We recently decided to test our food supplies, to see just how long they would last.
The result was shocking and depressing. I would have swore we had 2-3 months of canned food in the pantry. In reality it wasn’t even close.
Some numbers would be helpful when reporting test results.
I did a rough estmate a while back and had the same reaction. I figure that my subsistence diet is about 2 lbs of food per person per day. (I eat more than that but figure I could survive on 2 lbs.) That's 730 lbs per person for a year. That's a lot of food.
It helps to store dried food, which increases in weight when cooked. This reduces the space required for storage.
Amazing isn't it?
I thought I was prepared for Hurricane Andrew when I lived in South Florida. I planned for five days: food, water, and the like for myself, the wife and four children
We made it two days and that was being careful.
Thank God, our power come back on the end of the third day. I was not really sure what I was going to do next. The cat was looking real tasty :)
I built up a store of mres and freeze dried.
I have 60 gals of water..planing on more
How did you test? Eat it?
We have a lot of canned stuff, but we’re not relying on that for most of our sustenance. It’s bulk dry grains, beans and pasta that will make the most difference. We’ve been trying out rice and lentil recipes of late and with good success. It’s amazing what a little hot sauce can do for what would be an otherwise bland dish.
One of the many really great things about living on a family farm is that our emergency food supply would last just about for the rest of mortal time.
I think I could go days on end...eating one meal a day. But it's still more than a couple cans a beans.
Let's say two can's a beans, and two cans of spam...a day. Yeah, I know...not a great meal. HA!
Anyway...a person could "survive" on that for a year..but that's 730 some cans of beans..and 365 cans of spam.
That's a lot of cans!!
Wish I had a better answer..........
Additionally, dried instant pasta dishes are cheap. Look for stuff that only requires water.
Our biggest problems are how to long term store cooking oil and water.
Anyone have any suggestions, especially on the cooking oil?
We recently decided to test our food supplies, to see just how long they would last.
The result was shocking and depressing. I would have swore we had 2-3 months of canned food in the pantry. In reality it wasn’t even close.
did you try and eat full meals or did you drop down to emergency ration (minimum calories)?
I think that it is important to realize that there are DIFFERENT preparations -- for instance the canned goods & bulk dry foods such as paste & rice & wheatberries, etc. are good preps for a situation where the electrical grid is out for a few weeks and trucks can't make deliveries to local grocery stores.
However . . . . if a real emergency ever happens, say a global EMP caused by a solar storm, then even 3 months worth of canned goods will not suffice.
I believe that we need desperately to learn how our 3rd & 4th great grandparents cooked, how they stored their food in the days long before electricity and modern refrigeration.
We need to know which beans & legumes grow best in our growing zone; we need to know how to grind cornmeal, wheat flour; how to churn butter, etc/etc/etc.
I have NO idea if that book is any good, but it brought to mind some of my thoughts about what things are important to learn for longterm preps.