No More Canned Food
Kevin Felts 04.17.17
Since the early 1990s my primary food prep was canned food. I would go into the local big box mart and price-match canned foods, such as beans and corn. The buggy would be filled with cardboard boxes.
When it came time to stock the shelves, the older cans would have to be rotated to the front and the new cans to the back.
Eventually, wire racks were purchased that were designed for can rotation. Place the can in the top of the rack, it would roll to the back, drop down and then roll to the front on the bottom. About as simple as simple can get.
Canned Food Rotation
Even with a can rotation system I found that my stockpile of canned goods would expire before they were consumed. Preppers will use every excuse under the sun to demonize letting canned goods expire.
- Buy only what you eat.
- Donate the canned goods to a food bank or soup kitchen before they expire.
- As long as the can is not swollen. the food is safe to eat even if it is expired.
- Give the canned goods to someone who needs them.
The excuses go on and on.
If looking after my canned food rotation was all I had to do, sure, I would keep a better eye on it. There are other issues in life that are more pressing.
Mylar and Freeze Dried
All of my canned foods are being replaced with dried food in mylar bags and freeze dried.
Dried food items such as rice, beans, and lentils, when stored in a mylar bag with an oxygen absorber, can have up to a 25 year shelf life when stored properly. This simply means the mylar bags can not be stored in a shed. They should be stored in climate controlled conditions, such as in a closet or basement.
Several years ago I played around with making some homemade superpails. A superpail is a five gallon bucket with a mylar bag filled with some kind of dried food product and a couple of oxygen absorbers.
I recently opened a small mylar bag of pinto beans that were six years old. They were cooked in a crock-pot and tasted fine.
#10 cans and Mountain House mylar pouches have up to a 25-30 year shelf-life.
Rather than stockpiling canned foods that have a shelf-life of just a couple of years, I have moved to long term storage items that have a 20+ year shelf-life.
In a total revamp of my food stockpile, all of the cans of corn, mixed veggies, and green beans are going to the chickens. The wire racks are being removed and replaced with five gallon buckets of dried food or mylar pouches.
