I am always a bit embarrassed to have anyone see my basement storage system. I have many cases of commercially prepared, bought from supermarket, canned food. Whenever I see one of those sales like “20 cans for $10.00″ “full case for $7.50″ I stock up on a few staples. What’s down there? I have beans, brown bread, tomatoes, pasta sauce, fruits, vegetables, tuna, crab, chicken, soups, stocks, stew, chili, mushrooms, olives, juices, condiments and stocks. I am sure I have other things but it’s 5:30 in the morning and I’m not going to go look. At least a couple of times a week I try to use up some the storage foods just so I can rotate through them.
I don’t like supporting agribiz in any form so I do try to purchase in the least loathsome way possible but still, it is not in line with my values to get this kind of food. I do it though because you never know. I checked out my applesauce this week and discovered several jars that had lost their seals. Then I smelled something rotten in the root cellar and found the cabbage had all gone bad. This kind of stuff happens. I like to keep redundant sources of food just in case. If the power was out for a long time, I will be able to can a lot of our meat but not all of it. Having canned meat as a backup makes good sense. In a bad tomato year (like this one) I rely on my purchased sauce. If I had to depend solely on my own canned fruit, I would not get through a year which is why I store canned pineapple.
Redundancy is a good idea for many things. I have many more hurricane lamps than I need to cover breakage and to have some to lend. I can cook on my stove top or my camp stove or my sterno stove or my wood stove or in my solar oven. I have extra boots and gloves and coats and socks. You just never know when one system will break down or when the 5 people you planned for will balloon into 9. You never know when you will need to give some of your supplies to your community to help the many who are not prepared.
Today, I am off to our little farmstand to buy some redundant supplies. The cabbage will need to be replaced and I need winter squash to make up for the dozens that were eaten by the woodchucks. If I can’t get them, I will be very grateful for the 50 cans of pumpkin and squash that are sitting in my basement.
November 24, 2009 at 7:39 am
For now, we all must rely on outside sources. They are what can and will get us through until we are more self sufficient. There is no shame in that at all. Building a self reliant life style take a long time, no reason to starve until you do! You also have to consider that though the goal is self reliance, there will always be things we can’t grow (pineapple, sugar, wheat)and there is also the fact that many things can be gotten for less than you can make them. This frees up time and money to spend on the primary goal.
November 24, 2009 at 8:06 am
So true. We can’t be purists about preparedness.
November 24, 2009 at 9:59 am
Thank you for saying this. So many “experts” make one feel like a failure for supporting agribiz in any way. I’ve come to the conclusion that I can only do what I can do and that is good enough.
November 24, 2009 at 10:23 am
I don’t see any problems filling up the “corners” of your food stores with store-bought items. Primarily, my fruits and veggies are either homegrown or locally traded, but you just can’t grow pineapple in Ohio! I use store-bought to fill in the gaps and there’s nothing wrong with it!
November 24, 2009 at 10:40 am
if you are “collecting” canned food, please keep in mind that you cannot live on cheap ones for too long. Two weeks ago we had this competition at work: eat 5 lunches for 4£ (so 0.80£ per lunch). Oh dear, after 3 days everyone felt a bit sick, with things going worse every day.
I cannot even look at cheap canned food since then :/
November 24, 2009 at 11:11 am
I was thinking the same thing as Annie. I get down on myself for not doing more but there’s only so many hours in the day. Between working full-time and three young kids, well, you know how it goes. Thanks for the reminder.
November 24, 2009 at 11:50 am
It’s funny how critical we can be of our best efforts when so many don’t try to do the right thing ever. I can’t imagine doing all of this and working too. Having 3 little kids is a second full time job in a lot of ways.
November 24, 2009 at 1:32 pm
And here I thought it was your job to tell us how to be ready for the end of the world!
I never thought you’d have doubts about preparing however we can for it. 
You’re just doing the best you can and it might be a little frightening to have the rest of us following you!
thanks for your blog and information, Kathy.
Peace to All,
shamba
November 27, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Just wondering…you mentioned brown bread. Do you really have canned bread? The stuff you can find in US supermarkets never fails to amaze me when I visit