Preparedness for when

vanoonoo

morning all - I think I have just about recovered from the works christmas party last week got another busy week this week in terms of going out to play so I'll send my regards and apologies in advance for skimming!

keep safe x

pineapple

I think we have to be careful about distinguishing between short and long term/permanent absence of electricity. We've had brief power cuts here and it was indeed nice to sit in candle glow and listen to the wind up/battery/solar radio.
Plus I worked in Uganda when we had something called 'load shedding' - where the power went off on a scheduled basis for several hours each day - alternating between day time and evening. I ate a lot of tinned pilchards during that time! :eek:
If you didn't have a generator, you learned to build your life round it. It was a minor inconvenience. And I've visited remote places with no power at all - so oil lamps and cooking on fire or bought in gas. It was quite do-able and even romantic.
But the absence of electricity was either just periodic or localized. And in all cases we had access to goods, medicines, canned food etc manufactured with electricity and there was plenty of fuel for individuals or institutions with generators.
However, the ramifications of the failure of power across a large part (or even all) of the globe are unthinkable
Of course it wasn't that long ago, in historical terms, that people lived with no electricity at all. But they had the skills - learned over time - that we've lost over time. Plus these days the world and it's population is a very different place.
They also died a lot younger.

[Deleted User]

I did the vac packing yesterday and it only took 30 mins in total. I have an andrew james vac sealer and use special containers (when I can) and/or recycle the special vac bags
in containers: parsley, grapes, clementines, limes, big coxes, charlotte potatoes, a whole ballhead shredded cabbage
in recycled bags: 2 kg of almonds

The charlottes had just arrived in a waitrose (they price match!) order but obviously would not have lasted long, the cabbage went into 3 jars, the coxes were an experiment but I think it will easily take them to christmas now. I like using the containers as there is no more expense once bought but I am going to have to move the shelves in a fridge as some containers are tall, so all the rest of the bottled brined beans will join the other brined stuff under the stairs. Vac sealed dried goods are easy to store but the cold stuff will have to stay in the fridge. I got on a roll when I started and enjoyed the process but unfortunately don`t have room on a countertop

crossed posts with yours pineapple, yes I very much agree with you. No good contemplating vac sealing for starters but brining as food preservation is good without electricity and is very easy to learn. Yeasts can be obtained from fresh air so bread can be made and cooked flat for speed, on an open fire. Pressure cookers will come into their own if we have pulses to deal with. Luxuries like jams will be gone but honey might be in

Thanks for all the snippets on where to get non homogenised milk, my mum and dad used raw non homogenised, before uht came in. I got a new book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0967089735/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

and already have `raw fermentation` which has a lot of basics in re using what is in the air

oh I forgot, dh makes kefir every single day and I dehydrated a clump, which is now stored dry in some milk powder, under the stairs, this is his safety net just in case, so he has a starter. That is a blooming good product, I don`t drink it but loads of people swear by its goodness.

sb44

kittie wrote: »

No good contemplating vac sealing for startersQUOTE]

Unless you could aquire one of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGfUwEf810g

[Deleted User]

wow sb44, brilliant I already have those food saver lids and the vac pump is a brake bleeder, which I have now bought

:TThank you so much:T, that will be such a useful bit of kit to have as I already have dozens of kilner jars

ps, I deliberately don`t ever use the thanks button now as it was being used in a kind of devisive way on another thread

nuatha

Confuzzled wrote: »

he sighed and i asked him about expiration dates on meds. he told me the truth is that most meds are good for awhile after their dates, generally speaking heart meds and insulin shouldn't be messed with but most meds at best lose efficacy slowly over time so the fact is that many drugs are a bit like best before food, you CAN still use them, they may not work quite as efficiently but they'd still work

he said that it's more a concern of liability for them but that it costs so much money for them to just throw them away, he told me mine was out of date by just 3 days and that i wouldn't have noticed a difference in quality of relief.

he did stress that there are some where it very much does matter, but overall many don't instantly 'go bad' or harmful, he said many just aren't quite as good as they were before. in a pinch, i personally would keep mine as long as it wasn't on the no no list, some is better than none in a very bad situation.

In a discussion about best before dates, we'd covered various political decisions on the length of dates* used when the discussions turned to other products. One of the crowd worked for a major pharmaceutical company in product development. Her view was that the best before dates on drugs were fairly close to the safety margin. Yes there is a margin of safety, but that was mainly there to take account of variations in storage and transport conditions, and given that you didn't know the details of the supply chain then even if you had ideal conditions at home you couldn't be sure you were safe even a week or two after the date.
Unfortunately the usual look, smell, touch, tests used for food are of no use when it comes to drugs.

grandma247

This is also very good for vac sealing and you can use almost any jar.

It can also be used like the one shown from post 4938 sb44 . I saw it on a canning group in the photos section.

Uniscots97

Hello All, how is everyone? Where i work have large carboardboard boxes in reception and are asking for donations for the food banks. They have a list if suitable stuff which seems quite sensible. It is all quite frightening really I've not seen things like this since I was a child (early 80's and the miner's strikes). Now I would love to help but now having to pay out to fix the car (unexpected bill) I am not in a position to help anyone. I do feel bad. I have most of whats on that list but thats for us whilst we have no wages (temp workers, both of us so no wages over christmas or new year and first wage will be 18th jan). Anyone else having a guilt complex?

Butterfly_Brain

This is from a Californian inventor who generously has shown how to make your own.
We are off to the garden centre at the weekend to pick up some pots as DH plans to make one and see how good they are. I will keep you posted.

http://www.heatstick.com/_KanHeet01.htm

2tonsils

At last the storms have cleared and although we still have high winds they are dry and extremely cold , even though its sunny. The mains water came back on this afternoon so have put the washer on. It will freeze dry the clothes in this icy wind. It seems many parts of Europe are in a deep freeze again and they have heavy snow again. I read tonight that two people have died in Bulgaria in the extreme cold.

Managed to get into town today to pay our house insurance and the insurers has changed companies and saved us over 200 euros on the policy. We have to buy earthquake insurance to keep the mortgage lenders happy and it costs us a fortune. Last year it was over 600 euros!

I have a vacuum sealer but haven't used it for a while. I will have to get it out and use it again. I always worry that I might not do it right then get food poisoning from keeping the veg/fruit too long.

I lost patience with the 2012 disaster movie last night and went back to reading instead. Just too far fetched for me.