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Have you been working to increase your food storage but have stalled due to budget, lack of inspiration or just not sure what to do next?
Last year I did a post about Real Food and Food Storage. Having a well stocked pantry is something that is still important to us in fact it may be even more important now than it was a year ago.
While my pantry doesn’t quite make the cut as food storage these are the things we have found to be helpful.
I don’t want to sound like I need to tighten my tinfoil hat but… holy cow! The state of our economy continues to be dismal, nuclear arguments abound in certain regions and there seems to be a general uneasiness.
All this leads me to think food storage is a super good idea.
We have been continuing to figure out what works for us combined with how we normally eat in regards to food storage. Eating real food and having food storage is possible.
One of the ‘things’ with real food is real food spoils. Finding things with a shelf life that still meet the real food criteria is important and the goal for most of my food storage.
Affording food storage is another concern.
Because we choose to buy many items that are higher quality (and usually on the expensive side) our food budget gets a bit of a stretching anyway.
Is it possible to add the purchasing of food storage into a food budget without increasing the budgeted amount?
Yes! It can be done. It may take longer to reach your food storage goals but any food storage is better than none.
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Eat Beans!
Buy a big bag or two (or three) of any variety or varieties of beans you like.
Don’t just stick those beans in the pantry, eat them.
Last winter my family ate beans 3 or 4 times a week.
I know what you are thinking, ”no way could my family eat that many beans!”
Surprisingly we had very few complaints about the number of beans eaten.
One reason is I made all kinds of different bean dishes. This is a concept called “Stretchy Beans.”
I make one big pot of beans early in the week and turn it into 3 or 4 different meals. We didn’t get tired of the ‘same old beans’ because they weren’t the same old beans.
These Stretchy Beans worked in our favor in two ways.
1. I was learning tons of new ways to prepare beans. If we were ever in a situation where we were relying on beans as our food source, we’d eat well!
2. By eating beans we were cutting our food costs which allowed us to put more money toward food storage.
This is a very important concept to remember not just for food storage but to help your overall grocery budget.
Worried you won’t get enough nutrition from beans? Combine them with nutrient rich bone broth.
Remember, bone broth acts as a protein sparer allowing you to consume meat less often and still maintain excellent health. Take a look at our 13 Week Menu Plan from last winter to see what we actually ate.
Remember, don’t just eat the beans.
The money you save by eating beans can now go toward increasing your food storage.
I buy beans (and grains) in either 5 or 25 pound bags (depending on the variety and how often it fits into my 13 Week Menu Plan) from Azure Standard.
Beans, along with just about everything else, has increased in price lately. Even so, many varieties are still less than $1 per pound. How would you like to add a legume to your food storage that is only 41 cents a pound? Check out this post for more information.
Concentrate on Fats!
I think fats are super important in food storage. You don’t want to store rancid, fake fats. Grocery store shortening, canola, vegetable oil and the like are FAKE fats that will harm you instead of help you.
Even if it says heart health on the package, it’s not.
Learn more about these fake fats here. You want traditional fats. Our food storage contains coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil and animal fats. We are still light on animal fats since we only get those when processing our poultry but I guess you could say we store those on the foot. haha.
Why are fats important to your food storage?
Fats are essential for your health.
They help with brain function, they enhance the immune system, help with leaky gut and help you feel full longer along with a whole other host of benefits.
You need fats in your diet.
Not to mention, they give you energy and help you prepare foods. Think about the meals you make, now think how difficult that would be without any fat/oil. I remember watching a movie (one from the Love Comes Softly series) and one of the characters brought bear tallow as a housewarming gift. Now that is a gift!
Fats are my most expensive storage item. I’ve found that ordering in bulk (5 gallon bucket for my family of 5) is the cheapest way to purchase coconut oil. It is a chunk of change to put out at one time. 5 gallons lasts my family just over a year and the price per gallon is substantially less in this size than buying just one gallon at a time. Sales or free shipping really helps with the costs.
I order olive oil and palm oil by the gallon. Again, I use sales or free shipping.
I’ve also started storing ghee. I love ghee for cooking with and it has an excellent shelf life.
For other animal fats, you could contact local farmer/ranchers to see about getting fat to render yourself to tallow/lard. I spoke to a farmer I know about this and he said he would let me know next time he has it available.
And, of course, you could always go searching for bear tallow from your favorite bear hunter. 😉
Ferment, Ferment, Ferment!
This is a very important element to my food storage.
Fermenting is a wonderful way to extend the life of vegetables, fruits and even meats.
Not to mention the nutritional benefits of fermenting.
Fermenting can make the food more digestible (especially vegetables) plus increase vitamins, produce enzymes and even add to our overall gut health.
You want a healthy gut! Ferments can help make that happen.
If you were in times of stress (if you are relying on your food storage, that might qualify as a time of stress) maintaining a healthy gut is going to be essential.
The only drawback to ferments in your food storage is the fact that they need to be kept in cold storage. A refrigerator works perfect for this but if you are like me, you have limited space in your refrigerator.
You might consider a second fridge (try freecycle.org to find a free one) or if you have a cellar that will work wonderfully for cold storage.
We don’t have a second fridge or a cellar (we have plans to put in a cellar this year) but I do have a very cold closet. My ferments stay just fine in that space. Depending on your location (I’m in Wyoming, it gets cold here) you might have a similar space to keep your ferments. Or you may be able to come up with some other makeshift cold storage space.
Becoming comfortable with fermenting now, means you will have that skill to use in the future.
You will be able to preserve your garden produce year in and year out.
Many people that are considering food storage want to combine the storage items with their own home grown produce.
Knowing that you have several methods for preserving that produce is a relief. One of the wonderful things about ferments is it requires less water than preserving by canning. And I really like that I can do just a few jars of ferments at a time with a very short amount of hands on time.
Want to learn how to ferment just about everything? This Fermenting Cheat Sheet from Traditional Cooking Schoole will give you fermenting basics and formulas. Request your free Cheat Sheet here.
Fermenting is a very low cost preservation method. The only equipment needed is jars and salt.
We have chosen to add a considerable amount of salt to our food storage mainly for the purpose of fermenting (but also because I read Alas, Babylon and they ran out of salt. It was not pretty!). Wide mouth jars are best (I’ve used regular mouth too) and you do not need to use new lids like with conventional canning. I find that to be a plus!
Freeze It!
Many people are of the mindset that in order to have food storage it must all be shelf stable.
I admit that I lean in that direction too. However, I think the freezer is an important component to food storage as long as at least one thing is understood.
If there is a catastrophic event in which we no longer have electricity, that frozen food is not going to stay frozen too long (obvious, right?).
I still believing in stocking up the freezer to keep food on hand, purchasing at the best prices and for things like job loss.
I also have somewhat of a plan to deal with that food if there is a long term power outage. You might consider a plan for that also. We already mentioned fermenting. You can ferment some items that have been previously frozen. I’ve successfully made salsa out of frozen (thawed) tomatoes and always ferment frozen (thawed) fish. In the case of the fish, the shelf life of that ferment is less than a fermented vegetable but even buying yourself a couple of weeks to consume it can be helpful.
Do you find your freezer to be a black hole? I know I do!
When we only had the side by side freezer I was very good about keeping inventory of what was in there. But with the addition of the chest freezer that went by the wayside. By the end of July we try to have both as empty as possible to prepare for hunting season and chicken processing. In June I start the task of emptying out the freezers. Last summer we still had a lot of antelope. I became very creative at cooking antelope in different ways! This year, I’m hoping to do better at using things up regularly.
If you have the space for a second freezer buying beef in bulk could be extremely beneficial.
Not only will you have a large quantity of food on hand but buying a half or whole beef is considerably cheaper than purchasing by the cut.
Having freezer space might give you other opportunities also, you would be surprised how many times people offer me frozen meats. I guess once a person makes it known that they are comfortable with ‘weird’ cuts it opens new avenues. I’ve received several calls from people trying to empty out their freezer to put new stuff in and they want to know if I want the oxtail, liver, heart, etc. left from their last whole beef.
I always say yes.
One time I was given 2 full boxes of stuff and not all ‘weird’ cuts. I was certainly thankful for freezer space.
Another advantage to freezer space is seasonal items. Where I live (Wyoming) most chickens are only raised during the summer (free range or pastured chickens from small producers).
Being able to buy a years supply of chickens at that time and having the freezer space is nice. We don’t actually buy chickens, we raise our own but the concept is the same. We raise them during the summer and store them to have during the winter- I can’t quite store a years worth yet due to space but very close to using a few tricks.
There’s 4 out of 8. Let’s quickly review; By eating more beans (which makes a wonderful addition to your food storage) you have freed up $$ to put toward food storage, we talked about the importance of fat and where I find the best buys, I shared my love of fermenting and how that should be part of your food storage, and we talked about using the freezer.
Dehydrate!
I really enjoying using my food dehydrator.
Mine is a very basic (that means cheap) model but still does what I need it to do, just in smaller quantities. I do a lot of antelope and venison jerky. It frees up freezer space plus my girls take it in their school lunches and it makes wonderful snacks.
I also get boxes of fruit (usually from Azure Standard) when they are at a good price. With my last Azure order, I got a box of ‘juicer’ apples for $10. Those apples were wonderful for drying.
We ended up with a box of kiwi a few months back and I tried a few trays of those. They are interesting, good in small doses but super sweet. I have many more things that I want to dry.
As I mentioned, my dehydrator is a cheapy. Less than $50. Someday I hope to have an Excalibur.
There are several advantage to a dehydrator like the Excalibur. You can dry more at one time plus you can do other things like make yogurt. Very nice features.
Something to think about, if there is no electricity could you still dehydrate?
You could order a Non Electric Dehydrator or figure out a homemade version of this. My Great-Aunt dehydrated a lot of produce each summer. Outside on a homemade dehydrator. It was essentially two screen doors hinged together on legs. Brilliant!
I have a Sun Oven with a dehydrator kit added. Works great!
You can also dehydrate in your car. Cheap and easy.
Quickly and easily dehydrate your own traditional foods for long-term storage, summer-fresh flavors, good health and freedom from energy dependence whether you’re on the camping trail or in your own kitchen… The Dehydrating eBook & Video Package from Traditional Cooking School walks you through dehydrating just about everything. Go here to learn more.
Learn to Jar!
Home canning is something that I am learning thanks to lessons from friends.
I’ve done water bath canning a few times and have had one lesson in pressure canning. I do have all of the equipment for each, just haven’t taken the time to really pursue it.
I believe that there is a place for home canning in a real foods kitchen. Yes, you will lose some of the nutrients in canning, but if you compare that your home preserved goods to the commercial counterpart the choice is clear.
Home preserved.
You know exactly what went into that jar, you know the quality of the ingredients you started with. When you are building food storage to feed hungry tummy’s the loss of some nutrition is acceptable (in my opinion). Especially if you are combining it with your lacto-fermented items!
While my home preservation experience is still new, I do have goals. A friend gave me a lesson in canning meats and they turned out great!
We live in Wyoming where hunting opportunities are abundant. By having the option to can some of the meat we can really increase our wild game supply. More wild game means less beans 🙂 haha.
Our home grown chickens would also be good for canning.
Right now, I can’t quite fit enough chicken to last until the next year in the freezer (too much antelope and deer in there!)
If I can combine the freezer with canning that would be wonderful. Plus I hear that canned chicken is quite tasty especially in chicken salad sandwiches.
Beans are another item I want to can. I love the idea of having properly soaked beans that I can just open up a jar and have ready in an instant.
Broth is also on my list for the same reason.
I intend to can fruit and some vegetables. Most of my vegetables I plan to ferment as space allows.
Obviously the biggest advantage to canning over fermenting is the lack of need for cold storage. Canned food is shelf stable.
Getting set up for home canning does have some expense involved. I have a water bath canner and a pressure canner.
A pressure canner is a must for canning meats, beans and broth.
When canning new lids are require with each batch. Things to think about in storage supplies.
Also to think about, if there was a catastrophic event that knocked out the power (there I go again with my tinfoil hat) would you be able to preserve food?
That freezer that no longer works will have food going bad. If you have the ability to home preserve it you can save some/most/all of it. My stove is gas and the burners continue to work with no power (not the oven though) but if I had an electric stove I’d look for an alternative such as this outdoor camp stove.
Certain Commercially Canned Goods!
Yes, I do believe that there is a place for commercially canned items in a real food kitchen/storage.
Label reading is super important when choosing these items. Some ‘canned’ goods that I use include salmon, tuna, coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato paste, pimentos, olive, and artichoke heart all immediately come to mind.
Okay, some of those items I buy in jars but in my mind they still count as ‘canned’.
I understand that not everyone feels it is okay to use any canned goods in real food. I’m okay with that.
Just like I’m okay with the few canned goods we do use.
I really think that if food storage is a priority, especially shelf stable food storage, some canned items will be necessary. At least as an interim item.
I hope someday to be able to eliminate some of these items. Home canned and dehydrated tomatoes will replace commercially canned (if my garden ever cooperates) and we’ll use less salmon/tuna and more home canned chicken.
But for now, I’ll continue to have these commercial products that will fill my children’s stomachs in times of need and combine them with my ferments.
Cut Down on Food Waste!
You might wonder what this has to do with food storage.
Lots!
First by cutting down on food waste you will not be throwing away the money you spent on that food.
Every time food is going in the trash can so is your money.
By cutting down on food waste you are saving those food dollars and (in theory) will have more money to put toward high quality foods and food storage.
What if you could create at least one meal a week out of food that would have just ended up in the compost, down the disposal or in the garbage can?
Concentrating on eliminating food waste has been HUGE for my family. I really do believe that this (combined with eating beans) freed up a good amount of money to add to the food storage budget.
Need some ideas for cutting down on food waste?
The most obvious would be to make sure all leftovers get eaten as lunches or leftover Smorgasbord this works well if your family is okay with leftovers.
How about actually adding to your food storage while eliminating leftovers? Doesn’t that sound smart?
I was blown away when I read about that idea in an article. The idea is brilliant! Check out the post on this. If I ever have foods that I’m concerned about not using up, I’m going to implement this. Right now, we don’t really have much of a food waste issue (okay, once in a while I’ll find something forgotten in the back of the fridge looking like a science experiment but it is becoming more rare).
Wondering how we keep our food waste under control?
One thing that has been huge for us, is very similar to the Stretchy Beans concept I’ve talked about. Taking bits of leftover food and turning them into an entirely new dish. I love the results of designing a new dish in this manner. And once you know a few simple tricks the end results are not only tasty but extremely rewarding. I get all warm and fuzzy thinking about using these methods and being good stewards with our food dollars.
There you have it! 8 ideas to help you increase your food storage.
These 8 ideas are really just the tip of the iceberg. Food storage is very possible even when focusing on a real/whole/traditional foods diet.
Is food storage important to you? What are you favorite ideas or tips for adding to food storage?
Learn how to get the most nutrition from the foods you eat! You’ll love the books from my affiliate partner, Traditional Cooking School by GNOWFGLINS.
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Photo: My Dream Pantry
Holy wow, Millie! What a wonderfully-informative post, practically a book unto itself. Such great ideas… really makes me want to get our root cellar going!
Thanks Erin!
As I was writing, I thought of so many more things to say about food storage. I had to stop or else it would have been a book! I think a second post will be needed.
Oh, one other thing! I saw this today:
http://www.savefoodfromthefridge.com/
Might be right in our wheelhouses. 🙂
Yes! These are all great tips… and we do them all! Our big problem is where to keep the food in our small house. We do get creative, but someday we’ll need to go a bit further. Back in the day my kids and I had to live off my food storage because I didn’t have enough money. I never forgot that lesson 🙂
We just bought a second chest freezer, after discovering just how well the first one had paid for itself. We bought a whole cow and saved more than we spent! If electricity goes out permanently we’ll be in a mad dash to try to can and smoke as much as we can over an open fire, but for more typical emergencies, the freezer works well. If full, it stays cold for a good long while during temporary power losses, as well.
Hi Joy!
Space is an issue here also. You have some great suggestions in the post you linked! Outside storage here is not easy. It gets too cold and everything freezes. I recently bought some new shelving and that has helped tremendously. It was very inexpensive and the kind that allows adjustments for the shelves. I feel like I have a ton of room now! Can’t wait to put in another Azure order 🙂
We talked about a second freezer but until we get a shop/garage built we have no space for it. My husband would love to fill a second freezer with an elk.
I’m jealous! We don’t have anyplace to put new shelving… well, maybe we could do something like mount shelves all along the walls just under the ceiling in every room. Actually, I kind of like that idea 🙂
Our freezers are totally full of beef, chicken, and frozen fruit, but we dream of deer or elk, too… and lamb, and pork…
I put an RSS feed on craigslist for an Excalibur Dehydrator. It took three months of waiting, but I finally found one, it was a 9-tray (bonus!) and it was only $75! I hopped right on that one, cause I’d had three months to save the money in small bits. I LOVE my cheap Excalibur!
That is so smart! I’ve looked on craigslist but never thought of doing a feed. Funny thing about craigslist here. We have one for our entire state 🙂
I can, freeze and dehydrate. Storage is an issue here also. But you can easily fit 500 canning jars under a queen bed! I can fit 3 bushel of peppers into a gallon jar when dehydrated. Also, cosider buying reusable canning jars an expensive investment if you can alot but pays for itself may times over. CCanned meat is very handy, just open and you are ready to go! I love canning deer for beef stew. And chicken for dumplings and noodle soup.
Do you use the Tattlers? Do they work well? I’ve wondered about them but haven’t pursued it. I like that they are BPA free also.
I did canned meat for the first time a few months ago. A mix of antelope and deer. We love it! 500 jars, that is impressive 🙂
I used tattles (I got 8 dozen I believe) for the first time last year and they did quite well. They had a better seal rate (not quite 100%, but close) than the regular lids that I used. I am looking forward to using them another season and will probably be buying more before long.
Good to know Abbi! They sound like they are worth the investment.
I’ve been looking all over the place for information on using the Tattler lids in the freezer, but have come up short. Have you tried freezing with them, Abbi? I believe they’re safe, being biphenol-a free, but have been trying to find out for sure.
Lots of good information here. Thanks for such a good coverage of this issue.
Thank you! I’m pretty sure I’ll be writing a follow up in the near future. There is so much more I could add.
What a great post on an important subject! You have a lot of great information here but don’t forget about freeze dried foods, which happen to be VERY healthy. I am a consultant for a company called SHELF RELIANCE and I sell and teach about these amazing and nutritious, delicious foods which have a 25 year shelf life. Check out my website and email me for a free sample of our yummy fruits and veggies which are 100% preservative, artificial color and artificial flavor FREE. Our fruits, veggies and meats are simply the food that has been freeze dried as is-the way God made them. This process is basically high temperature freezing while “vacuuming” off the moisture, so that it retains more nutrients than most canned or other “forms” of food. I am a believer in having a well rounded pantry and all of your suggestions in conjunction with freeze dried foods DO provide a great balanced larder. Check it out and thanks again for the great post!
Jen,
Thanks! I seriously could have written a small book! I am glad that I decided it would be 8 Things and 8 Things only when I started writing 🙂 I’m thinking a follow up post is in order.
This is a wonderful post,I’m trying more and more to grow,or raise all our own food. Storing it will become a challenge, canning, dehydrating, freezing are all in my plan, thank you very much for such a great post.
Thanks Sherry! Storage is definitely something to think about.
Curious how you render fat from the chickens. I’ve done this with pigs but never with chickens. How to you store it once it’s rendered? Great post by the way. Just added you to my favorites!!! Thanks.
Hi Lisa,
I’ve not done pork but I think it is pretty much the same. Only maybe smaller batches 🙂 We process our own chickens so it all starts there. I save the extra fat in the freezer in 1/2 quart size containers. When I’m ready to render, I thaw it out and then cut it into small chunks about 1 inch in size. I use my deep cast iron skillet and cook it over medium low heat. Stirring as needed and removing the fat as it starts to accumulate. You may need to keep an eye on your heat and adjust up or down as necessary. I keep doing that until it stops releasing. I store the rendered fat in a jar in the fridge. It keeps for quite some time. I do duck fat the same way. You could probably use a crock pot to render if you wanted but since I do such small batches the stove top seems to work very well. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the reply. We kill our own chickens also. We leave ours whole with the skin on. Will try it different next time. Thanks for the info. Its hard to find many people who process chickens.
Lisa,
We leave some of ours whole and some we cut in pieces (to be able to fit more in the freezer). The ones that we leave whole, we trim the skin in some areas (I watched a Joel Salatin video that showed him doing that so we started) and that skin is saved for rendering. When we cut the chickens, the breast skin doesn’t stay on very well (even though we want it to) so that is also saved.
We also raise our own chickens. Some Cornish cross and some heavy breed capons. We nearly always cut up the Cornish cross and wrap the parts. All fat and skin goes into roasting pans and into a low oven (300 or less) and they cook overnight. We strain the schmaltz off and save the cooked skins for treats for the dogs. We pressure can the schmaltz. All carcasses go into a huge industrial size pot we bought years ago to simmer for broth on a turkey fryer burner. We can this broth as well.
For the capons, we generally freeze these whole. When we roast them, we strain off the schmaltz to use “fresh”, keeping it in the fridge (or on the counter in cooler weather). Then we use the carcasses for broth, which we also use “fresh”.
Next we would like to learn to make confit…preserving cooked meat in the fat.
Great post. Heaps of good ideas. Have to get the dehydrater out of the cupboard, stock up on beans and be more creative with our leftovers!! Just for starters!! Thanks again!!
Thanks Nona, You could just pick on thing to start with and then move on to the next. Being more creative with leftovers would free up $$ to put towards beans 🙂
These are AMAZING tips.
Especially the bean one. Lots of people store up foods that they either don’t like eating or don’t know how to cook. It’s important to practice cooking with your stored food so (God forbid!) if an emergency strikes you’re used to eating it and know how to cook it.
One thing that’s lacking in so many of the posts I read on storing food is the need to STORE WATER. Humans can live for weeks with no food but can survive only a few days without water. Don’t forget to stock up on water as you store up food!
Yes! You are so right. I should have mentioned water. I’ll make sure to address that in my follow up post.
I absolutely believe that if we are going to store foods, we should know how to cook them and be comfortable with eating them. It doesn’t do me any good to store xxxx if I have no idea how to prepare it or if my family won’t eat it.
I came by from Blogelina and I sure am glad! With the price of gas skyrocketing, food prices are too! I try so hard to not waste, it’s not always easy.
The one thing I didn;t realize was your tip about eating beans. I forget how nutritious and relatively inexpensive they are. I love beans!
Thx,
~Allie
Millie, I soak and cook up pots of beans to use on a regular basis, then I freeze pint and quart jars of the beans to use in various dishes and other ways. If we should hit a problem with electricity out would come the pressure canner, and I could can them. Reminds me of a time many years ago that we had a late spring snow, the left us without electricity for most of a week. Because I had planned to can meat for the summer, to use in camp, (we went to the mountain with the livestock) I just pulled out the canner, cooked the meat and went to work. No meat lost, all meat canned, summer taken care off. ( We didn’t have a lot of freezer room back then, so that was workable.
Inviting you the Carnival of Home Preserving on my blog every Friday. Hope to see you there. Laura Williams’ Musings
The most recent edition – http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2012/06/carnival-of-home-preserving-13-come.html – open until Thursday 6/7.
Please tell me what ghee is. I have heard this word used before, but haven’t an idea what it means.
For Terralee Rich – ghee is clarified butter. I bought some today in the ethnic food section of my big box grocer. You can also make it yourself with easy directions you can find online. Not difficult. It is used a lot in Indian cuisine.
Excellent write-up as usual. I appreciate the straight forward nature of your articles. Informative and authentic.
I’ve never considered food storage to be “tin foil hat” scenario, but I get what you mean. Some people think that a cupboard full of food/supplies is crazy or unnecessary. However, the world *is* unstable, and any event can make food acquisition a challenge. Consider how people flock to the store to buy water/milk and bread when a storm is expected to roll through. Now imagine not even having to consider doing that as someone who already has food, water, and other provisions handy–as part of their normal day to day life. Or job loss, decreased hours or wages, etc. Seems that would take the potential anxiety of many situations down significantly. So whether the preparation is for a global catastrophic event or a power outage that effects only your household, it is smart to have things already on hand; lends further to self-sufficiency, too. I’d really rather not have to seek help from someone who had the forethought to be prepared, or worse, a governing agency. Furthermore, other than produce, I don’t want to run to the store all the time for every little thing–that adds gas, time, effort to an already busy schedule. As for cost savings, prices only go up. Your money is worth more now, then it will be later. Since these are consumables, it makes sense to purchase food and supplies in the present moment.
I’m nowhere close to where I want to be with food storage, especially in terms of real food. Canning, freezing and fermenting will all be part of that. There had been a couple of times that I went through my supplies (back injury/lost employment–stressful, but at least I didn’t have to worry much about food, and other sundries!), then built them back up, but in the last couple of years I have been using items and not replacing them.
For anyone who hasn’t begun, figure out how much your family needs for three days, then purchase what is needed for that. Then build to a week, then a month, then three months, etc, until you feel comfortable with what you have. Purchase a few extra items at each grocery trip, and tuck them away. In time you will have built a bounty without even realizing it.
Slipping my tin foil hat on (haha), since you mentioned Alas,Babylon, a few other notable eye opening books are: One Second After, Lucifers Hammer, and Earth Abides.
Hi Carey,
I would have never thought food storage needed a tin foil hat either until I was talking with someone about it and they looked at me like I was a loon–wearing a tin foil hat!
I love our food storage for many of the reasons you listed. Recently we’ve been eating mostly from food storage while we’ve been spending our cash on medical care. It has come in super handy! Last night I made a delicious soup out of dried veggies that I prepared last fall. It was so nice to be able to go to the cabinet and pull out what I needed.
I’ve read One Second After several times. Very eye opening. I read Lucifer’s Hammer also pretty good. I hadn’t even heard of Earth Abides but just looked it up and think I would like it. Thanks for the suggestion!
I enjoyed your article and all messages following it 🙂 I have also read One Second After, and Lights Out….Both good books, but One Second After really affected me….if something happens, I know MY family won’t be starving!! I can, dry, freeze, but am always looking for more ideas! Thanks for sharing your ideas with us!
Wow you have a lot to learn Home canning eazy presure cooker everything all vegies need presure cooked allmeat very easy put raw in jar add salt put on lid presure cook makes it own jiuce dehydrating everything every fruit and vegie no need for expensive one by at yard sale i have 3 put whole mezals in a bag even a pie just add water you have a lot to learn girl its fun Im raised 6 kids this way no elc or gas use a camp fire like your grandma did good luck have fun quit freezing squash will last all winter packed in a cool dry place paced in straw Iam 72 been doing it a long time
I use all leftovers in what I call clean out the refigreator stew. Just put everything in a pot. Warm it up and add spices & herbs to your taste. It’s very good. The flavor is in the herbs & spices you add to the stew. I use garlic & basil, salt & pepper. Please use a little at a time, heat it up for a few minutes,then taste it.Remember you probably have some flavors in your leftovers. Repeat until it is your taste. Also do not use a bunch of differetnt ones. They will counteract with one another and taste horrible.
Wow, thanks so much for all the great information! I’m an avid canner, and well used to keeping a big supply of food on hand due to our rural location, but you’ve opened a whole new subject for me- fermentation. Going to check out your links to learn more. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the great ideas, Millie. I’m sharing this with my girls to generate some more discussion on how we can free up more money for food storage!