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My husband and I are storing foods but almost every product has an expiration date on it. Now, I'm not naive enough to think that those dates are true but I have seen some things go bad. This includes canned and boxed stuff. Also, he bought a BIG BAG of dried pinto beans and we've had them for quite awhile so we decided to start cooking them. Well, we tried that twice but no matter how long they soak, they never finish cooking...ever! Ugh!
My husband says we should be buying the 20-year shelf life prepper stuff but I'm afraid that neither of us will want to eat them due to the taste. (We've tried a few.) Also, they're mostly carbs and soups...and seem to be overpriced for those things.
Have any of you tasted different brands of long-term foods? If so, have you found ones that you like best? Even if you haven't done comparisons, did you like what you tried?
Do any of you have thoughts on regular foods with their various shelf-life dates?
The best formula is store what you eat, eat what you store. In other words, don't buy staples just to store, but incorporate foods you normally eat.
Have a store of say spaghetti noodles. Figure how much spaghetti you normally eat over a time period. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, whatever time you feel comfortable with. When you grocery shop, buy a couple extra packages and write the date of purchase on them.
Then when you make spaghetti, use the oldest package, and buy a new one on your next shopping trip.
That way your supplies are always good and you don't worry about things you won't eat being part of your supplies. Buying food to store with no plans of eating or rotation of your stocks is wasteful because the food may be expired when you need it, or if it isn't inspected regularly there may be damage from rodents, insects, water or heat.
Rotation helps insure your stores are ready when you need them.
For long term dehydrated, mountain house is about as good as it gets, and I really like the pepper steak.
Buy different kinds, brands, entrees, try them and buy the ones you like.
That way you know what you're getting and that you like what you have.
The best formula is store what you eat, eat what you store. In other words, don't buy staples just to store, but incorporate foods you normally eat.
Have a store of say spaghetti noodles. Figure how much spaghetti you normally eat over a time period. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, whatever time you feel comfortable with. When you grocery shop, buy a couple extra packages and write the date of purchase on them.
Then when you make spaghetti, use the oldest package, and buy a new one on your next shopping trip.
That way your supplies are always good and you don't worry about things you won't eat being part of your supplies. Buying food to store with no plans of eating or rotation of your stocks is wasteful because the food may be expired when you need it, or if it isn't inspected regularly there may be damage from rodents, insects, water or heat.
Rotation helps insure your stores are ready when you need them.
For long term dehydrated, mountain house is about as good as it gets, and I really like the pepper steak.
Buy different kinds, brands, entrees, try them and buy the ones you like.
That way you know what you're getting and that you like what you have.
Darn, I forgot to mention that we actually DO rotate our foods but maybe I should say "I" rotate them. Ha! My husband has always tended to buy whatever came to mind without thinking we might have plenty. He does a lot of our shopping and is on a learning curve and getting better all the time. Asking doesn't exactly come naturally to him.
As far as rotation goes, I write the supposed expiration date on the packaging and then put them on a shelf with others of the same year. If there are items with differing months, I put them in order front to back, as well. That way, the theory is that we can take a quick look to find items from oldest to newest shelves in order. It's a pretty good system.
I'll check out Mountain House dehydrated and especially the pepper steak, which is something my husband likes. Thank you so much for your response and your tips!
Mountain House is freeze-dried which is better than dehydrated. At least what I can buy. Freeze dried food really doesn't have an expiration date, the date on the package is the expected lifetime of the container it comes in.
With most foods the printed expiration date has nothing to do with food safety, it has to do with taste and quality. For example canned green beans might have an expiration date 2 years in the future, but they are likely safe to eat until the can rusts to the point the beans get exposed to pathogens. But after 5 years you might not want to eat them because they have become very mushy and they taste more like the can than beans, and the nutritional profile is very low. Freeze dried food retains the nutrition more or less indefinitely. There are a few exceptions to this rule that I have found with canned products: milk products turn brown and become unusable shortly after the expiration date. Canned tomatoes (I'm guessing its the acid) should be tossed shortly after the expiration date unless you want a huge mess.
Other than that, use common sense. If a can is bulging or the contents don't smell right, don't eat it. If you are DESPERATE and are unsure about canned food, boiling it for 20 minutes will kill any pathogens and neutralize the botulism toxin.
The best policy is not to need food stores to begin with. In the last week we harvested 28 pounds of fruits/veggies, 19 cups of goat milk (1 goat currently in milk), 56 eggs, and 90 pounds of meat. Our freezers are full so we can't even harvest the feral chickens that are running around any faster than we can eat our way through the frozen ones. That being said, we do have a store of food. We can only harvest food so long as we can get around. Even food producers should have enough stored food to get them through a broken leg, gunshot, long illness, whatever. The best thing about freeze dried food is that it is very light and easy to move, and you can eat it dry if you need to.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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I can't remember if I posted about this or not. I was working on a detailed blog article on the topic.
First of all I live in the desert about 125 miles from Las Vegas. It was 116 today. We have had no luck growing food in the past, but plan to try again in the winter. But Dec/Jan we get freezing temps and snow occasionally. So basically what we have is all we got, if the food runs out it will be leave or starve.
We break it down into rough groups. There is some overlap.
2. Pantry / frozen / refrigerated items: Lasts a few weeks to few months. Frozen fish, meat, veggies, ICE CREAM!! Pasta sauces, bagged nuts, potatos, onions, etc. Butter, cheese, mayo, salami, etc. Cookies.
3. Mid term storage: 6 mo to 3 years: Canned goods, meat, fish, condiments, honey, dried foods, rice, pasta, beans. Ready meals like the "Complete" brand.
4: Long term storage: Mostly Mountain House freeze dried. It is VERY expensive. And takes a LOT of space. We have about a months worth right now, 5 buckets, and that's a starvation diet. My goal is to triple it, but no idea where we will put it.
5: Emergency bug out supply: We keep about a month of various mid term food in a steamer trunk that we can "grab n go" in case we have to bail out. I plan to double this to two trunks and rotate the items every 6 mo, alternating. It's a mix of canned, rice/beans, supermarket ready to eat meals, pasta. Some freeze dried (scrambled eggs, etc.).
We can sustain about 6 mo on full ration. If TSHTF and no resupply was coming we could maybe eek out 9 months on short rations, supplemented with some native rattlesnakes, fried trantulas, and the neighbors chihuahua...
Something I hadn't counted on was relatives showing up to eat our preps. Right as this thing started my MIL dropped in for a month in her RV with basically no supplies. That required a major recalculation. You can't exactly turn family away so you need to plan for them too.
"Something I hadn't counted on was relatives showing up to eat our preps. Right as this thing started my MIL dropped in for a month in her RV with basically no supplies. That required a major recalculation. You can't exactly turn family away so you need to plan for them too."
When TSHTF it's like winning the lottery, everybody who made fun of you for playing all those years suddenly show up expecting to be taken care of.
It's a difficult situation to be in, especially while you watched them buy new cars, take exotic trips, eat at restaurants, and buy fun fancy toys while you pinched pennies driving a rusty old pickup to haul compost on the weekends to expand your homestead.
Obviously we can't take everybody in. Still not sure what that decision tree is going to look like.
5: Emergency bug out supply: We keep about a month of various mid term food in a steamer trunk that we can "grab n go" in case we have to bail out. I plan to double this to two trunks and rotate the items every 6 mo, alternating. It's a mix of canned, rice/beans, supermarket ready to eat meals, pasta. Some freeze dried (scrambled eggs, etc.).
That is a good thing to have. But, why grab and go ? Why don't you keep it in a cache at your bug out location?
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TRex2
That is a good thing to have. But, why grab and go ? Why don't you keep it in a cache at your bug out location?
Great question. Because I squandered the time and we don't have a bug out location.
I tried for awhile to delude myself that our place in the desert was viable, and finally realized it is not tenable, never will be, and nothing I can do will change it. Covid brought out the reality of my community, and it isn't good. In crisis I thought we would work together. What I found is it's every man for himself. Anything truly bad it will be a blood bath.
Meanwhile western real estate went through the roof. It is very difficult to find any property in a desirable area for under $500,000, and anything with some space and water starts in the millions, plural. We should have bailed out in 2014. But "life happened."
1. I had a business that took most of my time. 2. I got cancer 3 yrs ago that wiped out my business and knocked me off the plan for two years and nearly permenantly. 3. We spent the last year once I could get around again looking for the "perfect" place for a forever home, one that apparently doesn't exist. 4. This was to be the year we found our bug out paradise, we had planned to travel all spring and summer, and Covid dashed that.
Now we are looking at a motor home or trailer to continue our search or to maybe store somewhere as a bug out place. But I also need a new truck as my lease ended and they are gouging me something terrible. Have you priced trucks recently? Yikes!
Being prepared for life is a never ending learning process and I'm still evolving. So for now the go-trunk is the best I can do. Just hope I never need it.
Definitely not the answer I expected.
You are much more realistic than the typical person I present that question to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamies
Great question. Because I squandered the time and we don't have a bug out location.
I tried for awhile to delude myself that our place in the desert was viable, and finally realized it is not tenable, never will be, and nothing I can do will change it. Covid brought out the reality of my community, and it isn't good. In crisis I thought we would work together. What I found is it's every man for himself. Anything truly bad it will be a blood bath.
Meanwhile western real estate went through the roof. It is very difficult to find any property in a desirable area for under $500,000, and anything with some space and water starts in the millions, plural. We should have bailed out in 2014. But "life happened."
1. I had a business that took most of my time. 2. I got cancer 3 yrs ago that wiped out my business and knocked me off the plan for two years and nearly permenantly. 3. We spent the last year once I could get around again looking for the "perfect" place for a forever home, one that apparently doesn't exist. 4. This was to be the year we found our bug out paradise, we had planned to travel all spring and summer, and Covid dashed that.
Now we are looking at a motor home or trailer to continue our search or to maybe store somewhere as a bug out place. But I also need a new truck as my lease ended and they are gouging me something terrible. Have you priced trucks recently? Yikes!
Being prepared for life is a never ending learning process and I'm still evolving. So for now the go-trunk is the best I can do. Just hope I never need it.
I don't agree with the term "squandered."
Life does happen. Many years ago, I would have been in a similar predicament.
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Thanks, MT!
I'll check out Mountain House dehydrated and especially the pepper steak, which is something my husband likes. Thank you so much for your response and your tips!
