Food Storage Styles

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Weedygarden

Weedygarden

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I've been looking for a while for a post where we talked about the kinds of things we each store for food storage. After going back for a while, I quit, and decided to start a new thread. Let's talk about what kinds of things people store, and how it works. I remember a comment that someone prefers dried goods because of the weight in the moisture, or something like that.

1. There was the LDS basics from the 1800's and still seen out there.
One Adult Portion
Grains—400 pounds (181 kg); includes wheat, flour, rice, corn, oatmeal, and pasta
Legumes—60 pounds (27 kg); includes dry beans, split peas, lentils, etc.
Powdered Milk—16 pounds (7 kg)
Cooking Oil—10 quarts (9 l)
Sugar or Honey—60 pounds (27 kg)
Salt—8 pounds (3.6 kg)
Water (2 weeks*)—14 gallons (53 l)

2. The menu plan: this involves planning menus, calculating food amounts for those meals, and shopping for the ingredients for those meals. Some of these can be home grown and preserved ingredients. Some of the food storage gurus plan their menus and calculate home much of the ingredients they need for a year's worth. Some people plan menus for a week, two weeks or more. The more weeks of varieties of menus will give you more of a variety of meals. I want to revisit this one specifically and work on some menu plans that would potentially work for some of you as well.

3. Purchasing food on sale, randomly and visually planning. Can be mixes, canned, whatever you use. You can end up long on some items, and short on others. An inventory and food plans can help you have what you need.

4. Food storage or survival kits, such as purchasing a kit with three months of food.

5. Self sourcing and preserving: Hunting, fishing, gardening, canning, dehydrating, and other preservation methods of bulk purchases, home grown or hunted food.

6. Freeze dried and dehydrated foods from preparedness companies. These usually come in #10 cans, but can also come in other packaging. I've noticed that more of these are coming in heavy duty Mylar packages now.
Are these called MRE's? I have seen some preppers and survivalists who have large amounts of military issue MRE's. Easy, no chopping and prepping, few dishes to wash. Maybe not the most appealing in taste, I honestly do not know. What about Mountain House and similar foods? Are those considered MREs? They do require the addition of hot water, usually. I think that this is potentially two different categories, MREs and dried foods.

7. The deep pantry and extra freezers of what you eat day to day. Store what you eat and eat what you store.

Have I missed any others? What styles do you prefer? I have an idea what most of us use, but I know from my breadth of reading and researching, that these are all used.
 
I store all of those things. Whatever I can get my hands on, and figure out how to preserve it. Right now my grape vines are full and ready to be picked, and I don't want raisins because I have alot. I still have 50 plus qts of grape juice I made. So I'll freeze dry some, give alot to my cousin so she can make grape juice, and use some for feed. They have a seed in them, so I doubt I'll use them for table grapes. So I make sure I stock basics...the flour, sugar, baking items, all that. Then I also get convenience food when I can get it cheap. Like boxed mac and cheese. I take it out of the box, put in a qt size ziplock, and fill up a five gallon bucket with it. Same with Rice a Roni. I do make homemade of both, but if the price is good, why not? Tomatoes...last year we had sooo many. I canned tons of chopped tomatoes. I have 5 gallon buckets of dehydrated tomatoes. I have frozen tomatoes. This year, I'll freeze dry tomatoes. I keep a heavy stock of canned foods I've purchased. Every kind of bean, fruit, and veg imaginable. Dry beans...lots and lots, but last winter, I cooked some of the older ones, then dehydrated them for "fast beans". I guess the only thing I haven't bought in years is the MRE and freeze dried foods from companies. I do have a shelf full of those things, but I can do alot of it myself now. And I buy 2 of the 4lb bags of sugar every single week. Why? Because according to my grandma, that's the only thing she had a problem getting during the great depression and wartime, and she lived down the road from where I am now. I'm always looking at meat. I am getting another half a cow this fall. Canned meat is crazy priced now, but I have a good supply of Keystone meats I got before the prices doubled. I'm using the freeze dryer mostly for meat lately. I guess I don't have one style, but I do try to keep it very organized.
 
I also repackage things like mac n cheese! Can store a lot more. I also store packets of dried mashed potatoes and such in freezer bags, in their original bags. I do dehydrate, but not enough!! Canned meats and such are important. Canned goods have water/moisture, great if their is no water someday!
 
Pearl said:
I also repackage things like mac n cheese! Can store a lot more. I also store packets of dried mashed potatoes and such in freezer bags, in their original bags. I do dehydrate, but not enough!! Canned meats and such are important. Canned goods have water/moisture, great if their is no water someday!
Click to expand...
I am keeping boxes of things like mac and cheese and dried mashed potatoes in the heavy duty black bins with yellow lids. In the past, I have done some repackaging of things, but I'm not doing that now. Yes, repackaging does save space. I used to use 5 gallon buckets primarily, but since we've been able to get the black bins, I find them easier to use for these kinds of things.
 
I like to have a wide variety - so pretty much all the groups listed in the OP except the prepacked commercial survival/short term kits.

All the other groups have their strengths - so all of them belong in a well rounded food store.

Most of my calories are in mylar bags and commercial canned foods. I find those LTS foods the most palatable and cost-effective. They also give me the best menu variety and can combine well with fresh foods from the garden, livestock and game meats.

I eat prepper food at least a few times a week to continually test how things are handling storage and to practice preparation of those foods.

I did create some food trunks that each hold enough food for three months, that two people can lift and that are specifically for quick loading into vehicles if an emergency pops up. Fast to load and can even keep the food in good condition without shelter. They contain a combination of MH and Augason Farm #10 cans, gallon mylar bags, cans, condiments, spices, TP, soap and dishwashing detergent.

MRE stands for Meals Ready to Eat.

After they were left uneaten during aid drops in the horn of Africa during the 1990s, we grunts renamed them Meals Rejected by Ethiopians.......

They are about the most expensive prepper food and have lots of packaging that makes them bulky and heavy. But they can be eaten cold without any preparation or heated up using the chemical heaters packed with them. If you have MREs then technically you only need water to sustain life.

Most of the MREs I have, I broke down into components so they are less bulky. A week of MREs can fit in one of those big MTM SPUD boxes.
 
I store a lot of can goods with "at least" three years forward best by date (prefer five years forward date). I store them in the ground, generally about 18" down.

Freeze Dried Mountain House........I just store in 55-gallon steel drums, with locking lids.
 
Amish Heart said:
I store all of those things. Whatever I can get my hands on, and figure out how to preserve it. Right now my grape vines are full and ready to be picked, and I don't want raisins because I have alot. I still have 50 plus qts of grape juice I made. So I'll freeze dry some, give alot to my cousin so she can make grape juice, and use some for feed. They have a seed in them, so I doubt I'll use them for table grapes. So I make sure I stock basics...the flour, sugar, baking items, all that. Then I also get convenience food when I can get it cheap. Like boxed mac and cheese. I take it out of the box, put in a qt size ziplock, and fill up a five gallon bucket with it. Same with Rice a Roni. I do make homemade of both, but if the price is good, why not? Tomatoes...last year we had sooo many. I canned tons of chopped tomatoes. I have 5 gallon buckets of dehydrated tomatoes. I have frozen tomatoes. This year, I'll freeze dry tomatoes. I keep a heavy stock of canned foods I've purchased. Every kind of bean, fruit, and veg imaginable. Dry beans...lots and lots, but last winter, I cooked some of the older ones, then dehydrated them for "fast beans". I guess the only thing I haven't bought in years is the MRE and freeze dried foods from companies. I do have a shelf full of those things, but I can do alot of it myself now. And I buy 2 of the 4lb bags of sugar every single week. Why? Because according to my grandma, that's the only thing she had a problem getting during the great depression and wartime, and she lived down the road from where I am now. I'm always looking at meat. I am getting another half a cow this fall. Canned meat is crazy priced now, but I have a good supply of Keystone meats I got before the prices doubled. I'm using the freeze dryer mostly for meat lately. I guess I don't have one style, but I do try to keep it very organized.
Click to expand...
I use most of these as well.
You really must have had a large amount of tomatoes last year! And probably this year as well!

Sugar: I have heard about the rationing of things like sugar from my grandmothers. I have a bunch, but really need to inventory it. I really do not use much sugar, but I'd bet we all consume it in processed foods, more than we know.

I have lots of dried goods like beans, wheat, and some rice.

I am also working on my meat stores.

I'm trying to work on canned goods for menu plans. Tawra, on Living on a Dime, mentioned recently that things like dried beans take a lot of energy to cook. She is right, and I have plenty of dried beans. Her idea is to have canned beans as well. So when it comes to preparing according to meals, the business of making bean soup with canned beans is a new one for me. I have always made bean soup with dried beans. This is where I am trying to look at storing canned goods meal ideas. I could can my own beans, but I am not going to do that now. We are having a really hot summer. So I am buying pre-canned beans and other foods now. I have friends who tell me that they don't like canned beans. They always cook dried beans and then freeze them by recipe size.
 
Pearl said:
I also repackage things like mac n cheese! Can store a lot more. I also store packets of dried mashed potatoes and such in freezer bags, in their original bags. I do dehydrate, but not enough!! Canned meats and such are important. Canned goods have water/moisture, great if their is no water someday!
Click to expand...

I like canned foods like Tuna and sardines that can be bought canned with oil. The oil in Tuna cans has almost unlimited shelf life (unlike the same oil packaged any other way).

I have thought up quite a few meals that use the meat and oil in the same recipe......

Similarly with sugar - I like fruit that is canned in syrup. With that, you get fruit and sugar in every can. You also get longer life out of fruit cans that are in syrup (rather then "juice") because the pH of syrup is more neutral and so does not corrode the can.

Fish cans in oil similarly don't corrode as fast as those packed with brine.
 
I don't have any of the convenience dry goods you all get from the store. After I came home from 16 years over seas and tried eating them, it was hate on first taste. They make me break out and scratch as well.

I am old school; individual dry goods by the barrel. I run two dehydrators for veggies/fruit and nine freezers, one with meat scraps for the dogs and each of the others for a dedicated category. Not to worry, I can keep those freezers going and there is the cellar storage as well.

I freeze and/ or dry at least a dozen eggs a day. I keep the dehydrated egg powder in a vacuum packed jar in a freezer for extra longevity. If chicken feed becomes too dear, I can keep eating eggs and baking for a good while.

I have my canning as well with a total capacity of 3000,00 jars but only around 300 are full at the moment.
 
Weedygarden said:
I use most of these as well.
You really must have had a large amount of tomatoes last year! And probably this year as well!

Sugar: I have heard about the rationing of things like sugar from my grandmothers. I have a bunch, but really need to inventory it. I really do not use much sugar, but I'd bet we all consume it in processed foods, more than we know.

I have lots of dried goods like beans, wheat, and some rice.

I am also working on my meat stores.

I'm trying to work on canned goods for menu plans. Tawra, on Living on a Dime, mentioned recently that things like dried beans take a lot of energy to cook. She is right, and I have plenty of dried beans. Her idea is to have canned beans as well. So when it comes to preparing according to meals, the business of making bean soup with canned beans is a new one for me. I have always made bean soup with dried beans. This is where I am trying to look at storing canned goods meal ideas. I could can my own beans, but I am not going to do that now. We are having a really hot summer. So I am buying pre-canned beans and other foods now. I have friends who tell me that they don't like canned beans. They always cook dried beans and then freeze them by recipe size.
Click to expand...
Edit, I do not have any of those package survival kits.
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
I am an odd one. I just cannot make myself do what's in the above video. My life has just been too different from the norm today.
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Is it because you keep like foods together, such as all of your canned tomatoes? Or do you cook random meals, that fit your moods? It could be other things as well, but I am curious about what your style is like.
 
Amish Heart said:
Salt pork stored in pig fat in a crock works well. Just make sure the fat covers the pork.
Click to expand...

I've read lard covering meat also works. But the salt pork I've read about is just several layers of salt/pork/salt/...etc then submerged in a brine (salt water). Supposedly this can keep for a year or more if kept cool. I've tried it and even after washing the salt off, it's still at least as salty as ham. Very salty. But it would beat starving or only eating grains.
 
Our food storage style is an evolution:

When the kids were small and at home we did 72 hour kits with pre-arranged meals that were easy to cook, some MREs but mostly stuff the kids would eat.

Then we migrated to beans and rice with some protein with about 3 months supply based on our typical college family diet.

Then the tried to migrate to a year's supply using dry grains and beans. We tried to eat what we were storing and it taught us some lessons.

Today, we store a mix of store canned goods, home canned goods, gry grains, and a full assortment. We use a first in first out inventory control and try to maintain a full "balanced" inventory with things being consumed and replaced at between 2 and 3 years. We used the data from one on the LDS food storage programs and then I moved it to a spreadsheet where we could set targets to ensure we covered everything they had listed by food groups and then some. I have to admit that we store a little more protein than the LDS folks suggest...
 
Speaking of food storage. Last year I built a meat pole that is 17' above ground. My thinking is that as a last-ditch survival food "storage" option would be just leave the meat hang and cut off enough for the day. It would freeze and slightly thaw throughout the Alaska winter, but I don't think the meat would go bad. I have read were long ago they would just throw the quarters of meat up onto the cabin roof. The only problem in winter would be Wolverines, perhaps red squirrels, possibly Martens. Most all the bird's head for the coasts for winter food.
 
From a Facebook group I belong to, LDS Food Storage Adventures:

"Several years ago my husband lost his job so we went on a spending freeze and tried to live off what we had stored until he got another job. I learned several things from this. We ran out of perishable items pretty fast. After that it became harder to find a variety of breakfast items that don't call for eggs, milk, or butter. So I started keeping a list (a very short list) of breakfasts that would made from the pantry shelf. A few examples are Oatmeal mixed with peanut butter and maple syrup. Pumpkin pancakes. Biscuits and gravy etc. None of these are very healthy except maybe the oatmeal but they would keep people alive.
Another thing I learned was that I had no variety of foods and we got tired of eating the same things over and over. I also longed for fresh fruits or vegetables. This got me thinking more about all sorts of different things to store or grow."

Breakfast: what foods to store for breakfast with variety? And that eggs, milk and butter will still be in high demand for breakfast and other things.
 
Weedygarden said:
Is it because you keep like foods together, such as all of your canned tomatoes? Or do you cook random meals, that fit your moods? It could be other things as well, but I am curious about what your style is like.
Click to expand...
Her meals are what I would call baby food for toothless adults. I understand why she is doing it that way, but dang, effortless does not, good eating, make.

Yes, I cook random meals that eat down the categories on a somewhat even basis and I store by category, don't use charts or follow the lists. Its the volume of each category that counts and overly long lists are hard to stock sufficiently.

I don't even have half of what's on most of those lists because I can't see why anyone even needs flavored water, as an example but I probably have tons more of some of the basic items as well as a ton of some other items that are not on the lists.

Most people would probably look at my pantry shelves and wonder, 'what the heck was she thinking?'

Amish Heart would probably understand once she got to digging around in other areas.

When the government comes to confiscate my stash, I want them thinking, 'oh hell no!'
 
I do canned and dry only, but I'm getting back into dehydrated soon as space permits. right now my storage area is just 6'X4'X4'
 
Last night were we canning tomatoes and I went to the food storage shelves to get the lemon juice (we keep an extra (or more) of everything down there. Anyway the lemon juice was dated when we got it 10/2020 and it has already passed it's "Best by" date of 8/2021... Wife said it's expired, get the newer bottle... I say okay and then proceed to make lemonade from the "expired" bottle. I drank it while canning the tomatoes and cleaning the kitchen. I didn't die....

Because of the why companies are doing business the "Best by" date is often a year or less, for those of us who store a year or more of food it may create friction in the kitchen.

For clarification the "2020 bottle" was not the only bottle down there, just the oldest. I buy a replacement every time I use something... The one we used will be passed it's "Best by" date next week.....
 
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