Topic: Stock up on Food now?

[Precise]

When the Wall Street Journel is saying it....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120881517227532621.html

[Jeff]

I think it's a good idea to have a year's worth of food and six months of cash.    I wish I had that now.

[NGO]

Well when the SHTF and it's TEOTWAWKI, I'll take Jeff on at our place and I'll feed him as he works security. Build him a little OP/LP out by the gate, bring him food three times a day. I'll dig a trench for him to us, as needed.

That is until he runs out of heart medicine and keels over. 

Then I'll have another job opening.

[codethree]

It's always a good idea to have some food storage. I was in Michigan when we had that multi-state black out a few years back. It was quite an eye opening experiences. The water pumps that pumped water to the city didn't even work. Water and most other beverages were sold out from the few store that were open within hours. ATM's didn't even work.

You never know what's going to happen. It's an unpredictable world.

Fortunately for me, my wife is pretty serious about food storage, so I'm set.

[NGO]

When we live in Maryland 1/4 mile from Chesapeake Bay. We had a couple of times when electricity was off to the whole area for week. Once from Ice storms and once from a tropical storm.

Both times we carried on as if nothing had changed. We cooked on a camp stove on the deck and used generator in the summer every six hours to keep the refrigerator cold.

Most of neighbors had to throw our food and after a day or two they were eating out at restaurants.

Even if TEOTWAWKI never comes. It is a very good idea to have food storage. Of course now adays your will risk being labeled a "Hoarder"

[codethree]

Oh well, guess I'm a "hoarder."  I believe in the old Boy Scout motto: Be prepared.

[codethree]

My wife wanted me to mention that on the Costco website, for those of you who have a membership or know someone who does, they have an emergency food kit that has 275 servings of pre-seasoned and pre-mixed food that has a 20 year shelf life. The cost is about $80 and shipping is included in the price. So for those of you who might be interested in an easy addition to your food storage, check it out.

[Jeff]

Beware of that Costco deal.  I heard that the calorie count is way low and that it won't really cover the advertised number of meals.  I don't have a link describing it but it has been discussed several times on Time Bomb 2000.

[NGO]

+1 on the prepackage 5 gallon bucket. I was ready something like that on another web site. Not enough calories per meal

I suppose it might be good on the run and would last only a week or two but not as advertised.

Beside if you want the most bang for your buck stock up on wheat berries, honey, evaporated milk, and salt. This will keep you alive and you can do a lot of stuff with just that. 

Don't bother with white rice, not much in the was of nutrients and empty calories, brown rice is much better.


Also don't think you just need to buy cases of MRE's. They are high in salt and after a couple weeks you will start to lose weight because you will not want to eat them anymore! ( Trust me I lost 20 lbs in the first two months in Iraq, until I canstant access to the dining hall in the green zone. Then I started to put weight back on...)

MRE's really taste bad after a couple weeks.

Grow a garden this summer and learn to can everything. You can can meat, butter, pork, along with vegtables, sauces, jams, fruit, fillings everything.  Much healthier and rewarding. Plus it is a skill you can use everyyear because your premade food is going to run out at sometime then what do you do.

I have pre-made foods just as a short term item, for things like camping or a survival bag in the truck in the winter, etc.

[Jeff]

Be careful of brown rice.  It has oils in it that will go rancid.  I'm not saying it's bad to store but rotate it out and don't plan on it storing long term.

[codethree]

We kinda figured that the Costco bucket would not last that long, especially the way I eat. Perhaps I might be able to loose a few pounds if I stuck with the recommended serving size. Seriously though, we were hoping to use it while we figure out what to do with the ton of wheat we have.

[NGO]

From http://waltonfeed.com/grain/life.html this is the place to go for storgae info and a whole lot more.


Brown and white rices store very differently. Brown rice is only expected to store for 6 months under average conditions. This is because of the essential fatty acids in brown rice. These oils quickly go rancid as they oxidize. It will store much longer if refrigerated. White rice has the outer shell removed along with those fats. Because of this, white rice isn't nearly as good for you, but will store longer. Hermetically sealed in the absence of oxygen, plan on a storage life for white rice of 8-10 years at a stable temperature of 70 degrees F. It should keep proportionately longer if stored at cooler temperatures. Stored in the absence of oxygen, brown rice will last longer than if it was stored in air. Plan on 1 to 2 years. It is very important to store brown rice as cool as possible, for if you can get the temperature down another ten degrees, it will double the storage life again.

We have had brown rice that was over a year old but it was stored in buckets that had dry ice to displace the O2, plus had been stored in a cool place.

[WTF]

2 months ago when I first started looking into building up some food storage supplies, Most of the websites that sold the Bulk Freeze dried foods in #10 cans were fully stocked.

Then I read a few articles here and there about how all the companies that sell freeze dried goods are now out of stock. and now that I got some disposable funds, I go back and everybody seems to be out, I emailed a few vendors, and they all confirmed that Mountian House is no longer taking orders until fall, and are several months behind in filling orders. 

I did manage to find one vendor that said he can fill orders in 4-6 weeks. but am a little sceptical. and possibly more interested in getting my money first, and then later claim he is unable to fill orders in the time frame they promise.

So does anyone know of a place locally that has a good supply or stock of Mountianhouse goods in #10 cans? by the case. I'm looking to buy a couple pallets of the stuff.

[Orbital-Burn]

so if you have a canning setup, and a smoker, one can get a fishing license, catch fish, smoke them dry, can with just a bit of water in the bottom, and will be good for several years.  (we've done 15 year old salmon that was awesome.  Taste seems to get better with age)