Food for Survival/Storage

All or the survival food in the world will not do you any good, unless it is properly stored. Food can be canned, frozen, dried, smoked and jerked. If you are growing your own vegetables and some of your own meat or even if you are just hunting wild meat at the time, canning is one of the best ways to store food. While canning may be more trouble than freezing, the food will keep longer and is easier to transport if you need to move. Even if you do freeze some of your food, you need to be ready to can it if a catastrophe (natural or man made) casues a long term loss of power. Almost anything can be canned including meat and fish. Canned venison is my favorite meat and canned carp and suckers make excellent fish patties. This allows you to use fish that would otherwise probably not be kept. I am also high on drying fruits and vegetables and of jerking meat. One of the reasons I like it so well that once they are dried or jerked, they need no refigeration. Just pack in air tight containers and store. They are also much lighter due to the moisture being removed. Every survivalist has to do their own storage based on time available and storage space. Some may only be able to store frozen food due to space limitations, while some may be able to store a wide variety of food in a variety of ways. I personally have used three different methods, one while living in the suburbs of Chicago, one while in my efficiency apartment and the one I use now. First the City. I had two weeks of portable food in packs. Freezer containing meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Some fruit and vegetables canned and some dried. These fruits and vegetables were both what we raised in our small garden and items that were purchased expressly for storage. We had two year supply of fruit and vegetables and a one year supply of meat and fish. I both fished and hunted and we also purchased some meat for our storage.Most canned and dried foods were stored in crawl space to prevent easy access of thieves during surivval situation. Small city efficeincy apartment. Two weeks of portable food in packs. One year supply of meat, fruits and vegetables; canned and dried. half of all fruits, vegetables and meats canned the other half dried. I also kept a larger supply of products like noodles, rice, dry soup mixes and other ready to fix dry foods which I purchased. I had one cabinet which I kept filled with food which I continuously used and rotated. The rest of my food supply was in heavy boxes under my bed. The reason for this was to make a quick move possible. The packs of portable food were actually kept in my full size van. With the limited space I had, I felt that a one year supply of food for one person was the maximum food I could store. This may be a determining factor in your storage plans also.