In the book, "Keeping Food Fresh," by Janet Bailey, the preservation times the author gives are definitely not meant for great-tribulation survivors, but more for the queen's kitchen. For example, she says that a cut green pepper should not be kept in the refrigerator more than two days, or that plums will only keep 3 to 5 days there. Don't let books like these fool you; the given upper limits define the maintenance of foods at their peak. In the tribulation, several degrees of deterioration from the perfect condition is not the main concern.Janet says that pecans in the shell will keep only six months in the refrigerator, but our down-to-earth experts, Mike and Nancy, give them one year. Janet means that pecans will begin to deteriorate after 6 months in a cold place, while Mike and Nancy mean that the deterioration after one year's storage is minimal and acceptable for modern standards. That means trib' survivors who have pecan trees may continue to eat their nuts for a lot longer than one year, although, of course, there should be an annual harvest to depend on.
Janet says that we shouldn't keep white flour for more than a year in a refrigerator. She also says whole wheat kernels should not be stored in the refrigerator for more than 4 or 5 months, while Mike and Nancy give whole wheat 3 to 4 years, and others even longer. Ignore writers like Janet, and try to buy enough white flour and whole wheat kernels at the outset of the great tribulation to last that entire span of time. That is my advice, and if you want an expert opinion, it would be easy for you to get one.
Remember that Joseph of ancient Egypt was able to keep wheat edible for the full seven-year famine. There's a lesson in this: wheat kept away from air will last a long time. Or, plan on using large bins to store flour and similar dried foods, but keep them in a cool place-- i.e. your root cellar. Properly stored, wheat kernels will last up to 15 years. But a word of importance to those who think there's no harm in buying/storing too early: the nutritional value of stored foods decreases with time as chemical changes occur. So, while after 15 years you may still have wheat in an edible condition, it might be more nutritious to eat fresh grass.
On the other hand, if all Christians decide to buy their foods at the last minute, which is what I prescribe and fear all at once, there will likely be food shortages so that you may not be able to get large enough supplies to last for even a few months--perhaps none at all!! Furthermore, there is indication already that the governments won't allow you to store foods for long periods, which they might call, "hoarding," in order to make "storage" appear evil. These are very good reasons to plan a garden and greenhouse in combination with efforts outlined in this chapter for making purchases. There. Now you have been warned.
Try, but don't depend on, buying your entire tribulation stock of foods! To avoid hoarding laws, buy long-lasters early in the final Week while national supplies are not yet short. This is why I have shared several details of prophecies within the first half of the final Week, in hopes that you might have the knowledge needed to begin/continue preparing at that time with all determination, skill, and wisdom. Remember, it is not "hoarding" if you buy slowly over months when the supplies are not threatened.
Unfortunately, however, I have heard that governments are secretly making laws to disallow the people from storing foods at all; other than what is needed immediately, within about a month! All the more reason to plan on growing your own food, and to keep messages like this one from going all-out public. But, of course, God is bigger than anti-Christian governments. And, if messages like this don't go out at all, won't that be worse? The last thing we need, though, is someone who thinks he can make some big money on this "novel" subject by publishing an "exciting" best-seller with all sorts of beans spilled before our foes that should be kept in the bag. God is also bigger than that horny goat, by the way, wherever he may be.
You can grow your own wheat and grind it to a flour, though common advice tells us to grind small amounts at a time, to prevent deterioration and nutrient loss. Grinders sell for under $100, but it would make sense to buy the more expensive models (see the URL at the end of this chapter). Depending on the model, it takes between 5 and 15 minutes to grind enough flour to make one loaf of bread. A bushel of wheat kernels weighs about 60 pounds, and it will net about 50 pounds of whole wheat flour, enough to provide about 70 loaves of bread. So, if you're going to grow your own wheat, you'll need about 5 bushels per year for every loaf per day.
The yield per acre depends on the soil conditions and the amount of rainfall. Wheat can grow in areas having as little as 15 inches of precipitation annually, or as much as 70 inches. It will even grow as far north as the Arctic circle. In dry or infertile areas where the yield is 10 bushels per acre, you'll need almost an acre to provide one loaf of bread per day. An acre is about 43,000 square feet, or just larger than a 200 x 200 foot patch. In ideal growing conditions, however, using mechanical equipment, the yield can be higher than 75 bushels per acre, and when irrigation is applied, some farmers obtain 125 bushels.
Seed can be thrown by hand onto the field, but the growth of the wheat will be patchy. But even if we assume the tribulation yield to be as low as 20 bushels per acre, then for one loaf per day, only 1/4 of an acre is required, which translates into a patch of ground 100-feet square. This is quite manageable. If your grow an entire acre, you can produce wheat-based food in an amount equivalent to four loaves per day, which is more like what you should be aiming for since your family will want to eat more than bread. How about some pastas, pizzas, and wheat cereals? If you don't have an acre for wheat, take greater care and make your quarter-acre achieve the 80-bushel-per-acre yield.
Store-bought white flour consists of one wheat-kernel part only: the endosperm. This part has the least fat and, therefore, lasts the longest. The other two parts, the bran and germ, have been removed precisely because they are higher in fat and therefore spoil sooner. Therefore, avoid the purchase of bran and germ flours for long-term storage, as they may go too rancid.
Rye, barley, buckwheat and oat flours are all high in fat and do not last as long as white flour. White-rice flour lasts much longer than brown-rice flour for the same "fat" reason. Gluten flour, a hard-wheat, high-protein product, has long-lasting features, but triticale, a product with similar features, does not last as long. Semolina flour, used for making pastas, is a hard durum wheat product and, like white flour, is made only with the wheat's endosperm so that it, too, outlasts whole grain flours. Potato flour is long-lasting, as is degerminated cornmeal flour, but bran and soy flours are relatively high in fat. Soy and barley flours, as well as others, because they have no gluten or starch of their own, must be mixed with white flour in most bread recipes (to get the flour to rise).
The point here is not to confuse or overwhelm you, but to show that all flours are not the same, and that what might at first appear to be a simple matter is filled with complications that, unless dealt with wisely, could lead to complications in your trib’ life. Before you buy big for the tribulation, look into the preservation limits of all flours, and their special uses, but don't take as the final word anything claimed by those who sell or market the products, as they are prone to give misleading advice for the sake of making sales.
And do buy big because flour is cheap, nutritious, and can be used in a variety of ways. Wheat products are so nutritious, one can live for a long period on them alone. Just don't fail to purchase "enriched" white flour because, to make up for the removal of nutrients when the bran and germ are sacrificed, it is re-packed with the same (riboflavin, niacin, thiamine, vitamin A and iron).
Aside from flours/kernels, you should buy large supplies of ready-to-eat wheat products like pasta and cereal. Corn Flakes and Cheerios will outlast whole grain products! Like white flour, these cereals have had their fat-containing bran and germ removed. Janet says that the ready-to-eat cereals will last one full year in unopened boxes in cool, dry places. As Janet is much too conservative in her upper limits for trib' survival purposes, I would venture to guess that these cereals would keep well for the entire tribulation period, especially if we stored them in large bins.
If you must avoid high sugar intake, you can get ready-to-eat products that have as little as 5%. Try to buy the more dense cereals to make good use of storage space; some cereals are almost all air. However, some of the more dense cereals, like Harvest Crunch, are not enriched with vitamins and nutrients like most other cereals. Still, my choice could very well end up being Harvest-Crunch like cereals to conserve shelf space, with a daily vitamin tablet (for about 42 months, that's 1300 tablets).
Whole-grain cereals include barley, buckwheat, hominy (cracked corn), millet, oats, rye, rice and wheat. Among these, pearl barley and hominy keep best, but, I suspect, corn is not the most nutritious of these various food sources.
Pasta, if factory dried, lasts a long time. Buy large amounts of this very inexpensive food, because along with being very good for you, it is filling. Some pastas are enriched with nutrients. Like cereals, pasta comes in many shapes, some offering lots of air per package that not only takes up more room, but slightly alters the chemical state. Flat, straight spaghetti would seem to me to be the most densely-packed pasta. Home-made pasta is easy to make, but even when dried, it does not last as long as factory-made products. But then, who needs it to? You can grind it as you need it. You can even use your homemade whole-wheat flour, or the store bought white-flour, instead of the ideal semolina flour. Just roll your dough as thin as you can, cut it up, and/or manipulate it into any shape you want. Put your artwork or strips into a pot of hot water, and you'll have linguini or gnochi just like that. Curl the flattened dough and stuff the inners with meat or whatever your heart desires, and you'll have ravioli and cantonelle too!
If having a full tribulation store of flour, cereal and pasta isn't enough variety along with your fresh and dried vegetables and fruits, you can also add white rice to your menu, which, because it lasts as indefinitely as pasta, could be purchased in large amounts (highly recommended). The difference between white and brown rice is that the white has had its bran removed. Again, in order to make up for it, vitamins and minerals are sometimes added to it. Wild rice, which is not a true rice, but a seed of a grass plant which grows in the northern United States, lasts as long as white rice.
Sugar and salt last forever. Both can be used to preserve foods. Both taste great in foods so preserved. Buy big! Your fruits will last longer if kept in a simple syrup made of water and 20-65% sugar (amount depends on your taste buds and on the acidity of the fruit). Molasses, honey, and maple syrup will last the entire tribulation. Sugar substitutes never spoil. Sugary foods may be considered luxuries, but there is a good argument to be made for including "comfort foods" in days of affliction. Salt will be useful in preserving fish and other meats, as well as butter (use 2.5% salt) and cheeses.
Herbs and spices, because they are dried, are long-lifers. You can enjoy growing them yourself and then use fresh in your cooking. Some are useful in preserving foods. Some will make your garden experiences more joyful. Mint in your tea sounds very nice.
Janet suggests that coffee, ground or instant, will last one full year if the jar is not opened, but she only gives freeze-dried 6 months. She gives tea 6-12 months. But as these are dried foods too, they should last as long as water/humidity doesn't get to them.
She gives canned fruit juices a year in a cool place. As canned drinks are mostly water, I wouldn't buy them for tribulation survival, however, as they take up too much room. Ascorbic acid is a preservative as well as a vitamin (C), and it would probably be a good idea to buy dried juices (powders) enriched with it. Dried milk powder is also a long-laster, but not a necessity. Contrary to popular belief, we can survive without milk. The dairy industry has spent millions convincing us that calcium from their products is vital. There are other foods high in calcium--even calcium tablets. Some waters are high in calcium too.
Cheeses can be made on your site. If packed in bricks or cakes one over top the other, they will last much longer. Hard cheeses, as you might expect, last the longest. Firm Cheddars (Colby, Cheshire, Derby), Edam, Gouda, and mozzarella are durable, but feta, provolone, and Asiago are longer-lasting, while hard Parmesan and Port du Salut do still better. But without refrigeration, you'll get mold much quicker, even in a root cellar, because cheese is not without significant water content. The mozzarella in my fridge is 45% water and 28% milk fat.
You'll have to weigh the high expense of cheese with the benefits if you're going to purchase. Cheese is a dense product packed with fat that can substitute for meatless periods. And it goes well with many dishes. But if you plan on having goats, you can have free milk and curds (cottage cheese or ricotta) as well as the meat. You can preserve cheese longer by storing it in salty water (i.e. brine), but nothing stores it better than keeping it in your animals until it's needed.
[Update May 2008 -- The following article reveal's a great threat to tribulation survivors:
"The National Animal Identification System is arguably the most hated federal program in rural America. The plan, released in draft form in April 2005 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), proposed sweeping changes in the way animals are managed on small farms and homesteads. It called for registration of livestock 'premises' and individual animals in national databases, and for tracking animal movements.The draft called for all places where even a single livestock animal is held (farm, back yard, veterinarian office, fairground and slaughterhouse) to be given a unique seven-digit number and registered in a national database, along with its Global Positioning System coordinates and the name, phone number and address of the owner...Last, the draft proposed that the movements of any animal leaving the home place would have to be reported to the national database within 48 hours.
The 2005 draft plan stated that the program would be mandatory, phased in over several years. In November 2006, however, the USDA proclaimed that the program would be 'voluntary at the federal level.' This reversal came after an unprecedented outpouring of opposition from farmers and livestock owners across the country. Many opponents think the change is a tactical move in favor of more subtle methods to make everyone comply.
Horse owners were upset at the thought of having to report every trail ride. Backyard poultry raisers wondered where in a baby chick is the best place to implant an ID chip. Small farmers worried about how they could afford the chips, monitors, software and reporting systems necessary to comply..."
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2007-06-01/National-Animal-ID-System.aspxAs you can see, if skincode-rejecting people don't register their animals when the NAIS system is mandatory, some form of punishment could be meted out, such as the taking away of your animals. It is my belief that many ideas and programs are now in the works to thwart skincode-rejecting peoples, but God has the last say. In any case, I mention this because it highlights the importance of growing foods as opposed to gambling on livestock. I will write a chapter on the NAIS topic if it becomes warranted. In the meantime, you should keep track of how it's coming along, and how you might raise animals in the face of a compulsory program demanding to know your private affairs. In my opinion, as long as the animals remain on your own property, and are eaten by those who live on the property, there is no justification for numbering, or keeping track of, them. But beware the unjust system about to take over. What if you would like to share your animals with fellow believers that do not live on your property? If those believers steal your animals, that would be one thing, but if the animals are given by you, you would need to report where those animals went, who got them, and who knows what more. Below is a piece from those who promote the system, showing that they have every intention of enforcing it eventually, and that they totally ignore the fact that, on a universal level, this is a huge, unnecessary cost that consumers will ultimately need to pay for.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/fsheet_faq_notice/faq_ahaids.html#3Another article states:
"The USDA and the Agrobiz giants have been crafting a national animal identification scheme that threatens the traditional freedom of self sufficiency, the privacy of Americans, and the livelihood of organic farmers, and family farms. The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is the creation of the Agrobiz giants Monsanto, Cargill Meat, National Pork Producers, and others to monopolize American food production using fear tactics to advance their agenda. The NAIS scheme was not created by any act of congress. Rather, it is merely a presumptuous bureaucratic dictate."http://www.survivalblog.com/nais.html
Very interestingly, Monsanto is at the fore-front of ruining crop seeds genetically...so that fruits and vegetables won't produce seed that grows the next year's crops. The idea is to force peoples to buy only the genetically-altered crops/seeds, and of course skincode-rejectors won't be able to buy. End Update
]
Eggs can be made to last for a few months in a root cellar if covered in lard (pork fat). The trick is to keep air from getting into them through the shell. According to the experts, you can store eggs at room temperature and still get them to last for months if you cover them in lard or dip them in a crock of lard. An equally effective measure of preservation is to submerge eggs in 16 parts water, 2 parts lime and 1 part salt. But if you prepare your own chickens by purchasing chicks, you'll have an ongoing supply of eggs most of the year, needing to preserve them only when the chickens take "a vacation." They'll keep the insect population of your garden down too (just don't let them into the garden). Fresh cow manure in the garden soil will kill the growth of garden plants (TAKE WARNING), but fresh chicken droppings may be ideal, though I don't know for sure.
Here is one lime "recipe" sent to me:
Eggs can be preserved for 2 yrs with this [lime] method. It is said that the whites may become a little watery but still can be used for anything except meringue and the like.2 quarts boiling water, pour over 4 pounds of powdered (pickling) lime, stir until combined. Add 5 more qts of boiling water and 2 cups of salt, mix well. Let cool.
Put raw eggs, still in their shell, into jars (CAREFULLY). Pour solution over the eggs; make sure they are completely covered. As you use eggs make sure the remainder stays covered in the liquid; add water as necessary to keep covered.
Vinegar, a preservative, should be included in your plans. Lately, we have been hearing more and more about the great biological benefits of this liquid. Red vinegar is the best choice for the body, but either red or white are preservatives.
Hard-boiled, pickled eggs are delicious when you're in the mood. But pickled vegetables of all kinds to be eaten in the short-run do not require cooking/blanching. I've dropped raw peppers and carrots into pickle juice when the pickles are all gone. However, re-use of the same vinegar might over-contaminate it after some time, so do buy big, as it’s quite inexpensive and will last long in the unused condition.
Other foods preserved in vinegar are many, including, and more commonly, cauliflower, beets, onions, green tomatoes, and cucumbers. Proper pickling (for long term storage) requires blanching/cooking the foods first. It is in vain to vacuum-pack foods in jars without first blanching. I fry hot peppers with spices and olive oil before dropping the whole lot into vinegar for use on meat sandwiches and some salads. Add more oil and salt yet into the jar and you'll have the peppers swimming in a salad dressing more than a pickle juice. Indeed, don't throw away your bruised or shriveling root-cellar products, but make relishes out of them. Likewise, ketchups, barbecue sauces, mayonnaise, salad dressings and mustards all use vinegar. Create your own sauces and relishes!
Edible seeds can be treated like nuts (nuts are, after all, seeds). And like nuts, many seeds have a high fat content, which won't provide extremely long storage, but will be just great for those seasons when your diet will be meat-deprived. Aside from edible seeds, you'll need garden seeds by which you'll grow your vegetables. Make sure that these seeds are not genetically altered with the deliberate purpose of bringing forth neutered plants i.e. with fixed seeds that are unable to reproduce more plants (this may be the wave of the future). While seeds are edible for long periods, they do not have a long shelf life for the purpose of sprouting garden plants. The seeds are best stored in cold places like your refrigerator, therefore.
While the tribulation may begin in the spring, it may also begin later in the fall. It is my current opinion, based on some interesting evidence, that the tribulation will begin at Passover, which is in the spring (March/April). This is a most sensible, advantageous, and merciful time for it to commence, as it eliminates the dead-of-winter acting as the first segment of our tribulation marathon, and moreover allows a garden of ready-to-eat vegetables by May in some warmer climates, and by July in colder regions like Canada. But only if we have the seeds to provide such a garden!!
And the topic of seeds brings us to vegetable oil/fat ("oil" is just another name for fat, albeit in the liquid form as opposed to paste). Consider a number of high-quality teflon pans to conserve this precious liquid! I've heard that Crisco is not a vegetable oil, but will last indefinitely, so as to be a great cooking tool if nothing else. As we will likely be cooking on outdoor fire pits, we want the oil that is best suited to high temperatures. Within the vegetable-oil department (i.e. excluding Crisco), corn and safflower oils have been said to be the most-excellent, to date, for this purpose, safflower being the best.
Vegetable oils will last upwards of two years before going rancid, some types lasting much longer. For long-term storage, keep vegetable oils, not only in air-tight containers, but in opaque ones, because light has the ability to change food chemicals into things that you might not appreciate. Consider making your own virgin vegetable oil. It is extracted from the seeds of a variety of plants. Just press the seeds as you would grapes to get wine. Grow sunflower plants and peanuts, for example, and you can have nutritional treats as well as oil!
Invent and build your own squeezing outfit, and try squeezing the oil out of seeds from cantaloupe, watermelons, pumpkins, all of the above together, or out of any other fruit or vegetable where the seeds will not be eaten, and see what you get. If not great taste, then perhaps a cooking oil. If not that much, then perhaps lubricating oil for some of your equipment.
When I tried drying a tray of vegetables (for about 4 hours under low heat) in my oven, in my first food-drying experiment, I had to figure out what to do with the crusty remains in order to eat them without piercing my gums. The book suggested boiling them, but I don't particularly like veggies that way. And so I put them into a layer of spiced cooking oil and fried them under low heat. I added some soy sauce to liquefy them some, and as there happened to be an open can of spaghetti sauce in the fridge, hey, I added some of that too. We men are famous for taking great risks by adding into the pot whatever happens to be in the fridge at the time. Sometimes we actually get a good-tasting result, and then we think to market it worldwide, so proud do we get in these moments. Anyway, I didn't let the vegetables come back to original size, but as soon as they were soft enough to eat, I completed the cooking with a little butter. And what do you know but that I had the bare makings of a positively zingy and highly nutritious snack (vegetables without their water content are virtually pure nutrients).
And while I'm on the subject, there's another alternative to boiling dried vegetables. I ground some pieces of my experiment to a powder and cut those harder pieces that wouldn't comply (the carrots and celery) to small chunks. I then added the mixture to my bread flour and made buns. When they came out of the oven, behold! I couldn't feel the chunks in my teeth, so soft had they become. In other words, I had made my own successful version of enriched flour…only to discover afterwards that this is not exactly a new idea!! But what a way to "deceive" your kids into eating their veggies (if you don't say anything, it's not deception).
May I suggest, therefore, for those like me who know little about bread making, that you grind dried vegetables/leaves and add them directly into your homemade tribulation bread/bun/pizza/pasta flours? Basil, onions, and garlic, for example, mixed directly into pizza dough, work well. But, of course, I'm also suggesting that you include appropriate food grinders in your plans. The flour grinder ought to be reserved for flour if it gets high usage, in case of breakage, and you ought to have more than one, in my opinion.
Another good reason to buy plenty of oil before the tribulation is for your bread making. Remember the woman in Elijah's famine. God deemed her oil important enough to keep her jar filled miraculously. She wasn't using it on her skin, but was making bread. While it is not absolutely necessary to use oil in bread recipes, you will likely spoil whatever you bake without it.
And don't forget, some form of sugar is also necessary for making bread rise, because the yeast feeds on it. So, as you're likely going to want lots of bread, buy oil, sugar, salt and yeast accordingly. If you are able to use milk in your bread recipes, sugar may not be needed to make the dough rise, as there is lactose in the milk. It may be remotely possible for the yeast to rise significantly while feeding on the natural sugar content of the flour, but if you have sweetened fruit juices on hand, that will work better, as will honey. But, of course, bread that doesn't rise at all is just fine. There’s nothing at all torturous with tortillas, thin-crust pizza, bagels, and extremely flat pancakes, is there?
Beware the dire food poisoning caused by meat bacteria. Under-nourished bodies can die of food poisoning. I caught it (twice) while my body was in top condition, and the relentless pain was so severe that, at times, I felt I was going to die. In poor health, I'm sure I would have. Meat preservation is best secured by leaving the meat on the bones of the living animals.
Read some good material on food-poisoning prevention. We are unlikely to have the benefits of hospital care and treatment in the tribulation. If you have poisonous snakes, get rid of them. Black scorpions? Ditto. Round, juicy-fat, black spiders with red hour glasses on their backsides? Them’s black widows, and you need to stomp on them whenever you see them. Kill one spider, and entire generations are gone with it. Do as much hunting around your place for these various creepers as you will for meat.
Your freezer is ideally set at about zero degrees F, well below the freezing point. Beef is good for 12-15 months at that temperature, according to Britannica, and even at 10 degrees F, it will be sustained for 6-8 months. But I do wonder if these limits aren't awfully conservative, as is Janet, and more concerned with taste as opposed to edibility.
In any case, where the climate is cold, you can freeze fresh meat outdoors, but do note that soils will rarely attain freezer temperatures in most of the U.S. Even in the north, such temperatures will not be maintained even if they are reached at times. But, as you will be like most, without a freezer, you'll be looking to preserve beef for the winter only, as the spring thaw will deny you any further. Therefore, any temperature below the solid freezing point of beef ought to do just fine, remembering that you can always cook the meat well-done if there are any concerns.
Not all meats have the same freezing point. The sugars and salts they contain lower these to below the freezing point of water. So, just because the ground is frozen, or just because the freezer makes ice cubes, does not mean that your meat is properly frozen. I have a bar fridge that freezes the bottom of chicken meat where its in contact with the metal shelf, while the upper part of the chicken not in contact with anything stays soft, and this is all while beef in the same small freezer is rock solid all over.
Britannica claims that chicken, rabbits, game, birds, and lamb will keep in a freezer about half the time that beef will, but pork even less time. This would apply for in-ground freezing as well, we must suspect. Just don't bury the meats too deeply because soil temperatures rise with depth and can reach above-freezing temperatures at a mere foot of depth or less. In typical cold weather in northern parts, especially in Canada, water-freezing temperatures will reach at least two feet down. But don't depend on this irresponsibly. Check your foods often. And do consider now that average tribulation temperatures are predicted (by myself) to rise in preparation for Armageddon’s melting mountains.
As winter will see you burning plenty of fires, why not dry meat at the same time? Doing so before in-ground freezing will remove the risk of bacteria growth if untimely thaws occur, but will also allow you to keep the meat in the ground into the warm months (in a sealed container, of course). Drying/curing meat is simple over a smoky fire. Add some salt in the process, and there you have protein strips!
If you can't dry, cut your large animals into dinner-size pieces before freezing in the ground. And do all you can to keep wolves etc. from sniffing them out. The great thing about fish is that each one is often a perfect dinner size for one or two people, with maybe some leftover for the next day or two, so that preservation is not needed. Just catch’em as you need‘em. Dinner-size servings for single families translate into chicken, rabbit, and duck, among a variety of other animals. Wild hog is a party animal! That is, you'll need lots of people to finish one off in one sitting, so why not throw a party? Throw a block party for elk, and invite the whole town for moose, okay there, Canadians? Ha, ha, this is fun. An outdoors-man restaurant I visited twice in Ontario served buffalo meat, but it wasn't cheap, so I passed on it. Twice. Darn!
And if you get some nosey bears, they have great table meat on their bones! It’s either you get the meat on their bones, or they get the meat in your in-ground freezer, or worse…the meat on your bones! And you knew I was going to say that, eh?
You can eat almost anything that crawls. Plan on hunting meat early in hunting season in case the supplies dwindle. Keep the law of the land, as God seeks law-abiders. Be family, as that is His Law. And don't hoard, for the Lord will not bless hoarded food, and a corrective curse on your meat could translate into rotting meat. To fear the Lord is to hear the Lord, so that if we don't listen, He'll open our ears for us…the hard way!
I am not convinced that the following words of Christ represent merely a parable, but I am convinced that his words are intended to get us to share out tribulation goods:
"Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the Lord appointed over his household to give them food in season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord will find so doing upon his return" (Matthew 24:45-46).In other words, let Christ find you wisely feeding his Household, the Church, "upon his return" (i.e. in the tribulation period). As fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, let the parable of the sheep and the goats scare the dickens out of you and thereby urge you all the more to be so wise.
If you are fortunate enough to have a tribulation freezer (or fridge), and you decide not to bury foods, you can save much windmill power by putting foods outside in some sort of protective crate, when the air reaches your freezer temperatures. Much better yet, put the freezer itself outside throughout months that are colder than the house temperatures. Then you won't need to shift foods in and out of the house by eve and morn, or with every freeze and thaw. But you will need to shiver once or twice when you want the freezer food inside for a meal.
Meats require no special treatment before freezing. Beef and venison (deer) may be permitted to age at 35 degrees F for several days before freezing, to enhance flavor, but chicken and most other meats should be frozen immediately after slaughter to eliminate the process which causes rancidity. If rancidity starts at all prior to freezing, it will continue in the frozen state and be evident in the fat when the product is eaten.
There are companies supplying dried foods for disaster relief; some are listed below with websites. They offer packages that will feed families for years at a cost of about $700 per year, plus shipping.
It would certainly be a good idea to try eating the foods provided by disaster-relief companies, even if for a one-month trial. This will give you a taste of what you are in for in the great tribulation, and will also allow you to decide what foods you would most like to purchase. I understand that they will ship anywhere. The following website offers meals guaranteed for five years; the meat-meals in 24-packs are under $3 each, and non-meat plates are of course less.
http://www7.mailordercentral.com/longlifefood/home.aspThe website below offers a one-year pack, for one or more persons, at under $1,000 per person. Not bad, and you can add to it with some hunting or fishing, etc.
Best Prices Storable Foods in Texas Web Site: http://web2.airmail.net/foodstr2
Email: foodstr2@airmail.net1737 Cascade Street, Mesquite (Dallas), Texas 75149
Phone: (972) 288-0262 (after 2:00 p.m. Central Time)
Weekdays: (214) 742-7777 (7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Central Time)
Fax: (972) 288-4610 (7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.)I found what looks to be the perfect article to get you started on drying your own foods. I have saved it here in case it ever disappears from online at:
http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/DRYING/dryfood.htmlAt the website below, it it shown from a scientific study that for every drop in temperature by 10 degrees F, well-dried foods will double their shelf life. At a constant 80 degrees, the shelf life was 5 years. And as the shelf life at 90 degrees is yet 2.5 years, you can see that drying foods is one fantastic way to go for trib survivors. I'm not sure how dry those foods were, or what the test specimens were (sounds like grains), but the result seemed promising enough...until I read further to find that temperatures in the 90s cause some foods to go rancid very quickly, within a few years, to the point that the food is very distasteful. This, as well as the fact that "frequent temperature changes shorten storage life," are good reasons to include a walk-in hole in the ground (i.e. a root cellar) to keep the summer temperatures down and more constant. "As a general rule for hard grains, hermetically sealed in the absence of oxygen, plan on a storage life of 15-20 years at a stable temperature of 70 degrees F." Beans and other dried vegetables are given 8-10 years in the same conditions as in the above quote. Even dried dairy products are given 5 years (longer if the temperature is lower). See:
http://waltonfeed.com/grain/life.html (if not available, click here)An opened bag of corn chips that I think were about a year old were too rancid for me to eat already. They contain vegetable oil. Therefore, when purchasing dried goods for long term, check whether there is oil mixed in.
An oxygen absorber is a small packet that you often see in bags of dried foods. One seller admits that oxygen absorbers (two different types) work only for 6 or 12 months after their manufacture. Apparently, however, once the absorbers have done their job, they don't give up their oxygen again. Therefore, as long as you don't open a package, the package will remain oxygen depleted. Can't ask for more than that.
http://waltonfeed.com/self/upack/oxyintro.htmlSee also http://extension.usu.edu/foodstorage/htm/oxygen-removal/
For other websites, search "dried foods" and "survival food," and always check the shelf life. Though the price goes up, there are freeze dried foods (they are dryer than by other drying processes) in cans that are guaranteed by some companies for 30 years (without refrigeration), while other companies (e.g. the above website) say 15-20 years. One website (below) had a price of $2,300 for 160 days worth (per person) with roughly 1800 calories per day. That's expensive, roughly $20 per day, though the meals are cooked and prepared to some degree; just add water. Some of us need/crave more than 1800 calories per day, wherefore you may be looking at 10,000 per year per person...with discounts no doubt for multiple persons for multiple years (http://www.safetycentral.com/mohofrdrfosu1.html).
Remember, these companies are not exactly booming now and so are not prepared for a mad rush with a significant percentage of the population purchasing for 2-4 years worth of supplies all at once. Therefore, a great alternative is to purchase our own freeze-drying units, and to begin freeze-drying foods now in our homes. I had a hard time finding an online unit for foods (there are lots for flowers, etc.), but I did find this message:
If you are still interested in the technology, you can get yourself one for a couple of thousand at...
The Hull Corporation
P.O. Box 187
3535 Davisville Road
Hatboro, PN 19040
215-672-7800Companies dealing in freeze-dryers for flowers should be able to help you find one for foods. All you do is place foods on a tray, close the door, press a button or two, and wait some hours for the (sublimation) process to take place. Then you need to find a good way to keep them dry. If I'm not mistaken, you don't need to store freeze-dried foods in vacuumed containers. You could prepare three or four years worth right now, in various ways (purchasing from a grocery store included), all of it known to last four years. Then start eating the oldest first, while replacing it as you eat, so that you'll always have three to four years worth that is no older than four years. This feeds only you, however, and you would do well to have soil and greenhouses (etc.) ready in case you lose the food in some unexpected way, and to help others that come to you, for whatever they eat will not be eaten by you. God bless you much, for sharing in that way.
I guarantee you, that if you are a true believer, you will share with others that ask of you, wherefore the 3,000 calories daily that you prepare for yourself may drop down to, say, 1,200, depending on how generous and strong you are. The more you have for others, the more you'll have for yourself. The more that other believers prepare for others, the less you'll need to share. This is the sad truth that pre-tribulationism is promising us: far too many believers preparing not even for themselves, a situation that will be worsened by post-tribbers who fail to prepare.
UPDATE July 2008 -- A major supplier of freeze-dried foods is running low between now and 2009. The reasons are not yet known to the writer(s) of this World Net Daily article, but the government is a prime suspect. Perhaps it's a good thing to be running low at this time, if it urges companies to gear up for larger, faster supplies, and if others get into the business. Caution: there will come a time when these companies can't supply all the needs of skincode rejectors. Keep an eye on my Iraq Updates as a means to time your food purchases best.
UPDATE March 2009 -- Thanks to an email from Cautious in the Midwest, see some post-tribber you-tube videos on the perils of gardening. I saw only the first two yesterday. They should have some excellent tips on why we all need at least five years experience in gardening before the skincode is made mandatory. It makes the point (I totally agree with) that we can't just start learning to garden in the first year of the trib. Too many things can go wrong. You get it. If you don't want to starve, it would be a good idea to at least listen to these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5LmLu2UCE&feature=PlayList&p=89D83576D03A2B85&index=0&playnext=1If you have canned goods, some of them can undergo freezing in winter conditions with little harm, but others, like Campbell's mushroom soup and Chef Boyardee's mini-ravioli taste terrible starchy after freezing. Frozen beans and peas in the can got a little watery but otherwise fine. After freezing sliced canned mushrooms, they lost some flavor but were acceptable to me straight out of the can. The mushroom soup was not at all bad if mixed in with other foods when cooking them. None of the cans popped a slice while expanding in a freeze that was at about 15 F. Freezing dried cranberries and cherries seemed no problem at all.
If you're going to stock up on canned goods in the trib, where there may be a chance of having them all freeze while you are away from the house for days or more, you may want to test the cans in your freezer before deciding to use them for trib purposes. It's possible that cans with low-level water content won't burst.
The guy at the youtube video below has tried storing cans, and says he eats canned meat well after three years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih1xisOnFGg