Food

[Chris]

How do you store food food for SHTF day?
MRE's?
Dry goods?
Canned goods?

[Johnny_Revolver]

I`ll just go loot a store, so I really only need guns: check! and ammo: check!

[.22guy]

Mostly dried and can goods. We have quite a bit of that kind of stuff. I think it would last awhile.

[Beer Forever]

more important than food is water. I have a well on my property, so I am good there, but stock up.

MREs are only for extremely late in the game. I have a lot of canned food, dryed food, and powdered food, (Instant slop). I have a large closet that is full of nothing but food, water, and ammo.
Looting a gas station would pay off too, get as much gas as you can.


BTW, I really like this survival thread.

[killer]

I haven't seen a good deal on MRE's since the overflow of the Kurd stuff in 91 (that I was willing to pay) but I'm storing about 90 days worth of dryed and canned goods in huge air tight medical containers. The shelf life is almost 2 years on most of it.

One thing I will say is all my canned goods I leave at the cabin get frozen all the time and I have been eating the stuff like that for years. Nothing has ever burst from freezing. It does give it a slightly less appetizing appeal when you open a can, all the water seems to be pushed to the top.

I imagine some of us won't have heat up north if times got bad.

And hey yes I am back from a 3 month self imposed hiatus with new anti spyware and virus ware to protect myself. I had over 125 different spyware to get rid of.

[Big Dog]

I use a broad-based approach. I have reached the three-month supply point, using a mix of canned goods, dry-packaged and sealed containers of dried beans, rice, etc.
I probably have a good two-week supply in my kitchen cupboards at any given time.
Don't have any MREs, but I do have a couple weeks of the Mountain House packets.

Just remember to occasionally eat what you store - make sure it's tasty enough you'll WANT to eat it! And that it doesn't cause gastric problems if you have to eat it. Keep in mind any special requirements of family members.
And, how about the family pets? Got stored food for them?

[Pred]

I'd say we have at least 30 days worth of food in the house. Our biggest problem right now is space, since we live in an apartment.

[CrazyIvan]

I find packages of high-sodium jerky is great. The sodium aids in retaining water in your system and jerky tends to last a while.

Canned goods can usually be stored anywhere under 90 degrees F.

MRE's are meant to be used, carried and stored in a number of harsh environments. They usually have storage recommendations on the package.

I would say get a 20-30 gallon cooler and just pack it full of the stuff and keep it in a closet somewhere (preferably in the basement if you have one). Put a 1-gallon jug of drinking water in there too.

I keep all my stuff in my Bug Out Bag, which is a steel military supply crate. If I need more suppliment than what is in there, it is not beyond me to loot food from a market or convenience store.

[Mooseman684]

I buy large quantities of Flour, Rice, Dry Beans, dehydrated onions, dry lentils and split peas, cornmeal, grits,sugar, Granulated Garlic,spices,coffee, oatmeal, dried fruits, nuts, and powdered milk at Costco...some we vacuum seal and then we load stuff in Heavy plastic Garbage cans with tight sealing lids or 55 gallon drums with re-sealable lids. I make my own Jerky and dried smoked Salmon . I keep some MRE's as well, mainly for the accessory packs.Bleach jugs for water...I figure I can shoot something for meat or wet a hook ! Fish and Rice....Millions of Chinese can't be wrong !
Rich

[.22guy]

I think mooseman is the most prepared of all of us.

[Mooseman684]

You are correct Sir !!!
Just bought 10 more cases of Canning Jars so if SHTF and we lose power to the freezers, we will can all the moose, caribou, bearmeat to save it, as well as all my frozen Blueberries and wild mushrooms. I figure we can hold out for about 2 years...
Rich

[killer]

Mooseman684 when my uncle canned his meats he would tip the jars over (lids down) so he knew stat if he had a leaker not to eat.

Never thought about saving my meat by canning it but it might not be practical for me anyway due to natural gas would probably be out and not wanting to use up the 20 pound propane tanks I have in reserve.

What about just cutting up the meat in small strips and hanging to air dry like jerky? At least you would have saved something. Most of my meat in hamburger form, which I have made into a poor mans jerky in the oven, but again I don't expect the oven to be working.

During the depression my mother said they would occasionally lower meat down the well to keep it cool, but generally only ate smaller animals such as chickens and such during warm weather. Pigs and larger animals were butchered only when it was cold if possible.

[Mooseman684]

Sure, you can jerky your meat...anything to preserve it. 20 lbs of propane would do 10 cases of jars, but I would want more than 20lbs on hand. I keep between 100-300 lbs of propane on hand. And 5 gallons of coleman fuel for the camp stove for cooking, canning, and melting lead for bullets and cannonballs ! Fish like Salmon can be cut in pieces and layered in a 5 gallon bucket with rock salt too to preserve it too.
Rich

[Beer Forever]

Smoked salmon is easy to jar and preserve. When I was living in Alaska that was basically all I ate and wanted to eat, plus a little king crap.

If you have the food saver bags you can freeze complete meals that will last for years and if you have a back-up generator for when things get bad you should be ok.

I have decided to start hording:
Food (canned, powdered, jerky, etc...)
Water, water, and more water
Gasoline
and most important, ammo in sealed containers.

[CrazyIvan]

Originally Posted by sks forever

I have decided to start hording:
Food (canned, powdered, jerky, etc...)
Water, water, and more water
Gasoline
and most important, ammo in sealed containers.

Would water-proof ammo boxes be considered "sealed" or what do you mean?

[Beer Forever]

Metal tins that you have to open with can opener. They last a lot longer, long term storage ammo.

[SPOCAHP ANAR]

Originally Posted by Big Dog

And, how about the family pets? Got stored food for them?

They are the food!

[Mooseman684]

With 2 Dogs and 2 cats, you can be a Rancher !!!
LOL
Rich

[couchtr26]

I don't know if anyone is reading this post any longer but I would like to bring up a few points.

Canned goods are very good and will even last past their expiration date. However, they will lose about 10% of their nutritional value about every 2 years after their expiration.

Dried stuff is good but of course most not be exposed to liquid. Rice and grains, of course, will also be included there. Also, if you find mealworms or weevils pick them out and it will be little problem.

MREs good but not for an extended period of time. They add iron to them so you use the bathroom less. Good for camping and moving out not good for staying in one place for an extended period of time.

Try supplementing with a multivitamin this will aid in maintaining nutrition.

When storing in buckets, it is good idea to add nitrogen to the bucket or use carbon dioxide (dry ice.) Dry ice you can do yourself, you can find the ratio online. Nitrogen can be done through a supplier with nitrogen, usually not much $2-$3 per bucket. This will displace the air and nothing will be in it other then your food. Good method for long term storage.

When going with grains, it is preferable to buy the whole grain. Whole wheat without the bran and corn are much better then the meal. The less processed they are, the longer they will store.

Water is also very important. Measure out 1 gallon per person per day. You may want to up this if possible, for washing and incidentals. You can buy gallons but placing you water in a food grade bucket and adding bleach (as per instructions ((this can be found by searching on google using bleach to purify water)) will allow you to keep large quantities of water. If you don't like the idea of the chlorine, you can use others (hydrogen peroxide and few other things) but the method works. Just when you open your water let it sit for 30 minutes. The chlorine should evaporate off.

Also, you may want to experiment with some food production. Small scale farming or small scale livestock raising. If you are in an apartment, some of that is worthless but you should be able to grow some tomatoes or like very easily. You can even plant them in hanging baskets and hang it on a back porch. It is good to know how it is done, so that you are not trapped learning in a last resort. Also, if you have a small amount of land research raising some rabbits or chickens, even catfish can be raised in a barrel. You can look most of this stuff up, just google it or join one of the many survival forums on yahoo.

[Stopper]

#10 cans from Emergency Essentials from dried strawberries to cornmeal to refried bean powder to - well you get the picture. Even have butter powder, margaring powder, yada, yada, yada. Keeps for 5 years. Also bought the garden in a can for shtf.