At 01:14 PM 4/22/2008, Ken Pearce wrote: >Along the same lines as the original question but on a slight tangent: > >What kinds of food can one store and in what manner for "emergency" >or "survival" food? I know a few 20 pound bags of rice and/or beans >is a good start, but what else can potentially last for years in the >environment of a boat? I've always considered my boat as a small >"escape capsule" for the latenight a.m. radio advertised pending >gloom and doom, so I want to at least have some supplies onboard in >the event that I might want to get away for an extended period. A >water maker is on my list for summer projects, as well as fishing gear. > >Thanks in advance, > >Ken Pearce >Bellingham, WA >s/v Shantih, Baba-30
From the experience of living aboard / cruising for 2 1/2 years last go round and laying in a year's supply of food for two at a time. We spent a LOT of time far away from any civilization. Yes, rice and various dried beans. Also flour and corn meal. Don't leave them in the bag, though. We used one-gallon Rubber Maid containers. We tried leaving in the bag and found that 1 - The bags really aren't airtight and 2 - The constant movement will cause the contents to wear through the bag. A locker full of loose rice is not fun! Very important - put one or two bay leaves in each. Otherwise you will eventually find creepy/crawlies living there! Lots of canned stuff. It's amazing what's available in cans. The "Dollar" type stores have some of the unusual stuff. BTW, save $$$ and get house brand stuff. It's the same as name brand in 98% of the cases. A friend who owned a canning company was telling me they'd get an order from Jolly Green Giant for say X1,000 cans of corn, then one from Hytop (or whatever store/generic brand) for X1,000, then from Del Monte, etc. The only difference was they'd stick however many labels in the machine. The reason for the 98% above is he did say there are some cheap brands that wanted only the lower quality stuff culled out. He didn't fool with them. Anyway, we almost never had a problem with cans rusting or labels coming off. We stored them in "dry" places, usually in those rubber/plastic storage containers used as deep trays. We found that the bottoms will rust if stored on fiberglass or wood. The bottoms will rust even in the containers, but it seems to take much longer. The drill was to replenish the pantry from the bottom stack of cans. Still a good idea to mark the tops with a felt tip for that "almost never" case. Canned goods do have expiration dates. Check at the store so you won't get old stuff. Now Cathy and I constantly "discuss" this. I've always gone with "If the can is intact and not bloated, makes a whoosh when opened and smells like it should, it's okay", whereas she believes the expiration date should be the 11th commandment. She won the argument... errr... discussion when we first got married by hauling off a couple hundred bucks worth of canned goods to the dumpster when I was gone. So now I go with the expiration date. Okay any macho men here - I AM the CAPTAIN of the vessel and my word is LAW. However, Cathy is the Admiral...... :-) :-) A tip. If you like potatoes and get the canned whole ones, drain and rinse well, then rub a little butter, margarine or cooking oil. Otherwise they taste HORRIBLE! At least to us. Get some of those big containers of various spices and herbs and stuff. Makes that food-from-a-can pretty good! Dehydrated onions and sweet peppers can also be found on the spice shelf at the store. Soak 'um in cold water for a bit and they're not too bad. I've heard that one can keep margarine un refrigerated, but never tried it (we have a fridge). I do know one can keep Crisco in the can practically forever and that it is exactly the same as margarine minus the yellow coloring. We did use Crisco for cooking oil and for margarine when we ran out of what the fridge could hold. Eggs in the fridge will last about 6 months if you turn them twice a week. Get those red plastic egg containers from the camping section. I've heard that fresh, never refrigerated eggs will last a couple months un refrigerated if turned twice a week. Rick Morel S/V Valkyrie http://www.morelr.com/valkyrie ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The word 'experienced' often refers to someone who has gotten away with doing the wrong thing more frequently than you have. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
