Three Month Evaluation of Food Storage

Everyone who reads my blog knows I have been working on food storage since January.
For those who don't know, I took Sharon Astyk's "Food Storage Class" in January, a class that lasted one month. Sharon provided resources for everyone in the class so that we could assess our current food situation and look at our needs. She also asked us questions and gave us answers to our questions. It was a great opportunity to take the class and come closer to understanding food storage as a means to preparing for any type of emergency, from local weather issues which could last for 3 or more weeks, to something referred to as the "Long Emergency", which refers to the economic downswing that our country and whole world is experiencing right now.

During the class I was able to identify a few goals, and work towards them.


Literally cleared out my pantry and got rid of anything that was not good (looked at dates on food).

Organized current food in pantry.

Made room in my house for more food storage (gave away items I didn't need, and organized my possessions a bit better (looking at my kitchen right now, one would never believe that!).

Decided what was my goal for food storage. I set out to have 3 months of food in my pantry. It looked impossible, but I did settle on that goal, with plans to increase the amount of food to 6 months and eventually to 1 year.

Searched for food storage sources in my area. Looked for canning supplies and scored 126 canning jars on Freecycle in my area.

Learn to make from scratch a few items that are important to me. I found a new recipe for bread which is working out nicely, and I learned to make yogurt and became sucessful at it.

Sharon gave information for talking to friends, family and neighbors, to help get them involved in food storage as well. I've talked to alot of people about food storage, but I'm not going to push it, however if someone else talks about lack of food or has an interest in food storage, then I will offer what I have learned.

Took my first shopping trip in January, to start thinking about how I would be able to go about food storage. It was hughly overwhelming, and I ended up crying just a little bit while at the store, because I realized that I didn't really have a good plan for HOW to save food. That helped me realize that I needed to buy one major item per month, and allow for other items which may be on sale, or that I was out of at the time. This has worked out well for me, instead of rushing in and buying a bunch of food. Just like learning how to walk, food storage has a learning curve. : )

I'm at the three month point (in a few days) and I am proud to say that I have surpassed my goals and I currently have a 5 month preserve of food. I do have some gaping holes in things that I both want and need, and this fourth month will be spent filling in the holes. We could survive as is. But I don't think we want to JUST survive. We want to enjoy life, and food is part of that enjoyment, especially healthy food.

As I push off from the first three months, I have new goals. I want to find local foods, from dairy to vegetables. I'm growing a garden again this year, but this year it will be a bit larger. I'm not planning to invest in the stock market, but in a diverse garden. From tomatoes to cucumbers to eggplants and much more, I hope to have a variety of vegetables from our garden this year, which we will preserve by canning and drying.

In the past, families always had extra food that they withheld from their everyday meals. They always had something they saved for hard times. These are hard times, and I hope to save something extra, besides what we will be eating all summer and winter. What I don't grow, I hope to buy at the farmers market. However it happens, I'll be prepared for any type of food emergency that might happen this year.

Food storage is only part of the picture, and so I am working on a plan for adapting in place. See Sharon's blog for more infomation adapting in place. She makes alot of wonderful points for staying where you are, and she also wrote about leaving if the place you live is not going to sustain you through the "long emergency".

Just in case you don't have the link to her blog, here it is again:

Sharon Astyk's Blog: Depletion and Abundance: http://sharonastyk.com/

Jyotsna