If I buy in bulk (50 or 55# bag) these are the prices (per #) for what I am considering:
Grey sea salt (3.75)
Sonoma (1.12)
New Zealand (1.45)
Is there any place better I did not find?
Also as far as long term storage, aside from keeping it dry its there anything to worry about with salt? I would assume temperature doesn't matter, but is it something pest/varmint would try to get into?
You might want to try a bulk food suplier, and don't forget to store it in mylar bags with an oxygen absorber to keep it fresh and not turning into a rock.
While it make sense to buy some for use in food, most of the salt will be used for keeping meat (my guess). I suggest that you buy the white salt blocks and your local feed store.
It will be for all types of purposes, but especially barter.
FYI, I am not interested in regular white store brand type iodized or kosher salt. I only want a sea or other mineral salt that has trace minerals, etc.
If I buy in bulk (50 or 55# bag) these are the prices (per #) for what I am considering:
Grey sea salt (3.75)
Sonoma (1.12)
New Zealand (1.45)
Is there any place better I did not find?
Also as far as long term storage, aside from keeping it dry its there anything to worry about with salt? I would assume temperature doesn't matter, but is it something pest/varmint would try to get into?
Some people ( not I ) don't like it when their foodstuffs look different then what they are used to. I have seen people throw out salt that has hardend due to humidity , brown sugar and honey because they did not know how to re-constitute it and put them to good use.
I just said what I said so that waste might not occure.
I buy the water softner salt at Home Depot when it goes on sale. I think I spent $3.00 for a 40 pound bag, the handle was ripped. It's generally pretty inexpensive, though, and since it's for water softners, it's food grade.
To be honest, I've also seen sidewalk or road salt on sale in spring that's up to edible standards- 100% Sodium Chloride, it's salt.
I also have a 40 pound bag of the more expensive water softner salt, the Potassium Chloride. I think it runs about $45 for it, but if you know anyone on hypertension medication, you can substitute half or slightly more than half of the salt they eat with the potassium chloride and it'll do wonders for them- which is not such a bad thing to have on hand if their blood pressure medication isn't around anymore.
I've also gotten a few bags of the stuff for free at my local household hazardous waste depot. There's a spot they put things that aren't really hazardous waste people drop off, so I've gotten salt there, as well as a bunch of useful things- most my stored sterno, lamp oil, and other things like that have come from there, as well as lots of paints. so if you have one of those nearby check it out in case you can load up on a bunch of salt for free.
I also have a 40 pound bag of the more expensive water softner salt, the Potassium Chloride. I think it runs about $45 for it, but if you know anyone on hypertension medication, you can substitute half or slightly more than half of the salt they eat with the potassium chloride and it'll do wonders for them- which is not such a bad thing to have on hand if their blood pressure medication isn't around anymore.
Potassium chloride will not do much for anyone who is not salt-sensitive, hypertensive or not, but it is a vital component in making up electrolyte solutions, which will be literal lifesavers in a PSHTF world.
That "salt=high blood pressure" stuff is a hold-over from the 1950s. Relatively few people are truly sensitive to salt in their diet.
It's ok, Opie. Adding to zombie threads is encouraged if the response adds to the overall topic material. As long as the poster realizes the older posters likely won't respond anymore, then it's just adding to a relevant topic instead of starting a redundant one. It may even get the conversation started anew.
I'm not worried too much about salt. I'm close enough to the GSL I can go on a salt run whenever! I'm sure I could buy salt water cheap at the Mortons plant.
I got sal from saltworks for fermenting. It was the cheapest and the purest I have found. You should get salt without additives like anti-caking agents. That way you can use it for anything.
Not really bulk, but I have been buying iodized sea salt at the 99 cent store. It is packaged in the cardboard containers and easy to store in plastic boxes, which fit nicely under my bed. Also handy size for bartering.
To clear up any confusion in this thread...I've always been under the impression that one doesn't use oxygen absorbers in salt. I've dumped salt into 1 gallon mylar bags (I can fit 3 of those in a 5 gallon pail) until the bag is full. I seal up the bags, put them in a bucket and walk away.
There is not anything in salt to make it go bad; therefore, no need for the oxygen absorbers. Anyway, I've heard putting those in would make it hard. I have no interest in working it with it to get it back into an easily usable state.
50lb blocks of salt are around 6-8 bucks. You can stack them easily, and you can get a variety of types that are infused with other minerals. The brown ones have trace minerals, the yellow ones have added sulphur, the white are non-iodized, the blue ones have potassium, the tan ones are iodized... there are a ton of them out there.
I have been buying it in the 1# containers because I haven't seen it anywhere in bulk. I don't have a SAMs membership, so can't shop there.
I'll try local feed stores and on line. Such a simple solution that I didn't think of before.
SAMs has pool salt that has no additives.. Just pure salt. It's in a plastic bucket for 4.00 and some change. Should be a good storage salt, I suppose.
If anyone is interested you can get the grey French sea salt from bulk foods.com. They also have very reasonable priced on spices. We order once a year for our sausage seasonings. They have a selection of candy that is unreal. Stuff you just can't find anymore. I can't place an order without at least $50 worth.
Depends where you live and what kind of access you have to other ways to preserve foods.
Salt seems abundant and easy to find in the modern world but the fact is that it is rather rare in most regions of the nation once you leave to coastal areas.
Bought some at the feed store. Forget the price but it was dirt cheap. I figure animal grade now has higher standards than what humans used 100 years ago or what we can get post shtf.
I'm sure it's been mentioned multiple times in this thread so far, but I'm going to do it again anyway. Sugar and salt don't need "preserving". They ARE preservatives. All they need is kept dry, and bugs kept out of the sugar. An O2 absorber will turn them into a rock and does not make them last longer. They last pretty much forever on their own. If you're in a humid area, desiccant might be handy. Otherwise, just a nice airtight container.
Rock salt at Wally world for melting ice on your driveway is just plain old salt right out of the ground. Only difference between it an what is on your kitchen table is the size it was crushed to.
Rock salt is a "dirty" salt. It has impurities and possibly contaminants in the salt that you would not want in your food. While many of the impurities might not be a problem for us, rock salt contains sediment, i.e. sand, rocks, grit, that is not only unappealing to eat, could damage teeth or the equipment in your kitchen. Lead has also been found in small amounts in rock salt.
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