Your food stash

Now that I have a bit more time, I’d like to finish the post I meant to write yesterday about food.

Food being at the top of your needs SHTF or not, I’ve always advised to keep 6-12 months for emergencies.

What I don’t remember ever doing is actually showing what kind of food I do store.

Nothing out of the ordinary, it’s not space age food that will last 100 yrs in a volcano, but its normal food anyone can buy the next time they visit the supermarket.

This is just a small selection of what I store lots of, there’s some obvious things missing, like cheese (which we eat a lot of) , salt, sugar, tea , oil, coffee, frozen and canned vegetables, chocolate and milk, just to mention a few.
Still, all of these items, except for the frozen meat, will easily last 2 years as long as it’s kept in a dark, dry place away from insects and pests.

This is easy, cheap, and you can do it in a small apartment.

For guys that store loads of buckets and choose to keep their food that way, that’s just great, more power to you.

Money difference isn’t that much if you consider all the expenses and I’d rather have the food supply distributed in smaller serving packets, in at least three locations around the house. That way if something bad happens I don’t loose all of it. If a pack of rice has bugs, it’s just that one pack and not an entire bucket full of it.

I suppose it makes sense if you store much larger quantities. Even if more food is always better, for me 6 to 12 months is a nice amount.
If something that bad happens, it’s more than enough time to move, plan what you are going to do with your life.

If something that serious occurs, you should really be somewhere else.

Again if you are already into food storage and have it all figured out, don’t even bother reading.
I’m writing this for the average guy that barely has a month worth of food in the house, if lucky.

OK, lets go from left to right, top to bottom.

Tang

Lots of vitamins, and at least it gives water some taste when having dinner. You can store it for a couple years, though I doubt vitamins will be there. Just the sugar and orange flavor I guess. Try to rotate this according to it’s expiration date to make sure the vitamins are there when you need them.

Tuna. canned and in tin foil

Love this stuff. Specially the tinfoil which is also light!
Get the one in oil. (more calories) Tuna has lots of proteins, Omega 3, tastes good, and you can mix it up with rice or lentils for a nice nutritious meal. Canned tuna will easily last 3 years without loosing it’s flavor.

Rice

This thing keeps the Chinese nation fed, along with many other nations. A rice stew is something common, using any leftovers you may have in hand, you can combine it with a million other things.
Kept dry and out of the reach of bugs, it will store for years.



Dehydrated smashed potatoes.

I like this stuff a lot. It stores almost indefinitely as long as it’s kept dry. Incas used to make something similar. Look:

“The Incas had an interesting way of dehydrating potatoes. Small potatoes were placed outside on the ground at high elevations to freeze during the night. The next morning the potatoes would be gathered into piles. The men and women would stomp on them which would cause the water to squirt out. When they wanted to use the dehydrated potatoes they would just add water. “

http://coe.fgcu.edu/STUDENTS/WEBB/MESO/incafood.htm

Potatoes are ones of the basic food staples around the world. Small light pack that stores indefinitely and just needs water? Priceless.

Pizza mix

It stores well, it’s cheap, you just need to add water, tomato sauce and some cheese. Not as easy as frozen pizza but easy enough for me, the pizza tastes better than anything you buy from the store, and I don’t need a freezer to keep it.
At least this particular brand I buy, tastes better than the one I do myself with flour. ( Pizza Hut not included, we don’t have Pizza hut here any more, they went broke after the crisis :( )

Lentils

If you can only eat two or three staples, make sure Lentils is one of your top choices. It’s one of the most nutritious foods in the planet, has lots of health benefits.
Health magazine has selected lentils as one of the five healthiest foods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentil

Protein, iron, calories, fiber, dietary fiber, Folate, vitamin B1, and minerals, lentils has it all, or at least most of it covered. :)

Dried Pasta

I suppose many poor countries are basically fed on one kind of dried pasta or another. A plate of dried pasta with tomato sauce will keep your belly full and your body going for another day.
Many children here have been living for years on dried pasta and little else. Cheap too, easy to find and store for long periods of time.

Tomato Sauce

This is one of those things you need mostly to give taste to most of the other staples you have. I use sauce a lot, on my pasta, pizza, lentil stew, tuna and veggie pie mix.
It stores pretty well too due to the acid content. If it tastes too acid, ½ a spoon of sugar will fix it ( 85 yr old grandma tip ;) )

Frozen meat

I keep canned meat and a lot of tuna, but fresh meat, ( or almost fresh meat) is important for your diet and you either have to freeze it or have your own critters in your back yard for when you need them.

Someone asked at Minion forum the other day, what to store in a deep freeze chest. I told him to keep at least 2/3 of it full of meat.

I keep it in ziplock bags, three portions of meat in each (3 family members) . Makes thigns a lot easier.

Dulce de Leche

This is probably something you never ate before but it can be considered a basic food item around here. People mostly eat it with bread or crackers for breakfast. It’s simply boiled condensate milk with sugar, brown with a thicker texture. Most Americans that tried it find it to be a bit too sweet, but it’s a terrific source of fat and sugar to boost your body.
The one pictured is canned and lasts for a long time if stored properly.

Flour

Nothing you don’t already know about flour can be added. Just have enough around. I used to buy a pack every time I went to the supermarket until I built up a nice supply, and then rotated it.

Mate, and mate implements.

Don’t think many drink mate outside of South America, except for maybe Vigo Mortensen that lived here most of his childhood and doesn’t go anywhere without his mate. According to what he said in an interview, he usually tries to find another Argentine to drink mate with on stage during his films, some of the prop or stage workers.

Some say mate has all the minerals your body needs to live. I don’t know if that’s true o not, but poor people drink mate a lot, that’s for sure.
It’s also kind of therapeutic, calm down a moment and sip some mate, alone or with friends, in which case you always share mate. Not sharing mate with your friends is pretty much an insult, and don’t even think about mentioning spit and germs, you might as well say you are getting a sex change next week. :)

Well, that’s it for now guys. Lots of things I didn’t mention but this is a beginners guide to know what to pic a bit extra next time you go to the supermarket, so you can start building up your food stash.

FerFAL