The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

MingVase

One other thing - preppers aren't worried folk who fear the future and are anxious. They are folk who are secure in the knowledge that they've got it covered.

Si_Clist

Thought for the day - if you rely more on tinned stuff than what's in the freezer, check now that you actually have a serviceable non-electric tin-opener.

Then get yourself a spare one.

And then remember where you put it ...

boultdj

2 Manual, in the draw and a handy extra in the nail clippers, and yes I've used it in the past, practice with the different styles of tin opener can be helpful, as the one in the clippers is a pull towards and the others are away from the user.

wondercollie

boultdj said:

2 Manual, in the draw and a handy extra in the nail clippers, and yes I've used it in the past, practice with the different styles of tin opener can be helpful, as the one in the clippers is a pull towards and the others are away from the user.

When our son's wife left him, she took the tin opener and a bottle opener that I've only ever seen in Canada.  It's two ended and can pierce a tin (think evap milk for pouring) and the other end flops the tops off bottles.  After weeks of searching for the bottle opener he was ready to admit defeat.

But then WalMart came to the rescue, It's a bottle opener/tin opener combo that does all the functions.   He now own two, just in case.

bit_by_bit

This is such a fascinating discussion.  MREs sound discusting.

I have wondered for a while about the freezer and contents. We have down sized our freezer but  is still packed with food.

Should the electricity fail for any length of time it will all defrost and I am not sure we can eat it all in a few days. Say the neighbours were all in the same position. Does anyone have any idea about keeping that food frozen without a freezer?

I recall the victorians having ice houses but I am not sure my garden is big enough for that.

Si_Clist

bit_by_bit said:

MREs sound discusting ...

Should the electricity fail for any length of time it will all defrost and I am not sure we can eat it all in a few days. Say the neighbours were all in the same position. Does anyone have any idea about keeping that food frozen without a freezer?

From what I remember of the Real Thing, most of them taste disgusting too, unless of course it's two in the morning, you're up a mountain in Wales, you haven't slept for over 30 hours, you have 25Kg or so on your back and it's been raining since yesterday.  Then they tasted fine

Ref your freezer contents, though, short of a generator there's not much you can sensibly do.  That's why all that goes in our freezer is broad beans, fruit that wasn't pretty enough to bottle but is fine for flans, a couple of boxes of frozen fish, a kilo or so of chicken breast, some marg and stuff like chestnuts - all of which we can easily do without if we have to.  

Everything that we need to rely on is either bottled or in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, or it was bought in tins or packets.

Living_proof

Make sure you have freezer contents insurance too, which eases the pain but doesn't help with any immediate food shortage. I dehydrate a lot of goods as well as freezing so hopefully would have some nutritious food in most events. It helps that I don't eat meat.

mothernerd

My first freezer had a terrible design fault - a rocker switch at the base of the machine (plinth height). So when DS3 was small and crawling/ rolling around on the floor he managed to turn it off three times and it was hours before I noticed. I fed all the kids in the street (only 5 houses with an average of 2 boys per house) and invited a couple of the mothers in our group to come and take some too because there isn't a lot you can do with fishfingers and burgers. I made all the raw meat and veg into stews, curries etc and then portioned it out and refroze it.

My husband was made redundant when DS2 was 4 months old and for several years he worked through an agency and for all but a few weeks he was hundreds of miles away so joints were cooked and sliced and packed in meal sized portions (or layered with greaseproof paper so that the top few slices could be peeled off. All the meat juices were made into gravy and I had some plastic half sized beakers (sort of paper cup size) and would freeze the gravy in those. A mid week meal of chips and meat of the week plus veg and just enough gravy in a beaker to make the meal.

Many years later, when DS2 was at uni (only 13miles away in Manchester) one of his house mates would drive him to our house and they would strip the freezer (end of term and 6 large hungry lads running out of grant money). Coming up to Christmas I was ready for them - I did a double order and they didn't turn up. However it had snowed and I used one of the plastic bins (people abandoned them when we went onto wheelie bins and I collected a few for growing trees and large plants). Put the frozen food in and packed snow in all round it. It was fine when they came a few days later. 

Frozen food will last for a week or more in the bottom of the fridge (longer if it's all packed together in a salad drawer), useful when you overestimate your freezer capacity or your freezer tetris skills. From now on I'll be using the (small wooden) garden shed for fresh veg, drinks and part baked bread rolls keep well - long past the expiry date, had some this week with a September date on. I've also kept thing in a large shed (garage would work unless it gets a lot of heat from the house) and my old house had a vestibule (roughly one door deep and three doors wide) with a tiled floor and I left drinks, dairy stuff and veg in their when we had lots (Christmas usually). As we went into spring it was my growing on space - I'd start seeds off on the window sill in January then pot them on and move them into the vestibule - had two sets of old wooden steps and balanced seed trays of small pots on each step.

At my little house I had a row of large terracotta pots on the windowsill and all the veg went in there. When I've had no fridge - I used to wait as long as possible to replace the broken one - I've kept fridge stuff (and bits of freezer stuff) in a plastic crate  just outside the back door (with something on top and a large weight (usually a cobble) to keep the cats out (if it kept the cats out it was safe from other predators) and for my fortieth (January) birthday I had a four drawer metal filing cabinet , again just outside the back door and it kept all the beer and wine superbly chilled.

Floss

WonderCollie, my family kitchen had 2 of those tin/ bottle openers through my life, both acquired by two of my brothers when clearing the house in 2005.

tboo

wondercollie said:

It's two ended and can pierce a tin (think evap milk for pouring) and the other end flops the tops off bottles. 

I'm imagining this. Grew up with one of these. A pain in the backside (and lethal sometimes) to open a tin but they are handy in an emergency.

I have an electric opener but do have a manual one just in case.