Really want a list of suggestions as to what can keep well for 4-6 months frozen or in a cupboard.
Best answer:
Answer by Galah_1
Rice
And this won't help your quest - but I would get me a breeding pair of chickens!
ADD EDIT: If you are worried about a food shortage, you should probably stock up on salt. When processed foods run out - salt will be of a premium rather than a dangerous oversupply like it is now.
What do you think? Answer below!
There won't be a food storage, unless people start stockpiling........ coffee & chocolate
ReplyDeletetofu rice and liquor
ReplyDeleteWater, beans, rice, spaguetti, tuna, cockies, powder milk, soda and dorito for my daughter.
ReplyDeleteI forgot Tequila, couldnt live without.
Canned goods. There are too many to list, but here are a few:
ReplyDeleteVegetables.
Spam (you can do so many things with spam).
Kippers.
Sardines.
Tuna.
Salmon.
Chicken.
Chicken & dumplins (Sweet Sue).
Soups.
Stews.
Fruits.
There are several shelf meals in plastic containers that you heat in the microwave or in boiling water-they are meat meals.
Boxed dinners such as Pasta-Roni.
Assorted jars of sauces to pour over noodles & etc.
Dried beef.
As for frozen dinners, we like all of the Stouffer foods. They are delicious and have no perservatives.
Marie Calendar frozen dinners are a complete meal and very good.
You can buy Tyson roasted chickens and freeze them. You will find them in the refridgeration section.
This is what I would get, but I think it's pretty much good for anyone.
ReplyDeleteI would stock up on dried beans, probably:
kidney, black, soy, pinto, and anasazi (my favorite).
According to the first site below, these keep for 6 years in a cool, dark place.
Grains and seeds:
rice, wheat, barley, amaranth and quinoa (very nutritious), sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds.
Grains can keep for up to 20 years (but I'd eat them before that. White flour can keep for 4 years, but a whole grain flour will go rancid more quickly. The seeds can probably be stored for a year or so, if it's in a cold basement or something.
I love nuts:
almonds, peanuts, cashews, brasil nuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, hempseed.
You can keep these four months in the refrigerator or 8 in the freezer. I like to soak some of them, like the almonds, to sprout and soften them right before I eat them.
Dried fruit and veggies:
raisins, dates, apple rings, dried figs, dried mushrooms, pineapple, etc.
Other dried things: jerky or soy/seitan/mushroom jerky.
Soup mixes.
Vitamins.
Canned items (for me, this means tomatoes, I prefer my other foods frozen if not fresh)
Frozen peas, corn, edamame, berries, etc.
Aseptic containers (1 year shelf life) of soy/rice/almond/hemp milk, tofu, and coconut water.
Winter squash can be stored for over 3 months, for something fresh, and I'd keep lots of onions, potatoes, yams, beetroots, oranges, green bananas, and other hardy fresh fruits and vegetables around before the 'shortage' so they'd last me a couple of weeks.
Lots of h2o!
...and a bottle or two of wine.
Dried beans and grains (rice, quinoa, amaranth, oats, buckwheat, rye, etc) and a food mill or food processor or coffee bean grinder to grind the grains and maybe grind the beans so they can cook quicker. Different types of nuts or seeds too. You can make soups or even "milks" with nuts, grains and beans. Just cook, puree and seive them or don't seive them if you don't mind the pulp.
ReplyDeletePotatoes can be peeled, cut into chunks, cooked to just done, put into quart jars with fresh hot brine (salt) water and a little bit of lemon juice for acidity and processed 1 hour in a water bath canner. They are handy for making fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato salad, parsley buttered potatoes, etc. They are quick to use (although it is work to can them) and versatile and they keep better than in the refrig or in the basement.
Grow a small garden if you can and can some tomatoes (whole or as sauce with a food mill) for vitamin C and maybe some potatoes and whatever and can whatever you can so it will be handy without refrigeration. Buy used mason jars and canning equipment cheap at thrift stores and get the lids at the grocery store new. You can re-use the lids if you are gentle at prying them up when taking the food out. Save glass jars from food bought at the store when you can to use when canning, esp if you can add a two part Mason lid to them.
Vegetable soup is good to can. Peanut butter can be made and canned and other nut butters...just have to work with it...Most things can for 1 hour in a water bath canner. Or use a pressure canner, but to me that is scary. Jelly or jam does not take as long to water bath can.
Keep the canned goods in the basement on a shelf. Mark dates on them with tape maybe to keep track of when they were canned.
Dandelion greens and dandelion flowers can be canned or just eaten if needed. They are high in iron I believe. Usually need to add vinegar or cook in a soup like you do with kale or chard with beans. They grow on their own, just don't get them from any grass that has been sprayed or treated with pesticides or herbicides.You can even make a coffee from the toasted ground roots.
Rhubarb is easy to grow and can be canned if you like rhubarb.
I would stock up some on sugar and flour, esp strong/bread flour or whole grain flour (more protein and bread making) or vital wheat gluten flour (can make pretend meats) and baking yeast for bread making (keep the yeast jars in the freezer to keep them fresh longer). Honey would be a canned sweetner that would keep well even if you open the jar and keep it at room temp.
I have started canning myself recently because of the way the economy is going. Got a pressure cooker (small) and pressure canner (for quart jars), but still too chicken to use them. They claim low acid foods must be pressure canned, but I have had good luck so far with using a water bath canner for 1 hour with white potatoes and vegetable soup and pistachio butter and dandelion jelly (from flowers). Dandelion jelly tastes like honey. The pistachio butter I made by soaking the nuts for 24 hours and grinding in an electric meat grinder, but a food processor might do nut butters just as well.
I myself like nutritional yeast too...the kind marked "good tasting"...not the baking kind. It has lots of vitamins.
You could try growing mushrooms in the basement, but I do not have a green thumb or any idea on this...I think they grow on manure, so that would smell.
Spices and salt and pepper is a good idea. Lemon juice or lime juice in the little squirt bottles to keep in the refrig to aid in canning low acid items and for drinks. Frozen canned juice concentrates.
Cooking oils or shortening. Mustard. Vinegar (cider and white).
Some bottled water jugs or bottles. Some toilet paper and paper towels.
Maybe a small gas grill with ways to cook pots or bake on it if necessary...or as an emergency heating source. A kerosene heater as an emergency heating source maybe too.