Should I Store Food?

A hundred years, even as recently as fifty years, ago, families were storing food to last them through the winter.

For centuries, housewives put up food that they grew in gardens that they planted, tended, and harvested. They would raise animals and animal feed to harvest for meat. They milked cows or goats for milk to use to make cottage cheese, sour cream, and various types of cheeses. For weeks during the late summer and late into autumn, they would pickle, can, dehydrate, and later freeze vegetables. They would smoke, can, and freeze meats. They stored root crops in their root cellars. All of which to serve their families during the bitterly cold winter months.

Now, the majority of Americans don’t know how to do any of it. Nevertheless, there has been a resurgence of interest in these skills. Hundreds of blogs and social media outlets have popped up (including this one). Younger generations are learning the skills of their ancestors.

Unfortunately, not everyone can raise a garden and livestock. Fortunately, we have grocery stores from which to purchase what we cannot grow.

Above, I have shared a chart. This chart is an easy way to use as a guideline for purchasing food from the store or online.

Regarding this list, let’s go over a couple ground rules.

The First Rule of Prepping

This chart is just a guideline. The first rule of preparing for lean times is “Store what you eat and eat what you store.” This means that if you don’t eat it, you shouldn’t be storing it. If you don’t eat tuna fish, store canned ham. If you don’t like canned ham, store canned chicken or some other type of meat. If you don’t like using iodized salt, purchase sea salt instead.

The Second Rule of Prepping

The second rule of prepping is closely related to the first and that is that we rotate our stored foods. This is what we call the “first in, first out.” In other words, use the oldest foods first.

Some people who swear by the idea that we store food in long term storage just in case of the end of the world as we know it. I don’t follow this policy. I believe that we best serve our families by developing a system whereby we first use older food. It would be a travesty facing an SHTF situation with a pantry full of stored foods that we can’t properly digest or we simply don’t enjoy. We are better off purchasing what we already eat. Having extra in case we have a week or two where we need to dip into our stored foods is far better than that.

Growing Your Own

I personally prefer the security of growing my own. This year I have a winter supply of fresh potatoes and sweet potatoes and a pantry filled with home canned foods.

I wrote The Survival Garden for people who also want to grow their own food. This book focuses on vegetables that you can grow that don’t need to be canned, frozen or dehydrated.

Get your copy of The Survival Garden and begin planning your 2025 vegetable garden today!