Re: SCD Emergency Preparedness: was Re: Dried Fruit?

[Guest guest]

Heh. It's the big D for me if I have too much of that yummy dried

pineapple.

I believe you're correct about the freeze drying. I dimly remember one

gal who apparently came close to managing it by placing food on drying

racks in her freezer, and then setting up a fan to blow the cold air

across the food while it was freezing. (She ran the cord in the edge of

the freezer seal, and tapes around it to prevent leakage. I've never been

able to try it, because my freezer is never empty enough, and I don't

have room for a second freezer! <g>

As for power outage preparedness, I keep industrial quantities of Krivel

crackers and dried meat sticks around. Also some containers of nut

butter. Dried fruit. Industrial bottles of water. Canned salmon and/or

tuna. If there's a storm headed this way, I make yogurt and drip it and

put it in the travel fridge. Anything else that needs refrigeration goes

in the travel fridge. That way, if power is out, we can leave freezer and

fridge closed to preserve the cold as long as possible.

With Katrina, of course, the power was out for over a month, and we

weren't here, so we lost all the food AND the appliances.

I think the thing which saved my freezer this round with Gustav is that

before we left, I filled every nook and cranny with 3/4 full bottles of

water which had time to freeze solid before the storm hit and which

provided significantly extra frozen mass.

There's a discussion from last year on file in the BTVC-SCD library,

under " Getting Started with SCD. "

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BTVC-SCD/files/

in which we were discussing a few things that different people did. They

may not be applicable to you since no one in Ohio was expecting Ike to

knock their power out. (My sister, also in Dayton, sure didn't!)

I've been researching generators, and I may actually have persuaded Harry

that we should have one. I'm tired of gnawing on my fingernails,

wondering if the power will come back on in time to save all my SCD

foods! A friend has recommended a couple of the generators here

http://www.campinglife.com/output.cfm?id=1047547, although he

cautions that you should make sure they are secure, since, being small

and transportable, they are apt to develop legs and wander off.

I'm also checking into getting a solar panel to power at least the travel

fridge during the day.

We have LED lanterns and battery-powered fans which work really well.

Fortunately, it is warm enough here that even a late October storm

knocking out power would not be occasion for an emergency where heat is

concerned.

I really want to take lessons from an experienced food person on canning

SCD foods because then I could keep meat sauces and my own canned

vegetables and so forth, and have less worry about loosing all my hard

work.

—

Marilyn

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund