[kevkev57]

I am writing on this subject thanks to Russ. He mentioned in a recent post that he keeps three months of tinned food, and as it is a pet subject of mine, i

[kevkev57]

Gosh I am SO sloppy on the computer this morning. Back later...

[kevkev57]

I have kept a supply of food for over 8 years now.  Russ mentioned about food storage in a recent post and it prompted me to write this. 

I set out with the goal of a 13 month supply of food , water and general ' must haves '

After researching, I ended up roughly following the Mormon system. They encourage buying a little each month and gradually building up a supply. This I did. I started with the basic food stuffs , rice , pasta , etc. Then flour, salt , sugar. You can go a long way with basic staple foods such as these.  I was given five huge metal trunks. I fitted these to the walls in my celler using large ' L ' brackets. The trunks do not touch the walls. Each trunk contains +/- 120 kilos of rice etc. I rotate by taking left to right, and topping up once every two months.  The cellar is cool at around 13C. I have never had a problem with damp or mouldy food.

Foe tinned food I use old metal office shelves bolted to the walls, again in the cellar. I have around 400 tins of food, ranging from corned beef to custard. I also have many many plastic containers with cous cous ,chic peas, split peas etc. I buy these in the arab markets in Brussels, much cheaper and they sell 50 kilo sacs !

I have a supply of water in bottles, around 1000 litres. I also have a British army water filtration system which could be used if required.

One of the tricks is to buy what you like. Sounds a daft statement but for some reason, you can end up buying tins just for the sake of it, and realize you do not like it !

Rotation is the key. You have to be strict with yourself.

I store food for many reasons. Y2K was not one of them, it was a sham.  I like to know that there is food around if we lost our income. We would have enough to worry about, and having food would ease that worry a little.  I also think it is good to be independant from the world just in case the flu got out of hand for example. Also if relatives were to fall on hard times then they can stay here.

Have I acheived 13 months supply ?  Well it has not been tested. I like to think I have the supply. I took this on as a hobby ( ok a bit sad ) I took the time to work out our total consumption, food, essential items ,  fuel, light and heating. Our diesel generator , again ex army will provide for basic lighting, fridges etc. I always have over three year supply of wood.

None of this is quick and easy, but I think worthwhile.

Kevin

[kevkev57]

Here is a good link. It is a food calculator for one year. Latter day saints site, but dont think I am putting religion on you,nor am I LDS, but they have some great ideas for food storage !


http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

Kevin

[rustyme]

hello Kevin,
            sounds like you do this for the same reasons as me !!! My main one is income , or total loss of ! You do it in a far more ordered way than I do though . I wish I could do it more like your system , but apart from rough calculations on weekly/monthly/yearly consumption, I just keep tins etc in boxes and work my way through them . I do always buy the longest best before date though . Due to lack of storage , I can only really keep 3 months or as at the moment, another 3 squeezed into every nook and cranny. This amount would stretch much further if needed to though, so if it ever happened that I needed to live off of this store ,it would easily last me till I could grow fresh veggies, no matter what time of year it was. I don't store water as the water supply on the farm where I live is from a spring , and there are 3 springs on my land plus in the bottom field , that has a river running through it !!, I can make a ground filtered well, just by pounding a metal bar into the ground , to a depth of about 6 feet. Then slip a pipe into it and pump as much water out as I want , very handy . If everything went on stop NOW , then I would be caught out as far as the genny goes , I need parts for it to work plus it weighs over half a ton all set up and it has to be moved a couple of miles and then taken across a field etc .. so will need to be dismantled , moved , then rebuilt in situ , (parts replaced at the same time ). Fire wood abounds in plenty and is only a few yards away and it could supply my needs just using windfall almost . I also have a fall back in that I can live off of the land if need be . I can just eat natures larder ...this is a bit sparse in winter though . Years ago I lived for 3 months only eating food I found in the field as it were. The first week I was doing this was spent making my home for the trial , It was a little room made out of stones  , it even had a thatched roof . At the end of the three months it was like a normal little house , with a chair , table bed , shelves etc all made from wood collected in the woods . After the first week , I was used to the different food and got along fine . However I was only about 20 ish then , and I wouldn't do this out of choice now , I could do it if I had too.  Food storage is the best way to go though , far less work !!! plus you can still eat the food you like best .

cheers


Russ

[kevkev57]

Hi Russ,

We have natural springs on our land as well. Only problem is it runs down under about 200 acres of pasture and with cows on. I have never had it checked out, but would certainly use it with the filter.

I am not as a matter of habit an orderly person, so it took effort on my part to organise this food. Mistakes have been made on the way. I lost over 50 kilos of pasta that was in a metal container. I made the fatal error of asking one of my sons to bring a bag of pasta from the cellar. Two days later I went there and the lid had been left open slightly. Mice had got in...you know the rest of the story.

I am intrigued by your early days of living on what you could scavenge. Never done that. Good knowledge to retain though.

A friend of mine stores food but has the same restrictions as you on room available. He solved the problem by using an old caravan. He found it locally, and it was all stripped out before he bought it. He paid £25 for it !  He rigged up some shelves from old wood, and it now does the job well.

Good to hear from you
Kevin

[rustyme]

lol... I go one better (or worse ?) than your friend , I LIVE in an old caravan !!!  On the farm where I live, I am in an old 30x10 static mobile home. On my land 2.5 miles away I have an old 4 berth touring caravan with a woodburner fitted. I intend to make food stores on my land , for both fresh fruit+ veg and for tinned stuff etc.  They will be dug into the ground (side of a hill)  and lined with stone walls , the stone from the river and field .
 I have had losses due to mice etc . It doesn't happen now as I am used to keeping it free of the little buggers now. This year I will be growing wheat , barley , rye and oats  and storing for use . I am concerned about ergot though . A type of mould that can KILL !!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot
  If the water you have on your land is from deep enough down , the land itself would be a good enough filter, but as you have a filter already why not use it anyway !!. You could also make a sand filter very easily out of blue plastic barrels etc. When I lived without any bought food , years ago, it was relatively easy . I was 30 years younger for a start . But my dad had taught me the basics of survival , and I had read more myself . I had read Richard Mabey's book 'Food For Free'
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Free-Richard-Mabey/dp/0002201593
An excellent book and teaches you enough to stop you from starving . The little house I built in the woods had walls about 18" thick and up to about 6' high . It had a little inglenook firplace on one side , all the walls were made out of stone from  the river near by , the roof timbers were made from a few pine trees dropped and de barked . The thatch was just some dried reed collected from a marshy clearing by the river. The chair, table etc , were made from split pine trees and used mortise and tenons with wooden pegs . The only tools I had were a good knife and a small bow saw and an old bit and brace. I made some string out of stinging nettles which was really strong , I even made a bow and arrows . This was good enough to catch rabbits and could have got anything bigger if I had wanted too. The river supplied a good number of fish for food , and all my water for drinking and washing etc . Dandelions provided good salad greens and a sort of coffee like drink , more like chicory coffee really ( which I hate !!) and stinging nettles made good soup . Rabbits made good main meals, as did wild duck , a goose even squirrel . I had wild garlic , wild carrot and parsley even wild strawberries too . I did cheat a few weeks before I started living that way , by going to the sea, only a 2 mile walk , and collecting sea water and distilling it in the sun to get salt . I think I got about 1/2 lb in a day . So although I did miss all the usual things we have , I didn't starve , I didn't even go slightly hungry . If I wanted to do this now , I would need to do a bit of reading again , but could do it . I did it then to see if I could live completely self sufficiently , well for 3 months I did 

cheers

Russ

[jameslindsay]

Russ, I have no idea why no one has suggested they make a film of your extra ordinary life. How interesting! Thanks

[rustyme]

hello James,
              it would either be a very short film or a boring one ... . Most of my life has been spent doing the same as everyone else , going to work etc etc . At the time I spent the 3 months living off the land , I was out of work . The little house was in a wood of some 300 acres or so which bordered along the fields of the farm we were living on . It was only about 600 yards from our house where my mum ,dad and 6 brothers and sisters were . They would sometimes pop down and have a chat , but I had said that they couldn't do anything . It was meant to be ME living self sufficiently after all. It is strange that even living a different life like I tend to do , many things are the same no matter what. Washing (by hand), cleaning (by hand) cooking etc and then all the other normal things like walking the dogs etc. Very little is THAT different really , just that most people use all sorts of electric gadgets to do jobs and go and buy all their food from a shop .                 Although the little house I made has gone now , it was still there some 18 years after I built it . Not bad for a house made of stone and mud . It was still useable as a house about 5 years after I made it , but the roof had rotted after about 8 years , it was in a damp forrest !!! The woodland it was in has since been felled and it may have been them that knocked it down .

cheers

Russ

[sheila]

 it's not april the 1st is it?

[rustyme]

   no just a fool (ME ) talking ...

cheers

Russ

[Tullywood Farm]

Your nobody's fool Russ, and although you think it is no achievement, these skills of yours are well worth writing.

I have the same book you mentioned, and I found it really interesting, I think we may all need to store food in the future, and live on less food than we are used to. 

I have a lot of health issues, and would need to eat a lot of berries, which are expensive fresh in the shops, don't seem available in tins, and would just turn to mush or have to be juiced if frozen.  Any thoughts on berry storage?

We are hoping to install a small water wheel on a stream that runs through our land in the future, which will hopefully give us lighting and power for freezing.

We are a long way off doing it, we want to do wind power too, but it is just not cost effective for us at the moment.

We have lived in a 32 x 12 mobile home for seven years, and in October last, Joe and I started to build a timber framed home out of pressure treated timber.

We built around the mobile home, and put on a slate roof.  We now have a one and a half storey two bedroomed home roughly 32 x 24ft.

We did all the labour ourselves, we still do not know how we did it, we had a deadline of 17th December 2008 to get the outside shell up, whilst still running the farm, and the butchery for its first year.

We both worked day and night and had help from a friend two days per week.

You can view the cabin we built on www.tullywoodfarm.com, its on the farm pictures page.

There is a 200 year old cottage and barn on our land, and our intentions were to renovate that, but it really needs knocking down as the foundations are not stable.

We have a mountain spring well for drinking, which is crystal clear.  A friend of min who lived in Africa for years said "if its clear and doesn't smell - it is safe"

We have diverted a stream to feed to our taps, washing machine and shower, and installed a filter system on it, and storage tanks.  If we have good weather (pretty scarce in the west of Ireland, we have ran out of water for a few days until it rains again.  We hope to double the storage tanks this year, and also try to tank up the overflow from the spring well as at the moment it just feeds back into the stream lower down the mountain.

We still hope to rebuild the old stone cottage, but since moving here, I got cancer and was really ill for two years, after having major surgery, so Joe had to look after me and our daughter Tara, and the money we had to build went on living expenses and running the car.

All our plans went to pot - the best laid plans of mice and men - and what has resulted is us being very happy with all our compromises, and mortgage free.

I know I am lucky to still be here and think every day is a bonus and a new start.

Start writing - and give yourself a pat on the back for trying it - family down the road or not - you did what a lot of people only ever waffle about and never do!

If you have any books to recommend on water wheels etc let us know.

kind regards
Julie

[rustyme]

hello Julie,
            very sorry to hear about your health scare , fingers crossed for you that all is well. Things like that are a real wake up call . Had a big car smash and a few other things that have hit me hard at times , but I am still here kicking ....
           You could try canning or bottling really , any berries .
http://www.fruitexpert.co.uk/CanningAndBottlingFruit.html
Apart from jam , you can store berries like the ones in tins you buy for fruit pies etc , but in glass jars instead. Or if you have enough freezer space, you could make loads of fruit pies as the fruit comes into season and store the surplus.
       Books on the old type of waterwheel are hard to find . There are plenty showing old mills etc and you can sit down and glean enough info from them to make your own , but there are few with any really detailed info on making a set up . most books are for modern type hydro power . This is all ok but it does get very expensive, £1000 for this £1000 for that and so on . I just don't live in that world I'm afraid. So I will go the 200 year old technology way , and I will  make mine out of scrap . I want everything I make , to be able to be fixed by me , not send away for a new bit and spend another £1000 .... Lighting is easy to sort out from a water wheel . It is things like freezers that cause problems. I am sadly not clued up on anything electrical . But I think they need a fair bit of leccy as they kick in . This is hard for a waterwheel to cope with . That is one reason I will be going down the road of storing food by , drying , smoking , salting , bottling , clamping etc .  Only lights to sort out then . I have done the life with candles bit , and it is great the first day or so . Then you want to read a book or something and life starts to get harder . I lived in a caravan for 2 years with candles, and I think I hated 23 months 3 weeks and 6 days of it .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si1oWJjBD6g
http://www.pedleywheel.org.uk/pw/articles/worldrenewableenergycongressvi.htm
 The above are a couple of links to a good waterwheel set up , this is more or less exactly what I want to set up .
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Windmills-Wind-Motors-P-Powell/dp/0917914279/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247096381&sr=8-2
 The above link is for a good old book on old style windmills, the sort you see on old cowboy films etc. I have the book and it is very good . You can make a windmill from that and fit a car alternator or similar for 12 volt power to charge batteries and run lights .
     Water is easy if you have a spring or a stream, less so if you don't ...lol.     Although water may well look clean and not smell , it may have cryptosporidium in it , and you don't want a bout of that . So check your water supply and filter or boil if not sure . 

Good luck with what you are doing , hope it all works out for you .

cheers

Russ

[gillandtom]

As a mother with 2 young children should I be stockpiling food in my garage?   We have plenty veg and eggs etc in the garden, and some tins/pasta/rice in the cupboard but not enough to see us through any prolonged period.  And I certainly don't have enough water if the mains were to be cut off.

Is this my responsability to ensure I can provide for my children if there was a break down in the supply chain?

Does everyone else do it and just not talk about it?

[Tullywood Farm]

Yes I certanly have stock piled a lot of food BUT a lot of it is still on the HOOF !.
If I get hungry the pigs won't have a leg to stand on LOL.
Kind regards
Joe