Food Shortages --- Lets get Real

    
                  

    We can't really ignore what is going on in our country no matter how hard we try to act normalish. As soon as we do we have real life bite us in the rear to remind us. So you folks that are trying to just do what you think you have to and not watch the news or hear anything bad just trying to keep those blinders on and head down so you don't have to see or think about it you can just step away and delete now. This post is going to get real."If all you see is what you see. You'll never see all there is to see".

   Now that we have that out of the way.....
   Lets try to skip the health thing that is everywhere you look and dominating / ruining daily our lives in some way.
   We can't seem to control anything right now. We try but it is down right scary even when we are all doing the best we can. There are a few other things we need to be looking at other than the obvious health stuff. As with anything we are dealing with everyday safety and needs. Shelter, water, food, medical, temp control are the main ones.  Some may be losing their focus with all this overwhelming new life.
  There are some things we CAN CONTROL those are the things we can work with. The more we can look ahead and see what is going on and plan the more peace of mind we may have.
 Food -- it was really hard in the beginning. Seems like they have somewhat adjusted distribution. Right now I don't know where or how your getting your food but get and store everything you can. Even if someone gives you something you don't normally use or eat. If it will store do it. You can use it to trade or to help someone else out if needed. For those of you that are reasonably self sufficient on your property I am so proud of you! Please store extra for your family and neighbors if your able to.
     I have talked to some single people that are attempting to provide some of their own food growing. They have grown kids and some room for a small garden instead of the one or two plants of this or that they are growing. I encourage you to expand beyond your own personal needs. If your not physically able to do the work rope / guilt or whatever it takes to get other folks involved in learning to grow or preserve and store the chow.
    We have a world wide economy now days. Like here in the states if there is a freeze in Florida we can usually get something from California. If a grain crop doesn't do good in one state we can get grain from another. What we have going on now is it looks like China has been totally wiped out of their food supply due to extreme flooding throughout their whole country. If it isn't flooding it is drought to the point of locust and grasshoppers taking the rest of the food supply. So what does that have to do with us??  Think about it. Where are they going to get the food for millions and millions of people? I am going to include a link in here so you can watch the video. Skip any advertisements and occasional little repeat of information but watch it. There is no telling how many thousands of people were killed in all that flooding but that country has a huge over population problem still. They still have to feed their people. Don't forget any warehouses they have for products meant to sell in the USA are probably gone also. Masks, medicine, camping equipment, simple everyday things to important equipment for manufacturing.

Largest Floods in Chinese History Wiped Out the Country’s Food & Grain Supply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erONP33MBlA

US: Canned Food Shortages due to Chinese Tin/Steel Supply Chain Failures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBOjxxCOUUc   (about 8 minutes)
this guy is big on the food supply. That is his thing if you listen to his other videos.

  I know when I was trying to buy some Throwback Mt Dew I couldn't because they quit making it and was only making the most popular. The grocery store manager said they didn't have enough cans for production. What in the world do you do without cans to store food in the grocery stores? Canning jars / glass, dehydration, more plastics we are not too sure about in the first place?

    Right now we are all pretty upset with China due to the pandemic and actually the whole society may not give a hoot about us. Still the common poor folks trying to survive are still people. They will be trying to buy up everything they can anywhere they can to feed the masses of people. How that works with politics right now I don't know. I know I have been hearing about China being aggressive in other countries. Maybe it was trying to find more land to supply more food? Who knows! Just remember... there is only so much food to go around anywhere in the world. Other countries are not having perfect growing weather and may not have enough to sell outside their own country.
    I believe the Bible says something about having enough food for 7 years? I'm not to good with those details. Can you imagine how much room that would take and learning how to actually store it so it would be good when you open it? Maybe you have family members or people like family you can work those details out with.

    Get with your other family members that live close by. Some will totally agree your need to go the extra mile to get your supplies in order the best you can. Others will think you are crazy and the government will fix it all. My favorite is God will protect us and won't let anything bad happen. Remember God also gave us brains and the ability to do for ourselves and others also ! For those family members and close friends that don't want to participate go ahead without telling them and plan on having extra if you can for them. You know they will be knocking on your door if your silly enough to tell them everyone is planning for a food supply. LOL

     I think the churches are in a good position to establish a food market for their towns. They can possibly organize growers to grow a established variety of needed foods. I am not totally familiar with the Mormon Church but what I am aware of they are really organized on the establishment of food availability. For that matter anyone with good organization and familiar with town folks could do it. Someone grow veggies, another does, chickens and eggs, someone else do lambs or beef or pigs etc.

    I know many of us are worried about a lot of important things and feel helpless. So the only other thing is try to think ahead the best we can so we don't jump the rails so bad and do alright.
   If we are lucky the president will accomplish Made In America products and medicines enough things won't get too hard on us. In the mean time we will just all have to plan the best we can.
   Don't forget, those dried beans in the bags at the store you should also be able to use as seed. No we don't know if it is non GMO or how it was grown with what chemical but does it matter if your really out of food in the cabinet? Now if you put your food in the freezer to get rid of bugs I'm not sure if that same bag of beans / seeds will grow. You may want to try it both ways. This spring germinate some that were in the freezer and then some that you left on the shelf. That should show you what would work before going to all the effort outside.

Love
Ranchmama

Emergency Food .... What Have We Learned About Food ?

Food Shortages
Emergency Food Supply Deals

Serving Sizes
Make your own Emergency Food Package
Keeping Food Portable
   This is long and windy. Many of the people that see this will already know about all this good stuff. Share it with someone that may need encouragement to save up some home goodies. 
    If I can figure out how to do it I will try to have photo's on serving sizes in the future.
    One thing for sure, we have all learned a lot or at least more about the things we only had a idea about. I bet there are some folks that can't believe they go though as much groceries as they do! I mean we all know we spend a lot of money on stuff at the store but when you have to start eating 99.9% of your meals at home, WOW! You can have a real moment of disbelief when you see how much your family goes through. Even if it's just 2 people and your not big eaters, when you start bringing food in for 2 or 3 meals a day into your house for at least a week at a time it stacks up pretty quick.
    Anyone make it to the store or try to do some online shopping at the beginning of all this pandemic stuff and find out it just wasn't there and not going to be for a few weeks or longer? I know I went online to walmart and made a grocery list. As I put it in the basket it was there. Fifteen minutes later when I went to check out at least half of it wasn't in stock. In just 15 minutes ! It is better now compared to what it was. But we still have a lot of things that have limits of 1 or 2 on them if they are in stock. Personally I wish I had a years supply of all the things I know don't go bad. Things like shampoo, laundry soap, dishwasher stuff. sugar, flour. TP of course ! LOL I know that isn't all food. It is stuff that makes life easier and more comfortable.
    I have even looked at all those ads you see about emergency food supplies. You buy a years supply for one or two people and you have way the heck over a $1000.00 bill to go with it. It states it has ???? amount of servings for everyone. Just for fun I bought some Krust Ease Pancake and Waffle mix it was really cheap $1.97 for 32 ozs. I looked at the back and it said for 4 - 7 servings mix 1 cup of mix with 2/3rds cup of water. See it has everything in it so I wouldn't have to store all that extra milk, and baking powder etc. Each pancake was to be approximately 4" round. The best I can figure out 3 of those little bitty pancakes was a serving for 1 adult. So that one cup mix and water was probably enough for 2 people. If your in a upside down world that is not enough food to put a dent into a hungry belly! If you happen to be really active your going to have to add a lot more stuff to the meal. I doubled up the pancake size using 1/2 cup of batter. That was more like it. It wasn't IHOP pancake size but I could live with it. I know the first picture is ugly but the first batch of pancakes don't always turn out right and I didn't have a lot of batter here to play with to get it perfect.

                                                   1/4 cup                  1/2 cup                               

    

  1/2 cup

 

    Have you ever looked at those "deals" really good? I have been looking at some. Not like I have a lot of money to spend on that stuff but I am seeing small batches of big cans of this and that thinking maybe I could afford to stash that away. When you get down to it and really look at the contents of all those big bundles a lot of it just wouldn't do well in my family. It has items and seasonings we just don't like. It would be a waste of money to buy it if we wouldn't eat it some day. If you have dangerous food allergies like I do that could kill you at the worst or close to it you really need to make your own food emergency bundle. Maybe your diabetic or have crohns or something else. 
    Go look at some emergency food deal you think you like. I know way too much money you just can't spend. But copy their list of what they have in it and how many servings. After looking above you may want to plan on double or triple the servings per person. You do know that in more times than I can count I have seen that exact item on the grocery store shelves. Usually in a can or box or bag. The difference is many times the stuff in the store is not in a container that will last a long long time compared to their stuff in a airtight can or freeze dried heavy duty bag. That's ok. Right now our current emergency is no work, no money, government help is either not there or very hard to get even though it isn't supposed to be. WE ARE IN A EMERGENCY SITUATION NOW !
    When you are able to get a few extra items for your family don't worry about the fancy stored things. Just have it in the house somewhere. Date everything that comes in after you disinfect it. (That's what I do so maybe things won't get to old and lost in a cabinet)
    I like to cook from scratch. All those mixes and things have stuff in it I just can't eat because I have food allergies. (Thank you alpha gal)
I tried the pancake mix just to see what their serving size was. It's just ad water so I could just bag some servings up, label it and put directions on it for camping or a quick exit if your in a neighborhood that has gone wild. I need to make my own mix somehow. The milk and I think it has yeast in it is driving my breathing wild so here comes the breathing meds! I wish I could find some powdered coconut milk to make my own mixes. Another day maybe.
    I keep putting off things like getting the food drier out and actually getting something on sale and drying it. They say the food shortage is going to get worse. Anything that was grown in the ground will be in short supply. You think ok we will have plenty of dairy products etc. Remember the grain and other forage these animals eat my not be in good supply so best try to get or grow what you can now.
    I don't know about you but it feels good knowing I am able to feed my family when things are crazy. I can even cook up something and share it with someone that may not have enough that week.
    If things really get bad in your neighborhood and you need to leave and stay with family or somewhere else take your food with you! Have containers you can shove or store it in and toss in the auto. Plan to have enough to go for as long as possible because you just don't know how things will go now days.
    If you made it this far I would love to know how you would like to do things for your family. If you have any bright ideas let me know. 

 

Love

Ranchmama