SALT!

[indymadcaster]

ok we are family of six. we hunt,fish,garden, can and freeze, starting in spring with goats, rabbits, chickens, ducks,turkeys and geese.(raised all of these before)

big question is how much salt should we have to be self sufficient for year or two? I say 1200-1500 lbs and could be used for barter if need be

wars were fought over it , you cannot live without some, it is a must have to can or store meat.

Sams has it sealed in bags 100% pure 40 lbs for 3 bucks

thoughts ideas????

 

[grunt soldier]

thats a pretty damn good price for 40 lbs. i usually keep a extra 8 bags of water softener salt as a back up and figure between it and whats in the softener i might be good for a bit. i'll probably stop at sams and grab 10 bags or so. thanks for the heads up

and edited to add that is a lot of salt but you do have a big family and will have a lot of animals so not a bad decision either way. just make sure you can keep it dry

 

[sloughfoot]

I have always looked at my water softener salt as a resource. I think the pellets would need to be crushed for preserving meat?

 

[chrstian_indy]

this is going to sound
but what are some of the uses of salt?

 

[ATOMonkey]

That's a damn good deal, as long as it's actually pure salt and doesn't have other stuff in it.

Kinetico pure salt is about $7/40 lbs.

 

[ATOMonkey]

this is going to sound
but what are some of the uses of salt?

Before refrigeration, salt was used to preserve every kind of meat that was to be stored or shipped.

They basically fill a barrel full of salt and have the fish or ham or whatever packed in there so it wouldn't spoil when shipping it across the ocean.

Salt is also used to cure meat like ham, bacon, vension, etc. ie salted pork.

And obviously, you use it to season your food.

Critters also need salt.

High salt diets also keep you from being de-hydrated as you work during the day, because it allows you to absorb more water than normal and retain it. Causes hypertention too, but you take the good with the bad. For a healthy person, some additional blood pressure, for a short period of time, isn't a bad thing.

 

[Kedric]

As long as that 40 pound sack is really 100% pure, 3 bucks is a heck of a deal. I keep 100 pounds in storage currently and will probably be slowly expanding that with a goal of 500 pounds for a one person stockpile.

It is incredibly useful and I think could be a potential barter item as well.

 

[williamrights]

I have about 100 pounds of iodized salt remeber to not just get pure. The Iodine is to prevent goiters and a few other things. I have then have several hundred of pure. Several hundred pounds of feed salt and several salt licks to attract deer and small critters not that the golden hordes would leave many of them. But once they are gone then I want to attract the ones that are left.

 

[BumpShadow]

A good point to add is that just about everything now has salt added to it. Although you need salt, and wars have been fought over it, those wars were fought before salt was mined and farmed in huge amounts. It's hard to find anything at the store that doesn't have salt in it nowadays.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I have about 100 pounds of iodized salt remeber to not just get pure. The Iodine is to prevent goiters and a few other things. I have then have several hundred of pure. Several hundred pounds of feed salt and several salt licks to attract deer and small critters not that the golden hordes would leave many of them. But once they are gone then I want to attract the ones that are left.

Iodized salt will not remain iodized indefinitely unless stored very well. The iodine in it has a very high penetration value so the amount of iodization degrades over time.

 

[Mosinowner]

You can buy pool salt. The stuff me and my dad buy is the same stuff on your table. you wanna talk about buying in bulk ill talk about buying in bulk

 

[24Carat]

If you are going to be using a lot of salt to preserve food stuffs you are going to end up eating A LOT of salt. I would have a considerable amount of sea salt as a healthier alternative. It doesn't impact blood pressure nearly as much and has many trace minerals for over all health.