Food Storage: Food Storage Mentatility

On my quest to keep going with my food storage, I thought I'd start putting up my collection of articles and information I have been given over the years. I'm really not sure where many of my info comes from, as it appears to have been re-typed from its original source, but it is extremely sound advice.

The first is about the mentality of 3 different 'types' of storers. Here goes:-

"Food storers usually come in three categories:-

SIEGE STORERS

• use money outside their regular food budget to buy in bulk those foods they hope they will never have to use.


• barrels of wheat - jugs of water - cartons of powdered milk - cans of honey fill their shelves, but they really do not know how to use them.


• they are waiting for the "end of the world" to use their food storage.

PRACTICAL STORERS

• eat what they store, and therefore do not spend extra money to buy food that they will never get to use.


• their shelves are full of foods they like because they buy a few extra cans or cartons or boxes of those things each time they go to the store.


• eventually they will have a cache of tuna or peanut butter or frozen corn on hand that could be readily used in case of a winter storm or a break in employment.

PROVIDENT STORERS

• spend less money on food and less time in the store because they produce and preserve much of the food they eat.


• there is no "emergency food" for these storers


• their regular diet includes their storage


• they can garden, dry, dehydrate, freeze and culture their own foods. They have learned not to rely so much on others for their food.

The aim is to get you somewhere between practical and provident.

Siege mentality bought basic foods that stored well. Put is somewhere safe until the disaster occurred. Every 10 years they threw it out and replaced it with fresher supplies and again waited.

It cost money to replace it every decade or so, but it was "insurance" well spent and you hoped you would never have to use it.

This is marginally better than no storage at all, but is the least effective. Assuming that all this food stored has not spoilt, how easy do you think it would be to switch from your fast and processed foods to powdered milk and raw wheat?

Now let us look at practicals.

How many times has this happened to you...

- at the end of a long day you're home. You fancy potato chips or a chocolate bar or even a tuna fish sandwich. You know you have seen this food item in the house, but you search everywhere and it cannot be found. You have choice. Choose something else or get in the car and go buy it. Maybe when you do you buy the can of tuna...you buy three extra tins as well for the next time. Then next time you're shopping again you will purchase three more, or you see your favourite tuna is on sale at the store, so you purchase more. Maybe you will extend your purchases to include jam or mayonnaise or other things you use on a regular basis that has a reasonable shelf life.

You may not recognise this as food storage because ti is done on a small scale.

From this example , can you see the difference between Siege Mentality and Practical?

Practicals eat the food they store.

If care and rotation is used in the storage of these foods, not one calorie will be lost in spoilage.