Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

In your household, how many 5 gallon buckets do you maintain for storing dry goods?

In order to standardize the responses, please approximate number of 5 gallon PER adult. (Fractionals for kids--though I would sometimes swear that my four-year-old eats more than I do.)

Oops--I meant to also say assuming a one-year supply of food.

Re: Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

Don't know....never counted. I think it wouldn't mean a whole lot anyway......5 gallons of beans isn't equal to 5 gallons of salt, nutrition wise, but both are handy to have.

You'd be better off asking in terms of calories ( for a rough estimate, still not the best calculator ) or something like that.

Re: Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

AUGH, Andy!

Can you estimate? I'm trying to figure out if 80 4-gallon square buckets is over the top to store dry goods for a little over 5 people for one year. (Assuming that my mom and dad don't kill each other first--they're divorcees.) Then 4 people, but maybe I should stock up extra medical supplies.

Oh--we might almost be neighbors one day. Got undeveloped land in Kentucky and relatives in TN. :15_1_70v:

Re: Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

I seem to recall that an adult requires about one pound of dry/dried food per day. Assuming 30-40 lbs of dry foodstuffs per bucket you get 10 buckets per person per year.

Re: Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

I don't know exactly, but we've got at least 12 six-gallon buckets per person, not counting some "experimental buckets" (like pasta...to see how long it keeps). I have a lot of my long-term food storage in #10 cans, though. I just use the buckets for rice, pinto beans (the only type sold in bulk around here; I have other types of beans in #10 cans), some of our red wheat storage (some is also in cases of #10 cans), and sugar. I need to add another bucket or two of sugar, and as soon as I can find kosher salt (or its equivalent...something that can be used for meat preservation) in bulk-sized packages, I'll add some buckets of that, too.

Re: Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

Thank you so much! I hope my barrels will be in next week, and I'll post a happy dance then.

I decided to go ahead and purchase most of the barrels, and supplement with ones I can scrounge from food establishments.

Onward to mylar bags and O2 absorbers...

Re: Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

You might try www.bulkfoods.com

I've bought 25 lb bags of black beans from them, hot wasabi peas (total YUM!), bulk nuts, dried fruit, spices, chicken base, cereals, rice and Haribo gummi bears from them. A couple years ago we ordered a variety of dried fruits, arranged them and made Christmas presents for everybody in the extended family. Just to warn ya' though--five pounds of dried chamomile flowers (purchased two years ago) goes a looooooong way. :10_1_20:

Re: Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

I'm making as much beef jerky, and dried fruits, as I can.

But nothing beats cream, butter, and meat. These are essential for any diet. Maybe the fats can be had from other stable animal sources, like Cod Liver Oil (very necessary vit A and D oils). This comes in handy for absorption of the other vitamins. If you're walled up in a house without much sun, you might want something like this too, with vit D.

I can recommend country life's brand A&D from vitacost.com. It only contains cod liver oil.

I know fats get a bad rap in the U.S. brainwashed media market and doctors. But the doctors want to kill you, so they can enjoy you dying while they make bucu bucks off your cancer or whatever other disease you get. Fats do not make you fat*, and are entirely necessary for good nerve function. The kind of car bumper (hydrogenated fats) in the US are a one-way ticket to bad health. I don't trust the dairy there either. Organic is available, but stay away from generic (i.e. corporate) organic, or better yet, know the farmer.

For 5 gal bucket sizes, Ghee or Gee is made which removes the dairy solids, which I think is the bit which makes butter turn rancid the fastest. It is a natural method the Indians (and I do not mean First Nations Peoples) use to store butterfat longer. I am sure recipes are online. It involves heating a lot of butter in a pot, then ladling off the oil at just the right temperature. There is some natural foods organization in the USA which promotes the kind of diet I am talking about. They are publicly behind allowing non-pasteurized dairy, as enjoyed in many places in Europe.

So I suppose if you could fit a goat in there, in your back yard, not the bucket, this might be a handy item. I don't know. One doesn't fit on my balcony.

*It calms you down, cheers you up, and makes you feel good. Also makes you feel full, because key body indicators are tuned to fat intake, not carbohydrates. Feeling good, could be really important when your dictator-group is doing everything they can to fill you with 24/7 fear.

One more point: it should go without saying, to not put anything at all which contains MSG or MSG-type products (hydrolyzed vegetable protein comes to mind), or any artificial sweeteners (or white sugar) in your stored food, or consume them in this run-up to marshal law/breakdown/whatever. These are terrible and, except for white sugar (refined sugar which has nothing left in it but sugar crystals), puts holes in your brain, literally. That is results of the medically-sound and scientifically verifiable studies regarding aspartame/nutrasweet. These products are destroying many people now in the U.S., making them unfit to defend themselves in a situation of marshall law and tyranny, which is essentially the situation now. I guess flouride didn't work fast enough for these bozos.

I thought of the above paragraph warning, when I read about the wasabi peas. I love them too, but too often they are made with artificial colorings and flavorings, so I will not eat them.

Re: Quick questions--how many 5 gallon buckets?
 

Generally, something like dried beans will give you about 100 calories per 1/2 cup cooked....and a pound will yield about 20 -1/2 cups cooked.....so a lb = somewhere in the 2000 calorie range.

5 gallon buckets will hold 35-40lbs.....I assume 4 gallon buckets something on the order of 30lbs.