Modern civilization has agriculture as its foundation. The nomadic lifestyle of hunter-gathering gave way to settling down and growing food on the land, opening the possibility of permanent dwellings, real estate ownership, a lot of extra time to think and invent stuff, and so many other breakthroughs that led us to where we are now.
Considering how relatively short a time it has been since humanity has gained dominion over the earth (a mere bat of the eyelash, given how old the planet is), it still surprises me how much humanity has achieved, markedly so in the recent five hundred or so years that contained the Renaissance, the Industrial Age, the Atomic Age, and now, the Age of Information.
Contrast that with the collective disappointment of all of us who are witnessing a decline in our world today, how the value of fertile land, a human life, clean water, and healthy food have taken a backseat to the gadgets and gizmos we intended for the improvement of the human condition, and not to supercede it in priority.
At the risk of sounding alarmist and reeking of doomspeak, I think we have quite a ways to start r (Read More....)
Water purifiers are common kitchen devices used to remove traces of chemicals and contaminants from tap water. Most people agree the systems make water taste cleaner. Typical purifiers are based on the use of activated carbon filtering systems. This type of water filter system can easily be created as an improvised homemade project – in other words, you can purify water yourself.
However, it should be noted that this type of DIY activated carbon water filtration process will not work to remove bacteriological contaminations. Therefore, if such problems exist, it will be necessary to also use other treatments, such as boiling dirty water or treating it with chlorine or iodine.
What’s hiding in your drinking water?
Things Needed for Homemade Water Purifier
-Large plastic bottle, sharp knife, dishwashing liquid, water, fine grid wire mesh strainer, wood charcoal, gravel, mortar and pestle, cotton balls, sand, fine wire or fishing line
How to Make Water Purifier
Step 1:
Thoroughly wash the plastic bottle with dishwashing liquid and water. Rinse well.
Step 2:Using the knife, cut off and discard the bottom part of the bottle. The bottom will actually be the top portion of the water purifier.
Here are 24 signs that you might be a closet prepper:
1. You've had a survival blog for 4 years and your spouse doesn't know.
2. Your family does not know there's a case of Dinty Moore stew hidden in the basement
3. You stand around the office water cooler laughing with your buddies about all those tin-foil hat wearers E but you have your own roll of Reynolds Wrap at home.
4. You're an anonymous poster on Infowars.
5. While you were supposed to be grocery shopping, you were checking out escape routes out of the city.
6. You've got a Swiss Army knife on your keychain that looks like a roach clip, instead of a roach clip that looks like a Swiss Army knife.
7. You've read The Turner Diaries with a flashlight under the bed covers, so now you think you know what's coming.
8. You download Steve Quayle's podcasts to your i-pod so you can listen to him on your way to work, alone.
9. You anonymously put your spouse on a mailing list for wilderness vacation pots.
10. You've got a browser bookmarks folder named "Recipes" that includes links to Survival Blog, Preparedness (Read More....)
Preserving fresh garden vegetables through home canning is a cost-effective way to have great tasting, nutritious food at your fingertips year around. If it grows, cultivated or wild, it can be preserved through canning and eaten later. With basic canning knowledge and a few favorite recipes, anyone can be successful at home canning.
Start Clean
No dirt or debris allowed, not even the tiniest particle or it could ruin an entire batch of home canned food. Sterilize all utensils in a boiling water bath: glass jars, lids, rings, funnels, ladles and any other utensil you’ll be using needs to be sterilized in boiling water for five minutes. Remove items from boiling water with sterilized tongs and place on clean, white towel to dry and cool. Cut out any bad spots in vegetables, wash vegetables thoroughly and set aside.
Vegetable Preparation
There are two types of vegetable preparation methods: cold pack and hot pack. Each type has it’s advantages and disadvantages, and simply comes down to which vegetable prep method you prefer.
In the cold pack method, vegetables are peeled, cut, etc. and placed inside the canning jars in their raw form and cooked during a long canning process. The hot pack method involves prepa (Read More....)
With the constant plague of obesity and diabetes in our society today, healthier alternatives to processed, fatty foods are a necessity. As generation after generation is raised on highly processed and unhealthy foods, obesity and diet related diseases have become the number one cause of death throughout the world. This is both astounding and worrisome.
What does this have to do with prepping and emergency food plans? Well, as any college nutrition class will tell you, the common table sugar that most products contain and most of us use today provides absolutely no nutritional value to our diet. Table sugar can create blood sugar and insulin instability. Molasses is actually the byproduct (waste) obtained during the processing process of sugar cane into table sugar. Interestingly, this molasses is actually a much healthier and natural sweetening option. Consider including unsulfured molasses in your emergency food supply over common table sugar—here's five reasons why:
Low Glycemic Index
As we all know, "traditional" sugar (meaning common table sugar) is high in glucose and carbohydrates. Molasses has a low glycemic index, allowing glucose and carbohydrates to be metabolized slowly. This slowed metabolic process demands less insulin production and stabilize (Read More....)
Southern Prepper offers a glimpse into their food storage plan. Their pantry is what EVERY Persons pantry should look like. He makes a very good point about 5 gallon buckets, being that if they are placed outside in the rain, they will be fine in an emergency compared to cardboard boxes. He mentions that the key to long term emergency food storage is to eat out of your long term storage of food to see how to best use the ingredient and what other items you might need to buy to make better and more tasty food. Are you impressed? We are!
Oxygen absorbers are essential when packing away emergency food on your own. When I first started collecting food for our emergency storage, I took all the food out of their packages and stored them in plastic bags, and then into bigger containers. While this works with dry food such as pasta, it doesn't work with other foods. One time, I must have spent a good 100 dollars on containers of nuts, and transferred them into a 5 gallon metal container. Thinking they would be safe from bugs, I didn't factor in the oxygen. Oxygen absorbers are made of the active ingredient of which is a powdered iron oxide, and are completely safe for food. While they are not edible, they are not toxic, because no harmful gases are created and in addition the oxygen does not remove the fresh smell and taste of the product. When used with proper packaging and sealing, the oxygen in the pa (Read More....)
By Stacey Thompson
