$$$$ When there is none.....

Discussion in 'Financial Cents' started by OffRoadGears, Nov 7, 2010.


  1. OffRoadGears

    OffRoadGears Monkey+

    What are your thoughts.............?

    When my family came here from Hungary right before the Hungarian revolution my grandmother told me that during WWll she sold cigarettes and alcohol to survive. Paper currency was actually used to burn and keep warm, seal the holes in the walls or wipe your.........

    So I am thinking, stock up on cigarettes and those miniature bozz bottles the airlines use. [booze]
     
  2. mrssuerto

    mrssuerto Monkey+

    Ammo, long term storable food, silver, gold.........


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  3. Witch Doctor 01

    Witch Doctor 01 Mojo Maker

    Barter goods are definately in need... cigarettes go stale, and mini bottles are heavy... you can't eat gold or sliver... ammo, guns, gunparts, powder etc seem the way to go... as will Nailos, screws, and tools/seeds...
     
  4. Witch Doctor 01

    Witch Doctor 01 Mojo Maker

    Uponfurther reflection... i would considre items that the old time tinkers would carry... pins needles , knives sharpening stones, files, scissors,line, etc... small items that most folks will need but may not have stocked up on... rolling papers, fire starters and so forth...
     
  5. Gray Wolf

    Gray Wolf Monkey+++

    This is family history for me. I remember my Mother telling me that when she was young, her family here in the US saved their bacon grease and sent it to relatives in Germany at the end of WWII. That was the only cooking oil that they could get. I had an opportunity to speak to my Great Aunt Charlotte and her friend Karl about conditions in Germany right after the end of the war. Their experiences have some relevance here.

    There was no industry, and no banking system, men formed work parties and went into the forest to cut wood for fuel.
    Honey was worth 5 times more than sugar. With cooking oil, you could trade for anything.
    Things were rough, then my Great Uncle Henry got a job translating for the British, he was fluent in English and French as well as his native German language. He took his pay in coffee, which he then traded on the black market.

    When it was decided to restart the economy, there were no banking records, and everyone was given the same amount of money (roughly the equivalent of 2 months' rent on a decent apartment. The paper money had it's own backing, each banknote had a silver wire in it corresponding to the value of the note. After the war, the older Germans would check each bill that they received by holding it up to the light to make sure that the silver wire had not been removed.

    So, to sum it up, I would make sure that I had plenty of honey, cooking oil, and coffee, as well as beans, rice, and wheat.
     
  6. lynnie

    lynnie Monkey+

    I took a chance and bought a lot of Emergency Essentials #10 cans of brownie mix, just add water ( you can fry it into cookies on top of a woodstove). It'll be fine for 25 years at least.

    I tried one can, it was delicious, and my experience in life is that most folks prize chocolate above almost any other food. I am guessing a plate of brownies will be worth a whole lot in barter one day.

    I also got some chocolate muffin mix, but I'm not sure how long the leaven will last...but I figure at worst they'll be brownie texture.

    You all men? Take it from me, the average female will take chocolate over anything else on the list above.
     
  7. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    Good chocolate is huge! people with young children would not ignore a treat such as chocolate for the right trade .
     
  8. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Give Carob a try


    I am not sure how readily Coa Coa trees would grow in the USA, but Carob trees would be a very viable option in many areas.....providing a practical substitute for chocolate, a very palatable stock food with good nitrogen content, and trees, that improve the soil by fixing nitrogen for the benefit of itself, and neighbouring plants. A good multi-purpose crop. An additional advantage in a survival situation is that they may not be readily identifiable as a food by the average joe, and may form a useful reserve of food high in carbs. It could be a good little cash crop in a TEOTWAWKI situation when normal supplies of chocolate may not be available.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carob_tree


    http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_carob.htm
     
  9. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    It's a "stock up now" thing. I wouldn't fathom being able to find cocoa trees in my neck of the woods. I don't think I've ever had, much less heard of, Corab. What does it taste like ?[dunno] Are you saying that it tastes like chocolate or that it has similar composition?
     
  10. Witch Doctor 01

    Witch Doctor 01 Mojo Maker

    Tastes like choclate...
     
  11. Falcon15

    Falcon15 Falco Peregrinus

    Carob tastes like chocolate that has been through a civet cat then harvested and reused.
     
  12. Witch Doctor 01

    Witch Doctor 01 Mojo Maker

    Hmm never tasted choclate run through a civet cat....
     
  13. Falcon15

    Falcon15 Falco Peregrinus

    Trust me, it tastes like poo.
     
  14. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    If that's true, a poo diet wouldn't be so bad. (NO, I'm not planning on it. [beat] And how do you know? [rofllmao] And no, it isn't a reasonable substitute for chocolate, but it beats hell out of the alternative of no chocolate flavor at all. [aiw]
     
  15. Falcon15

    Falcon15 Falco Peregrinus

    In my days as a Sailor, I was exposed to some pretty rancid and strange foods around the world - I will never to my dying day forget "Goat Head Soup" - the goat's head in a big soup bowl, eyes still in...staring at you. Pretty freaky stuff - tasty though once you removed the skull. If it tasted like poo smells, then to me, that is what poo tastes like. Carob tastes that way to me. Like poo smells. Clarification enough? [deadhorse]

    Alternatively - preppers may want to look into un-roasted cocoa nibs. The Jamestown colonists would roast their own nibs, grind them on stone grinding slabs and use the chocolate paste for baking etc. Not milk chocolate, but man the real stuff cannot be beat, and it is a dried commodity like green coffee beans. Comes in handy burlap sacks...just be careful (I am not kidding) of live ammunition (the cocoa is gathered in some very rough countries and in the jungles where wild animals lurk, so loose bullets sometimes fall into the nibs), stones, and poisonous arachnids in the nibs.
     
  16. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    I don't have shares in Carob futures but...

    It is true, Carob is an acquired taste for some...well probably most hominids. None the less, if one is on a starvation diet, even something sweet tasting like recycled civet cat poo may be very welcome. During wars and famines, people went to extraordinary lengths to manufacture ersatz coffee and other food products that we, with more refined tastes would find absolutely revolting.


    Stock may have fewer prejudices than we do about consuming carob, and the other valuable attributes of the plant still hold true. Although probably not a high priority in a suburban back yard, and I would not suggest planting a monoculture of Carob trees at your retreat location, there may be survival value in planting some on your property and guerilla gardening some on waste ground. They would make a good multi purpose shelter belt tree in climatic zones suitable for their culture.


    The thing is that the trees do not go into production overnight, and seed / seedlings may become impossible to obtain once SHTF. Foresight is often rewarded by a full belly when those without go hungry.
     
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