Let's talk about #stockpiling food. I am a Computer Scientist, not a medical doctor, so bear that in mind when reading everything that follows. Why stockpile? May be you are a Remainer worried about a cliff-edge Brexit, maybe you are a Brexieier, worried about sovereignty? /1
If a supermarket chain loses its computers, say through loss of electricity, it will be bankrupt in about 24 hours. It is predicted cliff-edge Brexit will cause food shortages starting some time around three days to two weeks. Loss of food can happen very fast! /2
Remainer or Brexiteer, you make the UK more resilient if you stockpile food sensibly. But how to do it? Start now by stockpiling the most long lasting foods, later add shorter shelf-life foods, and use your stockpile continuously as a buffer - that way it stays fresh! /3
Salt lasts for billions of years. Buy some now. A person needs about a teaspoonful of salt a day. Salt occurs naturally in meat and fish, but not in very much else. It's added to processed foods but if you haven't got processed foods you need to buy some salt. Buy salt now. 4/
Dried rice, dried beans and pulses last for years but you have to know how to cook them. Rice and some beans can be cooked from dry, most beans beans need to be soaked in water overnight, but not for longer, otherwise they ferment. /5
Some beans are poisonous unless cooked - you have to throw away the soaking and cooking water - but EU regulations mean the UK only sells safe dried beans, so don't worry. The water from soaking chickpeas is very nutritious so use it to make hummus or in cooking. /6
If you don't know how to cook dried beans, do a web search, "how do I cook X" where X is the kind of bean you have. May be, "how do I cook chickpeas." Vegetarians know a lot about this stuff, more than you will find on the web, so ask around your friends and neighbours. /7
Dried pasta lasts a long time too. If you haven't much space, buy tagliatelle - it's flat so it packs well, but it is a bit more awkward to cook (think soggy mass). Fusilli is easy to cook but takes up more space. Italians know loads about pasta so ask around. 8/
You can make pasta, and loads of other things, from flour, but flour doesn't last too long because mites grow in it. You need to use flour within the use by date. EU regulations mean you can trust the use by date to keep you safe from eating mites. 9/
You can make bread from flour. If you have yeast, great! If not, you can make sourdough using yeast from the air! But you have to know how to do it. Sourdough yeasts are a mixture of many wild yeasts, they make more flavoursome bread, but they take time to evolve. /10
You need to keep working at a sourdough starter for months or you could ask around to see if anyone has an established starter they can share with you. The easy peasy solution is to buy some bakers yeast and use it as a sourdough starter - you will never run out! /11
So, you can make bread, but what are you going to do with it? Freeze most of it and keep out only what you can eat in a day. If you have stale, but not mouldy!, bread, break it into crumbs and add it to your next sourdough. Germany perfected this method so ask around. /12
So you have flour but no yeast and you didn't prepare a sourdough starter! No worries, make chapatis - flour, water, salt, mix to a dough, refrigerate if you can, then cook in a dry frying pan without water. Indian people showed me how to make chapatis with different flours. /13
Bread's good but sponge pudding is better. You can make a sponge mix from basic ingredients in about ten minutes and cook it in a microwave in about three minutes. That's much faster than boiling for two hours and saves a lot of electricity! /14
Think about what you like eating with your sponge pudding and add the ingredients to your #stockpile. Now, pause for a minute. Why do we cook food? /15
Cooking kills bugs - bacteria and mites - and changes the chemistry of food, making it easier for us to absorb calories from it. In a UK with food shortages, calories are good! They give you the energy to stay alive. /16
If you can afford it, buy catering packs of the long lasting foods. It will be cheaper and every bit as nutritious as buying small packets every week. Building up a bigger buffer of food makes the UK more resilient at any time. /17
Sooner or later, you will want to #stockpile fruit and vegetables. If you think electricity will be maintained, freeze meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. If you think electricity will be interrupted for a day or more buy tinned. /18
When you cook tinned vegetables, think about keeping the liquid for making soups and stews. It's more nutritious than plain water. Similarly for fish tinned in oil, use the oil for cooking. /19
But suppose you guessed wrong about the electricity supply and all your frozen food is spoiling. What is your plan? Yes, you need a plan! If you are going to bottle, pickle, smoke, or salt your frozen foods you need to know how. Start practicing now! /20
If you are using any of those preservative methods, you will need salt - lots of it! So add industrial quantities of salt to your #stockpile. Fruits can be preserved with sugar - ideally preserving sugar - learn how now. /21
You didn't plan on preserving your food? No problem, share the contents of your freezer with your neighbours or take the food to a soup kitchen. Maybe you will benefit from a common food supply when someone else has a surplus. /22
You have fresh vegetables and salad. Great! You already know how to use these. But make up a dressing for your salad - it increases the nutrients you can absorb from raw vegetables. The French know a lot about this. There is a reason it is called French Dressing! /23
I could tell you loads more about this; even how to catch rats, cats and pigeons so that you don't frighten their mates away, but how much do you want to know? Talk to your friends and neighbours: share your #stockpile and experience. /24
Maybe you know a rabid, end of days, Brexiteer. They know stuff you need to know. Talk to them about survivalism and, while you are at it, leave them with a #PeoplesVote sticker! /End
Good timing, MisplacedGenius, you were in the USA when the Y2K bug caused them to lose control of a spy satellite, degrading their nuclear attack early warning system - nobody thought to patch the satellite! Read (1) in this thread - I am a Computer Scientist and know about Y2K.
Unrolled version: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1026808…
