Staying under the radar: Tips for efficient stealth prepping

01/11/2023 / By Zoey Sky

Do you want to prep before SHTF but you’re worried about drawing attention to yourself?

If you want to avoid unwanted attention, try stealth prepping to prepare for unexpected disasters. (h/t to TheSurvivalMom.com)

Stealth prepping for discreet preppers

Stealth prepping or guerilla prepping involves learning survival skills and preparing for survival scenarios while also being discreet. This ensures that people like desperate non-preppers don’t target you for your gear and supplies after SHTF.

If you’re interested in stealth prepping, think of how you can incorporate this concept into your own life and prepping.

Here are some activities and projects you can start without alerting people to your preps. (Related: Prepping essentials: 11 Forever foods for your food storage pantry.)

Prepping for supplies

Start these activities to get more supplies for your survival stockpile before SHTF.

Organic gardening

Organic gardening is a trendy activity and many people now recognize the benefits of growing organic food in their own homes.

If you start gardening, none of your neighbors will think it’s weird.

Here are some crops you can plant in your organic home garden:

Berries
Bush beans
Cabbage
Corn
Cucumbers
Garlic
Herbs
Peas
Potatoes
Spinach
Squash
Sweet potatoes
Tomatoes

Edible landscapes

If you’re interested in advanced stealth prepping, turn your yard into an edible landscape.

There are two ways to create an edible landscape:

Plant edible flowers, bushes and trees.
Plant edible fruits and vegetables, but hide them amongst flowers, bushes and trees to camouflage them.

Either way, you get a beautifully landscaped property that can secretly feed you after disaster strikes. Plan for your edible landscape if you want to deter people from stealing food from a regular garden.

Here are some edible flowers to plant in your edible landscape:

Calendula
Chives
Marigolds
Nasturtium
Roses
Sunflowers
Violas

Beekeeping

Beekeeping in your backyard is one way to fit in with the environmental crowd while also furthering your long-term preparedness. Beekeeping is also one way to help address the Bee Colony Collapse Disorder affecting honeybee hives all across the country.

If you are new to beekeeping, do your research and start slow. Start one hive or two in your backyard to get a replenishing source of honey for your family.

Foraging

Learning how to forage will teach you how to safely identify and harvest different kinds of wild, edible plants.

You can forage for food while hiking. Bring an illustrated book or download an app on your phone to learn about common edible plants in your area.

Raise chickens

Raising chickens for eggs is another great way to prep stealthily. But before you buy chickens and build a coop in your backyard, check local rules in your area to avoid breaking any laws.

Raising chickens is also a great source of both protein and fertilizer. Chickens can also be fed kitchen scraps.

Buy meat directly from the ranch

Buying organic meat directly from a rancher is another trend that doubles as stealthy prep. Ongoing supply chain issues also make it more logical to stealthily prep in this manner.

You can prep discreetly by purchasing a whole or half animal from a local rancher. This healthy choice also offers another bonus since you get a lot of meat all at once compared to buying smaller cuts at the grocery or the butcher.

If you don’t have enough freezer space, you have the option of home-can meat and poultry. Learn about food canning so you can store extra meat at room temperature without worrying about refrigeration.

Invest in a good pressure canner and jars so you can also make preserves if you have excess crops from your home garden or edible landscape.

Install rain barrels

A garden requires lots of water, especially if you have a lot of crops.

You can install rain barrels on your property to save on water costs and stock up on water for emergencies.

If you want to hide your rain barrels, choose containers that look like planters or rocks. Before you set up rain barrels, make sure to review the laws in your area since it is illegal to collect rainwater in some states.

Stealth prepping “hobbies”

It’s normal to have hobbies, but some activities can be used to prepare before SHTF. Make your hobbies a skill that you can use when disaster strikes.

Some useful hobbies include:

Archery
Hunting
Knitting
Metalworking
Quilting
Sewing
Woodworking

Antiquing

Visit shop estate sales and auctions if you want to buy high-quality tools and supplies for a cheaper price. You may even find other useful items like hand-cranked grain mills, washboards and other non-electric appliances.

This hobby is one useful way to prep stealthily since you’ll look like other non-preppers looking for useful items at a good price.

Just don’t buy too many items in one trip so people don’t think of you as the neighborhood hoarder.

Herbalism

Many Americans are too dependent on the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

Before SHTF, you can start learning about herbalism to decrease that dependence. This hobby will teach you how to stay healthy, treat simple medical issues and improve your overall health.

Wilderness first aid

Sign up for a wilderness first aid class so you can learn how to deal with medical emergencies you may experience while bugging out or spending time outdoors.

Unlike “city” first aid, wilderness first aid will teach you how to deal with medical emergencies in an outdoor setting where emergency medical services may not be available.

Guerrilla prepping can help you prep discreetly and even provide you with a good cover story to hide what you are doing from nosy neighbors.

While teaching others about the benefits of prepping is an admirable goal, stealth prepping will allow you to prep without unwanted attention from people you can’t trust.

Visit Preparedness.news for more tips on how to prepare before disaster strikes.

Watch the video below to learn how to build and plant in-ground garden beds.

This video is from the Nature’s Always Right channel on Brighteon.com.