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Prepperguys - long term food storage (1 Viewer)

CrossEyed2

CrossEyed2

Footballguy
So I'm wondering which of the various emergency food supplies are the best deal (cost, taste, etc). Whether you live in an area that is prone to flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, winter storms, whatever...having some backup supplies is never a bad idea. Especially for those of us with young children.

So, anyone here ever buy any of the emergency food and actually used it? Recommendations?

 
Shark tip:  If a job advertisement says it is looking for preppers, there is a good chance it is not associated with the food industry.  

 
bananafish said:
The connection between pepper and emergency supplies is lost on me. 
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Yeah, I realize that they can be two separate categories, but most folks aren't self-sufficient enough to go completely self-sufficient without some additional supplies. I have some heirloom seeds to start a garden if it gets to the point of necessity, but I still would want to have some food that I could easily prepare, especially for my kids and during whatever transition time there may be.

And I realize that I may never need it, but I also may never use my life insurance, but I still send in the premium payment every quarter. 

 
Just some quick thoughts:

MRE and civilian equivalents are great short term answers if you lose services for a week or two. If you're looking for amazing flavors... keep looking. However some aren't bad at all. 

Canned goods are cheap and never go out of style, and are space-efficient. As a bonus, they generally don't require water (which can become scarce in it's own right) to prepare. Beans, prepared pastas/chilis, etc. are nutrient dense and pretty tasty. Rice can be great if you're confident in your water supply, but can have issues with long term storage. 

Water is where it's at. Most folks who prepare, significantly undershoot on the amount of water they need. A good estimate is about 2 gallons of water per person, per day for consumption, sanitation, etc. If you have space for some 55gal drums, treated water in there is good for 5 years and is great for your sanitation purposes.

Pre-packaged Gallon (or larger) jugs are convenient ways to store decent amounts of water. 5gal jerry cans (BPA Free, don't cheap out here) work as well. Cases of individual bottles also work for quick grab and go type use, but are pretty inefficient on space. 





 

 
Bottled water and canned goods in case of a natural disaster, around two weeks worth. And a backup generator, with decent supply of fuel.

Beyond that, let's just say I support individuals in pursuing whatever recreational activities they enjoy. Hopefully you'll never have to endure something like Sandy or worse where anything like that would ever be needed. Real people have had to, a lot of people. In real life.

 
[icon] said:
Just some quick thoughts:

MRE and civilian equivalents are great short term answers if you lose services for a week or two. If you're looking for amazing flavors... keep looking. However some aren't bad at all. 

Canned goods are cheap and never go out of style, and are space-efficient. As a bonus, they generally don't require water (which can become scarce in it's own right) to prepare. Beans, prepared pastas/chilis, etc. are nutrient dense and pretty tasty. Rice can be great if you're confident in your water supply, but can have issues with long term storage. 

Water is where it's at. Most folks who prepare, significantly undershoot on the amount of water they need. A good estimate is about 2 gallons of water per person, per day for consumption, sanitation, etc. If you have space for some 55gal drums, treated water in there is good for 5 years and is great for your sanitation purposes.

Pre-packaged Gallon (or larger) jugs are convenient ways to store decent amounts of water. 5gal jerry cans (BPA Free, don't cheap out here) work as well. Cases of individual bottles also work for quick grab and go type use, but are pretty inefficient on space. 

 
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Good point on the water, can never have too much.  Also, honey never goes bad.

 
Always consider the rule of 3 when thinking about any "#### hits the fan scenario":

3 weeks without food..... 3 days without water... 3 hours without shelter....3 minutes without air

It's certainly not in stone, but it does a good job of putting things into perspective. 1000lbs of food stored means nothing if you're exposed to the elements, or your water supply has been contaminated. If you're in a flood-risk area, have a plan to get/keep your supplies (and water) above flood waters. Have a plan to rotate out stocks as well... Drink/eat a portion of your supplies and replace it with new stock every year or two to keep everything up to date and fresh, without having to toss anything and restock all at once. 

As stated previously, we're not just talking about some mad max uprising scenario....these things have happened with Katrina, Sandy, currently in BR, etc. The odds are you won't need to use this stuff... but it could save your life if you do. 

 
[icon] said:
MRE and civilian equivalents are great short term answers if you lose services for a week or two.





 
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If you need to resort to that #### after a week without services it probably just means that you should go to the grocery store more often.

 
At what point in a disaster do you get to go all Walking Dead and use weapons to get what you need? 1 month? 1 year? 

 
Bucky86 said:
At what point in a disaster do you get to go all Walking Dead and use weapons to get what you need? 1 month? 1 year? 
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I'm far from prepperguy, but I'd wager that 4-5 days into any sandy/katrina-esque disaster you'll be seeing nightly incidents of people having to defend themselves. If services remained shut down for 2-3 weeks I'm guessing full on marshall law would have to be declared and things would be very very ugly. 

Full on walking dead type scenario? No idea... depends on how localized the incident is as we have finite law enforcement / national guard type resources.  One city/region? FEMA/Guard/RedCross can flock in and help get things under control. Large parts or all of the country loses services? A fraction of the time ... 
 

 
[icon] said:
I'm far from prepperguy, but I'd wager that 4-5 days into any sandy/katrina-esque disaster you'll be seeing nightly incidents of people having to defend themselves. If services remained shut down for 2-3 weeks I'm guessing full on marshall law would have to be declared and things would be very very ugly. 

Full on walking dead type scenario? No idea... depends on how localized the incident is as we have finite law enforcement / national guard type resources.  One city/region? FEMA/Guard/RedCross can flock in and help get things under control. Large parts or all of the country loses services? A fraction of the time ... 
 
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The prevailing wisdom is that Manhattan is 72 hours away from running out of food when everything operates normally. An EMP or solar flare that knocks out transportation turns the island into a Kurt Russell movie in less than a week. My only hope is that the hordes would head west into the interior of the country.

 
If you live in a  densely populated suburb, you're pretty screwed as far as prepping.

 Unless it was an EMP or zombie invasion that doesn't destroy your home, it is pretty worthless to have an entire basement full of canned goods if your house is gone from say a tornado or flood. 

That's why most suburbanites need a bug out plan and a  secure secondary location that actually is stocked.

 
I can't think of a realistic scenario in nw nj where having a stockpile of food and water would be vital; more convenient than anything. 

 
So, back to the original question, has anybody ever bought or eaten any of the freeze-dried/powdered long-term storage food? 

 
Mountain House is the best, but you pay for it.
Best will be doing it yourself. Don't we have some LDS folks on the board. They'd likely be the experts on this subject.

 
Gawain said:
Mountain House is the best, but you pay for it.
Best will be doing it yourself. Don't we have some LDS folks on the board. They'd likely be the experts on this subject.
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Yeah, my plan is a combination. Some dry beans/rice type stuff, some canned goods, some long-term stuff. 

 
Last winter, large portions of Spokane were without power for 6 or 7 days. We lost power too, but had 35 gallons of water for backup. Still did the "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" routine because no one knew how long power would be out. We also have emergency lighting and a wood stove. Those items are more important than food for a week-long problem, simply because most of us have more than a week's worth of food in the house.

I was concerned about the freezer, but the block ice I had in it didn't melt, and the food stayed frozen. It was winter, so the back porch became my refrigerator.

As to long-term, the carbohydrates are easy, beans for protein works, canned veggies and fruits (or dried fruit) works fine. We can a lot of food ourselves and pressure-sealed food lasts years. Canned goods for people in the city who don't grow their own food is a good way to go. You can get canned meat as well. If I lived in the city, that's how I would go.

Never done the MRE route.

 
bueno said:
Last winter, large portions of Spokane were without power for 6 or 7 days. We lost power too, but had 35 gallons of water for backup. Still did the "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" routine because no one knew how long power would be out. We also have emergency lighting and a wood stove. Those items are more important than food for a week-long problem, simply because most of us have more than a week's worth of food in the house.

I was concerned about the freezer, but the block ice I had in it didn't melt, and the food stayed frozen. It was winter, so the back porch became my refrigerator.

As to long-term, the carbohydrates are easy, beans for protein works, canned veggies and fruits (or dried fruit) works fine. We can a lot of food ourselves and pressure-sealed food lasts years. Canned goods for people in the city who don't grow their own food is a good way to go. You can get canned meat as well. If I lived in the city, that's how I would go.

Never done the MRE route.
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Thanks. We've always had a fireplace until our current house. Last year I decided that I wasn't comfortable with that and I had a wood stove installed. Currently have about two cords of split/seasoned wood.

I have a couple of plans for water. We have cases in our basement for short-term, 55-gallon barrels for longer term, and a Big Berkey with extra filters for even longer term. I figure I can probably filter about 20,000 gallons of water with the filters I currently have. 

As I said before, I'm taking a combined approach for food. Just trying to nail down the long-term storage part of things. 

 
CrossEyed2 said:
Thanks. We've always had a fireplace until our current house. Last year I decided that I wasn't comfortable with that and I had a wood stove installed. Currently have about two cords of split/seasoned wood.

I have a couple of plans for water. We have cases in our basement for short-term, 55-gallon barrels for longer term, and a Big Berkey with extra filters for even longer term. I figure I can probably filter about 20,000 gallons of water with the filters I currently have. 

As I said before, I'm taking a combined approach for food. Just trying to nail down the long-term storage part of things. 
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You might also consider a wind-up or battery-powered am/fm radio. We lost cell tower service too, so that was our major means of received news.

 
CrossEyed2 said:
Thanks. We've always had a fireplace until our current house. Last year I decided that I wasn't comfortable with that and I had a wood stove installed. Currently have about two cords of split/seasoned wood.

I have a couple of plans for water. We have cases in our basement for short-term, 55-gallon barrels for longer term, and a Big Berkey with extra filters for even longer term. I figure I can probably filter about 20,000 gallons of water with the filters I currently have. 

As I said before, I'm taking a combined approach for food. Just trying to nail down the long-term storage part of things. 
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Combined approach works. We store a lot of beans (different types), rice and flour, dried soup mixes, dried powdered cheese, etc. all in air and water tight containers. Most of the rest is in mason jars (we can a lot of stuff ourselves) or cans, assuming it's not in corked bottles (I make wines and meads too.) :suds: Our major problems have to do with heavy snow and power outages, at least until the zombie apocalypse - but I'm prepared for tommyboy too.

 
Two things about MREs:

1. They are super-high in calories - meant to be consumed by people in battlefield conditions.

2. They do have a limited shelf life.

 
CrossEyed2 said:
So, back to the original question, has anybody ever bought or eaten any of the freeze-dried/powdered long-term storage food? 
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Yes. Just add hot water. It tastes totally fine.

All you need for survival is hot water, a pan and salt

 
bueno said:
Two things about MREs:

1. They are super-high in calories - meant to be consumed by people in battlefield conditions.

2. They do have a limited shelf life.
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On the plus side, you won't have to poop more than once a week. Downside, that poop is like giving birth, and you will be screaming for a spinal anesthetic.

 
MRE's and that freeze dried camping stuff taste like some gourmet #### if you are backpacking and hiked all day in the woods. 

In your living room when you have been sitting inside all day when the power is out not so much. 

 
So the last few years you have been immersed in reading scripture and you come out saying you need to get away from the church in order to learn about the bible and wanting know about prepping for long term food storage? 
Is there something we should be concerned about with you or did you read the book of Revelations a bit too much and are getting ready for the end of days?

 
comfortably numb said:
So the last few years you have been immersed in reading scripture and you come out saying you need to get away from the church in order to learn about the bible and wanting know about prepping for long term food storage? 
Is there something we should be concerned about with you or did you read the book of Revelations a bit too much and are getting ready for the end of days?
Click to expand...
The two are connected, but not completely. Just looking at the world's economies leads me to believe that a reset is inevitable. 

But I also happen to believe that it is coinciding with biblical prophecy, so yeah, I do see a connection. 

 
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