The Original CZ Forum
GENERAL => General Discussion => Topic started by: Gunnerdad80 on February 20, 2022, 03:22:08 PM
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I’m looking at investing in emergency food products for long term storage for a family of four. Looking for suggestions based on quality and taste. This stuff is expensive so I don’t necessarily want to spend the money on something that tastes like cardboard. Lol
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Beans.
Dried, bulk beans, the kind that can germinate and grow more beans. Prepackaged "survival food" is expensive and not worth it.
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Mountain House (https://mountainhouse.com/collections/adventure-meal-buckets). Wait (if you can) until they go on sale. They come in 24 serving storage buckets or you can buy individual cans and boxes in various sizes. 30 year shelf life.
Or just buy MRE cases on Ebay.com
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Beans.
Dried, bulk beans, the kind that can germinate and grow more beans. Prepackaged "survival food" is expensive and not worth it.
I do keep a good storage of dried beans and rice but it gets tough to make little kids eat the same thing over and over lol.
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Mountain House (https://mountainhouse.com/collections/adventure-meal-buckets). Wait (if you can) until they go on sale. They come in 24 serving storage buckets or you can buy individual cans and boxes in various sizes. 30 year shelf life.
Or just buy MRE cases on Ebay.com
The MRE’s can be a little rough but I’ve used them too. I haven’t heard of Mountain House though. I’ll definitely check that out.
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Mountain house and look at website for Church of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons to buy stuff. I have used Readystore.com to buy Mountainhose foods. There are several brands. The consensus from most is stay away from Wise Foods.
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The LDS church has lots of good long term food storage info/guidelines posted on the web as well as food stores in most major cities.
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SPAM. My favorite canned meat. 8)
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SPAM. My favorite canned meat. 8)
I think I just threw up in my mouth. ;D
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The little kids and you, well everybody, will eat anything if hungry enough. We Americans have had it easy for decades in the food department. Think of the pics we've all seen of other Country's food supplies. My Dad used to tell me horror story's of when he was in the Korean war and what those people ate out of the garbage.
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SPAM. My favorite canned meat. 8)
I think I just threw up in my mouth. ;D
I love Spam, try it with scrambled eggs! It's just canned pork shoulder. Same thing as a Boston Butt. Hawaii consumes more spam than any other state.
I like a lot of canned meat, Vienna sausages, sardines, smoked sprats, etc. In fact my favorite grocery stores are ones that have a great canned meat section.
That said, if you lived through the 50s and sixties and had a lot of brothers and sisters you probably ate a lot of Spam and either learned to love it or hate it!
;D
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I looked around about this a couple years back, an ended up going the dried beans and rice route.
Mountain house was one of the only pre-packed survival food companies that didn't have about as many negative reviews as positive, but they were generally too expensive when you consider how much you would need for more than two or three weeks. For my wallet, they are actually price prohibitive for anything more than short term needs.
Dried beans and rice can be canned rather easily in mason jars in your oven. Supplemented by various canned goods, they make a better choice. Meat can also be canned, but I have yet to try my hand at that. We have canned the usual fruits, jellies and veggies with good success. Just my two cents but an investment in canning equipment, and supplies, can pay off again and again.
I do rotate my "stock" so to speak. I'm working my way through canned beans and rice now, and replacing it with newly canned as I go- the goal being it should be replaced every two or three years. Same with canned goods. One good thing about doing your food supply this way is being able to do it a bit at a time, less pain in the bank account department.
But if my methods are impractical for you, and they would be for some people I admit, then Mountain House is probably the way to go (If you can afford it) They have the best reviews of all the emergency food companies that I researched- and I did a lot of looking.
Good luck however you go ;)
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If you buy mountain house or some other brand. I would get some small packages and try them to start to see if you like them. Then get the buckets or #10 cans. That is usually cheaper. Also, food is no good without water. Water purification/filtering is something else to consider.
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The little kids and you, well everybody, will eat anything if hungry enough. We Americans have had it easy for decades in the food department. Think of the pics we've all seen of other Country's food supplies. My Dad used to tell me horror story's of when he was in the Korean war and what those people ate out of the garbage.
I’m with you. My brother and I grew up borderline poverty. But since we do have a choice, for now at least, I’ll take advantage of it.
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That said, if you lived through the 50s and sixties and had a lot of brothers and sisters you probably ate a lot of Spam and either learned to love it or hate it!;D
My brother and I were children of the 80’s & 90’s. Growing up we ate a lot of potted meat, Vienna sausages, canned tuna and salmon, beanie weenies etc. Our dad had 2 brothers and 2 sisters. They were 60’s kids so that explains a bit.
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One that pops up quite a bit is from “My Patriot Supply”. Anyone have any experience with this one?
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Yep, 50's 60's kid here and our family of 5 ate a whole lot of spam and bunches of weinies. Tough on Dad just back from that Hell hole.
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I’m looking at investing in emergency food products for long term storage for a family of four. Looking for suggestions based on quality and taste. This stuff is expensive so I don’t necessarily want to spend the money on something that tastes like cardboard. Lol
Heres the thing.
Its not going to cost you an arm/leg or 1st born to TRY SOME! Everyones taste is different.
Why not head out and buy a package each or what you can get your hands on locally and just TRY some. Maybe make a fun day and have a FAMILY TESTING DAY on food.
Something to keep in mind in what you decide to buy. If its FREEZE DRIED or not. Will the FREEZE DRIED require WATER? Water maybe SCARCE and so keep that in mind. MREs dont really require WATER. So you can use the WATER TO SURVIVE.
And do some research on what is required for SURVIVAL. Not living high on the hog, but SURVIVAL. that is to stay ALIVE! But this will depend on what your end of the world scenario/apocalypse is. Look at that family in CA that just bit the dust because they didnt have enough WATER on a day hike. Even their dog died. you can google for it if you want. Samething happened to a older French couple that wanted to see white sands...the grandson survives, but they didnt and it didnt take long.
A co worker is doing the freeze drying. He got the setup and is doing alot of testing on various foods. he also watches alot of boobtube vids on various "preppers" and so forth. the Mormans are also doing "prepping" too. So if you have any mormon friends, ask them or pick their brains on what and how they see the end of the world or any emergency.
Freeze drying is energy intensive so expect your bill to get bigger. but it will depend on if you want to go that route. The nice thing about freeze dried food is that its LIGHT. So if you are old/aged/cripple and can only carry so much, you probably wont have an issue carrying/lifting a 5gal pail of freeze dried food.
he also has is own animais... Chickens/Turkeys and others and he freeze dries ALOT of scrambled eggs. he will also be growing some fruits/vegis and so forth to try and freeze dry. Some maybe canned/jared or something like beans can just be left as is.
Fat/grese/butter doesnt freeze dry so good. But he did try to freeze dry some ham. I got some an it was ok. He gave me a package of freeze dried shredded cheese mix to try. i havent opened it up yet.
You can also google for freeze dried x,y and z and see if anyone offers it for sale. Again, i wont cost you an arm or leg to TRY. you can see what it tastes like and go from there. In some grocery stores are selling the freeze dried fruit and such. Most of not all of the fruits are like candy when freeze dried.
And last comment. depending on how you see things, in the end the TASTE may not be such a big deal if you are starving. So just something to consider while you are looking for food to buy. Will the need for taste overcome whats needed to survive?
also, you may want to consider rotating your stock. FIFO - First In, First out. research the shelf life of whatever you get. you dont have to, but if you want, after x many months/years break out something to try. See what you think of what you just bought. Again, you can have a family meal of it.
good luck
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I don’t have the ability to freeze dry foods myself nor the storage space. I understand when push comes to shove you got to get what you can get but we’re not there right now, for now. If there is an option that taste better than another and they’re pretty close on price I’m going to choose the better tasting option that my kiddos will be more willing to eat. It’s not a bad idea to run around and grab samples of different brands. The only problem I run into with that idea is I’ve only seen the Ready Wise brand around the Mid County and surrounding area. I suppose we could make a day trip to Houston but that’s a matter of finding the time.
I definitely need to invest in some type of portable emergency water purification system though.
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How portable does it have to be? And is storage space a problem? You can get pretty much any type of food canned. It's heavier so doesn't move as easily but it's generally cheaper, taste better and doesn't need as much if any extra water. It also has a long shelf life. Just invest in a good can opener or two.
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I also keep a bunch of Chef Boyardee and Dinty Moore Stew cans, along with canned tuna, sardines, chicken and so on in my store room. Canned fruit is another good thing to keep. None of these require additional water (although I have no shortage of that as I have lakeshore on my property), and together with my Mountain House buckets, and some rice and beans, I could probably go two or three months if I had to.
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We keep a decent supply of canned tuna, corned beef, sardines... as well as dried beans, rice, nuts, etc. and various non-perishable snacks that are part of our regular supplies, that we regularly work through as part of our regular cooking and consumption. Also multiple cases of bottled water.
My sons are happy to eat tuna salad and corned beef hash on a fairly regular basis.
Growing up I ate plenty of sardines, potted meat, vienna sausages, etc. when there was nothing else in the house that was ready-to-consume meat like that. Usually with some saltine crackers. Beat the heck out of Pop Tarts. Nowadays I have slightly more sophisticated taste, so I might eat a tin of some Polar brand smoked sprats from Latvia that I can pick up from Walmart for less than 2 bucks a can, along with some Great Value brand generic "ritz" crackers.
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I definitely need to invest in some type of portable emergency water purification system though.
Not sure if you meant portable or potable. If portable then the $120 Playtpus Gravity filter is the best. Lightweight and rolls up easily to store in your backpack. You can filter loads of water without any effort since gravity will push the water from the dirty bag, through the filter and into the clean bag. Pump filters are annoying.
https://www.rei.com/product/866422/platypus-gravityworks-water-filter-system-4-liter (https://www.rei.com/product/866422/platypus-gravityworks-water-filter-system-4-liter)
If you were asking about potable water for your home, then consider building your own with sand and gravel as your filters. There's a million different ways to build it so search youtube for a particular design that best fits your needs. This should get your water 90% clean and be sufficient for most needs.
I'd add solar disinfection (SODIS) for your drinking water. Fill all your water bottles with the filtered water from your sand/gravel contraption. Then lay them flat under the sun for a day or 2 and the sun's UV will kill all the microbes.
Good thing about these methods is they don't require electricity. Only gravity and sun and those will always exist.
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I definitely need to invest in some type of portable emergency water purification system though.
Not sure if you meant portable or potable. If portable then the $120 Playtpus Gravity filter is the best. Lightweight and rolls up easily to store in your backpack. You can filter loads of water without any effort since gravity will push the water from the dirty bag, through the filter and into the clean bag. Pump filters are annoying.
https://www.rei.com/product/866422/platypus-gravityworks-water-filter-system-4-liter (https://www.rei.com/product/866422/platypus-gravityworks-water-filter-system-4-liter)
If you were asking about potable water for your home, then consider building your own with sand and gravel as your filters. There's a million different ways to build it so search youtube for a particular design that best fits your needs. This should get your water 90% clean and be sufficient for most needs.
I'd add solar disinfection (SODIS) for your drinking water. Fill all your water bottles with the filtered water from your sand/gravel contraption. Then lay them flat under the sun for a day or 2 and the sun's UV will kill all the microbes.
Good thing about these methods is they don't require electricity. Only gravity and sun and those will always exist.
I did mean portable. Thanks, I’ll check out those suggestions.
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I like that Platypus design, might have to budget for one.
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One that pops up quite a bit is from “My Patriot Supply”. Anyone have any experience with this one?
My Patriot Supply food isn't bad but...............DO NOT BUY any of their stuff that lists ethoxyquin as a preservative. You can do your own research but it was invented to preserve rubber and is also used to kill weeds. Mountain House is the go to food source, my only complaint about it is the level of salt in it.
As I believe has been suggested try and grasp what the premise is here - SURVIVAL........I'd also like to suggest think in longer terms than weeks. I have also heard WISE is not a great idea. From my view on the fence starting now is a bit late.
Canning isn't hard to do and if children are involved you may have to address the storage issues.
Larry
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One that pops up quite a bit is from “My Patriot Supply”. Anyone have any experience with this one?
My Patriot Supply food isn't bad but...............DO NOT BUY any of their stuff that lists ethoxyquin as a preservative. You can do your own research but it was invented to preserve rubber and is also used to kill weeds. Mountain House is the go to food source, my only complaint about it is the level of salt in it.
As I believe has been suggested try and grasp what the premise is here - SURVIVAL........I'd also like to suggest think in longer terms than weeks. I have also heard WISE is not a great idea. From my view on the fence starting now is a bit late.
Canning isn't hard to do and if children are involved you may have to address the storage issues.
Larry
Thanks for the heads up on the ethoxyquin preservative. I’ll check it out.
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I like mountain house for the shelf life