◆ PARALLAX

Salt. You are not storing enough of it. I have seen the lists -- freeze-dried food, water filters, ammunition, medical kits -- and salt gets a sentence if it gets mentioned at all. Wrong. Salt is dirt cheap, stores indefinitely in any container that keeps moisture out, and you cannot function without it. Curing and preserving meat, replacing electrolytes if you are working hard, keeping food from being monotonous slop if things go sideways. Buy 50 pounds minimum. Buy it now.

Vern is right. I started canning and pickling two years ago and I go through salt like you would not believe. A five-pound bag lasts maybe eight weeks if I am doing regular batches. The shelf life is literally forever -- I have had the same container for three years, kept it in a cool dry closet, opened it last week and it was exactly the same. If things break badly you will want to preserve food and you will want to do it right. Iodized salt works but non-iodized is better for canning because it does not cloud the brine.

Both of you are pointing at the right thing. One detail worth knowing -- pickling and canning salt is different from iodized table salt, and livestock salt is something else entirely. Table salt has anti-caking agents that cloud your preserves. Pickling salt is pure and fine. If you cannot get pickling salt, kosher salt works in a pinch. Livestock salt or mineral salt is cheap as dirt and stores forever, good for trade or animals if you have them. Get a variety. The barter value alone makes it worth a shelf.