My Food Storage Journey Pt. II

What does it take to feed a person for one year?  A year’s supply of food, enough to sustain life for one person, consists of 300 pounds of grains, 13 pounds of fats and oils, 60 pounds of legumes, 60 pounds of sugar, 75 pounds of dairy, and five pounds of salt.  Some other helpful items include baking soda, baking powder, yeast and vinegar.  But what quality of life will it sustain?  Yes, you may not be hungry, but will you feel satisfied?

 

My supportive husband and I decided if we were going to store food, that we would get a year’s supply for the two of us.  So we wanted 600 pounds of grains, etc.  We are both the type who jump feet first into projects.  We pulled the money out of savings, did some research and began to make our purchases. 

 

I decided I wanted to diversify what we were storing.  If we really had to live on this food, I wanted to have some variety.  So my 600 pounds of grains are comprised of wheat, flour, oats, rice, corn meal, and barley.  Legumes include four kinds of dried beans, lentils and split peas.  I have brown and white sugar, honey, and molasses.  My dairy isn’t diversified—mostly dried milk and my fats are in oils.  Isn’t variety the spice of life?  Oh yes, I added some spices to my storage, too.

 

Once we had the basics in place, I also spent some extra money for dried vegetables; cheddar cheese powder; chicken, beef, and tomato bouillon (that helps with my salt storage needs!); egg powder; butter and shortening powder.  I also added dried fruits and nuts.

 

Not being totally satisfied that we could survive for a year—or at least happily with what we had–we took another leap and bought a standing freezer.  Then we used our warehouse shopping membership to stock it with frozen pre-made dinners, juices, some meat and vegetables.  For good measure we stocked up the case good sales at the local grocery stores.  Now we could eat in style!

 

What about the non-edible necessities?  We purchased toilet paper, laundry, hand, and dish soap in bulk and stored them, too.

 

Hunkering down (and hunkering in!) and arming ourselves with the basics to live for a year took about two years and several hundred dollars to accomplish.  Some may say we went overboard.  Others may think we didn’t have enough.  I do know that the peace of mind that it has given us is worth both the time and the money that we spent.

 

Then I began to do some reading about food, its production, and healthy diets.  Hmmm, I thought, have we stored the best food to sustain life?