Emergency Food Stockpiles?
What do you all keep in your emergency food stockpiles?
I keep a wide variety of thing including a massive stash of canned food, Clif and Luna Bars, Slim Jims, vacuum packed cereal bars and Sasquatch sticks. I would go with the MRE option, but I think it's to expensive for what I need it for, and they make me constipated. I hate MREs so much, I gave a case of them away.
Last edited by Adventure Wolf; 11-23-2014 at 01:54 AM.
I live in a small cabin so my food storage area is pretty small.
Why do I live in Alaska? Because I can.
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Other than some Mountain House meals in my evacuation/natural disaster box, I just keep a 2-3 month rotating supply of shelf-friendly staples.
Wilderness Survival:
Surviving a temporary situation where you're lost in the wilderness
I generally keep things that I normally use. Long shelf life grains and legumes, canned veggies, canned meats, dehydrated and freeze dried foods. Protein powders and bars, but they are more part of our everyday routine so there may or may not be an "abundance" on hand.
Everything. All sorts of stuff I've canned, shelf stable items, Mountain House and the crazy stuff like canned butter, canned bread, powdered eggs, etc.
Most significant is an s-load freeze dried stuff with a shelf life of 25+ years. That, I leave alone and pretty much forget about it)
The rest is cans, jars (pb & honey) and pouches (tuna & salmon) which I rotate in a timely fashion. Other stuff too, but this are the basics.
I only keep about 2-3 months supply on hand and rotate it out. It's all stuff we eat all the time. Mostly bulk staples as I like to cook from scratch. I buy in pseudo-bulk from BJs or Costco and we have a grocery store that has case sales every once in a while and good deals on things most weeks. I keep a lot of flour, sugar, cornmeal (the degermed stuff), baking powder, baking soda, salt, and canning salt on hand. I wish I could find storage space for more of that. Other dried things like pasta, rice, beans and lentils fills tins in the pantry. Canned things like diced tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, chicken broth and beef broth live in there too. Lots of canned tuna, sardines, the makings for Manhattan clam chowdah, bread crumbs, lemon juice and lots of various herbs and spices. We eat very plain and very low salt so a lot of the store-bought canned meals, vegetables and soups aren't represented.
I can a lot of things myself. Pickles, pickled vegetables, pressure canned vegetables, chutneys, sauces and jams. My next learning adventure will be canning meats and sugared peaches in a buried crock. They make me nervous though. I have a whole pantry drawer full of home grown sweet potatoes that are finally cured sweet. There are probably a dozen strings of home grown onions hanging in the back hallway (the sets for next spring are dried and hanging in a paper sack out there too.) There's only 3 heads of home grown garlic left. I planted it too late last fall. The stuff I planted this year went in earlier and got some good root growth in before it got cold. I have a pile of butternut squash from the truck farm up the street. Bought 2 bushels of it, cleaned em up and put em down in the cellar where they'll keep at least until March if I keep an eye on them. Unfortunately the box of pumpkins I got somewhere else turned to mush. That was quite a mess. Had to sort out, clean off and cook up the survivors. Pureed and frozen.
We have a freezer too. Not for emergency storage but for bulk purchases to keep meal prices down. Right now it's full of garden beans and broccoli, some fish I caught this summer and some bulk meat I get from a local farm (and quite a bit of pumpkin.) I keep telling myself I could can the stuff if the power goes out for a month. Not quite sure I have enough propane for all that. Thinking of drying some of the pumpkin into "pumpkin pie" leather this coming weekend. It'll make the house smell even more like Thanksgiving.
What I have trouble with is the cat food for the Furry Children. The cans I keep a good supply on hand. The dry stuff in bags tends to go rancid so can't keep a lot in stock. I've got some packed in vacuum bags to see if that works any better. One of the kids is a very good mouser/chipmunk catcher and can probably fend for herself. The other one is a big clumsy oaf with maybe two brain cells in his big furry head. But he keeps my feet warm at night.
Last edited by LowKey; 11-23-2014 at 08:55 PM.
If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
~ President Ulysses S. Grant
Can you please share your personal experience with Mountain House Meals, because I've never had any?
I like Mountain House just fine. Gotta watch the sodium though. There have been a few that were a little too salty for my liking, but overall I have been very pleased.
If you want to try the various freeze dried trail meals, look around for an REI or a Bass Pro, maybe even a Cabelas or other sports store that sells gear, and check their websites for "classes." One of the local REI stores here has pot luck dinners every once in a while where you pay $20 and get to try all kinds of meals they sell. It's a fun night with a bunch of like minded people. They also try to sell you on the camp stoves and the water containers and the other dinnerware too, of course. LOL.
If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
~ President Ulysses S. Grant
One thing to think about is comfort foods that can be used in cooking. For example, I have four (4) packages of chocolate chips that are stored. They can either be eaten as is or used in baking, depending on your capability at the time. The same is true of walnuts, pecans and almonds, although I store them in the freezer because of the oils in the nuts. You might not have to but I do. Having a simple comfort food, like chocolate covered walnuts, in a time of stress might be just the thing to help mentally and would only require a small fire to accomplish.
Rick - do you mean there is an alternative to opening up an MRE package just to satisfy that craving for one cookie?
Last edited by sjj; 05-02-2015 at 04:33 AM.
You have no idea how many times I've looked through my stash of food looking for a lone fig bar or cookie that might be hidden in the bottom. I'm pretty fond of the drink mixes too.
When I was younger, they used to have these cold weather rations (RCWs) and when I was about 18, I ended up with an entire case of them someone gave me. My favorite part was the granola bars and the cookies. I think they phased out those kinds of rations awhile back, but don't quote me on that.
I don't like the name Meals Ready to Eat. The name is a lie. They are neither meals because they are not food (their just cardboard and woodchips) nor are they ready to eat.
I pretty much do the same as Lowkey. I cook mainly from scratch so buy the basics in bulk and I grow and preserve more and more each year as the veg plot gets better. I can meat and homemade convenience meals like Chilli, soup and spaghetti sauce. I also have a good selection of comfort foods.
I tried a long term storage system and it really didn't work for me, mainly due to cost, availability, space and most importantly, I don't believe the world will end in my lifetime.
I look at my stores as insurance, a buffer to keep me going until normal service resumes.
@Lowkey. Since getting the new guy(who can have dry food) I have started a rotation system for his food too. Initially started with 3 3kg bags and as I open one, replace it with another. That gives me about 6 months worth at any one time, at the moment, I may have to double that when he's finished growing. My thoughts being, if I have several smaller bags then there won't really be much chance of it going off before he's eaten it. It's also all stored in a large airtight drum in it's unopened packaging. Any help?
Last edited by Winnie; 11-28-2014 at 09:29 AM.
Recession; A period when you go without something your Grandparents never heard of.
Yeah, I'm thinking I'm trying to keep too much on hand. The stuff they really like sort of has a greasy feel to it, so I'm sure that isn't helping either. After tossing the last bag, I'm trying to keep it to one open and one on hand. Paying more attention to the "best by" date might help too.
If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
~ President Ulysses S. Grant
you people got it all wrong…were supposed to be eating organic food…not gmos…. gmos are in everything its hard to avoid it and buying organic food can be expensive. we need tonstar growing our own food like our ancestors did you know that gmos cause diseases from heart diseases to cancerous tumors ulcers add adhd and a host of other horrible things. I've done extensive research for the past 2 years and I've sifted though the bs and found the truth. the world food supply is controlled by a few people these people make foods to kill us over time its called population control yes you can call me a conspiracy theorist but please for the sake of your children only eat the foods you grow…as my name implies perilous times are about to dawn upon us and there will be great disasters and mass deaths all over the world. prepare my friends..silver food water ammo dogs and close friends/family. when the times come. there will only be those who survive by retreating into the caves in the mountains those who go deep underground and those who live in the forest…the others will be shot or killed by natural disasters (though completely unnatural and man made hah…) but basically eat only the food you grow and buy only from local honest organic farmers. chia seeds are great for stockpiling they are in the top list of best foods ever. there jus was a study and found massive amounts of arsenic in ALL rice except organic and from pakistan india and california. they are poisoning us…bet you didnt know bayer aspirin got a batch of pills contaminated with the A.I.D.S VIRUS SOMEHOW….they knowingly sold it to 3d world countries and made lots and lots of death…this is a drop in the ocean of things the government has done to us….
oh yeah and my patriot supply freeze dried food is THE BEST there is cheapest most fer ounce and gmo free
Apparently, you don't need to run off into the wilderness to survive. It's much more challenging to stay home and practice those skills..Originally Posted by the end is near
it is actually thats why i am leaving…you won't have a choice soon but to see the truth and when that day comes maybe just maybe you will remember me and think hmmm…what if i listened to that stupid little kid that i thought knew nothing? everybody will soon see…the end is near for all there will be no mercy taken on anybody and most of your family including mine will DIE
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