Prepare: Getting Started Part Three Food Part Two

Are the titles of these posts getting confusing? I hope not. This is a continuation of a "getting started" series for new preppers. Like you, I am no expert. I learned what I know about preparedness on the job and from websites like mine. I hope you find it useful.

My last post dove in to the subject of food, namely, building a practical long term food supply. If you have some liquid income, feel free to skip the hard work and make a purchase of LTS food from Mountain House or one of my other advertisers. My better half will appreciate it!

Otherwise, if you are pinching pennies and watching every buck, but want to have a preparedness plan in place, please read on.

As I mentioned yesterday, a food plan does not have to be so disconcerting. There are two easy methods to building a food supply -

One - Buy Two! That is when buying one item, double the purchase. Please limit this to dry, canned and shelf stable foods. Instead of two cans of tuna, get four. Five pounds of sugar on the list? Get ten. Take the extra and store it away.

Two - Buy Bulk. Get a membership to a warehouse club or search out an ethnic grocery store. Both carry extra large sizes of certain commodity foods like rice, pasta, flour, sugar and so on. Instead of purchasing a one pound bag of rice, get a twenty five pound bag. Place in proper storage and add to the storage until there is a one year supply for the number of people in the house. 

Both of these food buying plans demand the right storage. Putting a plastic bag of rice on the shelf may result in a bag of bug infestation at a future date. Food storage is mandatory. 

I store my dry bulk goods in 5 and 6 gallon buckets. I place the food item in a sealable plastic bag with an anti-moisture packet, place in the bucket, seal tightly and stack in a cool, dark closet inside the house. 

Don't store food - 

- in cloth or burlap bags. 

- outside in damp, temperature extreme sheds. 

- in hot attics

- only in original packaging.

- on ground or dirt floors susceptible to flooding, bugs or accessible by larger vermin such as rats or mice. 

I picked up my buckets at a restaurant supply store. I have also used the sealable buckets from the hardware store and they work well for me. Some of my buckets are five years old and I have had no problem with them. 

Here's a good video about storing food: 

There will be one more part on food before we move on to the other topics. In the meantime..

- Buy Two - buy double and store the extra.
- Buy Bulk - buy big sizes and store
- Store properly

Get your supply of storable food at eFoodsDirect.com!

Prepare: Bulk Foods For Storage

Everyone should store food. Bulk foods should be stored due to rising food prices and possible food shortages. Put together a bulk food storage plan today.

Food has been on my mind a lot lately because of a number of reasons. First, I have been on my new Prepper Diet for the past few weeks and it has changed the way I shop and eat. Second, because of the economy, I have become more aware of the need to have insurance in place when money is really tight. Insurance like some spare gasoline for the car, cash tucked away in the shoebox for rainy days and extra food when the grocery store is too expensive to visit.

With paydays disappearing, having food stored is a neccessity.

Here are my bulk foods I have been storing and glad to have on hand.

Rice - always. We make 2-3 cups a day and eat it at lunch and dinner.

Beans - I go through two big bags of dried beans a week.

Flour - I make a batch of quick Bible bread each night. My kids take it to school with sandwiches, the baby eats it for lunch, and I eat it with rice and beans.

Honey - we use this on oatmeal, in tea, everywhere.

Oil - Cooking oil such as vegetable and olive. We use both liberally when cooking.

Oatmeal - the whole family had this on Friday for breakfast.

Yeast - To make bread of course. I buy the one pound bag and store in the freezer.

Dried fruit, nuts, etc - we make the kids trail mix to take to school for snack time. We buy these in big bags and store in the fridge.

Pasta - we buy regular spaghetti and other types. We make pasta several times a week for dinner.

Canned vegetables, fruits, stock - we buy this by the case only. There is no reason to buy one or two cans when you can by 12 or 24 and stock them in the pantry, cupboard or in a closet.

We also buy meat of course, and milk, fresh produce and so forth. But this what we get at the warehouse store and keep in five gallon buckets or the pantry.

That is my food insurance.

Prepare: Building the One Year Food Supply

With the news being so cheery lately, all of us are concerned about putting some control back into our lives. That means making sure we have the basics covered in these trying times including food and the ability to feed our family.

Job loss or total SHTF, food is at the top of the priority list. Every day, each member of the family eats several times a day. We refill the pantry with weekly and sometimes daily trips to the grocers. But what happens if the Safeway is closed or looted and emptied forever?

Having a food storage plan in place can build a real insurance policy against hunger. However, the task is daunting to even the best of us.

Companies like Nitro Pak sell complete canned meal systems for one month to one year. Many of the foods contained in these packages can be obtained by anyone and stored similarly; its not rocket science. Here are a list of foods you can buy today at the grocers or warehouse store to build your food storage plan with.

Beans - go for red kidney and pinto. I happen to like black beans as well. Get the dry type and store in five gallon plastic buckets. Beans will last for years, provide protein and are filling.

Rice - American, jasmine, or long grain. Get the twenty five or fifty pound bags, put in plastic five gallon buckets and store in a cool, dry place. You can put oxygen absorbers in the buckets as well to ensure long term freshness. Rice is filling, lasts forever and is the best filler or platform to build a meal upon.
Remember, brown rice has more oils and may go rancid sooner.

Soup bases - Chicken and beef. Most warehouse clubs sell the really big containers of these products. Use a soup base for soup or to flavor the rice you stored above. Soup bases must be stored in an airtight container and put in a cool, dry location free from moisture and humidity.

Milk powder - Milk powder is more than for drinking. It can be added to any soup or cereal to provide a thickener and a boost of calcium. Dry milk has no fat so it lasts longer and will not go rancid like canned or perishable milk. But dry milk has to be kept in a cool, dry place in well sealed container. Get the five gallon buckets and add oxygen absorbers for best results.

Honey - While sugar lasts a long time, honey is a healthy alternative with plenty of uses. Honey has been known to last for hundreds of years as it has been found in tombs and forgotten stashes. Get the five gallon containers rather than the little glass jars or "honey bears". Some stores sell honey in the big buckets, but make sure that the honey is real and not corn syrup with honey flavoring.

Dried fruit - Dried fruit like bananas, apricots and raisins last a long time in proper containers. They can be eaten as they are or served with hot cereal, in a dessert or rehydrated with water for a side dish. Store in a cool, dry place in a five gallon bucket. Many types of dried fruit can be found at the warehouse store, but watch the prices. Often, dried fruit is very expensive and is not cost effective for storage. A better idea is to get a dehydrator and dry seasonal fruit yourself.

Wheat - This is a tough purchase for many city folk. For starters, large quantities of wheat such as hard winter red is not available at the standard grocers or the warehouse club. Some organic stores carry it, but at higher prices for smaller quantities. The best bet is to find a grain supply source nearby rather than paying for shipping from one of the big outlets like Honeyville. Another problem with grain is "What to do with it?". Most of us have never had to grind grain to make cereal or flour. But that is where those things come from and having the knowledge to cook and use whole grains is crucial. Grain lasts literally for years in storage (remember the grain story from the Bible with Joseph and the Pharaoh?). Put whole wheat in five gallon buckets and store in a cool, dry place.

Pasta - Noodles are cheap and easy to get. Buy the largest bags you can find at the grocers or warehouse and store in five gallon plastic buckets. Pasta can be a platform for any meal and can be served with almost anything.

Cooking oil - Vegetable or olive. Oils do go rancid and will not last forever even in the best storage. But make sure you have five or more gallons on hand at all times. Cooking oils can replace butter when grilling or cooking over a flame. Also, our bodies need a certain amount of good fats which come only from oils.

Oatmeal - There is no complete food storage plan without oatmeal. Oats are easy to get in large containers from the grocers and you should have several pounds on hand at all times. Store in five gallon plastic buckets and your oats should stay fresh for months if not years. Serve oats with dried milk, dried fruit and honey for a hot, filling and nutritious meal.

There are some long term storage foods which are difficult to purchase from retail stores. Textured vegetable protein, cheese powder, powdered eggs, dried vegetables, and dried meats. These things will have to be purchased online from a company like Nitro Pak. The best part is these products come in long term storage containers which are easy to store and have on hand.

Anyone can start on a one year food storage plan, but you need to get busy now. Go to the grocery store or warehouse club with the list above and buy some of each item, store in proper containers, and start building a real food insurance plan.

Prepare: The New Years Prepper

Happy New Year.

Like many, you probably have a list of resolutions underway like "Quit Smoking", "Pay off Credit Card" and so on.

But there is a good chance you also were bothered by the state of the world and thought, "I need to do something and this is the time to get started". Good for you.

The first thing people do when they are want to get prepared is go on the internet and search for "prepare for disaster, survivalism" or something similar. The problem is the glut of information. Its overwhelming. Should one prepare for nuclear war or famine or civil disorder? Preps for one month, six months, a year or a lifetime? Should one bug out or stay in? Its a lot to consider.

The best thing to do is step back and prepare for what you can. Also, start with the broadest solution rather than the smallest possibility. Here are some suggestions to get started.

Food - I don't care what the scenario, if you don't have food, nothing else matters. Food is easy. But securing a one year supply of food seems impossible. There are three ways to get started.

1. Go the grocery store and buy double what you normally eat and use. Four cans of tuna instead of two. Two packages of spaghetti noodles instead of one and so on. One trip and you have an extra week's supply of staples. Do this for a month and you have two. Just remember to rotate the oldest to the newest and don't eat all your preps without replacing them.

You can improve on this by also buying shelf stable (does not require refrigeration) alternatives to perishable foods. Canned meat and vegetables for fresh for instance.

2. Go the warehouse store or a food wholesaler and buy several months of food at one time. Cases of canned vegetables, fruit, meat, powdered milk, etc. It will cost more than a few cans a week, but one can quickly get a three month supply of basics put away right now. Don't forget to get staples like flour, sugar and cooking oil.

3. Leave the hard part to someone else. Go to the Nitro Pak link on the right or the Mountain House link at the bottom of the article and purchase a one, six month or one year supply of long term storage food. All you have to do is put it away. Yes, the cost is more, but the peace of mind of having a one year supply of food with a twenty year or better shelf life is incredible.

Water - No water means no life. One gallone minimum per person per day for drinking and cooling. Cleaning means adding another gallon per person per day.

1. Get some two liter soda bottles, clean them and fill with water and one dropper of bleach. Put them in the closet or pantry. Do two or three a week and in about a year you will have enough for a family of four for a few weeks. Takes a while.

2. Better is to get several large 5, 10 or 55 gallon drums from one Nitro Pak, fill and put in the garage or basement. Yes, they are heavy, but having enough water is a good thing.

3. Plumb a well on the property if possible. Or get several large rain barrels, bleach, a heat source and collect water for filtering. Or put in a cistern to collect rain water. Same idea and a better long term solution.

Protection - In a SHTF situation, all the above food and water will make you a rich person. If you can't protect it, someone will take it from you and probably will hurt you and your family in the process.

1. Get a shotgun, 12 or 20 guage. A pump is better, but a single shot breakdown is better than no gun at all. Get at least 250 rounds for your new shotgun.

2. Get a rifle. .22 is a good starter, but move to something with some more hitting power as soon as possible. .223, the same caliber used in the military's M16 and M4 rifles is nice, but the stopping power is dubious in some cases. Go for something in a 30 caliber, .308 for instance, if doable. A 30.06 is also good as the caliber is common. Get at least 500 rounds of ammuntion for any rifle.

3. Get a handgun. For trip away from home where stealth and a low profile are required, a handgun is the way to go. A minimum of .38 is required. However, due to their popularity and thus, availability of ammunition, a 9mm or .40 caliber is preferrable. For stopping power, the .45 cannot be beat. Again, at least 500 rounds of ammo for any handgun.

Get some real currency - Dollars may lose their value in the post-SHTF world. What is a good substitute? Junk silver coins and gold are nice. But get some trading tangibles. Extra fuel, hygeiene products, food, growing supplies, anything tradable which someone else might want and is willing to give you something valuable in return.

That includes skills. Think about it.

OK. Food, water, protection, currency. Get started in those four simple areas right now. Those suggestions will prepare most for 90% of the problems out there. But there is more to cover later.. Until then.