In Case Of Emergency

As I am sure you know, having things to eat and drink is a good thing. In fact, it is essential to good health. Okay, I am being a little silly, but the truth is, food and water is mandatory no matter what situation you find yourself in.

This line of thought brings me to the reality that if there is some kind of crisis or disaster, food and water will be a hard thing to come by. You can look at the economy and see this. Add to it an earthquake, tornado, hurricane, or just getting snowed in and you can see that perhaps storing up food is not so bad. It’s not gluttony, it’s practicality.

So let’s talk about this for a moment. If you look at a lot of the prepper channels on YouTube, many talk about freeze dried foods you can buy that will last 25+ years. What they don’t mention is the cost and taste. If you don’t have variety, your body will reject the foods you are eating.

On the other hand, you go to the store and buy canned goods on a regular basis. What if you just add a couple of cans or more each time you go shopping. When you get home, pull your current cans forward and place your new cans in back. You will be rotating your cans and won’t have to worry about the expiration date. By the way, that is not an expiration date, it is a date that suggest how long the food will taste good. The food is safe much longer than that date.

Next, here’s a hobby you can get into that will supplement your can goods and add freshness to your meals… gardening. You may think you need lots of land to produce a garden but there are other ways. 5-gallon buckets for example, make a great garden. You can even do that in an apartment! Potatoes, onions, and garlic are very easy to grow and extremely healthy. In fact, raw garlic has huge health benefits. Add a planter box or two and grow a wide array of spices and herbs. If you’re going to be in a disaster, your food might as well taste good. Don’t limit your garden to the items above – grow what you like to eat and is healthy.

Okay, you grew a garden, what do you do with the excess? What we do is use it on a daily basis (saves us grocery money) or we dehydrate it and store it. A word of warning – dehydrating onions will smell up your whole house – I know! If you have the money for it, you can also get a freeze dryer… they are not cheap. In other cases we can the goods. Canning is a great way to store whole meals as well and lasts for many years. In fact, you can even can raw meats.

What about other foods? In our case, we have five chickens for eggs. Those five chickens produced so many eggs, we had to give some away. I know not everyone can have chickens, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have eggs. There is a process called glassing where you can store eggs for a very long time. My point is, with a little research, you can find a solution to just about any food situation. Make it a family project or game and everybody will be onboard instead of them thinking you are crazy.

I promise you, when the lights go out and people are going hungry, you and your family will be glad you were a little “crazy.”

Now, let’s look at the Christian side of this. Over time you will have food to last a year or two and maybe more. This means that you can not only feed your immediate family – those living in your home right now – but you can help feed your extended family. Or, your elderly neighbor may not have the food to survive so you can step in and save the day. I am not suggesting you support your whole neighborhood, but you can help out some. For security reasons, I don’t suggest you tell everyone you are saving food, but when the time comes, you can help.

The old saying, “feed a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life,” certainly applies. We know the time is coming when we will be required to wear a mark on our hand or forehead in order to buy and sell goods and services. The Bible says not to take these marks but rather be prepared. I know this is not what we want to experience, but the fact remains, the Bible says many things are going to happen before the return of Christ, so be prepared.

What’s the worst that happens, you never have to use the food and water you stored up! Great! The way I look at it, I just gave my kids and family a head-start on surviving what ever may come. If you don’t like the stigma of being a prepper, don’t tell anyone. If you don’t think you can afford it, store a little at a time. Some is better than none at all.

As we get into the food and water prepping, I will be breaking things down a bit more and include some of the recipes we use and ways we store things. We will also get into some of the ways you can supplement your food and water. Till then, have fun preparing and be creative.

God Bless You and Yours.