What isn’t produced in Britain that we need to stockpile?

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

So, worst case scenario and we crash out with no deal as everyone seems keen to catastrophise, what would be useful to stock up on that isn’t produced here and would have to be imported. Any ideas?

Really interesting information Havana and banging!

I’m actually a bit nervous about my daughter’s epilepsy medication. It’s already difficult enough to get hold of for her, so I’ll be talking to her consultant in September at her next appointment

So far I have on my list to stockpile
UHT milk
Coffee
Tea
Sugar
Flour
Butter
Olive oil
Eggs (one month supply; might have to go without after that as they're hard to store long term)
Long life orange juice
Tinned tomatoes
Tinned beans
Coconut milk
Spices and dried herbs
Possibly a few sachets of yeast
Curry pastes
Rice
Pasta
Tinned fish (don't eat meat)
Pasta sauces
Tomato puree
Garlic puree
Long life puddings (e.g. syrup pudding)
Condensed soup (easier to store, and can double as a sauce)
Olives in jars
Pasta 'n' sauce (guilty pleasure; mainly the cheese and broccoli flavour)
Hard cheese that can be kept in the freezer (parmesan, cheddar)
Condiments - even a little of something like soy sauce or mustard can really make an otherwise dull meal bearable.
Multivitamins - in case food supplies become restricted in variety

... and on the non-food side
Get the bike serviced shortly before Brexit. Purchase bike parts that wear out most often (inner tubes, brake pads etc.); the car would be immediately mothballed if petrol ran short.
Dry dog food (DDog's is produced in Germany) and other pet related items
Loo roll
Kitchen roll
Basic cleaning products
Cash (I normally only use cards)
May purchase a wind-up radio in case of prolonged power shortages and a need to get news.

Crime is a concern - I already live in the sort of area where the landlord has seen fit to put bars across most of the downstairs windows I sleep with a hammer next to my bed , and it's not going to get any better post-Brexit. DDog may have to start moonlighting as a guard dog while I pass him off as being a dwarf dobermann.

UHT milk usually only lasts about 5 or 6 months so not worth getting yet. (Though you may want to get some in the autumn in case of a severe winter.)

There are ways to preserve eggs, including storing them boiled. Never done so personally but the info is around.

Wind-up + solar powered torch?
Ditto charger and power pack for phone?

Someone on one of these threads had found a combo charger and lantern okay but I have tried a couple of these things (but a few years old, a radio and a lantern) to charge a phone and a Kindle. They weren't very efficient and I had to switch the phone off and on again to get it to work again. The tech may be better now but I'd be inclined to get a separate powerpack designed for phones.

Remember that during WW2 rationing was introduced to conserve and share food – one egg per week, 2oz of cheese per week etc. – at a time when every available square foot of land was turned over to food production. It took until 1954 before food rationing was removed.

It will be worse this time around - in 1939 the UK population was only 47.5m, with the population that was in the country significantly reduced by men going off to fight (+ some lost in the Blitz etc.)

The UK population is now 66m - so a near 50% increase, with the same amount of land available to feed us. I can only hope that modern farming methods are 50% more efficient.

@penny I haven't started stockpiling yet (planning to move house first) but a solar panel phone charger is an excellent idea, and I'll be charging up my power packs.

Thanks for the heads up about UHT milk. Presumably powdered milk would be the longer term solution.

I haven't started stockpiling yet (planning to move house first)

Are you moving away from the dodgy area where the houses have bars on the downstairs windows?

Hopefully - if I can find a landlord willing to take me and DDog!

Do you think the cost of gas/electricity/water/petrol will go up after brexit?

Sounds silly but i went through a period of hardship and also had a prepayment meter at home which was really expensive to run. I would use the shower at work. Charge my phone at my desk. (you could also charge other items like power packs and rechargeable batteries if you were discreet.)
I cooked using my slow cooker which uses ALOT less energy than your oven and if you are savvy you can cook your whole meal in the slow cooker. There are loads of hacks online and on fb groups.

I've been considering getting a bike for a while now and again if fuel is going to become more expensive and potentially scarce then this would give me a reliable mode of transport to work. it's all food for thought. Just shite that we are even having to think about it.

The government probably think major supermarkets all have giant Raiders Of The Lost Ark size warehouses for all this stockpiling .

Do you really think power costs wouldn't be increasing in future anyway? (Brexit might make it a bit faster, but sensible to plan for it anyway.)

I hardly ever use the oven. It might slightly reduce the repertoire for a handful of dishes, but on a day to day basis the difference between the same food stir-fried or roasted is neither here nor there, and when you are at the point where you care about these things, for cost reasons, environmentally or both, it's fine. (Ovens are also a faff to clean.) Would only really be a shock if someone had a big fall in income, e.g. lost good job and couldn't find another.

Thanks for the heads up about UHT milk. Presumably powdered milk would be the longer term solution.

Powdered and evaporated. Evaporated will last much longer than cartons of UHT. I bought some last week with over a year on the BB date.

I've bought a new slow cooker because mine is on the blink and I'm buying a breadmaker. DH is moaning because apparently his mums breadmaker bread was always grim but if we do have shortages it will make it a lot easier to make bread.

Avocados - unfortunately it is not 😔 Added to which far less land is under cultivation and large areas of the uplands which have the potential to produce excellent quality beef and lamb are now devoid of livestock. The Scottish sheep flock for example has declined by over 1 million in the last decade. Domestic dairy production has also drastically contracted. Our capacity to feed the nation without imports has never been worse.

@cloudtree our bread maker makes fantastic bread- incredibly light and fluffy without any additives etc. It goes hard (not mouldy) quicker than factory bread though so better to do little and often.

I admit I'm a bit against bread makers, because of childhood experiences. My parents bought one in the early 90s, and DF insisted on getting his money back in value. No nice shop bread for us! Just brick-shaped, dense-as-fuck, tasteless breadmaker-bread! As long as there's electricity going, I'm going to be making normal bread rolls in the oven!

Possibly a stupid question, but how do you clean a bread maker?

I'm more a making it myself kind of person. Going to experiment in my Dutch oven.

I think it has a tin which lifts out.
The benefit over an oven is it costs a fraction of the cost to run the machine (although of course you do need to factor in the cost of buying the thing first)

But a dutch oven is a good alternative

Just got a bread maker for about £4 from the charity shop. I'm really excited to start experimenting

I have a bread maker and my bread is amazing- I mix the dough then shape it, leave it to rise and cook in the oven! I make rolls, pizza dough, not usually loafs though but occasionally fruit bread or garlic and tear and share bread. 🙃

@buttybuttybutthole Would you mind sharing your favourite bread maker bread recipe?

Of course I don't mind...this is the recipe everyone seems to love.

1 sachet dried yeast
550g plain flour (I get bags at Lidl for 65p)
2 tspn sugar
2 tbspn oil (olive or veg/sunflower)
1.5 tspn salt
320ml water (I use 1/4 boiling water with cold water)

I just chuck it all in in the above order, leave it on a dough setting for 1.5 hours. Then I shape into rolls, brush with egg or milk (and sometimes add grated cheese or seeds) and leave for another 10-15 mins to rise, then cook for 20 mins at 180.

I have made a batch most days in the school holidays and it has disappeared within minutes!

Thank for the recipe! I'll definitely give them a try

Just been to Lidl and they have a Spanish range currently which has some great deals. They had huge jars pf preserved garlic cloves in different flavours with 2020 dates which I got several of. Jars of black eyed beans, tins of olives and a huge variety of useful and interesting preserved veg and flavourings. Nothing was much over £1 and some of the sizes were very large.