How are you guys planning to prepare food if power and/or gas ever goes out? So far I have a camp stove and some propane, which seems woefully inadequate so far, and I have a solar oven. That should work well as long as it's sunny, which is most of the time in Colorado. But I'm looking for ways to relatively cheaply get ready for preparing my year's supply. Wheat berries would get old after a while.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I have a three fold attack. First is the camp stove with extra bottles. This is good if I have to leave home because of some dissaster. It can travel with me. I also have a gas grill that I use as an oven for cooking sometimes that also has a side burner on it for cooking. I have two tanks for it with one on the machine and one I keep full as a back up. I also have an older BBQ that I can put wood into and cook the old fashioned way. I have a large fireplace insert that I can cook on also. I have a supply of wood that would allow me to use that method for quite a while. I could also dig a pit in the back yard. In a survival situation you could always use your fence for firewood if you didn't have any. Those are some ideas. If you have a fireplace just keep enough spare wood on hand to allow another cooking option. Get a dutch oven. Even with minimal coals you can cook using a dutch oven. Whip out that old scout manual and look at some of the different cooking methods in it. I have my old Norman Rockwell scout manual that I look at all the time and it has ways to build very small fires for cooking.
Got propane, got gas stove, got trees nearby to harvest wood if we need, but winter would be tough on us starting after about a month. If our financial genie smiles on us, we'll get one of them newfangled wood/coal burning stoves. Perhaps I'll bury a half ton of coal in our back field.
Got propane, got gas stove, got trees nearby to harvest wood if we need, but winter would be tough on us starting after about a month. If our financial genie smiles on us, we'll get one of them newfangled wood/coal burning stoves. Perhaps I'll bury a half ton of coal in our back field.
Don't forget, furniture and barbie dolls burn really well!
We have a camp stove and a few bottles of propane. We also have several bags of charcoal to use with our dutchovens and bbq. There is one suggestion I always make when teaching classes at Enrichment mtgs, practice using your various cooking methods in all types of weather now, before you need to use the skills in an emergency. This way you learn how everything "works" whether it's raining, snowing or ? and you are not under a lot of stress trying to feed your family. Our goal, as soon as my kitchen remodel is finished, is to build an outdoor brick oven.
Four years ago I bought about 100 pounds of charcoal on clearance in the fall. I transferred the briquets into 30 gallon garbage bags inside of a rubbermaid garbage con with locking lid. I use some with my dutch ovens every summer to test that they still burn well. So far, so good.
We have a camp stove that takes white gas (Coleman Fuel). We also have propane tanks for the grill, a small butane stove for the 72-hr kit, and some wood for the firepit i the backyard. I wish I had a good setup to have an indoor wood burning stove.
I did a fair bit of experimentation with homemade solar ovens this summer. There is a lot of info on the web. It's hard to beat free energy when it comes to cooking, especially for things like soup, stew, breads, and other things that require relatively long cooking times.
I never thought about stock piling charcoal as a fuel source. Thanks for the ideas, folks! It is compact, durable, relatively cheap, and in a pinch, can be used as both a heat source (if you have a wood burning fireplace) and indeed a cooking source for cast iron and dutch ovens! And bok, the idea of putting it in a trash can is great! Good thing I didn't throw away the old wheeled garbage cans when the trash service said everyone had to go down to 33 gallon cans from the 52 gallon cans!
Hey crazymom, let me know when you have your outdoor brick oven done... The Cat Herder family will make their way over to your place from up here in Oakland County in the event of an emergency. We're nice, don't bite, and are house trained for the most part... you won't even notice us!
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
Crazymom, that is a very good idea to practice using other cooking methods in all seasons.
I have learned the hard way that charcoal absorbs moisture from the air if left in the original bag. It's a beast to light, and even then doesn't give much heat. Keeping it double sealed in bags/trash can enables me to store it outside, even in winter, to save precious garage space.
Speaking of winter, it's time to rotate the ole water barrels and move them into said precious garage space. I really hate rotating water. :grumble:
HA HA Mr Cat! JK, the more the merrier. But, the brick oven won't get built till my kitchen is done. I have been without a "real" kitchen for over 2 yrs. Does that tell you how long it takes my dh to get things done! We are almost done though, dh will start making the cabinets this weekend. His first priority is to install the dishwasher and the farmhouse sink. I was able to still cook all this time, but we do dishes in the bathtub.
I never thought about stock piling charcoal as a fuel source. Thanks for the ideas, folks! It is compact, durable, relatively cheap, and in a pinch, can be used as both a heat source (if you have a wood burning fireplace)
Cat:Charcoal briquettes give off carbon monoxide and if you used without proper ventilation will probably kill you.
I have a Coleman camp stove, my propane grill and a dutch oven used in conjunction with my volcano stove. I have 300 lbs. of briquettes stored for use with the volcano stove.
Cat:Charcoal briquettes give off carbon monoxide and if you used without proper ventilation will probably kill you.
I have a Coleman camp stove, my propane grill and a dutch oven used in conjunction with my volcano stove. I have 300 lbs. of briquettes stored for use with the volcano stove.
Aware of that with the charcoal. Wood burning stove or wood burning fireplace should normally provide adequate ventilation, shouldn't it, if we're talking about needing to use indoors? If not, you wouldn't be able to burn wood in them either. Thanks for the reminder, though.
What is a volcano stove? Aside from 300 lbs of briquettes and a volcano stove, we've got all that you have there in that paragraph. In fact, we've got several cast iron items we use regularly (I love cooking in cast iron... best stuff out there in my mind!)
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
I really hate rotating water. :grumble:
