Preparedness for when

vanoonoo

my husband and I are both (historically) too scared to try a pressure cooker. apart from scalding boobs as RAS mentions above - what are the dangers with the modern ones? I am fairly sure I used one at school to make jam and therefore it really cant be that dangerous! but something about them terrifies me - are they pretty fail safe? am I worrying with no real reason? A friend up the way in fife made me a fantastic pea and ham soup in hers one afternoon - I would love to be able to do that!

Popperwell

As said elsewhere I have seen an electric PC...
Would I gain from having a PC or is it not really any use being single? And doing small meals?

After all I have a slow cooker, combi microwave, ordinary microwave, George Foreman Grill, halogen oven and hobs too. Surely, what I would do in a PC is possible in the slow cooker?

prepareathome

I have personally never liked food cooked in pc so got rid of mine long,long ago, but good point about fuel saving so might think about having one for emergencies as food was always edible just not quite to my taste, but could live with that.

GreyQueen

vanoonoo wrote: »

my husband and I are both (historically) too scared to try a pressure cooker. apart from scalding boobs as RAS mentions above - what are the dangers with the modern ones? I am fairly sure I used one at school to make jam and therefore it really cant be that dangerous! but something about them terrifies me - are they pretty fail safe? am I worrying with no real reason? A friend up the way in fife made me a fantastic pea and ham soup in hers one afternoon - I would love to be able to do that!

I saw one explode at Mum's when I was at an impressionable age (the weights left quite a ding in the ceiling) and have been terrified of them ever since. Can't even be in the same room as one.

Chick-chick-chicken, that's me. But some people swear by them.

Maryb, you raise very sound points. Rationing ensured that many people who had been malnourished prior to the war had just-about-adequate nutrition and those who'd been overeating would have had to cut down, and this equalised some of the health inequalities. But malnourishment is cumulative over the generations and poor maternal nourishment, for example, will be impacting on the health of children and grandchildren. I've often wondered at the different genetic hand dealt to those whose ancestors had plenty of good food, as opposed to those who had much less, and that of poor quality.

My mother was a destitute and neglected child in the bombed out East End of London when she was finally taken into care aged 7. She'd been eating stuff from under stones on the bomb sites, not out of childish curiousity, but because she wasn't being fed at home. The malnutrition sores on her legs took nearly two years to heal. We have the same build, but I'm 5 inches taller and I wonder how much of that difference is due to better nutrition.

The PTB only started concerning themselves about the poor physical conditon of the working classes when they wanted the men to fight in WW1 and found a staggering amount of them were too weak and stunted with malnutrition to serve. This is where school meals originated. Women and children were largely subsisting on bread and marg.

I can recall reading about the deperate plight of people post WW2, how everyone was on the uppers and people were so depleted. The winter of '47 was vicious, the country almost devoid of coal and people were in grave danger and much misery. And wasn't there a flu pandemic at that same time? And there was a pandemic in 1918 as well.

It's not hard to see how a stressed and hungry population will fall prey to diseases, and take longer to recover.

maryb

History doesn't repeat itself but having lived through interesting times in the 1970s does influence my thinking about what form preps should take. I don't think you could go wrong being prepared for cold weather and power cuts and shortages in the shops (whatever form the zombie apocalypse actually takes:rotfl:)

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

History doesn't repeat itself but having lived through interesting times in the 1970s does influence my thinking about what form preps should take. I don't think you could go wrong being prepared for cold weather and power cuts and shortages in the shops (whatever form the zombie apocalypse actually takes:rotfl:)

:T Here, here! I was a child in the early 1970s and thoroughly enjoyed the powercuts. Can still recall bouncing into the kitchen one evening when Mum was trying to cook a meal for 4 on a tiny paraffin stove by candlelight and crowing Isn't this Great?!

It's a wonder she didn't marmalise me.

I was older when the Winter of Discontent came around and can recall the TV images of rubbish piled in the streets of some cities, uncollected for weeks, and the reports of dead people being stacked unburied as the gravediggers were on strike. Not so amusing when you're an adult or a near-adult.

I have acceptable preps; home contents insurance and a fire extinguisher and a smoke detector. And I have some less-conventional stuff, too. Really hope not to be needing much of the latter but you never can tell.

chirpychick

I have been trying to catch up on this thread for days and I still haven't quite managed it.
Has it been covered about harsh winter with no gas and electricity?
Just wondered if it has if people could point me in that direction. If it hasn't I'd be interested to know how people would live for 3 months without.

maryb

this is quite interesting - I always find Sharon Astyk a good read
http://sharonastyk.com/2008/08/12/how-not-to-freeze-life-without-heat/

Softstuff

I thought of something else to mention last night too, if you're still interested, and that was the house itself. Most people imagine some sort of idyllic farmhouse in provence kind of job, but most of them are far from it.

The house had been built by the father of the family when he was younger, and he wasn't much of a builder! The main part consisted of 2 rooms, enclosed. The first of these was a lounge in the day, and bedroom for the male kids at night. Though they were grown at the point I was there, there had been 3 of them. The second room was a bedroom which during the day also housed the thin mattresses and blankets from the lounge. This was for the Mum and Dad and also the female child. The kitchen was semi-enclosed, the dining area/area where food would be prepped had a roof but no walls. Each room was about 3m x 3m or smaller.

All of this was raised up and beneath was open. A small sort of shed was the Grandmothers quarters, though in the day she'd be in with everyone else. The toilet was outdoors. Washing would be done in a bowl, showering with a jug! When the washer arrived that was kept outside too.

They didn't own much land at all. There was no growing of food done at home, there just wasn't enough space. So they rented a piece of land about a 20 minute walk away and went there to do the food growing. It was a desirable plot because it had a stream running through it for water. Drinking water was obtained from a mountain spring in reasonable quantities (far from daily).

Phew! I'm at it again. Do tell me to stop.

nuatha

Softstuff wrote: »

...

Phew! I'm at it again. Do tell me to stop.

I'd far rather you continued, its good to see you posting again and I'm particularly enjoying these insights.