How to stockpile food for survival

By starting a garden to grow your own food you will lower your food bill and your dependence on our just-in-time food delivery systems. In the event of a disaster or other crisis food deliveries could be interrupted. And if power is interrupted the stores may be closed. Having your own food source and by stockpiling your survival foods you will have one of the three main survival essentials to help you through the crisis. Having a garden will give you additional benefits besides being fun to do, you can grow some of your favorite foods to enjoy and preserve for future use.

Because most seeds today are hybrid you will want to choose the non-hybrid or heirloom variety. The hybrid seeds commonly found today will only reproduce active seeds once or twice. Also the hybrid variety of seeds have been genetically altered to reduce diseases and produce larger yields with the results of lower nutritional values. The non-hybrid seeds will produce smaller yields but with higher nutritional value and the seeds from these yields can be used year after year.

There are two basic types of canning with the most prevalent being water boiling and the other is using pressure caners. The boiling water technique which is most commonly used works by placing jars with foods from your garden, or even purchased, with water into a pot of boiling water at 212°. This process will remove oxygen, destroying enzymes, prevent the growth of undesirable bacteria and form a vacuum in jars. The boiling water bath method can only be used on high acid foods such as tomatoes and most fruits.the exception being that some vegetables which are low acid can be preserved using the water bath method to pickle vegetables such as cucumbers, beans and beets. Using vinegar for pickling introduces acid from the vinegar into the produce making it safe for preserving using the water bath method.

For other low acid vegetables such as non-pickled beans or cucumbers, corn, carrots, peas the pressure method must be used to bring the produce to a higher temperature of 240°. This method is more complex and requires more equipment making it slightly more expensive process.

There are many resources on the web with instructions and recipes available to guide you through the process of canning your favorite foods. There are also many kits available for both types of caning. These methods are an excellent and cost efficient way to increase your survival food storage.

Find a place in your home that does not get a lot of light and is dry to store canned goods and other foods such as flour, salt, powdered milk, pasta and other non-perishables. Make sure that you add cooking oil, shortening, baking powder, baking soda, yeast and powdered eggs. Begin looking at what your family consumes weekly to identify what foods to purchase for storage. Or another method is to simply start by purchasing an extra can or two of the items you normally purchase during your weekly shopping trip and adding these to storage. Be prepared to start rotating your food supplies to ensure that the shelf life remains good. The FIFO Rack in the picture above will make rotating survival food easy and is available through the blue link.

Do not forget to add some comfort foods such as candy, Jell-O, pudding and other sweets to your storage. Try to start collecting in small quantities to get at least a weeks worth of food for your family and then just build upon that. I would suggest that you collect many different varieties of foods in the beginning to ensure that your family doesn't get sick of having to eat the case of spaghetti and meatballs that you bought at the wholesaler for a discount. By buying in smaller quantities you can ensure a greater variety of foods as well as making it easier to rotate and use the foods in your storage.

Make sure that the containers you use are food grade and airtight. Do not store dry goods such as grains, flour or legumes in the sacks or bags that they were purchased in unless it came in an airtight plastic bag. By placing these items in airtight containers you will reduce the risk of spoilage from moisture, insects and increase the shelf life.