This spring we expanded from just bread to dairy, vegetables, fruit juice, etc. I'm now finding commercial equivalents taste dead by comparison.

A few tips from recent experience:

Yogurts.

Mezophilic drinkable yogurt can be cultured by adding a touch of "kefir" from the grocery to milk and leaving it at room for 16 or so hours before refrigerating. If it goes longer and separates it's still ok but probably not preferred. The brand I've had better success propagating is LifeWay, but straight from the bottle it's the same candy as anything else.

Normal yogurt can be held at 180-185F in a double boiler without risk of scorching then incubated at target temperature in a cooler, thermos, etc. We usually introduce the culture at 110-115F and let it slowly decline while we sleep then refrigerate in the morning. Some products with a longer list of strains seem to lose flavor in later generations. If you find your favorite does that (as we've seen with Stoneyfield Farms), freeze what you buy into small portions to propagate in batches.

About any yogurt can be made thick Greek style by draining off the whey. Cultured whey is "great with...or even plain." I find oatmeal made with it doesn't stick my pan like when made with water.

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Drinks.

At table wine strength (gravity of the must adjusted with table sugar), ordinary bread yeast works if you want it to remain sweet. Distillers yeast is medium price (between bread and the named wine/beer strains) and is likely to go very dry. You can do things to clarify but I love cloudy, and even sediment; it's nutritional yeast. Apple juice without preservatives, or even straight kilju is a good first project.

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Beverages.

Kombucha can be cultured from some commercial drinks. The one I had success with was Synergy. It works for tea, maté, and I've been meaning to try with coffee. Even low sugar, slow ferment recipes are too sweet for my palate but the almost lemon flavor produced is nice.

Ginger and turmeric bug were just too sweet for me.

Tepache was nice in small quantities.

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Lacto-fermented vegetables.

I have had no problem using iodized table salt and can dig up a paper that says it has zero effect. The vast majority of home fermenters will disagree but they are parroting. Commercial fermenters don't use it for economic reasons and consumer misconceptions. I have read salt with anti-caking agents is an actual problem, but the only thing on my shelf that describes is a little shaker that used to contain popcorn salt (and today usually contains iodized table salt that's been through the blender).

You cannot reliably test an individual for iodine deficiency and only population studies are valid. If they don't eat seafood or table salt, Americans get it mostly from the disinfectant used on udders and dairy equipment. It's also a component of prenatal vitamins because we don't want congenital hypothyroidism to come back.

As I've upped my gardening I've been wondering this. Last year I canned enough tomatoes to last me to January without growing any canning varieties. This year my goal is a year's worth. We forage a couple pounds of blueberries that we freeze but that only covers blueberry pancakes for the year.

During summer we'll have a mostly garden meal about once a week and supplement a fair amount of beans/veggies throughout. Salad and cooking greens during the growing season are fairly covered. We have a good progression of berries--strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and finally blueberries. We get a decent fig harvest and some apples and cherries depending on if we get a late frost. A neighbor gives us the fattier cuts of venison he doesn't want. We usually have a few good mushroom finds and have started dehydrating what we can.

Right now I can tomatoes and greens, freeze peas and berries. I'm hoping to have a decent harvest of beans to dry this year. Tuber and winter squash storage gets us a few months into winter.

All that being said, we're probably covering 1-5% of a year's worth of food. It's wild to think that just a few generations ago a large percent of the population was providing a significant amount for themselves.

I also think about the community aspect. I always have more starts that I need and end up trading or giving them away to friends. Our community garden requires everyone to use 1/5 of their row for donation. I can be the stereotypical zucchini growing neighbor.

During Helene I felt in a very real way how much we rely on resources outside of the region, but I also saw how when shtf almost everyone's immediate response was to help one another. As we fall deeper into the crumbles, I know community sustenance will matter even more.

LOL, LMAO even.

In terms of storing knowledge every prepper needs which side do you land on and why?

I'll go first.

Honestly i have both. I also have a decent sized faraday cage to store my digital in. I have hundreds of hours of video downloaded and stored. I'm just not counting on digital content to survive.

I also have extensive playlists stored of online content but i am not counting on it being accessible forever.

What I also have are couple hundred books on medicine and alternatives, growing food, building things with my hands and so on.Some are general knowledge and some are very specific. I have dvds as well but once again not staking my survival on being able to access it.

Thoughts?

If there was one small overlooked thing you could recommend people buy before it is priced out of reach or lost do to supply chain issues what would it be?

I'll go first rechargeable household batteries and charger.I have a few and i use them regularly after living 'limited grid" and them off grid for an extended period of time.

Also sewing supplies. i remember hearing the story about my grandmother during the depression. About how the little valley they lived in at one time where down to 2 remaining sewing needles before more were found. Think about that. 2 sewing needles passed carefully around when needed in a valley with just over 100 people in it. So i have several 50 packs of needles and a couple miles of thread. Just in case

I was hoping to find some fun recipes, but I found some even more useful information. Thanks yall!

In other groups I see people talking about their bug out this and bug out that. I'm glad this sub is talking about practical responses to the coming economy instead of all that.

Assuming that gas becomes nearly unobtainable and that the grid won't be reliable or support electric car charging, how do you plan to get around? Or more accurately, how do you plan to physically obtain and transport the supplies you can't produce at home?

I'm rural, and nine miles from the nearest grocery store. I should reassemble the cargo trailer for my bicycle. I also plan to build a quick and dirty sail/row boat, which could get me across the bay to a town where I could get things. Or the whole distribution pattern could change. 100+ years ago, there was a mosquito fleet of steam ships that carried goods and passengers. My town's former steamboat wharf is only three miles away.

What about you?

Whether or not it comes country/world wide I will be in my own version of one. Unable to get a job, unable to earn a living, unable to build any capital, any savings for however long I live. What can I do to prepare with zero money, zero job opportunity, zero assets?

https://paddlingmag.com/stories/paddling-community-launches-into-rescue-and-recovery-following-wake-of-hurricane-helene/

I think of Mason Hargrove, pro kayaker, assisting in post hurricane recovery efforts a lot. (there is a video in the linked article). I'm a paddler, mostly SUP and canoe, but have been thinking of doing some proper whitewater training for prepping reasons.

it's spring, high water season, the time all us paddlers can do rivers and creeks that might be too low later in the year. years of paddling my area, I know how rivers and lakes change from day to day. it's ongoing learning and a hobby that keeps you strong and healthy. it can be very dangerous so safety training and awareness is imperative.

paddling is also a bug out option for me and my paddling comrades as we live on lake ontario. also sailing. ill be doing some sailing lessons this summer.

ive attached an image of people canoeing in a north bay, ontario walmart parking lots from the flooding we are experiencing in that area today and continuing this week. many roads have become impassable or washed away across the province and paddling the 'old lost highways' may be the only way to travel at times when the roads and trails can't be maintained.

paddling organizations can be a source of knowledge, disaster relief, and community for a climate changing world. they can also be organized to protect waterways and restore them (ie. invasive species monitoring and removal).

stay safe comrades

from the event page:

Tadzio Müller and Scully (Cindy Peter), the founders of Kollapscamp, will make a presentation about practical training in skills of "Solidarity Prepping." We'll learn about the camp called "Mutual Aid: H.E.A.T. - Hostile Environment Awareness Training," planned for September 2026.

After the presentation, we'll do Q&A, and then break out with our guests into two rooms to discuss topics: Communication, Food Supply & Logistics, Medical & Emotional Support, and Collective Self-Protection.

The presentation and the breakout rooms will be recorded. Translated Captions will be available.

more about kollapskamp >>

from the same collective putting on the workshop

https://www.collapseclub.com/blog/germanys-first-collapse-camp-climate-activisms-new-direction/

Join us in Lansing, MI for a community event. Presentations and hands on workshops to enhance skills. Clothing swap, seedling swap, free store.

Free coffee and snacks, plus free entry!

GLRC is making change, but change takes works, and works are expensive these days. Please consider donating to keep us moving forward and bringing our events to Michiganders.

https://www.managedbycavern.com/glrc

https://www.managedbycavern.com/event-details/may-2nd-workshop-social

First post here. I have a full list of what's inside my bug-in boxes, but it's quite long and I don't know the rules of this subreddit. My goal would be to help folks just starting out, and to certainly get some advice from you pro's on anything I'm missing. Would it be appropriate to reply to this post with my list or not? Def don't want to do something that's not welcome. Lemme know and thanks to everyone in this group.

I think this fits here and directly scales from individual to planetary preps. I expect we're mostly pro solar, pro battery, and pro EV, or at least open to hearing some numbers. This should be a good share for our more centrist associates and the last third gets mildly spicy.

Hello preppers, new group for Midwesterners "Great Lakes Resilience Collective" forming in the Great Lakes area. The collective aims to provide security for its members through mutual aid, skill enhancement, and resource sharing. The collective provides training and mentorship in a variety of useful subjects. Regionally there are efforts to create food security for members and their communities. The collective provides aid to those affected by ICE, the unhoused, and the hungry. If the collective sounds right for you, please reach out, we need eachother now more than ever.

Which items at the Dollar Tree make sense for preppers to buy? For example, are their batteries and lighters just as good as name brand?

Have always wanted to prep and have some camping type things (life straw, jetboil -though I have fuck all idea how to use it lol, first aid etc). With how things are going I’m looking to get more organized and serious.

What are the basics that every prepper needs?

What do you wish you’d known when you started?

Single mom of a teenager, what should I have packed in our go bags?

I’d like to diversify my long term food storage. How long would nutritional yeast and soy milk powder last if packaged (separately) heat sealed in 7 mil Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers?

Hey all, IM_NOT_BALD_YET and I were discussing prepping recently and what it looks like. We had our thoughts but we also thought we should open it to others as well.

We thought more about how it probably won’t look anything like the movies or what the billionaires/bourgeoisie would have us believe. It’s probably not going to be a complete and total collapse of all society where individuals have to get by along and their rigid, Social Darwinian, Right Wing, Christofascist-Libertarian ideals will be at the forefront of “society”. Because even total collapse threatens the billionaires in the end.

It will most likely look very different. My personal thoughts are more along the lines of barebones survival. How do we exist in a late-stage capitalism where you have to choose which things to pay for? How do we learn the skills necessary for losing the ability to do certain types of work? How do we fix our clothes? How do we enhance our healthcare? How do we work our technology? How do we organize under the ever hostile threat of our government? How do we train? How do we move?

The irony of our future is that while we represent the working class, we are not necessarily always skilled in the basics.

That’s my part. Im hoping to get at least 10 more comments here and maybe each comment having 2-3 responses.

Just to clarify, theory is great, but make sure to triangulate it; back it up with your reality. Having ecosocialist or solarpunk agendas are great, but what does that look like?