I have food storage. However, we normally eat only fresh foods so I have been trying to figure out the best way to handle food storage in this circumstance.
Any others out there with this problem?
“I have food storage. However, we normally eat only fresh foods so I have been trying to figure out the best way to handle food storage in this circumstance.”
If you don’t want to eat it and it is still within the experation date then how about donating it to a food pantry? For OPSEC reasons I wouldn’t metion why I was donating it and I would rotate to whom I donated it.
Yes.
I'm just getting started, but I have decided a couple of things.
One tactic is to store a good quantity of canned grains and beans that have a shelf-life of thirty years. These are foods that we do eat (beans, rice, and oats) but with the intention of leaving the stored food alone with the expectation that these can simply be replaced in, say, twenty years with little economic impact. We will draw from this supply whatever we do need, and replace it with newer stock. Food in this form costs probably double what it would without the longer shelf-life.
I will store some wheat, too, but first we are going to figure out how to make use of it. We are not big bread eaters.
There are also some foods with a shelf-life around ten years. We will store a good quantity of these and learn how to incorporate some of it into our usual diets. These are freeze-dried products and are pretty expensive compared to what we normally eat. We've ordered some samples to first prove that we can eat them. There are also some canned cheese and canned butter which have lifetimes that might approach ten years. I'm still a little uncertain about this.
Finally, there are some canned foods that we eat infrequently but that would be extremely useful in an emergency. I am encouraging my wife to buy these in greater amounts such that we can rotate these and keep them from exceeding their shelf lives. Canned soups, chili, spam, and a few other items. In the past we have stored one or two cans. Now we will store whatever seems to be a two year supply, for example, if that seems to be the shelf-life, and then rotate the stock carefully. Should an emergency occur, we would expect to have about ten times more of these products than otherwise with this plan.
We live in a rural area with a well to supply water. If the electricity goes out, we have a generator to run the well and some appliances. It's hard to say how long we could make the stored gas last. I have just 15 gallons stored in containers, with another thirty or so in vehicles that don't get run much. If there was a chance that the electricity would be off for an extended time, we would be challenged to use what is stored in our freezer.
What I have identified to do so far is quite a bit less than what might be optimum, but it will be vastly superior to doing nothing. When our fresh food runs out, we will have to change our diets. But that is so much better than having to look for food in a time of emergency.
Thinking about worst-case scenarios also helps to motivate one to prepare for other emergencies. I finally bought some new fire-extinguishers to replace the aging one we keep in our kitchen. How silly would it be to be prepared for total national anarchy, but unprepared to handle a grease fire on the stove.