Food storage guide

[Gardener]

Downloaded this PDF from http://shtfplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Report-Collapse-Proof-Food-Stockpile.pdf

If you are unable to view it, I've attached it to the post.

[Lynne]

I've done a little fermenting. I need to step up my game. Whey can also be used, instead of salt, to start the fermenting process.

[PerEvangelicaDicta]

I've done a little fermenting. I need to step up my game. Whey can also be used, instead of salt, to start the fermenting process.

great idea!  I love to make turo and always have lots of whey.  It's great for soup addition, and I give some to the dogs, and freeze a lot, but I'll try it w/ fermenting.
I, too, am woefully behind in getting this under my belt.  Also, canning and sprouting... I have just enough experience to be dangerous.  <sigh>

We were going to order some organic freeze dried meals, but I was unaware of the salt issue, and detailed in this food storage doc. I'll investigate further.

[Heinrich]

I still have stocked in a barn out, out far. This was 10 years ago. Better check on it.

[Gardener]

I still have stocked in a barn out, out far. This was 10 years ago. Better check on it.

I'd recommend keeping it at home, or having a separate stash for home, if able.

[Greg]

If the living are going to envy the dead, then why would I go out of my way to live?

[Gardener]

If the living are going to envy the dead, then why would I go out of my way to live?

Food storage, despite what it has been cast as, is not about surviving a global, worst-case scenario. I suppose it could be that. A car could also be a submarine with the right engineering, too.

National, Regional, or even Personal disaster is the point of food storage. It's simply a hedge against future volatility: Lost job, natural disaster, etc.

[Greg]

no natural disaster in a first world country is going to warrant storing more than 2 weeks of food.  because the response is always faster if you are white.

if the population around you does not have food then THEY become the problem.

if you lose your job your problem is rent, not food.  Food is insanely cheap.

[Gardener]

An issue like Katrina, Harvey, etc., needs to have people able to not overwhelm the help needed for the unprepared/whose preparations got destroyed. Short term = don't bother the .gov unless you absolutely have to.

But a protracted situation has the potential for civil insurrection due to anger at the .gov. So folks who are prepared to survive beyond that do not need .gov assistance and can become leaders/agents of an insurrection movement.

If a situation were to arise which is protracted in nature, they need people to give them enough time to get the infrastructure/process in place to determine if they can shorten it and if not, they need to have people desperate for the assistance they can provide. This is better to them than going against the .gov in a show of leadership/ability to maintain a guerrilla action (however small) in light of .gov inability to restore order.

In short:

Be prepared, but not too prepared, because being too prepared = ability to not need .gov. (.gov view)

Ability to not need .gov = .gov lacks a reason for existence. (.gov view)

This is not to say we do not need civil authority. We do. Man is a social being and needs a hierarchical system in order to enact the reality of subsidiarity. What they don't want is for the citizen to supplant the .gov when its raison d'etre is unable to be facilitated due to the system being overwhelmed.

The key in such a situation as others lacking food and depending on the .gov, the key is to not advertise it to one's neighbors. Fasting and subsistence eating to also appear to be losing weight would be a good tactic -- it also prolongs the supply. Depending on the .gov is not the answer though. Especially if it comes with strings attached.

Having ability to pay mortgage/rent in a personal disaster situation is also needed, I concur. But in such a situation, "insanely cheap" food might become not so cheap in relation to one's means. And, that would generally mean things like rice and beans -- good food storage items anyway.

The real concern in a disaster of a non-personal variety is water. It's always been water. It always will be water. That needs to be addressed as well, especially for those who are storing food which needs it for reconstitution.

[Heinrich]

I still have stocked in a barn out, out far. This was 10 years ago. Better check on it.

I'd recommend keeping it at home, or having a separate stash for home, if able.

I do have a stash here as well. The "yonder" rallying point was from a time when I was certain that the economic collapse(that is not going to happen) was going to occur. "Getting-out-of-dodge" was the objective. Yes, it is on the plains, not mountains. Under good driving, w/o panicked folk fleeing the burn clogging 24 and Judge Orr Road, it takes 1 - 1.5 hours to get there. Still in EP County.