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/ Blog About Subscribe About Prepping on the Knob Policies and Notices Copyright Notice Disclaimer Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Why ‘The Knob’? Prepping on the Knob Gluten-Free and Practical Preparation for Disasters at Home and Away Coping with Freezer Contents in a Disaster Prepping No Responses » Jul 07 2016 Our freezer decided it was time for it to take a break and we’ve been busy unloading it and moving what was still frozen to a cooler temporarily and stuffing our dehydrators with fruit and veggies that will live on the shelves instead of the freezer this summer. In the process, we found one lost” box of Spinach Cheese dips that we tossed (wonder how long that had been hiding in there?), some peaches that didn’t get blanched before freezing, a couple of boxes of lost veggies with freezer burn, etc, but most things in there were recently dated and in pretty good shape. There was only one box of blueberries, which is about perfect, as blueberries are just starting to come in. There were quite a few measured bags of berries, which I’d planned to turn into jam over the winter, but had not yet gotten to. Instead, they are now all mixed up, blackberries, raspberries and wineberries, and are simmering on the stove to drive off some of the liquid before I puree the entire lot and make fruit leathers of them. Only one large bag of muscadines was to be found, so I’m cooking it down a bit, as well, and will probably just make a jar of juice from it, to drink this weekend. Quite a few pre-measured containers of winter squash and pumpkin were in there and I decided to turn them into veggie leathers, which I can still use to make pie or toss into a soup or casserole. We don’t buy a lot of frozen fruit or veggies such as squash, eggplant or asparagus and I only found two commercial bags in the freezer: a half-used bag of mangoes and a sealed bag of raspberries, which someone must have given us or we thought we were going to use for a special recipe, but didn’t, since there were also a half-dozen boxes of berries we had picked ourselves, from the many wild vines on the property. After about three hours of sorting and loading in to two of our dehydrators, plus tossing out about a bucketload of older produce we found, I was more than ready for a break. Had the cause been a major disaster that knocked out our power, we would have had at least three times the amount to deal with and would have had to deal with canning stock and the thawing meat from our second freezer, not just fruits and veggies from the smaller one (which we are hoping will heal itself after a thorough defrosting and cleanup). I have another dehydrator that we could use to speed up the process a bit and we could run all three on a generator (keeping in mind that it will take about 8-16 hours for each load to dry; more if it includes meat for jerky). And we could run the dehydrators inside in winter (but not the generator, obviously), to increase the heat inside. The meat would have to be dealt with much more quickly than any veggies and it is seldom cold enough in winter to use the great outdoors as a meat locker here, so it would have to be cooked (using charcoal or a propane grill, assuming we have enough of either on hand), then either dehydrated or possibly canned (count on needing quite a bit of propane and a very sturdy cooktop, if you don’t have a gas stove, plus about 2+ hours per pressure canner load, between getting it up to steam temp and cooling down to be able to open it). A freezer full of meat would take several days to can (or maybe more than a week, if you take breaks for silly things like sleeping), assuming you have the supplies on hand, while I think the same amount could be cooked and dried in slightly less time. So, was does this have to do with prepping? For one thing, I’ve read many a blog or site where the author’s plan for dealing with a major power-outage event calls for him (and yes, it is almost always a guy with such a plan) to spend a day pressure canning his large freezer of meat after the event occurs. Often the person has supplies on hand, stocked up against such an event occurring, but has never even used a steam canner, let alone a pressure-canner. The reality of how much time it can take to can a larder full of meat is never considered. We’ve had the power off here for a week or more a couple of times in winter and it’s much easier to consolidate food into one frig or freezer and use a generator to keep them at the proper temp, firing it up a few times a day. If the cause of the outage were to be an EMP or solar-flare induced catastrophe, that plan might not work, even if your generator will fire up and you were willing to run it at your location in what would be a very, very quiet new world. If you have propane on hand for shorter emergencies, there isn’t a problem using it for cooking meals, perhaps grilling a big bunch of steaks, or even deciding to run your dehydrator on a generator for a couple of days. Would you want to do so, however, after an event that is likely to last for several weeks (or months or years)? I also went to my paper library for Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrator Cookbook and the Excalibur Dehydrator Cookbook that I got as a bonus with my first dehydrator. I have the Ms. Bell’s Food Drying with an Attitude on Kindle, along with a few others, but didn’t feel like searching thru it to look up a couple of times and to confirm that the asparagus, eggplant and Rhubarb should dehydrate just fine (we seldom have enough excess to freeze or dry, as we eat these as soon as we pick them, usually). Had there been a power failure involved, I certainly would not want to drain my Kindle’s battery sooner than I had to, even though we do have a couple of solar chargers here to use for such emergencies. Posted by The Prepper on July 7, 2016 at 9:14 AM Tagged with: Emergency Preparedness Prepping for Winter Storms, Part I Prepping , Weather No Responses » Feb 22 2015 Winter snows can be beautiful, as you can see by the sunset off my back porch, above. But, if you aren’t prepared for Winter’s storms, they can also be deadly. Today, we are in a lull between storms, here in East TN, with conditions perfect to lock us in for a week. First, cold weather froze the ground and roads, then a front of sleet and ice that turned to snow and more cold, followed by more snow. Today it’s finally above freezing, but what is on the the ground can’t thaw quickly enough that I expect it to be gone before the next snow front moves in tomorrow. Our total amount of snow is low, especially compared to those in the North East, but that inch of ice at the bottom of it all means the roads are treacherous, with even small hills too slick to climb, let the steep and narrow roads that make up most of this end of the state. Here, we do have a main road about a mile away and those that prepared early by moving their vehicles to a church parking lot were able to get out after the snow plows were persuaded to come that far (assuming, of course, they could walk the mile thru 10F weather over ice, up and down steep ridges). Others on this road were locked in for several days; they were lucky not to lose power in this storm, as over 60K closer into town did (and many more throughout the state; a week into the storm, there are still 50K without power and the state has elevated the disaster level to Level 2 – only one level is higher and it automatically calls out the military for assistance, rather than just the limited mobilization they have done so far). Weather related deaths are officially at 18 across the state, but that list doesn’t count those who died of exposure in this county (a 94 year old woman got locked out of her house overnight the first night, for example) or those who may have died in some of the more remote areas that have lost power and relief efforts haven’t been able to check on them, yet. One neighbor called up asking if we had any space heaters, as...