"Survival" foods

[S.A. Boggs]

Local store is starting to sell this type of food in large plastic pails. IMHO canned food is cheaper and more available.
Sam

[Roadkingtrax]

Feed your neighbors cookies, and keep them in range.

[sid]

Sam, I agree. For example, canned meats like Spam will last forever. Chunky Soups will last at least 10 years. The same for canned spaghetti.

[Art]

Canned food has a lot of advantages, it's ready to heat and eat, unlike freeze dried food it requires no water, and since its pre cooked you can eat it right out of the can cold if you really have to. I personally like cold Spam. The biggest disadvantage is it's heavy which is no problem if you aren't planning on going any where.

While canned food will last long after it's "best by date," our rule of thumb is take the remaining time before the date and double it. The life of canned food varies. We buy the high end stuff mostly. If we have to eat canned food why not the best? We have our canned survival food in boxes that we rotate Jan 1st each year oldest first obviously.

We do have some freeze dried food (that stuff uses a lot of water) and some MREs also but the food first up on the hard times list is the canned stuff.

[JB White]

Can I get a bucket of pizza?

[S.A. Boggs]

+1 on SPAM! In our 2nd kitchen we are putting in a lot of storage space. I am going to put in can shelves that will roll the cans forward with the newest being able to be placed in the rear. I store the various rice in quart Mason jars labeled accordingly and when I run low I open up a vac bag to refill. I fill up the jar for measuring and then transfer to a heat sealed vac. bag then into a large tote that is then placed onto the mental shelf.
When our son was last over he brought over several MRE's to also place in storage. Canned food is slowly going up and we catch the sales accordingly. A local chain has better buy's on some food then the big chain does. Couple of weeks ago the local store "dumped" Angus steaks due to getting too many and no room, so I bought. Wife said that she is "tired" of steak so I am backing off for awhile. My air fryer does a great job on thick steaks, not so well on thin one's. They also run 10/10 which is helpful and give away. Several weeks ago they had a deal on butter [quality butter] so I loaded up on it, vac. sealed and then into the deep freeze.
Sam

[lyman]

Can I get a bucket of pizza?

as long as you can home brew,

pizza with out beer or a good red wine is just not right

[blackhawknj]

Recall reading in one of the survival columns years ago that bulk "survival foods" were often just grains.

[Merc]

Some canned foods are often overloaded with sodium. Read labels and choose those with lower sodium content.

[Art]

Some canned foods are often overloaded with sodium. Read labels and choose those with lower sodium content.

It is true that the sodium content of a lot of canned food is high, this is mainly an issue for folks with high blood pressure. You are correct that there are a lot of reduced sodium canned goods, in fact where I am the "low sodium" and "light" canned goods often outnumber the traditional stuff.

Blackhawknj:

Correct on the freeze dried stuff. Animal fat doesn't lend itself to freeze drying so to get a lot of the freeze dried foods in packets to last 25 years, they often skip the meat substituting textured soy protein, among other veggie ingredients. They don't advertise that part. Wise is a prime example. A stroganoff meal, for example, may not say "beef stroganoff" for that reason

[dryheat]

Wise is awful. Have your bought their chips? Our local downhome grocer is selling them. Don't let saving 10 cents prevent you from buying stuff that tastes good. But you shouldn't be relying on Carbs anyway.

[Major Tom]

Feed your neighbors cookies, and keep them in range.

Or: Feed your local democrats cookies. ;-)

[sid]

Even more important than food is water. You will need 1 gallon per person per day. You can buy distilled water in plastic xxxx for less than a dollar at many supermarkets. It is also a good idea to keep a bottle of Clorox Bleach to purify contaminated water. You can find the amount to use on Google.

[S.A. Boggs]

Even more important than food is water. You will need 1 gallon per person per day. You can buy distilled water in plastic xxxx for less than a dollar at many supermarkets. It is also a good idea to keep a bottle of Clorox Bleach to purify contaminated water. You can find the amount to use on Google.

We have been using a British Berkenfield water purifier for about 5 years on our "city" water. One would be amazed what is in the "clean" tap water. I can collect rain water from our metal roof and then run this thru a coffee filter before hitting the Berky. I also have access to a small clear pond that has little pond scum to filter.
Sam

[Art]

Even more important than food is water. You will need 1 gallon per person per day. You can buy distilled water in plastic xxxx for less than a dollar at many supermarkets. It is also a good idea to keep a bottle of Clorox Bleach to purify contaminated water. You can find the amount to use on Google.

Correct.

To me the biggest problem with freeze dried emergency food is the large amount of water required to rehydrate and cook it.