Food storage list must haves

[melgsix]

fruit snaks
jerky
oatmeal packs.

If you save oatmeal it has to be in an airtight bucket, even the packets. I have found that the oatmeal packets and the granola atract the most bugs. Those are the only things that have every been infested in our food storage.

 

[melgsix]

This websight has tons of canned food that will last like 20 or 30 years. They have things other that wheat ad beans like freeze dried fruits and veggies and freeze dried already prepared meals. They even have baking mixes for those who don't want to have to figure out what to do with 100 lbs of wheat or 50 lbs of beans. You can buy one can at a time or an entire years worth if you needed to.

http://beprepared.com/Default.asp?bhcd2=1235917326

 

[melgsix]

Very simply. Store what you eat and eat what you store. Protect it from pests and the elements. Have a way to prepare it if you lose your utilities. If it's canned, have a manual can opener.

It isn't good to have wheat stored if you can't grind it and if you aren't used to homemade whole wheat products. The taste is different and it will wreak havoc with your digestive system until your body adjusts.

If it isn't practical to store what you eat, for example you live off of frozen dinners and frozen pizzas, you might want to rethink your diet.

We eat mostly freash fruit and veggies and a lot of dairy, but that can't be stored long term so once a week we eat some of our long term food so that we and the kids are use to it if we have an emergency and need to eat it all the time. Tonight we are having beans and cornbread. My kids hate it, but atleast they won't have to udjust in an emergency.

 

[dddct]

I have bought many freeze dried cans from Emergency Essentials( www.beprepared.com). They have staples like fruits and Veggies but all full meals like beef stroganoff and chicken tetrazzini. I have tried the beef stroganoff and it is actually very good. I buy the superpails of beans, lentils oats and wheat. They store 20-30 years not that we will need them to last that long.

I also stock up on non food itmes like medical supplies. I have a huge bottle of 500 Amoxicillin in my freezer as well as large bottles of betadine pain medications medical supplies for the animals, splints, etc. I will be adding potassium iodine tablets with my next order from Emergency Essentials.

Also I have winter/warm clothing and boots, shoes and coats for my son stashed in my attic going up to size 16...he's 5 yrs old. i think those things may be hard to get for awhile and adults can jsut get by but a growing kid and their feet...geesh

 

[Alaska Animal Lover]

This is a great thread and I love the idea of buckets.

I was really lucky one day last year and found this http://www.summitcampinggear.com/cohotwaondep.html marked down from the 50% price so I ended up getting it for $49!

It has a shower attachment too. It uses the small propane cans and I keep 6-10 on hand at all times.

 

[Wifezilla]

Some off the top of my head would be:
Flour
Rice
Sugar
Salt
Canned tuna

Since I don't do carbs, the only thing on that list I have is the tuna.

Keep in mind that your body absolutely HAS TO HAVE protein and fats. Protein rebuilds muscles and cells. Essential fatty acids are necessary for metabolism. Your brain is mostly fat. You need more fat than anything for health (hence the name "essential fatty acids"... emphasis on the word ESSENTIAL...as in can't make it in your body and can't live without it).

There is no such thing as an "essential carbohydrate". There are a few organs in the body that require glucose, but the body, when it has adequate protein, is perfectly capable of making all it needs (gluconeogenesis). You do not have to INGEST glucose to get glucose.

Every single vitamin, nutrient, etc... needed by the human body can be found in MEAT with the exception of vitamin C. Your need for vitamin C is increased when you eat sugars and starches (these items also weaken your immune system and deplete the body of B vitamins). "it is equally true that the human body needs only such a tiny bit of Vitamin C that if you have some fresh meat in your diet every day, and don't over cook it, there will be enough C from that source alone to prevent scurvy. If you live exclusively on meat you get from it enough vitamins not only to prevent scurvy but as said in a previous article, to prevent all other deficiency diseases."
http://www.biblelife.org/stefansson3.htm

My list is more like this....

Dried meat and/or pemmican (learning how to make this now)
Non-hydrogenated lard (available at Mexican grocery stores)
Olive oil
Nuts (almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pecans)
Chia seeds (for omega 3 fatty acids)
Peanut Butter (because it is yummy)
Dried blueberries
Dried strawberries
Vinegar
Salt
Honey
Yeast (in case I need to make some mead all of a sudden )

 

[dacjohns]

I see a lot of hidden carbs in there.

 

[Alaska Animal Lover]

I found this article about potatoes last week whe my DH and I were having a discussion about scurvy.


Potato is a versatile, carbohydrate-rich food highly popular worldwide and prepared and served in a variety of ways. Freshly harvested, it contains about 80 percent water and 20 percent dry matter. About 60 to 80 percent of the dry matter is starch. On a dry weight basis, the protein content of potato is similar to that of cereals and is very high in comparison with other roots and tubers.

In addition, the potato is low in fat. Potatoes are rich in several micronutrients, especially vitamin C - eaten with its skin, a single mediumsized potato of 150 g provides nearly half the daily adult requirement (100 mg). The potato is a moderate source of iron, and its high vitamin C content promotes iron absorption. It is a good source of vitamins B1, B3 and B6 and minerals such as potassium, phosphorus and magnesium, and contains folate, pantothenic acid and riboflavin. Potatoes also contain dietary antioxidants, which may play a part in preventing diseases related to ageing, and dietary fibre, which benefits health.


I was surprised that they contained so much vitamin C. I will be keeping the skins on when boiling and mashing from now on.

Sorry if this is off topic. But potatoes do store well.

 

[Wifezilla]

I see a lot of hidden carbs in there

There are always small amounts of carbs...even in meat. But there is a big difference between eating bread, potatoes, corn, pasta, or rice at every single meal and keeping your carb intake below 50g/day and getting them from low carbohydrate fruits, nuts, meat, greens and dairy. And the honey has a very LOW carb content once you make it in to a nice dry sparkling mead

 

[Wifezilla]

That link I provided to arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson talks about an exploration party that tried to gets it vitamin c from potatoes...

"Obtained from officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and from sourdoughs, I have in my diaries and notes many a case of suffering and death caused by scurvy in the Alaska and Yukon gold rushes. The miner generally began to sicken toward the end of winter. He had been living on beans and bacon, on biscuits, rice, oatmeal, sugar, dried fruits and dried vegetables. When he recognized his trouble as scurvy he made such efforts as were possible to get the things which he believed would cure him. Apparently the miners had the strongest faith in raw potatoes. These had to be brought from afar, and there are heroic tales of men who struggled through the wilderness to succor a comrade with a few pounds of them. There were similar beliefs in the virtues of onions and some other vegetables. Curiously, there was either no belief in those vegetables which were obtainable, or else there was a belief that they should be treated in a way which. we now understand, destroys their value. For instance a man might have been cured or at least helped with a salad of leaves or even bark of trees. What the miners did with the pine needles and willow drink the tea. If they had fresh meat they boiled it to shreds and drank the broth. Death frequently occurred in two to four months from recognized onset of the disease."

As for low fat items, it is the fat in foods that makes many vitamins bioavailable. Fat soluble vitamins include A, D, E and K.