Food Skills Even More Important During Crisis

Reader Contribution by Sue Van Slooten
Published on June 1, 2011
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Storm Over Big Rideau by Sue Van Slooten

It’s tornado and thunderstorm season. The only storms more destructive are hurricanes. However, at least the hurricane has the decency to give you a few days notice of its arrival, not so with tornadoes and T-storms. They can arise within minutes. In light of the horrible devastation throughout a good part of the U.S., I decided, living near the northern end of Tornado Alley, that it would be a good idea to revisit my emergency supplies, and collect them together into the respective backpack and carryall. In addition to first aid kits, non-perishable food items and the like, I decided to see if the web had any advice on what else should go in. Imagine my surprise when I found a website, www.frugalpreparedness.com/3daykits.htm, (click on “Food”), not only giving a list of items needed, but also the idea that a hand operated grain grinder would be a useful item. What? This person’s logic is, that if you’re without power for an extended time, say days or weeks, you still need bread. During a crisis, food stores either run out very quickly, or are destroyed. As you can see from my previous blog, you can forget the bread machine. The recent storms in the deep South also touched Canada, with 110 km winds.We lost our power for seven hours, not a great problem. But our neighbours just down the road were out for twenty-six. During the Great Ice Storm of ’98, many were out for weeks and months. Stuff happens.   

This person also felt it would be a good idea to know how to make the bread, once you were through grinding the grain. (Personally, I’d prefer to skip the grindingstep.)This is a skill that could become quite valuable, that, providing you have the raw ingredients, a camp stove or oven and fuel, you can make bread.A hot skillet bread would be easy and very satisfying. A cast iron pan would be nice, if you had it available. In reality, any pan will do. No pan? Try aluminum foil, and barring that, a stick. Dough can be wrapped around the stick and cooked over an open fire. Or, if enough of your neighbours are able to help, you might just form a primitive version of a communal oven, whereby everyone would benefit.

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