Have you started building your food storage? If you haven’t, start now! Building a food storage takes time, so if you wait, you miss out on precious time you could have allocated and carved out to build up security for you and your family.
I began building a food storage a few years ago, and I am so happy that I did. It has evolved and shaped into my own personal grocery store if I ever needed to use it as such.
It provides me with the feeling of security and the reassurance that I can feed myself should the world shutdown or I have an emergency.
What is a food storage?
A food storage is extra food that you keep on hand to utilize daily or for emergencies. You have more food in your home that you need for that week and it can carry you through long periods of time if it had to.
How long should my food storage last me?
I would suggest to build a food storage to be able to survive on it for a year. Start with a small goal of being able to have a food storage sufficient enough for two weeks and slowly build it up to a year.
The best way to have a completely self-sustaining food storage is to learn how to grow and preserve your own food. Until then, start with buying goods from the store.
Within your food storage, there are different items you can equip that will make your food storage experience more convenient, simple, and add some variety to it. Here are my top 5 favorite items to have in a food storage:
- Five gallon buckets and a variety of lids
Five gallon buckets can be used to store foods in large quantities in your pantry for daily use or for your long term food storage. They are versatile and bring in a dimension into your food storage by allowing you to bulk store foods and having a convenient way to store them—by stacking if possible.
A variety of lids would ideally consist of the lids that come with the buckets —nothing special about this—and lids like gamma lids that provide an easy user experience. I use these in my pantry where I bulk store items like rice and sugar and the gamma lids allow me to screw on and off the lids to easily access what I need. - Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers
A great process of storing food for long term storage is to use mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. There are a variety of mylar bag sizes and oxygen absorbers to go with the associated size. Foods stored in mylar bags can last up to 30 years if properly stores. I always have a variety of sizes on hand in case I need them. - Jars and lids
If you are preserving food such as jams, meats, or vegetables, you will definitely want to have pint jars, quart jars and lids. I would suggest having both wide mouth lids and regular mouth lids in your storage along with a variety of jars for different uses. Canning is an easy way to build your food storage and you can’t be doing that without the proper supplies! - Canning additives
Along with canning supplies, you will need the additives that certain recipes call for: pectin, ascorbic acid, and pickling salt. These are just some examples of what certain recipes will call for. It is best to have them all on hand, so then you are not caught in a pinch to have to run to the store or find that the shelves are barren. - Manual can opener
The most common way to build a food storage is to invest in a surplus of cans from the store like green beans or tomato sauce. How will you access these foods if you only have an electric can opener? It is best to have a variety of methods to access your foods in an emergency situation. Invest in a manual can opener today, so you are not caught off guard!
All of these items will help you add variety to your food storage and make the experience convenient. Happy storing!
