Preparing Your Emergency Stash Without Gas Or Electric

[KevsFarm]

Okay, you have your grains, your hand powered grain mill, a goat or cow for milk, a few hens for eggs, baking powder, baking soda, sugar/honey..If their were no electric and next to impossible to get propane/natural gas etc for baking what are you going to do.? How are you going to cook those pancakes, waffles, biscuits, etc. that you stored your grains for..?How are you going to bake your cornbread, pizza or oven fried chicken...?
Woodfired cooking..? Thats what i'm aimming for.A little at a time, i've been buying made in America cast iron stuff.Camp Dutch oven,Skillets, cornbread pan,etc.I've been heating my home for over 20yrs with hardwood.I try to keep a two-three yr stash of firewood.I have the typical gas stove in my kitchen but have been trying to save for a good wood cookstove.I've seen a couple plain Jane, no whistle & bells models i like made by the Amish.They are baking/cooking workhorses, but they are not cheap.
Tell me other SS'ers, what will you do,what are your plans,if you find yourself suddenley in a no gas/electric situation...? How will you cook..? Until i get my wood cookstove i've been fooling around cooking cornbread in my home heating woodstove.I also recently bought a iron tri-pod for outdoor campfire cooking with my cast iron Dutch ovens.You know the way Jerimia Johnson and Grizzly Adams, the mountain men use to cook, same as the traveling west settlers and wagon trians of yesteryear....Solars ovens..? Outdoor brick ovens..? One pot meal simmering on the woodstove..? Please share...

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I've made regular stove top stuff on my woodstove... and tried a covered aluminum camping set INSIDE to make an apple crisp. it was terrible. I also made cornbread in a covered cast iron skillet on top of the woodstove, which, after I cut off the burny bottom, and ignored the pale dimpled unflipped-pancake looking top, tasted FABULOUS!!! You can also buy a coleman oven, that folds up, and sits on your stove like a box. I haven't used one, but my FIL swears by his when he goes camping.

 

[freemotion]

Winter: woodstove. Summer: rocket stove and solar oven. Spring/Fall: woodstove or rocket stove, depending, and also maybe some campfire cooking with the Dutch oven.

Also, rocket stove and haybox spring/summer/fall.

I will live without flour if I must. Grains can be delicious cooked whole. I have no plans right now for a hand mill, however, I am not a bit large-scale SHTF type, just preparing for my own individual crises! And any temporary natural disaster that leaves me in my home but without power for days or weeks.

 

[TanksHill]

I dutch oven cook almost every time I go camping. I have a tripod as well.

I store some propane for the camp stove.

I am thinking of storing some charcoal, (skr8pn influence).

Emergency essentials has a new product I am thinking about trying. It's expensive but last forever!!

http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q... Up! Emergency Fuel & Firestarter IN-A-BUCKET

But I guess none of these are permanent solutions.

I would love a wood cook stove.

g

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I have been wanting a Volgolzang Kitchen stove for years, but I thought it would just be to cook and heat during the winter months. I never thought, until today that I might actually need a woodburning stove during the summer.....which would mean an outdoor kitchen because if you think it gets hot where most of you live, you have no idea. But I suppose I would have some sorta outdoor kitchen and would make do by cooking over open fires.

 

[Wannabefree]

rocket stove, solar oven, grill, pit, campfire, etc. I cook outside a lot in the summer anyway because it's too stinkin hot if I cook in the house! TN heat and humidity can be terrible.

 

[KevsFarm]

I was thinking along the lines of more than a temporary disaster, natural or man made.Whole grains are nice. Sure i like oatmeal on a cold wintersday, and a nice homemade gronala myself.But, you know...a nice pizza in a woodstove or brickoven can be mighty tempting... I couldn't imagine not being able to mill some of my grains into bakable flours..!I love home baked breads, pies and such...I definitely plan for longer than a temporary disaster.
I store allot of grain and corn. I can mill it, i can use it whole, and i can plant and grow it as needed.My thinking is the grains availble now, my not be availble in the near future. There is no sure bet when it come to growing your own grain, one could experience drought, floods, etc, as we are seeing around the world.One may go 2-3 seasons before having good enough conditin to grow a good crop.. That is why if you can afford to, i think it is wise to store as much grain as you can. After all, it's an investment, when stored properly, the shelf life can be decades for grains, beans and corn. Of course this is just my opinion, and i relize others think differently, but i just love the smell and taste of home baked goods..lol

 

[KevsFarm]

You bet...! The outdoors summer kitchen for sure..! I visited some friends who had the finest outdoor kitchen i ever saw in northern Calf.I was all built under a canopy to protect from sun and rain. It was designed for cooking big meals for groups of people/gatherings.Although the cookstoves were not woodfired, it was so nice because when i was visiting it was kinda hot out.It was designed with lots of counter workspace, a couple sinks and plenty of refrigration with was all solar powered...It was actually a small self contained organic farm, that sold organic veggies to monks at the bottom of the mountain.
The experience gave me some great ideas, but on a smaller scale..

 

[moolie]

I'm a Girl Guide leader, and have been cooking on campfires since I was a kid in Girl Guides. Cast iron rules, and there are some truly tasty things that can be cooked on a stick (bannock, fish, lots of meats really).

That said, winter lasts a good 6 months here and it's important to have an indoor cooking solution as well--we have a wood stove and it's not rocket science to cook on top of it (although I haven't done much other than cooking steel cut oats just to say I did it or boiling water for tea), plus I have both a home-made "stove top camp oven" as well as a Coleman version that I found on Kijiji for cheap a few years ago. One thing we love to bake in either camp oven is muffins baked in orange rinds (cut the pulp out of orange halves and use it as the liquid in your favourite muffin recipe--the taste of these muffins is absolutely heavenly!)

I'd love a wood cookstove, but that won't happen in this house--nowhere to put it. Definitely something to save for though!

 

[Marianne]

Winter: woodstove. Summer: rocket stove and solar oven. Spring/Fall: woodstove or rocket stove, depending, and also maybe some campfire cooking with the Dutch oven.

Also, rocket stove and haybox spring/summer/fall.

I will live without flour if I must. Grains can be delicious cooked whole. I have no plans right now for a hand mill, however, I am not a bit large-scale SHTF type, just preparing for my own individual crises! And any temporary natural disaster that leaves me in my home but without power for days or weeks.

Ditto here. But I won't feel really comfortable until we have a hand pump for one of the wells and a short wave radio.
I have a wood burner in the house and a little cast iron one in the shop, scrounged up a couple cast iron pans. I usually cook on the wood stove in the house during the winter anyway. Not always, but it's pretty easy to do. I have printed off campfire cooking recipes, made skillet bread just to see how it went.
We have all the stuff to make a rocket stove, but it'd have to be in the shop as our floors in the house wouldn't support all that weight.
The last time the power went out for 8 days, the closest gasoline was 40 miles from here. So I'll pass on the generator. And many cultures make flour with a modified mortar and pestle, so I'll pass on the grain mill, too. If the power goes out in the winter for an extended period, I can freeze jugs of water overnight to keep frig and freezer cool, then get to cooking and canning that freezer stuff! You can even can bacon.