Ask any “food storage expert” what they recommend in a basic food storage plan and they will likely recommend the same types of things: wheat, rice, dry milk, salt, beans, sugar / honey, oil, pasta etc. The Survival Mom recommends many of these important items on her list of top 10 foods for stocking up.
But with all their similarities, sometimes these lists include an item here or there that I hadn’t thought of before…something useful that I suddenly see as essential to my food storage plan. I thought I’d share a few of these with you today. Some you may have, or plan to have eventually. Others may be new to you. Or, you may have something to add to the list!
Don’t forget the vinegar!
Vinegar has many many uses: just look at all the uses for it you can find on pinterest!
Some of my favorites include prolonging the life of flowers in a vase, keeping ants away, getting rust off of things, sterilizing laundry (instead of bleach), removing perspiration stains and more.
The uses in the kitchen are just as varied: use it to make fluffier rice, use it to make buttermilk, wash fresh vegetables and fruits (especially berries) in it to make them last 2-3 times as long, use it to tenderize meat, make salad dressing or pickle anything. I also use it to get rid of onion or garlic smell on my fingers..
Vinegar is truly versatile!
In addition, vinegar is inexpensive, readily available and stores very well.
Are seeds a part of your food storage plan?
The ability to grow your own food is essential for true self-reliance. Storing heirloom seeds is simply smart. You will need to rotate them every couple years or so, but seed packets are inexpensive so this shouldn’t be too difficult.
Vitamins
Often, many “basic” food storage plans lack variety. They include items that provide a lot of calories, are inexpensive and easy to store for a long time. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always mean they provide a wide variety of nutrients and vitamins.
This is often true even if you buy a pre-made food storage package. Often, they are heavy on nutrient-weak calories such as sugar and drink mixes. There are many reasons I don’t recommend pre-made food storage packages, but this is one. People invest in these packages thinking they are getting a certain number of calories. I feel it is a bit deceiving when a heavy number of those calories are nutrient-less.
However, not everyone can afford to go out and buy nutrient dense freeze dried fruits and veggies as part of their food storage plan: especially right at first. They may be able to invest in some canned produce, but even these are lacking in nutrients compared to their fresh counterparts.
A diet full of calories, but not balanced nutrients will not be likely to give you the energy and mental acuity you will likely need in a disaster situation.
While fresh is always best, storing vitamins can help combat this issue until you reach a point when you can invest in more nutrient dense foods.
Nuts can be stored, long-term
Nuts are a great protein and fat source, are less expensive than freeze dried meats, and tastier and healthier than TVP. They can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner and are available in a large variety.
But nuts have one issue: they are tough to store long term because of the oil in them. Jane from Mom with a Prep solved this problem with one amazing post: Awww Nuts! A Guide to nuts and their long term storage benefits.
Spice / Herbs / Bouillon
A diet full of items recommended in many food storage plans: rice, pasta, bread, milk and beans would become pretty boring very quickly without some flavor!
Spice it up a little! Bouillon can be used to make soups and flavor rice. Spices can add an incredible variety to basic staples. If you are adventurous, you can dry your own or if that is too overwhelming simply buy a few extra of the spices and herbs you use most often now so that you can easily rotate through them.
Cookbooks
How many of you have the majority of your family’s favorite recipes stored electronically (on your computer or online somewhere)? What would you do if you couldn’t access those electronics? Do you have recipes specific to the food you have stored?
Make sure you have recipes for the food you have stored in a non-digital format so that you can access and use them anytime you need to. The more recipes you gather, the more variety you will have in your meals. Old cookbooks can be especially valuable for many reasons!
That’s it! Which of these items were new to you? What would you add to the list?
Misty Marsh
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vinegar is very easy to make – just let wine go sour.
Rather than vinegar, I store food-grade glacial (100%) acetic acid. Distilled white vinegar is simply a 5% solution of acetic acid in water, and can be made up by diluting one part of glacial acetic acid to 19 parts water. In fact, that’s how most of the distilled white vinegar sold in supermarkets is produced.
The reduction in storage space is significant. One quart of glacial acetic acid can produce five gallons of distilled white vinegar, and requires only 5% of the storage space.
some times you learn the oddest things I have always worked within the system
most of my life training in Disaster Services was to fill out Gov. forms
Then told hundreds of lyes of what will happen next by people who just want to hold on to their jobs by doing as little as possible
Where do you get glacial acetic acid? How well does it store long-term?
I hadn’t hear of this either, kmom.
I just found it online at Walmart. $22.95 for a 850ml bottle.
It’s pretty widely available. Here’s one source:
http://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Glacial-Acetic-Vinegar-Killer/dp/B00KCSBF8Q
As long as it’s stored in a sealed bottle, it should be good forever. Incidentally, it’s called “glacial” because it freezes at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
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