# Do You Have Enough? Eye-opening article.....



## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

new post I read was eye-opening....www.preparednesspro.com. Read here...entitled as do you have enough? The pictures are truely eye-openng noting this absolute minimum amt. food per year per person only equals ONE meal a day...and a scant one at that. Can't seem to get the link to come up correctly in post.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

it worked just fine for me!

Actually, if that is what the "standard" 300 pounds of grain and 75 pounds of beans will get you, I think that I would want to double it. Because, I intend to be gardening and getting firewood, and I will need to burn calories to do that!!!!!!!!!!


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## stamphappy (Jul 29, 2010)

linky worked fine for me as well. That's a great article and I really like how she showed the true amounts of food on a plate that you'd get per day with the minimum storage recommendations that are out there.


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## belladulcinea (Jun 21, 2006)

Thanks! Loved the article!


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

Terri said:


> it worked just fine for me!
> 
> Actually, if that is what the "standard" 300 pounds of grain and 75 pounds of beans will get you, I think that I would want to double it. Because, I intend to be gardening and getting firewood, and I will need to burn calories to do that!!!!!!!!!!


If you hand dig your garden you will eat 6x's that much.


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## Rocktown Gal (Feb 19, 2008)

Love the visuals...I want more. I see I have lots more to do. You always think hey you have enough...but you don't.


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## whiskeylivewire (May 27, 2009)

In a word...no. I do not have enough though I am working to build it.


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## scooter (Mar 31, 2008)

That's a real eye opener.


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## SmokyShadow (May 19, 2007)

Thank you for this website. Great information and I love her sense of humor.


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## Bluesgal (Jun 17, 2011)

Did an inventory last weekend.... I have more than I thought and less than I want (or need)

Link worked for me. It is a good illustration of just what it takes to put meals on the table. There is a reason our troops eat in excess of 3000 calories a day. 

To me those basic numbers for stock show what a human needs just to not die. To survive and thrive, a whole lot more is needed.


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

Eye opening yes...but that tiny loaf of bread did not use the salt,yeast,milk and fat that the list includes..more like a whole normal loaf. Still gets yah thinking if yah haven't been already. Thanks for posting. bee


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

Yes, a truly daunting task to prepare for a year. And to rain on everyone's parade - that is just for the first year - what do you do to replenish that stock for years 2,3,4,5.... etc??? If you have read Thomas Sherry's book Deep Winter you will realize why he spends so much time talking about raising food.


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## Bluesgal (Jun 17, 2011)

YuccaFlatsRanch said:


> Yes, a truly daunting task to prepare for a year. And to rain on everyone's parade - that is just for the first year - what do you do to replenish that stock for years 2,3,4,5.... etc??? If you have read Thomas Sherry's book Deep Winter you will realize why he spends so much time talking about raising food.


Which is why I consider my "stock" as a bridge, to supplement while more sustainable long term food is procured.


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## demeter (Jul 15, 2010)

A great read. Thank you.

Demeter


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## katydidagain (Jun 11, 2004)

If the woman could bake, I might listen to her but 

_Â¾ cup of grain (equals about 1 to 1 Â¼ cup of flour IF and only IF youâre able to grind it)
2 Tablespoons of powdered milk
2 Tablespoons of oil (fat, lard, butter, etc.)
1 Tablespoon of sugar (in order to best activate the yeast)
2 Â½ teaspoons of yeast
2 Â½ teaspoons of salt_

would yield more than that tiny bit of bread. Her recipe wastes yeast and has too much salt. Why not use sourdough? Easy to capture. Even when I was really cooking and baking for more 2 or 3, I had a hard time using up 32 oz of oil before it went rancid; 1 can of shortening lasted me more than a year. No way I eat 300lbs of grain in a year. No way.


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## tarbe (Apr 7, 2007)

I do believe I am carrying my first month of food stores on my person. It won't be very satisfying, but that 20 pounds of "lard" might just come in handy some day!

And I don't have to worry about the calories going bad! Guaranteed usable calories after 20 years!

I am going to keep saying this until I believe it!


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## backtocolo (May 1, 2012)

Her recipe is wasteful. Too much salt will inhibit the growth of the yeast.

Â¾ cup of grain (equals about 1 to 1 Â¼ cup of flour IF and only IF youâre able to grind it)
2 Tablespoons of powdered milk
2 Tablespoons of oil (fat, lard, butter, etc.)
1 Tablespoon of sugar (in order to best activate the yeast)
2 Â½ teaspoons of yeast
2 Â½ teaspoons of salt

***************

Off the top of my head my recipe that I routinely make is 
1 cup water
2 T oil
2T honey
2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
3.5-4 cups flour

I don't use milk in my recipe and I am sure that the honey and oil could be decreased. this makes a generous loaf.

As of yet I don't have a grinder but plan to add one before too long. I am still buying flour from the store


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## Wags (Jun 2, 2002)

katydidagain said:


> If the woman could bake, I might listen to her but
> 
> _Â¾ cup of grain (equals about 1 to 1 Â¼ cup of flour IF and only IF youâre able to grind it)
> 2 Tablespoons of powdered milk
> ...


That is what was used to prepare BOTH the bread and the beans. So I would imagine most of the salt went to the beans.

As for the amount of grain, I suppose if you rarely eat bread, cereal, pasta, pancakes, etc... than you might not eat 300lbs worth, but I bet you eat a whole lot more of it than you think you do.


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## udwe (Aug 8, 2009)

My problem was those shelves. They will not hold if they were totally full. 2x shelves would be the best. (Maybe for dehydrated?)


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

> The absolute minimum amounts of recommend food supplies for a year are as follows:
> 300 pounds of grains per person
> 75 pounds of legumes (pinto, black, red, lima, kidney, turtle, garbanzo, etc.)
> 75 pounds of milk (powdered, evaporated, etc.)
> ...


These are supposed to be per person, per year?

I can't imagine needing 2.5 pounds of leavening agents for each person. With six in our family, that's 15 pounds! I use sourdough, but even with yeast, baking soda and baking powder we don't use more than *maybe* 5 pounds a year.

I cook 3 meals a day, and we don't use more than 2 gallons a year of oil, spray oil, lard, or butter for all six of us.

We also only use about 5 of pounds of salt per year for six people, including meals, canning and even gargling with sore throats.

In her photo of the tiny loaf of bread and beans, she mentions 1/3 cups of beans - is that dry beans or cooked?

The problem with calculators and other people's lists is that they don't take into account YOUR family's eating habits. When I started my food storage, I made lists of everything we ate for a month, including spices, (ounces or pounds, number of cans, etc) and then multiplied that out for a year of meals. It took me a long time to round out my list and then to buy what we need (we're still not "done") but I think that's a better way to do it than just saying "buy 350 lbs of grains per person".

I like that she's trying to warn people that they probably don't have enough food stored, or that it won't last as long as they think.


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## Ohio Rusty (Jan 18, 2008)

If you ate that much bread, cereal, pasta, beans and other starches... you would put on that 300 pounds !! your preps would include a whole wardrobe of larger sized clothes. I have less stored preps as I supplement my foods with gathered greens, meats, and what ever is available from the garden. I think in total I have 3 one pound bags of black eyed peas ..... That is enough beans along with canned beans to get us thru for a long time.
I have maybe 10 pounds of rice and maybe 50 pounds of flour for bread stuffs and I make my own noodles anyway ....... I just don't make spaghetti. I used make great pasta until my mom wanted to borrow the pasta maker and burned out the motor ..... sigh ......

Be less dependent on stored preps, and use more creativity using what is outside your door. Last night I had fresh picked boiled poke and eggs for dinner. Today for lunch I'm having a lettuce and wild greens salad w/homemade salad dressing. Practice often, maybe daily, on using food stuffs outside the grocery stores or what is in your cupboard. You'll be amazed as how much more food is available to you. Your cooking pots will never be empty.

Ohio Rusty ><>

Paranoia has value !!


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

Wags said:


> That is what was used to prepare BOTH the bread and the beans. So I would imagine most of the salt went to the beans.
> 
> As for the amount of grain, I suppose if you rarely eat bread, cereal, pasta, pancakes, etc... than you might not eat 300lbs worth, but I bet you eat a whole lot more of it than you think you do.


You can get your grain from more than just flour though. I personally prefer to grow as much as we can and only prep for what we can't grow. But if I ran out of my preps, I have enough space and a long enough growing season to grow enough grain for my family's needs.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

Ohio Rusty said:


> If you ate that much bread, cereal, pasta, beans and other starches... you would put on that 300 pounds !! your preps would include a whole wardrobe of larger sized clothes. I have less stored preps as I supplement my foods with gathered greens, meats, and what ever is available from the garden. I think in total I have 3 one pound bags of black eyed peas ..... That is enough beans along with canned beans to get us thru for a long time.
> I have maybe 10 pounds of rice and maybe 50 pounds of flour for bread stuffs and I make my own noodles anyway ....... I just don't make spaghetti. *I used make great pasta until my mom wanted to borrow the pasta maker and burned out the motor *..... sigh ......
> 
> Be less dependent on stored preps, and use more creativity using what is outside your door. Last night I had fresh picked boiled poke and eggs for dinner. Today for lunch I'm having a lettuce and wild greens salad w/homemade salad dressing. Practice often, maybe daily, on using food stuffs outside the grocery stores or what is in your cupboard. You'll be amazed as how much more food is available to you. Your cooking pots will never be empty.
> ...


That's why we got a manual pasta machine.  I agree, be less dependent on stored preps. If you have any land at all, people would be amazed at how much they can grow. Then you have all the things you can forage. It amazes me how many worry about whether they have prepped enough. I just think back to my ancestors, they learned to live off the land. True, in the latter parts of the winter the food was scarce, but then again, they didn't have the means to preserve food that we do today. I only buy things we can't raise ourselves, but since we don't have much that we don't raise, then I spend for extras in that area.


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## lynnabyrd (Oct 15, 2007)

Just skimmed the article, and I don't think that little loaf of bread was based on an actual "recipe" that she follows, but rather that she took that list of the recommended amounts of food supplies for one person and divided it by 365. That would leave her with those amounts of ingredients, which she then turned into a loaf of bread. And using only one cup of flour probably *would" create a loaf about that tiny. 

Sad, huh? I have a family of 8, with another 5-9 people I'd expect to show up on my dorrstep in case of TEOTWAWKI. Try picturing that amount of food storage, taking into consideration that I'm storing for five teen boys, and you'll understand why I start developing a twitch when I think about it too hard. lol.


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## secretcreek (Jan 24, 2010)

Ohio Rusty said:


> If you ate that much bread, cereal, pasta, beans and other starches... you would put on that 300 pounds !! your preps would include a whole wardrobe of larger sized clothes. I have less stored preps as I supplement my foods with gathered greens, meats, and what ever is available from the garden. I think in total I have 3 one pound bags of black eyed peas ..... That is enough beans along with canned beans to get us thru for a long time.
> I have maybe 10 pounds of rice and maybe 50 pounds of flour for bread stuffs and I make my own noodles anyway ....... I just don't make spaghetti. I used make great pasta until my mom wanted to borrow the pasta maker and burned out the motor ..... sigh ......
> 
> Be less dependent on stored preps, and use more creativity using what is outside your door. Last night I had fresh picked boiled poke and eggs for dinner. Today for lunch I'm having a lettuce and wild greens salad w/homemade salad dressing. Practice often, maybe daily, on using food stuffs outside the grocery stores or what is in your cupboard. You'll be amazed as how much more food is available to you. Your cooking pots will never be empty.
> ...


I've got poke coming out the whazoo in my yard right now... Dock, dandelion too. Lamb's quarter is coming up in the garden also. Sassafras leaves are big enough to eat now. 


-scrt crk
SE Ohio


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## Ohio Rusty (Jan 18, 2008)

I dry the sassafrass leaves, de-vein them, then grind the dried leaf part to flour. It make the greatest gravy thickener !! I have tons of lambs quarters in the garden also. I like purslane the best ... just waiting for that to appear.

Ohio Rusty ><>

Pay cash --- starve a bank.


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## Limon (Aug 25, 2010)

I think someone made a mistake somewhere along the line coming up with those food amounts. Using their figures:
300 pounds of grains per person
75 pounds of legumes (pinto, black, red, lima, kidney, turtle, garbanzo, etc.)
75 pounds of milk (powdered, evaporated, etc.)
65 pounds of sweeteners (sugar, molasses, honey, etc.)
4 pounds of shortening
2 gallons of oil​I left out the rest, since they really don't add to the calorie count. I just grabbed some things from the pantry for numbers, but I still came up with:

*Pasta:*
8 servings @ 210 calories/lb package * 300 pounds ==> 504,000 calories​*Navy beans*
12 servings @ 80 calories/lb package * 75 pounds ==> 72,000 calories​*Milk*
32 servings @ 80 calories/25.6 oz package *46.875 ===> 120,000 calories​*Sugar*
567 servings @ 15 calories/ 5 lb package *13 ==> 110,565 calories​*Shortening*
110 servings @ 113 calories / 3 lb package * 1.33 ===> 16,573.33 calories​*Oil*
96 servings @ 120 calories/1.25 gallon * 6.4 ==> 73,728 calories​Total == > *896,866.33 *calories per person per year or roughly *2457* calories per person per day. The pasta - as the grain component - alone gives you close to 1400 calories a day.


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## Terri in WV (May 10, 2002)

That was an interesting article, but curiosity got the better of me after reading all of the different bread comments. So, I re-calc'ed an Amish bread recipe at Allrecipes and made it. Here's the ingredients:

1/3c water
1T + 2 1/4t sugar
3/4t yeast
1/4t salt
2t veg oil
1 cup bread flour

I baked it in a 4 1/4" round pyrex dish after letting it rise 1 time(in the dish). This is supposed to be 4 servings and I thought it was too sweet, but here's the visual results...



















Hope these pics don't come out too big. If they do, sorry!
And FWIW, 300#'s of flour=1088.62 cups


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## katydidagain (Jun 11, 2004)

Terri in WV said:


> Hope these pics don't come out too big. If they do, sorry!And FWIW, 300#'s of flour=1088.62 cups


I rarely use any sugar in bread so I know that would be too sweet for me. I make a large pizza with 1 to 1 1/4 cups flour; obviously that's more than just bread. How many servings did you consider your loaf to be? 4 looks about right for me; maybe 2 or less for most men I know.


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## Limon (Aug 25, 2010)

I think I figured out what their problem was. They use .75 *cups *of grain a day, instead of .82 *pounds *of grain a day in their calculations. Like Terri in WV said, there are multiple cups of flour per pound. I posted a note on the original blog post; let's see if they'll correct their mistake.


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## meddac (Nov 21, 2008)

Emergency essentials by and far have the best food analyzer that you can input just about anything into and it tells you down to the vitamins if you are lacking anything. It's a sticky but just a reminder it's here - Emergency Essentials


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

I just got to this thread and noticed when I read the article they have put (corrected) by many of the things so they must have listened? 

For a general guideline I think the numbers (I guess now that they are corrected?) seem reasonable. I've not ground my own wheat yet but working on getting there but the rest I'm familiar with and generally agree. I think that on one hand some consume less than those amounts per year, however, we do consume more than we generally think.

It's a far sight better than what I have seen people consider ample storage...much like her example of the 365 cans of soup. I remember reading about a woman who thought a case of chocolate syrup and 85 cans of spam and two cases of 24ct. water bottles would somehow tide her over. I guess if you want to eat chocolate spam for a couple of weeks that would work.

To me, regardless of whether or not my recipies match the ones given or if I use as much of each ingredient is sort of besides the point. It's there if I need it, if you don't use it you just have more to use later. For myself, I hardly eat any bread or pancakes...I'm more likely to have tortillas. That'll make a lot of tortillas...but cookies on the other hand...

I like the Mormon calculator they linked to...that's pretty handy. Anyway thanks for posting the article, I enjoyed it.


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Guess my biggest eye opener was that amt. of food only means one meal a day for one person...or thereabouts. Doubt we'll be sitting at computers if times are rough and a bit of bread and some beans is not gonna satisfy me let alone the other 9 folks I know I'll be feeding. They all can eat, none of them fat now so they'll definitely need more calories when they are physically working hard to stay alive. I know I'm deficient in grains for sure.


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## Terri in WV (May 10, 2002)

WhyNot said:


> I like the Mormon calculator they linked to...that's pretty handy. Anyway thanks for posting the article, I enjoyed it.


Using that calc for what it would take for one person for a year, I did some figuring last night on what a few the items would amount to for a day.(these #'s are rounded)

50# pasta=1c cooked pasta daily
50# rice=2/3c cooked daily
25# oats=2/3c cooked daily
60# beans=1 1/4c cooked daily

This helped me to better visualize what the pounds of food amount to and where I would need to adjust.


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## Wags (Jun 2, 2002)

2400-2500 calories may seem like a lot now, but its about half of what farm boys used to tuck away when more things involved hard manual labor. 

Last year I read the "Little House on the Prairie" series to my kids - Farmer Boy goes into great detail about what was served at various meals and how much Almanzo ate. I was amazed at just how much food was consumed. I keep those amounts in the back of my head when planning preps.


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

Terri in WV said:


> Using that calc for what it would take for one person for a year, I did some figuring last night on what a few the items would amount to for a day.(these #'s are rounded)
> 
> 50# pasta=1c cooked pasta daily
> 50# rice=2/3c cooked daily
> ...


THAT is handy too lol. So far, for the last five years 25lbs of rice and 25lbs of pasta has lasted over a year. But then again, that's not counting for more laborious days. I do more labor than a lot of people but I'm sure not as much as it will be once my stead is up and running.

This is why I think the calculations are mighty handy. It's reminded me that once I get there, I should bulk up where I can a little.

Then too...larger people tend to burn/need more calories than smaller people, especially in warmer climates because, as I have been learning, larger bodied mammals utilize more calories to stay cool in the summer in hot places than smaller bodied mammals. Which is why I thought a grown arkansas doe was a fawn that just lost its spots.

In the summers here, I do not eat a lot...well to me I don't...and I do a fair amount of rugged outside work. But I know that once on the stead the workload will increase and the heat will increase...but I don't think I'm going to suddenly get shorter and everything LOL....

So...it all needs to be calculated in. The calorie thing vs. mass thing I had not started making that connection until today. I've some thinking to do now.


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## henk (Jun 20, 2003)

belladulcinea said:


> Thanks! Loved the article!


Ow the calculator would give me 1 week before i die of dehydration. And im prety sure i would have to eat cold food the last few days.

Ill promise to stock up water and fuel so i get closer to the 2-4 weeks i prep for,

Henk


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## Limon (Aug 25, 2010)

It's really hard to store a year's supply of water unless you have a natural source of water on your property. That's why most resources only recommend storing enough for a few weeks; it just takes too much room to store water in large quantities. For long-term water needs, you need access to a water source and an appropriate filtration system.

There was a study not too long ago in Indiana, if I remember correctly, and they figured the Amish ate over 5,000 calories a day on average. It's funny, on another site someone was blabbering that the reason the Amish don't get allergies is they don't eat sugar. They buy it 50 pounds at a time because they go through so much of it! 

The LDS list is a good starting point, but I really think it's lacking in terms of fruits and vegetables. I don't know if they're assuming people will be growing gardens to cover that or not, but it would make a big difference in terms of nutrition and avoiding food fatigue.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Limon said:


> It's funny, on another site someone was blabbering that the reason the Amish don't get allergies is they don't eat sugar. They buy it 50 pounds at a time because they go through so much of it!


I've been reading a lot lately about how taking a spoon full of LOCAL un-pasteurized honey every day will combat allergies. And after reading that article about the Amish kids not getting allergies, I am convinced it's because they have their own hives and use their own raw honey.


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

I love variety in my diet, and the blandness and lack of variety of the food in the piece really gets to me. I really like the "eat what you store, store what you eat" philosophy. So while storing the items that she recommends is a very good idea, having a pantry filled with the foods you love, above and beyond what is recommended is much, much better!

And aside from having a garden, we're also trying to plant perennial items that produce food year after year. Things like fruit trees, bushes, grape vines, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes. When we move to the ranch full time, I'd like to get chickens again, turkeys, in a variety that won't have problems breeding, guinea fowl, maybe ducks and geese. And plenty of food for them too.


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## paddymurphy (May 23, 2008)

In case it has not been pointed out the food on the plate was adjusted to show what you would get 3 times a day. The plate was one of the three meals you would get a day. Which also covers her alleged inability to bake.

Food storage is easier than people make it. A pound of rice has 1600 calories a day. A pound of beans runs 1200-1400. One person needs 730,000 calories a year at 2K a day. Due the math for what you store and it becomes easy.


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## Freya (Dec 3, 2005)

*Chocolate* :spam: 

:yuck:


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## Lazydaisy67 (Jan 28, 2008)

Good thread! When I first came across that LDS calculator I about had a heart attack! I would need 750 pounds of grains for my family for a year. Of course, I was thinking only in terms of sacks of wheat, not all the other forms of "grains" available. That in addition to ALL the other stuff needed and I sat down and cried. I thought there was no way I could even hope to put away enough. So after my pity party, I thought I'd really evaluate what we eat to get a better idea of what types of things I need. I found that it's nice to store up all kinds of stuff but the epiphany for me was "how to cook everything off-grid"!! I don't have a wood burning cook stove in my house, few people do, so simplicity became a HUGE issue for me in gathering things together. As an example, I have put away some instant oatmeal. Is it as nutritious as whole oats ground up in the Wondermill? Probably not, but it's practical. I only have to heat up a cup or so of water to provide a hot breakfast. Baking a cake, much less so. It would be nice to get a cook stove, but we simply can't afford it and, frankly the idea of firing up a cook stove in the house in the middle of a Midwest July doesn't appeal to me in the least. Nor does the idea of trecking outside during a Midwestern winter, but hey, at least cooking outdoors would keep you fairly warm. I have purchased cast iron products to be able to cook on an open fire or in an earth oven, which is on the building list this summer. Once I started looking as prep in terms of how to cook them, I think it lifted the burden of not fitting into the LDS model of preparedness. 
Having said that, do I have enough? Absolutely not, lol


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Lazydaisy67 said:


> Good thread! When I first came across that LDS calculator I about had a heart attack! I would need 750 pounds of grains for my family for a year. Of course, I was thinking only in terms of sacks of wheat, not all the other forms of "grains" available. That in addition to ALL the other stuff needed and I sat down and cried. I thought there was no way I could even hope to put away enough. So after my pity party, I thought I'd really evaluate what we eat to get a better idea of what types of things I need. I found that it's nice to store up all kinds of stuff but the epiphany for me was "how to cook everything off-grid"!! I don't have a wood burning cook stove in my house, few people do, so simplicity became a HUGE issue for me in gathering things together. As an example, I have put away some instant oatmeal. Is it as nutritious as whole oats ground up in the Wondermill? Probably not, but it's practical. I only have to heat up a cup or so of water to provide a hot breakfast. Baking a cake, much less so. It would be nice to get a cook stove, but we simply can't afford it and, frankly the idea of firing up a cook stove in the house in the middle of a Midwest July doesn't appeal to me in the least. Nor does the idea of trecking outside during a Midwestern winter, but hey, at least cooking outdoors would keep you fairly warm. I have purchased cast iron products to be able to cook on an open fire or in an earth oven, which is on the building list this summer. Once I started looking as prep in terms of how to cook them, I think it lifted the burden of not fitting into the LDS model of preparedness.
> Having said that, do I have enough? Absolutely not, lol



You can look into camp stoves. We've had to use them to cook inside several times after/during bad storms. We just made sure some windows were cracked for ventilation. There is even a oven made by Coleman that is made to be used on camp stoves and several independent models sold by Cabela's that run on the small propane bottles.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

There are also the solar ovens but they are expensive.


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