So here is a really simple, genius design I've encountered a couple of times:

Take a large clay pot, put a smaller clay pot inside it, and fill the space between them (an inch or two, even underneath the smaller pot) with sand. Keep the sand wet, and the evaporation of the water over the huge surface area of the sand keeps food good for weeks. Kinda like a fridge. Also, keep a moist cloth over the top. Or if the big pot has a clay lid, that works too.


-Sean

you can can vegtables and meat. Pack meat in salt boxes and store in the ground. Old root cellar type storage. Dry it into jerky by cutting it in thin strip's and hanging it on the old indian type A -frame rack's either over fire or sun. Make jelly out of black berries, wine out of muskadines. You can buy jar's and lid's by the box full. Stock up on the sealed top's and you can reuse everything else. I've seen some good book's at hasting's on self sufficient farm living. I can't remember the title's.

I'll bet Paige has more sources for the subject than she could type out in a day. For she is the mother of all survival mamma's. lol

You need this book then:

www.amazon.com/Preserving.../1933392592

And this one:

www.amazon.com/Charcuteri.../0393058298

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My grandma kept big stoneware crocks of corned beef, brine pickles, and sauerkraut in their cellar. Everything tasted fantastic and, after the initial pickling process, only required tending every few days. She also canned, froze, and dried foods throughout the year, using up most every scrap. My family salted and smoked a lot of meats when I was growing up, my dad's hot-smoked salmon is the best I've ever tasted (and he's passed his secrets along to me). If you have a cold cellar, you can also jug or pot meats by cooking them down, packing them in a crock, then covering them with a very thick layer of fat.

I love Indian pickles, which are generally very easy to make and keep for a very long time thanks to the magic of hot peppers. I'm currently working my way through a jar of homemade gajjar achar, which are spicy pickled carrots. If you like hot stuff, these are the kind of thing you find yourself sneaking to the fridge for in the middle of the night.

Gajjar achar

Peel and cut a pound of carrots into sticks. Put them in a bowl, toss with a tablespoon of hot pepper flakes, a tablespoon of black mustard seed, 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, and a tablespoon of salt. Heat 1/2 cup mustard oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Toss in 1/2 teaspoon asafetida (hing) and spiced carrots. Stir carrots to coat them with oil for 1 minute. Add 1/3 cup lemon juice or cider vinegar and cook two minutes more. Pack into a glass jar or ceramic bowl with a lid and leave for one week - that's the hard part, the waiting. (You can get Indian ingredients such as asafetida and mustard oil at asian groceries or online)

You can make fruit leathers in the sun, including tomato leather which is good for soups and salsa leather that can be stored and rehydrated for homemade salsa midwinter or on the trail. You can also add finely chopped nuts to the top of your fruit leather for added food value - my favorite being apple-cinnamon leather with walnuts. Sun-dried tomatoes can be easily made at home during the height of summer, as can raisins and other dried fruits, though insects can be a nuisance. Mushrooms can be stored by cooking and packing them in butter or in salt. Mushrooms can also be dried and powdered to use as a seasoning. I store ginger by packing cut pieces into a glass jar full of dry sake. Not only does the ginger keep forever, but I have ginger wine for cooking and settling upset stomachs.

I'm excited because I found out you can can acid foods in my solar oven. I'm going to be making small-batch preserves all spring and summer without heating up my kitchen. I'm planning to cook some of the preserves in the solar oven, too, rather than on my stove.

And, well, there's always pemmican:

2 cups jerky, shredded
1 cup dried sour cherries or berries
6 tablespoons tallow or butter

Combine all ingredients and form into 6 patties. Will melt in the heat, so probably best made and carried in the cool months.

Anyone want my hardtack recipe?

Here's how to make the hot-smoked salmon. It's my dad's recipe and soooo good. We call it salmon candy around here and we have to make a lot of it because if we don't it barely lasts a day. A little piece of this flaked will make the best smoked salmon linguine ever.

For light smoke and cure:
2hr in brine
2hr air dry
6-7 hr in smoker

Brine:2qt.cold water,1.5c. brown or white sugar, 1.5c rock salt,1/2 oz blackpepper. mix until salt is dissolved. I use a clean plastic bucket.
Cut fish into 2" wide chunks.
Put fish in brine and weigh it down with a plate to keep it submerged. After an hour remove plate and swish fish around a bit so it changes position and cover with the plate again.
Lightly oil smoker racks.
Remove fish from brine and gently rinse under cold running water while rubbing all surfaces until it doesn't feel slimy.
Dry pieces with paper towels or cloth and place on racks keeping similar sized pieces on each rack.Put racks in smoker with the rack of thinner pieces in upper position and thickest at the bottom of smoker.
Air dry for 2hrs. The surface of the fish needs to be tacky feeling.
I start off with a pan of alder chips at the start and refill the pan at two hour intervals until I've used three pans.

And as an amendment to the salsa leather comment. This works with any cooked salsa recipe, but you need to puree it pretty finely to get it to dry well, dry it a bit more than you would fruit leather, then cut or crumble into the size pieces you want. Reconstitute by pouring over just enough hot water to cover with a bit to spare, then cover the container and let sit. You can add more water or tomato juice to thin the salsa to your liking. You can also throw it straight into the pot with any SW-inspired soup ingredients like black beans, corn, etc.

Guess I get to be camp cook at the EOW, eh?