Storing for the Future - Page 2

vioburn · 08-15-2007, 01:36 AM

This last Christmas, my eyes were completely opened. We had an incredible blizzard that left over 2 feet of snow on the ground and home-bound for over 4 days! I learned from my grandmother to always have food stored up, so we were fine. My neighbors ended up having to eat with us, because they had NO food! They were planning on leaving town for Christmas, and didn't even have any cans left in their house! I couldn't even imagine not having ANY food in the house! Anyway, when we were finally able to get to the store, (BIL and SIL had a 4WD and had to come and get us!) the store was completely empty! Almost no canned foods, no fresh veggies or fruit, almost no meat, no bread and only a couple of gallons of milk left. We got one of the last gallons of milk in the store. And it wasn't even whole milk, like we drink.

If you do decide it is time to stock emergency items, do most of the food in your normal pantry. Build extra shelves, if you need. Just make sure you rotate your food and only buy what you would normally eat. An emergency is not the time to find out that you absolutely hate corned beef hash in a can! You'd be surprised at how many people buy things they think would be good to have, even though they have never personally tried whatever it is, only to find out that it is something that they have to choke down.

Swampwitch, I know what you mean about keeping things up-to-date and making sure they are not expired. My best advice is to make sure that the first in, first out rule is held. And what I said earlier, make sure that you rotate regularly. If you have a can of tuna in your emergency bag, just use that can the next time you need tuna and replace with a new can. I have a special emergency pack in my school backpack. I keep a few power bars in there, along with a first aid kit and a few other emergency preps. If I am hungry during the day, I grab one of those bars and when I get home, I make sure I replace it right away.