This post is by Bernie Carr, apartmentprepper.com
I had an opportunity to review a copy of Food Storage for Self-Sufficiency and Survival by Angela Paskett.
I like the way the book is organized, with a separate chapter covering food needs for 72 hours, short term emergencies (two weeks to three months) and long term emergencies (three months or longer). There are more sections dealing with water storage, preserving, packing dry foods for long term, maintaining balance, sustainable food storage, organizing and using your food storage. In short, this book covers everything you need to know about storing food.
If you are just starting out with your food storage plan, then you are fortunate to have this guide, but if you already have some food stored, you can still find a lot of good ideas. With this book you will also learn to make the most out of your food storage, avoid waste and use your storage to save money and time. For example, there is a section on what to do with oil that has gone past its edible prime. The book also covers how food storage can actually improve your financial situation as you get through some lean months.
I found a lot of ideas on how I can improve my own food storage plan. The author gives practical steps that anyone can implement right away. I highly recommend this book.
Now for the giveaway…
What aspect of food storage do you find the most challenging and why?
The winner* will be chosen at a random “Pick a Giveaway Winner” drawing on Friday, May 16th at 8 pm Central. *Winner will be notified via email. Winner must reply to email notification within 48 hours or another winner will be drawn. THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
© Apartment Prepper 2014
I find meats/proteins the most challenging. We keep a fair bit of frozen meat on hand, but as far as store what you eat/eat what you store, our family rarely eats canned meats or fish or even beans. In a long term power outage or other scenario, those items would definitely come up deficient.
It’s all about striking a balance; should I seek out meats and proteins, or work on fruits and veg? I do some canning and dehydrating, but is it better to spend money on pricey, commercially prepared products? And allocating funds in a balanced way is challenging as well. And where do a put water -lots of it – in a small 2nd story apartment that won’t cause problems if the jugs spring a leak? I know the basic tenets of prepping with repect to storage, but applying to my specific circumstances in a balanced way is – well, daunting, to say the least.
My dry goods I do ok far as rice all kinds of beans .And my water .I have can goods too. I’m a hunter and a good fisher man ,but I still worry bout meat and fish .. I can butcher any thing I hunt And fish . But I’m in town in a duplex.And I don’t tell no one what I have ..And I do have a place to go If the needs come to move .but I still worry about water and meat .
I struggle with organizing my food storage in my small apartment, while still being able to tell what I have and where it is. And there is really no place to store very much water.
The most challenging to me is to not overstock my food preps which will lead to waste. It’s just my wife and I in a one bedroom apartment, but we have other family members that don’t prep, and we know they’re gonna look to us if something happens. So while my food storage plan says for example that ten cans of soup as a minimum for a week long emergency for the two of us, I know that we’ll have guests which will increase our food consumption.
Storage spac e is my greatest challenge .we home can /dehydrate/ put in buckets ourselves as buying prepackaged foods are not normally in the budget.when I say storage space I guess I need to say we could eat of preps close to 3 years at this point.”
I think keeping a good handle on what I have and what I need is my biggest obstacle that I need to overcome.
I am having a hard time keeping organized. Having it spread out in multiple rooms. I forget what I have where and how much I have.
I find dehydrating and canning as my next challenges in food storage.Never having done either.
I find meats/proteins that we eat and storage space in an apartment the most challenging for me. Dehydrating would be the next thing as I am just starting with it.
Biggest challenge is organizing and rotating our food storage, we have a small apartment and I tend to get too creative finding storage places for food. Another challenge is rotating our food from storage to pantry, it’s just the two of us and ‘family size’ is geared to people with larger families.
Started using a daily planner to record our storage and where it is. The daily planner also helps us schedule appointments to organize and rotate storage. Hoping the system will help us with organizing and possibly increase food storage.
The toughest part of food storage is keeping can goods from going out of date.