Food Storage 101: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

There are a lot of things to decide when you are getting started in food storage.  The biggest question, and one the should already be answered in your mind, is why am I storing food?

For many of us, and us at the homestead especially, there was no single answer.  We've built our food storage to:

1. Have food reserves on hand during a natural disaster.  (We do live in both a hurricane and tornado zone.  Not to mention a fairly close proximity to the New Madrid Fault Zone.)
2. Weather job losses, economic downturn, or rampant inflation.
3. Ensure that we can feed ourselves during agricultural losses.  (Nothing is worse than record heat killing the garden or a fox eating your batch of meat chickens.)
4. Avoid the GMO and  "faux foods" available at the grocery store.  
5. Be prepared for any other long term disaster situation.  (Have you watched the news lately?!)

It's critical that you know what you are aiming for, so that you can move on to the next big question:  How much food do I plan to store?

The answer to this is going to depend entirely on your situation and why you are storing food.  For the natural disaster minded, a month is adequate (please ignore FEMA's three day suggestion.  In a major natural disaster you'll be lucky to even SEE help in the first three days.)  If you are hedging against job losses, a year might be sufficient.  Of course, the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it crowd is going to be looking for two years of storage plus.

So are you asking yourself, how much food is a week/month/year?  

There are several trains of thought on this, and I tend to fall somewhere in the middle.  For one, you can always google "food storage calculator" and you'll get a ton of sites that have calculators that tell you how much of the basics you should store per person for whatever length of time you choose.  Keep in mind that for most of these they don't include vegetables, fruits or meats - things you and your family probably enjoy now on a daily basis.  

The other train of thought is to keep a journal of everything your family eats for a month, and store those items (or like items) for your determined length of time.  

Once you've determined how much you need, you'll need to figure out the next big question:  is this just food storage, or is this part of my pantry?  

I firmly believe in the idea of my food storage being a part of my pantry.  This can get tricky if you have a smaller house and have food stored all over the place (though it can be done), because the absolute trick to this is rotation.  You have to be diligent and keep an eye on expiration dates too, especially if you are buying canned foods.  For example, a few months ago our local grocery store had canned corn on sale at 3 for $1.  I bought a case of 12 (the limit) and put it on the shelves.  Two weeks ago I bought another case of corn (similar sale), and when I went to put it on the shelves noticed that it expires two months before the previously purchased case!  

If you are going the "just food storage" route, then you are probably going to be investing in freeze dried foods in pouches, cans, cases or buckets.  This is going to require a buy it once and store it attitude, and as long as you store it appropriately most "emergency" foods will store 25 years or longer.  

Now that you've answered some of the big questions, next we'll talk about what kind of foods you can/should be storing and how to get the biggest bang for your buck.