decorated containers that are used for

selling flavored popcorn at Christmastime work well. Make a small hole in the center of the lid,

about 1/16" in diameter.

Fill the container with loosely packed chunks of wood and put the lid on it. Set it in a fire that you

have already burning and leave it there. The hydrocarbons from the wood will start passing through

the hole in the lid and will likely catch fire. This is good, as it gives you a gauge that you can use.

When the gases stop passing through the hole (the fire goes out) the charcoal should be ready.

Remove the container and open it to dump out the completed charcoal.

Another Cooking Option

Another very effective option for cooking during a time of crisis is to use a camp stove. Most of the

camp stoves today run off of propane, which brings us back to the same old problem of storing

enough fuel. Unless you're going to have a stockpile of little propane bottles, those stoves will only

last so long.

However, Coleman still makes what they call their "dual fuel" camp stove. This two-burner stove

model hasn't changed in 40 years or more. It's called dual fuel because it will burn either Coleman

fuel or unleaded gasoline. While gasoline may be hard to come by, it will probably be the easiest fuel

to find. You may even be able to siphon it out of abandoned vehicles.

This is the type of stove where you have to pump up the fuel tank, like on the old Coleman lanterns,

pressurizing the tank. While the pressure valve lasts for a long time, make sure that you have a spare

one or two, in case yours goes bad.

Baking without Electricity

Baking is usually harder to accomplish than frying or boiling. The major difference with baking is that

the oven heats the food on all sides, not just on the bottom. You can't readily do that on a camp

stove or barbecue grille. However, you can still bake quite well, with a couple of more primitive

types of ovens.

Clay oven - The clay oven looks like a clay dome with two openings in it, separated by a

shelf. The bottom opening is the firebox and the top one is the oven itself. There is usually

some sort of door for the oven, made out of wood, to help keep the heat in.

To make a clay oven, you start by making a mold of the firebox. Build up clay or clay and

brick to surround the mold, with the exception of the door. Make sure you use good quality

clay and that you get the air bubbles out of it. If air bubbles are left in it, they may cause the

oven to break. You also want to make sure that you use firebrick, rather than regular bricks.

Do the same for the shelf, trying to keep it thin (2" to 4" maximum). Once that is fairly hard,

make another mold for the oven itself, on the shelf. Then, you can add the clay layer,

packing three to four inches of it all around the mold, but leaving the doorway open. When

done the whole clay oven needs to be left to dry thoroughly.

The dirt mold can be scooped out of the finished and dry oven. Check to make sure that the

inside is dry as well. If it is not totally dried, allow it to dry thoroughly before lighting a fire in

it. You'll need to fire the clay, at least somewhat, by lighting a fire in it and allowing it to

bake the oven. This won't be perfect, as you don't have a kiln, but it will have to do.

To use the clay oven, start a fire in both the bottom and the oven, allowing the fire in the top

oven to heat up the oven. Once the oven is heated well and the bottom fire is burning well,

the fire can be removed from the top oven and added to the firebox. By preheating the oven

in this manner, the fire will only have to keep the oven warm, not have to heat it.

Dutch Oven - The Dutch oven is what was used for baking in the home during the Colonial

and Pioneering eras of our country, leaving the clay oven for use by commercial bakeries.

This type of Dutch oven was a bit different than what most look like today. The modern

iteration of the Dutch oven is nothing more than a five to seven quart pot. But the old

version was made of cast iron, had a lip around the lid and feet cast to the bottom so that it

could stand in the coals.

You can still buy this type of Dutch oven today, although they are not common. They are

available in various sizes, up to about seven or eight quarts. Not only are they great as an

oven, but they can also be used as a soup or stew pot. It's a good idea to have one on hand,

for use whenever cooking over a fire.

To use this type of Dutch oven, one puts the dough inside the oven and sets it in the coals of

the fire, being sure to keep it level. The top is put on it and more coals are shoveled onto the

top, making it so that there is heat both above and below the food being cooked.

Cooking with the Power of the Sun

Another totally different way of cooking in a grid-down situation is by using the power of the sun. If

you were anything like I was as a kid, you enjoyed using a magnifying glass to start fires and hassle

ants. Well, that same power that we used back then for not such great purposes, can easily be

harnessed for cooking real food, when needed.

The key to cooking with solar power is to have a lot of sunlight available. If you live in an area where

you have a lot of rainy and overcast days, you're probably not going to be able to cook with solar

power. In addition to a lot of sunshine, all that's needed is some way of focusing the sun's beams on

your cooking pot, so that it will heat up enough to cook the food inside.

There are three basic types of solar cookers which you can use. Two of them are reflective, reflecting

the sun's light onto the cooking pot, thereby increasing its intensity. The third uses a large

magnifying glass to focus the sun's beams. This third one can actually get hot enough to melt some

soft metals.

The two reflective cookers are also able to be purchased commercially if you desire. However, they

are simple enough to build, that you may want to make your own and save that money for

something else.

As the sun moves throughout the day, you will need to adjust the position of your cooker every once

in a while. Otherwise, the focal point for the sunlight will move off of your pot and it will not heat.

Check it every 30 minutes throughout the cooking cycle and adjust as necessary. Using a black

colored pot, such as cast iron, will increase the absorption of the light and its subsequent conversion

to heat.

Solar Box Oven

The solar box oven is the simplest solar cooker you can build. It consists of a cardboard box and

some aluminum foil. The foil, when glued to the inside of the box and to the box flaps, acts as a

reflector, focusing the sun's rays into the box. Adding larger flaps or additional flaps to the box can

increase the amount of sunlight, thereby increasing the efficiency of the cooker.

To make the solar box oven, start out with a box which is big enough to put your cooking pot in, with

ample space left over. This extra space will help ensure that the light can reflect inside the box. Glue

aluminum foil, shiny side up, onto the inside of the box and the box flaps. It is important to have as

smooth a finish as possible, without wrinkling the foil. This is easier to do if you deconstruct the box,

separating the seam where it is glued together.

Once the box is coated with aluminum foil, it can be reconstructed simply enough by using a hot

melt glue gun to reattach the seam that you had taken apart.

To use the solar box oven, the box is placed, facing into the sun. That means having to prop up the

edge of the box, so that it is pointed directly towards the sun. Setting the front edge on a brick or

rock can accomplish this easily. Place the pot inside, centered in the box and propped up so that it is

level and so that the reflected sunlight can hit it. The box flaps will need to be held in place as well,

so that they can point the sunlight into the box. This can easily be done with sticks or dowel rods.

This type of solar oven is a slow cooker, much like cooking with a Crockpot. It will take several hours

to cook whatever you put in it, so be sure to check it regularly. Putting the pot in an oven roasting

bag can help keep the heat in and make the food cook faster.

Parabolic Solar Oven

The parabolic solar oven improves the operation of the simple box oven that we just looked at, by

increasing the amount of sunlight that is directed to the pot where the food is located. It is also

easier to adjust as the sun moves across the sky, as the reflective surface is one continuous piece,

rather than several pieces. For this reason, I prefer it.

To make your own parabolic solar oven, you need a parabolic television antenna. Not one of the

modern ones that we use, which are less than two feet across; you need one of the old ones that

were about six feet across. The larger size provides a lot of reflective area for the sun.

The way that a parabolic antenna works, is that the parabolic dish (the curved dish) is a reflector for

radio waves. The actual antenna is a small device that sits in front of the antenna, usually on a post

that places it in the exact focal point of the antenna. Any and all radio waves that hit the reflector

are sent to the antenna for capture.

The position of the antenna portion is important, as that is the place where you want to put your

cooking pot. It has to be positioned there, as that is the focal point of the antenna. Just as the radio

waves are reflected to that point, so will the sun's rays be focused to that point, where they will be

able to cook your food.

Like with the simple box oven, we're going to make the parabolic cooker reflect the sun's rays by

using aluminum foil. Since the surface is curved, the foil needs to be applied in small pieces, two to

three inches square, or it will wrinkle as it is being applied. Cover the entire inside surface of the

parabolic reflector with the aluminum foil, gluing it shiny side out. The holder for the antenna can be

converted to a holder for the pot, putting it at the focal point.

Fresnel Solar Cooker

A Fresnel lens is a plastic sheet magnifier. You've probably seen them. You can buy them in office

supply stores and dollar stores. They look like a sheet of clear plastic, with circular ridges molded

onto the backside. People who have trouble reading the phone book use them to magnify the small

lettering.

Those smaller Fresnel lenses aren't big enough to make a cooker out of, but the ones used in the

old-style big screen televisions are. Before they came out with our modern, flat television sets, a big

screen television took up the entire corner of a living room and was housed in a large cabinet. Like

any other CRT (cathode-ray tube) they projected the image onto the back of the screen. In order to

do this, they had a large Fresnel lens mounted behind the screen.

You can scavenge these Fresnel lenses out of these old big screen televisions. Generally speaking,

when people want to dispose of them, they'll put them on the curb with a "Free" sign on them. Take

it home, take the screen apart and find the Fresnel lens hidden behind it.

You can also buy these scavenged lenses on eBay at times. Obviously, the larger they are, the better.

The one I have built up in the picture is about two feet by three feet, although you can get them

larger. I recently harvested one that was 30 inches by 40 inches.

The Fresnel lens needs to be mounted into a frame and then the frame mounted into a stand. It is

important that the angle of the frame be adjustable in the stand, so that the sun's rays can be

properly focused on the food to be cooked. You also need some sort of a stand for the pot or pan of

food, so that it can be held in the ideal position.

The focal point will be about two feet from the lens. To check the focal point, direct the lens at the

sun and put a piece of cardboard behind it, moving it until the sun's light is making as small a spot as

possible. Measure the distance between the cardboard and the lens and you'll know the focal

length. If you don't work quickly, you'll need to be ready to put out a fire, as the cardboard will catch

on fire.

To use the Fresnel solar cooker, set the lens in its frame up, pointing directly at the sun. Then place

the pot of food to be cooked on the stand, directly in the focal point of the lens. Please note that this

cooker will work much faster than the others, so you'll need to check the food regularly. I've seen a

cooker of this type fry an egg in less than a minute. I've also seen it melt pennies in about two

minutes. So, it will generate quite a bit of heat.