[Polyanya]

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

[macgro7]

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? 
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.

[Polyanya]

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 

[macgro7]

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.

[Fleecewife]

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 


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  ) 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.

[in the hills]

I have wondered whether I should stock up the cupboard and freezer a bit in case of a no deal Brexit  . 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!

[pgkevet]

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.

[Fleecewife]

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     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 

[macgro7]

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.

[Kiran]

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. ?

[Polyanya]

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 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

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!

[cloddopper]

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 .
.

[Lesley Silvester]

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.

[Buttermilk]

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.

[oor wullie]

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.