Emergency Preparedness can be broken down into the following
categories:
Water
Shelter
Food
First Aid
Defense
Sanitation
Air
Our friend Mark Smith, a Preparedness Consultant, teaches
that in order to have a well-rounded emergency preparedness plan, you should
always be storing food. If you are
working on your first aid kit, buy bandages and some food. Pick up some bottled water and food. Order a camping stove and some food. This is why we focus primarily on food
storage.
Eat what you store and store what you eat!
If you did a quick search for "how much food storage do
I need" you will find many websites that have a food storage calculator or
a list of foods that you need to store.
This list will usually include several pounds of lard, pearled barley,
gelatin and molasses. When you are in
the middle of an ice storm heating water over a candle, do you know what to do
with barley, gelatin and lard?
You need to be familiar with your food storage. If you choose to store food that you don't
normally eat, make sure you slowly incorporate these foods into your diet
now. If your body does not have the
enzymes to digest the new foods, there is a high possibility you will get
either an upset stomach or other numerous digestive problems. An emergency situation is not the time to
introduce new foods to your diet.
Getting Started
Make a list of your favorite simple meals and begin storing
the ingredients. All of the ingredients
need to be shelf-stable. For example, my
family loves Terriyaki Chicken Bowls, so I store rice, freeze-dried chicken,
freeze-dried broccoli and bottled terriyaki sauce. If there is a power outage, the chicken in
the freezer won't last long, so the freeze-dried chicken is ideal.
I found it easier to plan my food storage by planning an
entire month of meals. Then I figured
out what ingredients I would need to make each meal. The longer the shelf life, the better. If you like spaghetti, but the shelf life of
the sauce is only a year, either plan to rotate the sauces so you eat them
within the year, or store the ingredients with a higher shelf life. (Shelf Reliance) Thrive Life has a great tomato powder with
a shelf life of 8 years. With the
powder, you can quickly throw together an amazing spaghetti dinner right from
your food storage.
The 3 Enemies of Food Storage:
1. Heat
2. Moisture
3. Light
Store your food in a cool, dry place. If you are storing shelf-stable food such as
cans or buckets of legumes and grains, inside your home works just fine. If the temperature is above 80, it may
shorten the shelf life a bit. The
cooler, the better. This is why our
Grandparents had cool, dark root cellars.
If you use glass mason jars, storing the jars on the counter is not
recommended because the light will compromise the food. As for moisture, this pertains to your
freeze-dried, dehydrated, grains and legumes.
With cans, there is always the possibility of rust due to water or moisture. Make sure your dried food is not exposed to
any moisture. You can take extra
precautions by adding oxygen absorbers and storing in mylar bags. If the mylar bags are sealed, they keep out
light and moisture. You can pick up
food-grade buckets with lids at any hardware store, or try asking for used
buckets at restaurants and bakeries. A
good rinsing and you have free storage.
I usually purchase my mylar bags from Amazon online for the best price.
Quantity
It is better to have and not need, than need and not
have. We recommend starting with a 2
week supply, then save 3 months, 6 months and so on. If you decide you want a year supply of food
and you start by storing rice, then have a situation such as a job loss, you
will be eating rice for every meal. I
recently learned of the term,appetite fatigue.
This means you simply cannot stand to eat that food any longer. and you
will take less and less and end up in metabolic decline. You could literally starve to death sitting
next to a bag of food. So start by
buying ingredients for a few full meals each time. By starting small, you will build a
well-rounded food storage. Don't forget
to store condiments and seasonings as well.
Chicken is chicken. It's the
sauces and seasonings that make it a wonderful meal.
Freeze-Dried vs. Dehydrated
Freeze-dried flash freezes food at the peak of ripeness,
then uses a vacuum to pull only the moisture out, leaving the nutrition and
enzymes. The dehydrating process uses
heat to cook out all of the moisture. Dehydration
has a shorter shelf life and sometimes requires adding preservatives. Due to shelf life, nutrition and taste, I
prefer freeze-dried, but there are some foods such as carrots that are better
dehydrated. Freeze-drying a carrot turns
it completely white.
Preparation
I use my food storage for everyday meals, so preparation is
no different than any other food, except it is usually quicker because i don't
have to slice and dice. I do have to
heat and eat though. Since this is food
for a possible emergency, you need to think about what tools you will need to
have on hand to prepare and cook your meals.
If the power is out, you aren't using the stove, blender or
microwave. You will need to invest in a
few tools that do not require electricity.
Also, if you plan to rehydrate anything, you will need to plan for a
water source if the water is not available.
.
My Personal Recommendation:
After months of comparing food storage companies and
different methods, I personally chose THRIVE food from (Shelf Reliance) Thrive Life. Thrive is by far the best tasting food and
usually the best price out of all of the brands I have tried. They offer mainly ingredients rather than
pre-packaged meals, so I can use my own personal recipes. Most of the product line is freeze-dried with
an average shelf life of about 25 years.
The cans are coated inside as well as outside to prevent rust. Being on a budget, I LOVE the Q FoodPlanner. I quickly filled up an online
shopping cart of everything I wanted and set a monthly budget by reallocating
my grocery budget. I have found this
actually saves me money because I am not making as many trips to the grocery
store and not wasting any food. THRIVE
food is by far the best brand I have tasted.
I had to laugh when my neighbor's daughter was surprised when she tried
it and said, "mom, this tastes like real food."
What Is Fresh?
I think we can all agree that Fresh food is best. My
question is, what is fresh really? Fresh
produce is picked straight from the vine when ripe. When picked too early and
allowed to ripen on a truck, that produce delivers almost no nutrition by the
time you bring it home. The fruits and
vegetables that are too ripe to make the trip to the store are sent to be
frozen. This is why frozen food
generally has more nutrition than "fresh" from the shelves. Even better than frozen is the freeze-dried
method. This is when food is flash
frozen at 60 below zero, then put in a vacuum where all the moisture is turned
to vapor and removed completely. This
method instantly preserves the shape, color, texture and flavor and has more
nutrition than any other method of preservation.
I love that (Shelf Reliance) Thrive Life flash-freezes their produce
within 48 hours of harvesting to ensure the most nutritious and best-tasting
food on the market. By using the
freeze-drying method, then sealing it in a double-coated can, protected from
light, moisture and air, the food has no way to decompose, giving it a shelf
life of 25 years or more.
I can get the best vegetables straight from my garden in the
summer, but what about during the winter?
Here in Oklahoma there is absolutely no way I can acquire a fresh
pineapple or mango because it has to be imported. With Thrive food I can open a can of
pineapple in the winter 15 years from now I am confident I am getting the best
nutrition.
Is THRIVE the only food on my shelves? No, I buy all of my wheat locally because it
is cheaper. I still get bulk items such
as beans and rice at local stores (the rice at the Asian food store is
fantastic!) I still jump on sales at the
grocery store and visit the local LDS cannery.
I have food stored that I have personally canned in the past, but don't
have the time or space this year to have a garden, so I store food the best way
for me.
Whether you choose to grow your own garden and can and
dehydrate your food, use coupons to stock up on canned goods, or purchase
freeze-dried, I urge you to insure your family's most basic needs. Emergencies happen at the most inopportune
times, make sure you are always ready!
