Shit has hit the fan and family is hungry. But no one is looking forward to a diet exclusively made up of bland boiled pasta.

But how about red beans slow cooked in a bone and tomato broth with onions, bell pepper and celery over a bed of white rice? (Peasant diet)

So how do you make sure your food tastes good for the long term?

Part of eating is the experience of great tasting food. Sustenance matters the most but there is something to be said about comfort food.

Let’s face it. No one wants to eat purely for caloric intake every night. While you are likely doing this for an unexpected food shortage, with a few extra steps you can be set up to make great tasting meals and a variety of them.

After short term and long term food storages are adequately stocked, it’s time to start talking about how we make this more palatable.

We are going to accomplish this in a 3 different ways

• Frozen

• Freeze Dried/ Dehydrated (Similar but different process of removing water content from food for the purposes of storing)

   

  

• Dried Spices

Frozen

When you cook a meal at home, you are likely using certain freshly diced aromatics to add flavors and aromas to your food. 

Being from south Louisianna, here are the aromatics commonly used in my house - onion, celery, bell pepper, and carrots.

I have a lot to work with when I leverage my ST/LT storage with these items.

You can typically pick up a bag of all these items frozen for less than $5 each. I highly recommend buying them instead of packaging them up on your own. (Especially onions because the gas emitted when they are cut can cause a freezer bag to expand and pop.)

Here is the catch - frozen vegetables don’t have a LT shelf life.

You can expect these to store for about a year, so they make an ideal item for cycling. Chances are you’d rather get fresh stuff anyway which is going to taste better. But look to add some of these frozen staples so you have them if you need them. If it comes up on expiration, just cycle them.

Pro tip - Buy heirloom seeds and start a garden if you have time, resources, and land. Or go support your local farmer’s market. There seems to be a resurgence in doing things the old way and I’m a big fan. It’ll at least make you a more interesting person.

Freeze Dried/Dehydrated

This is the process of removing moisture from the food that allows us to turn these items into LT food storages.

And since you’ve been disciplined in executing what we discussed in our LT storage, we have some money left over to spend with our LT food suppliers.

Since we didn’t pay 6x on beans, rice, and oats through them, we can afford to spend some money with them now.

There are a lot of food suppliers ReadyWise, PatriotSupply, etc.

But I’m a big fan of Augason Farms in this category, mainly for the price and ease of ordering through Amazon.

Here is a brief list of their offerings with shelf lives up to 30 years-

• Corn

• Broccoli

• Strawberries

• Butter powder

• Tomato powder

• Potato slices (Not potato flakes)

• Carrots

• Cheese

• Honey

• Raspberries

• Onions

• Apples

• Bell pepper

• Spinach

• Powdered milk (low fat, no fat, and chocolate)

The list goes on and on and most of these #10 cans are under $20.

#10 cans store easily under your bed btw!

Start with the essentials for your family and move outwards in concentric circles.

Also, think about where you live and might be able to acquire with ease. I probably wouldn’t have an issue getting milk or eggs where I live because I know a lot of folks who have dairy cows/goats and laying hens. I might focus somewhere else. But if you live in a city with no access to those things, you might want to start there.

If you are looking for full entree/meal packages, I’d avoid Augason though.

Go with ReadyWise or Patriot Supply. Much better tasting in my opinion.

Dried Spices

Salt, pepper, creole mix, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, basil, paprkia…the list goes on and on.

Store what you anticipate using to season the ST/LT food stores you have built up.

You might want to include cinnamon and brown sugar for your oats.

Maybe some chicken and beef bouillon cubes for your rice and beans.

The point is to find a unique variety of spices and seasonings that you can turn your food caches into a variety of different tasting meals.

Dried spices can be kept in their original packaging and placed in a food bucket and sealed. When stored in a dark and climate-controlled environment they will last for years. Get all your spices and store them in a bucket and then cycle that bucket and restock annually.

Now what?

If you execute on these 3 posts, you are going to be set up to weather a food shortage.

The only question is for how long?

The only way you can determine that is by getting your daily caloric needs for your family and balancing them against what you have stored.

Aim for 6 months at first on your LT storage and then hit your frozen/freeze dried/spices.

Once you accomplish that, go back to bulking LT storage again.

Having a surplus will allow you to barter if needed but also be charitable if you choose to do so.

But as always, I advise you against showing off your supply, so you don’t become a target.

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