As you’re making your lists and inventorying your kitchen and food stuff,
you’re probably thinking about doing something. Something real. Lists
aren’t very real, are they, until they’re finished. And you still have 9 months
of list-making to go, those of you playing along with Design-A-Permaculture-Kitchen.
So, here’s something to ponder: Urban Survival.
If the power goes
out, how will you eat? If the water is contaminated, how will you drink, cook,
bathe, clean wounds? If there’s no food in the stores, what will you
eat?
Those of us who live in cities probably think we’re pretty safe when it
comes to disasters and surviving. After all, we survive traffic snarls, road
rage, auto accidents, job lay-offs, muggings, robberies, 75% off sales, and
vicious dogs as a matter of course. We’re “street smart”, we’re savvy
people.
It’s a veneer. We’re savvy and smart when it comes to dealing with
other people – and I’ll admit, other people can be our worst problem in life –
not only are there a ton of wonderful people out in the world, ones who are
kind, generous, witty, helpful, charitable, friendly, and knowledgeable; there
are also ones out there who are cruel predators, mentally disturbed, violent,
angry, drugged up, desperate, and selfish. We’ve learned to deal with them all
in the cities.
But if we take away the city magic – the water pumped directly
to our homes, the electricity, the natural gas, the postal deliveries, the
telephones, the regular food deliveries to the stores, the regular gasoline
deliveries to the service stations, the clothes and tools and toys we’ve come to
expect in the stores – what then? We’ll be in a city, with none of those
things. How will we keep ourselves, our families, our friends and neighbors
fed, warm, safe, comfortable?
There’s a slew of things we need to consider,
but here, I’m just talking about preparing your kitchen for a time when ice and
snow put your utilities out of service for a week or a month or several months,
for the time the sewer main gets smashed by a collapsed road and leaves you
without water on tap for days, for the time your apartment manager neglects to
pay the water bill and leaves you without water for most of a month (that
actually happened to me once), for any emergency that will last longer than a
day or two and that can’t be circumvented by removing to a hotel or eating out
until the problem passes.
The priority here is water. If the power goes out
at the water treatment plant, there’s no water. What if a tornado hits it and
there won’t be water until it’s rebuilt? What if the water is contaminated and
it will take days or weeks to clear up the contamination? Those of us living in
the city have a very fragile water existence, much more so than we think
about.
Healthy people can go up to 40 days without food, but only 4 days
without water. Water is the first and most important priority in a disaster of
any proportion. The average human in the city uses about 100 gallons of water a
day – for bathing, for cooking, for watering plants, for drinking, for lawns and
gardens. 100 gallons of water a day. That’s 3,000 gallons of water a month –
per person. Be impressed with your local water treatment plant. If you
always have water on tap, they are doing an amazing job. Thank them. It is
worth every penny of the $10-20 dollars a month you pay for that (the rest of
your water bill is for trash pick up and disposal, which isn’t really
water-related, but is still important).
In survival situations, people need
at least 1 quart of water per day to drink. I recommend a gallon a day for
drinking. It doesn’t have to be water, either. Any liquid will do for
drinking, but water is best. Sodas, bottled juices, bottled teas and coffees,
beer, wine, wine coolers – those all contribute to that gallon of drinking
water. I recommend keeping 2 weeks’ worth of water on hand at all times – use
it and replace it. When severe weather season arrives in your part of the
country, keep 3 months’ of drinking water on hand. You can pull it from the tap
and bottle it yourself – 5 gallon carboys aren’t very expensive and take up less
space than gallon jugs. Don’t forget to set aside water for your pets.
Depending on their size, they may drink as much or more than you do, so prepare
for it. Keep their water in jugs and water them from the jugs, then refill the
jugs as needed, that way, you’ll always be in the habit of keeping their water
around.
If you think the water supply might be compromised (tornado,
contamination) – fill buckets and bathtubs and sinks with water for “grey water
use” – bathing and flushing the toilets, washing dishes, and doing laundry. It
takes 1-2 gallons of water to flush a toilet (and I prefer to do it through the
tank than the bowl, it flushes better. As long as there’s water in the toilet
tank, it will flush. It’s not powered by electricity, but by gravity. Just
keep plenty of water at hand to flush, and flush only when needed in a survival
situation.
If you live where you have outdoor pets; when summer comes, buy
several of those kiddie wading pools. They stack nicely in a storgae shed or closet
and can be set on end to take up less space. If you have enough advance warning about a water
shortage, you can fill them up to provide water for outdoor pets (put a tarp
over the pools to keep the dogs and other critters from playing in the water and
keep it from evaporating too fast), and to use to flush toilets if needed. If
you have a real, in the ground swimming pool, fill it with non-chlorinated water
and cover it to keep it cleaner. Use this for pet water and “grey water”
uses.
With any luck, you won’t be waterless for long. Short of an apocalyptic
disaster, living in the city has certain advantages, and running water is one of
them. In the event of an apocalyptic disaster, other precautions need to be
taken, and that’s outside the scope of this post.
The next thing to consider
is shelter. Since we’re talking about preparing a permaculture kitchen, the
presumption here is that you have shelter – a house or an apartment with a
kitchen in it. It’s just cut off from utilities for the time being. We’re not
considering such things as a tornado tossing your house into the next city, or
airplanes crashing through the roof, or cars turning your house into a
drive-through, just a cessation of utilities.
Still, when the utilities go, so
do some of the comforts of our city shelter – heating and cooling come quickly
to mind. Even the kitchen will be miserable if there’s no way to cool or heat
it. If you have some utilities, ie natural gas cooking when the electricity is
out, you can also have heat. If you have electricity but the gas is out, you
can warm and cool the kitchen. But if you have neither, it’s a bit more
interesting. Your concern here is mostly with your food than it is with
yourself.
So let’s discuss the shelter of your food.
Americans rely far too
heavily upon refrigerators for food that can be kept just as safely outside it.
Unlike some other countries, we aren’t taxed for the size of our refrigerators
and freezers so we have no upper limit beyond space and purchase price. If your
power goes out for a week – how will you keep your food safe? Assume it’s
summer and the temperature in the shade is 95º. The power lines are down
because of a tornado. Not only do you need to keep yourself cool, you need to
keep your food supply safe.
Now that you’re done panicking, let’s take a look
at your food situation. Let’s say you don’t have a separate freezer, just a
refrigerator/freezer combo. The contents of your freezer will probably fit into
a large ice chest, but why bother? The freezer itself is quite well insulated,
and should keep frozen foods cold enough for 24 hours. Anything longer than
that, you’ll have to remove the food and preserve it some other way. Cooking
and canning are time consuming, but you won’t lose your food – you do have a
propane grill with a full tank, or a wood or charcoal-fired grill, where you can do this,
right? Frozen vegetables need to be brought up to heat, poured into sterilized
jars, and heat or pressure canned. Meats can be processed the same way, but I
prefer to dehydrate meats. They reconstitute better in dishes later. Slice the
meats thinly, and smoke them in the grill or dehydrate them in the hot sun.
Fruits can be made into jams, jellies or juices and canned.
Notice I didn’t
say anything about buying dry ice to keep your food frozen. This is because
supplies of dry ice are likely to be short, and this is a temporary solution –
again good for just a day or two. We’re talking a week or a month of no power.
You know power will eventually return, and in the meantime, you still have to go
to work, and carry on as if nothing’s happened.
Refrigerated foods, as opposed
to frozen foods, are more perishable. There’s probably a lot of leftovers in
most people’s refrigerators (why haven’t you already eaten them?), along with
milk, cheese, butter, juices, sodas, condiments of many varieties, jams and
jellies, fresh produce, and lunch meats. Again, for a day or two, leaving them
in the refrigerator is sufficient. Any time longer than that requires other
measures. A surprising amount of fresh produce and fruit can be stored outside
of the refrigerator. Fresh tomatoes will keep for six weeks unrefrigerated if
kept in a cool dry place between 40º and 50º – this can be achieved even in
summer’s heat with a little ingenuity if you live where you have at least a
small yard. In a shaded area, dig a deep hole – 3 – 4 feet is usually deep
enough. Angle is down and line it with straw (not hay). Place your perishable
fresh foods that need a cool, dry environment there – tomatoes, peaches,
apricots, plums, potatoes, squashes. Hard vegetables and fruits prefer a moist,
cool environment – a bit cooler than the foods requiring cool dry storage.
For these, another hole will work, lined with straw, but this time, you’ll want
to lay damp cloth on top of the hole to provide both moisture and
coolness.
If you don’t have a yard for a mini root cellar, for short term coolness,
a hanging outdoor refrigerator works well. Hang up a set of hanging baskets or tiered
shelves from a window or patio or a tree. Drape it completely in cloth that you’ve wetted down (cotton is best, thick heavy cotton fabric – denim is my favorite). The wind will evaporate the water from the cloth and keep the food inside cool – not cold, just cool enough to prevent it from going bad. Be sure this is in the shade hanging where it can catch a breeze. Keep the covering cloth damp, but not sopping wet, and dampen it when it gets dryish. This can
keep small amounts of foods cool almost indefinitely if you tend it well. The
good thing about this arrangement is that, done right, will keep insulin
supplies and most other necessary home medical supplies cool enough for
preservation and use.
In the winter, you have almost the opposite problem –
how to keep tender perishables from freezing and being damaged by too much cold.
If the power goes out in your home, and the temperatures outside are below 20º,
storing your frozen goods outdoors makes more sense than keeping them in the
freezer. If it warms up over 20º before your power is restored, can or dry what
frozen foods you haven’t eaten yet. If your home is adequately insulated, the
interior temperature shouldn’t fall too far below 40º so perishable foods can be
stored in the coolest room.
If your local Vo-Tech offers classes on canning
and food reservation, take them. You’ll learn a lot that will help you not only
in setting up your permaculture kitchen, but will come in handy when disaster
strikes.
If your home has both natural gas and electricity, and your stove is
a gas stove, if electricity goes out, you can still cook on the gas stove. If
your stove is electric, invest in a propane tank grill or a wood or charcoal
grill upon which to cook. Set the grill up in a sheltered place outdoors that’s
well ventilated. In winter, make sure it’s out of both wind and wet. In the
summer, make sure it’s shaded so you don’t overheat while cooking on it.
That
takes care of food storage and cooking. Now, what will you do for replenishment
if truckers go on strike, or disaster prevents fresh food from reaching your
markets? Most cities have no more than a 2-3 day supply of food in the stores.
They may have up to a week’s worth of non-perishable foods. What happens after
that?
Fortunately, cities are not as barren as people may think. There are
many ways to get food inside the city. Some have less of an “ick” factor than
others, but if you’re hungry or you’re the main food support for your children
or an elderly relative or friend who needs food, “ick” isn’t so
important.
Scavenging for food can be seen as embarrassing or humbling, but I
think knowing you can tap into a supply of food at any time and under virtually
any circumstance is empowering.
Don’t go “eeeww”. Remember, these aren’t
suggestions for every day eating, this is survival food. I’ll start with
the most perishable and “grossest” food first.
Dumpster diving. Grocery
stores throw away a lot of food that’s still very good to eat. It’s bruised, or
it’s reached its sell-by date (which is not the same as the use by date), or
it’s wilted or partially spoiled. In meat, this is a Bad Thing, but for
vegetables and fruits, very often, all you have to do is cut off the spoiled or
bruised parts and the rest is still good. Wilted vegetables and fruits can
often be restored by a soak in cold water. Select fruits and vegetables which
are wrapped, bagged, or boxed where possible because these are less likely to
have bugs in them or to have been sampled by the wildlife living in the city.
Canned goods may be dented, but so long as they aren’t bulging, they’re good.
Ditto for boxed or bagged goods. If there’s no moisture inside them and the
container is unbroken (dented, bent, scarred and battered, but still basically
solid), the contents should also still be good.
Dairy products are iffy. If
it’s cold weather, and you scrounge very very soon after the product is
discarded, maybe it’ll be OK. Be sure to check the expiration date carefully,
check for off smells or mold or “chunks” or discoloration. Use dairy products
acquired this way immediately. Hard cheeses have the best lasting power.
Semi-soft cheeses may be good for a several days – up to a week, and the same with butter.
Soft cheeses and yogurt may last a couple of days. Pseudo-dairy like margarines
may last until they mold, but I’d avoid them for real food when
possible.
Baked goods, even if they show a little mold, are still good. Cut
off the mold and use quickly. I recommend drying them and crushing them for
bread crumbs. Bread crumbs have a much longer shelf life than bread slices.
You can use bread crumbs to thicken and fortify stews and sauces, to coat game
meats to help retain juiciness, sweetened and thickened and with fruit stirred
in for dessert, and to supplement pet food when that gets low.
I don’t
recommend scrounging meat from dumpsters unless you are very familiar
with their toss schedule and know the food is fresh – and don’t wait a couple of
days into the disaster, get out there and get it the first day. If it smells or
look off, leave it. You don’t need much meat to survive, and there are
plenty of other good meat sources in the city that don’t involve dumpster
diving. If you get meat from a dumpster, cook it or preserve it promptly.
The better way to scrounge food in the city, to my mind, is to wildcraft what you can’t or don’t grow. Don’t
collect plants too near roadways and railroad tracks, factories, or dumps
because of the high pollutant level from exhaust fumes and chemical contaminations. Don’t collect plants on the grounds of public building because they have a much higher chance of
containing excessive pesticides. Avoid plants growing near questionable water
sources, like stagnant ponds or where factory run-off goes. Public parks,
because children play on them, have less contamination, but may still have pesticides, so if you collect from them collect only the youngest plants and wash them well before eating. Never
collect plants that are more than a season old – the older the plant the more
pesticides build up inside it. Learn what parts of the plant are edible and
when it’s in season. Learn if the plant can be eaten raw or needs to be cooked
– and how to cook it. Don’t collect plants you can’t positively identify. If
you aren’t accustomed to wildcrafting, eat only a small portion of the plant to
make sure it agrees with you. When in doubt – don’t.
Here’s a good tip for
keeping a permaculture kitchen, whether in good times or in disasters – take a
class on wildcrafting, identifying wild edibles, urban edible landscapes, and
similar types of classes. Peterson
Field Guides are great resources to have on hand, particularly A
Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, A
Field Guide to Mushrooms, A
field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs, and A
Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North
America. I can think of several dozen plants growing wild in my yard right
now to go eat. If I roamed the whole neighborhood and the park across the
street, I’d find more. That park is a good one to prowl through for
wildcrafting because it’s a privately owned park that doesn’t get sprayed except
around the sports fields and picnic areas. Much of it has deliberately been
left as wilderness. There may be similar parks in your city.
There are plenty
of meat sources in most cities, in the form of pigeons, ducks, and squirrels.
Mule deer, mice, rabbits, rats, muskrats, woodchucks, and geese can also be
found. A lot of park ponds are stocked with carp, perch, catfish, and crayfish.
All of these are viable sources of protein. While it’s not legal to hunt or
catch these in the city most of the time, in times of disaster or great need, I
would hope municipalities would prefer we seek them out than prey upon one
another. If you feel you can survive a month or three without meat, please feel
free to do so. Many urbanites have no idea how to properly and respectfully
kill animals and clean them up for the pot. I’d much rather see you become
vegetarian in a disaster than cause pain and suffering to an animal that could
be used for food. If you want to be prepared for the eventuality of hunting for
your own meat, please spend some time in hunting classes, learning how to use
proper weapons, traps, fishing hooks, and baits, and learning how to quickly
kill your catch and prepare it for eating.
If you want to be truly prepared
for disasters and emergencies in a permaculture kitchen way, consider growing
some of your food – sprouts are easy and quick sources of good nutrition. Salad
greens can be grown in window boxes and other containers. The more land you
have, obviously the more food you can grow. I don’t recommend traditional
gardening methods for growing urban edibles, mostly because zoning regulations
may come along and smack you, but you can sneak a variety of edibles into
gardens that most city zoning laws will overlook. Fruit and nut trees are one
such way to circumvent restrictive zoning laws. Don’t overlook the
possibilities of growing an oak for the edible acorns (Burr or bearded oaks are
best for this), or pine trees with the large pine nuts in them, junipers for the
berries and tips for teas and seasoning, and more. Take a few classes in edible
landscaping and rooftop or balcony gardening. You’ll be amazed at how much you
can do to provide yourself with food security.
This is just an
overview of coping with a disaster that affects you in your city. As I learned
during the recent ice storms here, each disaster comes with its own separate sets
of problems and solutions. Each city is different in how it handles the problems.
And sometimes, only a portion of a city is affected. Take the time to learn what
disasters are most common in your city, and find ways to survive them (mine are tornadoes, drought, and ice storms). Make plans of what you will do in an emergency or long term power outage situation. Generators are great for short term use, but what if the roads are damaged and you can’t get any more fuel for the generator? Make your plans, make copies of them, share them with family and friends and make sure they have their own plans. Form a support
coop in case of problems – this works well in neighborhoods or apartment complexes
where you live together and will in many cases all be suffering the same disaster
at the same time.
Ebonypearl 