long term storage/survival foods

I'm into prepping,but I cannot justify the "long term storage' food prices.A #10 can for 25 bucks? I'd rather buy smaller cans,then rotate them out every 2 years or so.My biggest concern,other than the $$,has anyone really tested these after 25 yrs? I know,they are nitrogen packed,freeze dried,whatever so they say.They also have a disclaimer that says,"stored properly",which means low humidity,low temps..so you can't toss them in the garage for 25 yrs,as they "claim"?
I do home canning,both water and pressure....other than the glass jar issue,is there really any advantage to buy this overpriced and over rated stuff? I can can up a small jar of meat,say 2-4 servings,for a fraction of what they sell 1 serving for,and I know its good for 5-10 yrs.And,if you read the fine print,they claim say 10 servings......1/2 cup servings! A half a cup??Even 20 servings,at 25 bucks a can,is a buck a 1/2 cup or so!

Rice and lots of it in 5 gal pails, and invest in a dehydrator and a vacuum bag sealer. Do your own fruits and veggies etc. Nuts are also long lasting especially in vacuum bags

Hello, I have a question? When the events occur that people are preparing for, do you think that it will be a group formed that will be heavily armed and equipped for the specific purpose of taking others resources???

We just buy some canned goods when they are on sale and rotate them. I have a couple of cans of dried foods and lots of spaghetti, flour, and noodles in stock too. Enough for the wife and I and my daughter and her family for about two months. That is all we can rotate, if it was just the wife and I then we could probably go a year if we conserved. There are also enough fish in the lakes around here to help out.

I feel that if it is a problem that is more than a couple of months, we need to relocate to a different area. In some cases, the wife and family would leave, but I would stay here and take care of the house.

a reply to: blkcwbyhat

For survival foods, particularly LONG TERM Survival, you are far better off to learn to survive on what is around you..

Petersons Guide to Wild Edibles

And

Survival Gardening

Even in the middle of large cities, you can grow edibles in window boxes and "Topsy Turvy" planters..

www.topsytomato.com...

A base of approximately 3 days worth of nutrition and knowledge will almost guarantee you can and will survive..

Pop Tarts have a million year shelf life, wrapped in mylar and enough sugar to keep any bacteria at bay. Very good source of calories/carbs. As to bulk vs. $$, I store dried rice and beans which is cheap as heck. But, keep a pressure cooker ready. You can cook a pot of pinto beans in 20 minutes under pressure (after soaking all night) verses stewing all day. The rest is creativity in spices to flavor your rice and beans. These are just my personal ideas/practices. I'd love to hear others. Don't even post ramen noodles.

Even the local habitat will only last a few months while every hillbilly (me included) with a shot gun shoots anything that moves, squirrels, deer, birds, fish etc, it will be down to eating worms and bugs if a major apocalypse occurs. Everyone says they have a place to go to live off the land, the biggest threat will be your neighbors doing the same thing!

Honey will last indefinitely, longer than the container it is in.

Rice and pasta.

After those, refined sugar and canned foods.

P

I believe it would take a long time to get an entire ocean over fished, so perhaps you need a sail boat and some poles with a lot of lure's and or potential bait, also not eating carbs for extended periods of time won't kill you just look at Eskimos, and ketosis!

Also I have some protein powder stashed for a worst case scenario but it can expire so rotate, rotate, rotate

I've never purchased those "survival" foods so I wouldn't know about them. What we've done is to just buy double amounts of what we use on a regular basis and rotate the supplies. We bought a huge old cabinet from a general store that will hold canned goods without the shelves sagging and breaking under the weight. It has doors so that it appears to be just another old cabinet---not a preppers' stash. Having a cabinet rather than just shelves keeps the dust factor down since our storage is in the basement along with the wood shop.
We buy dried beans, flour, sugar, cocoa and meat in bulk, keeping at least a six-month supply. I grow a goodly amount of our food in summer and can or freeze what we can't eat or give away. I buy in bulk at the local Farmers' Market and freeze or can the produce that I don't grow myself so at least I know what I'm eating. I also have a few things in a winter garden that keep producing until the snows hit, greens and root veggies that are packed with nutrition.
I've found that keeping these supplies on hand saves me quite a bit by not having to run to the grocery store when I run out of something in my upstairs pantry. Rather than running to the grocery store, I just go downstairs and get it from my back-up stores.

a reply to: MX61000


Hey Mate, I recommend you make this gravity water device. It will give you all the power you want that you use in a house and then some. All you do is make a 4 foot wheel with cups that catch water. Two tanks. First tank large on top and small at bottom a cone shape that goes to a 2 in. pvc pipe. Next is the bottom tank a reg. ole square tank that sits two feet above ground. Next make yourself a ram pump. Order a 10,000 watt generator and a large rubberband. An iron rod,8 ft. dia. plexiglass .5 thick,a pressure gauge, antifreeze, wood screws and two by 4's. Your making a box with a water wheel in the center. The axle has beirings on the ends and one end sticks out, this is where the 8 in. dia. alluminum wheel is placed. A large rubber band attaches and goes to generator on top. What happens is the ram pump pushes the water into the top tank a valve at the bottom is shut until you open it. The water collects until it almost full. you release the valve and it hits the water wheel turning the wheel. The water falls into the bottom tank so the ram pump sucks it up and pumps it to the top tank again. When the wheel turns the outer gear thats connected to the generator it spins at a ratio of 10 to 1. 1 rotation of gear to 10 rotations on generator axle. This is equivalent to 600 revolutions per minute on a low rpm large generator that weighs 250 pounds. It's output is 10,000 watts at 120 rpm. It is NOT a machine that will stay running. IT needs water to run and the antifreeze so the water does not freeze in the winter. It Should be more than enough power to run an average home needs. It has to be a 4 ft. wheel with 16 cups and it has to have the ram pump primed and pressure up to start. When working it will stay running until your rubber band breaks or your water evaporates and you have to put more in the tank.
The device runs great. It is an adaquate power source for your freezers, heaters, stoves, lights, refrigerators, washer, dryer,microwaves,and electrical tools you use. Great stuff here. Definately a must build. Just remember that the upper tank must have an opening of a 2 in. dia. AND the rampump water out, must have a 2 in. dia. Look up ram pumps. No-one has this setup. You can find a 10,000 watt generator for about $900. to $1,200 dollars. It does work. Build this anywhere there is NO power and you will instantly have power when you need it. A preppers Dream Come true. Use it to dehydrate foods too. Here you go preppers.

How do you can or jar foods to keep them for storage up to a year? Those jars you buy at wallmart, won't the rubber seals in time wear out, rendering them useless? Do the foods you put in jars have to be completely submersed in water?

Also, you know your ram pumps can be used to pump water in a large tank so that water by gravity can be used to water a garden,lawn,showers,water to house and bathrooms. Just make sure the line is well below the freezing point under ground. A RAM PUMP.

rice rice and more rice

oh and lots of soy maby some rice viniger and sesamie oil

but yea rice last forever my number one stocked item

just add water food u dont eaven need fire it will cook in just cold water

btw iv lived off rice for 3 months maby some vitamins and lots of diferent flaorings rice gets old

like when ur taking white rice and frying it ina pan with no oil caz the burned tast is something new old


i go with sesaie oil and lots of tabasco i can eay anything with tabasco

a reply to: cloaked4u

Diagrams and pics please.
The description is hard for us oldsters to follow without a diagram and pic.

Thanks tons.

If you buy survival foods, you are paying through the nose for them to do the work for you. Simple as that. Home canning or home packing dry goods, is a far more economical solution, plus you have more control over the ingredients, etc.

That said, there are SOME survival foods that I consider to be essential...

Powdered Dairy. Powdered eggs, butter, cheese, milk, etc. are great solutions for having these things post SHTF.

We have a three month stock from 'in store' that we rotate as well as some, but not a lot, of long term storage. The food that we have from the regular store is a lot of rice and beans and spaghetti type food. I learned that you can put those in those big popcorn tins that are sold in the stores at the holidays and they keep very well. Doing that helps take the edge off the cost of prepping.

a reply to: grandmakdw
Yep deffo plans and pictures cause we all follow the instructions from IKEA or such like.

OP S&F cause i was just on Amazon pricing Army rations.

To answer your questions, #1 – I don’t think there were a lot of these types of products 25 years ago so I’m going to say no.

To question #2, there are MANY reasons to buy the freeze dried and dehydrated foods in a can. After you figure the cost of equipment and food to DIY, the cost can be fairly high per serving, especially to those in large cities. Many people don’t want to can or dehydrate their own foods. And let’s face it, we’re not all canners and some can’t follow the simplest directions so safety would also be a concern. Some items just aren’t ‘cannable’. FA (Fettuccine Alfredo), well I can’t/won’t can it. And I certainly can’t preserve it as well as the purchased product in a tin can. One can of FA has 17 ½ cup servings. It will last a long time unopened. If opened, I can take out what I need and close up can, using it up fairly quickly if possible. It just isn’t something I would ever can. I don’t recall how much it was. The options offered in the purchased tin can foods is great, lessening the mundane options of beans and rice (which should be a number one food item to stock up on). The variety offered are just a few examples: Powdered cheese – mozzi and chedder, powdered butter & sour cream, powdered eggs, a variety of jello flavors – cheaper than buying little boxes even from a discount store, powdered flours like almond. Lots of variety and lots of servings. All in all, per serving, imho, it isn’t really that expensive. Some things are even cheaper than DIY like mushrooms, they re-hydrate well and I couldn’t buy them for cheaper much less the energy and equipment used to preserve them. Used in a hot dish, you cannot tell whatsoever they weren’t cooked from fresh. For freeze dried onions, they are itty bitty pieces. I don’t know how many whole onions are use to make up one #10 can but it must be quite a bit. I can toss in ½ cup in a hot dish or put some in my food processor and make my own onion powder. One can saves me a lot money for those two suggestions. They offer TVP meat choices as well as the real thing – hamburger, sausage etc.

I only purchase these types of products from Honeyville. I have used many of their products. They occasionally have sales and they have a flat ($5.00 I believe) shipping fee no matter how much is purchased. It arrives by UPS right up to my door. I also dehydrate many of my own fruits and veggies when in season but all options should be considered.


So I went on Honeyville web site. The 6 can combo of FA, FA w/chicken, Rotini w/tomato meat sauce is $158.00, add in the $5.00 shipping is $163.00. At 102 total servings, you're paying $1.60 per serving. Supplement your meal with your own canned or dehydrated accompaniments and, fine dining at it's best!

I'm not a Honeyville employee.

a reply to: blkcwbyhat

Mountain House is the best freeze dried food. Canned goods go bad after 3 years and need to be rotated. The only long term solution is jarring or freeze dried food.