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How much REAL food do you have in your food storage?

9K views 47 replies 40 participants last post by  ELBUFO 
#1 ·
REAL... not freeze-dried or dehyrated. Beans and rice are about 10% of mine. My guess is that more physical suffering in the first month after SHTF will occur among preppers from their bodies declaring war on them, due to their diet change to beans, rice and water, than from self-defense injuries.

 

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#2 ·
Honestly, I have less beans and rice than I should. I did pick up 20 pounds of pasta this last week, which is not much but it is something.

Most of my food is ravioli's, beef stews', canned veggies, spam, tuna, corned beef, etc.
lots of canned fruits, some veggies, lots of canned beans, sprouting kit with only 4 pounds of bean seeds, and a survival garden can.
I have about 100 pounds flour, 75 pounds of sugar, and 10 pounds of honey.
and various long term dried carrots, onions, wheat berries, apple slices dehydrated etc.
It isn't much for long term for a family of 5, but it is something. I have little kids also, so a lot of my food is for "Well, we're poor right now but I know you guys like this!" food - the long term stuff is for a long term emergency.

Ofcourse, in the event of an emergency we would be eating what was in the freezer first and solar drying the rest. That would add a lot.


Anyways, in an emergency - our diet would not really change too substantially. We store what we eat, even if it isn't the most 'economical' compared to 5 gallon buckets of beans and rice everywhere.
 
#3 ·
We are much like Mother Earth. My hubby is such a picky eater that I figured that in order to get him past any initial shock I will have to keep his diet as close to normal as possible. Eventually though, I will having him eating whatever I put in front of him ... LOL

It's just not worth the fight right now. So ... I have about 6 months worth of "regular" groceries and am working toward a year's worth.

Any freeze-dried stuff I have now, because of its insanely long shelf life is just put back for future use ... I am hoping after I have the "regular" pantry stocked to the max to start using freeze-dried here there and yonder. Maybe once a week or so, just to get him used to it.

I am amazed that he will eat a MRE ... any MRE ... but there are only three or four meals that are "acceptable" dinner time dining ...
 
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#5 ·
Its with anything. If you learn to eat like a goat you will always be full. I stock in many differnt levels. From short term normal stuff to long term 25+ years. With the very loong term being sealed up underground so nobody can burn it,steel it,or take it. But as far as what it is you should always use your preps every week so your body is not in for a big shock. But also remember to pack away comfort foods for high stress. It is a a big plus when you need that lift.
 
#6 ·
Just added 48 cans of Tomato Puree, 24 1 pound boxes of pasta and 50 pounds of rice today after work, before baseball. Added to 100 boxes of pasta and 100 pounds of rice, and nearly 100 cans of Tomato puree and crushed. With 50 lbs of lentils and red beans each, we are looking at going outside our use safe date window right now. Also bought 4 10 pound bags of instant pancake mix. Added to other six. Dirty looks abounded.
 
#7 ·
We grow a lot. Learning how to start from harvested seed from last year. Got a lot of beef on the hoof and springs here. Probably need to focus on salt, sugar and wheat or flour. I need to get back into mules like my grandfather. It's good that I have a friend with mules.
 
#9 ·
LOL I wish ...

I have a bit more ... ahem ... how shall I say ... adventuresome palate. He looks at me like I have lost my mind when I bring home anything that isn't tomato sauce, elbow macaroni or ground beef. :xeye: Oh, yeah, and french fries ... gotta have our frozen french fries ...

I am glad we weren't married when I was raising my kids ... if I went to the trouble to make it, you ate it ... AND you liked it ... :D:

He and I came from very different families ... the first time his grade school age son told me he wanted spagetti instead of the lasagna I had in the oven, it should have been my sign ... :rolleyes: (Oh, yeah, we ate lasagna that night. ;))

Ahhh, but he has other more useful attributes (and he is kinda cute if I do say so myself) so I guess I will hang onto him for now! ;)
 
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#10 ·
My husband thinks prepping/survivalism is totally wacko so I don't have stores of food but I have planted 13 fruit trees in the last couple years. Some are dwarf and some are standard. I've got three rhubarb plants, a blueberry bush, 4 raspberries, and a gooseberry. I look at these as stored food. I hope they do well, we've had so much rain that I might lose my favorite North Star Cherry tree.
 
#11 ·
we go with the store what you eat and eat what you store school of thought. I do have a lot of long term stuff, which will replace more familiar items but producing them home made (white wheat will make flour for home made bread instead of bought bread) and we grow a lot of veggies and (hopefully soon to be productive) fruits. I'm working on preserving them in different ways to reduce our freezer dependancy.
I have about a years worth of food right now, but we are working on tripling that and since we rotate regularly, we should still be within the "best used by" dates.
I am spoiled by quick and easy meals, but hubby is spoiled by his picky taste buds...we've decided that I will start to introduce more regular home made meals with ingredients he's not all that keen on (more beans and rice). At least he understands the needs to have the foods and to try and like them and eat them now.
 
#12 ·
Spices and herbs of various kinds add versatility and flavor to basic beans and rice. They are available by the pound at very good prices (as good as you can get without going to the spice markets in the Middle East) from Azurestandard.com. They store in the freezer without significant loss of potency until SHF, and after that pretty indefinitely, despite what those who would like to sell you fresh ones every year would say. They also have major medicinal value, for instance, ginger is an anti-inflammatory that very adequately replaces NSAIDs without their side effects. I am using some ginger now as an aspirin substitute that is over ten years old and it works very well. Also available from Azurestandard are empty gel caps and tools for encapsulating herbs and spices to be used medicinally. But to get back to the point of the thread, REAL food is just that, real FOOD, not highly processed chemical concoctions flavored and dyed to look like food. If you are not feeding your family real food now, their survival is in question whether or not SHF. Make the change now, while you have the luxury of making it gradually. Eating mass produced fodder cranked out by FDA-bribing corporations is for poorly maintained livestock.
 
#13 ·
Only about 10% of my "food preps" are of the "freeze-dried" variety. The rest of it is "regular food". And that DOES include rice and beans, because with him being from New Mexico, we eat a lot of Mexican food, and rice and beans are a DEFINITE "regular" on that menu. ;) So, there's no "transition" problem.

A lot of other things are what I have grown myself, or canned from produce I purchased from a local organic grower at the farmers market. I'm in the process of greatly expanding my garden area (4 times the size of the area I will be "losing" to his storage shed :D:), so will be able to produce even MORE of what we eat, PLUS should have rabbits ready for slaughter in the fall.
 
#14 ·
REAL... not freeze-dried or dehyrated. Beans and rice are about 10% of mine. My guess is that more physical suffering in the first month after SHTF will occur among preppers from their bodies declaring war on them, due to their diet change to beans, rice and water, than from self-defense injuries.
I agree that changing over will be a problem. I'm a strong proponent of storing what you eat, and eating what you store. I switched over many years back and I did have problems. I also had problems when I switched to freeze dried foods when I was first starting.

Though it's hard to make the distinction of "real foods". To me, dehydrated foods are in the same catagory as beans or rice. I have a lot of dehydrated veggies and such, along with a lot of various beans, grains and pastas. I consider all of them to be real foods, and they're what I eat day in and day out.

The time to switch over is now. The last thing we need to worry about in the middle of a hardcore crisis, is adjusting to foods that we're not used to eating and may not know if we even like. Besides, it takes time and experience to learn to cook with new foods and make great tasting dishes. Remember, cooking is one of the most basic survival skills! No sense eating bland, boring food, crisis or not, when it can be prevented with a little skill and experience.
 
#15 · (Edited)
we have about six months(we are down a little now)i usually try to keep one year on hand and it is just regular food.we always buy a lot of canned veggies at the local food plant when they have their united way sale and also we stock up on stews,rice,beans etc all year long.it is hard to come up with large amounts of cash these days,but we all can increase our stocks by buying just a few extra items each week.i do the same thing with dog food,(gotta feed my mutts too)
 
#18 ·
How much is real food ? All of it. Well, most of it except for powdered milk.

Woman & the kid will not eat MRE's. I'm not fond of freezedried, it gives me gas and then there's the "fiber" issue. We have real canned and home canned items, several apple trees, wild blueberries all over the place. Just put in strawberries too. Plenty of dry foodstuffs in reserve. With planning you can set aside 6 months of real food easily.
 
#20 ·
I worry about the gas issue with my husband also. Beans do a real number on him. He loves beans and we do eat them but I sleep in the den when we have beans! I also stock what we eat and eat what we stock. We do have long term foods but not much of it. Maybe 3 - 6 months worth for the family of 10 (extended). I'm also not a big fan of freeze dried/dehydrated foods. I must not cook them right or something. I can a lot of our food and soon will be gearing up for the summer harvest. In the spring it's canning fruits. In the summer - vegetables until I can't can anymore. In the fall and winter is when I put up my stews and soups. Not a steadfast rule though. Last night I canned 7 quarts of Hamburger Stew as I had an abundance of the needed ingredients. Next week if I'm getting around ok - having gall bladder surgery Friday - I'll be working with strawberries - jams, jellies, preserves and dehydrating some fruit leathers. I don't think I'm going to work much with dehydrating foods this summer. It doesn't get eaten. I think I'll just slave over the stove and can everything I can get my hands on. I have finally gotten everyone in my family to eat food I've canned. Some of them were vocal about not wanting to die but once they learned they have been eating canned foods (I'm sneaky) they soon started helping themselves to the pantry. This is what I wanted. Learn to eat it now and have no trouble later.

It is wonderful to go to the grocery and buy what needs restocking or is on sale instead of paying high prices because I am out of something. The only thing I haven't made the transition over to yet is milk. I have quite a bit of powdered milk (grandchildren) but I have never even tasted it. I know we need to get used to it but it is so good to enjoy fresh milk. Oh, and coffee creamer. My husband can not stand powdered creamer so we use liquid. I imagine we'll miss that if it goes away. I've stocked canned milk for the coffee or in case there is an infant but nothing beats real milk and fresh coffee creamer. I just can't make myself part with it.
 
#24 ·
This is actually very, very scary. :( I had an allergic reaction to some medication once that caused my throat to swell shut. It was NOT pleasant at all.
 
#26 ·
REAL... not freeze-dried or dehyrated. Beans and rice are about 10% of mine. My guess is that more physical suffering in the first month after SHTF will occur among preppers from their bodies declaring war on them, due to their diet change to beans, rice and water, than from self-defense injuries. ...
Eat what you store; store what you eat.

I see no reason to change how I eat post-SHTF.
 
#30 ·
Sprinkle a bit of baking soda in the soaking beans and that will help a lot in breaking down gas causing enzymes.

We have mostly REAL food... Hulled, not pearled barley, wheat, beans, lentils, millet, spelt, amaranth... any grain I can get my hands on. Lots of oats and sproutables as well. We can and dry a lot of our fruits and veggies, makes soups and can them. Right now I'm working on dehydrating fermented cultures and yeasts for sourdough, yogurt and sour cream.
We like to store our foods as whole as possible for nutriment retention and recipe variation.

While we do have some processed and canned foods, MREs, etc. We prefer eating grains,legumes and home canned if fresh is not in season.
 
#32 ·
For anybody who has a budget, Bean-O is a killer. That stuff is a fortune. I switched to BeanZyme and saved a ton of money.

For storage of real food, I pretty much stick to pressure canning. I would love to do a 14 quart batch of soup every week but my wife is getting tired of watching me stack it up. She doesn't like the slightly burned taste of the soup, either. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong as far as the burned taste goes.

I tried cleaning out my canner with oxyclean and that helped, so maybe just keeping my equipment **** and span will do the job.

Lately Winco has had a sale on polish sausage odds and ends, and potatoes have been on sale, I think there's a good recipe in there somewhere.

It's my understanding that 4 oz of meat per serving, three times a day, is enough for a moderately active person. A bodybuilder would need more protein obviously, as would a large man working hard for 8 hours a day. So, a 12oz serving of meat with the balance being high nutrient value vegetables and something for fiber in a one-quart jar pretty much does it for the day plus a can of albacore tuna for a protein snack.

For the wimmenz and chilluns I figure you could take the same quart of soup, add a quart of water and a can of tomato paste, spice it up, and space it out over a day. That could easily be doubled with a cup or two of white rice. I bet people would have killed for a meal like that during the Depression.

Also, I'm looking at doing some guerrilla gardening in my neighborhood. There are lots of places I can plant fruit trees, grapes, raspberries, spices, all kinds of stuff all over the place. I know that planting in the commons means that I don't have exclusive access to the produce, but I don't have to buy the land either. An additional benefit is that anyone who "steals" the produce doesn't have to break into my house to get what I have put up.

Also, I've put some thought into stocking up on multivitamins, fish oil, vitamin d3, all kinds of stuff like that. Right now I have a sufficient stock of nutritional supplements to see me through a couple of months, but what are the challenges and benefits to buying five years' worth of fish oil? Fish oil is very very good for you. I looked at stocking up on kippers packed in oil, but $ for $ the capsules are many times more affordable and don't have the disadvantages of the saturated fat among other things. Apparently Carlson's fish oil is the best stuff out there, but it ain't cheap. $35 for 500mL. According to my research, 10mL/day gives you a great health benefit, so this is a 50 day supply for one person, maybe a month for two people, and two weeks for a fambly of four. $65/mo just for fish oil for a family. That's up around $800/year for a family.

I guess this is just one of those things that you have to figure out for yourself.
 
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