There's a popular chain of grocery stores in the Spokane, WA area called Rosauers. Recently my friend Enola Gay put up a couple of blog posts on a rather surprising development at the Rosauers stores -- emergency preparedness foods!
Since there is a Rosauers just a quarter-mile from where Younger Daughter has her fiddle lesson in Spokane, today we decided to stop in and see for ourselves.
Sure enough, there was a huge display of #10 cans full of different items: granola, bread-and-roll mix, pancake mix, potato flakes, things like that. Enola has already done product reviews on two items: honey powder and chocolate milk mix.
I'm not particularly interested in the chocolate milk mix (none of us are huge chocolate fans), but the honey powder sounds wonderful. And at $9.99, I can't argue with the price.
Most of the soup and baking mixes aren't of interest -- we have plenty of basic ingredients for these items -- but wow, they carry powdered eggs and scrambled egg mix! I plan to purchase a couple cans in case we're ever without fresh eggs.
Butter powder is also an intriguing storage item, and though it's pricier, I'd like to have a couple of these tucked away as well.
It pleases me no end to see a mainstream store carrying emergency foods. Prepping as a whole -- no matter how much the mainstream media would like to convince us otherwise -- truly is going mainstream. The more people on board this important subject, the better! Kudos to the Rosauers chain for filling this important niche.
It's interesting to see food storage creep into the public consciousness. Down here (major southwestern US city), more of the big box stores are carrying food storage supplies.
ReplyDeleteA few months back, when I was at the business Costco, I found wheat in a 45 gal bucket at $17 per bucket. A steal, and I loaded up on 8 of them. When I made it back a few weeks later, they were sold out.
I also noticed that Mountain House was now being displayed prominently in a Sams Club. I'm told that the Costco on the north side of the city has a huge display of food storage items, much like the pictures you've posted.
In both my experiences at Sams Club and Costco, I saw that there was quite a bit of interest in these items. Hopefully, it will stimulate some discussion with those who haven't thought about preparing.
One last note - I made a visit to the local LDS Home Storage Center this weekend (their cannery). You and the readers may know that recently they've hiked prices once again, and also limited accessibility to LDS members only. I had a friend get me in, but in talking with the staff, they said they were slammed all week.
Getting in now takes an appointment 4 weeks in advance, and if you wanted to can at home (they rent out a portable lid canner), that was about 3 months out. They also said that they were glad to see the younger members come in and start preparing (I'm mid 30's, he's in his mid 20's) - they had seen a large influx recently as word spread (maybe respread?) around the wards and stakes that this is a resource LDS offers its members.
One great thing about having my friend (since I'm not Mormon) get me in and help me can - it gives a great chance for us to talk about what's happening and how he needs to be ready for his family. Nothing like talking about that when you're canning beans and whatnot. Don't know if I made an impression, but he didn't even know about the home storage center, and now he does.
As always, a great blog Patrice. I hope your book sells well.
SLDV
How to Make Pemmican The Ultimate Survival Food
DeleteInvented by the natives of North America.
Pemmican was used by Indian scouts as well as early western explorers.
These people spent a great deal of time on the go and depended on having portable, high-energy, highly nutritious, and filling foods that would last for long periods of time without refrigeration.
Click HERE to Learn How to Make Pemmican The Ultimate Survival Food !
People really should avert their gaze from the modern survival thinking for just a bit and also look at
How folks 150 years ago did it!
These guys were the last generation to practice basic things-for a living-that we call survival skills now.
Survival Things Our Great Grandfathers Did Or Built Around The House!
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I sent an email to Winco, suggesting they add these in bulk, or in cans. This is awesome.
ReplyDeleteI saw this over on Enola's site and was thrilled. This is great for all of us preppers in this area! Thanks for the pictures, now I know exactly what I'm looking for.
ReplyDeleteGlad prepping is going more mainstream. I'll have to check the local Sam's Club to see if they are carrying anything of this sort.
ReplyDeleteSince honey lasts forever on its own, though, I wonder about the point of honey powder, unless it might be an issue of weight.
Kris, I think I will follow your lead and contact the local chains. Sounds like we have a movement going. :)
Wow! Thanks for the info:) I order wheat directly from Wheat Montana, but I wonder if our local Sam's Club and Costco stores would consider storing the wheat and the preparedness foods if we requested the items??
ReplyDeletePatrice, I enjoy your blog and congratulate you on the publication of your new book!
Blessings,
Sherry
@ Kris Watson...I have shopped Winco for a number of years but I am seeing a disturbing trend in the food they carry. That is, it is coming from China. A lot of times when I look for the origin, it doesn't give one, it only states that it is DISTRIBUTED by a company in the United States.
ReplyDeleteMichelle mentioned Honeyville. Did ya'll know they are having a 10% off sale now thru Friday?
ReplyDeleteSUMMARY: ONLY 3 DAYS TO GET 10% Off Your Entire Order* from Tuesday 4/19/2011 through Friday 4/22/2011. Stock up and save on all of your favorites. Simply enter coupon code: “HOPHOP11” during checkout. ORDER NOW! SALE ENDS THIS FRIDAY!
Hope this info helps someone!
That's great. A local (Moline, IL) Walmart was carrying 25 lb bags of wheat.
ReplyDeleteWait - I'm trying to wrap my head around this...
ReplyDeleteNot a chocolate fan???
(GASP!)
Steve Davis
Anchorage, Alaska
Dried eggs...I read on www.newlifeonahomestead.com about how to dehydrate eggs and turn into powdered eggs. Whoever was on the Barn Hop. Anyways, you scramble your eggs without any oil or seasonings. Then, put them on the dehydrator. I can't remember how long you dehydate. They should break and be crispy. Then, run them through the food processor...possibly more than once to create a powder. Then, you can place the powder in canning jars and vaccum seal them with a foodsaver and accessory. I have been dehydrating extra veggies from the garden and vaccum sealing them in the canning jars. Maybe this will help someone out there. You could certainly save alot of money doing it yourself, and honestly, most of you probably have an over-abundance of fresh eggs.
ReplyDelete@Lowery517. I have heard of that method for making powdered eggs - even repeated it in my report for prepping. I tried it, and the results were less than saticfactory. Seems I let the dehydrator run forever, but the eggs didn't get ant "crispier" after a certain point. Another method I'd heard about, but have not yet tried, is to mix up the eggs as if you are going to scramble them, then place them on a cookie sheet in the oven on low heat. This method would tie up the oven for most of a day, so I have not tried it.
ReplyDeleteI was excited to learn that Sam's Club had emergency foods, but the one here (Jackson, Michigan) doesn't carry any. I looked at Sam's web site, and neither does the next closest in Ann Arbor. I guess purchasing agents for the stores in Michigan do not yet see what's happening - or believe it.
Our youngest boy is autistic, and we have to make special preps for providing things that he will find familiar. One of his favorite foods is pepperoni pizza. We can make our own crusts and souce, but the challenge was the cheese and pepperoni. The cheese was easy to find, but the pepperoni was a chore. I finally found a supplier that sells TVP pepperoni that LOOKS like pepperoni slices. Autistics are every visually-oriented and literal-minded, so I was glad to find something that will do.
One point, though, is in the course of browsing so many of the survival suppliers, they are stocking up on things for the people who still need to have as much as possible still done for them. I have noticed so many freeze-dried products that require little more than adding water. It reminds me of that old Warner Brothers cartoon when the gophers went to a food processing plant and found packages of dehydrated food that required just a bit of water to be dumped on them to produce a meal complete with a plate and cutlery. I suspect that a lot of people, finally waking up and new to prepping, are looking for something of that sort.
Just so happens I found the cartoon on YouTube - although poor quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar-63_eQs-s
The scene I mentioned is at about 5.oo minutes.
When I lived in Winnemucca, NV - a small mining city - Walmart was only 1 of 2 places to buy groceries. They had a small area of #10 cans of items as well. I was pleasantly surprised.
ReplyDeleteI have eaten powdered egg mix before and love it. Threy give it out as commodities to indians on the reservations. Good stuff i think. Mix it up with a little ketchuop and VIOLA!!!!!!!1
ReplyDeleteI personally love the powered egg mix that you can get from the commodities packages. I am sure that the quality of the Rosauers brand is much better than the US Governments. Probably a little healthier as well.
ReplyDelete