The Pantry Primer: How to Build a One-Year Food Supply in Three Months
by Daisy Luther
Did you ever stop to think about what you would do if all of your preps were gone? Heaven forbid such a misfortune might happen, but what if your pantry was wiped out in a fire or flood? If you had to start over, how would you go about it?
As many of you know, my daughter and I have recently moved across the continent, from the easternmost part of Ontario to the Pacific Northwestern US. Because we were crossing the border, driving through extreme heat, and then storing our belongings in a trailer for a month, I couldn’t bring our food supplies.
We still have our tools and equipment, but we are starting over as far as our pantry is concerned. As well, we only brought a small trailer, so we are also starting from scratch for goods like toilet paper and laundry soap.
Being without my one-year supply of food makes me feel uncomfortable and very vulnerable, given the economic circumstances in the US today. To make matters worse, because of the timing of the move, I won’t have a garden to rely on this year aside from a couple of tomato and pepper plants that my friend kindly allowed me to plant in her own garden.
We are fortunate enough to be staying with friends while waiting for our new home to become available, and much to our anticipation, we’ll be moving in this week. I’ve gotten away from blogging about the day-to-day stuff, but I thought that it might be interesting, especially to new preppers, to see how we rebuild our food supply and get our little farm going on a very tight budget. (That move was expensive!)
Why do you need a one-year food supply?
Widget not in any sidebars
Why do you need a one-year food supply?
Simple. A one-year food supply means freedom. It means that you are less subject to the whims of the economy. You can handle small disasters with aplomb. You aren’t reliant on the government if a crisis strikes.
Food is a control mechanism and has been for centuries. I wrote an article recently about how governments around the world have used food as a way to subjugate people and bend them to the will of tyrannical leaders.
Here we are, just like at other times in history, right on the verge of losing freedoms to the government machine. In question is our right to bear arms, our economy, our choices in health care and taxation without representation (via the Obamacare bill). The offerings at the grocery stores are not just poor, they’re toxic, but growing your own food is frowned upon and made difficult. Many people believe martial law is close at hand, and there is discussion in the US Congress about microchipping people and about requiring global ID cards.
We are being spied on, taxed, and silenced. The sheeple don’t care – they just want that next refill on the EBT card, or the next paycheck that will go to pay the minimum payment on their maxed-out credit card. There will be different levels of resistance before it gets to the point of starving people into submission.
First, there are the liberal left-wingers, who don’t require persuasion or bribery – they are giving away their freedom with both hands for the greater good.
Then, you have the dumbed-down population on assistance by choice. It would be an easy thing to persuade them to take a microchip or hand over their guns. In fact, we’re seeing just that with the buy-back programs, where folks are trading guns for gift cards.
As times get more desperate (and they will, you can count on it) regular everyday people, like the ones you work with, will give up what seems like a tiny amount of freedom in order to have the “privilege” of putting more food on the table or keeping a roof over the head of their families for another month or two.
That’s when the real crackdown will begin. When the majority of people are subjugated, tagged and inventoried, even more than they are now, that’s when the rest of us will be targeted. Suddenly, without an ID chip, we won’t be able to access our bank accounts. This would mean that we can’t buy necessities or pay our bills. If we won’t surrender our weapons, we won’t be able to send our kids to school or access our money to buy food. Our children won’t be able to see a doctor if they’re sick. The plan will be to make us so desperate that we will opt for subjugation over freedom. And they’ll use food to do it.
But you can avoid all of this…simply by being self reliant. And that starts with a pantry full of food.
The Plan
The goal is to rebuild a healthy one-year food supply over the next three months. I plan to do that using the following methods:
- Shopping the sales
- Buying in bulk
- Buying from local farmers and preserving the harvest
- Getting a fall garden going
Our budget isn’t big. We are starting at square one – our cupboards are absolutely empty. Our journey is comparable to that of a family with a week-to-week budget who is just beginning to build a pantry. Because we are concurrently shopping for groceries and all of those odds and ends which arise when you move into a new home, I won’t be able to blow an entire week’s grocery money on a 100-pound bag of sugar and a 100-pound bag of wheat berries – I have to also keep us fed, healthy, and in clean clothing. After a few weeks of building the pantry, I’ll be able to forgo a weekly shopping trip and put that money towards some large purchases.
Today’s Shopping Trip
- 2 boxes of organic granola $1.95 ea
- 1 box of organic puffed wheat cereal $1.50
- 1 box of couscous $2
- 4 pounds of organic brown rice $2.80
- 1 box of organic instant oatmeal packs (cringe) $2.50
- 2 pound bag of sea salt $2
- 2 cans of organic pasta fagioli soup $1.50 ea
- 5 containers of spices $8
- 1 bottle of extra virgin olive oil $6.50
Total with tax: $33.72
- 60 rolls of toilet paper $15.00
- 2 pump bottles of hand soap $1 ea.
- 1 jug of laundry soap $4
- 2 bottles of dish soap $1 ea
The laundry soap will last us until we gather the supplies to make our own homemade soap in a couple of weeks.
The dried beans and the peanut butter weren’t a good price, so I’m still on the lookout for those. We’ll require some fresh items once we get moved in this week: fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy products, and I plan to pick most of those up at the farmer’s market on Friday.
If you’re new at this…
Please don’t be discouraged when you see all of the doom and gloom out there. You can take the most important step today…the step of getting started. I invite you to take this journey with me – we’ll both have a year’s supply of food in no time at all!
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at [email protected]
