Recommendations for decent and available buckets of meals for disaster or politically caused food shortage?
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Recommendations for decent and available buckets of meals for disaster or politically caused food shortage?
Pretty much anything in a can. I go with La Preferida brand tamales, single serving cans of corned beef hash, and Progresso soups.
Hormel also sells prepared meals in trays (prepared foods section in the store), and if you check the international section in your grocery store, there’s all kinds of stuff in pouches. I’ve found that the stuff in trays and pouches is palatable cold, though a lot of the pouches go better warm, with rice.
Snack bars are good to have. I like Kind and Larabar brand ones. They usually have a good balance of fruit and nuts. You can stuff them in the bucket around the larger items.
Make sure you put some fruits and veggies in the bucket, also. I usually go with the single serving cups of green beans or peas and carrots, and pineapples or oranges.
Other things worth throwing in your nutrition sustainment modules: a metal dish, fork, spoon. Salt. Small bottle of multivitamins.
Have stuff on hand for your dog.
For a handwashing station, I use a 6 gal brewing bucket that has a tap. Duct tape the soap dispenser to it.
Have 2 or 3 times as much water as you think you’ll need. I save clear orange juice containers, clean them, and fill them with water, then store away from light.
If you put ramen or rice in your buckets, make sure you include a camp stove and fuel.
For long term storage emergency food I put up various dried foods (beans, rice, pasta) in mylar bags. You can get 50 quart size bags with oxygen absorbers for around $25-$30. Fill them up (1.5 pounds each is the average I found), throw in the O2 absorber, squeeze out the air and put the end on a 2x4 and seal with an iron. Simple to do and fairly inexpensive as you can buy all kinds of beans, rice and pasta in bulk. Sealing vitamins in the bags is a good idea, too. They are supposed to keep up to 25 years.
You need to define "later" and you need to consider storage conditions. First off stay away from Wise food buckets. Quality freeze dried stored properly is likely good forever, it is only rated for 30 years because they have only been making it since the late 60's. About 2 years ago I ate some Mountain House I purchased in mid 80's, no problems. Storage temperature for freeze dried does not appear to be that critical. Canned food will do better in a temp controlled environment, best to protect from high temp or freezing but should be good for years past best by dates. On old cans you confirm no leaks, no swelling, listen for hiss on opening and smells ok then likely good to eat. Old cans that pass may not taste as good as fresher but likely will not make you sick and will provide nutrition but maybe not the full amount. There are lots of videos on Youtube with people eating years out of date military rations and canned goods.
Tip on freeze dried food pouches, I like the Mountain House military and Peal Refuel, you want meals with high protein.
Some of the newer brands of freeze dried stuff list shed life as just a few years. I don't know if that is due to being new(as you mentioned Mountain House shelf life keeps increasing as they test old stock) or if it is related to something like dairy in the meal because Mountain House ice cream still has a short shelf life that I have seen first hand.Quote:
Originally Posted by mack7.62