Food Storage
General Information
There are many reasons to store food. Just watch the nightly news. Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, strikes, unemployment, riots, and on, and on, and on.....
I am sure you have home insurance, auto insurance, life insurance and medical insurance...BUT do you have food stored back so you have food insurance also ??? There is NO Guarantee that you will always be able to go to the supermarket and find full shelves of everything you need. I believe there will come a time in all our lives that we will NEED a supply of food put away !!!
Foods which are packaged in #10 cans are nitrogen packed and also packed with an oxygen absorber for longest shelf life.
Foods which are packaged in buckets are nitrogen packed and are the best value for large families.
We also offer some foods packaged in 50 lb bags. We require a minimum order of 200 bags on this type of packaging.
One half of the vegetables you store should be potatoes.
Our foods are dehydrated unless otherwise stated.
Dehydrated foods have the highest nutritional value!!
(NOTE: MRE's are not dehydrated. MRE's are ready to eat.)
General Preparedness Hints
1. Make sure you store a good variety of foods of high quality.2. Use your storage foods so that you are used to cooking with them and your family is used to eating them. This is not something you want to have to learn under stress. It takes about 3 months for your body to adjust to new ways of eating and about as long to adjust psychologically.
3. Make sure you have a hand grinder in your storage.
4. Cooking oil is an extremely important item to have in your storage program. It adds calories and flavor and it is very hard to cook without. Oil makes a great barter item.
5. A good variety of spices and flavorings are an absolute must in a livable storage program.
6. Whenever you serve a bean dish include rice, wheat, or corn as part of the menu. The combination of one of these grains along with the beans provides a complete protein. Some suggestions might be beans served over rice, chili and corn bread, or bean soup and wheat bread.
7. Add a little sugar to your dehydrated vegetables to improve the flavor.
8. To improve the flavor of powdered milk, add a small amount of vanilla and chill.
9. Store your foods in a cool, dry place away from the sunlight to protect it's shelf life.
10. Rotate your storage !!
11. Remember - food is only one part of a total self-sufficiency program. Don't forget to add paper products, detergents, medical supplies, bedding, seeds, tools, fuels, and emergency kits.
12. Most of us store four basic items for survival: wheat, milk, honey and salt. There are serious problems associated with this type of diet, such as: Many people are allergic to wheat. Most of them will not even be aware of this until they are trying to live on it meal after meal. Young children cannot tolerate large amounts of wheat. Store a variety of other grains such as rye, millet, barley. Too many of us store these foods away thinking we will live on them if we have to. A crisis period is not the time to learn to cook with these items. Appetite fatigue can develop, a person would rather die than eat the same food over and over. Small children and older people are at the most risk.
13. Also store a variety of beans. This will add variety of color, texture and flavor. It is better to have a 3 month supply of a variety of foods than a years supply of the basics.
14. It is very important that you make sure you have baking powder, soda, yeast, powdered eggs, bouillon, tomatoes, cheese and onions. You cannot cook even the most basic recipes without these items. Vitamins are also important, especially
Vitamin C.
15. Add meats to your storage by buying MRE's most of which have meat in them.
Also buy a variety of canned meats and fish.
16. Store what you eat and eat what you store !!
17. Store your foods in a cool, dry place out of sunlight as these are the things that have the greatest affect on shelf life. If you are using plastic buckets make sure they are lined with a food grade plastic liner. NEVER use trash liners as these are treated with pesticides. A better container is your #10 cans which most of the preparedness companies use when they package their foods.
18. If your stored water has sat for a long period of time, it goes "flat". To improve its flavor aerate it by pouring it back and forth between containers or beating it with a hand mixer. It is also a good idea to store flavored drink mixes which can be used to make its flavor more agreeable.
19. To improve the flavor of beef TVP, add one to two tablespoons of worchestershire sauce to one cup of TVP.
How Much Should I Store?
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