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Food in an Infected World

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You found your perfect location, no zombies are getting through your defences, there could even be no zombies around for hundreds of miles, but there is still a major threat, starvation.

There are a couple of ways to avoid the whole starvation thing:
1) Store or raid for long shelf life foods
2) You live off the land, gathering nuts and berries
3) You grow your own food
4) You hunt your food
5) You have played enough RPG's to learn how to conjure food and water.

The key to having a good food stash in your basement is shelf life (at room temperature). Here is a list of items and some rough shelf lives.

Food that Lasts
  • MRE's- Meals Ready-to-Eat- At 70º they will last around 8 years, at 80º 6 years, 95º 4 years. They cost anywhere from $6-$8 per full meal and are commonly sold in cases of 12 meals, costing about $65-85. Some entrees are very good, while some are not so good. My favorite is Chicken Parmesan Pasta. Home made MRE's are cheap, but don't least nearly as long. A MRE bag is basically a soft can with a sterile inside, a vacuum sealed plastic bag isn't...
    • PROS: LONG shelf life, durable, silent to carry/eat, tons of calories/fat, full nutritious meal (includes meat entree, a fruit/nut side dish, desert, napkin, matches, drink mix (coffee, orange stuff, etc), spoon, flame less heater, some contain beverages), compact, byproducts (plastic casing, cardboard casing, matches) can be used for other things.
    • CONS: Some taste bad, require water for heating (1/4c or so), often expensive compared to tinned goods.
MRE caseMRE contents

  • Canned goods- If stored in a cool, dry location, high acid foods such as tomatoes and other fruit will store up to 18 months; whereas, low acid foods such as meat and vegetables will last anywhere from 2 to 5 years.
    • PROS: Able to choose your exact meal, can be stored in an organized manner, has liquid in it
    • CONS: If you see a dent in the can, it's most likely gone bad. Limited variety can cause vitamin deficiencies, medium weight, makes noise easily, requires can opener
    • The UNGODLY- Hormel products: Spam, dried beef, and Dainty Moore stews just don't go bad...ever...really...like never...

  • Assorted foods
    • Twinkie- Stated shelf life of 25 days, but who bothers with the expiration date?
    • Emergency food bars- 5 year shelf life, full of calories, protein, and other goodies
    • Pasta/Beans/Rice- 2 year shelf life, can be used long after but won't taste as good, only use when water is not an issue. Modified rice such as One Minute Rice don't last as long.
    • Oatmeal- Lasts much longer than the expiration date says. 28 year oatmeal was found to still taste good and be nutritious
    • Honey and Wheat: these foods never go bad, and have an indefinite shelf life. Honey just wont go off, but you wont get a lot of the things you need from it. Thousand year old wheat has been found in the pyramids, and still sprouted. stock up now! Honey can be used for everything- from eating to antiseptic to curing headaches. In small doses it is a source of energy but eat enough and it is a mild sedative.

Live off the land eating plants and animals
  • Animals for food
    • Fishing- Learn how to do it before Z-Day, it will make things much easier...
      • Unless you have a stream flowing through your fortress, be very careful of Zack attacking you while fishing
      • Setting up fish traps can be very time consuming and will not yield good results if not well constructed.
      • Limb fishing can be used if your base is near water. You basically cut some fishing line, tie it to a tree (securely), tie a hook to the other end, add weights, bait, and let it sit in the water. When/if a fish bites, the tree will keep it there. Check regularly.
      • Use easy to find bait- while digging a hole for a latrine in your zombie base, collect all the worms and use them as bait.
    • Hunting
      • Use a gun/bow to shoot an animal. Gut out anything you won't eat before bringing it to your stronghold to avoid rotting flesh.
      • Your gun noise will attract Zack like a 13 year old boy seeing a Playboy left on a sidewalk
      • Zombies might be able to smell blood, bringing fresh kills to your base might mean mass zombie gathering.
      • Here is an analogy for fresh kills. You are the leopard, the tree is your base, the hyena are flies, the lion is a zombie or a hundred, except they won't go away.
      • Don't underestimate the nutrition of grubs. Information of edible insects can be found here.
  • Trapping
  • Plants for food
      • Wilderness Survival is a website with lots of information, and is based on the Army 21-76 field manual.
      • Plants can supplement your diet but it is hard to rely completely of foraged edible plants


  • Warning: Meat Might be Infected, eat with caution.

Growing your own food
I'm sure you all have imagined yourself growing all the food you need and living off the land, right? Just a little warning, unless you have grown your own food in the past, you will most likely fail multiple plants/animals from simple mistakes. Even having one season under your belt will make a world of difference. Now lets get started, growing your own food can be broken into a couple different categories: fruits, vegetables, grain, livestock. Once you have grown the food, now comes the storing part. When deciding what to grow, you have to take into account the climate,soil, rainfall, space, and your farming ability. Once you get past that, you want to grow food that will last you year around.
  • Growing Vegetables and Fruits
    • The best vegetables to grow are ones that can sustain you throughout the whole year. You want to be able to have the fruits (or vegetables) of your labor around all year to feed you.
    • Explaining how to grow each type of vegetable/fruit would take about 150 pages, so check out this site on sustainable farming.
    • There are tons of good books out there on how to grow vegetables/fruits organically using stuff like chicken poop, compost piles, etc.
    • To make the food last almost forever turn them into preserves.
  • Growing Grains/Field crops
    • Check out this website on how to grow assortedfield crops.
    • To make the food last almost forever turn them into preserves.
  • Raising Livestock
    • Chickens: They can be fed anything from old bread to vegetable skins. They will produce eggs for you which are high in protein and many other things you need along with some of the best fertilizer you can get your hands on. A guide can be found here on raising chickens. If you are worried about noise,roosters will be a problem, but without a rooster, you won't have any fertile eggs. If you don't have a rooster, you might also have a hen that will stop laying eggs and act like a rooster, but at least it doesn't make the loud noise!
    • Goats: They can produce wool, milk, meat, and fertilizer. They are known to get sick a lot and have a high mortality rate compared to other farm animals. To make up for this, over the years the does will have an average breeding rate above 2 per doe. Goats eat a lot, simply put. Unless you are in a place where the goats can graze on wild vegetation, I wouldn't recommend having them. If someone knows more about raising goats, please add.

Cooking food
  • Bread without instant yeast: If you have always wondered how people 5000 years ago made bread without yeast in a package, here is one way. Grind grains into a flour, mix with water and let stand for 8-10 hours. Letting the flour-water mixture sit will let "wild yest" start to grow in the mixture causing it to be a leavening agent (makes bread rise). After you have the starter mix, mix in more flour, water, and salt to make the dough. You can follow the principles in this video about no-knead bread and substitute "wild yeast" for regular yeast. I'll try making bread like this in a couple days when I have time.
  • Feel free to add more!



More to come, lots to be revised. Make corrections/ideas in the comments please.



Latest page update: made by Happyman0 , Jun 22 2008, 10:01 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Happyman0 Edited by Happyman0

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Gummbearyyz I know this will make everyone cringe but... 5 Jul 20 2008, 8:33 AM EDT by alicestar
Gummbearyyz
Thread started: Jun 25 2008, 12:22 AM EDT  Watch
Bugs. Grubs, grasshoppers, ants, even cockroaches (my mom claims that I ate a cockroach when I was 11 months old) anyway, a pound of oatmeal can't last you very long, but put a bunch of grubs in it, a slice of potato or apple for water (switch out the slice every week or so unless you want to start growing mold) and you can either eat the grubs live or you can kill, bake, and crush them into insect flour, you can put that into most foods or put it on salad or soups, or meat of course, (but remember, despite its name insect flour can't be used as a substitute for flour)
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tacticalplanner Sawdust as leavening. 1 Jul 13 2008, 7:17 PM EDT by Andering_J_REDDSON
Thread started: Jul 13 2008, 6:16 PM EDT  Watch
I'm pretty sure you could use sawdust as a leavening. It won't taste good, but it'll keep you alive.
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byates Trapping 5 Jul 8 2008, 9:52 AM EDT by byates
byates
Thread started: Mar 31 2008, 11:30 PM EDT  Watch
Don't forget trapping as a way of obtaining protein. Trap pigeons in the city, also rats, mice, etc. Don't have to worry about feeding them, just lure them in. They will probably be over-running the place anyway. Wonder if they would eat Zed?
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Tuck-Duck&Roll Food ideas 4 May 17 2008, 6:05 PM EDT by DaveBall
Tuck-Duck&Roll
Thread started: Mar 30 2008, 9:10 PM EDT  Watch
1) Storing food for years is mucho expensive, unless you like oatmeal, rice & beans and ramon noodles. At most the average joe can afford a years worth (or two).
2) Raiding stores would be hit or miss, not to mention dangerous.
3) Live off the land, no way. At least not for me, I know I'm not Daniel Boone.
4) I like the idea of growing my own food. More than likely I'd go the Pilgrim route and work on squashes, beans, carrots, pumpkins, corn, potatoes, etc. Concentrate on foods that dry or store well. I'd raise chickens, goats and rabbits if at all possible.
5) Hunting would only work for so long.
6) Raising fish like Talapia in large tanks or swimming pools. (kind of like how they do it on fish farms, but where to get the food to feed the fish?)
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BigBDave The house next door 11 May 10 2008, 11:51 PM EDT by UnUndead
BigBDave
Thread started: May 8 2008, 2:17 PM EDT  Watch
When your running low or out scavenging look into vehicles, houses, schools, restaurants, gas stations, and stores. I also plan on planting vegies. in my shelter. If I come across an animal or 2 in good shape I have to cross that bridge when I cross it.
byates--- Its a good chance that rats and mice would eat zeds . I don't know much about pigeons. I hope I can find deer running around.
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