Wise Food suit

Most of my freeze dried food is Mountain House. I can do a better job of supplementing my food stash at Dollar Tree!

 

I can recommend Honeyville freeze dried foods. I have a lot of their FD meats that I put away after doing a Federal exercise on avian flu. 5 days is all it takes for the supply chain to break down in a pandemic.

.If you wait for their sales, you can get #10 cans a bit cheaper than Mountain House, but good quality. We try out our various FD supplies to ensure their quality, and to make sure we can actually make recipes with them. Have tried their various meats, corn, and green beans. My daughter who "only eats fresh" green beans couldn't tell the difference between fresh and re-hydrated ones.

I've used Mountain House while canoeing and camping when fishing was poor. Always good. As mentioned, their biscuits and gravy are good.

Like some of you, we keep a healthy stock of pasta, freeze dried (instant) potatoes, and other pantry items we mix into the food rotation to ensure we've got an adequate supply, plus two full freezers (and methods to keep the power on).

This year's acquisition plan is to buy a home freeze dryer (they offer lay away) and make my own meals.

 

Carbs and fats are cheap and easy to store... now. Grid down they'll be the toughest to replace.

[Most carbs are calorie intensive (aka a LOT of work to harvest), low yield, very fibrous and often barely palatable to forage in the wild. Then there's the long growing time until maturity for domestics. In other words, are you certain your fields will be safe for 120, 155, etc continuous days? That you'll still be in that location?]

As for greens, I've foraged creeping charlie, stinging nettle, prickly pear cacti, pine needles, tree buds and barks, cattails, etc, etc throughout the year in the upper MidWest. (Lat: 42-45°) (Yes, all year long. Even in January under feet of snow.)

Amongst many other very useful plants, common milkweed has half a dozen edible parts from March into September. I have eaten all of them raw or cooked for many decades. [Young stalks, young leaves, (really any meristem portion), flower buds, flowers, young pods, silk. Everything tastes like green beans, except the flowers are strongly musky, and the silk is slightly sweet and juicy with little other flavor.]

[Plus milkweed has four for fire: stalk fibers for Rudiger fire roll ignition, charred OR *uncharred* ovum and fluff for Percussion fire ignition (aka Flint & Steel) and whole stalks for kindling. All of these from August until May.] [Oh, and stalk fibers for cordage from May until December.]

Thus fresh greens can be available all year long for those in the know. As can insects, as well as the usual critters with feathers, fins or fur.

Good thoughts and information in this thread. Thanks for sharing.

 

@DuxDawg what fats are you storeing? not all fat stores well so im curious about what you are storing since you mentioned it

 

It's funny you ask about fat, because I was just worrying about fat storage yesterday. I was thinking along the lines of fat for soap making and skincare products. The coconut oil I buy has roughly a two year shelf life, but I have had oils go rancid long before the use by date. We are growing sunflowers as a source of oil, but I would like a way to store an alternative longer.

 

freeze it

 

lol no electricity means no freezer... gotta think ahead

 

But the clock will don't start till the power goes out

 

Awareness of the issue doesn't always bring solutions. Lack of solutions doesn't dismiss the issue. But here goes...

Canned freeze dried or dehydrated would be best for long term storage. Even without the above, rendered pig lard or olive oil last for years. From what I've seen and heard, most of the plant oils only last a few years. I've seen mold in food grade mineral, canola, corn, blended vegetable, etc oils 18 months after the "best by" date some times, yet no mold at 30 months past other times. Wonder if canning might improve that, as I suspect contamination more than the oils natural properties.

Just like with blocks of hard cheeses, we can scrape the mold off the top of the solid lards, then use the rest if it hasn't turned. Suspect re-rendering liquid oils would halt their spoiling... for a time. Main thing with fats is driving off the water.

Put simply, bacteria and fungi need the proper environment to grow. Such as food, water, a specific temperature and ph (acidity/alkalinity) range, aerobic or anaerobic environment, etc. Fat is food, no getting around that. Controlling the other factors is our battle.

Anyone else have any hard knowledge on long term storage of fats?