For example:
January
Buy 2 jars peanut butter
2 jars jelly
6 cans tuna fish
1 package saltine crackers
etc.
We also knew we had to grow a garden, not only for fresh veggies in the summer, but to preserve the harvest for the winter. This is what my parents and grandparents had always done, and I had always dabbled in vegetable and flower gardening, but we'd need to really step up the garden this next summer. So plans for a garden were at the back of my mind, and I'll cover that later, I promise. :)
Next we jumped in a little further and started purchasing what we ate every week x 2 (canned goods, not perishables). This worked well, except in a tiny space we really had a hard time rotating the food in and out, and we quickly ran out of space. Not to mention the dairy was still lacking, and canned fruits & veggies are not always the best way to go for long-term.
Jason subscribed to thesurvivalpodcast.com and we quickly put together a month's worth of basic food for pretty cheap. Mostly Sam's Club purchases, with a few others from Walmart thrown in. These basics were rice, beans, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, bullion cubes of beef and chicken, a gallon of vegetable oil, salt, and a few other "basics". These are just calories, not exactly nutritionally superior food, but the basics to get you by in an emergency.
I wasn't comfortable with these methods, even combined they really didn't address a nutritionally sound approach to food storage (where is the dairy and fruits & veggies?). I attended a food storage class that a friend of mine was teaching. I really admired how she ran her food storage, plus she made her bread from scratch...always a plus in my book. Her first class was basically buy what you eat, eat what you buy. If you're buying for long-term, try it first, if you like it, buy a case of it, but EAT some of it, experiment with it, don't just put it away and forget about it, what if you HATE it? What if you don't know how to use it? These were all really good pointers.
She taught many preparedness classes, and another class that was excellent was on ad-matching and couponing...but I'll talk about that another time.
So my first foray into long-term storage was tomato powder. We use tomatoes a LOT. Diced, stewed, sauce, paste, salsa, spaghetti sauce, and of course fresh. Tomato Powder is powdered, dried tomato. I was pretty skeptical at first, wondering about the flavor, texture, etc. No worries, it's GREAT!
It's hard to tell, but it's a fine powder. To use as paste, mix 2 TBSP water with 1 1/2 TBSP tomato powder. To use as sauce, mix 1/4 c. water with 2 TBSP tomato powder. You can also use the powder to thicken up a tomato based sauce or dish, or to "brighten" the tomato flavor. It really does taste nice and fresh. :)
Paste:
Sauce:
My friend started placing group orders through Emergency Essentials, to which I quickly began to purchase product that I found reasonably priced, which I couldn't make on my own. beprepared.com
Here is a small selection of what I have on-hand. The jar of sour cream powder is just a portion from a #10 can my mother-in-law purchased to try. We agree that it's fine as an ingredient, but not as just plain sour cream, however it does have a place in my food storage, and is useful, especially when you're out of fresh sour cream and don't want to run to the store. We no longer have the space in the cabin to store our food in the pantry, cupboards, or shelves, so they get stored in large, plastic totes on the porch (which Jason built last spring, but I haven't gotten to yet in the main blog).
If you have questions, please leave them in the comments. I'm still learning, too, but would be happy to help in any way I am able. :)
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