So we have learned you can grow your body weight in potatoes in a few square feet of raised bed (or trash can, or old tires), but when all you have to eat is potatoes because your emergency food supply ran out you will be looking for something to liven those babys up.

There are all kinds of expensive prefab herb garden set ups that really only last one season and are just plain lame, so try this on for size:

Take that old shoe organizer some girl left at your house, or go down to big lots and buy one for 3 bucks, hang and plant. Not everything is difficult…its that easy. This planting solution takes NO floor space. If I maxed out my capacity on my balcony I could hold 4 of these growing 16 units of veggies each. Although the space alloted per plant is small, you can grow anything with a shallow root mass, including most herbs letuce, oinions and garlic.

Remember survivalism = multi use, modular, low cost, long life, easily availible. If all of your survival tools fit this criteria you are well on your way to being a well rounded urban survivalist….plus, gardening is fun.

the picture is from www.greenupgrader.com a great resource for alternative gardening ideas.

As you may know, I’m not a huge fan of MRE’s , but since surviving isn’t about what you like, but rather what you have to do, I generally keep a stash of MRE’s as back up or longer term emergency food.
Although I live in a large city, its really hard to find a good supply of MRE’s that are stock physically in any store, the two surplus stores have them, but only in two meal types and they tend to have busted heating sources or be a little older than I would like to be spending money on.

With this problem in mind below is a listing taken from the survivalistboards of a bunch of great online sources for a variety of MRE’s. Enjoy! (when I enjoy i mean enjoy buying them not eating them, because really no one enjoys eating MRE’s)
http://www.readyreservefoods.com/

http://www.nitro-pak.com/index.php/cPath/173

http://captaindaves.com/shop/mres.html

http://www.readymaderesources.com/ca…wCat&catId=139

http://www.readyreservefoods.com/

http://www.longlifefood.com/

http://www.millennium-ark.net/News_F…E_Sources.html

http://www.mrefoods.com/

http://www7.mailordercentral.com/longlifefood/home.asp

http://theepicenter.com/mre_military…dy_to_eat.html

http://www.ki4u.com/mre.htm

http://www.ponderosasports.com/mre%2…ble%20food.htm

http://www.preparedness.com/?src=overture

http://www.jrhenterprises.com/category.sc?categoryId=11

http://www.ldpcampingfoods.com/

Regardless of if you are on urban or wilderness survivalist, if you decide to bug in you probably will need to look into storing some sort of grain as a staple of your diet.  I mean, lets face it, you cant eat MRE’s forever. When you are considering your food choices to sustain yourself in an emergency a significant portion of your selection need to provide maximum value through health or caloric value.   Although many of us stock rice in its various forms for feeding our selves when bugging in, there is a significantly better alternative.

Allow me to introduce Quinoa.

Technically qunioa isn’t a grain, rather its the geed from a gooseplant.  However it is physically like  a grain visually and as it is able to be ground into flour. Many of the whole grains we eat are missing some critical pieces our of nutritional needs and over time if limited to just eating said grain you may be missing out of some critical nutrients.

So Why Is Quinoa Better Than Rice?

• It has a high enough lysine content to be considered a whole protein.  That in it self is very impressive, giving you option to worry less about your meat and protein sources.
• It has been tied to insulin like growth factor 1 levels which are tied directly to muscle growth
• Higher levels of vitamin B, Potassium and Magnesium.
• Its gluten free
• It sprouts in about 24 hours
• 15% higher caloric value over white rice
• It cooks quickly and easily
• It tastes great too!

The list goes on, but the point here is that if you are stuck needing to eat some type of grain to sustain your self in a survival situation you can find a complete protein that has countless health benefits, will fill you up and is cheap to boot! Quinoa is availible in most stores, I find my at Trader Joes.  In the end the stuff is a great replacment for all rice in your diet on the day to day and gives you some real value when it really counts.

Anyone who knows me knows I enjoy a cocktail or ten as much as the next guy.  However I try to discourage drinking during an urban survival type emergency for a few reasons:

• Impaired judgment
• Dehydration
• Sleeping with ugly girls
• False warmth when you are actually freezing to death

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT, if you are responsible enough to avoid the above pitfalls, then I should tell you about some of the life saving qualities booze.
What To Buy:

Stick with the highest proof (most alchol content) you can buy, it tends to be cheaper and its more versatile.  I learned a long time ago that you cant really go wrong with 190 proof Everclear grain alchohol.  You can buy a few liters for little money.  Again, note that the higer proof the more usues the booze has.

What Can You Do With It?

• You can get REALLY drunk, although I don’t recommend this, if you really need to forget about your emergency situation this is your go to drink.  From a survival stand point you need MUCH less of this to get drunk than your normal house pour.
• Use it as an antiseptic, disinfectant or painkiller.
• Use it to fuel your pop can stove.  This stuff will burn hot even at altitude, its literally just as good as a backpackers stove and costs almost nothing to build and fuel.
• Use it as fuel for multifuel engines.  If you happen to have a whole bunch of the stuff you can fuel your unimog on the stuff.
• Works as a great degrease or paint thinner
• Two words: Molotov Coctail- Use it when needed to build a great offensive weapon

There are few items in a bug out bag or emergency cache that are as versatile as high proof alcohol, its right up there with a good knife, just remember to not “prepare” and drive.

If you are a wilderness survivalist you get to do fun things like have cows, or chickens, or at least a freakin yard. As an urban survivalist we simply don’t have those luxuries, due to noise or space constraints.

In the most serious disaster situations it is critical to live for extended periods of time (beyond 72 hours) with no additional support and one of the best ways to insure you have sustainable sources of fat and protein in a small space in by raising rabbits for food.

Why Rabbits?

• They don’t make noise- so your land lord wont ever know
• They can be raised in VERY small spaces comfortably
• A doe produce young in about 30 days and are ready for mating hours after giving birth (not recommended but a fun fact none the less!)
• Many breeds can produce great meet at only 3 months of age making the turn over between slaughter birth and breeding ideal to sustain a food source for a very long time
• Rabbit meat compares to chicken, turkey and some fish when considering its taste and nutritional value.

A great source of breeding rabbits is a county fair or rabbit show.  When purchasing rabbits for breeding to consume note that one buck can serve many females but if you are planning on breeding for the long term keep that ratio down to more like 1:5-6 to insure diversity in the gene pool.

I reccomend raising one of the following breeds:  Californian, New Zelandor Flemish Giants.

If combining the above breeds make sure the Buck is the same size or smaller than the doe to keep complications due to size at birth minimal.

When Breeding:

Female rabbits are ready to be bread by about 6 months of age, and if you have a good birthing mother keep her around while butchering her young as needed.  When breeding always bring the female to the males hutch or cage as presenting a male in a female space can be taken as an attack or invasion.  After the 30 days of pregnancy the doe should give birth.  Once the young rabbits are born they need to be left with their mother for a minimum of 6 weeks, then its necessary to remove them, placing them in their own space where you will feed them in preparation for slaughter over the next month and a half or so.

Once the young have been removed the doe can be bred again right away.

Dressing your dinner:
Dressing a rabbit is very similar to other small animals, if you have never done this before reference your nearest Tom Brown survival guide.  Its worth noting that since rabbits are delicate and small, the actual killing of them needs to be handled a certain way.

There is no need to shoot a rabbit, or cut a rabbits throat.  Simply hold the rabbit upside down and hit it once cleanly between the neck and base of the skull.  Once you have killed the rabbit go ahead and following your dressing instructions by removing the head, letting it bleed out, removing the front feet and so on.

I know many people in urban situations see their pets as members of the family and I am no exception.  If you are choosing to do this please go into the process with a clear objective, and an understanding that these rabbits are sources of food and not your little buddies.  I know its kind of harsh but in the end this can not only save your life but insure you have more than enough food to last you a long long time.

Ok look, I know they last forever, have solid caloric values, and are old school (which in turn makes them bad ass) but MRE’s (meals ready to eat) suck. I have never, ever had one that was any good. Yes, they do the trick, they put food in your gut, but that’s about it.

There are plenty of trail ready meal options that can be used in an urban survival situation. Today we will be dining on Mountain House brand Jamacian Chicken and Rice

At between 6-9 dollars, serving two,  Mountain House dishes are a similar if not greater value than a civilian MRE which when bought in bulk cost between 6-8 dollars and only serve one.  At most a MRE stored well will boast a 10 year shelf life, while these Mountain House freeze dried meals have a solid 25 year shelf life .

Unlike MRE’s these dishes do not have a self contained heating unit and can not be eaten ‘As Is’.  These meals need both an external heat source as well as water to prepare (in a pinch they can be made using unheated water).  Right off the bat I recognize that there is something to be said about self contained meals but to my defense,there are countless simple ways to start a fire, ranging from mirrors, steel wool, car batteries to good old flint and steel, and even in the worst cases water tends to be more abundant in urban rather than certain wilderness environments.  Given the application I am confident that a well prepared individual will have no trouble meeting these preparation requirements.

Now lets go to the Bug Out Pantry to pick out our dinner…

Open up the package, make sure to remove the moisture reducing packet BEFORE you pour water into the bag.

Before cooking, make sure to look at the expiration date (these ones are best before 2016, and good till 2025 in a pinch)

Pour in two cups of boiling water, let stand for 9 min and a meal for two is done

So how is it?

The Mountain House product tastes about as good as my own cooking (which is decent), and required no additional prep or dressing other than hot water.  Each bag really does have a meal for two inside, this particular dish was more rice than beans, more corn than chicken but still filling, healthy and hot, which is really all you can ask for in a survival situation.  The packaging is sturdy and the meals can be easily eaten out of the bag.  These freeze dried meals definatly are worth considering when Bugging in, Bugging out, or eating dinner on a Friday night, which is exactly what I did….because im really popular.  thats it.

MRE’s are fine, freeze dried food usually tastes better, but with a 6-10 dollar price tag, chances are if you are low on money you can only buy enough of either of these to last you a short time.

Pemmican is a concentrated high energy food made of fruit, fat and meat that you can make in your kitchen, or in an alley if you are really in a pinch.

Pemmican is great for a number of reasons, namely its inexpensive to make, you don’t need to consume a lot to create a significant amount of energy and it doesn’t require refrigeration.

It doesn’t tastes THAT BAD and can literally sustain you for days.

CLICK HERE FOR A GREAT STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO MAKING PEMMICAN

Its worth noting that Pemmican is  best consumed in smaller amounts when you are  being active, and not for longer periods of time. Eating quantities of hard fat when leading a more sedintary life can lead to health issues.