Have you thought about gathering an emergency food storage stash in your home? In the case of a job layoff, natural disaster, crop shortage, power outage or other crisis, having thought ahead could make a huge difference for your family and allow you to continue to eat well even with limited funds or lessened food availability.
I've been reading Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook and it's an excellent resource. If you feel overwhelmed, start with the LDS food storage calculator, which is very simple. However, the amounts seem to be a bit less than the recommendations in Making the Best of Basics.
With the rising price of grain, building an emergency food storage is more expensive than it used to be, but possibly cheaper than it will be for some time. The key is to buy whole natural foods, in bulk, at the best price you can find. My mother-in-law bought my wheat in Kentucky because it is $10 cheaper per 50-lb. bag there than it is where I live. I found bulk peanut butter online, and bought it at $2.20/lb. before finding it at Trader Joe's for $1.69/lb.
I found bulk coconut oil and other natural products at Wilderness Family Naturals, which I recommend. Definitely go for a quality oil rather than cheap soybean oil which will NOT nourish your family. The five-gallon expeller pressed coconut oil is an excellent buy. Shop around and build your reserves up; you'll never know when you might need it most.
Want to get started on your own emergency food storage? Here's an in-depth primer: How to Store Food for Long-Term Survival.
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7 comments:
Maria, thanks for visiting my Mrs Tips site!
I just wanted to comment that I'm all about the food storage and 72 hour kits!
An idea for emergency water storage my mom gave me uses canning bottles and lids. If you can your own vegetable produce (from your garden of course!), then as you use your food you'll have empty bottles and lids until the next harvest. So why not fill them up with filtered water and put the lids and screws back on and put them back in the box or on the shelf? Then you know that you'll have clean water should an emergency in which you lose your potable water occurs before the next harvest. And even though you'll have to empty out the water once it came time to use the bottles to can again at harvest, at least you know that the bottles won't be dusty inside - so you only clean the bottles once (right after emptying them) instead of twice!
Catherine, I think that's a great idea! Just remember that water -- even clean water in a clean container --has a limited shelf life. SO you'll still need to keep a very good water filter (ie Berkefield, Aqua Rain) on hand and water treatment drops (try Ionic Water Drops). Of course, you can use the canning jar water for cleaning, etc., without worry. Tahnks for the tip!
Just wanted to thank you for visiting my blog.
Also, I wanted to ask where your mother-in-law buys her grain in bulk in KY.
I live in KY too. However, because of the quality of Montana Wheat we buy ours from Something Better Natural Foods. They bring their truck through here once a month.
As far as food storage goes, we have four boys, so I try and buy in bulk. When we got wind of grain prices getting ready to rise; we purchased 200 lbs. We also buy popcorn, oats, rice, raisins, salt, and sugar bulk. This works great for us.
Lots of wonderful info here! I'm looking forward to visiting often!
Great information and links! Thanks for sharing them! We're in the process of stocking up and need all the help we can get. Thankfully we have enough land that we can have a huge garden and pretty much all the animals we can use.
Thanks for the reminder that I need to get myself in gear - hurricane season begins again June 1st.
Our family just purchased a Food Storage Package from Daily Bread. It consists entirely of freeze dried meals... it is lightweight and has a 25 year plus shelf life. Our sales rep was great and I think he can shop anywhere in the country. Samples are free... you just add hot water, wait 10-12 minutes and you are good to go! I am soooo glad we did it. This economy scares the heck out of me. If you are interested, go to www.dailybreadaz.blogspot.com
I have started a blog dedicated to food stockpiling and doing it at the lowest possible cost. I have also started a message board regarding effective coupon shopping, that's making the most of your sunday coupons. Your blog is so full of useful info. Keep up the good work.
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