Food Preparedness

Before diving into my prescription for food preparedness, I have a few caveats. Like 99% of Americans, I do not grow food for a living. I make my living as a contractor/laborer and my life partner is an online teacher. These vocations supply the money we need to be resilient in the information-technology world we live in. While we have time to garden, for fun and for fresh summer produce, we prefer to concentrate on higher value activities like renovating the house or exercising or writing this blog. This approach does not compromise our food preparedness.

We know and trust our neighbors but do not work with them on community gardens or make plans together for food emergencies. They are fairly resilient themselves. City dwellers and suburbanites have different needs and may want to work more cooperatively. The advice I give here is aimed at family-level preparedness tips and strategies. Much of it is applicable to urban and suburban living.

Experts say the critical time frame for surviving the medium-grade disasters we might realistically face is one month to one year. When the dust settles, things will be unpredictable and surely different, and we’ll have to improvise and adapt. We'll deal with that if and when we get to it. I’m most interested in that 1–12 month window, when there will be more important things to worry about than how we are going to eat. In that period, the only gardening I'll be doing is in the greenhouse, where plants will be protected.

The cost of freedom from worrying about food for one year is roughly $2,500. I understand that's not within reach for everyone. But even in a relatively poor county like mine in central Carolina, the median household income is about $66,000 dollars. So it would seem at least two-thirds of the residents here could probably become food-resilient over the course of two years if they made it a priority.

We live on what looks like a homestead, with most of the capabilities of one, but like 99% of Americans, we are not raising animals, canning all our food, making our own tools and clothing, or striving for total self-sufficiency like a settler family. We could grow enough produce in the summers to can and bottle for long-term consumption, but we can earn the money, in a fraction of that gardening and prep time, to buy a greater quantity of organic food—dried, canned, bottled, frozen, or freeze-dried—from somewhere like Costco or online.

We stay in the practice of growing food, and enjoy it during the growing seasons and, for a couple of months afterwards, by storing it in a cool room (garlic and potatoes) and a freezer, but only if we think we’ll use it. We keep seeds on hand and have some of the equipment we’d need to can if we ever decide we have to. We do not own freeze-drying equipment because, as I mentioned, it is more cost- and time-effective to buy long-term storage food than to make it ourselves.

We have about fifty 3‑pound catfish in a pond we feed occasionally and we might get some chickens. Our neighbors have cattle, and there are quite a few deer living on our land and the land around us.

With all that as background, here is my recipe for food preparedness.

A pantry stocked with the dried, canned, and bottled foods you normally eat is a great foundation. Every time you run out of something, it is right there and you don’t have to go to the store to replace it. You can also take advantage of sales and restock accordingly. I recommend keeping three months of basic staples in the pantry. If you rotate through that stock, you will almost never exceed an expiration date—and even if you do, most staples are still usable well past the date. I would recommend Thrive Market online for a lot of those staples.

A large propane freezer (E-Z Freeze up to $3400) stocked with a substantial amount of animal protein, frozen fruit, coffee et al. will complement the long-term food you buy in bulk, and it will taste much better than the freeze-dried stuff. Propane freezers typically burn only a few gallons of propane per week, so you can keep that food for many months. If a neighbor is willing to trade some beef, or if you can harvest a deer, you could actually eat rather well during an extended emergency on a combination of pantry food, freezer food, and what you grow in the greenhouse if you have one.

There are now many companies selling dehydrated foods that last 25 years. They offer buckets with balanced meals to choose from, and you can buy three, six, or twelve month supplies. These options are often a little heavy on starch and dairy. They also sell dried fruits, vegetables and meats like roasted chicken, with both organic and conventional choices available. In most cases, you simply add water and cook briefly. This fare is not going to taste as good as pantry or frozen but in tandem with your preferred foods you can eat well for an extended period. If we’re lucky, we might never need the 25‑year shelf-life food. In that case, we can happily donate it to people in need. Or, if we manage well in an emergency, we can give it to someone else who is struggling.

You can also buy dry goods at places like Costco, including organic rice, beans and other staples. Amaranth is a wonderful proteinaceous grain to buy in bulk online and can be stored for long periods. I put the grains in the freezer for several days to kill off the bug larvae that are often present in the organic grains and then pack it into mylar bags with oxygen depleters. This is an inexpensive way to buy and store large quantities of emergency food. I also keep quantities of salt and seasonings on hand. Canned goods like soups don't last more than a few years so we don't rely on them for long term food preparedness except as stock items in the pantry.

No offense if this is you, but we shake our heads in astonishment at people who rush to stores and buy out the milk and bread in advance of storms. That might work for your garden variety storm, but you don’t want to be competing for food in depleted stores a week or two into a more crippling emergency, or be waiting in lines for gas to drive around getting all sorts of things you don’t already have on hand.

For the food growing side of your food plan, please see my gardening blog.