Posts Tagged Stockpiling food
Worried about a food crisis in 2011
Are you Worried about a food crisis in 2011? I am.
Price of gas has gone up almost 50 cents in the last 2 weeks, and is currently sitting in the $3.47 a gallon range. A couple of years ago when gas touched $3 a gallon, fertilizer for growing food went to $22 – $23 for a 50 pound bag.
The higher cost for fertilizer and fuel pushed food prices up. As the price of fuel came down, the price of food came down.
But now, instead of the price of fuel slowly creeping up, its skyrocketed through the roof. Overnight prices go up 5 – 7 cents. The cost of fuel will sooner or later be passed down to the consumer.
Now that people are talking about shortages of Mountain House #10 cans, panic buying might kick in, and we might be looking at even more food shortages.
A couple of days ago a buddy of mine and I were talking about the current shortages in freeze dried and dehydrated foods. My buddy has the opinion that the current shortages are caused from last years food crops being depleted. That once the crops from 2011 are harvested, that the shortages will fade away.
Lets say for a minute that my buddy is right. Last years crops are depleted, we have nothing in reserves, and once this years crops are harvested everything will be ok. If this theory is correct, we are just 1 season from starvation.
Weekend survival gear purchases
Don’t have the money to buy $1,000 for survival gear at one time? Then spread it out and get a little bit at a time.
One thing that strikes me as odd, is when people start talking about stockpiling a few simple survival supplies, the conversation will sometimes turn towards money, and how much to cost to prepare. I have had people say “I dont have $1,000 to drop on a food stockpile”, or something along those lines. The thing is, you dont have to have $1,000 to get started, purchases can be made in small sections.
Stockpiling a variety of food
Last weekend my kids and I went to the camp for 2 days; for our trip we packed a variety of food – some chips, several canned goods and some beef jerky. I’ll tell you what, after eating the same type of canned food for even 2 days, it was getting old and quick. This is where the thought of stockpiling beans and rice comes into mind. I have heard of survivalist stockpiling hudnreds of pounds of dried beans and dried rice for some kind of SHTF situation. The problem is, nobody wants to eat the same food day in and day out for weeks and months on end. After the first few days,,, maybe the first couple of weeks people are going to get sick of eating the same thing over and over. That is why its important to stockpile a variety of food for SHTF.
Not only does a variety of food make things easier to eat, varieties also cover a wider range of nutrients.
Five easy survival food preps
Don’t want to stockpile 1,000 pounds of dried rice and beans? Want something that taste a little better then MREs? Want something that you don’t have to worry about rotating out?
One of the main problems with stockpiling survival food preps, is that people sometimes stockpile what they do not normally eat. So the food stocks sit in a closet, expire, and have to be thrown out. In the long run its easier to stockpile what your family normally eats so rotation is handled in a natural manner.
What are the requirements for a survival food prep?
Nutrition content
Calorie content
At least 1 year shelf life
No special storage after opening / or, serving size so that the whole thing can be eaten after opening
Price
No special cooking requirements – open and eat, or heat and eat
Something your family normally eats
Considerations for special diets
3 types of seeds to stockpile for shtf
Lets talk about food production during some kind of long term SHTF situation. Whether its nuclear war, some kind of new disease, climate change,,,,, combination of several things, there might come a point in time when you have to grow your own food. So what kind of seeds should you stockpile for some kind of long term SHTF situation? Lets break it down to 3 categories – short term storage, mid term storage, long term storage.
Short term storage foods – these are the foods that need to be eaten within a few days to a couple of weeks of being harvested. This is going to include most of your leafy greens, radishes, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach.
Mid term storage – these are the foods that can be stored for several months before they have to be eaten. This list includes pecans, certain types of squash, potatoes, onions.
Certain fruits can be and dehydrated and stored long period of time. If you have some wire trays available, place the fruit on the tray, and put the tray into something hot – like a car or truck with the windows slightly cracked. During the summer time, the inside of a truck or car can reach 40 degrees higher then the outside temperature. So if its 80 degrees outside, the inside of a car can reach the 120s. With outside temps in the 90 to lower 100s, temps inside a car or truck can reach around 140 degrees. In other words, the inside of a truck or car can act as a dehydrator for drying stuff like apple slices and plums to make prunes.
Long term storage – these are the foods that can be grown in the summer time, dried and stored through the winter. This includes pecans, wheat, barley, peas, beans and corn.
Thoughts on stockpiling food
One of the survivalist mindsets that has been around for a long time, is that you need 1 years worth of food stockpiled; that you should have 1 years worth of food for every member in the house. If someone has the time and money to manage such a project, then good for you. But personally, I do not have the room, money, or time to put towards maintaining a 1 year food stockpile. Its no easy project to maintain all of that food without letting it expire or spoil. Expiration dates need to be kept along with a running inventory. If you eat out of your food stocks to keep everything rotated, then list will need to be kept as to what was eaten and what needs to be replaced.
I never have been one that subscribed to the “massive stockpiling of food” mindset. Stockpile food – yes. But not to the point where rotating your food and keeping track of inventory consumes a lot of your time. Over the years I have seen people that have dedicated a massive amount of time to their food stockpile – everything from calorie counting, to spreadsheets that list every single little item.
My plans are more like stockpile what you eat, and have normal food rotation. Instead of having 1 or 2 jars of pickles, have 3 jars. Instead of having 2 or 3 cans of ravioli, have 4 or 5. Instead of having 10 pounds of rice, have 30 pounds, instead of having 1 jar of honey, keep 2 or 3 in stock.
On top of that, I keep a nice stockpile of seeds for gardening.
I look at survivalist food preps as layers:
MREs Meals ready to eat
There is a thread on the forum that is talking about MREs, and it got me to thinking:
MREs are a good grab and go meal -what could be easier then just grabbing a full meal, stuffing it in your backpack, and your ready to go. The outside package is pretty tough and puncture resistant. MREs are the kind of thing that you can cram into the bottom of your pack, and you dont have to worry about them leaking, or getting a hole poked in them.
MREs are high in calories and have a high sodium content. As an example, the Spaghetti with meat sauce has 810mg of sodium. If your in the military and having to hump your pack 25 miles at a time, or in good physical shape, 810mg of sodium might seem like nothing. But for people with underlying health conditions, overweight, high blood pressure, 810mg for 1 meal can be a lot of sodium.
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Storing MREs |
MRE vs Mainstay |
Spam as a survival food
Is spam the perfect survival food? That question was asked in this forum thread about spam. It seems that most people like talking about spam – whether its fried, cooked, cold, right out of the can,,,,,,, most people will have something to say about it. Even if they say its so nasty they would never eat it, that is still something they had to say.
Can of spam classic net weight – 340 grams (I dont know if that net weight includes the metal can).
Serving size – 56 grams
790mg of sodium per serving
Stockpiling food
There is an interesting thread in the Survivalist Forum about Food Preps. Some of the topics being discussed are stockpiling canned goods, stockpiling dried or vacuum sealed foods, buying MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), canning your own food, stockpiling family sized or #10 cans of food, or something else.
Regardless of how much food you stockpile, its impossible to stockpile enough food for a lifetime.
Here is what my food preps look like:
Canned goods bought from local grocery store
Dried foods – dried beans, dried rice, and the such stored in mylar bags
MREs and Eversafe meals
Stockpiling as much seed as possible – beans, peas, corn, squash, okra, radishes,,, only to name a few.
Food stored in #10 cans
Freeze dried food in pouches with a 7 year life span
Long term survival plans
Do you have a long term survival plan? We are not talking 3 days, or 3 weeks, or 3 months,,, how about 3 years? If there was a total break down of society, what would you do?
My plans are like a flow chart, with a bunch of “ifs” on it. If power, no power, if long term, if short term, if food runs out before life returns back to normal, when will the local community have support from the outside world, is the disaster local, nation wide or world wide. In all there are 4 major plans – A, B, C, & D.
Food plan A – First Tier:
The first level in your survival food preps are the frozen foods in your freezer and the foods that you have to keep cold. In the event of a power outage, these are the foods that should be cooked and eaten first.
The main course for the first week or so will be meat and anything else in the freezers. The time line for this depends on the generator. If the power goes out, gas = food. For every day we can keep the food in the freezer frozen, or cold, that is an extra day we get to eat out of it. One of my investments has been a 100 quart 5 day cooler. Storing some frozen good in these high quality ice chest could extend their freshness by 5 – days This is the deep freezer. It is full of deer meat, sausage, hamburger and ribs. Each package of ribs has 3 slabs in it. The white packages are full of deer mixed with beef hamburger. Notice the tub in the top right hand corner, we will discuss that in a little bit.
If the power goes out, and the food is spoiling before we can eat it – the plan is to have a massive bar-b-q and invite all our neighbors over. The smoker is used to make whatever into jerky. I like to think I have a way to cook without power. At this family reunion, I cooked enough for 100+ people at one time.
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