Food Supplies

[OKMinuteman]

First post.

I'd suggest you check out the local Mormons"Bishop's Pantry" on Meridian just South of Will Roger's Int Airport and no, you don't have to be Mormon. You can buy long term stores in #10 cans they can locally or order through them and when your order arrives they even have a couple of portable #10 cankers they loan out plus a little training at no charge. They also stock #10 cans, lids, oxy absorbers, labels and boxes as you need. I suppose if you already had some stock they would loan out a canner anyway.

Aldi's is a good source for canned beans with a 2.5 - 3 year shelf life dates and of course they are still good for another 2+ years. They also have some good prices on canned meats. Raise a garden canning the produce will last 3 + years as will meats. Use a dehydrator and that will store for several years and allow you to re-use those old canning lids. Just remember, prices are important but shelf life is more so.

 

[Wheel Gun]

A couple of years ago, I started with this and have been adding pails from time to time. I get most stuff from beprepared.com. I'm not going to buy prepared food like MREs. I'm buying staples.



Hard Red Wheat
Hard White Wheat
White Rice
Regular Rolled Oats
Pinto Beans
Black Beans

 

[amcardon]

I'm a fan of the freeze dried meals - lightweight and don't take up much room. They also taste pretty decent if you're hungry and retain a sufficient amount of nutrition. Our 96-hour kits have freeze dried meals for our family of 5, and we have another dozen or so not in the kits as well as 4 of the "buckets" of freeze dried meals. Other than that we also keep/rotate canned goods as well as #10 cans of wheat, beans, rice, and sugar.

For stored food, if you didn't have electricity, do you have a consistent way to cook it? To grind grains if needed? Would you rather store grain that if not stored properly could spoil, and that you'll potentially have to grind by hand, or would you rather store freeze-dried food and water with a guaranteed way to heat it? How much storage room do you have? Do you want to store in large containers such as 5 gallon buckets that you need to use once opened, or smaller containers that will take up more room but also allow less opportunity for spoilage? Lots of variables and options, and just as many companies dedicated to quality long term food storage. Besides the LDS (Mormon) Storehouse, Honeyville Grain is another excellent (online) place to check out for bulk orders.

A quick anecdote, I grew up in OR and in 96 we had a crazy rainstorm/flood and then a major cold front came in and froze everything solid. I lived in a town of about 7000 people and we were in the outskirts, surrounded by pear and apple orchards; we didn't have power for almost 2 weeks but my parents always tried to maintain a significant food storage, as well as enough wood for 2 winters, so we stayed warm and fed. Many of our neighbors, on the other hand, had no heat and the little food they had on hand didn't last long. We took in multiple families and had plenty to care for much more than just my family (I'm the 5th of 9 kids by the way). Needless to say, those families were extremely grateful for my parent's "prepping" and generosity. You'd think that after a situation like that they all would have prepped for future incidents, but I don't think any of them did...

 

[Cinaet]

^^^^That's a good post amcardon. Especially the middle paragraph. Thanks.

 

[358norma]

Have some frozen goods (short term), canned goods (short-mid term), MRE (short-mid term handy), dried, dehydrated, freeze dried food in cans or buckets for long term. It's like investments, don't put it all in one place or in one thing, diversify. People will stop eating because they are tired of the same thing day in and day out as well.

Here's some good links to get you started. Food and other SHTF stuff.

http://beprepared.com/

http://www.augasonfarms.com//

https://www.lehmans.com/default.aspx

http://grandmascountryfoods.com/

 

[OKIE LADY]

After a lot of weeks of research from books, websites, and talking to others, I decided to make a Preppers Guide for myself. What I ended up with was a 13 page guide. Though I didn't go around talking a lot about my “lists”, close friends and relatives began to ask me for a copy.( As many of you already know, if you do a lot of open discussion on how much Prepping you're into, you either get people thinking you're crazy, or those who may want to grab your stash in an emergency).
My guide is divided into categories: Water/Water Purification, Canned Foods, Dried Foods, Medicines (OTC, Topicals), Toiletries, Sanitation, Gardening Tools, Hardware, Camping Tools, Auto Supplies, Weapons, Plastic Supplies, Paper Supplies, Morale Boosters, Important Papers, Bartering. Websites, Books, etc. Many people are into “Bugging Out” if the SHTF, but my husband and I, being retired, plan to stay in place. Our main reason for Prepping is when the economy gets bad or crashes. For us, bugging out means you have to have a place to go, you have to be sure your gasoline (or vehicle parts) will last, what if you're broke down in a “bad” place. Therefore having as many supplies to survive here at home is important. I will be glad to share my guide to anyone who wants me to e-mail it to you. Sharing this is the first step in helping others understand it is THEIR responsibility to prepare for bad times. We Preppers can email this guide to others; it's up to THEM whether they prepare or not. This way I don't feel bad when the SHTF. If you want my email go to my profile and the email address is there.
I am storing canned foods (and yes, Aldi's is a GREAT place for Preppers price and date wise), spices, condiments, LOTS of toilet paper, paper plate, paper towels. We are using Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and dessicants to store beans, rice, flour, sugar, cornmeal, pastas, etc. We are also vacuum packing. Store ORGANIC Veg. Seeds (not hybrid which produce sterile offspring). Read as much as you can. Stores will have food for 3 days in an emergency; after that you're on your own.

 

[Dr. HK]

and the bottom of the freezers is lined with water.

What do you mean by this??

 

[JGreen]

I was looking through Francis Tuttle(OKC Votech), and they have started a whole class section on Prepping. It's in the general studies section. But it is pretty neat from what I have seen. They are one to two nights, three hours per class. Anyway, they have a class that I saw on long term food storage and one if you're on a budget. Telling you how and what to buy and preserving for a longtime with things like mylar bags. Just an idea if you are wanting to take a crash course for pretty cheap.

 

[BadgeBunny]

What do you mean by this??

I believe he means he has filled bottles with water and lined the bottom of the freezer with it. It's a good way to 1. store more water and 2. if your power goes out it will keep your perishables colder longer. Kinda like putting ice in the ice chest with your cold beer ...

 

[JGreen]

Isn't there a place to buy the large canned food items near Will Rogers Airport? The place I have heard about has a lot of bulk food items as well as good prices