Food Storage

WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR FOOD STORAGE? How To Make a Sensible Plan Click Here

	Alpine Aire Long Term Food Storage Systems We carry one year, six months, 3 months and 1 month packages of food that is dehydrated or dried and packaged for long term storage. This is your FOOD INSURANCE. There are 3 categories to select from: the Gourmet No Cooking Required packages, the Versatile Some Cooking Required packages and the Primary systems, where the foods do require cooking. see details >>
	Alpine Aire Long Term Food Storage in Individual #10 Cans These are the same foods that come in the Food Systems above but they are sold individually so you can pick and choose the ones you want. Choose from Entrees, Soups, Veggies, Fruits and other items to supplement the food you are storing on your own. Remember that for the first few days of a serious disaster, you will REALLY appreciate having Just Add Water meals at the ready. see details >>
	OvaEasy Whole Egg Crystals OvaEasy Whole Egg Crystals are made with a revolutionary new technology that keeps the flavor and nutrition of fresh eggs intact. All they do is gently evaporate the water in the eggs... that's it. Egg crystals aren't cooked until you cook them! They're dried with a special low temperature process that protects the proteins, vitamins and minerals... and most importantly the flavor! see details >>
	Cooking Without Power The Porta Chef Countertop Butane stove is the safest, easiest to use stove there is. You will LOVE it! Plus, here you’ll also find all stainless steel percolators, insulated coffee presses, toasters, collapsible buckets and sinks, hand crank blenders plus items that work great in a car or office emergency kit. see details >>
	Katadyn TRK Ceridyn Drip Filter No pumping required, great for groups, good for 13,000 gal of water!! The Katadyn TRK Ceridyn Drip filter features a 2 ½ gal water container for large quantities of water. Water drips from the upper compartment to the lower compartment via THREE 0.2 micron ceramic... see details >>
	Sprouter Kits Enjoy a fresh harvest of nutritious sprouts without soil or chemical additives. These easy to use, space saving sprouters are the best. see details >>
	Wheat Grass Juicing Supplies Wheat grass picks up 92 of the 102 known minerals in the soil and contains all the vitamins that science has isolated. Loaded with natural vitamins, minerals, enzymes and chlorophyll, wheat grass juice... see details >>
	Non-Electric Dehydrator This brilliant dehydrator uses no electricity to dry your garden fruits and veggies. Can even be used indoors in the winter near a woodstove. Works great, collapses flat for storage. see details >>
	Mylar Foil Oxygen Barrier Bags By using Mylar foil oxygen barrier bags inside your bucket, you can greatly extend the storage time for your grains, beans and other foods. The bag goes in the bucket, add the grains etc, add the correct number of oxygen absorbers then seal the bag with our hi-heat Optimum Heat Sealer. We also carry the 1 gallon size for packaging up smaller amounts. see details >>
	Oxygen Absorbers remove all the oxygen from your Mylar Bags Once you have your Mylar bags filled with the food items you want to store, add the correct size oxygen absorber and then seal the bag with our hi-heat Optimum Heat Sealer. see details >>

WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR FOOD STORAGE

How To Make a Sensible Plan

It doesn’t take much to knock out your food supply – grocery stores only keep around 72 hours worth of food at a time and they depend on deliveries several times a week to keep the shelves full. For short term preparedness, you should have 2-4 weeks of food on hand: extra canned goods, pasta and sauce, peanut butter, a few #10 cans of freeze dried meals where you just add water and poofa! - you have dinner. Pretty easy to figure out. Did you remember to get the countertop butane stove and fuel? And the water filter?

Preparing for 1 year or 2 years, now that’s a bigger job. Where do you start? We have some good checklists and some very good checklists, but first you should understand the basics.

You need food, water and a way to cook the food. Remember that if it is a large scale disaster/emergency, you probably are not going to want to figure out how to cook wheat, or pinto beans or rice and lentils. You will have enough to deal with without having to learn to cook with stuff you haven’t been cooking with (here’s a tip: practice now, while there is still a Pizza Hut to fall back on).

What's the difference between freeze-dried and dehydrated food? Click here

Phase I

Get a 6 month or 1 year long term food storage system. Get the Gourmet Supreme all "just-add-water" foods, or the 6 month or 1 year Versatile system, which has part "just-add-water" food and part "needs-cooking" food. The Versatile system is less money than the all "no cook" Gourmet Supreme, but it still has enough of the no cooking required foods to get you past the initial stressful period.

For a water filter at home, get the Katadyn TRK Drip Ceridyn Filter because it is good for 13,000 gallons of water, anad there’s no pumping (just dump water in the 3 gallon upper container and it drips down thru the filters into the bottom container that has the spigot). These are made in Switzerland and are the highest quality. (This isn’t what you want for an evac pack or car kit, but for at home, this is it.)

Remember you need to store 2 gallons of water per person per day! You can use 55 gallon plastic barrels with our Aerobic 07 Water Preserver or you can use something like our 4 or 7 gallon Aquatainers that have spigots with the Aerobic 07 Water Preserver (these are great because you can carry them and they can stack in your closets easily). You should absolutely have a minimum of 2 sturdy spigoted water containers – one for the kitchen and one for the bathroom. For more information about water storage, Click Here.

Get a Porta Chef Countertop Butane stove (more than one if you have a big family) and the fuel. Think of it like this:

6 Month Versatile Long Term Food System You have 6 months of food

Katadyn TRK Ceridyn Drip Filter You have a way to make safe water for 10 yrs

Porta Chef Butane Stove + 8 3-pks of fuel You have a way to cook for 6 months

Once you have your core start items (food, water, stove/fuel), some water stored up (use Aerobic 07 Water Preserver in it, and get at least 2 sturdy water containers with spigots to sit sink-side in the kitchen and bathroom), some way to make light, etc. then it’s time to get more food.

Phase II

Go for more of the Long Term Food Storage systems if you can. They last from 15 to 25 years so you can’t go wrong. Now you can also start packaging food up yourself.

Store bulk grains, beans, rice, tea and other foods just like the professionals with our special Mylar foil oxygen barrier bags (Mylar bags) for 5-6 gallon buckets, smaller 1 gallon size Mylar bags, the oxygen absorbers that remove all the oxygen so your food stays good, and the hi-temp Optimum Heat sealer to properly seal the Mylar foil bags (you can also use your iron – we have full instructions for both methods).

Get new buckets from Home Depot (they’re orange, oh well. bucket plus HD gasketed lid $4 +/-), some of our Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers and with the help of the sealing instructions, start packaging up whatever you bring home from the grocery or Costco.

You’ll need spices to make the rice and beans tasty (we will soon have bulk all organic herbs and spices for long term storage). Use the Oxygen Absorbers with canning jars to package up spices, dates and raisins, walnuts and almonds.

You should still continue to buy canned goods and other staples at the grocery store – that is something you can do a little at a time, but at the end of a year you’ll have accumulated quite a pile. Love chili? 52 cans of chili = chili one night a week for a year. Like Mac & Cheese? do the same thing (find the kind with the cheese in the can if they still make that, rather than the cheese powder – the shelf life of the cheese in the can is much longer than the shelf life of the cheese powder). And remember to rotate these food items – always eat the oldest ones first as you continue to add more to your stockpile.

And don’t forget that you can dehydrate your own produce and herbs. Use an electric one now but if there’s no power, they won’t work. I use my non-electric dehydrator every year (and I use it during the winter over the woodstove!) Click here for Non-Electric Dehydrator.

~ IMPORTANCE OF WHEAT GRASS JUICE & SPROUTS ~

So you have buckets and buckets of wheat. That’s great. Let me ask you this: Do you REALLY see your self grinding the wheat into flour, making bread dough (did you store yeast?), letting it rise, punching it down, letting it rise again and then baking a bunch of bread? In what? If you have no power except from batteries (or maybe you do have some propane still and a propane range/oven like I do), how ya gonna BAKE the bread?? You can always boil the wheat berries. That works. I’ve done it (quite chewy).

But what you CAN do with all that wheat, and it is absolutely BRILLIANT, is grow wheat grass with it (it’s very easy) , then use your all stainless steel Wheat Grass Juicer to make wheat grass juice. It is so good for you its scary. It’s like Magic Elixir. Click here for Wheat Grass Juicing Supplies.

Did you know that wheat picks up 92 of the 102 known minerals in the soil while it is growing in the field and contains all the vitamins that science has isolated? So all those vitamins and minerals are contained in each kernel of wheat. Loaded with natural vitamins, minerals, enzymes and chlorophyll, wheat grass juice not only feeds and nourishes your cells, but also helps to rid them of harmful toxins and remove wastes that clog cells, tissues, and organs. Click here for the Wheat Grass Growing Kit.

The other things you want to have absolutely are sprouting seeds and a really good seed sprouter or two. Sure you may not be a big sprout lover now. So what? They are SO good for you and you can have fresh vital vibrant alive sprouts at a time you may not be able to grow a garden. Click here for Sprouter Kits. (Seeds will also be available at OptimumPreparedness.com in the coming days).

Gardening, hunting and fishing are great, but having a ready supply of food on hand will be critically important.