Post by Gaz on Nov 9, 2014 11:46:34 GMT 10
Getting Started With Your Survival Food Supply
When creating your basic food stockpile, you should always bear in mind a few factors. You want to make sure you have a balanced collection of large meals that take time to prepare and smaller meals that can be prepared with little to no preparation. Take into account your storage area and the amount of space you have readily available. Large items such as rice and grains will take up a lot of space while cans and mason jars can be easily stacked to save space.
You want to make sure you are completely aware of the nutritional values of all your supplies. Having a food supply high in nutrition will ensure you stay healthy during any survival period. Also, keep in mind the shelf life of the food you are purchasing and make sure you are properly rotating your food in order to avoid expiration. Lastly, your food supply should be full of items that quickly sell out within the first 48 hours after disaster has struck.
Looking Back In History
Looking back at previous disasters allows you to create a basic food supply plan, ultimately giving you an idea of what to expect. By analyzing the food items that sell out quickly during disaster situations, you can better prepare your food supply. When a disaster occurs these foods and supplies are sold out in most stores within 24-48 hours and should be included in your emergency supplies.
Water
Bread
Toilet paper, diapers, canned and powdered baby formula
Canned and powdered milk
Ready to eat foods, dried meats, jerky canned hams
Batteries, candles, portable radios and small generators
Canned fruits and vegetables, canned soups
Cooking oils
Honey
Coffee and Tea
Of course if you do not eat certain items it does not matter whether you have them or not but the list is merely a starting point to get you thinking about what you will need. You have to assume that once the crisis is upon you that you will not be able to obtain these items. If you need and want them, they must be acquired before the crisis.
Basics
Creating different recipes and trying to replicate home cooked meals can be a time consuming and a lengthy process just to stock up on the food that your family wants. If you are just starting and want to learn the basics, it is recommended you start slowly and build up a supply over time being mindful of expiration dates. Because disasters do not happen every day, your emergency supplies may begin to gather dust so you have to rotate your supplies before they expire and replace with new items. Rotating and adding ingredients as you build up your supplies will ensure that you have more than just the basics but can prepare full and substantial meals under any condition.
Cooking
Foods that require little or no cooking will only carry you so far. After a week of eating out of a can or package, you will want a meal that is hot and prepared. Looking forward to a good meal everyday helps keep people calm, and the process of preparing a meal is something in which everyone can become involved.
Basics You Should Consider Learning
You can improve the quality of your own food supply by learning a few preserving techniques. Learning how to store different items properly is essential and allows you greater variety and you can then store your favorite recipes. Learning how to bake your own bread will also add variety to your food supply.
How much food to store?
Well figuring it out is easier than you think, and I don’t think you need to get overly scientific about it.
All you have to do is over prepare. But if you want to keep records of servings on hand here’s a sample form for you to copy:
food list:
From that you can calculate how long that almost 2500 servings could last. For instance, if each person in your family of 4 consumes 6 servings of food per day that could last you almost 100 days.
If you’re buying prepackaged emergency rations then the information for how many meals contained are already on the package.
But long-lasting emergency food can be fairly expensive. I think it’s a good idea to stock some, but if you’re budget conscious you can get all the food stocked up you need for a fraction of the cost.
Catch Bulk Food on Sale
One of my favorite ways to stock up survival and SHTF food is catching good sales on goods with a long expiration date. Most often canned and dried food items.
Beans are my favorite survival food. They can keep you alive and properly nourished for a very long time without a lot of variation in your diet.
Bulk discount stores such as Sam’s and Costco often have good deals on canned and large bags of dry beans.
Other foods that go on sale, even fresh foods can be prepared for long-term storage with canning. Even cooked chicken can last for years when properly canned.
Canned or Dry Goods
I prefer to stock more dried goods than canned goods. They weigh less, usually cost less, and they take up less space. I can store more servings of dried beans in a 5-gallon bucket than the same volume of canned beans.
I do like to keep canned goods on hand as well of course but when faced with the option I’ll usually go with dried.
Preserving Your Survival Food
I don’t enjoy canning food but it’s a time-tested method for preserving food that works better than most other at-home options. With canning your food can last for years if not a decade or longer.
Canning really isn’t difficult and can actually be fun sometimes. Perhaps I’ll try my hand at it again soon. Here’s some links to a few canning guides:
www.freshpreserving.com/guides/IntroToCanning.pdf
www.gopresto.com/recipes/canning/
www.freshpreserving.com/guides/StepByStepLowAcid.pdf
The best long-term storage method is freeze-drying but few can afford the machinery. I did find one that was more affordable than the 25 thousand dollar price tag on most commercial units. It was a florist’s freeze dryer for preserving flowers! And a used unit was only 2500 to 3000 dollars.
Freeze dried foods retain their shape and original flavor unlike some other methods of preserving food. I’ve even seen expiration dates of 20 plus years for freeze dried emergency food. Most emergency food is preserved with freeze-drying.
Another option is to use a dehydrator to preserve certain foods. Dehydrating is easy and affordable and you’re dehydrated food can be stored for a long time.
This website had a lot of good information on how to dehydrate foods: www.easy-food-dehydrating.com/six-simple-steps.html
Storing Your Food
I once met a guy who thought he was totally ready for Armageddon. He had bought a metal shipping container and used it to store his preps.
After the first summer had past he found his stored food and supplies in poor condition. That shipping container had been a giant solar oven all summer long!
Don’t make his mistake. Keep anything perishable, even freeze dried survival food in the most stable temperature-controlled environment you can. Here in Texas we don’t have basements so we just pack our cabinets, garages, shelves and spare rooms with our extra food supplies.
Extra pantries can be added easily to your home. And floor-to-ceiling cabinets as well as shelving can be bought at any home improvement store. Or you can always make your own shelving.
Keeping your food dry is also important. Find the lowest humidity area in your home that you can.
If you’re sealing food into mylar bags, vacuum sealer, 5 gallon buckets or any other container remember to use oxygen absorbers to remove as much oxygen as possible. This will keep your food fresh and increase it’s shelf life.
Just do it already!
The biggest tip I have to storing up food for when SHTF is to just do it! It’s not going to just show up at your house. You probably go to the store often and all you have to do is buy a little extra each time.
Grab an extra 12 cans of food and a few bags of dried beans each time and before you know it you’ll have enough food to last months or years.
By doing it that way you wont’ feel a bit of pain in the pocketbook. Food and Water are likely the most important preps you can do. What are you doing to store food and water?