More often than not, people focus on the cons of salt. In-depth research indicates that reducing salt intake can help you save between $10 and $14 billion in healthcare per year.
On the flip side, salt is critical for keeping your body functioning optimally. It is a central component of extracellular fluids present in your body.
It also helps regulate hydration and assists in body functions like contraction and relaxation of the muscles, and so on.
Apart from being an essential element when baking and flavoring food, preppers use them for numerous purposes, including:
Food Preservation
Salt is an off-grid and effective way to preserve meat. It allows you to preserve a wide variety of smoked foods without refrigeration.
Related: 17 Forgotten Preservation Hacks that Will Save You Money
Cleaning Fish with Salt
When it comes to survival situations in the wild, you’ll have to catch fish that you can clean with salt. It loosens the fish scales, thereby speeding up the process.
Nasal Rinse
Dissolve sea salt and baking soda in water to rinse nasal passages and lubricate them.
First Aid Treatment for Skin Irritation
If you’re suffering from skin irritation, such as rashes, blisters, pimples, or ingrown hair, you should soak the area in salt water to relieve pain.
Decrease Cooking Time
Save time in emergencies by rubbing salt on frozen food to speed up the defrosting process. It also increases the cooking temperature and helps prepare food faster.
Related: No Gas, No Electricity… How To Cook Indoors Without Smoke
Maintains Your Daily Nutrients
You might not have access to ample nutrients and minerals in a survival situation. Failure to do so can lead to fatigue, muscle, and cramps. Therefore, you must enjoy a healthy amount of salt on a day-to-day basis to maintain your body’s nutrients.
Especially since it’s likely that you will end up losing a lot of salt via sweating in survival situations.
Cut Cutting Board Odors
During survival situations, you may have to confine yourself within your home for prolonged periods. The last thing you want is to be stuck with foul smells.
To eliminate the odor of your wooden cutting boards, pour a generous amount of salt and rub it with a damp cloth. Now, wash in warm water.
Clean Cast Iron Skillets
You don’t have time to use dishwashing soap in the wild and spend hours making your pots and pans shine. Instead, you can create an excellent paste using salt and little water to scrub your cast iron pans. This will give them a shiny and polished look.
Related: How To Restore A Cast Iron You Bought At Garage Sales
Put Out a Fire
Fires can be devastating. Therefore it’s always a good idea to stop the flames before they start getting out of control. Throw salt at it to reduce the flame size and prevent accidents.
Use it to Keep Teeth Clean
Survivalists may be unable to access toothpaste in the wild; thus, mixing baking soda with salt is a great alternative way to keep your teeth sparkling.
Soothe a Bee or Poison Ivy Sting
Apply water and salt on the poison ivy sting to alleviate pain.
Kill Grass Growing in Your Home
During survival situations, it’s always a good idea to grow organic food in your home. An excellent way to prevent unwanted grass and weeds is to sprinkle salt and water over them.
Remove Baked on Messes
Remove salt stains on your pots and pans by scrubbing them with a salt and water paste.
Treat Your Tootsie
Prepare salt water and soak your feet in it for at least 15 minutes to relieve muscle tension. For a luxurious massage, add a few drops of essential oil.
Extend the Life of Milk
Add a pinch of salt to milk to keep it fresh; you can never have enough perseverance tips for surviving in the wild.
Related: DIY Condensed Milk Recipe That Can Last More Than 2 Years
Clean Non-Stick Pans
Cleaning your utensils is a difficult task during survival situations. Rub a small amount of salt on your pancake griddle to prevent your flapjacks from sticking.
Keep Blood Stains from Staining
If you cut yourself in a survival situation, you can keep the blood from staining your clothes. Soak the dirty clothes in cold salt water to keep the stain from setting in.
Deodorizing Shoes
Sprinkle a bit of salt in your shoes to wick away moisture and foul odors.
Melt Snow and Ice
If your living space experiences high amounts of snow and ice, sprinkle salt to melt it away and ensure a comfy resting area.
Remove Soot
You would be cooking in the open fire when in the wild or camping. This leaves you with a heap of ashes, foul smell, and burning smoke. Throw a little salt onto the flames to loosen the soot and get rid of these problems.
Treat a Sore Throat
The stress of a survival situation may harm your throat. Gargling with salt and water is the best way to combat a sore throat.
Help De-Feather Chicken
Quickly de-feather your chicken by rubbing salt for easy nipping.
Kill Disposal Odors
Remove odors from your garbage by dashing salt to absorb moisture and the foul smell.
Supplement for Health
Iodized salt boosts energy levels and increases blood flow, essential for an active lifestyle.
Related: How To Make Calcium Supplements from Eggshells
Sanitize Your Sponges
In extended survival situations eliminating bacteria and other germs from your living space is a challenging yet vital task. Boil your cleaning sponges in saltwater to sanitize them.
Remove Rust from Tools
A high-quality paste of lemon juice alongside salt is the best way to remove rust spots and make your tools look good as new.
Fill in Holes in Plaster or Drywall
Remove damages in your wall by combining starch and salt and use it like putty to fill minor holes.
Make Nuts Easier to Crack
In the wild, you won’t be able to access utensils. Soaking your nuts in a salt brine solution makes it easier for you to crack them.
Put a Stop to Suds
A majority of soaps and detergents no longer sud like they used to. Sprinkle salt to increase suds and enjoy clean clothes even in the wild.
Related: How to make Antibacterial Laundry Detergent at Home
Preventing Mold on Cheese
When it comes to surviving an extended survival situation, you have to learn to preserve food.
Soak the cheese in salt solution and cover it with high-quality plastic wrap to decrease mold spread. Or, consider soaking a towel in salt water and wrapping it tightly around the cheese.
Exfoliate Your Lips and Skin
In extended survival situations, your skin may start getting itchy and dry. Find a warm shower in the wild and bath with salt to remove dead skin and boost circulation.
Moreover, you should use it over your lips to slough off dead skin.
Treat Your Oral Wounds
Gargle with a mixture of warm water and salt to treat different oral wounds such as canker throat and so on during a survival situation.
Test for Rotten Eggs
You might not have access to storage spaces or refrigerators in a survival situation to preserve your food items. However, with saltwater, you can ensure you’re eating the freshest eggs. Simply add two teaspoons of salt into a cup of warm water. Rotten eggs will start floating while fresh ones will sink.
Natural Bug Repellent
If different bugs and ants enter your living quarters, you should consider using salt to keep them away. Since bugs aren’t fond of salt, sprinkling some will help keep them at bay.
Salting and Drying Hides
Salt is an integral part of the drying and tanning process. Not only does it prevent the growth of bacteria, but it also assists in drying your clothes when in the wild.
Clean Your Flushing Wounds
Another excellent use of salt is to treat flushing wounds. It is because salt water is an effective way of killing bacteria and preventing infection.
Related: How To Make Antiseptic Sugardine To Treat Wounds And Inflammation
Replace Electrolytes
You can’t drink seawater; however, salt is rich in minerals that help you stay healthy. For this reason, various hospitals use saline solutions to provide you with fluids.
If you’re stuck in a survival situation, simply add a pinch of sea salt to offer your body with electrolytes necessary to keep you well-hydrated.
Ensure a Healthy Diet
Make your dishes tastier and healthier by adding a pinch of salt to them.
Help Harden Homemade Soap
In survival situations, you may have to fabricate your soaps. Sprinkle salt during the process so that you can harden it and cut it into bars.
Related: DIY Wilderness Soap And Shampoo From This Plant
Make Your Clothespin Last Longer
One great use for salt is making your clothespin durable and resilient. If your clothespin is exposed to different weather, elements can become prone to cracking and breaking.
In survival situations, it will be impossible for you to purchase clothespins frequently. By boiling your clothespins in saltwater, you can make them more durable. You may even add salt to rinse water to restrict it from freezing your clothesline.
DIY Mouthwash
Ensure dental hygiene even in the wild by combining salt with baking soda to make the ideal mouthwash.
Related: Dental Care after SHTF
Rid Grass Stains with Lemon Juice and Salt
Your clothes will likely be covered in grass stains by the time you reach home. Treat these stains with lemon juice and salt to keep them from leaving a mark.
Clean Up Around the Campsite
A fantastic scouring material, salt is a great way to prevent mold, yeast, and bacteria from growing in your surroundings.
Make Drip Proof Candles
Soak candles in a saltwater solution and then dry them to ensure they don’t drip as much.
Preserve Fruit
Keep your peeled fruit fresh and delicious by dipping them in salt.
Prevent Grease Splatters
Add a little salt to your pans before cooking to avoid getting grease burns.
Related: 25 Survival Uses For Leftover Bacon Grease
Protect the Bottom of Your Oven
If your casserole bubbles over in the oven, treat the spill with salt. It will end up baking into the crust and will be easier to remove once it cools off.
Wash Dirty Greens
Salt solutions make it easier for you to remove dirt from your greens. It is the perfect trick for preppers who own a garden as well.
Final Verdict
The best part about salt is that it is super easy to store. From mylar bags to soda bottles, you can stuff salt in different types of packaging.
Please protect it from moisture and direct sunlight to prevent salt-brick formation. While it contains plenty of minerals, it’s not a pure source of nutrition.
It is a multi-purpose and affordable alternate to storing foods, medical treatments, and equipment maintenance for survivalists.
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This is a Very interesting article because we take salt for granted today. The history of salt is also something that is a real eye opener too. If you ever get a chance, visit a salt mine. It will be an unforgettable experience.
Probably the most interesting salt mine is in Zipaquirá, Colombia (a little ways outside of Bogotá). They call it the Salt Cathedral. It’s still an operating mine, but some of the walls have been carved into stations of the cross. I’m not Catholic, but I understand that including a throne for the bishop officially makes it a cathedral. Very interesting tour!
it is harder to buy salt in bulk
Although sidewalk salt may have grit in it, boiling it in a turkey fryer deep pot makes an excellent salt spray/ cleaning solution/ weed killer/ or what have you.
Is there a restaurant Depot near you? If there is, they sell it in large bags. Also try the cash & carry options of food service suppliers (Sysco Foods, US Foodservice, PFG, etc). They sell salt in 25 & 50 Lb bags.
50-pound bags of plain table salt cost me $12.50 each at my local Super One Food Store. Although I don’t have a saltwater pool anymore and the price may have gone up a bit, a bag that size is worth it.
Good job! Very informative! Many uses that I was not aware of.
There was some information recently that the Morton Salt Co.
was having trouble getting some kind of special cardboard for
their containers.
Who would have known that there is special cardboard anyway.?? It must sitting in one of those cargo ships anchored
in off the coast of California. Along with the coiled steel for my
garage door.
Everything will be fine now that idiot Biden has issued one of his infamous executive orders allowing the longshoremen and
truck drivers at the ports to work 24/7.
Raven Tactical:: Try a restaurant supply store for bulk salt.I’ve
not seen it at any grocery or box store.
JATHOGG!! TRANSLATION: JOE AND THE HO GOTTA GO.
executive orders allowing the
You would think someone on his team would have told him that they already work 24/7! You would think somebody on his team might have let him know that paying people not to go to work will keep them at home. You would think that somebody might have mentioned that taking away our energy independence would have a major impact on the logistics supporting our supply chain. And finally, it would have been nice if he would plan take steps to identify and insource manufacturing to secure our ability to provide for and defend ourselves. One wonders what does he do all day? After all you can only watch so much tv and eat so much ice cream.
CC: Yes, they already know their tactics only destroy. They’ve used them for a over a century with the same results. Perhaps to the very beginning. Have we ever had a dem president who didn’t destroy the economy? Look at what the Weimar Republic did to get Hitler in power. Here we have people who consider Hitler a demigod.
niio
The situation in the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach is that the Air Pollution Control District wanted to cut down on air pollution from operations in the port district. Another greenie fairy trail. So hours of operation were mandated. Makes sense, huh, cut working hours by 50 percent cut air pollution by 50 percent. As with so many hare-brained bureaucratic schemes by bureaucrats who don’t know Sic ’em from Come here, they got the results of unintended consequences — ships backed up clear to Shanghai. This should be Two-Shot’s fault, but this is one that can’t be blamed on him. It should be blamed on the LAAPCD who are reportedly at a retreat for six weeks in Katmandu.
In other cheery news, a second LA city councilman has been arrested on bribery and mail fraud charges. I waited to see him do a perp walk, but he is a career politician, so got to turn himself in. No busting down his door at 0300 by a swat team like Trump’s part time lawyer on a misdemeanor charge. And this one is a couple of felonies. Don’t hold your breath waiting to see him do time in the joint.
This was a scheme for daddy to get a phony degree for junior after junior had to resign his assembly seat due to molesting the female help. The wire fraud charge is stemming from a $100 thous bribe paid to a chancellor at UCLA who arranged for junior to enroll at UCLA and in addition be hired as a professor. No mention what he was supposed to teach considering that his speciality seemed to be in sexually harassing women. The $100 thou was to be passed through to a non-profit that junior had set up. The UCLA chancellor was to get additional emoluments. I should mention that UCLA was also the college that was involved in selling athletic scholarships to non-athletes. All of this news was preceded by the newscaster stating that UCLA is in financial difficulty. Duh! No wonder with all the financial shenanigans going on I can well understand why they might be in financial difficulty. Is any money actually going into the operating funds there? Is anybody paying tuition?
I want to shake the muck of this state from my boots so badly.
Sam’s Club used to sell 25 pound bags of salt but they quit. Now you get it in 3 or 4 pound boxes, depending on the style.
Webstaurant store has bulk salt at fantastic prices – and then they charge twice the price of the salt for shipping and they have no willcall or pickup so I can’t imagine that they end up selling any at all. I’d like a 275 gallon IBC tote of plain salt, one of kosher salt, but just a few boxes of iodized salt for use at the table but I can’t find bulk like that.
One great tip was to store it in soda bottles. I drink too much soda anyway, which leaves me with too many bottles. Now I know what to do with them. Otherwise, I have been storing salt in Mylar bags.
Dale: Feed stores carry 50 lbs blocks of salt and 5 lbs blocks of minerals. Our major concern is a lack of iron thanks to caliche (limestone) and a soil Ph of 8.5 But, there’s plenty of cast iron on any marketplace, and sulfur is not expensive; it’s used to break up caliche. niio
I store my salt in 1-gallon vinegar bottles. Same thing, different size.
Maybe try TSC, Dale.
Oxygen doesn’t degrade salt, but humidity will turn it into a lump! Eventually it will absorb moisture, even through original packaging. An simple extra protective layer of well sealed plastic is what you need.
I searched for TSC salt and it came up as Tractor Supply, here’s a link for the salt blocks they carry
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/catalog/livestock-salt
Let’s Go Brandon!
Longshoremen want to go on strike.
Recently heard that Cali ports have to now be in compliance with the green new deal! That would mean no gas powered equipment allowed and that’s something to strike about! It just gets better and better. To escape this edict, and deliver the goods ships need to go through the Panama Canal and get over on the Gulf side. That still means Christmas in July for many tots expecting Santa to arrive on time with the goodies! Time to bring back more manufacturing!
Governor DeSantis made a statement on OAN inviting all cargo ships to head for Florida, saying they have plenty of docking facilities, equipment, and personnel available and will be very happy to offload all of them. Eventually it will be a matter of cost effectiveness for shippers to go through the Panama Canal, offload in Florida, and then transport their goods by truck or train from there to where they need to go.
You can buy salt at livestock feed stores in bulk for a very reasonable price. While you might not want to use it for eating, it can be used for many of the other uses for salt.
One can purchase 50# bags of salt from Amazon. Amazon also has, wonder of wonders, gluten free salt ! ! ! Wowza. Remember, when purchasing 50# of salt from Amazon, the price includes shipping of 50# of salt. So I think locally procured might be cheaper.
I haven’t checked Costco for 50# bags of salt. The next time I go, I will. Smart & Final, a grocery chain in the Western U.S. carries bulk bags of salt but I haven’t checked them in a long time to see what size they are. Salt was one of the first things I put down when I started prepping and that may have been as long as ten years ago, so I don’t remember exactly how much I bought. I have six one gallon jugs of salt, so probably 25#. I only have a couple of pounds of iodized salt as we don’t need nearly as much of that as we will non-iodized salt.
Although table salt has an expiration date on it, that is mainly for the additives. I don’t know if iodine has an expiration date as it is a basic element. Otherwise, the salt you are buying if it is from a salt mine is probably millions of yeas old, so disregard that silly expiration date. The salt will outlive you by eons.
If it gets hard, just take an ice pick or a fork to it to return it to little chunks. Rock salt is just bigger crystals of table salt. It may have more dirt in it as it is going to be thrown on roads and doesn’t need to be cleaned as thoroughly as table salt. You might even find little chunks of rock in the rock salt. That’s not why it is called rock salt, however.
LCC: Once exposed to air, iodine will evaporate over time. Don’t you live near the ocean? Plenty of iodine and sea salt in every pile to kelp that washes on shore.
We have 100 lbs rock salt, and that can be melted in water, then evaporated to clean it. Better got a few extra yards than wear out teeth on it. niio
I think the expiration date for additive-free salts, such as kosher, canning, etc., might be as much about the packaging as anything else. Who wants to eat food with bits of cardboard boxes in it? Actually, it’s probably not all that dangerous but I still repack mine into Mylar, without an O2 absorber, or now that I’ve read this article, I’ll try some cleaned out soda bottles.
I can tell you, though, that the boxes of canning salt that you find in the stores will harden long before the marked expiration date – as fast as in a few months in my experience. I can easily cut the Mylar but not sure how I’d get a hardened block of salt out of a soda bottle… Maybe in a year I can remember to reply here and let you know.
But the key is to get the salt out of moist room air and into a sealed container as quickly as possible. Of course if it hardens you can always pound it using a stone mortar and pestle to break it up.
ehall: We don’t eat a lot of carbs but likesome beer, so gluten free grain from the feedstore, and some for sprouts. When we get back with poultry, they’ll get sprouted grain, not grain. It’s a lot higher in feed value. niio
Go to a feed store get 50lb bags of rock salt. Cheap and in plastic bags.
When you fill the salt shaker, add 4-5 grains of white rice. It will absorb the moisture in the air and keep the salt in the shaker flowing.
C: What’s moisture?
If you ever come to call, please, do not step in piles of wet clothes on the sidewalk. That’s where tourists melted under out gentle summer sun. niio
Well done, Brandi. While a pound of salt here lasts for a lot of months, it’s still essential. We have 50lbs bags of rock salt. It’s rough, but can be melted in water to release any sand in it, and dried. One old-time way to make salt was to chop up and boil hickory or pecan twigs. Onions, celery and so on accumulate salt.
niio
Red:
Back in Biblical times, salt used by most of the common people was chunks of mined salt, as opposed to sea salt. The raw, unprocessed salt rocks were sold in chunks which were placed in a piece of fabric, tied shut, and put in a bowl of water. When the water was salty enough, the bag was removed and allowed to dry and the water used in cooking or as a dip for food, such as bread or cooked vegetables. When the salt was all dissolved, the bag was opened and the sand, pebbles and dirt were shaken outside and the bag reused. This is the source for Jesus saying “If the salt has lost its flavor, how can it be re-salted? It’s no good, except to be thrown out in the street.”
Incidentally, there was such a demand for refined, mined salt that the crud boiled out from the raw salt at commercial refineries was sold to the Roman Empire and used as gravel when building roads.
I recommend Salt by Mark Kurlansky. It’s a great book about the historical and cultural significance of salt.
Yes, salt at one time was so valuable that it was used as money. This is where we now have the term SALARY, as well as the term “The man is not worth his salt” meaning he was not worth his salary or pay.
Some thing else I found interesting, was after flushing out a wound with salt water, is to treat the wound with sugar. I have seen Vet Ranch on youtube use this method for treating some pretty bad wounds on animals.
Here’s a short 5 minute video showing them using it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bAu4rxdwT4
The book Salt by Mark Kurlansky is a good read. I, too, recommend it.
Miz Kitty: Got my copy from Thrift books, 5 bucks.
Mined salt is called galena here, and is brown. We live in an Israel-like environment and evaporation is usually pretty fast. Just look at the apple tree after it hit over 100 F with up to 20 MPH winds at 4% humidity for weeks. Galena is boiled, then filtered. the sand is tossed out for animals, and the brine evaporated.
Here, are you fooling around on me? 🙂 Good, because I don’t need another bullet scar from an angry woman. niio!
When we shop at the store for most of our food, a 26 oz box of table salt will last for years at our house. But as we’ve learned to cook with real food, make all our own bread (haven’t bought bread in any form from the grocery store in a long time), etc., we find we use a lot more salt. Even sweets take a little salt.
We hope to build a chicken coop and some rabbit hutches this fall – I hope we’re not just too late for that now – and then we’ll need even more salt for curing meats, making broths, etc. 5 to 10 pounds a year might be OK for now but one might wish they had 100 or even 200 pounds of assorted types of salt.
Given worst case scenarios, even a ton might make sense; it all depends on what a person prepares for. We can’t prepare for everything and everyone has their own level of concern and prep according to their own concerns; there is no wrong answer because there’s no guarantee of having the right answer.
Dale: Our rabbits would go thru a lot of salt. We want to get back into poultry and plan to go modern, feeding as much sprouted grain rather than specialty food. It takes a week on average to sprout and green the sprouts. If you know a farmer, buy from him not the feed store. Any grain brought into the country is supposed to be irradiated to stop from spreading diseases. Rabbits, here, most people let their herd run, and livetrap any they need. But, we don’t suffer a lot of things wetter areas do. niio
red, where is “here”? Thanks for the reply; it’s interesting. Also I looked up galena and find that it is lead. Couldn’t make any assumption of your “Israel-like” environment’s location.
Dale: 45 miles north of tucson.
Galena is what old-timers call natural salt mixed with dirt. I checked and dang, the name is used for lead sulfite!
Down in my area, a large village, people often just let rabbits run free. Poultry, because of hawks and eagles, even a chicken run needs a roof of heavy wire. niio
Yes, unfortunately that’s how 20 year olds look like they are 40 in AZ. No moisture in the air to hydrate the skin. With the hot sun, Spritzing water on oneself is not enough to compensate. You have to jump in the pool and hope you don’t boil.
If you rub salt on any kind of metal you need to be sure to then wipe it down shortly with suitable oil, otherwise the salt will draw moisture out of the air and will quickly corrode the metal object.
Salt is a desiccant which means it draws moisture out of items. That’s how it preserves food by drawing the moisture from the food item. There is no moisture in metal, so that the salt draw moisture from the air and will very quickly corrode any metal object. Try running your boat in the ocean and not cleaning it thoroughly after you bring it home. Watch how quickly the aluminum and other metal parts start to corrode.
That’s one reason why black powder firearms need to be cleaned thoroughly after firing. It is also the reason why corrosive primers made it necessary to clean firearms quickly after firing such ammunition.
I haven’t tried a comparison, but baking soda is recommended for cleaning rust and corrosion from metal objects. I don’t know which works better baking soda or salt but with baking soda one need not be so scrupulous about cleaning off the residue.
Just a silly question.
Can Epson salt be used for any of these things? Is it edible?
Epson salt can be used internally in very small amounts for its laxative effects. It can’t be used in place of salt.
I use epsom salt as a soak for minor infections to keep them from becoming major infections. According to the directions on the package it can also be used for fertilizer although I have never used it for that purpose. A soak in a bath of epsom salt is supposed to be relaxing, especially if one has sore muscles.
I have used epsom salt for the infection soak for over 50 years. It has always worked for me. That is the only purpose I used it for health-wise, but I have 30# put up in plastic mayonnaise jars just for that purpose.
The label also gives directions for use as a laxative. I retained the labels from all the packages that I bought and put the labels with the formulae for use in the jars where I am storing it for the EOTW.
ehall: Not in quantities! You’ll get the toltec two-step like you had cholera. It’s used as LCC said, and also for people–and gardens–short on magnesium. A few grains a day should stop any magnesium problem. Same for you and the garden. niio
Epsom salt CAN be used internally in VERY small qualities. That’s not really what it’s designed for. Some people have tried using Epsom salts for enemas. I’m not one of them. Doesn’t end well. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. If you soak in a solution of Epsom salts and water some of the magnesium is actually absorbed into your skin. Great for aches and pains.
And to pull out infections from cuts.
Rock salt is available at feed supply stores; water conditioner salt is available at home improvement stores 50# and 80# plastic sacks. due to the pillow shape of the water conditioner salt, it will have to be crushed before use. the rock salt is good for any use except direct to table-and makes an outstanding varmint load in a 12 ga.
I would think that water softener salt could be used for food purposes. After all, one uses it to recondition the softener element so it must be relatively free of dirt and rocks. As Steve pointed out, it would have to be broken down but that can be easily accomplished by any variety of instruments. Be sure to clean them thoroughly after smashing the salt if they are metal, especially steel.
From: https://www.cargill.com/food-beverage/na/food-salt-faqs (I found the same answer several places.)
Can you use softener salt with food, such as canning or with meat packing?
Although water softener pellets may be made from food grade salt, the pellet press process, itself, does not meet the criteria required to call the finished pellets “food grade”. Therefore, direct application of pellets in food processing is not recommended. Other water softening salt products like solar salt, rock salt and brine blocks are not recommended for food application for the same reason.
I’m trying to find info on the safety of aquarium salt. I’m not finding anything yet. Anyone know?
Girls: Isn’t it just sea salt? I don’t know and they do not recommend eating it. At that price, you could buy pounds of sea salt. niio
Why would you plan on consuming aquarium salt? You do realize, don’t you, that salt is extremely inexpensive and readily available at your local Walmart.
You can also find salt at many discount stores. Dollar tree used to have it 2/$1.00. I don’t know if they’ve gone up on the price, but it’s cheap enough to buy something that you know won’t make you and your family sick. Don’t risk eating something that you’re not sure of.
If you plan on raising salt water fish, check out diy salt water. You may find some recipes that will give you more information on its safety for human consumption. If the recipes call for common table salt plus added minerals, then you might as well use regular salt.
Alternatives like animal feed blocks or water softener salt are interesting survival ideas but the best solution is to stock up on cleaned salt before an emergency.
As @red pointed out, you can always clean rock salt and other forms of salt using age-old methods. Certainly salt was in common use before modern cleaning processes were ever envisioned. But our bodies aren’t as rugged and tolerant of impurities as were our ancestors – we’re relative sissies because of the easy, purified, sanitized, lives we live.
So there are great emergency methods, skills, and knowledge, but, at least for me, the best thing is to store high-quality products now, while they can be gotten.
I am really starting to get nervous. Inflation, forced vaccination, cancelled vacation. Have I trained enough? Have I stored enough? Will all those beans and rice actually feed us? Is that three year old pasta going to taste okay? We do rotate and we do can and we dehydrate. But are we going to have enough?
It depends on what you are prepping for. If you are prepping for a local emergency, snow storm, hurricane, earthquake, fire storm that interrupts services, contaminated water, etc etc., yes, if you have from a month to six weeks worth of supplies you will probably be able to get by although life will be difficult without utility services. You will have to be creative to get by.
If it is an end of our world event, CME or EMP that takes out our whole electrical system, no, there is no way to prepare for it. That’s where knowledge comes in. You will have to grow food. You will have to raise small animals. You will have to have a means to procure and purify water. There is no way, short of some deep cave stocked with tons of freeze dried food and acre feet of water that you can prepare to ride out the amount of time it will take to get back to a civilized life albeit civilized according to 18th century standards.
While followers of this list differ in opinions about what will and will not survive, most of the more knowledgable folk are agreed that microcircuitry and the power grid will be gone and gone for decades. Computers are powered by microcircuitry and our lives are controlled by microcircuitry. Even your personal, sole practitioner doctor has to have his records on computer as a result of bureaucratic edict. So your health records, unless he is a prepper and has stored them on a disk in a Faraday cage together with a computer than can read the disk, he must rely on your memory and his in order to recall your medical history. Just one small example. Your 401K or IRA will be gone. Don’t worry, you won’t have to make your mortgage payment because the records of whoever holds the mortgage will be gone. You do have a paper copy of the grant deed from the recorder’s office showing your ownership of your property, don’t you?
Those big credit card debts you struggle to pay off? Gone.
While we may disagree about whether cars will run or not, shortly after such an event it won’t matter whether your 1975 Bronco will run or not. The gas will be gone. Folks will find way to get it out of the tanks in the ground, but with the grid gone, the refineries will shut down. No refineries = no gas, something the bureaucrats in the PDRK seem to overlook in all their edicts about oil production.
New edict this week from the pen of Gabby Nuisance, the goobernator of the PDRK after 2024 no small gas engines can be sold or imported into the PDRK. Only electric ones. With the grid down Tesla owners will have what is probably the most expensive boat anchor in town. Even in just a minor emergency the Tesla is a piece of junk. It’s easy to store a 5-gallon can of gas in your outdoor shed so that if the electricity is down, at least you have some fuel for your gas powered vehicle. Try having a spare Tesla battery in your shed so that you can swap batteries when the juice is down. Which it was again in our neighborhood all day yesterday.
I must say though, the Japanese are working on that problem. They have a pilot program in Tokyo where the owner of some all electric cars can drive in and have the battery changed out with a fully charged one in about 15 minutes. About the amount of time it takes you to add cash to the automatic money taker at the island, fill your tank and collect the receipt — unless it is at a Costco gas station, then the 15 minutes is just to get to a pump. Even so, the lift won’t work to lift the car if electricity is off, so no battery change for you today, Ichiro.
The most obvious potential gap from what you said is water. Pasta will be fine if you have water to cook it. Beans and rice together make a pretty complete, high-quality, protein – if you have water to cook them – and fuel.
Don’t be nervous, Tee. Take stock of what you have. Figure out how long it would take you to go through your supplies if you had to ration. Only you know how long your beans and rice are going to last you. Pasta basically lasts forever as long as you’ve kept it cool and dry. if you don’t think you have enough just get some more if you have the money. This is the true start of the crisis. Panic buying has started in the US. Shelves are starting to empty. Food prices keep going up. Sometimes weekly. Buying limits are now being put on most items. if you think you still need some items before the winter, GET THEM NOW! Later will be too late!!
Consider that you might actually need more food than you use now so when you think about rationing, the rations might need to be large. If you’re not gardening, and your body and diet aren’t adapted to it, consider that you might have to be doing it by spring and you will need to burn more calories than you do today.
You do have seeds in that storage, don’t you?
Tee:
Try not to panic. If you have enough food stored to last your family three to six months, you are doing well. If you have a garden, plan on raising enough for two years’ of canned food. That way, if your crop one year stinks, you have a bit extra until the next year’s harvest. Get extra cans and lids when you can. Rotate your stock.
Also, try to be ready to take advantage of availability when you are out and about. There are lots of stories about the Soviet Union where a person would get in a line at a store because something was available, but they wouldn’t know what until they got to the counter. They had to be prepared to buy whatever was available because of the scarcity of everything. Even if it wasn’t something that they could use, they’d buy it and use it to trade for something else. We, unfortunately, need to start thinking like that.
Hi, Kit. Off topic. Did you get a chance to watch a live feed of the La Palma eruption.
Always good to have some barter items on hand. Strap on in. The ride is starting for real.
Miss Kitty, your post is very good and on the mark. Matt’s lucky to have you. 🙂
Ree: Don’t warry. My parents would say the thing you aren’t ready for is what will happen. Then shoot it. then Mom would smile at Dad and he’d get very quiet. A little nervous is healthy. Worrying will draw the problem to you. The Bible tells you that.
Are you storing animal fats? If stored right, they can last months, even years if frozen, tho you won’t like the taste. Lard stores best, then tallow. Veggie oils, once opened, oxidies fast. Partially cooked meat can be stored in animal fat. Eggs can be stored at room temperature by wiping them down with oil or grease and put back in the carton. There’s a lot of great ways, and you’ll need animal proteins far more than from legumes. A lot of people are going carnivore. All meat and fat diet and no carbs, but I still use some supplements. YouTube, Dr. Ken Berry is one who doesn’t take supplements, stating he gets all he needs from meat and animal fats. niio
Pretty good list of what to use salt for. As far as I’m concerned using salt to melt snow and ice in the winter is a crime, Salt is much too precious. Yes I know the salt for melting snow and ice is not food grade but you could still probably use it for your critters like cattle instead of a salt lick if you had nothing else. Salt used like that also pollutes the environment. There are products that are specifically made to melt your ice and snow in the winter and they don’t pollute. I’m pretty sure they’re also called ice melter or something like that. Much better option for melting your winter ice and snow on your walks and driveways.
Armin, salt is salt, but some ice melt has chemicals in it, even if calcium, it shouldn’t be eaten. Regular rock salt is mined and crushed, but not refined. To refine, melt it in water and pour it off into a clean vessel. there will be sand of dirt in it. If worried about manure in it, boil it, then evaporate in a way that works in your area. niio
I saw some footage of the lava flow on the news, and am following the situation closely. Being on the coast, it’s a concern. I realize the likelihood of a tsunami is a definite possibility. I also realize that the odds of being able to evacuate the entire Eastern seaboard is impossible. Even if I were able to arrange transportation, we wouldn’t get far enough inland to avoid a cataclysmic flood, what with everyone trying to evacuate from Boston, Providence and New York. The report I saw said that if La Palma blows the entire west face of the cone off, the water would flood hundreds of miles inland. Couple that with millions of panicking people all trying to head in the same direction and I might as well stay home, shoot out a few goodbyes, and say a good act of contrition.
There’s really nothing I can do about it. It IS the worst case scenario, and may not happen, either. So I’m monitoring it, and just living my life as I normally would.
Aannd… I’m looking at relocating in the future. But everywhere has risks that have to be weighed, and you have to figure on what you believe to be the the most likely, which ones you are best able to handle yourself and which will affect you personally the most.
Hey Kit. Very glad that you’re doing ok. Keep your chin up. The chance of a tsunami from the La Palma volcano is so small as to be almost negligible. If I was living in your area I wouldn’t lose one minute of sleep over the possibility of a tsunami from La Palma heading your way. The people that keep spouting off about a tsunami from that volcano hitting the eastern seaboard are naysayers and doomsayers. Not realists. Besides I’ve asked the universe to help keep you safe. 😉 Zero chance of La Palma blowing its top. It’s not that kind of volcano. It has three or four vents going and as long as no one throws paper towels down there it’ll continue to erupt until it doesn’t. So rest easy. There won’t be a tsunami heading your way any time soon. That’s the best way for a person of courage to think. Keep living your life. You can’t worry about the things you have no control over. I can’t worry about an asteroid smushing my house. Or getting hit by a car as I’m going shopping. Or getting hit by lightning as I’m walking about. There’s a million things that could happen and I can’t worry about any of them. You attract to yourself those things that you’re afraid of so don’t be afraid of anything. Just be aware of what’s happening around you, Kit. The ride has started for real now. Make sure your preps are up to snuff. If you still have a little extra money spend as much as you can on preps. There’s an ECONOMIC tsunami heading your way and it won’t be pretty. As I’ve mentioned to red inflation keeps rising. Panic buying has started in many parts of the US. Shelves are starting to empty. Shoplifiting is on the rise in NYC. Now the longshoremen want to go on strike. It’s not like we haven’t been warned. Many people have been sounding the alarm for years now. Even though you MAY have SOME issues with firearms it may be time to revisit whether you want to own one or not. The times ahead of us could end up being worse than the great depression of the thirties. It’s not so bad up here yet. Prices do keep rising but for the most part we still have fairly full shelves of foodstuffs. I don’t care about the rest right now. Like Home Depot and those kinds of places. I’ve spent a GREAT deal of money in the last month or so stocking up my preps. I’m not worried about any food shortages. I have food on hand for years and plenty of ammunition.
The reason I asked you about La Palma was that I watched it for a couple of days steady and it was quite fascinating how it changed. Sometimes it was quiet. Sometimes active. When the lava fountain from the main vent was going almost a kilometer in the air that was aweinspiring. Made one feel very humble. When seen like that the power of nature is irrefutable. There was a chat going on while we were watching the eruption and I tried my best to join in. A person came on with your usename. But wasn’t you. If it had been you that would have been one heck of a coincidence.
So don’t worry about things. We’ve got your back. Just be proactive as re prepping. Make sure you have enough on hand. And those few good friends you can count on. And you believe in God. If nothing else have faith that God will keep you safe. And it’ll happen.
Take care. Stay safe. xoxo 🙂
Miz Kitty! About time you got out of that freak zone liberal state. Family is coming home. It’s slow, but happening. Arizona never gets hot, but can get real warm. If you come here, plese, do not step on wet clothes in puddles on the sidewalk. It’s tourists that melted. niio
Been watching it too, Miss Kitty. I’m on what they call the ridge of Long Island, but if it blows the elevation may not be high enough. I can fly out, but where too? It is all in God’s hands.
I wondered about a flushing wound. I know what flushing a wound with salt water is. But I didn’t understand what a flushing wound was. I wonder if that is a typo that didn’t get caught. In any case, I went on line and looked up flushing wound, thinking I would learn a new medical term. I didn’t.
Here is what I found:
” Wound Flushing
Definition
Wound flushing is a method of cleaning a wound by applying pressurized water or antiseptic solutions to the tissues. It is also called irrigation.
Purpose
Wound flushing is used to help flush debris from a wound, lessening the risk of infection or treating an infection that already exists. If the wound is flushed with an antiseptic, it is more likely to heal correctly; flushing the wound can help prevent the surface from healing over a possibly infected area underneath.
Wound flushing is routinely performed by dentists or oral surgeons following tooth extractions, mouth trauma, or gum surgery, to prevent bacteria from the mouth entering the bloodstream as well as to cleanse the tooth socket.
Description
Wound flushing is usually done in a hospital or oral surgery center, though if it is performed at home, there is less chance of infection because of the higher risk of bacterial contamination in the hospital environment. Wound flushing is especially helpful in treating people with bites, lacerations, or crush injuries, which often become infected due to the presence of dead tissue and foreign debris, such as splinters or dirt. In a nonsurgical situation, the procedure is usually performed by a nurse. An acute injury, such as a crushing wound or knife cut, the wound is flushed right before the injury is stitched closed. For people with chronic wounds, such as bed sores or abscesses, the wound may be flushed periodically to treat or prevent infection. During an operation, a surgeon uses an antibacterial solution to flush the surgical site just before stitching the wound closed. After surgery, the wounds may be flushed to treat or prevent infection.
Preparation
The nurse or doctor may inject the site with a local anesthetic before flushing the wound.
Aftercare
After the wound is flushed, the health care provider cleans the area around the wound to guard against infection. Packing to absorb excess fluids may be placed into the wound, followed by a sterile bandage.
Risks
Complications rarely occur, especially if the solution used to flush the wound is chosen carefully so as to avoid skin irritation; occasionally, however, serious infections are reported. In addition, damage to skin or internal organs has been reported from the use of hydrogen peroxide to flush wounds or irrigate the abdominal cavity after surgery.
Patients should call the doctor immediately if there is any sign of infection, such as fever, pus, or swelling.”
I think that should read “flushing a wound”. Basically that is what I do with soaking a pusy-looking wound in warm epsom salt solution. The solution to use is printed on the box or the bag. If the incipient infection is in an area that doesn’t lend itself to soaking. I once had a boil inside my nose. That did not lend itself to soaking. Instead I dipped cotton in the epsom salt solution and packed the nostril harboring the infection with the wet cotton. I used a towel to catch the excess solution draining from the cotton.
It’s almost always better to treat at home than in the hospital. Medical staff are human and they make mistakes. The more you interact with them, the more likely you’ll be the recipient of one of those mistakes.
Dale, not to mention catching anything up to MRSA. There’s a lot of things that would knock us for a loop that they acquired immunity to. the mother of my 3 youngest was an LPN at an elder care home. without fail, ever winter she’d get the sniffles and gave us all the flu 🙂 niio
A friend who managers a grocery store told us of a few of the food items that we will have shortages of anything that comes in plastic containers an paper products such as cleaning supplies an pasta an baking supplies meat is going to go up 40% above what it already is an a friend found out her local store is holding out on turkeys usually they start there sales now i havent seen any yet i cant hunt i rely on the stores for meat im in trouble
Doreen: Pretty much anything from China is waiting to be landed. Everything made in the US will jump 50% over last year thanks to minimum wage going up. As taxes build up, it may go higher. niio
@red Higher minimum wages isn’t the only factor driving up prices. Get ready for the ride, red. Panic buying has started. Shelves are starting to empty. Limits on the amount of goods you can buy at one time. Shoplifting increasing in New York City.
Armin: It’s the thing that sets the rest off. Libs need more money to pay down debts, so they raise minimum wage. Then all wages have to follow because minimum wage is the poverty line. Taxes rise because costs are jumping. niio
Armin:
Somebody’s using my NAME!???!! Q’uel horreur!
Lol
Joking aside, thanks for the well wishes…it means a lot.
I think the shortages will eventually straighten out unless the weather is completely awful next year or there is some other crisis. We just need to hold on and deal with it day by day. People are getting aggravated with the ineptitude of the government, so there will probably be a swing back to more moderate candidates and maybe some of the real trouble makers will get voted out. We got through the seventies OK, so we should get through this too.
You’re very welcome, Kit. It’s so nice to hear that you’re so optimistic about the future. I’m not. This is so much different than the 70’s. You know as well as I what’s going on in the world. You’re a much smarter cookie than I am. The only thing that brought the world out of the last great depression was WWII. China’s eyeing Taiwan. There are so many problems going on in the world right. From what I can see there’s a true paradigm shift happening. When we finally come out the other side we’ll be in a new world. I don’t think it’ll be better than the one we have now. Don’t underestimate the severity of the coming crisis. We’re in for one hell of a ride. This isn’t going to be over any time soon. We’re in for the long haul. You have a prepping mentality. Get ready. Be ready. This is going to be very nasty. The FED has screwed up very badly. The IMF is talking about bringing in SDR’s as the reserve currency of the world. The American dollar is dead. Do not take this lightly, Kit. All the very best. Stay safe.
God save us from the Democrats. LOL!
We are in trouble. I hope that enough people see it and get ready.
Serious trouble, Sam. Many times the messenger is demonized and ignored until it’s too late. It’s almost too late.
AMEN
Just a note: don’t waste the salt to float eggs to see if they are good or not. We’ve been floating eggs for years. Put the egg into a bowl or glass so the water covers it by a few inches. If it sinks, it’s good. If it stands on end, eat it soon. If it floats, get rid of it. The gasses in the rotten egg make it float.
RE: weed killer
Be careful if you do this. Salt will ruin the soil to use for planting for quite a while. In times past, the enemy would go through slaughtering everyone then salt the fields so the survivors couldn’t grow anything.
Before chemical fertilizers, farmers would lightly salt fields. I was teaching someone how to garden. Her father spent a summer on a farm when a kid and that was all he knew. Her mother knew how to raise tobacco. She had a problem with slugs, and I told her come out after dark and if you see any, a little salt will kill them. a few days later, she called and said her plants were all dying. I went to the house and yep, they were dying. Instead of being out after dark, she put a ring of salt around each plant. I washed it away and they recovered. a little goes a long way 🙂 niio
red, I’ve heard Epson salts can be good for plants but don’t know how that works, have you used Epson salts for gardening?
red, I grew up on the Oregon coast and we always had slugs and snails everywhere, so even when very young we were taught to “sprinkle-pour” salt on the slugs with a shaker similar to how we would salt a boiled egg, and never poured salt unless you wanted nothing to grow where you poured the salt. “Sprinkle-pouring” the salt was enough to kill the slug but not enough to kill the plants. “Sprinkle-pouring” is just turning a salt shaker enough to get the salt to pour out in a very controlled shower so it goes where you want it instead of shaking it out and the salt flying all over. ? + ? = ??
dz: Yeah, that’s why, in part, farmers used to salt their fields.
She put a ring of salt around each plant. She’s no ditz, but had no experience. If I wanted salt on the garden, all I’d need to do is water it daily. Plenty of salt is in our water. niio
dz: Epsom salts are high in magnesium and sulfur. I don’t use it here, but back east a lot of people do. They get enough rain to flush the salt from the soil. niio