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Welcome to part 2 of beginning your food storage journey. In the last post, we discussed some basic food storage items and home canning from our garden. In this article, I would like to talk about other great foods for storing long-term. One of my favorite food storage items is dried fruits. My wife and I like to use an inexpensive food dehydrator we purchased at a national chain wholesale store nearby. I have also seen folks build their own such contraption with a wooden box, a fan and a hot incandescent light bulb, but the one we purchased has a temperature setting and a timer included, making it a bit safer to use in our home. (especially when it runs while we are gone or while sleeping overnight).
Dried fruits are an excellent source of vitamins and other nutrients, and also a very delicious treat. We have a pear tree in our yard that we use for canning these tasty fruits as well as dehydrating them. When pears are dried, they are so sweet and sugary that it is just like eating candy.
Whatever region you live in, there is always some kind of fruit that just grows naturally and abundantly. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have a treasure trove of apples, plums, and blackberries just growing alongside the road or in a neighbor’s or friend’s backyard, so we take full advantage of this free source of fruits.
After we dry our fruit, I like to vacuum seal it to preserve it for later on during the year. I have no idea if it works for long-term food storage because the dried fruits are so delicious, they rarely last through the winter into the next year. Regardless of what you like to preserve for later use, just remember the basic rule of food storage: if nobody wants to eat it, it’s just wasting space for the foods you want to eat later, whether it’s an emergency or you just like saving money by preserving free tasty food.
Something else I like to prepare now to eat later is dried or smoked meats and fish. Now I’m not the greatest fisherman, but I have some friends who profess to be. If you are like me and not a proficient slayer of fish, then I will barter some of my other supplies or services for a nice salmon from time to time. Salmon smokes very easily, and after smoking, the vacuum sealing method works very well to preserve the delicacy for a long time. How Long? I’m not sure, as I eat and rotate as often as possible. (Yumm).
In my last post, I mentioned canning from your garden, but you can always get great vegetables for canning from your local farmers market if you live in an apartment or just plain don’t have the room for a vegetable garden.
In the previous post, I also mentioned toiletries and medical supplies. When the pandemic hit the store shelves where I live were decimated in short order, and toilet paper was almost impossible to find for quite a while (a real eye opener for many). I was really happy that I usually shop for things such as that at my local wholesale club and purchase in bulk. I had enough T.P. to last for five or six months in my garage, along with first-aid supplies, ibuprofen, vitamins, and such. The supply chain issues that came later did catch me by surprise, I must confess. Things like antibiotics, baby formula, and computer chips became scarce. I was very fortunate that we weren’t dependent on any of those scarcities during that time. It did make me think, though. I did have extra First-Aid kits, but I didn’t have antibiotics or extra medications, which, after searching online, I did find a few sites that will sell things like that. I started buying my prescriptions on a 90-day basis, I stocked up on other things like toothpaste, soap, lotions, etc., as my budget would allow.
Well, that is how I got started with my food storage prepping many years ago. I constantly add new methods and items to my stockpiles while trying to keep everything perishable rotated to the best of my ability. I hope that myself or anyone reading this article will never need to survive with what they have stored in reserve, but it is always better to have something and not need it than it is to need something and not have it. I also would like to emphasize that just because there are some things that no one can predict that we might need in a future event, that is not a good reason not to get started on your preparations. Remember that these items that we are stockpiling are things that we use daily, so if you think about the way inflation drives the cost of everything up over time, I am eating food that I purchased a while back when it was cheaper, and I am buying food now to eat later when it is more expensive. So by having food stores, I am saving money in the long run and giving my wife and me some well-deserved peace of mind.