As some of us know, FR’s own ChocChipCookie has a great prepper blog and website!
http://thesurvivalmom.com/blog
Today I learned the Top Ten food items I should be stockpiling. Check it out for yourselves! :)
Preppers’ PING!!
to Diana in Wisconsin Post #18 this thread
I am not Mormon, but I take advantage of the LDS Church's prepacked foods with a 30 year shelf life. Top few for stockpiling in my mind:
1. Carbs: I have their spaghetti/macaroni, rice, quick oatmeal, and potato flakes (dried mashed potatoes). I wish they had cornmeal too, just for another source of carbs. We have some, but it's just from the store with a limited shelf-life, and there isn't much of it. Throw in sugar, and you've got enough calories to supplement whatever else you can come up with.
2. Protein: Their dried milk has a 20 year shelf life, which is long enough. It tastes just like regular dried milk. Unfortunately. But it's protein, and it helps in cooking. They have black, white, and pinto beans. Throw in some .22LR ammo for squirrels, and that's a long-term source of protein until we get things stable again.
3. Vegetables: They now have canned carrots (10 year life) and onions. It's enough to offer a little variety and flavor, and a few cases will go a long way in a crisis. Throw in a working garden with seed that can be replanted, and that's enough vitamins to stay healthy, plus lots of variety.
4. Fruit: They have dried apples. It's $9.75 a pound, but again it's variety. Throw in berries in my garden and a few fruit trees, and you have vitamin C, plus sweets.
5. Non-LDS storage. I have a couple hundred cans of ready-to-eat soup. I often have one for lunch, and replace it the next time soup is on sale. In an emergency, a can of soup over a pound of pasta would make a decent meal, and again give as much variety as there are kinds of soup. I have a "30-day supply" of MREs, which would probably be used when under pressure and to extend other foods. We go through 4 jugs of cooking oil a year, and corn oil has a three year shelf life. We have almost a three year supply, and we just take the next one from storage and put a new one in the back. Finally, we have a two-year supply of multivitamins (and I'd go to alternate days on those if needed).
There are other issues besides food, but I'm in good shape when it comes to feeding my family. We (a) store what we eat and eat what we store, (b) look for calories, variety, and nutrition, and (c) watch for shelf-life and ease of preparation to make sure we can cook anything even without electricity or natural gas.