I am interested in ordering long-term storage foods. I would like to hear about others' experiences, good and bad. In other words... which ones to stay away from and which ones deliver the goods.

-- Dale Rehus (dale@spicreative.com), September 27, 1998

Answers

I'm not for the freeze dried stuff. It's very expensive. I have researched several companies and the shipping alone for a 2-year supply was over $600.00!!! You can buy a lot of pasta and rice for $600! Also, the shelf life on some of the stuff is only 2 years and even less if it's not stored in a cool, dark place. There's several companies you can check out on the internet. Furthermore, if you don't like the taste of the stuff you are stuck with it! I'm also hearing on other websites that it takes a very long time for the stuff to arrive. You don't have time. If delivery is 6 months down the road, whose to say you will even get it then?

-- Bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 27, 1998.

If you go to www.garynorth.com, then to the Discussion Forums, then to the Food and Food Storage and scan through the discussions there, you will find a great deal of information and opinion related to your question. Also there is some good information on frequently asked questions at www.waltonfeed.com/grain/faqs/ <<<<<>>>>>.....

-- Dan Hunt (dhunt@hostscorp.com), September 27, 1998.

Dale, we ordered 20 different kinds of MRE's just to taste them. We did not like them at all. Make sure whatever you get, that it is something you would want to eat. I understand that opposed to starving we would eat whatever we had to, but why not enjoy it, too, if possible?

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), September 28, 1998.

You might find you prefer dog food to MREs. I was able to buy some at a sporting goods store, you may not have to order them. Of course here in central PA, lots of camping stuff is available because no one seems very aware of Year 2k. It's probably a whole different story in other parts of the country.

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), September 28, 1998.

Dale,

You can prepare almost entirely locally. DO NOT get caught up in the mail order food hysteria. Plan a fourteen meals in detail, you have a week. Multiply by the number of weeks you wish to store and you have your basic needs met. Pasta with no eggs lasts at least three years if sealed properly. With the exception of hard winter wheat, we did it all at local stores. We stored in plastic pails with oxygen absorbers, quick and easy.

As you get into this, you will discover many things you need that you can't eat. Imagining the preparation of each meal will help fill in these gaps. Too many are trying to take a turn-key approach to this and that WON'T work.

Good Luck,

Will

-- Will Huett (willhuett@usa.net), September 28, 1998.

Will,

where did you buy oxygen absorbers? the only place I've seen them is at Waltonfeed, and they are currently on over 5 month delivery. .....

-- Dan Hunt (dhunt@hostscorp.com), September 28, 1998.

Dan,

Multisorb Technologies www.multisorb.com

-- Will Huett (willhuett@usa.net), September 28, 1998.

Am hearing from several people on the North food forum that Art Pollard is delivering in less than six weeks. URL is:

http://www.1source.com/~pollarda/foods/

Have heard so many good things about Art, have ordered from here myself. He's been very helpful. No connections!

Regards,

Aitch

-- Aitch (jimp7@mindspring.com), September 29, 1998.

I was very happy with the service I received from the folks at Food Storage Online. If you're looking for top quality, they have it. If your looking for the best prices I think you'll have a hard time beating their best price line.

If you want to check them out just go to: http://www.foodstorageonline.com

-- Matt (just@anidea.com), October 03, 1998.

Check out Emergency Food Storage

http://www.northlink.com/~gwiatt/index.html

-- Pastor Chris (pastorchris@lifetel.com), October 03, 1998.

The only storable food company I have found that has restaurant quality dehydrated food is Family Preparedness NOW. The program is EXCELLENT because you can pay for your food by referring others (NOT MLM). Also, delivery time is only 3 weeks, the food stores unopened for 8-13 years and 2 years once opened. They have various payment plans, and ordering any of them allows you to buy additional food at 40% off. They also have a toll free order line. I created a web page for them at http://home.sprintmail.com/~weknapp - this allows me to earn some extra money for all the other Y2K supplies I need! It's a really great program.

-- Tina Lindsay (rainbowmkt@yahoo.com), November 14, 1998.