This topic has plagued me for years, but until recently I never grasped what food storage was all about. Growing up a PK (preachers kid), the topic of end time hardships was a regular topic 'round the dinner table. Dad canned food for us, stored food in trash cans (that the rats found) and hid food and water through out our home. He was consumed with a passion to PREPARE! I bought into a back pack in my car with fifty $1 bills that I quickly spent, but not much more than that. I knew I could just head to mom and dad's. Sadly, we treated dad as Noah.
When my son was born in '07 we soon discovered he was unable to digest milk and soy proteins. His only source of nutrients was from a very expensive mail order formula called Neocate that ran us $500 per month. Suddenly, I was faced with the issue of what to do should we have a large earth quake and not be able to receive my sons formula. Our bi-weekly purchases turned into monthly purchases. I sent a can with bottles to each grandparents home should we find ourselves stuck.
Again, my preparedness stopped with my sons needs.
After Dad passed away in July, we began to go thru the house picking thru his supplies. Most of the goods were expired... years expired. I grabbed a box of Mac N Cheese and cooked it up. Yes, expired Mac N Cheese tastes bad! We threw away box after box of expired medicines and food (I'm talking 5 years expired). My dad's intentions were good and yes, we would have had food to eat and water to drink should an emergency arise.
When my Aunt came out for dad's funeral she told us she had 20 year old grain stored up with peanut butter and a wheat grinder. I had never heard of such a thing!
Again I really didn't revisit the topic until the beginning of this year. After my lay off in November and turning into a S-A-H-M (stay at home mom), I was faced with scaling down our budget and cooking wasn't a strong point of mine.
As a christian, the one thing I wasn't going to do was buy a bunch of food that we wouldn't eat and that would go bad. We, as a family, had to agree to buy food that can be stored and that we would eat and rotate! This was going to be about a food storage we would use and be good stewards of.
With that said, I began doing research. I don't cook and we only eat fresh foods or eat out. I began reading blogs, asking fellow moms their food budgets and checking out the leading food storage sites. My neighbors all happen to be LDS and know a lot about canning. I consider them the pros. I narrowed it down to a few favorite website/blogs.
The first website http://www.internet-grocer.net/ is an online store where you can purchase food packages of 3 day, 1 month, 3 months up to a year, without having to think about it. The site comments on making sure your storage has variety or you can starve. I was intrigued as he touted canned butter, cheese, bacon, hamburger, pork and so on. I decided to order a sample of canned items to see how they tasted.
Below are the items as they looked upon opening the cans. The center in yellow is butter. Just below that is the canned processed cheddar cheese. Going clockwise from the cheese is bacon, ground beef, turkey, chicken, pork and beef. All the meats are fully cooked.
This is the bacon unrolled from the can. It tasted good, but greasy!
Beef..hmmmm
Ground Beef from the can and then I cooked it up in a pan.
The next two pics are the chicken and turkey.
The pork looked just like that turkey. I know your next question. How did it taste? The butter was creamy and yummy. The cheese was processed, but cheddary and good. The bacon greasy, but tasted just like bacon does. I cooked and tasted the ground beef, but it was way too metallic tasting for me. The remaining meats all went into the garbage disposal...blek!
I now know what we won't be eating..hahahah. The website also boasts may freeze dried foods, etc. which in a true disaster with no electricity is a good idea. We will talk about that later.
My next favorite site is http://www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net/ . These ladies tell you how to do it all and provide a spreadsheet! I signed up for their baby steps program which emails you weekly assignments to get your food storage going. I'm on the first step.. shelving. Since we live in an apartment, my loving hubby built me a pantry in our kitchen and put shelves in the coat closet near the front door. We have a hall closet used to store water and emergency supplies and half of a closet in a spare bedroom. Step 2 is water. My neighbors are holding an emergency preparedness meeting this weekend and selling 50 gallon water holders. I will keep you updated on my progress.
My third favorite site is a blog http://www.wantingwhatyouhave.blogspot.com/ . It's owner is a christian mom, who adores her husband and family and only wants to do God's will in her life. I find her inspirational and grounding as it's easy to get caught up in the day to day trials of motherhood not to mention the new task of food storage. She also created a help blog on making your own Home Management Guide which I have almost finished!
Phew! Anyways, I will keep you posted on my progress. Next steps.. a bread maker, land line phone, wheat grinding, getting pregnant.. It's all in God's hands!
I LOVE this thing!
A few weeks Carter woke up saying, 'tummy hurt'. I thought it was because he was hungry and didn't each much for dinner the night before. We went into the kitchen where I put him in his chair and started naming breakfast items he might want. He said no to them all. Then Eric came in and said, "No, I think he really has a tummy ache". I thought, wow, my first 'mommy I have a tummy ache' moment. I looked at the clock. It was 8am. That gave me one hour to shower and get dressed before the doctors opened, if he was in fact sick. I put Carter on the couch and hopped in the shower. Twenty minutes later he was still sitting there and hadn't moved a muscle. He was definatley sick. 
