Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Jim: Excellent information on storing dry goods for long-term. I have just a bit of advice to all out there: use foods from you stores in your every-day life. I’m not advocating depleting your stores; rather consuming and replacing them as part of your daily life, thus rotating your stock as well. (This is recommended, however, ONLY after you have acquired your long-term goal (i.e.one year supply, two, etc.). You will benefit in at least four distinct ways from this:1.) your stores will always have a maximum useful shelf-life, as they will constantly be rotated; 2.) you will probably experience …

From what I’ve heard letters and e-mails, most SurvivalBlog readers already have a food storage program, but most of them would like to move on to the next step: buying and storing foods in bulk. To save money you will probably want to buy rice, wheat, and beans in 50 pound sacks. Sacks are problematic, since what you really want is a vermin-proof, moisture proof container that is air tight and preferably evacuated of oxygen. Those are the keys to true long term shelf life, and none of them are provided by a cloth, paper, or woven plastic sack. The …

Mr. Rawles, My the Lord bless and keep you and yours. In response to your mention of the Japanese bread in a can. I found [a similar] canned bread locally (through a friend in West Virginia) at a “Martins Grocery store.” They are mostly a Northeastern U.S. operation. The canned bread is made by B&M (the same company that makes the beans) for about $2.65 a can if I remember right. Tried the Bread and Raisins and it must be kept moist and it is best (IMO) warm and with butter. It is very good, but I have no idea …

Jim, Something just occurred to me as far as an overlooked essential: food plates and bowls. The glass mixes (Corelle, etc) are far better than the stoneware for cleanliness and durability, but they can still be broken. I found out recently that the cheap, media tie-in dishes that extol Disney and various other children’s movies are not only unbreakable plastic, but are immune to gun cleaning solvent–I used an old one, figuring to throw it away when done. But a quick rinse with a dab of soap and it was clean–impervious to the chemical, not even the cartoon image was …

Jim, Here is a source for MRE crackers which seem to last forever! Cracker Seller I ate a pack of crackers last summer during a camp out/ range building weekend, and they were from 1993. Still were crisp and tasty. – Tom

Jim, As I know it’s important for you to have and increase your advertisers ads in order to support survivalblog and as a Survivalblog reader it’s also important to be able to trust your advertisers. I just wanted to drop you a message about Vic and SafeCastle LLC. I placed a large order with Vic a couple of weeks back for some Mountain House cases and I should add that I’m always leery about spending what I consider a substantial investment with someone I’ve never done business with before. Vic responded to my original questions about the order nearly real …

Hello, Jim! I was reviewing my storage of food supplies when a thought came to me: I don’t have anything to put all that peanut butter on! I looked through all of the food suppliers you advertise looking for crackers, no results. Have any ideas of something that would store well?  – Gerry C. JWR Replies: The individually-wrapped “shelf stable” bread mini-loafs intended to supplement MRE and Tray-Pack (“T-Pack“) squad rations have been available off and on for about ten years. This bread is quite bulky to store. I personally don’t like the taste of it (too salty for me), …

James: I am sure the readers are interested in the way that industrial produced freeze dried foods are made. I was a kashrut masgiach (kosher supervisor) at a major freeze dry producer in the United States before I emigrated to Israel. Mashgichim are flown all over the world to places where there is no Jewish community to certify the kosherness of foods for consumption by Jews. (The laws of kashrut are much too complex to describe here). The plant I certified had two major types of chamber one that was bus-sized and another that was the size of a minivan. …

Hi Jim, I just recently found your blog and love it! I was hoping you might be able to help me out. I’ve been trying to find Canadian sources for bulk food/storage supplies and had no luck. Do you happen to know of any? Thanks! – Kim JWR Replies: I don’t know of any major storage food packagers in Canada. Most are just distributors for U.S. packaged storage foods, and they tack on a substantial mark-up. They offer no real value added except for being on the far side of those pesky Customs Canada minions. To minimize shipping costs, you …

Mr. Rawles, Katie bar the door, get your beans and bullets, now. Driving into work I heard the supreme potentate Sean Hannity himself say that he had a stockpile of food as well as a separate broadcast facility closer to his house with generator back-up and its own satellite feed for when “times got bad.” His caller was giving Sean the Mormon guide to foodstuff stocking per adult per year. I don’t know what the lead in for this discussion was about, it might have been Asian Avian flu or the Iran situation, but I thought it was interesting that …

Sir: As a “very long time” survivalist, I read everything I can get. I also enjoy your website as it is the most informative one out there! Now for my problem: I was diagnosed with what is called Celiac Sprue. This is a horrible allergy to anything that contains Gluten, such as wheat, barley, and rye. What this means is that if I were to eat anything that contained Gluten I will come down with extremely bad cramps, diarrhea, nausea, and fever. Basically, It feels like I have the flu but ten times worse. As you can see this makes …

Jim, I apologize if you’ve already covered this in previous archives – I searched several, but not all, of your blog archives. I did see your comment, “Wheat stores for 20+ years…” I have a LOT of wheat purchased in 1979 after reading Howard Ruff’s “How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years.” I have other items – Navy and other types of beans. It is by Neo-Life, “NEST” storage, “Nitro-Guard” protection – it was stored in #10 cans purged with with nitrogen. So it is all 25+ years old. I have been storing this stuff in my basement, which …

Jim, Is there any difference between dried food and dehydrated food, and if there is, what is the difference? – G.P. JWR Replies: I’m glad that you asked that, because it is often a point of confusion. Although semantically they mean the same thing, the difference is that “dehydrated” storage foods typically are dried to a greater extent than typical dried foods–such as the raisins and other dried fruits that are sold at your local grocery store. However, due to their lower moisture content and because they are usually sold in sealed, nitrogen-packed, cans makes them store for several years …