Jul282011
A Famine Menu
Dry Fields, image by Ben Sutherland
This is a basic famine menu that will keep you alive. Variety of taste will come from supplementation from a vegetable garden, fruit trees, raising animals, bartering, spices and additional items you store. Each family must be creative to vary the taste of the foods and to add additional items that will make the basic foods most appetizing for you.
Adding small farm animals will enhance your diet tremendously such as hens for eggs or chickens for meat, meat rabbits, cows or goats for milk, yogurt, cheese, pigs for meat, and a fish pond stocked for meat. Also storing sprouting seeds will give you needed enzymes through the winter from your kitchen counter. Keep a store of garden seeds to renew the vegetables each season and gain seed saving skills. Using lacto fermentation techniques will bring healthy enzymes and variance in flavors as well as being a means to preserve your harvest without heating your containers (just store extra salt).
This is only one example of a famine menu, modify it to meet your particular needs or share yours with all of us. We welcome all information that will help us in hard times.
Someone looking over my Famine Menu once asked me if the title weren’t an oxymoron-”Famine Menu”-like you have a choice of eating foods when there is a famine. I responded that I was planning to eat during a famine, and eat as well as I can prepare for. God bless us all.
Basic Famine Menu
Per Day for One Person
3 slices of whole wheat bread (lunch and dinner)
1 pot of oatmeal (breakfast, vary with spices and fruit from the orchard or dehydrated or nuts)
1 pot of rice (dinner)
1 pot of beans (dinner, vary with spices and vegetables from the garden)
1 glass of milk
In Addition Per Week
1 pint of jam
1 jar of peanut butter
1 spaghetti dinner with hamburger
4 pots of soup (From leftovers and Soup for A Year)
7 jar sprouting seeds rotation
In Addition Per Month
1/2 -#10 can popcorn
1 can potato flakes
1 can refried Beans
1 can white flour
Amounts to Store for One Person, Two Persons, Three Persons, Four Persons
Wheat: 90 lbs, 168 lbs, 252 lbs, 366 lbs
Rolled Oats: 24 lbs, 48 lbs, 72 lbs, 96 lbs
Rice: 60 lbs, 120 lbs, 180 lbs, 240 lbs
Dry Beans: 60 lbs, 120 lbs, 180 lbs, 240 lbs
Spaghetti Pasta; 60 lbs, 120 lbs, 180 lbs, 240 lbs
Powdered Milk: 16 lbs (kids 32 lbs), 32 lbs, 48 lbs, 64 lbs
Potato Flakes: 18 lbs, 36 lbs, 54 lbs, 72 lbs
Refried Beans: 24 lbs, 48 lbs, 72 lbs, 96 lbs
White Flour: 48 lbs, 96 lbs, 144 lbs, 192 lbs
Honey: 18 lbs (see Bread for a Year), 36 lbs, 57 lbs, 57 lbs
Granulated Sugar: 40 lbs, 80 lbs, 120 lbs, 160 lbs
Oil: 9 Qts (See Bread for a Year), 18 Qts, 18 Qts, 18 Qts
Yeast: (See Bread for a Year) 2 lbs, 4 lbs, 8 lbs, 8 lbs
Salt: 8 lbs (See Bread for a Year)
Peanut Butter: 17 lbs,34 lbs, 52-16 oz, 52-16 oz jars
Fruit Jam: 52 Pints
Spaghetti Sauce: 52 Quarts
Canned Hamburger or meat: 52 pints
Popcorn: #10 cans, 6
Multi-Vitamins: 365, 730, 1095, 1460
Spices
Sprouting Seeds (Wheat, beans, seeds), 40 lbs, 80 lbs, 120 lbs, 160 lbs
To download and print this list, click here.
© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
(16) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
How To Dry Shampoo Your Hair to Save Water
My girls and I have long curly hair that has to be washed everyday. B
Win a Copy of Survival Mom AND a FlashLantern!
Bookperks is running this giveaway on their own. I will ask them for
Win a Copy of Survival Mom AND a FlashLantern!
when is the give away closed? how will we know who won?
The Importance of Patient Advocacy
When we went through my mom's final illness, I so wished I could be wi
Anatomy of The Survival Mom's Pantry
Oh my goodness Soren you are hilarious! I guess we had better stock up
millenniumfly
Overall, a good list. I might suggest that people store a variety of dried beans and rotate them for variety of taste and nutrition. I might also be a bit cautious about the toast recommendations as (1) people might find it difficult to bake bread as we're used to eating it long term and (2) yeast doesn't store for long periods without being in the freezer… this assumes that electricity will be difficult to come by for most.
Linda
I make sourdough bread using a starter made from dehydrated potato flakes (or you can substitute potato water from cooking the spuds). You only use yeast when you first get it started. After that, it gathers its own wild yeast from the air and can be maintained a long time, perhaps indefinitely, with some care. You can also make sourdough rolls and pancakes with it. I found it on the internet and it's delicious! There are lots of sourdough starter recipes on the internet, but this one seemed easier than most. One good thing is that dehydrated potato flakes are cheap and easy to store long term.
Lynda
I don't know who the author is but it appears as if it's a compilation of many experts out there. Peggy Layton, James Rawles, M.D. Creekmore, Arthur Bradley and others. Food Storage in Baby Steps?
I am interested in storing salt for preserving both meat and vegetables. Is there a link with information about this? Thanks in advance!
TheSurvivalMom
Lynda, someone on Facebook just posted this link, http://www.ehow.com/how_2123649_preserve-food-sal…
Hope it helps!
Katy
Lisa,
When it says "amounts to store for one person, two people, three people, etc.," for how long? A month? Three months? A year? Thanks. Katy
TheSurvivalMom
It appears to be for a year compared with figures from the LDS Food Calculator.
Sierra Dave
This post is mostly directed at new preppers.
We humans have gotten lazy. People a hundred years ago would have months or more of food stored. I say lazy, because we have gotten into the JIT habit of shopping when we need something. Lazy as in not having the food at home and letting the grocery stores be our cupboard. I've been guilty along with all of you too.
Do you trust the food to always be there? Sure it's nice using the food store as your much larger variety cupboard. It is also much riskier.
When I shop. I look around at all the people and think "My God. What will they do if the food runs short?"
Get stocked up! It will bring peace of mind to you, knowing that you have months of food and are much more able to handle any emergency.
rightwingmom
I've been trying to find new ways to use my wheat berries.
I recently came across a way to make homemade Cream of Wheat. (aka: Farina or Germade)
Here's the recipe, if anyone's interested:
1 C hard white wheat (coarsely ground = 1 1/3 C)
12 oz. can evaporated milk
3 C water
dash of sea salt
Grind wheat berries, set aside.
Bring canned milk, water, and sea salt to gentle boil.
Sprinkle in ground wheat, stirring to avoid clumping.
Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve with butter, honey, brown sugar, fruit, nuts, or other favorite toppings.
Servings size = 1 1/4 C
4 servings
*** Hard Red Wheat can be used too.
guest
rightwingmom was gracious enough ( as she always is!) to cook up a delicious pot of this cream of wheat the other evening while we were at her house for a visit. Cream of wheat is one of my husbands favorites! He could eat it every day of the week; as we just might be doing soon. It was so very good ( a little honey & a pat of butter) and easy to make – including grinding the wheat berries with her hand grinder. We had a small cup left over – took it home and had a hot bowl for breakfast the next morning. Yum, Yum
Andrea
This is a great post. I often wondered what type of diet people ate during hard times, Depressions and such, and I don't recall hearing much about it from my grandma (who survived the Depression and WWII rationing). Of course, they were hillfolk and grew much of what they ate.
@Milleniumfly, in the event of TEOTWAWKI, I can see us returning to simpler, heartier breads that don't require yeast and long cooking, like cornpone, flatbread, biscuits, etc.
Lynda
Lisa, thank you so much for posting that link! I'm hitting Sam's Club on Monday to fill in some gaps and going very early. The cloud of uncertainty seems to be getting much worse, doesn't it?
Audrey
Quick question. In the "In Addition Per Month" section it says 1 can white flour. Everything else seems self explanitory to me but what would the white flour be used for?
TheSurvivalMom
I didn't make the list, but I assume the flour would be just … flour! Even though I have plenty of wheat, I also have stocked up on some flour. Maybe it's for convenience?
shewhispers
I'm wondering if it was made by someone that already gardens? Whatever, it's a pretty good starter list, as long as veggies and a bit of fruit are added too.
Linda
You have a practical list of affordable basic foods to store. May I suggest an addition to this list? I would add some jars of Tang drink mix. Tang, when mixed with water in the amount recommended on the jar, has the same amount of Vitamin C as fresh orange juice and half the sugar calories of orange juice. Vitamin C is expensive to purchase in tablet form and is lacking in a stored food diet. Insufficient Vitamin C in the diet can lead to serious health problems (Pelligra, scurvy). Tang drink mix is cheap and, if stored in an air-tight containers, keeps a very long time.
justathought
Pine Needles make a tea that is a good source of vitamin C. The water should be no hotter than you can stand to stick your finger in, or it will essentially kill all the vitamins/nutrients. With some cinnamon and honey you have a good cold prevention tea that doesn't taste too awful.