Food Prepping the Apocalypse

This week I decided to finally get on to the food portion of my apocalypse prepping. The guns are all set, I have my water plans down, so now food. After searching around the internet and looking at all of the food survival kits I finalized on doing it myself due to the high cost of doing it all at once.

I already had a small food vacuum sealer, but the clear bags weren’t going to cut it for long term storage, so I picked up 100 mylar bags from the internet with 100 oxygen absorbers for ~$40. For ultra long term storage, oxygen is the real problem and mylar is impregnable by O2. It took some trickiness to get my vac sealer to work with mylar, but thanks to youtube I got it figured out.

For this first batch, I chose the most shelf stable stuff I could think of. According to the internets, this whole batch should last 30 years. In the pic is 25 pounds of white rice, 15 pounds of various beans, 10 pounds of instant mashed potatoes, 8 pounds of quick oats, 8 pounds of spaghetti noodles, (carb party at my house) and also vac sealed a whole tub of whey protein.

I’m currently building a home freeze-dryer out of surplus scientific equipment I have on hand, so I’ll add veggies and fruits next. (or worst case I’ll bite the bullet and buy those if my freeze dryer experiment is a bust)

Anyone else have a stash??

building one. I am glad that I have experimented with things like IF and protein sparing fasts because those who cant function without food are going out first and fast.
Ive already detailed places that are on my hit list (places to hit up before leaving town.) Ive got plans and an exit route. Im gona get Gone Baby Gone!

Last Tuesday on the NatGeo channel, a new show called Doomsday Preppers premiered. Definitely give it a watch. Some are…pretty prepared but there is some great info. Check the NatGeo site for tips.

Well, I think it’s crazy.

But then again, you’ll have the last laugh when we die out of starvation.

There’s no apocalypse on my calendar…which one are you guys using???

[quote]Nards wrote:
There’s no apocalypse on my calendar…which one are you guys using???[/quote]

Is there a wrong reason to be prepared?

Worst case, I have extra food to eat.

i have 6-7 cases of MREs that i’ve ‘aquired’ in the past year or so that i’ve got laying around.

curious about your ‘water plan’, if you don’t mind. i’ve got two of those portable filtration systems, but i don’t see how you could store water long term

Well, I just plan on eating the people that are also left over.

[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:
i have 6-7 cases of MREs that i’ve ‘aquired’ in the past year or so that i’ve got laying around.

curious about your ‘water plan’, if you don’t mind. i’ve got two of those portable filtration systems, but i don’t see how you could store water long term[/quote]

Water is the easy part in Michigan, we’re a flat state surrounded by huge freshwater lakes and covered with small ones. I have a Katadyn Pocket ( http://www.amazon.com/Katadyn-8013618-Pocket-Water-Microfilter/dp/B0007U00YE/ ) which has a 0.2 micron filter that can filter out all viruses and bacteria, plus it puts out about a quart of water a minute.

The only thing I feel I need to add is a rainwater collection system, and I get a little tax-break if I install one.

Long term water storage isn’t a good idea, but I am toying with a first-in-first-out system of water bottles. With a modest investment I could get 10 5-gallon drinking water jugs (used in water coolers) and just use it daily so that there aren’t any jugs in storage for too long.

Once I play for a bit with my freeze-dryer, I’m looking at a way to create charcoal at home for water filtration. It’s a pretty easy process to make it, but the devil is in the details.

Nards, we are using the mayan one, which one are you using???

[quote]borrek wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
There’s no apocalypse on my calendar…which one are you guys using???[/quote]

Is there a wrong reason to be prepared?

Worst case, I have extra food to eat.[/quote]

That’s how I feel. I haven’t seen the new NatGeo show yet, but from what I’ve heard…ugh. It sounds like they got some of the kookiest people they could find and showcased them…

Nothing wrong with being prepared though. I have one month of bottled water and canned goods stored away. Enough for the apocalypse? No. But, if I lose my job, if there’s a crippling earthquake (I do live in SF), or etc, I got a month of food and water to cover my ass.

If the internet goes down and beer becomes unavailable I’m not sure there’s anything to live for.

^^^That’s why I homebrew man, after the shit goes down it’ll be like liquid gold.

[quote]benos4752 wrote:

[quote]borrek wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
There’s no apocalypse on my calendar…which one are you guys using???[/quote]

Is there a wrong reason to be prepared?

Worst case, I have extra food to eat.[/quote]

I haven’t seen the new NatGeo show yet, but from what I’ve heard…ugh. It sounds like they got some of the kookiest people they could find and showcased them…
[/quote]

Ya they are pretty kookie. There is one couple that actually lives close by to me that was on that show and they were definitely the most extreme. They built a fort, have 50,000lbs of food, and recycle their feces for methane gas. But you can learn alot of things from them. The show is a good watch.

Instead of stockpiling stuff, wouldn’t it be better to develop the skills to acquire food or build shelter in a given region?

With a few inches of thread, a feather of virtually any type, and a fish hook I can tie a fly that will catch fish for long time. A small packet that will fit in your back pocket and a twig from any given tree combined with the knowledge of regional fauna will feed me and my wife for months.

Seems a bit more rational and mobile than a backpack of camping gear, a bunker full of dried food, and hoping to win a gun battle with any number of people who want to raid your depot.

And if anybody tries to bully or take your food, just make them a nice meal of fresh caught walleye and amanita bisporigera.

[quote]farmerson12 wrote:

[quote]benos4752 wrote:

[quote]borrek wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
There’s no apocalypse on my calendar…which one are you guys using???[/quote]

Is there a wrong reason to be prepared?

Worst case, I have extra food to eat.[/quote]

I haven’t seen the new NatGeo show yet, but from what I’ve heard…ugh. It sounds like they got some of the kookiest people they could find and showcased them…
[/quote]

Ya they are pretty kookie. There is one couple that actually lives close by to me that was on that show and they were definitely the most extreme. They built a fort, have 50,000lbs of food, and recycle their feces for methane gas. But you can learn alot of things from them. The show is a good watch.[/quote]

I read an interview with that girl from Texas. She said they edited her actions to make her look as crazy as possible. The show reported she was prepping in case of a global petroleum industry collapse, but in reality she told them being in Texas she was mainly worried about a Katrina-style event. Producers told her that was too boring.

Also, in the scene where she said she would shoot her cats if she had to bug out, they left out the part where she said she would do that only if it look like everyone - people included - were going to starve to death. Her statement was that she would shoot them instead of watching them suffer to death. The producer even went as far as offering her $1000 to shoot her cat on camera.

[quote]borrek wrote:

Also, in the scene where she said she would shoot her cats if she had to bug out, they left out the part where she said she would do that only if it look like everyone - people included - were going to starve to death. Her statement was that she would shoot them instead of watching them suffer to death. The producer even went as far as offering her $1000 to shoot her cat on camera.
[/quote]

She would kill an animal without realizing that it is better equipped to survive without a social structure than she will ever be, And will willingly bring her food?

Good luck to her!

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
Instead of stockpiling stuff, wouldn’t it be better to develop the skills to acquire food or build shelter in a given region?

With a few inches of thread, a feather of virtually any type, and a fish hook I can tie a fly that will catch fish for long time. A small packet that will fit in your back pocket and a twig from any given tree combined with the knowledge of regional fauna will feed me and my wife for months.

Seems a bit more rational and mobile than a backpack of camping gear, a bunker full of dried food, and hoping to win a gun battle with any number of people who want to raid your depot.

And if anybody tries to bully or take your food, just make them a nice meal of fresh caught walleye and amanita bisporigera.
[/quote]

That is certainly good advice, but it doesn’t make having stockpile any less important. What if the issue I’m facing is an especially virulent bird-flu outbreak and I risk infection by standing out shoulder to shoulder with all of the other starving people hoping to catch a fish. I may survive a flu, but I have small kids at home.

In that case, I’d rather hole up for a month and wait for it all to pass.

There are times to shelter in place, and there are times to bug-out. The wisest course of action is to be prepared for both. I’d say the rarest of all possibilities is to have to fend for myself in an unfamiliar wilderness.

[quote]borrek wrote:

[quote]farmerson12 wrote:

[quote]benos4752 wrote:

[quote]borrek wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
There’s no apocalypse on my calendar…which one are you guys using???[/quote]

Is there a wrong reason to be prepared?

Worst case, I have extra food to eat.[/quote]

I haven’t seen the new NatGeo show yet, but from what I’ve heard…ugh. It sounds like they got some of the kookiest people they could find and showcased them…
[/quote]

Ya they are pretty kookie. There is one couple that actually lives close by to me that was on that show and they were definitely the most extreme. They built a fort, have 50,000lbs of food, and recycle their feces for methane gas. But you can learn alot of things from them. The show is a good watch.[/quote]

I read an interview with that girl from Texas. She said they edited her actions to make her look as crazy as possible. The show reported she was prepping in case of a global petroleum industry collapse, but in reality she told them being in Texas she was mainly worried about a Katrina-style event. Producers told her that was too boring.

Also, in the scene where she said she would shoot her cats if she had to bug out, they left out the part where she said she would do that only if it look like everyone - people included - were going to starve to death. Her statement was that she would shoot them instead of watching them suffer to death. The producer even went as far as offering her $1000 to shoot her cat on camera.
[/quote]

Actually I was talking about the older couple from Floresville. Im not surprised the producers warped her intent. All about show appeal.

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:

[quote]borrek wrote:

Also, in the scene where she said she would shoot her cats if she had to bug out, they left out the part where she said she would do that only if it look like everyone - people included - were going to starve to death. Her statement was that she would shoot them instead of watching them suffer to death. The producer even went as far as offering her $1000 to shoot her cat on camera.
[/quote]

She would kill an animal without realizing that it is better equipped to survive without a social structure than she will ever be, And will willingly bring her food?

Good luck to her!
[/quote]

No, that was how she was portrayed and partially why she looked so crazy on the show. After the show aired she clarified that she said she would only kill the cats if they were starving to death - which would only happen if she herself were starving to death because she said she would share her food until the end. They still had claws, and would be let outside to hunt.