Recommendations on Food Suppliers

[warnera1102]

I have seen a few threads regarding this but has anyone had an personal experience with the long term food supply companies (such as My Patriot Supply,4Patriot and etc)?

I live on the east cost so natural disasters (hurricanes) are typical and in the past with just my wife and i we have made everything work but now that I have a 1 year old my priorities changed.My wife and I will understand missing a meal during a bad situation but I cannot explain that to my son (hopefully that statement makes sense).

I was wondering what companies people would recommended, I would like to store a few buckets in the closet for SHTF or a natural disaster. Hoepfully they will never be used but for a few hundred bucks I think I can sleep better at night knowing I have it.

 

[dscl]

following…

 

[mrdrar]

Mountain House plus (from Costco) a big bag of white rice, dried beans, yeast, white sugar, and salt. Keep flour in the house and rotate through it.

 

[Downtown]

I went that route over twenty years ago (remember Y2K?). I found none of it was used within the recommended shelf life. Now I keep thirty days of extra staples of grocery foods that I'm likely to eat. Rice, pastas, canned foods. Shelf life is not quite as long, but not so much of an issue, as it's used in daily cooking. I do stock some overly processed retort packaged foods found in the grocery store that are not part of my regular diet (think spaghetti and meatballs in a aluminum bag) but that gets used up on camping and hunting trips. Admittedly some things like canned potatoes or canned greens (my family dislikes both) will age out, but that's a small part of the supply and they would happily eat them if hungry. This has turned out to be a much more efficient and less costly than a 30 day bucket of Patriot food.

 

[acudaowner]

spam with a 25+ year 1/2 life your sure to get a lot of uses out of it soon enough as food supplies dry up in the US .that and a 50lb bag of dry rice and beans and your set for months at a time .

 

[Loner]

We keep a year or more worth of wheat, rice, beans,oats,salt,honey,baking powder, multi vitamins and yeast. The yeast doesn’t last a year unless we keep a starter going.

 

[forrestgump01]

Hmmmmm...... so your taking notes on who has food hoarded away.
Not today FEDS ........ not today !

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Take some time and study what you currently eat / consume..... This is what you should stock up on. Once you get a stock then simply rotate your stocks. This would be especially true with a toddler. You should be taking vitamins currently. Increase your supply of vitamins and rotate them also. If you choose to go the Mountain House route or any of the REI back packing type meals.... Please buy some small packs and consume them before buying a 5 gallon bucket full.....

Glad you are on board with this... Now is the time to get started.

 

[RGStory]

I should mention that I am not Mormon nor do I don't want to engage or start a religious discussion.

However, the Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have long been writing manuals on effective food storage and rotation procedures and updating this material as times change.

I suggest to anyone that asks for a good resource material to peruse their information on the subject. It will cover everything from how much you need, to storage times, to how to store it, how to prepare it, how to implement a system of management that limits waste, which plastic containers to use, etc.... for as little as $40 per month of supply.

Here are some quick links to get started and I attached a suggested 3-month storage plan that they promote for getting started.

Food Storage - Mormonism, The Mormon Church, Beliefs, & Religion - MormonWiki

www.mormonwiki.com

Food Storage

Latter-day Saints worldwide to prepare for adversity by having a basic supply of food and water to care for ourselves and neighbors.

www.churchofjesuschrist.org

 

[Derek01]

I got freeze-dried samples from several companies before buying. Taste tested. Ended up going with Mountain House for price and taste. Lasts 30 yrs

 

[MarshallDodge]

Store what you eat, eat what you store.

I keep perishable things that are part of our regular diet in the freezer, and have a generator to keep things going for a while. You can freeze bread and dairy items short term like butter, milk, and cheese.

For dry food, I have beef jerky, several different kinds of nuts that I buy in bulk including peanuts, cashews, and almonds, crackers, pasta, beans, peas, and rice. I keep some canned chili, tuna, and chicken on the shelf along with canned fruit and veggies. Most expiration dates on dry food are way shorter than the food will expire. I've had sealed wheat thins on the shelf for a year past the date and they tasted fine, but I do live in a drier climate.

I do have a wheat, oats, and corn stored, have ground my own flour, and made recipes with it. I tried hardtack once and it came out pretty good despite being hard, even some sealed in a zip lock bag for 5 years.

I have about two weeks of water on hand. Several neighbors have wells if I need more.

Sources I have used are Honeyville, Costco, and the LDS church sells products online in 10# cans that last a really long time.

 

[merica]

I am actually looking into canning my own food. Apparently it is pretty easy and the food lasts a long time.

 

[MarshallDodge]

I am actually looking into canning my own food. Apparently it is pretty easy and the food lasts a long time.

Canning is pretty easy. You just want to be sure to keep everything super clean and sterile, and eat within 2 years of canning.

A friend gave us a bag of fresh apricots the other day and my wife turned them into a dozen 4oz jars of jam.

 

[MarshallDodge]

I should mention that I am not Mormon nor do I don't want to engage or start a religious discussion.

However, the Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have long been writing manuals on effective food storage and rotation procedures and updating this material as times change.

....

I'm not Mormon either but I bet I am better prepped than most of my Mormon neighbors. They are good people and try hard but you should of seen them panicking last year when things started flying off the shelves. I think they all ran out and bought a bunch of supplies so they wouldn't get caught without enough.

A friend works at the LDS cannery and they sold out of two years worth of inventory in 1 month.

 

[OREGUN]

I should mention that I am not Mormon nor do I don't want to engage or start a religious discussion.

However, the Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have long been writing manuals on effective food storage and rotation procedures and updating this material as times change.

I suggest to anyone that asks for a good resource material to peruse their information on the subject. It will cover everything from how much you need, to storage times, to how to store it, how to prepare it, how to implement a system of management that limits waste, which plastic containers to use, etc.... for as little as $40 per month of supply.

Here are some quick links to get started and I attached a suggested 3-month storage plan that they promote for getting started.

Food Storage - Mormonism, The Mormon Church, Beliefs, & Religion - MormonWiki

www.mormonwiki.com

Food Storage

Latter-day Saints worldwide to prepare for adversity by having a basic supply of food and water to care for ourselves and neighbors.

www.churchofjesuschrist.org

Keep track of the zealots in your neighborhood, too. If the SHTF, so to speak, remember: the higher the zeal, the better the meal.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

I am actually looking into canning my own food. Apparently it is pretty easy and the food lasts a long time.

I started canning last year. Your County Agent could possibly put on a canning class. Worth looking into to get the basics. Not to side track but we have current discussions going about the "quality" of food we get at the grocery store, Costco, Walmart, etc... If you have the capability to grow a garden (even in 5 gallon buckets) and then can, you will be ahead of the crowd.

Don't get overwhelmed at canning. I have a big pressure cooker but been using the small one in the last photo. I can can 3 each, 1/2 pint jars during the afternoon while I'm doing other chores.... For a single man a couple of 1/2 pints would carry me for most of a day.....

The shortages this time of year are for canning jars, rings and seals. Start collecting. They won't go bad sitting on the shelf.

 

[Maggot]

As Army Jerry put it, "Buy more ammo." Then you can off your liberal neighbors who caused the problem and take their shit. And shoot game.

 

[Ison]

Harvest Right™ | Home Freeze Dryers | Freeze Dried Food Storage Home Freeze Dryers

harvestright.com

 

[hlee]

Best advice I ever received on the topic is "If you are going to store it, make sure you will eat it." Why buy long term storage food you never have plans to eat? I mean, dry beans and rice store well, but if you don't like beans and rice then you aren't doing yourself any favors.

On a related note, I have a hard time buying food (or anything else really) from any company trading primarily on "patriotism" as their advertising "hook." I mean Mountain House may not be advertising on their patriotism, but you know they are trying to make quality light weight backpacking food.

 

[Jgunner]

I have eaten a few different brands. Some are pretty bland by my standards. Peoblem with stocking up on regular things is: they don’t last very long.

flour and other similar foods get bugs in em, high humidity can cause things to mold. Beans, rice and flour need to be sealed and an oxygen absorber put in it(i have heard it helps), and in special bags NOT plastic. Mylar and foil or something like that.

mountain house tastes good, lasts a long time(i had few from 10 years ago and still tasted like it was new), but not super healthy for you. Anything is going to have a lot of carbs, which you might need, but might not.

I don’t know of any brands that i would suggest as when i ate a few different ones, it was a long time ago, camping. I would say the more you pay, the better it will be. There are “healthy” freeze dried companies out there that my buddy told me about. If its an interest to you, i would try some of those as well.

 

[JLP83]

There's lots of tasty critters running around out there. I see no reason to eat like a poor.

 

[Jscb1b]

Stock up on more than food. Spices, soaps, toothpaste, medicines. The best thing we bought is a vacuum packer.

 

[forrestgump01]

flour and other similar foods get bugs in em, high humidity can cause things to mold. Beans, rice and flour need to be sealed and an oxygen absorber put in it(i have heard it helps), and in special bags NOT plastic. Mylar and foil or something like that.

The bugs that you find in flour, grains , beans actually come from larvae and are in the product when you buy it . That's why even if you put it in a sealed container they will hatch after a certain period of time . In order to kill any bugs and larvae for proper long term storage , it needs to either be frozen for a couple of weeks or heated to around 200 deg for several hours and then Vacuum sealed in a appropriate container.

 

[LawnMM]

Hmmmmm...... so your taking notes on who has food hoarded away.
Not today FEDS ........ not today !

 

[BullGear]

Canning your own and buying a stocking shelf of food you usually eat is the better option. That is unless you plan on being hold up for more than a month.

We have shelves where we stock many of our regular foods and we just rotate from the shelves. I do keep a case of Spam and a bunch of pasta. Do yourself a favor and buy powder milk and other things that will help you cook.

I also have 2 Coleman camping stoves, one for propane the other for white gas.

I have more than enough food to last longer than 99.9% of any emergency that I'll ever see.