So honestly how long before you'd eat dog food?

[iradney]

You speak of foods you can cook, but in a lot of disasters, catastrophes, emergencies, etc., there is no power. You could not operate your coffeemaker, boil water for your tea, or cook with your evap milk. In other words, what ready to eat canned food do you have on hand? And would you eat pet food when you ran out of it? That's how I see the question at hand, anyways.

I don't know about other countries, but here in SA, every household (or nearly every household) has a coal/wood barbecue. Quite a few people also have gas cookers (the type you use for camping), thanks to our monopoly power provider having regular rolling blackouts.
That takes care of the cooking part but doesn't answer the question as to what you would do when the food runs out, as I doubt the supermarket will be open.

[Jester]

Okay, lots of people have barbecues. But not everyone. Just saying. So the question remains, how desperate would you be before you would eat said food items?

[JLRodgers]

I'd pretty much never eat my animal's food -- now the "edible weeds" and such around the yard/etc.....

Now when I can have food in the house like I prefer (sadly not now as I've had to alter food buying habits so I can only spend $40/month for food -- so I've gone through my backup foodstuff).... So at this exact moment.... I've got one month with rationing, maybe two.

With my normal...I could go up to 6 months with some rationing -- but this is because I try to have up to 50lbs of dry beans and stuff, 50lbs of flour, 50lbs of sugar (you're getting the idea I'm sure), and up to 500 cans of food (carots, beans, corn, etc). And that's if I'm not being prepared for something happening. And as I'm "paranoid" (realistic) about any given day all power/utilities could go bye-bye for an unknown period of time, I try to get foodstuff that can last months/years.... I could probably manage up to a year though or more if I only ate one can of food a day and scavenged for "wild" growing things or other stuff.

Now water.... that's where it'd get tricky. I'm trying to get rid of the bottles of water (cost reasons mainly)...

[Jester]

What in the bloody hell do you need with 500 cans of food, 50 lbs. of sugar, and 50 lbs. of flour? Seriously? And you say that is the norm for you?

[Fire_on_High]

I've heard a lot of Mormons who had similar preparations.

[edible_hat]

About a week before I'd eat the dog.

[iradney]

About a week before I'd eat the dog.

LOL! I don't think I'd do that - need the dog to scare off potential raiders, ya know.

[AccountingDrone]

You speak of foods you can cook, but in a lot of disasters, catastrophes, emergencies, etc., there is no power. You could not operate your coffeemaker, boil water for your tea, or cook with your evap milk. In other words, what ready to eat canned food do you have on hand? And would you eat pet food when you ran out of it? That's how I see the question at hand, anyways.

I live on a small farm in the ass end of nowhere.

In warm weather I can certainly build a fire and cook outside [actually, i am a journeyman cook in the atlantian cooks guild in field cookery, in other words I have cooked a certain number of SCA feasts 'in the field' ie over a fire for official events for more than 25 people. I also cooked at events for the peopl ein my encampment for decades]

In the winter I have this

If I want to bathe, I have a cute little shower pump that immerses into a pot of hot water, and is battery operated, or I can pour the hot water into a 5 gallon shower bag that I also have as a result of being in the SCA and doing camping events.

If I need to use the bathroom, I can either manually pour water into the toilet, or I can nip out back and fertillize the woods, or use the camp toilet we also happen to own

Even if I lived in a city, I would have the PET toilet, and a hibachi, or coleman stove and a camp oven that I found at a garage sale and thought was spiffy [i like gadgets =) ]

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Don't think I'd eat it at all (considering I don't have a dog, but if I did....). Wouldn't be feeding it to my dog, either.

I am pretty good at wild gleaning. If it got that bad, I'd just start eating the stuff out in the woods, although I will say the squirrel, rabbit, and pidgeon population at my place would start to decline.

[Dreamstalker]

My neighbor and I once ate a couple of his dogs' milk bones. Yeeech.

I used to eat Meow Mix as a snack (maybe that's why I turned out so weird) I tried one of the cat's crunchy treats for the hell of it...yick.

One would have to be pretty damn desperate to eat any of the squirrels or pigeons around here given the crap they must be ingesting. My grandfather used to shoot squirrels and make squirrel pie, but he lived in a relatively rural area so they were probably safe to eat.

[blas]

Squirrel is actually not bad at all.

[JLRodgers]

What in the bloody hell do you need with 500 cans of food, 50 lbs. of sugar, and 50 lbs. of flour? Seriously? And you say that is the norm for you?

Pretty much... when I have the funds of course! Flour and sugar, that's fairly easy (I make almost all of my food myself - flour and stuff goes quick when you make your own pancakes, breads, etc). And when I have two to five different types of flour, smaller bags add up (not to mention AP vs bread flour). Sugar's mainly because it's used in baking and tea, I go through 5lbs in 2 months from tea itself.

(of course rationing would extend both drastically )


Cans of food is just for a simple reason. I like having 24 cans of food (my low-standard is 12, currently I have 1-6 [food budget cutback]) for the different things I like and use: tomato paste, diced tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, corn, beans (kidney, pinto, garbanzo, black, etc), peas....I'm forgetting some.... but that could be 240 cans right there (of course I'd have olives/etc too -- but like 6 cans of those can go a long, long way as I only use them in 2 different dishes, and not even all the time when I do). And I have to follow a FIFO rule thing too (I still buy new, I just pull everything forward, and put the new in the back).

It just quickly adds up. Plus when I'm in an area that gets hit by tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods, I figure the chance of power going out for a long while (despite never happening) could happen without notice.


Oh, just realized something.... here's what's in my refrigerator and freezer right now:
Refrigerator:

• Soy Milk
• Pop
• eggs
• condiments
• Food that was cooked and is waiting to be reheated
• cheese, fresh veggies, fruits, etc may be in there off and on (just not right now)

Freezer:

• Ice Cream
• Blueberries
• frozen bread
• flour
• frozen soy pre-pared foods

So yeah... I don't use a refrigerator or freezer like probably most people do. Plus my larger quantities is meant for preparing for the worst type of thing (which of course assumes I actually survive it or have the food nearby - but you know). And I figure that some of my friends might be dumb or just otherwise might have problems (plus some "friends" with kids....). So if it hits, I might give away some food secretly to them (after hiding the rest so I can say I have no more) or just invite them to live with me until it passes.

Since I prepare for the worst - it's why my cans/etc are higher too.

But if it last for 1 year for me, it'd be 6 months for 2, 3 months for 4... with rationing ---- but only like 6months me, 3 for 2 people, 1.5 for 4 (and that's the target I aim for).

[It shouldn't]

Like Accounting Drone, I live on a small farm.

I can probably hold out for years. I grow my own fruits/veggies and can/preserve them. There is deer, rabbits, geese and ducks galore out back. I'm thinking about/working on the hubby to agree, getting us some chickens.

We have a fire pit outside I can cook over in the summer and a wood burning stove in the house for the winter. Matter of fact, in the winter on weekends I usually cook on the wood stove. Throw on a pot, throw in veggies and meat, a little seasoning and at 6pm we call it stew for dinner.

When I grew up, we lived like the Amish (no I'm not Amish). Mom and Grandma grew/raised all their own food. Heck we didn't get electricity till I was 5 years old. We had an old fashion manual pump with buckets at the well, outhouse, oxen for the field work and bicycles for transportation. The only thing ever bought at the store were a few spices and sugar and the occasional treat of bologna.

When the Y2K scare was at it's height and the hubby was all freaking out, about the economy falling apart, I just told him to stick with me. He is frequently amazed at how I can grab a basket, head into the woods and come back with dinner and dessert fixings. After 15 years he's finally gotten brave enough to eat it, too.

[Pagan]

Then the question then maybe should be either how much food do you have until you starve, or how long before you just eat pet food? Take your pick I guess

When I was little, I can vaguely remember sampling the dogs food. I think my reasoning was, she ate it seemed to like it, let's check this out. But I don't remember what it tasted like, I just know it was dry food.

I don't know about other countries, but here in SA, every household (or nearly every household) has a coal/wood barbecue. Quite a few people also have gas cookers (the type you use for camping), thanks to our monopoly power provider having regular rolling blackouts.
That takes care of the cooking part but doesn't answer the question as to what you would do when the food runs out, as I doubt the supermarket will be open.

Same here. I would say that at least 75% of just my apartment complex has grills!

What in the bloody hell do you need with 500 cans of food, 50 lbs. of sugar, and 50 lbs. of flour? Seriously? And you say that is the norm for you?

And I'm wanting to know where the hell you keep it all! JL, you could have given lessons to the people on "Jericho"!

[mandaliz8704]

As of right this second, I wouldnt make it long on what is in the house. It's grocery shopping time. (yes, I know, bad me. Hurricane season and I have next to nothing in the house. Wet noodle lashings are in order.)

As far as having to eat dog food, my husband was well trained by the Air Force in outdoor survival... as long as he didnt TELL me what I was eating, I think I'd be ok. lol