Food for Survival III

You will note that I buy larger pkges. and split them up. When you are storing things for long term, you can either put the smaller amounts in zip-locks or vacuum seal them. For those that do not have a vacuum sealer, push as much air as possible out of your zip-lock and after it is zipped, dip that end in melted wax. This will help somewhat in length of storage. Write on the packges what is inside and any cooking instructions needed. I sometimes put a sheet of paper into the bag with this information on and make it so it can be read through the bag. If there is an expiration date, you may want to list that too, as well as the date that you packed it. You usually have from six months to a year after the expiration date to use things up. I have gone to buying as much in bulk as possible and repackaging all of it. I do not leave anything in the commercial packages as they take up too much room, and are usually made more for eye appeal than for long term storage. There are many things in the grocery store that all you need to add is water or milk and heat and eat. Stores are just full of this type of food nowadays. Many of the newer ones even have meat products in them. I never got into storing them as I like to make my own combinations, but they would be a help. When it comes to dried fruit and things like trail mix, either buy in bulk and mix and package your own or do as I have done and dry your own fruits, pick your own wild nuts and make your own trail mix. I do not even purchase as much dried meat since I started making the amounts of jerky that I do. Jerky can be made from beef, venison, turkey, some fish and who knows what other meats. Those are just the ones I have tried so far. Vacuum sealed it lasts almost forever. The hardest thing to add to a survival food supply is bread. In my mobile pack I usually put in Zwieback toast and crackers, not ideal but better than nothing. For your long term storage, there are biscuit mixes and other bread product mixes on the market that only needed water added. These are what I use for long term storage. My long term storage items also contain a goodly amount of canned goods. These are not highly portable, so they are in anticipation of me riding out any survival situation where I am. My wife and I grow a large garden, so we can a lot of the excess. We also buy canned foods at the store. When I had an active, so called, survival retreat, I kept canned goods there also. I had them buried deep enough that they would not freeze. When I lived where I could not raise my own I purchased a couple of extra cans of food per week and it did not do much to the grocery bill. About once a month I would purchase bulk dry foods for repackaging. This too did not break the budget. Back at this point in time I purchased many stews, chili, etc. as I was living in a city and did not have the ability to hunt and fish to add to my stocks. You can also buy canned meat which I did. I feel that anyone that needs to purchase their survival food can get by with this method. I used it for about ten years and found it to be adequate. The point is to start now. Even if you only can afford one can of food or one small bulk purchase, you will be that much closer to your survival supply. A little bit at a time and before you know it you will have a goodly supply.