Coincidentally, this year two holidays fall right in front of the weekend, so all in all, most people are work-free for four days and a lot of stores are closed for four days, while all were closed for two - Thursday and Friday. For this reason, an enormous amount of people frenzy-shopped, because if the stores are closed for 48 hours, you need to get at least 26-days supplies. On the last day.
I remember when the war started when I was a kid, I knew it was serious, because mum allowed me to buy not regular two chocolate banana foams, but twenty. I was certain the nuclear winter is imminent. That said, ost of the people who have been in a war before, mainly the second big one, and most of the farm folk, tend to keep quite a bit of food stored regardless. G's family keeps enough food for at least a few weeks, I should think, without considering all the corn and animals that could be consumed, or would provide eggs and milk for at least a while. My grandma kept an entire stack of sugar, flour, oil and a brick of yeast in the fridge. You can keep yeast like a pet, ongoing for ever, really, if you know what you're doing. She also kept powdered milk, but these days milk seems to be everlasting, so now she'd probably keep carts.
It got me thinking, if the world DID close down for a month - provided people wouldn't go insane and start looting and fighting and making violent shopping decisions - what WOULD one store? A month, especially in winter, isn't really that long. But it's 25 days longer than most people can survive without grocery shopping.
Water would be either/or - either it would stay fully available on tap, or we would have to find a source or a large enough container to store it. A person needs, comfortably, about five liters per day for eating, drinking and bathing, so that's about 500 liters tank for three people.
Heating - either/or, either it stays on or we need to move to a housing where wood is the source of comfort. Both our parents use firewood to get warmth.
Medicine. A month worth of medicine for our elders and maybe some antibiotics just in case, even though I think from what we have in the medicine cabinet now would be okay.
Salt, sugar, oil, flour. We don't really use sugar in the house and not all that much salt, so perhaps one kilo of each, and maybe two bottles of oil. Flour ... If there is no provision of bread, and we are still talking three adults, then perhaps a loaf per two days, which is cca 15 loaves, so around 20 kilos of flour, also for noodles, pancakes and sauce thickening. All the other spices we already have would easily last a month.
Meat is problematic, because you need to keep it cool, less so in winter when you can easily keep it outside, but let's say for normal consumption, about ten kilos of meat. Perhaps two kilos of cheese. Some butter.
Ten kilos of potatoes, ten kilos of rice, ten kilos of apples and ten liters of milk. Because we are sweet teeth here, a bunch of biscuits, chocolate, and candy.
Twenty yogurts, coffee, potato sauce, compote fruit in cans, some cans of beans and peas, some lasting vegetable, like pumpkins, cabbage, peppers and tomatoes. Oat flakes, some nuts and cranberries, honey, some apples, pears, dry figs and so on.
And so on. really, like going on a remote vacation. Not difficult at all. A month is nothing. Three months, in winter, now that would be more interesting. But I can calculate for three months as well. I think a year would be a challenge. A year of food for, say, both our families, living at the farm ... Twenty people. And it's winter, nothing will grow in that all year. And the cows and chickens and pigs will run out of food, also. Tricky, tricky. Still totally doable with what you can buy at a store. But storing it ... and keeping it safe. That's the stuff of apocalypse movies.
Depends how many unresourceful people would remain roaming about, I suppose.
I remember when the war started when I was a kid, I knew it was serious, because mum allowed me to buy not regular two chocolate banana foams, but twenty. I was certain the nuclear winter is imminent. That said, ost of the people who have been in a war before, mainly the second big one, and most of the farm folk, tend to keep quite a bit of food stored regardless. G's family keeps enough food for at least a few weeks, I should think, without considering all the corn and animals that could be consumed, or would provide eggs and milk for at least a while. My grandma kept an entire stack of sugar, flour, oil and a brick of yeast in the fridge. You can keep yeast like a pet, ongoing for ever, really, if you know what you're doing. She also kept powdered milk, but these days milk seems to be everlasting, so now she'd probably keep carts.
It got me thinking, if the world DID close down for a month - provided people wouldn't go insane and start looting and fighting and making violent shopping decisions - what WOULD one store? A month, especially in winter, isn't really that long. But it's 25 days longer than most people can survive without grocery shopping.
Water would be either/or - either it would stay fully available on tap, or we would have to find a source or a large enough container to store it. A person needs, comfortably, about five liters per day for eating, drinking and bathing, so that's about 500 liters tank for three people.
Heating - either/or, either it stays on or we need to move to a housing where wood is the source of comfort. Both our parents use firewood to get warmth.
Medicine. A month worth of medicine for our elders and maybe some antibiotics just in case, even though I think from what we have in the medicine cabinet now would be okay.
Salt, sugar, oil, flour. We don't really use sugar in the house and not all that much salt, so perhaps one kilo of each, and maybe two bottles of oil. Flour ... If there is no provision of bread, and we are still talking three adults, then perhaps a loaf per two days, which is cca 15 loaves, so around 20 kilos of flour, also for noodles, pancakes and sauce thickening. All the other spices we already have would easily last a month.
Meat is problematic, because you need to keep it cool, less so in winter when you can easily keep it outside, but let's say for normal consumption, about ten kilos of meat. Perhaps two kilos of cheese. Some butter.
Ten kilos of potatoes, ten kilos of rice, ten kilos of apples and ten liters of milk. Because we are sweet teeth here, a bunch of biscuits, chocolate, and candy.
Twenty yogurts, coffee, potato sauce, compote fruit in cans, some cans of beans and peas, some lasting vegetable, like pumpkins, cabbage, peppers and tomatoes. Oat flakes, some nuts and cranberries, honey, some apples, pears, dry figs and so on.
And so on. really, like going on a remote vacation. Not difficult at all. A month is nothing. Three months, in winter, now that would be more interesting. But I can calculate for three months as well. I think a year would be a challenge. A year of food for, say, both our families, living at the farm ... Twenty people. And it's winter, nothing will grow in that all year. And the cows and chickens and pigs will run out of food, also. Tricky, tricky. Still totally doable with what you can buy at a store. But storing it ... and keeping it safe. That's the stuff of apocalypse movies.
Depends how many unresourceful people would remain roaming about, I suppose.
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