Storing Systems

When to buy: Grocery Sale Cycles

• 22 Jan 2012
• Jayce
• 1 response

Part of being a good prepper is not just buying extra food, but the art of learning how to buy right. Purchasing foods especially can be an art form for knowing when to get the best prices, and best quality. For instance, it’s usually a bad idea to buy a vegetable who’s harvest is about to happen, as you know that means you are getting what’s left from last year. Your food won’t taste as good, and it won’t store as long as it’s already got a year down. Grocery stores know this, so many frugal shoppers have studied the common grocery sale cycles to understand how the manufacturers and stores are working together to move their product most efficiently. (more…)

Tags: Food, Food Storage, Howto, Links, planning, preparedness, preps, Shopping, Storing Systems

Reusable Canning Lids

• 20 Oct 2011
• angela
• 4 responses

How many canning lids do you have in your storage? Canning in a long term emergency situation means having the supplies to do it. You’ll need your canner, jars, rings, and of course those pesky lids. Lots of them. Those lids that you can only use once and then you need a new lid. And once you’ve used your stash of lids, then what? Or is there a better way? What about canning lids that can be used over and over?

Last fall I tried some Tattler reusable canning lids. I canned jam, tomatoes, and salsa with them. The Tattler company has been making these lids since 1976. They are two pieces–a plastic lid and a rubber gasket. You’ll need the metal rings that came with your jars or you can buy some extras on the Tattler site if you’re short on rings. The lids are BPA free and made in the USA. Tattler has them available for wide mouth and regular jars. The upfront cost of $7.00-$8.00 per dozen is, of course, more than the metal lids, but with regular re-use they pay for themselves pretty quickly.

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Tags: Canning, Food Storage, preps, Storing Systems, supplies

Introducing Goal 0 solar power products

• 25 Mar 2011
• ekim
• 5 responses

Here at UtahPreppers we try to keep an eye on prepping topics, trends and products from all over the country and often the world. Even though we try to keep a global focus we still like finding and supporting local businesses that fit into the prepping niche. We recently met up with a Bluffdale company to take a look at some of their innovative solar products.

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Tags: Battery, gear, lights, power, preparedness, preps, Reviews, solar, solar panel, Storing Systems

Saving Money By Storing Food Article

• 17 Mar 2011
• Jayce
• 3 responses

Money by AMagill, on Flickr

Looking back on my list of things that I’ve “meant to blog” for a long time, I found a link I needed to share.  A friend of mine, and longtime follower of this blog, Erin McNew wrote an article for Yahoo’s Associated Content site about food storage.  I will of course take this chance to tease her for cheating on me, and posting to a different site, especially one that won’t allow for me to repost the content.  However I may tease though, It’s a great article written to explain to people how storing food is a sensible way to save money.  Something that most “preppers” understand, especially people usually interested in this blog.  However oftentimes people who wouldn’t normally figure themselves to be preppers, can still at least get back to some of the basics of previous generations.

Check out Erin’s article Saving Money by Storing Food for a nice introduction that could be very helpful in getting friends/neighbors/family to think a little more about adding to their food storage plans.

Tags: Economy, Food, Food Storage, Links, Storing Systems

Shelf Reliance Special Event

• 15 Apr 2010
• Jayce
• 2 responses

Our friends over at Shelf Reliance (the people that make the amazing roller shelving all the authors here love so much) are having a special event this weekend, that I’ve been meaning to post for a while now.  You see, they’ve been selling awesome shelving, and a great line of food storage products for a while now, but they have decided to open up another channel for sales.  Yes, they are starting up their own “Home Parties“.

For those interested in maybe making a little money, or getting even better deals on some of the best, locally made food storage products, it might be in your interest to check it out.  It’s open to everybody, and they’ll be giving demo’s for people interested in how to use many of their products.

From their blog announcement:

The goal of Shelf Reliance Home Parties is to share the vision of preparedness and food storage with people across the country. There’s a certain sense of accomplishment that comes from building your own future while helping others prepare for theirs, and Shelf Reliance Home Parties is the perfect opportunity to experience this for yourself. Our great-tasting food and competitive pricing have made us a leader in the industry, and this new business opportunity will allow you to benefit from our history of excellence. Whether you’re interested in a career with Home Parties, want to host a few parties here and there, or just want to see what it’s all about, we invite you to attend and hope you’ll stay to chat!

When: Saturday, April 17th.

Place: Golf Clubhouse at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah

Time: 1:00-5:00 PM (1-3 Open House, 3-5 Launch Presentation)

Admission: absolutely free

Tags: Food Storage, Preppers, Storing Systems

Growing and Harvesting Dry Beans

• 23 Oct 2009
• angela
• 9 responses

Dry Beans, clockwise from top: Calypso, Jacob's Gold Cattle, Jacob's Cattle, Black Valentine, Mayflower

One of my garden experiments this year was growing dry beans.  Most of the “survival seed” packs have a variety of beans in them.  I had five different kinds of dry bean seeds in addition to my usual favorite green bean varieties, so had plenty of beans growing in the garden this year.  The dry bean varieties I planted were Calypso, Jacob’s Gold Cattle Bean, Jacob’s Cattle Bean, Black Valentine, and Mayflower.  I also planted Blue Lake Bush Beans and Royalty Purple Pod Beans just for eating. (more…)

Tags: Food, Gardening, Reviews, Storing Systems, Survival Food

Product First Look – PolyFarm MonoVault

• 15 Oct 2009
• ekim
• 4 responses

In a previous post we introduced the concept of burial or sinking to disguise or otherwise hide equipment, weapons or other preps. Today we will take a first look the MonoVault line of products by PolyFarm of Meridian Idaho.

Three MonoVaults, 107, 212 and 152

Recently, some of the Utah Preppers authors met at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Salt Lake City. This is where we first met PolyFarm. After some discussions to learn about their production, they were kind enough to provide us with sample of one of their smaller MonoVaults to review and to beat up with some tests. I really like the idea of the product so I purchased a couple larger sizes so that we will be able to review several different sizes.
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Tags: burial systems, Evacuation Kits, gear, Links, PolyFarm, preps, Storing Systems

Burying a gun or other preps

• 07 Oct 2009
• ekim
• 6 responses

Mossberg 500 JIC

I have to admit that I have been a little obsessed with finding a decent option for burying, sinking or otherwise hiding a firearm and other preps since I first saw Mossberg’s Just In Case line of products a number of years ago.
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Tags: Evacuation Kits, Firearms, G.O.O.D. Bags, Guns, Links, Nuclear Survival, Nuke Preps, preps, Reviews, Storing Systems, Survival

Bug Out Vehicle Project

• 28 Sep 2009
• phil801
• 26 responses

The Bug Out Vehicle (BOV) is an essential part of every preppers inventory.  It is the means by which, should we find ourselves in a SHTF scenario, you will get you and your family to safety.  It should be able to not only provide reliable transportation for the family, but to haul all the gear you plan to take with you.  Alternatively it can also provide shelter, depending on your needs and how you see yourself bugging out.

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Tags: BOV, Bug Out Vehicle, Evacuation Kits, Storing Systems

Store zucchini in bread

• 14 Aug 2009
• wade
• 19 responses

I have been searching for the best way to store zucchini and have found the answer: in bread. Instead of trying to freeze the zucchini itself, make it into bread first and freeze the loaves.

Other options that I am trying are freezing the shredded zucchini pre-measured in individual bags and as bread dough, pre-measured in individual, disposable baking tins. Freezing the shredded zucchini allows for convenience as you only have to thaw exactly what you need and it’s already measured for the recipe. The frozen dough is even more convenient as it only requires baking, saving you time and a messy kitchen. The most convenient option of course is pre-baked loaves though as they come out of the freezer ready to eat. I’m going to do some comparisons through the winter to see how much of a difference in taste and texture there is between bread baked from frozen dough and the pre-baked frozen loaves. If it turns out that the frozen loaves are just as good as freshly baked bread, then I will stick with that. It’s much easier and saves a lot of electricity to have a baking day where you cook it all at once. (more…)

Tags: Food, Food Storage, Gardening, Howto, Storing Systems

DIY: Horizontal Storage of 55 gal. Water Barrels

• 19 Jul 2009
• royal
• 45 responses

FAILURE WARNING: After two weeks two barrels started to collapse due to insufficient support. I plan to add a 2×6 or 2×8 across the middle to increase the surface area supporting the barrels. I was anxious to share this project and should have waited longer to see if my concerns about too little support were legitimate. I will re-post this article once I have a proven design.

I will  I stumbled across this DIY project recently for storing 55 gal. water barrels horizontally. The biggest drawback of standard upright water barrels is getting the water out when needed. This generally involves either a siphon or a hand pump. Storing the barrels horizontally and adding a spigot to one of the caps makes using the barrels much more convenient. You’ll also be more likely to exchange the water every six months since it will be easier to do.

Here’s the website I found this project on and here are the instructions you’ll need (same pdf as you’ll find on the other website).

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Tags: 55 gallon barrels, DIY, horizontal, Howto, preps, Storing Systems, Water, water storage

Shelf Reliance: Free On Friday

• 16 Jun 2009
• Jayce
• 0 responses

Our friends over at Shelf Reliance are having a giveaway that they would like people to know about.  Now I am slightly loathe to tell folks about it, since hey, I want to win.  But it’s only fair to share right?  So over on the Shelf Reliance blog they have a post with all the details, some of which I’ll copy here:

“Shelf Reliance is giving away a Harvest 72″ food rotation system! Visit the Shelf Reliance blog at http://www.shelfreliance.com/blog/ to enter. The Harvest 72″ is valued at $459.99 and can hold up to 600 cans, making it perfect for a healthy food storage supply. The winner will be announced on Friday, June 26th, so hurry to the blog for your chance to win!” (more…)

Tags: Canned Foods, Food Storage, giveaway, Links, Storing Systems