Long Term Food Storage is Smart Practice
Long term food storage is part of smart lifestyle design. The people attracted to preparing for emergencies (affectionately termed "preppers"), are generally nurturers and protectors, mixed in with a good dose of bootstrap mentality. They love their country yet practice a critical eye on any outside entity that would take away their freedoms. Preppers were taught personal responsibility very well as children, and they tend to be both moral, upstanding, well armed and responsible. They are often the first to put up a good years Emergency Food Supply. If I am describing you I hope you know you make us all proud. Long term food storage begins with the practice of short term food storage, which is an easy transition to the more complex details required to keep a long term cache of food safe for emergency consumption at an unknown point in time. Work on your short term food storage plan, that is, have on hand 3 months worth of the usual foods you family eats before moving on to the long term food storage plans. Long Term Food Storage Preparations Start by finding a cool, dry and dark area of your house or outbuildings. Shelving is essential, you need to keep your long term food storage containers up off the ground. Once you have your "food room" situated, start easy by adding extra cans of food every time you grocery shop (weekly). Do not go into debt to do this, just apply whatever your budget will allow to extra canned goods. Shop the largest volume supermarkets and warehouse stores as they can give you better prices than the smaller neighborhood grocery chains. An exception to this would be Safeway's meat department. They have frequent large packs of meat at good discounts for your freezer. Long Term Food Storage Techniques *We take water for granted. Until you are thirsty this afternoon, did you think about drinking water? Likely not. You may have noticed water as you run the washing machine or dishwasher, but it probably didn't cause you to think, hey, what if I didn't have water today? STORE WATER. You need to put away 1 gallon of water per person per day to cover drinking and sanitation needs. That's a lot of water, but you can certainly do it if you store some of it in 55 gallon barrels, and for convenience use store some in food grade or PETE plastic containers. You can use cleaned and sanitized soda bottles, but not milk or juice jugs as these are not suitable for storing water. You can also buy water storage boxes. They work similar to that box of wine, with a bladder and valve arrangement. They work quite well and you can stack them three high to save space. *#10 Cans. Buy lots of these, chili, stews, tomato sauce, fruits etc. You are not going to be able to grind that hard red spring wheat everyday, but we'll get to that soon. *Smaller cans of every conceivable food you usually have on hand now. Lot's of tuna, chicken, chowder, soups, beans, peas and corn to get started. *Make Superpails of whole grains like peas, legumes red and white wheat, beans, lentils, flour, sugars and other bulk foods. Superpails are the "meat and potatoes" of long term food storage. Buy food grade plastic pails fitted with Mylar liners. Add oxygen absorbers and mix with food grade Diatomaceous earth for extra protection from spoilage. This is the best you can do at home. *Commercial packed dehydrated foods cannot be beat, except maybe by freeze dried foods. For example, a 3 pound can of dehydrated potato flakes when water is added turns into the equivalent of 15 pounds of potatoes! You can buy dehydrated everything, from peanut butter powder to cheese powder and hash browns. It costs more, however your long term food storage supply will be much more rounded out if you invest in some of these food items to make your meals much more tasty and enjoyable. Ever eaten toast without butter? Enough said. *Freeze dried foods are not the same as dehydrated food. Both have had the water removed from them, however the process is different. Home cooks can dehydrate food as little more than sun and wind to shrink the liquids out. Freeze dried foods are made by freezing the food in a vacuum. This causes the liquid part of the food to go from a liquid to a gas state, effectively bypassing the frozen state. The term for this is sublimation. Freeze dried foods arguably retains it's original texture and appearance better than dehydrated and reconstituted foods, however it is not achievable in an ordinary residential kitchen without high end equipment, so it costs more than dehydrated food at the end of the day. Both of these drying processes reduce the weight of the finished can dramatically, so if you have to get out fast, fill your Bug Out Bag with these foods first. Baking Ingredients You will need to buy and store all the ingredients that round out cooking, such as sugar, oil, dairy and fats so you can make meals that actually taste good in an emergency situation. Most of these are short term storage items that you will want to rotate and replace as you use them up, usually within three months. -Cooking Oils, shortening -Peanut Butter -Mayonnaise -Salad Dressing -Jams and Jellies -Granulated, brown, confectioners -Honey, Molasses, Corn Syrup, pancake syrup -Powdered Milk -Evaporated Milk -Powdered butter, powdered eggs, sour cream -Baking Yeast -Baking soda, salt and baking powder
Sweets and Comforts A prolonged emergency situation is worse when you are living it than when sitting at your computer thinking about it. Especially if you have children, do remember that sweets and comfort foods go a long way toward making for happy campers and soothing anxiety. They may not be exactly healthy, but to look at it that way is to miss the point, sooo... *Hard candies without chocolate- seal a meal these. *Chocolate, more than you think you need:-) *Cafe Mocha powder *Hot chocolate mix *Juices, blueberry, lemonade, apple, grape *Chocolate chips, Butterscotch bits for cookies *Cinnamon rolls- easy to make at home *Pudding mix *More peanut butter and jelly *Flavored teas *Fruit snacks *Granola and Rice Krispie bars *Cinnamon and Vanilla-Makes everything baked taste good *Condiments. How long can you go without ketchup? Think salsa, pickles, mustard, and if your husband can't live without horseradish, you know what to do! The effort you put into your long term food storage will pay off in spades when an emergency catches up, which eventually it will, we just don't know when. So have fun with it, and give yourself a good pat on the back (and some chocolate) when you reach the one years worth of food supplies mark! Family Security through Frugal Living from Long Term Food Storage
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