I know that I’ve mentioned this popular concept on this blog before but do we all practice this exercise? “Store What We Eat and Eat What We Store”… Sounds simple enough, right? Alright then, let’s go look in our pantry’s right now and see what’s available? What’s going to be on the menu tomorrow and the day after that? I bet a lot of us will be getting hungry within the week!

   Many preppers just don’t get the food storage thing? I can’t understand it? This seems like the most obvious first step on the journey… Well, maybe second step, behind water… I’m actually guilty of being short on water storage myself… However, I do live in the rain capital of the United States or so it would seem according to our reputation. Seattle, Washington – sounds wet doesn’t it?

   Back to the food issue. I’ve received several emails from readers asking me what I think is the right amount of food to have stored? There’s no way that I could begin to accurately answer such a broad question for someone else. This is dependant on so many variables that it’s even a tough question for me to answer for my own families supplies… All I can say with authority is – “More Is Better”! I can’t think of a downside to having extra food available.

   Even if you wanted to have 5 years worth of food on hand at any given time, I personally don’t but say you did, I still wouldn’t have an issue with it. As long as you practice the store what you eat and eat what you store principle, you really can’t go wrong! Careful planning and rotation will need to be a priority though! Of course there are some foods that will need to have additional processing done to help them make it that long without spoilage.

   5 years of everyday food is a pretty good stretch. Although this is certainly possible, probably not practical…  I thought that I would share a bit about what we’re doing and or attempting to get done… A 1 year supply!

   Wait, don’t tar and feather me yet – I said if you wanted to have more, I would agree with you! I would even agree with you if you tell me that you don’t need more than a months supply! The only thing I’ll tell you and I don’t care if this offends anyone – HAVE FOOD STORED! Stored food is the same thing as money in the bank! Who doesn’t think it’s prudent to have more cash on hand than you are planning to use in any given month? Anybody? Well, storage food and most all of our preps are the same exact thing. Stored items in addition to those things we already know we’ll  be needing to make it through, on a regular basis.

   I wish I could say that we have the full 1 year supply stocked up now! We’re working on it and do have a substantial amount set a side. The approach we’ve taken is kind of a mixed bag. Lots of everyday stuff. You know, wet packed canned goods, pasta, rice and beans, etc. We do have some real long term storage stuff that I’m including in our totals, for the time being… I would like to get to the 1 year mark with just items that fit nicely in the – “Store what you eat” plan but for now I will settle for a years supply, even if it’s a variety.

MRE's

   When I first started seriously thinking about food storage, I went the MRE route. That’s Meals Ready to Eat, military rations… These weren’t the current offerings but the one’s available in the 1990′s. They were alright and as they became close to their pull dates, I ate them. Well, I should say, I ate a lot of them. I didn’t find them all that great but they certainly would fill the bill if anything had happened while they were the bulk of my food supplies. High in calories and edible…

   After having purchased this initial supply of MRE’s, I think I had a 2 week supply for myself and the family. I began working on some long term storage  foods. This was about the same time the Y2K hysteria began in earnest. Many small companies popped up to sell dehydrated foods in long term storage buckets complete with mylar liners. We purchased a healthy supply of these storables and extended the supply out many months… In addition, we always maintained a decent pantry of everyday stuff but that wasn’t something I looked at as food storage, at least not at that time.

   After the Y2K nonstarter blew over, I didn’t continue with any type of a regular food storage regiment. These Y2K era foods are still stashed away, I’m not counting on them heavily or even in my new 1 year supply goal. They’re roughly at the 10 year mark in age and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they are just fine but I’m not going to bet the farm on them. They came with an advertised estimated shelf life of 15-20 years, we’ll see… I plan to pop a few of the cans open and do a little show and tell with all of you in the near future… Any guinea pigs want to volunteer for a taste test?

   I felt fairly good about the food storage I had and didn’t make any big changes or much in the way of additions for a period of 5 years or so… By this time the original MRE’s had been mostly eaten and then I replaced a lot of them with the newest issue stuff I could find at the gun shows and out of the local penny saver type paper. I think we have a 8-10 day supply again and these have a few good years left on them before I think they will need to be rotated.

   Somewhere around 2006-07, we started to feel the prepper bug creeping in again… I’m sure you all know what I mean, you just get the feeling that some thing’s off? If you haven’t gotten that feeling for yourself and you’re curious what it feels like… Sit down for an hour or so in front of CNN and then see if you can find the TV program called “GANGLAND”. If this doesn’t help you get the picture, you’re probably reading the wrong blog? Anyway, we decided to do some additional stocking up. This was roughly the time frame of our renewed efforts on our BOL project as well!

Mountain House Freeze Dried Meals

   We, meaning mostly me – Mrs. Prepper is very supportive of the steps we’ve taken but leaves the details to me for the most part, began pricing some freeze dried Mountain House products… These are expensive but I was attracted to their advertised 25-30 year shelf life, something about making a purchase and not having to worry about them again for 3 decades. That sounded great, until we saw the amount of money required to make a significant dent in our years supply? To shorten the story a bit, we ended up purchasing a small supply to add to the pile but not as much as we may have if the price wasn’t an issue. We had tried these meals previously, having purchased them in the hiking section at the sporting goods store. We all liked the taste well enough and I feel pretty good about having this added variety in our supplies…

   This brings us to the bulk of our growing pile of food… The basics – rice, beans, pasta, oats and other dry goods. Rounding this all out is our supplies of canned food. A lot of these products are available through Costco and we’ve managed to keep a larger variety of the dry goods by shopping at the local restaurant supply houses. These places have a wide selection of the different beans and other legumes. These supplies are the real – “Store what you eat and eat what you store” items. We have made a change in mindset and began doing a lot more cooking at home with these basics. This is where I have to clarify, Mrs. Prepper has begun cooking a lot more with the basics, I do very little in the kitchen… I’m very spoiled and well fed too!

Dry goods - the basics

   Let me offer you also the “Silver Lining” to this food storage issue. With the exception of the long life freeze dried meals. Food storage is really not expensive. You are buying the food anyway, buying extra is a GREAT investment. Unless you’re careless and store your food where it could get wet or eaten buy mice, you can’t lose! You buy at today’s prices and have the security of knowing your family will eat. I don’t know about you but that is truly peace of mind. I look at the current state of affairs both Nationally and Globally and don’t feel any better today than I did back in 2006-07 when I started to really ramp up the preps. I actually feel far more pessimistic now than I did then… If I’m off base, somebody please let me know! Otherwise, I think that it’s only prudent to get our pantry’s in order – I think a storms a brewing and will be here eventually. Even if it’s only the inflation that is certainly coming, food bought at today’s prices will look like a bargain in tomorrows reality! 

   Don’t misunderstand me, this is a long road and will take most folks quite a while to achieve. I’ve said before I’ve been at this for quite some time and I haven’t made it all the way to my own goals. The last thing I want is to see anyone get discouraged, especially if you’re just starting! Slow and steady wins the race!

   It has to start somewhere… Add a couple of days supply each time you’re at the grocery store. Simply toss in an extra couple of this or that, you know the same stuff your buying to eat anyway! When you get home, mark the cans in black permanent marker with the date of purchase. Setup some shelves in the basement or even allocate a special shelf in the existing pantry and start filling it up. When that first one’s filled, transfer the contents to a Rubbermaid tub and start all over again. Just make sure you keep a good accounting of what you have and be sure those cans are dated so you can keep on a rotation schedule!

I guess this is really a FOOD FOR THOUGHT post if I’ve ever seen one…

Prepper