Highly Concentrated Storage Preps

[The Heretic]

Good tasting food that you like to eat generally doesn't cost any more than food you don't like to eat.

I don't like asparagus, or anchovies, or artichokes on my pizza.

Fortunately, olives, tomatoes, and onions are no more expensive and a lot more to my liking.

 

[Gaust]

Don't forget about honey. It never goes bad and has many more uses besides eating. There's also propolis from a beehive that has been shown to have the following properties.

• bacteriological;
• antiviral;
• biostimulative;
• local anesthetic

 

[Joe13]

Clove the spice.

Ground up it is pretty much what the dentists use for a topical anesthetic.

Tastes bad but it will numb a bad toothache.

 

[Stomper]

So does a wooden mallet.... It also silences complaints.

 

[AMProducts]

So it sounds like you're looking for things that are concentrated and available in bulk:

Salt - It's available in 25-40lb sacks from commercial kitchen suppliers, I would highly recommend keeping at least 300lbs available. Honestly, food without salt tastes horrible, and you actually need this to survive. If you want to, you can also make your own bleach from it by using electrolysis of a concentrated brine. Store more salt, it's useful stuff.

Sugar - again, commercial suppliers have this stuff by the ton. Makes food taste better, it makes alcohol, and it can be used to make up the calories you're not getting. Also, I use sugar/salt for making jerky.

Borax - good one, love this stuff, however it's useful for tons of things, mostly cleaning related.

Sulfur flour - this is probably a more obtuse thing to have around, it's useful for wound treatment (topical), however it's main use is as a fumigant (burning it), and as a precursor for making acids, and it's also useful for making black powder.

 

[Joe13]

So it sounds like you're looking for things that are concentrated and available in bulk:

Salt - It's available in 25-40lb sacks from commercial kitchen suppliers, I would highly recommend keeping at least 300lbs available. Honestly, food without salt tastes horrible, and you actually need this to survive. If you want to, you can also make your own bleach from it by using electrolysis of a concentrated brine. Store more salt, it's useful stuff.

Sugar - again, commercial suppliers have this stuff by the ton. Makes food taste better, it makes alcohol, and it can be used to make up the calories you're not getting. Also, I use sugar/salt for making jerky.

Borax - good one, love this stuff, however it's useful for tons of things, mostly cleaning related.

Sulfur flour - this is probably a more obtuse thing to have around, it's useful for wound treatment (topical), however it's main use is as a fumigant (burning it), and as a precursor for making acids, and it's also useful for making black powder.

Awesome post.

You can also find higher concentrated vinegar in Europe which can be diluted.

And Baking Soda is a good one as well.

 

[AMProducts]

Awesome post.

You can also find higher concentrated vinegar in Europe which can be diluted.

And Baking Soda is a good one as well.

Vinegar is actually pretty easy to make... take any dilute alcohol and allow it to be exposed to the air, Mothers, the bacterium/fungus responsible for the conversion is wild in the environment, if you're more adventurous you can buy special higher yielding strains from people who sell yeasts. There are also strains of yeast you can buy that will yield sometimes nearly 20% ABV, which is a pretty potent start to your vinegar making.

Distillation of vinegar isn't actually all that difficult, and there are two ways to really crank up the acid content. Since the PNW does occasionally experience freezing temps, you can allow a large amount of "natural" vinegar to freeze, and then press the slush, doing this several times can yield some pretty scary strengths of vinegar, I think practically this can be up to 99% acid by volume. This is called "glacial acetic acid" and is actually fairly dangerous. However you might want to use steam distillation in an earlier step to get any of the other aromatic components or fuzzies out. The alternative here is vacuum distillation. However any time you're distilling an acid, try to find apparatus that can stand up to it.

Good call on the baking soda.

 

[The Heretic]

If you use and like "anti-bacterial" soap, now is the time to stock up on it; FDA has just announced they are banning most of the ingredients.

I agree that most of the time it isn't needed, but I use it nonetheless, especially after handling meat, or playing with the neighbor's dog (who sometimes rolls around in fecal matter) - that kind of thing.

 

[winterveil]

Washing soda - It helps boost other cleaning agents. We make our own detergent with a bar of castile soap and equal parts washing soda and borax and honestly it works great and is way cheaper than store-bought detergent.

Lavender Oil/ Tea Tree Oil - sounds froofy, but this stuff is great. Add 5-10 drops to the home-made detergent for the best smelling clothes ever. Lavender is also great for headache relief and relaxing in general and Tea Tree oil can be used as an antiseptic.

Saltpeter - myriad of uses including food preservation, fertilizer, cleaning aluminum, heat-treating metals, historically treating high blood pressure and asthma, black powder and smoke-bomb ingredient