Are you prepared - food?

bcabrobin

In the storm where we were out of electric for 7 days, a friend was without for 28 days - over Christmas. She keep her freezer full of food frozen by wrapping it in wool blankets and sleeping bags. She opened it only to get meat for cooking once a week. Only lost bread that was at the top, everything else stayed frozen. We keep the frig cool by placing buckets of snow/ice on each shelf. Only opening to grab what you needed. In/out fast. Try to use up any food like lunch meat, leftovers for the first meals without power. You DO NOT want to try to keep stuff for long. DO NOT use mayo, creamy salid dressings etc. unless you are sure they have stayed cold enough. Stuff in the frig - freezer will not keep long, use up quickly. The buckets keep it cool but not cold enough, you do not want your family getting food poision on top of no power. And, the rule of when in doubt, throw it out definitely applies here. So try to cook enough to feed everyone but not have a big pots of leftovers.

Gather disposable plates, plasticware, cups, aluminum foil pans and a cooler to make meal cleanup easier. You need to think about what food you can cook quickly or not at all.

• Soups, canned beans or canned meat
• Graham crackers with peanut butter or almond butter.
• Protein shakes – my favorite is Reserveage Organics (in chocolate, of course!)
• Saltines with peanut butter.
• Fresh or dried fruit (apples, oranges, bananas) Canned or packed cups of fruit
• Canned, bottled juices, V-8, Sports drinks.
• Trail mix (this is our favorite), granuls bars or nuts
• Dry cereal.
• Cereal with rehydrated dry milk or shelf milk

Do not forget to have a manuel can opener.

Do you have a cook stove, camp stove, woodburner? DO NOT USE grill or cook stoves inside the house.

smockv

@bcabrobin We have one small room in our basement set aside to hold all of our camping/emergency gear and supplies. I have also found some products available online that are simply amazing! Butter... canned butter!!! I will have to find the URL, but I think Amazon carries these products as well. Bega Australian/ NZ cheese company has commercially canned cheddar cheese that basically has an indefinite shelf life! Back to the butter, we found commercially canned butter that has a 5-15 year shelf life depending on the storage conditions (store in cool dry place).

I also immediately transfer all dry beans and rice that are packaged in plastic bags to glass jars. Stored properly (not in plastic bags), these also have an indefinite shelf life. We keep emergency water filtration in-order to mitigate infection. I also buy spices in bulk when they are on sale (usually it's the plastic containers in the large wire bins for $.98 at Wallyworld), pack 2-3 bottles in a small glass canning jar, and dry can in the oven. These will be little jars of paradise when the need arises, whether it is a natural disaster or a SHTF situation. I also make sure that nothing is put away with the batteries inside. It is the absolute worst to be without power, and then find that the batteries exploded inside the lantern...

I keep (stored separate) oil lanterns and oil for longer term situations. Does anyone else have any ideas or suggestions?

one.ette

The Health Ranger store has organic buckets of prepper food...

Hassena

Great suggestions on keeping food cold longer.

We have a biolite rocket stove. It must be used outside. The big plus to it, once it gets going an internal battery is charged that can charge a phone. Heat, charges the battery, once the battery has enough charge one can plug in the light shown, or a portable battery charger to use later for charging a phone. We love it. We use it mostly in the spring-fall months. It would help immensely during a winter power outage.

This is probably their earliest model, got it from a kickstarter. The newer ones are likely even more efficient.