Best foods to stock up on?

[AZ Rabbits]

I do grow my own garden, but I have never thought of canning anything. I guess I need to find some info on it and give it a try. We have been trying to do the "homemade" thing with what we can so we aren't so dependent on store bought items that are packed with who knows what.

If you garden, you should really practice canning. Also look into dehydrating. It doesn't last as long, but still lasts longer than not.

Meat is another great thing to bottle. It is extremely tender and lasts a long time. Rabbit and chicken are great!

Besides that, we get a few months supply of stuff we eat every day. Then we have long-term supplies of things like rice, wheat, flour, beans, legumes, popcorn, sugar, salt, oil, etc. The bulky stuff we store in 5 gallon buckets. Stuff like powdered milk we usually store in 2.5 gallon buckets. Much of it will last 30+ years stored properly. The key is to learn how to store, what to store, then how to cook it.

Use what you store. If you don't, you won't know what things don't sit well with your system. For instance, if you don't eat a lot of wheat and then all of a sudden eat a bunch, you'll have some fun stomach issues to deal with for a bit...

 

[ORChick]

I do grow my own garden, but I have never thought of canning anything. I guess I need to find some info on it and give it a try. We have been trying to do the "homemade" thing with what we can so we aren't so dependent on store bought items that are packed with who knows what.

If you garden, you should really practice canning. Also look into dehydrating. It doesn't last as long, but still lasts longer than not.

Meat is another great thing to bottle. It is extremely tender and lasts a long time. Rabbit and chicken are great!

Besides that, we get a few months supply of stuff we eat every day. Then we have long-term supplies of things like rice, wheat, flour, beans, legumes, popcorn, sugar, salt, oil, etc. The bulky stuff we store in 5 gallon buckets. Stuff like powdered milk we usually store in 2.5 gallon buckets. Much of it will last 30+ years stored properly. The key is to learn how to store, what to store, then how to cook it.

Use what you store. If you don't, you won't know what things don't sit well with your system. For instance, if you don't eat a lot of wheat and then all of a sudden eat a bunch, you'll have some fun stomach issues to deal with for a bit...

Properly dried, and properly stored (cool, dark, dry), dehydrated food will last for quite awhile.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

I do grow my own garden, but I have never thought of canning anything. I guess I need to find some info on it and give it a try. We have been trying to do the "homemade" thing with what we can so we aren't so dependent on store bought items that are packed with who knows what.

If you garden, you should really practice canning. Also look into dehydrating. It doesn't last as long, but still lasts longer than not.

<snip>

Properly dried, and properly stored (cool, dark, dry), dehydrated food will last for quite awhile.

X2

I recently opened some dried tomatoes and banana chips I did when I bought my first dehydrator... 15 years ago. Still tasty. I dehydrate almost everything because it takes a lot less storage space. Of course, you need to rehydrate or drink water when eating dried (to avoid constipation!) but we have a well.

 

[Rebbetzin]

We keep our pantry stocked with all the things we normally eat, then just rotate the things out as we use them and buy more.

I try to keep three to six months of food in the pantry, just in case of any emergencies. Water is another thing that might be good to have on hand.

 

[moolie]

We keep our pantry stocked with all the things we normally eat, then just rotate the things out as we use them and buy more.

I try to keep three to six months of food in the pantry, just in case of any emergencies. Water is another thing that might be good to have on hand.

Ditto, we have about 6 months worth of most store-bought things, a year's worth of home-canned items. We have about a month's worth of water for 4 people stored at this point and continue to stock up. We have also made emergency preparations should we need to leave our home in case of disaster (wild fire, flood) and are mostly prepared in case of being stuck at home with no power or gas (cooking and heating).

A great site to check out for all of this is foodstoragemadeeasy.net It's a very "cute" site, but well organized and puts things into small steps that are easy to take one by one.

 

[AZ Rabbits]

If you garden, you should really practice canning. Also look into dehydrating. It doesn't last as long, but still lasts longer than not.

<snip>

Properly dried, and properly stored (cool, dark, dry), dehydrated food will last for quite awhile.

X2

I recently opened some dried tomatoes and banana chips I did when I bought my first dehydrator... 15 years ago. Still tasty. I dehydrate almost everything because it takes a lot less storage space. Of course, you need to rehydrate or drink water when eating dried (to avoid constipation!) but we have a well.

That's awesome! I love excuses to get new things like dehydrators!

 

[Doozerdoo1]

We keep our pantry stocked with all the things we normally eat, then just rotate the things out as we use them and buy more.

I try to keep three to six months of food in the pantry, just in case of any emergencies. Water is another thing that might be good to have on hand.

Ditto, we have about 6 months worth of most store-bought things, a year's worth of home-canned items. We have about a month's worth of water for 4 people stored at this point and continue to stock up. We have also made emergency preparations should we need to leave our home in case of disaster (wild fire, flood) and are mostly prepared in case of being stuck at home with no power or gas (cooking and heating).

A great site to check out for all of this is foodstoragemadeeasy.net It's a very "cute" site, but well organized and puts things into small steps that are easy to take one by one.

Same here, we also have a years worth of dehydrated and freeze dried foods from emergency essentials I rotate. And a years worth of milk and canned milk. Rotate it and use it. Bags ready to go by the door to! Every different cooking tool, gas, propane, and alcohol not to mention charcoal and the fuels to use them.

 

[FarmerChick]

I stock what I eat. Don't stock what you don't like

we put up green beans, field peas, tomatoes etc. we have alot of that type of thing in the pantry....but I do stock alot of soups. those are the perfect food in a can for us because we like soup and easy to cook if no power etc. I make homemade soups and freeze but I never cannned soups. should look into that. but with alot of my stuff in the pantry we put up from the garden we could make soup

another item I have is jellies. our friends make tons of jams and jellies and I end up with alot of them so we have a sweet treat in the pantry as well.

I am never too worried about meats. Hubby is a hunter and we own land so truly if needed I can hunt when meat is required, so I kinda don't worry about that as much.

 

[Doozerdoo1]

We buy dehydrated meats, and all veggies dehydrated. Since I live in a very cold climate most of the year it's not readable to grow much, what I do I freeze or dehydrate but much has to be purchased . No savings if I buy it and dehydrate my self. So I buy it dehydrated already. We have enough fruits veggies and meats for a year for family of 2, worrying on a year for 4 now. But have enough canned foods for 4 people for a year also. I can make just about anything with my soup bases and all the dehydrated stuff.

 

[johnElarue]

Recently I was rotating out some old stock and ate some 2006 and 2008 expiration sardines and mackeral, no problem , yum.