Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Hmm..I sure am posting alot lately.

I was talking with someone yesterday about grains and, to a degree, food storage.

My ideas on food storage are ‘layered’…I have the normal day-to-day foods in large quantity that get used and rotated. I simply buy alot of them at a time. (Spaghetti sauce, pasta, canned meats, canned soups, etc, etc) These are things I use daily but I keep enough of them on hand so that with their normal consumption rate theyd last a couple months. All have a shelf-life of a year or better. (and, actually, they last longer..its just their nutritional value starts to dminish, but their safety and edibility remain.)

Next layer is day-to-day/longer term stuff. This is things like instant potatoes, canned vegetables and fruits, honey (honey is incredible stuff..it literally will last forever), etc. Its basically the same as the above, but with much much longer shelf life. (Example: Im still using Idahoan instant potatoes from 1998. Theyre in #10 cans and have been sealed since then. Taste great.)

Then theres the convenience/emergency food – this is MRE entrees. This stuff is for situations where you cant cook or need maximum portability. MRE’s are already cooked and you can, if you must, eat them cold. But you can also toss ‘em on hot engine blocks, in a pan of hot water, or on a hot driveway to heat them up. If you have to grab your gear and head for the hills theyre a great choice.

Freeze drieds make up the really long term layer. They’re sealed in #10 nitrogen filled cans. Assuming the can doesnt get punctured, the shelf life is over fifteen years. Theyre very, very lightweight. Disadvantages is that they require hot water to reconstitute and they aint cheap. But, theyre good.

Last layer is the bulk stuff… 5-gallon and 15-gallon buckets of wheat and rice. (Corn too, as soon as I get around to it.) I dont care much for beans but they store exceptionally well and may be worth it for trade value…additionally, if I get hungry enough, I’ll eat anything. (Plus, beans and rice [or corn and rice] make a complete protein.) The wheat is the most versatile…it can be sprouted for fresh greens, made into flour, craked and made into a meal, or made into bulghur. Pretty versatile. Lasts forever too.

Combine all this together and you can come up with some pretty decent meals. Of course, this doesnt include whatever I can scrounge at the last minute. Nor does it take into account whatever foodstuffs that arent already set aside may be in the fridge/cabinets.

Still need a few other things like dehydrated butter, eggs, that sort of thing. Im also wanting to get a really, really high-end hand-crank grain mill…the wone I want is about $310 but it’ll last a lifetime and grinds to all sorts of granulations.

Ive got a spreadsheet around here somewhere that keeps track of all this stuff. On the 2000 calorie diet its around 2.5 months…good for short-term stuff…but I want at least six-months and ideally a years worth. Ive got the storage space, that isnt a problem…just gotta cough up the $.