Food Storage

I have received a lot of emails lately asking me about food storage and stockpiling for emergencies. There has been a lot of talk lately on the internet that we are going through the next great depression. I believe that you should be prepared to the best of your ability to handle emergency situations. I do not believe that we should expect the government to come to our aid quickly or responsibly. Today I will focus on food storage and cover the other topics in another post.

Food storage is a great idea whether times are good or bad. You should never never depend on the grocery store to have the food you need at all times. It has been said that the average grocer only carries 3 days worth of supplies in their store at any given time. If faced with an emergency those supplies would be gone within hours. Everyone would be stockpiling and hoarding immediately.

You should have a well stocked pantry of basic cooking supplies

• flour, cormeal
  
• sugar
• powdered milk
  
• lard (crisco)
• cooking oil
• salt and spices
• oats
  
• molasses, honey, sweeteners
  
• baking powder and baking soda
  

These are basics that you would need to cook with. You would also need some protein and carbs

• tuna,
  
• beans
• canned chicken, pork, ground beef ( learn how to can your meats, you can buy cheap cuts of meat at the grocer and can them yourself)
• rice, spaghetti, macaroni

Of course you would need fruit and vegetables as well. If you can your own fruit and veggies that is great, but you can also supplement with canned fruit and veggies in the stores. It is also recommended that you also have some sweets and beverages like coffee and tea on hand in your food storage. Most importantly store what your family will use and USE YOUR FOOD STORAGE AND ROTATE IT. Don't buy 100# of rice if you don't eat rice regularly anyways. Start small focus on a weeks worth of food storage, then a month, then 3 months etc. One step at a time.

The best way to start your food storage is to look at what you eat on a regular basis. See what can be stored and bought in bulk. Look for sales. Set aside a few dollars a week to build up your food storage.

Learn to garden and "put up" your bounty from the garden. Learn to can and freeze your produce. Everything you can doesn't necessarily have to be from your garden. For example if you find a great sale on carrots at the grocer and you can preserve them then stock up and get them preserved.

Pick your own fruit. We live on a farm and have an abundance of wild berries and fruit. We can and preserve everything we can get our hands on. If you live near a "you pick" orchard try them. Neighbors will often give you apples for the picking so they don't have to pick them up before mowing their yards in the summer. The same goes for nuts.