Hey, just wondering if you could recommend some good companies from which to buy food for long term storage, dehydrated food, etc. And if you have any particular foods within that brand that you'd like to recommend, please lay it on me. All help greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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Great info. Thanks very much.
If you can, stay away from dehydrated - lost nutrition and texture.. Freeze dried is a little more expensive but reconstitutes better. Best place to start is at the Mormon warehouse - prices are about 1/3 of commercial firms. Selection is limited, but you can get a lot of the basics.
Thank you for that info. I knew Mormon's have long been food preppers, but didn't know they had warehouses like that. Best of all they sell to everybody. Good to know. Appreciate it.
Augason Farms long-term good storage, Ready Hour long-term food storage (you want at least a 4 week supply in each bucket, you can buy some with 90-120 days worth of food
25lb lag of long grain rice, flower, pinto beans, salt
AF is good stuff.
Also, if you’re having to use this stuff, frozen food isn’t an option, you’ll have to make a fire to use the rice and beans and hot water for the dehydrated food, you want chlorine tablets and water filters....find you a big bug-out bag on Amazon (sorry, I know he’s the anti christ, use the mad selection and quick shipments your advantage right now). The bag will have an assortment of great tools and solutions. Also, buy you a portable reasonably sized solar panel charger with usb plugs and a battery bank so you can at least charge things like radios and cell phones, but also flashlights and portable fans and batteries.
Great advice! Thanks very much. I really like the solar panel charger idea.
Mypatriotsupply.com
+1 and you can get a discount code from various podcasters, x22 usually has one active.
Cool. Good to know.
Thank you.
usually Mountain House is a pretty reliable brand for freeze dried chow. I don't have any specific food recs within that brand. Vacuum sealing flour, rice, beans, sugar and other staples is useful. Make sure you have a couple of recipes that you think your family/yourself can live on for an extended period of time or several that share most of the same ingredients and then stock up on those, sealing them for long term storage. Kind of a quick intro to the subject, it's almost impossible to properly prep for any long term grid down scenario. best of luck
Thanks very much! Good advice. Quick question, I know that things like rice, beans and oats are recommended to round things out and because they have a long shelf life. Can I leave them in their original plastic bag packaging?
Depends if you have critters or mice likely to get into them. Some people store the bags in metal garbage cans for that reason.
White rice and rolled oats store a good long time, even just in their plastic packaging. (Oats have a natural preservative--add some oat flour to baked good (bread, etc) to increase it's shelf life.) I've never ever had oatmeal go bad or buggy or rancid on me.
Brown rice can go rancid, unfortunately. It should be stored in airtight containers or bought freeze-dried.
Beans store very well but they get harder to cook as they age. They require more time to cook, even after soaking overnight, if they are too old. If you have a grain mill, you can grind beans and use the bean powder/flour to add protein to recipes.
Thank you for answering that question. I didn't know that about brown rice. Good info.
I second Mountain House. Get yourself a decent little vacuum sealer, O2 absorbers (Amazon (sorry)), dessicant packs, extra rolls of sealer bags and packs down bulk rice, wheat berries, oats, pasta, etc. Learn storage times. Start reading. Most importantly, learn how to purify and store water. Walmart often has MH and other preps cheaper than Amazon delivered too.
I had no idea Walmart sold that stuff. Good to know. Thanks for the tips.
Sure. But get some canning jars. Easy to find
Hmm. Okay. Thanks.
Most things can be canned. I’ve never done it but I understand some people do dry goods in the oven
Mmm breakfast skillet is my fave from mountain house
https://www.sportsmansguide.com/productlist?k=mountain%20house Mountain house is about the cheapest you can get without buying a bunch of random stuff in a bucket for 250 that you could have thrown together yourself for a quarter the price.
They also have a full selection of MRE and disaster meals. If you join sportsmans guide club you get quite a few benefits but one really good one is called 4pay. You can buy 1000 dollars of whatever supplies you need and pay it on $250 increments over 4 months.
Cool. Thanks. I do plan to order some MH as several people have mentioned it. Appreciate the info.
After buying a 3 month supply from mypatriotsupply.com, my family bought some bulk products from https://www.webstaurantstore.com/. They are very affordable.
Oh, great resource. Thanks for the link!
MRE's are under-rated. Heat stabilized retort packaged foods will theoretically last indefinately. I've eaten 30 year old MRE's with no problems as long as the packaging is intact. The meals are portioned, ready to eat, hot or cold. I've been eating them for decades when I hunt or camp. This past year even more so. Just store them in a cool place and check the packaging integrity from time to time.
Wow, you ate 30 year old MREs. Yikes. Good to know it is safe to do, but very unappetizing to think about, lol. Although, the 90s were awesome, so .. Thanks for posting.
My most extreme experience. A friend had a partial case of 1981 MRE’s that were stored in his garage for several decades cycling from freezing in the Winter and high heat in the Summer. These MRE’s were 30 years old and could not possibly be any good, or so my friend thought. I opened and inspected all the components of a Menu #11 bag. The ham slices were juicy and tasty, just as I remembered them. The freeze dried fruit rehydrated ok, but was lacking the sweetness (I mixed in a little honey and it was very good, one of my tricks). The orange nut cake was as fresh and tasty as I remembered. The crackers had lost a little crispness, but the saltiness made up for that. The cheese spread was very dark upon opening, but tasted ok. Finally the cocoa was a fine treat to cap off my meal. I WAS shocked myself at how well this MRE held up being 30 years old
Lol. Yeah, I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try 30 year old food, but considering you're still with us, I guess it really was okay.
Mypatriot.com. Readywise. Also of you don't mind spending a tad more I'm a backpacker and eat dydrated meals on the trails. Backpacker pantry. Alpineaire have some good individual meals Also search MREs. You can get caes of them search around about prices. They fluctuate Also maybe some survival books. Good info on water. How to purify. How to make/catch water from a sheet of plastic. Wild edibles are wise to know. Beware of mushrooms till you have a coupe seasons under your belt
Great tips. Thank you.
Get 5 mil aluminized mylar bags and a curling iron. You will be happier with the bags that have a ziploc top and expanding bottom. You can make your own MREs from Minute Rice, dehydrated beans, freeze dried vegetables which I usually get from Noth Bay Trading. You can take the big #10 Mountain House prepared meals like beef stroganoff, add more freeze dried veggies and spices, rebag in the mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, then seal. This takes a little organization and dexterity to do quickly before the oxygen absorbers spoil, which is seconds after they are exposed. Get them in packets of 10. I use 2-3 to a bag with 2 cups food content.
Okay, thanks. I have noticed a lot of people like to use the mylar bags.
The aluminized mylar keeps out light, which degrades everything including food. The O2 absorbers and an airtight heat seal is what does more to preserve the food. It's cheaper than the small serving backpack meals. But if you want meat and good broth, learn to can with a pressure canner (Instant Pots do not make enough pressure.). It's like magic. Lots of YouTube peppers to show you how.
Be aware of serving sizes. Some companies products are packaged for servings for 4. So if you do not have a way to reseal for long term storage you will loose shelf life. Pay attention of the reviews. If you want to go the route of making your own, this site has lots of info. https://www.primalsurvivor.net/
Good point. Thanks for the link.
It depends on how many days of food you want to prepare and how much you are willing to spend.
If you're only wanting to prepare for a week or two, a normal food that have incredibly long expiry dates such as these items will be cheap and fine and because they are everyday food, you can rotate them as you use them.
Have you considered how you'll heat the food and if you need water purification solutions?
Solutions will depend on how many days you are planning for.
I can give you advice on long term water purification, how to make hardtack that lasts forever (good for making stews) or how to hook up a camping cooker to a large BBQ gas tank so it lasts for about 70 hours of full flame cooking.
EDIT: Also be warned not to exclusively discuss prepping too much or you'll risk being permanently banned as a "one issue faggot". You'll need to discuss a range of different topics if you want your account not to be banned and all of your post and comment history purged.
Lol, thanks for that last warning. I do have some of the water cleaning tablets, but if you have a suggestion for that, please do share. And I have seen videos of people making rocket stoves with cinder blocks. Pretty easy and cool. Again, anything you'd like to share is appreciated. Thanks, fren.
I wrote this a while ago and it's full of useful information that is practical rather than theory. You'll find info about water purification strategies in this link. Feel free to ask any questions if you are seeking more advanced info. This link is intended not to scare away anyone just starting to learn about prepping.
The only change I would have made to that original post would be to warn that baseball bats are almost useless as a weapon for home protection because there are few places in most homes where you can swing them. A hammer is better if you can't purchase a real weapon (a gun). Squeamish people are also able to BONK violent home intruders until they become Care Bears and before they start gushing strawberry jam, whereas slicing up a birthday cake is not suitable for everyone.
Note that you can click on the JPG image links and they will expand and contract within the text body because the Voat was awesome.
What a great amount of information you provided in that link! Thank you. I'll be going through that and I may well have questions, though it seems like an exhaustive / complete list of needed items. Great info and much appreciated.
Be warned that I have now participated in a discussion criticizing Israel, so I may be permanently banned for being a "one topic faggot" and all of my prepper comments and posts will be culled to protect the tribe.
If this happens, you may need to PM me.
Once a month, my family have enjoy an evening when we turn off the lights and the air conditioner, light some candles and we all listen to an enjoyable classic story from my iPod speakers. If it's cold, we wrap ourselves in blankets and enjoy a mug of hot chocolate.
My sons love science fiction and last month we listened to "The Davros Mission", a Doctor Who short story that everyone loved. Afterwards we discussed the themes and historical references before bedtime. My kids loved it and it helped prepared them for the shock of martial law or civil war during power failures.
Im just starting to prep we've always had a few months supply of food on hand I'm starting to dehydrate fruit in my air fryer I'm going to move on to other things soon. We bought one with a dehydreate option you can also use your oven there's a lot of videos out there on how to.
Thanks. Good idea. How do you store the dehydrated fruit? I remember seeing a video a while back of an older couple and she was making soup from some can of powder she had. She said it was actually delicious. Wish I could find it again.
So far just ziplock bags but it seems vacuum sealers aren't as expensive as I remember them lol
I store my dehydrated fruit in canning jars. Some of the vacuum sealers had siecial lids you can buy.
Do you dehydrate it yourself? If so, can you recommend a good dehydrator? There's a vast price difference in the ones I've seen. Thanks.
Yes I do. Mine is an old Weston. Works fine and I have extra trays but I wouldn’t chose it again. I mostly do apples, strawberries, a few veggies for soup and fruit leather. I’m not crazy of having to constantly swap around the trays because the ones on the bottom get get almost cooked and the ones on the top are still just starting. I don’t have any real advice except that If you can afford it would actually investigate freeze dryers. Not that I don’t like dehydrated food but I hear freeze drying is better. I also have I smoker that I use for smoking meats which if you do that before dehydration you can get some great jerky like solutions. Most of my food preservation is done thru canning. It’s not hard to learn and except for being labor intensive is great. Food tastes better. If you’re bugging out I guess it could be awkward but if replacing store bought you couldn’t ask for better. Buy a ball blue book and see just how easy it is. Soups, meat, meals or fruits and veggies. Canning can be an investment but overall cheaper and better than anything store bought. I’d be glad to discuss further if you have an inclination that direction. I do 100s of quarts yearly.
Thank you for that information. I am a little confused by the dehydrators because I used to know someone that had one made up of plastic trays -- no electricity or anything. That didn't seem safe or sanitary to me. Yours obviously 'cooks' so that would be the route I'd want to go. Have you heard of the other no-cook variety?
And I appreciate the info about freeze dryers. A quick check on amazon didn't offer any. Actually gave me dehydrators as the result, lol. I'll keep looking. And I have always been interested in canning, though never done it. Do you only can your own home grown vegs or do you buy them for canning purposes? My garden is so tiny there is not enough to grow to make canning worthwhile, at least until I make other arrangements. But yes, I would love to know more.
Right now my main objective is to get the food and basic supplies pantry up to speed, then spread out on equipment like deyhdrator, freeze dryer, water purification system, canning equipment, etc. I still have much to learn.
Thank you again for your advice and please feel free to add anything you think may be of value. If it's okay I will get back to you about the canning when I'm a bit more set up and ready to get into that phase. I'll save this thread so I can DM you at that point. I already have questions rolling around in my head, lol. Thanks.
Well I had a large reply written and my dog jumped up and bumped the screen of my tablet. ? Basically I am in Michigan and we shave a multitude of lovely farm markets. We do have a small garden (120sqft) but the majority of my canning food is purchased. If you buy in large quantities the price is still better than in the grocery stores I’ve been canning since I was a kid at my mommas knee. What ever you do don’t let it intimidate you. It is easy and safe. Not to mention healthy and cheap. Reach out when ever you want. I love passing on the “lost arts” I do have a question for you though. Where are you located? It may make a difference to how much you can store. Looking forward to hearing from you. Btw. My name is Darcy.
Agree on mountain house for being one of the tastier brands I have tried while backpacking. Love me some chili mac with beef.
Lol. Okay, thanks.
Okay, I'll check them out. Thanks.
Good to know. I like those in 'regular' food, so will look for them this way too. Thanks.