bulk salt

[nailbanger]

Saw 50# bags of fine grain salt at a local feed store, of course it said "not for human consumption".Have any of you folks used this for yourself? Seems like a cheap way to stock up. I haven't seen this amount of salt for sale anywhere else in my area. $5 for 50#'s seems cheap if it is useable for humans.

[reliquary]

That label is probably put there as a legal statement to protect them from lawsuits, but...who knows what process was used to produce it?  For centuries, humans have used salt from salt licks and dried-up ocean basins without too many problems.  I know that, as a kid, I tasted salt from the salt blocks we put out for the cows and it was gritty, but still tasted like salt.
 
It's easier for me to get bulk salt from Wal-Mart in their pool-supply section, 40 pounds for about $5.50.  It's in larger granules, but that's easy to remedy.  I have several bags stored in the shed; one of those "why not?" things. 

[nailbanger]

Thanks I'll check out the pool section.

[spooked]

Saw 50# bags of fine grain salt at a local feed store, of course it said "not for human consumption".Have any of you folks used this for yourself? Seems like a cheap way to stock up. I haven't seen this amount of salt for sale anywhere else in my area. $5 for 50#'s seems cheap if it is useable for humans.

I bought a sack years back and used it to salt down some pork...I'll just say it worked but it is not as clean as pickling salt ...

[Couger]

 
Haven't priced or bought any from Cosco lately,  but a couple years ago it was going for @ $3.79 for 25 pounds of iodized Morton table salt.
 
 
 
As for feed stores for a source for things (and even some pharmasuiticles), why not!!??
 
May not satisfy the FDA, but better than going without possibly, if barry mucks up everything royally.

[mannyrock]

   There is  a reason that iodine is placed in salt by the manufacturers for human consumption.  Without an adequate amount of iodine in your diet, severe birth defects and illness can result.  It all depends on the soil in which the vegetables are grown.  If the soil has a good supply of natural iodine, then the vegetables will have it as well.  If the soil has zero iodine, then the vegetables with have none.
 
   This may not be a good instance in which to go cheap.  Pay the extra 10 bucks and get the large bags for human consumption at a place like Costco.
 
  Otherwise, you may have to get one of the colored mineral blocks for cattle (with iodine in it), and havc everyone in the family lick it several times a day.
 
   Regards, Mannyrock

[reliquary]

Our Wal-Mart pool section usually has 12-lb bags of Baking Soda for a few bucks, also.  That's good to have around, as well as salt. 

[SHOOTALL]

for an emg. you can get salt from blood . Some say that is why blood pudding came to be.

[Couger]

There is  a reason that iodine is placed in salt by the manufacturers for human consumption.  Without an adequate amount of iodine in your diet, severe birth defects and illness can result ........

No to digress too much, but with a survival-kit-system (and food program) I'm tweeking and messing with ......
 
A couple of things will be in my family's kits!
 
Some 'malted survival tabs' (size of horse-pills!) that contain minerals, vitamins and nutrients, etc. for people when food and nutrition is threatened.
 
But also some individual powdered- Gatorade drink packets that could also help replenish salt, minerals, electrolytes, etc. if one wasn't eating anf drinking well or regularly.
 

 
 
 
The drink packets are for actually added to a pint-size or 22oz bottle of water, and would also serve as a huge MORALE BOOSTER!, too.     
 
Sadly at present all I find are fruit punch flavored (and no orange or lemon-lime!).

[mannyrock]

  The Gatorade may also save a persons life if he had dysentary or cholera, by keeping him hydrated and supplied with the essential minerals.  Gatorade is very similar to D5-W, an IV solution widely used to counteracd these problems.

[Bubber]

It is salt. That is all it is. 99% of the stuff at feed stores says not for human consumption or not for human use. Having spent years in feed mills, working at feed stores and on farms, working with veternarians, and so on, I will tell you there is not one medication there I would be afraid to use on myself if I had to, or one feed I would be afraid to eat under any circumstance. Just think farmers feed their animals this stuff. Their animals are their livelyhood, they usually treat thier animals better than themselvs.
 
We are talking about a bag of solar salt here, not an unknown chemical cocktail. Use the salt if you want, nothing in there that will harm you. I am 31 and have an engineering degree and just this morning I grabbed a handfull of wet cob from the bag and chewed on it on my way to work while drinking coffee. If the appocolypse comes tomorrow I will run to the nearest feed store as fast as I can and load up on salt, corn, wheat, rice bran, and antibiotics.

[reliquary]

Stock up now...avoid the rush.   
 
Looking back at the discussion about iodized salt...on the salt-box label, it says that 1/4 tsp of their product will provide 45% of the MDR of iodine...IOW, about a daily half-tsp of the iodized salt will do all that is needed. 
 
Accordingly, a few pounds of Morton's will go a long way in the household...the rest can go for curing meat.

[mannyrock]

      I had a farm for 14 years, so I have a little experience with this.
 
     I would not buy any wheat at the feed store to consume myself.  If it is wheat seed, it has often been treated with chemicals to prevent rat infestation, and generally has rat poop in it anyway.  If it is animal feed wheat, then is generally has lots of rat poop in it.
 
    One of the tests run by the USDA for whether or not grain is fit for human consumption is the percentage of "fecal matter" present, i.e. rat and mouse droppings.  High amounts are allowed for seed and feed.
 
    I think you may be better off being ready in advance, by getting your wheat flour at Costco in advance.  I looked into this once, and was surprised to see that the cost of wheat flour per pound at Walmart or Costco was not much different than the cost per pound of animal feed at the Ag store.
 
     Additionally, if there is some sort of calamity, I would bet that the Ag store would be as jammed packed and sold out as the grocery stores.  Either that, or the owner will have locked it up tight for personal use.  When a tragedy hits, the farm wife generally drives off to the grocery store for food and the farm husband runs off to the Ag store for livestock supplies.
 
  Hope this helps.
 
Mannyrock

[Rex in OTZ]

iodize rock salt for livestock, its iodized so they they dont get goiters.
 
the local livestock feed store shoud have 50# paper bags of rock salt and iodized salt
when they crush it its screened like gravel so the salt kernals average about the size of a kernal of corn.
 
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/138/11/2060.full
 
In 1811, France was at war, and Bernard Courtois was producing saltpeter for gunpowder for Napoleon's army. He was burning seaweed to isolate sodium bicarbonate and when he added sulfuric acid to the ash, he produced an intense violet vapor that crystallized on cold surfaces. He sent the crystals to Gay-Lussac (1), who subsequently identified it as a new element and named it iodine, from the Greek for violet. Iodine (atomic weight 126.9 g/atom) is an essential component of the hormones produced by the thyroid gland and is therefore essential for mammalian life.

[mannyrock]

 
   Great info Rex.  I love to learn.
 
Mannyrock

[MTNRGR]

If all else fails and you can't find any at stores during a crisis, remember your road department will most likely have a building full of road salt. Its probably not the best stuff to use but in a pinch it will work I would imagine.

[FPH]

Be careful of seed from the seed or feed store....it may be treated as mentioned.  We had some very poor kids a few years back that ate corn seed which had been treated with mercury.  Some died, some went blind, and the youngest had mental developement problems.  Depended on  their exposure.

[MTNRGR]

Geeze thats horrible, who would have thought that could happen.

[FPH]

The seed was not intennded for human or animal consumption.....just for planting.  I've seen it with lead  coming from earthenware made in Mexico.  Acids in liquids such as orange juice will pull the lead out of the pitchers and glasses and cause havoc.