How to Build a Food Cache for Survival
Whether its terrorism, the economy, nuclear war, religious apocalypse, disease, global warming or zombies, the end is nigh in the minds of many. Reports of our imminent destruction may be greatly exaggerated, but if you're feeling those tiny hairs standing on the back of your neck, then it may be time to prepare. The cache outlined below will help you last for three months, depending on how much clean water you can store and the output of your survival garden.
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Things You'll Need
- 50 Gallon Drums
- Water
- Chlorine Tablets
- Bleach
- Vegetable Seeds
- Canned Goods
- Vinegar
- Fresh Produce
- Sealing Glass Bottles
- Dehydrated Food
- Government/Military Food Supplies
- Vodka
- Flour
- Beans
- Rice
- Pasta
- Padlocks
- Backpack
Instructions
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Secure your water. Fill three 50-gallon drums with water and treat the water with chlorine. Water should be limited to a gallon per day or less, including both cooking and drinking. Standard chlorine tablets sterilize a quart each, necessitating the storage of 200 tablets per 50 gallon drum. These should be dissolved into the water 1 gallon at a time, shortly before use. If chlorine tablets are unavailable, or you have run out, then use eight drops of bleach in each gallon of water.
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Start a survival garden now. Focus on vegetables that are both hardy and inconspicuous. Never plant in rows since people instinctively know that rows equates to edible food. Plant wildflowers or other weeds that have edible components, such as dandelions or cat-tails. These are unlikely to be pulled up by scavengers.
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Invest in canned goods. Contrary to popular belief, canned goods are not imperishable. However, storing cans in a cool place can double their lifespan. Canned goods should be selected for nutritional balance, so purchase one-sixth starchy foods, one-third vegetables, one-third fruit and one-sixth meats. Fruits high in vitamin C are especially important in preventing the most common form of vitamin deficiency: scurvy. Purchase enough to have approximately one can a day per person. Assuming a three-month disaster period, each person should have a stockpile of 90 cans.
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Pickle everything. Pickled food is the best way to diversify nutrition, since the process allows normally perishable items to be preserved. Marinate and store onion, cucumbers, cabbage, meat, tomatoes and plums in vinegar. Unfortunately, pickling can be a risky process, since improper procedure could lead to bacterial contamination. (See Resources for a safe pickling method.)
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Purchase dehydrated food or dehydrate food yourself. There are numerous places to purchase dehydrated food online. Dehydration is ideal for survival material, since it extends the shelf-life and allows for a large volume of food to be stored in a small area. Dried food can be safely eaten for a full year after drying. Exceptional foods for dehydrating include potatoes, apples, bananas, herbs and tomatoes. While dehydrated fruits and vegetables are important, this your chance to build up an adequate protein supply. Dehydrate fish and meats to round out your other materials. Dehydrated material should be largely seen as supplemental, so store enough material to provide one bag of dehydrated food for every meal, for groups up to five people. That means that a party of five should have approximately 90 packages of dehydrated food for each month spent in shelter. (See Resources for a guide to how and what to dehydrate.)
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Buy government designed snacks. Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and other military food rations are both long-lasting and nutritionally balanced. While MREs notoriously last for years, temperatures above 80 degrees can shorten their life-span to a matter of months, rather than years. Try and store enough MREs to have one per person per day. Once again, this will provide you with a final figure of 90 per person, assuming a three-month period.
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Keep an abundant supply of vodka. Vodka can be used to preserve found food and extract more nutrient from fruits (it draws out complex antioxidants the body has trouble digesting naturally). Not only can it be used as a tool for bartering, vodka can even be used as an anesthetic and antiseptic.
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Purchase the survival perishables as soon as the sky begins to darken. While dry pasta, beans, flour and rice can last for months, even years under proper storage, they are high susceptible to corruption by moisture or insects. Check your supply of perishables every quarter. If there is any sign of moisture damage or insects, replace immediately. Replace regardless of appearance every six months.
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Lock it down. Have your storage space organized, hidden and fortified. Keep all your supplies in one place. Having the water upstairs and the food downstairs will result only in disaster. Store heavier objects closer to the ground, particularly cans. This will prevent heavy objects from falling on you in the midst of an earth-shaking disaster. Keep bags of perishables and easily punctured dehydrated food on the second-to-top shelf. High enough that insects and rodents will not access it from the ground, but not pressed against the roof where ants and other insects may be able to get at it. Storage should be arranged in a manner that you can find in the dark. Use a coding system for canned goods in particular. One effective system could be a penny glued to the top of each vegetable can, a nickle on fruit and a dime on meat. This will help you to differentiate simply by touch.
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Tips & Warnings
Keep a "Flee-Bag" ready at all times. This bag should have a representative sample of all your supplies. If you have to leave your supplies behind you likely won't have the time to pack a bag.
According to Snopes.com, Twinkies do not last forever. Both pickling and dehydration are subject to contamination if not performed properly.
