

Another good staple, and when combined with your rice, some seasoning, and canned meats it makes a great meal! And don’t forget about a big pot of chili when you have meat from wild game or a butchered animal.īeans can be bought in pre-sealed 5 gallon buckets as well, but it is more economical to buy in large bags and repackage it in buckets yourself. For a bit more you can find rice sold pre-sealed in buckets from a number of sources.īeans. It is most economical to buy rice in 40 lb bags and repackage it into buckets yourself, a 5 gallon bucket will hold a 40lb bag. Be aware that although it requires no processing, it does require quite a bit of water to cook. It can form the base of many tasty and nutritious meals. These buckets can be found on EBay, or you can repackage yourself. Even with 6 of us in the house each bucket provides a month’s worth of breakfasts. I like to purchase it in sealed 5 gallon buckets, which yield about 222 servings per bucket. Oatmeal is great stuff! Filling and nutritious, and economical! It is also pretty darn tasty, and if you have some add ons it is easy to dress up for variety. So, if you are going to stock things that require processing, be certain to have the tools and equipment required to do the work! They should be stored in oxygen purged, food grade buckets with a Mylar bucket liner and O2 absorber for best storage life.īe aware that some of these, like whole grains, require some processing in order to make the best use of them. Bulk Dry Goodsīulk dry goods are a great way to put in a large supply of staples. Let’s face it, it doesn’t have to taste good to keep you alive, but it does to keep you happy! Never underestimate the power of a good tasty meal to make things seem better, and never underestimate the power of a positive outlook to help survive in hard conditions! 1. I have tried to take into account caloric as well as nutritional content, ease of storage, shelf life, and the intangible of enjoyable to eat.

So, here is my list of indispensable foods to store in quantity for hard times. Hence the urge to get all we can when we can, which leads to rampant obesity in modern sedentary times but is adaptive to survival in harder times. The human palate developed in times when being physically active and dealing with life threatening events was the norm, and when a steady supply of food was not a guarantee.

There is a reason we like carbs, and fats, and sugars, and that reason is our body needs these things. The truth of the matter is that what we consider to be a healthy diet in normal times is probably inadequate in a high stress, very active, crisis situation. Phrases like “not enough calories”, “needs more fat”, not enough carbs”, and the like roll off my tongue frequently. When I am going through a grocery store gathering survival food, I get some strange looks from people close enough to hear me muttering under my breath as I discount items. Remember, a crisis has a way of creating situationsthat will increase your caloric requirements, and that will tax your immune system and electrolyte balance. Just be certain that whatever you store, it provides enough calories, a dietary proper balance, vitamins, minerals, and fats. There are however some standards that can guide pretty much anyone in the right direction. This will depend on a number of factors, such as storage space, number of people to be fed, availability of water for preparation, availability of a means to cook foods or heat water, and the list goes on. It is hard to say with complete authority what “The best” foods are. There are many schools of thought on what should be stock piled in the event of a disaster or prolonged period of social disruption or societal collapse.
