Food Storage

I don't know if I'm the only inspired person I know in this valley or if I'm the only one I know completely off my rocker (probably the latter), but a series of events has made me passionate about food storage. I'm not talking about buying a large bucket of oats and thinking, "Gee, this outta get us through a tough time. Maybe I'll call this 'food storage'." I've done that. I'm talking about buying a FULL YEAR'S supply of food for the whole family. This is a much bigger task than I realized. Right off the get-go I realized it's going to cost well over $1,000. Perhaps double that. I won't break it down for you completely or this list would be way too long, but here's a condensed list that one website suggested (and I went to lots of websites and liked these numbers the best) for me, Annette, and our little baby, Giacomo:

• GRAINS - We need 748 lbs - We have 381.8 lbs
• FATS & OILS - We need 33 units (lbs, qts, gals) - We have 21.16 units
• LEGUMES - We need 144 lbs - We have 23.75 lbs
• SUGARS - We need 149 lbs - We have 40 lbs
• DAIRY - We need 212 units (lbs, cans) - We have 160.375 units
• COOKING ESSENTIALS - We need 22 units (lbs, gals) - We have 44.5 units (This is the only category we have fulfilled and even have a 2-year supply of some of it.)
• OTHER - We need 45 gal - We have 8 gal

I've got a detailed Excel spreadsheet that outlines what we need, what we have, shelf life, and what I spent on it. The other thing that makes a true food storage difficult is the idea of using it and replacing what you've used. In other words, you need to be eating your food storage to some degree so that your bodies don't freak out in an emergency when you have to change your diet from Chocolate Frosted Sugar Coated High Fructose Balls to real food like bread, beans and rice. Luckily, I come from a family that likes to cook--I mean, REALLY cook, like using home grown canned vegetables to make a wicked stir fry and NOT homemade like you just opened the package, added water, and popped it in the oven. Also, Annette comes from a family whose middle name is Emergency Preparedness so I'm sure they will have lots of helpful suggestions on this as we work our way towards self-sufficiency. Anyway, I'm sure I'll blog about this again when we have our entire food storage and EVEN BETTER THAN THAT, I'm sure it'll be time for you to help us move once we've finally amassed it. Thus are my ponderings. The End.