The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Polyanya on September 13, 2019, 10:24:00 pm
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I'm interested to know if any TAS members are, or have been, of are thinking of becoming preppers? Its purely for my own interests to know probably because I am seriously considering it in the face of whats going on 'out there'. Husband and I decided to buy ourselves a dehydrator this year so we can dry a lot of the spare veg we grow. I'm planning on preparing 'soup jars' where I'll have onions garlic, carrots, green beans and other beans plus anything else we have that would be good in a soup as well as homemade jerky etc Dried veg can last for years apparently so if the power goes and the freezers die we can still eat. Of course if we really have only 10 years to save the planet then I shouldn't be prepping to far ahead :D
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Unless you expect Brexit to be a cause for World War 3, I wouldn't worry about freezers not working. Unless you are planning not to pay for electricity Perhaps? :thinking:
I think most people on this forum are doing at least something in a way of preserving or grow in their own food - veg garden, apple tree in the garden, some hens for eggs etc etc.
I don't think anyone (I hope not!) Is a "prepper" like our American brothers - keeping lots of guns and lots of canned food in case of a war!
My grandmother's preserves a fine in their jars stored inside the cellar the year I was born. We opened some over 20 years old and they were delicious! Pickled cucumbers, mushrooms, cherries, jams marmelades and tons of other stuff.
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No not world war three or guns just food shortages - suppose its different for me, we often have empty shelves if the weather is bad :gloomy:
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I just looked at your blog - what a beautiful part of the world you live in!
Ours is very very different. We have shops, restaurants and lots and lots of people and businesses sitting a walking distance from us. We don't really get affected but rough seas and wind.
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I had never heard the word 'preppers' before. I had heard of the US bunkers, guns, survivalists etc etc which gave me genuine nightmares for years when that was in the news every day. Over there, they seem to go OTT about lots of things and love an excuse to wave guns around :coat:
I do make stores, including jam (which I can't eat!) chutneys, pickled beetroot etc, lots of stuff in freezers (lose the leccy and that's all gone) plus overwinter potatoes, onions, apples and so on in my root cellar (actually it's in the scullery but the idea's the same). I don't store dried food or staples for much longer than a year. I do keep shop bought tins of pet food and human food, plus toilet paper (pretty important ;D ) enough for a couple of weeks or so. I also have some spare weight around my body, so that should last a couple of weeks at least!!
I can remember when our shops have been empty when severe weather closed the roads to Scotland from England, so I protect against that, but really nothing more. If I lived in Shetland I would still not store enough food for more than a winter though.
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I have wondered whether I should stock up the cupboard and freezer a bit in case of a no deal Brexit :thinking: . But keep thinking that it might be a bit of an over reaction???????
Could rural spots be hit more than urban areas if it comes to food shortages?
We do keep a bit extra in during the winter in case of bad weather but maybe I need to up it a bit???????
Does that even count as 'prepping'?
I'll probably ponder over it until it's too late!
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Many many years ago (sth London) i thought it'd be a good idea to keep some stores in case (can't remember what the panic was now) and shoved a load of cans down in the cellar... the forgot about it for 6-8 mths. All the coffe had gone nasty, grey and clumpy in it's so-called sealed tins and the damp down there hadn't done the rest much good either.We keep enough on hand for a couple of weeks now we're out in't sticks in case of snow and stuff. I dont believe brexit would lead to anything except shortages of fancy stuff one can do without but i's not a bad idea to keep some dry goods about as a matter of course; flour. pasta, beans, nuts and the freezers are generally full + a generator if needed.
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Oh Brexit ::) I agree, there may be shortages of irrelevant stuff, but Britain produces plenty for a basic diet, and most of us produce in season veg and fruit, eggs for many and the odd dog if we get really hungry.
My son came up with a great suggestion for dealing with climate change and overpopulation - cannibalism :hungry: Maybe we could try that for a bit. Who would get what? Leavers eaten, remainers stuffed? Ooops, that's non pc. We elderly folk tend to forget ;D
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Traditionally urban areas used to be hit much more severely by food shortages - you don't usually have enough space to grow enough food for yourself.
Back in the communist times there was a period in 1980s Poland when there were food shortages - people had cash bit there were empty shelves in shops!
People with family in countryside had better supply of fresh food - eggs and especially meat. My grandmother used to bring half a pig, sausages etc back to the city when the food was rationed.
Older people in Leicester (neighbours) were very excited when I got my goats - one lady said her family used to keep goats when she was young- in another area of Leicester - yet still in very urban area of the city.
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Not in the Doomsday Prepper sense but I try to back backup and redundancy built into a lot of things. Spares for equipment, alternative heat source etc. It always makes sense to have a well stocked lader just as the grand parents used to do but a years worth of big roll and baked beans might be a bit much. ????
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Yeah - maybe the term 'preppers' has too many negative connotations theses days especially about guns etc, but it was the spirit of the term that I meant. Being of a certain age myself I do remember shops and supermarkets (spar and co-op) being stocked with very seasonal food that was probably mostly produced in the uk. My parents produced a lot of food for the family and our pantry shelves were always stocked with jars of things but these days I think many people would find it very different surviving on cabbage and root crops for many winter months compared to the variety of foods that gets flown in daily.
I must be an 'alarmist' as I like nothing better than to plan what we'd do if the power went and how we'd survive. Every year I render down fat from the animals we eat to make tallow, just in case I have to make candles :roflanim: then every year out it goes when I'm sorting the freezers out, but now I have started making tallow skin balm for my very dry hands - its really good and I think the best hand cream I've ever used.
Before we (husband and two kids) moved up here from England we had two allotments and I always processed the harvest like everyone one - now I'm getting the urge to go that bit further. I have got old flannel sheets ready and waiting along with a bucket for you know what........if the toilet paper supply disappears!!! Sorry if thats too graphic :yuck:
My parents came from pre-communist Poland and had a self sufficient attitude - pre-war rural Poland was so vast and population sparse with very few shops etc, so if you needed something - you made it or grew it yourself or went without and I have that in me too. Its just getting stronger!
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I've got close on 150 litre of preserving jar capacity in thick glass lidded jars called Weck preserving jars .. they seal by vacuum and a rubber seal. To do the sealing I have an " All American Pressure Canner ".
You can , " pressure can " almost everything you see in the shops in cans ,jars or plastic containers. . Once canned they store in a cool room. Mine are on shelves separated by engineering bricks at each end & at the 1/2 way point along the 8 foot 2 inch x 4 inch wide planed smooth thick pine planks …. to make each shelf 8 inches wide & able to support 100 kg or more on each shelf in safety .
I was able to take advantage of a commercial glut of tom in 2016 and so canned 30 pound of tomatoes @ £1 per 6 pound tomato tray .. we finished the last one about three weeks ago. Still got tomato sauce left though.
I've also used the ( pressure ) canner to make gallons of various stocks and can it in pint & 1/2 pint jars . Some of which went back to 2015 when it was used a couple of months ago .
One thing ...delicious spiced foods lose their spiciness when pressure canned .
It's not a cheap start up hobby , has cost us getting on for £800 but most of the jars have been used eight or more times .. the canner is included in the above price was about £ 300 imported from USA five or six years ago.
Consumables are:- each jar has to have a new seal ring ..you can't reuse them & be safe , the canner itself has a renewable safety plug , buy two when you get the canner .
Lids & rings are clipped to the jars prior to canning to hold the lid in place buy the jar , lid , ring & 2 clip as a complete set up per jar it's usually cheaper this way .
I surf the net for the rings as some places charge 19 euro P&P , others are around P&P @£ 4 for about 100 sealing rings .
I decided to only use two different diameters of jars so I'd only need two different sealing ring sizes as sometimes they are on special offer in my sizes .
I have about :-
20 x 1 litre tulip jars
36 x 750 ml pot noodle tapered style jars as everything slides in or out of them
54 x half litre jars
72 x 250 ml jars for chutneys jams , sauces & thin sliced pickles etc.
My canner is five or more years old and hasn't needed a new safety plug as yet , the unused plugs are labeled up & sealed in a vac pack heat sealed heavy duty sealing bag .
If you are interested in learnig more drop me a PM & I'll find a lot if useful reading for you .
Should you want hands on under supervision FOC for a day we can sort something out , but you'll have to find & pay for your accommodation etc locally .
Weck .com do a good YouTube video .
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My OH, who does most of the shopping, always buys in bulk. At the moment, there are three four pints on milk in our fridge just for his cereal and a dash in his tea. We have 7 tins of baked beans in the larder, he has five bottles of shower gel and (last time I looked) nine cans of deodorant. There are four loaves of bread and four packs of baps in the freezer (again just for him) and so many bags of frozen peas that there's hardly room for other veg. I tell him that we could withstand a siege but he just says it's safer to have plenty of stuff in just in case. Just in case of nuclear war? no deal Brexit? being snowed in for weeks at a time. Incidentally we live in a large town with a Tesco, Aldi and Lidl within a 1.25 miles radius and two local shops a five minute walk away.
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Only 7 tins of baked beans? He is a lightweight there are 12 in my cupboard at the moment. I like to keep plenty in stock as they get chucked in everything from stews and soups to eaten cold from the can in an emergency. Although since the son left home that has not had to happen as we can usually wait for them to heat up in the microwave at least.
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I've got a couple of hundred bottles of wine and 20 bottles of gooseberries in my underground cellar (which is built with thick enough concrete to withstand a small amount if bombing.)
If you include the steer and 5 deer that are in freezers in the nearby shed I think that covers all eventualities.
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I've got a Brexshit cupboard.
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Lambing in winter means we honker down, bread flour, butters, tinned toms, beans, uht milk, sugar puffs etc! Few years ago, I was wakened by a beep! House was On fire!!
Fire inspector couldn't understand why we needed so much food in stock, after all, Tesco is 5 min car journey away!!
Long story short, 72 litres of uht milk does not extinguish mass flames though sugar puffs become a fabulous lumpy bumpy blob (took me a while to realise what had exploded as I had heard several pops!!)
A comment off one person, when sorting out the ruined freezers was "are you expecting Armageddon?"
Two weeks of eating nothing but tinned peas, spuds and canned meat due to no cooking facilities has put me off them for life!!
Brexit supplies are in though - Drugs for dog!! Very important! dog food, (note how dog comes first!!) Drugs for me, in the form of paracetamol! (Bad back). Bread flour, butter, butter, butter, uht milk, several kilo pasta, tinned toms, baked beans! That's it. Spuds in storage and meat in freezer. I think we'll be ok...........
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Wow Cloddopper that really sounds impressive and an awful lot of work, not something I'd want at the moment as busy with craft business, cheesemaking and having to cook everything from scratch (gluten intolerant). :tired:
We have an 80 mile round trip to nearest Tesco, so I too tend to stock up and bulk buy things. The worrying thing for me re Brexit is lack of fresh food and I haven't sown any winter lettuce, but it might all come to naught. :thinking:
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My youngest is allergic to most foods so everything is meat, fish, fruit and veg, cooked from scratch.
I bought up the last tinned tomatoes in the county without added citric acid which he's allergic to... 50 odd, not brexit related but am no stranger to the looks and comments at the till!
I'm stocking up on olive oil and gluten free oats as these are our household staples and can imagine olive oil shortages/tax increase and there are some good offers on at the moment. Gluten free is a middle class luxury to some people but essential to us. Organic means I don't feel guilty, but if imports are tricky demand for the very limited uk supply will shoot price up.
I think it's likely there will be some fresh food shortages in the foreseeable future. I have no idea how it will affect stuff like heating oil or petrol but probably worth getting a bit extra just to ride out any bumps.
Ive also bought a 2kg stash of soap from France which is fab, three ingredient stuff which lasts for years. Just in case tax or whatever would create a hold up in future. Turns out if you eat healthily you don't need shampoo or deodorant.
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It struck me , after the last bout of snowy weather in the UK (which affected the South West too) how the fresh fruit and veg availability in the supermarkets took two weeks to recover fully. This is due to the just in time supply chain being disrupted due to road closures etc. In some parts of the US prepping can be seen more of a resilience effort. They are subject to hurricane, tornado , snow events and earthquake. With bigger distances , logistics can be more difficult than in the compact UK.
We have a few resilience tricks : Multifuel stoves with stockpiles of wood and low sulphur coal, a well with drinkable water, rechargeable lighting and good larder.
As the next step, I want to get a new incomer supply plug and isolation switch from mains incomer , so I can energise my consumer unit from a local source e.g. a 3KVA gen. Good enough for lights , security, entertainment and central heating. Reading between the line, I think blackouts my become more frequent in the near future
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Really interesting thread!Twelve years ago we lived on an estuary that had flooded the houses previously. I used to keep bottled water and supplies on the top floor of the house. At the time I thought I was being overcautious then I discovered that most of the neighbours did the exact same.Now living in Scotland in a rural area I think it is wisdom to keep supplies in. Especially the basics and of course loo rolls!!!Whatever Brexit or the winter might bring it pays to be prepared.
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I'm stocking up on French and Italian wines and cheeses :excited: :excited:
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Having just discovered a very nice New Zealand wine at Aldi I will be stocking up on that instead.
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You might find it easier to source New Zealand stuff after Brexit.
I find it difficult to stockpile wine anyway :trophy:
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Those of us with lots of space have more choices. We are lucky enough to have a well and have installed above ground rain water storage, which we want to take over 6,000 litres. New capacity will be collocated with the new polytunnel.
I have a timber store and ironmongery for spares too.
Resilience is a good thing. But I believe its the incompetence of HM Gov and its quangos that poses the biggest threat, followed by weather events
Anyone got any unusual and imaginative ideas ? (no firearms or Brexit related stuff please)
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I'm interested to know if any TAS members are, or have been, of are thinking of becoming preppers? Its purely for my own interests to know probably because I am seriously considering it in the face of whats going on 'out there'. Husband and I decided to buy ourselves a dehydrator this year so we can dry a lot of the spare veg we grow. I'm planning on preparing 'soup jars' where I'll have onions garlic, carrots, green beans and other beans plus anything else we have that would be good in a soup as well as homemade jerky etc Dried veg can last for years apparently so if the power goes and the freezers die we can still eat. Of course if we really have only 10 years to save the planet then I shouldn't be prepping to far ahead :D
I guess you were right after all!
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I'm interested to know if any TAS members are, or have been, of are thinking of becoming preppers? Its purely for my own interests to know probably because I am seriously considering it in the face of whats going on 'out there'. Husband and I decided to buy ourselves a dehydrator this year so we can dry a lot of the spare veg we grow. I'm planning on preparing 'soup jars' where I'll have onions garlic, carrots, green beans and other beans plus anything else we have that would be good in a soup as well as homemade jerky etc Dried veg can last for years apparently so if the power goes and the freezers die we can still eat. Of course if we really have only 10 years to save the planet then I shouldn't be prepping to far ahead :D
I guess you were right after all!
I was, wasn't I - not something to boast about though :-\ I'm astonished how suddenly masses of people have turned to growing their own veg, there is a real lack of seeds, sets and seed potatoes.
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I've done what I've tried before - had potatoes sprouting in the veg cupboard so I've planted them. No idea what variety but they'll grow I'm sure.
Also just had a volunteer drop off some plants for me and included some lettuce seeds. Just off out to take them into the garden now they've been sitting a while
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I'm interested to know if any TAS members are, or have been, of are thinking of becoming preppers? Its purely for my own interests to know probably because I am seriously considering it in the face of whats going on 'out there'. Husband and I decided to buy ourselves a dehydrator this year so we can dry a lot of the spare veg we grow. I'm planning on preparing 'soup jars' where I'll have onions garlic, carrots, green beans and other beans plus anything else we have that would be good in a soup as well as homemade jerky etc Dried veg can last for years apparently so if the power goes and the freezers die we can still eat. Of course if we really have only 10 years to save the planet then I shouldn't be prepping to far ahead :D
I guess you were right after all!
I was, wasn't I - not something to boast about though :-\ I'm astonished how suddenly masses of people have turned to growing their own veg, there is a real lack of seeds, sets and seed potatoes.
And multipurpose compost! This year we got ours from a farm about 40 miles away, and I thought I had enough for the year. Now I realise I need more for potting on, and we're not allowed to fetch it! Back to sieved molehills again!
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I was, wasn't I - not something to boast about though :-\ I'm astonished how suddenly masses of people have turned to growing their own veg, there is a real lack of seeds, sets and seed potatoes.
The silly thing is a lot of sellers are not working! I always get seeds from the same company (premier seeds) on ebay. They are not working- why????
They would make so much money now! We sell wool - the shop is closed but we sell 3 times as much online as normal! All the sellers say the same!
I've been growing vegetables for years and I still have most seeds I need form last year - all I need is perpetual spinach. Need to plant more courgettes today - not all sprouted. No cucumbers sprouted at all - maybe the seeds are old? I'll plant another variety as I still have them too.
I'm glad I bought 3 bags of chicken feed couple of weeks ago - the shop run out now!
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It all sounds quite doomsday but when I stop and remember that nearly 1000 people died in the past 24hrs - it puts things into perspective for me :(
Do you have peaty soil Fleecwife? I do, so I can easily use it as seed compost. I can just add some chicken manure pellets for growing plants on.
We're trying to keep as many of our own seeds Macgro - its difficult as its much colder up here but doable = we've saved dill, parsley, rocket (self sows), black beans, runner beans, french beans, peas and kale and Shetland cabbage. Never tried saving root crops as I believe one has to let so many flower for pollination.
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I wanted to ask you actually, what is your experience of loving in Shetland? I was considering moving (or at least visiting) to Shetland or Orkney as it's so beautiful and much much cheaper. E.g. you can buy an entire island for the price of a house over here! And we are in an area where houses are at least 1/3 of prices of London!
My concern is the lack of proper summer! I love when its warm - today was such a beautiful day - 22C. No wind. Just sunshine.
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Loving in Shetland I should imagine is pretty much the same as any other part of the country :roflanim: Sorry Macgro I couldn't resist your typo ;)
I've lived here 15 years and do find the winters difficult, its not that they're especially cold but longer than the mainland, we're about 1 month behind everyone and it does get pretty windy although this past winter has been much windier in england and scotland so it is variable. There is a huge amount of space here and the roads are wonderful to drive on - you can drive 30 odd miles or so without seeing another car, but I miss trees and woodland birds. Leaving the island can be a major expedition especially if you keep livestock, so we don't go very often. Summers are hit and miss some good some bad but we usually manage to grow lots of good organic veg and rear healthy tasty lamb and keep chickens and goats which I probably wouldn't be able to do south. So some gains and some losses really.
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Oh sorry lol
Haven't noticed that :roflanim:
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I'm square wheeled for the duration .
I'm so glad we've kept a stock of pressure canned foods as well as bulk buying rice in 10 kg sacks etc. & having plenty of deep frozen meat as well as quite a few a few 750 ml ( pint) jars of pressure canned chicken or beef stock .
For the first week either side of the first day of the lock down ( LD) we lived on what we've put by realising that mayhem would ensue .
2nd week after LD towards the end on the Thursday Alison came home with a six litre pack of UHT milk & some butter in great distress. Saying the locals were like pigs at feeding time . She abandoned the experience quite shocked at how thin the veneer of civilisation is & how stupid some folk are .
Next time she went out was on Wednesday 8 April 14.00 hrs & got everything on the shopping list , came home & said the place she shopped in was deserted .
Instead of shopping in the 24 hr Tesco in town like before she shopped in a super Lidl that's well away from town and only reachable to most shoppers with a vehicle .
She went shopping again yesterday at the same place everything we needed save for the four small sliced milk loaves we normally get . She had to buy four loaves of 50/50 instead which is not any sort of problem by any stretch of the imagination .
Meanwhile I've been clearing out my square foot veg beds 7&preparing them for this years crops . Lifted the remaining carrots from the carrot bed that has been giving us six or seven carrots a week since the end of September . I still am astounded I found enough carrots to puta couple of pounds aside for the house and pressure can 16 pints for the carrot gap period , canned free from all manner of chemicals save a decent pinch of sea salt per pint .
We've still got plenty of leeks , PSB and perennial kale in the beds . The asparagus bed is now in it's sixth year and has started profusely producing five or six tender spear 3/4 " thick each day . Were they're a lot more I think I'd can a few half pints
The rhubarb has gone bonkers , we got plenty of strong thumb thick 15 inch long sticks some of which are going to get stewed , sweetened & canned for rhubarb crumbles over the next year .
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Sounding very productive Cloddopper :excited: I hear what you said re your wife's experiences - aren't we (as a society) only lacking two meals away from anarchy? Makes you think doesn't it :-\
You seem to do a lot of canning, I've never tried that, we freeze everything but it makes more sense to can if the power goes off. I'm a bit scared of exploding jars I think :roflanim:
We have a similar set up with stocked freezers and available veg, still picking carrots and kale and the salad leaf is almost ready to pick. I wish we could grow our own grain, I'd love to mill our own flour - my husband's previous generations grew and milled their own, we still have the stones, but sadly not the horse and plough they used.
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You still have the husband, right Polyana? Where there's a will, there's a way! ;D
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I wish we could grow our own grain, I'd love to mill our own flour - my husband's previous generations grew and milled their own, we still have the stones, but sadly not the horse and plough they used.
I'd love to do that! Living in Shetland you can grow the orkney variety of Barley. Just plow the field with rottotiller! You dont need acres of it just for the family!
My great grandfather used to grow his own grain with horses but then used to take it to the mill for grinding.
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Took delivery last week of a pressure canner from the US. Not the All American as that's now silly money to import but a 23l Presto which will work on our induction hob, cost about £150 all in. Now to start buying Weck jars :)
Finished putting up the polytunnel a couple of weeks ago which should improve the fruit and veg production this year. Have a freezer for the dog food and 3 freezers for the pigs/sheep that go in each year. We get occasional power cuts but only for 12 hours at most so they're fine. Looking to can things rather than putting everything in the freezer.
Being on solid clay with a high water table, a dug root cellar wasn't going to work so I made a pantry in the barn from stud wall insulated with 4" of celotex left over from a built project. That's now full of shelving and while it's not as temperature stable as a proper root cellar, it's better than anything else we've got and gives space for lots of canned goods and things bought in bulk like flour etc and for the all important home brew :)
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I do indeed Womble, but he's always busy doing something else :-\
Macgro - never say Orkney barley to a Shetlander :D (I am by marriage) - we have Bere in Shetland which is an ancient 6 row barley probably brought over by the Vikings and although not grown commercially here it is used a lot. I'm ok with it but I am gluten intolerant so don't want to risk it. I make sourdough which I find I can eat with very little ill effect. But yes we have toyed with the idea of growing it and times like this I wish we were.
Justin your canner sounds the business, I hope you let us know how you get on with it - Its definitely the right way to preserve - the jars cost a fortune too!
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I use second hand hard from asda (i.e. mayonnaise, pickles etc) which I pasteurize in a pot of boiling water. Works (almost) every time ;)
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Yep I always reuse commercial jars for chutneys etc - might give it a go this year, we have two very large stock pots so :thumbsup: