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Why I am phasing back canned foods

9K views 70 replies 39 participants last post by  Nomad 2nd 
#1 ·
I only have X amount of time and money. In the big picture, I feel those resources would be better served by working on renewable food sources than buying canned foods.

25 years ago up until recently my main food prep was canned and dried foods. A can rotation system was put in, but was still buying more canned foods than my family was eating.

I recently decided to shift gears and go with renewable and freeze dried foods.

I still keep canned foods on hand, but not cases of them. More like a couple of weeks of canned foods and in very select items.

Examples:

  • Peanut butter
  • Spam
  • Canned beans
  • Tomatoes



This may not be for everyone. I live on a farm and have fig and pear trees and have a garden. Rather than buying canned foods, I am putting resources to my fruit trees, chickens and fencing off a few acres for goats, sheep and maybe cattle.
 
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#6 ·
I have two to four year supplies of many canned foods based on the rate that I use them now. This means that I don't need any quick emergency supplies because I can just speed up the rotation. I have a gas freezer so I'm not dependent on electricity for frozen food. It's not quite as dependable as canned, but it's close.

Neither orchards nor gardens are practical where I live. I consider my five chickens to be a source of high quality eggs, in other words, gourmet food. I do have some Mountain House food, but rarely eat it at home. I spend a good bit of time caring for my chickens.

My "garden" consists of herbs and hydroponic tomatoes grown indoors. I do have some miniature citrus as well, but not enough to provide adequate Vitamin C.

Different climates and different preferences determine how a person prepares.

I don't intend to let survivalism become a Procrustean bed.
 
#9 ·
In my research I found that one of the emerging sources of botulism is baked potatoes that are left out too long. Makes sense as botulism, like tetanus, is in the soil. I feel much more comfortable eating my own canned meats and produce than I so ordering a loaded bakes potato at a restaurant. For my own purposes, I'm fairly certain I'm more likely to die from falling off the porch and breaking my neck than from botulism.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat."
 
#11 ·
This is what I'm going to be doing too kev. I want a years worth of pasta (we love pasta), and a years worth of canned and dry goods. Most of my focus is going to be on my garden, saving seeds and chickens.

My stored foods are mostly going to be just in case the garden fails or all the chickens die at least we have over a year to get us to the next harvest or find a new source of food.
 
#12 ·
I just had a nice breakfast of grits and bacon. The grits were 11 years old. Tasted great. I've routinely eaten canned meat which was 6-8 years old without a problem and tasted fine. Same with canned corn. Green veggies seem to suffer the most in a can but luckily, greens are the easiest thing to grow even indoors.

That said, nothing is better than fresh food grown on your own. Fantastic and economical way to feed your family, just as our grandparents did.

But I do have one concern with counting on it too much. Nuclear war could present a problem with our ability to grow anything and dry or canned goods would be essential.

Just my thoughts.
 
#21 ·
But I do have one concern with counting on it too much. Nuclear war could present a problem with our ability to grow anything and dry or canned goods would be essential.

Just my thoughts.
If the radiation is so bad that I'm not able to grow crops then does it really matter how many years of canned goods you have on hand?

If it's that bad then you will need to leave the area and you can only carry so many canned goods.


I'm curious how people plan to irrigate crops and provide water for livestock in a SHTF situation? Unless you live directly adjacent to a natural water source, or on a well... Preserved foods are really your only option right?
If you have access to water other than what you have stored then more than likely you will have water for irrigation or livestock.

If you're relying solely on what you have stored then you need to find a source of water.

Stored food and water should be thought of as a temporary solution, not to live the rest of your life on.
 
#14 ·
would really depend on where in the world you live as to how much you need to put back. in a worst-case scenario in my neck of the woods, SHTF hitting immediately post-harvest, you might have to go as much as 6 months before gardens are going to produce enough to fill your belly.
 
#17 ·
I took a guy backpacking last year. It wasn't his first time but hadn't back packed since he was a kid. He says "so I should grab a couple of cans of food to eat?" I told him to go to Wally world and pick up a couple of freeze dried meals. He had a rough time with the hike because of the elevation. Once we got to the top he thanked me for advising him not to bring canned food.

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#19 ·
Most of the US gets enough rain to grow crops without irrigation. (Although irrigation can improve the harvest during a dry spell.) In my particular area, most farms have a livestock pond for watering animals, and they rely on rainwater to fill them. Ponds, lakes, streams and rivers can be abundant depending on the region.

Rainwater harvesting is fairly straightforward for those who want to have a backup supply in case of drought, if they live in an area with seasonal variations in precipitation or they don't have a natural body of water in the area.

Most people who live outside of town limits are on a well. How well they can access their well water without power is going to depend on a lot of factors.

But an extended drought would make annual restocking iffy.
 
#23 ·
After 2 weeks the radiation can be down 10,000 fold, could still be hot enough to fry you in minutes. Cans left stored properly could be retrieved later - perhaps much later. Watch "The Road" people.

Steel cans are very mouse and rat resistant, mylar bags and plastic buckets not so much.

Older sound cans will work for barter/charity. Lower nutrition values and degraded texture are first world problems. Try fasting for 2 or more weeks - bugs start looking good as food.
 
#24 ·
cans are certainly worse for bugging out, but for bugging in they're a fair solution. they are ready to eat without preparation if necessary, require little if any additional water, there's a good variety, and they're not as expensive as their freeze-dried cousins. for things like rice and beans, by all means keep dry in mylar and buckets, but freeze-dried fruit and meat are not cheap. there are definitely varieties of canned things that are impractical to get freeze-dried.
 
#27 ·
We recently found 5 yr old cases of Roi Tel from Sam's that had leaked and swelled. We ended up throwing the whole case(s) away, erring towards being conservative. We are now looking at 5+ year old milk powder and canned milk that has done similar things. They will likely go, also.

When we looked at the cans, which were in cases, many were dented and swollen, which makes one wonder if that is what Sam's gets?

Better safe than sorry.

WW

shoot straight - stay safe
 
#28 ·
Another plus for canned foods is the high water content.

I've always kept a bag with a few cans of pork and beans or beef stew in my truck along with other supplies in case I got stuck in the middle of nowhere (I travel to nowhere as often as I can).

On a fishing trip I made a last minute decision to camp for the night and try again in the morning. Started digging around for something to eat with the fish and found a can so old it no longer had labels but the can looked like pork and beans so I went for it.

The beans were a little off color, kinda pale but it tasted OK and I didn't die. YRMV but I find that stuff lasts way longer than the best by dates.
 
#29 ·
Canned food is cheap, readily available, and will probably outlive you. This business about it not being palatable in ten years may or may not be true (canned meat fares better than veggies over the long-term), but this is largely solved by simply rotating through your canned goods. Certain canned items (i.e. evaporated milk) aren't good for long-term storage, but most are just fine.

We're eating three year old Bush's Grillin' beans right now, and I cannot distinguish them in any way from the newest cans. And they are tasty. :D:

Eat what you store, store what you eat.

Increasing one's ability to produce food is fantastic, but by no means should it come at the expense of your stored food.

And with regard to cost, even if you held canned foods for ten years, then threw them all away and bought new, you could do that several times for what it cost you to buy freeze dried once. And freeze dried has a maximum shelf-life of about thirty years anyway, so there's no way it makes financial sense. For a BOB, sure.
 
#30 ·
I stand by the assertion that you should not only have canned as part of your supplies, but a good supply of it. For one, most canned supplies can be eaten cold, without any real preparation, and are quick. They are also one of the only contained food stuff that comes in a fairly durable container.

While I grow food and preserve significant amounts of it myself, I do not rely on those supplies being available to me in an event. The event could occur outside growing season (say, the start of winter).

The event (depending on the type) might make it impossible for me to go outside, may kill or contaminate the plants, or may delay the growth season by significant time.


In preparedness the whole point it to worry about worst case scenarios.

Yes, if possible you should be growing some food (if for no other reasons than to save money and gain the skills in doing so) and putting up some of that very food into storage. Yes, in many types of events, those crops and trees and such can be relied on for food.

On the other hand, it is safest to assume they will NOT be a resource you can access; in thinking that way they become a buffer, rather than something you are dependent on.
 
#32 ·
This and the other similar reasons that others posted about keeping canned goods is why I will keep at least a years supply. I think kev said he is also.

Speaking for myself, I will be canning excess food and making my garden larger. I plan to eat solely what I grow and as my garden grows my leftovers will be added to the storage.

My canned goods will be the emergency plan to my emergency plan so to speak. And again if it's not possible to grow where I'm at for whatever reason then I have a year plus to find new renewable sources of food.

It's more about needing less canned good and being less reliant on what I have stored.
 
#33 ·
I only have X amount of time and money. In the big picture, I feel those resources would be better served by working on renewable food sources than buying canned foods.

25 years ago up until recently my main food prep was canned and dried foods. A can rotation system was put in, but was still buying more canned foods than my family was eating.

I recently decided to shift gears and go with renewable and freeze dried foods.

I still keep canned foods on hand, but not cases of them. More like a couple of weeks of canned foods and in very select items.

Examples:

  • Peanut butter
  • Spam
  • Canned beans
  • Tomatoes

Phasing Out Canned Foods - YouTube

This may not be for everyone. I live on a farm and have fig and pear trees and have a garden. Rather than buying canned foods, I am putting resources to my fruit trees, chickens and fencing off a few acres for goats, sheep and maybe cattle.
We're doing the same thing. We just got chicks today, already have goats including 2 milk goats, and sheep. Plus growing stuff of course, but if you have a large garden, you have to learn to can food yourself because you'll end up with way too many tomatoes and green beans all at one time to eat.
We are just about getting as self sufficient as one can get. Installing solar for refrigeration is going to be the last big thing.

But, not everyone lives on a farm. So for people in cities, canned food is still probably the best thing to do.

One thing weird I should mention: I put flour in Mylar with O2 absorber and stored it for 5 years. Recently opened it . It smelled, looked and tasted fine when I first opened it. But after about a week, it smelled bad, like old and rancid. I tossed it. So , you can't count on stuff you store still being good either.
 
#34 ·
One thing weird I should mention: I put flour in Mylar with O2 absorber and stored it for 5 years. Recently opened it . It smelled, looked and tasted fine when I first opened it. But after about a week, it smelled bad, like old and rancid. I tossed it. So , you can't count on stuff you store still being good either.
That's a good insight Sonya. Best solution I can think of for that would be to seal maybe a weeks worth in mylar as you said then put the mylar bags in a food safe bucket.

Havnt prepped any dry goods yet but I think this is the route I will take when I do.

Learn from your mistakes and adapt, thats how we survive.
 
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