Using Your Long Term Food Storage

cpmc1 - think the same system for rice, wheat, pasta, sugar, dry milk, etc. This is not only good for crisis, but excellent for having less emergency trips to the grocery store. Dry milk is awesome for storage and every day use. I buy regular milk for cereal, but use my dry milk for all baking and cooking. This has saved me from a trip to the store a few times already when I was out of regular milk. And in a crisis, if we had to use dry milk, there are ways to make it more tasty for drinking

cpmc1 - I have 70 lbs of black beans right now in my long term food storage in (2) 5 gallon buckets. I have another 10 lbs in my pantry. When I start to get to the bottom of the 10 lbs in my pantry, I go to my food storage. I get out 10 lbs and refill my every day pantry. I mark on my list to buy another bag of beans to replace. I buy in bulk at my food co-op, so I might even wait until I went through the second 10 lbs, then order a 25 lb bag. At any given time, I never dipped below 60 lbs

I read something the other day that said both little kids and elderly people will sometimes under stress shut down and stop eating if they are not used to the new food or if they are forced to eat the same thing day after day. During times of stress, keeping things as normal as possible really really helps. It also keeps up moral when people are feeling afraid or despondent. I just replace as used. If I use a pound of beans, then I will buy a pound of beans.

The idea is that you constantly replace what you use. If you never use your food storage, you are risking the food going bad and your investment lost. Plus, under stress, if you don't know how to cook from stock, it can be even more stressful. If you don't know how to make bread, but all of a sudden in a crisis are trying your first, you are going to be frustrated. The idea is to make these things a part of normal life so in a crisis it is a part of life that flows normally, reducing stress

okay, you (not you, but for the example) have all this food, and its meant to last you/ your family long enough to get everyone out of the crisis, but since yu dont know how long the crisis is going to last, you make it last you, say, a month or so, but what happens if it goes bad? or it doesnt last long enough? tell me what happens then?

I would recommend having more than a month. That's just me, of course you have to start somewhere. It's good to start small. Of course we can't see the future, so we don't know, but I have heard it said that if you can survive the first few weeks of a crisis, you are more likely to survive long term. I believe this is because at some point, things reset and some normalcy returns. In the case of a natural disaster we would hope some type of infrastructure would be back up in a few weeks.

of course there is no way to know if there would be enough. You can only do what you can do. However, I buy/store bulk foods for many different reasons. Crisis preparedness is just one reason. I buy bulk to save my family a lot of money, and we eat much much healthier. If it doesn't last long enough in a crisis, then it doesn't last long enough. I believe in doing whatever I have been given the ability to do and trusting God for the rest. But a good way around some of that is to have a garden

I am really big on learning how to actually produce more of my families needs for ourselves. So a garden, and fruit vines and trees (not to mention my chickens!) are a really good way for me to know that I can produce at least my own fruits and veggies. This is a great way to stretch out storage indefinitely in a crisis. Anyone can grow tomatoes even in a container on an apartment patio. Now they have those hanging upside down planters you can use for tomatoes, peppers and other veggies

As far as the food going bad, I look at my food storage as an investment. If it goes bad, all that money and time is wasted. It can take a lot of research, but there are endless ways of storing food that will last for years. Dehydrating is an awesome way. I just saw a video the other night and learned that I can store dry goods like nuts in canning jars and vacuum seal them so they can last for 3 yrs. or more. Some things like beans, pasta and wheat can last 30 yrs when stored right.

My dehydrated veggies from my garden stored in canning jars that are vacuum sealed, and kept in a dark, dry place, can last 30 yrs or indefinitely. Of course you have to learn to cook with them. I am working on learning some dehydrated mixes for soups and stews. These are great for storage, and I plan to use them occasionally for busy nights when I would be tempted to eat out. Of course this is an on-going process and whatever I use I would replace.