Our ancestors have traded salt for centuries, valued it as much as gold, and sometimes killed for it. Romans valued salt so highly that they paid soldiers with it, and from this we get the word “salary”. The term “worth its weight in salt” came from this practice. Pioneers packed 10 pounds of salt per person for their six month journey along the Oregon trail.
Why to Store Salt Long Term
Salt is an essential item for survival. Some people do all they can to avoid eating salt, but it’s vital to health and an important part of preparedness for anyone watching the current situation in our country and the world. Ordinary table salt is devoid of some 80 minerals, whereas sea salt and Himalayan pink salt contain the full life-giving array of trace minerals.
Maybe most importantly, when things are difficult, salt can make bland food taste better.
How much should you store in preparation for a society off the grid?
More than you think you should. As a general guide, with 10-lbs. of salt you can cure around 200 lbs. of meat.
Make sure to transfer your salt stash to water tight containers, such as masons jar, food-grade buckets, Mylar bags and the like. You don’t want moisture to degrade your salt in storage or wash away.
There are many kinds of salt for survival, including…
• Himalayan pink salt, an amazing and beautiful unrefined salt with ~80 trace minerals that will heal you from the inside out.
• Many kinds and colors of sea salt (from many areas of the world) including Celtic Sea salt. Natural sea salt does not have iodine.
• Kosher salt. True Kosher salt is blessed by a rabbi, but there is more in the koshering process. The craggy crystals of Kosher salt make it perfect for curing meat. Kosher salt is a chef favorite because it dissolves quickly and disperses flavors evenly.
• Cattle Salt. Ranchers need salt for their livestock. Some is mixed in the trough as a free mineral supplement, and salt blocks can be used to attract wild life!
What Doctor Berg said about plastics shocked me! 4:30 minutes.
Salt Use #1: Food preservation.
Aside from your body’s need for salt, the most important reason to store salt is for food preservation. Salt helps to preserve food by drawing out water out of the cells and by inhibiting the growth of bacteria and other organisms.
When the stuff hits the fan, you’ll need salt to:
• Preserve the meat in your freezer when the electricity goes off for days or weeks
• Cure salmon into gravlox or make beef jerky
• Make Sauerkraut and kimchi
• Pickle vegetables and fruits which increases probiotics and extends shelf life when your garden has a lot of produce you’re ready to scrub the pan vigorously with an old dish rag
• Lacto-ferment pickles like I had as a girl. **Choose a salt with no added iodine in it because iodine oxidizes and darkens food.
• Make fermented, delicious, medicinal beet kvass to stabilize the gut’s microbiome for optimum health
• Prevent fruits and vegetables from browning
Use #2: Electrolyte balance.
Salt is important for your body in terms of water retention and electrolyte balance. Electrolyte salts are in your blood, urine and body fluids, and it’s the electrolytes that help with muscle contraction. Salt also has minerals vital to digestion.
• Electrolyte balance is important to restore electrolytes lost through sweating while farming, gardening, hunting or defending the homestead. Proper electrolyte balance and hydration can keep you from getting heat stroke! Make Salt Sole: Never Buy Minerals {Or Magnesium} Again or just regularly put a pinch of pink Himalayan salt in a glass of water and consume.
• Electrolytes help promote quicker recovery during illness. Most commercial electrolyte drinks are packed full of sugar and artificial ingredients, but thankfully there are 2 better alternatives. One is this old Switchel recipe (perhaps the first Gatorade?)
And this very basic anti-diarhheal electrolyte recipe adapted from the old W.H.O. recipe I learned in nursing school:
1. 1/2 level teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt
2. 3/4 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
3. dissolved in 4 measuring cups of purified water
Use #3: Important medicinal uses.
Humans need salt to live!
• Dental treatment: Lukewarm salt water (using a teaspoon of Himalayan salt in a 1/2 cup of water) can help draw out the pus form an abscess and simultaneously kill bacteria, which is at the root of the problem. If you had no toothpaste you could brush your teeth with a mixture of baking soda and salt.
• Diluted, salt works as a mild antiseptic and antibacterial. Get a cut? Wash it with salty water and let it dry naturally. The salt helps clean and dry up/resolve your wound.
• Himalayan salt and a drop of water can help relieve bee stings
• Himalayan salt and Epsom Salts can be used in a sitz bath to cleanse or ease pain around your bottom or private parts. It is suggested if you have hemorrhoids, an anal fissure, or if you’ve just had a baby.
• Gargle to soothe sore throats. (My Nana used to stir 1/2 teaspoon salt in an 4-ounce glass of warm water)
Use #4: Quickly put out a fire.
As a fire extinguisher salt is invaluable with grease fires. Water will only make a grease fire worse, but spreading enough salt on a grease fire can effectively help you smother the flames with no smoke.
Use #5: Prevent fireplace creosote buildup.
Salt can also prevents creosote buildup. When you leave a fire, you can douse the flames with salt, and your fire will burn out quickly with little smoke. This means you’ll have less soot than if you let it smolder. Some say by spreading a cup of table salt on the coals or logs every week of use, it will cause any past creosote buildup to flake off.
Read more tips for cleaning the fireplace and chimney.
Use #6: Barter.
Salt is an easy-to-store and inexpensive bartering item in that would serve a prepper well in a long-term survival scenario.
Use #7: Disinfectant for cutting boards.
Salt is a natural cleaning agent and abrasive. Rub cutting boards with salt and a damp cloth after washing them in mild soap and water.
Use #8: Clean and removing rust from cast iron pans.
Salt is one way to clean your cast iron cookware. Easily remove rust from a cast iron pan using about 4 tablespoons cheap Morton’s table salt and some cooking oil.
Use #9: Remove poultry pin-feathers. Got chickens? During fall harvest, rubbing the chicken with salt will help homesteaders with the task of removing pin-feathers.
Use #10: Easier peeling hard-boiled eggs.
Did you know boiled eggs will peel more easily when boiled in salt water? Here’s how: The Perfect Boiled Egg
Use #11: Boil water faster.
Watching a pot of water won’t make it boil faster, but you can add a pinch of salt to it! And reduced cooking time saves valuable fuel. Adding salt to pasta also will help reduce the gelatin starch in the pasta.
Use #12: Dish washing.
Want to get rid of the brown gunk at the bottom of your porcelain tea cups? The salt is abrasive enough to clean, yet gentle on your fine china. And a little salt and water paste and some elbow grease can go a long way when it comes to buffing away hard water stains, grease, and burned-on debris in pots and pans.
Use #13: Thawing and melting ice.
Salt will certainly help clear the icy roads. But don’t use salt on nice concrete walks – it will cause concrete to chip and pit. This product (magnesium chloride) is safer for pet’s paws, plants, and won’t pit concrete. And for people living in cold regions, salt is supposed to help dry your clothes in winter. Use a bit of salt in the final laundry rinse if hanging your clothes on the line outside. This is all folklore/legend, so I don’t know how much to tell you to use.
Use #14: Wild game and livestock salt lick.
Every living thing needs salt. A salt lick is for use with livestock or as a hunting game lure. A Redmond’s salt block is filled with essential vitamins and minerals that animals both crave and need.
Use #15: Clean a Filthy, Greasy Sponge.
Soak overnight in a small dish of water with an added 1/4 cup of Morton’s salt.
Salt has an almost endless supply of uses. Below are some salt hacks…
Salt is one of the things you can’t afford to overlook for your health and for your survival. It can become your lifeline with bartering. Best of all, salt lasts for ever (along with these 10 other emergency food items).
Btw, as a Deep Roots reader, you can now use this link to get 15% off of a wide array of the highest quality nutritional supplements, many that you already know and love (including salt). Or save 25% if you order as a client of Ana who is a Nutrition Therapist Master (NTM).
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.“ ~Colossians 4:6
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