Costco Will Sell You an Apocalyptic Year's Worth of Disgusting Food for $800

Gizmodo ^ | 10/7/2010

[little jeremiah]

I’ve found prepared foods in cans with tomatoes seem not to last as long; the acid in the tomatoes can get “funny” after a while.

I rarely eat canned food, make most everything from scratch, plus we’re dirt poor. But still I have probably 1 1/2 years’ worth of basic foodstuffs we could survive on. What we really need is a garden, working on that one.

25# bags of oatmeal, rice, legumes, other cereals like triticale, millet, bulgar wheat, wheatberries (I have a grain grinder) etc are pretty cheap at various places. I re-pack into buckets and add oxygen absorbers sometimes, bay leaves as well. Hardly ever have had a bug problem. I just rotate and eat what we store. There are many websites dedicated to this kind of survival food and other essentials. It’s good to think of what you’d do in hard times or emergencies that could last a long time. The **** is hitting the fan financially and this alone could create a lot of havoc. What to speak of other possibilities.

Anyone who scoffs at this idea and thinks they will always have money and can zoom off to the store a few times a week is under the illusion that the future will just be like the past. Better be safe than sorry!

[bgill]

This is from Mountain House as a private label and all Freeze-Dried, no dehydrated. Special through 10/10 is awesome

How big are the shipped boxes? What size of storage area would this need?

[CynicalBear]

<> I owned a trucking company and we hauled MREs during the hurricanes and we ate some of them. They were actually pretty good.

[bgill]

Oh, sorry, I figured it out - 18 gallons. That would last 3 weeks for a family of 4.

[bgill]

"how to" projects work too ... Like 'how to' spot edible food in the natural environment, 'how to' purify water... etc...

Print out any online "how to" info NOW while there is electricity and the web.

[bgill]

If homes around you are being looted, take clothes and stuff and throw it in your front yard, looters will think your house has already been raided and all the valuables taken.

Excellent advice.

[Nailbiter]

ping

[ASOC]

NO, and it is not in a church either.

But not to be confused with “Bunker Complex X” which is mostly in my mind..... a fairly weak location, yes?

[bgill]

Some people like TVP (texturized vegetable protein) and some don’t.

Sometimes TVP doesn't like people. Within a few minutes it tears my insides up, IYKWIM.

[little jeremiah]

“IYKWIM”?

[djf]

Problem is, if the SHTF bigtime, I think there will be two types of houses:

Those still standing, with occupants defending and
Those that have been looted then burned to the ground.

[bgill]

“IYKWIM”?

if you know what I mean - in other words, um, TVP, well, uh, cough, let's just say it's not pleasant...

[GOPJ]

Print out any online "how to" info NOW while there is electricity and the web.

Good idea.

[gundog]

Ask some of the folks down New Orleans way if a stash like this might have come in handy a few years back.

I've heard about pallets of MRE's being sold by those folks.

[little jeremiah]

Sheesh - If You Know What I Mean. I should have gotten that one!

I can handle TVP without extreme untoward after effects but it is not my favorite.

I’d rather have well cooked pinto beans, and they’re cheaper. Cooked well they behave themselves during their journey through the innards.

[TheWriterTX]

Sealed bottle, fresh water does not have a known shelf life. It can last for 2 years if the seal is not broken. It may develop a quirky taste after sitting that long.

Opened bottles should be used as quickly as possible, no more than a few days (two weeks max). Opened bottles can attract germs, which can make you sick.

It's good to learn how to purify water that may not be fresh. You'll need coffee filters for that, as well as some other supplies. Also, a good tarp and bucket to help catch rain water, then run the water through several filters a few times to clean out any debris. There are extra steps to kill any water-related germs that might be hanging out (some recommend a few drops of bleach or boiling to reduce impurities), otherwise you'll be living over the trench pit sick as a dog.

Check out some of the survival blogs for easy ways to collect and purify water using household stuff most of us have. Hope it never gets that bad, but it's good to know just in case. Knowledge is power.

[DuncanWaring]

I’ve got an untested theory that a length of six-inch-diameter PVC pipe, several feet long, filled with the type of sand used in swimming-pool filters, capped and with a bung-hole at one end, would work well for removing fine particulates from water.

[GOPJ]

They then had a problem in that they didn’t have anything that could produce enough power to “energize the field coils” (or something like that) of the generators. The USN arranged for a nuke submarine to pull up to the dock and essentially “jump-start” the island. I remember the photo in the newspaper; the cable looked to be about the size of your leg.

Great news! Thanks for sharing. How far underwater would a sub have to be to avoid being hit by an EMP? (For land - an EMP 125 miles above Nebraska would knock out chips to 99% of US... some parts of Florida might be OK...

[chris_bdba]

Canned food is really only good for one year two years max that is why I choose to dehydrate.Dehydrated sealed in jars or bags can easily last 5 years or more.

[DuncanWaring]

Since they’re basically big steel cans, and designed to ride-out a nuclear first-strike, I’m pretty sure even a surfaced sub would be immune to an EMP.