Captain Dave's Survival Center


 

Captain Dave's Survival Guide

 

Step 1: Building your Pantry

The first step of building your supply of emergency food starts at the grocery or warehouse club store. Captain Dave encourages people to buy and store grains, to obtain well-known brands of long-term storage foods such as Ready Reserve Foods, and to add MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and backpacking food and sports bars/energy bars to their stash. However, that is step two. Step one is to start small by building the store of traditional, commercial foods you keep in your larder.

storage pantry

This existing food reserve should not include food in your refrigerator or freezer because in th event of a power failure, you cannot count on those items remaining edible for more than a day (fridge) or three (freezer), at most. So half a cow or deer in the freezer is great, but you may have to cook, smoke and/or can it on short notice, should the power be out for a long time.

You should be able to easily build a small cushion of food -- enough to last three weeks or a month -- simply by adding commercially available dried or canned foods to your pantry. Captain Dave recommends the following as the minimum to comfortably feed a family of four for a month, but feel free to build on it based on your personal tastes and needs:

  • 10+ pounds of dried pasta -- multiple varieties
  • 1 jar or can of pasta sauce per pound of pasta
  • 10 to 20 pounds of dried beans, such as kidney beans, northern beans, garbanzo beans split peas and lentils
  • 2 to 5 pounds of barley
  • Dried bean soup mix
  • 10+ pounds of rice. Get large bags, not packets or mixes.
  • 25+ pounds of flour
  • 10 pounds of corn meal
  • 10 pounds of sugar
  • Baking powder, baking soda, yeast packets
  • 1 large can of shortening
  • Salt and spices, including onion flakes
  • Bullion cubes, coffee and tea, hot chocolate mix
  • Powdered drink mixes
  • 5+ pounds of crackers, multiple varieties
  • 5 pounds of peanut butter
  • 5+ pounds of powdered milk
  • 30+ cans of canned vegetables, many different varieties
  • 6+ cans of diced tomatoes or similar tomato products
  • 24+ cans of canned fruits, apple sauce, etc.
  • Dried fruit, such as raisins, banana chips
  • 24+ cans of soup
  • 12+ cans of pasta in meat sauce, such as Chef-Boy-R-Dee brand
  • 12+ cans of meat products, such as Spam
  • 12+ cans of beef stew
  • 8 cans of baked beans
  • 8 cans of other beans
  • 24 cans of Tuna or other canned fish
  • Powdered potatoes, unless you have 20+ pounds of fresh on hand
  • 2 pounds of oatmeal plus other hot cereals
  • 6+ boxes of cold cereal, preferably healthy varieties
  • Several jars or cans of nuts
  • Cooking oil

Based on this limited selection you could have meals like the following:

Breakfasts

  • Cold cereal with powdered milk
  • Hot cereal
  • Scratch-made pancakes
  • Scratch made biscuits
  • Scratch-made cornbread
  • Potato pancakes
  • Scratch baked muffins

Lunches

  • Canned soup with crackers
  • Scratch made soup with beans, barley, rice, etc.
  • Peanut butter sandwiches on scratch-made bread or crackers
  • Tuna salad sandwiches on scratch-made bread or crackers
  • Canned pastas

Dinners

  • Pasta and sauce
  • Split pea or other soup
  • Beef stew
  • Rice and beans
  • Canned meat

Sides for dinner or lunch

  • 3-bean salad
  • Canned vegetables
  • Rolls, bread sticks or slices of fresh-baked bread
  • Corn bread
  • Rice
  • Baked beans
  • Mashed potatoes

Desserts

  • Rice pudding
  • Canned fruit
  • Oatmeal cookies
  • Scratch-baked cakes and confections

Snacks

  • Nuts
  • Peanut butter and crackers
  • Raisins
  • Baked goods

Keep in mind that in an emergency, not only might you lose the contents of the fridge, you may not be able to use the microwave or food processor. You might need to heat soup over a fire or cook pancakes on a camp stove. So everything must be relatively simple to prepare. Avoid single-serving packaging because everyone must eat the same item at the same time with no complaints. (If they are hungry enough, they will!) And it means junk food like potato chips, nachos and French fries will be gone in the first few days, so be prepared for grumbling.

shelves

A quick examination of your cupboards and cabinets will tell you how much you need to add to ensure you have enough food for a week or two. If you have a few packages of pasta, some cans of vegetables, a box of crackers and a jar of peanut butter, you're halfway there. But if you have a habit of dropping by the deli every time you're hungry, or shopping for the evening meal on your way home from work (as many single, urban dwellers do), you'll need to change your habits and stock up.

Rotation Systems

The main difference between the commercially prepared foods you buy in the grocery store and the specially prepared "survival" foods is the shelf stability. You can't store grocery store items for five to ten years, as you can with special nitro-packed cans or vacuum sealed pouches. As a result, if you have a month's worth of grocery store items as part of your survival stash, you need to rotate your stock, either on an ongoing basis or every two to three months. This will ensure you have fresh food (if you can consider canned and dry food "fresh") and do not waste your food and money.

There are many systems for rotating your stock:

Captain Dave finds the easiest is to put newly purchase foods at the rear of the shelf, thus ensuring the oldest food, which will have made its way to the front, will be consumed first.

You can also number food packages with consecutive numbers (a "one" the first time you bring home spaghetti sauce, a "two" the next, etc.) and eat those with the lowest number first.

He currently relies on manufacturer's expiration dates and cans or boxes without dates get the purchase date written on a piece of masking tape stuck to the package.

shelving

At a prior home, Captain Dave constructed low shelving that was slanted. Cans added to the back of the shelf rolled down to the front as the cans purchase earlier were consumed. This gravity feed system also had the benefit of physically rotating the cans (as they rolled, they turned) so that no the contest stayed mixed and nothing accumulated at the top.

The need for rotation is why you should store your grocery items in your home or at a retreat location that you frequently visit. If you store your survival stash in a special location, you'll need to physically remove and replace 20 to 25 percent of it every two months (thus ensuring nothing sits for more than eight or 10 months). The materials you remove should be placed in your kitchen for immediate consumption.

As a general rule, traditional canned foods should be consumed within a year. For cans with expiration dates, such as Campbell's soups, you may find you have 18 months, two, or even three years before they expire. But for cans without a date, or with a code that consumers can't translate, Captain Dave recommends that you eat them before a year passes. Based on personal experience, he recommends eating canned fruit and canned fish first.

Generally, canned foods will not "go bad" over time, unless the can is punctured. But canned food will loose its taste, the texture or color may deteriorate, and the nutritional value may drop over time. Food may separate, oil may rise to the top, flavors may blend together or the contents may even taste like the can. Food engineering and technology continues to expand shelf lives, and plenty of folks have eaten canned food that's three to five years old with no ill effects, but why do so if you don't need to? Rotate your food supply by consuming it or donating it to charity and you will always have a good supply of fresh, recently canned and dried food on hand.

Let's say that you bought a case of 12 cans of peas on sale. You over estimated the demand for peas in your home, and nine months later you still have 10 cans. Dave recommends donating them to a soup kitchen, Boy Scout food drive. or similar charity. This will keep them from being wasted and give you a tax deductible donation. Then make a note to buy green beans or lima beans instead of peas.

Cooking oil must also be rotated and should not be stored more than six months. If you do not consume it in a year or less, you run the risk of it getting rancid. While fully rancid fats can be smelled, it may start to go rancid before your nose can detect it. Shortening in a cardboard can should not be stored more than a year. Shortening in metal cans can be stored much longer and is reputed to have a shelf life of up to 10 years. That is why we consider it a survival staple

Baking

As you can see from the above list of meals, simple raw materials for baking, such as flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, yeast, oil, and shortening, are important assets in a food storage plan. With these staple items, you can make everything from pancakes or rolls to breading fresh fish.

For those looking for a simpler answer, mixes for muffins, corn bread, and pancakes mean you do not need to add eggs or measure ingredients. These ready-made or pre-mixed ingredients can be a boon. Of course, you may need a Dutch oven or griddle for that stove or fireplace. Corn bread, corn tortillas, corn pancakes and other items made from cornmeal can be cooked more easily than traditional bread, even if you have nothing but a flat rock and an open fire. It may not sound too appetizing, but when you have not had a meal for several days, a hot cornbread pancake cooked on a piece of salvaged metal would be terrific.

For long-term survival storage, honey stores for years and can replace sugar in recipes. Captain Dave has kept five pound containers of honey until they crystallize, but this does not hurt the honey or reduces its sweetness. Simply set the container in a pail of very hot water boiling or close to it for as long as it takes for the honey to return to its liquid state. This will vary from minutes to hours, depending on the amount of honey. The honey may over time crystallize again, but simply repeat the process.

White flour should be used in six months, preferably sooner, while whole wheat should be used in less than six months or it may begin to go rancid. Dave recommends storing wheat or whole grains, which will last almost indefinitely, rather than milled flour. If you store grains, make sure you have at least one hand crank grain mill and appropriate spare parts. Then you can mill your own flour whenever necessary. Red winter wheat, golden wheat, corn and other grains can be purchased in 45-pound lots packed in nitrogen-packed bags and shipped in large plastic pails. You can also buy 50 pound bags and store them yourself. (See the Food Storage FAQ for more on grains and storage methods.)