Post your food storage staples
 

For those of us fairly new in the self reliance game...what has worked out well in terms of storage items and where did you buy the bulk items.

I've been hearing about these potato flakes. I am thinking about putting this up as an item. So far, I have done buckets with flour, sugar, oats, rice, and have done half gallon jars with my fav coffee, chocolate, bean mix. I have bought bulk yeast and started making my own bread. VERY REWARDING! :wink:

All in all I am better off than I was 6 months ago, BUT I NEED MORE, and I NEED IDEAS :10_1_19:

I need bulk dried milk, eggs, oil, butter maybe. I've also been stocking up on cases of Mexican Coca Cola, and will be picking up a case of Jack Daniels whiskey. :565:

Help a young buck out.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

I got some big cans of dried mash potatoes.
and some spam.
also some rice, and peanut butter.
and a lot of vodka.

That runs out i will probably eat my neighbors dogs.
If it gets real bad, I can just go kill that moose hanging around the back yard all the time.

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frozen tote of pink salmon goes a long way full. fried,baked,dried,canned,boiled,salted,steamed. a different meal every day of the week!

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Why the Mex Coca-Cola.....because of glass bottles?

Gravy mixes or canned if your not good at making it , even if you are. Gravy makes mundane items like rice and taters pallitable.

Canned butter & cheese.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

I didn't see beans on your list (OK, I see the beans now!). I've got sacks full of dried beans of all kinds: pintos (refried beans!), kidney beans (chili!), black beans, navy beans, white beans, lentils, split peas, garbanzos. Good food there, and cheap! And popcorn-10-25# sack of kernels; not the microwave cr@p (gotta have snacks, and can grind into cornmeal). Also pasta, and (of course) lots of canned food. Oil. I hear shortening has a better shelf life, but we buy cooking oil in bulk anyway. Salt. Sugar.

And if you're in a stable place, plant some food trees asap. Whatever grows where you are. And get some chickens already. Better than dried eggs. And way better than eating your neighbors dog! :puke:

Also: Where can I get bulk booze? Are there discounts by the case? Lots of good holiday spirits sales now, but I'm looking for more & cheaper!

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

My list of foods put up for a rainy day or when TSHTF:

Pinto Beans 2 50 LB Bags.
RICE 4 50 LB Bags
Brown Rice 4 25 LB Bags
Sugar 1 50 LB Bag
Brown Rice Flour 4 25 LB Bags
Bread flour 2 50 LB Bags
Std Flour 1 50 LB Bag

Dry Goods
Stored in large Freezer
Kraft Mac & Cheese 10 cases.




Can Goods



Canned spaghetti "O's" 4 cases.
REFRIED BEANS 6 cases 6/10 size, 4 cases 2 lb size can.

List is long too tired to finish it now.

.
FUEL STORAGE 4 of these.
http://web.govliquidation.com/auctio...50&picNumber=1

Water Storage for drinking showering etc 2 20K Gallon Stainless steel tanks buried in hill.
Water Storage for Fire protection 4 20K Gallon reclaimed steel gas tanks.







Mexican Coca-Cola has or at least had real sugar and not the HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup that 99% of soda's have today.

So its not as bad for you, Yes Sugar will still eat your teeth but HFCS is much worse healthwise.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

I didn't know that about Mex coke....and I would trust the glass bottles much better (no leaching) for long term storage.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

canned refried beans,canned tuna , SPAM, garden seeds,peanut butter, oatmeal,salt, sugar,HONEY, mre cases, sterno, everclear, canned fruit, beans,rice,cooking oil,powdered eggs,bulk tea, instant coffee,tomato paste,tomato sauce,baby wipes, stainless steel utensils,........................22 ammo for small game,nets, fishing gear,snares. that takes caRE OF THE BUGOUT VEHICLE/CAMPING VAN.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Yep that's my understanding of it.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...b9mexcoke.html

Also the Dr Pepper from Texas.
http://www.dublindrpepper.com/

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

The Mexican coke is made with sugar, not HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP... corn syrup is diabetes in a bottle. It also doesn't have the flouride if I stand correct.

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Think I'll hit costco and get 50 lbs of bread flour and some other items. Where is the best place to get whole wheat?

I've read that the red wheat can be milled into flour. I'll need a grain mill too.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Make sure you USE what you store too.....don't put away buckets of whole wheat and a grain mill "for someday".....use them now to get familiar with how they work, and how to work with hand ground whole wheat flour......it ain't Pilsberry.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Good point....also your body needs to get used to it. If it's used to eatting worthless over processed stuff.

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Well I've been eating right for the last two yrs so my body has normalized. Emergency essentials has those superpails. I'm thinking of getting the dried milk, and red wheat. I should be able to find the wheat at a feed store no?

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Generally you should also get the Hard white winter wheat berries and mix it with the red...I have a Country Living mill with power bar and bean auger....it will set you back some bucks but it will be around for someone to inherit =)

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I have switched focus on my preps. When I started I stored mountain house and super pails of beans and rice. Now I am storing stuff we use on a regular basis.

I already made the transition to dried milk last year.

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The dried milk is pricey! 120$ per superpail. Gotta do what I gotta do...I have a nice lady from one of the feed stores calling around for wheat.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Off the top of my head, the staples of my food preps are:

rice
beans
potatoe flakes
all types of canned veggies
tuna both in cans and pouches
small canned hams
treat meat
canned spagetti and meatballs
Honeyville milk replacement powder (ordered from MRE Depot)
Honeyville powdered eggs (ordered from MRE Depot)
canned cheese (ordered from MRE Depot)
oats
dry pasta
mac and cheese
tuna helper
whey protein powder
saltine crackers
various spices, sauce mixes, and gravy mixes
peanut butter
honey
molases
sugar
various jellies and preserves
bisquick
ramen noodles

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Don't forget cocoa powder if you have any chocoholics in the family.

If you have any acreage, a milk cow is the best food storage you can buy. Fresh raw milk can provide a family with a lot of nutrition, and butter can provide you with fat after your stored oils run out. In my raw milk book, there is a story about 2 men early in the 1900's who each drank lye as a toddler, burning out their esopahagus. They both grew into healthy adults by only drinking raw milk, because that was all they could swallow. Also yogurt is very healthy for you.

For storing herbal preparations, tinctures are a much better choice than dried herbs. Dried herbs lose potency rather quickly, but tinctures will last for years.

Vodka to make your own herbal tinctures.

Plenty of good salt. Salt is critical for health and food preservation. Redmonds or sea salt can provide you with important minerals.

Open-pollinated garden seeds.

A hand powered pasta maker can add variety to what you can do with your wheat storage.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Yes, very pricey so I only have one superpail. Yesterday, I just mylared and O2 absorbered some Nonfat dry milk fortified with vitamins A&D I found at Krogers. Packed in a five gallon bucket and also some 1/2 gallon jars.It also had some recipes on the outer cover which I carefully removed and packed in the bucket. I think this is the exact same stuff that is in the superpails from emergency essentials. Might be an option for you especially if you hit a sale.

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How much did those hit for at the kroger?

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Not sure my husband picked them up and I burned the boxes in my fire pit since. I have done a lot of prepping lately and had piles of card board to get rid of....sorry I do have one of the smaller boxes I bought which didn't make it to the fire. It says net weight 25.6 OZ and it was 5.99. No tax on food where I live. BTW I am trying not to order too much stuff from big mail order...I am starting to get paranoid about the delivery people...this stuff sometimes comes with Items listed on the boxes...

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I think the biggest mistake I made in food storage was storing too much whole wheat (probably a result of panic buying). Making bread is a lot more work then cooking pasta. Also I have hundreds of pounds too much rice. Damn Sam's club. If I had to do it over I would mostly store pasta and dehydrated potatos in place of the whole wheat. I could eat pasta or hashbrowns almost every day, but hey, at least I got a lot of wheat and rice. :biggrin:

I think the general recomendations for food storage are way out dated. Who eats 300 pounds of wheat in a year? That more then double what Americans eat even in its processed forms. Who eats 75 pounds of beans a year? Not even Mexicans eat anywhere near that. Americans only eat about 7 pounds per year. You probably have more rice stored then chinese people eat per year (I know I do). On the other hand Americans eat over 65 pounds of tomato products per year and over 125 pounds of potatoes per year, yet those end up in the optional category of food storage. :thumb.aspx:

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Store what you eat....eat what you store...I have an intolerance for cooked tomatos can eat raw but they don't store. My family loves beans so I'm sure 75lbs would be alright for us. Think burritos, baked, soups etc.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

You may be right. On the other hand, I think the food storage lists are intended primarily for people who cook from scratch. If you had to cook your own bread, hamburger buns, biscuits, etc. (because the commercial producdts weren't available), you'd find yourself using a lot of wheat. In addition it is used a thickener in many other things such as gravy. Heck, the Navy bean soup recipe that I prepared yesterday called for whole wheat flour. After I retired in 2005, we started cooking all our meals from scratch and find ourselves using lots of basic ingredients.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Dont forget spices and livestock, chickens etc.

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Bulk bags of flour all-purpose & bread,
bulk bags of sugar,
bulk bags of rice,
All the wheat I want but it's all soft white I'll need some hard red,
canned veg's, fruit, soups, & chili all store bought on specials,
bags of rolled & quick oats,
spagetti noodles & jars of sauce,
honey, applesauce,
ketchup, mayo, soy sauce, coca mix,
to start with...

I didn't notice anyone above with store bought chili, is there something about it I don't know?:no_ma:

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Thanks for all the input folks. Keep it coming! Maybe we can even post recipes?

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

I don't buy canned chili because it has so many kidney beans in it, and I have big sacks of dried kidney beans. Also, the way we cook, all our leftovers seem able to devolve into chili. Leftover spaghetti sauce, salsa, or meat dishes of almost any sort can be dumped into a crock pot w/ some chili powder, extra tomatoes, onions, beans and whatever else. Chili!

But canned chili's fine, I'm sure, and makes a good MRE.

(Note to self: Add bulk chili powder to preps)

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Can you use rock salt to help preservation of meats

Re: Post your food storage staples
 

Potatoe flakes here too - Canned chili - canned fish - canned fruits - canned veggies - Turkey Spam - tomatoe sauce - canned gravy are my staples - good 10 lbs of brown rice and pasta too. I don't have buckets full of stuff - just closets full of that stuff - that I am rotating. Basically eating everything I prep. If I had room I might do the buckets thing - but where I am I have enough food for 2 for 6 months to a year - beyond 6 months there is plenty to forgage for around here - if need be.

I think canned chili si one of the best - easy to store preps. There are different brands - some absoultey are nasty - so make sure you like the stuff you get. Some brands are great for adding stuff too - others like Stag - are way to chunky (but my fav) to use as base for a dish. hormel and others are more liquid and dont have so many whole beans - great for over rice or potatoes or adding whole beans to imo. Chili lasts a long time and you can get great deals on it. Full of protien - calories and fat - hard to beat for the price/ease of serving IMO.

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Been milling my flour for over a year now. For me, the white soft wheat is my majority holding. It is for pancakes, waffles, and pie crusts. I've had miserable luck with bread from hard red, but even that bread is tasty and I set my bar a little too high.
Get a pressure cooker if you want to make beans.
Just spaced out and a thought came to mind-I make my waffles and cakes without milk. A little vinegar imparts a buttermilk tone and helps kick soda/ baking powder into gear.