Why do people buy perishable food when they hear a bad winter storm is coming.

Gazrok
I think a lot of folks are missing the point. We ALL have perishable stuff in our fridge, etc., just that it isn't ALL we have. I'll still lose a couple hundred bucks worth of food if we lose power...if we lose it for more than a day. Doesn't matter that I still have stuff to eat...NOBODY likes to lose a chunk of change....

Also, even an OFF fridge will still keep things for about 4-6 hours, as long as you don't go in and out of it. Of course though, when it's freezing outside, kind of a no-brainer... THERE IS YOUR FRIDGE!!!

If not cold outside, there are some steps. First, keep a couple bags of ice in a freezer (if you can). Power goes out, take a bag out and put it in the fridge to help. Freezer packs also work for this. Also, you can consolidate food together, to have it keep other foods cool. Especially if you can move food to the freezer (just be sure to move it back once you have power!)

Some folks may advise dry ice. Personally, If your fridge/freezer is still cold, this could simply cause dry ice to go bye-bye (not to mention the expense, and usually not something one has on hand....

If I have meat in the fridge/freezer, and we lose power...after 4 hours, I'm having a barbeque!!! Fire up the grill!!!

edit on 13-2-2014 by Gazrok because: (no reason given)

If the power goes out in the summer, i probably wont lose any money to spoiled food since i know how to prepare and store everything in it. keeping it cold is a convenience, the most i would lose is milk.. whoopty doo.

born and raised on a chicken farm that sold eggs for human consumption and sold the chickens for pet food when they got to old.
eggs will last for about 5 to 8 weeks depending on the ambient temperature and humidty.

if eggs have been refrigerated they will last 4 to 6 weeks past the sell date if kept refrigerated. do not use eggs that were refrigerated and left out and get to room temp then put back in the refrigerator, they will only be good for about 1 to 2 weeks.

reply to post by jdoors

That woman in Atlanta was a total idiot. I lived in Germany for 6 years. Putting your cold items - outdoors - where it is cold - will keep stuff in the fridge good. She can use laundry baskets on her back porch or balcony if she is in an apartment - or even in her car.

I got milk because I figured I'd be watching the Grandchildren who drink a lot of milk. I wasn't a bit worried about the fridge going out. I knew my porch, heck even my garage was as cold if not colder than the fridge.

If it was summer, I'd have gotten powdered milk if I thought I'd need it.

reply to post by jdoors


When we lost all power and services in S.W. Missouri from the 07 ice storm, we had many problems and many issues. Right in the cities, much less the towns. Keeping food cold....wasn't among them. In fact, keeping ourselves from freezing as solid as the food just set on the back patio was far more a concern than any food items getting warm. That would have been a paradise for the problem to deal with back then.

Cooking..is a bit more of a challenge perhaps, but doesn't anyone ever go camping anymore? No one has a camp stove or portable burner to do basic non-electrical cooking with? That alone is a very scary thing to contemplate.

So power drops..and a good % cannot prepare hot food or sterilize/clean anything properly? Yikes.... You can shoot, trap or barter for food. Health only gets one shot and cooking ability is critical far a whole lot more than food IMO. I'd hope people would prioritize with that and put cooking/boiling ability just below defense and hunting ability.

I heard another 12footer is expected today from my parents in the north.

I went out and bought a durian, mango and lychees.

They are not "survival" shopping. They are shopping under the expectation that they will we stuck in their warm, cozy homes for a couple of days and that driving anywhere would be a hassle.

Ok so with the eggs - if they have been refrigerated you cannot then store them at room temp because refrigeration has rendered room temp ineffective (even if you coat them). Really good info on egg storage by the way.

With warm weather - I say just don't have a lot of items that need to be kept cool. Some ways to cool things are of course water - if your close to a source, and maybe a root clear could prolong the life of food items. I always think - cook it as quickly as possible since it won't go bad as fast if cooked. If you can - can stuff - you can then pickle it and it will last a good long while (I don't know how to do that). I have heard mason jars do provide protection if you can get it cooked quickly enough though. But for warm weather power outages there aren't a lot of options. Just have to use or it toss it - milk, uncooked meats, etc.

Any fellow raw vegans on here in the north?

What do you gals/guys stock up on before the blizzard, tornadoes etc?

Winter storms are harsh and brutal, many of these storms arrive with only half a days warning.
Folks sitting at work and listening to the radio yapping about doom and gloom, yet they are not allowed to leave until the boss says so.

So now your free to go home half an hour early and there is 5 inches on the ground and as you listen to your radio in the car the announcer keeps repeating again and again that this storm (Place a name here...by the way a new thing is to name winter storms)
is going to be the death of you and your family.

After an hour drive you are almost home but wait, there is the supermarket at the corner and I better get some supplies because radio station xxx keeps telling me I am going to die from a snow storm named big snowball!

You know you got canned beans and alphagettie coming out your ying yang in your pantry but you need milk, eggs bread, so on and so on because the freeking radio wont shut up about how evil this "Big snowball" storm is.

You fight the shopping cart through the drifts to your car, you finally get loaded up and make it home to a very snowed in road and driveway.

Dig Dig Shovel and Shovel, your there in your own garage or driveway saying thank you to the sky.

You unload all your food and kick back at the kitchen table thinking how good it is to spend 200 bucks in just 10 minutes.
Radio station xxx is now saying that the storm is passed and tomorrow is looking fabulous with a sunny day (not named) with temps in the high 60's and the roads will all be clear in the morning.......

Folks will buy anything when they are told that you might die today, but if you get supplies you might see morning and get to go to work again and by the way stay tuned to us here at Radio XXX we are here to help you.


Regards, Iwinder

gardener
Any fellow raw vegans on here in the north?

What do you gals/guys stock up on before the blizzard, tornadoes etc?

Im no vegan but i prefer my veggies raw. i usually stock up in advance of anything with carrots,potato,mushrooms, and turnips(i love those) onion would be on the list but unless its winter, i live in a region where they grow wild

reply to post by Iwinder


You nailed it. unless you were low on food to begin with, there is no reason to "stock up"

EDIT: i know i said i stock up on veggies but me stocking up is my monthly grocery store visit

reply to post by Gazrok

If not cold outside, there are some steps. First, keep a couple bags of ice in a freezer (if you can). Power goes out, take a bag out and put it in the fridge to help. Freezer packs also work for this. Also, you can consolidate food together, to have it keep other foods cool. Especially if you can move food to the freezer (just be sure to move it back once you have power!)

Good point, also if you own a deep freeze you probably have a lot of meat and stuff in it that is worth a lot of money.
We wash out and fill with water 2 Litre plastic bottles (soda/pop) and place them in the freezer where we have room.

Its a lot of ice and its free, In our deep freeze we keep 5-6 of them in there depending on how much room we have at the time.

Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by Iwinder


I do that too so i can put them in my beer cooler

Mianeye
reply to post by jdoors

 

Actually eggs doesn't need to be keept cool, it's only the western world and city folks who does that.

The other thing is, it's cold outside so keeping your food cold shouldn't be to hard.

edit on 13-2-2014 by Mianeye because: (no reason given)

Yep. When we trekked outside for a gallon of milk and decided to stop and get some food at a surprisingly open restaurant (they got stuck there lol), we just tucked the gallon of milk into the snow. And really, I don't know about most people but my kids usually polish off a gallon of milk within a day or two (hence the snowy milk run). Freaking milk junkies.

reply to post by EyesOpenMouthShut


I'm a raw veggies kind of guy myself, but I always have canned food handy, enough for three meals a day for two weeks. Soup, beans, stew, fruit, etc. I usually have bags of jerky as well.

I'll rotate them over time as sometimes I'm just to lazy and hungry and want something in my stomach now. I've got sardines that are going to expire come June, so I guess I'll toss them back with some crackers this month and go out and buy some more.

Luckily, like Wrabbit, I also have my camping stove with plenty of propane.

Us dumb old hicks would just put perishables it out in the snow

reply to post by jdoors


Really? Did you really just say that?!?!?!

Use common sense before writing an OP like that please... People do have food in their house that they buy on a regular basis. When a storm hits and the power shuts off, the food that was bought previously to the storm goes bad. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Im sorry but this OP was not thoughtout well at all. Please use that thing between your ears and think about your OP before you post.

Not all people buy non parishable food because it is not healthy for you and alot of it you need to cook. What if that person can't get to the store to buy non perishable food because the roads are unsafe...

Yes Non parishable food is a good thing to have incase of an emergency, I agree with you, but you must use common sense before posting a thread.

If you want to store an egg for extended periods, coat them with beeswax.
2nd.

reply to post by snypwsd


Why would the food go bad in the first place if the temp outside is cold enough to freeze it?

We can always cook on the gas grill, but we also have a fireplace if it really came down to it. (old school type, burns wood).

We also have a couple of charcoal mini-grills around, but I imagine it would be hard to get the coals going (since we never use them). Guess we could switch it to wood though. Plenty of that around. We stock firewood, but rarely any call for it here in FL. Even when cold, I rarely want to deal with it, not while central heat/air is working....

We also have a lot of Sterno onhand, as we do a bit of entertaining. Add to that, we have oil lamps as decor pretty much all over the house (enough to light each room solely with those, if we had to). On occasion, we've done that for mood. Nice thing is, the oil lamps' light can be adjusted with the knobs.

Can't imagine living up north without some kind of grid-independent heating/cooking method.