*FOOD* for thought!!
 

Food for thought

I live in British Columbia... Not a Big City, but rather a smaller town pop is around 12,000 and with the surrounding communities probably around 22,000as with most of B.C. the routes to most of the towns and city's are through mountain passes...
Last week we had NO FOOD reaching our stores for 5 days.. No mail for 5 days..

The two truck routes through the mountain passes were cut off by a series of avalanches & mud slides, while crews worked to clear one part of the highway, another occured further along the route.. effectively meaning that we 'were on our own'

I tend not to watch our local news and well the BC news crews believe that the world revolves around the lower mainland and doesn't consider anything happening East of Vancouver - Kelowna news-worthy....

So I was suprised to find on my visit to the supermarket many of the shelves bare.. This was early morning on Day 3 ..

No Eggs or cream, there was just a little milk that had been spread out to make it look like the refrigeration section was stocked...

No canned Coconut milk, no rice, and many other items were gone or so low that they spread those items out one can deep along the rows to give the impression that there was food on the shelves..

In the meat department, No Chicken, Beef or lamb, they had some large Hams that were spread over the refrigeration section of the meat department along with some packets of bacon..they put some Pig trotters out that they had out back in the frozen section.

No Fish .. The usually well stocked Fish counter was empty....

Veggies... They had found a local supplier and there was a huge amount of Brussels sprouts.. Most of everything else was gone.. No salad mixes, no carrots, no broccolli etc ...no fresh herbs... There was still some potatoes and fresh fruit..

This was Day 3 .. I didn't bother going back in to town so not sure what the shelves looked like by day 5...

My broker said she had a couple of out of town clients that had placed orders and put a chq in the post.. needless to say after 5 days she still hadn't received the money due to no mail getting through.. We have a small airport a couple of flights a day, with the bad weather set in there were no flights in or out..

Anyway, that was just due to unusually bad weather, however I can now imagine how it would be if there was a fuel crisis or a truckers strike !!

Cheers

Re: *FOOD* for thought!!
 

Don't make the mistake I made. Take notes. Write them as detailed as possible. It'll give you something to reference as you make your next prep decision. When we had our windstorm here in WA a few years ago, the power was out, deliveries were stopped, things were screwed up everywhere. I figured I'd remember what it was like because it was so shocking. I didn't write anything down and I pretty much forgot about most of it. I could have learned a lot if I took notes. It would have helped others too. Lessons learned

Re: *FOOD* for thought!!
 

Just in time inventory is the modern reality, why should you expect the grocery store to be any different.
Surely you have more than 5 days groceries on hand yourself?

Re: *FOOD* for thought!!
 

Yes I do, although if you had asked me that a year ago, my answer would have sadly been no !!

What the experience taught me was that being winter I would be sadly lacking in the fresh veggies and greens department.. So my focus is now on learning to sprout and having a store of sprouting seeds in store.

Cheers

Re: *FOOD* for thought!!
 

this could also be a blessing is disguise
how long have you lived in this town ?
is this a tight community ?

IMO
when TSHTF, i can see city folk wandering out into the country looking for food/supplies
is there a general perception that small town folk have more food tucked away because of their remoteness ?

when TSHTF, it might be nice knowing your town only has to worry about two main routes

Re: *FOOD* for thought!!
 

We've lived here 11 years, however we are going to move... Over the past 5 years we've seen all our friends move in and around The Okanagen so we are thinking buying some land there. Being a food comes from a supermarket' kinda girl, (my hubby is the same) this will be a new adventure for us..

Yes the town is 'community orientated' but also has a lot of 'everyman for himself types' around..
I feel vulnerable here, although we are around 6 miles out of town on a useable acreage we do have one of the nicest larger houses in the area and feel in TSHTF situation we will stick out way too much..

I think there would be more safety in numbers and I really want to be nearer my friends.. ( Of course the population is a lot greater here) but you can't spend all your life in a bunker, I'm striving for balanace..

Re: *FOOD* for thought!!
 

anywhere near Kelowna ?
been there twice, next time i go to BC/Kelowna, i'm staying

Kelowna

http://www.donnaeaston.com/images/kelowna.jpg


http://www.kelownabandb.com/images/home.jpg

Re: *FOOD* for thought!!
 

I was stuck in my place for 5 days - due to weather conditions...I found that I had plenty of food. The thing that caused me to get out in blizzard conditions was soda and nicotine.....sitting around for 5 days is boooooooring. If I hadn't had electricity and the net ... I would have made about 5 babies with random neighbors.... so damn boring!