The following article has been contributed by a fellow prepper named Mike. It has been published with permission of the author.
In a previous article, I wrote about our bug-out plans aboard our yacht when the SHTF. Today I am going to review some details of how we plan to survive afloat. While your plans may not involve a boat, you can still possibly use our techniques in your preparedness plans.
Food, you can only last about 3 weeks without consumption. When prepping, it takes some time to consider what foods you must store for the future. But storing any food that is not both tasty and nutritious will be a waste of time.
In our prepping planning process we could not figure how to plan for having fresh vegetables, as you might imagine, we have very limited garden space aboard our boat. So we came across the idea of sprouting seeds; this looked to be a good idea for fresh vegetables.
Not only are sprouts loaded with enzymes, they are also packed with vitamins and minerals.
If it’s Alive, You will Thrive
You must have some food that is alive. Live (fresh) plant foods contain enzymes which help to digest foods. You need to have some foods that are a supply of live enzymes so that you can better digest your food. In times of anxiety, your digestive system tends to falter a little; it needs enzymes to break down the food to function properly.
Every time someone asks me where to begin when purchasing sprouting seeds, I always tell them to start with the fundamentals: grains and beans. These are nearly infallible. Look for the sprouts you see in the grocery store produce section; perhaps even buy some for a taste test.
So what seeds are best to sprout? Wheat is good and you can also sprout grains such as barley, buckwheat, corn and rye. Grains high in protein are named super grains. These include millet, and buckwheat. If you are affected by gluten, you will want to consider gluten-free grains such as rice.
Beans that can be sprouted include: black beans, great northern beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, kidney beans, soybeans, pinto beans, red beans, lentils, and mung beans. We especially like lentils as they have a shelf life after sprouting much longer than other seeds. I recently tried sprouting lentils that I bought dried at the grocery store; they worked great. And compared to the $8 dollar per pound of lentils at the sprouting store compared to $1.50 per pound at the grocery store, that can’t be beat.
Vegetable seeds that sprout also include: broccoli, onion, cabbage, and radish. Sprouting seeds can be purchased in health food stores or from online retailers. A favorite website I use is The Sprout People.
What do you do with sprouts? You can make sandwiches from them, place them in omelets, stir fry, or as we prefer, just make a big tasty fresh salad.
We keep about 10 different varieties of sprouting seeds on hand and rotate them regularly. We order more when the supply gets below our survival levels.
In the next post, I’ll share how we grow sprouts on our boat.
Related Posts
- A Different Kind of Food-in-a-Bucket Plan
- Rules for Preppers – Staying Under the Radar
- Raised Bed Gardening, part 1
- Stretch Yourself
July 10, 2012 at 10:22 am
Is there a type of mulch that lasts longer, or that you would prefer most for something like this?