Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Sold Out After Crisis Details and Facts

By Ava Gatliff


Even though many people in America are living snugly inside their suburban home, when disaster strikes, there will be a lack of many things. This includes food shortages, where normal people are left like hungry schoolchildren to fend for ourselves. However, as funny as it sounds, we can avoid excessive hunger in all this by undergoing training for survivalist techniques. This solution trains us to live off the land anywhere, much so like the Native Americans.

Thus, it's a little more complicated than you may think and takes some specialized knowledge, but with some basics to expand on, you'll be more than ready if the civilized world as we know it ends. You'll be prepared and equipped with emergency survival food, while others won't, which will give you the survival edge if the situation ever presented itself. You could also read more about modern survivalist experts like Damian Campbell.

If you think about it, grocery stores and fast food chains are actually a fairly recent convenience. Before these things, people would rely on their own know-how when it came to procuring food. In fact, in some small, very poor, independent backwoods communities (think Appalachians) people still forage for wild food, hunt and process their own game, and completely rely on the land they live on to sustain them. However, these are a dying breed of people, and their ways are almost all but forgotten. In order to really understand the work that goes into preparing food from absolute scratch (or even finding it!) you could live with them for a while, or you could start practicing now. Damian Campbell would recommend you put into practice his teachings as well.

Emergency Survival food is meant to last for only a short time, and depending on what you have packed away, it may last for a couple days to a couple weeks or even longer. Survivalists recommend at least a two week supply of food and drink. In an emergency, you will need to learn to live off the land and collect water. One method to collect safe potable water is to use a tarp to collect condensation from the air. It will collect condensation in the air as you stretch a piece of plastic over a hole in the ground, and the setup is exposed to sunlight. Water from the ground and air will condense on it, and if you put something to catch the water underneath, you will have some safe water to drink. Another easier way is if you have a water filter in your supply kit. You can use it to filter water, but make sure to boil first because many filters aren't rated for biological contaminants. For more information on collecting water, Damian Campbell, a survival expert, also has other methods for collecting potable water in his survival manuals. His tips are not only about surviving disasters, but you can also apply some of his techniques for emergencies, such as during camping trips, hiking etc.

How to Forage.You should also learn to forage. For example, did you know that dandelions are an edible flower? Dandelions have grown in popularity because of their excellent edible qualities, and their hardiness. Not only are the young green leaves delicious raw or cooked, but they're easily cultivated and found everywhere. Harvest dandelion greens before they flower, or after first flower, but dandelion greens will become more bitter as they grow. For people who've been so conditioned to not appreciate bitterness, they can be a real shock to the palette. However, to know what to forage for, you should learn tips for foraging in the right areas. Suburban lawns are treated with lots of chemicals, so you may need to think twice before plucking them up there. Don't forage near highways or other polluted areas, since the plants will not be safe to eat.

Meat may also be prepared for long-term storage by drying it, or dehydrating it into jerky. People used to butcher their catches or animals, salt them heavily, and hang them out to dry in the hot sun. Salting the meat preserved it and kept bacteria and other microorganisms from breaking it down, and the hot sun pulled out the water, effectively petrifying the meat so that it could be stored for later consumption. You can do this with just about any kind of meat, including fish.You can also smoke meat to preserve it. Smoking is done in a small hut or smoker. The meat is hung or set in the smoker and a small amount of coals and or wood is placed in the bottom of the smoker. The meat is then immersed in smoke for days on end, drying it out and infusing the flesh with the smoke, making the meat last a long time after it's removed. Smoking can also enhance the flavor of the meat if done right.

What to do now.Even though you don't have a survivalist teaching you side by side, you have information sources like in this article and you can read more from experts like Damian Campbell. You should practice some of these time-honored techniques for preserving food, game, and drying your foraged foods.For now, you can create an emergency food supply list and stock up one non-perishable emergency survival food to get you through temporarily in the event of an emergency. Gallons of water, canned foods, dried and freeze-dried foods all make a good start. Stockpile sugar, flour, salt, Lyme, matches, and a book or two on how to identify wild edibles, make traps, and how to build shelters. Familiarize yourself with basic sewing skills. All of these things will add up to a more prepared you, in the unfortunate event of an emergency.

Damian Campbell helps you to practically learn some survival techniques, as well as important things like packing short-term and longer term emergency field supplies. One of the key benefits of this program is the emergency food supply list. If you read through his materials, you will already be more prepared than most people in your neighborhood. You will be able to survive even as the "urban jungle" and all of its predators close in around you. He teaches you to stay calm, assess, and always have a backup plan, as well as the essential items you need to survive urban disaster scenarios.




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