Posted on 09/02/2011 12:36:52 PM PDT by Kartographer
When someone says “survival food preps” or “stockpiling survival food“, what do you think of? Do you think of tons of dried rice and beans stored in mylar bags? How about a basement full of #10 cans, does that come to mind? Or is it a combination of several things?
When I was thinking of writing an article about survival food preps, the first thing that popped into my head was – MREs, canned goods and garden seeds. But where does perishable goods fit into that narrow picture? For the first week or so people are going to be eating stuff out of their freezer. For the sake of discussion, lets move past that first week post SHTF. Something bad has happened, the food in the grocery stores has dried up, people have gone through their immediate perishable food items,,,, now what?
A book about the Roman military I just finished reading contained a quote from an ancient historian – “nothing caused as much stress within the troops as the lack of supplies.” Just like it says, when the supplies started to run low, the stress level went up. 2,000 years later, and nothing has changed.
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalboards.com ...
PING!
Food supply - ping
How many weeks or months worth of food should we store?
It should be clear to all that the world’s economy is on life support and the doctors are all ‘quacks’! Sooner or latter are the spinning plates are going to start to tumble and there is going to be on hell of a mess!
What kind of a mess you ask, well I think that we are in for something like the collapse of Argentina ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yerKMQc7-w&feature=grec_index )but on a global scale. Additionally I think we will see a much more violent version. As recent events show (Flash Mobs, UK riots, etc)we have a larger entitlement minded population and a the US has a much more violent and armed population than Argentina. I see many many small business wiped out by flash mob looting, and see rape, robbery and murder for murder sake. Many of these ‘yutes’ will think no more about killing you than most people think about stepping on a roach. That will be the test of many. Most preppers I know are Christian people and they will hesitate to do what they might have to do to stop the ‘yutes’. On the other hand the ‘yutes’ won’t think twice nor lose a minute of sleep, in fact they will smile and laugh about it.
Think of this quote which is one of my favorites:
“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Siege of AR-558 (#7.8)” (1998)
Quark: Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.
Now go look at some of the videos of the riots in the UK and of some of the flash mobs here in the US and look into there eyes.
For those who are just starting or are old hands at prepping you may find my Preparedness Manual helpfull. You can download it at:
http://www.tomeaker.com/kart/preparedness1i.pdf
For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, a extra couple changes of oil and filters for your car, tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.
As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”
Or as the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.
NIV Proverbs 22:3
Lastly this for the doubters and the scoffers.
“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger.
Underestimation can be fatal.”
I have a nice mix. Plus some barter stuff.
Start out for a month’s worth, then work your way up to three then six. Me I like to have a year’s worth like the Mormons recomend, but I need to make some more room. There is a food savings plan in my Preparedness Manual you might like to take a look at.
“How many weeks or months worth of food should we store?”
I’m not a Mormon but one idea of theirs that my family has embraced is the notion of having 12 months’ worth of food on hand just in case you need it. You really have to get into the spirit of rotating food in and out of stock (FIFA: First In, First Out) but after a while it becomes 2nd nature.
And not all disasters involve floods, quakes, and civil insurrections and economic collapses. Some disasters simply include things like having a working family member being disabled. Having that cushion of food to fall back on means you can divert precious resources to other things, like bills, in a family crisis.
Enough to supplement your garden and other food producing systems until you get them up to full self-sufficiency levels.
Don’t go buy a year’s worth of stuff right away. Just buy more than you use every trip to the grocery store.
Need 2 cans of beans? Buy 3, and if they’re on sale, buy 6 or 10.
You’ll save money this way anyway because you don’t HAVE to buy when items are not on sale, just use what you have already bought. And food will NOT be decreasing in price, so anything you buy now saves money in the future.
I’m still confused about the actual shelf-life of commercial canned goods. For example, I bought a 4-pack of 5 oz tuna in water with an expiration date of June 2014 - how much longer after that date is it good? What about a can of chicken noodle soup (that I haven’t thrown out yet) with an expiration date of July 2010?
Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
Where can one get MRE’s? How much do they cost per unit?
I’d love to lay in some MREs but the prices have gotten pretty expensive. I remember getting them for really short money a few years back.
There is a misnomer about #10 cans of freeze dried food being expensive. I have found small packs of dried fruit on sale half price in grocery stores which were still double the cost of the #10 can equivelent.
You’re really not supposed to be able to buy real MREs. You can get alternate ‘alikes’ from the same manufacturers, though....
We bought some last year at a military surplus store when we just happened up on one while traveling.
I can't stand the stuff....LOL....
generally, I will use exp canned goods but I boil the heck out of them for over 10" to kill any botulism...I have had to throw some small cans of tomato paste out once because when I opened it, it literally just exploded out of the can...too much pressure...I didn't trust it....
I would suggest not storing anything for "years" except maybe canned foods, if you buy a whole lot on sale. Generally you should be eating what you store, so nothing ever needss to be over a year or two old. If it is, you aren't eating it. If you don't want to eat the stuff at all now, why would you want to live in it, given a choice? I have a lot of rice, beans, canned foods, dried potatoes, etc. on hand, but I like all that stuff. I just buy more as I use it up. One thing I should do is start making jerky agian. I used to make it all the time, but I haven't for a while. Great survival food, especially with dried beans and rice.
Military surplus stores and gun shows tend to have MREs, individual or cased. Figure $6-7 each. If they’re marked “not for civilian sale” or some such, are in a tan opaque sack, and have the brown spoon, they’re probably real; if not, may be close enough to what you want as to not matter. http://www.mreinfo.com/ has more on them than you want to know.
$1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com/
Might give you some ideas about what can be stocked up cheap.
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