Preparedness Series: Storing Food

9/23/2014

Food storage is probably the most broad topic that could be discussed when it comes to preparedness, and the most important, next to water. I could spend days on this subject but want to keep with my theme of keeping it simple so today I will challenge you to do a simple task, and then build upon that task step by step.

Store What You Eat

First, I want you to think of an emergency situation where you cannot leave your home for a length of time, say three months. Would you have enough to feed your family, and if so would you want to eat what you have stored? Only store what you will, do, and can eat. Don't just purchase items off a food storage list because that is what an expert told you to store. Not only will you not know how to use these items but your body will not be used to them which could cause a whole other area of problems.

Create Your Food List

Create a list of your family's favorite meals, snacks, breakfasts and treats. Next, make a list of all the ingredients for these meals along with any pantry staples you may make from scratch and favorite commercial food products. You now have your list of food that you should be storing up for emergencies and I bet you will have no problem rotating through it.

Store It Up

Shoot for getting a three month supply of your items and then increase that to six months and all the way up to a year. Think outside the box a little when deciding what needs to be stored, for example if you use a lot of produce think beyond the freezer that can only hold so much and during a disaster will probably lose. Do you know you can just dehydrate that produce (or purchase it already dried), giving it a longer shelf life and not have to worry about losing it. You could also store some seeds or grains to sprout for your fresh produce. Speaking of seeds, don't forget to have some of those stored for your fresh produce during the growing season.

Here are some other tips for getting up to that years worth of food storage.

Grow a garden and preserve yourself (bottling, dehydrating and freezing)
No garden? Check out your local farmers market each fall and buy up what you can preserve yourself.
Check the grocery ads each week and purchase in large increments when your items come on sale.
Pick up an extra item or so whenever you go grocery shopping to slowly add to your storage.
Buy in bulk when possible, using group ordering and local businesses that sell in bulk.

The Challenge

Plan a day this week to sit down with your family and put together your own list of meal favorites.
In the next week or two put together your ingredient list.
Start shopping!
Bonus Challenge: Learn how to grow a garden and preserve your harvest if you haven't quite mastered those skills yet.