Don’t Focus on a Single Aspect of Food Storage
You have heard of ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’. This adage applies to long-term food storage as well. It pays to be be diverse in your food storage.
Emergencies and disasters come in all types and varieties and so should your food preps. Some emergencies will leave you with good shelter and utilities. Others will leave you homeless and without any way to prepare meals. Unfortunately, you must plan for both of these and more. Being diverse with your food preps will allow you to conquer any emergency or disaster that comes along.
Here are some ways that you can diversify your long-term food storage.
Storing Bulk Foods
You do need to have bulk foods such as rice, flour, beans and other grains. These store very well in larger containers and keep for years. They are inexpensive to purchase and easy to stack for storage. Containers from 1 – 5 gallons are easy to stack and store.
When ready to use these foods are great additions to any meal. However, they will require some form of energy to cook and prepare. This must be taken into consideration when storing bulk foods.
MREs
Not my personal favorite for taste but they do offer substantial benefits in small sizes, light weight for carrying and easy to prepare. In many instances MREs are the perfect long-term food storage.
I recommend that MREs NOT be you only source of food prep. Mix them into your overall plan. If nothing else, they make a great barter item with someone who is truly hungry.
Meals in a Jar/Bag
These are generally dehydrated or freeze dried foods vacuum sealed for long-term food storage. The advantage to these are light weight and good taste. The negative is their requirement for water to prepare. If the emergency you are dealing with includes a shortage of water then you are not able to use these types of food prep. Therefore, you must also include water storage and water purification in your prep plans if you have meals in a jar/bag.
Heat and Eat Meals in a Jar/Can
Store bought and home canned foods such as vegetables, soups, stews and meats. The advantages to these are that they are truly ready to eat and do not require water to prepare. You can truly open and eat. If you wish to heat them before eating place them in a sun oven or in the hot sun to heat. There is a question: Are pork chops healthy? To find out, click here.
The negative in comparison to the other types of long-term food storage is room to store. It takes more room to store these meals than other types of foods.
Stay Diverse With Your Long-term Food Storage
It is highly recommended that you use each of the methods mentioned in this article. The diversity mentioned here will allow you to overcome almost any type of emergency or disaster you encounter.
Just be sure to include cooking, preparation and water to your food preps in order to maintain the diversity.