How to Build 1 Year of Food Storage - Ultimate Guide

in this video i'm going to go through everything you would need to know to set up a food store supply that would provide enough for one person for one year and it could last up to 25 years properly stored i'll cover the specific food and storage items you should buy where i bought these items how to properly store them and where to store them all by the end of this video you'll have all the information you'll need all the guesswork it's going to be removed i've worked with a consultant on this video that has been prepping since the 1970s and she shared a lot of lessons she's learned over the years while storing food that we'll cover in this video i'll provide a link to my website in the description comment section below where i have everything we'll cover including spreadsheets and other important information you'll need so don't feel like you need to write everything down as i go through this now i realize it can feel a bit overwhelming when you start there's a lot to do and a lot to buy but just remember you can move at your own pace and don't have to buy everything at one time but rather over time if you so choose so let's jump in [Music] so here's what we'll cover types of pantries calorie considerations what food to buy where to buy everything we'll discuss how to store food we'll cover where to store the food mylar bags oxygen absorbers buckets storage totes labeling and other considerations keeping track of inventory along with rotation recipes cooking and water additional considerations again there's a lot to cover in this video and i'll provide a link to my website so you can study this more detail at your leisure types of pantries before we jump in let me point out that there are two types of long-term food storage pantries a working pantry and a long-term pantry a working pantry is rotated on a constant basis following the old prepper adage eat what you store and store what you eat our family tends to eat fresh food we prepare each week but i wanted a food backup supply if there were a major prolonged disaster so i went with a long-term pantry approach which i'll detail in this video which mostly contains food items that can be stored for five to twenty five years but how you rotate or use your food is completely up to you regardless of which type of pantry you ultimately build the principles we'll lay out will still apply calorie considerations how many calories does a person need to survive each day the general rule of thumb is around 2200 calories per day but many factors have to be considered such as gender age weight and activity this is the important one if you were to multiply 2200 by 365 which is the days in a year you would get 803 thousand this is a target we're aiming to hit for calories if you divide the amount of food we'll cover by 12 the months in a year you will have the following for each month to eat 66 pounds of grain 20 pounds of beans 0.83 quarts about 24 ounces of oil 10 pounds of sweetener two third pounds of salt and that's less than one salt container and four pounds of milk what food to buy what i'll cover next is based on one adult person if you have more than one person in your household don't get dismayed but scale this up accordingly all the information i'm about to list is in a spreadsheet which i'll provide a link to so don't feel like you have to copy all this information as i go through it if after hearing the items i selected you decide you have different tastes or prefer different choices again by all means change to what you want 800 pounds of greens i went with 300 pounds of white rice 20 pounds of corn 400 pounds of wheat and you'll need a wheat grinder 50 pounds of oats 15 pounds of barley and 150 pounds of pasta i went a little over 800 pounds but again adjust the numbers as you see fit 240 pounds of beans i went with 120 pounds of pinto beans 30 pounds of red kidney beans 100 pounds of black beans and 15 pounds of split peas 10 quarts of oil this would probably be enough for a family oil is one of those items you need to make sure you properly rotate on a regular basis as it can go rancid i went with olive oil shortening coconut oil and butter powder 120 pounds of sweetener this can include white sugar brown sugar carrot syrup maple syrup jams and jelly and raw honey not only is honey a sweetener but it also has medicinal value 8 pounds of salt it seems like a lot and could probably be used for your family but remember salt can be also used for preserving food 50 pounds of milk milk is so versatile you can use your powdered milk to make your cream cream cheese bread cereal or faux cheese 25 pounds of juice are bever sweetener you can store large cans of powder punch lemonade or tang your taste buds will thank you 20 pounds of meat if one serving is about a quarter pound this will be 80 servings at 20 pounds you'll be eating meat about once every four to five days i plan on freeze drying a lot of meat this year to boost this number up for now i have a lot of canned chicken and spam 90 pounds of dried fruits and vegetables this is a quarter pound of fruit or vegetables a day for a year most cans at the store contain 15 ounces not quite a pound but close enough 90 pounds of fruit equals approximately 90 cans spices spices add variety to your food so you don't experience food fatigue you'll probably want to consider adding the following salt pepper garlic ginger ketchup nutmeg oregano cinnamon vinegar vanilla italian seasonings cumin thyme mayonnaise dehydrated onions where to buy everything we'll discuss for the food i purchased i would say about 75 of what i bought was purchased at costco the rest i picked up at sam's club winco a few items at honeyville.com and amazon.com if you don't have these stores in your area many of the items can be picked up at the large chain stores like walmart or target in the spreadsheet i'll provide i'll list out where i get each of the items so you can prepare your shopping list before heading out for the shelves mylar bags and oxygen absorbers i purchased all of these on amazon some of the items like the buckets storage bins and shelves can also be purchased at your local stores pro tip if you contact your local bakeries they may have food grade buckets that they'll give you as they often discard these how to store food where should you store the food in your home food lasts longer when stored in a cool dry dark place heat reduces a life span so don't store your food in a garage or attic i use a downstairs closet that stays relatively cool throughout the year and is dark ideally you need to store these somewhere that is under 70 degrees fahrenheit you can also store buckets under a bed or in other out of the way locations get creative but try to avoid anywhere with a lot of heat sunlight and moisture on my website provide information detailing how long food will last based on the temperature where it is stored just remember the cooler the better mylar bags buckets and storage totes there are a few ways to do this but you have to factor in a setup that allows you to remove the oxygen and at the same time protect your food from rodents you can store food directly in food grade buckets as long as you have an airtight lid with oxygen absorbers for me since i'm storing this long term and many of the items probably won't be consumed unless there's an emergency i'm adding the food to my lard bags placing them in food grade buckets and then adding oxygen absorbers directly in the mylar bags before sealing them up while you can buy bucket lids with seals i would hate to open a bucket only to find the still deteriorated many of my smaller mylar bags will be placed inside of totes these are items that i will likely use in the near future and are easier to access using the items in the small bags again make sure you're putting the mylar bags inside of a hard storage container to prevent rodents or pets gaining access to the bags our cat once chewed through a few of the mylar bags in the past sitting on the shelf so you have to watch out for this can you use mason jars with oxygen absorbers yeah but plan on the lifespan being a little shorter as they will have exposure periodically to light depending on how you store them and canning jar lists typically have a life span of about 5 years labeling before adding food to your mylar bags be sure to label them nothing is worse than adding food to a bag and then sealing it and forgetting what you put inside i typically ride in the mylar bag and then on the bucket including the food item the date it was added and the weight defining the weight isn't necessary but i measure the weight of each bag on a scale so i can inventory this information how to add food to mylar bags oxygen absorbers and sealing the bag let's start with 5 gallon mylar bags now that we're ready to add the food to the mylar bag typically what i do is the following first i try to do a batch depending on how many oxygen absorbers i'll be using for example if i'm going to be opening a bag containing 10 2000 cc oxygen absorbers i try to line up the mylar bags with the food already in them based on how many 2000 cc oxygen absorbers i'll be using let's say i have five 5 gallon buckets that have beans in each of the mylar bags in this case i'll be using all 10 of the 2000 cc oxygen absorbers in these 5 buckets 2 for each bucket some food items require more oxygen absorbers such as possum beans which have more space in between each item while items that are more tightly packed like rice they require less oxygen absorbers i'll provide a link detailing how many oxygen absorbers you'll need for each food item it's pretty easy just look at the food item and it will show you how many oxygen absorbers you'll need based on the size of mylar bag you're using once you've determined this move to the next step now that you have the items ready to go fill up the bags with the food then to make things easier seal off the mylar bags about three-fourths of the way with a regular iron at around 350 degrees for four seconds i use a level from home depot which has a hard edge allowing me to iron on top of them i just hold the iron in place for four seconds no need to move back and forth like your iron and close i seal off three-fourths of the way so that before i add in the oxygen absorbers i've already seal off most of the bag and i can simply push out the air and seal off the rest with something like a hair flat iron at around 350 degrees be sure to look at the indicator that comes with each of these which will indicate whether they're still good or not the pink color on these specific oxygen absorbers indicates that they're still good your color may be different but just look at the indicator to make sure they haven't gone bad otherwise it defeats the purpose of what we're doing here as you can see we've lined up our buckets filled them up most of the way leaving a little space at the top to push the bucket lid down sealed off three-fourths of the mylar bag now we'll open the bag that holds our 2000 cc oxygen absorbers then we'll drop them into each bag based on how many oxygen absorbers that bag needs which we discussed a moment ago and then seal them off one by one and then you're done there's no need to vacuum these bags before sealing them off any bacteria or larva inside the food buckets will need oxygen to survive the oxygen absorbers will take care of that problem what's left behind is mostly nitrogen which will not support life if you feel like vacuuming all the air out well go for it but it's not necessary at all if you aren't going to use all the oxygen absorbers you can put them in a small mason jar with a syllable lid just fill the jar up with rice leaving space at the top for the oxygen absorbers rice will displace most of the air so the oxygen absorbers won't take in much for the smaller bags i follow the same approach but i have an impulse sealer again i just line the bags up drop the oxygen absorber in push the air out and then seal them off if you don't have one of these devices follow the same exact approach we reference above with a regular or flat iron and then seal them off i typically store these in a storage tub you can buy at home depot lowe's costco etc i like to put the smaller food items in this so i can quickly grab and use them inspecting the bags after sealing them come back a week later to make sure that the oxygen absorbers did their job and these bags have shrunken as the oxygen absorber has absorbed the oxygen if after you come back a week later and the bags are not shrunken in simply cut a small slit drop in a new oxygen absorber push the air out and then iron to reseal it repeat the cycle until you confirm that the absorber is working correctly remember some food items such as beans and pasta they have more space in between them and the oxygen will more easily be removed whereas items that are more tightly packed like wheat and rice they'll take a longer time to get all the oxygen out so give these a little more time a note about rodents and insects some people put their food in a freezer for a few days to kill a larva and their food yes the food you buy at the store has larva in it others use diatomaceous earth if you find moss in your closet where you store your food pick up moth traps and try to figure out where they're coming from regarding rodents again be sure to store these mylar bags inside of hard containers to prevent rodents or pets from chewing on these bags plus the plastic containers makes it easier to move these and for stacking finding food and rotation on my storage racks i have added labels on each level also on the side of storage bins i've added labels as well i do this so if there's an item we need to find we can simply type the food item into a spreadsheet search and look at the corresponding column to find out where that item is stored obviously if you have a small storage amount you may not need this but as you grow your inventory it would be a smart idea to think ahead to have some system of organization i've got a qr code on the wall to load the spreadsheet even faster i've also added a label outside the side of buckets and on the top so i know what's inside recipes you also need to consider what recipes you'll have on hand if there's no internet and you need to cook based on the items you've stored a few books you may want to consider are the preppers cookbook the pioneer cookbook cooking with home storage survival mom how to prepare your family for everyday disasters and worst case scenarios i'll put links again in the description section below to all these books cooking in water of course the question will come up how do you cook all of this and where will you get all this water for cooking i've done a number of videos covering different ways to cook after disaster and water storage i won't cover them here but i'll post the links to these videos in the description section below i know we covered a lot but again i'll put a link to my website where this information is all detailed that will help reduce the stress of trying to piece this all together yourself all the information is in this video and in more depth on my site again i worked with a prepper that has been doing this since 1970s and we tried to boil this information down to a firm foundation that it properly followed you can easily build on top of this and make modifications where you want i tend to be the type of person that likes to line things up and knock them all out at once so i'm not having to think about it anymore i spent a few days shopping to get all this food and storage items and i spent another few days putting up the shelves and storing away all the food but if you want to work on this over time then by all means go that route move at your own pace the key is to not procrastinate and instead get it done there's a sense of security that comes with knowing you've got the food items properly stored away you and your family have the security of knowing you'll be fine if you have any questions please feel free to post those in the comments section below and i try to answer as many as i can and potentially i'll do a follow-up video as i know there will probably be a lot of questions but hopefully i covered all the main points in this video as always stay safe out there [Music] you

Channel: City Prepping

Views: 113,780

Rating: 4.9654846 out of 5

Keywords: food storage, longterm food storage, prepper, preppers, doomsday prepper, emergency preparedness, prepper pantry

Id: JJ46s8cz6Mo

Length: 15min 33sec (933 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021