Corn Starch and why it should be in your preps!

Hello my friend and welcome back! I get a lot of emails from readers and one of the recurring questions is:  “what are the key items you need to keep in your preps for SHTF?”  Well, there are several of them but today were going to talk about one of my favorites, so grab a cup of coffee my friend and have a seat while we visit.

There really are a lot of important thing that you should have in your food preps, but unfortunately however there is not enough room here to list all of them and why you should have them. Instead I’m going to talk about some of the special multipurpose ones that you should definitely have.

Let’s start with Corn Starch. You can use it in cooking to thicken your gravy if you accidently put too much water in it. Most cooks know this, but did you know that it is also great for stopping bleeding?  If you have a bad cut that is bleeding badly, you can put Corn Starch on it to stem the bleeding.  Because it’s a natural substance, the body will absorb any that gets trapped inside of the cut.

It clots really well and will usually stop the bleeding within a couple of minutes. Now I’m no Dr. so you might want to ask one but my parents use that on me when I was growing up.  I used it on both of my boys as well with no harmful side effects.  If any of you are a Dr. please let us know your thoughts at the bottom, I’m sure we would all appreciate it.

As good as that is, there are still tons of other things you can use it for as well. Did you know you can use corn starch to iron your clothes? You can, just add one table spoon of corn starch to one pint of water.  Stir it well to dissolve the starch, then put it in a spray bottle and use it when you iron.

Got a bad sunburn or bug bites or even Poison Ivy? Make a paste of corn starch and water and apply to the area of your skin where you need it will dry to a hard paste and help the area feel better.  To remove it, use a little lukewarm water.

Do you have sweaty smelly shoes? Sprinkle a little Corn Starch in them before you put them on and you will be surprised how well it works. If you get hot and start chaffing, clean and dry the area well then apply corn starch powder to the areas.  It will absorb the excess sweat, while allowing the skin to slide.  I have use this multiple times and it really works well.

Corn starch is also great for removing stains like grease or blood. Just blot as much as you can with a paper towel or an old rag, then cover the stain with a little corn starch and let it set for 10 minutes. Then apply vinegar to the stain and wash it as usual.  It works just as well on blood stains too.

Combine it with a little water to make a paste for shining silver or other hard smooth surfaces. If your shoe strings get in a knot just sprinkle some corn starch of then and you will be surprised how easily they come undone.

Don’t have any corn starch? Take the roots of the cattail plant and place them in a small tub.  Take a baseball or something similar and mash the tubers as fine as you can, then let the water evaporate.  Be sure to wash them good before you put them in the tub.  Once you have mashed them real well, remove them from the water and let the remaining water evaporate.  You will wind up with a whitish material on the bottom of the tub.  These is the starch you need, so take the chunks of it out and grind the powder up as fine as you can. This is how you make cattail starch.  Settlers even used it as a flower for frying food.

There are several items we need to cover, but for today, be sure you have plenty of Corn Starch on hand and in your preps for SHTF. We even have some in our first aid kit. It is just one of the amazing items that will help you in more ways than one.

I guess this is it for today and I hope you have found today’s post interesting.  Until next time, stay safe, stay strong and stay prepared.  God Bless America!

-Sarge-