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Getting started in food storage
I began my food storage journey in 1986-1987 and have accumulated a fair amount of mistakes- a.k.a "experience"- in that period of time. It's my hope that YOU can learn from those mistakes and avoid making some of them yourself.
As with any endeavor it's important to do SOMETHING. There seems to be a whole genre of folks on the web now a days that want to wait to do things like this. These are the folks that want to wait till:
1. They build a fully enclosed air conditioned temperature controlled fully secured underground facility to store there food in. REALITY- It will never happen and isn't at all necessary.
2. They have "all the data" to make the correct decisions. REALITY- for most of these types it's a procrastination thing. Very few people are truly that ****ytical.
3. They want to "do it once and do it right" and therefore are waiting for the winning lottery ticket with which they can "do it right."
I've always been of the opinion that forward momentum leads to more forward momentum. In other words, do something, even if it's wrong!
"But I can't afford food storage"
That's Bravo Sierra. The truth is that you can't afford NOT to have food storage. Not just for TSHTF but for everyday use. It's nothing now a days to lose your job and spend a few months finding something similar to replace the income. Why not dip into your food storage then? For most families, food is one of the biggest expenses outside of home and auto. This is an area where I feel the big financial gurus are really dropping the ball. They should be advocating putting back some food in addition to getting out of debt, having some savings, etc.
In a long running thread on Frugal Squirrels website, I laid out a plan for a basic year supply of food that cost under $.70 a day. Current prices are very similar and yes anyone can do it that truly WANTS to do it.
"Well, I want to get out of debt first"
Great. Getting out of debt is a great thing. Would I go INTO debt to get a basic food supply set back for my family? Your darn right I would- and have in years gone by. Why? Because you can't eat paper- be it cash or paid credit card receipts.
"But with cash I can buy food."
Yes, most of the time you can. Well let's not consider TSHTF for a minute. Let's just consider SAVING money on things you buy regularly (like food). You want to do cold hard numbers? OK, let's go that route. Back in the early 90s you would have paid $13.00 for one hundred lbs. of long grain white rice. Now (7/10) you will pay $16.00 for FIFTY lbs. of the same rice. That same rice was a little over $10.00 for 50 lbs. about 24 months ago. Wheat has gone up almost 30% for the YEAR. Have any other INVESTMENTS that gone up 30% this YEAR? Let's not forget also that during the famine in Egypt, MONEY FAILED and grains were essentially used as currency- read how Pharaoh basically bought all the land in Egypt with grain in Genesis. I still say food is the best "barter item" for emergencies.
So.... when you rotate your properly packed and stored (well get to that in a minute) whole grains 15 or 20 years from now, you will be eating tomorrow's food at today's prices. We recently finished rotating 300 lbs. of rice that we packed in 1987. I was 14 so I don't even remember the price we paid. So for the financially savvy preparedness minded person, storage food is in general a very good investment.
I feel sorry for the gold and silver types that feel that they will be able to "buy" survival in a bad situation. Kurt Saxon had something to say about that over 20 years ago and it was so well said I won't repeat it here.
Towards independence from the system-
For all the freedom loving Patriots out there with grandiose dreams of sticking your thumb in the eye of the N.W.O., you need to realize that if you can't feed your family you are NOT going to be fighting, period. Romantic dreams of living off the land aside, the reality is that food has been, is and will continue to be used as a WEAPON around the world. Food is power. This means more than 2 cases of moldy MRE's. Food storage needs to be taken very seriously by patriots.
It's hard to retain your freedom and not walk into a FEMA camp for a handout when you and your children are starving to death.
The very basic tenet of survival means that you can live without outside support for a period of time.
So your convinced, there are no two ways about it, you have to get off your butt and get some food put back. The rest is all mechanics. Here goes-
Let's define what LONG TERM storage food is and is not. In general anything we consider long term to be 5 years or more. While some foods may store for 5 years, their quality at the end of that time period is questionable at best. Some of the "foods" (I use that term lightly) that people advocate storing are poor in nutrition to begin with, I can't imagine how they would be in 5 years. Examples: Spam, Vienna Sausages, etc.
Most of these types of poor nutrition foods will not provide the best amount of "fuel" your body needs. If your not highly active now, you can get away with making some crappy eating choices. It's safe to bet though that ALL of us will be using a lot more energy and be undergoing much more stress in a survival situation than we do now in the course of our normal lives.
Sure your gasoline engine vehicle WILL run for a while on diesel, but it won't run WELL. That's the best ****ogy I can think of for putting poor quality "food" (using that term lightly) into your body when TSHTF. You want solid nutrition and QUALITY foods.
Then there's the cl***ic "Store what you eat and eat what you store" euphemism. OK, so how is the average unhealthy Ameri-can't going to keep a year's worth of hot pockets, beer and twinkies? I know some will try... and that's scary enough as it is. One lady who claimed to be "writing a book on surviving bird flu" actually advocated "pizza and pop tarts" as ideal storage foods! At a time when your body would be fighting off some really nasty stuff, would you want your immune system suppressed from eating crap like that? I'm sure no one has to think hard about that one.
"I can always live off the land."
Again, more Bravo Sierra. My family has made a conscious effort every year we've lived at our retreat to grow and produce as much of our food stocks as possible. Each year does get better and we've came a long way from where we were in early 2000, but we are no way near being "self sufficient" when it comes to food. Close but no cigar.
To think that someone with no REGULAR experience producing the bulk of their food for years on end is suddenly going to become Farmer Jones in the P.A.W. is simply childish.
Here's where a lot of the elegant little cutesy books about "square foot gardening" and such are tripping up a lot of people. When someone says they "can grow all there food in a 10'x10' raised bed, they are NOT talking about all the food they eat in a year. More than likely they are talking about having "some" fresh vegetables during the typical growing season. I know of no one who could on just 100 square feet, produce enough food to eat regularly while the food is in season AND put enough back to last them till the next growing season and...
THAT is the essence of being truly "self sufficient" when it comes to growing your own food. It is not going to have with 4 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants and a 5 foot row of lettuce...
"If I have guns, I'll take what food I need!"
It's amazing that you still hear this sort of nonsense today. Guns are great, I love shooting as much as the next guy. I've spent literally tens of thousands of dollars and long periods of time developing skill sets relating to this. Why would someone ***ume that you would have food and NOT have a way to defend it?
Furthermore, do you want to have to FIGHT for every meal you eat? That's exactly what this idea entails. It's not an idea a true survivalist would even conceive. But it is EXACTLY what a lot of these "gun nuts" and keyboard commandos will be FORCED into doing. A guy has six AR's (one of them is bound to work), 10K rounds of ammo and 2 cases of MRE's. What do you suppose he is going to be doing the first few weeks after TSHTF? Lack of preparedness is going to force him into being a looter, no two ways about it. Even the most kind nice person WILL be forced into this the longer the scenario plays out. He may do okay for a while until he runs into someone that truly is prepared. That means both food and guns AND the proper skill sets.
Depending on looting, scavenging or stealing for your meals is NOT going to work long term. Fate/karma/luck whatever you want to call it WILL be working against you and eventually you will get what you DESERVE. Forget about it. "God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, the same shall he reap."
While you lay in a pool of blood with your spouse trying to stop your sucking chest wound you'll realize that it would have been much easier to put a little food back. Think about it.
So what's the bottom line?
The bottom line is that you HAVE to store food for your family. The pioneers realized this over a hundred years ago when they traveled cross country. The early settlers trying to scratch a living out of the land realized it. Historically people put food back. Why is it considered such a uncommon idea now a days, I cannot understand.
OK, so your convinced and rightly so. Moving along....
The first two weeks of any major disaster is going to be the most hectic time. You might be spending two weeks in a fallout shelter awaiting a reduction in radiation levels. You might be bugging out on foot to your retreat. The idea of "72 hour kit" is long gone. The idea that any disaster would be over, or "help will arrive" within 72 hours was a dumb idea when I first preached against it in the early 90s. Recent history in New Orleans as well as snowstorms around the country prove that if you are only prepared for "72 hours" that your really not prepared.
Therefore consider preparing a ready to eat food supply that will cover you for the first two weeks of an emergency. Notice I said "ready to eat." Why ready to eat? You may running and hiding, you may be holed up in a hole in your backyard avoiding radiation. Both of these situations require food ready to eat that require no cooking. You may be in a position where the presence of a fire to cook your food on may cause your demise.
The other reason for a 2 week ready to eat supply to start with is familiarity. While one could argue that MRE's aren't "familiar" to most Americans, I would argue that most Americans ARE familiar with ready to eat or heat and serve type meals. Surely the grocery stores wouldn't have isles filled with convenience foods if this wasn't true!
So for the average survivalist who will do absolutely nothing ahead of time to change their lifestyle, living and eating habits to make it easier for himself after something happens, these types of convenience foods offer some time to transition to the other storage foods we will discuss that should be stored in bulk.
One would argue that wet packed (normal grocery store 'canned' foods) canned goods are the way to go for this. Try this test- pack 14 days worth of grocery store canned foods with you on a 10 mile hike. More than likely you'll start pitching them about mile 5. So weight is a major factor here.
"But I don't plan on bugging out."
OK, well heck, I didn't "plan" on having to pay $3.00 a gallon for gas before I was about 50 years old, but that happened!
The other case against buying a bulk of wet packed grocery store canned food is the longevity issue. Everyone likes to tout this recent finding of 100 year old canned food that was found 30 feet under water up North. The report only showed that the food was EDIBLE. There is a huge disparity between food that is "edible" and food that still gives you nutrition and fuel for your body. Very few have noted the fact that the water had to be extremely cold at that depth also. Few of us are going to be able to keep food that cold year round.
The final and indisputable case against wet packed grocery store type canned food is the cost. You are paying for a lot of water when you go this route. Do this test, buy a can of green beans. Open the can, drain all the water, pat the green beans down and weigh them. Divide that into the cost of the can. Now compare to the price of the same item in #10 cans of dehydrated food. For the clincher- consider that the dehydrated green beans will last a minimum of 10 years (usually much more) so you'll have to buy at least FIVE CANS of the wet packed grocery store canned food (at 2 year shelf life) in that same period of time. I've done this math before and posted it on some of the online forums. The dehydrated product is ALWAYS cheaper.
continued in part 2 coming up soon!
As with any endeavor it's important to do SOMETHING. There seems to be a whole genre of folks on the web now a days that want to wait to do things like this. These are the folks that want to wait till:
1. They build a fully enclosed air conditioned temperature controlled fully secured underground facility to store there food in. REALITY- It will never happen and isn't at all necessary.
2. They have "all the data" to make the correct decisions. REALITY- for most of these types it's a procrastination thing. Very few people are truly that ****ytical.
3. They want to "do it once and do it right" and therefore are waiting for the winning lottery ticket with which they can "do it right."
I've always been of the opinion that forward momentum leads to more forward momentum. In other words, do something, even if it's wrong!
"But I can't afford food storage"
That's Bravo Sierra. The truth is that you can't afford NOT to have food storage. Not just for TSHTF but for everyday use. It's nothing now a days to lose your job and spend a few months finding something similar to replace the income. Why not dip into your food storage then? For most families, food is one of the biggest expenses outside of home and auto. This is an area where I feel the big financial gurus are really dropping the ball. They should be advocating putting back some food in addition to getting out of debt, having some savings, etc.
In a long running thread on Frugal Squirrels website, I laid out a plan for a basic year supply of food that cost under $.70 a day. Current prices are very similar and yes anyone can do it that truly WANTS to do it.
"Well, I want to get out of debt first"
Great. Getting out of debt is a great thing. Would I go INTO debt to get a basic food supply set back for my family? Your darn right I would- and have in years gone by. Why? Because you can't eat paper- be it cash or paid credit card receipts.
"But with cash I can buy food."
Yes, most of the time you can. Well let's not consider TSHTF for a minute. Let's just consider SAVING money on things you buy regularly (like food). You want to do cold hard numbers? OK, let's go that route. Back in the early 90s you would have paid $13.00 for one hundred lbs. of long grain white rice. Now (7/10) you will pay $16.00 for FIFTY lbs. of the same rice. That same rice was a little over $10.00 for 50 lbs. about 24 months ago. Wheat has gone up almost 30% for the YEAR. Have any other INVESTMENTS that gone up 30% this YEAR? Let's not forget also that during the famine in Egypt, MONEY FAILED and grains were essentially used as currency- read how Pharaoh basically bought all the land in Egypt with grain in Genesis. I still say food is the best "barter item" for emergencies.
So.... when you rotate your properly packed and stored (well get to that in a minute) whole grains 15 or 20 years from now, you will be eating tomorrow's food at today's prices. We recently finished rotating 300 lbs. of rice that we packed in 1987. I was 14 so I don't even remember the price we paid. So for the financially savvy preparedness minded person, storage food is in general a very good investment.
I feel sorry for the gold and silver types that feel that they will be able to "buy" survival in a bad situation. Kurt Saxon had something to say about that over 20 years ago and it was so well said I won't repeat it here.
Towards independence from the system-
For all the freedom loving Patriots out there with grandiose dreams of sticking your thumb in the eye of the N.W.O., you need to realize that if you can't feed your family you are NOT going to be fighting, period. Romantic dreams of living off the land aside, the reality is that food has been, is and will continue to be used as a WEAPON around the world. Food is power. This means more than 2 cases of moldy MRE's. Food storage needs to be taken very seriously by patriots.
It's hard to retain your freedom and not walk into a FEMA camp for a handout when you and your children are starving to death.
The very basic tenet of survival means that you can live without outside support for a period of time.
So your convinced, there are no two ways about it, you have to get off your butt and get some food put back. The rest is all mechanics. Here goes-
Let's define what LONG TERM storage food is and is not. In general anything we consider long term to be 5 years or more. While some foods may store for 5 years, their quality at the end of that time period is questionable at best. Some of the "foods" (I use that term lightly) that people advocate storing are poor in nutrition to begin with, I can't imagine how they would be in 5 years. Examples: Spam, Vienna Sausages, etc.
Most of these types of poor nutrition foods will not provide the best amount of "fuel" your body needs. If your not highly active now, you can get away with making some crappy eating choices. It's safe to bet though that ALL of us will be using a lot more energy and be undergoing much more stress in a survival situation than we do now in the course of our normal lives.
Sure your gasoline engine vehicle WILL run for a while on diesel, but it won't run WELL. That's the best ****ogy I can think of for putting poor quality "food" (using that term lightly) into your body when TSHTF. You want solid nutrition and QUALITY foods.
Then there's the cl***ic "Store what you eat and eat what you store" euphemism. OK, so how is the average unhealthy Ameri-can't going to keep a year's worth of hot pockets, beer and twinkies? I know some will try... and that's scary enough as it is. One lady who claimed to be "writing a book on surviving bird flu" actually advocated "pizza and pop tarts" as ideal storage foods! At a time when your body would be fighting off some really nasty stuff, would you want your immune system suppressed from eating crap like that? I'm sure no one has to think hard about that one.
"I can always live off the land."
Again, more Bravo Sierra. My family has made a conscious effort every year we've lived at our retreat to grow and produce as much of our food stocks as possible. Each year does get better and we've came a long way from where we were in early 2000, but we are no way near being "self sufficient" when it comes to food. Close but no cigar.
To think that someone with no REGULAR experience producing the bulk of their food for years on end is suddenly going to become Farmer Jones in the P.A.W. is simply childish.
Here's where a lot of the elegant little cutesy books about "square foot gardening" and such are tripping up a lot of people. When someone says they "can grow all there food in a 10'x10' raised bed, they are NOT talking about all the food they eat in a year. More than likely they are talking about having "some" fresh vegetables during the typical growing season. I know of no one who could on just 100 square feet, produce enough food to eat regularly while the food is in season AND put enough back to last them till the next growing season and...
THAT is the essence of being truly "self sufficient" when it comes to growing your own food. It is not going to have with 4 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants and a 5 foot row of lettuce...
"If I have guns, I'll take what food I need!"
It's amazing that you still hear this sort of nonsense today. Guns are great, I love shooting as much as the next guy. I've spent literally tens of thousands of dollars and long periods of time developing skill sets relating to this. Why would someone ***ume that you would have food and NOT have a way to defend it?
Furthermore, do you want to have to FIGHT for every meal you eat? That's exactly what this idea entails. It's not an idea a true survivalist would even conceive. But it is EXACTLY what a lot of these "gun nuts" and keyboard commandos will be FORCED into doing. A guy has six AR's (one of them is bound to work), 10K rounds of ammo and 2 cases of MRE's. What do you suppose he is going to be doing the first few weeks after TSHTF? Lack of preparedness is going to force him into being a looter, no two ways about it. Even the most kind nice person WILL be forced into this the longer the scenario plays out. He may do okay for a while until he runs into someone that truly is prepared. That means both food and guns AND the proper skill sets.
Depending on looting, scavenging or stealing for your meals is NOT going to work long term. Fate/karma/luck whatever you want to call it WILL be working against you and eventually you will get what you DESERVE. Forget about it. "God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, the same shall he reap."
While you lay in a pool of blood with your spouse trying to stop your sucking chest wound you'll realize that it would have been much easier to put a little food back. Think about it.
So what's the bottom line?
The bottom line is that you HAVE to store food for your family. The pioneers realized this over a hundred years ago when they traveled cross country. The early settlers trying to scratch a living out of the land realized it. Historically people put food back. Why is it considered such a uncommon idea now a days, I cannot understand.
OK, so your convinced and rightly so. Moving along....
The first two weeks of any major disaster is going to be the most hectic time. You might be spending two weeks in a fallout shelter awaiting a reduction in radiation levels. You might be bugging out on foot to your retreat. The idea of "72 hour kit" is long gone. The idea that any disaster would be over, or "help will arrive" within 72 hours was a dumb idea when I first preached against it in the early 90s. Recent history in New Orleans as well as snowstorms around the country prove that if you are only prepared for "72 hours" that your really not prepared.
Therefore consider preparing a ready to eat food supply that will cover you for the first two weeks of an emergency. Notice I said "ready to eat." Why ready to eat? You may running and hiding, you may be holed up in a hole in your backyard avoiding radiation. Both of these situations require food ready to eat that require no cooking. You may be in a position where the presence of a fire to cook your food on may cause your demise.
The other reason for a 2 week ready to eat supply to start with is familiarity. While one could argue that MRE's aren't "familiar" to most Americans, I would argue that most Americans ARE familiar with ready to eat or heat and serve type meals. Surely the grocery stores wouldn't have isles filled with convenience foods if this wasn't true!
So for the average survivalist who will do absolutely nothing ahead of time to change their lifestyle, living and eating habits to make it easier for himself after something happens, these types of convenience foods offer some time to transition to the other storage foods we will discuss that should be stored in bulk.
One would argue that wet packed (normal grocery store 'canned' foods) canned goods are the way to go for this. Try this test- pack 14 days worth of grocery store canned foods with you on a 10 mile hike. More than likely you'll start pitching them about mile 5. So weight is a major factor here.
"But I don't plan on bugging out."
OK, well heck, I didn't "plan" on having to pay $3.00 a gallon for gas before I was about 50 years old, but that happened!
The other case against buying a bulk of wet packed grocery store canned food is the longevity issue. Everyone likes to tout this recent finding of 100 year old canned food that was found 30 feet under water up North. The report only showed that the food was EDIBLE. There is a huge disparity between food that is "edible" and food that still gives you nutrition and fuel for your body. Very few have noted the fact that the water had to be extremely cold at that depth also. Few of us are going to be able to keep food that cold year round.
The final and indisputable case against wet packed grocery store type canned food is the cost. You are paying for a lot of water when you go this route. Do this test, buy a can of green beans. Open the can, drain all the water, pat the green beans down and weigh them. Divide that into the cost of the can. Now compare to the price of the same item in #10 cans of dehydrated food. For the clincher- consider that the dehydrated green beans will last a minimum of 10 years (usually much more) so you'll have to buy at least FIVE CANS of the wet packed grocery store canned food (at 2 year shelf life) in that same period of time. I've done this math before and posted it on some of the online forums. The dehydrated product is ALWAYS cheaper.
continued in part 2 coming up soon!