Why have food storage?

It used to be a lot easier to live week to week, paycheck to paycheck, when employment was more of a sure thing for most folks. Money was still usually tight, but we always knew payday was coming, and it was so easy to run to the store for whatever would tide us over. The economy would slump but it always rallied again.

Times, they are a changin'. The unemployment rate is higher than what's being reported by the mainstream media, jobs lost in the mini-crash of 2008 are not coming back, and the U.S. has acquired incredible (and growing) debt that can never be repaid. As the price of food continues to rise due to crop losses (droughts, floods) and inflation, it just makes sense to buy in bulk and be prepared for leaner times.

This is the video that got me started on canning meat, vacuum sealing food, and addresses cooking under less than favorable conditions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOLuIApyNPc

It's worth the time to watch this seminar filmed in 2005. Wendy Dewitt has been teaching food preservation for more than 20 years and knows her stuff.

A lot of folks want to build an 'expanded pantry' but don't know where to start - or think they don't have enough money to do it. How you build your food supply depends on what you use and eat on a regular basis.

It starts with a few extra cans of vegetables or pasta or meat each payday. Start with the basics. Bath tissue, dish soap, shampoo, rice, spaghetti, canned fruits, sauces, and so on. Items and foods that are part of your daily life. Wherever you store food should be free of pests, dampness and temperatures above 70 degrees. No place to store extras? When my mother lived in a small 'senior' apartment, she stored groceries and non-perishables in all sorts of places... under furniture, behind furniture, over cabinets, in closets... it was amazing what we found when we had to move her out!

Don't be intimidated by posts with pantries that look like this...

The person who built this beautifully stocked pantry didn't do it in one week, or month, and probably not even a year. They started just like everyone else... with a few extra items purchased one payday. They added to it a bit at a time. 

An important factor in building up a pantry with food storage is to rotate your items - buy what you will use. Otherwise, you'll end up tossing items when they get too old to even give away to others. That's a waste of your hard earned money.

You can get some great ideas by perusing You Tube to see what others are doing and and how they are storing what they amass. Remember, keeping a pantry used to be standard procedure with our grandparents and those before them. They were prepared for disasters, hard economic times and lapses in employment. Because they grew and canned a lot of their food to save money, they had to work a lot harder to keep that pantry stocked.

Food prices are going up, and chances are they won't go back down. Take advantage of sales and bulk food purchases to build up your pantry. Get started now while food is still available and affordable. Things can change very quickly, even in the U.S.