One of the known problems with stored food is called menu exhaustion.
The first time I ran into this was camping with the boy scouts. One of the kids brought Vienna sausages for all his meals. He loved them, and they were easy to cook. He was bragging to everyone else about all the benefits of Vienna sausages, at least for the first day! He shut up the next day....
By the third day, he was trying to trade for food. By the fourth day, he was wildcrafting!
Spices make a big difference, because the beans that are your "Vienna sausages"; and when you just Can't eat another bowl, they taste good as chili! Rice that is "coming out of your ears", with some chicken bullion or curry added; becomes tasty again. I want to try some staghorn sumac berries in rice to see if it is close enough to lemon seasoning, to be tasty. They use sumac on the Mediterranean for cooking, so I need to look up some of those recipes too.
Spices are an inexpensive way to widen your menu, using mostly the same base ingredients. Spices can also make some wildcrafted foods more acceptable taste wise, which will stretch your survival pantry!
I recommend that before you buy quantity on spices, you try some first; to be sure you like their taste. It would be bad to open supplies, after civilization crashes; only to find it too hot to eat, when it is impossible to replace it!
I got these in a few weeks ago, and posted on it:
After trying the chili powder, And finding it good...but strong; I decided to stock up on some more, as a bridge until I can grow the ingredients to make my own.
Recent spice add, as a result of stocking up:
This is an added 80 oz of chili powder to add to my 40 oz already stored at the homestead!
A side note, if you add a tablespoon of Cocoa powder to your chili, the other spices will go further. Cocoa is a reference spice that resets your taste buds, so you can used less spices. This is the chili that doesn't make you burp chili all evening, but still tastes spicy!
So stock in straight Cocoa to go with this chili powder. That will be my next stock purchase.
The back up plan is always seeds for your most used spices, for Long term pantry supplies.
Prep weekly, and think outside the box they dream of putting you in!
Excellent info!
It will make a basic survival stockpile a lot more usable! It is also an inexpensive add. I plan to Wildcraft some flavors too, we have staghorn sumac in profusion locally for one. I have thrown out herb seeds for several others on the public access land around the lake for backup.
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Are you on discord or telegram?
I'd like a back channel communication with you, Sir 👍
Played with discord, but couldn't find the same conversation twice. I am on proton mail under [email protected]. It is a free encoded email, which may become important as things degrade...hope not, but if they do....
It's a great life, if you don't weaken, LOL!
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Sent an email Mr Smith
Answered, LOL! 🤕😆😁
I just have Gmail so my end is obviously not secure
Proton mail is free, and 64 bit encoded. They also give one free VPN....
Gmail (yes, I have one) is the worst data miner that exists. They make a Lot of money selling your...and my data.
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Need to mix things up for sure.
Variety is the Spice of life, and spice is the variety of life...kind of fits, LOL!!
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Good thinking. I think chili powder is one of those spices that loses some potency over time, but I bet you roll through a couple of those at least each fall/winter :) And thanks for the tip about cocoa powder, I'll try to remember that next time I make a chili.
Seeds, especially for herbs that don't need much gardening attention, is a good call too. I assume you have a lot of salt stockpiled too.
Most all food stuff will loose strength over the long haul,so just st use a little more. I cook to taste anyway, and intend to refill these with home grown later anyway.
I will have herbs for cook...and medicine growing in protected locations, to keep the deer from stripping my plants.
I have a lot of salt stockpiled for barter too, but the salt flats that wagon trains used to stop here to restock their salt supplies is close by.
Be safe, and ready!
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