Survival Food Basics

Here are some key points to consider when preparing your stored foods:

• Buy and store foods that your family actually eats. If none of you like or eat canned chicken and dumplings, don’t buy them!


• Any situation that causes you to HAVE to use your stored foods will be a stress-maker. This is NOT the time to change your diet.


• Rotate your food stock. That means, you use the oldest cans and buckets of wheat berries before you use those you just bought last week. That way, you’ll always have the most current of food. This will also get your family used to eating what you’ve stored, and the cooks in the family used to cooking with the bare minimum.


• Organize your storage area. If you don’t have a basement or a place large enough to store all of your items, locate other places in your home: under beds, in closets, under the stairs, in the trunk of your car. There are a LOT of places where you can store important items… behind the couch, in unused suitcases, in ottomans, etc.


• Be sure to keep track of what you have stored, and where. We even note dates bought and expiration dates. This goes for items other than food, like batteries and candles.


• Don’t put stored snacks, etc. in children’s rooms where they are ever so tempting and easy to get to. The temptation might be too much for them. However, you could use this as an opportunity to teach “delayed gratification” or self-control.


• Check out http://www.survival-cooking.blogspot.com/ for some great recipes using stored foods. 


• Most foods will last longer than conservative people think. Canned goods and well-packed sealed buckets will often last several years. Containers are an important part of this. If a canned good is dented and bulging, it’s a tosser. If somehow rodents or insects get into a well-sealed bucket of wheat berries, it is no good. YOU be the judge.


• Keep everything dry, in the dark, and air-tight. Damp air (humidity) will shorten the lifespan of most foods. Dry is better than damp. Cool is better than warm.


• Control pests (insects, mice, etc.). Containers with any kind of opening are basically invitations to pests to come on in!


• Storing food can be expensive. Make your plan. Set priorities. Buy a couple items at a time. Supplement when you can. Sacrifice that additional DVD for several cans of carrots you can find on sale. Don’t think you have you do this all at once – a little is better than one.


• Check out your grocery store circulars. When you see a canned good on sale that your family enjoys, buy several – try to get the limit. If there is no limit and you can afford to, stock up on the product.


• Whenever you buy something, buy an additional two for your storage.


• Be sure your have an Evacuation Kit (later in this book) that should have 72 hours worth of food, water, clothes, medication, etc.

A thought… if Noah hadn’t convinced his family to prepare or if a neighbor had teased them into putting off the construction of the ark, stocking it and bringing in the animals… well, just think of what would have happened?!