When I was young, my Dad had one of these in the garage:

If you’ve never seen one before, it’s a corn sheller.  You feed the corn through the hole while turning the crank and a naked cob comes out the other side - the shelled corn falls out the bottom into a bucket.  The machinery inside is cast iron and the gears inside strip the corn off with very little work.  Here’s a picture of a more modern, cast iron sheller:

So, I was thinking about this last night and how hand a tool like this would be.  A hand grinder is on most true preppers lists, but what about shelling corn?  I do not want to spend my evenings breaking the kernels off corn cobs.  This could be a good job for the kids, but why do it manually when the technology has been around since the 1700’s?  We used to run walnuts that still had the outside hull on them through and then dry them to eat.  I’m sure there are 100 other uses for this handy crank.  The newer, all iron version is available for just under $100 and to me is probably an essential piece of equipment if you want to raise your own food.  Corn is a North American staple, but you have to be able to get it from field to table as efficiently as possible.  You could probably scout some antique sales and craigslist for antique versions - if they’ve lasted 100 years, they’ll probably last 50 more.  I think my Dad picked his up for less than $40 at a flea market. 

I haven’t written much about the tools we’ll need if there is a long-term disaster.  Stay tuned for more!