tips to shopping for food storage how to get started with food storage what foods to buy stockpile make them last how to rotate
hi it's AlaskaGranny Alaska Prepper are you looking for tips to shopping for food storage sensible prepping well
it doesn't have to be complicated and it's important that everybody will
stockpile the food and supplies that they need for emergencies we never know
what can happen disaster emergency so the best strategy is to plan ahead so you want to take an
inventory of the foods your family actually likes what will they eat if they like tuna get
tuna if they hate green beans don't get green beans somebody else's list of foods to stockpile for emergencies long term food storage isn't
necessarily what's going to be the best fit of food for your family it makes no
sense to stock up on foods that nobody likes or is willing to eat it's a waste
of your valuable grocery dollars and it's also a waste of your food storage
space you want to have the space in your home to store things that you actually
need and use and are useful to you not just clutter so stock up on items that
are foods that your family likes and buy extras of them those foods when you go to the store
then you need to rotate those foods how to rotate foods food storage it's that strategy of first-in first-out
just like they do in the grocery store you push the things in the back of the
shelf to the front and you put the new foods behind them so that you're always
rotating the food nothing gets shoved in the back expired
dented or bulging and is wasted you also want to make sure that you store your
packaged goods in airtight containers because you don't want them to become
contaminated with any kind of pantry bugs you don't want
packages spilling and making a mess in your pantry get stale and foods stay fresh longer
if they're stored in airtight containers it's worth the investment to have your
food last as long as possible and still be in the best shape and flavor that it
can be before you head to the store or make a meal plan inventory the food you
have on hand plan your meals around the foods that are in your stockpile and
then go to the store and buy the rest of the items that you need it makes no
sense to keep buying more cans of tomatoes and use those ones you just
came from the store if you have 12 of them in your pantry if you do come home
with two use the two out of your pantry and put the new ones in the back of the
row so that they're continuing to be rotated that way you make sure that
you're using and replacing the foods that you need if you find that there's
foods in your pantry that are becoming expired that nobody is using eating you need to
try to eat them use them up and then figure out how come I have these foods that nobody
wants and we aren't eating are they just forgotten or we don't care about them
anymore if you're not willing to eat them you need to donate them say to a
food pantry before they've expired or if they're way expired it's probably best
to dispose of them work within your budget buy a little food at a time and buy a
variety of foods if you buy 50 cans of chili this week and 50 cans of black beans next
week and then something happens all you would have to eat are chili and beans so
buy a variety until you have a nice stockpile once you
have a variety then you can take advantage of grocery
sales and you can buy food in bulk but just because it's food is on sale and you can buy it
in bulk don't buy more food than your family can use
within a year or two you don't want those stored foods in your pantry to become
expired simply because you bought too many there is a limit to how much food you
can actually use and eat I've made that mistake myself I bought too much food because it was
on sale and if you just have too much it can become a problem so try to stockpile
in a reasonable amount and not just out of fear or it's on sale like I've done
then think in terms of meals breakfast lunch dinner snacks look at the packages
read the ingredients pay attention to the nutrition and the calorie count you
need to make sure that you have wholesome foods and that you're
providing 2,000 calories per person per day to make sure that you have a
substantial amount of food you may find that some of the foods you think are
fillling and long-lasting maybe don't have as many calories as you think times
of emergency are never a time to find out that you are eating unfamiliar foods
or that you don't have enough to keep people filled up once your pantry is
full think about long-term food storage foods that last from 10 to 30 years a
good way to buy those foods for long term food storage is in bulk where you can get a 50-pound bucket of rice
and beans you can also buy long term long lasting foods for food storage them in number 10 cans a strategy is to buy them
in single ingredients that you can mix together because say you want to make
things like meals in a jar what happens is you take some 5 year shelf-life items
and you mix them with 30 year shelf-life items and your meal is going to expire
when the first ingredient expires is when your jar is no longer fresh to eat
if you kept the 5 year foods things separate you can rotate those more readily and
then your other foods can last longer so it's something to keep in mind
meals in a jar are a great idea but you could possibly be shortening the life of
some of your long-term food storage by combining those foods when my kids left
home to go to college they were living in a dorm I still made sure they had
simple foods that they could eat and then when they moved out on their own it
was easy to buy one of the buckets that had small portions that could last for
30 days it gave me peace of mind knowing that they had available food they would
eat and they agreed in an emergency they would eat it some of the foods in the
bucket may not be something that you would choose to eat on a regular basis
so you need to take into account the total foods that's in the bucket and if most of the entrees food items
of it is appealing to you then that might be a way to go so that you have
something for an emergency back-up plan buy packages and containers in sizes
that you can reasonably store use up and lift I can't lift a five-gallon bucket
of rice and beans and I don't have a way to use it up between the time I would
open it and it would then become stale or wasted so I like to buy things in the
number 10 cans it makes sense for myself and my family they fit more easily in
the pantry I can store them in places out of the way yet there's still
something I can bring into the kitchen and rotate through my food storage
because the amount of food that's in the can is something that I can reasonably use up
on a day to day basis one can of long term dried dehydrated food at a time if you do want to
store foods in buckets a great way to do that is if you're going to seal the food
up in mylar make them in smaller sizes of mylar bags and put the smaller bags of food together
in a five-gallon bucket maybe put five of the mylar small bags of long term foods rather than one
gigantic bag of dried food most of us have enough to worry about without trying to open the
big container reseal it up and then store it back away so make the foods you
store in a size and container that works for you most importantly store foods so
that they will last in a cool dry place foods that are in jars need to be stored
in the dark because the light can also deteriorate your food and most
importantly stockpile all the water that you can we can go a long time without
food but not very long without water water should be the most important item
that you stockpile for your food storage plan on at least one gallon of water per person
per day for as many days as possible food storage doesn't have to be
complicated we just need to have a plan and when you make a plan then you know
how to implement it and so that it makes sense for you and your family and then
you'll be ready for whatever comes your way
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