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Investment-Grade Food?

to the Op's question: pretty much evenly distributed between: canned chicken, canned ham, lentils, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes and the paper carton type of packaged tomatoes, oatmeal, almond milk, tea, honey, and about 90 cans of soup. As of this writing....6 boxes of cookies.

oh yeah, about a dozen big cans of Mountain House food
 
Buck F said:
Meh, I can survive on what I normally have in my pantry & freezer for a couple of months. I also have several weeks supply of mountain house, a bucket gravity water filtration system (5 gal/day capacity), generator, enough propane for months in the warm seasons, probably 1-2mos during the worst of heating season. My goal is to last a couple/few mos in a SHTF scenario. Beyond that, if we need to rebuild society from the seed vault, I’m tapping out.
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You just might accomplish your goal.....if you can defend what you have.[thumbsup]
 
MaxStravinsky said:
to the Op's question: pretty much evenly distributed between: canned chicken, canned ham, lentils, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes and the paper carton type of packaged tomatoes, oatmeal, almond milk, tea, honey, and about 90 cans of soup. As of this writing....6 boxes of cookies.

oh yeah, about a dozen big cans of Mountain House food
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Cookies don’t last long enough in my line of sight for long term storage.
 
vicorjh said:
Which one is it?

There's a used large pharma version on Ebay for 3K located in IL if you're willing to pay for LTL.
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The Harvest Right. Large Pharma is the one that is what I was looking at. The "Home" user ones have like 4 little trays and the vids I've watched looks like it is for small runs.

I like the idea of it but won't buy. I'll spend the money on commercially FD'd food products. I'm a single guy and my stores are abundant... for me.
 
enbloc said:
The Harvest Right. Large Pharma is the one that is what I was looking at. The "Home" user ones have like 4 little trays and the vids I've watched looks like it is for small runs.

I like the idea of it but won't buy. I'll spend the money on commercially FD'd food products. I'm a single guy and my stores are abundant... for me.
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That last part is a great point on its own. When I give a preparedness class, it starts with “I’m teaching you this so you don’t end up dead on my front lawn.”
There’s only so many seats in the lifeboat.
I truly hate hearing “I’ll just come over to your house when the balloon goes up.” I immediately disabuse them of that notion.
 
Another thing I was thinking is about how FUBAR'd a lot of people were at the start of the Covid shitshow. Even with that many did not learn their lesson and when things came back in stock
they became lackadaisical once more. This time it will make that look like a weekend picnic by the brook...

1644802306601.png
 
TG Pioneer said:
That last part is a great point on its own. When I give a preparedness class, it starts with “I’m teaching you this so you don’t end up dead on my front lawn.”
There’s only so many seats in the lifeboat.
I truly hate hearing “I’ll just come over to your house when the balloon goes up.” I immediately disabuse them of that notion.
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All are welcome. If they bring something to the table that we want. I'm not talking gold.
I'm talking skills. Doctor? Nurse? That kind of skill level.
 
240Geezer said:
All are welcome. If they bring something to the table that we want. I'm not talking gold.
I'm talking skills. Doctor? Nurse? That kind of skill level.
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That’s different. I’m talking about the people who have have been given the facts and willfully ignored them. It’s Aesop’s Ant and the Grasshopper.
 
MaxStravinsky said:
I just checked out the website for the hours, and it's showing a Bishops Warehouse in Belmont. I thought the only one around here was in Worcester??
It says Wed, Fri annd Sat, but to call first to confirm because of covid.
I'm thinking of planning a roadtrip in the very near future. Anyone been there?
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I was at the Worcester location years ago. At the time they only took a check and cash. I didn't use any of the canning equipment they had and just bought the bulk bagged stuff. They also had a bunch of stuff that wasn't on the LDS website. Great people, didn't talk religion, preparedness is a big part of the Mormon culture and they just want to expand that to as many people as they can.

ETA: I was a regular buyer of their web food storage up until a year ago when supplies got tight, prices tripled, and delivery dates were just guesses. That avenue is great as well.
 
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enbloc said:
What's yours? Canned meats? Wheat Berries? Mylar-packed rice and pasta?
What is your biggest store and how do you store it?

For me:
Dehydrated milk, eggs, canned meats and a vegetable garden.
Would like a live protein source like chix, or rabbits.
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For rabbits, New Zealand whites grow quickly and taste good. Buffs are hearty birds that are also good layers for a few years.
 
@enbloc , with the disclosure that I don’t keep livestock beyond two flatulent Rottweilers, my friend in Idaho keeps ducks instead of chickens. Some breeds are prolific layers, they’re all cleaner than chickens, and they don’t get eggbound.
 
Yeah, I was watching some duck videos on youtube and they look like a great alternative. Living in the Lowell Area limits me greatly though. I might be able to pull off a hen or two and a small rabbit hutch but that is max for now...
 
enbloc said:
If I had the spare cash, I'd pick up a freeze-dryer...

View attachment 576717
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I've been thinking of some more firearms purchases the last few months(just for shits and giggles) but have reconsidered and I'm thinking of a FD. I've been on and off wrt purchasing one but at the moment it makes more sense to pick up a FD and an oil free pump than more guns(I know, borderline heresy). It's just I'd rather store more lightweight options and also not have to rely on available freezer space(which there isn't any of) when things go on sale.

I'd do fine with the "housewife" version. [laugh]
 
Absolutely. Guns & Ammo are important... but not as important as food & water. Your choice is sound...
 
TG Pioneer said:
That last part is a great point on its own. When I give a preparedness class, it starts with “I’m teaching you this so you don’t end up dead on my front lawn.”
There’s only so many seats in the lifeboat.
I truly hate hearing “I’ll just come over to your house when the balloon goes up.” I immediately disabuse them of that notion.
Click to expand...
Those are the first people who's new permanent residence will be out in the woods composting.
 
Uzi2 said:
Those are the first people who's new permanent residence will be out in the woods composting.
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I'm a pasta snob, 9 out of 10 times I only buy Barilla

Long story short, a guy I worked with saw me at the supermarket when there happened to be a 10 for $10 sale so I bought a case. A few days later he tells me if TEOTWAWKI(Obama years) he's showing up on my front steps because I'm a "prepper". [rolleyes]

I told him "no, I just buy extra when times are good and I have space for it as I always have and you should do the same". He said why, you have plenty. My response was I'm only responsible for me and mine, not his. Then he went on about how could I let his kids starve while I was flush with "supplies". I told him he and his weren't my responsibility and that if he did show up his kids would be watching their dad pick up his teeth after he got blasted in the yap with a BB bat*.

He hardly ever spoke to me afterwards, goal achieved.


*He's a pants shitter so I never mentioned firearms around him, I haven't owned a BB bat since I was an early teen.
 
I did a fairly in-depth meta analysis of what I consider the most likely SHTF scenarios that would result in major supply chain disruptions. This does not include: massive nuclear exchange, asteroid impact, mega-volcano etc. as unless you have several years of food and a ton of other infrastructure I don't think those are survivable (I'm talking a bunker with blast valves, long-term off-grid power and heat, etc.). The magic number seemed to be about 3 months for the acute phase; some were longer or shorter, a pandemic surge (strangely, ALL of them; I looked at 1918 flu, the recent ebloa outbreaks and of course COVID) or hyperinflation/economic collapse, or other supply chain hiccups ended up being about that long ON AVERAGE. So, I shoot for 3 months of what we normally eat: pasta, rice, instant taters, oatmeal, beans, soup, canned fruit and veg, peanut butter, cooking oil, canned tuna/chicken/hash etc., stuff that you can buy in a grocery store and already use on a regular basis. I also have a good stockpile of frozen meat and some comfort food like pot stickers, some frozen meals etc. just to break up the monotony. I also keep a bunch of hot sauce, salad dressing etc. to make both the short-term and long-term food taste better. I have this stock done, and then some.

I found that I did not want to break into the freeze dried stuff when COVID started, as I didn't know when I could resupply. So I ended up going to the grocery store and possibly exposing myself to COVID when we knew next to nothing about how bad it was or how it was transmitted, even though I had an "emergency stash." I don't mind drawing down the 3 months of "normal" stuff, since my analysis indicates that in 3 months supply chains will have recovered and most stuff will be re-stocked.

I supplement this short term supply with 25 year shelf-life stuff, mainly canned beans, rice and oatmeal, but I do have ~20 cans of assorted milk, MH stuff, eggs, freeze dried meat, and some freeze dried veg and fruit. We just moved here a few months ago, so this is woefully inadequate. I would LOVE to have another 9 months (OK, let's be honest, I would love to have 5+ years) of long-term food, but given that we are probably moving back to the free states in the next year or two I don't know that this will happen while we're here. I DO think we are covered for the majority of likely scenarios (famous last words).
 
240Geezer said:
IDK. Investment grade to me means real money into it. Serious money.
And to me that would be freeze dried or livestock. Either of those are beyond practical means for us without cutting something significant out of our budget or lifestyle.
My current program is simply extra dry or canned goods rotated. A chest freezer with mostly meat and poultry. Some home canned things like tomatoes or salsa.
We garden too but that hasn't really proven cost effective.
Some things that would be needed for self sufficient food production.
A decent chunk of land with a favorable location and access to water.
A tractor.
Barn or large shed.
Henhouse/ chicken coup.
Pens for goats or pigs
Pasture for grazing animals.
Dehydrator
Decent canner
Outside area for processing / canning
Freeze dryer

So that is simply not in the cards for us.
I've known several families that have done the hobby farm thing and all of them scaled back or gave it up for other endeavors.
Momma opened a bakery or Daddy got a different job that wasn't a good fit.

I would encourage everyone to do whatever they can and at least try to produce some of what they eat. Barring that put back something more than a frozen pizza and an extra Sixpack.
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The problem I have with a freezer of any type, when Ida hit, the power was out for 3 weeks. This was a local event and it still took 3 weeks, 90% of the country was just fine, 99% of the world didn't even know it happened. If something 'major' happened like a Carrington Event or other major grid down situation, you need to plan for not having electricity. Even if you have a generator, unless it's NG fed and hope the pipelines don't go down, things will go south quickly.

I wish I had the land to have livestock. Unfortunately, I need access to schools. I need access to other kids so my kids are properly socialized and don't grow up unable to deal with people.
 

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