Hi Mark, I do not work for The Prepared but have a very “deep” pantry and am happy to address some of your food storage questions.  First, keep in mind that although properly stored food may, after many years in storage, still be “safe” “edible” and “non-perishable,” that does not mean its color, texture, taste, and nutritional value will be anywhere near as good as it was after only a few years in storage.  Even when stored in a cool, dark, dry place in a can that has no dents over its seams, no perforations, no leaks, no bulges, and no rust, etc., most canned food will, over time, gradually fade or otherwise change in color, lose some or all of its flavor, lose much of its nutritional value, and may change in texture as well. Personally, I would not plan on storing commercially canned or home canned foods for more than 5 years.  Foods that can store well for longer than 5 years include many dehydrated and freeze-dried foods (if properly packaged for long-term storage) and other foods that have less than 10% moisture content (such as un-ground wheat grains/berries, oatmeal, baking soda, non-fat dry milk powder, sugar, etc.).  The best method to use to package a food for long-term storage will vary depending on the type of food it is.  If you wish, you can tell me the foods you want to store, and I can tell you how I would package and store each one.

Great list!  Here are a few other unusual commercially canned items I have in my pantry:  Butter (Red Feather) Cheese (Bega) Cheese Sauce (Rico’s) Corn (Whole ears of baby corn) Escargot (Snails) Grape Leaves Herring Pudding, Chocolate (Large can bought at a restaurant supply store). Zabeth

Parboiled (a/k/a Converted) rice stores longer than brown rice but not as long as white rice.  Parboiled rice is more nutritious than white rice (but a bit less nutritious than brown rice) and holds up well in dishes that require a long cooking time, such as casseroles and slow cooker recipes.  IMO, it is a good type of rice to store for your mid-range preps (say 5-10 years shelf-life), but you may still want to also store some white rice for your long-term preps. 

Not Jen, but speaking for myself, I’m most looking forward to the field scenarios on how to treat traumatic injuries. Zabeth

Hi Carlotta Susanna, thanks for letting me know  🙂

Hi John, The new Austere First Aid course looks fantastic!  What’s the deadline to register for the course at the $59 preorder discounted price? Thanks! Mary Elizabeth

Personally, I like the WonderMill Junior Deluxe for a non-electric grain mill.  It comes with both stone and metal burrs so you can grind both dry and oily grains and/or nuts.  Also consider getting the flywheel and drill attachments for it, which can give you 2 different ways to motorize the mill if you want to.

Instead of storing brown sugar, store white sugar and jars of molasses.  Then you can make your own brown sugar as needed.  Instead of storing baking powder, store baking soda and cream of tartar.  Then you can make your own baking powder as needed.  Consider storing converted rice.  It has better nutritional content than white rice, holds up well in casseroles and slow cooked meals, and has a longer shelf-life than brown rice.

It may be a good idea to keep some pH test strips in your preps (such as those home soap makers use) to check the alkalinity/acidity of suspect water.

Very helpful information in this lesson – and thanks for the excellent summary!

Lots of great information in this lesson, thanks!

Hi Bob, Thanks for the helpful links.  I will check them out 🙂  Here are two others I came across online: https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/eto_tim_pse/reports/2010_cong_evac_study/ntl_capital_region.htm https://www.mwcog.org/documents/2007/07/22/ncr-regional-emergency-coordination-plan/ The material at these two links is older but quite interesting I think – particularly the “Regional Emergency Evacuation Transportation Coordination Annex”  which starts at about page 271 of the approximately 396-page-long “Regional Emergency Coordination Plan” from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), accessible via the second link.  It discusses several different emergency scenarios (including, among other things, a dirty bomb, or conventional explosives, etc.) and what evacuation strategies are suggested for each scenario (for example:  closing off entrance or exit ramps, synchronizing traffic lights, changing lane directions, using city buses to evacuate people, staggering employees’ departure times, requiring sheltering in place to avoid clogging the roadways, making all highway lanes HOV lanes, etc.). I also came across two maps of major evacuation routes people might possibly be required to take after they leave the D.C. city limits.  Again, these are older but may still be instructive.  I will try to insert them at the bottom of this reply. Thanks again! Zabeth

Hi Bob, Do you happen to know if the D.C. evacuation plan still calls for funneling the evacuee traffic up the I-270 highway to Frederick, Maryland? Thanks! Zabeth

If someone is using a butane stove (or other non-electric stove with a flame) to cook soups, stews, etc., indoors (or outdoors), they can usually significantly reduce the amount of fuel they need to do that cooking as well as significantly reduce the time the flame is burning and could be creating dangerous Carbon monoxide, by using a thermal a/k/a retained heat a/k/a hay box a/k/a Wonderbox a/k/a fireless cooker.  Some of the commercial brands of those cookers are: Saratoga Jacks, Mr. D’s, Shuttle Chef, Hope SaC, Wonderbox, and Wonderbag.  It is also possible to make your own DIY Hope SaC, Wonderbox, or Wonderbag using instructions and/or patterns available online.  A good book about thermal cooking is “Let’s Make Sense of Thermal Cooking” by Cindy Miller.  You can find her book on Amazon and on Cindy’s website: http://www.thermalcooking.net, where you can also purchase Hope SaCs, Hope SaC kits and patterns, and sign up for thermal cooking classes.  You can also find videos about thermal cooking and the different types of thermal cookers on YouTube. Zabeth

I know what you mean. Since Kearny suggested the KAP or a Double-Action Piston Pump for use in a fall-out shelter, I suppose he was assuming there would be at least a few men in the shelter who could operate one of those wooden pumps.  It would be interesting, though, to see if a lighter weight KAP or Double-Action Piston Pump could be fabricated – possibly out of Aluminum or other relatively light weight metal?  I’m guessing that might make them easier for a woman to operate on her own.  Another possibility to get fresher, filtered air into an enclosed apartment or townhouse (or to remove “bad” air from it) might be to use a canister-type vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter that could either suck air out of a room or, operating in reverse, could blow fresh air into the room.  Some sort of battery set-up would be necessary, of course, to run it if the electrical power was off.  Perhaps a battery bank charged by portable solar panels?

Hi Jonnie,  I’m making the assumption (and of course, I could be wrong), that a Kearny Air Pump or a Double-Action Piston Pump would probably be difficult for a woman of average strength to operate for any significant length of time on her own, based on the figures in Kearny’s Book, Nuclear War Survival Skills, that depict the operation of those devices, particularly figures 14 and 24 in Appendix B, and figure 3 in Appendix E.  The KAP and the Double-Action Piston Pump, as shown in the book, are apparently made primarily from wood and plywood and look (to me) to be rather heavy and cumbersome to set up and operate.  In Appendix B, Kearny says, in essence, that a large KAP can be operated by one man of average size and strength but that the operators usually prefer to work in pairs.  In Appendix E, Kearny describes how two operators, a 69-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy pumped the Double-Action Piston Pump at a rate of 52 strokes per minute.  Of the two devices, it looks (to my untrained eye) as though the Double-Action Piston Pump might take less upper body strength and stamina to operate, especially if the piston handle is positioned at the height of the operator’s elbow.   Zabeth

Hi Alisa, You’re very welcome.  I’m glad the method worked for you 🙂  Hopefully you’ll enjoy Carolyn’s videos.  I liked them a lot.  She’s great at explaining the steps very clearly. Zabeth

Jonnie, that’s great!  Those pumps look as though they might take a good deal of strength to operate though, unfortunately.  So they might not be a good option for your friend after all 🙁 Zabeth

Hi Alisa, Yes it works if you use eggs from which the natural “bloom” has not been washed off.  You might want to watch the excellent YouTube videos Carolyn Thomas from the “Homesteading Family” channel posted on how to store fresh eggs by “water glassing” them in a slaked lime a/k/a hydrated lime and water solution.  Her first video in that series is called “Water Glassing Eggs:  Preserve Your Eggs for Winter!”.  She also did follow-up videos showing how well the water glassed eggs held up 8 and then 12 months later. Zabeth

Keep in mind that a BOB does not necessarily have to be a backpack.  Mine is a (very sturdy) wheeled suitcase. Zabeth