Thank you, both.

I found a really good article about the beef situation at Agday. Thanks Pops!



Market Thoughts

Stock up before June!

Glad I do have a couple of head that are still hoofing it in the pasture at my neighbors place.

Thanks for the info. I read an article that claimed there wasn't any rationing. Maybe I read it wrong and they were saying no rice rationing. Or perhaps no peace time rationing, as you pointed out.

How long do you expect the meat to keep for? I have heard ranges from 6 months to 2 years.

I used to have a WWII ration cookbook (it was stolen during one of our moves).
I made several recipes from it, including Mock Apple Pie, made with Ritz-type crackers instead of apples. Smelled and tasted like apple pie.

Went to the store today-bought a 19.64 lb sliced pork tenderloin for 99 cents a pound,
Would buy more, but there's no room in either of our freezers!

Damn, I'm gonna swing by and check out pork prices, thats a good price!

So is the tenderloin at 7. The ones I see are usually 9 or 10, then again they do a buy one get one every so often too.

I dont mind pork though. Pig is good.

If one is hungry that fuzzy ice and funny freezer taste don't matter much...

Yep, it's $6.99 at mine, on sale from $9.99, at my local Tom Thumb (Safeway).

Actually, you can make meat last quit a while with proper storage techniques. Vacuum baggers help keep meat in the freezer much longer. Fish frozen in water can last a long time. I suspect freezing beef and pork in water may work just as well, but I haven't investigated that.

The enemy is oxygen. Remove that and meat lasts a very long time. However, the longer you keep it, the less nutritious and tasty it becomes ( I just don't know the limits). I know for a fact that two year old meat, frozen properly, is quite good.

I think I might try making jerky with it if I had a lot of extra meat.

We don't often buy store meat, though.....

Thanks.

Length of time to keep frozen meat? I read that about 1905 (?) some British scientists went to Russia to check out a mastodon found frozen in Siberia. The story went that they cut off a big hunk and took it, still frozen, by train back to London where the Royal Society dined on mastodon steaks. How long had that been frozen?

With the advent of Saran Wrap, our freezer life for meat went from about one year, in coated paper wrap, to 4 years+ in Saran + paper wrap, with no apparent change to the taste. We went to a restaurant supply house and found a 3,000 ft. (yep!) roll of 18" wide Saran wrap for about $40. A 1,000 ft roll of coated freezer paper was also about $35-$40. That wraps a LOT of meat, and is one heck of a deal if you are committed to doing this stuff. For tape, we couldn't find the freezer style white paper tape at stores, and had forgotten it at the supply place, so we used duct tape. more expensive, but really good for the job.

We bought boneless pork loin last November at Sam's Club for $1.69/lb. in a full loin, about 12-14 lbs. Now it's $2.19 or more. The best deal on hamburger was an 8 lb. box of 32 patties, 1/4 lb. each, at Wal Mart for around $12. We repackaged that and some Russian Cod ($3.59/lb. at Sam's) with the saran and paper. Found some whole fish, whiting, at Jay Cee for $1.29/lb. and did the same. Typically we buy large size packages on sale and break them up into smaller packages to suit us.

This strategy has turned out to be cheaper than buying a whole hog, or half a beef, and is a lot less hassle. It may come to raising our own on halves with a friend, in which case we'll go back to butchering our own again. Were too late to get in on that deal this year though. With solar power for the freezer, we can make this work for a very long time.

I see that Calgary Alberta now has the rice ration in effect I dont eat the stuff much but it is an inticator that the food chain/supply is exhausted .I basicly live off the land myself Chicken,s ,Elk ,Deer ,Nice clear mountain small size river on the property ,500 lbs of honey in the ground ,And plenty of fire power to protect it all.

But when sht really hits the fan it would suck to be in the big cities make a plan take this very serious that party is over

!!!When your out hunting or fishing and ya need a bite to EAT have a peice of Bushman,s Elk Jerky It,s a REAL TREAT

I guess I must be a spoiled city slicker. I prefer to eat "fresh" food, meaning the meat NEVER goes into the freezer, only the refrigerator. I keep less than a 5 day supply of food on hand so it's like JIT (just in time) inventory management but for grocery shopping. So long as all those truck drivers keep on sending in the 3,000 mile Caesar salad into the cities everyday I should be okay post PO.

I guess my saving grace would be I honestly don't mind being crammed into a ridiculously small studio, like less than 300 sq feet. You can find small places like that near colleges in major cities. My rent + energy bill is cheap, but I pay a lot for groceries......the life of a single man.

No disrespect, but city slickers dont know what fresh food is.....

FRESH food is the chicken your eatin this evening was still cluckin this afternoon. The cow your grillin tonight was still mooin this morning.