We have always tried to have a food storage. In fact, moving was always a bit of a hassle, the front half of the truck was boxes of canning jars (full or empty, depending on the season), buckets of grains and beans, boxes and buckets of dried foods - some home dried, some not. That food storage waxed and waned with our circumstances, and kept us going in hardship many times over those years.
Then we moved to Wyoming. Can't farm effectively here - many challenges, all of them expensive to overcome (soil, water, altitude, temperature, etc). We've struggled financially since we got here, for a number of reasons. So our food storage gradually evaporated. Costs rose about the same time.
Then I got sick. Could not eat the stuff that was left in our storage, so we gave away a LOT of beans, grains, dried foods, etc, that nobody but myself would normally eat, and which I could not now eat. Got sick enough that I could not eat canned or dried foods - could not get enough nutrients out of them, my gut was so sore, I had severe malabsorption. Had to go to 100% fresh foods, of certain types, just to stay alive. Two of my kids then started developing the same patterns. At its worst, there were just 10 foods that I could eat, and only if prepared a certain way.
So we have had no food storage for about 5 years. It feels like walking a tightrope without a net. Scary.
Of course, the food that I and the kids have to eat is very expensive - organic, soy free, corn free, mostly fresh. Especially expensive in Wyoming. Grocery costs skyrocketed to $1200 per month, for a family of 5. And we eat fairly frugally, no prepared foods.
We got rabbits this summer. Then ducks, then chickens, then goats. We stopped buying meat this fall, during the hunting season, because between our flocks and wild game, we had plenty of meat in the freezer (won't last much longer, but the rabbits are breeding so that will help). Once our ducks and chickens start breeding, we won't have to buy meat again. We've stopped buying milk and eggs too, our animals produce those - sparingly, but just enough.
I grew a garden in the greenhouse after we got home from camp this year. Was able to go four weeks without buying veggies before it froze out - a big deal when you have to eat as much of them as I do.
I can finally eat dried foods again, but only home dried. Cannot have canned yet, still don't get enough out of them for it to be worth the trouble of chewing them.
It became clear to me that our food storage would have to be in our garden and greenhouse, and in our flocks and herds, and fields. Still mostly a dream - we have only our tiny back yard to house it all, and it is not nearly enough room. Wyoming makes it almost impossible to do this completely without very costly investments.
I've also learned that food storage won't do you one bit of good if it is not healthy wholesome stuff. Most commercially canned and dried foods has so much stuff in it that would make me sick, that no amount of stored traditional food would do me any good.
If I can grow it, I've got it, and it is something I can use and it will help me get well. I can keep harvesting, keep planting, and keep things multiplying and perpetuating.
If I have to buy it fresh, the supply lines are terribly unreliable. If an emergency hits, I am really in trouble unless I CAN grow it myself. By next summer, I'll be able to can and dry some foods, IF we can find a place big enough to grow it, and that doesn't have the combination of problems this place does.
I also have learned that if you are truly prepared, you have enough to share. You HAVE to over-produce to be sure that you have enough. This is, to me, one of the best perks of the whole equation. It is SO COOL to have enough to share, even if it is just zucchini or lettuce.
My circumstances are very unusual, but I just see the whole preparedness thing differently now than I used to - and I was raised on that kind of philosophy. It has to be a multi-faceted thing, not just a single effort. Ideally, it is not just storage, but sustainability.
Laura
Mom to Eight, Web Designer, Milker of Goats, Feeder of Chickens
If you rotate containers on a six month basis you should be fine.
