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June Prepping

Printed From: COVID-19 / South Africa Omicron Variant
Category: Main Forums
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Description: (General discussion regarding the coronavirus pandemic)
URL: http://www.avianflutalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=44836
Printed Date: March 28 2024 at 9:14am


Topic: June Prepping
Posted By: KiwiMum
Subject: June Prepping
Date Posted: June 04 2022 at 2:09pm

Well I don't know about you all but I think the world has never been in a more precarious situation than right now so I'm definitely beefing up my preps. 

My main focus is on my garden. I've already bought my seeds for next season, and as we are mid winter here, I'm doing some repair work on paths and beds. 

My biggest concern is in growing high calorie foods so I'm going to grow more potatoes and pumpkins than usual. Also sweet potato and, for the first time, field corn. I've bought the type that can be ground up into cornmeal, so now I need to learn how to cook with cornmeal which is not a common ingredient here. I did have corn bread once that my friend made and it was so light and delicious I asked for the recipe, so I have one thing I can cook with it. 

Can anyone recommend other things to cook that are good and simple please?



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Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.



Replies:
Posted By: A-I
Date Posted: June 04 2022 at 9:03pm

Grits made from corn are a simple food staple. Also corn meal mush. And both can also be pan fried besides being eaten like a porridge.



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"Facts don't care about your feelings" I'M A UNVAXXED DEVIL so kiss my rebel ass.


Posted By: Galadriel
Date Posted: June 05 2022 at 4:31pm

Hi Everyone 

I also am feeling the need to up our peeps due to shortages I believe are coming and also inflation.

I wanted to ask what you guys do for water?  It costs a small fortune here to buy those 50 gal drums to fill with water but if that is the only way, I guess it’s worth it.
Kiwimum, can you share your cornbread recipe please?

Also, anyone who is gardening, we found a great method called the Mittleider Method   There are a bunch of you tube videos and their own website and books for help. Anything we have grown has never had so much flavor and also abundance. I hope to find someone close to me to teach me how to can. I don’t feel confident enough to learn from scratch from YouTube. 



Posted By: KiwiMum
Date Posted: June 06 2022 at 3:03am

Hi Galadriel, welcome to the site. 

I hadn't heard of the Mittleider Method until you mentioned it, so I've googled it. It looks quite scientific and the immediate drawback that would affect me is that it relies on chemical fertilizers and so is dependent on the supply of these being constant. I believe that there are already supply issues because Russia makes 30% of the world's chemical fertilizers, and the shortfall in supply is causing a price spike. 

I garden using compost and cow muck, of which we have plenty of both so it's the cheapest way for me. I guess we have to use what we can get and what we feel comfortable about doing. I know a couple of people near me who swear by hydroponics, but that's too precise for me. I prefer the more haphazard methods. 

Do you live in town? It's a tricky one on the water storage in town but I did hear a genius idea at a talk I attended recently. It was about prepping for an earthquake and how a large earthquake would affect us all in my area. The people giving it said that they all stored water in their chest freezers. They filled square 2 litre plastic ice cream tubs with water and froze them solid and then they put a layer of these over the floor of their chest freezer and then stacked them up the walls of it too. It took them ages to eat that much ice cream but they did say you can pick up empties at the recycling centre. Anyway, they lined out the walls and floor of their big freezers and then put their frozen food in the middle space. It meant that if the power went out, their deep freeze would stay frozen for much longer because of all those blocks of ice, and as they melted, they could drink them. 

Isn't that a great idea?



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Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.


Posted By: Galadriel
Date Posted: June 06 2022 at 7:56pm

Thanks KiwiMum, I guess I should have introduced myself a bit but I have actually been a member for a couple of years and didn’t think to do so.
I haven’t posted before because, well, honestly, it didn’t seem like a friendly place where discussion was encouraged and I didn’t want the drama. I read people attacking you for questions that I think many people had, including myself. I did get the Pfizer jab and after the first one was rushed via ambulance exactly 2 weeks later with very high blood pressure which I have never had. I was out on medication and am still on it. I waited 4 months per the doctor to get jab #2 and didn’t have a reaction to that one. When telling the pharmacist who was giving me jab #2 what had happened, he immediately put the information in the vaers system and said that I was not the only person that he personally had jabbed that had the same reaction. I did not get a booster per my doctor’s recommendation and instead they did blood work each month to track my antibodies. At this point I feel it is kinda pointless to get a booster as the variants are so far from the original.

We live in the US in Southern New Jersey in what I guess would be called the suburbs. Although we do have neighbors all around us, it is very laid back and chill and you can have tons of privacy and people leave you alone or you can be really involved in the many things each small town offers. Our town has under 10k people so it is considered small.

I have heard of the water in the freezer idea and think it is great and would enjoy eating the ice cream (I believe it should be considered a food group, lol) but our stand up freezer is usually full. My grandmother lived through the depression and taught me how to shop by sales only and to buy in bulk if the price was right. Also, if you are making breads or anything dinner wise that froze well to cook for two or three as many as you needed and divided the extra and freeze it. When the kids were younger and all living at home it was a great time saver as I could pull out a full homemade dinner and just add a fresh salad on busy days.

As for the water, we do have a creek close to us but it is a little brackish so it can be used with special filters  I though of getting those big white square water holders that have a wire mesh surround for support and then a filter called a Berkey to clean the water if we used rain water or water that was sitting for awhile  

As for the Mittleider system, it was designed to be able to crow crops anywhere, especially third world countries as it uses much less water due to the way you plant. You can even grow a crop in sawdust. Most people do not follow the system to a T.  They adapt to what they have available to them. The most important component in our opinion is the packet of minerals that is sold on the website and many other websites as it becomes more popular. I think the packets were $15 each and one packet lasted us the whole season as you really don’t use much.  Your compost and cow manure would definitely cover the fertilizer part and many people who want to go completely organic use that instead of the bagged fertilizer. We are still able to buy the 10-10-10 bags at the local home store and we picked up a few bags last month. One bag will also last us a while growing season.

The system is all encompassing one. An example would be for tomatoes, you grown them up a rope and pinch off many of the leaves that will not lead to the flowers. This way the plant is sending most of its energy to making the fruits and not wasting energy on leaves that don’t serve much purpose. At first I thought it sounded crazy and the plants seemed almost naked with so little greenery, but we tripled (at least) our yield and they were larger and more flavorful.

If you wanted to try the mineral packet and they don’t deliver your way, I could purchase them for you and mail it to you.  Each packet is about the size of a small snack size bag of chips or cookies. 



Posted By: Galadriel
Date Posted: June 06 2022 at 8:16pm

Oh, I also just want to add that we are not affiliated with the Middleider system or the people that developed it in any way.  I just happened to come across it from a FaceBook post, went to YouTube to find out more about it or I should say went down the YouTube rabbit hole watching video after video and we decided to try it. The taste of the vegetables and yields is what sold us on it. My husband who is originally from the UK was not a veggie eater at ALL until we grew them this way and that said a lot to me about the flavor. 



Posted By: KiwiMum
Date Posted: June 07 2022 at 2:57am

The large cube container for water is called an IBC unit (it stands for Intermediate Bulk Container). I have quite a few of them. Be sure to get one that is food grade. They can be picked up second hand very cheaply. 

I personally keep a full bucket of pool shock to hand for water purification. I haven't had to use any yet but it's a fantastic thing to have. It's basically powdered bleach. You add about a tablespoon to 5 litres of water, shake it up and then smell it. If you can smell a very faint odor of chlorine, then you've used enough. If not, add a bit more. Then let the water stand with the lid off and the chlorine will evaporate and you'll have great, potable drinking water. If you were using wild water then you'd filter it through cloth first and then the pool shock would be the last stage in your water purification. 

If you decide to use an IBC unit for water storage then it's important that you cover it to keep the light out. I have one mounted permenantly to a trailer and we tow it around to water any remote tree that's just been planted, and the interior goes green as algae grows. We don't worry about it but if we were going to drink that water, it would be a problem. You can buy covers for them, or make your own with a tarp. 

I'm sorry to hear about your reaction to the jab. You certainly aren't alone on that one. We've lost a lot of people who used to post on here because I think they took such a pro vaccine stance that when it became clear that the jabs weren't offering the protection initially promised and they were injuring so many people, they just couldn't climb down from their 100% supporting position, and so rather than admit there were problems, they found it easier to leave. It's a real pity but there it is. You are most welcome to post on here or any other thread, or to start a thread on the topic of your choice.



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Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.



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