Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Can Food Storage and The New Prepper, Part 2 of 2

Part 1 of 2 https://livingprepared.blogspot.com/2019/07/bucket-food-storage-and-new-prepper.html shows the typical basic dry bulk foods that most everyone has or should have in storage. It is these basic dry foods that partner very well with supermarket can foods. The dry bucket foods are added to the can foods to double and sometimes triple the serving size of one can.

#10 Cans and Camping Pouched Meals:
Another area, where the New Prepper becomes confused, is the stocking of #10 Cans and Camping Pouched Meals. Because you are stocking can goods of vegetables and meats you don’t need to stock #10 cans of the same foods. Yes, they are good for 20-25 years but that is a timeframe I don’t prescribe too. A two to three (2-3) years is more realistic in today’s environment. This is plenty of time to wait out a changing government like the Venezuelan’s are doing, where the people could use two or three years of supplemental meals. During a disaster, you can make smart decisions to wait out the disaster or relocate to a better country or remote area of your country to become self-reliant.

Stored Food Rotation:
With dry bulk foods there is no problem to keep them in stock for 20-25 years. Can goods however on average have a 2 year ‘best by date’. I regularly exceed that by another year or two. Also, I prepare meals at least every weekend using our stored can and dry bulk foods. Doing this is like an automatic ‘rotation’ so very little food will pass their expiration plus we get practice experimenting with new recipes using stored foods.

Recommended #10 cans of food:
#10 Cans do have a place with food storage such as Cheese Powder, Tomato Powder, Butter Powder, and Egg Powder. I use these four foods and they are surprisingly great tasting.
          Cheese Powder; for Mac & Cheese or any dish you would use cheese in.
Tomato Powder; all tomato sauces, spaghetti, pizza, juice, Sloppy Joe’s.
Butter Powder; any dish where you need butter, even a grilled cheese sandwich.
          Egg Powder; Scrambled eggs or any dish that needs eggs.

Pouched Entrees’ such as Mountain House etc:
These are good for your 72-hour bug out bag but that’s all. The down-side is the cost. They are terribly expensive to stock in your long term foods and they limit the serving size. It is common that users of a pouched meal that indicates two servings, they say the serving size is too small which leads to opening a second pouch to complete the meal.

Which can foods to stock:
First I suggest you review the Wal-Mart links below, they will lead you to hundreds of choices many entrée’s you never see in stores before to pick from. Buy and stock what you’re familiar with and use, including something that sounds good that you intend to test before buying in quantity.

How to prepare the can foods:
  1. If feeding one person, then one can per day (30 days, 30 cans) is a good place to start. On average figure 1 can per person per day.
  2. Let’s say you want a can of Campbell’s Chunky Soup which by itself equals 2 cups total.
  3. Then you want to bulk it up with rice (or beans or pasta). From your bucket stock, you measure out one cup of rice (or beans or pasta) and then cook it.
  4. The rice (or beans or pasta) will after cooking, double in volume to two cups.
  5. Now add to the cooked rice the can of Campbell’s Chunky soup and heat.
  6. You now have a total of four (4) cups ready to eat!
  7. Serve yourself a single serving of two (2) cups and refrigerate the remaining two cups for your dinner.

How many cans of food to stock??
  1. Within your initial three buckets of dry bulk rice, beans and pasta is a total of 240, cups uncooked (80 cups per bucket).
  2. You need a one cup portion of dry for each can you have in stock”.
  3. Each bucket contains 80 cups dry food and can support 80 cans of food.
  4. Within your three buckets of rice, beans, and pasta you have 240 days of eating lunch and dinner providing you have 240 cans of supermarket food in stock to combine the bucket food into.
  5. For breakfast, you’ll probably eat oatmeal or pancakes and not can food.

Summary:
    • This is not “5-Star dining but hard core survival eating”. But it can be prepared with camping gear, campfire, rocket stove or RV.

    • One can of supermarket food plus your bucket food per day per person is all you need to stay alive.

    • Start you stock with 30 cans per person and increase it monthly until your comfortable that you have enough to last through your typical area disasters.

    • Yes you can use more or less of your bucket food to suit your eating needs.

    • The cost for the can food is about $60.00 per month.

    • The cost for the initial buckets is $205.00

    • Total cost for your first 30 days and buckets are $265.00
 Wal-Mart!
My favorite, but not exclusive source to buy all my Prepper foods both dry and can, is Wal-Mart, via the internet. Why Wal-Mart? Because of the vast selection of dry and can goods to choose from and you can order all of it online and it will be shipped to your favorite Wal-Mart store location for free! Plus the sell all of the Augason Farms dry bulk foods in buckets and #10 cans.

However, shop your local supermarkets for sales. Our store has regular “Buy One Get One Free” sales and you can’t beat that at Wal-Mart.

Note on Can Prices:
When checking the can prices online sometimes their web site shows what appears to be a price range such as $4.00 - $8.00. However $4.00 is for two cans and the $8.00 would be for four cans. You have to click on what you are viewing to get the correct pricing.


Wal-Mart links I Use:

Auguston Farms #10 cans and buckets:


Can Soups:

Can Soups and Meals:


Note:
1. Be sure you have an unlimited source of drinking water. All your drinking, meal preps and baking require water. Two gallons a day would be reasonable.
2. Not mentioned are your preferred spices you already have in stock including salt, sugar, yeast, chili pepper, oregano and others that suit your taste. Add to them as you grow your stocked foods.  

7 comments:

  1. Mike - i just read your last post and this one.

    You, sir, are a true, inspirational leader. A true leader is someone who has vast experience and is able to break that down into simple steps for a variety of others to learn from. An inspirational leader is one who presents their knowledge in such a way that it makes others think - "hey, i want to learn more about that and start putting that great information to work".

    if you don't believe me, ask any of your long-time readers. And if you still don't believe me - go back and read 1st Man's comment to your previous post.

    sending much love (and have never forgotten that you put up a pic of yourself on a dare from me - teehee. love it!)

    u no hoo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Walmart! Who knew? Obviously you did! I really like that they show the ingredients, which seem to be pretty plain and straightforward. Thanks for another great post Mike!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Leigh. I find it nice that I can shop in detail at home rather than spend time reading labels in the store. For example they offer 11 brands of Chili. I can take my time selecting what I feel is the best choice for me, plus the store doesn't have in stock all 11 brands.

      Delete
  3. Very kind comment Kymber, thank you! Yes, I remember the dare and I remember that shortly after that you never posted on your blog again! Ha!
    Speaking of your blog, are you going to start it up again? We miss you and Jam.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mike between Vicki, and yourself you both make many of us stop and think. I'm at the point I want to shop along. I believe in the need 1 buy 2 ideology. Sometimes my family say oh we only need one. Drives me nuts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope so, as that is my intent, to keep people from being miserable because there’s nothing to eat and no where buy food or water.
      Where you live is especially vulnerable to cyber warfare. During the winter when the grid goes down for a couple weeks or a month and it’s -20 with blizzard conditions making it impossible to drive anywhere, you are in trouble. No food, No heat and all you have is maybe that oil lamp :-) for lights.

      Delete
  5. Thank you for this nice sharing. Great post.

    ReplyDelete