Most Reliable Food Source?

[Who0ligan]

I want to thank you guys who answered my last thread so thoroughly, I appreciate it.

For this thread, I am curious as to what you guys feel is the most (or some of the most) reliable method(s) of having enough food during the course of a SHTF scenario. Whether it be gardening, hunting, or simply bringing enough along with you. I've seen many people that feel that they can simply bug out to the wilderness with a bag and live of the land for eternity with little to no real experience. I assure you I an not one of these people. I find this quite ridiculous, and I am simply asking as a point of reference. I believe if anything were to happen it would be resolved to the point that I could return to a semi normal way of living within 3-5 months (at the very most). I mention this because this is the time frame I want to be in your head as you consider the best option for a food source. I'm aware the answers depend on area, so just use the area that you are in.

TL;DR - What is the best/most reliable food source for a SHTF scenario spanning 3-5 months?

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[B52U]

The best thing to do is store simple shelf stable foods that you would normally eat and rotate your stock through normal eating. Canned goods, rice, beans, pasta, flour, wheat etc. If you go the "buy all at once dehydrated meals in a box" route keep in mind you will need lots of water stored (as you should anyway). Some folks count what is in the water heater as water storage.

No need to go into debt to accomplish this. Just pick up a few extras with regular trips to the store. Gradually you will have what you need.

[PA PATRIOT]

Water first then worry about food later.

If you live in a apartment I would suggest six 24 bottle cases (Full sized bottles)of water per person. Its cheap enough to do if you have a local discount food store near by and storage space is not extremely demanding if you stack six cases in a corner of each room.

If you own a home and have a well make sure you have a solar or hand crank back up to keep the water flowing and a home test kit to ensure the water is safe to drink. If your hooked up to the county or city water system then either 55 gallon food grade barrels or larger containers to store at least 100 gallons of water per person and another 100 gallons each for food prep and sanitation.

[Who0ligan]

Water first then worry about food later.

If you live in a apartment I would suggest six 24 bottle cases (Full sized bottles)of water per person. Its cheap enough to do if you have a local discount food store near by and storage space is not extremely demanding if you stack six cases in a corner of each room.

If you own a home and have a well make sure you have a solar or hand crank back up to keep the water flowing and a home test kit to ensure the water is safe to drink. If your hooked up to the county or city water system then either 55 gallon food grade barrels or larger containers to store at least 100 gallons of water per person and another 100 gallons each for food prep and sanitation.

Thank you. I always thought of water and food on a pretty similar level in terms of importance. I didn't realize how much more important water was than food, but I can understand why.

[TXBK]

It's good to remember the rule of "3's": You can go 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food....bear in mind this is a broad generalization, but excede these and you are in serious trouble.
It's best to be flexible and versatile with your stored rations. There are different situasions that require different solutions.
Although, both food and water are essential, clean water is the most important of the two. A mixture of canned goods, dehydrated food, MRE's, and raw food items is what you should strive to stockpile.
Don't get overwhelmed getting started.....just get started, and as time goes on and your storage increases, it gets easier!!

[SMETNA]

The best thing to do is store simple shelf stable foods that you would normally eat and rotate your stock through normal eating. Canned goods, rice, beans, pasta, flour, wheat etc. If you go the "buy all at once dehydrated meals in a box" route keep in mind you will need lots of water stored (as you should anyway). Some folks count what is in the water heater as water storage.

No need to go into debt to accomplish this. Just pick up a few extras with regular trips to the store. Gradually you will have what you need.

This pretty much exactly.

Store what you normally eat. Supplement that with some pales of rice, beans, pasta, maybe some Freeze-dried veggies. Enough for 6 months.

If you come across some food in addition to your stores, use that first. Think of storage food as "If I had no luck buying/hunting/harvesting any food today, I'll dip into the stored"

What is the best/most reliable food source for a SHTF scenario spanning 3-5 months?

The above is your best bet. However, I also recommend filling a shoebox full of various vegetable seeds, just in case your 3-5 month shtf turns into an 8-12, and you've run out of stored foods.

Anything greater than a year, whole different ballgame

[Who0ligan]

The above is your best bet. However, I also recommend filling a shoebox full of various vegetable seeds, just in case your 3-5 month shtf turns into an 8-12, and you've run out of stored foods.

Any ideas on vegetable seeds that will be the easiest to maintain?

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[Awesome1228]

First question that comes to my mind is if you are planning to be at your home or other secure location, or if you expect to be roaming the countryside for an extended period, and if so why? From the sound of your post I'm getting that you will expect to be out and about. A secure location is your first priority, and if you have to leave it, there better be a damn good reason for doing so. A secondary location is your next priority. You should have food and water and other essential supplies stored at both locations. You should also have enough supplies readily available to get you from one location to the other, or from workplace to either location. I have a bag with me at all times that will get me home from anywhere I am in the normal course of my day. I have a larger bag in each of my vehicles that should suffice if I am outside of my normal daily travel area. If I am going on an trip or traveling for any reason outside of a 100 mile radius of home or back up location, I make sure there are additional supplies that will get me back to either location. (My home and secondary location are about 150 miles apart, and a third location is about 100 miles beyond my back up location.) I can think of very few scenarios where I would not be in one of those locations, or traveling from one to another. My home (primary) location is in a city of close to a million people, but fairly isolated geographically. The next city of any real size is 500 miles to the south, with some pretty daunting terrain between. Another larger city about 600 miles to the east is separated by a major mountain range. Both of my back up locations are in very small communities, situated in large wilderness areas. If I have to leave home, I would be supplementing my stored supplies with hunting, fishing and gathering, but I wouldn't want to rely on that alone.

As mentioned above, you should hope to supplement your stored food and water with hunting or gardening or gathering in the wild, if possible. Relying on what nature can provide on the fly is a recipe for going hungry.

[Who0ligan]

First question that comes to my mind is if you are planning to be at your home or other secure location, or if you expect to be roaming the countryside for an extended period, and if so why? From the sound of your post I'm getting that you will expect to be out and about. A secure location is your first priority, and if you have to leave it, there better be a damn good reason for doing so. A secondary location is your next priority. You should have food and water and other essential supplies stored at both locations. You should also have enough supplies readily available to get you from one location to the other, or from workplace to either location. I have a bag with me at all times that will get me home from anywhere I am in the normal course of my day. I have a larger bag in each of my vehicles that should suffice if I am outside of my normal daily travel area. If I am going on an trip or traveling for any reason outside of a 100 mile radius of home or back up location, I make sure there are additional supplies that will get me back to either location. (My home and secondary location are about 150 miles apart, and a third location is about 100 miles beyond my back up location.) I can think of very few scenarios where I would not be in one of those locations, or traveling from one to another. My home (primary) location is in a city of close to a million people, but fairly isolated geographically. The next city of any real size is 500 miles to the south, with some pretty daunting terrain between. Another larger city about 600 miles to the east is separated by a major mountain range. Both of my back up locations are in very small communities, situated in large wilderness areas. If I have to leave home, I would be supplementing my stored supplies with hunting, fishing and gathering, but I wouldn't want to rely on that alone.

As mentioned above, you should hope to supplement your stored food and water with hunting or gardening or gathering in the wild, if possible. Relying on what nature can provide on the fly is a recipe for going hungry.

It's not an out and about situation as much as it is a secondary location. I'm not convinced that my house would be the best place to stay given its location if things go south. Because of this I have another location, but I am only beginning my food stores and do not have the money to build them up right away. That's why I'm asking about gardening because it seems to be the simplest way, aside from hunting, to provide.

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[Awesome1228]

It's not an out and about situation as much as it is a secondary location. I'm not convinced that my house would be the best place to stay given its location if things go south. Because of this I have another location, but I am only beginning my food stores and do not have the money to build them up right away. That's why I'm asking about gardening because it seems to be the simplest way, aside from hunting, to provide.

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I see. Gardening is great if you have the knowledge and space. I don't have much of the knowledge, although it is on the top of a short list of things I need to learn, and quickly. I do a lot of trading with friends and family who do garden. I hunt, so I will trade fresh meat for fresh produce, which I then preserve. In my mind, being able to preserve when you have an abundance is almost as important as getting the food in the first place.For instance, when I get a bucket or two full of tomatoes, I make salsa, marinara sauce, tomato paste etc. in large batches, and can it up. Shelf stable for at least a year. Sure, its not really long-term, but this is the kind of stuff that I use on a regular basis, so I rotate through it. As posted a couple times above, store the stuff you use, and use the stuff you store. That way, it doesn't really seem like a hardship when you buy extra. By the way, that's a great way to stat building stores up. When you buy a package of rice or pasta for dinner, buy two instead, and put one away. A couple bucks at a time and it will build up fast.

Anyway, back to my point. If you are planning to learn to grow food, I strongly suggest that you learn canning as well. It's pretty nice to open up the cupboard and pull out a jar of cherry-blueberry jam in the middle of winter, and have it taste just like it did in June when I put it up. You have to think about not only what you are going to eat, but variety as well. You cant eat plain rice and beans every day or you will go nuts. Food is one of the true pleasures in life, and in a bad situation, keeping spirits up by having food that you actually want to eat rather than just filling the hole in your belly can make a difference in morale and overall attitude. Throw some homemade salsa on those rice and beans, some spicy marinara on that pasta.

There is a lot of info out there on seeds and gardening. No real first hand experience here with gardening, but all the people who I know recommend using unaltered seeds that self pollinate. A lot of seeds apparently have been modified to not pollinate, so that next year you have to buy more seeds. The only real experience I have is with square foot gardening. do a google search, there's a ton out there.