What do you have in your food storage?

[Echo2002]

I'm probably going to start getting more serious about my food storage this year. I'm thinking about buying a 3 or 6 month pre-packaged plan that's freeze dried or dehydrated and then supplement that with canned goods from the grocery store and maybe some buckets or oats, wheat, and flour.

How does the freeze dried stuff taste? What kind would you recommend?

I forgot to add, I'm single, so I would need a plan for two people instead of the usual 4 or more.

Edited March 17, 2012 by SpringGirl
forgot sentence

[Guest]

I tried the... something with Mountain on the name... dehydrated stuff and it's ... yuck.

For 1 person, I think you're better off purchasing things like regular canned goods from the grocery that you normally eat. I remember when I was single I lived off of Chef Boyardee and Ramen. Just stack up on those good for 3-6 months and move the oldest cans to your regular pantry and replenish the storage with new cans when you go grocery shopping.

These are things in my food storage that we eat on a regular basis (I'm Filipino): Jasmine Rice, spam, corned beef, vienna sausage, different types of chef boyardees, bush pork and beans, tuna in water, chunk chicken in water, chicken noodle soup, cream of mushroom soup (one of my kids' favorite dishes is cooked spaghetti noodles topped with cream of mushroom soup and then topped with canned corned beef and stuck in the oven until corned beef gets somewhat crispy), spaghetti noodles, ramen noodles, mac and cheese (the cheese powder tastes yucky when the box expires), canned peas, corn, green beans, carrots. They rotate pretty fast because we eat it regularly. I also have ingredients for the bread maker (one of these days I'm going to learn how to bake bread without electricity).

My husband loves canned chicken or canned tuna in a sandwich. I love canned corn beef or spam over rice. The kids would live off of vienna sausage and chef boyardee if you let them.

We have several other here-and-there stuff like evaporated milk that we really don't use regularly so it usually ends up donated before it expires.

Then I have some seed packets too. We just started a hydroponic garden in a closet where we're growing leaf lettuce. It's really awesome! When we get more comfortable with it, we'll start peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. We're currently just experimenting (I kill everything I plant... my kids seem to have better luck) but the lettuce is thriving, so maybe we can manage something more challenging.

Edited March 17, 2012 by anatess

[pam]

Mountain House

[WyomingEMT]

Mountain home, or Wise foods, or Daily Bread make great foods that last upto 30 years stored in your closet. Having both a long term source of food, and stocking up on food that you eat and like is a smart idea. Make sure you rotate your food like others have said.

[Echo2002]

Yuck, I haven't eaten Chef Boyardee in forever. Right now I do have a closet with a couple of shelves full of canned goods and stuff I usually eat pretty regularly. I also plan on stocking up on household items like cleaning supplies and toiletries.

I didn't know if buying 3-6 months of freeze dried food would be a little cheaper than buying that much or more in canned and boxed goods. Especially since the freeze dried stuff usually comes in prepackaged meals.

[Iggy]

I buy extra of what we eat. I no longer buy mac & cheese in the boxes- either the powdered cheese stuff or the shells and cheese. When the shells and cheese hits its expiration date only the shells are edible! That cheese in the foil turns into a brown, plastic smelling glob.

Both hubby and I love mac & cheese, so I buy cheese whiz (or the store brand) and I have a variety of pasta to substitute for the macaroni. Shells, spirals, big fat elbow, egg noodles, etc.

We love spaghetti too - long gone are the days I make it 'from scratch'. I buy the jarred sauce and add the meat. Used freeze dried chicken the other day- pretty darn tasty!

The only brand of canned/jarred foods I will not buy is Hunts. It is just too sugary sweet.

I haven't tried any of the MRE yet. Do have Healthy Choice/Maria Callandars mixers. Individual servings that you add water to the bottom portion, nuke- then nuke the sauce and mix. They are okay- I will fix them for breakfast or lunch on days we are not all that hungry.

I have been buying tuna in the 6 & 8 packs at WalMart, Rite Aide, and now it is at Safeway- 10 pack for $6.99 of Bumble Bee in water. That is $0.70 a can, and the cans are 6.5 oz.

I really dislike the taste of powdered milk. Have had since I was a child, and then Mom mixed up a quart of powdered milk and added a quart of whole milk. I can drink 2%, but I much prefer whole. I don't cook with whole milk though. I use evaporated milk.

We eat lots of Rice-A-Roni Pasta mix and Lipton's Pasta Sides. As well as the rice sides. The pasta nearly all calls for some milk- so I use evaporated. I buy the cans when they are $0.69 or less each. Got three cases at the last case goods sale at the local store. Got them at $0.49 each!

I bought Rice-a-roni on sale for $0.79 a box, then vacuumed sealed each box. They won't sit on the shelf, so I put them into plastic totes. Same with extra spaghetti, macaroni I vacuum seal and store in totes. When you vacuum seal pasta you have to stop the process just as the air is removed other wise it will continue on for some time and crush it all into dust!

Same when you vacuum seal freeze dried food. Stop the vacuum just as the air is removed, other wise it will suck everything out and turn your freeze dried food into a solid brick. Once you open the bag- you will have to chip away to get anything, and it ends up dust. I can live with freeze dried onion dust, and broccoli and cauliflower. But I learned before I turned the FD Mushroom slices into a brick!

I used to buy flour in the 5 pound bags when they cost $1.99 or less. Then I would put them in my freezer to keep the bugs out of them. Well, I needed the freezer space! So I vacuumed sealed the bags. Those will sit, bagged, on a shelf. The only down side is you will have to sift the flour before you use it. I do the same with 5 pound bags of sugar.

Try out Emergency Essentials - that is where I got my freeze dried, dehydrated and bulk foods from. Cash & Carry (Smart & Final) also has enough bulk, large amounts of foods. You pay cash, debit or credit card- NO personal checks unless you are a business and register with them. The bricks of yeast there are considerably less than from EE. Popcorn in the 12 pound bags are less per pound than any of the stores, including WinCo.

I have more than enough pasta- so I haven't even looked at the price of the 5 pound bags. 8 years ago I paid a little more than $3.25 for elbow, shells, and egg noodles in the 5 lb bags. Don't know what it is now.

When you buy pasta, transfer it from it's brittle packaging into something else. Even the pasta that is in boxes- either vacuum seal it, or regular seal it. I had bought some Barilla whole wheat pasta at clearance for $0.79 a box. Totally did not vacuum seal it. Well now it has the taste of the box. Tomato based sauces with plenty of basil, oregano hide that flavor- but I will not make that mistake again.

I over vacuumed sealed two boxes of lasagna noodles. Now I have pasta dust. Will use that to thicken soups, sauces, etc.

My two older sisters never married and have lived together since forever. They purchased all sorts of long term storage foods. Whole wheat grains, rice, dried beans, legumes. After 20 years, they had to toss most of it. It sat in the garage and gathered moisture, fed the neighborhood mice population, along with weevils and other bugs.

Very little of it did they actually consume. From their mistake and over sight, I now treat my food storage like it is a grocery store. I stock only what we eat. If something is on sale and it might make a good long term/emergency item, I buy one or two- eat them and decide if it is something that we could eat for a week or two in an emergency situation.

Hence the Healthy Choice Mixers. We liked them when first bought. So I bought a case of mixed flavors when they next came on sale. A month later we tried some. Still good. Three months later- still good. Soon it will be the 1 year later time frame. If it is still good one year after the purchase date, I will get a lot more when it next comes on sale.

I have stated on this forum before, don't throw away your empty liquid laundry detergent bottles. Remove the spout to get the last 1/4 cup of soap out, then fill them with water. Do not wash the soap out, just fill with water. Now mark the bottle clearly- SOAPY WASH WATER. If I can get my detergent by the case I do so, and save the boxes to put the soapy wash water bottles back in. Easier to stack them up in. Use this water to flush toilets with when your water is shut off (like when the water company is working on the lines, or it is temporarily off during freezing weather). Also use it to hand wash knickers with in an emergency situation.

When the tax money comes in, I want to buy two rain water barrels so I can collect rain water. This is the water I will use, in an emergency, to rinse hand washed clothes. I am old enough to have witnessed AND remember Mom using an electric wringer washing machine.

She saved the rinse water to use as wash water for the next load of clothes. Starting with whites and working up to the darks. A little bit of bleach in the water never hurt the lightly colored clothes or towels. She used rain water collected in the six barrels placed around the house outside. We also used rain water to wash & rinse our hair.

I have really deep cupboard shelves. I can not reach more than halfway back- so they are really a hindrance. Again, when the tax money comes in, I am purchasing pull out shelves.

Have some metal ones for two of my cupboard shelves- work great, but they are really expensive. Have hunted around and found a company out of Canada that makes heavy duty plastic shelves. Will get two of the narrower shelves and give them a try. If they are as heavy duty as they claim, then I will get more for all of my cupboards.

[mirkwood]

If you are interested in Mountain House products, go to Wal Mart and buy two or three of the freeze dried meals in pouches. You can find them in the camping area. I've had quite a few of them. Two or three were nasty. Most were average to above average.

What I have stored. The list is a little outdated. I have not updated it in 2-3 years. I've added more wheat, rice and some odds and ends MRE's.

Food Storage:

MRE's (subject to change)

72 Chicken Breast

70 Entrees (mixed type)

46 Sides (mixed type)

46 Desserts (mixed type)

20 Drink Mix

9 Cocoa

24 Cookies

24 Crackers

10 Cheese Spread

7 Peanut Butter Spread

1 Fruit Mix

1 Pears

1 Cookie Bar

Additional 3 day supply for three adults in 72 hours kits

Perma Pak

#10 cans unless otherwise indicated

Dairy

24 Milk

3 Cheese Blend

Meat/Meat Substitute

7 Beef TVP

2 Chicken TVP

3 Taco Beef TVP

3 Sloppy Joe TVP

2 Ham TVP

2 BBQ TVP

2 Bacon TVP

1 Pepperoni TVP

1 Sausage TVP

Breakfast

11 Egg Mix

6 Five Grain Cereal (4 lbs.)

Vegetables

2 Diced Carrots

6 Granulated Potatoes

2 Diced Potatoes

2 Potatoe Slices

2 Chopped Onions

3 Green Beans

3 Green Peas

2 Sweet Corn

1 Rice

4 Navy Beans (5 lbs.)

2 Chili Beans (5 lbs.)

2 Pinto Beans (5 lbs.)

2 Split Peas (5 lbs.)

2 Lentils (5 lbs.)

4 White Rice (5 lbs.)

4 Popcorn (5 lbs.)

2 Cornmeal (5 lbs.)

Grains

4 Rolled Oats (4 lbs.)

2 Pearled Barley (5 lbs.)

4 Hard White Wheat (45 lbs.)

4 Hard Spring Wheat (45 lbs.)

Noodles

4 Macaroni (4 lbs.)

4 Spaghetti (5 lbs.)

Fruits

1 Applesauce

3 Apple Slices

2 Strawberry Flavored Apple Slices

2 Raspberry Flavored Apple Slices

3 Fruit Galaxy

1 Bannana Chips

Drink Mixes

1 Apple

4 Orange Breakfast Drink

2 Apple Breakfast Drink

Miscellaneous

4 Margarine Powder

4 Soup & Stew Blend

1 #2.5 Beef Soup Base

1 #2.5 Corn Starch

4 #2.5 Tomoto Powder

2 Sugar (45 lbs.)

1 Salt (5 lbs.)

Provident Pantry

#10 cans

Dairy

6 Milk

1 Cheese Blend

Meat/Meat Substitute

5 Beef TVP

2 Freeze Dried Diced Roast Beef

2 Freeze Dried White Turkey

2 Freeze Dried Ground Beef

2 TVP Bacon

1 TVP Taco

2 TVP Chicken

1 Chicken Boullion

1 Creamy Soup Base

Breakfast

1 Buttermilk Pancake Mix

1 Blueberry Muffin Mix

1 Instant Oatmeal

2 Creamy Wheat

2 Cereal - 9 Grain

2 Cereal - 6 Grain

1 Low Fat Granola

2 Scrambled Egg Mix

Vegetables

4 Sliced Mushrooms

2 Freeze Dried Carrots

1 FD Green Peas

1 FD Green Beans

1 FD Sweet Corn

1 FD Broccoli

1 Diced Carrots

1 Potato Flakes

1 Potato Slices

1 Chopped Onion

1 Split Peas

Grains

2 Pinto Beans

1 Small White Beans

1 Red Beans

2 White Rice

6 Hard White Wheat

6 Red Wheat

2 Yellow Cornmeal

2 Popcorn

Noodles

1 Macaroni Noodles

1 Egg Noodles

1 Spaghetti Noodles

Fruits

1 Peach Dices

1 Bannana Slices

1 Apple Slices

1 FD Strawberry Slices

Drink Mixes

1 Apple Drink Mix

1 Orange Drink Mix

1 Peach Drink Mix

Miscellaneous

2 Sugar

1 Salt

1 Baking Powder

1 Baking Soda

1 Tomato Powder

1 Margerine Powder

1 Shortening Powder

Mountain House (#10 cans)

3 Beef Teriyaki

1 Chicken and Noodles

Family Canning (#10 cans)

3 Rice

3 Instant Soup

3 Sugar

5 Rolled Oats

1 Macaroni

3 Corn

1 Pinto Beans

1 Refried Beans

3 Apple Slices

1 Chopped Onions

1 Milk

1 White Flour

1 Box Potato Pearls (40 lbs.)

Water ( ** denotes purified with bleach)

2 55 gallon **

1 30 gallon **

2 7 gallon **

2 5 gallon **

bottled water

28 32 pack 1/2 liter bottles

3 24 pack 1/2 liter bottles

[rameumptom]

Freeze dried tastes much better than the dehydrated. Our storage includes a year's supply of freeze dried everything. We also have wheat and other grains, plus canned goods. So we have over a year's supply, and enough variety to supplement a decent selection of foods to eat. We figure that if we need to grab stuff and run, due to natural disaster or something, we can grab the freeze-dried and live on it for a year.

We also have a heavy duty water purifier that will purify all water for six months on a set of filters.

Places to find this stuff:

beprepared.com

honeyvillegrain.com (only $4 to ship everything)

Food Storage - Long Term Food Storage & Freeze Dried Food

Survival Foods: Largest Selection of Emergency Preparedness Food Supplies

[Echo2002]

Thanks for all of the good tips. I live in TN so there is no way I could store my food in my garage, it would spoil in the humid summer heat. I have two pretty big empty closets plus my walk-in closet in the master bath so I think I have enough room to store my food in the house. I will store some of my household items in the garage, at least the stuff that is not temperature sensitive.

Is there any way to buy food in smaller containers than those #10 cans? I thought once you open those the shelf life decreases dramatically. That's why I kind of don't want to buy those large buckets of food because if I ever had to open one I would probably end up wasting a lot of it.

[Iggy]

Thanks for all of the good tips. I live in TN so there is no way I could store my food in my garage, it would spoil in the humid summer heat. I have two pretty big empty closets plus my walk-in closet in the master bath so I think I have enough room to store my food in the house. I will store some of my household items in the garage, at least the stuff that is not temperature sensitive.

Is there any way to buy food in smaller containers than those #10 cans? I thought once you open those the shelf life decreases dramatically. That's why I kind of don't want to buy those large buckets of food because if I ever had to open one I would probably end up wasting a lot of it.

Once I open a #10 can, I repackage it using a vacuum sealer. Same with the big pail of grain. When you vacuum seal freeze dried, you must stop the vacuum process just as soon as the bag forms around the food. I didn't stop the process soon enough and I now have freeze dried onions in 1 cup bricks. Same for celery dices, cauliflower and broccoli. It isn't a great loss, because I planned on using all of those in soups and stews. I get the flavors, and the 'dust' acts like a thickener- we like thick, hearty soups.

I vacuumed sealed the pail of wheat grain. When I make a batch of bread, it takes 3 pounds of flour. Well 3 pounds of grain grinds into 3 pounds of flour. The bags end up hard as bricks but flat, and all of them will not go back into the pail. I have the gamma seal for the pail, for easier entry. The bags of vacuum sealed grain that wouldn't fit, are stored in a plastic tote next to the pail.

I plan on purchasing more grain- not only more wheat, but other varieties of grains too. Same with beans, legumes, seeds to sprout. To keep them fresher and safe from bugs and critters, these will also be vacuum sealed.

Do a search on YouTube for stockpiling food/groceries, as well as food storage. There are some great ideas there.

[Echo2002]

What kind of vacuum sealer do you use? I bought one of those FoodSaver things at Bed Bath and Beyond and it was a waste of $200. The heat seal works but the vacuum quit working after like the tenth bag I did.