How to get oil from food, for oil lamps and other purposes.
Do we need special tools to get oil from food?
Extracting food oil from vegetables sounds healthy!!
Can I use the food oil for my skin?
There are many kinds of food oil at the grocery store, and sometimes it’s difficult to decide which one to get. But in a long-term emergency, if the stores are all closed, you will not have any choice. If you can get any oil at all, you will be very lucky. Oil is extremely important. It might be OK to skip oil for your short-term stockpile, because your normal supply could last until the short-term crises is over, or you could be rescued over the short term. But it is not OK to be without oil for a long-term emergency. The long-term emergency can last indefinitely, and you need to keep producing your essentials, constantly, in order to survive.
The long-term emergency will be a war, major climate disaster, nuclear winter, giant meteorite, food crisis, or something major along those lines.
If such an event happens, do not expect immediate support from the government. We will have to survive by ourselves.
We might feel that there’s no end in sight.
Making your own oil will help you a lot in a prolonged emergency situation. You might think, “Why do we need oil?” Actually, you use many different oils in your daily life, maybe without even realizing it. If you check your daily products’ ingredients, you might see that quite a few of them contain oil. For survival during long-term emergencies, let’s focus on a few simple uses: oil for lamps, cooking, and body care. I would like to focus on natural oils with these three purposes in mind.
I already talked about making avocado oil from fresh avocados (check post #72). Next, I will show you how to make almond oil from dry almonds.
If you have knowledge, you will not panic, and you will calmly deal with problems.
Oil from almonds
Actually, nut oils have a long history, and we just have to take a look back to olden times to see the simple process of making oil from nuts. If we are lucky, we will be able to gather nuts in the mountains or somewhere outside. For example, in my area of California, we can find acorns, walnuts and almonds. Each area has its own nuts and harvest seasons. Most nuts require similar processes to extract their oils.
Almonds are the edible seeds of the almond tree. The almonds we like to eat are the seeds found at center of the almond fruit. After the almonds are harvested, hulled, and dried, we can start to make the oil.
I am sorry for using almonds from the store. I will try to plant an almond tree soon.
How to make almond oil.
Even finding a rock on the side of the road and taking it home is sometimes illegal. Each local government has unique rules, so what might be completely legal in one area may not be in another. Make sure first. You can always crush almonds at the beach, river or park to avoid problems. I suspect that many regulations will be relaxed in a serious emergency.
However, before I can use my Suribachi and Surikogi, I need to crush the almonds into smaller pieces. I will use a rolling pin first.
I am sorry. I will continue this topic, in my next post. It is taking me a lot longer to crush and squeeze my almonds than I expected. I underestimated just how much time and effort are involved. I have a renewed appreciation for how hard our ancestors worked to survive, without any of our modern conveniences. My arms are tired. It hurts to squeeze almonds… wow…
Please tune in for my next post!!
See you next time.
Remember, “Protect your life by yourself” （自分の命は自分で守る). You need to survive first, and then you need your emergency supply. No matter how well you prepared your emergency supplies, if you die, then all of your preparations will have been for nothing. First and foremost, keep your health up all the time. Build your stamina so that if you need to, you can evacuate as quickly as possible. Stay healthy