Long Term Food Storage

Blessings Darlings!

A few months back I wrote a post that was kind of  'intro to Fern's approach to long term food storage'.  Here's the link. As I said, it's an intro - my approach to long-term food storage is calorie based, that is, first I stored the minimum basic calories we'd need, and from there I round it out.

How I round it out is what this post is about.

Again, first I made sure we had a pound of grain per person per day for one year (plus a bit extra for sprouting) rounding THAT up to 400 pounds of grain per person per year.  But corn/wheat/rice aren't complete proteins, so relying on those ONLY would cause severe malnutrition.  That's what causes the distended bellies in the pictures of starving children.  And, obviously, they don't have all the other macro and micro nutrients that a person needs in their diet. 

So from that based I added things.  First, olive oil, to cover essential fatty acids.  Metal cans, stored in the cool basement.  It's also nice to fry some food with, adds lots of flavor.  Second, a basic supply of a daily vitamin/mineral supplement.  Third, covering the proteins.

Actually, I rotate the purchases of all of those.   Yes, I buy them in that order, but I don't get ALL of the first before moving on to buying the second or third item. 

I have a varied approach to the proteins.  As I noted in many other blog posts, I grab fresh meat when it's on sale and usually have a lot in my freezer. That, used sparingly, would kick up the protein in the diet very well, and the fats in it as well as the protein add to the calorie count.  After that, I have canned meats, and some freeze-dried meals that have reasonable protein levels.  But I don't count on them for the TRULY long-term. For that I have stored dried beans/peas and canned dry milk.  About 140 pounds, for the 3 of us, for a 6 month period. 

If you look at my approach, it's like a set of concentric circles - like a bull's eye pattern.  First circle is basic calories. Second circle are macro & micro nutrients, which I've just outlined.  After that there are other circles, like #3 - 'things that help me cook' with tea/coffee, sweeteners, herbs/spices, dried fruits, etc.  And #4 - bulk to fill plates/stomachs like dried veggies, etc. 

Clearly, no one in my household has either celiac disease or are diabetics.  My circles are what works for THIS family.  Your family may have different things in each circle. 

I've read of some people whose approach is to have oil, vitamins, and protein supplements as their first circle, saying that will prevent starvation, then go to all grains/fruits/vegetables in outer circles.  It's not my approach, but they looked at THEIR needs and made their best decisions.

So, that's how we do it at Chez Fern.

Frondly, Fern