Denver Self Reliance Expo was a hit
So this weekend the Denver Self Reliance Expo was held at the Denver Western Stock Show Complex. It surpassed all of my expectations. Granted I didn't expect much. I'm not even sure what I expected, exactly. Regardless, at the end of the day I was impressed by everything. Everyone was very professional, friendly and willing to make a deal. I managed to pick up some needed preps at a good price, I met some great people in the prepper community, I got some great ideas for future posts and I even landed a couple of sponsors. I will welcome them all within the next few days in dedicated posts.
The majority of the booths consisted of storage food. "Survival buckets" were the most popular item for sale by far. You've probably seen them before. They generally consist of several packages of individual, freeze dried entrees sealed in mylar, packaged in lightweight, space saving buckets. There were also a lot of vendors selling #10 cans of everything from freeze dried fruit to eggs to mountain house entrees. Besides the typical fair that you'd expect from a preparedness expo there were a couple of standout products.
The 40 day/night preparedness pail was the best "survival bucket" at the show as far as I'm concerned. It contains a 36# assortment of organic, vacuum packed, dried whole grains, beans and other necessities. It also includes a meal supplement that they call "enerfood". It's a dried powder that contains most of the essential nutrients that you're body needs. Even if you're not in an emergency situation a tablespoon of this stuff every day will be extremely beneficial to you. If you are in a prolonged emergency situation and you're down to nothing but your five year supply of beans and rice you'll wish you had something like this to ensure that your body keeps getting all of the nutrients that it needs. Would you prefer to choke down a super compressed multi vitamin ever day that's made out of a bunch of stuff that you can barely even pronounce (and barely digest) or would you rather mix a tablespoon of powder made out of easily recognizable, easily digestible organic herbs into every meal? I thought so.
Another standout food storage solution was Life Sprouts. Sprouting is something that I've always encouraged preppers to look into. Life Sprouts will show you how to do it right and provide you with the products to ensure success. They've been around for about 20 years so I'd say they know what they're doing. They've got good prices on seed that's produced especially for sprouting. Check them out if sprouting is your thing or you're interested in trying it out.
There were plenty of other really cool booths there with original ideas. There was a company selling NBC shelters that they can build under your garage floor. I've looked into several different designs and that's the first one that I've seen that may actually make sense for someone with limited space in an urban environment. If you're an engineer with knowledge on NBC shelters feel free to rip this one apart for me. The solar oven booth was cool, too. They had a few ovens set up outside when I showed up with some bread baking. It seemed to be making good progress. I'm confident that the $20 solar oven design that I have in mind will work just as well, though. I just haven't gotten around to testing it. Maybe I'll hold off until we get a nice, cold, sunny day this winter. Amanda's Darn Good Salsa was a definite winner. If you can find it you should give it a try. You can also just order it from her website if you want to take my word for it. There are plenty of flavors to choose from.
I could go on all day. I'll be mentioning some other vendors in future posts. Overall, it was a great couple of days and it was nice to see my wife get excited about preparedness for once. If stuff like this is what it takes to get the masses behind it then I'm all for it.
The majority of the booths consisted of storage food. "Survival buckets" were the most popular item for sale by far. You've probably seen them before. They generally consist of several packages of individual, freeze dried entrees sealed in mylar, packaged in lightweight, space saving buckets. There were also a lot of vendors selling #10 cans of everything from freeze dried fruit to eggs to mountain house entrees. Besides the typical fair that you'd expect from a preparedness expo there were a couple of standout products.
The 40 day/night preparedness pail was the best "survival bucket" at the show as far as I'm concerned. It contains a 36# assortment of organic, vacuum packed, dried whole grains, beans and other necessities. It also includes a meal supplement that they call "enerfood". It's a dried powder that contains most of the essential nutrients that you're body needs. Even if you're not in an emergency situation a tablespoon of this stuff every day will be extremely beneficial to you. If you are in a prolonged emergency situation and you're down to nothing but your five year supply of beans and rice you'll wish you had something like this to ensure that your body keeps getting all of the nutrients that it needs. Would you prefer to choke down a super compressed multi vitamin ever day that's made out of a bunch of stuff that you can barely even pronounce (and barely digest) or would you rather mix a tablespoon of powder made out of easily recognizable, easily digestible organic herbs into every meal? I thought so.
Another standout food storage solution was Life Sprouts. Sprouting is something that I've always encouraged preppers to look into. Life Sprouts will show you how to do it right and provide you with the products to ensure success. They've been around for about 20 years so I'd say they know what they're doing. They've got good prices on seed that's produced especially for sprouting. Check them out if sprouting is your thing or you're interested in trying it out.
There were plenty of other really cool booths there with original ideas. There was a company selling NBC shelters that they can build under your garage floor. I've looked into several different designs and that's the first one that I've seen that may actually make sense for someone with limited space in an urban environment. If you're an engineer with knowledge on NBC shelters feel free to rip this one apart for me. The solar oven booth was cool, too. They had a few ovens set up outside when I showed up with some bread baking. It seemed to be making good progress. I'm confident that the $20 solar oven design that I have in mind will work just as well, though. I just haven't gotten around to testing it. Maybe I'll hold off until we get a nice, cold, sunny day this winter. Amanda's Darn Good Salsa was a definite winner. If you can find it you should give it a try. You can also just order it from her website if you want to take my word for it. There are plenty of flavors to choose from.
I could go on all day. I'll be mentioning some other vendors in future posts. Overall, it was a great couple of days and it was nice to see my wife get excited about preparedness for once. If stuff like this is what it takes to get the masses behind it then I'm all for it.
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