This article describes a just-In-time food storage plan for preppers.
These are some of the biggest reasons/excuses why some preppers don’t currently have much food storage:
1. I’ll probably never need it.
2. It’s too complicated to figure all the techniques out.
3. It’s too expensive.
4. Where am I going to store it all?
5. It would be much too embarrassing if my family and friends found out!
This article is about taking probabilities into account as things heat up in the world and putting together a last-minute food-storage shopping list to be prepared just in case.
Some of the possibilities in the next six months include: post-election chaos at multiple levels is almost guaranteed, whether by coordinated terrorists and foreign agents who’ve crossed into the US over the past four years, or false-flag events by the powers that be which are then blamed on terrorists. Other possibilities are wider-spread wars in the Middle East, the Ukraine war taking a turn for the worst, possible nuclear wars, hacker infrastructure disruptions, and supply chain disruptions, which we saw the threat of by the recent dock worker’s strike, are easier to pull off than we’d considered. The list of possibilities is longer if you take into account the long list of false-flag events and other deceptions the US government have used to fool We the People. There are plenty of declassified CIA and Defense Department documents to see what’s been planned and/or done in the past and we can rest assured they continue as always.
Many of these possibilities, if they occur, would be enough to make us wish we had some food-storage set aside. Because many of us get stuck in normalcy bias, we don’t think realistically about what’s really possible and what’s not.
At some point, some of us will realize that world events are heating up to a critical stage. When we get to the point where the consequences of not being prepared food-wise outweigh the possibility of never needing that food storage, perhaps it’ll be time to implement some of the ideas in this article before the masses come to the same conclusion.
This article expresses my thoughts on how people can be just-in-time (JIT) preppers when it comes to food-storage. Understandably, many preppers have a wait-and-see mentality when it comes to buying a year’s worth of food storage. It’s a lot of food. But as with COVID-19, many who read the alternative media should have enough of a heads up before the masses do to finally hit the tipping point to buy all that food storage they hadn’t wanted to buy until things looked more certain.
For the bona fide preppers reading this, remember this isn’t a primer on how to start prepping, rather a shopping list for those wait-and-see preppers, or non-preppers, who wake up one morning and suddenly realize it’s time. It’s also a shopping list for the “OMG-we’re-all-gonna-di” crowd if they can stay a month or a week ahead of the masses.
Lastly, it’s also a shopping list for those of us who already feel well-prepared for food stoage, but who want to wait until JIT before buying supplies to provide for our friends and neighbors who weren’t as prepared as they should have been.
Advance Warning of Covid?
How many of us could have foreseen in 2019 that something like COVID-19 was going to show up in 2020? The earliest mention I can find on SurvivalBlog is January 24, 2020. The words “possible pandemic” were already being used by SurvivalBlog commenters which should have at least piqued the interest of most readers.
Aside from following the science journals and alternative media, I was also following the mainstream media just to see when it would finally be the lead story. I had a prepared myself in late January with a “shopping list” of 12 stocks that would do well if COVID-19 turned into a pandemic. When things were a little more certain, I’d buy. I was a just-in-time (JIT) investor. As I watched the COVID-19 story move up the list on Fox News’ website, I decided I’d go to the “store” (Schwab) with my JIT “shopping list” (stock picks) and buy a few days before COVID-19 was the lead story. I didn’t expect the masses to really wake up until then. Looking at my financial records, I bought on Friday February 24th. That was 31 days after the first SurvivalBlog mention of COVID-19. On Monday the 27th, COVID-19 was the lead story on Fox News and by the end of the day on Monday my COVID-19 stock portfolio was up 34%. Both Fox News aficionados and stock investors woke up about the same time. The JIT stock shopping list I made ahead of time had really paid off.
Was I some sort of a stock-investing genius? Hardly! I was paying attention to world events and the alternative media, considered the possibilities, then the probabilities, and I prepared myself ahead of time with a stock shopping list. Then I bought just-in-time before the masses woke up.
I’m hoping the ideas presented in this article will help the wait-and-see preppers get a food-storage shopping list made so at the drop of a hat they can head to the store and stock up before the masses wake up to whatever situation at the time is rapidly spiraling out of control.
First: Break All the Rules
There’ll be some pushback on this article because it breaks basic prepping food-storage rules. Rules or no rules, I think we’d all agree it’s better to have a bunch of food stacked up in the guest room that we have no clue what to do with than to be at Walmart two weeks later when the slugfest is in full swing and the only thing left at closing time is the spilled bag of coffee beans on aisle 13.
This article takes Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and tosses it out the window to employ the other SOP: Situational Operating Procedure. Buying a JIT supply of food-storage items requires it.
For those preppers in the wait-and-see group, or new preppers just finding SurvivalBlog at some future date when we’re weeks away from the Schumer hitting the fan, here are some options for buying and storing all that food bought at the last minute before the Walmart food fight gets underway.
Method 1: No Special Preps, Just Get Some Food!
Shopping List – Without having any special knowledge, or equipment like wheat grinders, food-storage buckets and such, you can go to Walmart with just your shopping list and be good to go. You can use the list I present below, or hopefully the much better one you’ll prepare by tweaking mine according to your own preferences and budget. The important thing is to have a shopping list made ahead of time if you want to keep stress to a minimum while getting everything you need at the last minute. You don’t want to be standing in a cold sweat in the rice and bean aisle at the grocery store with your Prepping For Dummies in hand wondering what the heck to do.
Freezer Bags – Be sure gallon freezer bags are on your JIT shopping list, they’re much thicker than regular bags. If there’s still food at the stores, there’ll still be freezer bags. Buy a few hundred of those, they’re only $4.67 at Walmart for an 80-bag box. I don’t recommend freezer bags with a physical “slider” since in my experience they break easily and won’t seal. The regular old-fashioned closure like the original Ziplock bags had is your best choice. If there aren’t enough ziplocks then get the slider type of course.
Repackaging the Food – Once you get home, get all the beans and grains transferred over to freezer bags as explained below. The sooner it’s done the better, preferably in the next day or two. It’ll go quicker than you’d think once you get into the rhythm of it.
It’s best to use a kitchen scale when filling the bags. Not only does it speed up the process but when each bag is filled with four pounds of beans or grains, they’ll be more uniform and will stack flat. Over-filled bags won’t flatten out and will result in unbalanced stacks or wasted space in storage containers. Small electronic kitchen scales start at $10.
To package 40 lbs of rice for example, 20 one-gallon freezer bags are needed and everything will be double bagged. With two people and a scale the job can get accomplished fairly quickly. A friend and I recently packaged 40 pounds in less than 20 minutes.
The procedure for 40 lbs of rice:
1. Using a scale, weigh 4 pounds of rice into each of 10 freezer bags.
2. Squeeze the air out and zip the bag closed.
3. Put each bag into a second freezer bag with the zipper end in first. Be sure the bag lays flat.
4. Squeeze the air out and zip the second bag shut.
5. Write the date on the bag.
That’s all there is to it.
Some are wondering, how good are freezer bags for food storage? Are they pest-proof? In running experiments trying to answer these questions, I ended up down the research rabbit hole on a lot of side tangents. The many aspects of freezer bags turned out to be more than I was expecting, so I’ll submit that as a separate article.
The short answer is: for the most part freezer bags will be good enough for a JIT food-storage program.
Method 2: Buy an Insurance Policy for $70 to $100
For Method 2 buy the following ahead of time:
100 Mylar bags – These are just glorified freezer bags and are almost as easy to use. They typically come in bags of 50 or 100 and are available in different thicknesses, the thicker the better for food storage. The 11.8 mil or 14 mil bags don’t cost that much more than the 7 mil and are worth the extra cost to prevent pinholes from forming. In addition to the heat seals, most mylar bags also have a zipper to close like freezer bags so they can be re-closed after the bag seal is broken when it comes time to use the contents. Some mylar bags come with “gusseted” bottoms so they’ll stand up while filling but this isn’t an absolutely necessary feature. The only feature absolutely required is that they are, IMO, at least 11 mils thick. All other features are niceties. I’ve been very happy using both the 11 and 14 mil bags which start as low as $25 for 50 bags.
Mylar Bag Sealer – These start at $24 and the good news is, if you already have an iron for flattening hair, or a clothes iron, those will also work as a bag sealer. A bag sealer uses heat to seal the top of the bag to make them airtight. The sealer is simple and takes only a few minutes to learn how to use. An online search will give you some pointers.
Two 100 packs of 400-cc Oxygen absorbers – We’ll be using one per bag so 200 will be more than enough. The may come included already with the mylar bags you buy but at $7.50 per 100, it’s nice to have extra oxygen absorbers on hand. (Keep them in sealed containers.) They’ll also work with things like grains stored in mason jars. Oxygen absorbers don’t work with freezer bags. That’ll be covered in the follow-up article.
Steps for bagging 40 lbs of rice in mylar:
1. Using a scale, weigh 4 pounds of rice into each of 10 mylar bags.
2. Open two packets of five 400-cc oxygen absorbers.
3. Add one to each bag.
4. Squeeze the air out of the bags and zip them closed.
5. Use the heat sealer to close the tops of the 10 bags.
6. Label the bag with date and contents.
Filling and sealing mylar bags is almost as quick as the freezer bag method which requires double bagging. Even though the oxygen absorbers work slowly, it’s still a good idea to work at a good pace once the packets are opened. For this reason the 10 bags are filled with rice first before adding the oxygen absorbers.
There are plenty of websites and YouTubes to cover the options and details of using mylar bags but again, keep things as simple as possible if the options get confusing. The simplest technique, and just as good as any other, is just as I’ve just described above. All the beans and grains on this article’s JIT food list can be repackaged in mylar bags using this method: weigh the beans and grains into the bags, add a 400cc oxygen absorber, squeeze the air out, then heat seal. Brown rice can have some issues so stick with the white rice I’ve recommended.
One-gallon Mylar bags are longer and wider than freezer bags so they can hold up to five lbs of beans or grains and still stack almost as flat. Try it both ways to see which weight you prefer.
Whether we utilize Method 1, or the “insurance policy” Method 2, by using this wait-and-see technique we can still be preppers without family and friends finding out and thinking we’re nut jobs, still have space in our closets and pantries, and still have the unspent money tucked away in our sock drawer ready to buy our JIT food storage if the time comes. This Method-2 insurance policy will allow us to swing into action at a moment’s notice and employ the best method for pest-free contents. If end up sharing our provisions with friends and neighbors, they’ll think we’re geniuses instead of nut-jobs.
Family and Neighbors
While I feel well-enough stocked for myself and two others who may be joining me when St. Funogas starts sounding better than St. Paul or St. Petersburg, I also need to have something to share with friends and neighbors when they come knocking on my door for something more than a cup of sugar. A combination of Methods 1 and 2 is the approach I’ll using for that. To keep anyone from asking too many questions, food will be removed from the mylar bags and transferred to freezer bags before it’s handed out one pound at a time. Food in freezer bags can always be switched over to mylar if we want to upgrade later.
(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 2.)