preparedness food storage advice

[hnq]

The recent events in Japan was a wake up call for me to be more prepared. I'm looking into food storage options and would be interested in any advice you may have. I would ideally prefer to avoid plastic containers and use stainless steel ones - but this is not realistic with my current budget.

What are you using to store your grains, beans, etc.?

Thanks!

 

[Philip2]

Plastic is good, if the lid can be screwed on water tight. Steel is too heavy to lift, if you get wounded.

Have dry food that can be eaten uncooked! Dry food can be carried on foot or bicycle. Rotate this food periodically with your normal food, or give it to the homeless after a while of storage.

Use sugar, peanut butter, sunflower oil, flour, potato powder, milk powder, raisins, combined vitamin and minerals pills, etc.

Refresh your water supply every month.

 

[Lampbeam]

The Mormons are experts at food preservation. They put up enough food to sustain the family for a year or more. I had some Mormon neighbors once. Everything was in jars on sturdy storage shelves in their basement. It was very impressive. The Mormons will no doubt survive whatever trouble civilization gets into.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

The Mormons are experts at food preservation. They put up enough food to sustain the family for a year or more. I had some Mormon neighbors once. Everything was in jars on sturdy storage shelves in their basement. It was very impressive. The Mormons will no doubt survive whatever trouble civilization gets into.

A coworker does project work with their database systems for their bulk storage warehouses. The enemies of storage are:

1. Advertisement
2. Environmental changes
3. Hard to use (Make it cooked, make it not need cooking, make some wet and some dry)
4. Keep more water.

 

[dss_777]

Honestly, most people should just store more of what they normally eat. If you just increase the amount of the normal, everyday foods you consume, they'll stay fresh, won't be wasted if the end of the world doesn't happen this month, and will actually taste good. Familiar, comforting food is important in a crisis, especially with kids. Plus, you'll be far ahead of the panicked hordes as they rush to the markets for basics to live more than a few days.

If you add more canned and non-refrigerated foods for the time you expect to need them, you'd be pretty well set. Buy a few extra cans/portions each time you go to the market, until you're a month or so ahead. It's a start.

Don't forget to also store lots of water. Probably more important, in the short-term, than food. Another issue is how portable you need this stuff to be. If you're leaving home, then specialty foods (light/packable) become desireable.

For longer term storage of grains and such, most people use 5-gal. buckets.