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How to Make Mead

How to Make Mead

Short Course in Mead Making: Prepper’s Abbreviated  Guide to Mead

It’s probably the first alcoholic beverage ever consumed.  Honey, water, and any natural occurring yeast is all you need to make Mead– a fermented beverage of honey, water, yeast, and sometimes grains, herbs, and spices.  It can range from a low of 4% alcohol by volume through a natural yeast to a brain-numbing 20% alcohol content with today’s modern yeast strains.  You can make as little as a gallon or five gallons or more at a time.

In this post, I’ll run you through the basic process of mead creation.  To put a little twist on it, though, we’ll ferment three batches—two with commercially developed yeasts and one with yeast we capture from the wild.  I’ll take you step-by-step, so let’s jump in…

THE MEAD MAKING PROCESS

What you need for a simple Mead recipeHere’s what you will need, a pot sufficient to boil at least one gallon of water or several gallons of water, up to 5 gallons. The size of the pot will depend on the size of the batch and the size of the vessel you will ferment your batch.  I will be referencing both a five-gallon batch I made and a one-gallon batch to explain the process through this video.  You can scale up or down based on your capabilities and once you understand the fundamental quantities and ratios.  You will also need up to a 1-quart jar of honey per gallon of water.  The best ratio is 2-3 pounds of honey per gallon of water.  I will explain this in the next section. You will also need at least one gallon of water, preferably Springwater, as this isn’t chlorinated and has a higher mineral content that your yeast will love…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Autumn Raspberry Harvest

The Autumn Raspberry Harvest

Preserving food is not just ‘cooking’; preserving food requires that you think about the future. Hence why growing and preserving food can be a window into planning a new future.

‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’,
Part 4 Podcast:

Download this recording as:
An MP3 file; or an Ogg Vorbis file

Page bookmarks
(use section number as a hotkey to jump to it, and ‘0’ to jump back to the bookmarks list).
  1. Introduction.
  2. “It’s a connection thing…”.
  3. ‘Harvest new moon’
  4. ‘Time-shifting’ nutrients.
  5. Food preservation is ‘cooking with a plan’.
  6. Half in a pie, half in the freezer.

Consumerism isolates & disconnects: The media hypes the desire for this lifestyle, while we struggle to obtain the cash to buy it; and in this process its hyper-individualism turns our focus inwards, isolating us from other people and the natural world.

From climate change to resource depletion, the systems which underpin that lifestyle are failing (though if you are in the ‘precariat’, arguably that happened twenty years ago). Finding a solution to the trap of affluence, or of state-dependent poverty, requires the same practical response:
Opening-up to new habitual methods for living.

“It’s a connection thing…”

This post started out as a simple idea: To document how I tend, pick, store, and use the raspberries that grow in the garden. It’s a thing I do as part of daily life. It’s not a chore that needs doing; it’s a release from the ‘dead’ energy of consumerism, to engage instead with the positive, natural, life-giving energies of own-made food.

OK then, it’s not that simple! Thing is, preserving food is not cooking! It requires that you think about your future. This is about raspberries, but it could equally be about seed sprouting, growing lettuce in boxes, or foraging (which is what the next post will cover).

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Snowden: Journalism

https://youtu.be/oinq1qWbxsw

How to Make Meat Powder – A DIY Recipe

How to Make Meat Powder – A DIY Recipe

If they ever had to turn to their food preps out of a pure emergency, many preppers would find it extremely tough to make it through on rice, beans, and canned goods alone.  Getting the right nutrient mix and maintaining that through an extended disaster is of vital importance.  When it comes to protein, flavor, vitamins, and nutrients, meat has to be a part of the equation.  Hunting protein sources may not be a possibility.  Stored jerky has a short shelf life and can be hard to chew and process.  Freeze-dried meats are ideal, but they’re also expensive.

In this post, we will preserve and store our meat the way people have done for thousands of years by making it into meat powder.  It may sound gross, but you’ve probably already eaten it regularly when you’ve used bouillion or beef or chicken flavorings.  In our homemade product, however, we get to control the ingredients, so we’re not ingesting strange ingredients from factories around the world.  Just 3 ounces of our meat powder will add to your largely fiber beans and rice 140 calories, folate, iron, zinc, choline, magnesium, selenium, coenzyme Q10, B2, B6, and B12 vitamins, an incredible 24 grams of protein, tons of flavor and a mere 4 grams of fat.  It’s the beefy flavor addition to any meal, which will be the main reason you’re going to want to make this and get meat powder in your preps and cooking.  I will show you how to make it. Then I’ll show you how to use it.   Let’s do this…

WHAT YOU NEED

  • Beef heart.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

You’re Not Going to Homestead Through Collapse

No matter how self-sufficient you become

Photo by Roger Darnell on Unsplash

“By collapse, I mean a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity over a considerable area, for an extended time.” — Jared Diamond in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

People who criticize billionaires for foolishly building underground bunkers believe they can survive the impending doom of climate change by hunkering down on a homestead.

Both groups are attempting to escape the realities of collapse. It’s a race that most humans will likely lose. It’s now a question of whether the species can survive extinction.

On one hand the survivalists (rightfully) poo-poo plans for colonizing Mars as too difficult on a “dead planet” while simultaneously clinging to the belief that for all their beans and bullets, gardens and wells —the hoarded supplies of a prepper will see them through the sixth mass extinction on a dying Earth. It’s the poor-man’s version of an Elysium space station.

The cognitive dissonance must physically hurt.

And let’s admit what no one is saying out loud. The carefully made plans for some sort of Neo-Thoreau lifestyle is more about surviving the collapse of civilization in relative safety and comfort than reducing a carbon footprint — the same attitude that put us in this predicament in the first place.

Here are just a few of the reasons this fantasy won’t work.

Collapse will be everywhere but not all at once.

The central idea of catabolic collapse is that human societies pretty consistently tend to produce more stuff than they can afford to maintain…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Prepper’s Ultimate Plant: The Sunflower

The Prepper’s Ultimate Plant: The Sunflower

This Flower Could Save Your Life!

Sunflower UsesThe prepper’s ultimate plant is a flower. If you could grow just one plant, as a prepper, it should without a doubt be sunflowers.  They grow fast and strong.  They have been used to pull radiological waste out of the environment after Chernobyl and Fukushima.  The large stalks can be used to build structures like teepees.  The stalks are very fibrous, so you can use them as kindling when dried.  You can pound the strands of fibers out and make paper or even rope.  You could even make a flute out of the stalk.  Sunflower seeds and flour are gluten-free. It’s also grain-free, nut-free, paleo and keto-friendly, making it an excellent choice for almost any dietary lifestyle.  Sunflower seeds are rich in healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals.  Just 1/4 cup of them has 14 grams of fat, 5.5 grams of protein, 6.5 grams carbs, 3 grams fiber, vitamin E, B6, Niacin, Folate, Pantothenic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium.  Not only are they easy to grow and beautiful additions to your landscape, but every single bit of the plant is also usable and edible, from the petals to the seeds, the stalk, and even down to the root.  I’ll repeat that, every bit of the plant is edible.

Any of the many species of sunflower could very well save your life one day, as many only think of the seed as food.  In this video, I’m going to harvest a mammoth sunflower that I grew with a stalk about 8 feet tall.  When they’re that big, there’s lots of material in the stalk…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Preppers’ Quietly Stock Up for the ‘Perfect Storm’

‘Preppers’ Quietly Stock Up for the ‘Perfect Storm’

A crippling ice storm that left Travis Maddox and thousands of other Missouri residents without power in 2007 had an “almost apocalyptic feel to it.”

“No one could move. It just shut the whole region down for two weeks. I wasn’t as prepared as I thought,” said Maddox, a burly man of 43, sporting a long black beard, T-shirt, cargo pants, and baseball cap, while tending his garden.

Those two weeks made Maddox realize that being prepared—“prepping,” as it’s called today—was the key to a life of self-reliance and personal freedom.

As an Eagle Scout, he never forgot the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared.

“To me, the ultimate level of prepping is being self-sufficient. You’re still being modern, but you’re in control,” Maddox told The Epoch Times on Aug. 5.

In 2009, Maddox launched his YouTube channel, “The Prepared Homestead,” which now has over 32,000 subscribers.

People, he said, are waking up to the worsening reality of supply chain disruptions and food shortages, and rapid political and social changes that all point toward “a perfect storm” just ahead.

The COVID-19 lockdowns and empty store shelves only served to heighten popular sentiment that the “old normal” is gone, he said.

“When the pandemic struck, we started seeing all this panic buying,” Maddox said. “What’s really increased is the number of people that contact me. These are really personal emails. They’re not crazy extremists. These are single moms, elderly people, disabled people, regular working people. They’re realizing that things are changing. They can just feel things are changing rapidly,” he said.

“The riots [of 2020] were bad. The election was bad. Now what’s happening is the whole world is starting to change.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Marti’s Corner – 25

Marti’s Corner – 25

Marti's Corner at City PreppingHi Everyone,

NOTES:

* Last year I posted about a remedy for bites: mosquito bites, bee stings, ant bites, tick bites. It uses charcoal to “draw out” the poison. I kept it in the refrigerator and used it all last year. I finally threw it away a few weeks ago. And wouldn’t you know it, I got a half dozen bites just last week and have suffered this whole time. Ugh. My granddaughter who is staying with us got a huge bite yesterday and I decided it was time to make more.

Bite Remedy: Psyllium Husk Powder 1 part psyllium, 3 parts charcoal, and just enough water to make a soft jelly. Roll it out or press it between two sheets of plastic wrap. Keep it in the fridge. When you need some, just cut off a little square with the scissors, and cover it with a bandaid. The charcoal draws out the poison, the coolness calms the itch.

* As you rotate your food, eventually you will probably have to throw something away. It’s okay. Think of it as insurance. You “re-buy” insurance every month even though you don’t get to use it. So, you throw something away. Buy more and try to get it rotated this time.

Along those lines, I found this great article about what to do with rancid oil. I’ve copied the text and have included it below.

LONG TERM FOCUS: Onions

I just don’t buy fresh onions anymore. I exclusively use dehydrated onions. You can buy dehydrated onions at the grocery store and try them out. This jar has onions I purchased from the Church of Jesus Christ store. Anyone is welcome to purchase from that site, but you have to buy food in cases, which is 6 #10 cans at a time, which is A LOT of onions.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Prepper’s Free PDF Library

Prepper’s Free PDF Library

“Knowledge is the key to survival. The real beauty of that is that it doesn’t weigh anything.” – Ray Mears.

Knowledge is one of the essential tools in the prepper’s inventory.  Having the latest and greatest equipment and gear won’t save you if you lack the proper knowledge of using them.  In this post, we will feature FREE PDF books and guides available for you to read in their entirety online.  I’ll add to it periodically because there’s so much information out there that can be incredibly useful to our community.  I suggest that you use a small thumb drive or even a micro SD card and download these sources and others you come across to build an electronic prepping library that you can access offline.

If you have any additional resources I didn’t cover below, feel free to reach out to me on my contact page and send me the links to PDFs you believe would benefit the community.  Check back periodically for future additions.

I also added a whole section at the bottom of this page with massive amounts of PDFs I found on other websites.  The more I have researched this topic, the more I have realized there’s, well, nearly an infinite amount of free survival PDFs you can find online.

Table of contents


Emergency Preparedness – Quick Guides & Checklists

Emergency Preparedness & Survival Manuals

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Isn’t the US Preparing for EMP War Like the Rest of the World?

Why Isn’t the US Preparing for EMP War Like the Rest of the World?

You’re likely already familiar with the 2009 EMP Commission Report. It was this report that raised the issue of EMP-preparedness for the American public. It’s notorious stating that just one year after an EMP attack, 90% of the American population would be dead, caused alarm throughout multiple sectors of society.

Books began to be written on the subject. Sales of Tedd Koppel’s Lights Out, Forstchen’s One Second After, and Crawford’s Lights Out quickly reached blockbuster levels. And while I believe that these books (and that report) brought the issue of an electromagnetic pulse to light for Americans, I don’t believe it showed Americans just how real of a threat it is.

To truly understand just how very real of a risk this is, I believe all we have to do is look at the battle plans of some of the nations that hate America most.

Let’s start with Russia

**Non-Contact Warfare was the name of Russian General Vladimir Slipchenko’s military textbook. Within this text, he explains how EMPs are the greatest revolution in military affairs in history. According to Slipchenko, the possession of an EMP renders an enemy’s armies, navies, and air forces completely obsolete, and it’s hard to argue with him there.

If you can’t get your missile defense systems online, if your tanks won’t run, if your planes have all just fallen out of the sky, you’re kind of screwed, aren’t you?

The flagship journal of the Russian General Staff, Military Thought, further echoes this concept. An article within the journal titled “Weak Points of the US Concept of Network-Centric Warfare” specifically points out the use of an EMP as a possible means of defeating the US.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Marti’s Corner – 23

Marti’s Corner – 23

Marti's Corner at City PreppingHi Everyone,

NOTES:

* I tried to post a video last week that was taken down because the person who created it was just besieged with people wanting to share it! Now, she has created a YouTube video. It is almost 45 minutes long. At the 7:53 mark, she begins to present her data. It is well worth the viewing. If you are on the fence, or not concerned, you will be after watching her video. Famine is coming.  Helena Kleinlein – Feast or Famine? The Coming Food Shortages.

* Garden update – My cucumbers are producing like crazy. I have too many tomatoes to eat, but not really enough to can. I think there are 12 ripening on my counter as I type this. Some kind of fungus has attacked all my potato plants and they are simply dying off. I’ve tried spraying with fungicide, and with hydrogen peroxide, and several other things. No go. Leaves keep turning yellow with brown spots. Ugh. I got little green worms in the lettuce and had to thin that out. (Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew to the rescue) I left the shade off the lettuce and it just about wilted to death. Plants do NOT like this extreme heat (106˚ the other day). Getting them in the ground early (February) has been a game-changer. Except for the potatoes, everything has produced some food already. Everything is covered with a shade cloth, and my sweet husband even took a fan out to the garden yesterday to cool off the plants. But, but, but!!! When you cut open that first ripe tomato, or fry up that first squash or eat that first crisp cucumber……THAT’S why I do it. Store-bought food cannot compare in deliciousness!

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Eight Pre-Hurricane Season Preparations You Need To Make

This past weekend Texas experienced its first tropical weather event for the 2021 season, and the season doesn’t officially begin until June 1st. Each year the tropics have been becoming active earlier than expected, and at this time they are unofficially starting the season in mid-May. Now is the time for the coastal United States to start preparing for what will inevitably be another active hurricane season.

2021 has proven that we need to be prepared for anything. The CDC recommends that each family have enough food and water on hand for a disaster that will last up to three days. Personally, I think two weeks of food and water on hand is a better goal especially since it could be weeks before the power infrastructure is fully operational. The following 8 items are what I personally recommend completing before the start of hurricane season.

1. Food

The best foods to have on hand during a hurricane are non-perishable food items that can serve many purposes. We recommend these 25 foods for your emergency food pantry. Be sure to include multiple can openers that do not require electricity to use.

If you have family members who have special needs, be sure to accommodate for those needs. For example, my daughter has epilepsy and is on a ketogenic diet. She must have plenty of fats, protein, and green vegetables. Meanwhile, my son is autistic and gluten sensitive, and he needs to stay away from gluten-rich foods, so pastas, cereals, crackers, and some of the canned soups will not work for him. As well, make preparations ahead of time for those that are dependent on medical equipment. Oftentimes, those who are dependent on medical equipment to always be powered can feel the most vulnerable in the aftermath of an emergency or when the electrical grid is unpredictable…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Don’t Lose What You Store: 6 Tips To Protect Your Prepper Pantry

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it is difficult to use all the food I have stored. This year I have been placing a lot of emphasis on organizing my food storage and acquiring more food because I am concerned with the economy. When you have food stashed literally all over your house, it is sometimes hard to remember what you have and what you still need to purchase.

Tip 1: Record What You Have

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to know what you have and where it is located. I have built a simple spreadsheet that lets me know how many canned items I have in the pantry, when they expire, where the items are located, and what I need to restock. My long-term storage is under a different tab, but it contains the same information. Certain items I run out of faster than others, i.e., chicken stock, canned tomatoes, green chilis, and having a spreadsheet helps me to replenish. I tend to prefer to cook with frozen foods, so the green beans, corn, and carrots end up expiring around the same time.

Tip 2: Don’t Be Afraid to Move Long-term Storage Items to Short-term Storage

A few years ago, I stocked up heavily on long-term storage items, such as beans, rice, pasta, flour, and oats. For a couple of years, I didn’t use them. I wanted to keep them untouched in case of a serious emergency. Last year I realized that was silly. Because I track what I have, I can rotate some long-term storage items into the short-term, and this has saved my family grocery money because I kept buying pasta, rice, and beans…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Don’t Lose What You Store: 6 Tips To Protect Your Prepper Pantry

Don’t Lose What You Store: 6 Tips To Protect Your Prepper Pantry

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it is difficult to use all the food I have stored. This year I have been placing a lot of emphasis on organizing my food storage and acquiring more food because I am concerned with the economy. When you have food stashed literally all over your house, it is sometimes hard to remember what you have and what you still need to purchase.

Tip 1: Record What You Have

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to know what you have and where it is located. I have built a simple spreadsheet that lets me know how many canned items I have in the pantry, when they expire, where the items are located, and what I need to restock. My long-term storage is under a different tab, but it contains the same information. Certain items I run out of faster than others, i.e., chicken stock, canned tomatoes, green chilis, and having a spreadsheet helps me to replenish. I tend to prefer to cook with frozen foods, so the green beans, corn, and carrots end up expiring around the same time.

Tip 2: Don’t Be Afraid to Move Long-term Storage Items to Short-term Storage

A few years ago, I stocked up heavily on long-term storage items, such as beans, rice, pasta, flour, and oats. For a couple of years, I didn’t use them. I wanted to keep them untouched in case of a serious emergency. Last year I realized that was silly. Because I track what I have, I can rotate some long-term storage items into the short-term, and this has saved my family grocery money because I kept buying pasta, rice, and beans…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How to build family bug out bags – 2021

How to build family bug out bags – 2021

If an event forced you and your family out of your home in a matter of minutes, would you have prepared enough in advance to have the right items to ensure you, your family, and your pets would be okay if you were restricted to the disaster zone and help was days away?

If I told you that you and your family had to leave your home in five minutes from right now and survive with no help for seventy-two hours, could you do it?  In this article, I’ll walk you through the critical items you’d want to have ready to ensure your and your family’s safety.

It is a bit challenging doing articles on these bags as everyone has different needs and you’ll face different challenges based on where you live.  Also, these bags are part of a bigger evacuation system I’ve built I’ll detail in a future video, but the primary goal of these bags is simply to keep you alive for 72 hours if you had to evacuate your home quickly.

Below are the items based on the category you need to consider.  Also, here’s a quick link to each section:

Adults

Backpack

When it comes to backpacks, the options are seemingly endless.  I have personally swapped out my backpack for the Vanquest IBEX 35 and for my wife, I set her up with the smaller Vanquest IBEX 26.  The goal is to keep the weight under 15% of your body weight and no more than 20%.

Shelter

Water

Light

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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