Explore strategies for sustainable food storage, preservation, and preparation on your sailboat. From fishing and foraging to long-term provisioning, find the best ways to keep your family and crew well-fed.
Charcoal is an awesome fuel to fire up your grill, with a reliable burn and a low smoke output. A popular fuel, the global BBQ charcoal market was valued at 1.72 billion US dollars in 2018 and continues to grow.
If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s possible to make your own grilling charcoal, you’re in luck! In this in-depth guide, we explain all you need to know about charcoal, including how to make it at home.
In today’s economic climate, finances are a major concern for everyone, but doubly so for the prepper or survivalist. Not only are we trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy in our everyday lives, we are also attempting to put together a “kit” for another lifestyle altogether, a kit that will keep us alive when everything falls apart.
Generally, the first items purchased by a prepper are foodstuffs, and these preps can be made slowly and relatively inexpensively, over a long period of time, or one can bite the bullet and spend a fortune to “prep” quickly, and in today’s socio-economic climate, quickly is the byword.
This usually involves purchasing ready made and assembled food packs from some company offering a 5-gallon survival pail sufficient to feed you for anywhere from 3 weeks to six months, or by buying surplus MRE’s. Both of these are good options, but you are paying for convenience and there is a better and much less expensive option.
Having been a long time prepper, 25+ years, I was into long term food storage at a time when options were few: Foods packaged for campers, very expensive, and MRE’s, always surplus and also fairly expensive.
Don’t you just hate reaching into the cupboard and realizing that box of cake mix has expired or your favorite snack is past its prime? Certain pantry items just don’t seem to last as long as we like. However, there are plenty of long shelf life foods perfect for filling your cupboards. Foods like these are great to have on hand for everyday cooking, of course, but also times when you just can’t get out of the house.
Many foods with long shelf lives are the basics—think rice, grains and salt—but others can last for a long time because they’re dried or canned. These techniques can extend the usefulness of all kinds of foods.
Handline fishing is a skill that all other cruising sailors should acquaint themselves with.
Don't be put off by the word 'handline' - you don't have to hold it all the time. Just wait until a hooked fish announces its predicament, then haul it in.
We're not talking about sport fishing here - sailboat fishing is all about catching fish to eat.
And there's more good news...
You won't need any expensive rods and reels.
Handline fishing gear is simple, robust and inexpensive.
Once you've tasted your first handline-caught fish - whether caught while sailing offshore or at anchor - I'm pretty sure you'll agree that the investment was cheap indeed.
And this could be really bad news, because if you eat the contaminated flesh you risk getting a dose of stromboid poisoning - which is not something you'll forget in a hurry.
OK, so you've killed the fish humanely and it now lies lifeless on your chopping board.
Now we're ready to commence the finning, scaling and gutting process.
Got all your equipment to hand?
