0 5 Easy Tips for starting an effective food storage

If you needed to live off of the items in your home for an undetermined amount of time, would you be ready?  No matter where you live, your home is susceptible to natural disasters and emergency situations. Creating an effective food storage is important for everyone, no matter their household size or living situation. Because starting your food storage may be a bit overwhelming at first, we’re here to help you take care of this important detail in emergency preparation. Check out these five easy tips then start building your food storage today!

1.       Take your time :

While it may feel like you should be getting this done ASAP, it’s important that you take your time to get it right. Add a few items to your supply each week until you have three months of food stored away for you and your family. It takes time to stock up on a whole year’s supply of food. Learn to use your freezer and make extra portions of your favorite foods to bag and freeze them.

2.       Planning:

You don’t have to go broke buying supplies for your food storage. Start with a food storage plan and add a little at a time. Use a checklist to ensure that you’ve purchased foods that you will actually eat. This will help you stick to a budget as you add to your food storage over time.

3.       Find Storage space:

One of the major obstacles you will encounter is finding enough space for your emergency preparedness supplies. Preparing space in advance will help you find areas for storage. Don’t panic if you have a restricted amount of space to work with. It’s fun to get creative when looking for storage space ideas. The most common places that are overlooked are under beds, in closets, under dressers, under desks, and under or behind sofas. You can also go through your household items and toss duplicate or seldom-used items.

4.       Create a Rotation:

Occasionally, you will have to go through your emergency food supply to replace older items. You will want to do this once a year or even every two years. It is important to restock what you remove. Rotating your long term food storage is an awesome way to introduce your family to the flavors of your emergency supplies while keeping it refreshed.

5.       Keep track of your items:

Find a simple system for tracking what you have as well as what you need. Without a food storage inventory, you could end up with too much or too little of food.

Guest post by: Augason Farms 

                                                                 

About Augason Farms:

For more than 40 years, Augason Farms has provided quality a la carte and bulk food storage items to home and business owners throughout the U.S. Our high quality kits and a-la-carte items provide our customers with easy and affordable solutions for starting an emergency food storage supply.

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker 

Detail: 5 Easy Tips for starting an effective food storage

0 Raising Poultry - Using Egg Shells as a Feed Supplement

While there are feed supplements that can be readily purchased from your local feed store, they can increase the cost of raising your chickens. One of the items often lacking in a chicken’s diet is calcium and this can be easily fixed by feeding your chickens crushed egg shells. It is simple to do and can save you a few dollars. It will also solve the problem of eggs with weak shells that break or damage easily.

The first thing you will need to do is thoroughly rinse your egg shells after they've been cracked to remove any remnants of the egg. Once they've been rinsed, allow them to dry in a dish or bowl. Once dried, you can crush them by hand into small pieces and mix in with their grain. This will provide your chickens with the calcium they need to give your eggs strong shells.

Many times people worry about their chickens becoming egg eaters. If your chickens are getting the necessary calcium, this should not be a problem. In fact, a lack of calcium in their diet can actually create this problem with your chickens. Like any animal, they will seek out a source of the nutrients they require.

Chickens also have a natural defense mechanism when it comes to their eggs. They will instinctively protect their eggs from possible predators by eating cracked or damaged eggs in the nest. Cracked or damaged eggs are easily honed in on by predators and could result in the loss of all the eggs in the nest. To avoid this problem, it is a good practice to pick your eggs at least twice a day. This way you will be able to remove any weak or damaged eggs as quickly as possible.

Got egg shells?   

                                                                                                             

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker                           

Detail: Raising Poultry - Using Egg Shells as a Feed Supplement

0 Riverwalker’s Book Review and Giveaway - The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms

Foraging for edible foods in the wild can be an important skill that everyone should learn in order to be more self-reliant. Unfortunately, many food items found in the wild can be deadly if you lack the proper knowledge about the items you are foraging. Wild mushrooms are one such item that require a good guide in order to determine if the mushrooms you find are safe to eat.

In The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms by Pelle Holmberg and Hans Marklund, the authors have created a condensed version of their larger book on foraging for mushrooms. This smaller and portable version contains a guide to many of the more common mushrooms found in the wild. It includes excellent pictures of the various types of edible mushrooms that are generally found in the wild. Cutaway views of the mushrooms are also included in order to help you further properly identify your wild mushrooms.

Amazingly, this is one pocket guide that actually fits in your pocket, even if it is a little tight. This makes it a lot easier to keep handy when you are out foraging for edible mushrooms. The guide also offers some helpful tips on cleaning and cooking your mushrooms properly. There is also a small reference section for more extensive information on mushrooms in the wild along with a handy index section for quick reference.

The only drawback of this guide is there isn't very extensive information on where the different edible mushrooms can be found. The guide does reference basic regions and areas where edible mushrooms are found but you may need a larger and more detailed guide for specific varieties of edible mushrooms in your area. This guide does include a very extensive section on beginner mushrooms that can help to get you started in the proper foraging of edible wild mushrooms.

Pockets guides are not meant to be a definite source and while not all inclusive, this is an excellent pocket guide for both beginners and experienced foragers to use when hunting edible wild mushrooms.

The Giveaway

A lucky reader will also win a free copy of The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms direct from the publisher. Just leave a comment about your experience (or lack of) in foraging for mushrooms or other edible food items in the wild. If commenting anonymously,  please leave an identifier in your comment. A winner will be chosen at random from the comments left on this post. The winner will be announced in a separate post on July 31st.

Got pocket guide for wild mushrooms?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Detail: Riverwalker’s Book Review and Giveaway - The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms

0 Riverwalker's Pics - Mrs. RW's Rooster

Rooster

He's also a good alarm clock.

Got chickens?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Detail: Riverwalker's Pics - Mrs. RW's Rooster