The Ukrainians you follow in Poltava are now in trouble. Power, food and fuel in the Oblast have been utterly destroyed. Every gas station in Poltava has been destroyed. Stores across the country are devoid of refrigerated and frozen foods. A lot of dry staples are also no longer available. The Russians have destroyed 70%+ of Ukraine's cold & dry warehouses in response to the Ukrainian Wildberry and Ozon strikes. The Russians are also being hurt, but not to the extent that the Ukrainians are getting hurt. -From a Friend of the Blog
The friend of the blog also provided a link describing the creeping escalation of the Uke-Rus war.
As logistics crumble, volume often becomes the limiting factor and not weight. A truck that carries packages of potato-chips or breakfast food cereal can usually carry far more weight in terms of flour, rice, beans, cornmeal, lard, sugar, raisins and dried milk than they did of potato-chips.
Those staples are also shelf-stable.
"It can't happen here"
Yeah, well, there are bad actors bending every effort into hacking their way into the information systems that are the brains for the US distribution systems for fuel, food and other merchandise. They don't need to drop bombs. They can either crash the system or to insert random amounts for 5% of the items that are scheduled.
Mrs ERJ will be giving a Millennial a cooking lesson today. He will learn how to turn rice, lentils, onions and celery into a savory main course. It can also be used as a side-dish to stretch out other meals. Basic recipe here.
Lentils are a good first-thing to teach because they cook quickly.
At the most retro and primitive level, a double-handful of wheat can be put in a 3 quart pot, soaked over-night, drained in the morning, covered and left to soften for 14 hours. Then covered with water and brought to a vigorous boil, pulled off of the heat and nested in a box filled with straw for an hour. All in the same pot. Just wheat, water, time and enough fire to bring it to a boil.
A lot of fuel is used to rehydrate the grain when using traditional methods. If you separate the rehydration from the cooking, you need less heat. A single slat from a pallet would do if you know how to build a fire.
It is worth noting that one of the Youtube channels I follow is of a family who market-garden to supply vegetables to a "farmers market" in the big city. I think she will be getting very good prices IF she can transport her vegetables to the market. The war on logistics compresses supply chains.
Tip of the hat to anon Friend of the Blog.
I believe there is no doubt it's coming this fall. The country is full of people from other places that want us to fall and it would only take of few to make it happen. As you said a few days ago read Matthew 25. ---ken
ReplyDeleteI like lentils, but like any legume they will give me gas. Soaking them and discarding the soak water helps a bit, but that isn't going to happen with that recipe. My mother would add a half teaspoon of fennel seed, that also helps.
ReplyDeleteCaraway seeds also dramatically reduce intestinal gas. A great add to cooked cabbage dishes as well, for the same gas reduction.
DeleteBeano. It's an enzyme that prevents gas and truly works.
DeleteI do appreciate your source relating these things.
ReplyDeleteHaving come off the trail with an average of 9-10 miles a day for 8 days, it is surprising the amount that you can eat and still lose weight.
Logistics is something so few pay attention to.
Just wait until the Russians start using hypersonic missiles to take out the Eurotrash banks, military, and industrial facilities that are using the Ukes as a proxy army.
ReplyDeleteRussia called our head of the CIA over to give a warning of what was about to happen.
The CIA is boiling mad because the Iranians destroyed every CIA station within 600 miles of the Persian Gulf during March. The Iranian strikes were so accurate and deadly that the CIA believes they could only have been performed with Russian (specifically GRU) technical assistance. The Russians probably also played a role in the destruction of the two E-3 AWACS planes taxiing at King Saud Airport - a $ 10 billion hit.
DeleteRatcliffe's not so secret mission to Moscow appears to have been an attempt to get the Russians to cease and desist. It doesn't appear that he offered to stop safely guiding Ukrainian drones around Russian air defense positions, so the GRU will probably continue their clandestine war against the armed wing of the Democratic Party.
I'm with Anon... I think he was called to come to Russia, to be given a warning in-person. They know exactly what is going on, and they are tired, done playing games. That's my take, at least.
DeleteThe mainstream media has been reporting on Ukraines’s destruction of Russian warehouses and logistics but hasn’t been reporting the destruction of Ukraine’s.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don’t see a way out of that war. Both sides have lost so much that, emotionally, they cannot see anything other than victory as an acceptable outcome. (Sunk cost fallacy is a logical argument, not an emotional one, especially in a situation where the sunk costs consists of the lives of loved ones).
Enough to eat in a month of bad times.. 30 days and 2 people and not much money.
ReplyDeleteThis was all packed in a plastic tub and put away.
This list was from September 11th, 2021
30# of white rice in six 5# bags @ $3.62 ea
12 cans of chili @ $1.36 ea
12 cans of beef stew @ $1.74
4 cans of chicken meat @ $2.18
2 cans of tuna fish (larger cans, like the canned chicken meat) @ $1.98
30 cans of vegetables @ 0.52
Bullion cubes, 2 @ $1.88
Salt 0.48
Sugar, $2
Pepper, $1.87
Garlic powder and assorted other spices, $2 total
sm cooking oil. $2.13
$80.16 is what it all came too.
I too saw the writing on the wall for inflation after the 2020 election. We've always had a pantry but I went deep on canned goods. I called it the MCU. The milk crate unit. One milk crate of any canned vegetable we use. Two MCU's of any canned protein. Anything shelf stable, pickles,spices,condiments, fills in the gaps. The crates stack easily and can go five high on a furniture mover if you want them mobile. Yes, I'm still eating some of it but you get a rate of return over inflation with a practical use if you can swing the storage space.
DeleteA pretty good start Rob.
DeleteHowever it's about 1 person months worth by my math.
Example:
Rice Calories Per Pound
There are 1648 calories in a pound of rice (uncooked).
So about 800 calories per person per day if a 2 person 30 day supply.
Dinty Moore Stew 200 calories per serving @ 2 per can. Only 10 grams protein per serving.
So, while an excellent start, I'd suggest that's a 2 person 2 weeks supply.
BOY you can really SEE how much food prices jumped since you did that emergency supply in 2021. By my recent shopping all of those prices have doubled on average.
It always comes down to logistics in the end...
ReplyDeleteLogistics is king. On and off the battlefield. And since it's not sexy it's generally ignored till the problems start.
ReplyDeleteI read the Lentil recipe several times and I can't see where Mrs. ERJ's onions and celery enter the picture.
ReplyDeleteMrs ERJ made the same comment to me.
DeleteThink of the base recipe as being something like a plain, cheese pizza. It can be topped with all kinds of things to jazz it up: Onions, peppers, celery, garlic, burger, chunks of tomatoes, chicken, anchovies, pineapple, ham... The sky is the limit.
At our house, it is almost always some combination of garlic, onions, sweet pepper and/or celery depending on what is in the fridge and needs to be used up. Then, each eater further customizes it at the table.