Preparedness for when

Fruball

prepareathome wrote: »

Pig is something I might have to consider, never ate it in any description. When growing up neighbour used to do a full cooked breakfast on a Sunday and smell would waft straight out of her kitchen window ( imagine and L our window the bottom line hers the side one, other side was a wall of flat in next close, so smell bounced back and doubly come through urg, I grew up in a Glasgow tenement) into ours and I hated it put me off all bacon, ham etc. Wouldn't even know how to cook it, hubby just cadges bacon butties where ever he can as he knows he will never get them at home:)

Never had a sausage?! :eek:

Woman! You haven't lived!

prepareathome

Fruball wrote: »

Never had a sausage?! :eek:

Woman! You haven't lived!

Not a pork one but have had lamb and beef ones (local butcher is champion sausage maker and has some lovely combinations but if they contain pig then they don't come here):o

GreyQueen

I'm sure I read in one of John Seymour's books (the guru of self-sufficiency, sadly passed now) to the effect that the pig is the backbone of peasant economy in northern Europe. I suppose in southern Europe and the near east it would have traditonally been the goat, and perhaps the sheep.

Has anyone else read the Lark Rise books? They were published in wartime but were memoirs of the author's young life in the 1880s. A real eye-opener. One thing I recall is that people would say that they were going to kill half a pig. This apparently insane statement was because they'd not been able to afford all the pig food in the months running up to slaughtertime so had had to effectively "mortgage" half the pig to someone else once it was ready to eat.

I have to admit to being a cheerful omnivore these days, although I've never warmed to lamb or mutton.

I suppose in a real SHTF situation, a lot of people will have to put their current standards on the back-burner and families of fusspots will have to get over themselves. I was raised OS and you got what you got and were expected to clear your plate. Can't imagine my Mum's reaction if brother or I had wanted individually-tailored dining options. Probably trigger her catch phrase : I should ruddy co-co! Don't ask me where that comes from btw as I have no idea. Translates as I don't think so.

mardatha

I've got a great book called The Guid Scots Diet, and in there I read that pork isn't traditionally popular in Scotland, with us it was always sheep. The reason being that Scots were too poor to afford to feed a pig -which is a greedy feeder. If you can hardly feed yourself then you can't afford to feed a pig.. Hardy Blackface or Cheviot sheep can live on the hill all year and eat grass, so don't compete with humans for scarce food. I personally would swap the RV for a decent lamb stew... I eat bacon but not sausages they're too spicy.

Caterina

Oh Mar, I shall know not to feed you our usual fodder then if you visit! Our fav dinners often include fried greens (possibly kale) with garlic and lots of chilli!

grandma247

I knew a family of eight children and their mother often cooked separate meals for them It was like being in a cafe.

I got an email with this and these in. I really like the Weck jars

meme30

GreyQueen wrote: »

OOOhhhhh, I want one of those. Would you very much mind telling us what make and model it is?

It's this one:- http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/travel/equipment/torches-lanterns/wind-up-lantern-p1761.aspx?cl=BLACK#reviewtab

Works great and is very light.:)

GreyQueen

meme30 wrote: »

It's this one:- http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/travel/equipment/torches-lanterns/wind-up-lantern-p1761.aspx?cl=BLACK#reviewtab

Works great and is very light.:)

Thanks hun. I bought a cheapy wind up last year and it was pants so didn't want to get lumbered with another bit of rubbish kit.

Beetlemama

GreyQueen wrote: »

I suppose in a real SHTF situation, a lot of people will have to put their current standards on the back-burner and families of fusspots will have to get over themselves.

When DS was little, we gave him all sorts of things to eat, no matter whether we ate it or not, because I know half the aversions we have are because we were trained to have them, I won't eat black pudding (or anything icky) and DH won't eat steak and kidney pie because he was brought up to think of kidney as "offal" lol - which it is, but to us it was put on the table as "dinner", I still think its weird he won't eat it but he regards it with the same horror as if we are eating stomach or intestines.

DS eats all sorts of things and I'm pleased he gives everything a try, but he won't eat bananas (went off them a few years ago) and he's never ever been able to eat an egg of any description, unless it's deeply involved in a cake. He actually can't put it in his mouth, makes him gag. Odd.

valk_scot

Re fussy folk, I was thinking of when the 2010 snows were hereour taste buds changed quite dramatically, we were all craving sweet foods and fatty stodge like dumplings. I made a lot of lentil soup, fruit crumbles (including tinned pineapple crumble which would rot your teeth off normally ) and stovies for example, and I put dumplings in everything. It was quite a bit colder than normal indoors even with the central heating on and the menfolk especially were doing a fair bit of physical work shovelling snow and pushing cars around in the cul-de-sac. Pasta and tomato sauce didn't quite hit the spot somehow!

So maybe a few packs of suet might be worth storing, as a concentrated form of calories? You can get vegetarian versions. Mincemeat would be ideal too, if it goes down to 10p a jar after Christmas as usual.

OH made a useful comment last night btw re stores. Vitamin tablets? A good multivitamin/multimineral one a day type tablet might be well worth having if your diet was restricted for a while. The supermarket ones are cheap enough and most have a good long sell by date.