Question for Preppers - Food Storage

canning supplies to save anything fresh or out of a garden.. and LOTS of rock salt for any game killed.

It helps if you're in the country... I also have an old small barn that can be converted to a smoking shed.

Last Edited by Dace on 08/11/2013 12:45 PM

I live in the country and I have buildings I can use for smoking, curing etc. I'm leery of canning though. Too much risk of getting sick from eating turned food. And in a shtf scenario, going to the doc is gonna be out of the question.

I divide my efforts into two categories. I have a long term storage "core". This is stuff that lasts a decade or more.

The other part is what I call my working stock. It is mostly regular food that I keep in otherwise unneeded quantities. I don't put too much thought into this. It's size fluxuates. I've at times completely used up this part of my stockpile when we had an economic emergency in my home (doom doesn't have to be on a grand scale).

The core includes things like whole wheat berries sealed up with O2 absorbers, lots of beans, rice, etc.

The working stock includes things like canned food including a lot of canned meats, powdered milk, potato flakes, pasta, canned cheese, canned butter, etc.

As far as how many meals I'll eat that will depend on my assessment of the situation. Is the doom permanent? How much food do I happen to have at the time?

As a general rule I try to keep enough food on hand to live perfectly normal for 3 months. That's 3 meals a day and some treats, too. At two smallish meals meant to sustain life I could go 6 months at least.

In a bug in situation I wouldn't do one meal a day. Two is way better, even if it means just dividing the one meal up into two and maybe throwing in an extra side like green beans or corn.

Good ideas. I've been trying to set up a one year plan. I've been buying staples only for the time being such as rice, flour, salt etc. Trying to plan years ahead is just a little overwhelming right now. Should I be concerned with calorie intake since I plan on laying low?

I'm in canning mayhem right now. Honestly, it's not difficult and quite reliable when done correctly. It's an awesome skill to know. Please try it while times are good. A water bath, pressure cooker (evil laugh), cans, lids, seals, and the Ball book of canning. Please consider :-). When the ground beef goes on sale, I stock up as much as possible. I brown the meat and make as much spaghetti sauce as possible. 1qt. usually works for 1 meal for 4 of us, not including the pasta which is cheap and can be stocked up on easily. I have other meals that I stock up on, with canning fresh being a main staple. It adds up when you get on it :-)

I have a fam of 4, and try to stock food that will give ea. of us at least 1500 cal. a day in x2 meals. So far I've got about 4 months of prepped meals for us, not including our hunting, snaring, fishing, foraging, and my chickens and vegetable garden.

Good luck!

Also as part of my "working stock" I keep a lot of flour and corn meal on hand. This stuff is cheap and can really form a foundation for survival. It'll last 6 months or a year on a shelf and longer in a freezer. Right now I have 15 pounds of bread flour, 5 pounds of all purpose flour and 5 pounds of self rising flour, along with 10 pounds of corn meal. This is all besides my wheat berries in my "core" stash.

I focus a lot on canned cheese, butter, and meat. These things are expensive, but can really expand the cullinary possibilities and they are stuffed with calories. Also, we'll actually eat this stuff as part of our regular lives so there's no chance of wasting it. Just the other day I was making tacos and didn't have enough cheddar. I cracked open a $5 can of cheese and mixed that in.

Don't forget the odd things either. I always keep a few bottles of ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce, soy sauce, pancake syrup, etc. Again, this stuff isn't expensive, you'll use it up anyway, and it helps provide a sense of normalcy in a SHTF scenario.

I have been dehydrating food regularly so I may reconsider canning. I've just always been on the fence about it. I personally know people who have gotten ill from eating improperly canned food. One of them nearly died, and the other wished she had.

My buying has been very haphazard lately. I just bought several cans of dehydrated meats, egg powder and tomato powder. I really need to find a meal planning guideline but there doesn't seem to be one that fits, ya know.

It's up to you how you figure your supply. I found it too overwhelming to try to countcalories and figure a bunch of meal plans that are nutritionally complete.

I figure 1500 calories a day is enough to maintain good health unless you are really working hard. 2000 calories is good if you are working pretty hard. 1200 will keep you alive indefinitely.

Remember too that if you are a little heavy that you can handle a low calorie diet for a while without getting too bad off healthwise. Fat is stored energy. I know a guy that weighed 400 pounds and his Dr. told him he was going to die from heart failure in two years. The guy went on a 1000 calorie diet for a year and a half. Afterwards he still weighed a little over 200 pounds.

Good advice, thank you!
I've been worrying too much over the future and calories. Maybe the best plan is to just buy what we eat and ration it. None of us here are heavy. I have a little extra padding around the middle. 1200 sounds right.

I can see how canning would put you off. Pressure canning and making sure seals are properly sealed, along with good sanitation techniques will help put your mind at ease.

Dehydrating is awesome, and I need to reacquaint myself with doing that.

I tried hard, but it seemed hopeless. Especially since we actually use our working stock. I buy sporadically and with out an exact plan. I think it works out ok because we've actually had to put our food to work feeding us and we ate fine.

Also in most SHTF scenarios food will still be available to some extent or another. I plan on shacking up on family land with extended family. They have chickens and goats. There's lots of farm land.

I'm sort of the family baker so I've latched onto that and made sure that in a SHTF scenario I could provide lots of bread. I've studied ways of building ovens. Right now I can churn out over 100 loaves with what is in my home. That sounds like a lot, but it really isn't at all. I intend to buy more wheat in the future.

I would prefer dehydration over canning. Only thing is, it is very time consuming. As for canning, the water bath canning doesn't worry me as much as the pressure canning.

I'm assuming the absolute worse case scenario and trying to plan accordingly. No grocery stores, no doctors, no electric, no gas for fuel etc. I do have land and can grow. I've been heirloom seeds. If it comes right down to it, I can hunt, fish and live off the land. My main concern is the rest of the family.

I'm a big proponant of bread. Wheat lasts a long time, is cheap and is almost nutritionally complete. For a very long time bread represented half the diet or more of most people.

One big issue is the energy required to bake it. It probably isn't best for some people. Although you can also sprout wheat and eat it as a cereal.

You can also fry bread if you got a little oil. It takes less energy to fry bread than to bake it.

You can get some good meal planning and food storage ideas from the Mormons. Also, most Mormon canneries are open to the public certain days of the week. That will at least get you started rather quickly.

Thanks Tangy I'll check that out!

solar oven.

The one thing I have is plenty of flour and cornmeal. I started buying basic staples because I know that as long as you have the basic four, flour, sugar, salt and cornmeal, you will survive.

I also keep a lot of oatmeal. I buy it in #10 cans for like $8 each or something.

Another thing I've dabbled with is the TVP. I have taco flavored TVP because I figure getting to have tacos every now and then would be a great morale booster. Salsa keeps a long time. Between that, some canned cheese, some fresh made tortillas and some TVP I can do a regular Taco Bell meal.

TVP is just so so. It's good enough that we'll eat it sometimes if we're out of beef, but there is a difference. It is waay cheaper than any kind of beef, fresh or canned. A #10 can runs about $15 and is equal to many pounds of beef calorie wise.

Dehydrated meals are great if you have a source of water, especially good for bugging out, or just backpacking. They're light and last quite some time compared to healthy, stored alternatives in cans. I don't eat much as it is but some coffee and a cheddar/'bacon'/mashed potato meal is all I need for a few km's uphill to my 'disappearing' site. That's with 60 or so lbs on my back... I should also note that I'm a small guy so some people would need to supplement that, for sure but I stick by dehydrated meals. They should last as long as you should sit still for, at least.

Buy an old farmers almanac at a used bookstore.

The older and thicker the better. It is a user manual to living in a world that you are on your own.

Everything is in an old school almanac

Yep, every cook knows that there are a few things that every kitchen must have and those are it.

Next most essential would be powdered milk, eggs, and butter (or maybe cooking oil).

Be sure to have some sweets on hand. Chocolate, jelly, canned peaches, etc. sweet treats are a big morale booster in a dire shtf scenario.

What do you think of the big cans of dehydrated beef and chicken chunks like augason sells? Its expensive though. I tried the tvp but since no one in my family cared for it, I didn't buy anymore. Why buy something no one will eat?

I just went to this site..
[link to beprepared.com]
and they go by calories...

my next buy will be the canned and dehydrated fruits. I'm also well stocked on peanuts, trail mix and pudding mixes. We are really big on comfort food here.

Yep. I have a young child so her psychological well being is on my mind when I buy supplies. Hot cocoa, canned fruit, and popcorn is my answer.

I have a few packs of dehydrated ice cream, but the stuff is so expensive it'd be hard to try to stock up on it. Probably just throwing money away that could be better spent elsewhere.

I've stocked up on powdered milk and also, powdered dairy creamer for when the powdered milk goes out.

Awesome! thanks Carol :D