Well, we did it! We lived for a week off of our food storage. Without dragging you though too many of the uninteresting details here’s the net of what I learned.
1. We don’t have enough water. While we made it through this week just fine, I was amazed at how quickly we would go through the 55 gallon barrel drums we’ve stored if we were really living off them. All of the long term storage foods I have require water to cook them: pasta, beans, rice, brownies. Since we live in the desert, water will be a huge commodity in even the tiniest of emergencies.
2. We have planned pretty well. Except for some fresh items we ate pretty normally, so we do store what we eat. I am going to get serious about adding a garden since I couldn’t coax the one tomato plant I’m growing to produce this week. I do know someone with a banana plant. I’m going to be better friends with her. I’m sure she’ll love the newfound attention.
3. While I think I would like chickens, I’m barely able to keep my dog alive. I need to coax my new best friend, the banana lady, to coop some chickens as well. That way I can still live the cavalier traveling life I love so much yet still have access to eggs. For those of you who also have a chicken shortage problem, really good egg substitutes are flax meal or unflavored gelatin. Although these are really only good substitutes in baking. In the breakfast burritos the kids noticed the difference.
4. The oranges I have are not a good bartering crop. While they are delicious, if the world falls apart and we are actually living off of our food storage, then everyone else around me will be as well. They all have oranges too. I’m pretty sure the neighbors, who have a garden, won’t want to trade me oranges for spinach. They already have oranges. As you read earlier this week, I gave away 1,318 oranges without batting an eye. I have thousands more oranges left. I’m going to have to consider some form of transportation to distribute my one commodity. Which brings me to number 5.
5. I need to convince one of you to get a cow. Banana lady will have reached her limit with the chickens, so please contact me if you will be willing to house a milking cow that also will pull a cart so I can send the kids to hock orange juice off I-10. In return, you’ll have all the orange juice you can drink.
Nemesis: 550 Me: 18
How many gallons of water per day per person would you recommend?
We could use the oranges out here in Dallas. Would you trade for some armadillo road kill?
David
April 7, 2009 at 8:12 AM
Armadillo is really best when tenderized by a couple of semi-truck roll overs. I particularly like it in a gumbo... ahh, my TX days.
Water: for drinking we store 3 flats of the 1 liter bottles per person (5 flats of the smaller bottles works too). For cooking - I was using about 24 C per day just to cook. When I made a pot of beans, that would last more than one day so some of the numbers average out. I would recommend a min of 1-55 gallon drum per person, although after this experience I am going to add a couple of extra drums to our storage since we have space.
Aselin
April 7, 2009 at 10:15 AM