Food

Food Storage, Preserving and Growing

A food supply that works in an emergency is the food your household already eats, stored in a way that rotates itself. Then come the skills that stretch it: canning with tested recipes, dehydrating, fermenting and keeping roots in a cold corner of the basement.

These guides also cover what to do when the refrigerator goes dark, how to cook without electricity, and the small growing projects (sprouts, potatoes in containers, a raised bed, a cold frame) that keep fresh food coming.

All food guides

A clay pot holding apples, onions and leafy greens under a damp cloth, next to an open cooler packed with frozen water bottles

Food How long does food last in the fridge without power? Four hours, and here is what comes after Four hours for the fridge, two days for a full freezer, and a plan for every hour after that.

Wooden pantry shelves stocked with bags of rice and beans, boxes of pasta, rows of canned vegetables and beans, and bottles of cooking oil

Food A 30-day food supply list built from meals your family already eats Ordinary groceries, in the amounts your household needs, bought a little at a time on normal shopping trips.

Wooden crates of potatoes and apples on slatted shelves in a cold concrete basement corner, with a bin of carrots in sand and a wall thermometer

Food How to build a root cellar in a basement corner, or in a buried barrel A vented corner of an unheated basement holds potatoes, carrots and apples all winter at 32 to 40°F, and it never draws a watt.

A large aluminum stock pot on a wooden kitchen counter beside sealed jars of red and orange jam, a jar lifter and a canning funnel on a towel over a cooling rack

Food Water bath canning for beginners: what you can can, and the steps that keep it safe A deep pot, a rack and a tested recipe turn high-acid food into jars that keep on an unpowered shelf.

A stovetop pressure canner with a dial gauge on a white gas range, beside sealed jars of green beans and carrots and a handwritten process time and PSI card

Food Pressure canning for beginners: low-acid food, the 10-minute vent, and a gauge you can trust The pressure canner is what puts green beans, broth and chili on the storage shelf, and it runs on a short list of rules that never bend.

An electric food dehydrator with trays of sliced zucchini and apple rings on a kitchen counter, next to labeled glass jars of dried apple rings and dried green beans

Food Dehydrating food for beginners: the right temperatures, oven drying, and storage that keeps Thin slices, steady 140°F air and a one-week check in a glass jar are most of what there is to know.

A wooden can rotation rack with sloped rails holding rows of dated cans in a basement storage room, a hand reaching for the front can

Food DIY can rotation rack: a first in, first out pantry shelf you can build in two hours Load at the back, take from the front, and nothing in the pantry expires unseen.

Two quart jars full of alfalfa sprouts resting mouth-down on a draining rack on a kitchen windowsill

Food How to sprout seeds in a jar: fresh greens in four days, with no soil and no sun A quart jar, a mesh lid and two rinses a day turn a spoonful of seed into a week of fresh greens, in any season.

Potato plants growing in black fabric grow bags on a concrete patio, beside a wheelbarrow full of potatoes tipped out of one bag

Food How to grow potatoes in containers: grow bags, buckets and the hilling trick If you grow only one food for resilience, make it potatoes, and you do not need a field: a patio and a few fabric bags will do.

A newly built 4x8 raised bed of unfinished cedar boards filled with dark soil and small seedlings, with a green garden hose coiled on the grass

Food How to build a raised garden bed: a 4x8 cedar bed in one afternoon One 4x8 bed is the production floor of a home food system: soil you control, planted for calories, and easy to add to one frame at a time.

An old wooden window sash propped open on a stick over frosted kale and spinach in a winter garden

Food DIY cold frame: build one from an old window and add weeks to both ends of the season A raised bed with a clear lid, aimed south, turns a garden into a food supply that keeps producing into the cold months.

Shredded cabbage packed under brine in a glass jar with an airlock lid, next to a bowl of salt and a cutting board of sliced cabbage

Food How to make sauerkraut: the salt ratio, the jar and the rules that keep it safe Cabbage, salt and time preserve food for months with no heat source at all, as long as you keep the salt math and keep everything under the brine.

Seeds drying on a plate beside hand-labeled paper seed envelopes and a clamp-lid glass jar holding desiccant packets

Food Seed saving for beginners: which seeds to save, how to dry them and how long they keep Saved seed is what lets this year's garden pay for next year's, and a jar the size of a lunchbox can hold a whole season of food.

A cast iron Dutch oven steaming on a two-burner propane camp stove on an outdoor table, with a handwritten seven-day meal plan card in front

Food How to cook without electricity: a camp stove, a solar oven and the fuel math for a week When the range goes dark, meals move outside, and the households that eat well are the ones that counted their fuel before the outage.

The book behind the Journal

The Off-Grid Handbook

Every guide in the Journal is built on one project from a single printed book: 75 projects across water, power, food, heat and readiness, each one built, tested and photographed by hand by Garrett Dalton, former U.S. Navy SEAL, before it earned a page.

Cost, time and difficulty at the top of every project. A photograph for every step.

See the Handbook

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