I recently found a great way to store meats that does not involve the use of preservatives or any special equipment. The whole process involves very basic, easy to make tools.

You can dry the meat and berries using a smoker or solar drier.

You can shred the meat using a grinding stone.

You can heat the fat using a solar cooker.

You can store the final product in any air tight container, in an underground cellar or something.

It stores for a very, very long time (not totally sure yet just how long, but I would guess a year or more)

It provides your body with everything it needs to stay alive and mobile. Over a cold winter is an example of when it would come in handy.

It doesnt need to be cooked or anything once it has been made.

Anyway here is the article I read with some really good information, at the bottom there is a link to the article, which also contains the directions on how to make pemmican.

"Pemmican is a Native American word roughly translated as "travel food made for long trips." A compact source of concentrated energy needing no preparation on the trail, Native American pemmican often included bear fat, berries and anything else that was nutritious and available. The energy bar traces its roots back to the Middle Ages. Crusaders tucked an energy bar, called the panforte (a mix of flour, honey, shortening, nuts and dried fruit), into their tunics to give them a lift during long marches.

Pemmican may be one of the world's perfect foods. It is only pure protein, fat, and carbohydrate . . . n perfect ratio. It gives the body the densest nutritional value in a simple, hand-feeding manner. Its high energy ingredients keeps one from being hungry yet feeds the body everything it needs. It is very simple, easy to carry, easy to eat, and tastes incredible.

Why speak about this meat-and-fat food on a fitness website?

We are all looking for the perfect food to eat, which is delicious, nutritious, satisfying, easy, and quick on the go. Let's face it, the reason why "fast food" is so popular is because we can eat it at any time, and it allows us to get on with our busy schedules. But what if there was a healthy alternative which takes no longer to prepare than an average dinner, is actually rather fun, last without refrigeration, and can take up to 2 weeks to eat, staying fresh the whole while?

I myself am reducing my meat-foods. I highly respect my vegetarian friends, so I have found a meatless pemmican bar which suffices to curb hunger and give nutritional support.

Meat Pemmican is a mixture of dried meat and suet which is eaten unheated, and which keeps for years under reasonable conditions. The first recorded use of pemmican was by North American tribes (particularly the Assiniboin of Dakota and the sub-arctic peoples), by whom it had been used for generations. It became more widely known in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a staple for polar explorers. Although it is unlikely that pemmican has been made for long enough to have impacted on nutritional aspects of human evolution, it happens that pemmican recreates what was probably a dietary staple for one, two or three million years.

As a fan of history, I've always known about pemmican. Native American peoples carried it for traveling on their hunts, I've always known that these Native Americans are quite healthy, active, and relatively disease-free cultures, when not eating processed foods of today.

I was re-introduced to pemmican by Ray Audette, author of Neanderthin, and Jon Benson, nutritionist and fan of paleolithic ("cave-man") eating. The theories of Paleolithic diet are simple: our bodies work better on foods we were meant to have: which is anything hunted, picked, or gathered. For a very basic overview of paleolithic nutrition, click this Paleolithic explanation.

When meeting Ray personally, he gave me some of his own home-made pemmican to try. He and thousands of people, hundreds of thousands, throughout time, swear by its energy and even its taste. I am giving you Ray's recipe as well as my own details.

Note: do not be afraid that you are eating fat. Fat is needed by your body, period, and the 'whole fat versus non-fat' argument is becoming very heated. You will stay slim longer on eating sensibly with 'natural' healthy fats, than by eating processed foods which say "non-fat" but give you additional chemicals, fake fats, and harmful trans-fats."

Click here for full article and recipe to make pemmican.

Sourced from http://www.physicalmind.com/pemmican.htm

I live in nampa, I'm trying to find someone that could sell me a handfull of red wiggler worms to start my composting bin. The worms are the starting point to completing my aquaponics system. After I get my worms going and I finish building my aquaponics system I'm going to be looking to buy catfish or tilapia from.... I dont know if anyone in the community has an aquaponics system set up or has connections to people that farm fish or anything. I would greatly appreciate it though.

Is there a community in nampa?

Please email me at burtonridr2@yahoo.com if you have any information.

Thanks,

Eric