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Long term food storage

My outlook is to first get yourself all set to live with everything shut off for 10 days straight. Food, water, power, etc.

Imagine everything goes BOOM. Can you continue more or less "normally" for 10 days? If the answer is yes, then work a month at a time outwards from there in terms of planning. What tools do you need for when the stored food and water runs out? What processes do you need to implement?

The goal is to have everything as normal as possible for the first 10 days of any kind of major incident so you can remain calm and begin implementing your longer term plans right off the bat. You can already begin to establish the new routines you'll need after the 10 days. You'll be WAY AHEAD of everyone else, because you won't be panicking and forgetting what to do. You'll be calm. Very important. Fear is dangerous, and panic is a death sentence.
This is some of the best advice
 
Before the current craziness I used to order #10 cans of wheat, rice and beans from the Mormon's online webpage. They were cheap and had free shipping and I have probably 30 or 40 cans of their stuff. I opened one that I had for 15 years and it was as fresh as could be.

For Y2K I sealed up beans and macaroni and rice and other stuff in 5 gallon buckets using my handy vacuum sealer. I moved 5 years ago and opened some of the 5 gallon buckets that I put up in 1999 and the stuff was still fresh and good to eat. You can stock your own larder. You can also buy canned goods using the system of, if you need 1, buy 2 and put one away. Rotate what you build up and you can have a quantity of canned goods before you know it.

Wise man puts away what he can today for the day he can't put it away.

Also, talked about it last night at church and found that most people don't have a get home bag in their vehicle. Not a good idea to get stuck in the snow without some provisions and extra clothes.
 
Currently my only long term food storage is around my waist. Wouldn't be fun but I could go quite a while without food. I do have alternative means to sanitize water and an 18,000 gallon supply right off my back deck !!
 
Before the current craziness I used to order #10 cans of wheat, rice and beans from the Mormon's online webpage. They were cheap and had free shipping and I have probably 30 or 40 cans of their stuff. I opened one that I had for 15 years and it was as fresh as could be.

For Y2K I sealed up beans and macaroni and rice and other stuff in 5 gallon buckets using my handy vacuum sealer. I moved 5 years ago and opened some of the 5 gallon buckets that I put up in 1999 and the stuff was still fresh and good to eat. You can stock your own larder. You can also buy canned goods using the system of, if you need 1, buy 2 and put one away. Rotate what you build up and you can have a quantity of canned goods before you know it.

Wise man puts away what he can today for the day he can't put it away.

Also, talked about it last night at church and found that most people don't have a get home bag in their vehicle. Not a good idea to get stuck in the snow without some provisions and extra clothes.

Me and 2 buddies too a Prepping class at the Mormom Food back, then loaded up a Duce and 1/2 with survival food.
 
What type of rice for storage. Long grain regular rice or quick instant type?

I am not sure I would stock up on instant or parboiled rice.

You can get a 40lb bag of standard long grain rice at Sam’s for around $15ish. I usually buy two and we go through one bag in about 2 months.

I also get short grain rice in bulk from a local oriental market and use it pretty regularly as well depending on what I’m cooking.
 
Before spending a ton of money on “survival food”, Consider what food you currently consume and figure out what you can buy at the grocery store and how you can buy/store/rotate through what you are currently using.

As a boy scout going hiking, we’d buy hamburger helper. Ditch he box and store it in a zip-lock bag. Substituting a can of roast beef for ground beef as it provided a room temperature protein, that does not require refrigeration.

That same thinking can provide easy to buy/store/use everyday food with the addition of a dozen cans of Roast Beef or another favorite protein.

Freeze dried pre-prepared meals are going to be expensive, and may not be as satisfying as the meal you would prepare for yourself and your family. Sure a box of MRE’s is great if you have to grab something to go. But as a long term solution, pasta and cans of pasta sauce supplemented with either frozen or freeze dried meats and cheeses, are going to be tailored to what you would normally consume.

Your money, your choices. I personally think the portions in these survival food packs would have me eating more than one serving. Having the ability to have enough stuff that I normally consume stored, on hand, and ready to go, just seems preferable.

Prior planning prevents a piss poor performance. I recently purchased an entire cow. A whole house generator will keep the freezer cold. A giant propane rank will keep the generator going. I like my steaks Sous Vide!
 
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