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 Food Supply Lessons of the Klondike Gold Rush 
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It is pretty well known that to gain entry into Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush, a miner had to have a year supply of food. This, combined with other needed supplies, lead to the famous "ton of goods" each miner would need.

One commonly distributed list prepared by the Northern Pacific Railroad suggested the following food

Quote:
150 lbs. bacon
400 lbs. flour
25 lbs. rolled oats
125 lbs. beans
10 lbs. tea
10 lbs. coffee
25 lbs. sugar
25 lbs. dried potatoes
2 lbs. dried onions
15 lbs. salt
1 lb. pepper
75 lbs. dried fruits
8 lbs. baking powder
2 lbs. soda
1/2 lb. evaporated vinegar
12 oz. compressed soup
1 can mustard


Another list suggested

Quote:
200 pounds of bacon
400 pounds of flour
85 pounds assorted dried fruit
50 pounds cornmeal
35 pounds rice
24 pounds coffee
5 pounds tea
100 pounds sugar
25 pounds fish
15 pounds soup vegetables
50 pounds oatmeal
50 pounds dried potatoes
50 pounds dried onions
25 cans butter
100 pounds beans
4 dozen tins condensed milk
15 pounds salt
1 pound pepper
8 pounds baking powder
2 pounds baking soda
1/2 pound mustard
3/4 pound ginger
36 pounds yeast cakes


As you can see there is some considerable overlap. The second list with it's "36 pounds of yeast cake" appears to be twice the amount of yeast cake needed for leavening 400 pounds of flour, but it is possible they used more yeast back then, or 1896 yeast cakes weren't as potent. Anyway, I like the second list better because it seems more well rounded. Now ignoring spices and leavening agents (make your own judgement there) it is an interesting exercise to see the cost of putting this same list away today. Some things, like canned butter are far more expensive and esoteric today, and bacon isn't the no refrigeration product it used to be. 15 pounds of "soup vegetables" is somewhat vague, and almost assuredly refers to dehydrated mixed vegetables of some sort. Since Wal-Mart sells a 2 pound can of dried vegetable stew mix, we'll work with those.

So let's shop this list on Wal Mart

200 pounds bacon. This is a tough one. If you have a freezer, that's fine but bacon back then could be preserved for long unrefrigerated shelf life. Yuck. Let's try canned spam or similar. You'll need 267 of these bad boys for $528.66. Mix it up with other canned or prepared meats that you like. Maybe stews. Or eat a fuckton of Spam or knockoffs thereof. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value- ... z/10532843
400 pounds flour. 8 50 pound sacks $471.16 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bulk-Flou-Ro ... /157695978
85 pounds assorted dried fruit. This is messy no matter how you look at it. However it appears you can put together some sort of mix of dried fruits for about $7-9 a pound depending on how you shop. $680 or so for your dried fruit, there have to be some cheaper bulk options out there. https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=d ... _id=976759
50 pounds cornmeal. 10 5 pound bags $28.40 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Aunt-Jemima- ... b/10312467
35 pounds rice. Well how about 2 20 pound bags $20.88 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value- ... b/10315883
24 pounds coffee. Let's get 13 of these for $110.11 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Folgers-Clas ... z/45796273
5 pounds tea. 10 8 ounce packs for $32.80 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lipton-Tea-B ... t/10307788
100 pounds sugar. 4 25 pound bags for $62.04 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value- ... b/10315305
25 pounds fish. Let's use canned salmon and tuna 13 canned salmon for $32.24 https://www.walmart.com/ip/StarKist-Ala ... z/47044520 and And ten of these tuna packages for $29.60 close enough to 25 pounds total
15 pounds dried vegetables. 8 2 pound cans for $95.04 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Augason-Farm ... b/21777152
50 pounds oats $119.35 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Grain-Miller ... B/36298816
50 pounds dried potatoes. That's a tough one, since modern freeze drying is superior. Judge for yourself, I'd consider 3 of these buckets a good start for $239.97 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lindon-Farms ... o/35053985
50 pounds dried onions. Another toughy. Likely used as an antiscorbutic. Pack some vitamin C with your supplies and call it good. Buy preserved onion to taste. Three of these for
$57.66 is a good start https://www.walmart.com/ip/Emergency-Es ... z/47548221
25 pounds butter. Likely used as a cooking fat, as well as a food. I'll leave you to figure out how you want to store a year supply. Mix it up with butter, cooking oil and lard or shortening.
100 pounds beans. 5 20 pound bags for $99.90 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value- ... z/10315741
4 dozen tins condensed milk. Also known as evaporated milk if unsweetened, 48 cans $48 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Carnation-Vi ... z/10291863
15 pounds salt eh close enough. Get 9 of these for $17.64 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hain-Sea-Salt-26-oz/10318476
1 pound pepper $8.46 https://www.walmart.com/ip/McCormick-Ta ... z/49656101

This of course is a minimum, but it is a good representation of a modern trip to shop a recommended year of supplies for the Klondike region. If I were to buy this in real life, I'd get it all at Costco or similar. I'd add some sort of candy sweet to it as well, and sub out canned soups and stews for some of the 200 pounds of preserved meat.

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Last edited by kf7mjf on Wed Mar 29, 2017 1:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:59 pm
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They don't have uber eats up there?


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Tue Mar 28, 2017 7:30 pm
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Well done!!! :thumbsup2: :bigsmile:


I like the second list better for the same reasons.

I'd be substituting some dry soup mixes for some of the vegetables and meats. Lots of different varieties available now, in various size envelopes that will keep pretty much forever. Actually maybe a good substitution almost straight across, for the 'soup vegetables'. I'm thinking that for a year, though, I'd probably prefer more then 4 times as much as they recommend. The vegetable stew mix is an excellent choice!

As for the bacon... I wonder what they did to it to make it storable for a long time? Couldn't we do the same?

Spam is a good recommendation, though. And I believe you can get bacon spam! As well as other varieties, so you wouldn't get bored.

I don't think any of us would make it without candies or other sweets, any more. Maybe honey? Molasses.

Gathered berries, edible plants, and hunting, could round it all out.

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 7:58 pm
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Selador wrote:
I don't think any of us would make it without candies or other sweets, any more. Maybe honey? Molasses.

Gathered berries, edible plants, and hunting, could round it all out.


I'd personally go with the sweets you mentioned, along with cocoa powder, dark chocolate bars, and some jams, jellies and syrups.

Remember, this list was designed to be portable as well as sustaining. For home use it can be expanded on/modified with more variety and fresh supplies.

In the Klondike hunting and gathering was hard. The sudden influx of 125,000 people in four years devastated the immediate ecosystem around Dawson city, destroyed the forests and streams around it, and left little opportunity to hunt and gather without going far afield and neglecting mining.

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:01 pm
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Selador wrote:
As for the bacon... I wonder what they did to it to make it storable for a long time? Couldn't we do the same?



Heavily salted and smoked, wrapped and stored dry. You could do the same today, but it would probably be unpleasant compared to modern refrigerated bacon. I'd prefer to stick with canned stuff.

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:09 pm
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What is evaporated vinegar in list 1?


Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:13 pm
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kf7mjf wrote:
Selador wrote:
I don't think any of us would make it without candies or other sweets, any more. Maybe honey? Molasses.

Gathered berries, edible plants, and hunting, could round it all out.


I'd personally go with the sweets you mentioned, along with cocoa powder, dark chocolate bars, and some jams, jellies and syrups.

Remember, this list was designed to be portable as well as sustaining. For home use it can be expanded on/modified with more variety and fresh supplies.

In the Klondike hunting and gathering was hard. The sudden influx of 125,000 people in four years devastated the immediate ecosystem around Dawson city, destroyed the forests and streams around it, and left little opportunity to hunt and gather without going far afield and neglecting mining.

True.

I was thinking more along the lines of what it would take should the grid go down, and all of us be on our own.

Of course in that situation we have plenty of other options to think about as well. Kerosene lamps. Root cellars. Running water. Heat. All of these are things that many rural dwellers already have covered, or could do so fairly quickly. Urban dwellers, however... What? 3 days from disaster?

I do think I'd like to do at least SOME of the bacon the way they did it.

And yeah, never heard of evaporated vinegar!

Is that like dehydrated water?

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:15 pm
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quantsuff wrote:
What is evaporated vinegar in list 1?


I suspect it is like evaporated milk, only as vinegar.

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:33 pm
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kf7mjf wrote:
quantsuff wrote:
What is evaporated vinegar in list 1?


I suspect it is like evaporated milk, only as vinegar.

Evaporated milk was one thing I forgot to mention.

Their evaporated milk was based on whole milk.

Modern day fat free stuff goes bad faster than the whole milk stuff. "Viking Preparedness" on youtube showed some that turned brown and quite yucky. I remember evaporated milk in my youth that was still good, after ten years.

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:37 pm
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That's the nice thing about this list, it's good for whatever "grid down" scenario you might want to play out, as long as you are relatively static or have the ability to move it. Being able to cook is the hard part, but one could lay in a supply of cooking equipment and fuel, or substitute canned beans for dry, switch out to instant rice, etc... to reduce the cooking time.

My own supplies are loosely based around this list, and since I have a fondness for beans, rice and cornbread it's not a bad thing to contemplate.

As for evaporated milk, they had canned stuff like we do now. The precursor to Carnation started in Kent in 1899, and I'm pretty sure they were using existing tech.

"Carnation milk, best in the land. Comes to the table in a little red can. No teats to pull, no hay to pitch, just punch a hole in the sonuvabitch."

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:42 pm
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Evaporated vinegar is acetic acid.
Household white vinegar is 95% water/5% acetic acid.

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:52 pm
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What you need is Yoders canned bacon, and Thrive.

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Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:43 pm
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Or better Yoder's for the canned bacon,
Beprepared, Mountain house, Provident freeze dried.

Would have weighed a lot less. Thanks for taking the time to calculate it out. Most people never quite figure out just how much it costs to be even a little bit prepared.

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Wed Mar 29, 2017 1:03 pm
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I'm surprised pemmican isn't on this list. Or did I miss it? Seems like that was a staple for a long time and performed pretty well both in nutritional value and staying power.

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Wed Mar 29, 2017 1:10 pm
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Col_Temp wrote:
Or better Yoder's for the canned bacon,
Beprepared, Mountain house, Provident freeze dried.

Would have weighed a lot less. Thanks for taking the time to calculate it out. Most people never quite figure out just how much it costs to be even a little bit prepared.


Yoder's is $$$ shit. In 1890's speak, bacon was more like a flavorful salt pork. As for the freeze dried, I'm not trying to provide modern substitutes for the list. And really, the main bulk of the food is beans, flour, rice, cornmeal, and bacon. Putting it in cans just makes it heavier.

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Wed Mar 29, 2017 1:47 pm
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