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Freeze-Dried and Dehydrated Food
Preferred by Backdoor Survival. This is the Emergency Food I buy for m own use. It is non-GMO and MSG-free plus there are 100% Gluten-Free options. Shipping is always free.
If you are new to freeze-dried foods, you might want to investigate their 16 serving Sample Pack.
Emergency Essentials is a leader is providing survival gear and food to prepper’s. They have recently renewed their commitment to customer service, especially for their online customer base.
Shop the Emergency Essentials Daily & Monthly Sales for Fantastic Deals!
They offer daily and monthly specials with some of the best pricing out there on preparedness products.
Mountain House, a division of OFD Foods, is the top of the line as far as I am concerned. You can purchase their products online at Emergency Essentials or Amazon.com or at many other online retailers. Stored properly, Mountain House products last up to 25+ years.
If you are lucky enough to live near an LDS Home Center, you are in for a treat. The LDS Home Centers are open to the public but call first because their hours may be limited. That said, you can find the best prices around on wheat, powdered instant milk, oats, and a number of other bulk foods for your food storage pantry.
LDS also sells a number of items in their online store.
No list would be complete without including Amazon. They have a wide selection of brands and products from which to choose from.
Bulk Foods Packaging & Tools
I purchase my Mylar bags from Amazon and from Discount Mylar Bags. Both offer a wide variety of sizes although I find the 1 gallon and 5 gallon to be the most useful.
Note that it is frequently economical to purchase Mylar bags and O2 absorbers in combo packs.
Read more: Survival Basics: Using Mylar Bags for Food Storage
The most convenient sizes are 100 cc, 300 cc, and 1000 cc. If you prefer to stick to one size, you can use multiples.
Read more: Survival Basics: What the Heck are Oxygen Absorbers?
My favorite method of storage is Mylar bags encased in buckets and sealed with a gamma seal. The gamma seal allows easy access to the contents and the bucket itself keeps out pest, such as the field mice that are so common where I live.
Costco Online often has fabulous deals on buckets with gamma seals as does Emergency Essentials. Check out their Do It Yourself SuperPail Combo.
If you decide to go with a standard lid, you will save yourself a bit of grief by also purchasing an inexpensive lid opener.
Desiccants are used to absorb excess moisture when humidity is a problem. Speaking generally, desiccants are to moisture what oxygen is to air.
Read more: A Beginners Guide to Desiccants
Books
How to Live on Wheat by John Hill
When I first become a prepper, I thought that references to wheat were crazy. Who buys wheat these days? After reading this book by John Hill, I changed my tune. Who knew how useful wheat can be in the survival pantry. In this book you will learn how to cook, sprout, store and consume wheat as well as a number of other grains. I promise you, this book will change your view of wheat forever.
Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage by Gaye Levy
Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage is a book about food: What to store, how to store it and best practices. It is a roadmap for showing ordinary citizens that long-term food storage is not something that will overwhelm or burden the family budget.
The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide to Whole Food on a Half-Price Budget by Daisy Luther
Written by my friend and colleague, Daisy Luther, Pantry Primer is a detailed compendium of all things food storage. It is written by a prepper, for a prepper.
Other Useful Items
For short term storage of five years or less, nothing beats a Food Saver. Especially useful are these jar sealers that can be used to seal bulk food in a mason jar. Be sure to add an oxygen absorber!
My own Food Saver is an inexpensive model and it works just fine.
An inexpensive hair iron will make sealing Mylar bags a cinch. There is no reason to spend a lot of money when using a hair straightening iron for this purpose.
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I hope this list of resources is helpful. As new items become available, I will continue to add to this list.
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Last update: 01-13-2016