Why Food Storage is Hard and How to Fix It: Part 3

Day 3, you’ve made it!

Today, we’re talking about the Big Daddy of food storage:  long-term food supply.

Now you know that an emergency supply of food and water helps during a natural disaster and that a 90-day supply helps when recovering from a life emergency like job loss, sickness, or any other unplanned event.

But what is long-term food storage for?

Simply put, a long-term supply of food is a collection of foods that are storable long term, are high in nutritional value, do not require refrigeration, and will sustain the basic needs of life.

Okay, we understand that “food that will sustain the basic needs of life” doesn’t sound exciting….because well…it isn’t.

However, when you turn these basics and other stable foods into meals you and your family are familiar with everyone will enjoy them.

Here are five eye-opening reasons a long-term food storage is so important for your family.

5 Eye-opening Benefits an Awesome Long-term Food Supply Will Give You

1. An awesome long-term supply can help you every day, not just when the world ends, because it is comprised of basic ingredients you use every day. When you understand what long-term food storage is–basic ingredients you use every day–it won’t seem so scary.  Think about it: ground wheat is simply flour, powdered milk can be used for fresh milk in any cooking, and the list goes on and on.  Since these foods are also basic ingredients in many recipes, they can easily be rotated in your regular meals.  Don’t believe us? What if we told you that you are already eating these items?  Do you ever use a pancake or muffin mix that says, “Just add water”? Surprise! That mix contains food storage ingredients like powdered eggs, powdered milk, and more.  So it turns out you already do use food storage–and like it! We’ll give you a minute to get over the shock.
2. An awesome long-term supply helps when a life emergency lasts longer than three months. Sometimes finding a new job takes longer than three months or medical bills are higher than you ever could have dreamed. Whatever the reason, if your life emergency, or the effects of it, are lasting longer than three months, you can delve into your long-term supply to help get you through it.
3. A great long-term supply can help you save money.Cooking with and using items like powdered milk, powdered eggs, wheat, and many other can actually be cheaper than fresh ingredients–especially during times of inflation, droughts, and food shortages.
4. An awesome long-term supply helps during a nationwide crisis.Whether the economy collapses,  war breaks out that requires food rationing, or a cataclysmic event that diminishes food productions, you will still need food to provide for your family.  A nationwide crisis like these would cause worldwide instability.  It will take a long while to get back to “normal.” No amount of money (or gold, for that matter) will provide food for your body if the shelves of your neighborhood store are empty. Think about it, you can’t eat money; you can’t even burn enough of it to keep warm.  Having food stored is the fool-proof way you will protect your family during any long-term crisis.
5. An awesome long-term supply helps you eat healthier.You’ve probably heard it before, eating whole grains and cooking from scratch is healthier.  Whole grains and beans help you feel fuller faster, keep you full longer, keep you regular (that’s the polite way to talk about it, right?), and helps to decrease you chances of developing such diseases as Type 2 Diabetes, some cancers, and heart disease.  Also, eating whole grains and beans now will prepare you (and your digestive tract) for the possibility of living off these items later.

How-to Create an Awesome Long-term Food Storage: Simplified!

First and foremost, buy what you like!  In other words, if you don’t like black beans, don’t buy black beans.  Take the Nancy Reagan approach and just say no. But, be sure to buy a variety of grains, pasta, and beans you DO like.  Remember, variety is the spice of life.

To jump-start your long-term supply here are three basic rules to ensure a fool-proof food storage:

1. Start with the basics: We know, they aren’t as exciting as brownie mix and freeze-dried delicacies but like any great building–you need to have a great foundation before you can build on top of it.  Basics are the easiest foods to store (most can even be stored in a garage); have the longest storage life (20+ years); provide all the nutrients and calories you need to survive; and they are by far the cheapest way to store food.  
2. Avoid the #10 can trap: Remember that every food storage company would love for you to purchase everything freeze-dried or dehydrated, but it’s not necessary. In fact, if everything you store long-term is freeze-dried or dehydrated, you will need to store a boatload of water (we’re only half kidding…about the boat, not the extremely large amount of water you’d have to store).  How about if you store some canned goods too!  They are easily rotated, and you can use the liquid in the cans as part of your water.
3. Start cooking at home: Using a long-term supply successfully means you’ll need to start cooking at home more.  Remember, a basic long-term supply is full of basic ingredients that you can use in any recipe–basic ingredients you can pronounce, unlike prepackaged food from the store.  Cooking at home gives you more control over the ingredients you are feeding to your family.  Also, homemade recipes are always much more cost effective, because you just paying for the ingredients not the packaging, the cost of production, or the advertising.

The Essential List of Basics for One Person

• 400 lbs of grains (wheat, oats, rice, corn, barley, pasta, etc.)
• 60 lbs of beans
• 60 lbs of sugar/honey
• 16 lbs of non-instant powdered milk (this is enough for one glass of milk a day)
• 11 quarts of oil or shortening
• 5 lbs of salt
• 2 lbs of yeast
• 1 lb of baking soda
• 1 lb of baking powder

Then add:

• Vegetables: 8 #10 cans (3 potatoes; 1/2 can each of onion, celery, carrots, tomato powder, 3 more: peas, grean beans, broccoli, etc)
• Fruits: 8 #10 cans
• Meats: 8 #10 can of freeze-dried, or 90 wet-pack cans from the grocery store, or 45 pints of home canned meat
• Dairy: cheese, eggs, etc. as needed

Challenge #3

You now know more about how to plan and begin a great long-term food supply than 90 percent of the people who will ever have or try to have a long-term food storage.  In short, you are ready to get going.  So right now, this very minute, make a commitment to yourself and your family to make this happen.  Make a plan of what you need, and then start gathering one can or bucket at a time. Our hunch is that in no time you’ll have a fantastic long-term supply, saving you money, helping you eat healthier, and preparing you for any emergency that may come your way.

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BECOME A FOOD STORAGE PRO-THE EASY WAY!

 

Look—we get it, the world of food storage can be a confusing place not many people want to visit, but we’re changing all of that with our food storage best-seller books  Store This, Not That! The ultimate food storage guide  and I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage: A step-by-step program for using food storage in your own recipes.  Think of them as the Cliff notes for food storage. You know, just go straight to what works, and forget everything else. We’ll help you quickly decipher what you should and should not be storing, share with you space saving tricks and insider information to save you $1,000s of dollars when buying your food storage, and in the end, how to make something your family would actually eat! Grab your copy today at Amazon.com or Deseret Book.