When it comes to stockpiling food, one of the essential things to consider is the shelf life of each food product.
Understanding the nature of the individual food and its proper storage or processes before storing is a must for preppers.
When shopping for food, think of how long you plan on keeping it and what you are preparing for: regular consumption or emergency prepping.
Stockpiling long-lasting food greatly helps in the preparation of emergency supplies for natural disasters that often give little or no warning at all. It also provides an edge in managing the stress brought on by the pandemic.
Why You Should Shop from the Chinese Store
You can never go wrong with a trip to the Chinese store to stuff your pantry with long-lasting foods.
The undeniable fact is that Asian stores, especially the Chinese stores, generally have less expensive food items. They also offer a large variety of exotic food items that you might want to try.
Moreover, you will be amazed by the savings as they offer affordable pricing in large quantities, from spices and food flavorings to condiments, dry noodles, and more.
Related: 10 Spices That Make Your Food Last Longer
In choosing long-lasting food to store in your pantry, it is wise to consider that you are fueling your body, whether it is for an everyday diet or for emergency preparedness.
The list of shelf-stable or non-perishable foods you might consider includes items that are energy-rich, protein-loaded, and, more importantly, nutritious in general to help you maintain good health.
However, if we plan ahead wisely, we can incorporate our preferences into other nutritious and delicious food varieties. Regularly stock and replace shelf-stable food or long-lasting ones even before any emergencies.
Foods with the Best Shelf Life
Chinese grocery stores have a lot more to offer when it comes to Chinese cuisine or even for preppers looking for long-lasting food items to prepare and store.
Grains
Grains offer versatility when it comes to food prepping, aside from being calorie-dense. They come with easy storage and a longer shelf life.
For long-lasting storage, choose white rice over brown or black varieties. The latter has a thin, oily film, making it prone to storage issues.
Other than rice, wheat berries, dried corn, popcorn, rolled oats, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, cake flour, pasta, quinoa, instant grits, and potatoes are all shelf-stable.
For rice recipes, you will have endless must-try meals that perfectly blend with other food items: congees, rice toppings, stir fry, and more.
You can make parched corn for light snacking or add it to stews, or you can make delicious and satisfying corn soup for dried corn.
Are you thinking of long-lasting, grab-ready ration bars? You can make some from your pantry cereals and seeds. They are high-calorie energy bars that keep you going during emergencies. You might want to include them.
Beans & Legumes
A wide array of beans and legumes offer protein-loaded nutrients and fiber, which are essential to fuel our bodies. They are versatile for preservation and mixing with other food.
Plus, they are easy to store for a long time without altering the quality of taste and nutritional components.
Shelf-stable beans and legumes include pinto beans, black beans, navy beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, lima beans, black-eyed peas, and lentils.
Suppose you are a fan of the rice and beans combo. You can try to make a shelf-stable, easy, adaptable, ready-to-cook bean and rice survivalist recipe. It is easy to prepare and will be a great addition to your go-to pantry during difficult times or even during ordinary times.
Fats
Regardless of whether they are saturated or non-saturated fats, they are critical to fueling the body.
They add flavor to food and give us energy.
Related: Making Butter at Home, Like Our Grandparents
Excellent sources of fats are lard, edible tallow, peanut butter, margarine and butter, vegetable oil, olive oil, coconut oil, coconut milk, and many more.
They can have a shelf-life of one to two years or more if processed and stored correctly.
Canned Meat & Other Proteins
Canned meat and fish are excellent sources of protein.
Regardless of whether you love or hate them, they are convenient and valuable to keep in the pantry: canned sausages, meat beef loaves, corned beef, meat chunks in brine, etc.
You can try making long-lasting recipes like pemmican, biltong, and jerkies from whole meat.
Have you heard about TVP—textured vegetable protein? It comes from soybeans and it is processed to look like meat and taste like meat, just like bacon bits and pork chunks.
TVP is an excellent substitute for meat. It is fat- and cholesterol-free and can last up to 20 years if properly stored. You can always play around with delicious recipes using TVPs.
How about dry-cured meat products? They are also long-lasting when stored unsliced.
The dry-curing process is one of the food preservation techniques that uses salt for curing, subject to air-drying and or smoking, depending on the meat and the intent for the food.
These are foods that don’t require cold storage: dry-cured sausages, dry-cured bacon, and whole country hams.
Century eggs from Peking duck, chicken, or quail are also attention-grabbing among preppers, and Chinese stores have them. These are eggs that are preserved over a couple of months.
Related: How To Make Century Eggs
They are rich in protein and other vitamins and minerals, making them a popular protein snack. They have lots of known benefits and are an ancient Chinese food popular among preppers.
Baking Essentials From The Chinese Store
Regardless of how much you indulge in baking, these baking essentials are handy to include in your list of recommended long-lasting food to keep on hand.
They come in handy for making pastries, especially when the kids are around and going out for supplies is limited.
Have you heard about hardtacks, trench cakes or fruit cakes, skillet bread, and peasant bread? These are some of the resilient foods you can make that offer a great deal of nutrition. The Internet is a good source of information for almost everything you need to bake these.
Related: 24 Baked Goods That Last For A Long Time
Baking essentials include flours, syrups, powdered milk, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, corn starch, yeast, pure vanilla extract, powdered sugar, Jell-O mixes, and more.
Herbs, Spices, Food Flavoring & Seasoning
Culinary herbs add flavor to dishes.
They come from edible plants with delectable flavors, zest, and taste to give consumers a new food experience.
Like culinary herbs, spices are used in almost all food preparation to provide flavor and get rid of blandness.
These include peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, chicken bouillon, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, ginger, coriander, and more.
Altering the food’s basic taste to a whole new flavor is the essential function of the seasoning. Many of these items, like salt and granulated sugar, last forever if properly stored.
Quality Honey
Pure honey has an indefinite shelf life that will allow you to savor its natural sweetener function for a lifetime.
With time, it will look a bit off as it crystallizes. Don’t worry. Use it again by soaking its container in warm water, and the honey will go back to its normal state.
Related: 23 Survival Uses for Honey that You Didn’t Know About
Beverages From The Chinese Store
Beverages can help you stay energized and quenched.
Whether facing a crisis or just having an ordinary day, it is good to have these readily available: – instant coffee, tea, and rehydration juices and powders.
For rehydration, always have these available so you will not get weary quickly.
Almost every Chinese store has different options of flavors and forms you can choose from.
Dry Noodles & Pasta
Chinese stores have shelves full of noodles and pasta. They are easy to prepare and delicious. Noodles are perfect for quick cooking and also offer a variety of flavors to try. They are excellent pantry items with a long shelf life and meet the energy-giving and quick-cooking criteria.
Fruits and Vegetables From The Chinese Store
Chinese stores offer a wide variety of canned fruits and vegetables for very reasonable prices compared to other grocery stores. Asia has an abundance of fruit and vegetable produce.
We all love consuming fresh food, but it is not readily available to us at all times.
Most canned fruits and vegetables contain the same amount of nutrients as fresh and frozen produce.
Related: How To Can Potatoes for Long Term Preservation
Food technology has improved a lot over the years, and some canned foods now contain more vitamins and minerals than fresh ones. Fortification of vitamins and minerals is possible.
Canned fruits and vegetables are wise options to consider, plus they’re always ready to eat and go well with other foods.
Dehydrated vegetables are also a great addition to our pantries. They are a healthier alternative to many snacks, and you can add them to salads, oatmeal, baked goods, and smoothies.
Since they rehydrate in liquid, they’re also easy to use in recipes without losing their nutritional value.
Dehydration or drying of vegetables tends to extend the shelf life for years and allows for flavor concentration. They’re the perfect addition to your long-lasting food list as they, too, are incredibly lightweight and take up little space.
Dried fruit is also an incredibly healthy food that’s easy to take anywhere for a snack on the go. It is also versatile since you can add nuts, oats, salads, and more. These dried fruits include raisins, dates, prunes, figs, apricots, peaches, apples, and pears.
Dried nuts should be stocked sparingly. Consider only the best nuts for your overall health and food storage. Almonds are the healthiest and offer convenience for storage. Next are pistachios. Research how to keep them fresh longer. Otherwise, they will get rancid quickly.
After getting your pantry items at the Chinese store, the knowledge of how you can make your food last longer is worth reiterating.
Remember, even food with a known shelf life can invite quick spoilage if you don’t ensure suitable storage conditions against heat, light, oxygen, moisture, and pests.
Taking these into consideration will help your food last for several years without going bad and will prevent you from starving during emergencies.
You may also like:
What Do I Store in My Pantry As a Prepper?
An Insanely Effective Way to Build a 5 Year Food Stockpile (Video)
How Does This Man Grow Oranges in Nebraska’s Cold Winter?
Honey, as long as raw and unpasteurized, does wonder for healing wounds in very fast time. A thin covering with bandage over it heals in record time. I always keep a small bottle of that around at home and in work place. Multi-purpose item.
Tough to find unless you go to the source due to the “corrupt FDA” regs trying to pump poision into you and ban non GMO foods.
Abraham Lincoln – Quote – Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt
can you PLEASE show where the FDA is trying to ban organic Non gmo food?
And why is there a big push, from the FDA themselves to transfer the burden of proof onto those that DO use GMOs to self identify on the labels?
You know Ravenn if most people hated their significant other as much as you appear to hate the U.S.A …. they would pack up and leave.
Just saying.
Start with the FDA “taking the term Organic” away from private small farms. Take the fact selling raw milk is illegal. The over regulation of everything that only benfits the large corprate farms and food factory’s.
Everything you used to be able to do and have clean non gmo food is almost impossible to do thanks to Big corperations and the FDA. They want you eatting garbage and posion.
show me where i hate the USA ? I disagree and think that we have the most over regulated over taxed over controlled country where nobody can do a thing. That big corperations can lobby your small farm into dust….. Its a sad thing but you also wonder why americans are fat, sick and unhealthy. But that kinda of population is also sheep and easy to control
Ravenn I see your deflection skills are growing. Your coming off half cocked.
Why not look up WHY raw milk was declared illegal in some states.
And its called “Truth in labeling” Personally Im thankful that not just ANYONE, say like CONAGRA, can use franken-seeds and douse their crop with every carcinogenic pesticide , and still throw “Organic” on the label when they are in fact not.
So if that upsets you , Comrade, maybe its time for you to do some inner reflecting.
And Im still waiting for proof of your claim about the FDA making Organic foods illegal
Ah yeah… the term Organic was hijacked by the FDA and it can be loosely applied to big corperations food products which “get a fake cert” The truth is your food sucks your goverment loves your loyalty and the divide. You ever wonder why people have so many allergies and sickness, Cancer is on the rise and why people are so damn fat. It’s the food your eatting, Come on man the fda allowed Meat glue to be used to repackage up junk cuts of meat into “quality meat” People can’t process the gmo grains and other foods. Nobody feels full anymore and is back to eatting a few hours right after stuffing their face. Mcdonalds food doesn’t even decompose ….. imagine what it does inside of you
But hey I pray Elohim opens your eyes and you can see the light and become a light for the world instead of your baal worship of the gov like you do now.
yet again no proof.
And for the record I haven’t eaten McDonalds or any other fast food in …. well over a decade now. We stick to Organic, Nongmo Leviticus 11.
Which for the LONGEST time companies thay were labeling their food as Organic/non gmo had to go out of the way TO prove it. while GMO’s did not. Now GMOS HAVE to label their foods as such. Some skirt around this with a qr code on the label – do your own research. And I know 1st hand from personal experience the evils this Government can do, Im not a flag waving july 4th celebrating lets bow our heads and give the Lord thanks for this easter ham even though its unclean according to scripture, but Jesus died so we can eat it, ‘Merican… But im not a bernie sanders bumper sticker on the back of my prius nincompoop either.
With that out of the way, as I asked before if you are claiming the FDA is making Organic foods illegal, can you PLEASE provide a link to an article? If not, please dont make yourself look like a tin foil hat candidate with 10 years supply of toilet paper stashed in your garage, and bring a negative image on preppers
Manuka honey especially is renowned for it’s medicinal value….why so expensive. Sometimes taken into battle by military.
The worst advice ever! All of it! I for one am Not buying any of it to feed to my family, even the pets!
City Chick:
Check out the labels to see where the stuff was made. Some is made in the USA, (well, San Francisco, what used to be the USA) and other US sites with large Chinese population centers. Just be aware that your favorite Chinese restaurant may be using Chinese or other Asian made ingredients.
CC: For people w9th gluten intolerance, they have very inexpensive noodles and flour. I always run to the herbalists in Chinatown, and like their restaurants. For that matter, no one matches the US in demands of cleanliness but Israel. Each has their own standard, and mine are very high. Being raised country, I do not drink tap water unless it’s boiled for coffee or tea, or with lemon juice. Wash and rinse dishes, a cap of bleach goes in the water. I saw enough minnows and polliwogs come out of town taps 🙂 niio
Miz Kitty: True, and Japan is very clean driven especially in food. All of them who want to sell to the US are getting that way. Except chicoms, of course. Liberals love their nazism and tend to ignore things, like new plagues. do not buy food from Cuba, chicoms own the island. niio
Pretty good article, but in essence the same long term storable foods that you can get at Walmart, more exotic and some with less food quality controls than you get from American food countries.
Beans, rice, grains, canned foods, sounds like any grocery store. Some of the dried preserved proteins like dried squid (used to be called Korean Chewing gum when I was living there) and Century Eggs (Can I watch you eat that please :-)) are very much an acquired taste.
I’ve spent several years living in Korea and enjoy their cuisine but enjoy it NOW before you have to eat those “Odd Foods” under stressful situations.
But when the crowds are rushing through Walmart and grocery stores you might find the Asian shops still available. Pity in my area they are deep inside the middle of cities NOT where I want to be when things get crazy. Just saying.
Please secure a very deep larder folks and LEARN to cook with them. Store what you eat, Eat what you store. Rotate those foods as not to find a very stale bug infested rice bag.
Might as well get used to the chinease food as they will be taking over this country and ruling it.
Decent article, wondering if anyone will write a article about anything going on with russia and the Ukraine.
Well, interesting madman raven, this link goes to a very good long article on that subject. The website it is posted on aggregates all kind of conspiracy and racist articles from the web, a lot of valid right wing comment, and some very good and important articles from journalists who have no voice in America. Free speech, if truly free, can get pretty ugly.
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/what-putin-wants/
Michael, you nailed it. I eat a lot of canned foods; always have since I was a child. I’ve tried the China canned fruits from Dollar Tree and they’re flavorless. I eat Walmart brand canned fruits and they taste fine but the quality of fruit is obviously lower than Del Monte. Still, I buy and eat a lot of Walmart other than Mixed Fruit which I only buy Del Monte.
Most of the other items listed in the article I wouldn’t eat on a bet. I get pasta, white rice, dry beans, canned beans, all from Walmart or other local stores.
Walmart brand canned vegetables say they’re packed in the USA and that they’re packed on the same day they’re picked. Other than limited range in Mexico, that means the vegetables are also grown in the US – though they don’t explicitly say where they’re grown.
After the melamine in baby food, and many others, I try to ingest as little from China as I can. It’s not always possible to avoid eating things from China but I try as much as I can.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety_incidents_in_China#Adulterated_pickled_vegetables
Who to trust? Who to trust? The FDA? The CFDA? Myself? I’ll go with myself whenever possible.
More reasons why a lot of people are becoming Torah Observant and eating the way the Elohim said you should be eatting.
Speech to text as I’m driving right now
Even within the Torah observant community there is a division on the Leviticus 11 especially when it comes to birds for mammals and aquatic Life were given a set of guidelines of what to look for fins and scales choose the cud split hoof…. But when it comes to birds we’re giving the names of certain birds and that’s it.. what we in my household have decided is looking at the characteristics of birds the three main characteristics are the three main types of birds that were not supposed to eat are birds of prey scavengers as well as aquatic birds. And that really is what catches a lot of folks they want to eat their geese and duck now us we don’t we stay away from those birds but I know some people feel they do and it’s okay if you take the time to research aquatic birds which to begin with if they’re in the water they don’t have fence and scales but I digress aquatic birds have a printing gland sorry that’s preening not printing gland that secretes a waterproof oil that those birds put on their feathers now that oil any of that is extremely toxic to humans so think about that you know anyways glad to see there’s at least one or two areas we agree upon
chic: 24% of millennial Jews are into Christ. Statisticians think that by 2050, most Jews will be Messianic.
Raven:
Most of the Mosaic food laws are very practical, especially in a (then) society with no refrigeration, free ranging scavengers (hogs, etc) eating everything from dead animals and people to sewage, and no FDA type agencies to inspect and enforce basic hygiene in food production. Stuff to remember going forward, especially if we have to grow and harvest our own food.
Just as an aside, how do you address the requirements of having a kosher butcher for your meats? Do you do it yourself, or do you have a kosher butcher that does it for you?
Elohim told Peter to kill and eat tho many animals were unclean. Acts 10:12It contained all kinds of four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, as well as birds of the air. 13Then a voice said to him: “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14“No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”…
Miz Kitty: As far as I can find, kosher butchers started only after Hillel rewrote Moses Law. He tried to out-holy God and Jesus rebuked Pharisees for that. Like sharia law, it’s a blasphemy what Hillel did. A lot of M0ses Law is in effect in our common law, like not abusing animals. The 10 Commandments are believed to have been handed down, as was the Book of Genesis, from before the days of Abraham. niio
torah law is pretty straight forward.. its hebrew law not jewish…. eat clean and be closer to Elohim
Exodus: But are allowed to eat scavengers like chickens. Geese are vegans, though ducks eat anything they can catch. Quail eat their own feces but God fed quail to the Hebrews. I know of a synagogue that just allowed members to eat turkeys. While I agree with biblical animal rights, I do not agree with Hillel’s command over God to out-holy God. Jesus’ sacrifice took believers out of the fire of condemnation to grace. As a child of Abraham, and under grace, God said it’s not what goes into a man’s mouth that makes him unclean but what comes out of it. And, here’s something that might interest you on Islam! Very good talk about the errancies of the Qur’an.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8RLCCKEcfI
Red.
I’m not a Jew
Anyone that denies the Messiah….
No thank you.
As far as Matthew 15, I ask you to read the Entire chapter for what’s being said.
The Messiah and that particular chapter was rebuking describes and Pharisees for their traditions today is on his traditions of washing hands.
I think one of the best things people can do is get out of the church itself and read the scriptures for themselves and what they really say not someone’s interpretation someone who’s standing on top or at a pulpit in front of everybody.
Hey red sorry I’m on the road so it’s speech to text as far as the judaism’s food laws and I say Judaism not Leviticus 11 because they add so much to it and they take some away as well if you notice if you have any understanding of the kosher emblems that you see on food containers and stuff there’s over 1,400 kosher certifying agencies it’s called a kosher pressure h e c h s e r sorry again speech text so with 1400 of them minimum each one having their own variation of what’s allowed and what’s not allowed some allow for fat others don’t and you can read the scripture for that itself some allow for duck others don’t. And yes there are certain agencies that won’t allow for GMO food either.
Exodus: Never said you were a Jew. I am by adoption into the family of Abraham when I became a Christian. But, I know a lot of Messianic Jews. They’re still Jewish, and some 24% of millennial Jews are believers.
As I said, I do not believe that Hillel had a right to change Moses Law. He piled burdens on the people. Maimonides did the same and was chased out of Spain by Jews for it. Jesus argued against Hillel’s law in Matt 15.
Acts 10:11-13 Lest ye forget, by profession, I’m a manuscript researcher, and graduated Berean Bible College. Starting out life as an atheist made learning a clean slate. niio
Exodus: When I went to Brooklyn, NY, I always shopped at kosher stores. Did some halal, as well. Both have to sell only organically raised meat and so on. Asian stuff, yes! Talk to rabbis who were friends, to imam, to anyone because people are interesting. niio
Grow your own and raise your own is the only answer. We’re set up to do that for most of our food but got behind due to Covid and necessary time away from our gardens. We won’t get fully back in operations even this year but, hopefully, by 2023 we’ll be back in business and 90% of what we eat will have either been raised on our own property or bought from known US owned, US companies – such as our flour, grains, pastas, beef, etc. Everything else will be home grown or raised.
Sale: We’re trying turmeric this summer. Ginger does OK, but needs a lot of shade here, southern Arizona. What I do want to get going is Indian Rice Grass. It’s perennial wild rice that is desert oriented. But, it prefers sandy soil. Ours is sandy adobe clay. It makes one crop in the spring, and goes dormant till fall. At this time, it’s becoming a commercial crop in Montana and parts of Wyoming. But, we had two years of drought and then a lot of dirt from brush fires. We’ll see soon! niio
Be very careful when it comes to buying rice from China. Over the last couple years they have been caught multiple times selling plastic rice, looks real enough, to not only their own people but around the world.
Organic vs gmo??? Monsanto, producer of the killer cancer causing Roundup, bought the rights to almost all US available organic seeds, and has also made it illegal to save seeds from the products grown from their farmer available seeds…why, because those who control the food, control the people.
That rice caper was 15 years ago, they combined sweet potato and some other vegetable and mixed it up with toxic polymers so it would hold a rice shape. It cooked up about like a Lego block would, according to reports. China is so big no government can fully control it, you can never be sure what you’re going to get when you buy Chinese. Anti freeze in toothpaste. The worst thing they do is mix a toxic chemical called Melamine with sawdust which causes the saw dust to test as a high protein additive, also causing severe kidney damage, this has been done with everything from baby food to dog food. The high end American pet food companies bought melamine tainted ingredients from China a few years ago and killed hundreds of Canadian and American dogs and cats. Chinese,Asian, and South American fish farms also have a well deserved bad reputation for raising shellfish, catfish, and salmon in sewage tainted water and filling them full of toxic fungicides and anti biotics to give them a chance to reach market size. Always always check the label on farm raised fish, get American, Canadian, U.K. or Norwegian. China is crazy, they sell children’s toys with lead paint but they’re going to put a crewed mission on the moon before NASA and Musk can get us back there.
Monsanto has always wanted to control agriculture around the world, before GMO they prohibited farmers from holding over seed for replanting from crops produced from Monsanto seed. The national food supply is controlled by fewer than half a dozen giant companies. Funny looking little old Bob Kraft is one of The Rulers Of The Universe, but he still pays 60 bucks at the Oriental Massage Whore House? A true man of the people.
Cold icy day in Texas, perfect for ordering Heirloom seeds from Annie’s, Gurney’s, and ETSY for what I guess is about to be my illegal organic garden.
Judge; yes, and thanks for that. Monsanto was sold to Bayer after they starved thousands of Tarahumara in a planned famine. Right now soros is fighting to keep roundup legal. They do not seem to be fighting hard against lawsuits caused by health issues. May we soon look fondly back at winter. Happy spring! niio
Monsanto is gone, has been for quite some time. Bayer bought it years ago and dismantled it. The chemicals in Roundup have been argued in court by Independent chemists who say the product is safe if used as directed. That’s independent chemists, as in not getting paid by lobby groups. BTW Roundup is still on the market but nobody seems to care now since it’s no longer a Monsanto product, meaning the SJWs no longer have a way to slam denigrate and malign an “evil outfit” that was producing GMO veggies. Go figger…
toney: Monsanto is alive and well as a part of Bayer. OK? I do not support soros, who is a major owner of Monsanto, which used GMO maize to starve to death 9,000 Tarahumara Indian. Thousands have died thanks to GMO. If you raise X variety of soybeans and have had to the seed in the gamily for generations but the neighbor plants GMO, you are not allowed to save your own seed. It’s now part of the patent. It’s the same with maize and a lot of crops.
Have you heard of Agent Orange? The first lawsuits were in the early 80s and some are still on-going. Same with roundup. A neighbor who’s disabled had used roundup for several years and he’s cautious about things like that. He was having problems and after the VA went thru a battery of test, they asked about Roundup. Symptoms are nerve damage from liberals’ favorite herbicide, roundup. soros still owns the majority stock in it so don’t expect liberals to come agai9nst their owner.
Tony: it is an unfortunate fact of life that you can find “experts” who qualify as such when called to testify in court who will regurgitate any testimony you want to prove what you are trying to sell to the jury.
In federal court in complicated cases the federal judge assigned to the case will appoint. Special master to hear limited testimony such as accounting testimony. You know, figures don’t lie but liars figure. I never worked in federal court, so I don’t know how that works but I suspect it really is the same as in state court. You can by the expert testimony you want. Monsanto got huge jury awards against them, so I know that the plaintiffs bought the experts who were better at selling their side to 12 people not smart enough to get out of jury duty. Having spent 25 years listening to what goes on in our court system, I finally couldn’t stand it any longer and started a printing company.
This article had nothing to do with what to buy at “the Chinese store” — A whole lot of repetitive fluff.
It is well worth the time to shop other “Asian stores” such as Japanese, Korean, Thai, Philippino, and other ethnically “Asian” food outlets. Some stores like 99 Ranch carry a cross-over of Asian products, while others are more specified to Brands focused from various Asian countries or areas. The same applies to Halal and Hindi oriented outlets.
DZ,
I agree. I shop a middle eastern shop and various Asian markets.
The folks running and shopping there are so very kind and willing to help. They enjoy that Americans are interested in learning about their foods and thereby their culture.
During the beginning of the covid mess, I found lots of rice and beans in the ethnic markets. Mexican store has beans in many varieties. Some heirloom Mexican. Corn, too many to list. In all stages. They also sell the ingredients to nixtmalize the Corn. Can buy all kinds of spices, whole or ground. I bought my tortilla press ther and at the.middle eastern store bought a beautiful Tagine pot.
If you are new to ethnic foods and want to shop/ learn, go on any weekday morning, before lunchtime and just talk to the people. They all speak some English language and you may learn a few new words, also
Peace,
MadFab
Chuckle, why am I not surprised MadFab has shopped in Asian Markets 🙂
Good stuff in there, just be aware not all to American Standards. I’ve gotten a sour belly once in a while.
Some good deals in various food prep items, like that tortilla press.
If you want corn flour, whole dry kernels, add water, mix in lye. I can’t remember how much we would add for hominy, but you let it soak overnight, then wash away the lye and bran. Do that several times till you can’t taste lye. It can be wet ground or dried. niio
Why are you promoting Chinese stores over the multitude of USA stores for these items?
I have noticed that in some Japanese groceries they sell rice, both white, mixed brown or semi brown and white, and straight brown rice in what appears to be Mylar bags that are charged with nitrogen. Buying a nitrogen charged impermeable bag solves the long term storage problem. Just put the sealed nitrogen flushed bag in a food grade bucket and voila! Instant prepped goods
They generally are 5 pound bags and/or ten pound bags, so a convenient size for long term storage. Somewhat costlier than the 50 pound bag that one divides up and seals but far more convenient.
LCC does it say nitrogen charged bags? Japan has pretty strict rules about food so that is interesting.
Brown rice degrades due to O2 and the oils in it. I wonder that lifespan Nitrogen Charged bags might have?
Please confirm the nitrogen LLC, I’m interested.
longer we used nitrogen to push out the air in (big jugs of rice. ) it keep prevents bugs from spawning in your food.
other countries do a lot better job at not allowing GMO garbage to be made or imported in..
“Tamaki Gold koshikari style California grown
“Tamaki Rice Corp is a Japanese owned and operated company that has combined traditional farming principles with the most modern milling technology to achieve rice of consistent quality and superior taste”
The package goes on to talk about their growing and milling operation in the Sacramento Valley
On the other panel it says, “Nitrogen flush and sealed package. In order to retain freshness and taste, our rice is packed immediately after milling.
“This bag has a gas barrier, retaining the nitrogen and excluding moisture and other defects.
“ To assist freshness, we suggest that you keep the rice in a cool dark area and after opening the bag, please consume promptly.“
My wife who is a rice connoisseur claims she likes Tamaki rice the best. You won’t find it in American supermarkets. The best white rice they carry is CalRose which I think tastes just like Tamaki but CalRose is not packed in nitrogen to the best of my knowledge. I can taste the difference between some cheaper brands but not between CalRose and Tamaki. However, when it comes to detecting subtle differences in rice, I defer to my wife who is the expert on detecting nuances that I don’t taste.
Amazon carries Tamaki rice. Or, if you want to go really first cabin you can buy koshikari rice from Niigata prefecture. Except for claiming that the rice grown in their prefecture is best, most Japanese acknowledge that the best rice in Japan comes from Niigata prefecture. The heavy snow pack they get each winter coming directly off the ocean insures that the water is as pure as one can get in nature. The best sake comes from the rice grown in Niigata prefecture.
The Tamaki gold that Amazon carries is nitrogen packaged. You can also but Tamaki haiga rice on Amazon. That is partially milled rice so it retains some of the nutrients that brown rice has while having a longer shelf life than brown rice.
Personally I like the straight brown or partially brown rice better than white rice. HOWEVER ! ! ! My wife having spent the first 14 years of her life being compelled to eat either totally brown rice or partially milled by hand semi brown rice detests having to eat brown rice. If your mother forced you to eat boiled Brussels sprouts as a child, you will appreciate my wife’s feelings toward brown rice or anything remotely resembling that nasty stuff. So, in order to keep Momma happy — you know what Dr Phil says about keeping Momma happy, we eat Snow White rice in the LCC household.
There’s no need for nitrogen charging if you pack rice and put in an oxygen absorber. An oxygen absorber leaves a 99+ per cent pure nitrogen environment. I buy American grown white rice in bulk and pack it 4 pounds to a Mylar bag.
Sale: Can you use dry ice? Packs have to be airtight, of course, but the CO2 pretty much knocks off everything in the pack. niio
And much safer. I accidentally found raven’s YouTube and watched him package oats. He used a measuring cup, picked up his dog around the waist, picked up the measuring cup again, then dropped it into the bag of oats.
Instant bacteria and dog poo/pee flavored oats.
Good luck with those.
Preperation of food, especially for long term storage, needs to be done as clean as possible. This will prevent the worst possible infections you can get at a time when you don’t have access to medical care. And I guarantee that I will triage my medication for a person who was injured or becomes sick not caused by stupidity as a local healer post shtf.
thanks for the views Karen…
The food gets cooked anyways Karen so why not try and learn something new…. and yes all the o2 is sucked out or it wouldnt last 20 years. read a book and practice or just run your mouth karen either nobody cares
Kathy, do you think whirly bird used to hang out with Jeffry Daumer?
Cleanliness is paramount. Women would scrub tables and even the floor with wet wood ashes. Cooking utensils were boiled out, and eating utensils placed in a clean pot and boiled. But, my great-grandfather was a Healer, and local doctors would send him patients. Right now we have many sicknesses that chemical meds no longer work against, but traditional meds do. With a combination of modern and traditional, people are living a century and more.
Why would you get an infection if you have things like tobacco? Keep posting and teaching! niio
Kathy: Yep. As kids, we think it’s cute that animals lick us. We were taught don’t let them because they use that tongue as toilet paper. That cured us 🙂 niio
Kathy, little turkey is about 12, so expect the worse. If he bugs you, then he gets giggle fits. Ignore him and eventually he goes off to sulk. niio
While most bacteria cannot live in a dry, oxygen-free environment, the O2 absorber doesn’t remove chemicals or other things that effect safety, quality, or taste. You’re right and Raven loses a lot of credibility if he’s not using even basic sanitation in his food handling. I’m over the top on sanitation in my kitchen. It drives my wife nuts.
Thanks guys. I am so happy to know that the wiser heads are in the group. I don’t use antibacterial soap, but do keep my hands very clean when handling food, and use the hottest water for washing any dishes or utensils.
We have to have natural bacteria or we become allergic to the planet that we live on, like so many kids today. E coli lives in our guts, and helps with digestion. But it’s balanced by other natural flora. In your eye, it can cause blindness.
Our beloved planet has everything we need and want for a fulfilling life. Raising and growing our own food is the best possible way, but we’ve forgotten so much about how. The three sisters method is the easiest to start with.
I do love getting teas and spices from the local Asian market and the Mexican food stores. Really good prices and they haven’t gone through multiple buyers for a markup. As I can’t read the languages, buying too many items is probably not a good idea for me.
Wish you all the best with love.
Kathysedai:
You obviously don’t have any pets. It’s nearly impossible to keep all pet hair/dander out of food when cooking it or packing it for storage. Most pet owners are aware of this and think little about it.
I’m my not so humble opinion, I think you’re being too picky, but you do you. I prefer to put up with minor inconvenience in exchange for the joy a companion animal brings.
I have always had pets, including a full menagerie. Dogs, cats, birds, horses, fish, sheep, goats, everything but the herpetic family, they are harmful to birds.
My boxer dogs sleep with us every night. Dog hair everywhere. Except on my counters and in food preparation. Even when the cats would walk across the counters, a quick swipe with hot soapy water on a dishrag takes care of that.
When I’m packing meat with my vaccuum sealer, I keep a sink of soapy water to wash with as needed.
I dearly love my animals, but not to eat their hair or anything else.
This subject has been beat to death, especially since not everyone has the same standards, whether it’s a company or individual.
Kathy, sounds like here. Raise country, I’m always careful about food prep, especially meat. Before canning, everything gets washed with bleach water. Wash dishes, a capful or so go in the water with the dishes. Make sprouts, same, rinse well, and drain after 45 minutes. It never bothers me to wade thru mud and manure, to butcher and clean guts for casings, but once done, we always scrub down. Yes, and have a sink full of hot soapy water to wash with as we work. All equipment gets washed in hot bleach water. As kids, we all ran barefoot in all kinds of weather in all kinds of nasty, too. Parents let it go because they wanted kids to be independent as adults, but watched for signs of parasites, as well. niio
Dale the wonderful Karen… watched a 5 min video where ….. we scoped rice/oats/wheat berries into a mylar bag… o2 asober and sealed it up. No O2 in the bag means no bacteria can grow. Thus its a safe and long term storage method…. If the o2 didn’t do this.. then your food would spoil and this method wouldn’t be recommended. While her responce of over reaction is funny and qute dumb…. We didn’t scoop handfuls of shit into the bag. The dog’s and cats are part of the house and yes… we didn’t go to mop lvl 5 to gear up on this method.. . She might be scared to see how the stuff is throw into the bags at the factory… but she is just a unreasonable fool who has nothing to offer but sucking your resources.
Thanks for the views and appreiate the comments laters.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Raven+Tactical+Prepper&&view=detail&mid=A3B0C85B9B82C025A138A3B0C85B9B82C025A138&rvsmid=1F4DC4893BA958CA973B1F4DC4893BA958CA973B&FORM=VDQVAP
Hey, bird that flew over the (—) nest. How can anaerobic bacteria survive with oxygen? It kills them. These are come of the most deadly bacteria known. https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/infectious-diseases/anaerobic-bacteria/overview-of-anaerobic-bacteria
This include e-coli. Get your act together. Do research. Why do you think the old-timers pickled, smoked or dried everything? Acid stops bacteria from reproducing. Dryness does but only to a point. Even salted foods decay eventually. Fermenting and/or smoking replaces oxygen with acid. We like dry ice in sealed container. CO2 kills most fungus, and helps reduce aging, as well as degradation via oxidization. Live a little, learn as much as you can.
dz: I wonder if he knows that miller moths eggs can survive without oxygen. And that a lot of rolled oats is GMO today. More, that rodents can smell the grain and once they get into a bag, they breed like crazy, and any bad they bite into is now loaded with a lot of diseases. niio
birdy, yes, you did scoop crap into the Mylar bags. You picked up the dog and then went back to work. Did you wash your hands? How much dog hair went into the bags from your hands and clothes? If there’s miller eggs in the oats, then you now have that in the bags, and they can handle no oxygen. Rodents get in and you’ll lose every bag they bite thru.
red, we have been getting frost through January and into February, so I have held off most of my outdoor planting, doing a little “maintenance” here and there. I had four very young papaya but three have died and the fourth is barely hanging on, so I’m trying to decide if it’s worth sprouting some more and see if I can get them sturdier before next winter. We have several tomatoes that are still alive and have fruits turning red, so those are the ones I will be collecting seeds from for future planting. About a month ago I moved a ziplock bag of Anjou pear seeds I had stashed in the refrigerator to the small “greenhouse” window in our kitchen, and about two weeks later fourteen had sprouted, so last week I planted them in two-gallon containers, and then we got frost again, so will have to wait and see if they survive. I did this with Fuji apples two years ago and ended up with nine surviving (so fa) to about four to six feet tall. I took four of them to my family in Oregon when we visited last Thanksgiving, and I still have five of the 6′ Fuji apples in five-gallon buckets that are starting to get new buds. I have one avocado that survived so far and is about three feet tall, with another five seeds sprouted in our kitchen window that need to be planted into outdoor containers soon. My potato bags had mostly withered and died out, so I left them alone without watering, until it rained during January, and now there are several with new sprouts, so I dug around in the ones without sprouts and pulled out several “half sized” potatoes, then replanted with some previous leftovers in my storeroom that had started producing slips. I have a lot of containers that need to be cleared out and replanted, especially now for green peas and bak choi that are supposed to be able to handle mild frost. I will have to time when to plant the warm/hot season varieties like the zucchini, long beans and bitter melon, maybe in March. I have about six broccoli that are finally producing some small heads without bolting, but they are not very productive for me so I will not replant broccoli, those containers would be better used for other varieties like green beans, onions, garlic, or carrots. I need to reread how to “cure” sweet potatoes. Last week, after cutting some of the nearly dead runner vines to sprout anew, I dug out about six larger tubers from their container, and they are sitting on an outdoor table getting some sun, but I’m not sure if I should bring them inside where it’s warmer and try to get them to cure in a window instead.
red, our “country boy” Magpie believes he “knows all” and can even read minds and predict everyone’s future, so how dare any of us “Deplorables” point out his flaws and misconduct. He’s a lost cause, too narrow minded and expecting everyone to conform to what works for him while in his little “safety bubble”. I doubt he even realizes how easy he is to locate just from the videos he posts – let’s see, I remember seeing a church with a graveyard behind it, several businesses with signs, lots of recognizable roadway, road signs, houses, barns and other buildings, even the inside of a house with views through a window – flat ground with a couple of bee hives and wooded are farther out, not very good if you want to remain “out of sight, out of mind”. It’s obvious he is seeking attention and praise from the general public, but his methods are wrong.
LCC, there is no “reply” in your post below about rice so I’m posting it here.
I grew up with “uncle Bens” and “Minute Rice” as side dishes and had no clue about the variations of rice until I was stationed overseas. My wife was born and raised in the Philippines and is also very picky about her rice, and prefers Jasmine grown in Thailand, and I must admit, it’s better than any other rice I’ve tried. The brand of Jasmine rice we buy here is Dynasty and is available in the Navy Commissaries. I’d say it’s similar to buying Green Giant brand vegetables over Libby’s – better quality control during processing and packing. She recently bought a small bag of Mahatma brand Basmati rice to try, but it does not say where it is grown, only that it was packed for Riviana Foods, Houston TX. If she decides to switch to the Basmati variety, I’ll let you know.
dz: she sounds like one of my daughters who refers to most rice as garbage. My only uses for rice are A) Vinegar, B) sourdough noodles, and C) soy sauce. If I have to eat it straight, I want brown rice or wild rice.
Did you get your garbanzo beans planted yet? I goofed and got black seeded, which like the heat. No clue if they’ll survive here, but we’ll see. niio
red, previously when I planted various beans straight out of the bags purchased as food, the pinto beans did best, followed by the small red beans and black-eyed peas. I will probably plant these three types this year, along with the tepary beans as seeds I bought online last year from the AZ outlet you recommended.
red, have you considered using rice to make beverages like Saki? For things we can grow well but don’t like to eat, if it can be fermented or distilled, it still has purpose. 🙂
Dz: Only one apple tree, and it looks OK, a Golden Dorsett. From Bermuda, it’s supposed to bear in Zone 10. I know they do well here, Zone 9 A. The Pindo (jelly) palm looks good, as do the date palms. Most of the dates are from a neighbor. I helped him clean up his front yard and hauled off a lot of cypress logs and duff from the date palm. Brush and duff went in a pit as fill (local version of hügelkultur, you go deep, not up) and every dare seed sprouted. That was 3 years ago, and maybe 6 are left. No, I didn’t want them, but let them go. Lots of figs. One chiltepin looks good, the stems are green yet despite temps about 27F a few nights. The manzana chili thrives in cold temps, but so far, no fruit.
Caught the dog soaking down the mulch near the jujube 3 times, then loaded the bed with thorn brush. There’s black radishes (for a ground cover) and brussels sprouts in the bed, but half the radishes are gonners. Garlic is tall and looks good. This is mostly a Creole, Ajo Rojo, and a good keeper, like Creole should be. It likes the heat and does well in it with extra-large, hotter than chilis bulbs. I still have too many kohlrabi and need to plant them. They can be cooked and frozen for later, or made into pickles. The thing here is, they make bulbs all summer if treated right, and turn into a bush. Anything cabbage is a heavy feeder. How good a manure are you using? That contains plenty of phosphorus, as well. Sweet potatoes should cure fine as long as they do not freeze. niio
rodents would be havingf a tough time getting in the 5 gallon buckets…. but yeah i am sure you and karen know it all… considering all you you live in some city / suburbs have a good time worrying about if you cooking rice will make your neighbors want to kill you…
Put it this way if you can get food delivered to your house… you don’t live far enough away from the population
dz What bugs me about using store bought stuff like beans is, they’re either hybrid or GMO. I planted tan garbanzos and they did well the first year, then little to nothing after that. Something else, a bag lost in the back of the pantry had black bugs feeding on the beans. Now I freeze everything. And now I had to put bags of chia and dried coconut back in the freezer because I caught a packrat in the garage.
Are you planting any chia? Nice stalks of blooms to draw in pollinators, and it should do well for you. There’s a California native, but the seeds aren’t very big. Seed Search carries Tarahumara, which is day neutral.
Yeah, I’ve made saki. I have koji rice fermenting now. That’s great sourdough when fermenting. But, I like corn beer better, and never very much of that. Uncle Dimey used to make a great sour mash, too. He was an artist with the still. But, I like rice wine vinegar more than beer. He was shell-shocked in WWI, but healing and could tell some hairy stories about the war. When my grandfathers came to stay a while, he and they had a good time talking about life early in the century. None of them showed a bit of arthritis after a few hours, LOL. niio
Li’l jackdaw, we use new steel trashcans. If a rodent wants to, it can gnaw thru concrete. That’s how they find mafia tombs (bodies buried in concrete foundations). Rats gnaw on the concrete. Plastic is like butter to them, easy to get thru.
Jackdaw: ClergyLady lives 100 miles from town and can get food delivered. I only live 45 miles from town and get it delivered. there are a lot of on-line stores these days. If you have mail service in the area like UPS, you can get anything delivered.
Red,
…Dz: Only one apple tree, and it looks OK, a Golden Dorsett. From Bermuda, it’s supposed to bear in Zone 10. I know they do well here, Zone 9 A…,
My Dorset Gold(en) fruits really well here in the wheatbelt of West Australia so long as my Anna is flowering as well. Unfortunately I have been unable to buy these trees without a dwarf rootstock so my trees are nearly 30 years old and barely 10 ft tall. Last winter the ground got so wet and 1 of the trees was so heavily laden that it laid over on the ground. Gave it a heavy prune and staked it up and it has recovered quite well. The other has a delicate lean I’m watching.
My question Red was which variety do you use as a cross pollinator as apples are rarely self pollinators.It would be good to have more than just one in my case.
Ginny: I have one apple, the Dorsett. but, a lot of people in town have apples. Dorsett is supposed to be self-fertile. But, if you want standard trees, start seeds in the house and then graft when the stem is a half-inch caliper. What I’m going to do is try to root cuttings next winter. Dorsett is a precocious bearer and should start to bloom within a few years of rooting cuttings. Grafts should bloom the next year.
I take a clear tub, 1/3 full of moist [peat and I had some coir, as well, but it holds moisture too well for figs and such. Fresh cuttings 12 inches long, scrape two sides of the lower stem (about an inch) and coat with rooting hormone. the cutting goes in halfway to 2/4 and the lid is put on tight. Bright light but no sun till the cuttings are well leafed out.
I did get a half-dozen peach cuttings to leaf out, now to wait to see if they have roots. A neighbor’s father planted some peach pits from a tree on his ranch. One survived and has pretty good peaches, Elberta type. I also stuck in 2 grapes, the red one is leafed out but not the white. All black Pakistan mulberries are in leaf. the lavender, as well. Once they leaf out, give them some air. the lids is cocked on the tub. niio
Red, thx for that. I have apple seedlings going but I’m still learning how to graft. My dad was much better but he is long gone. I probably get about 50% graft take but none survived last summer and the poor water we had to use. Cuttings are more successful especially on mulberry n dragon fruit etc. planted a new apricot over winter as well as another olive, lemon, mandarin n chestnut. Chestnut didn’t survive a week of 45C temps but the others did. Not sure why I persist since the only thing we actually harvest fruit from are the citrus, the parrots get all the nuts and stone fruit. AU is the home of parrots, thousands of them, all protected so without netting all the trees we don’t get much. Can’t afford to net the orchard all over so I cover branches when I can. Even then the birds will bite through the netting. Best would be a total enclosure of steel mesh but $$ I don’t have atm.
So we plod along lol
Yea , no china corrupted food for me and my family!!!!
Many food products from China contain chemical pollution, even biological products. This is because the farmlands and fields are often irrigated with water from very polluted rivers. As a result, even organic products are contaminated with chemicals. A product that is fairly free of chemical and pesticides are the goijberries because they grow fairly high on the mountains and do not need irrigation from the rivers. Buy locally, as much as possible from the farmer, then he will also get some necessary support from us.
Greets from the Netherlands
Tigron
Just a note regarding the canned tropical fruits. It’s a good idea to have them on hand as a form of medicine. There is a chemical found in tropical fruit which alleviates many of the IBS symptoms. In a world without a pharmacy (or even in a world with pharmacies) these could be your best treatment option.
I will go to Chinese stores and so on, but only if I know the people. It’s like beer in Mexico, when someone tells you do not drink this variety right now, you don’t because the only way workers have to protest is to urinate in bottles LOL. We have Asian stores down in Tucson and I need to get to town more often. Rarely do we find things we cannot make ourselves. Soy sauce, hoisin, rice noodles, and so on. Fish sauce, no, but not because we can’t. That we can get by the case and it’s cheaper than buying fish/oysters and so on to make our own. Japan is, BTW, encouraging people to make their own sauces. What we like is anything gluten-free, but many do not name ingredients. Most Asian foods dehydrate well and have long shelf life. niio
Live in SF Bayarea (6 gen’s) even though it’s Silicon Valley it’s also called THE VALLEY OF HEARTS DELIGHT. I remember orchards everywhere. Anyways, local officials are changing our recycling system now TO have us throw away food scraps separately. Fantastic I thought, composting on a mass scale, but & this is a BIG BUT, they are talking to us as if we are all (recent gen school grads) dumb & their campaign will dirty the significance of what organic means by calling the trash/food scraps ORGANICS. This another form brain washing pure & simple. Damn, globalist agenda
Since a lot on here are going on about eating food that isn’t good for you (and I agree), I would like to make everyone aware of seed oils. These are some of the worst things we can ingest. Causing inflammation to Alzheimer’s.
Here is a great artile on it: https://chriskresser.com/how-industrial-seed-oils-are-making-us-sick/
Banana, it is good. We use some olive oil and chia, and that’s it for veggie oils. Of course, the others do make good lantern fuel and soap. Heat any veggie oil and it makes hydrogen, a toxin. People have gotten serious health issues thanks to margarine and cooking with these oils. Much thanks, niio
Red,
The toxic oils that are not for human consumption do have other purposes, as you mentioned for lantern oil and such. I just used some highly processed vegetable oil to clean off a vintage car jack that had ancient grease on it. The jack is nice and clean now and can be used on my wine press. I also have used dollar store cooking oils as a release on concrete forms.
I’ll just say this …
When I was in Korea, witnessed 1st hand porta potty trucks come and drain the portapotties. You could then see the same trucks driving out to the ricespatties after they were “full”
Chilpo beach, pouson, yongson, I can’t remember the other places.
Exodus: You can see that in the states, as well. When in Ohio, if a farmer wanted it, he could get on the list to have sewage sprayed over his fields. I saw a lot of ducks and geese raised on ponds in sewage treatment plants go to auction. Duckweed from those plants was fed to livestock. The Rhine River is the sewer of Europe, and the Thames the sewer of England. Parisians still use holes cut in the roads as outhouses. Water is used to fertigate. Israel tries to use every drop of water 7 times before it evaporates. Point is, it’s all over, but kept undercover. I do not eat meat or fish raised in Asia. But, Chile was the point of cholera from oysters and caused by dumping raw sewage in the ocean. Treated, it has its place in the fields. But not as chicoms did it, feeding it to livestock meant for export. niio
I’ll drink to that. There are 2 big wetland projects south of Dallas and Ft. Worth that filter over 150 million gallons of water the sewage treatment plants dump into the Trinity River, the water filtered through the marsh is then returned to the lakes that supply drinking water to over 3 million people. I think this is a good thing, they say it is.
https://texanbynature.org/projects/constructed-wetlands/
Red, I heard about blue tomatillos from you, I’m finally getting around to growing them this year, can’t wait to make blue salsa verde.
Red and judge
It’s one thing when the black water tank if you will gets dumped and filtered one way or the other whether through the marsh wetlands and etc or even through a municipal water treatment facility….. But to see Porta John get emptied and then dumping rice patties I don’t know it’s just that’s a little rough lol
Human waste also has all the pharmaceuticals that have been ingested. I spoke to the director of the residential waste systems when I went to pull a permit for a septic system. He told me that septic systems don’t break down the waste products when there is someone in the household on cancer treatment medications. He said another factor that impedes the breakdown of waste is if there are people in the household who use lots of sun tan lotion and then wash it down the drain in the shower.
Sage: Very true. England’s water is so polluted with chems from meds and sewage they advise people drink bottled water. Delaware is much the same. yet, a methane produces a low bacteria effluent. Methane bacteria destroy pretty much everything, especially the thermophilic. niio
Interesting username Exodus 20 Duet 5. May I ask why you chose that and if you follow that scripture?
Jonic
I chose his name because it’s one part of scriptures that a lot of people seem to think don’t apply anymore and yes I follow the whole scripture Genesis to revelation no cherry picking here
Sad to say here in America the processed sludge from our Sewage plants has been labeled “Organic” by the FDA and is used on several organic farms I know personally in New England.
Frankly folks, long before Chemical Fertilizers manure of many sorts was (and IS in plenty of places SAFELY) on food crops.
Most of our Grandparents used to eat foods fertilized by various manures. Somehow, we got born, lucky us 🙂
After all, can nobody here remember any RECALLS of Lettice’s and such contaminated by E-coli?
E-coli = Human Manure.
God built an amazing self-healing machine with a stout immune system. Take care of it 🙂 your only issued ONE.
Gonzalez.
I can’t believe the writer advocates using TVP as meat substitute. That stuff is a poison just like MSG. And white rice has no nutrition. But is a SHTF situation it’s something. Not a good idea to store too much of it
Where ppl buy their bulk food is going to come down to personal choice and availability. Many ppl are anti buying Chinese goods and I will agree that sometimes their quality control is not as good as our own standards. Having said that, I have an Indian grocers about an hour away which I like and another Asian shop a bit further. Some of my millets I buy online since I haven’t found anywhere to buy them. I’m not a lover of beans but do like millet, amaranth, lentils and sprouts so get them from the Indian store. Star anise and other herbs and spices are available in bulk or larger packets so good to buy from them too. Star anise makes a nice tea and contains shikimic acid.
Whatever I buy, I always rinse grains well before cooking as there is a certain amount of grit in grains bought in from Asian countries. I don’t have the same problem with locally grown grains.
No self respecting Japanese housewife would put rice straight from the bag into the rice cooker. It gets wash with 3 changes of water. Even when rice was cut by hand foreign material got mixed into the rice. It’s impossible for that not to happen. Then bulk rice is stored in very large sacks. Before polypropylene, rice was stored in sacks made from rice straw. It was easily invaded by rodents and bugs which pooped as they ate. Hence the need for washing the rice.
In Japan they sell rice that is supposed to be pre-washed. Read the first sentence of this post. My wife washes the pre-washed stuff just like she always has and stuff still comes off the pre-washed rice.
LCC, I totally agree about rinsing rice. My wife does the same thing (and taught me) to always rinse the rice several times before cooking, and if using a pan or cooker that does not have markings for measuring the amounts, she uses the “after rinsing you touch the top of the rice and add water so it’s above the rice up to the first joint of your finger, but no more or it will be mushy”.
This site has become known around the prepper blogosphere as the home of really vile bat shit crazy people. You can look
all over the the net and find no other site that allows these types
of comments.
I can only conclude that the owner just doesn’t care.
Sigh, Ron…No, we’re family. there is no dictatorship, just family. peace.
Well, 3Rons, There is such a thing as the
First Amendment. I may detest what you say but I will defend your right to say it. Yes, there are just a few who both monopolize the space (Guilty as charged) and some seem to engage in unhelpful back and forth, but on the whole, I would rather have that kind of a forum than one that has to tiptoe around what some small-minded censor thinks is appropriate. For instance, I could well see somebody like Amazon censoring your remarks criticizing the way the forum is managed.
I wholeheartedly agree that the back and forth sometimes gets tedious but it is a simple matter to skip over those senseless comments and look for the nom de plumes of real contributors to the list. I personally find the comments at least as, if not more so informative as the main article. I think this article is a good example of a fairly mundane article but it stirred some responses that I found informative. Personally, I feel if the list were censored it would lose its value.
Look at all the valuable information we got about pine trees in the previous article. I printed out Lin’s listing of the trees. I may not be able to tell a ponderosa from a Douglas fir, but I certInly know that I don’t want to mess with a ponderosa if I can possibly avoid it. Having read the results of one of the studies and the other sequels of cattle eating ponderosa needles, I wouldn’t want to risk my family’s health consuming ponderosa pine needles even if I didn’t bring the water to a boil.
So, I don’t care what the reputation reportedly is. I still find the list helpful. As I am often wont to postulate, Babe Ruth did not hit a home run every time at bat. He struck out more times than he got a hit but that was because he was aiming for the bleachers. It was all or nothing. If you are going to achieve mightily you must strive mightily. That of necessity means that you will also fail mightily. The secret is to continue to strive mightily. That’s what all of the followers of this list are trying to do, the absolute best they can given their circumstances to provide safety for their loved ones in the worst of times.
RonRonRon, you are partially correct, the owner of this site does care, and also allows Free Speech.
I find it annoying as all get out to read the sniping and quibbling here, but find the info in between worth the aggravation, and agree that this place, at least, doesn’t censor like Fakerbook does.
Too many of the people on here know SO MUCH MORE than I do, to let the minor hassle of scrolling thru the tripe stop me from learning so much.
Pardon my interrupting, I read a lot here, and never really post, but my contributions would likely be rather mundane anyway, so,,,,,, I just wanted to stand up for the people who make the place so worthy of my time reading here. It’s one of the few places online that I really do get “lost in the web”.
Oh, yeah, can someone please explain what “niio” means at the end of so many postings here? Thanks, it’s one phrase I don’t get, like some didn’t know what TEOTWAWKI for a while(at least that one I knew! ). Or the old “ymmv”, that too took a minute at first.
Shaun: Be welcome, always.
Niio means Walk in God’s beauty. Walk in beauty is both greeting and see ya later. Try it with an American Indian. niio
Red, how is it pronounced?
Nee-O? N-eye-O?
Red, thank you, I was under the impression it was like an acronym or initialism, aka SHTF kind of thing.
You happen to be one of those I see here a lot, so thanks for all your contributions.
Ginny: nEEoh. It’s a contraction. O is always short for Orenda, beauty. Ohio means the beautiful country. niio
Shaun, you are most welcome here and yes, sometimes I also get involved in the “pissing contests”. That said, while you’re on your journey to learn more about prepping, and there is always more to learn, please post your real-life experiences for the things you try, and not only what worked for you, but sometimes it’s more important to know what did not work, like Faraday cages. You will see a lot of conflicting posts about what will work and what won’t for homemade Faraday cages, so I did some actual testing at home with common things and the only thing I found that blocked cell phone signals was using a snack tin with a tight-fitting lid and cardboard as insulation so the phone did not touch the tin – the microwave, metal garbage can, ammo can, gun safe, refrigerator, etc. did not work, only the closed tins blocked the cell phone signal. You may help others if you post what you have personally tried that did work, and also what did not work, for any and all subjects. Knowledge is a valuable commodity.
and “niio” is a word “red” often ends his posts with and means something like “walk in gods beauty”, but red will post the correct meaning if he sees this. red and clergy lady post a ton of valid information about using the resources available to them and being self-reliant based upon their real-life knowledge and experiences, they are real preppers. There are several others, and each have different circumstances, so please understand you may have one person living in the Ozark mountains, another living in the Sonora desert, another living along the coast, some in rural, some in urban, and most are posting what works for them. There is no “one size fits all” answers for prepping, you will have to decide what is best for you, everything everyone posts on these types of blogs are just suggestions.
dz, Thank you, I’ll have to ponder what experience of mine might be worthy of embarrassing myself over. I’m more informed about carpentry/remodeling/woodworking than survivalist topics, tho I do have a son who I helped make it to Eagle in Scouting.
Shaun, carpentry and woodworking are excellent topics to post about. I have a very basic knowledge of carpentry, such as “measure twice, cut once”, but I’m no carpenter. Anything you share about what works, what to avoid, including links if available, are most welcome, please post. Sometimes these discussions cover topics like beer and wine making, which I have no experience with, but am interested in learning how it’s done. Please keep posting, and I’m sure you noticed, the article that gets things started often get circumvented in the posted discussions. I am definitely guilty of that! 🙂
dz Woodworking/carpentry is such a wide field it would be all but impossible to begin something without at least a starting point question of some sort. Like planting stuff, it could be anything from herbs to trees, ya know?
If I see someone asking something about one topic or another relating t it, I will happily toss my opinion out there for people to either glean some useful information (or to call me to task about). While I won’t claim to be a Master of any particular field, I HAVE been cutting boards for over 50 years, and been being paid to for close to 45 of them (dad had me using a handsaw at 7, and a circular saw at 9, once I showed safety was part of what I had learned).
I also have been interested in “old school” building design, and picked up a tip or two regarding what the builders of old did and why. Some of that is kind of interesting, even to people who don’t build stuff.
red, you’re right about carpentry and woodworking being such wide fields of knowledge. My goal is to let Shaun know we all have areas we are experienced in, and many others we are not. Hopefully Shaun posts some tips for things like how to use woodworking hand tools properly, how to select the proper tools to use, how to measure and mark properly, how to cut a straight line / curved line, how to properly make wall frames and trusses, how to join pieces of wood together without nails, screws, or glue, and so on. Anyone that has helped someone else with all the things required to make Eagle Scout has a vast amount of knowledge they may not even be aware they have, such as knot tying, how to find and prepare fire building materials, how to stay dry and warm, and so much more. Maybe some cooking ideas or recipes they like. Tips for baby or pet care when traveling, and anything else they can think of that might be useful for others to know.
Oops, Shaun, I thought red posted so replied as such, “my bad”.
Shaun: I earned my Masters in Wood Butcher. No one can wreck a piece of wood better than me. But, I saw a lot of buildings go up without a hint of metal. Every building put up like that on the old days, when they tried to push them over, the bulldozers stalled out. But, give me a pile of riprap and I’ll build a wall. Give me a mountain of adobe and I can make blocks or plaster lathes for walls. I do not like cob, but it works well. Add a hill of old tires and you’ll have an earthquake-proof house. niio
Shaun, by “old school design” do you mean doing things like using pegs to hold wood together? I would like to learn about things like that, please post.
this is gardening oriented for Southern California Zone 9A – Inland:
we have been getting frost during January and it killed most of my sweet potato vines, turning most of them black but not all, so I snipped about 8 inches off the ends of a few that were still green, put the cut ends down into a jar of about 2 inches water, and within a few days they started sprouting roots, and a week later are starting to grow new shoots from the joints where the leaves fell off as well as new growth at the tip. This seems to be a much faster and easier way I can start next year’s sweet potatoes without having to generate “slips” from the tubers. If the new “vines” get too long while in the house waiting to be planted outside, I’ll just cut them back and put the sections I cut off back into the jar of water and have even more starts getting rooted.
dz: does that work, rooting shoots from vine cuttings. I was told they don’t produce as well. No, I don’t know! But, I need to get busy or won’t have any sweet potatoes this summer. The red Tennessee peanuts went nuts (no pun intended 🙂 when the rains hit and spread about 3 feet in all directions, including up. After two previous years of failure with a usually easy crop, all I can say is dang. niio
red, I’ve never tried to grow peanuts, only read about it. I may try peanuts sometime in the future, but with my limited container gardening I am focusing on getting some trees to survive and fruit, and also experimenting with several varieties of vegetables. So far, I have a very productive Myer’s lemon, but all my other fruit trees (except the Moringa) are not mature enough to flower and produce. I bought a small fig tree in a container last year, but all the leaves have fallen off, although it appears that new buds are starting to develop so hopefully it survives and thrives. Last year someone gave my wife a locally climatized guava tree growing in a container, and so far, it’s still doing well staying very green even after the frosts. The Moringas died down a lot over the winter but are starting to produce new leaves and flowers again, and I have to prune them down to about six foot tall again, they are getting too tall for my wife to reach the tops.
red, I saw a picture of several sweet potatoes attached to a single root and had an idea: Since I grow in containers, what would happen if I took one of the sweet potato vine runners, laid it out in a spiral around the main root, and then about every foot along the vine – without cutting – I buried a small section at a leaf node under about an inch of soil, like a roller coaster going up and down into and back out of the soil around the spiral. Do you think the buried sections will root and grow more sweet potato tubers?
red, I only have two containers with sweet potatoes, and two years ago both were started with slips from a tuber. Last year I planted several of the smaller tubers back into the containers and they did okay, but I planted too many too close together and they are overcrowded – got bunched up in the middle of the container. It was only last November when I tried rooting the sweet potato cuttings to take some to my family in Oregon when visiting for Thanksgiving, and they rooted so fast and prolifically within a week that I thought that might be a good way to create new starts. I do the same for our Camote, but my wife only eats the Camote leaves, not the tubers, and the Camote cuttings produce lots of leafy runners so works well for getting a lot of leaves. Camote tubers are edible, but they are starchy and plain flavored, but maybe they need to be cured similar to sweet potatoes. (Sigh) Looks like I have more researching to do. 🙂
dz: yes, the cuttings should root, but I was told second generation won’t produce as many tubers. I never raised Camote type, but looked and it says they make the best sweet potato fries. Beauregard and Puerto Rico make the most tubers, at least for me. niio
red, I don’t remember the qualifications for Master Wood Butcher, and can only imagine the testing done to see who achieves that rank, but it’s surely an amusing thing to picture! 🙂
My dad was my first and most impressive teacher of tool use, and got me hooked early in life. He let me sometimes learn a lesson the hard way, while always making sure safety was foremost. To that end, I still have 10 fingers, though one fingertip did get “snipped” by a triple track storm window when I was 8. (OUCH! ) At least that wasn’t tool related.
Wood that is assembled using good joinery, like the best furniture OR quality homes, especially back in the day is always going to hold up better than something just nailed, or often even when using screws.
If you just consider the simple “Lincoln Log” joints you saw as a kid, and picture them with weight/mass added to them you can see why good construction practices would give bulldozers a reason to pause in their forward momentum, tho the idea that they’d be totally stopped is hard for me to fathom.
Some versions of fingerjoints and dovetails most often seen in dresser or desk drawers have also been scaled UP to be used for post and beam construction, often pegged with stout wooden “nails”. These make for VERY strong connections, in both big building and little jewelry boxes, but I’m sure you are aware of these, I merely remind others reading here that this stuff has been around for centuries.
Adobe, rip rap and cob have been being, I think, used for eons. It’s really an interesting thing, the way our ancestors dreamed up ways to use the natural resources around them. The trial and error to work this stuff out, particularly when time and tools were much less available than today, well, wowie kazowie, ya know? They are to be admired.
There’s a tv show “Homestead Rescue” I have seen several episodes of, that seem to focus on some of these topics to help people “off the grid” manage when they aren’t properly set up. I saw several episodes were they introduced “cobbing” to people, and one where old used tires were used, with cob applied. Earthquake proof, I dunno,,,,,,
Man, my fingers are getting numb, carpal tunnel syndrome is something I’ve developed this last decade or so, time to sign off for now,,,,, I’ll write again relatively soon.
Shaun: Wood Butcher Class Finals:
RULE NUMBER 1: Anyone removing body parts from self or others is disqualified.
That creep wearing the human face mask who claimed he had the starring roll in Texas Chainsaw Massacre was kicked out fast.
RULE NUMBER 2: You may NOT gun down opponents.
The chainsaw jerk made a serious mistake. He went after a little old lady who was armed with a hairbrush. But it may have been the Dirty Harry Special that got her disqualified. Word is, she’s still hunting for him. Little old ladies can be so mean, shish.
Yes, Dad was my first teacher and if I’m tempted to rush something, I feel chills, like, as if he were standing behind me 🙂 Do it right the first time in everything, and you won’t have to go back to redo it. That law of his set me right for life. If I have to, I can square loges, cut the joints and joists, raise a barn without any metal. Being a Wood Butcher grad, that might be why I love to work with stone and adobe ! But then, so did Dad. One Great-Uncle was a master builder and an architect, and used nails only for roof slates (stone, not tar and paper). Every place he built is still standing. He and my grandfather taught Dad and Dad taught all of us.
Ya, I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel in the left wrist. Right now, the surgeon at the VA has me wearing a splint to bed, and it helps a lot. It’s the middle tendon pressing on the nerve. Interesting side not, the carpal tunnel was where Romans put the spikes to crucify someone. I cannot imagine the suffering that caused.
Look up New Mexico college press and look for building with tires. Tires are packed with dirt, and stacked 6 inches apart and 6 inches above the lower tier. 6” of clay go over the tires. This withstood an earthquake that, I think, was an 8 in Mexico City. Even American Indian lathe houses (layers of lathes with clay plastered over them) had some problems but block and brick buildings crumbled. The tire houses got some cracks but nothing worse. niio
red, I’m still a novice about gardening and don’t really know what works better for sweet potatoes – I’m still reading how to cure them properly. I was not raised country, I was raised “woods” hunting and fishing, cutting evergreen trees, gathering berries, but not much food production. I have been growing tomatoes, green onions, and green beans off and on for several years, but it was only a couple of years ago that I really started to invest and learn a lot more – I’m still mostly experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t, and then try to figure out why it didn’t work, like overwatering, wrong timing, and lack of knowledge what to do about insects, slugs, gophers, and birds, and so on. The more I learn the more I realize how little I really know.
dz: Figs usually lose their leaves in winter. One thing about them, they love nitrogen. Compost is great. Some lady down your way planted some cuttings in old compost and the trees grew like 15 feet in one season with plenty of fruit. Her husband, in his garden, planted the same cuttings and they got only about ten feet high. Donno how well versed you are with the Bible, but it states when the fig leafs out, summer is near. That’s true. Look for leaves about the time mesquite starts to leaf out. Make sure it’s in full sun. I goofed and allowed the Brown Turkey to form a bush. While that’s not really bad, it’s near a fence (south side of it) that cuts off sun by late July. Now I have to chop out off the branches and force it to grow straight up. Ya, more cuttings 🙂
I like Tennessee Red peanuts because they did so well in the adobe soil. You go to farmer’s markets, ask what variety they think is best for your area. One major on peanuts is, of course, they should be part of a hidden garden. Food plants that don’t look like food, but weeds or ornamental plants belong. Have you tried nasturtium greens? If you like watercress, you’ll like them, they taste the same. Now is about time to plant them, as long as they don’t get a lot of frost, they should thrive and reseed.
When that guava makes fruit, please send some seed! I have one moringa still green, but that’s in a container under the eves. I hope the rest sprout from the roots. And, a seedman sold me seeds for mountain papaya, but they got too much water and the roots rotted (we had a wild, wet monsoon season, wow!). Now I need to buy more, and this time, plants go right in the garden, not a container. niio
Red: Of COURSE I know what agent orange – dioxin is. I’m a ‘Nam era veteran. I also already said (and there for already know) that Bayer bought out Monsanto and according to transaction records Monsanto ceased to exist upon Bayer’s acquisition, so how can Soros own a majority of it? One would think that as long as that Roundup weed killer has been on the market that if it was truly dangerous it would have been taken OFF the market long ago, particularly considering so many other products that were much less of a hazard to use which are now gone because of a draconian government killing them off for fear that a lab rat might become ill after consuming 2500 times as much of the stuff that someone might consume in a lifetime. I don’t use week killer. I don’t care about Soros. If he died tomorrow I’d say good riddance but I won’t lobby for his demise. All I know about any of this is from valid government resources, independent lab test results, and private research by individuals who published on the matter. And yeah, the grunts in the bush (I wasn’t a grunt, I was squadron commo) who had to wade through the dioxin without knowing what they were wiping off their fatigues was doing to them likely absorbed a LOT more of the stuff than most anybody using Roundup the way it’s supposed to be used. Personally, I’d use Gunk engine degreaser… that stuff kills plants as fast as any weed killer I ever saw. And it’s cheap. Meanwhile, I’m not a fan of Roundup nor do I know anything about native peoples’ being starved because of GMOs… so can’t comment on that. Go in peace…
tony: Agent Orange was in reference to the fact lawsuits are still going on decades after it because Roundup lawsuit will continue. Look up Tarahumara famine and you’ll see what happened. The dnc was involved but the clintons got off scot free. It’s not just American Indians who died because of GMOs. 24 Maine potato farmers died because of a GMO potato. No one bothered to tell them the potato was dangerous, and I have to wonder how many got sick and died because before they knew it was dangerous, a lot of tones of potatoes were sold to wholesalers.
Red… I spent HOURS looking for any references that listed thousands of indians having starved to death from GMOs or anything else. What I did find was years of famine caused by insufficient rainfall, including one year when it didn’t rain at all. Zero Rain the entire year. The crops failed, the indians had to use up their seed stocks instead of saving them for the next year’s planting. More drought. NOWHERE did I find any mention of Monsanto OR GMOs causing anything. Likewise, there were, according to sources NOT friendly to Monsanto or GMOs, several deaths from starvation, mostly small children. No massive starvation deaths. And I DID look, for almost 3 hours. Can you cite a reputable source for the thousands of starvation deaths that Monsanto’s GMOs are allegedly responsible for? I also noted that weather services showed cooling trends in the indians’ territories which also stunted the crops that the indians did manage to grow, but it wasn’t enough. A native seed conservation organization, Native and NOT from outside the region, did supply the indians with seed planting stock but the drought continues as does the colder climate. They simply cannot raise enough food to sustain themselves because of the cold and droughts according to every resource I could find on the matter. Again, can you cite a source?
tony: My ex is Tarahumara. The clintons were in charge then, the 90s. I bet you can’t find anything about the Nicaragua Moskitos Indians, either. 80% of them were killed by communists before Ollie North talked them into defending themselves. Methodist missionaries had them convinced Jesus would hate them if they dared to. A few months later, there was no standing army in Nicaragua. The Moskitos killed most of them and the Russians.
tony: BTW, it not raining for a whole year is called a short drought down here. It’s not important till the cactus dies, and that takes two or more years. Every time clouds blow in from the sea, trees run with water. The locals had a number of varieties of maize, all of which were developed to be drought tolerant. None of them survived the trigger maize. In my area of Arizona, we get 13 inches a year. More than 16 is excessive. The Zona de Silencio, south of the Tarahumara gets about 4 inches of wet a year and they can grow some maize there.
lol people who are preppers yet live in a desert ….. interesting ….. Guess that wasn’t thought out to well.. JW Rawles would of avoided that death trap.
anyways have a wonderful day and weclome to some expert advice from myself and my team.
parakeet, the day you become an expert in anything but self gratification is the day the world ends. I lived in the east and like the desert OK, but prefer Arizona’s SAVANNAHS to the desert. If you want desert, go to the Sahara. We have miles of brush all around. All are food plants with rare exception. That attracts thousands of birds like quail, doves, turkeys, some wild chickens, as well. Poultry and even tame rabbits can (and are) allowed to run free and take care of themselves. Big horn sheep in the mountains, cattle and deer in the canyons. Tons of squirrels and packrats if the need comes. We grow crops from July to May, and switch to cowpeas, maize, melons, squash, sorghum, and so on when summer comes. 1 April is the first day of summer. The first frost hits about thanksgiving, but we were picking tomatoes Christmas Day. Chilis tend to survive winter, even if frost burns them down. There are cherry tomatoes still ripening on the south side of the house, as well as eggplants, green onions, green beans, carrots, canna and so on. north side of the house, kohlrabi, which if watered will grow into a bush for summer. Cabbage, collards, sunchokes, citrus, mulberries, apple- and prickly pear cactus. wolfberries and goji, apples, cherry trees, and so on. Everything thrives with little chance of disease. Grapes are robust, dates are getting tall, tobacco tree is nice with blooms year-long and hummingbirds. Lavender is a commercial crop here. winter radishes are going well. Lots of pomegranate bushes. Figs will leaf out soon as will the mesquite, the tree of life because it produces sweet pods, 35% protein beans, fiber for ropes, nitrogen, firewood, fodder, and shade. All from the same tree, and there are millions of them all thru the valley. You have to pay for almost everything you eat. We don’t. Most of what we get free or cheap can be found at a very high price in the gourmet aisle in fancy groceries in your area. We also have two ski resorts south of here on Mt. Lemmon. Next time, think before you shoot yourself in the foot joe biden.
tony, don’t forget the other nasty herbicide also used a lot in Viet Nam – SILVEX (the herbicide), that was eventually banned in the US in 1985. My older stepbrother was a Helo pilot in ‘Nam, spraying Agent Orange and SILVEX all the time, said he often got saturated with the crap, including in his eyes, nose, and mouth. Years later he was developing a lot of medical problems, probably related to the toxins “Uncle Sugar” ordered him to spray, and eventually he stopped all contact with the family and disappeared. After that I do not know what happened to him, but I would not be surprised if he died from those “medical problems”.
dz: Two older brothers and an uncle, a lot of cousins, the same. niio
red, it’s getting hard to find the “reply” icons for all our gardening posts, so I’m starting a new thread.
I’m still a novice at gardening and will probably need to search for and grow more heritage varieties, but for now I’m still trying to figure out what I want to grow, and how to get them to produce. I will plant some of the pinto, small red, and black-eyed peas I gathered from when I grew them from the packaged foods, one container for each, and see how they do as the “second generation”.
I discovered I am six months backwards for curing sweet potatoes, the internet says they need to be in about 80 degrees with 90% humidity for about two weeks to convert the starches to sugars so they become sweet, then afterwards store them in a cool, dark, dry area, but not in the refrigerator or they will rot. I’m going to have to think about what I can rig up to try to cure them now that the temps are low. I’ll pull up a few more around August and see if I can get them to cure using Mother Natures summer heat, maybe in a plastic tub with a lid, or large glass jar, with damp towels to get the humidity up to 90% but not in direct summer sun or they will literally cook. Have you ever tried Okinawa Yams? I would like to try growing those also.
You mentioned you are starting fruit trees from cuttings, I would like to learn how to do that, any suggestions?
dz Yeah, I was raised in the brush and swamps, too, but we also farmed. One good thing about Oregon is you can raise things like truffles and wild rice easy. I heard ginseng does well, too.
When in Penna, I had to raise sweet potatoes in hanging grow bags. That way they got hours of sun and heat, though nights there are cold. Beauregard, I think they were. They did well. We didn’t cure them, but let the bags dry out and hung the bags, dirt and all, in the cellar. They kept from September to March, when the last of them started to sprout. It was funny, watching neighbors walk by and their jaws drop. Most were Dominicanos, and hated that they couldn’t raise sweet potatoes or cowpeas on the mountain.
Cuttings are good, if they want to be. Figs and mulberries are easy. It’s the peach cuttings that made my jaw bruise my chest, wow. Cuttings should be a foot long (more or less), half an inch thick if you can, or thicker. Cut a half-inch to an inch above the lower bud, and same above the upper. Lower end, scrape down to cambium layer and stick it in rooting hormone. You don’t have to use it, but it ups the odds. Some recommend wrapping ag plastic wrap over the upper cut to hold in moisture. I use peat moss to root in. It’s acid and rarely has disease a problem. Stick the cutting deep, but leave about half the cutting free of the soil.
I like cloches, plastic jugs with the bottom cut off, but use clear plastic tubs, as well. Soak the soil. Leave caps on the clotches and put it over the cutting, pushing it into the dirt. Bright light, warm if you can, and keep an eye on it. When it starts to sprout, take off the cap but set it on the opening for a few days. A lot of cuttings will sprout well before they root. That moisture needs to be in there for it. When it looks like it’s growing, remove the cap. If it looks like any mildew/mold on the leafed cutting, take off the jug for a short time. The thing should root well, and put the clothes away from the next round.
Recommended watching, Edge of Nowhere Farms, YouTube, and Mike Kinkaid’s channel. Mike is a bro from Phoenix, but went Navy, poor soul. He married a lady from Washington State and has a nursery there. He’s a master at cuttings. And a master joker. Best to you and remember, if you garden till you’re 99 and 9, you’ll always be on a learning curve. niio
red, my gardening is still restricted to about sixty containers of 1-, 2-, and 5-gallon sizes, a couple of larger “tubs” that are about twenty gallons, and one small raised bed about 10’x2’x2′, so everything I try is oriented for container gardening, including the fruit trees. I was browsing online and saw there is a pink flowering almond that is suitable for containers, gets about 5′ tall, but says it’s sensitive to frost, but I may try to get some seeds anyway and see if I can get some to sprout, and then keep them alive long enough to see if they will flower and produce. I did that with Moringa, and it worked out well, and the Moringa winter over outside even with some mild frost. I don’t bring anything inside to get out of the weather, my philosophy (for now) is everything I plant in containers has to survive outside in this environment while under my inexperienced care or I’ll try something else in its place. Things I won’t try to grow anymore are Swiss chard, radishes, and Okra (these all grew well but nobody eats them), and broccoli because I don’t know how to get it to produce well. I will also be cutting way back on the tomatoes and green onions because I grow too much of these and will instead use the extra containers for other veges and herbs.
I still have a lot of store bought seeds, but also a lot of saved seeds, so I’ll have to start keeping track to see if the saved seeds produce well or are downgraded for the next generations.
The guava is only about 2′ tall, and I have no idea when it should start producing, it might be several years out.
I created an email for us to chat gardening in more detail if you want: dzgarden@yahoo.com
red, the addy galo… did not work, but ts… did
Shaun, where I live there are little underground termites everywhere, do you have any tips on how to keep the termites from eating into my wooden fencing?
dz, The site is confusing me a bit as to how to respond to specific questions from specific people, but here goes:
As far as termites and fences, I know that today and for the last 50 or 60 years the common thing is using pressure treated woods, for decades it was an arsenic based compound, but that fell by the wayside for “less poisonous” versions. But I suspect you are looking for other options? Well, “back in the day” they used to coat the post with creosote, or in some cases used oil.
For more NATURAL effective methods, the last 240 years the suggested method has been to use redwood and cedar, at least that’s what I have used several times for customers who didn’t want the chemical stuff used commercially, and it has held up well for the decks I have done. Teak is another good one for decking, I bet it would work for posts, but that’s a guess. I used it on surfaces, but not as posts. I CAN TELL YOU IT’S REALLY A HARD wood!
I also understand that in the midwest they used to use mesquite for the fence posts, but my knowledge of that is only from reading about it, not my own experience. It’s reputed to be hard and dense and bug resistant.
Using wood pegs for joinery was, and occasionally is still, a method for holding wood together when metal either isn’t wanted, or unavailable, but with the small exception of a few furniture applications, it again isn’t something I have dealt with personally. More a matter of enjoying reading about such things, with the hope someday of dabbling in it.
For me it’s more a knowledge of building processes like how windows and overhangs/soffits have been used in the past to take advantage of solar gain and such. Using the angles of the sun in winter vs. summer to let heat in when we want it, and keeping it out when we don’t. Far too much of what is done today has NO consideration of such concepts. Or how moldings were used to preserve paint,,,,,
By now I have conceded to myself that at my age and physical condition it isn’t likely that I’d be doing a lot of the building of homes, even my own, as the preparation for protecting my family and aiming for survival will use what energy I still have available. At most, my furniture building hobby or maintaining the current home will still get some attention.
And of course, spending time reading such as here, and now perhaps even interacting, with friendly folk like you, also takes time, but it’s time well spent!
Keep the shiny side up! (kinda my own “niio”)
Shaun, thank you for posting, and this is useful information we can use and/or pass on to others. I am also getting too old to continue physically doing what used to be a lot easier, and I have service-related disabilities that are getting worse the older I get – I have to wear an abdominal binder daily or suffer for it, and I also have neuropathy in both feet that is slowly spreading and getting more intense. My perspective is that us old folks will be the “mentors” with the knowledge and experience to pass on to the younger and more physically capable, but that will only work for those that are interested. My son is finally starting to understand why I prep for disasters the way I do and is paying a lot more attention to what I do, how I do it, why I do it, and low and behold!!!, he even asks for advice once in a while.
While I was growing up in Oregon, my dad had a separate “shop” where he had a lot of woodworking tools and equipment, stored his small aluminum boat on its trailer, had a small woodstove for heat, would hang deer and elk to age before butchering, run a smoker, and did maintenance and repairs on his chainsaws – he was a Logger (Faller). I did learn a lot from him but did not pursue either the logging or woodworking to the extent he did. He was always “puttering” with something and was very good at so many skills I wished now I had learned more. I saw him use pegs for some of his woodworking projects, like jewelry boxes made from Murtlewood. When he passed away, I wish I had kept a lot of his old equipment and hand tools, but I had very limited room in my truck and was towing the boat back home with me so renting a U-Haul was not an option, so I selected a few other things instead.
I have 2″ diameter galvanized metal fence posts set into quikcrete, and agree that using cedar for posts and fence boards would be excellent for durability, but they are expensive, so I opted for the cheap fence boards and replace them when they get too much damage. I have a lot of lemons and have heard you can make something out of orange oil to stop termites, do you know if that works? and how to make some at home with lemons? I may try dipping the bottom edges of the fence boards in old motor oil as I replace them and see how that works.
Thank again, please keep posting.
dz, There used to be a story about Eskimos being cast out on an ice floe when considered too old to contribute, then one family hiding and keeping their oldsters and being glad they did, due to this knowledge you mention.
I fear that today might fall back on that same scenario for many. Luckily my son, even tho he is skeptical of my concerns, was raised to likely keep me around, as well as my wife. Not for our learning but emotionally.
My grandfather wore a “truss” for hernias, not sure if that’s the same as you mention. I too have the foot neuropathy, doc blames it on my diabetes.
I don’t have any info on lemon oil helping with termites, sorry.
I have done a little tree work, but these days if I were to want to do any logsplitting it would have to be with one of those automatic units, I can’t even imaging still swinging a maul enough these days to get a decent amount of wood.
I still have plenty of old time tools, (YAY!,) and they will at the very least be useful for bartering the extras that I decide not to keep for myself in the event of. Whatever you did manage to keep of Dad’s stuff will likely be better quality than what’s out there today.
Living in the “suburbs” my wife kinda made me get rid of the 17 foot canoe I had, so boating options are limited for us right now. We aren’t near any bodies of water big enough to take advantage of anyway, so the money from the canoe went to other preps.
Shaun: I was diagnosed with diabetes and it’s common in my mother’s side of the family. 1st, i quit anything with gluten and all symptoms stopped. Then, I quit carbs, more or less, and feel a lot better, more energy. It drive the docs nutty; they can’t prove I am diabetic anymore, but they listen, too. When mom came to live with us, we were off gluten. She hated it, but her diabetes stopped, LDL cholesterol dropped to a normal range but she gained 50 pounds from stuffing her face with candy, butter, and eating all the fat off of meat. No more heart problems, and she started to go out to weddings and party hardy. No diabetes, no LDL problems, and her HDL went up to normal because of no gluten. niio
dz: gonna stick my nose in. Do you have a woodstove of know anyone who uses one? Get soot from their chimney, mix with oil, and stir well. do not heat it! It’s going to stain, but if painted on the wood will drive off or kill bugs. I don’t know that water would work as well, but if you’d rather that… niio
red, no wood stove here, but there are a lot of decorative fireplaces in many of the houses around the neighborhood. Long ago I closed the flue and glass doors on my terribly inefficient fireplace and use the “hearth” for aquarium stands instead. If we want a fire now, we make one outside. I think just dipping the bottom inch or so in old motor oil might work well.
sz: Even better, but remember, bacteria feed on oil. You could also use some wood ashes.
Good comment on budgie boy not knowing about mojados. LOL, he’s in for a major shock when they walk into his hood. When it comes to revenge, they have an iron will. Strict survivalists, they tend to be smart, many raised on ranches and know what land is, and what’s growing there.
niio
Does anyone have any experience growing nut trees in containers like 5-gallon buckets? I have a few very young fruit trees in buckets (lemon, orange, avocado, mango, apple, guava, fig) but have not been able to find any suitable varieties of nut trees that are productive in containers.
Online I saw several recommendations for “pink flowering almond” but when digging deeper some gardening-oriented sites say they flower profusely but produce nuts sparsely. There are a few pecan trees in our area that produce nuts, but they are very large, I’m looking for food producers that will grow reasonably well in 5-gallon buckets, any suggestions?
dz, I think Japanese heartnuts can be kept pruned enough to raise in a tub, but 5 gallon buckets seem too small.
https://www.starkbros.com/growing-guide/article/fruit-trees-in-containers-pt1
https://urbansurvivalsite.com/fruits-and-veggies-you-can-grow-in-buckets/#you-may-also-like
and the bucket system
https://www.trees.com/gardening-and-landscaping/dutch-bucket
niio
this looks like a good site for gardeners
https://www.gardenguides.com/search?google_kw=dwarf+nut+trees
DZ:
Regarding your container sweet potato…I tried to grow some last year in a large bucket, got some greens and some long stringy roots – no tubers. I used a sprouted sweet potato from the supermarket – don’t know the variety.
Since I don’t know what I’m doing really, I’m not sure why I got no tubers. Thoughts?
Thanks for any advice you can give me.?
Miz Kitty, when in Pennsylvania, up on a mountain I raised sweet potatoes in hanging grow bags (1 per bag, they’re greedy feeders). they got sun in the morning and thrived. This and cowpeas should do well for you if they get enough sun and heat. niio
Miss Kitty, here’s what I have tried so far. Without any prior knowledge or experience with sweet potatoes, and not even any family members that grew them to ask for advice, I decided to try to grow some, so I read a lot of info on the internet and learned sweet potatoes need a long period of hot weather to produce, and I have that here, it usually stays in the 80’s-90’s from July through November, with a couple of weeks up to 100-105, but I do have to monitor closely and water a lot or they wilt. Is your climate suitable for sweet potatoes?
After reading up on how to propagate sweet potatoes, I managed to get a store-bought sweet potato to sprout some slips and planted some into a couple of black plastic pots, 18″ diameter, 16″ high, that I bought a few years ago. I planted too many, too close together then, but didn’t know what was best, and still don’t, but I’m working on it. 🙂
Sometime in the winter after my first attempt, I dumped them out and sorted, keeping a lot of smaller tubers to replant, especially any that had a vine already starting to grow, like planting a russet potato that is already growing sprouts. There were several small tubers and only about three large enough to eat (about half the size of the one I bought to start with), except I didn’t know anything about curing them and they were starchy and very plain tasting. I replanted both tubs with some of the smaller tubers, spread the tubers out a little more, and when it warmed up, they sprouted new vines. The hotter it got the faster they grew. I watered them regularly but otherwise let them go for the year without pruning or digging any out. I stopped watering everything about Thanksgiving to trigger any late seeding or dormancy, and avoid mold and rot, and also snipped about eight inches off some of the vine ends to root in water and take to my family in Oregon. We got some winter rain and they stayed green until it frosted this January, then all the leaves turned black, not brown, but black like frostbite, so I pruned all the dead leaves and any dead vines, saw a few of the vines had a little green left so snipped them off and put sections of them in water to root. They started rooting in a few days and also have new leaves starting to grow but are still in my kitchen window waiting to be planted. My second crop was also overcrowded, but did produce more and bigger tubers, but nothing like the tubers grown in open ground that are sold in the produce sections. For my third attempt I will only plant three vines at most in those tubs and see what happens this year. I may also try a single sweet potato tuber or slip in a 5-gallon bucket that is 12″ diameter, 15″ tall, and only plant one per bucket to see how those compare.
I would say if you have a long enough hot period, then plant the slips outside and fairly well spread out per container as soon as your area is past danger of frost. The only pest problem I noticed with my sweet potatoes are the grasshoppers will occasionally nibble on a few leaves, but that made no difference that I can tell.
I’m slowly doing my container gardening winter maintenance, pulling out weeds and dead plants for the composter, dumping out and loosening up the potting soil to get ready to replant, and I also have a lot of 5-gallon buckets to clean and drill the drain holes to use as containers. My wife gets a lot of empty food grade 5-gallon frosting buckets from bakeries and ice cream shops for free or $1.00, so if you are looking for food grade 5-gallon buckets, call around to all the ice cream shops like Baskin Robbins, and any bakeries, including the ones at WalMart and Costco. You may find some decent sources for food grade 5-gallon buckets.
DZ:
Thanks! I think you may be right about the growing season. It seemed a lot shorter last year, and temperatures stayed fairly low – despite the balcony getting full southern exposure, many of my seeds came up very late and the weather turned cool several weeks early. I’m going to try some shorter season plants this year, and hopefully I’ll have better luck. Last year stunk!
Miz Kitty, old saying goeth, she who complains about the weather shall experience it. 🙂 Now, if you have a sunny window, get those peppers and tomatoes started, and especially the sweet potatoes. Your porch/balcony faces west or north? I can’t recall. Sweet potatoes and cowpeas go in the sunny side, with chilis behind them and tomatoes behind them. Cowpeas love to climb, and have light purple blooms, and the green bean types, a lot of them all summer. Sweet potato vines can crawl over the edge and hang there looking purty. I know you said some people get stuffy about raising veggies there, but there are small sweet peppers that are both ornamental and prolific, as are some cherry tomatoes. You rock! Keep us up on your garden. niio
Many good points in this article, but if you are a westerner and do not know exactly what you’re buying, you will be wastjng your money on a product you did not expect or getting something not suited to your taste buds! Case in point: the picture of “salted black beans”. If you think you’re getting black beans you can use as a main course, you will find it extremely salty. These are used for flavoring and not as a main staple (think of the pork and black bean dishes you order at a Chinese restaurant).
Other comments about poor quality control and toxic issues are also well documented. There can be food safety issues (fresh produce and shelf stable) at Asian stores, but that is rare, I believe, as long as the store is inspected and regulated by the health department. Case in point was news of a women contracting a flesh eating bacteria from “live” fish at such a store. a few years ago. It was closed down, but when it reopened, it seemed much improved (cleaner, better organized).
Still, buyer beware.
Red:
I’m on the SSE side of the building, so I get full sun from early morning until about 2pm this time of year, 5-6pm in the summer. Summers here the last few years have been hot and humid, but last year was a bit cooler and started late.
I’m concerned about the projected even later spring in the long term forecast, because I had sowed direct last year and even early seeds didn’t want to sprout until mid June. Very strange, but I am definitely going to start seeds indoors this year. Hopefully I can keep the cat out of them!
Miz Kitty: Ah, well, I’ll trade that cat for Termite. He’s great for tearing out small trees and wrecking grape vines. But, a few branches in the garden beds covered with thorns helps. One thing he’s great at is silence. The breed is usually very quiet. Very good guard dogs who don’t leave a lot of unwanted evidence around. Think 50 pound Chihuahua, they’re the standard of the breed. But, one of the most intelligent breeds, and highly energetic. So far, he thinks it soooo cool to wear a small harness and packs.
The redtail hawk showed up to watch um. She was probably thinking that long-eared barking rabbit I had is now on steroids and growth hormones. She sat on a pole for about 5 minutes, then gave up. But, Termite does have a couple of kitties he’s afraid is. Big kitties. A mountain lion and a bobcat. Coyotes, shmeh, fuzzy toys. But let the lion come down the mountain, he will not go out unless I’m with him. If the bobcat shows up, the mountain lion runs away. I would, too. 🙂 niio
A Chinese food (or Asian) market does have a wide variety of foods, but meats, fats, and canned goods will cost more than your average supermarket.
Use an asian food store as an opportunity to stock up when foods get scarce because many non-asians won’t know about them.
It is the same with nearly any ethnic market, although we have Phoenicia here (foods from all over the world) and most of their goods are competitively priced.