preparedness

20 Reasons Lard Is The Best Survival Food Ever

Earlier this year, someone asked me what the best survival food is, and to my own surprise, I realized I didn’t have an answer. Acorns are great if you’re living off the grid. Potatoes are an excellent choice if you have a survival garden. Pemmican is awesome for preppers who like to cook. But the best…?

I went through some of my old articles such as the ones about the best canned foods, foods that last forever and best foods for bug out bags, but I couldn’t decide.

Ultimately, I went with a food that has lots of uses besides eating. I almost settled on coconut oil, which I use all the time, but I finally decided that the best survival food ever is lard.

Here are 20 reasons why.

1. You Can Use It For Deep Frying

Thanks to its high melting and smoke point, lard is excellent for deep-frying foods, where very high temperatures are a must. Since one of the easiest ways to cook with a propane stove is deep frying vegetables and meats such as fish, having a supply of lard available means that you will always be able to use propane to deep fry foods, even when the electricity is out.

2. You Can Use It As a Suntan Lotion

While actual suntan lotion is going to be much more effective at blocking out the sun’s harmful rays, lard can work too in a pinch. Lard can also be applied to the skin if you already have a sunburn to help soothe the irritation and help it heal a little faster.

3. You Can Make Candles Out Of It

Candles are always useful in a disaster scenario. In the absence of electricity, you can use candles to light your house or even make a candle stove out of them. However, since candles are a consumable product, there’s a good chance you may run out. If you have lard, though, you can make all the candles you need at any time. Here’s how to make lard candles.

4. You Can Use It As a Lip Balm

Chapped lips are never any fun. If you find yourself spending more time in the elements – as will likely be the case in a survival scenario – dry, chapped lips can become even more of a problem. When you run out of lip balm, though, lard can be used as well to help keep your lips moisturized.

5. You Can Make It Into Pemmican

In most cases, lard is used to cook with rather than used as a main ingredient in a dish. In the case of pemmican, though, lard is one of the primary ingredients. Pemmican is one of the oldest travel/survival foods in the world thanks to its long shelf life and high caloric content.

To make your own pemmican, all you need is some form of dried meat and lard. You can also add dried fruits as well for extra flavor and nutrients. To learn how to make pemmican using lard, check out this video.

6. You Can Put It On Rashes

Lard can be used to soothe a wide range of rashes – from poison ivy to chicken pox – in order to help reduce the irritation and itching. Lard can also be placed on insect bites as well to achieve the same effect.

7. You Can Use It As a Lubricant

If you don’t have a can of WD-40 lying around, a pinch of lard can serve as an effective lubricant. Coat screws with lard to prevent them from seizing up, use it on metal parts that are rubbing together, or use it in any other situation where you might use more common forms of lubricant. Lard may not be as easy to get into tight spaces as a pressurized, liquid lubricant, but it does do the job quite well.

8. You Can Use It To Prevent Rust

Fighting against rust is a constant battle when you are exposing metal items such as firearms and tools to the elements. If you have anything metal you would like to keep rust-free, rub it down with lard from time to time. The lard with serve as a waterproof coating, keeping moisture off of the metal so that rust never has a chance to form.

9. You Can Make Deodorant Out Of It

Deodorant may not be an absolute necessity in a survival situation, but it is something that both you and the people around you are sure to appreciate. If you run out of actual deodorant, you can make your own using lard. The lard will serve as an all-natural antiperspirant, and you can add fragrance to the deodorant to help further block the stink by mixing in your favorite essential oils.

10. You Can Use It As Shaving Cream

Shaving without using shaving cream is a recipe for small cuts and irritated skin. Every purpose that shaving cream serves, though – from holding the hair upright, to moisturizing your skin, to giving the razor a friction-free surface to glide across – lard can serve as well. Rub down the area that you want to shave with a little lard for a much more comfortable, effective shave.

11. You Can Substitute Butter With It In Any Recipe

If you don’t have a milk cow and the supermarkets aren’t open anymore, cooking with butter may not be a possibility. Of course, there are a lot of recipes that call for butter as an essential ingredient, so this can create a bit of a problem. Thankfully, any time a recipe calls for butter you can use an equal amount of lard instead and still get great-tasting results.

12. You Can Make Soap Out Of It

Soap is yet another consumable supply that you may eventually run out of in a survival scenario. Again, though, if you have enough lard set aside, you can make your own soap. Long before you could pick up a bar of soap in the supermarket, people made their own soap using lard as the primary ingredient. If you follow the right process, the end product is actually quite good.

13. You Can Use It As a Diaper Cream

Diaper cream is essential for keeping babies from forming painful rashes. To keep your baby comfortable and happy even if you run out of diaper cream, you can use lard instead. Lard is safe for even the sensitive skin of small babies and will keep friction from causing a diaper rash to form.

14. You Can Use It To Season a Cast Iron Skillet

Cast iron skillets are great for cooking with. However, they aren’t necessarily at their best right out of the box. If you want to get the best results out of your cast iron skillet, you will need to season it.

To season a cast iron skillet using lard, coat the skillet with lard, then apply heat to the skillet for over an hour. Placing it in an oven at 350 degrees is recommended, but you can use other heat sources as well if using an oven isn’t an option. The purpose in seasoning a cast iron skillet in this manner is to develop a non-stick surface on the skillet so that you won’t have to scrape your food off of it every time you use the skillet.

15. You Can Use It To Waterproof Items

Coating items in lard certainly won’t make them completely waterproof, but it can help to keep a lot of water out. If you want to avoid water seeping through your boots, gloves, or any other item, a good coating of lard will go a long way.

16. You Can Use It As Flux For Soldering

A soldering iron is a great tool to have available in a survival situation. If you know how to use it, you can repair a wide range of electronics with a soldering iron. However, if you’re going to solder, using flux is essential for keeping oxidation out of the metals that you are joining. In the absence of actual flux, lard works quite well for this purpose.

17. You Can Substitute Vegetable Oil With It In Any Recipe

The most quintessential use for lard is using it as a cooking oil. Before vegetable-based oils such as canola oil became commonplace, most everyone cooked with lard. You can also use it as a substitute ingredient for recipes that call for any type of vegetable-based oil.

18. You Can Use It To Condition Leather

Conditioning leather with some sort of oil is a great way to make the leather softer and more flexible while also protecting it from damage and improving its life cycle. If you have a leather product that you want to keep in good shape, take a rag and wipe it down with lard.

19. You Can Kill Lice With It

When proper hygiene becomes more difficult, pests such as lice become increasingly common. Preventing lice altogether in a survival scenario may be difficult, but the good news is that you can effectively deal with them if you have lard. Like any other living creature, lice need oxygen to survive. If you coat your hair in lard, though, it blocks the lice’s air supply and suffocates them, leaving you lice-free.

20. You Can Use It To Prevent Blisters

If you do enough walking, painful blisters are bound to form on your feet. Rubbing your feet down with a little lard before you put your shoes on, though, can go a long way toward keeping you blister-free.

Bonus Reason: You Can Eat It!

Well, obviously you can eat it. What I’m trying to say is, lard is a great survival food because it is calorically dense and very filling which is incredibly important during the stress and hard work of a typical disaster scenario. Plus, it’s a lot healthier than you think.

In case you’re interested, here is here is how to render lard.

This article first appeared on urbansurvivalsite.com See it here

preparedness

4 No Cook Meals For Surviving The Pandemic And Food Supply Shortages

When it comes to your food supply, you just can’t risk not having enough. These no cook meals will be a great addition to your food supply planning. Check out the recipes below!

No Cook Meals to Help You Through the Pandemic

As of the writing of this article, there are 20 meat processing plants that have been shut down due to COVID-19 infections. We have been worrying about these types of effects on our food supply for months now, and this is the first real sign of how infections can affect the food supply.

When you walk into a supermarket, you might not see all the choices you had in the past. An empty meat case is a humbling thing for your eyes to fall upon. It’s the shocking realization that the seemingly infinite supply of chickens, pigs, and cows that are butchered for us has begun to run dry!

To deal with this issue, we are going to present four no cook meals that will help you create dinners at home that will feed your family without worrying so much about what’s available, or unavailable, in the meat case.

1. Smashed White Bean, Avocado and Salted Pork Sandwiches

Smashed White Bean, Avocado and Salted Pork Sandwiches | No Cook Meals for Surviving the Pandemic and Food Supply Shortages

As preppers we get beans. There are a bunch of ways to use beans and this a great example of how you can pack a sandwich with great nutrition and protein.

Serving: Makes 4 sandwiches

Ingredients:

Can of White Beans
Olive Oil
1 Avocado
8 Slices of Whole Grain Bread
8 Slices of Salted Pork (Prosciutto, Ham, Virginia Ham)

Instructions:

Begin by draining your beans in a colander then smashing them up in a bowl add a few glugs of olive oil, salt, pepper. This little mix is delicious. If you add some minced rosemary, you can even turn this into a delicious dip.
Pit your avocado and cut it in half and then quarters lengthwise. Leave the skin on.
Lay the bread out on a clean work surface for assembling the sandwiches.
Spread your mashed bean mix onto one side of the bread.
Peel your avocados and slice 1 quarter for each sandwich. Spread slices over the bean spread.
Add a few slices of your pork to over the top of the avocado.
You can finish this sandwich with some lettuces, fresh sprouts, or just eat it as is.

2. Delicious Crab Salad

Canned crab is a protein option that will likely be around through much of this meat crisis. It does have to be kept in refrigeration, but it’s delicious and this chipotle mayo salad is great in the spring and summer.

Ingredients:

1 Can of Crab Meat
1 Bunch of Asparagus
Chipotle Mayo
1 Bunch of Green Onions
1 Bunch of Cilantro

Instructions:

Drain your crab in a colander and set it in the sink.
Slice your asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Throw them into a bowl.
Thinly slice your onions and your cilantro and throw that into the bowl, as well.
Gently toss in the crab meat.
Squirt on enough Chipotle mayo to coat everything and toss gently not to break up the crab meat.
Chill in the fridge and serve.

3. Simple Greek Salad

Simple Greek Salad | No Cook Meals for Surviving the Pandemic and Food Supply Shortages

The combination of simple summer ingredients makes for an incredible quick salad that you could add other proteins, too, if you wanted. These could be canned meats.

Ingredients:

2 Large Tomatoes
1 Cucumber
1 Red Onion
¼ Cup of Feta Cheese
A Few Sprigs of Fresh Mint
½ Cup of Kalamata Olives
Balsamic Dressing

Instructions:

I like to cut the tomatoes in large chunks and have them kind of be the main course in this salad. Peel and slice your cucumber in half. Remove the seeds and either dice or slice in half-moons.
Peel and slice your red onion in half. Julienne your, or thinly slice, your half onion.
Add all these ingredients to a bowl. Finely slice your mint.
Add your olives, crumbled feta, and mint to the bowl and add enough dressing to coat everything.
Stir it up and allow this to chill for at least an hour for the flavors to really blend.

4. Mediterranean Tuna Lettuce Wraps

Mediterranean Tuna Lettuce Wraps | No Cook Meals for Surviving the Pandemic and Food Supply Shortages

Using some similar ingredients and adding a protein like tuna, you can create some delicious lettuce wraps. The key to a good lettuce wrap is to have most of the items around the same size. So, consider that when you are preparing this dish.

Ingredients:

Iceberg or Butter Lettuce
Canned Artichokes
Canned roasted Red peppers
Fresh Cucumber
Feta Cheese
Minced Olives ¼ Cup
2 Cans of Tuna
Green Onions
Basil

Instructions:

Start by peeling all the full leaves from your lettuce. Set them on a plate either cover them with a wet paper towel or put them back into the fridge.
Dice the peppers, artichokes, and cucumbers into cubes. Go no larger than ½ an inch.
Thinly slice your green onions and basil and add them to a bowl with your diced vegetables. Add your loves to this bowl and mix them thoroughly.
Crumble your feta cheese over the mixture.
Drain your tuna thoroughly and then add that to the bowl, as well.
Gently toss this mixture. Try not to break up the tuna and the cheese too much but incorporate it thoroughly.
If you want, you can add some olive oil to the mix or a few glugs of balsamic vinegar. It’s also delicious just how it is.
Scoop a few tablespoons into a lettuce leaf, wrap it up and eat up!

These no cook meals should help lessen the stress you feel when thinking of what to feed your family. If you don’t have the specific ingredients, use your creativity, and use what you have. You might discover a new recipe while you’re at it!

What’s your favorite no cook meal recipe? Please share it with us in the comments section!

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This Article Was First Found at survivallife.com Read The Original Article Here

preparedness

Billionaire Whistle Blower: Wuhan Coronavirus Death Toll Is Over 50,000

Exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui recently revealed leaks from Wuhan crematoriums. He claims based on the number of bodies their furnaces are burning, the death toll could be as high as 50,000.

A Chinese billionaire and whistleblower who lives in U.S. exile says Wuhan crematoriums have burned 50,000 coronavirus victims. | Credit: Chinatopix via AP

The official coronavirus death toll in China is a little over 800. But an exiled Chinese businessman says crematoriums are leaking the real figure.
A billionaire whistleblower alleges Wuhan has crematoriums working 24/7. He claims they’ve cremated some 50,000 coronavirus victims.
Guo Wengui is a Chinese billionaire living in exile in the United States.

The official coronavirus death toll is some 800 people in China. The current official death toll worldwide, outside of China, is 774. But a Chinese billionaire with a history of blowing the whistle on his former government says the real figure is much higher.

Exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui recently revealed leaks from Wuhan crematoriums. He claims based on the number of bodies their furnaces are burning, the death toll could be as high as 50,000. Wengui made the bombshell allegations in an interview with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Whistleblower: 1.5 Million Coronavirus Cases In China, 50,000 Coronavirus Deaths In Wuhan

He also claims to have inside information that there are 1.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases in China. Wengui is emphatic that these are not merely quarantined or “under observation” but confirmed cases of coronavirus infection:

China has struggled to contain the coronavirus. But it has also struggled to contain public outcry against censorship and tight control of information. Dr. Li Wenliang, who sounded the alarm about the disease, succumbed to an infection and died this week. The Chinese government arrested him for blowing the whistle.

Then officials tried to suppress news of his death. Afterwards, millions of Chinese citizens saw the hashtag #IWantFreedomOfSpeech on Mandarin language social media. But the Chinese government censored that too.

Are Wengui’s Crematorium Claims Credible?

Watch VICE’s 2017 profile on Guo Wengui. At the time, he published bombshell documents alleging corruption in the Chinese government. He got the attention of the media and reportedly the U.S. State Department.

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