Food Storage

Food storage is tricky business, especially if, like most Americans, you're used to going to the grocery store or restaurants and just picking up what looks good to eat in the near term. There are so many things to consider, such as how to get the proper nutrition, the right proportions of vegetables and fruits. How many servings?, What will it taste like?, how long will it last? Do I really need to do go through all this?, Where do I begin?

The first thing to consider is where and how much room you have to store food. If you're living in an apartment, you may have access to storage space or not. If you don't, you could find some creative ways to store food. For instance, if you store in buckets, you could use the buckets to make a pantry, book or other kind of storage shelf. You could use them as a base for a Japanese style bed. You could use them to make end tables with a cloth covering them. Or even a privacy partition, covered with a pleasant looking material! Chairs with little round cushions on top?

You will want to practice cooking with your storage items, for these you should start with purchases at the grocery store rather than food that is packaged for the long term. For instance, if you love bread and want to be able to eat it if everything goes to hell in a handbasket, you'll need to learn to make your own with wheat berries and yeast, preferably before an emergency arises. A very good thing about wheat berries is that they can be eaten several different ways; in bread or other baking items, cooked as is (in berry form) with water and vegetables, or sprouted, which is very healthy!

If you want to make bread with wheat berries, you'll need to get a good grinder. Preferrably one that can operate with or without electricity. There are some good ones on the market but they tend to be very pricey.

Here is a website link that explains and rates some different grinders:

Grain Grinders

Next, you need to figure out how many servings of each foods you'll need and for how many people. This should especially take calories into consideration which, in times of stress you will need more of. Calories are our main energy source. Carbohydrates, fruits and fats are the biggest sources of calories. Carbs are broken down into glucose which is then used by the body to create energy. The body can also break down proteins and fats to make glucose but it takes a bit longer. The brain uses glucose exclusively as an energy source. 

So how many servings? A good rule of thumb is to make sure you have plenty of freeze dried or dehydrated fruits and vegetables first, count up those calories. Figure out how much protein you are going to want or need to consume per day and what your sources will be - count up those calories, then make up the rest with carbs, fats and beverages such as powdered milk, powdered cheeses, butters, oils, and wheat items. This will help you decide the number of servings overall to reach 2000 calories a day.