Hello from Teesside!

[AfricanPrepper]

Hello everyone!

I'm originally from Zimbabwe now married to a lovely Teessider and I find myself a little bit uneasy with the economic situation, my employer possible getting rid of us and the potential ebola pandemic (I pray it never becomes a big thing for us here). So I thought it be wise to start building up a year's worth of supplies. I am starting small though I have a pretty good idea of what I need to get sorted in most areas but I could do with some advice in other areas.

Before December arrives I plan to have made a years worth of soap, laundry detergent, candles and lotion for my family as well all my household/first aide/lighting supplies. I am also a soap maker so this is an easy place for me to start. I am working on building up my water storage as well. Zimbabwe's economic collapse really showed us the value of storing good clean water. My dad has a 20 000L JoJo storage tank and all I can have is one of the 1000L IBC tanks. That's the biggest I can store without attracting too much attention. I have the most nosey neighbours you have ever met!!!

If anyone can advise me on fuel and heating I would be most grateful. I have no problem making and cooking over an open fire but Teesside is so wet. So unless I build an actual fire shelter I feel stuck. What are you guys planning on?

And the concept of store what you eat. I will really struggle with this because we eat a whole lot of fresh produce. I guess I have to get serious about a vegetable garden next spring. I can't live without my fresh greens. I am also thinking about canning. Any ladies here do that?

Anyway that's all from me right now. I look forward to meeting you !!

AfricanPrepper

[jansman]

Welcome. That is a good intro post. There are a few soap makers here. Have a look around and enjoy.

[Hamradioop]

oops double post.

[Hamradioop]

Hi and welcome. For cooking would recommend a camping stove with a double burner and grill from about £30.00 from most camping stores.




For heating a portable gas heater powered by butane something like calor gas around £99.00 including Gas Bottle.

[Decaff]

Hello and welcome

Brilliant introduction.

[tigs]

welcome to the forum

[Stasher]

Hi there, welcome. We also have an issue with storing tins here at Stashing as most of the food we eat is fresh. I try to approach storage in a different way (I think) to most people here. Our approach is, can we eat it before the best before date, and not 'this is how much we need to store'

The following is a regular scene in the Stashings kitchen

Me: We need to use up these tins, so we're eating them

Them: (scuffing heels and with sulky expressions) Can't we have it tomorrow/next week/on judgement day



Storing tins requires discipline and an open approach to trying new products. For example this week I bought a tin of potatoes for the first time in my life . It is sat on the kitchen top being ignored by everyone, but at some point in the next few days it will have to be opened and eaten. At that point a decision can be made as to whether or not it is palatable and a suitable stash item. Tins of potatoes are so cheap the probability is that if it is edible, if we don't need to eat it we will feed it to the chickens instead

There is no 'right' way to prep. There is only the way that suits your family

[Decaff]

Tinned spuds are great in a stew as they don't seem turn to mush. Also drained and put in a frying pan with small amount of oil, add in a couple of teaspoons/or to taste of any Indian spicy paste and you have a delicious plate of yumminess.

[ukpreppergrrl]

Hi AfricanPrepper! Welcome to the forum and great first post!

Yes switching over to tinned is tricky when you've spent a long time improving your fresh food intake! However, the good thing I discovered when I started looking at tinned food was that its quality has improved tremendously since I was a child! It does vary though. To use Stasher's tinned spuds as an example, I bought lots tins of spuds form different supermarkets including branded tins, supermarket own and supermarket value tins. Prices varied from 18p to £1.60 (a posh jar of Jersey's finest!). They mostly had not dissimilar flavour but they did have very different textures. Eventually I settled on the 18p can from Lidl as my favourite: firm without being hard, heated well, tasted ok. For me they work best with Lidl's tinned stewing steak in gravy or Tesco's tinned chicken in white sauce - if you're going for a fully tinned meal, but you don't have to, they could be incorporated into a home-made stew as Decaff said.

Having never really been that interested in cooking (though I'm very fond of the end product!), I've taken to viewing the tinned produce as a culinary adventure - I'll buy one tin of pretty much anything and give it a try and if it's ok I will try to incorporate it into my menu planning. Don't be afraid of the cheap value tins, some work, some don't, but they're all worth a try you never know. On the whole, for me, veggies (except for tomatoes which form the basis of a lot of my meals!) work the least well tinned, but fortunately veggies can be grown in the back garden. The same cannot be said of pork, steak or fish! Pulses work well tinned, though of course also are cheaply available dried, though they require much more effort and water to cook them which may not always be available.

In the UK it's difficult to get hold of a high pressure canner without importing one. Although the canning jars are readily available they seem to be used only for hot water bath bottling, not the high pressure canning so commonplace in the US. So you're limited to high-acid food. Have to say I do hanker after one of those All-American canners with their dials and stuff...seriously awesome looking pieces of kit!

[raz]

For Canning over here try looking up ur local Mormon community! yes they may not be ur cup of tea but they are pretty big on prepping and the church my mum used to go too had all the equipment for canning with days set aside each month for members of the church or public to go along and take part