What's the #1 most important food item ?

[momof4survivor]

I keep getting these e-mails from different groups and there's always somebody selling a book regarding survival in 2012, surviving a food crisis etc. The one I got today was a book about the 37 food items that will dissapear from the stores first in a crisis and the book claims to tell you the #1 most important food item to store. I'm not planning to buy this $50.00 book but was wondering what you all think is the #1 most important food item to store, not including water?

[techo]

For us it would be rice. We can catch fish and pick oranges, mangos and coconuts.

[snake3336]

Yes rice because you can mix fish you catch or wild greens. Beans would also be good.

[Crutch]

potato

No native pests, grows in massive bulk per square inch, high in starch, used as a staple world wide, normally blight resistant. (have more then one variety and you wont face the Irish Potato famine.

Also it is easy to store, and can last years in a cool, dark, dry root cellar.

IMHO I call the potato the North American Survivalist food of choice.

[QueechoFeecho]

canned chili

[Texas Patriot]

Ultimately, protein and carbohydrates/ starches. Everything those books tell you, you can learn right here...for FREE. I bought into the Y2K crap years ago. I bought books from "experts" , read every article, subscribed to Y2k magazines, ect., ect., Ad Infinitum. After all was said and done ,I sat there looking at all the wasted money I spent for naught, and realized these people didn't believe a flippin' word of what they wrote. It was all about making $$$ off gullible people. Fear sells books just as much as sex, tragedy, and bad news sells newspapers. Nothing will come of this 2012 B.S. . Make "prepping" a lifestyle, and you will not have to worry about some MANUFACTURED impending doomsday. Coincidentally, you will be better off if something REAL actually happens, like a tornado, hurricane, blizzard, job loss, financial crisis. As for food, stock what you use, and use what you stock. When you shop , buy 3 of every can, to get started. One to use, one for your pantry, and one for your reserves. As you use one, buy two to replace it. Rotate stock. Rice is a good , stable , easily stored food that is very cost effective right now. Dried beans are as well, and have protein. Canned meats , such as tuna, chicken, and Spam are good to get you started. Set aside staples, salt, pepper corns ( and a grinder), sugar, instant coffee/ tea, sugar. Then get some comfort foods. Don't buy into the hype...literally. BTW, Recently for fun I did a google search for some of the authors of these old Y2K books...nothing. Y2K was a great business move for them. TP

[momof4survivor]

Originally Posted by Texas Patriot

Ultimately, protein and carbohydrates/ starches. Everything those books tell you, you can learn right here...for FREE. I bought into the Y2K crap years ago. I bought books from "experts" , read every article, subscribed to Y2k magazines, ect., ect., Ad Infinitum. After all was said and done ,I sat there looking at all the wasted money I spent for naught, and realized these people didn't believe a flippin' word of what they wrote. It was all about making $$$ off gullible people. Fear sells books just as much as sex, tragedy, and bad news sells newspapers. Nothing will come of this 2012 B.S. . Make "prepping" a lifestyle, and you will not have to worry about some MANUFACTURED impending doomsday. Coincidentally, you will be better off if something REAL actually happens, like a tornado, hurricane, blizzard, job loss, financial crisis. As for food, stock what you use, and use what you stock. When you shop , buy 3 of every can, to get started. One to use, one for your pantry, and one for your reserves. As you use one, buy two to replace it. Rotate stock. Rice is a good , stable , easily stored food that is very cost effective right now. Dried beans are as well, and have protein. Canned meats , such as tuna, chicken, and Spam are good to get you started. Set aside staples, salt, pepper corns ( and a grinder), sugar, instant coffee/ tea, sugar. Then get some comfort foods. Don't buy into the hype...literally. BTW, Recently for fun I did a google search for some of the authors of these old Y2K books...nothing. Y2K was a great business move for them. TP

Thanks. That's kind of what I figured. I have learned so much here and from the 2 books that I own and other blogs online. I am at a point where I don't think that those books can tell me what I don't already know generally speaking. Of course I always need to learn specific skills, but that's not what these people are touting. They are very good at catering to our fears.

[Flex]

Wheat Flour.

[RedWoods]

For us having a large stock of freeze dried and dried fruits is important. Rice would be my second choice since we do not grow it.

We have plenty of long term meat,fish and potatoes,veggies & beans we grow here but not enough producing fruit trees. At least our wild blackberry crop is always doing well.

Red

[seawind]

WATER is always number 1. Without it nothing else matters!

[westernkansas]

tators and rice.

[jackal]

salt,suger......

[Allamakee County]

Nobody wants to say the obvious?? BEER, of course.

[gallon]

I go with beans and rice. In equal amounts because I haven't learned of the actual preferred ratio. After those, my preferred items to augment beans and rice are probably tomatoes and onions.

Beans, rice, tomatoes, and onions, when mixed into a meal, can sustain us and remain palatable for a long time.

[fwilliam1]

I have adopted the premis of "Store what you eat, eat what you store". It is possible to add a little extra of those foods you eat regularly to form the basis of your LTS.

In my case, when I'm buying tinned tuna I buy it by the case on sale. I buy my pasta the same way. My family enjoys rice, so rice is a staple for us.

To me there's no point of buying something for storage if it's not part of your existing diet.

[tkd]

Something tasty that you don't mind eating... for a LONG time... over and over and over again....

[PaulaMM]

I buy a lot of canned meat as we are big meat eaters. Every time I go to our Family Dollar, I buy a couple of canned hams and every can of barbecue chicken they have. In fact, I just got 3 hams and 12 cans of the chicken about an hour ago.

[Wildrose]

Wheat. You can grind it, boil it and sprout it. It's not the perfect protein but you would be able to survive. I also like the canned chili and beer suggestions. It would sure make the wheat taste better.

[Fepony]

We focused mainly on wheat,rice and beans. We add stuff every day. But when we made our initial "food stores" that is what we started with. We are currently focusing on oils, canned goods and spices.

[Survivalguy72]

The one you haven't stocked yet.