Food

How to Store Meat for Years With Out Refrigeration

So you are living off the land post SHTF and you manage to kill a deer or domestic cow, as you cannot eat it all at the same time you will have to find a way to preserve the rest of the meat.

Now if you lived in the frozen north you could place your extra meat underground and keep it edible for months.

If you lived in the desert you could even hang the extra meat out to dry in the sun.

But what if you live in the UK which has a temperate climate, how will you preserve this extra protein now?

Dehydrating

Dehydrating if you have emergency power is a chemical-free way to preserve meat so it becomes too dry for microbial action. Compared to traditional sun-drying, using an electric dehydrator is faster and safer. Whether you like the chewy texture of beef jerky cut along the grain or the more crumbly cross-cut chips, the slices need to be thin to ensure thorough drying inside and out.

Fat in the meat may go rancid when kept, so be sure to remove all skin and fat before slicing the meat into strips not more than one-fourth of an inch in thickness.

Lean cuts and chicken breasts are preferable to fattier portions.

Make sure your dehydrator has a temperature setting of 165 degrees Fahrenheit required for heating the meat strips to destroy harmful bacteria like E.coli and Salmonella.

It is much safer if you thoroughly heat the prepared meat in an oven set over 250 degrees F for 10-15 minutes before transferring it to the dehydrator.

Continuous running of the dehydrator at its maximum temperature for 16-20 hours will make the jerky sufficiently dry. Store the dried jerky lightly packed in airtight containers.

It will stay good at room temperature for up to two months. Extend its shelf life by storing in the freezer or by vacuum sealing it.

Curing with salt

However if you have no power then common salt is the dehydrating agent that helps preserve the meat.

Meat cured with salt is safe, as salt acts as an anti-microbial.

There are basically two ways to salt-cure meat. Rubbing salt on the meat and letting the juices drain off will result in a dry product.

The process is as easy as mixing salt with the meat, but for better flavour, spices and herbs are often used.

Meat can be preserved in salt solution, too; it is called “brining.” You can add brown sugar or honey for extra taste. Another traditional curing process called “biltong” involves marinating the meat in vinegar prior to salting and drying.

Commercially available salt-cured meat products contain several additives to improve their texture. You can cut down the chemical load by curing the meat with “Maldon Salt,” which is free of additives.

Specially formulated “curing salt” contains about 6 percent sodium nitrite, a chemical that’s known to offer some protection against botulism, but bad for you over the permitted limits.

The recommendation is one ounce of curing salt per quart of water.

Whatever method you use, the success of meat preservation hinges on the quality of the meat used. Always go for the freshest cuts.

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Winter Foraging

For the beginner, foraging should come with a health warning as it’s easy to mistake a deadly fungus for an innocent field mushroom.

While wild food is generally good for you, taking precautions and getting some tips and advice from experienced foragers is essential.

Before you head out into the wilderness, remember to check whether the land you are foraging on is protected, and whether it is public – get permission if it isn’t. Always follow the country code and don’t overharvest: birds and animals depend on wild foods for their survival. 

Mushrooms
Neither animal nor vegetable, mushrooms are a type of fungi and the largest living organisms on Earth, some reaching three miles in length. Wild mushrooms grow across most of the UK and parks and woodlands are a good place to start; the New Forest is said to be particularly rich.

Thanks to the diversity of our native mushroom species, there are always some varieties in season, but autumn is the prime mushroom picking time, as September and October are the months when most of the good edible varieties appear.

Always take a knife when foraging for fungi, so you can cut them from the base rather than pulling them out of the ground. This prevents damage to the mycelium (root-like threads) that allow them to regenerate.

Take paper bags or a wicker basket rather than plastic, which makes for sweaty mushrooms. Once you have your mushrooms safely home you are spoilt for choice for things to do with them. Grill them, stuff them, add them to soups, stir-fries and pies, or fry with wild garlic and parsley.

There are loads of recipe ideas for wild mushrooms online, such as Rogers Mushrooms, which also offers a guide to identifying the best edible species, and even an app for on the hoof identification using your mobile phone. 

Wild garlic is a good all-rounder. Widespread and abundant across much of the UK, it’s easily harvestable throughout the year and is versatile and delicious. It tastes much like regular garlic but has a milder flavour than cultivated cloves. Use the leaves to spice up a winter salad or stir-fry, or use it to add flavour to soups and stews.

Dandelions are healthy and are freely available throughout the country for most of the year. The whole plant can be eaten: leaves in salads, sandwiches or pies, while flowers (in bloom between February and November) can be used in anything from risotto to omelettes.

If you can’t wait for the buds to open, they can be marinated and used like capers for flavour. Make dandelion coffee by grinding the dried roots and use as normal. It’s totally caffeine-free and has a vaguely chocolately taste. The roots can also be thrown into stir-fries or added to vegetable dishes.

Nettles tend to be avoided thanks to their well-known propensity for leaving painful welts on the hands of the picker. But once you’ve invested in a decent pair of gardening gloves, the pros of nettles outweigh the cons.

Among other things, they can be used be make tea, soup, beer and even haggis. Boiling will get rid of the sting. Packed with vitamins and minerals, nettles contain more vitamin C than oranges. Nettles should be harvested before the flowers appear in early spring and only the youngest leaves should be chosen; mature leaves can damage the kidneys. Find them in gardens, woodlands, pastures and orchards.

Hawthorn used to be referred to as ‘bread and cheese,’ as the leaves sandwiched between slices of bread were once a staple food in the spring.

The leaves can also be added to salads, made into a tea or munched straight off the branch, while the roasted seeds make a good coffee substitute. Hawthorn berries, bountiful in autumn, make a tasty jam or fruit bread – try adding the dried and ground fruit to flour for a fruity loaf.

Hawthorn also has medicinal benefits and can help treat heart and circulation disorders. Powerful bioflavinoids present in the fruit stimulate blood flow.

Berries
Abundant, tasty and packed with vitamin C, berries are one of the easiest foods to forage. They often abound in accessible areas and there’s so much variety, you can’t go far wrong. Among the most common are blackberries, raspberries, mulberries and sloes, and the uses range from juices and cordials to jams and jelly, pies and cakes, wine and gin, and ice cream. Look for berries in woodlands, hedgerows, and parks from late summer. 

Nuts are a rich source of protein and energy for hungry foragers, but bear in mind that nuts are relied on by many birds and animals, so don’t take the lot.

Forage for nuts in the autumn, keeping them dry and warm once picked. Eat them as they come or roasted.

Most nuts can also be used as a replacement for protein, so work well in nut roasts and nut breads, or mixed into salads and stir-fries for extra crunch. Ground nuts can be pressed through a fine muslin bag to extract the oil, which can then be used for frying and dressing salads.

Favourites include chestnuts, beechnuts, hazelnuts, and walnuts. Grubbing for pignuts was once a popular past time but is now illegal without the landowner’s permission.

Preprepared Ziplock Bag Meals

Eating your own home made trail mix not only staves off hunger pains but keeps you going with much needed body fuel throughout the day.

The choice of what you put in is entirely yours

Here is my selection which I put into a zip lock bag, if kept at room temperature

1/2 cup            dried cranberries

1/2 cup            raisins

1/2 cup            chopped dried apricots

1/2 cup            chopped dried pineapple

1/2 cup            salted peanuts

1/2 cup            salted cashews or almonds

1/4 cup            dried sweet or sour cherries

1/4 cup            dried strawberry slices

1/4 cup            toasted pumpkin seeds

¼ cup               Pine nuts

Be sure to drink plenty of water when snacking on dried fruits. You need to replace the liquid you’d normally get from fresh fruit.

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Here is a recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese, which needs just a couple of minutes on the stove to heat up. All you do is Just Add Water

Serves 1

Make at home

1 cup dried cooked macaroni

2 tbsp crumbled dried cottage cheese

2 tbsp skim milk powder

1/4 tsp powdered mustard

1/4 tsp crumbled dried basil, parsley or herb of your choice

Salt and pepper

To Serve

1 cup water

In a sealable plastic bag, combine macaroni, cottage cheese, milk powder, mustard, dried herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Seal and store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks or refrigerate for up to 3 months.

To Serve

1. In a saucepan, combine macaroni mixture and water. Let stand for 15 minutes or until pasta is softened.

2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring often, for about 1 minute or until sauce is reduced and thickened.

Add drained tinned tuna.

Add chopped fresh tomatoes or tinned.

Hummus recipe

Why buy a mix when it’s so easy to make your own and you can control exactly what ingredients go into it? Hummus is a great protein booster and tastes great when combined with biscuits or greens as a snack, spread on a sandwich or even stirred into soup to thicken it.

Just Add Water
No Heat Required
Makes 1 serving (about 1/3 cup)

Prep at Home

1 small dried garlic clove

1/4 cup dried cooked chickpeas

2 tsp sesame seeds

1/4 tsp finely chopped dried lemon zest

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Pinch ground cumin (optional)

To Serve

1/4 cup water

Prep at Home

In a mini chopper, pulse garlic, chickpeas, sesame seeds, lemon zest, salt, pepper and cumin until chickpeas are powdery, with as few small chunks as possible. Transfer to a sealable plastic bag, seal and store at room temperature for up to 1 month.

To Serve

In sealable bag or a bowl, combine chickpea mixture and water. Seal or cover and let stand, mashing or stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until chickpeas are soft and liquid is absorbed.

Tips

With dried ingredients, it is tricky to get the tangy flavour that is one of the true characteristics of hummus. You can always add 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice in place of an equal amount of water.

Make a big batch of the dry mix, using a food processor or a blender to grind the ingredients. Use about 2-1/2 tbsp dry mix for each serving.

Try Adding

Hot pepper flakes. Or sweet chilli flakes.

Time for Tea Bags

Did you know tea is the secondly most consumed beverage in the world? If you’re one of the millions of people who enjoy a nice cup of tea then did you know of the uses for used tea bags?

Soothe a Blistering Sunburn

After a day in the sun there’s nothing quite like a serious sunburn from being in the sun without adequate protection. The application of green and/or black tea bags directly onto sunburned skin is a long-lasting home remedy to treat not only pain, but also speed up the healing process.

It appears that compounds known as tannins work to eliminate pain by calming inflammation. Another health benefit? Due to its antioxidant activity, the topical application of green or black tea bags may actively fight cancer formation by stopping cellular mutations.

Regardless of how it works, find near-instant relief from sunburn by applying brewed tea bags directly onto sunburned skin. Allow the bags to sit on the skin for 15 to 30 minutes. Repeat as necessary.

Restore Vitality to Wary Eyes

Dark rings under your eyes? Tired of always looking tired? If so, then try tea bags. The tannins found in green and black tea may reduce puffiness and redness around the eye area.

Brew two tea bags and then place them in the freezer for 10 minutes, or until cold. Sit down and place a tea bag over both eyes and allow it to cool and rejuvenate your eyes for 15 to 20 minutes. Repeat each night for the most visible results.

Soothe Aching and Bleeding Gums

Aching and bleeding gums can be caused by a host of ailments, ranging from a newly extracted tooth to gum disease. Regardless, find relief by biting down on a brewed green or black tea bag. The antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of tea bags streamline the healing process while simultaneously numbing pain and reducing blood loss. Repeat as many times as necessary to provide the relief you’re craving.

Find Poison Ivy Rash Relief

Anyone who’s experienced the constant itching and pain caused by this harmless-looking plant is well-aware how uncomfortable this rash is. Obtain near-instant pain and itch relief by brewing enough tea bags to fully cover the rash. Once the tea bags have cooled, apply directly on the rash. Allow the bags to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

Tip: Wear gloves when removing the tea bags to prevent accidentally spreading poison ivy.

Polish Wooden Furniture

While tea bags are used as a natural remedy for your body, they’re also an effective tool around your home. Tannins and other active compounds perfectly clean surfaces by removing germs and debris. To use tea bags as a furniture polish, brew one to two bags and allow them to cool for several minutes. Squeeze until excess moisture has been eliminated.

Hold the tea bags in a soft cloth and wipe furniture as you normally would. To prevent accidental stains, immediately wipe the surface with a clean cloth.

Natural Wart Remover

Warts are unsightly, and in some cases, painful. Even though the most effective wart treatments involve acids and other synthetic compounds, they can be painful and expensive.

While this home wart removal remedy has been used for generations, modern science is just starting to support its effectiveness.

MedlinePlus suggests the antioxidant properties found in green tea inhibit wart growth. In fact, green tea seems so powerful, initial studies found evidence green tea may actually kill HPV, the virus responsible for warts.

Brew several green tea bags and set aside to cool. Once comfortable to the touch, place a green tea bag directly on the wart. Secure the bag with tape or a bandage. After 15 minutes, replace with the second tea bag and soak the wart for 15 to 20 more minutes. After several days, you’ll notice the wart will turn black, and fall off soon thereafter.

Plant Fertilizer

Desire a natural way to feed your garden? Green or black tea provides essential nutrients to soil, which help plants thrive. Break open a used tea bag and mix the tea leaves with the soil.

Tenderize Your Meat

For meat eaters, there’s nothing as satisfying as taking a bite out of a juicy, tender steak. Unfortunately, not all cuts are as tender as they seem. Black tea is renowned by professional and amateur chefs for its ability to tenderize meat while adding a subtle earthy flavour to meats.

Steep 2 to 4 tea bags in 2 cups of water. Pour the tea, including tea bags, over your meat and allow it to marinate for 1 to 3 hours.

Eliminate Genital Herpes Pain

Genital herpes is not only an uncomfortable experience, but its presence can cause just as much mental anguish as it can physical. Eliminate the pain and outbreak duration through the help of black tea bags.

According to a study published in the June 2013 issue of ‘BMC Complementary & Alternative Medicine’ compounds in black tea, primarily the avlavins, stopped the growth and replication of the herpes virus. This study confirms the use of black tea for herpes treatment and many herbal and holistic practitioners have recommended this for generations.

Brew 1 to 2 tea bags for five minutes. Remove from the water and allow to cool. Once safe to touch, place the tea bag directly onto a herpes lesion. Allow to soak into your skin for 10 to 15 minutes. Repeat once a day until your outbreak is under control.

I will never look at a used tea bag the same way again.

Cooking and Eating Acorns

As autumn hits I soon will hear the sound of acorns hitting my deck and of squirrels scampering around gathering this free bounty.

Native American tribes used acorns as one of their primary staple foods. In much the same way they used corn, they used ground acorn nutmeat to make a meal, or flour, for baked goods. They even used them to make acorn coffee.

Acorns are rich in Vitamins B12, B6, folate riboflavin, thiamine and niacin. They also contain iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, copper manganese and zinc, and are good sources of protein and fibre. Naturalist John Muir called the acorn cakes he made the most “strength giving” food he had ever eaten.

But before you start munching on your own baskets of acorns, there is some information you need to know.

First, green acorns are unsuitable for eating. You may harvest mature green acorns to ripen in a clean, dry place, however. Also, all raw acorns contain high amounts of tannic acid, which gives them a bitter taste and which can be toxic to humans and many animals if consumed in large quantities. White oak acorns generally contain fewer tannins than back or red oak acorns.

Tannic acid is water soluble, however, and can be removed by boiling or flushing. Native Americans accomplished this by placing a bag of acorns in a clean, flowing stream for a few days until no brown coloured water was visible around the acorns.

Here’s how you can remove the tannins. To begin, use only ripe, brown acorns that look appealing to the eye. Leave any acorns that appear to be blackened or mildewed for the squirrels.

Next, remove the caps and boil the acorns for 10 minutes. Replace the water three more times, repeating the 10-minute boiling process each time. After the four boiling sessions, the water should no longer look brown and the acorns can be easily shelled.

Another way of removing the tannins is the flushing method. Remove the caps and place the acorns inside a cheese cloth bag. Secure the opening, and place the bag under running water for several hours. Drain the water out of the bag frequently and continue rinsing until the water is clear.

Spread the damp acorns in a thin layer on a baking sheet and in a preheated 200 degree Fahrenheit oven, with the door slightly ajar to let moisture escape. Or if it’s a sunny day, you can place them on a baking sheet in direct sunlight for several hours or until they are dry.

Another method for leaching the acorns is to let them soak in baking soda and water (one tablespoon per quart of water) for 12 to 15 hours before rinsing well.

To make acorn “coffee,” first peel the ripe, blanched acorns. Divide the kernels and place them in a covered ovenproof dish. Roast in your oven on low heat, stirring them frequently. When they have roasted, grind them and use the grounds combined with your regular coffee or on their own. To make acorn flour, follow the same process but sift well to remove any fibres.

Acorns add a nutty, slightly sweet taste to foods. Some Korean noodles and jellies are made of acorn starch, and many Asian grocery markets sell acorn starch in packages.

Other ways to use blanched acorns in your cooking include:

Substituting them in recipes that call for chickpeas, peanuts or macadamia nuts.

Sprinkling chopped, roasted acorns on a garden salad.

Making acorn butter instead of peanut or almond butter.

Adding acorns to stews as you would add beans or potatoes to add more taste and depth.

Here is a recipe for acorn bread or muffins. You’ll need:

2 cups acorn flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup maple syrup or sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3 tablespoons olive oil

Bake in pan for 30 minutes or until done at 400 degrees

Raw acorns can be stored in a clean, cool and dry place for months without spoiling. They also can be used as feed for certain livestock. You will need to follow the same process of avoiding green, unripe acorns and of removing the tannins from the acorns for the health and safety of your animals, however.

Homemade Cheese

What you will need

4 litres of whole milk, 1 pinch salt, 1 large lemon, juiced

What to do

1. Pour the milk into a large pan, and stir in a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan.

2. When the milk begins to boil turn the heat off then stir the lemon juice into the milk, the milk will then curdle. This may take 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Line a sieve with a cheesecloth, now pour the milk through the cloth to catch the curds. What is left in the cheesecloth is the Farmer’s Cheese. The liquid is the whey.

4. Gather the cloth around the cheese, and squeeze out as much of the whey as you can. Then I find it best to suspend the cheese cloth over the sink for example.

5. When it has stopped dripping, I put it in an airtight container and put it in the fridge.

Why not try using herbs or other flavourings.

Survival Cooking Risks

So when the brown stuff hits the fan your will bug-out. You will build a shelter, light a fire, hunt, trap and fish and then sit around the fire singing “gin gang gooley” as your food cooks.

It just sounds idyllic doesn’t it?

But according to recent figures this could be the most dangerous aspect of survival camping.

A shocking 94 per cent of more than 2,000 people questioned for a Government survey admit to at least one barbecue habit that is a health risk.

Food poisoning is a real risk at barbecues

FSA Chief executive Catherine Brown

Twenty-one per cent believe they have been ill due to something they have eaten as a result, the poll for the Food Standards Agency found.

Almost a third admit to not checking burgers, sausages and even chicken are cooked all the way through.

The FSA has released a list of tips to cut food poisoning, with the first being to pre-cook meat in the oven and finish it off on the barbecue for flavour.

Chief executive Catherine Brown said: “Food poisoning is a real risk at barbecues and we are reminding people to take good care of their families.”

Survival cooking is bar-b-q cooking is it not? When the shtf there will be no chemist, health centre, doctor or NHS to go to to sort out food poisoning, stomach upsets and diarrhoea, all of which will dehydrate you and reduce your physical ability to provide and survive.

OK I do not want to teach my grandmother to suck eggs by it never hurts to get back to basics.

Charred doesn’t mean cooked, cook your barbecue food thoroughly until you are sure that your poultry, pork, burgers, sausages and kebabs are steaming hot, with no pink meat inside.

Avoid cross-contamination by storing raw meat separately before cooking, use different utensils, plates and chopping boards for raw and cooked food. Always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water and dry them before handling your food for the barbecue and after handling raw foods including meat, fish, eggs and vegetables. (You should of course wash your hands after touching the bin, going to the toilet, blowing your nose, or touching pets.)

Don’t wash raw chicken or other meat, it just splashes germs. Cooking will kill any bacteria present, including campylobacter. On the other hand, washing chicken, or other meat, can spread dangerous bugs on to your hands, clothes, utensils and by splashing.

Turning meat regularly and moving it around the barbecue will help to cook it evenly. Charred on the outside doesn’t always mean cooked on the inside so, it’s always safer to cut open and check your burgers, sausages and chicken. If in doubt –keep cooking.

Keep plates and cutlery away from raw meat and fish, never serve your guests cooked food on a plate or surface that’s had raw meat or fish on it, and don’t use cutlery or marinades that have been in contact with raw meat. There’s no point in serving up food with a flourish if you’re adding bugs back into the mix.

Survival Trapping

Trapping or snaring is a simple process. Your goal is to hold, contain, or kill the intended target species.

Without real traps or snares, you have to use your head. The better your understanding of wildlife, the better trapper you will be.

I have a friend who just started trapping and she told me she used to think you just put traps anywhere in the woods and the animals would be caught!

This is a very important statement if you are a beginner. To understand trapping, you have to understand what estate agents say all the time - "Location, location, location."

To become an expert trapper, you must study every piece of written material on the target animals. I am not just talking about trapping books and videos, but wildlife studies.

Have you seen the movie with Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins called "The Edge"? I think that is what it was called, anyway.

This is the movie where they are stranded up in Alaska. They make that little cage trap out of sticks and twine to catch the squirrel. Then they catch a squirrel. The funny part was the squirrel the movie shows getting caught in the trap doesn't even live in Alaska!

I have seen animals in traps, and I laughed my head off when I saw that part! A trapped squirrel would have jumped and pushed at the cage.

That cage, having no weight on it would have fallen open, and the squirrel would have escaped. Don't rely on Hollywood to teach you any survival skills!

Pine Sap and Birch Bark Trap. I will now discuss some different emergency trapping techniques. One of my favourites is a century old way of trapping birds. For centuries, the Indians knew that trapping fed them better than hunting, and they developed this trap.

You use a smooth, easy-to-form type of bark, like Birch or any pliable, soft, inner bark.

Form a cone like an ice cream cone, and tie strips of inner bark around the cone to keep it together. Score a pine tree by cutting off a 4 x 4 inch square in the bark, until you can see the inner bark. The sticky sap will flow out.

Take a stick and get a good glob of sap, then smear it onto the inside of your cone. Using whatever the birds - like grouse or pheasants - are feeding on (berries, corn, etc…), make a small trail leading into the cone, and fill the inner cone with the bait.

The bird will eat the bait and follow the trail right into the cone! Once they stick their head in, the pinesap will stick to their feathers.

The bird is now blind. But, just like a bird in a cage that you place a cover over, these trapped birds will lay down, thinking it is night time, and go to sleep.

It is very important to make sure no light can be seen inside the cone.

Approach the trapped bird slowly and quietly. Once you grab the bird, hold on tight, because it is going to freak out! Quickly grab it and wring its neck.

Stovepipe Bird Trap.

The stovepipe game bird trap is so simple, it makes me laugh every time I think about it. The principle behind it is that birds can't back up. Have you ever seen a bird walk backwards? Neither have I!

A friend told me about it when I was in school. There was a farm inside the village limits loaded with pheasants!  He used to train his dogs there. The pheasants were just too tempting for me, so I had to try it.

So, I made a trap, baited it with corn, and the next day, sure enough, there were fresh pheasant tracks going right into the pipe!

Man! This is great, I thought! I lifted the pipe, expecting the weight of a bird, only to be disappointed upon finding it empty. 

Mice must have stolen the bait, I thought. After two more days of tracks going into the pipe and no pheasants, I figured it out. I was using an 8-inch pipe, and the birds could turn around.

I went back to the scrapyard, found some 6-inch pipe, and the next day, the pheasant was waiting!

Of course, I had to try it on the grouse, and found that a 4-inch pipe works for them. My guess for quail would be the 2- or 3-inch pipe.

Materials needed:

6-inch diameter, 24-inch long stove pipe

A piece of chicken wire, about 12-inches square and some duct tape

That's it. You take the chicken wire, form it around one end of the pipe, and duct tape the overlay nice and tight around the pipe. Place a trail of corn going into the pipe, and a pile or cob in the back.

This has to be the easiest trap to make, and man does it work! Be careful when you pull the pheasants out. They are a feisty bird, and you had better have a good hold on them. Otherwise, they will fly off.

A Pit Trap. This is a neat trap. A friend who enjoys (poaching) told this me about this one, on catching pheasants.

You take a coke bottle, or a small shovel, and dig a hole 6 inches in diameter, 10- to 12 inches deep. Make a trail of corn leading to the hole, and cover the bottom with corn.

The pheasant, or grouse, will come up and reach down to get the corn. Then, they fall into the hole. Their wings are stuck at their sides, and their feet are hanging up in the air! You just pull them up by the feet, and wring the neck.

Fish Trapping.

One of the oldest methods of catching fish is used in small rivers and streams. You find a shallow spot next to a deep hole. At night, the fish come out to feed, and will swim in the shallows.

To take advantage of this, you can narrow down the opening into a "V". Behind the "V" is a solid wall of rocks. The fish will swim in and get caught or confused, and lay in the trap until daylight.

When you go to check the trap, approach quietly from the front. Place a large rock, or rocks, blocking the hole in the "V". This is to keep any from escaping.

Netting is the best way to catch the fish in the containment area. If you don't have a net, make a spear. Clubbing fish is a waste of time in the water.

All that happens is you get very wet, and the fish could get so scared they will jump over the back wall to escape. Yes, I found that one out first-hand.

If you are serious about trapping, get real equipment, and real snares. Real traps and snares will always catch more than these homemade traps.

Trapping is a skill that takes practice. You have to learn to walk into the woods and recognize what type of animal lives there.

Then you need to learn where they travel for food, water, and shelter and set your traps and snares accordingly.

Pine Needle Tea

I thought that would introduce you to a simple tea that is delicious, healthy and a great immune booster.

For those of you who are new to the world of plants, a safe and simple tea can be made from the common Pine trees that surround us.

Pine Needle Tea has long been a favourite of traditional and indigenous peoples, both for its refreshment and for its medicinal values.

You may not realize that Pine Needle Tea contains 4-5 times the Vitamin C of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and is high in Vitamin A. It is also an expectorant (thins mucus secretions), decongestant, and can be used as an antiseptic wash when cooled. So not only does it taste good, but it's good for you!

Each variety of pine has its own flavour to impart, so experiment and see which needles you like best. And feel free to mix and match!

Just remember that while all Pines are evergreens, not all evergreens are Pines! So head out to the local woods or park, positively identify your pine trees, bring back some needles and give this one a try!

Step-by-step Instructions for Making Pine Needle Tea:

Collect a small bundle of green needles, the younger the better. (A small handful will be plenty.)

Remove any of the brown, papery sheaths that may remain at the base of the needles. (They just pull right off.)

Chop the needles into small bits, about ¼ to ½ inch long.

For a Refreshing Tea:

Heat about a cup of water to just before boiling.

Bring water almost to a boil

Pour the hot water over about a tablespoon of the chopped needles.

Allow to steep (preferably covered) for 5-10 minutes, until the majority of needles have settled to the bottom of the cup. Enjoy your delicious tea!

Steeping Tea Allow needles to settle enjoy your refreshing tea!

For a Medicinal Tea:

(This process releases more of the oils & resins that contain the medicinal compounds, and tastes a little like turpentine.)

Bring about a cup of water to a full boil. Add approximately one tablespoon of chopped needles to the boiling water and cover. Allow the needles to boil in the water for 2-3 minutes.

Remove from heat and allow the tea to continue to steep, covered, until it is cool enough to drink. (Most of the needles should sink to the bottom.) Pour the tea into a mug, leaving the needles behind, and enjoy!

Drink this tea several times a day for maximum medicinal effect. (Make it fresh each time.

Enjoy your tea!

With cold & flu season approaching Pine Needle Tea is a gift of health as well as an enjoyable experience.

And since Pine is best used fresh, it's a perfect excuse to get out & enjoy the change of seasons!

How to Make Hardtack

You’ve all heard of hardtack. It’s a great survival food, because it is very nutritious and tasty, and also keeps extremely well when stored in the proper conditions. I will tell you how to make hardtack using a simple recipe, and tell you how to cook it to make a delicious survival food.

Hardtack is an ideal survival food

What makes a good survival food? Well, first off, you need to be able to store it for long periods of time without spoiling. Second, it needs to be nutritious. And third, it should taste good. Tasting good is not really a necessity, but it sure is nice if you end up living off the stuff for a long time.

Hardtack satisfies all three conditions. Once it’s dried thoroughly, it will keep for years, provided it stays dry and away from pests. If you make it with natural, healthy ingredients, it’s very nutritious.

And if you know how to prepare it, it tastes delicious. Because it is completely dehydrated, it is relatively light and easy to transport, but because it is so dense, it packs a lot of nutrition in a small package.

Hardtack history

Hardtack has actually been around since the time of Egyptian sailors, but you probably know it better from the Civil War period. During the war, 3×3 inch squares of hardtack were shipped to both the Union and Confederate armies, making a staple part of a soldier’s rations.

Typically made 6 months beforehand, it was as hard as a rock when it actually got to the troops. To soften it, they usually soaked it in water or coffee. Not only would this soften it enough for eating, but any insect larvae in the bread would float to the top, allowing the soldiers to skim them out.

Simple hardtack recipe

You can make hardtack almost identical to what sailors, troops, and pioneers have been eating (minus the weevils!) by following this simple recipe:

4-5 cups of flour

2 cups of water

3 tsp. of salt

Mix the flour, water and salt together, and make sure the mixture is fairly dry. Then roll it out to about 1/2 inch thickness, and shape it into a rectangle. Cut it into 3×3 inch squares, and poke holes in both sides.

Place on an un-greased cookie or baking sheet, and cook for 30 minutes per side at 375˚ (or 350˚ if you have a convection oven).

When it’s done, you’ll want to let it dry and harden for a few days, just out in the open. When it has the consistency of a brick, it’s fully cured.

Then simply store it in an airtight container or bucket. To prepare for eating, soak it in water or milk for about 15 minutes, and then fry in a buttered skillet. You can eat it with cheese, soup or just plain with a little salt added. Any way you do it, it’s delicious!

Wilderness Survival Cooking

Wilderness survival camping is a skill that is useful to know and is even fun to practice. Here are 10 tips to provide you with information on cooking when in a wilderness survival setting.

Obviously the most important wilderness survival skill is to be able to make a fire. A small magnesium sparker can be carried on a keychain or placed into a pocket. Practice with it in the back garden before relying on it in a wilderness survival situation.

Both fairly stiff, thick wire and thinner, more flexible wire is always a good thing to have in your survival kit. The stiffer wire can be used to impale an object to be placed over the fire, such as a fish.

The more flexible wire can be used to wrap and dangle less secure items over the fire, such as a piece of meat. Both types of wire can be utilized for other wilderness survival skills other than cooking of course from snares to shelter construction.

In a wilderness survival situation, always be certain to properly cook any meat that you are going to eat. Minor illness such as diarrhoea can quickly dehydrate you in a wilderness setting, while more serious illnesses can be deadly.

Overcooking meat is much better than undercooking.

If you have ingredients to make bread, pancakes, or anything like them here is a wilderness survival tip. With bread dough, roll it into a strip and wrap it around a stick to cook. Pancakes can be made in the same way with a little less efficiency.

Try to thicken the batter as much as possible. Dip in a stick and place it over the fire while rolling it fairly quickly to keep as much as possible from dripping off. A heated rock could also be used to make pancakes or bread. Scavenging a piece of metal to cook on is best if possible.

Use you fire to clean your wilderness survival cooking utensils. Clean water may be at a premium but fire will kill germs well.

Learn about edible plants that exist in your area. Just eating what other animals eat will not work as their digestive system is different than ours. This is knowledge that you must gain in the field (with a proper guide!).

Canned food can be warmed up (though not necessary) simply by ripping off the label and placing it beside the fire. Stir the contents often to avoid scorching.

While it is best to cook them in aluminium foil, potatoes and other vegetables can be cooked by placing them directly on or near hot coals. Honestly, I think that the potatoes cooked in its skin and not foil tastes better.

The skin is not fit to eat if cooked bare (unless you are starving!).

If you are lucky enough to find corn to eat, do not remove the husk. Place the entire ear, husk and all as close as possible to the coals. You can also suspend it above the coals. Try to avoid catching the husk on fire.

Field corn (grown for livestock) is edible as well.

An important skill in cooking in the wild is being able to dry meat. Dried meat can be carried in pockets for a quick and easy meal.

Remember, practice these skills now and hope to never have to use them. But if you ever find yourself in a wilderness survival situation you will be ready.

Now this may be stating the obvious, but survival cooking is about survival. We are not talking the type of cooking you see in cookery books and magazines.

Recipes

You can forget any fancy ideas about recipes. The word “recipe” means “take thou”, as in “take thou a dozen eggs and half a pound of flour”. If you can get to the supermarket and buy the stuff demanded by a recipe, then it’s not survival.

When you are in the wilderness, surrounded by sheep, cows, pigeon, water fowl etc.s, you could starve to death looking at recipes instructing you to take lemon grass, raspberry leaf vinegar and organic tofu cutlets.

On the other hand you can be realistic and say, “I have access to all this food, which shall I eat first and how shall I cook it?”

Survival cooking is realistic cooking, and realistic cooking relies on a basic understanding of the FACTS about food and an accurate analysis of your own situation.

Mushrooms

A really good big mushroom identification book is a great aid to survival preparation. Tear out the pages one by one, crumple them into little balls and practice lighting fires. Lighting fires is a useful skill. Identifying mushrooms isn’t.

Mushrooms are delicious but they got their name, “the food of the gods” when the Emperor Claudius died after eating poisonous mushrooms, thus becoming a god. The French, who go in for wild mushrooms in a big way, peg out with monotonous regularity.

The risk might be worth it if mushrooms had some nutritional value. They don’t. You will expend more energy carrying a pound of mushrooms 100yds than you will get from eating them.

Add in the genuine risk of snuffing it, or at least being “hors de combat” for a couple of days, and eating wild mushrooms becomes the survival cook’s equivalent of shooting off your toes.

Remember, in the real world, calories are good. Only a society ludicrously preoccupied with the shape of celebrities’ bodies could come up with idiotic concepts like empty calories. A calorie is a measure of the energy available in a food. This is your personal fuel we are talking about. No calories = no energy = death.

So forget all the health crap you hear. Look at the guys doing hard physical work without the benefit of million pound salaries and personal trainers.

When they want energy they get stuck into some calories.

Lesson one in survival cooking: assess the nutritional energy against the energy used in collection and preparation. To assess the energy level of an ingredient, ask yourself if a women’s magazine would recommend the product. If they would, forget it – you’ll starve.

Gathering food

If you are hungry in an inhabited area, the most energy efficient way to gather food is to go and raid somebody’s larder to be honest.

The skill lies in taking the right things when you raid the larder. Number one priority is fat. Fat gives 9,000 calories per kilogram. That means half a kilo per day will keep a man doing heavy physical work.

Tinned tomatoes on the other hand, while an invaluable kitchen product, only produce 160 calories per kilogram. So thirty kilos a day should keep you going (and they would!).

Sugar has half the calories of fat, but is a lot more palatable and digestible than fat. However as a long term diet it can get boring.

Flour gives 3500 calories per kilo and about 10% protein. Dried beans, peas, lentils etc. give about 3,000 calories and 25% protein.

But before you start worrying about protein levels, cholesterol, vitamins, free radicals and all that crap, think how long you are going to need to survive before you can get back to civilisation and a few pints.

If it’s less than six months before that badly needed pint, the only relevant factor is calories.

When raiding the larder, take fat, sugar, flour, lentils and salt. Salt has no calorific value but is a useful preservative and flavour enhancer. You are also more likely to suffer from salt deficiency than from an excess.

Survival trapping

Forget any romantic notions of setting horse hair traps for rabbits in the pale dawn and then settling down to tickle trout from the mossy banks of the stream. This makes great television but the sheep or cow in the next field will make better food for less effort.

I don’t intend to waste any time on how to catch prey. When you get hungry enough you’ll figure out a way. If I was hungry and carrying an SA80 I would shoot it.

Herding it into a corner or driving it off a cliff work equally well. Essentially what you will catch and eat depends on how hungry you are and how squeamish.Squeamishness is a luxury you can’t afford in a survival situation. Snails, worms, insects and slugs are all good sources of precious calories.

Before you start saying “yeugh, slugs”, I strongly recommend you study the dietary habits of lobsters. Now few people would say “yeugh, lobster” – but lobsters are remarkably partial to corpses.

I am still looking for a business partner for my company combining burials at sea with a lobster fishery. I like the idea of charging 500 quid to chuck lobster bait over one side of the boat while I haul up lobster pots the other side.

While my idea may be tasteless, I assure you the lobsters would be delicious. Remember, your food’s eating habits have little or no bearing on the taste of the end product.

No-one worries about throwing large quantities of dung on the fields to feed the wheat which, when turned into bread, does not taste of sh1t (OK, sliced white is pretty bad, but that’s another story).

Survival cooking

Cooking is simple. So why is so much effort put into making it sound complicated?

Where can you learn survival cooking? In the kitchen. There’s no point trying out techniques outside until you are competent indoors.

You learn to shoot a rifle on a range first. The flash stuff – running around shooting from the hip and all the other ways of missing the target – follow on from when you are competent with firing a rifle from a rest.

Non cooks want details that are meaningless and unnecessary. You should select a cooking method which holds good for ever, and which you can adapt to whatever ingredients you have.

I have eaten fish and rice cooked in vines in Greece and trout cooked in wet newspaper in England. They use the same technique. Sweetcorn cooked in the husk is the same. This is one of those classic techniques which works almost whatever you use.

Be careful to judge when it is done, and don’t burn it up…

In survival cooking you do not need to consider the heat of the fire or the weight of the food being cooked. God gave you a nose and a memory. Try using them.

On the whole, if it smells cooked, it is. So try it. If you are right, you have learned how to judge when it is done. Congratulations. Now you are a cook.

If it’s not ready, try again and see if you can work out how much longer it needs. The only way to judge is from experience.

 

Spring is here and the Dandelion is here too

Infused Dandelion Flower Vinegar

My garden is totally full of dandelions at the moment. My wife goes made as she hates them so I decided to make some dandelion flower vinegar.

Ingredients

Dandelion flower heads

Cider vinegar

Sealable jar

So I took a carrier bag out into the garden and filled it full of dandelions.

Back in the kitchen I washed them to remove any bugs etc. shook the water off and put them into the sealable jar and I covered them in good quality cider vinegar then sealed the jar and put it into the cupboard under the sink.

Some say they should be left for up to 8weeks but I usually attack in after about a week.

Do try it as you might just like it.

Dandelion Salad with Vinegar and Oil Dressing

This is a salad of freshly gathered dandelion greens, tossed with a homemade vinegar and oil dressing

Ingredients:

One huge bowl full of freshly gathered dandelion greens

Vinegar and Oil Dressing Ingredients:

1/4 cup vinegar

1/8 cup water

1 rounded tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon onion salt

1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/8 teaspoon celery seed

1/8 cup olive or vegetable oil

Optional toppings:

chopped fried turkey bacon

chopped hard boiled eggs

shredded cheese

parmesan cheese

any other favourite salad topping

Instructions:

1. Wash the dandelion greens in water in the sink. I usually wash in at least two sinks of water, and then cut off the root and put the (now separated) dandelion greens in a clean bowl. Be sure to include the buds (which have not flowered) -- they're tasty!

2. Combine dressing ingredients in a container with a tightly sealing lid. Shake until sugar is dissolved.

3. Put dandelion greens into a large bowl (to allow room for stirring). Pour dressing over greens and toss to coat. Serve into bowls and add optional toppings if desired.

Dandelion greens are best eaten before the flower has appeared. Using a large flat-head screw driver (or similar object), cut the root of the dandelion to release the plant.

Old-Fashioned Elderflower Recipe

With May nearly upon us it is time to think of this most English of drinks.

Ingredients

20 heads of elderflower

1.8 kg granulated sugar, or caster sugar

1.2 litres water

2 unwaxed lemons

75 g citric acid

Method

Shake the elderflowers to expel any lingering insects, and then place in a large bowl.

Put the sugar into a pan with the water and bring up to the boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.

While the sugar syrup is heating, pare the zest of the lemons off in wide strips and toss into the bowl with the elderflowers. Slice the lemons, discard the ends, and add the slices to the bowl. Pour over the boiling syrup, and then stir in the citric acid. Cover with a cloth and then leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

Next day, strain the cordial through a sieve lined with muslin (or a new j-cloth rinsed out in boiling water), and pour into thoroughly cleaned glass or plastic bottles. Screw on the lids and pop into the cupboard ready to use.

What You Can Eat in the Wild

There is a vast range of things which grow in the wild, which are safe to eat and will help to keep you nourished when faced with a survival situation.

Dandelion leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, the roots make a welcoming hot drink (if you're not in a survival situation and want a natural snack, the flower itself can be dipped in batter and made into a fritter).

Nettles can be steamed or boiled and make a useful substitute for your ‘greens’ and of course, there’s nettle tea! The roots of the burdock plant can be boiled and then eaten like potatoes and pitted rose hips are packed with vitamin C.

You may also find more common foods like blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. However, be absolutely sure you know what you are eating before putting it in your mouth and also remember that some wild plants need to be cooked before they are safe to eat.

What Not to Eat in the Wild

In brief, you shouldn’t eat anything that you can’t identify. However, there are a few clues as to the kinds of things you should definitely steer clear of.

Anything that has thorns or spines you should treat with suspicion and unless you are highly knowledgeable about mushrooms and fungi, you should keep away from them as, although you can eat many fungi, some of them are deadly.

Plants with shiny leaves or with umbrella flowers or which have yellow or white berries or a milky sap (except dandelions) are also highly ‘suspicious’ and should be avoided. And if a plant gives off a pungent odour, you’re better off leaving it alone.

Other Food Survival Tips

Many people fall ill because they assume that if an animal is eating a particular plant or berry, then it must be safe for humans.

This is not the case.

Also, make sure that if you’ve found what you know is a patch of plants that are edible that all the plants you gather are the same species, as there may be similar looking plants growing in the same area but which are highly dangerous.

You also need to know which plants need cooking first to make them safe as some plants are still harmful if you eat them raw.

Some survival books will show you how to do an edibility test on a particular plant if you cannot identify it.

This is a quite lengthy process beginning with testing a small portion of the plant on your skin to see if it causes an allergic reaction, then on your lips and tongue etc. but it is a painstaking, lengthy process and doesn’t offer a 100% guarantee as to the plant’s safety and should only ever be used in an absolute emergency.

There are plenty of resources on the internet to show you how to conduct a plant edibility test but you should treat these with some caution. 

The only way is to be sure that you have identified the plant in question is by doing your research in order to be confident about what is edible and what isn’t.

Survival Cooking and Foraging

Although cooking outdoors is often a great way to prepare food, the chances are that, in a survival situation, you’re not going to have the right types of food or cooking utensils to make it much of a pleasurable experience….or, so you might think!

Your skills and knowledge of how to gather food and water using natural means and to prepare it correctly will often give you an even greater sense of achievement and will boost your morale even further which is important, in addition to providing you with the nutrients which will help you to survive.

Initial Preparation

Unless you’re an expert in foods in the wild which can be eaten raw, you need to ensure that you cook all the food which you’ve harvested thoroughly to make sure it’s free from parasites and you should check that there are no visible signs of disease or abnormalities.

This goes for plants too, some of which are safe to eat when cooked but highly toxic if eaten raw.

Different Methods of Cooking

Rock Boiling

This technique comes in handy when you’ve not got a container which can be placed upon or over an open fire. You need to gather some small rocks or stones which won’t shatter or crumble and heat them in the fire for about 2 hours.

In a survival situation, make sure you have a backup set of rocks in the fire when the others have been removed to help with the continual cooking. 

Once the rocks are hot enough, you can remove them from the fire and put them into your container of water which will then begin to boil.

At that point, you can start adding your food to the container to cook it. You need to ensure that you’ve got more rocks to add if you want the pot (or whatever your container is made from) to keep boiling.

Spit Cooking

You can make a spit out of a sapling and simply skewer a gutted, skinned and cleaned small animal or fish which you can then suspend over the heat turning it regularly. To ensure its cooked through, it’s better to do this over coals or some other type of low intensity burning material as opposed to over open flame.

Pit Cooking

This is great if you want to steam your food. Basically, you need to dig a pit or hole in the ground and line the bottom of it with rocks. Then, build a fire on top of the rocks and let that burn for a couple of hours until the rocks beneath are red hot. Then scrape out the remainder of the fire and place some non-poisonous grasses about 7 or 8 inches deep on top of the rocks.

You then place the food you’re cooking on top of the grasses. Wrapping the food in large leaves first is often a good idea if you want to seal in the juices from your food.

Then place some more grasses and seal the pit with some bark or similar material and some earth. After a couple of hours, just remove the earth, bark and grasses, not forgetting they’ll be hot and your food will taste delicious and it’s a method that also helps to retain the food’s natural juices.

Rock Frying

Following a similar process to the rock boiling technique, once again heat the rocks in the fire and, once removed, you can use them almost like a frying pan.

Other alternative methods include building a rock oven for baking but for a quicker solution to cooking things more slowly, use a rock or slab of wood as a reflector by propping it at about a 45 degree angle from the fire.

As it heats up, you can then use it like a grill remembering to turn the food over to ensure its evenly cooked.

Enjoying a meal when faced with a survival situation is going to be a fantastic morale booster and the gathering of the food and its preparation is all part of that. Not only will it help pass the time of day and keep your mind occupied, it will sustain you and give you energy for the days ahead, should a rescue or escape not be immediate.

Many people believe that they will never find themselves in a survival situation, but it can happen to anyone and the importance of knowing the plants and berries that you can safely eat to sustain you, cannot be emphasised enough.

Whilst there is an abundance of food to be found in the natural environment, there are also plants and berries which if eaten, can cause you severe stomach upsets at best and at worst, can kill you.

The ‘look’ of a particular plant or berry is simply not enough and if you can’t identify it, then the advice is to leave it alone and not to risk eating it. Therefore, if you’re out in the woods, it’s useful to have a basic knowledge of the vegetation that grows in a specific area you’re visiting and know how to identify which plants are safe and which are toxic.

Avoiding Temptation

Hunger pangs are highly likely to ‘kick in’ if you are stranded for some time without food but it’s important to remember that you can actually survive for a few weeks without food as long as you have enough water to sustain you.

Therefore, no matter how abundant and tempting plants and berries might be, you should never eat any wild vegetation unless you are 100% sure you can identify it.

Campfire Breakfast

For most, the average work-week morning is downright dreadful. You wake up still bleary-eyed and exhausted. After knocking back some coffee as quickly as you can, it’s time for the struggle to get the kids up and moving. 

The rest of your whirlwind morning is spent trying to get them ready for school, while simultaneously attempting to get at least half-put together for work.

At the campsite, mornings couldn’t be more different. The sun is shining softly through the trees, the birds are chirping gleefully, and you couldn’t be more awake or refreshed; somehow, even the old-fashioned percolated coffee tastes better. 

With ample time to start your day, you might even have time to cook up a tasty campsite breakfast for everyone.

The following breakfast recipes are a satisfying way to start the day, and easy enough to make that they won’t get frustrating or take all morning. 

With them, you’ll be cracking the eggs, flipping the pancakes, and frying up the bacon to create a breakfast very much worth devouring – and remembering.

All-in-One Breakfast

3 sausage links (or other)

3 eggs

Half a potato

1/4 cup shredded cheese 3 tablespoons milk

Cook sausage and cut into small pieces, cut the potato into small pieces and cook in sausage drippings. Drain. Beat eggs and milk together and add to potatoes. When almost cooked, add sausage and cheese. Ready when cheese is melted. 

Serving : 1

Bacon & Egg in a Paper Bag

3 thick slices of bacon

1 egg

1 paper lunch bag

1 stick

Place bacon in the bottom of the bag, covering the bottom. Crack egg and put in bag on top of the bacon. Fold top of bag down securely. Poke a hole through the top of the bag for the stick. 

Hold over the hot coals till cooked.

Choosing Game

Choosing and cooking game isn't difficult with a few guidelines and a little information about Game.

Game is the term for wild animals and birds hunted and caught for food. 

Game has been a favourite British food forever, as it was once the main source of meat for many being wild and more importantly, free. Today many animals and birds, which were once wild, are now raised on farms including quail, deer and rabbit.

Game falls into two types; feathered and furred.

The season for wild feathered game starts officially on the 12th August, known as the Glorious 12th, and runs through to late February; furred game from August 1st until late April. Dates vary throughout the UK and Ireland for different types of Game and precise details can be found on the Shooting UK website.

Buying Game

Many supermarkets now sell oven-ready game with cooking instructions but if you want to know more about where your meat came from then it is best to go to a specialist game dealer. 

A game dealer will be able to tell you where and when the bird or animal was shot and advise on cooking methods.

Knowing the age of the game is very important, as this will determine the cooking method. Young birds can be roasted whereas older birds are better suited to a casserole or pie. 

If you are lucky to have been given a brace of birds, young birds if un plucked will have smooth legs, and the beak and feet will still be pliable.

Fresh game can only be bought in season unless frozen, whereas farmed game is not subject to the seasons and can often be bought year-round. Farmed game is tenderer and less gamey in flavour than from the wild; which you choose is down to personal preference.

Hanging Game

Birds and animals caught in the wild have a tendency to be dry and tough and the way to counteract this is to hang them. 

Hanging tenderizes the meat and allows flavour to develop.

The test of when a bird or animal had been hung sufficiently used to be waiting until the head and tail feathers fell off, or maggots appeared in the gut is no longer used – thank goodness. 

Ripeness is now judged by the smell. A high bird will smell powerfully gamey; a bird that is rotten smells bad, as any meat that has gone off.

Pheasant, partridge and grouse should be hung by the neck, wildfowl including geese by the feet. This helps the meat to mature slowly and retain moisture – very important to avoid the game being dry when cooked.

We have about two months left to obtain some game; quite often game butchers will offer a deal on locally shot game, my local butcher has an offer of 10 oven ready pheasants for only £20. 

But I ask you if you have not tried it to do so this year, you will not regret it.

Basic and Simple Cooking Methods

Egg in an Orange

Cut an orange in half. Scoop out the flesh inside and eat it – be careful not to cut through the skin!

Now crack an egg into the skin and place on the embers of the fire until the egg is cooked.

Onion eggs

Cut the onion in half after removing the outer skin. Remove internal contents except for the remaining three outer layers. Break egg into shell and place on embers. When cooked eat the onion container

as well as its contents after removing the outer scorched layer.

Spud Egg

Cut the top off a potato of and scoop a hole in the middle. Crack the egg into the hole, put the top

back in place and secure with small wooden pegs. Bake until the potato is cooked.

To make spud-eggs, cut potato across short axis, hollow out both halves, break egg into it, replace top and spike in place with sharpened match stick, bake in embers for about 15 minutes.

Potato

Perhaps the easiest to cook backwoods . Take a potato and place it in the embers of the fire. When it

is cooked , after about 25 - 30 mins slice open the skin and place a piece of cheese or butter on top.

Backwoods Mince

You can cook mincemeat inside all sorts of vegetable containers: orange peels, hollowed-out

potatoes, onions, gem squash, butternut, or even cabbage leaves.

Kebab

Use a green stick to spear slices of bacon, mushrooms, sausage, carrot, tomato, peppers, and

pieces of pork. Support the skewer over glowing embers turning occasionally. Eat when the meat is

crisp and golden brown.

Alternate thin slices of apple, bacon, potato, spiked on a thin green stick and roasted slowly over

hardwoods. (Potato generally takes longest to cook).

Cut any type of meat into cubes, place onto a long peeled green stick add onion, mushrooms,

pepper, pineapple etc. to taste, cook till ready turning frequently  

Use the same method as above using fruits add a syrup sauce before eating

Cabbage hot dogs

Lay sliced onion on a cabbage leaf, add a sausage or two and place more onions on top. Wrap up

the cabbage leaf tightly and secure with a number of small green sticks. Place in embers for about 7

to 10 minutes, turning occasionally.

The Best Meal of the Day

Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. 

This is especially true for backpackers, survivalists and preppers on exercise. A healthy breakfast is responsible for replacing the glucose stores depleted each night and for providing the body with the nutrients it needs for jump-starting the day.

The consequences of skipping breakfast -- a drop in blood sugar levels, fatigue, poor concentration, irritability and lethargy -- can manifest themselves throughout the day, making hiking a miserable experience.

Energy Requirements

Backpackers commonly burn anywhere from 3,000 and 6,000 calories a day and have to consume between 2 and 3 lbs. of energy-dense food each day to meet their energy requirements. 

Breakfasts are typically a backpacker's biggest meal, accounting for 25 per cent of the day's required calories and nutrients.

A healthy breakfast that contains a balanced ratio of protein, fats and complex carbohydrates can provide a backpacker with the energy needed for a successful hike without the blood sugar crash that accompanies the consumption of simple sugars.

Along with complex carbohydrates, fats are the preferred fuel for muscles. Calorie- and nutrient-dense, fats are typically a lightweight, trail-friendly food that provides the body with a reliable source for long-term energy.

Fats are typically found in oils, nuts, avocados, fish, meats, butter and cheese. Roughly 35 to 40 per cent of the calories in a backpacker's breakfast should come from fat.

Fats are especially important for backpackers on long, strenuous treks or those in colder climates.

Complex Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates refer to the starches found in the whole grains, cereals, fruits and vegetables that contain glucose. As the body's main source of energy, glucose provides an immediate supply of energy that replenishes glucose stores and jump-starts the body.

An important component of a backpacker's diet, roughly 50 per cent of a breakfast's calories should come from complex carbohydrates. As the brain's sole source of energy, glucose is also important for maintaining mental focus and boosting mood.

When combined with fibre, complex carbohydrates can help stabilize the body's blood glucose levels and prevent fatigue and hypoglycaemia during a morning hike.

Protein

While complex carbohydrates provide the body with an immediate source of energy, protein provides the body with longer-lasting energy stores. Since proteins take longer to digest then carbohydrates, they can stop hunger throughout the morning and provide the body with a sustained energy source. 

However, since proteins are not as energy-dense as fats or carbohydrates, they should only make up 10 to 15 per cent of a trail breakfast. 

Protein sources like dried eggs, peanut butter, fish, beans, nut, legumes, whole grains and meats are healthy, trail-friendly protein choices.

Weight and Bulk

It is not uncommon for the majority of a pack's weight and bulk to be food. However, unlike fresh ingredients, dehydrated, freeze-dried and powdered foods do not spoil and can cut down on weight and bulk.

When planning a trail breakfast, it is important to consider weight, preparation and energy requirements.

Granola and oatmeal with nuts, seeds or dried fruit are common trail-friendly breakfasts since they are calorie-and nutrient-dense, easy to pack, and quick to cook.

Breakfast and cereal bars can also be a good source of energy, unless they are contain large amounts of refined carbohydrates.

Survival Food Guide

To make your own preparedness plan, start by compiling a survival food list including the type and quantity of food items to have on hand. 

Emergency survival food has come a long way since the cold war era. And it's no longer limited to canned goods and military style meals-ready-to-eat (MRE's) either.

Having a plentiful store of food for long-term needs within your home makes you better prepared for: income loss, economic crisis, civil unrest, flu pandemic, hurricane, loss of power, interruption in the food supply, terrorist attack or any other situation in which buying food from usual sources becomes untenable.

Prepare a food storage area in your home, using a large closet or small basement room if available, and begin stocking it today. The area should be clean, dry, free of pests, and cool with low humidity.

Sturdy shelving allows you to organize what you have and makes room for more items. Never store foods in a garage or attic, as these areas of the home typically see very high temperatures in the summer.

When it comes to survival food, you can't be too prepared.  

Obtain quality items, such as freeze dried food and dehydrated items, while it's still easy and relatively inexpensive. You never know when your life will depend on this foresight.

Survival Foods Guide

Freeze dried, dehydrated, canned and other survival foods

There are a variety of food storage and preservation methods that make good survival food stashes.

One of the best choices for quality, long-lasting, nutritious and palatable survival foods is freeze dried foods, often stored in sealed cans and foil pouches. 

The foods are lightweight, making them great choices for camping and hiking as well as long-term food storage for survival.

Bulk grains, such as wheat, oats, rice, and corn are an essential element to any home food storage. You just rotate the grains and use them in your regular cooking and baking every week. 

If you decide to add bulk grains to your survival food list, be sure to store them properly in sealed food quality containers, such as plastic buckets with tight-fitting lids and oxygen absorbers.

You'll need a grain mill, which you can buy online

Dehydrated foods, though they have a shorter shelf life than freeze dried, are also a good choice for home food storage. Beef jerky, and dried fruits and vegetables add variety to the diet and can be used as treats. 

They are also fairly inexpensive, and should be rotated, used and replaced throughout the year. After all, the goal is to store what you eat and eat what you store.

Canned goods are another good addition, as long as they are rotated and used and replaced throughout the year.

Water is essential and should be your top priority on your survival food list. 

A source of fresh water, such as a well outfitted with a hand pump in case of emergency, is obviously ideal. But for most people, Water Filters, Purifiers and Storage containers will be necessary to ensure clean water in case of a power outage or other long-term emergency.

For those with celiac disease, gluten free freeze dried foods are one of the best ways to prepare for unknown emergencies with foods that will be edible and not cause digestive problems. 

In addition to freeze dried options, there are many "regular" foods, from rice pasta to steel cut oats to dried fruit, that are without gluten and non-perishable so that they store well.

Since you never know when disaster may strike, building your food storage with a variety of dry goods, freeze dried entrees and other food items are a physical insurance policy against many emergencies and catastrophes.

Survival Eating

Your First Course Insects are the most abundant life form on earth and, except during winter, are the first foods anyone should turn to for sustenance upon becoming lost or stranded. 

Not only can bugs be found in large quantities, but they are highly nutritious, being rich in fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. 

The main caveat is that people who suffer from shellfish allergies should avoid them.

Grasshoppers are easy to pick off grass stems at dawn, when the nip in the air has caused them to go into torpor. Crickets, beetles, and grubs can be found under rocks. 

Other good places to search include behind loose bark, in decaying stumps, and inside seed pods. Earth mounds often betray insect activity underneath.

For sorting through loose soil and rotted wood, it helps to use a digging stick. Another excellent tool for insect collection is a seine, which you can jury-rig by tying your shirt or handkerchief between two poles. 

Use it to catch active bugs such as flying grasshoppers, or in a stream for aquatic insects.

Whatever your pleasure, you have your choice from more than 1,400 edible insects to choose from. If you're from the United States, Europe or Canada, you may think that eating a bug is something reserved for bets, dares and reality TV shows. 

The rest of the world has a different perspective. All over Asia, Africa, Australia, Central and South America, people eat insects.

Stranded in the wilderness for days, your stomach audibly groans from hunger. Foraging on plants or berries isn't an option because you don't know what's safe to eat. Instead, you hunt.

Drawing on your dwindling energy, you manage to kill a rabbit. Now, the only thing that matters is getting that sustenance into your body fast. Building a fire and cooking could take more than an hour, so you contemplate eating it raw.  

What's the harm?

Not so fast. Sure -- in the wilderness, some normal rules of civilization don't apply. 

But when it comes to meat, you need heat. 

If you want to maximize your chance of survival, I recommend cooking all wild game and freshwater fish because of the threat of bacteria or parasites.

Bacteria thrive and multiply between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (4 and 60 degrees Celsius). That's why you should cook meat until the internal temperature measures at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius) to effectively break down the bacteria cells and prevent them from reproducing.

You're probably thinking: 

If that's true, then how have Eskimos and other indigenous groups survived eating raw fish meat over the years? And what about eating raw fish in dishes such as sushi?

The difference is the salt water and the temperature of the meat. 

Saltwater fish are safer to eat raw because the water actually helps to kill parasites and bacteria.

The salt in the water creates a hypertonic solution, where a higher concentration of salt exists outside of the bacteria cells than inside those cells. 

To correct that imbalance, the bacteria cells release their water content through osmosis. When they lose that water, they shrivel up and die. In addition, when Eskimos eat raw whale and seal meat fresh, it hasn't had time to breed more bacteria.

Cold temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) also stop bacteria reproduction. Sushi-grade fish, called sashimi, that people commonly eat raw has been frozen before use to help destroy any remaining bacteria. 

In case of any lingering invaders, food safety guides do recommend heating all saltwater fish to more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius).

Food is not just a source of energy and sustenance, but a comfort item as well. 

When you are hungry, morale goes down and chances of survival dwindle.  There will be several opportunities to find food after the supermarkets close you just need to know where to look and what tools to have.

The first thing you need to know is that meat will only take you only so far.  If you read Meriwether Lewis’s journals from their Finding Food after TEOTWAWKI exploration; the men still felt hungry although they were eating several pounds of meat per day. 

You can eat 10 rabbits a day and still “starve” as rabbit lacks everything except protein for your body’s survival.

Look if I have a choice of eating “normal” food then I will by planning to do so. I intend to bug-in and therefore I will not need to eat the above, well the bugs anyway.

Hunting and fishing are a different matter altogether, I enjoy doing them and I have learned how to deal with what I shoot or catch in getting it ready to eat.

You too must plan as to what you and your family will eat. I suggest the more people who decide that they will bug-out, the more that I think will end up eating bugs.

Simply put if you have prepped enough food and supplies for you and your family for a long term SHTF situation then, if bugging out, how will you transport this food and supplies to your bug-out location? 

I do not think that you will be able to do it, OK you can reader, but I do not think that everyone can.

Have you thought, no, let me put it another way, have you actually loaded up the kids, the pets, the survival kit, weapons, ammo, clothing, shelter, water, food and everything else you have bought for your families survival and driven anywhere,  

NO, I thought not.

And there my fellow preppers is the problem, and if you have not practiced doing it how the hell will you manage when SHTF?

Crayfish Free Fresh Water Food

Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans related to lobsters, and there are two main species in UK - the native white-clawed crayfish and the non-native American signal crayfish, which was introduced to Britain in the 1970s via crayfish farms, and subsequently escaped.

There are a few other introduced species of crayfish, but they are not very widespread. They are called signal crayfish because the underside of their claws is bright red, making them easy to identify.

Signal crayfish can be up to 25cm long with claws extended. If you're not sure whether what you're looking at is a signal crayfish or a native crayfish, look for the red claws - a sure sign that you're looking at a signal crayfish. 

Trapping crayfish for food in the UK only involves the signal crayfish. The native crayfish is now becoming rare and it is illegal to touch.

By the way ALL signal crayfish once removed from a water source must be killed, it is illegal to return it whatever its size.

They live on the beds of streams and rivers and are carnivorous, eating mainly dead creatures, but they can decimate natural and stocked fish numbers by eating their eggs.

The signal crayfish can walk overland to establish itself in new waterways, and is now widespread throughout Britain.

What are the benefits of eating Crayfish?

First - getting food from the wild is always a good idea from an environmental perspective (unless we deplete the resource – but this isn't an issue here, as we'll see later). 

Wild food requires no pesticides, fertilisers, hormones or genetic modification - in fact, no ecological interference at all.

The second benefit is in reducing their numbers. 

The American crayfish is causing problems for both the native crayfish and for British Waterways. Signal crayfish outcompete native crayfish because they are bigger, their eggs hatch earlier in the year, females lay up to 500 eggs (the native crayfish lays around 200), and they are less fussy about what they eat. 

Also, the signal crayfish carries a fungal disease (commonly called the crayfish plague) that kills the native crayfish (it’s not at all harmful to humans though).

Also, American crayfish burrow into the banks of rivers and streams to build their homes, causing erosion of the river banks.

Oh I nearly forgot they taste great

So what can you do?

Firstly you need a licence to keep crayfish in this country - see the DEFRA website - in case they escape into the wild. If you're thinking of farming crayfish, ponds now have to be indoors and escape-proof. 

However I assume that you're not going to keep them, you're just going to catch them from the wild.

Don't put any crayfish you've caught into ponds or other bodies of water temporarily, as they could escape and colonise an area that doesn't have them, it is also illegal to do so.

Tapping crayfish

There are bylaws covering the trapping of crayfish, and what you can do depends on local circumstances - especially if there are native crayfish in your area. 

Contact the Environment Agency to ask about your local circumstances, or you can get a crayfish trapping advice pack from the National Fisheries Laboratory on 01480 483968.

You will need Environment Agency tags on your trap for it to be legal.

The Environment Agency's concerns are that if people are allowed to catch crayfish for food, they will be sold to the restaurant trade, and because there is money to be made, some people might 'seed' rivers and streams that don't have signal crayfish, so that they can be harvested in the future. 

I share this concern, so I would encourage people never to buy or sell crayfish, but to trap them just for their own consumption.

Depending on whether the Environment Agency allows it in your area, you can make your own trap. You can make a cylinder with chicken wire, up to a metre long, and bend the ends over to form a cone that crayfish can climb into but not out of.

Trapping crayfish is a summer activity, of course. In winter, they will be hibernating in the river banks.

The trap shouldn't have an entrance of more than 95mm, because if there are otters in the area, they could get caught.

Bait the trap with something tasty for crayfish (like a fish-head), plus a brick to weigh it down, then put it into a stream you suspect has crayfish.

Check the next day. 

Anything other than signal crayfish, let go, and don't leave a trap in a watercourse for more than 24 hours, in case something other than a crayfish gets trapped in it.

Let any native crayfish go if you've caught any. But if you catch small signal crayfish, don’t put them back (in fact it is illegal to put them back, once caught as I have said). Signal crayfish are cannibals, and if you remove only big ones, there will be nothing to keep the numbers of small ones down. 

The Environment Agency in Scotland has urged fishermen to kill signal crayfish on sight.

Take them out of the trap (keep fingers away from their pincers), and keep them in tubs of tap water for a couple of days to purge them of any food in their intestines.

Cooking Crayfish

Boil a large pan of water and tip them in - they are killed instantly.

Simmer for around 3 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave in the water for another 2 minutes. They turn pink when they are cooked, and look like mini-lobsters (which they are).

The edible parts are the tail and the claws.

Pull and separate the head and tail. Pull off the legs, and then grab the end of the flesh sticking out of the tail casing and pull. Sometimes there will be pink eggs - you can eat those too. 

But give it a bit of a rinse to get rid of all traces of intestines and food.

Then put the claws on a hard surface and hit sharply with the back of a knife to crack them open. Grab the end of the flesh and pull it out of the claw.

You can serve with rice, toast, mayonnaise and/or any number of sauces. It looks and tastes a bit like prawn. There are plenty of recipes out there.

For a meal for one person, you'd probably need the meat of 5 crayfish. If the crayfish are present in that stretch of water, you can easily catch 10 in a trap each time.

Contact the EA and plan to trap crayfish next year and you will be surprised at their number and ease of catching and how nice they taste.

Here is a favourite Rabbit Recipe of Mine

You will need one Rabbit per person, if you are a big eater like me, cut it into serving pieces, which to me in the field means small enough to fit into the pan or pot and remember the smaller the quicker it will cook

Flour -- 1 cup

Salt -- 1 teaspoon

Pepper -- 1/2 teaspoon

Oil -- 3 tablespoons

Chicken soup 1can

Mix the flour, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Dredge the rabbit pieces in the seasoned flour, and then brown on all sides in the oil.

Add the chicken broth, cover, and cook on low heat around 45 minutes. Adjust seasoning and get stuck in

Here is a recipe for cooking at home

I shot two big fat wood pigeons that were pulling sitting in a tree at the edge of a clump of trees a while ago.

The two I shot were oldish so I just fried fatty bacon then removed it from the pan, then I browned the birds and removed them from pan, then I fried onions and garlic and when soft (but not brown) I put back the bacon and birds

I then added a 50/50 stock of red wine and chicken stock and put lid on and braised it till it was tender, then I removed the birds and added a shot of port and a spoon of red currant jelly.

I boiled it till the stock had reduced then I thickened it with butter, and poured over birds and had them with game chips.

Why not Eat More Game

I love to eat wild game meat as I believe it is good for me as it is lean, tasty and without medicated levels of growth hormones and anti-biotics etc.

It is available now even from supermarkets and country style butchers have to be honest always carried it.

As preppers and survivalists we will probably end up eating some form of game on a regular basis as if we have bugged out what else will there be to eat anyway.

Game is wild, natural and free range with a distinctive flavour making it a great alternative to beef, pork, lamb and chicken.  

And, as its low in cholesterol and high in protein, Game is one of the healthiest meats available today. 

For example, venison, with its brilliant taste and extra lean meat, is perfect for anyone on a low fat diet.

As the popularity of Game meat is growing with cooks and chefs alike, supplies are becoming widely available, so keep a look out for the tempting selection of ready-to-cook game at your local butcher or in the supermarket.

Although the Game season is quite short, more and more frozen meat is available for all year round convenience so favourite recipes can be stored in the freezer for future use.

The classic way of cooking game birds is to roast them in the oven and serve with Game chips but with the availability of handy ready to cook portions they are just as good in casseroles, pies, pates, soups and sausages.

Try cubed venison for a healthy yet hearty casserole or minced venison for a burger with a difference. Low fat venison sausages make a convenient and great tasting mid-week meal (the children will love them) and for a curry with a twist, try a homemade Pheasant Korma. 

The choice is endless.

In general, young birds bought before Christmas are tenderer than older ones, and are best roasted or grilled.  Older birds are better cooked slowly such as casseroling or braising.

Pheasants are usually sold in a brace – a hen and cock – young birds need only quick roasting and benefits from covering with a layer of streaky bacon or regular basting during cooking. 

Older birds are great for braises or casseroles or even in a curry.

Venison is usually sold in cuts which are similar to any red meat and can be substituted for beef in most recipes. The most popular cuts are from the back: saddle, loin and fillet. 

The meat is lean with little fat, so needs careful cooking so fast, hot cooking is the trick for roasting and venison is best served pink. 

Tougher cuts (shoulder, neck and shin) should be braised or stewed slowly to ensure tender, falling apart meat.

Partridge is ideal for roasting, braising or simply spatchcock and grill. As with most game, a smother of butter or streaky bacon ensures moist meat and be careful not to overcook – half an hour roasting is usually fine. 

Rabbit is tender enough to roast and is excellent in casseroles and stews. It can be substituted for chicken (though has less fat). 

Treat the saddle as breast meat and the legs as drumsticks.

All game meat is lean, so take care it doesn't dry out during cooking. Pale game such as pheasant or partridge tends to be served well done, but grouse, venison, hare and wild duck are often served pink.

Wild British game meat has a common “gamey” flavour note which is achieved predominantly though their diet – a mixed, free range diet of natural grasses, insects, berries and grains will result in a much more developed flavour than a diet of just grass or grain.

Therefore many of the wild foods are more strongly flavoured and “gamier”. Wild birds and animals also naturally exercise lots, which results in lean muscle and a denser textured meat which is a common characteristic of game. 

Before the game reaches the shop it will have gone through a couple of processes to help bring out the flavour. 

The first is hanging which helps to tenderise the meat and allows the flavour to develop. The shorter the hanging time the milder the flavour.   

Unlike our ancestors we don’t like strongly flavoured meat so it is usually hung for days rather than weeks, ranging from about 2 days for rabbit up to 12 days for venison. 

The exceptions are pigeon and wild duck which do not require hanging.

Hand in hand with the hanging of the meat is also the aging process.  All meat benefits from aging, even just a little. This process has two important effects it causes more collagen to dissolve during cooking; making the meat tenderer to eat and reduces the pressure that the connective tissue exerts during heating which means the meat loses less moisture during cooking.

Fresh wild game can only be bought in season but it can be bought frozen at any time.   

Don't avoid frozen game - stocking up your freezer with game during the season is a wonderful way of enjoying game out of season.   

It can be frozen for up to 9 months if wrapped very well in a freezer bag - try to extract as much air as possible. 

Always defrost game slowly at room temperature or in a fridge.

The HOBO Dinner

Start with about a 12" to 15" square piece of heavy duty aluminium foil.   

Place a hamburger patty in the middle, top with sliced or diced potatoes, carrots, onion, a dab of butter, salt and pepper. You can add other ingredients like mushrooms, peas, green peppers and preferred seasonings.   

You could also substitute 1 piece of bacon instead of the butter, if you'd like.  Cut the bacon piece in half and lay on top of your vegetables.

Wrap the aluminium foil securely around all the ingredients.   

You can wrap a second time, if you like.

Place your Hobo Dinner in a bed of hot coals in your campfire and cook 15 to 20 minutes, then turn and cook another 15 to 20 minutes.  The cooking time will vary depending on the quantity of food you put in your Foil Meal and how hot the coals are.   

Make sure you use tongs or other campfire tools to assist with turning and removing your meal from the hot coals.

When cooked through - carefully pull back the foil and eat right out of the foil, or place on a heat proof plate.  Easy clean up!

Here is another of My experimental campfire meals the Zip bag omelette

Here is how to enjoy a campfire omelette

And this is what you will you will need:

A large size plastic freezer ziplock bag for each person

A permanent marker

2 eggs per person

A large pot of water

Tongs optional

Ideas for ingredients to add to your Omelet:

 Precooked meat (bacon, sausage, ham)

Onion

Any kind of green pepper, sweet or hot pepper

Mushrooms

Spinach

Olives

Cheese

Salt and pepper, or seasoning of your choice

Diced Tomatoes

Any foraged foods.

Method

Break your eggs into the bag add your ingredients, now squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible and zip it shut.

Move the ingredients gently around to ensure they are mixed then add the bag into the boiling water for about 13 to 15 minutes. Job done enjoy.

Freshwater Fish and Chips

The carp has always been pretty safe swimming along British water ways. It is not considered very tasty, and laws prevent coarse fishermen killing more than two a day.

But for the Eastern European angler, who regards the fish as a delicacy, it is a prized catch. And immigrants are catching them illegally - on a massive scale.

Unused to British fishing customs, they see no sense in throwing them back in the water when they can be taken home and eaten instead.

And they are catching so many that the Environment Agency has now set up anti-poaching patrols to give the fish some much-needed protection.

Under current laws, anglers are allowed to kill just two freshwater coarse fish a day using a rod and line, and need a fishing licence to do so.

Using large nets or fixed-rod lines to catch large numbers of fish is illegal and can result in fines of up to £2,500.

But their use has rocketed since large numbers of immigrants arrived from Poland and other Eastern European countries.

Groups of men have been seen spotted stretching nets across canals, walking along the bank and taking fish from entire stretches of water.

Angling Times editor Richard Lee said yesterday: "[The problem] has arisen because a lot of eastern Europeans do not fish for pleasure, but for the table."

"There is a lot of frustration because it seems little can be done and there is a fear people will take things into their own hands."

"If these people were made aware of the rules most would toe the line. It is a matter of education."

I know personally that it is a problem which is spreading all over the country since the influx of east European migrants. I mean back home if they want to eat fish they simply go and catch it.

Over here they find plenty of canals and ponds but the rules are different and netting is illegal they are catching fish to eat because it is cheap and it is what they are used to doing back home.

As a coarse fisherman more than a sea fisherman (due to the distance to the sea) I cannot disagree with the Eastern European mentality, of course I disagree with using nets and spear guns etc. but on single hook rod and line fishing on rivers and not commercial waters why not, after all fish is fish, is it not?

I recently caught some Perch which when pan fried tasted great and you could not get any fresher.

I despair as I walk past the supermarket fish offerings, the variety is fantastic there are even some tropical fish for sale all covered in ice and looking very good.

But my friends the smell gives it all away, this fish is not fresh at all, it is actually decaying before your very eyes.

If you have ever caught a fish you will know that it does not smell of fish at all, it really does not have a smell, well in the case of sea fish there is a fresh sea whiff but it does not smell of fish at all.

What would you rather eat decaying supermarket fish or fresh caught fish eaten within hours of catching it? I think you will agree that the answer is quite simple.

If you have never eaten freshwater fish then do so they taste great especially the predator of perch, pike, zander and trout, yes the trout and salmon are predators, in fact being honest most fish are. 

Carp and other bottom feeders can taste very muddy unless purged in running fresh water for at least five days anyway.

Go on buy an EA rod licence and try some fresh fish for dinner.

We Must Learn from the Past

Less than a third of the food available in Britain at the start of the WW11 was produced at home. 

Enemy ships targeted incoming Allied merchant vessels, preventing vital supplies - including fruit, sugar, cereals and meat - from reaching the UK. Because of this, and to ensure fair distribution of supplies, the Ministry of Food issued ration books to every person, and families had to register at one shop.

Official rationing began on 8 January 1940 with bacon, butter and sugar. Rations were distributed by weight, monetary value or points. 

One person's typical weekly allowance would be: one fresh egg; 4oz margarine and bacon (about four rashers); 2oz butter and tea; 1oz cheese; and 8oz sugar. 

Meat was allocated by price, so cheaper cuts became popular. Points could be pooled or saved to buy pulses, cereals, tinned goods, dried fruit, biscuits and jam.

The pioneering Ministry of Food's Dig For Victory campaign encouraged self-sufficiency, and allotment numbers rose from 815,000 to 1.4 million. 

Pigs, chickens and rabbits were reared domestically for meat, whilst vegetables were grown anywhere that could be cultivated. 

By 1940 wasting food was a criminal offence. As sugar was in short supply, sweets were rationed from July 1942 to February 1953. 

An attempt to de-ration them in 1949 lasted just four months, as demand far outstripped supply.

Despite the stresses of wartime, the health of the poor improved. People were encouraged to eat protein, carbohydrates, pulses and fruit and vegetables. 

Babies, pregnant women and the sick were allocated additional nutrients such as milk, orange juice and cod liver oil. 

Luxuries, including alcohol and cigarettes, weren't officially rationed but were limited and expensive as factories focused on the war effort.

It was considered prudent to 'keep in' with the local grocer, who reserved extras for favoured customers. From September 1939, petrol was only available for business or essential purposes. 

Furniture and clothing became utilitarian: pleats and turn-ups disappeared from trousers and garments were plain. 

Women painted gravy browning on bare legs as a replacement for silk stockings.

Weekly ration for 1 adult

Bacon & Ham 4 oz

Meat to the value of 1 shilling and sixpence (around about 1/2 lb minced beef)

Butter 2 oz

Cheese 2 oz

Margarine 4 oz

Cooking fat 4 oz

Milk 3 pints

Sugar 8 oz

Preserves 1 lb every 2 months

Tea 2 oz

Eggs 1 fresh egg per week

 Sweets/Candy 12 oz every 4 weeks

In addition to this a points system was put in place which limited your purchase of tinned or imported goods. 16 points were available in your ration book for every 4 weeks and that 16 points would enable you to purchase for instance, 1 can of tinned fish or 2lbs of dried fruit or 8 lbs of split peas.

Forget freeze dried foods and stick to basic home grown food and make do and mend.

Why not try these wartime survival ration meals as if they fed a nation then they will feed a nation now

Eggless Pancakes

 4 tablespoons of flour (UK)- 5 tbls (US) – 60 ml (Europe)

Pinch of sugar and salt

Milk and water to bind (vegans use almond milk)

Lard or dripping to fry (vegans use Earth Balance shortening)

Method

Mix the flour with the salt and sugar and add the water/milk to make a nice thick batter

Heat the lard/dripping until smoking hot in the pan then lower the heat a little

Pour in 1/4 of the mixture to make a medium sized pancake

Cook until browned and then turn over and repeat

Eat with jam, golden syrup or lemon juice (if being authentic)

These quantities will make 4 pancakes

Everything IN wartime stew

1 lb of mince beef or a mixture of leftover meats

1 small cabbage

1 onion or 1 leek

Any veggies that need using up

Several soft tomatoes that are no good for anything else

Oxo and marmite (marmite is optional)

Salt and pepper

Water

Method

Brown the mince or leftover meats and onions

Chop up the remaining veg into smallish pieces

Chop up the soft tomatoes and add to meat and onions and then add water (about a 1000 ml)

Add the oxo and marmite and stir

Add the chopped veggies

Cook and occasionally stir adding salt, pepper and some dried herbs like thyme to your own taste

Cook on medium heat in the saucepan for about 20 further minutes

This makes enough for 8 served with mashed potatoes or bread and butter.

The question is should we as preppers consider planning to survive on these basic but workable rations. To me I think it would be well worth experimenting with this idea because after all, our whole nation survived a world war eating nothing else.

It would mean that we not only ate less therefore become in many ways more healthy and I feel that at least we would shed those love handles if nothing else, secondly our prepping cost would be reduced and easier to store, as they would live in the ground until they were needed in many cases.

I feel too that the nation’s nutrition would improve no end as high fat food would be denied to us. Please note also that there would be no junk food either and that most of our diet would actually be good for us which would make a change.

Perhaps the current wave of overeating has its roots in the end of rationing in the 1950s and the shift to a society of plenty.

We have a situation where food is available everywhere, open round the clock - cheaper, poor quality, bigger portions - a situation where food is ubiquitous. 

It is the first time really in human history where food is limitless.

We haven't developed an instinct that tells us when not to eat. Our strongest instincts tell us to eat.

My Homemade MRE

I have been looking at the high prices of British Army MRE Ration Packs (About £10+ along with postage!) and I decided to opt for making my own for my bug out bag.

All of these items I bought from Asda yesterday / today so these are current prices. I would recommend using a vacuum sealer or Mylar bags with o2 absorbers to make these feasible, otherwise the shelf life I predict is probably not going to be reached due to the nature of some of the items.

Anyway, let’s begin, please note numbers after names are Calories, then price!

Breakfast

8 x Belvita Biscuits 445 £0.76

Coffee Sachet 75 £0.14

Lunch

Cup a Soup 90 £0.10

Dinner

Mugshot Pasta 307 £0.68

Lemon + Black pepper tuna tins x 2 340 £1.10

Snacks

Boost bar 305 £0.25

Kendal mint cake 85g 350 £0.88

Pumpkin seeds 566 £0.55

Straberry lances 300 £0.33

Coffee sachet 75 £0.14

So this leads to a total cost of £4.93 and a whopping 2853 calories!

I have also got three vacuum sealed bags of peanuts, raisins and chocolate drops which I would also chuck into the bug out bag, these contain a staggering 1750 calories for only £0.99 and will last for ages in the vacuum seal!

I'll add as well, my MRE weighs about 870g, where as a normal British Army one weighs 1750g and also its technically not an MRE as it requires water and minimal heating, but I have both of those in my BOB so nothing to worry about really!

Also I have a vacuum sealer from Fresherpack click HERE

so it makes the meals even cheaper for now, however it would make long term sense to obtain my own at some point.

This is a very basic but very tasty MRE option and I am sure as I experiment further that it will develop and become more season friendly with both a range of hot and cold meals.

Campfire Recipes

Preparation

You can use this method with crows, coots, diver ducks and just about any fowl that may have a strong flavour. 

Use as many breasts as you decide to grill and soak them from 2 hours to overnight in salt water then thoroughly rinse and dry the breasts. 

Then use your favourite brand of Italian dressing and put enough to coat the bottom of a container you can put a lid on and put a layer of breasts, a layer of dressing, and keep layering till all the breasts are in the container. 

Finally, top off with dressing and put in fridge overnight. The next day they will be tender and tasty.

Crow Casserole

Ingredients

12 pieces of crow breast meat (no bones) (6 crows)

2 quart sauerkraut

6 slices of bacon

1/3 cup of chopped onions

Preparation

Brown the crow breasts in a skillet with butter or oil. When browned, place them in a casserole dish on 1/2 inch layer of sauerkraut. Lay a 1/2 strip of bacon on each 1/2 breast and sprinkle the onion on them. 

Next, add another layer of sauerkraut and some of the juice. Bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours. Makes 2 servings.

Stuffed Squirrel in foil

Instructions

1

Cut the skin of the squirrel across the middle of its back, perpendicular to the spine. Make this cut go all the way around its body to where the skin is cut into two pieces, a top piece that includes the head and front legs, and a piece that includes the tail and the back two legs. Pull skin toward the head and tail to remove it from the body. Once the skin is pulled to each end, cut behind skin to remove the head, tail and feet, as well as all skin.

2

Cut the breastbone in half, splitting it from the bottom up to the top, and cut the thin layer of the abdomen down the middle. Stick your fingers through the opening in the breastbone to the back of the lungs and heart, and grab them and pull them out and down towards the back legs. Work in this way to get all of the organs out. Be careful to not puncture any organs because any organ fluid will get germs on the meat. Rinse entire squirrel with water to get hair, blood and all other germs off of the squirrel.

3

Lay out foil approximately 18 inches square. Place squirrel in middle of foil and cover with BBQ sauce and chopped up potato. Then add the salt, pepper, creole seasoning, and garlic powder to taste.

4

Wrap squirrel up in the foil tightly. Then take another piece of foil and double wrap it to prevent juice leaking.

5

A hot campfire will help cook a wonderful squirrel dinner.           

Place wrapped squirrel on the edge of the campfire but in direct contact with flames. Cook it this way for 40 minutes, turning it with tongs every 10 minutes.

6

Remove squirrel wrap from fire with tongs and let cool for 3 to 5 minutes before unwrapping it.

Cooking Fish on a Campfire

What could be better than fishing for your dinner? I’m sure all survivalists and preppers have at some time fished for food and you know just sitting by the water watching nature serves to remind us of the old saying that “a bad days fishing is always better than a good days work”.

The heart races as you feel that first pull on the hook, the adrenalin rises as the fish breaks the surface of the water, its scales shimmering in the sunlight. The long fight as you play the fish and take in the line, and finally the sense of satisfaction tinged with a hint of sadness as you place the lifeless fish into your game bag.

There are many methods that can be used to catch a fish in a survival situation, and the traditional rod and line method is quite possibly the least certain to put food on the table. 

Throughout history poachers and hunter gatherers have used a variety of methods to catch fish, everything from tickling Trout to using Dynamite have been used to good effect.

It is probably worth mentioning that poaching is illegal in the UK, and Dynamite fishing is frowned upon almost everywhere.  

However; learning how to catch fish using unconventional methods could be a lifesaver in a survival situation.

Once you have caught your fish you will need to kill it as humanely and swiftly as possible. This can be achieved by giving it a sharp blow just behind the head using a priest, (A priest is a stout stick used to administer the last rights).

Once the fish is no longer moving it should be gutted by holding the fish in your left hand (If you are right handed) with the fishes belly facing up and its head away from you. 

Using the tip of a sharp knife carefully cut up the body from the anus to a point between the pectoral fins. Using two fingers scoop the entrails out of the body cavity and pull firmly. 

This will remove all the guts which should be disposed of well away from your campsite, because they will start to stink very quickly and may attract vermin. I prefer to burn them in the fire when possible.

Or I often use them to bait a crayfish trap with good results.

Select and cut a straight length of green (live) Hazel or other nontoxic wood such as Willow, this should be approximately the thickness of your middle finger. Cut it to a length of 3 feet and use a knife to remove the bark from the thinnest end for a distance of 12 inches. 

Sharpen both ends of the stick. Next select two 8 inch long 1/8” thick sections of Hazel. Remove the bark from both these will be the skewers that prevent the fish from turning on the spit.

Next, pressing onto a log or other firm surface and using the tip of a knife split the thickest piece of hazel down the centre, but not all the way to the end of the shaft. Twisting slightly will open up the cut. If you do accidentally split the wood all the way to the end don’t worry, this can be tied up using string or a piece of bark later.

Ensure that the skewers will fit by inserting them into the split, they should be firm but not too difficult to insert. If the skewers are difficult to insert open the split up slightly using the tip of a knife.

Here comes the yucky bit! For some I have seen, place the spit into the body cavity of the fish and push it out through the mouth of the fish, a real test for some students I have known. 

Next, line up the split with the sides of the fish and insert the first skewer through the side of the fish, it then goes through the split and out through the other side of the fish. Try to get it through the meatiest parts of the body or it may start to rip as the fish cooks. 

Insert the second skewer further towards the tail of the fish. With both skewers in place the fish should be well secured to the spit. You can also tie the tail to the spit using strips of bark or string.

Cook the fish over the embers of a fire, and keep turning it to prevent burning. By inserting the thick end of the spit into the ground you don’t have to hold it constantly. Once the fish is cooked to your liking remove the skewers and eat it…

Another good idea is to stuff the inside of the fish with herbs such as Ramsons (wild Garlic) or fennel. Use a piece of natural string or bark to secure it.

Cooking Fish or Meat on a stick is one of the simplest and most pleasant ways of cooking in the outdoors. Using this method is more secure than simply sticking a stick through the fish and hoping for the best. It can also be used for cooking Rabbits and other small game animals.

Remember that cooking rabbits or other small game in this way will take proportionally longer as firstly the bones will need to be heated up before the heat can then permeate outwards to cook the meat.  

A cooked looking exterior is not proof of a cooked animal.

Mass UK Pig Cull

Britain is facing a bacon and sausage shortage as pig farmers reduce the size of their herds due to the soaring price of feed.

A mass cull is under way among farmers who can no longer afford to feed their animals, according to the National Pig Association. 

The cost of a fry up set to soar I fear.

Droughts in North America and Russia have caused a global failure in the grain crop used for animal feed, pushing up the price.

The National Pig Association predicts Britain’s breeding stock will shrink by more than eight per cent by Christmas.

Chairman Richard Longthorp said: ‘There will be a shortage of pigs very soon and that will lead to spiralling prices.’

British supermarkets know they have to raise the price they pay Britain’s pig farmers or risk empty spaces on their shelves next year,' he said.

But competition is so fierce in the high street at present, each is waiting for the other to move first.'

In its Save Our Bacon campaign, NPA is calling on shoppers to make a point of selecting pork and bacon with the British independent Red Tractor logo, as it claims an increase in demand for British product now may help persuade supermarkets to act before it is 'too late'.

Sainsbury’s has already increased the price it pays to a few of its pig farmer suppliers and NPA said it welcomed this gesture.

But it says the major supermarkets need to do much more, if they want to protect their customers from shortages and high prices next year.

British Pig Executive Mick Sloyan warned a private meeting of British and mainland Europe retailers at a Brussels summit that a fall of only 2 per cent in slaughtering’s next year will cause prices to rise by 10 per cent.

So Britons let us now mass buy the Red tractor Logoed pork and bacon instead of foreign alternatives.

The bacon butty and the sausage sandwich are British icons, lets save OUR BACON and Buy British

My Survival Meal

This is a survival meal I have designed not only to be cheap at around 25p each meal but to also to be filling and more importantly tasty.

I have made some trial pasta meals (my own recipe)

The ingredients cost me

Pasta 1kg £0.38p

Lentils1/2 kg £ 0.99p

Cup-a-soup x10 £0.57p

Total £1.94p

Put as much pasta into a zip bag as you want then put in as much lentils as you like and bring to the boil once cooked then add the cup-a-soup and instantly your meal is ready to eat.

I made 8 meals at a cost of 24.1/4p each I think that is fantastic and very cheap and very filling too.

It is easy to add food to them say hotdog's chopped up, as they are already cooked and just need heating up.

You can also change the flavour by using different cup-a-soups flavours, or use garlic salt, spices or curry powder, dried onions or even fresh or dried peppers.

All you need not do is put the cup-a-soup packet (unopened) into the zip lock bag along with a half-a-cup of lentils and then fill the bag with the pasta. 

Mark the soup flavour on the bag. Instead of cup-a-soups you can use Pot Noodles; Pasta sauce mixes etc. to flavour your survival meal.

This way you can vary the meal flavours as you like each day.

To cook you firstly put the pasta and lentils into water and bring it to the boil and let it boil for 10 minutes when the pasta is cooked then add the cup-a-soup and stir then simply serve.

Please note that the lentils may not be fully cooked but they will be cooked enough to eat and the fact that they are chewy allows for a different texture to the meal anyway.

Try Making Bannock

Bannock is a fulfilling meal that can be used to supplement natural foods foraged from your surroundings. 

When hiking in the wilderness take have enough pre-mixed bannock recipe for at least one meal each day.

Try out various combinations of bannock mixed with fruits, nuts and seeds, cheeses, meats, fish and a variety of spices. 

Wilderness meals containing bannock can satisfy even the most discriminating palate.

Bannock is easy to cook and is an excellent comfort food that will elevate your mood and fill your stomach. There is nothing quite like the sight and smell of fresh bannock cooking over an open fire at the end of a hard day surviving in the wilderness.

Bannock

Bannock has been a staple food of wilderness explorers, prospectors, soldiers, and trappers for centuries.

Portable, nutritious, tasty and easy to make while surviving in the outdoors, bannocks legendary reputation continues as one of the best survival foods you can bring into the wilderness.

Bannock is high in carbohydrates and complements the proteins of pemmican, jerky, the arctic survival ration, and other meats. It can be used as a hearty stand-alone food or combined with foraged wild edibles such as berries, fruits, and meats.

So what is Bannock?

Bannock is a bread that you can cook using little more than a fire and a stick though it can also be baked or fried. Names for bannock include bushbread, trail bread, grease bread and galette.

Bannocks origins are lost in the mists of time, but some believe bannock was first made by the Scotts from the same oat flour that gave their horses great strength and endurance. 

With stomachs fed with hearty oat bannock those who became explorers and mountain men in the new world introduced the bannock recipe to the Native Americans and other outdoorsmen who lived in the wilderness.

The most simple bannock recipe consists of just flour of nearly any kind and water. Kneaded into a dough and wrapped around a green stick, this most basic bannock cooks into a fine tasting bread that can be eaten alone or used as a basis for a full course meal.

There are a great many other bannock recipes that will make your mouth water and give you the impetus to try your hand at making your own

This is my favourite way to make bannock as it brings forth the image of mountain men from a bygone era cooking over an open fire.

The following recipe provides enough bannock for one day. 

Stored in a waterproof bag, it is easy to carry a week or ten day supply.

1-cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons milk powder

Mix all the ingredients well, making sure the butter is evenly distributed throughout. Sometimes I will melt the butter before adding it to the mixture. Then slowly add water while mixing until a dough ball is formed.

Make the bannock dough into a cigar shape and wrap it around a green stick. Try to keep the thickness of the dough about ½ inch.

Slowly roast the bannock over a hot fire, rotating occasionally until it turns a golden brown. You will hear the butter sizzling and your stomach rumble as the bannock cooks.

Multi-flour Bannock Recipe

This combination of flours, spices, and dried fruit makes the bannock a delicious meal of itself and makes me hungry just thinking about it. It can be cooked over an open fire on a green stick or formed into a loaf and baked and makes a 3-day supply:

1 Cup Barley flour

1 Cup Wheat flour

1/2 Cup Rolled Oats

1 Cup White Sugar

1/2 to 1 Cup Raisins or other dried fruit

1 1/2 Cup Buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tbsp. Coarse Ground Salt

1 tbsp. Cinnamon

1 tbsp. Cloves

1 tbsp. Nutmeg

If you like fried foods then you need to try fried Bannock.

4 cups flour

2 tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup margarine/butter

2 eggs

1/4 tbsp salt

Mix all the ingredients so a dough ball is formed. Break off pieces and flatten into rounds about ½ inch thick. Fry to a golden brown in the oil of your choice.

Campfire Recipes

Corn in Foil

 1 pkg of corn on the cob (I buy the small ones) or if they are growing nearby at this time of year, nudge, nudge, wink, wink

    Butter (stick is easiest)

    Foil

    Salt

    Pepper

How to prepare:

Cut/tear foil to small pieces. Enough to roll the corn up once over. Place the corn on the foil. Place a pat of butter on the corn and season with desired seasonings. I like to add the garlic salt or black pepper. 

Roll up the corn and give it a twist at both ends. It almost looks like sweet wrappers when done. Place on the grill or directly in the fire.

Let me tell you the corn will be tender and have the best buttery taste. It's so easy and you just pack the foil away when done.

For easy but different you can't go wrong. Give it a try you'll see!

   

Campfire Cabbage

 2-3 slices bacon

    1 large onion

    1 head of cabbage

    salt pepper

    garlic powder

How to Prepare:

In a large dutch oven or frying pan, cook chopped up bacon until almost burnt. Add chopped onion and cabbage and stir until cabbage is wilted. 

Add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Cook until most of the water is gone and cabbage is desired tenderness. If need be, more water can be added. Add seasoning to taste.

And enjoy.

Tasty Survival Meals

For those who are new to prepping and survival I will not overw

I suggest that you get organised and think logically.

Don't go to the supermarket and buy 500 lbs of rice and beans and nothing else because you run out of money.

You should start with what you actually like to eat most and plane to survive on that, just write down the meals you normally have each week or month

I will use my family as an example, there are 4 of us in our household and here are some of our favourite foods and some meals that I make every week or two. 

The following is an example of dinner menus:

1.   Spaghetti, garlic bread, parmesan cheese.

2.   Beef Stroganoff and mashed potatoes

3.   Sweet and Sour chicken, rice or chips

4.   Chile with beans, mashed potatoes or rice

5.   Beef Stew mashed potatoes and veg

6.   Tuna, rice and cheese casserole

7.   Pork Curry with Apples, Rice

8.   Pork chops potatoes and veg

9.   Ham egg and chips

10. Chicken thighs tinned tomatoes and cream casserole

11. Homemade beef burgers chips

12. Homemade game stew

13. Homemade chilli con-carne

14. Slow cooker lamb

The above are not written in stone for us.  We can switch our menu for similar menus like - making beef burgundy instead of stroganoff.

Or chicken and rice casserole instead of sweet and sour chicken.  You get the idea.

I will have the same meats but made in a different way in case we tire of the same meal every 2 weeks.   I may make chilli mince instead of beef burgers in the winter Mexican lasagne is also an alternative.   

Tired of spaghetti?  Try lasagne or stuffed pasta shells. 

If you want a meatless meal each week then have vegetable soup, spaghetti marinara, red beans and rice, or just a good salad.  The ideas are endless.

Look through different cookbooks and find interesting recipes.  Most recipes can be converted to food storage recipes.   

Deep fried chicken, medium or rare steaks, and the like will be hard to get or make in post collapse because they require fresh meats and we are not going to have those things at that time. 

You may be able to raise chickens or rabbits where you live and then you can have the deep fried chicken or rabbit.  I can raise rabbits but not chickens where I live so I will not get much fresh chicken post collapse. 

I also will not have fresh milk.  I will have powdered milk so I will be making yogurt, yogurt cheese, cottage cheese, and fresh farmer’s style cheese from powdered milk.   

I will store parmesan for the first year and have some canned cheeses and powdered cheddar cheese for that first year as well.  All these things I will cover later. Now let’s make a menu for 7 breakfasts:

1.   Pancakes with syrup and dried reconstituted fruit.

2.   Scrambled eggs and toast with Orange Drink

3.   Poached eggs and toast

4.   Sausage, cheese, omelette with toast

5.   Oatmeal with apples and brown sugar and cinnamon

6.   Mushroom omelette and Orange drink

7.   Homemade muesli with Orange drink

Now for your midday meal.   

You may be eating it at night because of lack of power.  You could cook the large meal in a solar oven if you have one and you should have a rocket stove or propane burner to hopefully fill in on bad weather days.

Back to the light supper or lunch in the evening.   

(Think about it, this is the healthier way to eat anyway.)  Leftovers will need to be eaten up in the evening because of poor or no refrigeration (if there is power cuts).

1. Leftovers of what you had for your big meal or Dinner....

2. Tuna Sandwiches

3  Peanut butter sandwiches

4. Soup and crackers

5. Ham sandwiches

6. Chicken salad/sandwiches

7. In the summer if you can grow gardens this is when you should be eating salads with dried fruit and leftover meats or beans in them.

These are just some ideas.  There are many others.  You may want to make up some beef burgers for a treat or grill some vegetables to serve with cheese and bread. 

Your personal tastes and creativity are not limited to my ideas.  Just start thinking every time you make a meal for your family, "Could I have made this with food storage?"  You will start thinking about what you will need to start storing.

Take the normal ingredient amounts and multiply times 8 for a 3.1/2 month supply of once per 2 weeks for that particular meal.   

Write those ingredients and amounts down in your list, notebook or wherever you will be keeping your info.

Example:  For a 3.1/2 month supply take 8  times the amount of the item needed for that recipe because that will give you the amount you need to have for cooking it every 2 weeks.

Spaghetti - 1 pint of home canned ground beef,                               8 pints

1 jar of mushroom spaghetti sauce,                  8 cans

1 can of diced tomatoes                                                 8 cans

1 teaspoon of garlic powder                                          8 tsp.

1 teaspoon of dried basil                                               8 tsp.

4 tablespoons of parmesan cheese                                32 tbsp.

A packet of spaghetti                                                        8 packets

Now you do this with every recipe and then add up the ingredients and you will have what you need to buy or can or dry your foods for your food storage. 

For instance I plan to use ground beef at least 3 times each 2 week period so I will need 24 pints of ground beef.  I hope this is clear and understandable. 

I have to say of course that although these meals are exactly what you want and need as you will have chosen them, their ingredients will have to change due to perhaps the lack of power or the lack of the ingredients themselves.

Start out with your menus like above and then we can work on it together if you need help.   

Happy Prepping! You are on your way to becoming self-sufficient one step at a time!

Dressing Game

Once you have snared or killed game for the stew pot, do you know how to field dress it? There are different types of game and just about as many different ways to dress it. 

But, since most survivors hardly ever kill a deer, I will skip the big game part. For our purposes we will stick to birds, rabbits, and squirrels as that is usually what we have to deal with here in the UK.

Many people are not very excited about the idea of processing their own meals. It seems in our society today we have lost the art of killing, dressing and processing our own foods. 

And, I agree with what some of you may be thinking, we don’t have a need to do that stuff much anymore.

However, once forced in to the wilds, we will need that skill if our hunting ability is to pay off. Your first step is to insure your animal is dead. 

I can tell you from experience that most small game, while not able to cause serious injury, can scratch or bite you. Use caution and kill the animal before you pick it up.

A quick way to dispatch a snared or trapped animal is with a heavy blow to the head from a club. Or, you can spear it. I prefer to use a club because it kills instantly and the animal does not suffer. 

While I do have to eat, I don’t relish the idea of hurting any animal. But, as survivors we must eat and part of that diet must be animal proteins and fats. Something must die for us to live.

A rabbit is very easy to dress and takes but a couple of minutes. You can hang the animals by its back legs if you want and grasp the skin on a leg. 

Make a small cut, from one ankle down and across to the other ankle. You can now pull the skin down, and off, like a glove. 

Remove the feet and the head.

To gut the animal, pinch the upper stomach and make a very small incision. Take the tip of your knife and slowly cut down and then up. 

That procedure should have opened the stomach cavity. Remove the inner organs, with your hand, using caution not to rupture the bladder (urine). Retain the heart, liver, and kidneys, if they are not spotted.

While the thought of it may gross you out, the inner organs are very important to your survival diet. You must find a way to cook them that will allow you to eat them. 

I would suggest you make a stew and just add all of the meats.

A squirrel is a little tougher to skin.

I suggest that you do not hang a squirrel when dressing it. 

Make a cut about two inches long on the animals back, grasp the two pieces of skin, and pull them away from each other.

Then, remove the head and feet. 

Gut and retain the inner organs just like you did the rabbit. 

Remember, avoid breaking the bladder or you will get urine on the meat. 

Birds can either be plucked or skinned. I suggest they be plucked. This keeps the skin on the meat, which is full of oils and fats.

Unless dealing with wood pigeon with which I just remove the breasts by slicing through the feathers following the back bone all the way down.

To pluck them you just need to pull all of the feathers out. For small birds it is easy to do, but with a goose or a turkey, it may take you a little time. 

Gut them immediately, keep the inner organs, and cover them with cloth if you have any.

This is to keep flies and insects away from them. 

I recommend in warm weather that your bird be cooked as soon as possible. And no matter how pretty the picture is of a bird roasting over a fire, make yours into a soup or stew. 

You should boil it because you will need all of the nutrients in the animal. 

Roasting will allow those important parts of your diet to drip and burn. While boiling retains them.

The thought of killing, field dressing, and preparing meat is disturbing to some people and it is easily understood. 

Nonetheless, in a survival situation, you must learn to prepare your own foods.

I have eaten many rabbits, squirrels, birds and fish. Keep the will to survive alive in your head and you too can make it. Learn to live!

Two Different Recipes for Baked Potato

Camp fire baked potatoes

Ingredients

4 medium baking potatoes

1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions

Poke each potato several times all over with a fork. Smear each potato with 1 tablespoon of butter, then double wrap in aluminium foil. Bury the potatoes in the hot coals. Allow to cook for 30 to 60 minutes until soft simple and tasty.

Baked Potato in a Can

A great campfire cooking recipe to try !

1 medium size potato

butter

salt and pepper to taste

heavy duty aluminum foil

tin can (from veggies or beans)

Clean the potato. Butter the outside of the potato really well, and season to taste.

Put the potato into the tin can and cover top the of the can with foil.

Place the tin can next to a fire pit of coals and let it set for 25 minutes, then turn can 90° and cook for another 20 minutes (do not peek at potato). 

After 45 minutes you will have a perfect baked potato...enjoy the camping!

Fish Farming as a Source of Protein

Fish farming has become an increasingly popular way for people to raise their own source of edible fish, right in their backyard.

The idea of fish farming may have once sounded like a silky, eccentric concept, but today it can be a lucrative business. Do you think that lobster at the seafood restaurant and all that shrimp will just continue to come from the ocean?

Not even mother nature is an unlimited supply of fish, which is why we see an increase today in lobster farms or shrimp farms, etc. We are simply using the vast supply given to us by nature faster than it can reproduce itself.

As interesting as "aquaculture" is, large scale fish farming is not what will be covered here. We will be looking at fish farming for the single family, from the benefits of raising your own supply of fish to the equipment needed to do so.

So, with the abundance of fish on the market shelves, in whatever form, why would anyone want to go to the trouble of sustaining their own fish farm?

First of all, the alleged "fresh" fish in stores can be rather pricey, and if fish is a major source of your protein requirements, then you may want to consider investing in your own continual supply.

Secondly, commercial fish is more likely to contain high amounts of pesticides. If you raise your own fish properly, they are guaranteed to be healthier, without additional pollution residues.

Third, farmed fish has a higher fat content than commercial fish, but it is monounsaturated so it helps raise good cholesterol (HDL) levels but not the bad (LDL).

To raise your own fish you will need good water with a pH of 7, a temperature of 55 degrees F, and a high oxygen content. There is simple equipment that can be used to achieve these ideal conditions.

To begin with, you need a tank. A tank can be a small swimming pool the size of 12 feet across and up to 3 feet high. 

Or, you can make a more permanent concrete structure and coat it with waterproof compound.

Along with the tank you will also need an aerator and a filter. An aerator is needed as fish need plenty of oxygen to survive, and studies have shown that constant aeration can double fish production. 

You can find commercial aerators at a few farm supply stores that carry aquaculture supplies and set it up in your tank, or you can purchase a submersible spray fountain.

Homemade filters are made from a large metal drum filled with gravel or rock. The filter needs to be set up with a hose from a pump going into the filter at the top, and then a hose or pvc pipe at the bottom for the water to come out of and drop back into the tank.

To keep your water in optimum condition you must regularly check the pH. As stated previously, it should stay at 7. If it becomes too alkaline (8 or above) add gypsum. If it becomes too acidic (6 or below) add lime.

The overall water temperature should remain at 55 degrees, but it honestly depends on what type of fish you are farming. The two most popular types of home farmed fish are carp and trout. Carp do well at temperatures of 85 degrees while trout thrive at 55 degrees.

Some raise trout in the Autumn and spring and Carp  in summer.

These types of fish should not be raised together. Not only because of the difference preferred in water temperature, but because they will not get along.

To actually begin farming your fish, you need to set up your tank with aerator and filter and run it for at least 10 days to get the water in optimum condition for the fish.

The best place to get your initial supply of fish is a fish hatchery, or someone else you know in the business. The best source for fish hatcheries near you is Dept. of the environment. 

When you get your fish they will more than likely be in plastic bags, and, just as you do with indoor goldfish, set the bags, unopened, in your tank until they reach the same temperature and then the fish may be released.

Fish can be fed with a commercial food supply and or fish scraps. Portions should increase as the fish grow but it is very important not to overfeed.

To harvest only a few fish at a time, use a net. If you desire to harvest them all at once you can drain your tank.

Fish farming is not a project that can be undertaken hastily or lightly. It requires commitment and work, but if you're a fish lover the rewards are well worth it.

Delicious Foil Packet Recipes

In the quest to streamline your camping trips, foil packet meals can be one of your greatest allies. 

It’s cooking at its simple best; you take some ingredients, wrap them up in a foil parcel, and place the pouch on a campfire’s coals to cook.

You can prepare these foil packets before you head out into Mother Nature, and they require no pots and pans, no plates, and no clean up. 

All you need is a fork and some fire.

And, if you know what you’re doing, they can be incredibly tasty and satisfying. So I’m going to cover the basics of foil packet cooking and provide you with some delicious recipes to try the next time you venture into the great outdoors.

Foil Packet Cooking Tips

Use heavy duty foil. You don’t want the foil to rip and have ashes get in and your dinner leak out. If you use regular foil, double up on the sheets. 

If your food is heavy, and/or if you plan to eat directly from the pack, it’s a good idea to double up even on the heavy duty sheets.

Spray the side of the foil on which you’re going to place the food with cooking spray before you add your ingredients and seal it up.

When placing your ingredients on the sheet of foil, always put the meat on the bottom as it takes the longest to cook.

Cook your foil packet on the fire’s coals, not in the fire itself. Ideally, you want to place the packet on a bed of coals about 2 inches thick.

Hard, raw vegetables like carrots and potatoes take a long time to cook. If you don’t want to wait, use the canned variety.

When cooking meat, throw in some high-moisture veggies like tomatoes and onions. 

This will keep the meat from drying out.

Cooking times will depend on how hot the fire is and the kind of food in the packet. I generally err on the side of cooking it too long-this is the kind of food that you don’t need to be overly delicate with. 

Flip the packets over a few times during cooking, and open and check on how the food is progressing from time to time.

When it’s finished cooking, open your foil packet carefully, as it’s full of hot steam!

Catch of the Day

Fish that you caught with your own manly hands and filleted

¼ cup of onions

1 tablespoon of butter, melted

lemon juice

salt and pepper

parsley

dillweed

paprika

Mix the melted butter with a dash of lemon juice and the above spices to taste (with the exception of the paprika). Place the onions on the foil sheet. Place the fish on top and sprinkle with paprika. Wrap the foil in a flat pack.

Place on hot coals and scoop some hot coals on top of the packet. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

Sausage and Eggs

1 frozen hash brown patty

2 eggs, scrambled, uncooked

2 frozen sausage patties

spices and seasonings

Cheese (optional)

Crimp the sides of your sheet of foil so that the eggs won’t go anywhere when you add them. First place your hash brown patty on the foil. Then place the eggs on top of the hash brown patty. Then place the sausage patties on top. Season with spices and condiments and wrap up in a tent pack.

Place on hot coals and cook for 15 minutes. Add the cheese when it’s ready (it turns out better than cooking it in the pack).

Cold Weather Survival Food

When choosing which types of food to add to your survival supplies, keep in mind that in cold weather you will want to conserve energy. It is very important that you keep your calorie level high as you will probably burn extra calories trying to keep warm.

Another suggestion is to get survival food that does not require cooking. I know, it seems nice to be able to have a hot meal when it is cold. I agree. However, when you are cold it may be better to not have to worry about cooking your food. 

Ready-to-eat food will conserve your energy by enabling you to eat it quickly. The faster you can get nutrients into your body in a survival situation the faster you can focus on other necessities, like being rescued or keeping warm.

There is always a good of cup of tea for something warm.

So what are some good cold weather survival foods? I recommend food items such as trail mix, high calorie food bars and jerky and other foods that can be stored for a long time and are ready to eat in just a few seconds.

Cold weather survival food is inexpensive and easy to find. Get cheap high calorie food bars today and add them to your survival gear supply. Don't wait for a disaster; get prepared for winter emergency survival today.

Ideas for Long-lasting Survival Food

Survival food is a very important part of your survival supplies. Having the right food on-hand in a survival situation can keep you healthy and strong and keep your morale high.

Choose survival food that will last a long time in storage. It should be packaged well so that no rodents or insects can access it as well. 

Below is a list of survival food ideas-

Jerky-Almonds-High Calorie Food Bars-Dried Fruit-Sunflower Seeds, Raisins, Canned Foods-Nuts-Powerdered Eggs-Potatoes-Carrots-Powdered Milk-Pasta-Corn Meal-Rice-Grains-Oatmeal-Bread/Pancake Mix-Beans.

Remember to do research on the different food items above to find out their nutritional value and how to store them properly. Most of the items above are affordable and easy to find.

When choosing your list of survival food, remember to get food that you will want to eat. Survival food can keep morale high and can help relieve the stress you feel during an emergency survival situation.

Prepare yourself and your family with good survival food so that you will be healthy and focused in survival situations. Do not rely on supermarkets and neighbours and family members for food in a crisis. 

Preparation is the key to survival.

Survival Food Ideas

Survival food not only nourishes you during a survival situation, but it can help keep your morale high and give you hope. This is why survival food is important to remember when you buy survival supplies.

So what types of survival food are there? The list is endless. I will give you a few examples of cheap survival food ideas and the pros and cons of each one. Keep in mind that survival food should be nourishing, lightweight and ready-to-eat at a moment's notice. 

If your survival food has these characteristics you will increase your chances of survival.

List of survival food ideas-

Jerky-Lightweight and nourishing. May not have capability of being stored for a long time without spoiling.

High-calorie food bars-Lightweight and nourishing. Can be stored for years without spoiling.

Powdered food (such as eggs)-Lightweight and can be stored for a long time. Have to add water and cook. May not be very nutritional.

Dried fruit-Lightweight and can be stored for a long time. Nutritional.

Canned food-Heavy but inexpensive. Must have tools to open can and food might need to be cooked.

How Much Food Do I Need for Emergency Survival?

Although the human body can go for about a 3 weeks without food, the odds of survival are much greater if you don’t have to go without food for even one day.

Food is essential to all bodily functions. Going without food causes problems such as muscle weakness, headaches, disorientation, irritability, inability to focus, lowered immune system, exhaustion and low morale. 

Having enough emergency survival food is an essential part of emergency survival because it allows you to stay focused, healthy and gives you the energy you need to survive.

A good rule of thumb for emergency food is that on average a person can last 3 week without food. Of course, this is a very general estimate and the actual time you can go without food will depend on many individual factors such as your initial state of health and your surroundings (exposure to elements, if you are injured, etc).

When calculating your daily calorie requirement, keep in mind that you will probably use more calories in a survival situation than usual. This is due to panic, adrenaline, and extra energy used to survive.

Keep enough survival food in your emergency survival kit to last for at least few days as you cannot predict how long you will need it. This is not difficult as emergency survival food today comes with high-calories but in small-sizes. 

Choose survival food that is light so as to not weigh down your survival pack and make you use more calories.

You should acquire survival food that will last for years without spoiling. This is important because you may go a few years without using the survival food, and it can easily be forgotten.

Review your survival food and your emergency survival kit often to make sure that no food has spoiled and replenish any food that has been spoiled or used. Keep your emergency survival food supply as complete and edible as possible so you are always ready for emergencies.

A good survival food option is high-calorie food bars. These bars are very high in calories for their size and are very lightweight. Also, they are very affordable, usually just a few pence. 

High-calorie food bars are also a good choice for survival preparedness food because they do not need to be cooked or heated to eat. They are an easy, fast and affordable choice for emergency survival food.

The Importance of Good-Tasting Survival Food

Emergencies and survival situations are unpleasant by nature and almost always happen unexpectedly. Preparing for emergency survival includes making your potential emergency the most positive and easy experience possible.

One way to do this is to buy survival food that tastes good.  

Many options for good-tasting survival food are available today online and are affordable. These cheap survival food options also have a shelf life that can last for years being stored in a survival kit, which is an important feature you should look for in any survival food you buy.

The best option for cheap and good-tasting survival food is high-calorie food bars as I have said before. Most survival food bars have a sweet flavour like a cookie and have a shelf life of up to 5 years. 

Make sure that your food bars come in individually wrapped packages so that you may open one package at a time. This helps to keep the rest of your survival food supply fresh until you are ready to use it.

Another emergency food option, although not very nutritious, is powdered pudding mix. These mixes are lightweight and you just add water to the pudding mix then serve. 

Survival pudding mixes come in chocolate and vanilla flavouring and can be stored for years without spoiling. Simple survival desserts such as this are also a great stress-reliever for children in survival situations and I would suggest a good morale builder too.

Dried fruit and jerky are other good options for survival food that tastes good. These two products have different shelf lives but taste great. Check the shelf life and likelihood of spoiling before purchasing any survival food.

Having good-tasting survival food is a great way to boost morale in emergencies, keep the situation as light as possible and lower the stress level. Attitude and optimism can make the difference between life and death in survival situations. 

Good-tasting survival good is especially effective with children. It will help keep them calm and distracted from the intensity of the emergency.

Prepare yourself and your family today to have high morale in emergencies by getting some survival food that tastes great.

The Food for a Survival Camping Menu

When preparing for a survival exercise, the food chosen for the menu should reflect the trip's nature. Being on the menu doesn't mean a lack of creativity!

When a person is first learning about survival, they may wish to experience things directly. This is fine of course, but should be taken slowly. Some things can be learned at home in the back yard, while others are best learned in the field. 

Since a survival exercise is a great way to learn skills in a controlled environment, this may be a great way to get started.

Early on, the would-be survivalist is not likely to be able to hunt, gather and scrounge the food they would need, assuming they can even yet identify it. 

At the very least, doing so will leave less time for honing other skills such as shelter building and fire starting. Because of this, it may be wise for the survivalist group or individual to simulate the food found in a survival diet amid the woods with store-bought items carried in.

A menu should be tailored to the time of year a person will be camping in and needs to take into consideration factors such as time to be spent on this camping trip and safe storage needs.

The food choices should also befit the nature of a survival situation. Cuts of beef are not likely to be common to a survival situation, though deer meat might suffice for those more advanced. Similarly, apples in the spring or strawberries in the fall are probably an unlikely find.

Leafy greens are great for a spring or summer menu, as are items such as asparagus and green onions. Berries are usually good if they are in season at the time of year the trip will be taken. 

Autum trips are great for root vegetables, fruits such as apples as they can be found wild. Nuts and grains are abundant in the Autum as well, so including them is a great option. 

Adjust the menu to the survival diet typical of that time of year.

Meats that are good choices include small game birds, fish and small mammals such as rabbit if they can be obtained. Small animals are far more likely to be eaten by a more advanced survival camper, as they are plentiful and easier to catch. 

They are also less wasteful. Eggs are also another protein that can be readily found in a survival situation in many parts of the world.

There are any number of combinations, based largely on what the person organizing the survival camping trip can find available. If it is hard to get some more logical items, there is no shame in bringing food items that would not normally be in season. 

The point isn’t to perfectly mimic the diet of a survival situation, but rather to force the person camping to think about what they have and how to use it. Working without seasonings alone is a major shift for many.

Part of the learning curve is in deciding how best to prepare the food so that nothing is wasted and everything is edible. Enclosing them in foil or roasting things over a spit is fine for a new survival camper. 

The more advanced may wish to try cooking on live coals, baking in mud or using hot rocks in interesting ways. Though the menu is simple, ingenuity can create a wide variety of meals with the same ingredients.

Obviously these foods are low impact even if those doing the survival camping are also harvesting from the wild to augment the meal. It does however mean that they must prepare ahead of time, working out the menus by day and deciding what must be bought and brought. 

Specialty shops may have unusual grains that are more wild in nature. Most supermarkets have game lines when in season to serve in place of a wild bird. 

Fish might be obtained from a reputable seafood market, allowing for whole trout or other such varieties.

Many of the vegetables found in a supermarket can serve as stand-ins for their wild cousins. Get creative and be watching what is common to your area. Also look into farmer’s markets that sometimes sell unusual items that are native to the area and may have been gathered wild.

There is also of course the mail order option on food such as grains. Thinking creatively here will serve well for the creativity needed for survival camping.

As the person learns more about survival cooking techniques and plant identification, it will be possible to expand the options greatly from the simple foods found on the basic menu. 

It will also ensure a minimal impact on the area where the survival camping occurs.

Planning a menu such as this ensures that distractions thanks to the lack of food are not a primary worry while one is still learning the most basic aspects.

Just a thought“The person you love is 72.8% water”

How to Store Food Safely

Some foods need to be kept in the fridge to help stop bacteria growing. These include foods with a "use by" date, cooked foods and ready-to-eat foods such as desserts and cooked meats.

Here's how to prevent bacteria from growing:

Keep your fridge temperature below 5C.

When preparing food, keep it out of the fridge for the shortest time possible.

If you’re having a buffet, keep the food refrigerated until you’re ready to serve it.

Cool leftovers as quickly as possible (within 90 minutes) and store them in the fridge. Eat them within two days.

Store eggs in their box in the fridge.

Never put open cans in the fridge as the metal of the can may transfer to the can's contents. Transfer the contents into a storage container or covered bowl.

Make sure food has cooled down before you put it in the fridge. “If the food is still hot it will raise the temperature in the fridge, which isn’t safe as it can promote bacterial growth.”

To ensure your fridge remains hygienic and in good working condition, clean it regularly.

Food debris accumulates over time and can increase the risk of cross-contamination.

Food with a "use by" date goes off quite quickly. It can be dangerous to eat after this date.

Food with a "best before" date is longer-lasting. It should be safe to eat but may not be at its best quality after this date.

No food lasts forever, however well it is stored. 

Most pre-packed foods carry either a "use by" or "best before" date.

Food can look and smell fine even after its use-by date, But that doesn’t mean that it's safe to eat. It could still be contaminated.

It's especially important to store meat safely in the fridge to stop bacteria from spreading and avoid food poisoning.

Store raw meat and poultry in clean, sealed containers on the bottom shelf of the fridge, so they can't touch or drip onto other food.

Follow any storage instructions on the label and don't eat meat after its use-by date.

Keep cooked meat separate from raw meat.

It’s safe to freeze meat and fish as long as you: Freeze it before the use-by date.

Defrost meat and fish thoroughly before cooking. Lots of liquid will come out as meat thaws, so stand it in a bowl to stop bacteria in the juice spreading to other things.

Defrost in a microwave if you intend to cook straightaway. Otherwise, put it in the fridge to thaw so that it doesn't get too warm.

Cook food until it's piping hot all the way through.

Make sure the meat is properly wrapped in the freezer or it might get freezer burn, which will make it tough and inedible.

Date and label meat in the freezer and eat it within 24 hours of defrosting. Don't keep food in a freezer indefinitely. Always have a good idea of what’s in your fridge and freezer.”

Never re-freeze raw meat (including poultry) or fish that have been defrosted. It is possible to re-freeze cooked meat once, as long as it has been cooled before going into the freezer.  

However, if in doubt, don't re-freeze.

Frozen raw foods can be defrosted once and stored in the fridge for up to two days before they need to be cooked or thrown away. To reduce wastage, divide the meal into portions before freezing and then just defrost what you need.

Cooked food that has been frozen and removed from the freezer must be reheated and eaten immediately once fully defrosted. When defrosted, food should be reheated only once because the more times you cool and reheat a food, the higher the risk of food poisoning. 

Bacteria can grow and multiply when food is cooled too slowly, and might survive if food isn't reheated properly.

When reheating food, make sure it reaches a temperature of 70C for two minutes so that it is steaming hot throughout.

Foods stored in the freezer, such as ice cream and frozen desserts, should not be returned to the freezer once they have started to thaw. 

Only take out from the freezer what you intend to use for that meal.

The Humble Dandelion

Before we get to the dandelion coffee, let's learn a bit about dandelion.

Volumes could be written on the many uses of Dandelion, indeed they have been!

This common weed is often hated and poisoned by those preferring a “weed free” lawn, while those of us in love with dandelion and its many uses happily support it taking over our lawns.

This plant was purposefully brought to North America by Europeans not wanting to leave this valuable resource behind. 

Every part of the dandelion can be used as food or medicine, making back door herbalism simple and easy, as it should be.

When the first spring leaves pop up out of the ground they can be harvested heavily and eaten fresh with salads, made into a delicious pesto, or dried for tea.

The leaves are highly nutritious, containing large amounts of vitamin A, calcium, potassium, and many more vitamins and minerals. 

The French call this plant pissenlit, which alludes to its strong diuretic properties.

A tea of dandelion leaves is a great way to flush excess water from the system. (Of course, before using this effective remedy we always want to make sure the water retention is caused by a non-serious condition like sitting on an airplane too long.)

When eaten with meals, the bitter taste of the leaves helps to promote digestion by stimulating bile to relieve indigestion and other digestive disturbances.

The root is a great ally for the liver. It can be eaten fresh in a variety of recipes.Dandelion root can help clear up acne and other skin disruptions with the root cause being a stagnant liver. 

 

Most herbalists agree that long-term use of dandelion is needed for best results.

The flower can be eaten in salads, or fried up as fritters as below. An oil made from dandelion flowers is warming and can be applied externally to relieve arthritis and other aches and pains.

Lastly the latex, or sap, from the dandelion stems can be used topically on warts. Apply several times daily for best results.

My favourite way to enjoy dandelion is by making dandelion coffee with the roots. This beverage doesn’t contain the caffeine found in coffee, but does have a rich, dark taste similar to coffee.

Like burdock, dandelion’s strong diuretic activity makes it an inappropriate choice for someone with low blood pressure or excessive urination.

Dandelion Coffee

Prior to decocting the dandelion root, roast the dried chopped root in a cast iron pan until it fragrant and has changed colour from being off-white to light and dark brown.

For each 8 oz of water you are making, use 1-2 teaspoons of the roasted root.

Add the root to simmering water and continue to simmer while covered for 7–15 minutes

The resulting brew will be darkly coloured.

I enjoy my dandelion coffee with cream, and many people enjoy adding honey as well.

Dandelion Fritters

This time of year, one of my favourite activities is making and eating dandelion flower fritters.  The simple dandelion is one of my favourite herbs.   

Did I just say herb in reference to dandelion Yep!  This plant is tenacious, despite many peoples best efforts to eradicate it from their lawns, and thankfully so since she has so much to offer.   

But, I was going to tell you about fritters.

First of all I love gathering the dandelion flowers – just the tops for fritters.   

They are easy to pick and so bright and cheery on a sunny day.  Usually, I want to pick more than I need, just because the gathering is so fun. Pick them in the sunshine when they are open, and when you have time to make the fritters right after gathering.

Bring your basket of flowers inside, find a bowl, and mix together one egg and one cup of milk.  Stir in a cup of flour and your fritter batter is ready to go. 

(If you like your fritters sweet you can add a little maple syrup or honey.)

Now, prepare a skillet on the stove with gently warmed olive oil – keep it over medium heat.

Take one of the flowers and hold it by the greens at the base of the flower petals. Dip the petals into the batter and twirl until the flower is covered.

Drop it into the skillet, flower side down.  Continue dipping and dropping flowers, checking the first ones every once in a while to see if they are brown.   

When they’ve lightly browned, flip them over and brown them on the other side.

When they’re brown on both sides remove them from the skillet and drain the excess oil on paper towel.

For a sweet treat, drizzle them with maple syrup, honey, jam, or powdered sugar.   

For savoury fritters try dipping in mustard or adding some savoury herbs to the batter.

No Mess Camp Fire Cooking

Here's a wonderful method for campfire cooking which is simple, versatile and doesn't even require cookware or a grill. 

All you need is some heavy-duty tin foil.

Tear off a 12" sheet of foil and fold it back over your fist, making a "pocket". 

Roll the sides in a few turns so the pocket is only open at the top, and roll a turn or two up from the bottom for extra strength. 

The pocket needs to be leak-proof, and formed well enough to withstand cooking directly in the coals. If your foil is thin, you may need two layers.

I have previously mentioned fresh water fish for food and here is an interesting recipe for fish.

Place a fish fillet in the foil, trout's the best to use for this recipe, but any fish will do. 

Place halved cherry tomatoes, halved small lemon, and a pinch of garlic and lemon salt in the foil. Pour about 1/3 cup of Sprite or 7up in the foil, yes that’s right Sprite or 7up. 

Seal the foil tightly and place the pocket on the coals for approximately 10-15 minutes. 

Remove from coals and tuck in.

And for the hunter, survivalist or prepper here is a camp meal to try. 

In the centre of a large piece of heavy duty aluminium foil place venison or pheasant breasts. 

On top of them, place a thin slice of onion. 

Wash potatoes with skins on, slice thinly and add a layer of potatoes on top of the onions. 

Add salt, pepper, garlic and a large spoon of canned baked beans. Bring edges of foil together and fold down to seal then roll ends to finish sealing. 

Place in hot coals for 30 to 45 min til done. NO muss! NO fuss! GREAT eating!

How Long Can You Live Without Food?

If you are faced with a survival situation, it’s vitally important that you’ve done your homework with regards to understanding the environment you’re faced with and that you’re able to tap in to the natural resources in terms of finding a food supply to avoid starvation and to be able to survive in the event that your predicament lasts longer than you anticipate.

Although you can actually survive for far longer without food than you can without water, it’s often the psychological effects, even more than the physiological, which are likely to cause you complications. 

Therefore, you need to assess your environment carefully and understand the types of vegetation you can and can’t eat as well as considering other survival techniques such as the possibility of fishing or of trapping animals.

It’s also no time to be choosy so you should also be prepared for the possibility of having to eat insects and grubs as, although the thought of that might be abhorrent, they will provide you with vital proteins to give you energy.

There is no strictly defined time limit as to how long you can survive without any kind of food whatsoever. 

It all depends on a number of variables. If you’re already in good physical shape and have been keeping physically active as well as eating a balanced diet, you’ll be at an advantage.

Even being a few pounds overweight can put you even more at an advantage as each pound of body fat represents around 3600 calories which would usually provide enough energy in everyday life for about a day and a half.

Your metabolism will also play a part. If you’ve already got a slow metabolism, this will stand you in good stead as your body will naturally respond to a shortage of food by lowering its metabolic rate to compensate whereas it becomes more difficult to survive for longer if your metabolism is high.

Survival without food also means conserving as much energy as you possibly can. Naturally, you’ll need to be out there trying to collect food, collecting wood for a fire and building a shelter etc. However, you should keep your physical activity to a minimum and if there is any intensely physical work you need to do, make sure that you do it either at dusk or dawn when the temperature is cooler as you’re less likely to sweat as profusely which makes you lose valuable electrolytes.

The less active you are, the fewer calories you’ll expend. Obviously, climate plays a significant role in determining how long you can survive without food and, if you’re subject to either extremely hot or extremely cold weather, the likelihood is you’ll use up more energy and the more energy you burn, the more urgently you need to replace it. 

There have been cases of people who have gone more than two months without food and others who have only lasted a week before perishing.

Hopefully, you’ll be resourceful and able to find some natural food sources within your immediate environment. 

However, without food it won’t be long before you start becoming irritable and your morale will dip sharply due to hunger.

Beyond that stage, you’re going to become more lethargic and weaker and this can soon progress to feelings of confusion, poor judgement and total physical exhaustion. 

Your immune system will become weaker which will make you more susceptible to illnesses, more prone to diarrhoea and if you can’t regulate your body’s core temperature, you could end up with hypothermia or heat stroke. 

In an advanced state of starvation, you could end up experiencing hallucinations, muscle spasms and convulsions and your heartbeat may become irregular. 

These are all strong indicators that your organs are starting to fail.

The important thing is to make sure you have plenty of good, clean drinking water. Food always come second to that but it is obviously useful to learn all about the natural food resources which may be at your disposal as these can help to sustain you for longer. 

There are plenty of survival courses available which can teach you what to look out for and what is and isn’t edible as well as trapping and fishing skills.

Eating Berries and Plants to Survive

Many people believe that they will never find themselves in a survival situation, but it can happen to anyone and the importance of knowing the plants and berries that you can safely eat to sustain you, cannot be emphasised enough.

Whilst there is an abundance of food to be found in the natural environment, there are also plants and berries which if eaten, can cause you severe stomach upsets at best and at worst, can kill you.

The ‘look’ of a particular plant or berry is simply not enough and if you can’t identify it, then the advice is to leave it alone and not to risk eating it. 

Therefore, if you’re out in the woods, it’s useful to have a basic knowledge of the vegetation that grows in a specific area you’re visiting and know how to identify which plants are safe and which are toxic.

Hunger pangs are highly likely to ‘kick in’ if you are stranded for some time without food but it’s important to remember that you can actually survive for a few weeks without food as long as you have enough water to sustain you. 

Therefore, no matter how abundant and tempting plants and berries might be, you should never eat any wild vegetation unless you are 100% sure you can identify it.

There is a vast range of things which grow in the wild, which are safe to eat and will help to keep you nourished when faced with a survival situation. 

Dandelion leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, the roots make a welcoming hot drink (if you're not in a survival situation and want a natural snack, the flower itself can be dipped in batter and made into a fritter).

As we know nettles can be steamed or boiled and make a useful substitute for your ‘greens’ and of course, there’s nettle tea! 

The roots of the burdock plant can be boiled and then eaten like potatoes and pitted rose hips are packed with vitamin C. 

You may also find more common foods like blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. However, be absolutely sure you know what you are eating before putting it in your mouth and also remember that some wild plants need to be cooked before they are safe to eat.

In brief, you shouldn’t eat anything that you can’t identify. 

However, there are a few clues as to the kinds of things you should definitely steer clear of.

Anything that has thorns or spines you should treat with suspicion and unless you are highly knowledgeable about mushrooms and fungi, you should keep away from as, although you can eat many fungi, some of them are deadly.

Plants with shiny leaves or with umbrella flowers or which have yellow or white berries or a milky sap (except dandelions) are also highly ‘suspicious’ and should be avoided. 

And if a plant gives off a pungent odour, you’re better off leaving it alone.

Many people fall ill because they assume that if an animal is eating a particular plant or berry, then it must be safe for humans. 

This is not the case. 

Also, make sure that if you’ve found what you know is a patch of plants that are edible that all the plants you gather are the same species, as there may be similar looking plants growing in the same area but which are highly dangerous. 

You also need to know which plants need cooking first to make them safe as some plants are still harmful if you eat them raw.

Some survival books will show you how to do an edibility test on a particular plant if you cannot identify it. 

This is a quite lengthy process beginning with testing a small portion of the plant on your skin to see if it causes an allergic reaction, then on your lips and tongue etc. but it is a painstaking, lengthy process and doesn’t offer a 100% guarantee as to the plant’s safety and should only ever be used in an absolute emergency.

There are plenty of resources on the internet to show you how to conduct a plant edibility test but you should treat these with some caution. 

The only way is to be sure that you have identified the plant in question is by doing your research in order to be confident about what is edible and what isn’t.

Quick Meals in the Field

INGREDIENTS

One to two squirrels

2 to 3 cups flour (bread crumbs)

3 to 4 whole eggs

Some seasoning if you wanted to spice it up.

A tablespoon or two of white wine.

Directions

Place pan on High.

Add spices to the eggs.

Dip squirrel into the eggs until fully covered.

Next place into the four or bread crumbs.

Place into the pan turn the heat down to medium high.

Add white wine just before adding the squirrel.

Cook the squirrel for roughly 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown.

Then serve.

When preparing game birds, you can cook young birds by broiling, roasting, or in any of your other favourite recipes. But older birds should be stewed or braised to tenderize them. Or if you wish, you can try a commercial tenderizer.

Just sprinkle the tenderizer in the body cavity of the bird and let the bird stand in the refrigerator. The amount of time the bird needs to remain in the refrigerator depends on the size of the bird. 

For example, a large bird such as a turkey will need 12 to 24 hours for the tenderizer to work.

If you're not sure how many servings you'll get from each bird this may help you:

1 serving = 2 quail

1-2 squab

2-3 doves

or 1 small duck.

You can figure on at least 2 servings from 1 pheasant or 1 large duck.

A 4-6 lb. goose should feed 4-6 people.

Rabbit Stew or Pheasant Stew

    1 or 2 rabbits or pheasants

    Salt, pepper and paprika to taste

    1 c. sour cream

    1 c. cream of mushroom soup

    1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

    2 tbsp. chopped onions

Preparation:

Season cut up meat. Mix sour cream, soup and Worcestershire sauce. Add chopped onions. 

Cook in slow cooker on low for 8 hours. Or on the edge of a camp fire stirring regularly and moderating the heat.

The 1940's Diet

Are we storing 'too' much food for bugging out? 

Could we actually live on what the British families did in the 1940's?

Perhaps a rationed diet would be healthier for us as well?

When rationing was introduced in England on January 8, 1940 it was to ensure that food was distributed fairly and that the dwindling food supplies lasted. 

However, rationing did vary slightly month to month depending on the availability of foods increasing when it was plentiful and decreasing when it was in short supply.

Here is the weekly ration allowance for one adult in the 1940’s… (remember that in addition to this people were encouraged to incorporate lots of fruit and veggies into their diets and grow even more in their back gardens!

Weekly ration for 1 adult

 Bacon & Ham 4 oz

Meat to the value of £1.50 (around about 1/2 lb minced beef)

Butter 2 oz

Cheese 2 oz

Margarine 4 oz

Cooking fat 4 oz

Milk 3 pints

Sugar 8 oz

Preserves 1 lb every 2 months

Tea 2 oz

Eggs 1 fresh egg per week

Sweets/Candy 12 oz every 4 weeks

In addition to this a points system was put in place which limited your purchase of tinned or imported goods. 

16 points were available in your ration book for every 4 weeks and that 16 points would enable you to purchase for instance, 1can of tinned fish or 2lbs of dried fruit or 8 lbs of split peas.

Does this sound a lot or little to you?

When you try and produce all your own food from scratch using the above ingredients and realize just how precious or even how difficult it was at times to obtain other necessary food stuffs like flour, oats etc

It really makes you appreciate how difficult and how IMPORTANT the role was of the1940’s housewife to feed her family and keep them healthy. 

It was for sure a long and hard job..

I have designed this recipe from the rations available.

BREAKFAST

2 slices of wholemeal (wholewheat) toast with margarine and marmalade or marmite or large bowl of porridge oats (oatmeal) made with water, splash of milk and a little sugar or honey mixed in.

LUNCH

Oslo Meal-

2 slices of wholewheat bread spread with a little margarine or butte small block of cheese grated and placed over salad if wished  fresh lettuce leaves other salad items like carrot, cucumber or tomato and a  glass of cold milk

OR,

Meat Gravy

 1 lb mince beef

cornstarch

water

thyme

salt & pepper

old ripe tomatoes (optional)

oxo cubes or marmite

DINNER

Two large baked potatoes topped with a little bit of strong cheddar, generous serving of meaty gravy, a chunk of freshly baked wholemeal bread, a few spoonful’s of steamed carrots, big mound of steamed cabbage. For dessert  one pear.

OR

A big mound of mashed potato (a blob of marg and some thyme, salt & pepper for seasoning), served with large portions of cabbage and cauliflower and the remainder of the meaty gravy made yesterday. 

For dessert two freshly baked Rock Buns and two steaming hot cups of tea!

SUPPER

Round off the day with a glass or two of milk- usually one small glass of cold milk and a cup of milky coffee. 

The amount depends on how much you have left to use!

This diet depends on what is available or what recipes have been created. 

You can always make veggies stews with beans and pulses in for extra protein

 

How many calories do I need?

Knowing how many calories you burn in a day will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating, or should be storing for emergency use later. Your body burns calories in three different ways… metabolism, physical activity, and digestion.



Metabolism– Your body needs energy every day to survive — even when you are sleeping.Your heart is constantly pumping, your body is working at maintaining a normal body temperature, your brain is always ‘on’, damage is being repaired, and all systems are requiring fuel. Roughly 60% to 70% of the calories you burn everyday are from keeping all of your body’s systems working!



Physical Activity – Your body burns calories through any sort of physical activity,ranging from just walking around, to formal exercise, or any type of movement.The amount of calories you burn from physical activity can be anywhere from 25%to 40% of the total amount of calories you burn in a day.



Digesting Food – Your body also uses up energy to digest the food you eat, although it only accounts for about 5% to 10% of calories burned.



For those who wish to lose some weight, if you eat fewer calories than your body burns, you will create a ‘calorie deficit’ — and your body will burn your excess body fat to make up the difference.

For those who wish to be sure they have enough survival preparedness food storage,either at home, or in a kit of some sort, knowing your daily caloric requirementis essential.




There are variations to everything, but the following two examples should give you an idea. Note that during an emergency or disaster situation, you may be burning more calories than you normally would be, due to a probable increase in your physical activity.



A 200 pound, 6’2″ man 40 years of age who is ‘lightly active’ during a typical day will require 2,700 calories to maintain body systems function without gaining or losing weight. That same person will require 3,400 calories that dayif he is ‘very active’ and 3,800 calories if ‘extremely active’.



A 140 pound, 5’7″ woman 40 years of age who is ‘lightly active during a typical day will require 1,900 calories, but if ‘very active’ will require 2,400calories, and if ‘extremely active’ will require 2,600 calories to maintain body systems function without gaining or losing weight.



Check your own stats and search for ‘calorie deficit calculator’ or ‘weight loss calculator’ to determine what your body normally consumes in a day. Then, if you are overweight and want to trim down a bit (to be in better shape for aSHTF scenario?) these calculators should help you determine a reduced calorie intake. Or, you may simply want to determine if your storage food plan will provide enough calories per day for your needs (I have a feeling that some people underestimate the calories that they will actually need each day to survive).


Yes,there’s more to it… exercise, proper nutrition, etc. – but let’s start with the calories.


Daily Calorie Requirements
Male,5’11″, 190 pounds, lightly active

20-year-old:2,800 calories
30-year-old:2,700 calories
40-year-old:2,600 calories
50-year-old:2,500 calories
60-year-old:2,400 calories
70-year-old:2,300 calories

Daily Calorie Requirements
Female,5’5″, 150 pounds, lightly active

20-year-old:2,100 calories
30-year-old:2,000 calories
40-year-old:1,900 calories
50-year-old:1,900 calories
60-year-old:1,800 calories
70-year-old:1,800 calories