Archive for Food Storage
Store what you eat!
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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!
Pantry Pictures?
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Bean, Beans and more Beans
So, I was going to show all of you pictures of my pantry… See how huge it is. Almost looks like I have a warehouse full of goods, doesn’t it? It looks like that because it is a warehouse. These photos are from a local restaurant supply chain, “Cash and Carry”.
This supply house is just one of I’m sure a dozen in our area. I just happen to be a shopper here from time to time and snapped a few shots to illustrate some points in today’s post. These restaurant supply stores are often over looked by our prepper masses. We all know about Costco and Sams but I haven’t seen much coverage of these other outlets.
Like probably 90% of you, I shop at Costco for our monthly grocery supply run. I am very happy with the prices and convenience I get at Costco. They usually can beat the prices of these smaller stores as well! The prices of the smaller outfits are only slightly higher than the big chains, not enough to drive very much further to buy something at a Costco!
The single best reason to shop at these places for your preps or even your day to day groceries is the selection! Where Costco only has 25lb bags of Pinto beans, these guys have 15 different types of dry beans, also in 25lb bags. My families preps have gotten much more diverse since I found this source. I have taken advantage of their large variety of rice, beans, grains and spices. We even find the supplies of paper goods in the giant packages are far superior to what you can find when shopping at Costco. Don’t get me wrong I shop at Costco and will continue to! I’m hoping to bring to your attention an asset we can all take advantage of at least for our dry goods.
We have all heard the bulk wheat and rice for long term food storage ideas. I’d wager many of us even have these very items put away. I wouldn’t be without them myself. What I do think is that this is a fairly narrow view of food storage. We have a layered approach to food storage at our house. I’m a believer in the “Store what you eat and eat what you store” philosophy. With this in mind we have a large amount of our pantry filled with the day to day things. Unfortunately, these have to include many canned items rather than fresh or even home canned. We would prefer to have healthier options but we do the best we can until our lifestyle will allow us the time to achieve more of what we want.
Restaurant supply
I had driven past these stores for years before I ever went inside. Their signs say that they are open to all businesses, I happen to be a business owner but I’ve never been asked for any information to substantiate this fact. I presume that they are happy to have business from any and everyone, so don’t be scared off by the fact they are a wholesaler.
In addition to the canned goods, we store rice, beans, pasta and even popcorn that has been purchased in quantity. We can often break these packages down to more reasonable sizes for handling. Nobody wants to be hoisting a 5olb bag of rice into the kitchen to prepare every meal. It doesn’t take much additional planning to have a couple 50lb sacks of rice on hand for day to day use than it does to have the smaller bags. Obviously the small bags work just fine but why not have a months worth on hand instead of a weeks.
Another item I buy both at Costco and at “Cash and Carry” as well are Spices. Prior to finding this additional source of goods, I would put back extras of many of the common spices that Costco offered, I’m guilty of not doing enough prepping in this particular area. After finding the restaurant supply house I have been able to provide a better supply for our day to day use but also the long term storage shelves as well. They offer a much larger selection as well as larger volume sizes. We all know that the more you buy the less the per unit price is, it works with spices as well.
Spices Galore
About our layered storage approach. We have the items we will definitely be using in the next few months as layer one storage. Followed by items that will be held in reserve for longer periods. These are often similar items but handled differently. These would be something that I might store in a less convenient location or if it is dry goods, go ahead and package in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. I like to have several months supply of this layer put away at any given time.
Beyond layer 1 and 2 we have what is our LONG term reserves. These would be things such as MRE’s and Mountain House Freeze Dried goods. These don’t require much packaging explanation as they are already sealed in there own long term packaging. I do take special care to keep the MRE’s stored in as cool of a location as I possibly can.
Rice supply anyone
These Meals, Ready to Eat have a fair length shelf life if stored appropriately. Roughly 5-7 years… I know this will set off an age old argument in this statements accuracy. The published shelf life is alleged to be on the conservative side, however as a conservative individual I keep these dates in mind. This said I still have some old style MRE’s from back in the 90′s. Now I am not counting on these still be viable but I have the space to store them so I have held onto them. I may do a taste test review of these old units, if I can find a guinea pig to try them out. I personally don’t plan to try them short of a disaster situation.
The other long term food is the freeze dried Mountain House Meals. We elected to purchase a small stock of these as they have such a long storage life, 25-30 years. These meals are packed in the #10 cans to get the long storage life. As with everything else, I take care to try to keep these cool and dry. We have sampled the Mountain House products in small quantities that we purchased from the sporting goods store. We all found them fairly good tasting, certainly won’t be a hardship to eat these if we were to need to or 25 years from now at ”use em or lose em” time! Also, the fact that only boiling water is required for cooking these, they would be very convenient in a time of stress. Both to prepare them as well as eat something along the lines of comfort food…
Well, that’s what I have for you today. My system isn’t as elaborate as I’m sure many of yours are but as usual the point is to be DOING it not just talking about it. So any of you that have been putting off getting the food stocks taken care of get out and DO IT! At least start, it takes time to get to an amount you might “Hope to Have” but it won’t take long to get to a point where you’ll know you can feed your family for that extra month.
Be forewarned that if you haven’t already gotten bitten by the “Stocking Up Bug”, you will and it can turn into an serious addiction! I won’t let my wife do the Costco trip with out me… I look forward to this trip all month, I actually would prefer to go by myself, it’s my Prep Trip and I take it a little to serious! Hey, a guys gotta have his fun too!
See ya tomorrow!
Prepper