freeze dried food / long term

[Soundguy]

Not sure if it was that exact product but when reading the reviews on something similar they said to look at the calorie content. It might make X meals but they are 'starvation rations' calorie wise and you would need to supplement quite a bit to get a good daily calorie intake. ..

i think that's what 'rationing is for. IE.. eat a lil less till you figure out where your permanent source of food is coming from. the stored food source is just that... or should be. a temp supply to get you thru till you can make your own food.

lets be realistic. say you have 4 ys worth of what you call starvation rations... for the 1st month or two you are figuring out if this is a permanent disaster or soemthing civilization is gonna bounce back from, and then you go back to work and mcdonalds and walmart opens again... past that.. you know it's time to buckle down and start finding renewable food. that may well mean gardening.. and that like ly means nearly a YEAR before you start getting sufficient food turning over. during that year, you are likely eating 2x your rations..thus at the end of the first 1.5 ys, when you likely have a self sufficient food supply, you have also pretty much depleated your 4yr emergency food store,.. that's a guestament... your mileage may vary during a real disaster

besides.. figure some food will be lost due to a bad package or rodents, some may have to be traded for other supplies like ammo or meds.. and some may be stolen.. etc.. etc.. you may take on another survivor, and that may/ will cut into your food...


all right.. all this survalv talk has me primed.. lets start the zombie apocalypse already..

soundguy

Menu variety is another potential problem, you simply can't/won't eat the same stuff day after day..

I think menu variety might be less of an issue when faced with eating .. (nothing) or eating tinned fish and beans n rice.. again.. for the 3rd straight month..

soundguy

 

[powerpace]

How many of you remember the Civil Defense Shelters. The public ones.
Fallout Shelter Supplies-Food Rations Page
Wiki of course.

When I was in the Fire Department in 1976 there was a fire in an area that stored some of this food and other supplies. I can attest to the bad flavor this survival food had. The carbohydrate candy in the five gallon containers stayed around the FD for about another four years before it was gone. Stored in the shelter was about a hundred shovels. Nice ones.

 

[forgeblast]

Emergency essentials is (IMHO) the best place to shop. The shipping is really reasonable especially for their bigger super pails of food. They also have monthly sales on #10 cans of food. We have bought from them and the food we buy is food we use when camping. Yes it will last for 30 years but we use a lot of it backpacking, (easier to buy in bulk and break it down) and just replace what we use.

 

[charlz]

i think that's what 'rationing is for. IE.. eat a lil less till you figure out where your permanent source of food is coming from. the stored food source is just that... or should be. a temp supply to get you thru till you can make your own food.

lets be realistic. say you have 4 ys worth of what you call starvation rations... for the 1st month or two you are figuring out if this is a permanent disaster or soemthing civilization is gonna bounce back from, and then you go back to work and mcdonalds and walmart opens again... past that.. you know it's time to buckle down and start finding renewable food. that may well mean gardening.. and that like ly means nearly a YEAR before you start getting sufficient food turning over. during that year, you are likely eating 2x your rations..thus at the end of the first 1.5 ys, when you likely have a self sufficient food supply, you have also pretty much depleated your 4yr emergency food store,.. that's a guestament... your mileage may vary during a real disaster

I agree with your assessment. What I think people were mentioning is that for that particular product they were reviewing was that the rations gave you 1200 or less calories per day. However, you would most likely be doing a lot more work, burning more calories etc and your actual need might be more like 3000 calories per day especially in cold weather. Also dieting sucks and that is what you essentially would be doing by cutting your calories way down. So extra discipline would be needed to not eat more than your ration.

I think menu variety might be less of an issue when faced with eating .. (nothing) or eating tinned fish and beans n rice.. again.. for the 3rd straight month..

soundguy

I think you would be surprised. My experience from the military is you get burned out on eating the same foods (MRE's) over and over pretty fast. Guys would pick through their meals and dump the unopened stuff in a pile for others to dig through if they were interested. Sometimes they would skip meals altogether. Carrying a bottle of Tabasco was pretty common and then they started including it in some meals when the newer menu meals came out.

 

[nue2farm]

Freeze dried food will last a longh time. Most if not all backpackers use it all th time, on the trail. Like has been posted, buy in bulk and break it down for use.

 

[Phils]

Emergency essentials is (IMHO) the best place to shop. The shipping is really reasonable especially for their bigger super pails of food. They also have monthly sales on #10 cans of food. We have bought from them and the food we buy is food we use when camping. Yes it will last for 30 years but we use a lot of it backpacking, (easier to buy in bulk and break it down) and just replace what we use.

I Googled "emergency essentials" but only got hits for 'beprepared.com' and other sites, some mentioning the "emergency essentials" as a brand, and comparisons like this:

http://compareyourfoodstorage.com/

Could you elaborate more on your experiences and preferred sites please?

Phil

 

[forgeblast]

Be glad to, bepprepared.com is their site.

YEAR SUPPLY of Grains & Legumes

Is a nice easily stored item, Price wise its very good. I was worried about the shipping but it was not that much I think it was 12.00

I buy a lot of the dehydrated eggs, its nice carrying these and I have a book from the 1920s that has a ton of recipes using it.
We also go with the stews, beef is good, and so is the abc soup.
Fruits are nice the strawberries and blueberries.
Whats I planned for was winter, If something were to happen I would hate to have to find food all winter long.
I think with beprepared(emergency essentials) they have a calculator that lets you put in everything you have stored its a good tool.

 

[Soundguy]

I agree with your assessment. What I think people were mentioning is that for that particular product they were reviewing was that the rations gave you 1200 or less calories per day. However, you would most likely be doing a lot more work, burning more calories etc and your actual need might be more like 3000 calories per day especially in cold weather. Also dieting sucks and that is what you essentially would be doing by cutting your calories way down. So extra discipline would be needed to not eat more than your ration.

yep.. i forsee probably eating 2x daily rations a day when working.. ie.. 2400c.. thus depleting your store 2x as fast. but that's ok.. no need for 4ys.., 1.5 and you SHOULD be up and running.. if not.. it's gonna go from bad to worse..

I think you would be surprised. My experience from the military is you get burned out on eating the same foods (MRE's) over and over pretty fast. Guys would pick through their meals and dump the unopened stuff in a pile for others to dig through if they were interested. Sometimes they would skip meals altogether. Carrying a bottle of Tabasco was pretty common and then they started including it in some meals when the newer menu meals came out.

I hear that quite commonly from my buddies. most of my friends are ex military. the mre swap deal and tobasco sauce is a common story.

On the other hand, I see 2 things. 1, your example is a situation where people have other options., IE.. trade food.

if you are all by your lonesome and have 2ys of tinned fish and beans and rice, you eat that or starve. hunger is a powerfull motivator.

the 2nd issue will depend upon the person. I realize some people simply cannot or will not eat the same food day in day out.. and WILL go hungry to avoid it.

There are others, on the other hand.. like me. who can eat a sparse diet on a long term basis.

when I was recovering from heart problems a year ago. my diet for.. well.. nearly a year consisted of about 10 items... later expanded to about 20 items.. which were more or less variations on common items of the first batch of 10. for 18 months I lived on that sparse diet... still here.. didn't starve or go hungry.. or forget to eat or skip meals. ( ps.. 6m of that time i was on 1300c restriction too )

so it can be done.. if ya want to and can tolerate it..

 

[Phils]

Thanks FORGEBLAST! Only problem I found at that site is that there are too many choices!

The receipe section was especially good... glad you've had good experiences with 'em. We don't backpack but our RV would not only make a good storage place but we'd be able to cycle through some of the food on camping trips.

Phil

 

[dmccarty]

Plastic food grade five gallon buckets are nice but they would not keep out mice and rats so they would have to stored where it was certain there would be no rodents. Otherwise the buckets need to be stored in a metal container.

Asian and Hispanic stores sell large bags of rice that should be somewhat cheaper per pound.

Had to search. Amazon was selling 25 pounds of black beans for $35 while BePrepared was $68 for 41 pounds but included the bucket.

Found another place but they wanted $53 for 25 pounds. I did not check shipping on any of these sites though.

One can live on Red Beans and Rice for a very long time. You might be bored as heck with the food but it would keep you alive.

25 pounds of beans and 25 pounds of rice would feed a family for months and for not much money.

Amazon has 50 pound bags of rice and oat mean for $70 and $65.

Later,
Dan