YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE...MAYBE TWICE!
Food Storage Facts (PREPPING FOOD)
Flour Facts You Need To Know
When it comes to preparing for economic collapse, job loss & natural disasters, we are taught to store food those hard times.
Let’s face it, with all the information out there on how to store your food, it can get mighty confusing. Flour seems to be controversial as to how long it is *safe* to store. After much research, I put together a list of facts I have found on many different types of flours. Remember to do a basic test of any staples before using them. Observe and smell. If either test fails, then be safe and toss it out.
All Purpose Flour is a blend of hard and soft wheat. As one of the most commonly used flours in America, it can be bleached or unbleached. Chemically treated flour is labeled bleached and flour that is allowed to age naturally is considered unbleached.
Shelf life: If properly sealed or wrapped, all-purpose flour should last safely on your shelf for 10-15 months. If refrigerated, then up to 24 months. I found reports of people who have used it well beyond this (but not too many) and that is up to you. Heat and moisture accelerate staleness, so store in a cool, dry place. When weather is hot and humid outside, store it in your freezer.
Bread Flour is made from hard, high protein wheat. It is unbleached and conditioned with ascorbic acid. This creates better texture and increases volume. Bread flour is used primarily with yeast products.
Shelf Life: If properly sealed or wrapped in an air tight container bread flour can last 6 months on the shelf or up to a year in the freezer.
Self-Rising Flour does not need salt or leavening agents added because they are already added by the manufacturer. It is sometimes referred to as phosphate flour and is primarily used for biscuits, quick breads and fried chicken.
Shelf life: If properly sealed or wrapped the all-purpose flour should last safely on your shelf for 10-15 months. If refrigerated, then up to 24 months. You can make your own self-rising flour by adding 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda and a half teaspoon of salt to one cup of All Purpose Flour.
Instant Flour is wheat flour in which barley flour has been added. Its purpose is to dissolve quickly and is primarily used in sauces and gravies. It can also be used for making pie crusts and recipes calling for cake flour. However, it is not the same as all-purpose flour. It is lower in protein. If you have a recipe that calls for instant flour and you cannot find it, many cooks will substitute with cake or pastry flour.
Shelf life: Properly sealed instant flour has a shelf like of 6-8 months on the shelf and a year or so in a freezer.
Cake Flour is white flour that is fine textured and should always be sifted before measure as it has a tendency to clump after being on the shelf too long. It is 5-7% protein being the lowest protein flour on the market. When using a cake/pastry, muffin, quick bread or cookie recipe that has more sugar than flour, this is a good flour to use because it is less likely to collapse. If you cannot find this flour in your area then you can substitute all-purpose flour by removing 2-3 tablespoons of flour per cup used in the recipe.
Shelf life: see notes below.
Pastry Flour is not intended to make bread with, but is used to make a flaky biscuit, pastry, cookies, pie crust and quick breads. It has between 7% and 9% protein. This flour is hard to find in super markets but can be found online and in bakery shops. I have heard it is possible to make it yourself using a 2:1 ratio of all-purpose flour (2) to cake flour (1), but I have not tried this.
Shelf Life: see notes below.
Brown Rice Flour
Rice Flour is flour made from finely milled white or brown rice.
Shelf life: White rice (Known as white flour) shelf life, if stored properly can be stored indefinitely. Brown rice flour on the other, has a shelf life in the refrigerator of about 5-6 months and in the freezer it can last up to a year. Brown rice has a higher oil level in it because of the bran and germ in it which causes it to go rancid if not stored properly.
Whole Wheat Flour is made from the whole kernel of wheat. The shelf life is considerably shorter than that of white flour due to the presence of wheat germ, resulting in an unsaturated oil. This causes a higher potential for rancidity if not stored correctly. Wheat flour should be stored in a tight container in the refrigerator or freezer.
Shelf Life: If stored on the shelf, 3 months. If stored in the freezer, 6 months.
Gluten Flour is milled from spring wheat and is primarily used for diabetic recipes. These flours are also for people who can’t eat wheat flours or anything made with wheat. These flours can affect a recipe’s cooking time, flavor, and texture.
Shelf Life: In the freezer up to one year. On the shelf, about 6 months and check for rancidity.
Buckwheat Flour is a gluten-free flour as well. It has a great nutty flavor and is easy to work with. It is used for anyone who has gluten sensitivities or celiac disease.
Shelf Life: 3-6 months on the shelf and up to one year in the freezer.
Spelt Flour is a wheat based flour that is very popular and widely used among people who have wheat allergies but are okay to use gluten. Spelt has a nutty/sweet flavor that is among favorites for many who bake bread.
Shelf Life: 3-6 months in the pantry if properly sealed. 6-12 months if stored in your freezer.
White Flour also known as white rice flour is the flour that can be stored for 10 years or longer and what most preppers store in their long-term storage. White flour is made by stripping wheat of everything useful and then using chemicals to bleach the color out of the flour. Important medical facts you need to know about white flour.
Shelf life: Indefinitely if stored properly in air tight container.
Flour must be kept in a cool, dry place. All flours have a limited shelf life. The main changes that occur is the oxidation of the oils in the flour which can cause the flour to become stale or rancid. If your flour is stored in a cool, dry place it prevents the flour from absorbing moisture. To kill any bugs/eggs, place your flour in the freezer for 48 hours. If possible, to extend the shelf life, keep the flour in the freezer when you’re not using it.
Store your flour in an air tight container. This can mean Tupperware, or a plastic freezer bag. Anything to lessen its exposure to air. If you’re storing your flour in a canister or container on the shelf place a bay leaf in with the flour. This will protect against bug infestation. Bay leafs are a natural insect repellent.
Throw away any flour that has a strong odor, smells stale or rancid.
I know there are many more flour choices out there on the market to learn about. I have focused this article on the most popular types used today to help you better understand what each kind is used for and what you might think about adding to your food storage. Feel free to leave comments in the section below.
Keeping It Spicy
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Permalink Reply by Jessie W. Garrett III on
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The 52 Week Food Storage Plan; Made Simple
In the beginning, we all struggle to wrap our heads around the idea of having enough food in our food storage to last our family for a year. It can be very overwhelming. I have learned through multiple sources how to break this project down to make your long-term goal more attainable AND controllable. Organization is the key to getting your storage done faster and more effectively to ensure your family has a 3 month supply of food, and also a years worth of food.
This article will show a different way to go about collecting food storage, by having a set goal and plan in mind versus just buying this and that all the time and then wondering, “Just how many meals do I have here?” So much space is wasted on food storage because a plan is not laid out and followed and you never really know how many meals you have on hand.
The plan:
The first thing you’re going to do is sit down and come up with a meal plan for two weeks (14 days). That will include breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everyone’s will be different based on your family’s needs. We have four people in our family so my examples/numbers will be based on that. You can change the numbers based on the amount of people you will feed and their dietary choices.
Now comes the math. Based on your meal plan, you will have to figure up the amount of servings each family member would eat according to the package directions. Once you have that figured out, multiply it by 52 to see how many servings of that product are needed. (Or 13 weeks if starting with a 3 month plan) Then multiply it by the amount of each family member in your household.
It would look like this: These figures are based on eating the product once a week.
- Amount of Servings x 52 Weeks in the Year = Total amount needed for one person.
- Total amount x 4 = The complete amount needed to eat that product once a week for one year.
- If you were to eat that product twice in one week you would then multiply the complete amount x two. (And so on)
Here is an example of one of our breakfast meals and one of a dinner meal so you can get an idea of how to work the math.
Breakfast For 1 day:
Sausage:
- Honey Ville #10 canned sausage holds 24 servings of sausage. One serving is half a cup, but re-hydrates to 1 cup. Based on that, I count the 1/2 cup servings as one cup of sausage. (Or you can opt for TVP freeze-dried sausage, this is considerably cheaper, but it is textured vegetable protein verses real pork)
- 1 cup of sausage x 52 = 52 c
- 52/24 (number of servings) = approx 2.1 cans
- 2 cans x 4 people = 8 cans of sausage
- 8 cans = sausage for breakfast once time a week for an entire year.
Water amount to re-hydrate the meat. One cup of boiling water to a 1/2 cup of sausage.
- 24 cups of water x 8 cans of sausage = 192 cups of water
- Conversion: 192 cups of water = 12 gallons of water to prepare these meals.
Eggs:
- Honey Ville Powdered Eggs #10 can = 78 tablespoons
- One egg takes 2 tablespoons of powdered mix.
- 8 eggs = 16 tablespoons (2 eggs each)
- 16 tablespoons x 52 = 832 tablespoons for 2 eggs each, once a week, for one year.
- 78 tablespoons x 11 cans = 858 tablespoons
- 11 cans = 2 eggs, one time a week, per person for a year with a little left over.
Water amount needed: To reconstitute 1 egg, add 4 tablespoons of water.
- 8 eggs x 4 tablespoons of water = 32 tablespoons water
- 32 tablespoons water x 52 weeks in a year = 1664 tablespoons water
- Conversion: 1664 tablespoons = 104 cups of water which = 6.5 gallons of water
Conclusion: To eat this meal once a week for a family of four, we would need;
- 8 cans of Honey Ville freeze-dried sausage.
- 11 cans of Honey Ville Powdered Whole Eggs
- 18.5 gallons of water. (This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to add that to your water storage. These small amounts can be used out of each person’s gallon of water per day.)
Dinner for 1 day:
Spaghetti Sauce and Noodles:
- 1- 32 ounce jar of Classico spaghetti sauce x 52 = 52 Jars
- 1- pounds package of noodles x 52 = 52 packages of noodles
- 1- Packages of Bisquick garlic rolls that you just add water two x 52 = 52 packs
Conclusion: To eat spaghetti once a week for a year you will need;
- 52 Jars of spaghetti sauce.
- 52 packages of noodles.
- 52 packages of Bisquick garlic roll mix.
OR you can go with the simple pre-made entrees in # 10 cans. For example:
Mountain House #10 Can of Spaghetti With Meat Sauce:
- 10- 1 cup servings per can
- 52/10 (number of servings) = 5.2 cans (We will say 6 cans.)
- 6 cans x 4 = 24 cans of Spaghetti and meat sauce.
As you can see, putting together the meal plan for a two-week meal plan takes a little time and a bit of basic math, but it will be worth it in the end. It will save you money and give you comfort knowing that you have daily meals for 3 months or 1 year. I recommend starting off with a 3 month supply of regular daily meals and then build upon that with your staples. (Meaning 5 gallon buckets of flour, beans, wheat, sugar, powdered milk and things of that nature.) That does not mean you can’t add other items like spices or snacks if you have the means to. For us, having a plan and sticking to it according to our budget has really helped keep things in order and accomplish our goals.
We set aside $50.00 a week to use directly on our meal plans. Make a list and start at the top. Once you have completed your first item, move on to the second. Before you know it, you will be fully stocked with your first 3 months.
Please feel free to ask me any questions or add input in the comments section. If you need to speak to me on a more personal level about coming up with a plan, please feel free to add/message me on face book.
Keepin It Spicy,
Jalapeño Gal
Emergency food Storage and Survival Handbook; This book is a good book for beginners and is full of the basics. It seems to go a long with a lot of what the LDS church teaches about food storage. Again, this is geared for beginners.
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Permalink Reply by saint.357 on
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i need to get back into food prep most of mine was destroyed by rats. filthy little bastards.
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Sounds like you 5 gallon buckets to store your stuff...
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Don't know how your funds are, but I know if you go to your home improvement store or some re-sale salvage yards for building supplies you can find buckets pretty cheap...Hell, look around somewhere where some one is painting or a paint crew is working...They sometimes throw away empty paint buckets...And a good soft brussel brush, hot water and bleach will clean it and sterlize it for use in food storage...
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i got a homedepo card so I'll probably just buy them new. only like three bucks a piece. i use to be cheap like that but i found out it usually ended up costing me more when i tried to be cheap.
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Thats cool...
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yeah its just not worth the time you know, learned that the hard way when i tried to get free buckets from the local bakery to start my bucket garden. i went there time after time and they would never have them. wasted a whole summer never got my garden started. its easier just to buy man.
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Thought about it a lot lately...How its so expensive for people to try and stock food..
I've been looking into a lot of really cheap ways to stockpile food...We miss the simple things...
I mean, look at every website out there, they're advertising all sorts of survival food, from dried fruits and veggies to freeze dried meats...But lets look at what's in our cabinets right now...
Every month when I grocery shop, I shop for the whole month...I buy in bulk and break things down...I'm going to run you through what I buy every month and how I break everything down...
Things you will need...
Zip-lock (Quart size) freezer bags (That's it for now)
Ok, the first thing I do is restock my pantry...
This means I need...
Canned Goods
8- cans of whole kernel corn
8- cans of french style green beans
8- cans of blue lake green beans, (These are the thicker or regular green beans which I call snap beans)
8- cans of carrots
8- cans of sliced potatoes
8- cans of light or dark red Kidney beans
8- cans of peas
8- cans of pear halves
8- cans of peaches
8- cans of Hunts spaghetti sauce
2- cans of Bushes Baked beans
4- cans of chunky chicken
4- cans of chunky ham
12- cans of vienna sausages
6- cans of potted meat
6- cans of tuna
Boxed Goods
2- boxes of family size Boil in the bag rice
2 or 3- boxes of instant potatoes (Lj loves his tators)
2- boxes of saltine crackers
4- boxes of Scalloped potatoes
4- boxes of Agrutan potatoes
8- boxes of Hamburger Helper (Whatever you like)
16- boxes of Mac & Chez (These are the ones you cook the noodles and just mix the cheese into) (Regular and Shells)
2- boxes of powder milk
4- boxes of spaghetti
2- boxes of lasagna noodles
1- box of elbow noddles
2- boxes of stick butter
4- Boxes of Chicken Roman noodles
4- boxes of Beef Roman noodles
2- boxes of Creamy Chicken Roman noodles (Which never make it to the end of the month, cause the boys eat the hell out of these...LOL)
Bagged Goods
2- bags of great white northern beans
2- bags of pinto beans
2- bags of long grain white rice
2- bags of long grain brown rice
2- bags of cereal (Which never make it till the end of the month...LOL)
2- 5 lb bags of sugar (Every now and then I get three if it's on sale)
2- bags of flour (One all purpose and one self-rising)
Meats
4- 5 lb packs of hamburger
4- family pack pork chops (Thin cut)
4- Family pack boneless chicken breasts
2- 10 lb bags of Chicken quarters (Or fryers, just whatever they call them in your area)
2- 5 lb packs of Bacon
4- 1 lb rolls of sausage
4- 1 lb packs of beef tips (GREAT for cooking beef stew in a crock pot)
10- packs of Smokies (These are actually sausage links that are in the hotdog area...My kids and me love them so I keep a lot of these stocked in my freezer)
Then of course there's more odds and ends thing that I pick up, but this will work for right now...
Now I shop at three different stores to get everything...We have a discount store called Sav-a-Lot (which is just like Aldi's), this is where I get my canned goods and a lot of my boxed goods...Most of the time I end up spending right at $85 to $120 dollars for all the canned and boxed goods...Granted a lot of it isn't name brand, but as it stands, why pay extra because of a name...
Most of my meats and odds and ends things come from IGA or Curtis Food (which ever it is called in your area)...My boneless chicken breasts and Smokies, sugar and Roman noodles come from Wal-mart...
And before you say anything, the cost of my Roman Noodles runs right at or a little over $15 if not $20 dollars...Which is a really good buy...
Now, take your meat, hamburger/ chicken/ bacon/ pork chops and everything else and lay it on the counter and grab your sip-lock bags..
A five pound pack of hamburger should break down into at least 3 or 4 quart size bags...Could break down into 5, but I always add a little extra to each bag...Fill bag with meat, then before zipping close, force all the air out of bag and then zip part way close...Leaving enough open at the end to allow air to escape as you flatten the out inside the bag...Once finished pressing out to fill zip lock bag, close the bag the rest of the way...
Pretty much you're going to do this with every bit of hamburger you have...You should have enough for about 16 to 20 meals packaged...Place in freezer....
Now with the chicken, this may vary between family sizes...I do the same thing as with the hamburger, but I place three boneless breasts in a freezer bag...Squeeze the air out and zip close...When you reach the end of bagging your breasts, (PUN INTENDED!!! LOL), place in freezer...I usually get about 7 meals....
Pork chops, you're doing the same thing...I do 6 so we each get 2 chops a piece...Squeeze air out and zip close.
Now, I do something a little different when it comes to the bacon...I cut the package in half...Then I split the halves into half...And repeat the bagging process all over....
Now with the chicken quarters is a little bit different...I count out the quarters to find out how many are in the bag...Once that is done, I divide it up...I take part of it and leave them whole and package them up two per zip lock bag...The other half of the quarters I cut the legs from and pack the legs 4 to 6 per bag...And place 4 thighs per bag...
At the end of all this separating meat and packaging, I end up with enough food in the freezer to last the whole month and maybe a week or two into the following month...
Granted we may have problems with storing the meats and the things that need to be cold or frozen during a z-poc, but all the canned goods and boxed goods can be stored damn near indefinitly...But stop and look at what you have in your pantry...You may not ever realize that you stock food every day or every month, but we do...Only thing different is that we don't think about it in that way....But as we further this thread with other food prep knowledge, I bet after a little while, everyone will be like I do that every day without thinking....
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my problem is i dont really cook anymore. i live on my own now and am on a diet so i only eat a cup of Cheerios in the morning and then lunch at work where i usually just get a salad from the Italian joint down the road. then no dinner, already lost a lot of weight. i can actually sit in chairs with arms again. i use to have to stand in waiting rooms not anymore. proud of myself. but it means no food around to tempt me.
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7 Prepper Food Storage Mistakes
1 – VARIETY
Most people don’t have enough variety in their storage. 95% of the people I’ve worked with only stored the 4 basic items we mentioned earlier: wheat, milk, honey, and salt. Statistics show most of us won’t survive on such a diet for several reasons.
- Many people are allergic to wheat and may not be aware of it until they are eating it meal after meal.
- Wheat is too harsh for young children. They can tolerate it in small amounts but not as their main staple.
- We get tired of eating the same foods over and over and many times prefer not to eat than to sample that particular food again. This is called appetite fatigue. Young children and older people are particularly susceptible to it. Store less wheat than is generally suggested and put the difference into a variety of other grains, particularly ones your family likes to eat. Also store a variety of beans. This will add variety of color, texture and flavor. Variety is the key to a successful storage program. It is essential that you store flavorings such as tomato, bouillon, cheese, and onion.
Also, include a good supply of the spices you like to cook with. These flavorings and spices allow you to do many creative things with your grains and beans. Without them you are severely limited. One of the best suggestions I can give you is buy a good food storage cookbook. Go through it and see what your family would really eat. Notice the ingredients as you do it. This will help you more than anything else to know what items to store.
2- EXTENDED STAPLES
Few people get beyond storing the four basic items, but it is extremely important that you do so. Never put all your eggs in one basket. Store dehydrated and/or freeze-dried foods as well as home canned and store bought canned goods. Make sure you add cooking oil, shortening, baking powder, soda, yeast and powdered eggs. You can’t cook even the most basic recipes without these items. Because of limited space I won’t list all the items that should be included in a well-balanced storage program. They are all included in the The New Cookin’ With Home Storage cookbook, as well as information on how much to store, and where to purchase it.
3 – VITAMINS
Vitamins are important, especially if you have children, since children do not store body reserves of nutrients as adults do. A good quality multivitamin and vitamin C are the most vital. Others may be added as your budget permits.
4 – QUICK AND EASY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FOODS
Quick and easy foods help you through times when you are psychologically or physically unable to prepare your basic storage items. No cook foods such as freeze-dried are wonderful since they require little preparation. MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat), such as many preparedness outlets carry, canned goods, etc. are also very good. Psychological Foods are the goodies – Jello, pudding, candy, etc. – you should add to your storage.
These may sound frivolous, but through the years I’ve talked with many people who have lived entirely on their storage for extended periods of time. Nearly all of them say these were the most helpful items in their storage to normalize their situations and make it more bearable. These are especially important if you have children.
Store a variety of beans. This will add variety of color, texture and flavor.
5 – BALANCE
Time and time again I’ve seen families buy all of their wheat, then buy all of another item, and so on. Don’t do that. It’s important to keep well-balanced as you build your storage. Buy several items, rather than a large quantity of one item. If something happens and you have to live on your present storage, you”ll fare much better having a one-month supply of a variety of items than a year’s supply of two to three items.
6 – CONTAINERS
Always store your bulk foods in food storage containers. I have seen literally tons and tons of food thrown away because they were left in sacks, where they became highly susceptible to moisture, insects and rodents. If you are using plastic buckets make sure they are lined with a food grade plastic liner available from companies that carry packaging supplies. Never use trash can liners as these are treated with pesticides. Don’t stack them too high. In an earthquake they may topple, the lids pop open, or they may crack. A better container is the #10 tin can which most preparedness companies use when they package their foods.
7 – USE YOUR STORAGE
In all the years I’ve worked with preparedness one of the biggest problems I’ve seen is people storing food and not knowing what to do with it. It’s vital that you and your family become familiar with the things you .... You need to know how to prepare these foods. This is not something you want to learn under stress. Your family needs to be used to eating these foods. A stressful period is not a good time to totally change your diet. Get a food storage cookbook and learn to use these foods!
It’s easy to solve these food storage problems once you know what they are. The lady I talked about at the first of the article left realizing what she had stored was a good beginning, but not enough. As she said, “It’s better to find out the mistakes I’ve made now while there’s still time to make corrections.” This makes a lot more sense.
If you’re one who needs to make some adjustments, that’s okay. Look at these suggestions and add the things you’re missing. It’s easy to take a basic storage and add the essentials to make it livable, but it needs to be done. As I did the research for my cookbook I wanted to include recipes that gave help to families no matter what they had stored. As I put the material together it was fascinating to discover what the pioneers ate is the type of things we store. But if you have stored only the 4 basics, there’s very, very little you can do with it. By adding even just a few things it greatly increases your options, and the prospect of your family surviving on it. As I studied how the pioneers lived and ate, my whole feeling for food changed. I realized our storage is what most of the world has always lived on. If it’s put together the right way we’ll be returning to good basic living with a few goodies thrown in.
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Prepping 101 – Food Preps: 30 Days Worth Of Food
When you start to consider prepping, one of the first things you need to start prepping for is food. Simply put, food is one essential you need to live and your family must have a supply of food on hand regardless what the day or your situation is. Because of our just in time supply chain model, most grocery stores do not have more than 3 days’ worth of food stocked. In any type of emergency or disaster situation, the store shelves are cleaned quickly. You do not want to be one of those people who realize you have nothing in the house for dinner and a major snow storm, hurricane or other event is imminent. You will go to the grocery store and find bare shelves like they did during hurricane Sandy. This happens in every instance where people could face the possibility of going hungry. The stores are cleaned out and the larger your city, the quicker the shelves are bare.
Not only will there be no food on the shelves, but the shelves could stay that way for a long time. What if the roads
are impassable? What if there is some supply disruption. You could be out of food for a long time and this should never happen. You eat every day and so does everyone else. Running out of food should not be an option for your family at least for a reasonable amount of time.FEMA recommends 3 days’ worth of food and water to last most common emergencies and I would say 30 days is a better goal to shoot for. If you have a month of food stored in your house you can worry about other things like getting back to your family if you are away from home or not going out in the first place to fight the lines of panicked people who waited until the last-minute.
Storing food can be complicated and costly but it is possible to start with a very simple list of itemsthat you can purchase from your local grocery store or big-box chain like Wal-Mart, Costco or Sam’s Club. I have compiled a simple list of common foods that you can go get today that will allow you to feed a family of 4 for 30 days. If you have more or less people or giants in your family tree then you would need to adjust accordingly.
Basic Foods
I shop at Costco or Sam’s, but you can get all of these at your friendly neighborhood grocery store. You may have to adjust the quantities. I like Costco and Sam’s because I can buy larger containers and have to worry about fewer items, but you can also use Amazon.com. At a store, you can also throw these into your cart and nobody is going to look at you like you are a deviant. If anyone does ask you what you are doing, just tell them you are having a big Chicken Stew or some other neighborhood type of event.
- Rice – First off, buy a 50lb. bag of rice. These contain 504 servings and I don’t know too many people who won’t eat rice. It is simple to cook and stores for years if you keep it cool and dry. This bag at Sam’s costs about $19 now.
- Beans – Next buy a bag of dry beans. This will check off the Beans part of your Beans, Bullets and Band-Aids list. A good size bag is about $5 and makes 126 servings. Buy two if you think your family would like them.
- Canned meat – Cans are great for fruits and vegetables and anyone can find something they will eat. For canned meat, I recommend tuna or chicken because it tastes a heck of a lot better than Spam and you can easily mix that into your rice. For the meat you will need approximately 35 cans. Each can has about 3 servings and this will be the most costly, but they last over a year usually and your family probably eats chicken or tuna on a semi-regular basis anyway so restocking this should be simple.
- Canned Vegetables – you will need about 40 cans of vegetables and again this can be whatever your family will eat. Expect to pay around a dollar each so $40 for veggies to last your family a month.
- Canned Fruit – again, simple fruits that your family will eat. These can even be fruit cocktail if that is the safest thing. At Costco they have the #10 cans of fruit like pears or apple slices and each of these has 25 servings. 5 of these will cost about $25 and give your family their daily dose of fruit.
- Oatmeal – Good old-fashioned oatmeal is simple to cook and store. A normal container has 30 servings each so purchase about 4 of these and your family won’t starve for breakfast. At $2 each that is about $8 for breakfast for a month for a family of four. Could you exchange Pop-tarts? Maybe, but I find oatmeal more filling and less likely to be snacked on.
- Honey– Honey is a miracle food really as it will never go bad if you keep it dry and cool. Honey will last you forever and Sam’s has large containers that hold 108 servings. You can use this in place of sugar to satisfy the sweet tooth. Honey even has medicinal properties and you can use this to add some flavor to your oatmeal for breakfast.
- Salt – Same as honey, salt will never go bad if you keep it dry and helps the flavor of anything. You can buy a big box of salt for around $1 and that will last your whole family a month easily.
- Vitamins – I recommend getting some good multivitamins to augment your nutrition in the case of a disaster or emergency. Granted, rice and beans aren’t the best and you won’t be getting as many nutrients from canned fruit and vegetables so the vitamins help to fill in the gaps and keep you healthy. One big bottle costs about $8. You will need to get a kids version too if you have children small enough that they can’t or won’t swallow a big multivitamin.
All of the list above will feed the average family of 4 for right at 30 days and makes a great start to your food preparations. The meat was the most expensive part but the bill comes to around $500 give or take but this will vary by where you live. Should you stop there? No, but this is just a good starting point and you should expand from here. I would keep all of these items in your pantry along with your regular groceries and rotate these to keep the contents fresh.
What Next?
Once you have 30 days of groceries in your pantry I would recommend looking into storing larger quantities in Mylar bags or purchasing freeze-dried foods and bulk grains to augment your supplies. You would also need to plan for basic necessities like hygiene (hello toilet paper!) and different food items.
What else should you have? I would recommend several large candles (very cheap at WalMart) or a propane powered lantern, matches or lighters, batteries for flashlights a good first aid kit, radio and plenty of water. You should also add bullion cubes and spices in to make the meals more palatable. Is this going to be as good as some toaster strudel or 3-egg omelets from your chickens in the morning? No, but this list above will keep your family alive.
Water is another post, but for a month you will need 120 gallons at a minimum. Storing this isn’t as easy as groceries but there are lots of options.
This should get you started on your food preps and you can build on from here. Let me know if you have other ideas I missed.
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ContinuePosted by Jessie W. Garrett III on May 22, 2024 at 12:32am — 1 Comment
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