These "King Oscar" sardines in olive oil, seem to have a nice, extra-long storage life, so you don't have to rotate them as often.
Posted on 06/26/2021 4:45:18 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
An emergency stockpile can greatly increase your chance of survival if SHTF. But creating a stockpile can easily drain your grocery budget if you’re not careful.
Luckily, some of the best foods for stockpiling are extremely cheap, so you can buy them in quantities enough to last you several months. Here are some examples of cheap foods to stockpile:
Rice – Rice is a staple food worldwide. It is also a versatile ingredient as it can be paired with various foods or cooked with various ingredients. When stored in an airtight container, rice keeps for six months. Rice is also cheap when bought in bulk.
Pinto beans – Pinto beans can be cooked in bulk and used in soups and salads. Pinto beans are a cheap way to keep bellies full, too, since they are rich in carbohydrates, fiber and protein. Like rice, they will also keep for several months if stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry pantry. Buy pinto beans in bulk to save money.
Lentils – Lentils are another legume that should be part of your emergency stockpile. They give you lots of calories, carbohydrates, protein and dietary fiber. Lentils are typically used in soups. But they also make great additions in potato salads, roasted vegetable salads, curries, and other savory dishes.
Oil – Don’t forget to stock up on oil since you’ll need it to cook. Having oil on hand will also give you more variety since you can use it to make marinades, sauces and salad dressings. Choose healthy oils, such as coconut, sesame and olive oils.
Flour – Bread is a staple in various diets worldwide. But bread can quickly go bad and moldy. So instead of buying ready-made bread, stock up on bags of flour. Flour is the single most important baking ingredient. If you have flour, you can make whatever bread or pastry you want.
Cornmeal – Cornmeal is the main ingredient in cornbread, a staple in Native American diets. Cornbread will sustain you in a pinch. You can also use cornmeal to bread fish and chicken. (Related: Have a taste of frontier survival cooking with cornmeal pancakes.)
Chickpeas – Chickpeas or garbanzo beans are a staple in the Mediterranean diet. Like other beans, chickpeas are also high in protein and dietary fiber. Buy chickpeas in bulk and store them in airtight containers for long-term storage.
Pasta – Pasta is a good source of carbohydrates. Pasta also makes a great vehicle for hearty sauces, meat and dehydrated vegetables, among other ingredients. Because pasta is dried, it can keep up to two years past the expiration date printed on the packaging. Opened dry pasta will keep for one year.
Oats – Old-fashioned rolled oats are a pantry staple. You can buy them in large bags and store them in a cool, dry place for long-term storage. Oats are also a versatile ingredient. You can use them to make overnight oats, no-bake granola bars and muffins, to name a few.
Powdered milk – Forget about stocking up on cow’s milk, which will inevitably go bad even when unopened. Stock up on powdered milk instead. You can use powdered milk to make all sorts of ingredients, such as evaporated milk, coffee creamer, yogurt, hot chocolate and cottage cheese.
Meat – Meat can still be part of an emergency stockpile. For long-term storage, you can either cure meat with salt or portion it into airtight containers and place them in the freezer. You can also dry meat to make your own jerky. Check with your local grocery store or butcher for money-saving deals and promos.
Dried foods – Don’t forget to add dried fruits, vegetables and herbs to your emergency stockpile. These foods ensure you still get to eat healthy foods when SHTF. The best part is, you can dehydrate foods yourself. Stalky and starchy foods, such as potatoes, carrots and unripe bananas, are great for dehydrating. Follow this guide to dehydrate your own foods. Learn more about building a stockpile at Preparedness.news.
That’s true toa degree, but when you’re hungry enough it’s not an issue.
I’m on a severely restricted diet because of a mast cell issue and eat basically the smae thing for every meal, going on 12 years now.
Yeah, I get tired of it but it’s food.
Sugar is a luxury when it comes to survival.
Salt is essential. It’s a necessity.
You'd know better than me then.
/And ketchup.
Yup. People forget about condiments. Salt & pepper (which I guess are spices, not condiments), mustard, ketchup, tomato/pasta sauce, soy sauce, & mayo.
Also, pain relievers & prescription meds, tho it may be hard to get more than 3 months of them due to insurance rules.
You could get 40 mcdoubles they keep for years with or without refrigeratoration.
“Canning supplies are available for the time being.”
After really having to scrounge for canning supplies earlier this season, I can now say that all of my usual ‘haunts’ for supplies are very well stocked, again.
Two thoughts:
1. Those of us that knew these items to be precious have already stocked up, and...
2. Covil-panicked people who went hog-wild on growing a garden and canning LAST year found out what a PITA, time-consuming JOB it is, and won’t be doing THAT again, LOL!
Also, of note: My local Walmart Garden Center is still packed to the GILLS with veggie plants, herbs and flowers of all kinds. It’s nearly July! As a former Garden Center Manager, if I had THAT much PERISHABLE stock left on the floor and it was almost July, I’d be getting fired! I think less people started gardening and those newbies from last season gave it up. :(
Seeds are still available in good quantities, so plan on some fall crops if you haven’t done fall crops before (not you, Mom, just peeps in general) and seed companies are sending me e-mails that they are having SALES right now, so stock up for next year at bargain-basement prices.
I shopped a sale that Johnny’s was having. I find their prices ridiculously expensive, but they do have some varieties that I really like.
Part of prepping is being a savvy shopper, too, IMHO. ;)
Going through the stockpile, we found a lot of degraded, rusted cans. Tossed a lot.
Construction (Developers bought and razed two houses) loosed a bevy of rats and mice which ate through anything not metal.Plastic containers I thought were good enough, were not. But anything NOT in a 5 gal. sealed container with O2 absorbers or glass vac sealed Mason jars was soon chewed through and consumed. What a mess. Set traps and killed a bunch but...didn't make a dent. All in the dumpster it went. Learned Prepping Properly the Hard Way.
Bottom line, I will keep merely a modicum of cheap supplies and won't make the same mistake again.
That's why every single fast food chain is advertising their NEW hand-breaded/crispy/spicy/tender/juicy/what-have-you chicken sandwiches.
McD's, Hardees, BK, Carl's Jr., Popeye's, Arby's, Sonic, Wendy's, Red Robin, Taco Bell (chalupa). And on and on. Who can afford beef?
"Bada bump bah bum."
Sure canning is labor intensive but when you’ve done it long enough to be able to do it without checking the Ball Blue book, it gets easier.
Plus, I enjoy the satisfaction of doing it and like to know what’s in my food and where it came from.
Oh, I agree. I’m just saying that those ‘newbies’ who saw how much work it takes probably won’t be doing it again. ;)
I had a bad growing season last year; I actually had to pay cash money for Salsa last week! Just about KILLED me, LOL!
That was my thought, as well. All the foods on the list are so carb-y.
I have a bunch of cask strength bourbon. Drink it or put it on a cut.
My year wasn’t great but that was more a matter of unpreventable neglect.
I just couldn’t do what I wanted to with it.
This year, however, it’s going gangbusters.
I’m fighting off the colorado potato beetles and will be on vacation for 10 days and unfortunately not be able to do anything about them.
I’m treating the undersides of the potatoes with Neem oil, and I will be dusting what I can with a mixture of DE and chili pepper.
I tried that last year and expected to burn the leaves of my tomatoes and they just took it in stride and it seemed to be a big help with the tomato hornworms.
This year I planted herbs, especially basil, all over the place and will do my mixture again and hopefully not have any hornworms.
White rice will last for 5 years.
Six months is for brown rice.
While whole wheat or brown rice or other minimally processed ingredients may be slightly more nutritious they have a shorter shelf life and your body will gain less energy from them.
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Properly packaged white rice and wheat grains will last 20 - 30 years or more. Just be sure to have a grinder/mill to process the wheat for bread, or you’ll have to settle for wheat porridge or something.
Interesting - I haven’t made ice cream in a very long time - I be it does do pretty good job. My mom used to stock canned Milnot - yuck.
I have a couple of cases of powdered milk in # 10 cans. I used to try to stock canned milk, but I just didn’t have any use for it often enough to keep it rotated.
We opened a can of the powdered milk Jan. 2020, and I vacuum packed it in Qt. Jars, and put a pint in the cabinet. The pint is only half gone. Qts. haven’t been used - just checked to make sure the vacuum seal is still good.
I like to have at least a 3-5 year shelf life for the food.
You mentioned yeast, and that reminded me, I ran across my research notes the other day, and yeast will last 5 years in the freezer.
I have about a years worth vacuum sealed in bags in the freezer. It’s another item I don’t use often, but might use to make a couple of loaves of bread per week in emergencies or SHTF.
I use baking powder quite a lot more often than yeast. However, for my medium to longer term storage for that is cream of tartar and baking soda - they combine to make a substitute for baking powder.
Good idea for the paper products. We are working on expanding the storage area for those. We had about 9 months worth of T.P. when the Plandemic hit. Now we have about 14 months worth.
We need to get more paper plates etc.
Tuna fish, Shrimp, Clams, Salmon, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Hamburger, Sausage, Chili, Tamales, vienna sausages, Velveeta Cheese Sauce. All canned and edible from the can.
Some home canned, and some purchased. Just add a side of beans or rice and some B & M Brown Bread for a treat.
where do you buy this mythical B+B brown bread/
Suppose you have salt already. Acquiring sugar is extremely beneficial, it reduces your caloric needs so you spend less effort getting hard to get things.
Even when I get everything I want I still consume a lot of sugar.
Oats. I have stocked a lot of them. I read recently about their role in tooth decay. Cod Liver Oil, Vitamin K2, and meat stew made with bone in (broth will gel) seems to help offset that.
I can grow wheat in the winter here, and oats in the spring/summer. Rice not so much. So I stock extra rice. Push come to shove, I’ll grow more wheat and oats.
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