How much food do you have stored?

[grower]

This is a poll to determine how much food each of us has "put back." In other words, in hard times, with, say, 5 servings per person per day, how many days/weeks/months/years could you and your household live on your stored food alone? Consider one cup of fruit, vegetables, or dairy product to be "one serving." A slice of meat about the size of a deck of cards is 3 servings.

A can of beans would be 2 servings, then. And dry goods like rice and pasta have the number of servings listed on the package.

I realize 5 servings per day is mighty slim, compared to what most of us eat, but supplemented with some wild plants, berries, etc., and an occasional bit of wild game, it would do in an emergency situation.

Consider this a refresher....a reminder of how long we could last on what we have now. Maybe even a kick in the pants for those of us that need to build up our stores.

NOTE: I ask you to please be honest. If you are a "keyboard prepper" pretending you're ready, that doesn't count. Go to your refrigerator, your cabinets, your freezer, and your pantry, and do an honest assessment. This is for YOU, to see what you need to do, to prepare your house for a long-term emergency. (Couples should only respond to the poll once, for their household.)

[Sherree]

It was hard for me to decide between a year and more than a year. It all depends if our food storage has to feed me and CaryC only, or if our children will be sharing it with us. Our oldest son is also an avid prepper, so he will combine his food storage and supplies with ours, once he gets to our house with it in a SHTF event. He only lives a couple of miles away.

[grower]

Well, for this experiment, let's just consider whoever is currently living under your roof. Too many variables to go into much detail. I'm not counting livestock, either, because their numbers would fluctuate over the course of a year.

[grower]

According to my rough estimate, we had about one month's worth of food stores a week ago, but through God's grace and the gift of a friend, we're up to nearly 6 months. That doesn't count my 9 chickens and 4 (pregnant) goats. It does count a greens patch in the yard and a 50-pound sack of wheat.

[CaryC]

I can't answer because Sherree already has for us.

I've always felt that 9-12 months of canned/freezer storage supplies would be appropriate. This would see you through to the next harvest, which could start early with early plants like collards, turnips, etc...

Supplement that with collections from wild means, berries, acorns, and wild meat.

That would be enough time to realize what the conditions would/could be like in a year and get ready for it.

If you were in PR you would see that next year it's still going to be on you. So after getting your shelter in place. Maybe not pretty, but usable and suitable. Then moving on to getting your drinking water in order. It would be time to clear an area large enough for a garden to fit your family. This would give you a year to do that.

With a year's worth, you can rotate your supplies so you don't loose any to age. Most canned goods purchased in stores have a 2 year "use by" date.

If you have room for more by all means go for it. Saw an article by Mark Cuban who stated by a years worth of tooth paste, a money saving means is to buy bulk when it is on sale. It's money straight into your pocket book now, and later when you use it, because the tube you will be using costs less, than if you were to buy one then.

FWIW

[Meemur]

I stock about six months worth of pantry supplies (canned goods, baking, dried food) over the winter, as well as apples, potatoes, and winter squash in the basement. I try to have that all eaten by the time the cool season veggies are ready to harvest, and then I eat mostly fresh food through the warmer months.

Since I've started this rotation plan, there has been little to no waste. I no longer store MREs.

I used to store about a year's worth of food at a time, but it was a nightmare to keep rotated, plus the logistics of storing it weren't working for me. If I had to do it again, I'd knock together a 5' x 7' pantry in the basement with proper shelves and storage racks. At my last house, I was keeping cases of cans in the crawl space and in the shed. Never again!

These days, I have several "canning shelves" in the basement (heavy duty shelves) up again the wall. I built wooden riser can shelves so I can see what I have at a glance. Once a week, I carry cans upstairs to the kitchen cupboards. I keep about one week's worth in those cupboards at a time, just that small amount so I can readily see what I have.

[Sherree]

I used to store about a year's worth of food at a time, but it was a nightmare to keep rotated, plus the logistics of storing it weren't working for me. If I had to do it again, I'd knock together a 5' x 7' pantry in the basement with proper shelves and storage racks. At my last house, I was keeping cases of cans in the crawl space and in the shed. Never again!

Yeah, a years worth of food takes up a lot of room, and isn't feasible for many folks. I was raised up having it ingrained into me that one always needs to have at least a year's worth of food on hand. We turned an extra bedroom into a pantry room, and keep it temperature controlled, with two chest freezers in the laundry room. I probably can count on one hand the number of food items that I've had to throw away from being too old and spoiled. Rotation and regular use are key.

[dissimulo]

If you have limited space, just store calorie dense staples. Beans and white rice are good. Stored appropriately, most people would probably never have to rotate them. Both have about 11,000 calories per gallon, so a five gallon bucket of rice and a bucket of beans will feed one person a 1500 calorie diet for a month. Just a little bit of foraging or trading can round that out. Unless you are planning on being in a bunker somewhere, cut off from the world, that should be plenty to keep you healthy. We have about 20 buckets of each in a closet, which is our food of last resort. Normally, we also have a lot of other food on hand from growing, fishing, and hunting, but that is meant to carry us through something like a full rip Cascadia earthquake, where it might be as much as six months without much interaction outside the local area. I don't like canned goods, as they are not very space/weight efficient and I don't really like to eat from cans regularly, so rotation is a problem.

[grower]

The benefit of canned foods is you can eat them without soaking, cooking, or adding water -- if a clean water source is a problem.
I have a hand-operated grain grinder, and the sack of wheat I bought from the co-op last week was $13 for 50 pounds. I have also thought (but have not implemented) buying a salt block from the co-op would be an excellent way to buy salt cheaply and put it up for long-term storage.

[greenhart]

With just my wife and I, we could easily go over a year with canned fruit and vegetables. But protein wise we have perhaps a month on hand, canned and frozen. But We have a few chicken that could be expanded over time and access to a pair or 2 of Rabbits.