How to store eggs for eight months without refrigeration.

How to store eggs

If you want to add eggs to your food storage plan, follow these steps.

Number 1 – Buy a bag of lime; there are two types, quicklime and hydrated lime. You want, hydrated. Hydrated lime, sometimes called slaked lime, is quicklime to which water has been added until all the oxides of calcium and magnesium have been converted to hydroxides.

Number 2 – Get a food-grade container big enough to hold the number of eggs you want to preserve.

Number 3 – Spread a thin layer of lime in the bottom of the container.

Number 4 – Pre-mix 1 ounce of lime into 1 quart of water.

Number 5 – Fill the container with eggs.

Number 6 – Pour the pre-mixed lime solution into the container.

Number 7 – Pre-mix another quart if the container has not filled to the top.

Number 8 – Pour a thin layer of olive oil on top to help with water evaporation if your container is not airtight.

Number 9 – Seal the container with a lid, and you’ll have eggs for a least 8 months.

This method of preservation was used before refrigeration and will keep almost all of your eggs good for eight months.

Here’s another way

Just place your eggs in a bucket and cover them with wood ash. The eggs may take on an ash taste, but 80 percent of them will still be edible after eight months in storage.

And finally, just in case you were wondering, eggshells are porous, which allows bacteria and mold spores to get in and spoil the egg. The porous shells also let moisture out, which ruins the egg over time. All preservations methods are trying to prevent this from happening.

Honey, the ultimate survival food

Honey is a great long-term storage food that can be collected from wild bee colonies or domesticated beehives. An average hive produces around 65 pounds of honey.

Ripe, freshly collected, high-quality honey at 68 °F should flow from a knife in a straight stream, without breaking into separate drops. When poured, it should form small, temporary layers that disappear quickly, indicating high viscosity. If it does not form temporary layers, it has high water content and will not be suitable for long-term storage. The amount of water absorbed by honey depends on the relative humidity.

The honey has to be stored in sealed containers to prevent fermentation, which usually begins if the honey’s water content rises much above 25%. The average moisture content of floral honey is around 17% and cannot have more than 18.6% water content to qualify for the U.S. Grade A standard.

When buying honey from a beekeeper, you will typically not get a jar with an expiration stamp. However, honey sold in supermarkets will have this stamp because of commercial requirements.

Honey jars stamped with the “best before date” suggests a shelf life of 2 to 5 years. This “best before date” on the jar helps in indicating “freshness” of the honey and in a way signals to the customers whether or not the honey jar has been sitting on the shelf for too long; nobody wants to buy honey that is already years old even if it lasts forever.

10 crazy hangover cures used by our drunken ancestors

It’s January 1st, and I need a hangover cure, so I thought I would go back in time to see what our ancestors used.

10 crazy hangover cures

Number 1 – The resin of the Commiphora tree (myrrh) and ground-up bird beaks. Yummy!

Number 2 – Pickled sheep’s eyeballs. You see where I’m going with this now, don’t you?

Number 3 – Lick your own sweat. Now that’s a salty treat.

Number 4 – Snort tree Ivy juice. Why not? You probably snorted worse last night.

Number 5 – Prairie oysters. Now that’s something I can do, raw eggs in a shot glass with whiskey and Tabasco.

Number 6 – Raw owl’s eggs and sheep’s lungs. Nope, I like number 5.

Number 7 – Rabbit dung. You can thank the American cowboy for this one. Yippee-ki-yay!

Number 8 – Skull dust, dried viper, and spirit of hartshorn. You can’t make this stuff up, and the skull has to be from a freshly hanged criminal.

Number 9 – Bull penis soup. Good luck with that one.

And finally, Number 10 – Fried canary. Now that’s just mean.

I hope you enjoyed this little look at the hangover cures of our drunken ancestors. Now go get some aspirin out of your medicine cabinet and be thankful.

My wife wanted to know why I bought more salt

My wife asked, “why did you buy more salt?”

And I said smugly, “To cook and preserve food with if the grid goes down. What else would I be buying it for?”

And she said, “Oh, I thought you might be buying it to make industrial chemicals, you know they use salt for that.

It’s used cleaning as well.

De-icing sidewalks, maybe?

How about using it as a poison ivy remedy, or weed killer for that grass in the sidewalk?

You could use it to fix that hole in the laundry room sheetrock if you mix it with a little water and cornstarch.

It’s good for putting out grease fires too.

And since the grids going down, you might want to buy some to put in the water you’ll be using this winter to rinse your clothes with; just a little bit will keep them from freezing on the line,” she said smugly.

And I said… I said nothing because I wanted to live long enough to see doomsday.

How much food can you put in a food grade bucket

In general, five-gallon food-grade buckets can hold:

37 pounds of wheat

33 pounds of cornmeal

33 pounds of flour

36 pounds of rice

35 pounds of dried beans

35 pounds of sugar

37 pounds of whole corn

21 pounds of rolled oats

21 pounds of macaroni

29 pound of spaghetti

Density, size, and shape will determine the exact amount, but at least you have a good idea to go by for whatever you want to store in them.

Food storage, a lifesaver during disasters

Food storage can seem overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to store a month’s worth per person. That’s 2000 calories per person per day. Luckily we have options for helping us reach that goal

Grocery Stores

The food from grocery stores can be stored in its original packaging on a shelf, allowing you to rotate your supplies easily. However, the food in your refrigerator or freezer will need to have a backup generator ready to go if the power goes out.

Survival Food Companies

Survival food companies commonly dehydrated or freeze-dried their products and package them in sealed protective containers that you can store for years; some are even stackable.

Our Gardens

Food from our gardens or orchards can be stored in a variety of ways:

In canning jars. Canning is an important, safe method for preserving and storing food. The canning process involves placing foods in jars or similar containers and heating them to a temperature that destroys micro-organisms. During this heating process, air is driven out of the jar. As it cools, a vacuum seal is formed. There are two safe ways of canning food, the boiling water bath method, and the pressure canner method.

In a root cellar. Storing food in a root cellar is done by paying close attention to your crop varieties, your timing for harvest, and the best storage conditions for each type of fruit or vegetable. Generally, you’ll have food that stores well in a cold, damp environment and food that needs slightly warmer, drier conditions.

In a spring house. If you have a spring or stream on your property, a springhouse could be used to store some foods. It is made from a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring to keep food and liquids cool. The water from the spring or stream maintains a constant cool temperature inside the spring house throughout the year. Food that would otherwise spoil, such as meat, fruit, or dairy products, could be kept there to increase your food storage.

In seed form. While storing food as seeds will not provide you with food right away, It can be a lifesaver during a long-term disaster lasting months or years.

No matter where you get your food, you can increase the lifespan of some of it by storing it in vacuum-sealed bags or mylar bags.