Whats you favorite survival food?

Beans/Rice/Cheese or Lentils/Barley

Oh... and chocolate...

Originally posted by saltdog
If you take just add water bread mixes, rice, chicken or beef seasonings, a bag of dry beans, and a seasoning kit from wally world..its got 6-8 spices...you can actually make your own noodles and or bread and have a great stew, all you need is some squirel, rabbit, pheasant, turtle, frog, deer or even raccoon, ground hog, possum, and muskrat...any of them, properly cleaned and cooked, are great tasty meals out in the woods.

You can do stews, roast them, fry them...The trick is to clean them good and slow cook them...while slowly turning them on a spit. Damn, my mouth is watering as I type

Tabasco is always a good thing to have too.

You guys made me so hungry I had to fire up the BBQ. It was that or order a ton of heatermeals.

I heard also that you should soak the meat in salt overnight if you can. And if its old, then boil it first, then roast it.

But you know, one thing haunts me. Are you going to be able to find a ground hog every day? Or a raccoon every day?
If you can get a deer, I guess you will be good for a long time, but if all you have is small game, you are going to be working full time trying to fill your belly.
Thats why I am glad I live on the west coast. As long as the sea doesn't become radioactive I will be able to eat from the sea as well.

I was in Virginia for awhile this year...ground hogs are everywhere.
Every state that i have ever been to, has some type of small game, that is very easy to get, and there is a crap load of them around.
If i was in a SHTF, every animal would be fair game...BTW, skunk is good too, just don't cut or break the sack open and your golden.

Originally posted by LadySkadi
Beans/Rice/Cheese or Lentils/Barley

Oh... and chocolate...

Beans/rice/Cheese or Lentils/Barley? Thats your favorite? You are easy to please.

Choclate bars are an essential for survival I think.

I am thinking powdered soup base is something important. I bought two kinds, big bags, potato and leek and beef and barley. They are ok, I am eating them now, so I will restock, but I wish they had just good old dried vegetable soup mix in bulk where I shop. I need to find another better supply grocery store for this type of thing.
I look at my supplies now, my horde of goods for emmergencies and it has dried beans, rice, and all of those types of things, and I eat it some times, to check it out, and frankly it is not very good. The rice ok, the rice is amazing. This rice is the best in the world...Gia Basmati Rice 8 lbs. per bag

I have eaten lots of rice, but never knew there was such a difference in a quality rice.

Originally posted by saltdog
I was in Virginia for awhile this year...ground hogs are everywhere.
Every state that i have ever been to, has some type of small game, that is very easy to get, and there is a crap load of them around.
If i was in a SHTF, every animal would be fair game...BTW, skunk is good too, just don't cut or break the sack open and your golden.

Skunk? Good lord. Even just going near them is too much for me. I grew up in the country, so the dogs were always into either the porcupines or the skunks. Can after can of tomato juice to wash off the dog.

Porcupine quills though thats really nasty. Always in the dogs snout. And the poor dog is almost mad with them. And you are trying to hold the dog still, and its ready to bite you, and now you have to grab the quills with pliers and pull them out. Or pay a hefty vet bill. So you have to wedge the dogs head in a door, or find some way to really hold it like chaining it to tree. Its brutal. But what can you do.

But groundhogs, on the prairies, thats for sure. Lots of them there. Still, consider if the SHTF and people flee to the countryside, there will be lots of competition for those ground hogs.
Right here in the city of Victoria where I live we have lots of deer, and raccoons and now someone has released something like a chinchilla, and they are everywhere too whatever they are. They are like raccoons without tails.
And some are as big as a dog. But they live in the city just like raccoons.

reply to post by Rocketman7


Could they be Marmots....

Originally posted by Destinyone
reply to post by Rocketman7

 

Could they be Marmots....

I don't think so because I think marmots are small.
These look as big as a raccoon, but not striped, they are brown like a marmot, but big, and with a funny snout.
And a tail like a bear if any at all. Small.

And I just did a search to see what exotic creatures have been seen in Victoria and no one is talking about them. They are nocturnal, and since I drive deliveries at night, I see all the raccoons and these other creatures.
But they have thick brown fur. So I assume they might be something from some other country, maybe bought in a pet store, and now they have bred in the city.

They are shy of people and so I only see them in the headlights up a distance crosing the road. But big, some of them 60 lbs maybe. And they walk with their head down, and a big rump area up. For some reason, they look weird enough to be from Australia. They look really foreign.
They look kindof like a wombat
Similar but they seem to have a bit of a funny protruding snout. Like a handle from an old hand drill. You know like roundish thick in the middle. Really strange.

You know what else is really good to eat on the sea shore?

Limpets Usually people do not think to eat them, and they are all over the rocks.

But recently, Campbells has not had a lot of luck making a decent clam chowder, because older clams are tough, and they can't seem to keep the sand out of the soup, so people stopped buying it as often, and also the coastal areas close the cities are polluted, so the clams can even smell a bit like septic waste.

So they started making a different kind of soup, and just called it chunky seafood soup.

And in that soup mostly it is limpets. Which are like clam meat, but not chewy. They taste the same as clams.

But in Japan, where they eat anything that squiggles or moves, close to the shore, they probably eat them there but not here because they are small and you have to gather a lot of them to make a meal.
But in soup, like a clam chowder its an easy meal. And so at low tide, you could easily collect enough to make soup.
Seafood chowder


I think there is a Campbells Chunky Seafood Chowder conspiracy because they don't admit they make it at all on their website.
I think they don't want people to know they make it out of limpets, or everyone will head to the seashore and harvest limpets, and then thats one less ingredient they will have to make any kind of seafood soup.

reply to post by Rocketman7


Its good stuff, filling without being too heavy and already set to go. No doubt you have to put some time in during deer season or chasing the bird dog around but if you make up large batches at the same time it'll be ready to go when you want it. I've spent enough nights sitting in the woods wet and only having granola or canned kippers or oysters to go out now without something hot and tasty being in my pack.

I always take a bag of rice along with me in case I come across some fresh oyster mushrooms or morels, its cheap and doesn't take up much space.

Originally posted by QuestionsEverything
reply to post by Rocketman7

 

Its good stuff, filling without being too heavy and already set to go. No doubt you have to put some time in during deer season or chasing the bird dog around but if you make up large batches at the same time it'll be ready to go when you want it. I've spent enough nights sitting in the woods wet and only having granola or canned kippers or oysters to go out now without something hot and tasty being in my pack.

I always take a bag of rice along with me in case I come across some fresh oyster mushrooms or morels, its cheap and doesn't take up much space.

Well right now, for the last 6 or 8 months, I have been just putting together my B.O.B. in ernest.
Prior to that I just had a few things in case of emmergency.

So now I have this hobby of making a B.O.B. and so I have everything including the kitchen sink pretty much,

So now, I have to get organized, and make it into two plans. One small one that I can carry in a small backpack, and another plan for if I can throw a big gunny sack into a car or truck.

SO I am just getting set over the next few months to do some camping weekends, and then I will learn the hard way, how to make things lighter. After I carry things up a few mountains and hills.

Here where I want to hike, on high ground, there is not a whole lot of things you can get out of the forest. Closer to the ocean there is, but not up high. I want to get up high and test my Ham radio gear etc. See what kind of range I can get that sort of thing. If I hike by a lake, then there will be trout. So thats at least something.

I might try smoking trout, to see how that works.

reply to post by Rocketman7


What part of the country are you, sounds like survivalists boot camp, baptism by cold and wet. You prefer to take a tent or build a shelter? A good investment would be a space blanket as it will keep you warm and dry and cuts down on heat loss through the dirt. Ramen noodles are a tasty extra, especially if your able come across a tree rat or rabbit to fill it in alot. You ever do much foraging for mushrooms, tubers, wild onion and leeks. Stream trout make a excellent meal, crayfish like to cohabitate the same types of water as trout so you can get a little variety. Frog legs are pretty easy to come by here, not sure about where your at.

Well, after the dust settles from the nuclear fallout, I think everyone's favourite survival food will be Twinkies... for lack of choice of anything else sustaining its "edibleness".

After that, it'll be cockroaches.

And when all that runs out... I believe Keith Richards will be next on the menu list.

Originally posted by QuestionsEverything
reply to post by Rocketman7

 

What part of the country are you, sounds like survivalists boot camp, baptism by cold and wet. You prefer to take a tent or build a shelter? A good investment would be a space blanket as it will keep you warm and dry and cuts down on heat loss through the dirt. Ramen noodles are a tasty extra, especially if your able come across a tree rat or rabbit to fill it in alot. You ever do much foraging for mushrooms, tubers, wild onion and leeks. Stream trout make a excellent meal, crayfish like to cohabitate the same types of water as trout so you can get a little variety. Frog legs are pretty easy to come by here, not sure about where your at.

This is the area I am thinking of Spectacle Lake

Let me see what they say about Spectacle Lake park...
Day use only.
But Goldstream Park has winter camping for 11 bucks a night. Maybe 22 in summer. With vehicle.

And thats the problem. Finding a place to park your vehicle, when you go wandering off into the bush.
You don't want to come back and find the windows smashed in the car.

There are lots of places in the hills totally off the beaten track where I used to go, but I had a 4 wheel drive then.
Now I just have a Plymouth Voyager.

Even when I had an old pickup truck I used to go back in the hills to go fishing and one time the starter quit in the middle of nowhere. It took me 2 hours, to get the thing out, disassemble it, use a tin foil gum wrapper, to fix the solenoid, and get it started.
At this point I don't think I want to drive into the bush on the logging roads with the Voyager. Thats just asking for trouble. And so starting on Feb 23rd, I have 3 day weekends. So in 3 days, you can't go far anyway.

But Spectacle lake is on top of a little mountain. The Malahat.

And so from there, you can see a long way, and so also, your ham radio or any radio equipment should work for a long ways, and so that is primarily what I want to test. Short wave radio, ham radio, scanner, and normal AM/FM and whatever signals I can pick up.

And do some fishing. And since I have done all sorts of wilderness camping in the past, the kind of food I want to test, is Mountain House dried dinners, maybe heatermeals, and smoking some trout.
There is cutthroat trout and rainbow trout in Spectacle Lake. I also want to test my candle lantern, and various other goodies, so I will bring my 2 man tent and sleeping bag etc.
Spectacle Lake

Elevation 317 meters, so about 1,000 feet. The Malahat mountain summit is 352 meters, 1200 feet.

Not much of a mountain, but its only a 5 minute drive to the ocean. So its steep enough.
The Malahat

So I have the choice of maybe 3 provincial campgrounds in that area. And if I can find a safe place to park, I will just hike into the woods, BUT, if I want to be by a lake, they have turned all the lakes into Provincial Parks.
Ones that are close to Victoria that is. I don't want to spend my 3 days off driving.
It doesn't matter because if TSHTF, I want to be outside the city, but no so far that I can't go back for supplies.
And that might include walking there and back.

So this area around this lake is the watershed where the city gets its drinking water. Sooke Lake so anything around there is off limits to humans since it is the watershed for the drinking water of the city. I've hiked in there but you are not supposed to.
So right at this point, I am thinking just a camping spot by the lake, if only Spectacle Lake allowed camping.
I could go covert, but then where do I park. I could get towed or the car could get trashed.
So I may camp in Goldstream, drive to Spectacle or something like that.
That sucks though since you want a wilderness experience. There are places like that, just not there at the top of that mountain, and thats where I want to be, so I can test my radio equipment. So, I will have to go exploring.
And see what I can find up there. A place to hide the car, and hike in maybe.

So I have already got 7 Mountain House freeze dried meals to test when I go camping...

These ones here

and I want to buy a case of Heatermeals, a 12 pack, if I can find a place that sells them, on-line and will deliver to Canada.
So far I haven't had any luck with that but I am going to keep trying.

Sams Club won't deliver to Canada
I want something like this

And then I will smoke some trout that I catch. And test my equipment. And have fun.
Fishing, camping, and playing with radio equipment is fun. And at the same time it helps me formalize a plan to get outta Dodge if TSHTF.

I guess I am going to rethink the Heatermeals plan.

20 bucks per meal? Cabellas

Oh that's gonna happen.

Well so much for that. For 20 bucks, I could pack a porterhouse steak, a lobster tail, some brocolli and some powdered mashed potatoes.

I was thinking I could just order 12 meal kits from Sams for 64 bucks, but I see Heatermeals are a special product made by Americans, FOR Americans, and we can't have any. I think even at Cabellas, after you spend 20 bucks, you have to pick it up at a store.

Want to see what we get in Canada?

MRE's in a plain generic box.

Don't those look apetizing.

So then, I guess I will just have to create my own meal packs, and use my cans of Magic Heat thats by the case there but I buy them individually locally for about 3 bucks a can, and you can cook for 8 hours with one can.
Even in a tent.
So, I will put together my own meals. Dried egg mix, dried mashed potatoes, whatever I can think of that looks good and fits the bill.

Well I guess I have to can my own meat because otherwise all you will ever get here in Canada, is cheap crap.

Chopped and formed, entrails disguised as meat. You cannot get a canned roast beef for instance like you can get a Libby's canned roast beef in America.

Here we get cheap corned beef from South America, tuna, flaked chicken (old ones that died of old age after laying a million eggs) and ham, ham, and more ham, but not real ham, real entrails dressed up as ham.

typical shopping isle selection in Canada from one of the largest most expensive grocers in town.
Save-on-foods

At least their website shows their stock. Walmart doesn't even do that, Safeway doesn't, no one else does here.

There should be groceries that allow you a virtual walk down the aisles. Like google street view, right into a grocery store, and look at the shelves. Google aisle view. THATS what we need.

Well I guess I might as well practice canning my own food, since WTSHTF thats what we will all be doing.
A case of canning jars will be worth their weight in gold then.

Better tasting, better for you, and at least you know what went into it, and you can make it the way you like it.

Why spend 20 bucks, for a heatermeal, thats insane, when you can make 5 canned gourmet meals for 20 bucks.
Well that should be fun anyways, and then I will take them camping instead of heatermeals.
Heat them with the cans of magic heat. Heat and serve.

reply to post by Rocketman7


You get three meals for $20 from Cabelas, but it's still not that great of a deal. However, it is a better deal than your $10 per meal MREs in the plain box.

Maybe I should start a black market operation to sell Heatermeals and PRID to Canadians.

Originally posted by Rocketman7

I have heard a lot of people say they bring naan bread when they go on hiking trips. Maybe it lasts a long time I don't know.
They say that rye bread, can keep for up to a month.
But I guess you need to get the dark rye. Maybe the German rye.

Naan and pita are basically the same animal unless the naan is seasoned. Looking for the pre-oiled ones will give a little extra calories, plus the stay moist.

Are you talking about this kind of German bread?


I don't know the shelf life of that stuff. Some brands do come in their own plastic box. I can't find a picture.

That stuff is hearty, for sure, but I think you'll spend your down-time using the toilet.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Dinty Moore Beef Stew. No question for me. A good can of that can taste like a feast fit for a king on an extended camping period in the woods. mmm hmmm..

Oh, yeah! Back in 1966, some members of my scout troop went to Philmont and earned [EARNED!] our fifty-mile patch, hiking thru the mountains of northern New Mexico in the rainy season. After several days of dehydrated food, we got a dinner of Dinty Moore Beef Stew, and that meal still stands out as one of the most memorable meals of my life, and I'm now 62, not 16. Yum!

However, the very best survival food is millet, aka bird seed. Boiled millet is bland, no, very bland, but it is one of the very few foods that a human can live on indefinitely.

Originally posted by WickettheRabbit
reply to post by Rocketman7

 

You get three meals for $20 from Cabelas, but it's still not that great of a deal. However, it is a better deal than your $10 per meal MREs in the plain box.

Maybe I should start a black market operation to sell Heatermeals and PRID to Canadians.

I was thinking of getting into the vending business. Just put a vending machine or a few of them on every campus.

In fact I can think of lots of places to put them.

I think heatermeals are a great idea. So you get 3 for 20 bucks well thats not bad. I would have to pay for shipping if I bought some. I wanted the heatermeals3 though, that came with the snacks. I was looking for the whole heatermeal experience. The squeeze peanut butter chocolate tube, the soy nuts, the whole nine yards.
I better put on the BBQ before I get my credit card out..