"Preppers"

[charles]

 who all on here are the so called prepers? when the price hike in ammo and weapons happened, i was unable to "stockpile" ammo, but did start on non perishable seasonings and preserving some fruits and when its harvest time for my garden, will start on that too. i do now have a good bit of ammo piled up and buried, starting on updating and increasing my medical supplies. but my main ? is, what is used to preserve meats other than vacuume sealing (since the vacuum bags can become punctured and allow air in, and it don't do any good with raw meats in the freezer. so what else can be used i guess a better word would be curing other than curing salt bought at the stores? iv been told potassium nitrate was used in the olden days to help in curing/preserving meats and veggies along with smoking, but even some smoked foods still spoil (start growing mold) and not gonna take the chance on eating them, even though some molds are nothing more than pennicilian. so again, what can be used to cure and preserve meats, fruits and veggies?

any comments appreciated. 

[halfbreed]

    Charles  just start stock piling   SPAM    lol  . no but seriously you can smoke meats or salt cure them as well as CAN MEATS  . properly smoked hams have a shelf life of over 20 years , yes you get a little mold but just like cheese mold it is harmless and just trimmed off .   but canning is the way to go , meats put up in plain ol mason jars are good for over a year and more as long as you avoid sunlight on them  . me personally I worry more about the other foods greens and grains more so than meat protein . obtaining meat is a pretty easy affair for dog folk even if it requires eating one of the canines . 

[Judge peel]

A book named back to basics can tell every thing used for the past 500 years really good book

[charles]

Spam is out of the question, at least for now. I may stock pile some, but I grew up on that and game from our land and surrounding lands to sup the grocery bill and I got spammed out in the 80s and early 90s. U refer to salt curing, are u saying to roll the meat in regular ole table salt or curing salt? I know table salt n sea salt are natural and curing salt contains salt, but it has other items in it and I don't want to be dependent on the grocery store if I can help it. If regular ole salt, what do I need to do to salt cure the meat and then what after it's been cured, smoke or can it? I'm gonna burry most of it, along with veggies n fruits so sunlight and temp shouldn't be an issue

[charles]

A book named back to basics can tell every thing used for the past 500 years really good book

Cool beans, I'll do a search for it and see if it's available in PDF for free and if not, I'll just buy it. Thanks for the input.

[Judge peel]

Yes sir they got a one and  a number 2

[charles]

Yes sir they got a one and  a number 2

Huh???

[Judge peel]

Just a revised edition I have the first editon my aunt gave it to me over 20 yrs ago not sure when it was printed I will find it and post a pic of it. It is a cool book

[halfbreed]

   I'm glad you mentioned that book judge the family bought the book when it first came out and yes it's a good one to have for sure .  i'll have to start asking around and see who wound up with it . it is plum full of use full information .

 and Charles you need to use the curing salt for preserving and if I'm not sure it is basically non-iodized salt  . and back in the day the meat was stored in barrels covered in salt till needed  .

[Judge peel]

That book came out in 81 is what the copy right said lol. I got mine in the early 90ds it's very handy for sure


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[T-Bob Parker]

That Back to Basics book is truly a great resource!!!!!! I grew up with that book on my nightstand and have over the years tried to learn almost every skill in it! That book was such a big part of my childhood that I have my original copy put up in a safe place and am ordering another for my son.

Charles, kudos on prepping bud, never can tell when we will need out stockpiles, but I do believe the day will come sooner or later. I can't answer your questions on meat preservation as I have always gone on the assumption that vegetation and grains are number one priority while meat and fish can be procured on the fly and salted or smoked to keep a month at a time.

While we are on this subject though, have any of you looked in to "earthbag" construction? As a way of using available and free resources to build structures in whatever environment you are in. They can blend with the surroundings and are well insulated.

[charles]

   I'm glad you mentioned that book judge the family bought the book when it first came out and yes it's a good one to have for sure .  i'll have to start asking around and see who wound up with it . it is plum full of use full information .

 and Charles you need to use the curing salt for preserving and if I'm not sure it is basically non-iodized salt  . and back in the day the meat was stored in barrels covered in salt till needed  .

The curing salt iv found is pink. Unless it's a dye, iodined salt ain't pink. Lol

[charles]

 heck terry, i grew up with an ole man that saw this country going to the crapper when i just old enough to pick a rifle up and learn to use it. he was "prepping" in the mid 80s and still has his stuff for the most part (except for the ammo cache which he burned up by accident) and I'm a lil late starting, but i fell on hard times in my mid to late 20s and its taken me till last year to start building and adding to my stockpile of ammo and meds. i have finally as my ole man calls it, got the water out of my head and get my chit together. iv stockpiled plenty of ammo, a good bit of meds and non perishable foods, but unless i have to haul ass back to my birth town (with no industry I'm not moving back unless the chit really hits the fan) i don't think i have a good securable location since my house is just far enough off the road that a pistol shot would be a stretch but doable int he right hands of some1 who knows how use a pistol. In my area, I'm new to that area, don't have much land to hunt on (5ac) and only saw 1 deer on it in 3yrs and she ended up in the freezer. I'm sure if the shtf, it would be a different story, but i don't want to take that chance, so i would head back to lufkin where i know the land from the river to my childhood house. i lived off the land growing up and could do it again, but with only a few mouths to feed, stockpiling meat would be a must since the per grid may or may not be out, and i don't want to get caught with my pants around my ankles. so i want to stockpile curing agents just incase.

[T-Bob Parker]

heck terry, i grew up with an ole man that saw this country going to the crapper when i just old enough to pick a rifle up and learn to use it. he was "prepping" in the mid 80s and still has his stuff for the most part (except for the ammo cache which he burned up by accident) and I'm a lil late starting, but i fell on hard times in my mid to late 20s and its taken me till last year to start building and adding to my stockpile of ammo and meds. i have finally as my ole man calls it, got the water out of my head and get my chit together. iv stockpiled plenty of ammo, a good bit of meds and non perishable foods, but unless i have to haul ass back to my birth town (with no industry I'm not moving back unless the chit really hits the fan) i don't think i have a good securable location since my house is just far enough off the road that a pistol shot would be a stretch but doable int he right hands of some1 who knows how use a pistol. In my area, I'm new to that area, don't have much land to hunt on (5ac) and only saw 1 deer on it in 3yrs and she ended up in the freezer. I'm sure if the shtf, it would be a different story, but i don't want to take that chance, so i would head back to lufkin where i know the land from the river to my childhood house. i lived off the land growing up and could do it again, but with only a few mouths to feed, stockpiling meat would be a must since the per grid may or may not be out, and i don't want to get caught with my pants around my ankles. so i want to stockpile curing agents just incase.

In the book, "the big thicket legacy" an old woman I believe talks about how her dad used to boil down brackish water from I think Sour Lake? And get curing salt procured from it. Always nice to where to find stocks in the woods once the supplies run out

[charles]

treating brackish would be possible by basically the distilling process and u get fresh water and salt at the same time. if possible, the coast or within 30min of the coast would be a nice place to live, but I'm far from any source of salt water. now i know iv seen the "big thicket legacy" mentioned on here before. either it was in mention similar to this type of something but i can't remember. is that another book for purchase terry?

[halfbreed]

   I'm glad you mentioned that book judge the family bought the book when it first came out and yes it's a good one to have for sure .  i'll have to start asking around and see who wound up with it . it is plum full of use full information .

 and Charles you need to use the curing salt for preserving and if I'm not sure it is basically non-iodized salt  . and back in the day the meat was stored in barrels covered in salt till needed  .

The curing salt iv found is pink. Unless it's a dye, iodined salt ain't pink. Lol

 yeah Charles the curing salts are dyed pink because they have sodium nitrate and nitrites added to them [ which is poisonous to humans as well as hogs   lol ] the dye prevents folks from confusing them with regular table salt and killing them selves . but like I said if it were me I would can the meat for long term and any good canning book will have safe recipies and how to's

[charles]

That'll work mr whitten, im obliged to yaw for the help. Im gonna order both book mentioned in this topic n try to learn the old ways bc sooner than later, we r gonna b back there.

[Freedom-Fighter00]

dehydration is good.Jerky. Salt is also a good ideal. On the ammo I would not rely on that because now they give them dated primers and powders. Not saying it won't work but have u ever shot a box of old ammo? You get duds and now from what the sales guy at carters Country told me after about a couple years the ammo won't work. Good old government. Lol. I also have a stock pile of ammo and don't know if what I was told was true or not but I hate for it to be...lol

[halfbreed]

   lol  yeah you just have to be carefull putting up salt cure meats , the term botulism loosely translates to sausage sickness in latin   lol  I read that yesterday while refreshing my memory on all this . that was back when [ and not too long ago ] that they just used plain ol salt for curing  .

[charles]

Iv heard of exp primers n powder, but when did they actually start implimenting them into round manufacturing? Are new primers n powder for self reliading and expiration list too?