Survival Foods
Weston A. Price
Elgin, Illinois
Steve Trisko
September 2008
Things to think about….
Survival Foods
Agenda
• Threats and scenarios
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Financial and institutional calamities
Natural disasters
Nuclear accident/attacks, riots, civil disorder
Product shortages
• Preparations
 Your level of risk tolerance
 Investment and time
 Sources of information and supplies
• Survival Thinking
 What does it mean?
 What must you be prepared to do?
 How do you get ready?
• Survival Foods
 On-hand
 Packaged
 Foraging 101
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Threats and Scenarios
• Financial and institutional calamities
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Stock market crash
Bank, credit union, stock market & 401k account failures
ATMs are dead
POS registers at stores and gas stations aren’t working
Communications networks down
• Can’t get your money!
• What’s in your wallet?
• How long will it last?
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Threats and Scenarios
• Natural Disasters
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Tornadoes earthquake, flood
Fire, volcanoes
Extreme snow and ice
Earth changes and pole shift
Extended power outage, no natural gas, no water, no
electricity
• Man-made disasters
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Nuclear accident/attacks, riots, war
Chemical spill, gas release
Biological warfare
Marshall Law declared
• Your home, neighborhood, or town is crippled
• What will you do?
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Threats and Scenarios
Earth Changes - The Worst Case Scenario
• Mother Earth is Cleansing Herself
 American Indian and other cultures’
beliefs and prophesies
• Pole Shift is Beginning - TEWAWKI
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3,500 year cycle
Sudden, violent changes
Dry lands go underwater
Underwater lands rise up
Lost cities reappear
Think of any recent examples?
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Threats and Scenarios
Earth Changes - The Worst Case Scenario
• Telltale Signs
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More frequent earthquakes
Red/Pink circles around the sun
Pink and other color clouds
Sun/moon not in the right places
Constellations out of place
Excessive winds, rains, tornadoes, hurricanes
Hotter/colder or wetter/dryer than usual
Recurring “100 year” and “500 year” floods
Aircraft crashes, bride collapses, and cranes’ tipping over
Animals behaving strangely
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Threats and Scenarios
• Riots and civil disobedience
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Roaming looters looking for food, water, $, etc.
Roads blocked to stores, gas stations, etc.
May not be able to go anyplace
May be robbed at home or on the road
• How long can you ‘lay low’?
• Can you defend yourself and family?
• Will you share what you have instead?
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Threats and Scenarios
• Product shortages
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Milk, bottled water, juices
Soaps, toothpastes, deodorants, etc.
Fresh produce
Canned and packaged ‘foods’
Frozen foods
First aid products, supplements, drugs
• Think about how fast the store shelves
went empty with the last big snowstorms
• What’s in your cupboard & refrigerator?
• How long will it last?
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You Will be at Bottom During Survival Mode
Few Comforts - Much Hardship
You will be here
Marlowe's Hierarchy of Needs
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Threats and Scenarios
The “Perfect Storm”
• Most likely there will be a combination of all scenarios
• Assess your level of tolerance for each threat
 Decide if you want to deal with it
 Figure out how
 Get ready
• Think it through now - while things are calm and normal
• It could happen tomorrow!
• Identify like-minded people
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Share the analysis and planning
Educate yourselves
Create domain expertise
Find and try stuff you’ll need
Establish group contingency plans and supplies
Etc.
• Getting ready will take time and money
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Survival Thinking
• When are you in survival mode?
 One day, three days, a week, two weeks?
 Longer?
• How long a period will you prepare for?
• Who is covered by your plan and supplies?
 Self? Family living with you?
 Other family members not living with you?
 Friends? Neighbors?
• Keep quiet about your disaster supplies
• If you believe in readiness you must get your families
to believe as well
 Otherwise you will be storing for their needs, too.
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Survival Thinking
Are you strong enough to survive? Do you want to?
 Can you stay healthy?
• You may have to eat a lot of ‘ordinary’ and GMO foods
• The internet may be gone
• Doctors’ offices and hospitals may be closed
• Drug stores may be closed
 Can you live without electricity? Gas? Water? Sunlight?
 Can you make the tough decisions about who does and does
not get food and water?
 Can you defend yourself, family, and property?
• Do you think you should?
• If you have or buy a firearm are you ready to use it?
• Do you know self defense?
 Can you travel without a car?
 Do you know first aid? Have the supplies?
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Survival Thinking
Will you have everything you need?
 What do you need?
• Build a checklist - many examples are available
• Compute energy, food, water, and other needs
• Your checklist is your shopping list
 How much will it cost?
• Shop garage sales for inexpensive, usable things
• Check websites and eBay for best deals
 How long will you allow yourself to get it?
• Don’t waste time - set a target date and go!
 Where will you keep it?
• Needs to be secure and quickly accessible
 It will be expensive!
• How will you feel if you are in survival mode but
didn’t buy what you could have?
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Survival Thinking
Will you be ready to get up and go?
What if you have to abandon your home on short notice?
Who and what will you take with?
Where will you go?
Will you meet others who will travel with you?
How many alternate routes will you have?
• Roads and bridges may be closed
• GPS systems may not be working
 Do have a big enough vehicle to take
what you’d like to?
• Can you go off-road if you have to?
• Can you sleep in your vehicle?
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Survival Preparation
Need Two Plans – For Your Time Frame
 Long Term - More Than 7 Days?
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Stationary - wait it out
At home or where your supplies are
Limited travel
Self-sufficient, low profile
Reliant upon and helping community and family
 Short Term - Up to 7 days?
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Mobile, forced to move out of your home
Hasty departure
Traveling to another location
Uncertain where you will be and for how long
May be stranded on the way
Probably be sharing the time with strangers
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Survival Preparation
 Too much to learn individually!
• Decide what you do best and what your skills are
• Focus on these and become “the” expert in your
community
• Build one or two additional skills – Special Forces
approach
• Figure out who knows the other areas
 Divide and conquer
• Build a responsibility matrix or organization
• Decide who is responsible for what
• Identify common supplies to be acquired and shared
• Determine the criteria to mobilize for a disaster
• Decide where you would meet
• Plan for non-standard communications
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Survival Preparation
 Typical Skill Areas
• Foods – on-hand, long shelf life, fresh
• Eating – disposable plates, utensils, wipes
• Energy – heat, cooking, light, batteries, recharging
• Health - first aid, medicines, supplements
• Water – on hand and purification processes
• Sanitation – human waste, personal hygiene
• Shelter – repair, demolition
• Transportation – fuel, bicycles, off-road vehicles, walking trails
• Communications – weather, short wave, two-way radios
• Spiritual support – individual and/or group
• Entertainment – books, games, low-tech pleasant distractions
• Defense – personal, home, and community
• Hunting and foraging – find it, clean it, eat it
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Survival Research and Study
 Most sources deal with people on the move or in
sudden, unfortunate circumstances
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Make shelter and heat
Find food, find your way ‘home’
Escape and evade, first aid, etc.
Typically military/outdoors flavor
Most have a limited section about foods
Hunting, trapping, cleaning, cooking game
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Survival Research and Study
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Many good survival books and resources available
Start at the library
Look on-line, many excellent articles available
Look for edible wild food, foraging, and preserving foods
You need reference information on-hand
We have three good foraging books with pictures
• Still can’t identify some berries and plants
• Most trees aren’t in the books
• Very slow learning curve!
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Survival Food
On-Hand and Fresh Foods
• On-Hand
 What’s in the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer
 Usually enough on-hand for a week or so
 Cold and frozen food will go bad in several days
• Grow fresh
 Hydroponic and regular gardening
 Sprouting
 Foraging
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Survival Food
Packaged Foods – Years of Shelf Life
• Regular Foods
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Dried, stored air-tight - ½ to 1
Boxed, no bag - ½ to 1
Sealed wax paper or cello bag - 1
Jars - 2+
Foil wrapped - 1 to 2
Metal cans - 1 to 3
• Specialty Foods
MRE Storage Life
 Long-life packaged - 2 to 5
 Military Ready to Eat (MRE) - 5+
 Freeze dried - 20+
Note: Vacuum Packing Regular Foods Will Extend Shelf Life
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Survival Food
Ordinary at Best
• Long-life packaged foods
 These are reasonably good, Kosher available
• MREs
 They’re awful but will keep you alive
 Soldiers eat them because they have no choice
 Very bad ingredients
• Freeze dried
 Many varieties of meats, veggies, fruits, grains available
 Need plenty of water to bring them back to life
• Almost no organic choices
 Bad ingredients in many long life foods – GMO?
 MSG ‘code words’, sugar, chemicals, bad oils, etc.
 Like typical supermarket foods
• Have plenty of digestive enzymes on hand!
• Grow/buy organic
 Preserve, dry, or can it for long life storage
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Survival Food
Grow Your Own
• Dried foods
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Make your own from good ingredients
Fruit & nut bars, beef/turkey jerky
Most fruits work well
Takes a long time unless a hydrator is used
Vacuum pack to make them last longer
• Hydroponic gardening
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Plants grow in a nutrient solution – water, fertilizer, no dirt
They need light to grow and green up
Water solution needs to be refreshed
Can be in a greenhouse or indoors
Humidity can be a challenge
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Survival Food
Grow Your Own
• Sprouting
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Seeds last for several years if kept dry
Many sprouts are needed to make a good size salad
Soak in water and drain, rinse each morning and evening
Expose to light for the last day or two to green up
Most varieties are ready in 3 - 4 four days
Typical batch calls for 2 - 3 teaspoons of seeds
Doesn’t require much space or work
Rinsing will increase your water needs
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Survival Food
Plant or Find It
• Plant it
 Regular gardening of veggies
 Expand to add spices, flowers, berry bushes, & fruit trees
 Grow extra and preserve it
 Know your farmer and help him grow it
• Find it – foraging
 Locate it now so you know where to go when you need it
 Seasonality is a major factor
 Make a map - it looks different during the winter
 Get reference materials, study, and learn how to identify
edible wild foods
 Try it now
 Some plants are food, some are medicinal, some are both
 There are toxic/poisonous look-alikes
 It’s all around us and plentiful!
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Survival Food - Foraging
• Competition
 Birds, critters, other people will also be hunting for food
 When you go back for in-season discoveries they may be gone
 Don’t assume that a return trip will pay off
• Constant Activity Required
 Your map needs to be precise
 Lots of foraging time is needed to get very little food
 If you rely on foraging you will likely go hungry
• Native Americans
 Harvested everything when it was in season
 Took only what they needed and did no damage
 Preserved most of their food for lean times and winter
• Meats – pemmican, smoked, jerky
• Berries – dried or mashed into cakes and dried
• Grains – dried, ground into flour
• Roots & tubers – dried and ground into powder
• Nuts – stored in shell, unshelled dried, milled into flour or butter
• Leaves – dried for medicinal uses and tea
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Survival Food – Foraging 101 – Testing Plants
• Avoid eating for 8 hrs. before the test. Drink only water. Eat only the plant.
• Divide the plant - leaves, stems, roots, etc. - test only one part at a time.
• Smell for strong, acid or almond-like scent
 Crush to release potentially hidden smells – if unpleasant smell, reject
it
• Place a sample of the plant inside of your elbow or wrist.
 Wait 15 minutes to see any adverse reaction such as blistering or
irritation.
• If no skin reaction, place small piece on the outer surface of the lip
 Test for burning or itching. Leave for three minutes.
• Put the piece onto your tongue; hold it there for 15 minutes without
chewing.
• Chew the piece of plant, but do not swallow.
• Hold the chewed plant in your mouth for another 15 minutes.
• Swallow the food and wait for 8 hrs.
 If you start to feel ill, induce vomiting, and drink plenty of water.
 If no adverse reaction, eat a handful of the plant, wait another 8 hrs.
 If no sign of illness, the plant is safe to eat when prepared in the same
manner as during the test.
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Survival Food
Foraging Etiquette
• Conservation
 Never take more than can be replenished naturally
 Do minimal or no damage to the plants and
surroundings
 Never collect all of the roots of a colony of plants –
thin them out
 Leave some tubers in place for next season
 Take only 1/3 of the leaves on greens
 OK to take all of the nuts, berries, fruits and seeds
• Location
 Do not harvest on private land without permission
 Search in forest preserves, along streams and rivers
 Pick from not heavily traveled roadsides
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Survival Food – Foraging 101
Local Discoveries
What we found within 1 ½ miles of home
 Blackberries, raspberries, elderberries
 Serviceberries, high-bush cranberries
 Acorns, black walnuts
 Jerusalem artichokes
 Cattails
 Milkweed
 Amaranth
 We haven’t started identifying the greens and tall grasses
 Best of all, we found a well with hand pump in tact
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Survival Food – Foraging 101
Local Discoveries
Survival Equipment – garage & rummage Sales
 New Coleman two burner camping stove - $5
 Cast iron pot for cooking in the ground or on open fire - $2
 5 gal. gas can - $1
 Shovel - $1, tool box - $1
 12v deep discharge marine battery - $5
 Coleman heater - $5, Coleman lanterns - $2
 Pressure cooker - $5, ball jars and lids - $2
 Big candles - $.25
 Tent – $5, backpack - $1
 Many other items acquired inexpensively around the area
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Water, Water, Water!
• This may be more important than food
• Plan for 1 gallon per day per person for drinking
• Reconstituting freeze-dried foods takes additional water
 Typical ratio is 1 part food and 2 parts water
• Cooking takes more water
• Forget about regular showers, baths, and shaves
• Bathing, brushing teeth, shampooing hair will be rare treats
• Bottled water has a shelf life of about two years
• You may have to find water, lug it home, and purify it
 Find water sources now
 Have purifying equipment ready
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Water, Water, Water!
Dehydration Can Kill You
• Early Symptoms
• Later Symptoms
 Thirst
 Increased heart rate
 Loss of Appetite
• Too Late?
 Increased respiration
 Dry Skin
 Muscle spasms
 Skin Flushing
 Decreased sweating
 Vomiting
 Dark Colored Urine  Decreased urination
 Racing pulse
 Dry Mouth
 Increased body
 Shriveled skin
 Fatigue or Weakness temperature
 Dim vision
 Chills
 Extreme fatigue
 Head Rushes
 Painful urination
 Muscle cramps
 Confusion
 Headaches
 Difficulty breathing
 Nausea
 Seizures
 Tingling of the limbs
 Chest and Abdominal
pain
 Unconsciousness
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Survival Foods
Examples and Handouts
 Example books for review
• Foraging
• Survival
• Book highlights
• Elgin library inventory
 Example long life foods
• Look them over – read the labels
• Note the ingredients and shelf lives
• The cooler the storage area, the longer they last
 References - handouts
• URL’s
• Sites to search for and identify plants
• Sites to buy long-life foods and learn more
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Get Ready Now!
When the time comes, it’s too late!
Discussion….
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