Just curious what's everyone's thoughts are to have around the house in case of short and mid length emergencies. MRE style, freeze dried, canned, etc. that will work for most of the population

Vienna Sausages, Sardines, and crackers.

Lots of rice.

Great and timely topic! I love the idea of having a well stocked pepper pantry. Currently we are terribly unprepared for any disaster that affects our ability to go to the grocery store on a weekly basis. I have about enough food on hand to get to the weekend, so I don't speak as one with any experience in this area. I would assume a good mix of canned foods, dehydrated foods, bars, and dry goods would be the way to go. Having a garden, fruit and nut trees, livestock for slaughter, and access to grains are great and worth working towards, but when a hurricane dumps 40" of rain on you anything that was not already slaughtered or harvested will likely be lost.

My biggest hurdle with the pepper pantry is rotating out the older food items as they get closer to expiration dates. We eat mainly fresh foods, so periodically eating a bunch of canned foods or dry goods as they near expiration is not very appealing. I'm sure we would all happily switch to canned food or dehydrated foods if it was necessary because fresh foods weren't an option any more.


Hopefully others with much more experience will chime in and can give their two cents on the best types of foods to keep on hand.

Buffalo Trace

I live about 30 miles from the gulf coast. I have a generator and enough gas to last about a week. So my refrigerators will be able to keep food for a week. At this point what I've experienced in the past is that after a couple days I should be able to get more gas, but definitely within a week. Then I also have a week's worth of freeze dried food.

Bulk #10 Food Cans for Emergencies | Up to 25 or 30 Year Shelf Life - My Patriot Supply

A good variety of staples and not too much room for storage required.

We look at it as 3 tiers. Freezer, canned, freeze dried. There are advantages and drawbacks to all of them.

Look at this as not having electricity or an abundance of clean water.

Freezer meats and veggies obviously because you have to have a way to keep them frozen until ready to be cooked. Then you have to have fuel to cook them. I've always joked that the first week of the apocalypse is going to be one helluva neighborhood BBQ. Then things are going to get real. A generator in any lengthy time frame is going to be a dinner bell for bad guys. Keep that in mind.

Canned food. IMO the best option. Possible to just open and eat. Can opener and spoon. Cold beef stew or spaghetti Os might not taste good but it will keep you going. Drawback is they are heavy. So your not grabbing some, throwing some in a backpack and taking off. If it got to this point though we're screwed anyway. I'd add rice and beans to this. They can act as an extender. Couple cups of rice and a can of beef stew and you have yourself a gourmet apocalypse meal. You're going to need water for the beans and rice.

Freeze dried. Last line of defense. If you find yourself at level 3 eating you're on the verge of being in serious trouble. They're also heavy in salt and all need water to cook.

Water is the most important prep.

We live 20+ miles from the grocery store, so we generally keep a well stocked pantry. Multiples of almost everything. When 1 is left on the shelf, we add to the list.

We keep canned vegetables and beans, can stuff from the garden, can our own beef, chicken broth.

I keep about 5 lbs of dry beans and 5 lbs of rice on hand, I grew up in the rice belt so it's genetic. I also have a generator with its own 500 gallon propane tank and can open a valve to the other 500 gallon tank. So most of our perishables are generally okay.

Powdered milk is one thing that we keep a supply of that some don't consider. It's cheap,has protein and is shelf stable for a long time.

Didn't have much money when I was a kid. I remember my mom buying the powered milk. I remember enough to know that I'll happily starve over consuming another drop.

EMY92 said:

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Didn't have much money when I was a kid. I remember my mom buying the powered milk. I remember enough to know that I'll happily starve over consuming another drop.

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If it's the common nonfat dried milk, I concur.
But the dried whole milk has been a completely different, positive experience.

We have also used butter powder, also better results than expected.

Same, I remember powdered milk being disgusting and I would rather eat my cereal dry as a kid.

Can you recommend a whole milk brand for modern times? I have also heard powdered eggs are better than in the past and assume that is what I am getting at hotel breakfast buffets.

Emotional Support Cobra said:

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Same, I remember powdered milk being disgusting and I would rather eat my cereal dry as a kid.

Can you recommend a whole milk brand for modern times? I have also heard powdered eggs are better than in the past and assume that is what I am getting at hotel breakfast buffets.

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The cans of powdered whey milk from Patriot Supply is very good cold.

I never implied that it was "good" just that it has protein and is shelf stable.

It's not great at all and I know that, but in a pinch when you NEED something it will work.

I grew up the 3rd child of 2 school teachers, I understand budgeting on low income.

Pretty simple for me. Lots of deer meat in the freezer and if it gets that bad, I live where I hunt and can supplement. Need to turn some into jerky and sausage, but haven't yet. I buy the Sam's size bags of flour, rice and beans to keep on hand. Keep my sourdough starter going. Gas for my stove. Buy Mountain house freeze dried stuff when it goes on sale. Have a garden and know what I can eat that grows in the woods around me.

RoadkillBBQ said:

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Water is the most important prep.

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I agree with this 100%. I'd wager the vast majority of people on this board have enough food in their house to make it a week. May not be great, but you can make it. Especially considering you don't need all that much.

Water is a different story.

Every spring we stock up on the gallon size water jugs, come early the following year we use them and buy new ones. We keep several cases of bottled water in the garage at a time. Similarly to the gallon jugs, we don't drink a whole lot of bottled water (just drink filtered tap water) so have to actively work to rotate them out periodically. Then we also have several 5+ gallon folding water storage containers we fill if a storm is eminent, same with the bathtub and a couple larger pitchers in the kitchen. We also have a few life straws if it comes to that.

We have two months/two people supply of Mountain House freeze-dried foods in the large cans (30 year shelf life), and a great natural water source about 150 yards away from the house. Can also hunt for food as well, but I have no illusions about actually finding any mammals larger than a rat to shoot if it comes down to that, since in a time of a total nationwide societal collapse, the millions of hunters in the US will shoot every food-grade mammal in a matter of days.

I'm not sure if Mountain House is the "best emergency food", but it is actually pretty decent stuff that I don't mind at all eating. We don't have the space to keep more than a month's worth of regular food, but storing two months worth of canned freeze-dried is pretty easy. MH is definitely not cheap, but they have a half-off sale w/free shipping once a year, and at those prices it is IMO pretty reasonable.

C

ElGoatarod said:

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Great and timely topic! I love the idea of having a well stocked pepper pantry. Currently we are terribly unprepared for any disaster that affects our ability to go to the grocery store on a weekly basis. I have about enough food on hand to get to the weekend, so I don't speak as one with any experience in this area. I would assume a good mix of canned foods, dehydrated foods, bars, and dry goods would be the way to go. Having a garden, fruit and nut trees, livestock for slaughter, and access to grains are great and worth working towards, but when a hurricane dumps 40" of rain on you anything that was not already slaughtered or harvested will likely be lost.

My biggest hurdle with the pepper pantry is rotating out the older food items as they get closer to expiration dates. We eat mainly fresh foods, so periodically eating a bunch of canned foods or dry goods as they near expiration is not very appealing. I'm sure we would all happily switch to canned food or dehydrated foods if it was necessary because fresh foods weren't an option any more.


Hopefully others with much more experience will chime in and can give their two cents on the best types of foods to keep on hand.

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Assuming money isn't a major issue you could look into donating the older ones. Basically instead of buying new canned goods to donate you keep those and donate the older ones to a food bank.

RoadkillBBQ said:

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Water is the most important prep.

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Yep.

I have life straws, tablets, and water filtration pumps from hunting the western mountains. You can make it without electricity. There's always spaghetti, rice, beans, and ramin. Safe drinking water is a different story.

I've got 17000 gallons of water in my backyard

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malenurse said:

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I've got 17000 gallons of water in my backyard

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What exactly are you going to do with that water? Other than use it to flush toilets....

There's much better NFDM (powdered skim milk) than what is sold at the store.

If yall want some, I'd reach out to a local dairy about getting some. (Just about Every bottling plant/ice cream plant/cheese plant has some to balance out the incoming fluid milk)

could run it through a Berkey and drink it, no?

RED AG 98 said:

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could run it through a Berkey and drink it, no?

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Honestly not sure if that would help with pool water. And a $400 aint' cheap.....But if it would and you do have a pool, that wouldn't be a bad prep plan.

Flush toilets, simple bathing, plus, I have a gas cooktop. I can filter for particulates, boil and then use the water for cooking and drinking.

A case of shotgun shells, and a case of .22 rounds.

With all the rabbits and fat collared doves around here, we could eat for a while.

Fishing Fools said:

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Vienna Sausages, Sardines, and crackers.

Lots of rice.

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Love Vienna sausages. Don't forget to drink the brine (water addition and a days worth of salt).

That's the wonderful thing about having a windmill, and a 2500 gallon storage tank.

Got a case of Mountain House for a few days and then the stock pond bass.

Fishing Fools said:

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Vienna Sausages, Sardines, and crackers.

Lots of rice.

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I gagged a little

Life without food delivery service, A/C and heat, tv with 500 channels and a fully charged smartphone is not worth living. Within 2 hours of losing electricity, my wife puts me on suicide watch.

Quote:

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I have no illusions about actually finding any mammals larger than a rat to shoot if it comes down to that, since in a time of a total nationwide societal collapse, the millions of hunters in the US will shoot every food-grade mammal in a matter of days.

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Limits, seasons, restricted areas, property rights etc. will all be thrown out the window.
The US would return to indiscriminate killing of wildlife in this situation.
If the US ever got this bad, it would also spell doom for Africa's large wildlife, since the only thing keeping them from eating every Elephant, Impala & Wildebeast on the continent is imported food.

htxag09 said:

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malenurse said:

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I've got 17000 gallons of water in my backyard

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What exactly are you going to do with that water? Other than use it to flush toilets....

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Boil it and drink it.