Building a Year-Long Food Supply: Step-by-Step Guide
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- In this video, we're diving deep into how to build a one-person, one-year long term food storage supply that can last up to 25 years when properly stored. Whether you're new to prepping or looking to expand your current food storage, this video covers everything you need to know to get started and stay prepared.
- Types of Pantries: Learn about working pantries and long-term pantries, and how to rotate your supplies effectively.
- Calorie Considerations: Understand how to calculate your daily caloric needs and plan for 803,000 calories per year.
- What Food to Buy: Get practical and budget-friendly recommendations for grains, beans, oils, sweeteners, milk, salt, canned goods, and spices.
- How to Store Food: Discover the best storage methods to keep your food fresh and safe, including using mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, and proper labeling techniques.
- We'll break down the monthly food requirements to ensure you have a balanced diet that meets your nutritional needs.
- Find out where to buy your supplies cost-effectively, focusing on bulk purchases and long-lasting items.
- Learn how to store your food properly to maximize its shelf life, including tips on freezing, vacuum sealing, and using diatomaceous earth to prevent pests.
By the end of this video, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of how to build and maintain a one-year food storage supply. This will not only provide you with peace of mind but also ensure you're prepared for any unexpected emergencies.
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to Reliable Prepper for more tips on how to stay prepared. Hit the bell icon to get notified of our latest videos. If you have any questions or additional tips, leave them in the comments below! - Jak na to + styl
To build a year's supply of long-term food storage, I recommend starting with the inexpensive, high-calorie, dry foods. Good basic, frugal foods to store are rolled oats, plain white rice, dry spaghetti pasta, dry macaroni pasta, dry shredded potatoes, plain potato flakes, plain hominy grits, dry lentils, dry beans and dry peas. Only store the types of basic foods your family is willing to eat -- if they do not like dried black-eyed peas then do not store this food. Buy these foods in 5, 10, 20, 25 or 50-lb. bags from wholesalers, wholesale clubs or employee-owned discount grocery stores. Pay attention to the price per ounce or price per serving because prices will vary widely. Dollar stores are NOT the best place to buy these dry foods because their price per ounce or per serving is usually quite high.
When you do buy a big bag of a dry grain/starch product or dry legume food, repackage that food for long-term storage so you do not have the added expense of rotating/replacing that food or the bother of keeping track of what food needs to be rotated by a certain date. Soon after purchase, repackage the dry food in one-gallon, heat-sealed Mylar pouches along with oxygen absorbers and label each pouch so you will know what food is inside (use painter's tape and a Sharpie marker). This will also prevent weevils or maggots from hatching out in the dry food. Store those food pouches in clean (sealed) cardboard boxes or five-gallon plastic buckets or plastic totes with tight-fitting lids, so the Mylar does not get accidentally punctured. Packaged this way, most of the plain, raw, dry foods can store for 20 years. Lable the contents of each box, bucket or tote and stack them so the labels face towards you. This makes finding the food you want to use much easier when you need to use those foods in an emergency.
Place the heaviest boxes or buckets or totes on the floor or the lowest shelves. Put light containers up higher. Make sure your heavy-duty shelving units are leashed to wall studs just in case there is an earthquake or other event that shakes your storage room.
You will also want to have plenty of culinary salt, granulated white cane sugar, ascorbic acid powder (generic Vitamin C) and raw honey in your survival food stockpile (these foods are heavy). These foods can store for generations in moisture-proof, food safe containers. No oxygen absorbers needed for these four foods. You can also package nonfat powdered milk for long-term storage in Mylar plus oxygen absorbers, but be advised that powdered milk typically will only store for about 10 years.
Store your survival food in a cool, dry, vermin-free location. Freezing temperatures will not harm dry foods, but heat will shorten the storage length and speed up decay. Never store your long-term food storage in an attic, garage or an outdoor shed because these places get too hot during the summer. Check your long-term food stockpile at least monthly to make sure everything is alright. Shelving could have collapsed, or the roof could have developed a leak, or racoons could be trying to gnaw their way in...
Keep some kind of updated, written record of your food storage so that you have a running tally of how many pounds of each kind of food you have. If you keep your inventory in a computer file, print off a paper copy periodically. Use that inventory to decide what to buy next when you plan a shopping trip.
Once you have built of a sufficient supply of basic, high-calorie, dry foods, then you can start buying the more expensive or luxurious foods. These would include such items as Mt. House instant meals or Mylar pouches of freeze-dried sirloin steaks or #10 cans of scrambled egg mix, freeze dried meat, dry Bell peppers, dry sliced peaches, butter powder and freeze-dried shredded cheese.
If you have a dehydrator machine, you can use it to dehydrate vegetables and fruit until the food has shrunken and is crispy dry and then package in heat-sealed Mylar plus oxygen absorbers. This costs way less than buying #10 cans of dry vegetables and fruit. Those large bags of frozen mixed vegetables that you find at Sam's Club or Costco are good choices for home dehydrating. Just cover the drying racks with a single layer of frozen veggies, load the racks into the dehydrator and then WAIT until the food has completely thawed (this step is essential) and then start the dehydrator. Dehydrate until the largest pieces of food are very shrunken and hard before packaging for long-term storage.
Do remember that most of these dry foods must first be cooked in water before they can be eaten. Make sure you have plenty of stored water or a way to filter water from rain barrels, lakes or streams. Make sure you have multiple ways of doing grid down cooking. One-burner butane stoves are safe to use indoors when it is too cold, too hot, too wet, too windy or too dangerous to cook outdoors. Have at least one of these butane stoves along with cylinders of butane fuel. Solar ovens are a good way for slow cooking dried beans during daytime and do not produce any smoke or much odor. Every adult or teen in your household should learn how to cook these basic dry foods and practice cooking enough to be able to prepare basic meals without a cookbook or written recipe. You never know when the main cook in your household may become too ill or too injured to cook. Or when you will be cooking roadside meals during an evacuation. Make sure everyone in your household capable of learning to cook, does learn to cook. Cooking is an important survival skill.
Food storage is insurance against hunger and starvation during hard times. If the time comes when your food storage is the only food available to your household, it will be vitally important to measure and ration that food carefully so that there is no food waste and so that no one gets over-fed. Be prepared to measure the dry foods carefully and only prepare the correct number of servings so each person will have the right size meal. On a 2000 calories per day ration, that would mean each person gets about 667 calories per meal, three times daily.
Expect that overweight persons in your household will need to lose excess weight to become more fit to do their share of survival tasks. If they are willing to go on a weight-loss diet of about 1200 calories per day, this will help stretch your food supply and add days of nutrition for your household. If you over-feed people and run out of food, then they will have to starve for days or weeks until you can harvest home-grown food or find/gather wild foods, etc. Better to ration food and have modest size meals than to have no food at all.
Thanks so much for sharing all these great tips! Starting with basic, cheap foods like oats, rice, and pasta makes a lot of sense, and buying in bulk can really save money. I love the idea of repackaging them into Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers to keep them fresh for years. Labeling and storing them in buckets or totes is smart too.
Keeping your food in a cool, dry place and checking it regularly is super important. I agree that buying from wholesalers is usually better than dollar stores for these items. And your suggestion to add salt, sugar, vitamin C powder, and honey to the stockpile is great since they last forever.
The advice on using a dehydrator to make your own dried fruits and veggies is awesome, and having a plan for cooking without electricity, like with butane stoves or solar ovens, is really practical. Making sure everyone in the household can cook is a good idea too.
Rationing food carefully and making sure it lasts is key during tough times. Thanks again for the detailed advice! It’s really helpful for everyone here. Stay safe and keep prepping!
Excellent video! Going by your standards, we're aces! We have a combination of everything you covered here. However, as Preppers, you're really never finished. 😉
Thanks John, its good to hear you found the video helpful and that you’re well-prepared. You’re spot on-prepping is never really finished. There's always something new to learn and improve. Keep up the great work!
@@reliableprepperThank you!!! Your videos are very inspiring!!!
Thank you for the information. I've written it DOWN before, but lost it.
I appreciate that Sean. I'm going to try to link a spreadsheet too, be on the lookout. 🤗
Appreciate the content as always.
I really put some work into this one. It was a bit of an eyeopener for me. ✌️😎
Really helpful info, thanks
Thank you for watching and appreciating the content!
I look at it this way. When we run out of something, we go to the store, except the store is in the other room. As things get taken from the "the store" in the other room, we replace them from the actual store. That being said, can you prepare all your meals without gas, electricity, utilities, looking up recipes online etc. Have you tried and practiced it?
Nice one Reliable 👊
Your support means the world to me, thank you!
Please remember any acidic foods (in cans will not keep as long) rotate and check monthly. Thank you for the very informative video.
Thanks Margaret. Spot on. I first learned of that when reading about tomato paste
I was fortunate to find 28oz cans of organic tomatoes packed in lined none BPA cans; at 3 cans for $1 what a find! I bought 30 to add to what I already have. I live on a Fixed Income, and have bought in bulk when finding such bargains. Jars of Dijon mustard 50cents ea., I bought 50! And, no, I couldn't live without it! I dehydrate fruit and veggies from 'REDUCED' bins, as well as using some now. Prepping mitigates inflation and shortages. A this point though, I can nolonger afford to add to my stash. And, I have enough to last a very, very long time, as well as the means to collect, store and purify water, and dry goods necessary for everyday living, bought used, but in excellent condition. Camping stoves, and other equipment can do double duty in emergencies. as can propane, and butane fuels, generators and power packs. At my age, I likely have enough for self and pets to last the rest of my days, because I also grow garden veggies, and am considering having a few chickens, or ducks for eggs. I already have rescued rabbits who produce wonderful garden manure. I have gathered necessary parts to make a DIY Hydroponic set-up, they are known for growing huge harvests outside, or year round, indoors using grow-lights.
I have more than enough clothes, blankets shoes, tools medicine and up to date prescription glasses. In the process of having dental treatment at the School of Dentistry. I could also provide for adult children and family, but was told they have all that they need, doubtful as they are minimalists! I am going to organize boxes of food for them so they can make a weeks worth of food from each box. Important to have seeds, and a tiller/cultivator if one is older, to help with the heavy work. Well maintained bicycles and the means to repair them provide alternative transportation if the grid goes down. An electric bike is already particularly helpful, and can be charged using a solar generator if the grid is down. Consider learning new skills and honing old ones, personal fitness shuld be a high priority at any age. Items for a home gym can be gathered from Thrift Stores, mine cost under $100.00, some equipment was free. Keep a stash of dry firewood, and pallets for building, or repairing garden fences, or building animal shelters, remember nails, screws, hinges and the like. Toiletries and hygeine items can also be found at Thrift Stores for little cost, even soap making and cleaning supplies cost pennies on the dollar. Over the years I have accumulated a large stash of material remnants to use for sewing projects and items I will either be able to trade, or sell to supplement my income. 'How To' books on making household remedies and other tasks may prove invaluable, when there is no internet.
I never meal plan, but instead buy what is on sale at the lowest possible prices, then figure out what to use it for. I only buy items I know I will find a use for. Instead of buying pet foods, I often buy human grade, which means there's no tax on it. Besides mylar bags, I bought isome by the roll, cheaper that way. A grain mill can be purchased for my Champion Juicer, but I found a hand cranked new one one at a Thrift Store for $4.00. I have many grains stored in mylar bags inside 5 gal buckets. I purchased freeze dried foods when they were on sale. Aside from needing more Orchard or Timothy hay for my rabbits, and pine bedding which can be used as inexpensive cat litter or composting.toilets I feel well prepared. My little grand-daughter likes to ask, " What do you have for me, Grammy?" while her less than enthusiastic mother continues to roll her eyes, until she needs something. When shopping is optional, there is something very satisfying about being self -, reliant and not needing to spend money, knowing that man-made or natural disasters, sickness or injury are likely to have little impact upon health, comfort and quality of life. And, one will not have to depend upon anyone for help, and may even be able to assist those in need when the time comes!
Another one of your great videos brother and i build my food storgage slowly i believe i have at least for 1month worth of food. But i will build on it even further i will try to get to 3 months' worth of food. I have also shared your video out as usual and a 👍 as well.
Dude, your dedication to building up that food storage is impressive! Keep it up, and thanks for sharing the video!
@@reliableprepper You are most welcome my friend and i will.
I'm a big guy, 6'4"/250. For me, I should target 1,000,000 calories or 2740 per day. Ad another 800K-1M calories for my wife. We are going to have a hard time storing that much food. Of course 1 month's food is better than 2 weeks and 2 months is better than 1 month. Gotta start somewhere.
Absolutely, Steve! Starting somewhere is the key. It's great that you're thinking ahead and planning for your family's needs. Even small steps add up over time. Consider rotating your stock to keep it fresh and looking into high-calorie, compact foods that store well. You've got this! We're close to the same size
Buckets are the easiest way to make a long term storage. Can be stored under a bed with a board then your mattress. And look at the can drop down storage can be placed in the back of closets many ideas on CZcams for this.
After the fire now we have flood in Ruidoso.
One crisis after another.
Have your bag ready.
Can we catch a break, Mother Nature? We're not auditioning for a disaster movie!
@@reliableprepper Now they say NM has a growing pool of lava and our clueless gov. Wants to hit it with water injection geo thermal wells.
2012 here we come.
Don’t forget your pets too.
Absolutely.
I don’t eat anywhere near this much per year.
I definitely eat more than that per year. But I'm a big guy. In a survival situation I could definitely do with a lot less, I'm just kind of using a recommended comfortable amount. There's definitely a lot of variables and other things I would recommend just such as growing your own food but that's for another video
Hi ya.😊
Question. Is this per person. Nevermind you just answered it. Lmbo
lol, yes mam. Hope the video was helpful
And these amounts are for 1 person for a year 803,000 calories
Imagine a household of 5 or 6 people
With the average person consuming most of their calories outside the home today
How do you provide for and where the hell do you store it all without it being so damn obvious to outsiders who will do everything to take it from you
It almost seems like a daunting task 🤦♂️
In all my years of experience, I have never met anyone with that much food stores in their home
3 months yes, pushing 6 months yeah occasionally
Never a year unless they complimented it with being self sustaining ie livestock, chickens, planting etc.
However, in the worst case scenarios particularly a year without food, these areas that provide will be affected as well thereby diminishing if not eliminating their contributions to the overall stores of food✌️
@@jrbarilla I feel you on that one. I feel pretty good about my preps for my family, but I definitely don't have a year's worth. I guess you could always get a shipping container and fill that sucker up, lol. There's not a lot of situations where you would even particularly need that much food, it would be better to have a plan to acquire food or grow food or kill food. But there's so many variables and potential scenarios, it's at least a helpful guide in the right direction. But yes definitely unrealistic for most especially with families
@@jrbarilla 🤗
Agree
I can tell you I have at least 6 months on hand for the 4 people in my household
That includes water
And the ability to procure more through other means
Should those means still be available to us and we are able
As you rightly mentioned, there are too many variables in play that would necessitate an entire years stock
It’s exactly those variables that will dictate how much, when, where and how
And you have mentioned many if not all of them in your previous videos sans aliens attacking 😂
So planning for those variables in complimenting your stores is absolutely necessary
Issue is, although we stress that doing so is a marathon and not a race, one cannot help but connect the dots of what is going on in our world currently and feel a sense of urgency
So, in my opinion, I would advise those that are behind the curve will want to catch up as quickly as they can
I don’t make light of that when I say it either
I’m still very much tied into a lot of what is surrounding us and a great deal is going to change before the end of 2024
Most people below a certain age will not recognize the world we will find ourselves in soon and societies like the US will fare far worse than those indigenous people of third world much poorer nations ✌️
Hey dude, i heard 90 cans of fruits and vegetables. There are 365 days a year. Fruit and vegetables atr half the plate. Dont you really mean
NINEHUNDRED CANS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.
that would make more sense.
Honestly canned foods are one of my favorite. You don't have to cook them. Most of the time they don't need water. Such a wide variety. So yes to simplify it get you a couple of pallets of canned food and you're set
@@reliableprepper I have about 700 canned goods currently. That includes vegetable, fruit, fish,chicken,pork,and canned and dry beans. Plus many a dozen boxes of mixes like pancakes and hot cearl.
@@user-oe6wq7pu8d same here, but honestly I think you have me beat a little. You've inspired me to do an inventory. So many great benefits to canned food
@@reliableprepper I'm in public housing and the town I'm in has old infrastructure. Power outs are common. I'm often eating straight from the can for a day or two. Without warning.
And have to eat on time no matter what.
Canned goods have kept me fed, safe, and home.( bad weather and no car means shopping has to be planned)
I shop about every 2 weeks. And use 12 different stores to get best prices.
Also I try to keep 3 months of bottled water in the house.