Category Archives: Emergency Food Supply

Why You Should Store (and Eat) More Beans

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Perhaps you’ve come across the idea that it doesn’t matter what emergency food you store, as long as you have something put away. The idea is something along the lines of You’ll eat anything if you’re hungry enough. The primary qualifications many require of their food storage are that it is cheap and that it has a long shelf life. While finding emergency food that fits within your budget and has a long shelf life are vital, don’t neglect to examine an equally vital quality of food storage food: nutrition.

Survival situations are tough times—tough on bodies and tough on minds. During these tough times, the source of all your nourishment and sustenance will be your food supply. Therefore, when you are preparing a survival food supply, it makes sense to gather foods that are nutrient-dense and able to nourish and sustain while also being long-lasting. One of these nutrient-rich foods that can be prepared to store for long periods of time is beans. Today we’ll look at why beans are a superfood, something you should consume on a regular basis, and, more specifically, why they are a super food storage food.

Beans: Food Storage Superfood

1. Beans are famously high in fiber. Just one half-cup serving of beans typically has about 10 grams, an excellent amount for a single food. This high fiber amount combined with the high water content found in beans helps fill you up faster and keeps you full longer, making beans an ideal survival food. What more could you want in an emergency situation than an ingredient that is going to stretch your meal longer through the day?

2. Beans are a good source of complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are digested more slowly by our bodies and are one of the best sources our bodies have of sustained energy. The complex carbohydrates found in beans can supply you with the vital energy you need to handle the assortment of challenges you might face in a survival situation.

3. Beans offer healthy protein. At around 7 to 10 grams of protein per half-cup serving, beans are an excellent source of this vital macro-nutrient. Protein is involved in many of the most essential functions of the body, from cell repair to bone health. When you combine beans with whole grains like brown rice, you get a complete protein just like you would get from any meat source. Best of all, this protein source does not also slip in sneaky unhealthy fats, like saturated fat found in most meat products.

4. Beans make for a healthy heart. In a study conducted at the University of Arizona, participants who ate ½ cup of beans daily lowered their cholesterol by 8%. In addition, because beans are a good source of potassium, they can lower sodium levels in the body, in turn lowering blood pressure.

5. Beans help fight cancer. Because beans are a good source of antioxidants, the magical phytochemicals that fight free radicals, if you make beans a part of your diet, you increase the antioxidants flowing through your system and curb the spread of cancer-linked free-radicals.

6. Beans are nutrient-dense. They are a good source of calcium, Vitamin D, iron, magnesium, folate, and Vitamin B6. With a fact sheet like that, it’s hard to leave them off a list of superfoods.

Knowing how fantastic beans are for so many aspects of health, here’s some good news. Five of Legacy Premium’s food storage entrees feature beans. These delicious entrees include enchilada beans and rice, chili mac, southwestern soup, classic chili, and white bean chili. We also offer a side dish of refried beans, which is simply pinto beans and salt—no lard or other unhealthy ingredients. Including beans in your emergency food menu is a great way to add calories and nutrients to your survival diet.

Today’s lesson: The ingredients that make up your emergency food are important. They will play an important role in your physical and mental state during survival situations. Store food that is full of nutrition and will give your body what it needs to last. In other words, don’t forget the beans.

Why Beekeeping Should Be Your Next Hobby

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Have you ever considered becoming a beekeeper? If not, maybe you should. Having a hive of productive honeybees is an excellent asset in a survival situation. With free honey being produced at regular intervals, you can sweeten and vary your survival food, use honey for medicinal purposes, and always have a great bartering item on hand.

Beyond the survival reasons, unless you are allergic to bee stings or have a phobia of buzzing insects, raising bees can simply be a delicious and fascinating pastime. Bees create tasty, healthful, and extremely useful substances (i.e. honey and wax), and keeping bees also increases pollination of other food you have growing. Following is an exploration of the benefits of beekeeping and some basic information on how to get started.

Why keep bees, Reason #1: HONEY

The most obvious reason to keep bees is to have free access to fresh honey, which is not only supremely tasty but also tops the charts of many health experts’ recommended food lists. Read recent health articles and you’ll see that raw local honey has health benefits worth buzzing about. Raw honey is full of good bacteria (probiotics), which can promote healthy digestion and support the immune system. It’s also an excellent natural energy booster—both short-term energy (thanks to glucose) and more sustained long-term energy (thanks to fructose). In addition, honey is proven in laboratory studies to have antioxidant and antibacterial properties. Honey is also good for smaller health complaints, like soothing cuts and burns and easing sore throats, and it is a fantastic skin and hair conditioner.

With all of these health benefits, you can see why honey is a good thing to have around, especially in a survival situation. Did you know that one bee can produce up to 1 ½ teaspoons of honey in its brief six-week life span? With tens of thousands of bees typically in one hive, raising a hive of bees can mean a whole lot of free, sweet honey for you.

Why keep bees, Reason #2: WAX

When bees fill honeycombs with honey, they top them off with a bit of wax that they secrete from glands on their abdomen. This beeswax is an extraordinarily versatile and useful substance—two qualities that make an item great to have in a survival situation. You can use beeswax to make homemade candles that burn longer and cleaner than other candles, lip balm, hand cream, soap, skin salve, and furniture polish. You can use it to strengthen bow strings, lubricate screws, and waterproof almost anything. For a good read about beeswax product ideas along with detailed recipes and instructions, check out the following site: http://chickensintheroad.com/house/crafts/things-to-do-with-beeswax/

Why keep bees reason #3: POLLINATION OF YOUR CROPS

According to the USDA, “About one mouthful in three in our diet directly or indirectly benefits from honeybee pollination.” Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and berries all need to be pollinated to be fruitful, and bees are the best pollinators around. Bee pollination makes the harvest of your gardening greater and the quality of your crops higher. When you have a beehive near your crops, the bees will pollinate them and make you a happier gardener.

With free supplies of honey and beeswax and free pollination of your crops, how could you not want to start this exciting hobby? Now that you know why beekeeping is a worthwhile endeavour, let’s talk about how you can get started.

First things first: gather supplies. Many beekeeping experts estimate that it takes anywhere from $400 to $1000 to supply yourself with everything you need to start a hive. The most basic supplies you will need are a jumpsuit or other full-body clothing to protect you from stings, a cap and veil to protect your face and neck, gloves that go up the forearm, a hive (you can buy one or make your own using an online tutorial), a smoker, and bees. It’s also frequently recommended that you have a bee brush, a tool to break up wax, a bee feeder, an extractor, and various supplies that simply make beekeeping more convenient. For an extensive list of beekeeping supplies, check out the beesource website.

Most expert beekeepers recommend taking a live beekeeping class to get some hands-on experience, taste what it’s like to work with bees, and meet local beekeepers. It’s also an excellent idea to join your local beekeeping association and find a mentor.

If you are interested in getting started on beekeeping, here are a few good resources to start your study and lead you in the right direction:

www.betterbee.com
http://www.sustainlife.org/blog/tag/beekeeping
www.beesource.com
www.beemaster.com
www.honeybeesonline.com

If you talk to someone who has been beekeeping for years, chances are they’ll talk about their hobby with a starry-eyed smile. For not only does beekeeping offer honey, beeswax, pollination of crops, and all the survival benefits that come with these, it also puts the diligent keeper of bees in close contact with nature’s processes. This all adds up to what might just be the perfect hobby.

How to Prepare Better: Five Pieces of Preparedness Advice from Disaster Survivors

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When preparing for a future event—whether it’s retirement, a trip to Disneyland, or a disaster situation—it helps to get advice from people who have already been there, done that. Specifically, it’s nice to know what those people wish they knew before they went through the situation and what they would do differently if they went through it again.

With this in mind, a few months ago, I began to keep track of advice in blogs, news articles, and discussion boards from people who had lived through Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters. Slowly, I made a list of lessons these survivors learned from their experiences and advice they would give to others preparing for a crisis. Interestingly, most of the advice falls under a handful of basic principles. Here you will find these principles and a few singularly helpful ideas related to each. If you think of any you’d like to add as you are reading through, share them with us in the comments box below.

 

1. Some disaster supplies never outlive their usefulness. In other words, you’ll never have too much. A few commonly mentioned items are water, food, batteries, matches, and wet wipes.

WATER: In many types of natural disasters, water lines can become contaminated and access to water can be shut off altogether. This is why it’s so important to to have water and emergency water supplies stored (think water purifiers and containers to hold water). But how much water? The best answer, according to disaster survivors, is as much as you can fathom storing in your home. It’s impossible to store too much water because you will use it for everything: drinking, cooking with, washing dishes, flushing the toilet, washing hands, bathing, and showering.

FOOD: Just as with water, you will never think to yourself that you have overdone it on the food storage. In times of high stress or absolute boredom (survival situations usually alternate between these two extremes), we tend to eat more than usual. If you have kids, this will be especially true. Just think of how much food you go through when your kids are on a vacation from school. The bottom line is to store more food than you think you need.

MATCHES AND BATTERIES: People who have survived emergency situations often express surprise at how quickly their supply of batteries and matches ran out. Matches are useful for everything from lighting candles and starting fires to igniting cooking stoves. Similarly, you’ll quickly realize how many of your survival supplies require batteries. Just like with food and water, store more batteries and matches than you can imagine ever using. Alternately, invest in rechargeable batteries with solar chargers.

WET WIPES: If you have ever had a child, you know the miracle that is baby wipes. Baby wipes are excellent in an emergency for washing hands, refreshing worn-out faces, and cleaning up messes. Basically, wet wipes help you function without using so much of your precious water resources. Again, it’s hard to have too many of this item stored for an emergency.

2. If you haven’t thought about getting a generator, you probably should. Power is precious, and most natural disaster situations involve the power going out at some point. Generators allow you to rely on yourself for power while you are waiting for the government to step in and repair things. People who have survived natural disasters (especially Hurricane Sandy) have a lot to say about generators. Here are a few good tips:

  • Some household appliances are power hogs, and if you are using a generator, you will want to be wise about your use of these items: microwaves, toasters, freezers, refrigerators, and hot plates.
  • Generators require a lot of fuel to operate. Read your owner’s manual to find out what kind and how much fuel your generator needs, then store accordingly. Also find out how often your generator requires a filter change.
  • To save fuel, turn your generator off every night and back on in the morning.
  • IMPORTANT: Store a carbon monoxide detector to use with your generator. Did you know that there were nine reported deaths during Hurricane Sandy just from carbon monoxide poisoning from improper generator use? Use your generator safely.

3. Don’t neglect to stock up on treats. What does a treat mean for you? For me, it’s dark chocolate after dinner or a bowl of buttery popcorn while watching a movie with my best friend. But it can also be listening to Iron and Wine tunes after a long day or lying on the couch and reading a book. Many people who have survived disaster situations say that having treats around was sanity-saving.

The term “treat” is misleading because it implies that these things are bonuses and not necessary for long-term survival. In fact, this is not the case. Treats are crucial for their morale-boosting power. Human beings are not machines, and we cannot flourish in any kind of extended survival situation without comfort items. Comfort items help us feel calm and semi-normal in very abnormal circumstances.

As you gather your food storage and emergency supplies, don’t forget about comfort items. Whether it’s coffee, a favorite cereal, art supplies, or games, make sure you have a way to wind down and maintain normalcy.

4. Be a team player. One of the pieces of advice that surprised me by its frequency in different discussion boards is to make sure you work together with your neighbors. Sometimes in emergency preparedness, we are very self-focused as we work toward becoming self-reliant and being able to support our families without needing anyone else. At some point in a disaster situation, you have to be able to make a shift and look at how you can work with the larger community to restore order. Everyone will have different skills and knowledge to offer the situation, and working together means more gets done. A few great ideas were having a neighborhood potluck to use up food that was near its expiration date, making trades with others for labor or supplies, and getting together as a community to play music, watch movies, or tell stories.

5. Sharpen your survival skills. Plenty of people who have survived extended natural disaster situations say that the person who knows how to make a delicious meal with a camp stove and food storage supplies or who knows how to wire a generator quickly becomes a huge asset when disaster strikes. If you don’t have very many survival skills, get educated. Learn how to build better fires, purify water in any situation, or use solar cooking. Anything you learn now will save you later.

The Magic Amount: How Much Food You Should Store

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Have you ever kept a list of all the food you eat in a day? I once did this as a little experiment to see if what I thought I ate was similar to what I actually ate. When I looked at my list at the end of the day, I was surprised to see that I had eaten much more than I remembered. It reminded me a little of those diagrams of food that show how much the average person eats in a year with astronomical numbers like 30 pounds of cheese. The overwhelming amount of food a person consumes is precisely why it can be daunting to think of supplying a whole family with enough emergency food to last them for an extended period of time.

One of the most common questions people have when preparing for emergencies is how much food they need to have stored. If you are one of the many wondering how much food to stock away, here are some helpful tips.

Store something!

First and foremost, remember this: Storing something is always better than storing nothing. Often people are so intimidated by the enormity of the task of getting food storage for their family that they put it off and end up doing nothing at all. If you only gather enough food initially to feed your family for three days, that’s three days you wouldn’t have been able to feed them for previously. It’s okay to start small and add more food storage when you can. The important thing is that you start now, doing whatever you can afford and then adding more as you have more time and money.

Once you have three days’ worth, start to store up a month’s worth for each person, then three months, then six months, and so on. One year’s worth of emergency food for every person in your family should be your ultimate goal (or even more if you have the means). It might sound unreachable right now, but storing a year’s worth of food is entirely possible if you tackle it by small steps.

Figure out How Many Servings You Need

As you seek out emergency food, you will find that most food storage suppliers will quantify their food by the number of servings it provides. For example, you might see an offer along the lines of, “You pay x for y amount of servings.” One good place to start when deciding how much food to store is to use our long-term food storage calculator, which you can access here. This chart is pretty straightforward and will help you figure out how many servings you need to collect to feed your family for a specific amount of time.

To use our chart, first decide how many months you would like to get supplied for, then go down the chart to find the number of people in your family. For example, if you would like to start out by getting supplied for one month and you have four people in your family, find both of those numbers on the chart and then locate their intersection. For four people for one month, you’re looking at 360 servings. (This is assuming each person will eat three servings a day.) You can then go out and collect 360 servings’ worth of emergency food.

Caveat about Serving Size

There is one important principle to remember when you use this method to figure out how much food to store. It is this: All food storage companies have different definitions for the term “serving.” For one company, a measly 150 or 200 calories might constitute a serving. For another, a serving might have a more reasonable 400 or 500 calories. Be aware that three servings a day of only 200 calories each is only going to give you 600 calories for a day, not enough to sustain a child-sized body, let alone an average adult one. Most adults need somewhere between 1500-3000 calories to maintain their current state, so buying these “handy” food storage kits could leave you starving.

To avoid finding yourself with too little food, before you buy pre-packaged servings, find out how many calories are in each serving. Look for emergency food that has between 300 and 500 calories per serving. Otherwise your food storage kit that was advertised as being all-in-one and super convenient will not truly feed you for the time it claims. Legacy Premium serving sizes are always large (Most are around 325-400 calories), and they also offer plenty of nutritious, calorie-dense sides to help you fill in extra calories if you choose.

Store More Food Than You Think You Need

Ask anyone who has been in a situation in which they had to rely on their food storage and they’ll tell you the same thing. There is no such thing as too much emergency food. In emergency situations more than any other time, we need sufficient nourishment to keep us alert, positive, strong, and healthy. In addition, emergency situations often involve a lot of waiting around and worrying—waiting for news on the state of the disaster, worrying about loved ones not with us, or waiting around for power to come back on. In any kind of stressful or tedious atmosphere, most people tend to eat more than they normally would. Food is important in keeping the situation calm and positive. You will never regret that you had more food stored than you actually needed (if this is even possible).

As you can see, the title of this post is a bit misleading; there is no magic amount when it comes to storing emergency food. Start right now with storing whatever you can, and work up to storing at least a year’s worth. Use our food storage calculator to figure out how many servings you need to feed your family for your desired length of time, but also keep an eye on serving size and calories as you do this to make sure you are getting a sufficient amount. Most importantly, remember that you can never store too much emergency food.

 

Photo credit: Diliff / Foter / CC BY-SA

Buying Emergency Food That Lasts: An Overview of Food Storage Shelf Life (Part II)

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We talked last week about the importance of having food stored that is not going to go bad after only a few years of shelf time. Specifically, we tried to stress the importance of having emergency food that would last 25 years or more, not only for your safety and peace of mind but also for the convenience of storing foods that you won’t have to frequently rotate and replace.

This week, we’d like to talk about how you can be sure that emergency food is going to last as long as it is advertised to last. In order to do this, you need to be equipped with some basic knowledge about what affects the shelf life of any food. There are four main players in this game: food type, preservation method, packaging, and storage conditions.

Type of Food

My sixth-grade science experiment was to put milk in a pie tin and let it sit on the counter for weeks and then see what happened. I don’t think I have to tell you the results of that experiment. Suffice it to say that it’s a simple fact of nature—some foods have the ability to last a long time, and some do not. It’s important to keep this in mind as you build up your store of emergency food and be aware of the ingredients that are inside.

Researchers at Brigham Young University have been busy conducting testing on food storage that has been stored for long periods of time and examining which types of foods are still edible and have nutritional value. Their findings up to this point are that salt, baking soda, and granulated sugar have no known shelf life when stored in their original containers. Wheat and rice, when stored in cans, foil pouches, or buckets, can last 30 or more years. Powdered milk, oats, instant potatoes, beans, dried apples, and macaroni, when stored in a can or foil pouch with oxygen absorber, can last 15-30 years and still be edible and sustaining.

Other foods do not last as long, even when stored under ideal conditions. Wet-pack canned foods, for example, are only good for a few years, especially if they contain acidic foods like tomatoes, which can cause the cans to corrode and go bad much more quickly. Yeast and cooking oil only last 1 ½ years, and powdered eggs only 1 year.

The most important thing to remember is not to take food storage companies’ shelf life claims at face value. Doing your own bit of research and finding out what is in the emergency food and how long it will last will be worth it when the time comes to eat your food.

Type of Food Storage and Packaging

Not all methods of food storage are equal in their ability to keep a food good for a long time. As mentioned in the last section, wet-packed canned foods typically do not last as long as other types of food storage (usually five years at most, and this is an optimistic estimate). Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) have grown in popularity recently as a food storage method, but typically they have a shelf life of only around three years. In contrast, canned dry foods like bulk grains tend to be a long-lasting food storage type, and freeze-dried and dehydrated foods similarly have the potential for a very lengthy shelf life.

Of course, we are a little biased toward the freeze-drying and dehydrating process when it comes to preserving long-term food, but only because we have done our research and know what works. The process of freeze drying is particularly suited for long-term food because by manipulating the surrounding pressure of a food as is done in freeze-drying, an incredible amount of water can be removed from the food, leaving it in a condition that will not allow microorganisms to grow. Dehydration similarly removes moisture from the food by putting it through an intensive low-temperature drying chamber to remove water. Both of these methods enable food to last for a very long time.

Packaging is another important factor in the shelf life of emergency foods. Just like moisture, oxygen causes microorganisms to grow. If emergency food is not packaged correctly, oxygen will get in and spoil the food. It’s crucial that residual oxygen levels be below 2%. Nitrogen flushing and the use of oxygen absorbers are key to achieve this goal. If your food storage is not packaged in these ideal conditions, your food is going to spoil long before those 25 years are up.

Storage Conditions

Perhaps one of the greatest influences on the shelf life of your food storage is its storage conditions. When considering where to store your food storage, keep in mind the four environmental necessities for a long shelf life: low temperature, low moisture, low oxygen, and low light. Exposure to too much of any of these can spoil foods or result in off-flavors and loss of nutrients.

Low moisture, oxygen, and light levels should be taken care of if your emergency food is packaged correctly. Temperature is the factor that is completely within your control. For maximum shelf life, food needs to be stored in a consistently cool place (at least below room temperature.) Temperatures over room temperature can cause proteins to deteriorate and can spoil the food more quickly. High temperatures can reduce the shelf life of different foods by as much as a decade. For this reason, it’s not a great idea to store food storage in the garage or attic. Basements or pantries are a much better option because of their consistent temperatures. As Oscar Pike, lead researcher of BYU’s Long-Term Food Storage Research team put it, “If you ever have to eat your food storage, you’ll wish you had stored the food in the house and the furniture in the garage.”

There you have it—the rules for food longevity. Knowing what you know now, you can go out and judge emergency food suppliers’ shelf life claims for yourself. We hope we’ve convinced you that there’s no reason to settle for anything less than emergency food that will last 25 years. And we think you’ll find that Legacy Premium’s shelf-life guarantee is much more than just a marketing scheme. We know our stuff—and now so do you.

Buying Emergency Food that Lasts: An Overview of Food Storage Shelf Life (Part I)

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Imagine a possible future scene with me for a moment. An emergency situation has shown up at your doorstep. Your family is hungry, and you have reached the end of the food in your cupboards. You are now faced with opening that food storage that you have had stashed away in the basement for years, forgotten and dusty. Do you really want to be nervously sniffing that can of food and crossing your fingers that it’s not going to make you all horribly sick? Unless you get your kicks out of risky and possibly quite disgusting experiences, I don’t think you do. This, my friends, is why the shelf life of your food storage matters. When that emergency situation comes, you don’t want to be questioning the shelf life of the food you and your family are now meant to survive on. You want to be able to rest assured that you have made a good purchase. Having emergency food stored that is designed to last a very long time—25 years or more—offers a peace of mind that cannot be overstated.

I think we all know someone who is unflinchingly fearless when it comes to eating food that’s gone over its expiration date. When I was in high school, I had a friend who loved—I might even say obsessed over—canned mandarin oranges. One day, I was at her house and she pulled out a can of oranges and offered me some. As she did, I noticed that the expiration date on the can was about six months in the past. I pointed this out to her, and she shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to open and devour the entire can. I thought she was crazy and told her as much, but she assured me the oranges tasted good, so she finished her can and we forgot about it…for about an hour. At that point, she started to look really pale, and she told me in a weak voice that she didn’t feel so good. She proceeded to throw up all over the place, and I later found out that’s what she did for the rest of the night and the next few days. Luckily, the spoiled food didn’t cause her more harm than temporary discomfort, but from that time on, she could never stomach mandarin oranges again.

I tell this little story because I think of that friend every time I go to open something that has been in my cupboards for a longer time than I think it should have been. I know plenty of die-hard people who test the limits of expiration dates and are just fine (my husband is particularly gutsy in this area), but this memory of my mandarin-orange-loving friend has kept me extremely suspicious of any food that has been around for a long time. For me to be able to eat my food storage, I have to know that it is still going to be good when the time comes to use it. This is my biggest motivator in having emergency food like Legacy Premium food that is made to last up to 25 years.

Not only does having food storage with a 25-year-shelf life protect you from unpleasant and dangerous conditions, it also makes your life in the interim between now and a disaster situation a whole lot easier. If you buy food storage items that are only going to last a few years, you are going to have to be very organized and worry about rotating things out frequently and replacing them with new items. If you are like me, you probably don’t have much room on your to-do list, and this is not a very appealing prospect. Also, having to rotate and replace emergency food can become an expensive habit. In contrast, if you invest in food that will last a quarter of a century, you will only have to worry about replacement a few times in your life.

I hope I’ve convinced you that the shelf life of food storage is a crucial consideration to make when you are buying emergency food, and there is simply no reason to settle for food that has a shelf life of less than 25 years. Be aware, though, that as you go out in search of long-term food storage, you are going to find that the food storage industry is filled with companies who make big claims they cannot back up. Many food storage companies claim their food has a shelf life of 25 years or more, but often their claims are simply fancy words to put on their label and make them look good. Some emergency food companies have simply not done their research when it comes to ingredients that keep, and they include ingredients in their emergency food that spoil after a short amount of time. Uneducated food buyers then end up with a worthless product after just a few years.

Through extensive research and years of experience, Legacy Premium has designed its emergency food to last 25 years. Because of our freeze-drying process, our meticulous oxygen-removal system, and our knowledge about the most effective ways to package and store emergency food, we are confident in our claim of a 25-year shelf life. But we don’t want you to just take our word for it. As consumers, it’s important that you know the factors that affect the shelf life of emergency food so that you can make informed decisions when you are building up your food store. In next week’s post, we’ll talk about these factors in detail, so stay tuned, and be prepared to learn a little more about what makes emergency food last and why Legacy Premium foods are the ultimate in long-term food storage.

Happy Customers, Prepared for Life

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It’s always exciting to receive customer feedback, especially when it’s customer feedback that confirms everything we’ve been saying about PrepareWise’s superiority to other emergency food for so long. Admittedly, we are a little biased. But you, as people simply trying to find the best quality and value in emergency food, are pretty fair-minded. So when you tell us our product is good, it has to be true.

Here is some feedback we received recently from Mark, an experienced prepper and happy buyer of PrepareWise emergency foods:

 

We received our PrepareWise food order on Monday morning. The shipping was free and the delivery time faster than several other vendors we have used in the past. We decided to try it right away for lunch because our morning was full of work.

As we began to prepare lunch, we looked at the buckets and realized several very innovative features: the bucket tops are designed to mate with the bottom of other buckets, creating a more stable stack, and the lids do not come off all the way, creating a better seal and no chance for damaging or misplacing the lid. All the foods are immaculately packaged in thick mylar, contain oxygen absorbers, and are vacuum-sealed.

The ingredients are clearly listed on each package, and to our amazement we can pronounce the names of all the ingredients. We have yet to find a label with an artificial or unhealthy ingredient.

Preparation was easy: Bring water to a boil, pour in food, and cook for 15-18 minutes, stirring occasionally.

We tried the fettuccini alfredo. I can tell you that I have had several other competing brands’ fettuccini alfredo and was sorely disappointed. Frankly, yours was delicious. We are now trying to unload some of the other companies’ food so we can buy more PrepareWise. My children, mother-in-law, and wife all commented on the deep flavor and great seasoning. We tried it plain without the addition of any seasoning or meat and it was great. My eight-year-old son suggested that we add chicken so we opened a can of white chicken meat, and it was filling and delicious. It was one of the quietest lunches we have ever had. The kids were too busy eating to talk. We liked it so much we had dinner last night and breakfast this morning from our PrepareWise foods inventory. We want to eat the food now so when we have no choice later it is familiar and expected.

Thanks for developing a relationship with Legacy Foods. We have already told several friends about the food and will be purchasing more next month. Not only is the food delicious, but PrepareWise is the best value for the dollar I have found the past five years of prepping.

Thanks,

Mark and the LoneStar Posse

Thank you, Mark, for the thumbs-up. We work hard to offer the highest quality ingredients and create the best-tasting emergency food available. We also think it’s vital that food storage be easy to prepare and convenient to store. It validates everything we do here when we hear from customers that we are fulfilling our mission and helping you in your efforts to provide well for your family.

We can talk forever about PrepareWise food storage and tout its superiority, but it’s never going to mean the same thing to you as when you hear it from a fellow customer. Trust Mark—Once you try it, you’re going to have a hard time saving it for later.

The Perfect “Receptacle” for Storing This List of Emergency Foods

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If you’re planning to stock your food storage shelves with foods recommended by one very popular, very crunchy, natural news site, may we suggest a 96-gallon black plastic bin on wheels as a time-saving storage option?

The items we found published in this list of foods to “stockpile now” will be making the ominous trip to the curb for Friday morning trash pick-up so soon and so frequently that we really think your best bet is to pick up an extra city-approved garbage can to store it in. That way when your stockpile is spoiled in six months, you can simply kick it to the curb….well, wheel it, technically, and start all over! We think this should really streamline an otherwise tedious process for you.

Curious what we found on this ill-advised list? Here’s an excerpt:

• Crofter’s Organic – North American Super Fruit Spread
• Eden Organic – Kamut Spirals
• Eden Organic – Kamut and Quinoa Twisted Pair
• Eden Organic – Spelt Flakes- Toasted & Rolled
• Food for Life – Sprouted Grain Penne
• Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt
• Kavli – Five Grain Crispbread
• Nutiva – Shelled Hemp Seed
• Spicely Organic – All-Purpose Seasoning
• Spicely Organic – Vegetable Seasoning
• Spicely Organic – Ground Cloves – A great source of antioxidants
• Sunwarrior – Raw Vegan Protein
• Sprout Baby Food – Creamy Chicken & Mixed Garden Vegetables
• Brown rice (large bags)
• Steel-cut oatmeal

Not a bad shopping list for the week’s groceries but when it comes to long-term emergency food storage, there’s more to consider than whether the package displays the words, “raw”, “organic”, “vegan”, or the names of one or more ancient grains….sprouted, preferably. Now we love organic foods as much as the next person, but let’s be practical! Afterall, this food is meant to be used for survival under dire circumstances.

Let’s take a look at this list using a much more relevant food storage criteria- shelf life…..

Brown rice- 6 months

Vegan protein powder- 12 months

fruit spread- less than 18 months

crispbread- 18 months

Sprout baby food- 18 months

Eden products listed- 2 years

Steel-cut oatmeal- 15-25 years…. Now that’s a food you can stockpile!

The author suggests eating fresh foods in your day to day life while stockpiling these foods only for use in an emergency where access to fresh food is compromised. With shelf life ranging as low as 6 months, this means you can plan on throwing out a lot of spoiled food and spending a lot of cash to replace it. Speaking of lots of cash, won’t it feel good to know that you spared no expense in supplying the landfills with only the best organic foods available?

For people who eat these foods on a regular basis and want to rotate them out (I know I enjoy an organic baby food pouch as part of my daily diet) this list is fine, though irrelevant. Rotaters should buy the foods they normally eat in quantities equal to the amount they will consume over the product’s shelf life. They really shouldn’t need a list to tell them what they normally eat, right?

So we get it, eating clean organic foods is important. But this list just isn’t practical for use in long-term food storage. Instead of stockpiling something that you’ll have to throw out in 6-24 months, consider making freeze-dried and dehydrated foods with 25 year shelf life the basis of your emergency food supply. There’s really no contest. It’s long lasting, easy to use, reduces waste, and doesn’t involve any of that rotation song and dance. Best of all, you only have to buy it once!

And if you’re out to find the highest quality ingredients to keep your emergency food as clean as possible, look to Legacy Premium to offer the best of both worlds- quality nutrition that you can truly stockpile.

3 Reasons EVERYONE Should Have Coffee in their Emergency Food Supply

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Prepare Wise is excited to introduce a new product that’s sure to add a little kick to your food storage fare…. Legacy Premium Ground Coffee!

Now don’t worry, you won’t need to add Solar Powered Coffee Maker to your stash of emergency gadgets, hot water is all you need to brew this delightful, medium roast coffee. And with Legacy Premium’s quality packaging- nitrogen flushed mylar pouches with oxygen absorbers- you get coffee that will last up to 25 years…. if you can keep your hands off it! We’re so happy with this product, we think we just might convert a few of you to freeze-dried coffee every morning.

But don’t be fooled, this is no frivolous extra. Read on to learn the three reasons everyone should have coffee in their emergency food supply.

Energy

If there’s ever a time when a little extra zip might come in handy, it’s during an emergency. No matter what crisis you’re up against, you’ll want to be at your mental and physical best in order to meet the overwhelming demands the situation presents.

The positive metabolic effects of caffeine have been widely documented and are experienced by millions on a daily basis. The caffeine in coffee stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing heart rate, supplying more blood to muscles, and signaling the liver to release sugar into the blood stream, all of which contribute to increased energy. Also, under the influence of caffeine, fuel for the body is made more readily available which has the useful effect of reducing the user’s perceived exertion.

In addition to revving up the physical engine, caffeine can also have positive effects on mental energy. Dopamine rises to the occasion whenever caffeine is near, delivering its signature surge of clarity and concentration. After all, a crisis situation is no time to be searching frantically for a lost set of keys.

Overall, caffeine does an outstanding job of rallying one’s faculties, producing a crisp, energetic mental and physical state. When faced with unfamiliar situations where performance and decision making could be the difference between life and death, energy of mind and body is a must.

Routine

The brain is a very powerful thing. Every miraculous survival story where individuals manage to beat impossible odds will cite positive thinking as the difference-maker between those who survive and those who don’t. The simplest, most potent thing we can do to promote positive mental health in a crisis situation is to maintain as normal a routine as possible. Keeping to regular mealtimes, sleep times, and other daily activities as much as possible establishes a sense of security in the face of what would otherwise be chaos.

The simple act of drinking your morning cup of joe will send signals of familiarity to your brain, promoting a sense of control over your circumstances. By contrast, the absence of routine can leave you more at risk of crumbling under the weight of crippling fear and anxiety. So if the gal at the coffee shop knows you by name, adding coffee to your emergency food storage could be your ticket to life-saving mental health in a crisis situation.

 

Barter

You may not be a coffee drinker but 64% of the adults around you are, making this freeze- dried brew a valuable trading commodity. No matter how prepared you may be, there’s always the chance that a situation will arise where you’re lacking the one thing you desperately need. Since millions of Americans depend on a daily dose of coffee whose availability relies upon trade with developing countries as well as the domestic infrastructure necessary to distribute it throughout the United States, coffee could become a powerful trading tool in the face of a prolonged disruption to our food supply. Whether you plan to drink it or not, adding shelf-stable premium coffee to your preparedness tool belt is a great insurance plan for the unexpected scenario.

If you don’t have coffee in your Food Storage stash, get some!

Barrel-Ponics

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If you’re going to feed the fish, shouldn’t they feed you in return? It’s time to ditch your goldfish tank and dive into barrel-ponics! With as little space as a baby’s crib would occupy, you could be farming nutritious fish and vegetables together in a mostly closed system affectionately dubbed barrel-ponics.

The basic principle is this- fish waste nourishes plants allowing them to grow higher and more densely without the use of soil, fertilizer or pesticides. The plants in turn, cleanse the water of toxins thereby maintaining a healthy environment for fish to thrive. The system requires only basic, low cost materials to build and with a little practice becomes self-sustaining, requiring very little maintenance.

The man responsible for this ingenious invention is Travis W. Hughey. He seems to have stumbled into the world of aquaponics- the integration of aquaculture, or fishkeeping, and hydroponic, or soilless, plant growth techniques- when he bought an unneeded greenhouse from a high school in his area. With aquaponics, water consumption is lower and plant density is usually at least twice that of soil based methods. As Hughey immersed himself in the world of aquaponics, he, like many others, began to see the potential this type of system has to bring food to developing countries where soil quality and precipitation may be inadequate for traditional farming techniques.

The problem with bringing aquaponics to developing countries lies in its reliance on a robust electrical infrastructure to power the pumps, float switches, and timers used in the complex systems you see operating here in the states. Inspired by other experts in the field and determined to find a way, Hughey set out to build a small system that operates entirely without the use of electricity. And with that, barrel-ponics was born. Using large plastic barrels and common plumbing supplies, Hughey built a system designed to teach others the principles of aquaponics on a small, simple scale. Hughey’s ultimate goal is to use barrel-ponics to bring the technology of aquaponics to developing countries, places like Africa where they have an abundance of maize and cassava but very little in the area of greens and protein. By educating the people on the basic principles of aquaponics he hopes, in time, to see the technology adapted in such a way that it can be implemented on a much larger scale and used to fill crucial nutritional gaps throughout the world.

For ambitious preppers this design is ideal! We may not be out to feed an entire village but anything that adds to our ability to provide a sustainable food source in times of plenty as well as in times of want is worth learning about.

Hughey has published a manual for building his barrel-ponics system and has made it available to all as a free download. You can find it here. We also came across this tutorial for building a similar system at instructables.com. No mention was made of Travis Hughey but we suspect the information presented here can be traced back to Mr. Hughey’s innovative work.

Both sets of instructions are for a system of a scale sufficient to compliment the family kitchen with tomatoes, herbs, leafy greens, and the occasional fish. It is not meant to fully sustain a family, or even one person for that matter but it’s a unique twist on the family garden that’s sure to bring you one step closer to self-reliance!