The Preppers and Survivors Thread

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#3475798 31-Mar-2026 06:17

Rikkitic:

cddt:

The world is very different, but far more dependent on energy as a commodity. And we import most of it.

Actually, we generate most of it.

You're right. We import most of what we need to grow food and move goods and people around the country.

Details:

"Energy self-sufficiency, the ability of a country to meet its own energy supply needs through domestic production, was 72.1 per cent in 2024, down 1.5 points from 2023."

"New Zealand’s total primary energy supply was 835 petajoules (PJ) in 2024....Overall, energy imports accounted for 359 PJ of the country’s primary energy supply for the year."

https://www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/energy_in_new_zealand_2025.pdf

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#3475827 31-Mar-2026 08:41

JayADee:

If it came to it I would — if in charge— seize private electric vehicles.

The govt has this power in the event of a state of emergency (assuming a fuel crisis is within scope of the relevant legislation). We aren't there yet, by along stretch. We're a long way from there and there is no firm indication we will get there. However .... Leaves and Teslas won't transport enough food to keep shelves stocked. I'm sure there a small number electric light commercials around, some may even by refrigerated. More likely the govt would control and possibly seize fuel supplies to ensure diesel trucks have enough fuel to distribute groceries.

Mike

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#3476804 1-Apr-2026 18:02

I was at the park yesterday wondering why councils are still mowing grass with tractors. Guess we’re all in ‘hope for the best’ mode. I for one am madly hoping it all works out. I think Iran won’t be too inclined to go back to business as usual even when trump declares himself as winner. Wonder how much money they’re making controlling the strait.

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#3476999 2-Apr-2026 01:00

I can’t edit my post so I’m adding it here. I realised it’s because we have no where to store any extra fuel. Since we have ships arriving, we need somewhere to put it so pretty much until we know there’s no more arriving there’s no point holding onto it.

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#3477000 2-Apr-2026 03:47

Rikkitic:

Tinkerisk:

Certainly no kerosene for cargo planes and heavy fuel oil for container ships for the import of all goods that you do not produce yourselves.

The quote was about energy, not fuel. We generate most of ours.

Aren’t you talking about electricity? Around 60% of NZs energy comes from hydrocarbons.

85%-90%ish of electricity comes from renewables in a wet year, a fair bit less in a dry year.

Rikkitic

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#3477099 2-Apr-2026 09:45

Handle9:
Aren’t you talking about electricity? Around 60% of NZs energy comes from hydrocarbons.

85%-90%ish of electricity comes from renewables in a wet year, a fair bit less in a dry year.

I was talking about total energy. He said most was imported, I said that was incorrect. If he had said fuel, I would have agreed.

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#3477122 2-Apr-2026 11:00

Dehydrators looked interesting. Watched someone dry eggs - never crossed my mind as possible. Apparently they can last up to five years in powder form and you just add water to reconstitute for scrambled eggs. It would be a great source of protein emergency food, always dry in a glass jar and doesn’t take up much room. Thinking earthquakes and climate events. Haven’t got my head wrapped around food shortage possibilities just yet, but who knows.

Anyone use a dehydrator often? With the price of fruit and tomatoes so high you wouldn’t be rushing to do a large amount, but for those who have a garden with a glut of fruit etc, it would be worthwhile. Yummy Kale chips also come to mind. Yes you can dry stuff in the oven but it’s costlier and doesn’t work for some items that harden outside and moisture can’t escape.

Ambivalent about buying one in case it goes down the same path as our NutriBullet, used precisely once. Curious if others use them much.

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#3477131 2-Apr-2026 11:03

Eva888:

Dehydrators looked interesting. Watched someone dry eggs - never crossed my mind as possible. Apparently they can last up to five years in powder form and you just add water to reconstitute for scrambled eggs. It would be a great source of protein emergency food, always dry in a glass jar and doesn’t take up much room. Thinking earthquakes and climate events. Haven’t got my head wrapped around food shortage possibilities just yet, but who knows.

Anyone use a dehydrator often? With the price of fruit and tomatoes so high you wouldn’t be rushing to do a large amount, but for those who have a garden with a glut of fruit etc, it would be worthwhile. Yummy Kale chips also come to mind. Yes you can dry stuff in the oven but it’s costlier and doesn’t work for some items that harden outside and moisture can’t escape.

Ambivalent about buying one in case it goes down the same path as our NutriBullet, used precisely once. Curious if others use them much.

Alternative option: get a few chooks and have fresh eggs daily.

cddt

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#3477156 2-Apr-2026 11:50

Eva888:

Dehydrators looked interesting. Watched someone dry eggs - never crossed my mind as possible. Apparently they can last up to five years in powder form and you just add water to reconstitute for scrambled eggs. It would be a great source of protein emergency food, always dry in a glass jar and doesn’t take up much room. Thinking earthquakes and climate events. Haven’t got my head wrapped around food shortage possibilities just yet, but who knows.

Anyone use a dehydrator often? With the price of fruit and tomatoes so high you wouldn’t be rushing to do a large amount, but for those who have a garden with a glut of fruit etc, it would be worthwhile. Yummy Kale chips also come to mind. Yes you can dry stuff in the oven but it’s costlier and doesn’t work for some items that harden outside and moisture can’t escape.

Ambivalent about buying one in case it goes down the same path as our NutriBullet, used precisely once. Curious if others use them much.

We have one, borrowed from the in-laws and only give it back to them when they occasionally want to use it.

The other day my wife found clearance apples (2 kg for $2.30 or similar) and so bought 8 kg and dehydrated these into apple rings.

Unfortunately apple rings are tasty so my kids eat through them very quickly...

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#3477160 2-Apr-2026 12:01

@cddt Could you share the brand and any comments on how good or bad it is.

Chooks need care and food. Would love a couple but up here facing South they would be blown three suburbs away. The main thing that put me off in the past is when Flossie and Gertrude get old and stop laying, absolutely couldn’t ever kill and make soup out of them.

cddt

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#3477164 2-Apr-2026 12:13

It's a Sunbeam DT6000. Works well, does the job.

Chooks are a great idea (we used to have some), but the two problems are 1) they crap everywhere and 2) neighbours have roaming predators.

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#3477179 2-Apr-2026 13:19

Put the chooks in at night. Keep in a run during most of the day when unsupervised. Could pickle the eggs but we had chooks a few times, good value long as you can have a rooster to reproduce your hens. Did bunnies a few years too, goes well, easy keepers. Taste yuck. Plus the pet factor is high. Climbing beans if no one has mentioned them yet. Grown vertically take up very little room. Eat green in summer, let them dry on the vine, eat from dry in winter, plant out the left overs in spring. Cool storage in the garage will keep spuds for months apples too if you’re in the chilly regions , you can get 4 crops of corn in a summer, the usual winter and summer veg garden. If you’re keen you can easily jar enough tomatoes in a summer to last you 2 years, ditto jam. My favourite is loquat. Can’t beat nut trees for good calories and all you do is dry them spread out in the shell- almonds, English walnuts, not so keen on macadamias. Banana plants are easy if you’re in an area warm enough but take up a lot of room. A patch of mixed asparagus types will go for months, self seed and live for 15-20 years. Bit painful to keep weeded especially when they are babies. Unfortunately I am past the whole garden thing but I highly recommend it to anyone interested. You can subscribe to Garden Guide which is a ‘when to plant’ guide that comes in your mailbox spam free. I’ll add the garden guide link when I am back on my other device.

I’m on Australian Temperate.

https://www.gardenate.com/subscribe/

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#3477200 2-Apr-2026 14:54

Eva888:

Dehydrators looked interesting. Watched someone dry eggs - never crossed my mind as possible. Apparently they can last up to five years in powder form and you just add water to reconstitute for scrambled eggs. It would be a great source of protein emergency food, always dry in a glass jar and doesn’t take up much room. Thinking earthquakes and climate events. Haven’t got my head wrapped around food shortage possibilities just yet, but who knows.

Anyone use a dehydrator often? With the price of fruit and tomatoes so high you wouldn’t be rushing to do a large amount, but for those who have a garden with a glut of fruit etc, it would be worthwhile. Yummy Kale chips also come to mind. Yes you can dry stuff in the oven but it’s costlier and doesn’t work for some items that harden outside and moisture can’t escape.

Ambivalent about buying one in case it goes down the same path as our NutriBullet, used precisely once. Curious if others use them much.

We do for homegrown produce that has peaks in abundance - feijoas, chillis and tomatoes for example. Although you can do those in the sun with a fairly simple setup. I also make pickles and preserves. You'd want to have plenty of salt and vinegar, though. The lactic preserves (gherkins, kimchi etc) need a little salt. I've never been brave enough to store lactic pickles outside the fridge. Although you supposedly can do that. Preserved lemons are easy. Just lemons and salt. I'm not sure how much nutritional value they keep though.

You can also dry a bunch of food that is suitable for poultry - duckweed, azolla, tree lucerne leaves. If you have chickens or quails, you can grow a bunch in summer to dry and powder for reconstitution in winter. Duckweed and azola are particularly fast growing. Lucerne is too but it's shrub so

If I was a prepper, I'd be looking at establishing patches of older perennial/self-seeding vegetables: Alexanders, orach, skirret, salsify, edible rampion, good king henry. Some of those older plants were abandoned because they have longer establishment times or don't transport well. Looters wouldn't even recognise them as food. Most can be a bit hard to get hold of though.

There are also a bunch of perennial brassicas, alliums and substitutes like miner's lettuce, NZ spinach ... Then there are things like asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes (sorry about your butt and your cohabitants' nostrils), NZ yams, rocoto chillis ... the list goes on. These are thing you establish pre-crisis, so you don't have to grow short cycle annual crops.

Mike

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#3477607 3-Apr-2026 11:56

@MikeAqua. Interesting, I’ve never heard of some of the vegetables. Would be great to know a source or share seeds from such. I did watch something about Good King Henry plant and wondered where to find some. The idea is to have plants that grow like weeds and self seed rather than perfect rows of the usual veges. Plants that keep growing and producing are the best.

Not everyone is in to gardening and easy solutions are needed especially for those that are flatting and low income. Bunnings have buckets under $2 that need a few holes poked underneath. They can be planted with greens and lined up outside a flat then taken to the next abode when time to move. Kids can be in charge of watering and making weed and scrap soup to nurture them with. Seeing mums in the supermarket paying exorbitant prices for a bunch of spinach that boils down to a spoonful is sad.

I have flat leaf parsley growing that I gather seeds from and throw back into gaps where wild grasses would seed, edible and pretty. Makes a good salad with bulgur wheat and is nutritious. We underestimate the weeds in the garden. I pick dandelion and puha that grows wild and made a salad with lemon and olive oil, enjoyed in the Mediterranean, slightly bitter so great for the liver.

For years I’ve had French Sorrel growing, it stays green all year and spreads. I don’t often cook it but good to know it’s there. I boil it with parsley, carrots onion etc then purée, thicken and pour over boiled potatoes and cream. My kids grew up on it and love it. It’s quite sour so an acquired taste. It’s good to have forever plants growing as emergency food. Onions, carrots, potatoes etc are nice but finite and seasonal.

Am intently following international analysts (not mainstream TV) who suggest this war is not ending anytime soon and could worsen fast. If it does end by some miracle that’s great, if it continues, consider how you would survive if supermarket shelves empty.

Off to pick some French sorrel now, discussing it has whet the appetite.

MikeAqua

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#3478665 7-Apr-2026 10:32

Eva888:

@MikeAqua. Interesting, I’ve never heard of some of the vegetables. Would be great to know a source or share seeds from such. I did watch something about Good King Henry plant and wondered where to find some. The idea is to have plants that grow like weeds and self seed rather than perfect rows of the usual veges. Plants that keep growing and producing are the best.

Not everyone is in to gardening and easy solutions are needed especially for those that are flatting and low income. Bunnings have buckets under $2 that need a few holes poked underneath. They can be planted with greens and lined up outside a flat then taken to the next abode when time to move. Kids can be in charge of watering and making weed and scrap soup to nurture them with. Seeing mums in the supermarket paying exorbitant prices for a bunch of spinach that boils down to a spoonful is sad.

I have flat leaf parsley growing that I gather seeds from and throw back into gaps where wild grasses would seed, edible and pretty. Makes a good salad with bulgur wheat and is nutritious. We underestimate the weeds in the garden. I pick dandelion and puha that grows wild and made a salad with lemon and olive oil, enjoyed in the Mediterranean, slightly bitter so great for the liver.

For years I’ve had French Sorrel growing, it stays green all year and spreads. I don’t often cook it but good to know it’s there. I boil it with parsley, carrots onion etc then purée, thicken and pour over boiled potatoes and cream. My kids grew up on it and love it. It’s quite sour so an acquired taste. It’s good to have forever plants growing as emergency food. Onions, carrots, potatoes etc are nice but finite and seasonal.

Am intently following international analysts (not mainstream TV) who suggest this war is not ending anytime soon and could worsen fast. If it does end by some miracle that’s great, if it continues, consider how you would survive if supermarket shelves empty.

Off to pick some French sorrel now, discussing it has whet the appetite.

Places like Kahikatea farm and Koanga are your best options but availability varies a lot, for the more obscure vegetables. Otherwise, permaculture groups often have seed/cutting exchange systems.

Many of these plants are old potager garden species, poorly suited to modern commercial horticulture (except for asparagus). Every cottage garden and every abbey would have had permanent patches of them. They take time to establish, they're slower growing and the produce doesn't necessarily transport well. They don't fit a plow, drill and spray cycle. I suspect many of them wouldn't be sweet enough for modern palates. They're also ugly compared to modern produce that has been bred to be visually appealing. The greens look like weeds and the roots (again except asparagus) don't tend to look edible.

Using skirret as an example, you plant a crown (bunch of tubers), let it grow for a year. After the foliage dies off, you dig it up, harvest some of the younger tubers, divide the rest and replant. Now you have twice as many plants, next year four, etc.

I think if a person is to be a prepper/survivalist you probably need to be into gardening. Otherwise, you won't be surviving long! Probably permaculture gardening would be the way to go, which involves unlearning modern approaches to cropping/gardening.

Mike

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