If you decided that you were going to start a food storage plan...

[FiveOaksAcademy]

What would be your first step? Your second? Etc.? I am in the process of buying more at the store and having food stored for us. But I don't know where to start!!! We're pretty healthy eaters. I don't want to purchase 95 boxes of junk cereal or use coupons for things that have no health benefits.

 

I have attempted this before but somehow just wind up completely overwhelmed and confused as to what to purchase. We raise our own chickens/eggs. We have a freezer (half-full) of beef and pork. We are buying a hog this weekend. We have a few acres, so gardening is possible (when we actually get rain to water it!!! :banghead:)

 

So here are my tentative plans:

 

whole wheat flour, white flour, rice, beans, oats, oil, sugar, dried milk, and canned food. I know there is much more I can do, but I thought if I began with those items, it could be a start. What then?

 

There is a part of me that looks for "the perfect" plan, when I probably just need to start somewhere. I want to hear, if it is out there, a step-by-step process that someone has gone through to get this started. Thanks!!

Edited August 30, 2011 by FiveOaksAcademy

[....]

I'm no expert in this. I started a pantry of emergency food (which is actually a huge joke in our house because of the lack of food in it). I think the first thing would be to put stuff in it that you can just open and not have to cook. I bought canned fruit and stuff for ours. My thinking is...if there's a disaster, you might not have electricity to cook.

 

I'm going to put pasta and sauce in ours, too. But, obviously, you'd have to cook that stuff.

 

I think keep what you normally eat and then rotate it out??

[momofkhm]

whole wheat flour, white flour, rice, beans, oats, oil, sugar, dried milk, and canned food. I know there is much more I can do, but I thought if I began with those items, it could be a start. What then?

 

This does look like a good start-up plan.

 

Can you store wheat instead of flour? Wheat keeps a lot longer without going rancid.

 

Rice - with what I read, white rice stores longer than brown. The stuff they leave on the brown rice goes rancid faster.

 

Are you doing this to store food against a rainy day or is it a "disaster" plan? If disaster plan, you need something to purify water (if you have a source) and to cook with.

 

I'm sure there is more, but that would be the basics.

[....]

Hey, I would be careful storing rice. If it were me, I wouldn't store rice at all. We eat a lot of rice (my husband is from Korea) and it doesn't store well. If you don't eat it within a certain amount of time, there are gnats and those weevil thingies in it. I've seen this several times with older rice bags.

[Tess in the Burbs]

we started with basics and got fancier. we only buy what we will also eat normally so we can rotate our food.

 

rice, potato flakes, pasta/sauce, canned chicken and tuna, jar fruits. We have more now but that was the start. Enough to get through a storm/no power.

 

We stock up on chicken every month and we bought a cow share in the spring and still have loads of meat...

 

we have camping stove and gas. lots of gas.

 

we also have water stored and 2 different water filters that filter as small as we could find. one is gravity(no pumping) and can filter in muck :-) So far I haven't had to try that one out, whew!

 

candles, emergency radio, first aid supplies

 

ax for shopping wood

 

Now we also have spices, oils, canned butter :lol:, and lots of allergy free mixes. We don't do gluten so I don't have flour but have considered getting a small container. But I can make bread or brownies with my mixes.

 

I haven't heard that about the rice. We have some oxygen tablet thing in there. Bought our food containers from a place that sells food storage supplies.

 

hope that helps. I will say that if anything, it's nice having the supply when stuff happens and we need money for something right then....I can usually go weeks without grocery shopping except for milk and yogurt :tongue_smilie:

[zenjenn]

The easiest thing is to store what you eat, eat what you store, and opportunity buy quantities of those foods.

 

So identify staple non-perishable foods you use regularly in your cooking. For us it is canned beans of various types, canned corn, canned tomatoes, and pasta. When you see those items on super sale, stock up. Rotate through those items in your cooking, replacing them in quantities at sale opportunities.

 

You can add some foods in as you get more comfortable doing this. For example, I've added canned chicken to our stable foods. I don't always use canned chicken, but I find that our family will eat it in casseroles and sandwiches (as chicken salad), so I've added that into the rotation in order to have some solid protein on hand.

 

Also consider cooking options. Often when you need stored food, you won't have power. If you don't own a grill, consider getting (and using) one, and store some tanks of propane.

 

When we were without power for 6 days after the Alabama tornadoes, it was nice to be able to hunker down in our home and not have to worry about meals while our neighbors were standing in line for hours at the supermarket (and in bigger disaster, the stores would have been empty.)

 

I would personally also like to add about a 2 week supply (or at least a 72 hour supply) of full pre-packaged emergency supply foods that are already-prepared meals that could be taken on the go. This is more of an investment though.

[momofkhm]

Hey, I would be careful storing rice. If it were me, I wouldn't store rice at all. We eat a lot of rice (my husband is from Korea) and it doesn't store well. If you don't eat it within a certain amount of time, there are gnats and those weevil thingies in it. I've seen this several times with older rice bags.

 

I don't store it in bags. I've got old wheat buckets that I store it in. So far it's been fine. But like you, I use the rice that is stored and replace as needed. I tend to go buy rice every 6 months or so.

[Carrie12345]

If we're talking short-term (1-2 weeks) disaster, I have discovered that I am happier having a non-rotating stock of less than ideal foods just so I can put it all away and not think about it on a weekly or monthly basis.

 

My kids will be fine if there are a few days of spaggeti-os to " suffer" through. A little extra tuna mercury one time is acceptable to me. In a genuine emergency, I will not be worried about 10 days of preservatives and HFCS.

 

Longer-term, well, I'm not there yet!

[duckabell]

I would say the first thing to stock up on is water. That will be the most critical component of your food storage starting out. From there I think all the previous suggestions are good.

[Georgiana Daniels]

Try Food Storage Made Easy. They send you email checklists to get you started. I really don't follow them exactly, but whenever I see it in my in-box, it's a good reminder to stock up.

 

While I don't necessarily want to use coupons to stock up on tons of junk either (although a certain amount of junk makes me happy ;)) this summer I've used coupons to majorly stock up on health, beauty, and cleaning supplies. My bathroom looks like a pharmacy, and it's a beautiful thing!

[tmulcahy]

Hey, I would be careful storing rice. If it were me, I wouldn't store rice at all. We eat a lot of rice (my husband is from Korea) and it doesn't store well. If you don't eat it within a certain amount of time, there are gnats and those weevil thingies in it. I've seen this several times with older rice bags.

 

Couldn't you store it in a 5 gallon bucket?

 

Oops someone already said that. Should have read the whole thread.

Edited August 30, 2011 by tmulcahy
read thread

[Jaz]

If we're talking short-term (1-2 weeks) disaster, I have discovered that I am happier having a non-rotating stock of less than ideal foods just so I can put it all away and not think about it on a weekly or monthly basis.

 

My kids will be fine if there are a few days of spaggeti-os to " suffer" through. A little extra tuna mercury one time is acceptable to me. In a genuine emergency, I will not be worried about 10 days of preservatives and HFCS.

 

Longer-term, well, I'm not there yet!

 

I think this is a great way to start.

 

I would say the first thing to stock up on is water. That will be the most critical component of your food storage starting out. From there I think all the previous suggestions are good.

 

And water is critical, plan on one gallon per person per day.

[Live2Ride]

Start short term...think 2 weeks...then 3 months...then longer if you want.

 

I started that way (above) and now have what we need for a time, should we be in a hard spot.

 

For the short term: Water, things you can heat and eat or cook over a smaller stove or grill (extra propane tank for the grill if you have that kind-comes in handy trust me!). Canned/boxed products. A generator is also important if you have freezers/fridges to keep going. They are great in emergencies. We even have a small window unit for our bedroom that we set up when the power goes out. The family piles in so we can atleast sleep comfortably at night. Makes for better attitudes during the day :D.

 

Then work on hygiene, first aid, cleaning/laundry, and longer term storage. Rice, beans, wheat (if you eat that), spices!, sugars, baking essentials, canned vegies and sauces, etc. And remember to rotate...

 

Buy what's on sale, here are the typical cycles:

 

January

Super Bowl Sunday (snacks, chips, salsa, pizza, cokes… we call all soft drinks “cokes” here in Texas)

New Years Resolutions (diet foods)

Cold & Flu Season (medicine, vitamins, etc…)

February

Valentine’s Day (candy, CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE…. CHOCOLATE)

National Canned Foods Month (that’s pretty self-explanatory, right?)

Breakfast Foods

March

Frozen Food Month

Spring Cleaning Starts (lots of deals on household cleaner)

April

Easter (ham, baking items, eggs)

Passover (Kosher foods)

Earth Day (organic, natural items)

May

Grilling Season begins/Memorial Day (condiments, meat, cheese, etc)

Cinco De Mayo (tortillas, beans, etc…)

June

National Dairy Month

July 4th (pretty much the same as grilling season)

July

July 4th (same as above)

National Ice Cream Month (YAY!!! How long will ice cream last in the freezer? )

August

Back To School (snacks, juices, school supplies)

Steptember

Back To School continues

Breakfast Foods (part of the Back To School promos)

October

Getting ready for fall baking

Halloween/Fall Festivals (candy)

November

Thanksgiving (turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, baking supplies)

Black Friday (no specific items, but even grocery/drug stores will have some GREAT Black Friday deals)

December

Christmas (ham, turkey still lower than normal, party items)

That’s just a BASIC list, but like I said, it’s pretty easy to figure out. Just think to yourself “what food is pretty much everyone wanting to buy right now?” and that food will likely be at (or close to) your “stock up price”.

With a few exceptions (like Canned Food Month and Frozen Food Month) it all goes right in line with the holidays and major events

[Enough]

I would say the first thing to stock up on is water. That will be the most critical component of your food storage starting out.

 

This, absolutely. If money was no object I'd get a heavy-duty Berkey water filter. Otherwise, I'd start filling up clean containers (milk jugs, vinegar jugs, soda/juice bottles etc) with water until I had at the very least a week's supply (1 gallon per person, per day), rotate every 3-6 months. I bought some 5 gallon jugs at Emergency Essentials that I really like and use for our water storage- very useful for camping, too! You can buy water barrels there, too.

 

Second, visit The Chatelaine's Keys page on food storage for newbies.

This page, and her website in general, are wonderful resources if you're just starting out with food storage.

[RegGuheert]

Here are a few ideas:

 

- We store wheat berries instead of flour. Wheat berries will store for a *very* long time and "whole wheat" from the store often has had the germ removed to enhance storage time (which will still be shorter than storing the berries).

 

- For the garden, we have tried to develop strategies for year-round consumption of produce that would otherwise only be available during only part of the year. This currently includes cool, dark storage for potatoes, onions and garlic, canning for many fruits and vegetables, drying for some things and freezing for others.

 

- We purchase canned goods in an opportunistic fashion, since they have a long shelf life. Specifically, we have preferred vendors or products and we will make large purchases when a good deal affords itself.

 

- Wheat, dry garden produce and home- or factory-canned goods are stored in a dark, dry room in our basement where we have put in place large plastic shelving units for this purpose. It's sort of a basement pantry. One important consideration is that the area be accessible and organized so that you do not lose your stored food!

 

- We use a very cold (10F) deep freeze for meats and some other things. This should provide over one year of safe storage.

 

- I do not think it is possible to develop a storage capability overnight. Start small and build as you learn what does and does not work for you. It takes time, but it is nice to have it there for occasions when storms or other disasters threaten to leave you without easy access to store-bought items.

 

As it stands, I suspect we are close to the point where we could live for over a year on what is stored in our home and probably indefinitely if we include what we can produce on our property.

[starwarsmomma]

I didn't read all the replies, so sorry if I'm being redundant.

 

Water. Store water. And make a plan to get more water. And a way to purify that water that you have to collect. I am on a total budget, so for me, it's using empty 2 liters with clean water and stacking htem.

I bought a water filter that missionaries use-- $25 and will filter thousands of gallon of water safely.

It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive.

 

Food.

Store what you eat. If your family hates peas, DO NOT buy peas-- dried, canned or otherwise.

I have 3 books that I think are the best about REALISTIC food storage with great ideas. PM me if you want them, I can go see what they are (sick kid in my lap right now...)

 

Basically, the idea is this... Your family likes spaghetti. (as a simple example only). To make spaghetti, you need water to boil the pasta, pasta, can of spaghetti sauce, meat. So, you would buy 4 sets of pasta, 4 cans of spaghetti sauce, etc... Now you have 4 meals in your meal storage that you know your family will eat. For us, I can and dehydrate meat all the time, so even the meat is able to be put in my food storage plans. Some are iffy about canning, so you can buy spaghetti sauce with meat in it, or resort to TVP as a substitute.

 

My kids love chicken and dumplings. It's pure comfort food. If we're stressed out, it's a meal that I know calms them. So I make sure I have enough ingredients to make at least 4 batches of chicken and dumplings. All set aside and ready to go.

 

Adding that up, I now have 8 meals that my family will eat that they enjoy and it didn't take me any effort and VERY little expense.

 

Every time I come across a recipe that my family enjoys and is easy to add to storage, I add 4 sets of ingredients.

 

Chili, soups, etc are great for food storage, but there's only so many soups you can eat before you never want to see soup again.

 

So, I have lots of pastas and recipes using canned goods to make that pasta delicious. Simple and good.

 

Think about the depression and how people filled up for little money-- potatoes, pasta, beans and rice. BUT-- also consider just how much water each of those items take to cook with!

Beans and rice are WONDERFUL for food storage but do no good to anyone if you have no water to cook them with.

 

And to the person who says that beans and rice are NOT good to store because they spoil? Nonsense. They are not storing it right. IF you store it correctly, it WILL NOT SPOIL, and it WILL NOT GET BUGS. We are eating beans and rice that is 15+ years old that are cooking and tasting just as fresh as the day we bought it. BECAUSE we stored it right.

 

Personally-- I do NOT rely on meat from the freezer as part of my emergency food plan. Too many situations involve power outages, and we live in a VERY HOT area where things spoil fast. I prefer to can my meat, but there are other options. You need to decide what is best for you and your situation.

 

I DO have meat in my freezer for regular life, but do not rely on it for emergencies.

 

What exactly are you preparing for? And how long is your goal to set aside food and water?

Natural disasters?

Economic disasters?

 

It doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Keep it simple and catered to what your family will eat and everyone will be happy.

[cougarmom4]

I'd recommend www.providentliving.org It is a website hosted by the LDS church and includes some great suggestions/resources for home storage. You'll find suggestions for short-term storage, long-term storage, water storage, gardening, preserving, etc. Also you can find some recipes for using and rotating your long-term storage items. I think the best way to get started is to do just that...get started! Start with a week of dinners...

 

Dh and I have been working on these kinds of storage supplies for years now--and found ourselves needing to live off the supply for a time. We were so thankful that we had done this when we went through a few months of no paycheck this past year. What a blessing to have had dinners for three months on hand; oatmeal and pancakes for breakfast; and plenty of wheat to bake bread for peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. We are now working on replenishing the supplies we used up--and this time I am adding all of the non-edible things I wasn't prepared with (when you only have $20 for a week of groceries, it's crazy to spend any of it on toilet paper rather than fresh produce!).

[Kathleen in LV]

Try Food Storage Made Easy. They send you email checklists to get you started. I really don't follow them exactly, but whenever I see it in my in-box, it's a good reminder to stock up.

 

I strongly agree with this recommendation. Not only does this blog help you form a plan for food storage, but it provides a lot of great recipes for using your food storage items. Also, it provides good information on ways to preserve food (canning, dehydration), along with alternative ways to cook the food (such as solar ovens). My favorite part is the videos which make it all seem so doable.

 

I also agree with all the posts on water storage. I clean out my 2-liter soda or juice bottles with hot soapy water, then I fill them with water & a little bit of bleach and let them sit for about a half hour. I rinse them out & fill them with fresh water. Mark the date on the bottle & refill with fresh water about every 6 months.

 

Also, I get free large plastic buckets from the bakery at the local grocery store. And for long term storage of items like rice, beans, etc., I fill small mylar bags, pop in an oxygen absorber, and seal the top with my iron. Mylar bags & oxygen absorbers are sold online, but they're a lot cheaper if you get them from an LDS home storage center/cannery. (You can also get a lot of long term food items there at a great price.) To purchase from the LDS center, you typically need to be a member of the church or go with a member. You can do a search online for your local LDS cannery & find out what their requirements are.

 

Also, if you get wheat berries (which last much longer than flour, especially whole wheat flour), you will need a grinder. A hand grinder is useful if there is no power, but let me tell you - they are a lot of work! (If I grind flour, that's my workout for the day.) I have a junior Wondermill grinder, which is a very high quality grinder, but a little pricey.

 

Finally, here's a link to a pretty comprehensive list of the shelf lives of important items: http://theprepared.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=36. Keep in mind, temperature & humidity will play a big role in how long you food lasts.

 

Good luck!!

Kathleen

[Xuzi]

One thing I don't think has been mentioned, is a non-electrical cooking source. If you live somewhere that's sunny a lot, you could get a Solar Oven for cooking. You can use it to slow-cook meats, bake breads, etc. (it takes a while, but you can do it)

 

In our storage we have a butane stove with lots of canisters of butane that we plan to use when/if we have to go a long time without electricity, as our stove is electrical.

 

Oh, and lots of can-openers! All that stored food is no good if you can't get it open. :D

[Xuzi]

Oh, and I would second the recommonendation for the Everyday Foodstorage blog. She also has a cookbook out that teaches you how to *cook* with your food storage. How to cook with powdered milk, powdered eggs, dried beans, whole wheat, etc. so that when an emergency comes up you're not looking at a pantry full of foods you don't normally cook with and scratching your head wondering what to do with it. :)

[6packofun]

The easiest thing is to store what you eat, eat what you store, and opportunity buy quantities of those foods.

 

If you don't own a grill, consider getting (and using) one, and store some tanks of propane.

 

 

These are the 2 biggest items for us. Propane is wonderful because it does not go bad or "stale" like gasoline does so we can store tanks. I'm looking to purchase a small locked shed to store these in. I always consider looting during a major emergency and I don't want to store propane in the house.

[Xuzi]

These are the 2 biggest items for us. Propane is wonderful because it does not go bad or "stale" like gasoline does so we can store tanks. I'm looking to purchase a small locked shed to store these in. I always consider looting during a major emergency and I don't want to store propane in the house.

I attended an emergency preperation seminar once where the speaker actually *discouraged* relying on a propane grill in an emergency because you can't take it inside.

 

If it's been 3-5-7+ days since people have had any reliable source of food (because not everybody has a food storage) who's house do you think they're going to go to (perhaps not so nicely) to get some food? The one with the grill smoke floating up from the backyard. :tongue_smilie:

 

This is why we have a butane stove which is both safer for use indoors, as well as cheaper.

[starwarsmomma]

There ARE propane stoves that ARE safe indoors. But there are some that will argue the safety, so I'm not going to go there. Their intentions are good, their answers are not always correct.

 

There are also indoor propane heaters that are safe indoors. But whatever.

 

We have a indoor heavy duty propane stove (under $30), the ability to use the tanks indoors or out (long hose), and 3 battery operated carbon monoxide detectors. We're good.

 

For some reason, I have felt the need to prepare to "stay inside" for a short while. No idea why, or what, or when, or if... just feel the need to prepare for staying in.

 

As a backup, we have the supplies to assemble 2 solar ovens, 2 radiant heat cookers, butane supplies, a gas grill (outdoors) and a charcoal grill.

 

As far as people showing up from smelling food? Have to put that into God's hands.