Check out site I found for using food storage

[Pirtykitty]

I found this site a few days ago for using your food storage..

www.everydayfoodstorage.net



http://everydayfoodstorage.net/10daychallenge

 

[ORChick]

Interesting site. But I already use my food storage when I cook. That's why I have it, so that I can cook without going shopping. Store what you eat, eat what you store

 

[JRmom]

"Are you afraid your family would starve if they had to actually live off your food storage?"

Good grief, no! I'll admit I have some powdered milk in my food storage, but the rest is stuff we eat every day. I don't understand why in the world someone would stockpile food that they wouldn't eat anyway.

 

[Wifezilla]

I have stuff in storage that we don't normally eat and don't keep in our usual rotation, but I have Max! He would eat everything when I am not looking if I had "normal" food in the stash. Store what you eat, eat what you store IS the smart way to do it, but that doesn't work in all cases.

That being said, I tested and experimented with every item in my stash (like quinoa, amaranth, etc...) except for the kamut. I will get to that soon. Hubby loved being a guinea pig

 

[old fashioned]

With all due respect, I can think of 2 reasons. And both are in a SHTF situation........

1. to use for bartering. Even if your family doesn't like it or wouldn't eat it, someone else will & they may have something that to them is yucky, but gourmet for you.

2. If it got bad enough & you've already eaten the rest of your supplies & were faced with the choice of eating what you once considered inpalatable or starving....well, atleast you had that and it would probably taste pretty good under those circumstances.

 

[ORChick]

With all due respect, I can think of 2 reasons. And both are in a SHTF situation........

1. to use for bartering. Even if your family doesn't like it or wouldn't eat it, someone else will & they may have something that to them is yucky, but gourmet for you.

2. If it got bad enough & you've already eaten the rest of your supplies & were faced with the choice of eating what you once considered inpalatable or starving....well, atleast you had that and it would probably taste pretty good under those circumstances.

Very good points, and something to think about. However, in my case, there is virtually nothing that I would stock that is unpalatable to us both. DH likes instant pudding and ramen noodles, so I have some of both , and I try to keep a reasonable supply of cheese on hand, which DH won't eat . But everything else in my pantry, and I have quite a variety, is stuff we both eat ... now, and later. Now, perhaps I could stock up on Cheez-whiz (on sale of course), and use it for barter, as neither of us would eat it, but I think the chances of needing something like that to barter is less than the need to use my food budget money for things that we actually do eat.
I'm not trying to argue here; I know everyone's situation is different, and not everybody likes/can eat the wide variety that we thrive on. Also, we all have different reasons for keeping the pantry stocked. My reasons aren't necessarily yours, but they are both valid.

 

[Britesea]

I've always bought a few more than I needed of the foods and non-foods that we use, but I never actually tried to have more than a half-dozen of anything on hand. Now that we are moving toward SS, I'm trying to work out how much I would need for 6 months or more (a lot of work!) We don't have enough money to just go to the store and buy 300 pounds of wheat at one time, but we bought 50 pounds. It will take a looong time to have a whole year's worth of food since we continue to eat from our stores. Once my garden starts yielding more than a few salads a week, maybe it will go faster. I just hope I can get up to speed before SHTF, if it's gonna
Right now I'm dehydrating a 25 pound sack of onions we got on sale....

I was gifted with some tobacco seeds earlier this year which I've planted. Neither of us smoke, but I figured I could turn some of it into insecticide, and the extra could be bartered

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Around Halloween, I go to Sam's and get those huge bags of dum-dum suckers. Only have 2 so far. They store really well. I plan to barter those because we really don't eat hard candy.

I like the huge sales around holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Can find really good deals on potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, batteries and more. After Christmas is a good time to get scented candles. All in all, it's a good time to stock up, dehydrate the foods and store the rest.

 

[JRmom]

With all due respect, I can think of 2 reasons. And both are in a SHTF situation........

1. to use for bartering. Even if your family doesn't like it or wouldn't eat it, someone else will & they may have something that to them is yucky, but gourmet for you.

2. If it got bad enough & you've already eaten the rest of your supplies & were faced with the choice of eating what you once considered inpalatable or starving....well, atleast you had that and it would probably taste pretty good under those circumstances.

I guess I have a totally different mindset.

First, why buy/store a food item that I won't eat simply because someone else might want it? I'd rather put my money/storage space into food we'll eat.

Second, if it got so bad that we ate up our food supply, we'd be busy gardening/fishing/hunting/foraging 24/7 (which we'd actually be doing waaaaay before we got to the bottom of the beans and rice).

 

[old fashioned]

oops, sorry I didn't mean to imply that we purposely buy stuff that we don't eat...especially since we can barely afford to buy what we do eat. We have aquired some stuff that we rarely if at all eat.
DH is something of an 'American Picker' and has found sales that was selling canned food for a really cheap price and alot of it we do like but there were some things we don't. One time he got about 50lbs of homegrown grass fed beef from a man that was moving to another state and the meat was from his own cows illegal yes, but it was a win/win.
My Aunt has cleaned out her cupboards & freezer a few times and has given it to us. She tends to buy alot of stuff 'because it was on sale' then decides she'll never eat it or bought way too much or needs more room for new stuff.
I usually go thru it all & toss what is either freezer burnt or bulging cans or nasty in some way. I'll keep & store anything that is still good...even if it's not something we normally eat. If in a few months I haven't come up with a good idea for a recipe to use it in, I'll then donate to the food bank or to someone I know who will eat it.