Food Storage 104: What Should I Store?

If you took my advice in Food Storage 101 and looked up some of the food calculators, you should have a baseline of how much food to store for your family for any given length of time.  Unfortunately, those calculators are pretty general and don't often include fruits or meats, and most only give you a listing of categories, but not items in those categories.

As I mentioned before, you need to know what you like and what your family will eat before you embark on food storage plans.  Don't store rice if you won't eat it or dislike it.  Find something that you do like in the same category and store it instead, or increase the amount you keep on hand of something you do like/use.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert, but I'll share what we store around here.  Keep in mind that we have about a 12 month working supply of ingredients that get rotated through.  

1. Grains
• Flour - we use both unbleached white and wheat flours, though I sometime have specialty flours on hand as well like rice or bean.  Don't count on storing wheat flour for more than 6-9 months (although mine has gone over a year okay) because it is more likely to go bad.
• Cornmeal - the must have fore cornbread, and useful as fish breading and cornmeal cakes.
• Oats - oatmeal is our go-to breakfast during the winter months, and during the summer I make granola with it.  Also used in meatloaf, cookies and more.
• Barley - Not a big fan, so we don't keep much, but I do use it in soups.
• Dried bread crumbs/stuffing mix - here's one you'll probably never seen on a list other than mine.  There are hundreds of recipes that use stuffing mix, and it helps make a quick, easy and moist meatloaf.  Also, it doesn't take much to make this a side item all by itself.
• Pasta - mostly is spaghetti form, though I keep a box or two of lasagna noodles and macaroni noodles as well.  (Yes, I do make my own pasta when time allows, but after a full day of working around here there isn't always time.)
• Pancake mix - the just add water type stores for a year or better and makes quick and hearty weekend breakfasts.
• Rice - both white and brown.  We really aren't big rice eaters, but I have a few recipes that we like and white rice stores nearly forever if packaged correctly.  When times get tough you can use rice or potatoes as fillers to stretch the budget as well.
• WHAT'S NOT ON MY LIST - Wheat.  Seems like every preparedness website wants you to store wheat.  Yes, it can last a long time, but the simple truth is that not only do you need to have a way to grind it, but most people don't know how to cook/bake/use whole wheat flour!  If you want to store wheat than by all means, go ahead, but please save yourself the aggravation and do some research first!
2. Legumes
• Beans - Who can go wrong with beans?  We keep a large variety (black, kidney, northern, red, navy, pinto, etc) and use them in everything from chilis, soups, side dishes, main courses and baked goods.  In our house you'll find dried beans in 5 gallon buckets for long term, mason jars and glass jars for short term, as well as commercially canned beans and home canned beans for quick and easy meals.  You'll see beans on every prepper list!
• Split peas -  The most common usage is split pea soup, but these are also good in soup and a number of other dishes.
• Lentils -  Lentils are a must have meat stretcher.  Lentils can be added into ground meats (beef especially) with little notice to those eating eat.  Can also be added to soups and cooked in a variety of dishes.  We keep dried lentils in glass jars for regular use, but also store some in 5 gallon buckets, as they keep for a very long time.
• WHAT'S NOT ON MY LIST - Soybeans.  A lot of preppers are adding soybeans to their preps, but not for us.  Recently there have been several studies done on the effect of soy on the body.  Until more research can prove to me that soy is harmless we'll continue to avoid it.  Please do your own research and make your own decisions here.
3. Meats
• We like and keep a variety.  Of course we keep a sizable supply in our freezer, but we also store homegrown and home canned chicken and turkey.  Also, I can beef and pork when I find it on sale and venison when a friend or family member has some to share.  Commercially canned tuna is also a must have for us.
• WHAT'S NOT ON MY LIST - Freeze dried meats.  I simply don't believe in them, but have no trouble if someone else does.  Personally, in the even that we run out of meats at our house we keep enough protein in the form of beans to keep going until we could get more.  (Although with several types of poultry on the farm it's hard to envision running out of meat!)
4. Dairy
• Powdered & Canned Milk - This is one of the things you'll see that we buy in the big #10 cans, powdered milk.  Useful in every day cooking of course, but if you can find the right brand it's as good as store bought milk.  We keep regular and chocolate versions.  Also, we keep some evaporated milk for cooking and such.
• Butter Powder -  Useful in a ton of recipes and keeps very long term.  #10 can.
• Cheese Powder -  Again, I use this in recipes and it stores for a long time, #10 can.
• Buttermilk powder -  Faster and easier to use than making your own buttermilk or buying it for pancakes, biscuits or fried chicken.  
• Sour Cream Powder -  A novelty item in a serious SHTF type situation, but very useful in a variety of recipes.
• Cream Cheese Powder -  Another novelty item, but can be used in so many ways.  I've even made a cheesecake from cream cheese powder.  Maybe not a great prepper item, but very useful for a homesteader (especially when living far from town).
• WHAT'S NOT ON MY LIST - Eggs.  With all the poultry I have it's very difficult to imagine a time where I'm out of eggs.  If you don't raise poultry then by all means you should keep some powdered egg (#10 can) for emergencies.  
5. Sugars
• Honey - Besides cooking, this is a must have for medicinal purposes alone.  I strongly advise everyone to not only keep honey, but learn all the ways that honey can be used.
• Sugar - I have white sugar in 5 gallon buckets for long term storage, but also keep a hefty supply of brown sugar and raw sugar for every day uses.
• Molasses - Not only good for cooking, but a variety of livestock uses on the farm as well.  
• Syrups - Corn syrup is used in some canning recipes and regular cooking recipes, so it's a must have. We also keep several small jugs of maple syrup not only for pancakes but for baking as well.  
6. Cooking/Preserving Items
• Baking Powder - A must for baking.
• Baking Soda - Not only used in baking, but so many other uses, including cleaning.
• Yeast - We like yeast breads and baked goods.  You can make good breads without it, but for the true "sandwich" type breads you need yeast, and since I tend to bake our bread, I use quite a bit of yeast in a year.
• White Vinegar - Used in canning quite a bit.  Also useful in other cooking and cleaning.
• Apple Cider Vinegar - So many uses!  Cooking/baking but also in livestock!  Helpful in getting rabbit does "in the mood", but also good for chickens and turkeys as well.  (This is an item you can learn to make yourself.  I'm going to try my hand at it later this year and will share my experience with you.)
• Salts, Table/Pickling/Curing -  In the event of a true SHTF styled crisis, you'll want to make sure you have plenty of salts in all their forms.  Pickling salts are used in, well, pickling, and curing salts are a must have for curing meats.  Table salts usually contain iodine which is important for the body but cannot be used in food preservation.
• Lemon Juice -  Used to help acidify foods for canning.
• Pectin -  A must have for jams and jellies.  You can make your own pectin, but it varies in strength from batch to batch and may not be truly safe for canning.  Regardless, I'm going to attempt to make my own later this year.
7. Oils
• I like a variety of oils, depending on what I am using them for.  We keep vegetable oil, olive oil, peanut oil, and coconut oil.  Oils have to be stored correctly and can go rancid.  Coconut oil, if unrefined and kept cool in it's solid state, is believed to be storable indefinitely.  Besides cooking, oils are handy for making your own beauty care items as well.
• WHAT'S NOT ON MY LIST - Mayonnaise/Salad Dressings - I don't feel that these really keep very long, and the ones that do are chock full of preservatives.  Besides, with a little experience you can quickly and easily make your own mayonnaise from oil and egg.
8. Fruits
• Fruits are kept in a very wide variety in our house, and in several forms.  Dehydrated and freeze dried fruits are kept as snacks and added to baked goods and granolas.  We make and use fruit pie fillings not only in pies and cobblers, but also for french toast casserole and as waffle toppings.  Butters, jams and jellies are also made on the homestead and we can some fruits just as they are to be added to a variety of recipes (or eaten out of the jar).  We also keep a good selection of commercially canned fruits like pineapple, mandarin oranges and fruit cocktail.
9. Vegetables
• Like fruits, we keep these in dehydrated, freeze dried, home canned and commercially canned forms. We also store onions, potatoes and sweet potatoes.  (We also store some vegetables in the freezer).
10. Other
• Soups, Stews and Chilis - We keep both the home canned and commercial canned versions of these. These not only make a quick meal, but being precooked they can even be eaten right out of the can.
• Condiments, Mustard/Ketchup/Salsa - With the exception of mustard I make my own ketchup and salsas, and boy are they better that store bought!  We really like Mexican foods though, and I never seem to make enough salsa to get us through to the next year, so there is always a few store bought jars around.  Condiments just make foods taste better!
• Herbs and Spices - Not only for food seasonings and necessary in some canning recipes, herbs especially are important in natural healing.
• Nuts & Nut Butters - Despite the expiration dates, peanut butter really does last a very long time if kept correctly.  We keep hazelnut, peanut and almond butters not only for cooking but for a good old sandwich!  Almonds, peanuts, cashews,and pecans are also on hand for snacking, granolas and baking.
• VITAMINS - Maybe not something that should be on the food storage list, but a nutritional must have.  

I'm sure I'm missing some items, but those are the long and short of what we keep.  Because I cook and have learned to cook from my pantry you won't find those fancy survival foods here.  Just real foods for real people.  

I will add though, that if adding a three month supply of MRE styled, freeze dried meals makes you feel more secure and able to better cope with a bad situation, then by all means add them.  Don't plan to live on them forever though, and do have a pantry of items to fall back on.