A prepper food pantry is where food is kept for emergency purposes. These emergency situations could be floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, pandemics, and so on.
Therefore, knowing how to start a food pantry as a prepper will make sure you and your family have enough food to last through any emergency situation until things return to normalcy.
The following are suggestions from doomsday preppers from around the world, suggesting the best ways to build up your food pantry as a prepper.
Without further ado, these are things you need to put in mind as a prepper when starting your food pantry.
First of all, store foods you're familiar with.
In the face of disaster, the best consolation you could give yourself is to eat what you are already familiar with. You don’t want to eat just anything.
You also don’t want to eat foods that’ll upset your body system, making you throw up all over the place.
Therefore, you want to stock food items that you love. There are a lot of prepper food ideas from top preppers themselves which you’ll most definitely love.
Secondly, choose non-perishable food items.
Eggs, flour, rice, beans, pasta, dehydrated fruits, etc, are non-perishable foods that have a long shelf life. These foods should be a part of your survival pantry food list.
Moreover, you can buy some of these in bulk to save money since their prices could potentially spike during emergencies. That’s if you have the opportunity to get them at all.
Thirdly, choose nutritional foods.
You don't want to fill your store with junk and other unhealthy foods. You need something that will give you energy, strength, and keep you healthy.
Therefore, opt for foods that are rich in protein, vitamins, minerals, and so on. Some of the best prepper food ideas are beans, nuts, rice, corn, eggs, amongst others.
You don't have to buy them all at once; it should be a gradual process to ensure you do not buy things you don't need.
And a good prepper practice is always to use previously purchased food items first and replace them with new ones.
Now that you are familiar with how to start a prepper food pantry and what to start with, let’s talk about how to preserve your food items in your pantry.
Most certainly, you don't want your food items to turn bad in days or weeks after you've purchased them. If that’s the case with you, you want to make sure you follow the following food preservation techniques.
1. Canning.
There are foods that can stay fresh for months when stored in air-tight cans. These could be meat, jams, fermented vegetables, etc. Therefore, you don't necessarily need to store every food in a refrigerator. If you can’t do this process yourself, you can choose to purchase canned food items at the grocery shop when buying food items from your food pantry.
2. Dehydration.
Taking out the liquid in certain foods including meat, fruits, beef, pork, etc. and letting them dry up is also a good way to preserving them. Ancient technique involves sun-drying these food items. However, with the help of modern technologies, a dehydrator can serve the same purpose.
3. Curing.
Your meat, fish, and vegetable can be preserved using this technique. In this process salt is used to draw moisture from the food item. This helps to preserve it for a very long time.
4. Fermentation.
Fermentation is used in the production of certain foods. Some of these are sauerkraut and pickles. You can also choose to ferment the food items you deem fit.
Now, that's how to stock a pantry on just about any budget and still ensure you've got the right foods in place.
Resources:
Tactical: https://www.tactical.com/the-ultimate-guide-on-how-to-build-a-prepper-pantry/
Happy Prepper: https://happypreppers.com/preppers-pantry.html
Survival Common Sense: https://survivalcommonsense.com/stock-your-prepper-food-pantry-on-an-affordable-budget/
Ask a Prepper: https://www.askaprepper.com/15-rules-building-prepper-pantry/
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