preparednessblog

In many parts of the world, lack of electricity is an everyday fact of life. In hot climates, it means that food spoils fast, and much of it is lost.

A Nigerian teacher came up with a solultion that uses evaporation to keep items cooler. It means that produce that used to last only a day can be kept for a couple of weeks instead.

The zeer pot is made of two unglazed pots with wet sand in between and a wet cloth over the top. As the water in the sand evaporates, it makes the inside of the pot colder.

A zeer pot will not work as well in humid climates, so, experiment with it to find out if one is right for your situation. Besides keeping produce and other items fresh, it can be used to keep drinks cold when you are away from sources of electricity.

There are complete instructions for making one here .

After my post on the nutrition and economics of Spam, I received some emails and comments on a blog where I linked my entry, asking  whether I’d ever even tried Spam, and accusing me of being a, ahem, “Spam elitist”.

Now, if you read back, I never called Spam trashy food, never said it was disgusting. I merely pointed out that it’s both expensive and high in fat and sodium.

However, as it happens, I had, in fact, never eaten Spam. And, to be honest, that was bothering me, since one of my pet peeves is people who hold opinions without getting the facts. So, I’d been thinking that a taste test was in order.

Luck was with me, as my local grocery store had Spam Singles on clearance, 89 cents for a 3 ounce pack. I picked up two. One of those packs, in fact, wound up being free, because they rang up at the register at the normal, pre-clearance price. I suppose if you are going to eat Spam, free Spam would be the way to go.

I decided on a very basic prep, and pan-fried the slices until crispy, then served them along side fried grits and some collard greens.

They smelled good cooking, kind of bacon-y. I don’t typically eat pork, so, cooking bacon is a very rare scent in my kitchen. Curious children wandered in to the kitchen to inquire.

I plated up the food and tried my first bite.

UGH.

The taste is more salty than anything else. None of those nice smoky notes you get with bacon or ham. And the texture… I guess hotdogs, or perhaps very firm playdough, would be the closest comparison. It’s definitely not anything I associate with meat.

The younger kid, who is usually the healthiest eater, surprisingly, liked Spam a lot. The older one deemed it merely okay.

So…. I cooked. I ate. I gave Spam a chance.

Verdict: not likely to be added to my repertoire this side of the apocalypse.

The things I do for you people….

Mother Jones Magazine ran an interview with Amanda Ripley, a Time Magazine reporter who was in New York during the World Trade Center attack, and the author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why.

I definitely plan to pick up a copy of the book, as the premise is intriguing. Keep your fingers crossed for a review copy for me.

At the end of the interview, there are five tips to increase your survival chances in a disaster. I’ve paraphrased them here for quick reference:

1. Remember that text messages sometimes can go through when cell phone calls cannot. This can be a valuable way to stay in contact.

2. Be prepared for your vision to be impeded by smoke. For instance, make sure you can find your way around your house without being able to see.

3. Maintain a healthy weight. You’ll be more limber, more agile, and more able to get through tight spaces.

4. Know your neighbors. Mutual aid can help you and those around you get through a bad situation.

5. Have a plan. Do family fire drills, know where emergency exits are in your place of employment, and have meet-up locations established for if you and your family are separated.

The situation in the Midwest has had me researching the best ways to cope with flooding.  The best suggestions I’ve found:

1. Carry flood insurance. Floods are not covered under your regular home-owners’ or renters’ policy.

2. Sand-bags, all in all, seem to be pretty useless. Most sources agree that getting yourself and your stuff out of harm’s way is a better use of your energy.

3. This is not a situation where bugging in is appropriate. If there is an evacuation order for flooding, get your family out of the area as quickly as possible. Since you keep a bug out bag by the door, you can do this on short notice, right?

4. Anything you can’t take with you, get it up as high in your house as you can. Put it in the attic or second story if you have one, on counters if you don’t. Flood waters may go higher than you can get your stuff, but it’s a chance to save something.

5. Don’t wade in flood waters without proper protection. All sorts of dangerous stuff, from sharp objects to angry animals to harmful bacteria can be lurking under the surface.

A lot of people recommend keeping non-fat powdered milk in your pantry stores for emergencies when fresh milk, or power to refrigerate it, may not be available. I’ve never kept much on-hand because I just can’t stand the taste of powdered milk. I’ve tried chilling it for 24 hours, I’ve tried it in recipes. And, it just has a rank, powdery taste that I can’t get past.

However, a friend recently introduced me to powdered whole milk. Nestle sells it under two different names, Klim and Nido.  I bought some and mixed up a batch. The taste is absolutely indistinguishable from fresh milk.

Around here, it’s a bit more expensive than fresh milk, so, I would not rely on it for day to day use. It is very handy to have in the cabinet for tiny disasters like forgetting to buy milk on your regular shopping trip. I save a bit of money by not having to make an extra trip to the supermarket, or, pay inflated prices at the convenience store.

Plus, in a situation where we did not have electricity, I’d be able to mix it up in small batches to use immediately. The kids like it over cereal. Having the chance to keep the same breakfast meals for them is another way to keep things stable and keep them happier through any sort of disaster situation.

I read this editorial the other day, written by a former US Army Lt. General, Russel Honore.

Honore makes some great points, not only about individuals’ responsibility to prepare for disasters, but, about the reasons that preparedness is best done at the personal level. He describes our task as creating a “culture of preparedness.”

For the most part, he addresses a change in attitudes: don’t wait on government to fix it for you. The way that our society is structured, government is far too slow-moving. Individuals and businesses have a far greater capacity to adapt.

He also makes a few easy to implement practical suggestions:

• Be aware of people in your community who, due to health or financial reasons, may not be able to prepare on their own.
• Help others prepare with useful gifts. Instead of another glass figurine, get grandma a weather radio, for instance.
• Keep a pack of foods, medicine, clothes and water ready to go in case of evacuation.

It’s a powerful, well-written read, and I recommend it.

Communication during a disaster can be difficult. For those affected by the flooding in Iowa, the Red Cross has created an online database called “Safe and Well” where people can register and check on loved ones.

Visit www.redcross.org, and click the “Safe and Well” link on the upper right-hand side. If you are affected by the flood, click “List Myself as Safe and Well” to enter your details. Use your pre-flood phone number and address.

If you are looking for information about loved ones, you can search the database by name, phone number or address.

Those who do not have internet access can register by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS.

Similar databases were used with good results after the hurricanes in 2005. Even if you are not affected by the current floods, take some time to let your family know that you intend to use online databases if something happens where you are displaced and cannot communicate directly by phone.

We got into town too late to stay at the campground we’d planned (long story involving the rental company giving us an SUV instead of the compact we wanted) so we’re in a cute little motel, instead. There’s wifi, so I thought I’d throw up a quick post about what we’re eating while we’re away.

S. has a small cooler that plugs into the cigarette lighter in the car. We filled it with drinks and some cheese, homemade hummus and roast vegetables from home. It’s handy when you are in the car, but we’ll be switching to the traditional cooler and ice when we are not mobile. Our regular cooler is an Igloo MaxCold, and it’s pretty fantastic. I’ve used it for three day long trips, and still had solid ice from the first day it in. In Florida in the summer, that’s pretty impressive.

The hummus is a recipe made entirely from shelf stable foods, and I could easily make it on the road:

 Pantry Hummus

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon peanutbutter (tahini is traditional, but I don’t always have it on hand. Trust me, you can’t taste the difference)

1 clove mashed garlic

vinegar

olive oil

good curry powder

I soak the garlic in the vinegar for a few minutes to cut down the pungency a bit. Then, I add all the other ingredients and mash with a potato masher. This makes a chunkier hummus than you get with a food processor, but a bowl and masher are easier to clean, and don’t need any electricity. I like to make it a day ahead of time so the flavors have time to meld, but it’s good just after preparing, too.

These, plus a tin of sardines and a bag of tortilla chips made a nice, light dinner last night.

It’s good to know that your tools will not fail you at a critical time. That is one of the reason that I like dynamo flashlights. Instead of batteries, the light is powered by shaking it, squeezing it or cranking a handle. So upper end models also have radios and cell phone chargers on them.

These lights are getting more and more affordable, as well. I picked up the light on the left at Home Depot the other day, $10 for a set of three.  The crank powers three very bright LED lights, and the package says that one minute of cranking gives one hour of power. The crank is easy to operate.

I’ll be taking two of these lights camping with me starting tomorrow, so I will let you know if I have any problems with them!

Yahoo News is reporting that sales of Spam are rising as more being feel pinched by increasing food prices. This caught my eye, as many people advocate Spam as a storage/disaster food, based largely on the food’s much-touted eternal shelf-life.

However, I cannot recommend Spam as any sort of mainstay in your diet. First off, it’s horribly high in both saturated fat and sodium. A two ounce serving contains 23% of the RDA of saturated fat, and 32% of the the RDA for sodium. And, I’m going to bet that few people actually only eat two ounces.

A whopping 78% of the calories in Spam come from fat.

Plus, besides the ghastly nutritional profile, Spam is not an inexpensive food. Around here, a 12 ounce tin costs $2.79. That’s $3.72 per pound, which I consider pretty expensive. Canned tuna, even at the current high prices, is still less than $3 per pound for chunk light tuna. Salmon is only a little more expensive than that. Canned beans can be had for less than a dollar a pound, and dried, once soaked and cooked, can be less than 25 cents per prepared pound. All of these foods have a far better nutritional profile than Spam.

Now, if you are a diehard meat and potatoes eater, I suppose that Spam could have a place in your pantry stocks as a change of pace or comfort food.

However, it is not a cheap alternative. There are many, many less expensive foods out there that are better tasting and better for you, too.

Like it? Digg it!