Salt???

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Have you guys added salt to your cache yet?. You can still get it cheap. $6.00 for 50 lbs, and you can store it in plastic drink bottles, to keep it from caking. The best to purchase is the Iodidized type. It resists moisture, and in case of a nuclear problem your system will need all the iodine it can get. You may want to put up a little extra as a barter item. Who knows, little items like salt might be worth their weight in Gold some day!. Fact is, it was used as currency in the days of Christ. Food for thought, HH.

-- The Happy Hoarder (relief@coastalnet.com), December 05, 1999

Answers

If you add some of that rice we all have a lot of, your salt will stay dry too!! The rice absorbs the moisture...

-- sugarpie (sugarpie@sugarpie.com), December 05, 1999.

There is not enough iodine in iodized salt to do anything except prevent goiter. For flooding the thyroid to prevent radioactive contamination from Iodine 131 you need a MUCH larger dose. See http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv/IODINE.TXT and also http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv/ORIENT to see why some of your salt should be the 50% potassium chloride (morton lite salt type). See http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv/MORMAN4.TXT for approx amounts to store.

For matters nuclear and iodine see http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000oYq for a more detailed explanantion. What the heck also read http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000vKF and also

See also threads http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000vD4 and http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000v59 and http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000puv

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), December 05, 1999.


One would be surprised how much more table salt you use when you are cooking from staples, i.e. non processed foods. I have seen recommendations for storing 7 lbs. salt per person, per year. I consider this a bare minimum if you are using rice and beans, etc. as the foundation of your food supply.

Salt, although the over use of salt is not at all good on the blood pressure, is indeed one of the basic elements needed for human nutritional needs and sustainence existance. And it is, as Happy Hoarder points out, so cheap and easy to store. Even in its original container, in a cool dry place it stores well.

Canning salt, kosher salt, or by whatever name you call the courser, non-iodized salt, has its place too.

If you plan on using wild game or livestock as a food source, and are planning to do so in the event of no power, you will need this salt for preparing and/or temperarily preserving the meat. You will also need this salt for making jerky mixes, or you can use salt alone. *I almost prefer plain, salted venison jerky to some of the mixes.*

Canning meat or preserving produce takes course salt. Your livestock will need course, non iodized salt, if conventional mineral mixes/feeds are not available; your pets will also if you need to rely on a more "non-conventional" food source for them.

My original goal was 50 lbs. of canning salt, based on a one year need. I have raised that goal to 80 lbs. after studying more closely my possible uses beyond canning and the animal feeds I have been (or more accurately, not been) able to put aside.

This is based on homesteading uses, of course, your milage may naturally vary.

And don't forget pepper! We can't all afford to stock up various cooking herbs and spices, but life with out pepper...no way! Currently available at Wally World and various discount stores at 2/$1.00.

-- Lilly (homesteader145@yahoo.com), December 05, 1999.


Thank you for the responses. If a person keeps an open mind, and is willing to learn, then they will survive whatever comes our way. Now you people might not have learned anything from my post, but I think I did from you. The one who responded about the rice in the salt, has given me an idea. I knew about the rice, from my days aboard the merchant ships. The idea that I have is, well we use salt to cure meats, and it keeps the bugs, and worms out. Well if you place a little salt in with your rice or beans, well perhaps the smell would keep them out, or kill them when they hatch. Ups I think I just mentioned another reason to store up another 200lbs of salt. If the power is out for a long period, then what better way to store your fresh killed meats?. As for the black pepper, the only way I have found to store it is, take it from the metal box, and place it in a zip lock bag, then seal it in a quart jar. I stored two cases, and found that in about 1 year it ate through the can, and went bad. The only way to learn is to listen. Take care, HH.

-- The Happy Hoarder (relief@coastalnet.com), December 05, 1999.

Lilly, I'm sorry I didn't read your post through, before I made the last one. I didn't mean to repeat what you said about preserving meat with salt. Forgive me I was in a hurry. Don't forget the salt for brushing your teeth, just in case you run out of toothpaste. Fact is if you think about it, you can find more uses for salt than most other common household condiments. Thanks again, HH.

-- The Happy Hoarder (relief@coastalnet.com), December 05, 1999.


I must agree. You use salt in many ways and yet people usually have very little. It is so cheap that you can not have too much as it will be used up in preserving foods, cooking, canning or be used as barter. I pick several containers with every store trip.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), December 05, 1999.

From http://www.ki4u.com/

Quote:

Q: Is iodized salt, sea salt, fish, kelp, or other kinds of iodine effective?

A: From the Salt Institute:

"U.S. salt producers use potassium iodide at a level of 0.006% to 0.01% KI."

According to Morton. Salt:

"Each 1/4 teaspoon serving of Morton. Iodized Salt (1.5 gram weight) contains 130 MICROGRAMS of Potassium Iodide."

Thus, to achieve an intake of 130 MILLIGRAMS of Potassium Iodide would require ingesting 250 teaspoons or over 5 cups of iodized salt per day! Don't even think about it! (Morton Lite Salt. Mixture comes in lower yet, at only 90 MICROGRAMS of Potassium Iodide per 1/4 teaspoon!)

Sea Salt is an even worse 'option'. Iodine per Kilogram of salt is about 3 mg. You'd be looking at over 20 kilograms of Sea Salt a day! Hardly an option!

A 6-ounce portion of ocean fish only contains about 500 MICROGRAMS of iodine. Well, you can do the math here! More fish per day than most eat in a year!

Kelp Tablets...hardly. Solgar Kelp Tablets, for example, contain only 225 MICROGRAMS! (While it is also available in a 1000 pill bottle, you'd need to be swallowing more than half of them per day!)

Regarding utilizing iodine, iodine tablets (widely sold for water purification), tincture of iodine, or povidone-iodine: Cresson H. Kearny, the author of Nuclear War Survival Skills, Original Edition Published September, 1979, by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Facility of the U.S. Department of Energy (Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition) states on page 115:

Elemental (free) iodine is poisonous, except in the very small amounts in water disinfected with iodine tablets or a few drops of tincture of iodine. Furthermore, elemental iodine supplied by iodine tablets and released by tincture of iodine dropped into water is not effective as a blocking agent to prevent thyroid damage. If you do not have any potassium iodide, DO NOT TAKE IODINE TABLETS OR TINCTURE OF IODINE.

Unquote

In other words, you DO need iodine on a regular basis, so it's good to use iodized salt, but it won't do in an emergency.

Hope this helps.

-- peg (peg@futureandahope.com), December 05, 1999.


In NE Indiana iodized salt is getting to be a pretty hard item to find. Local bulk foods store says they're out and don't know how long it will be before they'll be able to get more. Went to no less than six stores yesterday and three more today looking for it. Finally found three 1 lb. canisters. Local grocery store manager says iodized salt and white sugar are the two items he can't seem to keep in stock. He said he "can't figure out why people are buying it up so fast. They must be doing more holiday baking this year." HAHAHAHAHA

-- Ben Dova (kissyourbuttgoodbye@farewell.com), December 05, 1999.

Hoarder, this might interest you:...know the word "salary"? Comes from the old Latin word for salt. Remember this one?..."He isn't worth his salt" Refers to a guy who isn't earning his "salary". And if I remember correctly, at one time Roman legionnaires were actually paid in salt.

-- Norm Harrold (nharrold@tymewyse.com), December 05, 1999.

I have over 200lb of iodized salt. Salt was one of my first prep items to buy. Where I live there is a garden in every other back yard. Produce is given away there is so much of it. I plan on using salt to barter for produce in case of a depression era.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), December 06, 1999.


You can get 50 lb blocks at the feed store for around $4.00. Its made by morton, non-iodized but its salt.

-- Stacia (ClassyCwgl@aol.com), December 07, 1999.

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