18 January 2012, 23:41
You are better off dehydrating food and vacume packing it. That's what I'm going to be doing for my caches.
As for MRE's, I'm a REALLY fussy eater, just ask AlyBear, and the thought of eating an MRE kind of makes me heave a little. I think, if I have tins of food, or packets of beef jerky that will last around 8 years (in 2011 I ate chocolate that went off in 2003 and it tasted just fine, so screw what the sell-by date says!!! Go by what is actually true) then I'll have crops up and running by then.
Think of it this way. You're rotating food that lasts about 5 years (conservative estimate on my 8 year experience) and boom TSHTF. You'll still have food that will last another 5 years. If you can't get a crop growing in 3 years, you're probably a city slicker (BP's expression) or you're French. Either way, there's not much hope in a SHTF scenario.
Let's look at it another way. All good preppers have an alotment, or are out in the country planting seeds of fruit trees and the alike. Those will provide sustinance and buy time. You want to live off the land over the summer and autumn. But when the winter kicks in, natural foods will be much less readily available. So that is when you start to open the tins. If you have 1 years worth of food, you'll be able to split that up to 2 winters and 2 springs, living off the land in the summer and autumn. Meaning that you have at least 3 years to grow that crop to eat (if TSHTF in winter, you will have 2 winters, 2 springs, and 3 summers and 3 autumns. Same as if TSHTF in Summer, you have the land to live off for 2 seasons, so again you'll have 2 winters and 2 springs worth of food, but you'll get 4 summers and 4 autumns to ge the crop growing).
You needn't worry too much about having food that lasts 25 years. If you can't make it past year 3, there's no point worrying about how long the food stays fresh for.
I'd work mainly on learning to farm and live off the land. That way your preped food goes over twice as many seasons.
As for MRE's, I'm a REALLY fussy eater, just ask AlyBear, and the thought of eating an MRE kind of makes me heave a little. I think, if I have tins of food, or packets of beef jerky that will last around 8 years (in 2011 I ate chocolate that went off in 2003 and it tasted just fine, so screw what the sell-by date says!!! Go by what is actually true) then I'll have crops up and running by then.
Think of it this way. You're rotating food that lasts about 5 years (conservative estimate on my 8 year experience) and boom TSHTF. You'll still have food that will last another 5 years. If you can't get a crop growing in 3 years, you're probably a city slicker (BP's expression) or you're French. Either way, there's not much hope in a SHTF scenario.
Let's look at it another way. All good preppers have an alotment, or are out in the country planting seeds of fruit trees and the alike. Those will provide sustinance and buy time. You want to live off the land over the summer and autumn. But when the winter kicks in, natural foods will be much less readily available. So that is when you start to open the tins. If you have 1 years worth of food, you'll be able to split that up to 2 winters and 2 springs, living off the land in the summer and autumn. Meaning that you have at least 3 years to grow that crop to eat (if TSHTF in winter, you will have 2 winters, 2 springs, and 3 summers and 3 autumns. Same as if TSHTF in Summer, you have the land to live off for 2 seasons, so again you'll have 2 winters and 2 springs worth of food, but you'll get 4 summers and 4 autumns to ge the crop growing).
You needn't worry too much about having food that lasts 25 years. If you can't make it past year 3, there's no point worrying about how long the food stays fresh for.
I'd work mainly on learning to farm and live off the land. That way your preped food goes over twice as many seasons.