It’s strange, but very little attention is paid to preparing food supplies on various sites and books dedicated to survival. The authors appeal to the fact that without water and shelter a person in an extreme situation will die much faster than without food. Well, you can’t argue with that, but this is not a reason to deny the importance of food.

Without food, a person weakens, loses coordination, becomes less resilient and thinks worse. Food is important. Therefore, it will never hurt to think about whether there is a supply of food in your pantry that will prevent you from starving in a survival situation.

List of shelf-stable products

The list of products that can be stored for a really long time (years) is not at all that long, so you shouldn’t delude yourself. However, if you collect a little of each, your chances of successful (and even quite tasty) survival are much higher.

1. Cereals

Perhaps, it is on cereals that you can place your greatest hopes. Rice, buckwheat, pearl barley, oatmeal, bulgur, couscous - all this can be stored from six months to one and a half years (in this sense, the longest-lived one is white polished rice).

1. Pasta

Pasta made from durum wheat, which contains nothing but flour and water, can be stored for up to 3 years. Pasta doesn't have the amazing health benefits of cereal, but it's filling and high in calories—and more often than not, that's all a prepper needs.

1. Legumes

Peas and beans are similar in composition to meat products and, if there is no opportunity to enjoy the latter, they will successfully replace them (if not in taste, then in nutritional value). Legumes should be stored in the same way as cereals - in a dry, airtight place, protected from light. True, try to renew your supplies more often - over time, legumes lose their nutritional properties.

1. Dried breads, vegetables and dried meats

In general, dried foods store very well - crackers, bagels, raisins, dried apricots, dried meat and fish - protect them from insects and keep them away from heat.

Honey practically does not spoil and does not lose its beneficial properties. In addition, do not forget about its ability to help the body fight infections and generally maintain overall tone - in a survival situation, you often have to resort to traditional methods of treatment.

1. Flakes

In everyday life it’s not very useful, but for an emergency reserve it’s just the thing. And microelements, and carbohydrates, and sweet, and quite satisfying. Can be stored in original cardboard packaging.

1. Nuts

Any nuts are a calorie bomb, a charge of energy and benefits for your body. They perfectly satisfy hunger and do not take up much space.

2 - Inner bark, “phloem”, bast layer. The bast layer serves as a conductor for the juices that nourish the tree.

3 - Cambium is a thin layer of living cells located between the bark and wood. Only from the cambium does the formation of new cells and the annual increase in thickness of the tree occur. “Cambium” comes from the Latin “exchange” (of nutrients).
4 - Sapwood is a layer of living wood located around the core.
5 - Core.
To collect edible bark for food, you will need a freshly cut tree. As soon as the tree is cut down or felled to the ground, the countdown begins; If you wait many days, the bark will be almost impossible to separate from the rest. However, on a fresh tree, the bark is very easily removed with large slippery sheets.
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Simply cut a strip through all layers of bark until you feel the wood. Then, using the edge of a tool (such as a tomahawk), separate the bark from the rest of the tree. You now have a leaf that has both the outer and inner white bark of the tree. It's slippery and sticky, so be careful and have fun!
The larger the tree, the thicker the inner and outer layers of bark. At the base of a large tree like the one in the picture, the inner bark is a good half a centimeter thick, which is more than forty kilograms of bark per tree.
The most delicious and edible parts of the inner bark are those that are closest to the tough woody part of the tree and, accordingly, are furthest from the outer layer of bark. These pieces of bark taste almost sweet. Those areas of the inner layer that are most closely adjacent to the main outer bark have a viscous, “rubber” property.
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For this reason, I like to cut a sheet of inner bark in half and remove the less usable sections. In this picture, I'm using a sharp knife to separate the tastiest portions of the inner bark from the rest of the rougher portion, which remains attached to the outer bark.
PREPARATION OF BARK FOR FOOD
Raw white pine bark is too fibrous. You can chew it until your jaw hurts and the bark turns into a large spherical mass. However, if you fry the bark until crisp, it becomes chip-like and tastes good.
Some writers claim that you can cut pine bark into strips and cook them like spaghetti until they are tender. I spent several hours on this preparation, but did not achieve a good result. Apparently, the writers never got off their chairs to try out their methods in practice.
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In this picture you can see how I cook the inner bark over a Dakota hearth using several methods. The first, my favorite, is to fry the bark in olive oil until golden brown in a cast iron skillet. This is very similar to cooking bacon bits. Of course, you can use any other oil you have on hand.
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This is what ready-to-eat fresh bark chips look like. However, I got a little carried away while taking photos, so the chips turned out a little dark.
I can easily eat a decent handful of these crunchy chips as a snack and they make a great addition to any wilderness survival meal. Relying on taste can reliably determine the sugar and starch content of this food, but perhaps the bast layer contains much more nutrients, since it is a conductor of the sap that nourishes the entire tree.
Another great way to prepare bark (especially for long-term storage) is dry roasting. Here you will notice that I placed a flat stone on top of the hearth. This device can be used instead of a frying pan. Once the bark is fried until golden brown, it can be ground into flour and used as an admixture to the main flour or as a thickener for soup.
The most delicious way of cooking bark that I have tried is to shred it as thinly as possible before roasting over a fire. Then the bark turns out especially crispy, although it requires more effort to prepare.
FOOD FROM WOOD
The Adirondacks knew what they were getting into when they harvested the inner bark of the Eastern White Pine as a valuable food resource. Easily available in large quantities, tasty and nutritious, the inner bark of the pine tree may well save your life in an extreme situation.
Nature has provided us with everything we need to survive in the wild. Its sources often seem inexhaustible. But if you don't have wilderness survival skills, you won't be able to recognize and take advantage of nature's bounty.
You may fall victim to hunger, thirst, injury, disease, cold, or a whole host of other threats while the solution to the problem is just at arm's length.
KNOWLEDGE IS THE KEY TO SURVIVAL
While he and his men were sick and dying of scurvy (caused by a lack of vitamin C) in snowy Canada, the forest was full of readily available vitamin C. When the locals showed them how to make tea from pine needles, this simple remedy for scurvy quickly restored human health and helped make the continent accessible to European exploration.
INJURY IN THE WILDLIFE
A few days ago, while tracking a moose in the thicket of the forest, I twisted my ankle. As with many other injuries, a sprained ankle is usually not a problem in modern society. You hobble home, probably see a doctor, take medications like ibuprofen or aspirin to reduce pain and swelling, and rest for a few days with your leg suspended. But in the wild, a rolled ankle can be disastrous. Kilometers from the nearest road and human settlement, in difficult terrain, if you cannot walk, you will be forced to sleep in the open air. If you do not prepare for such situations, then a simple injury can greatly jeopardize your survival.
NATURAL PAIN RELIEF
After an ankle injury, you could simply open the emergency kit, take out an ibuprofen or aspirin tablet and wash it down with a sip of clean water. This would reduce pain and swelling in the ankle, provide comfort and, hopefully, allow one to mobilize the strength to get out of the wilderness. But what if you find yourself alone in nature without any medicine in your emergency kit? Perhaps you were injured a few days ago and took your last aspirin. Or you don't have an emergency kit with you at all.
Once again, edible bark comes to our rescue, this time from a tree: aspen, otherwise known as “poplar.”
BARK AND ASPIRIN
Since time immemorial, it has been known that the bark of some trees has healing properties in reducing fever, pain and inflammation. And the special ingredient contained in this bark is one of the most powerful painkillers in nature.
Fever, muscle aches, osteoarthritis, headaches, menstrual cramps, arthritis and inflammation including bursitis, tendinitis, and injuries such as sprains can all be treated with a dose of natural salicin obtained from the bark of these trees.
In the 19th century, scientists were able to extract salicin from tree bark and identify it as a potent painkiller, and then developed and marketed a synthetic version, acetylsalicylic acid, which we now know as “aspirin.”
Aspirin is the most widely used drug in the world. In fact, about 40 million kilograms of aspirin are consumed worldwide every year. Even though most of us now use a synthetic version of salicin to relieve pain, the powerful analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent found in tree bark remains as relevant as ever.
TREES CONTAINING SALICIN
Salicin is part of the inner bark (phloem, bast layer) of trees and shrubs of the willow family:
- Aspen poplar (Populus tremuloides)
- Poplar (Populus grandidentata)
- White or silver willow, willow, white willow (Salix alba)
- Black willow (Salix nigra)
- Brittle willow, or willow (Salix fragilis)
- Purple willow (Salix purpurea)
- Babylonian willow (weeping) (Salix babylonica)
HOW TO MAKE ASPIRIN FROM BARK
In the picture you can see me massaging my sprained ankle, and right in front of me is the best natural remedy for pain and swelling you can find in the wild: the inner bark (phloem layer) of the poplar tree.
Poplars are pioneers among trees. In areas with disturbed ecology, these trees take root first and develop faster than other species and can grow to a height of 3 meters or more in one season. In another image I am standing next to a young tree. Note the very large leaves that grow directly from the main stem of the plant.
The salicin you're looking for is found in the inner bark of the tree, also known as the cambium. The inner bark is actually the living tissue of the plant and is found between the outer, rough bark and the hardwood.
Phloem, bast layer or inner bark are synonymous words.
Cambium is a nutrient layer that is part of the inner bark.
In spring and early summer, the bark is easily removed. It can be chewed directly or made into a tea by soaking the bark in hot water.
At other times of the year, you may not be able to peel the bark without extra effort. This will make it easier to scrape the outer and inner bark at the same time using the sharp edges of a knife. Watch me scrape the bark right onto the stump.
The smell and taste of poplar bark is very similar to aspirin. You can chew a handful of bark and swallow the liquid. If you don't like chewing, boil about two teaspoons of the inner bark in a cup of water for ten minutes. Let the drink cool slightly before drinking. Three or four cups of this tea can be taken daily.

Honestly, I stole it from here, there are more pictures there

Single food

I wrote a short article about nutrition based on my own experience. Maybe it will help someone. There are a lot of letters, but all are useful.

It's easier to cook for a group than for yourself. I’m telling you with full responsibility, because lately I’ve been getting the feeling that they’re taking me with them only because I love and know how to cook, including on the go. I don’t need any changes - I won’t let anyone near the kitchen and I’ve never poisoned almost anyone in my life.

How to cook for four, for example? A large pot of water is boiling. Frying pan, lard, herbs, fry. Cauldron, cereal, laying of cereal or pasta. Let's cook. Place a frying pan in a pot, evaporate, spices, eat. Kettle, drinking tea.

In one you will only have a small pot for everything. There is a thermos - your happiness. If not, you will first eat porridge, then scrub the pot and finally drink tea with fat. Although this threatens you in any case, you should get used to it right away. If I pour 500 grams onto a group. cereals and all things, then for one you need to monitor the water. If it burns a little in a large cauldron, it’s not a problem. In a small one - you are without dinner. The group shares responsibilities. One will collect firewood, the other will cut it, open it, and help. The third camp will be set up. You cook. In one I do it all myself.

Therefore, if you are packing an emergency suitcase and there is a chance that you will have to run alone or together, immediately think about foods that have already been prepared for you or that do not require significant effort to prepare. Portion sizes also need to be taken into account. For example, in the summer you cooked porridge for the evening. In the morning it will already turn sour. We opened the stew this morning and used half the jar for pasta. And the remains fell out, turning over in the backpack. Has anyone ever had an open can of condensed milk leak? I had it, I know what I'm saying. Packaging is also important.

It would seem that the IRP is the ideal solution. I thought so too before. Judge for yourself.

Recently, army rations are beginning to please with the variety and balance of their composition. Here you have three dishes in seven options, and health benefits in the form of chocolate, jam, applesauce, and so on. Fire accessories, in short, have almost everything you need for a day.

But all this is great in a stationary or well-resourced camp or group, when you have a dump truck at hand to carry these rations. As for emergencies and solo survival, dry rations are absolutely not suitable for us.

Take IRP-P standard 2012. 3400 kcal, weight 1.75 kilos. It seems like nothing. Three meals a day, balance of vitamins-minerals-fats-proteins-carbohydrates. But. We don’t need a balance; on the contrary, we need a good bias towards carbohydrates and fats.

During a cross-country march, a person loses an average of 400 kcal per hour, depending on training (this is with a backpack). You can walk (not run) for quite a long time, even all day. Let’s say, with inevitable stops for rest, sleep, food and other needs, we will move for 12 hours. And during this time we will lose 5000 kcal. But in truth, more, because camp affairs, shelter, fuel, water and food production will take at least another 1000. Total 6000 kcal per day. And so we will have to move for three days (relatively speaking). So, comrades. The question arises, where to get 18,000 kcal?

You can, of course, forget about calculations and eat reduced doses. But this is a double-edged sword. During exercise, the body first releases an operational supply of nutrients from the blood, then begins to burn fats and other unnecessary things. So on a hike you will very quickly lose the fat accumulated during office work. Then you will weaken and will not be able to bark, ugh, or walk. This is already extreme, reserves need to be restored, so I want to take nutritious food with me. Maybe you will be able to find something along the way, you also need to be able to do this. Let's agree that for three days you need to take at least 15,000 kcal.

In our case, carbohydrates (both fast and slow) and fats will prevail. We will also get proteins in the form of meat, because they are digested faster than fats and are important for metabolism. But not critical for the duration of a short hike.

This is where the ineffectiveness of the IRP comes into play. There is too much delicious and varied food in it. The same puree takes 120 grams, with a calorie content of only 80 kcal. Pates, cheese, liquid jam, adaptons - we don’t need all this. Yes, it balances the body, adds necessary substances that can be easily obtained from other sources.

The second point is that the IRP is limited by manufacturer. Not all rations are equally healthy and tasty. Most often, the stew from there is, to put it mildly, mediocre, and the finished dishes do not have a pleasant taste. Take the same rice that dries out, bones instead of chicken, vegetables with meat that have no calories. Or maybe try to collect the same thing yourself? Let's take a look and count.

A can of buckwheat porridge with meat. Calorie content 290 kcal, weight 325 grams. Total 942 kcal. I won’t give the composition of buckwheat; you already know its properties very well. Plus meat. Balanced composition. At the same time, you can try ten types and put into your styling what is really high quality. Rice, pearl barley, pork instead of beef. It is quite possible to diversify your diet. At the same time, you should not think that dry cereals are much more nutritionally effective. Nothing like this. 313 kcal per 100 g. dry buckwheat. 290 kcal in ready-made porridge with meat. The difference is not significant, considering that the first one needs to be cooked, and the second one can simply be easily heated on a tablet of dry fuel. Or over a small fire for 5 minutes.

Canned lard. It is very necessary in winter, when fats play a vital role in the diet. Calorie content 810 kcal.

Chocolate is bitter. Real chocolate with the right composition hardly melts (unlike milk chocolate) and contains a lot of carbohydrates, fats and fiber. At the same time, RITTERSport cocoa from Ecuador has a unique calorie content of 610 kcal. On a note.

Biscuits. 400 kcal. With everything else, a person definitely needs to chew on something. He has this property. These dried breads will be useful in this matter. But don’t get carried away - they take up a lot of space, they contain mostly starch and slow carbohydrates.

Actually, it’s all about the finished product.

As for sublimates. They are very good. But are you willing to pay 4–5 thousand rubles per kilogram, for example, of freeze-dried meat? Then here you go: http://suble-bu.ru/catalog/1/. You can reduce the weight of food by a third. But you will pay VERY dearly for it. Unjustified in my opinion.

Plus, all these sublimates, dried, boiled in fat and other types of meat products require a lot of water. As a result, you carry both food and water with you to prepare the same meal. It turns out to be bullshit, comrades.

Smoked and dried foods, in addition, require a very long time to cook. Are you mentally prepared to wait an hour for a porridge with such meat to be cooked? What if it’s winter and you still need to boil water for tea? I am not ready for such feats. I'll just heat up a can of canned food or steam some noodles.

By the way, freeze-dried noodles are very good, again, if you have water. Good cereal flakes that do not require cooking - just pour boiling water over them. Lunch is very quick; in addition, the benefits include a lot of useful minerals and 390 kcal per 100 grams. And minimal water is required. Quite okay, worthy.

In general, the diet for three days looks something like this:

Porridge with meat - 6 pcs. 5640 kcal/1950 g.

Canned bacon 2430 kcal/300 g.

Porridge 5 grains (not so sweet that you can throw in the bacon) 5 packets 1900 kcal/500 g.

Biscuits 2000 kcal/500 g.

Bitter chocolate 3050 kcal/500 gr.

Sugar with eleutherococcus 780 kcal/200 g.

Tea 100 gr.

Coffee 50 gr.

Dry cream 100 gr.

Diet weight 4200 g. Nutritional value 15800 kcal. The price of such a diet in a wholesale store is only 900 rubles.

Fats and carbohydrates predominate, but protein is also present. The lack of vitamins is compensated by a vitamin complex. A replacement for the adaptovit drink is five plastic blisters of glucose with vitamin C. What will definitely instantly add strength is a pack of glucose. The main thing is that you are not allergic to an overdose of ascorbic acid. I don't have any trace of it.

As for statics, that is, survival in conditions of minimal vital activity while awaiting rescue. As professionals say, 500 kcal per day is enough provided you have a warm shelter. You can sit on your butt for a month without any hassle. Here, by the way, to the question of diets. These people are funny - they count every extra calorie. You don't need to count, but burn.

Good luck to everyone, comrades.

Emergency ration, or NZ - a stock of essential items that will be in demand in the event of an emergency. The list and composition of emergency information is selected based on expected survival scenarios in extreme conditions. NC is usually stored in packaged form.

(or an alarm backpack) has a similar purpose, but the latter is intended only for urgent evacuation, while the NZ can be used on the spot.

Why is NC needed?

Ordinary people are extremely carefree and frivolous people. They live for today and hardly think about the future. People go to work, watch TV, drink beer and eat to excess. It does not occur to the average person that the sofa-computer-TV idyll can collapse. In any city, mass unrest, man-made accidents, military operations or natural disasters can begin at any time.

You will have to leave your warm apartment to survive and try to stay healthy. Nobody is ready for this. The state has strategic reserves, but ordinary people do not. In the event of cataclysms, residents of large cities will die like flies from disease, hunger, cold and thirst. Survival in extreme conditions is not included in educational programs. People just don't know what to do.

Survival in extreme conditions

You need to prepare for problems in advance. It is necessary to create a stock of high-calorie food products with a long shelf life. This can be canned meat and vegetables, cans of canned fruit and condensed milk. Store-bought crackers are often made from expired and spoiled raw materials. Make your own crackers from fresh bread and pack them in a clean cloth. There is no need to put bread in plastic bags; it can become toxic. Crackers can be replaced with biscuits, which take up less space.

To survive, you need a supply of water, which must be created in advance. Water can be stored in a large flask. Stock up on liquid soap, toothpaste, a brush, and a good Swiss Army knife with plenty of blades. Buy sharp nail scissors (even the dead's nails take a while to grow). Needles and a skein of thread will also not be superfluous. The kit should include a supply of medications and dressings (antibiotics, painkillers, heart tablets, anti-poisoning agents, iodine, bandages, cotton wool, plaster).

Gas masks and other respiratory protection equipment can be stored as part of the emergency stock (ES). An additional device that will help you survive will be a household dosimeter. Prepare several batteries for your cell phone. No one knows when you will have access to electricity. It would be nice if your phone model has a built-in flashlight. Prepare two pairs of socks and underpants; in the field, you will definitely need a change of underwear.

Hunting matches, which can burn in strong winds and under water, will also work. If you know how to handle weapons, keep a barrel with a supply of ammunition in your safe (if you have the appropriate permits from the Ministry of Internal Affairs). It is only in times of peace that one person is a friend and brother to another person. In extreme conditions, most of us turn into animals who are ready to do any abomination to save their own lives. In these situations, the one who has a weapon and the determination to use it will be right.

Emergency ration

The result is the following minimum safety requirement for survival in extreme conditions:

• water, food;
• linen;
• personal hygiene products;
• means for repairing clothing and equipment;
• first aid kit;
• gas mask with filters, dosimeter;
• communication device (telephone/portable radio);
• flashlight;
• spare batteries and/or batteries for all electronic devices in NZ;
• means of ignition of fire;
• cartridges (if you have a weapon).

The emergency supply must be periodically replenished, throwing away food and medicines that have expired. This needs to be carefully monitored, otherwise your own HP may kill you.

All essential items should be packed in a medium-sized bag. In case of emergency leaving the premises, all you have to do is take it and go outside. Don't forget to bring documents and outerwear.

Survival is considered “art” for a reason by many. After all, in it, as in any other art, there must be a small creative streak. Yes, you can do everything according to the instructions, without deviating a single step from the given schemes and recommendations, but this will not bring much success. Or you can take something as a basis and develop this idea, adapting it to your specific situation.

And with food for survival, everything is exactly the same. Numerous recipes that we have already shared with you can, and, what the hell, lead to quite interesting results. That's exactly what happened with "".

This is the author's recipe Sergei Rishtakov, in which the basic principles of selecting food for hiking are closely intertwined with the ancient methods of preservation used by our distant ancestors. The result was food with sufficient calorie content, a long shelf life and a very pleasant taste. Actually, that’s why the author called her “ universal food for hiking". The basis was a recipe for a classic lard pate, which was creatively reworked and adapted to the needs of survivalists and tourists.

To prepare this healthy dish we will need:

• Salo. 450 grams. No meat streaks, not salted or fried. The most common raw lard.
• Black bread. 450 grams. Without malt, without various flavoring additives. You can even make one yourself.
• Processed cheese. 450 grams. It is cheese, not a “cheese product”.
• Onions (two medium onions), sugar (teaspoon), salt (tablespoon), sunflower oil, red and black pepper, garlic (4 cloves), herbs.

The bread needs to be turned into crackers. It is not necessary to do this naturally; you can dry it in the oven. But in this case, you need to make sure that there are no scorches. The skin is removed from the lard, and the processed cheese is pre-aged in the freezer. The onions are crushed and fried in oil with a little added sugar - you get “caramelized onions”. All these ingredients, as well as spices, are mixed and passed through a meat grinder twice. First through a large cell, then through a small one. Divide the finished pasta into portions and place in the freezer for a day. Actually, that's all.

To increase shelf life, the author " universal food for hiking"recommends using dried spices and oven-dried cheese. As for direct consumption, there are a lot of options - you can simply eat it from a jar, you can use it for sandwiches, you can add it when frying something, you can even dilute it in boiling water and get a pretty tasty broth. Truly a universal food.

And the secret lies in a successful combination of products. Lard, due to its high concentration of fats, is an excellent preservative that prevents microbes from multiplying in the nutrient medium. Onions and garlic are a source of phytoncides, which additionally resist microorganisms. Pepper and salt are natural preservatives. Brown bread is a source of carbohydrates that are easily digestible. Processed cheese is a simple protein. That is, in " universal food for hiking» proteins, fats and carbohydrates, which is also stored for a very long time.

As you can see, there is always room for creativity in the science of survival. And any useful recipe can become the basis for your own creativity. True, we should not forget that in some cases there are strict rules that cannot be changed at will, because this is fraught with even greater problems than an ordinary violation. Fortunately, this does not apply to camp cooking.