Food Storage

Please go to your local library and get books by Peggy Layton. She is my guru. She is a regular mom who has a degree in Home Ec. She is a level headed smart woman who makes it very easy to plan for YOUR family.

One thing she recommends is that you keep track of everything you buy for several months. Then you look at it to see what your family eats. THEN you can plan your food storage.

One thing that always daunted me was wheat....I don't like bread much so why do I need a years supply of wheat per person? It would sit there and go to waste. So by reading her book that I will specify below I now know I need to keep a bunch of bread machine box stuff because that is the only way "I" am going to make bread.

Once I get to the point where I can learn how to make flour and stuff "then" wheat could be an option that I need to buy a bit of.

I learned that I need to have plenty of boxes of cereal and quick cooking stuff like Great Value Mini Ravioli's and Spaghetti O's, cans of Chicken Noodle Soup, etc....that is what we eat. Although I used to cook nearly every meal I work 3 part time jobs now and don't have time to cook hardly at all. We get home and I need to be able to have something on the table in about 10 minutes so kids can get to bed.

Peggy's books are each well written and geared to learning what YOUR family needs not what a general rule is about "This is what every family should have in food storage whether or not they eat it".

One thing my old church did was pick an item each month and everyone stored up on that. Like one month it was cooking oil, then next it might be sugar, then the next it might be dish soap. Very easy to do because almost everyone can buy an extra bottle of oil per month, maybe even every week. Then they have what they need for an entire year in a few weeks. I don't use oil except when I am making brownies so a bottle might be in my fridge all year and still have some in it. But I do have a bottle in my pantry so I have one extra just in case the store is out of business and I can't get one in an emergency.

One thing to think about too is how to cook foods if there is an emergency. Will you cook on your own grill? Start a fire in your fireplace? What if your home is gone and all you have is frozen food that is quickly thawing? These are things that Peggy addresses with you in her books.

In Oklahoma my thoughts are that if I have an emergency it's because a tornado has taken my home "and" my food storage with it. So I make sure that when we go to the storm shelter I have our 72 hour kits with us. If something happens to our food storage we still have provisions for the next few days.

One of the things that the LDS church teaches about food storage is that we should be prepared to share it too.

My friend was in the OKC tornado several years ago and her ward building was set up as an emergency shelter. Each member was asked to donate from their food storage. She is a single woman and had her years supply and uses it like a professional. She hardly ever goes to the store except for fresh produce once per month and a few staples that have to be replaced like toilet paper.

She gave a lot of her food storage to the person in charge of the emergency plan. They cooked every meal for these families that lived in their cultural hall for days and days. Those families had every need met by the members of that ward. If there was an emergency that is where we would go because the Law of Consecration would be used to make sure they were being good stewards over what they had been blessed with and were making sure that everyone was blessed with as much as possible to take care of them. No matter who they were.

So I suggest you look up Peggy Layton books, track what your family eats, that does change with the seasons too, then start a small plan according to your own family's eating habits. You can change that of course and start integrating different foods that you can buy from different sources.

One thing we did was buy a few of the Mountain House MRE's through Emergency Essentials. Hubby wanted them for HIS 72 hour kit and his crash kit. I wasn't sure I could manage them as food. But since we tried them out and liked them I know I could eat them and not be craving food.

One thing that one of the prophets taught is about how our bodies react to stress and new foods. You can get diarrhea, stomach upset, etc...when life has made a change and if you put different foods in your body that your body is not used to it is going to rebel. And rebel big time.

SO YOU MUST EAT THE SAME THING THAT IS IN YOUR FOOD STORAGE, you cannot go along eating one type of food then suddenly have an emergency and start eating something entirely different. You will be sick and puking and have diarrhea. So make sure you store what you eat so you'll be okay.

That's what Peggy's book teach you to do. They also have tons of recipes that you can slowly try out that use stuff like wheat and other stuff a person doesn't usually use daily.

Peggy is in your area so I bet your library has all her books. If they don't then you can ask the librarian to help you get the main one through inner library loan.

If you like it and think it is what will help you they are available on her web site for a minimal cost. I realized I had checked her book out 3 times in a few months just to refer back to something and hubby went and ordered me my own. I also have the church food storage cookbook and several others that I got through Emergency Essentials.

Here is a link to Peggy's site.

http://peggylayton.net/

*******************************************************************
These books are my main source of information:

http://peggylayton.net/ccp0-prodshow/cookin10.html

This one is the one that helped me plan my food storage for my family

http://peggylayton.net/ccp0-prodshow/cookin3.html
*********************************************************************

I also like:

Cooking with food storage

http://peggylayton.net/ccp0-prodshow/cookin2.html

This one was handy but I don't use mixes very often yet. It is a good one to learn how to use a lot of the stuff you can buy in bulk.

http://peggylayton.net/ccp0-prodshow/Mix-A-Meal.html
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This site is where almost all my church friends by their provisions. There are others of course and some may have very very good stuff. I know all the sisters in our ward buy their powdered milk somewhere and it is wonderful, it tastes like real milk and I can stand to drink it straight.

I would suggest you find some friends that are starting out same as you then find a few more food storage ready friends and have a weekly or monthly get together where you guys can learn how to make stuff from the other friends. This is a way you can try new products to see if they taste good or not so great. It's a way of saving money for all those involved.

Here's a link to emergency essentials. They do usually have a monthly special and if you can get a few people to go together and order in a group you can get some stuff very cheaply.

http://beprepared.com/

I just lost my dang answer so I'm gonna keep this one short and sweet. You do not need to buy the packaged stuff. The most basic things can be done in your grocery store. Then after you have enough to survive you can start adding the fun stuff.

Dinners..
Beans, rice, canned veggies, and broth. Beans and rice are pretty complete all on their own.

Lunch..
The same thing.

Breakfast..
Oats, for oatmeal or it can be ground to make bread's. We also keep cereal in stock and Morning moo's milk alternative on hand...That stuff taste just like real milk. I keep it on hand for everyday use also.

Then we keep large quantities of flour, baking soda and baking powder. With some water you can have biscuits, to use all throughout the day.

Now we have chickens, but keeping some form of egg substitute isn't a bad idea. Canned meats or even Jerkey, would be next. Then start to think about the things you would miss and start to add that stuff.

Food stores do not happen over night, every shopping trip add a little more. Even if all you can do is a case of water at a time.

Edited t add that Gamma G is right, you do want to try to stick to things that you would eat often, that is what I consider the fun stuff. First rule in our house is to survive, then it's to survive well :)

I've not used them but I've been reading their wonderful catalogs for years. I suggest Schwann's. They deliver to your door. Their ads list number of servings. Their foods are frozen so unless you have a large freezer you couldn't order for 3, 6, or 12 months. However, they have regular routes and will deliver whenever you want.

Or are you talking about storage of food not to be used except in a catastrophe? I don't know about those. You could ask at the Mormon Church. They do long term food storage. Years ago, my cousin had several boxes containing food that he kept in his bedroom and he was Mormon then. I don't think he is now.

I really like this site, because you can start small. And they give you ideas on what you need.

http://www.foodinsurance.com/how-to-prepare

That said, they are pretty expensive. But their stuff really lasts.

The big problem with food storage is that it's so easy to become overwhelmed and think thaty you need to learn to do EVERYTHING in order to survive. Grind wheat? Really? How about just knowing how to do it and having the stuff you need to do it.

The trick is to start SMALL. I was worried because we have kids, my husband is military, I'm military AND also an EMT. If SHTF (Sh*! Hits The Fan), I'm going to have a lot asked of me and my family. So we have to be prepared food-wise.

So I got a couple of boxes of MRE's to start. They're expensive, but they have everything you need except for water.

Then I bought this: http://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Survival-Wise-Serving-Ent...

Which brought me some peace of mind that our family is now covered, food wise, for over a month. Seems like a good deal to have it in the garage for $120.

Already got heat, light, first aid, food...Now I can work on some of the other essentials. Like water storage and purification.