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28K views 29 replies 19 participants last post by  Roberto Rodriguez 
#1 ·
Lets say that you were going to put together some 5 gallon buckets to take to a remote location, what food preps would to put in the buckets? We are looking for stuff that can be stored for maybe 10 years, and with little to no climate control. The building has good shade, and stays cool most of the year, but it can get a little warm inside.

Due to the occasional rodent, its best if we store the mylar bags inside of a container, such as 5 gallon buckets, or ammo cans.

The contents would be sealed in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.

Examples:

Bucket #1 - pinto beans
Bucket #2 - white rice
Bucket #3 - assortment of oats, grits, pancake mix, pasta,,,

something else?

A buddy of mine and his wife dropped by my house last weekend. While we were talking, we came up with the idea of taking an ammo can, filling it with an assortment of food sealed in mylar bags. The goal is for each can to have about 1 weeks food for about 4 people.

The contents would probably be very spartan, probably not cover your recommended 2,000 calorie a day diet, but it would be better then nothing.

Some of the suggested items were:

Breakfast - powdered eggs, instant pancake mix, grits, potatoes slices for hashbrowns and oats.

Lunch and dinner - mashed potatoes, rice, beans, mac & cheese, pasta, oats,,,,.

One of the issues is milk, cheese and butter. Prepared.pro and Emergency Essentials both sale a canned cheese. I thought about buying the canned cheese and using it instead of the powered cheese that come with stuff like mac & cheese.

Another issue is food burn out - after you eat something for an extended period of time, your going to get sick of it. To counter food burn out, we need to have a wide assortment of food stocks.

I thought about getting some #10 cans of freeze dried food to add with the food stored in the mylar bags, but there seems to be a shortage on freeze dried stuff right now.

Mountain house makes some 7 year individual packaged meals that are still available, I thought about getting some of those, just to change things up.

This video is a little long, but I talk about the 7 year chili mac and cheese meal I got from http://store.prepared.pro/



The meals need to be easy to prepare - just add water, heat, and your good to go. Like last weekend my wife fixed us some instant pancakes. I could not tell the difference between the instant just add water pancake mix, and the regular pancake mix where you have to mix everything together.

Last weekend my wife and I went to the local china mart and picked up some mashed potato mix with butter. Come to find out the potatoes had "real" butter in them and not just butter flavoring. Animal products do not store as well as dried foods like beans. So that the food last as long a possible, I do not want to store anything in mylar bags that has animal fats or byproducts in it. So we are going to eat the butter flavored mashed potatoes instead of storing them.

One of the issues that came up with my buddy last weekend was when we talked about powered milk. My buddy told me that powered milk only last around 5 years, and then it needs to be rotated. When stored next to stuff like beans and rice that will stay good for 10 - 20 years, having something with a 5 year shelf life in a remote location does not make a lot of sense.

One of the things I am trying to find is freeze dried egg powder to be stored at the remote location. I really want eggs as a breakfast option. Eggs, pancakes and hashbrowns on the side would make a nice well rounded start to the day. The only problem is, I can not find powered eggs at any of the local stores.

My buddy and I also talked about buying 5 gallons of oats already sealed. Which should have a shelf life of around 20 - 30 years. Then buy an oat flaker / grinder for processing the oats.
 
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#2 ·
I'm just going to throw this out there because I searched high and low for powdered eggs locally to no avail, finally ordering some online through Amazon. Low and behold, one day I was at Kroger and spotted the exact brand (Deb El) in an area I would NEVER have looked...in the Spanish/Mexican foods area. I live in a small, southern town so our "Mexican" foods section is mighty small, but lumped in there was this small can of egg whites. I found my powdered milk there too. Keep your eyes peeled! :)
 
#3 ·
Look to Mexican stores for both powdered WHOLE milk and eggs. They use a lot of it apparently. Example, Mexican friend told me about Nabisco Nido powdered milk, best I've had. Bought it on Amazon.

With respect to the rest of it, long term stuff at a bug-out location, I'll make the assumption that if you are there and digging into long term food, the S has HTF. I'd go heavy rice and beans, nutritional bang for the buck and stores well. Oats as well. Nobody will love it, but it'll sustain life.
 
#13 ·
Look to Mexican stores for both powdered WHOLE milk and eggs. They use a lot of it apparently. Example, Mexican friend told me about Nabisco Nido powdered milk, best I've had. Bought it on Amazon.
Mexican and Asian markets are a treasure trove of useful dried foods. Especially Asian markets. They have all sorts of dried veggies, mushrooms, seaweeds and fish, etc. They also have the best tasting broth powders I've ever tried. FAR better than the salt licks that they pass off as buillion cubes in this country.

Nobody will love it, but it'll sustain life.
Why not? The variety you can create with basic staple foods is nearly infinate. Cooking is a basic life skill that too many people don't take seriously. But it's something we really should strive to master. It's just not that hard to make cuisines from around the world using those basic staple foods.
 
#4 ·
The diameter of a #10 can is:

602 X 700 or

6.125 X 7.00 "

It holds approximately 100 OZ.

The Internal diameter of a tube of 8" sched 40 PVC is 7.981" (this is standard PVC Pipe)

The Internal diameter of a tube of 8" sched 80 PVC is 7.625" (this is heavier PVC pipe)

You will be able to store 17 #10 cans in a 10' long tube of PVC.

Cut the tubes shorter for easy handling.

To bury the container:

Spray "great stuff" expanding foam in the bottom end cap to seal out any water, and then use PVC glue to attach it to the bottom of your tube.

*note, great stuff foam expands allot so be careful of how much you use.

The PVC glue dries in a few seconds.

OPTIONAL EYEBOLT - Prep your top cap by drilling a hole dead center in the middle and putting a .125” eye bolt in it.

Use a bottom and a top washer. Seal the area around the bolt with silicone designed for bathtub use.

Let this dry overnight.

Load your cans into your tube; a tube of just 28” will hold 4 - #10 cans.

Toss in 1 or 2 O2 absorbers.

Once again a small amount of great foam in the top cap and PVC glue the cap on.

Use a post hole digger to bury your tube vertically.

The eyebolt will serve as a way to lower the tube into the ground, locate it with a metal detector and retrieve it up out of the hole when you need it.
 
#5 ·
Don't forget salt and sugar. You'll need the sugar for some baking. You may also want some dried fruit and maybe other legumes (peas, lima beans, lentils, garbonzo beans, soy beans). Each can could be slightly different. One could have red lentils and another might have peas or corn. This might get you away from the "one can a week" idea, though. You might want two or three open at a time just for the variety.

You should also put a page with quick cooking directions in the can too. Stress is hell on memory. You can cook something for years and then forget the basics in an emergency. Also, what if your "cook" is busy or injured? With basic directions, someone else could fix something up.
 
#11 ·
Another issue is food burn out - after you eat something for an extended period of time, your going to get sick of it. To counter food burn out, we need to have a wide assortment of food stocks.

I thought about getting some #10 cans of freeze dried food to add with the food stored in the mylar bags, but there seems to be a shortage on freeze dried stuff right now.
I'd definately consider wheat and a grinder also. It's the staple for all sorts of breads, pastas, pancake, gravies, etc. And you can sprout it or even plant it.

As far as appetite fatigue, the best solution there is variety of ingredients and learning to make a bunch of different foods from them. For example, if we look at just beans and rice, there are cultures all over the world that use them as part of their cuisine. You could have Mexican, Cajun, Italian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Etc. All using the same basic staple foods. The only difference is in the seasoning and preparation. I've gotten it where I could eat the same staple ingredients day in and day out and never have the same meal twice if I didn't want to. There's that much you can do with them!

All the overpriced freeze dried entrees in the world won't make bland beans and rice taste like anything other than bland beans and rice. And you still have to find a way to add fats to the freeze dried foods.

Instead of buying #10 cans of freeze dried entrees, consider getting individual ingredients that allow you more variety. Fruits, veggies, spices, tomato and peanut powder, etc. I'm a huge fan of the ABC soup mix, vegetable soup mix and vegetable stew blend. Very versatile ingredients.

Part of the fun is learning what all you can do with things. Such as turning powdered milk into yogurt or cheese.
 
#15 ·
About 2 1/2 weeks ago I sealed a bunch of food in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. I am thinking of taking those bags, getting a 30mm ammo can, putting the food in there and moving it to the camp. The can should provide some level of air tightness and help keep the rodents out.

I am still sitting on the fence about doing 5 gallon buckets of rice, beans or wheat. In the long run it would probably be worth it. The peace of mind knowing that I have a remote food stockpile would be comforting.
 
#16 ·
I am still sitting on the fence about doing 5 gallon buckets of rice, beans or wheat. In the long run it would probably be worth it. The peace of mind knowing that I have a remote food stockpile would be comforting.
Kev, what is it about the idea that troubles you?
 
#19 ·
Kev, go for the long term bulk storage. There is a lot of servings in a 5 gallon bucket of beans and rice; cheaply bought and stored if you do it yourself, with a long long shelf life. You will feel so good when you are done.

Consider adding a little wheat and corn. If you don't want the expense yet of a good mill, pick up a Corona. They don't grind as fine as flour, but it is fine enough for hot cereals.

You can get a large bag of theater popping corn at Sam's, and it makes a great corn meal.... and you could pop it too. :)

Have you ever tried eating sprouts? Bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts etc.? Have you ever grown them? I suggest giving it a try. Sprouts make it possible to have a "fresh vegetable" even in the winter. The seeds will store well.

Don't forget to pack some seasoning. You can buy dehydrated copped onions, taco seasoning etc. A bucket with seasoning and extra salt will help add variety.
 
#24 ·
Wax those cans (sounds dirty)

I recommend waxing cans if you are going to bury them. This is an old sailors trick (some of the first users of canned food) to keep them from rusting in damp saltwater environments. A friend of mine introduced me to this when he sailed from Maine to the Bahamas. It is pretty easy to do and inexpensive. The only drawback is that you need to remove the labels and use a permanent marker to mark the cans, which can lead to guessing games and mystery cans. I found a link after a brief search. If you are going to bury them in a tube this would help to ensure long term storage.

http://www.endtimesreport.com/waxing_cans_and_boxes.html
 
#30 ·
Due to the occasional rodent, its best if we store the mylar bags inside of a container, such as 5 gallon buckets, or ammo cans.
nothing - unless in ammo cans. But at that point canned LTS food would be better. in my experience a bucket is just an invitation for a rodent to gnaw his way in. they LIKE chewing on plastic, the fact that a bucket has food in it then just becomes an added bonus.
 
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