My faith recommends having a one to two year food storage supply on hand; a stock that you can regularly rotate through and keep in good working order. Growing up we did a lot of canning, almost anything you can consider aside from meats; I think my father avoided this as we had animals that we regularly butchered.
Several times in my youth we came across financial strain, when there was little money to buy basic commodities, and before our self sufficient 8 acre farm was producing like it would in the years to come. The food storage was a god send, as it provided a means to supplement our meager income.
In life we may not all deal with massive political unrest, war, or natural disasters; but we all go through hard times. This reason is why I am a huge advocate of keeping long storage commodities on hand.
At first the thought of this may be daunting, and you may not live in a location with room to facilitate such endeavors; but like all survivalist habits this is one that is built over multiple years as space time and money are available. If you have thousands of dollars to sink into a onetime purchase then I give you props; but most of us don’t.
Currently my wife and I do very limited canning as we live in the city and have a relatively small garden used primarily to provide fresh vegetables during the summer months. One of my sisters however introduced us to a company that provides food storage via monthly shipments. There are many companies out there that do this; fur us we have been able to set the monthly dollar amount of how much is going in, and also pick the order and type of commodities that will show up. In this way we have been building onto our food stash little by little. If the wallet gets a little thin or thick you can add to or take away from the money going in monthly. Some sights will also let you set up an account where in money is drawn out automatically and all you have to do is enjoy opening the boxes when they show up at your door every month to reveal the neatly sealed one gallon cans.
I’m not going to advocate any one company, so do a little research and find out what is available for your budget and needs. As with all preparedness, the further along you are to your ultimate goal the more piece of mind you will find. Let the enjoyment of preparedness drive you and not panic. Don’t waste thousands of dollars worrying about “the big one” that might strike tomorrow.
As your stash builds keep a notebook detailing expiration dates and especially number of servings. It is important to know how long you can feed your family on a basic and simple diet; as this will let you determine when you have met your goal. Goals are worthless if they are not measurable; so determine how many meals you need a day and how many days food storage you plan on having on hand.
Jon
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