# You need 12 months of preps - Minimum



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

The question is often asked..how much ammo, food, water, , etc do I need... Here I will focus on food

The answer, you need enough to last 1 year or you need the ability to produce it as needed.

If you are just prepping for is a natural disaster - then a few days of stuff will make you happy because the government will be there to help

HOWEVER if you are putting away for a longer event.... 1 year is a minimum..*why a year?*

Growing food will take awhile... if you live up north and it HTF in Sept... you are not planting until spring and not harvesting until mid summer or fall depending on the crop. So you should have at least 12 months of food to get you to a point where you can harvest

You do not want to be out gathering in the early stages...If you are forced to compete for resources with the cockroaches/zombies - you might find yourself dead

Get past the die off... if you have the supplies you can focus on security and work to keep safe, while others are dying...

If you are just starting - focus on quantity first >DEEP BUT NOT WIDE< (rice, beans, canned fruit, canned veggies, add some spices for flavor) .. after you have lots of those then start stocking what you eat and other comfort foods.... Better to live on rice and beans for a year then to go hungry after 30 days because you want to have WIDE AND DEEP


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

On a related note, as far as growing goes, I am all about having *two complete years* of seeds; plus a stock of pesticides/fungicides/fertilizer to match. Some years crops just stink even with expert care; Mother Nature still gets a vote. I don't want one year's failure of a crop to mean I never have that crop again.

Similarly, I'm aiming to plant four of each tree species that needs to cross-pollinate. I started with two pecans; but if either one died my crop would drop to nearly nothing. Deep before Wide, as Maine-Marine puts it.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

Enough for two growth cycles of growth....I still preach sustainability over stores of goods!


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## Will2 (Mar 20, 2013)

I'm not hardcore, time to time I'll have some extra rice or flour.
Frankly I consider any "major global calamaty" to be such that I will need to respond most likely by moving to a "safe area" after information gets out, and survivors start organizing. If SHTF for more than a few months all hell will break loose and in that event, there are serious considerations of where I can do the most good. I'm not the type to just sit back and watch good people get hurt so if things fell apart I wouldn't be porting a whole ton of food with me without a transport truck handy. None the less I don't consider it likely. The problem with such a large stockpile is that a lot of shelflife foods only have a 1 or 2 year best life, so you wil l need to go the whole 9 with oxygen absorbers and full on sealing up stuff in mylar, or preserves. If I were a stay in one place person I'd be all there but I travel and move around every few months. For a SHTF event of more than a few months, I will not be spending a winter here unless it is really really bad, which is incredibly unlikely. I'm talking Red Dawn scenario, not all too likely. If it is worse than that I don't really care cause it will be totally fubared regardless, if it ain't red dawn or major major major geological disaster then whatever. I consider there will be no sudden event beyond a local disaster and that could take a couple months tops to sort out if enough is left. For bigger events I would likely volutneer for recovery if needed. For the big big events, it will be stream of consciousness. 

While food shortages are possible I got tons of trees up here that I could strip down for cambium, pine nuts etc.., but it would just make sense to go to the food, like in the great depression.

But you can get a years worth of rice for under $200, same story for flour.
It doesn't take much. 

I don't plan on sitting still for anything that would result in a year of food shortage and need of food aid in the 1st world, it is unthinkable.

If you can't find somewhere stable you make it. There is no overnight event that is going to happen unless it is so bad it really doesn't matter. I wouldn't be concerned if I don't surive nuclear winter. If I did I'd probably be wishing I hadn't. It is about living a good life not simply living. I'd never kill myself but I don't prep for situations I wouldn't want to be alive in, I prep for situations that could happen that would be worth living after.

I am an aspiring survivalist so I don't really see "grown food" as the answer in the short term it will be about relying on starvation foods such as trees, grasses etc.. in any non winter month I could seriously stretch my food from my lawn and local weeds. There is TONS of food, it just ins't always safe to eat a lot of it unless you have to.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

1 week is a start . Will get you by the storm in most cases
1 month is better nothing like a bit more insurance incases of a big storm
1 year is a great goal. If done right and your store supply is rotated nothing goes to waste. As many have said 1 year will get you trough a growing cycle for producing what you need.
2 years even better,gives you some wiggle room. We have winter to deal with here . Growing food is no big deal for us but a 2 year supply just adds to a comfort zone and allows for time and energy to be spent in other ways.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

side topic: my parents had the ability to shop at a place that could sell them the grain, rice, salt in 50lb bags. What kind of store do I look for to find this? The local grocery stores don't cater this market.


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## Salt-N-Pepper (Aug 18, 2014)

Maine-Marine said:


> The answer, you need enough to last 1 year or you need the ability to produce it as needed.


Yes, although I would phrase it "You need enough to last 1 year AND you need the ability to produce it as needed."


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Advice to the youngsters;

Do not rely on trees and grasses or weeds for your survival food. That is not smart and it will be an indicator that you are not well mentally as well as potentially lead to physical ailments.


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

I got my 30 year buckets of wheat, oat groats, popcorn, barley, powdered milk, etc, at Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com) - (free shipping which is important as this stuff is heavy.) I put up my own beans, peas, lentils, rice in buckets with mylar bags and sealed with CO2 and O2 absorbers (ie: hand warmers that use iron powder - not the gel ones.) Sugar, salt, honey, spices at Costco. Costco also had 30 year buckets of oatmeal they were closing out - I bought all they had - like 12! Husband just stands back and acts like he doesn't know me. 

Non gluten grains such as buckwheat, millet and milo can be purchased at feed stores for CHEAP - like $7 for 50 pounds. It's used for birds and has perhaps a bit more husk parts than grain cleaned for humans, but it is fine. Birds are delicate creatures and can't tolerate chemicals or pesticides, so I figure if it's good enough for birds, it's good enough for me. It might also have some weevels, but hey, I eat crickets, so that doesn't bother me. I freeze it to kill anything, then seal in buckets with COs and O2 absorbers. The unhulled millet doesn't cook well, but grinds into a nice fine flour. Bucketwheat is great in pancakes! I use a combo flour of the grains for cooking, since I can't eat wheat.

Then I back filled with sale items from Emergency Essentials - like cans of peanut powder, shortening powder, powdered cheese, sale MREs.
All fruits and veggies are dehydrated or canned by me.

I have a years supply of long term items (30 year shelf life) that I am not rotating at this point.
Then I have a 30 day supply of canned goods and all the stuff we normally eat. That is rotated and will get us through any minor disaster without breaking out the big buckets.
I am gradually building up a year's supply of canned meat that will be rotated.

Lots of seeds, with plenty from my own garden that I know will do well here. Sustainability is the key. The stored food just buys time until garden and orchard are going great guns, cricket farm is up and running full bore, and small livestock is well established in numbers to sustain the family.

Fortunately we live in an area of the Sonoran Desert that is RICH in food sources, free for the gathering. Mesquite beans, cholla buds, palo verde beans, prickly pear fruit/pads - all important food sources for the native peoples, and dense in nutrients. I gather desert foods throughout the year and incorporate them into our diet regularly. It's a skill worth learning for everyone, no matter where you live. We also have a lovely little rodent called a packrat that is as big as a small rabbit. It lives on mesquite beans and prickly pear, and as long as those two durable plants exist, we have an unending supply of daily meat. When one pack rat is eliminated from a nest, another moves in. Don't even have to go hunting - just line up on a little trail coming out of a nest at dusk, and pop one off with the pellet gun. Sustainability doesn't get any easier!

Emergency Essentials - Food Storage Emergency Preparedness Emergency Kits


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## AquaHull (Jun 10, 2012)

Will2 said:


> I'm not hardcore, time to time I'll have some extra rice or flour.
> Frankly I consider any "major global calamaty" to be such that I will need to respond most likely by moving to a "safe area" after information gets out, and survivors start organizing. If SHTF for more than a few months all hell will break loose and in that event, there are serious considerations of where I can do the most good. I'm not the type to just sit back and watch good people get hurt so if things fell apart I wouldn't be porting a whole ton of food with me without a transport truck handy. None the less I don't consider it likely. The problem with such a large stockpile is that a lot of shelflife foods only have a 1 or 2 year best life, so you wil l need to go the whole 9 with oxygen absorbers and full on sealing up stuff in mylar, or preserves. If I were a stay in one place person I'd be all there but I travel and move around every few months. For a SHTF event of more than a few months, I will not be spending a winter here unless it is really really bad, which is incredibly unlikely. I'm talking Red Dawn scenario, not all too likely. If it is worse than that I don't really care cause it will be totally fubared regardless, if it ain't red dawn or major major major geological disaster then whatever. I consider there will be no sudden event beyond a local disaster and that could take a couple months tops to sort out if enough is left. For bigger events I would likely volutneer for recovery if needed. For the big big events, it will be stream of consciousness.
> 
> While food shortages are possible I got tons of trees up here that I could strip down for cambium, pine nuts etc.., but it would just make sense to go to the food, like in the great depression.
> ...


And folks here pick on you, yet you have some good insight here.


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## lbrose (Jul 25, 2015)

Smitty901 said:


> 1 week is a start . Will get you by the storm in most cases
> 1 month is better nothing like a bit more insurance incases of a big storm
> 1 year is a great goal. If done right and your store supply is rotated nothing goes to waste. As many have said 1 year will get you trough a growing cycle for producing what you need.
> 2 years even better,gives you some wiggle room. We have winter to deal with here . Growing food is no big deal for us but a 2 year supply just adds to a comfort zone and allows for time and energy to be spent in other ways.


I have two months and building up to six. Prefer a year but space is a challenge. 
I want RNPrepper's setup. It's a great goal to have in a two years.
Being prepared means less stress. I'm all for that.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

tinkerhell said:


> side topic: My parents had the ability to shop at a place that could sell them the grain, rice, salt in 50lb bags. What kind of store do i look for to find this? The local grocery stores don't cater this market.


Commercial bakery wholesale supply houses, that is where I get mine, save the rice.
The flour also comes in 100 pound bags.
Look on line at General Mills flour options, bromated and non bromated, there are better ones available for bread making like their "all trumphs".
There are many types specifically for breads, rolls, bagels, pizza, pastries, etc. They will specify which ones for a specific product.
You can get coarse and fine cornmeal, fine and coarse rye, 100# bags of salts of different types, semolina. 
They are much better than using general purpose flour.
One pound nitrogen filled bags of active dry yeast for just a few dollars. 
IIRC, the fifty pound bag price per pound was about 35% of super market 5 pound bag price.
GM will tell you of local distributor locations.
I brought my truck into the local distributor and loaded one ton of flour and corn meal.
Another trip, a ton of sugar, salt, rye chops, fine rye, and shortening in #10 cans by the case. also 60 pound pails(5 gallon) of clover honey.


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## slewfoot (Nov 6, 2013)

tinkerhell said:


> side topic: my parents had the ability to shop at a place that could sell them the grain, rice, salt in 50lb bags. What kind of store do I look for to find this? The local grocery stores don't cater this market.


You can go to amazons site and order rice, flour, sugar, and a lot more things in 50 pound bags.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

BEST PLACE - HANDS DOWN for long term wheat, rice, and other things...

Self-Reliance - store.lds.org

comes in #10 cans ready for long term storage, shipping is super cheap and you can not beat the price... you cann ot even beat it by doing it yourself if you factor in time and travel and equipment


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