Why food and water?

Because no living species can survive long without fresh food and clean drinking water!

In the event of a long-term power outage, you will need plenty of fresh food and drinking water to survive. Therefore, part of your survival plan should include a source of fresh food and an on-site well or other source of unlimited fresh drinking water. To survive, we need plenty of food and water! Without food and water, we cannot survive more than a few weeks or months. Grocery stores will likely be out of food and water rather quickly.

In general, water consumption is one gallon per person, per day. After about a week of little or no water, your chances to survive will diminish - especially if you decide to drink contaminated water. Maybe somebody you know already maintains an abundant supply of water or has a well for drinking water or the tools and means needed to purify rain, stream, creek, or pond water.

If you have a well for drinking water, you might want to invest in a portable manual well pump to hand pump the water when there is no other energy source. If you do not have a well for drinking water, you might want to invest in water purification tablets or a water purification filtering system for drinking other water. Alternative drinking water sources might be rain water or a nearby stream, creek, or pond water.

Most perishable or refrigerated food will spoil within days after the refrigerator stops running. After a few weeks of little or no food, your chances to survive will diminish - especially if you decide to eat spoiled or contaminated food. Your survival will depend on your emergency food supply and the tools and means needed to prepare food by hand. Maybe somebody you know already maintains an abundant supply of emergency food or grows fruits or vegetables or knows how to hunt and process wildlife for food.

Your emergency food supply should consist of an abundance of non-perishable and easy-to-prepare food. Other emergency food sources can be home grown fruit bushes or trees and vegetables, self-raised chickens and eggs, and local wildlife.

Fruit and vegetables seeds could be a life changer or saver. Stock or storen some fruit and vegetable seeds. Most seeds will germinate after several years if stored in a cool dark place like a basement. Every two years or so, practice growing fruits and vegetables, plant a few seeds from your stock to be sure you are stocking good dependable seeds. Never just trust your seed supplier's guarantee. Always a good idea to plant some raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry bushes somewhere on your property, even strawberries. Most vegetable seeds are seasonal and should be planted in the spring.

Tips: Start now. Gradually accumulate and stock a supply of emergency food and water. When you do your grocery shopping, buy a few gallon jugs of water, cases of canned vegetables and fruits, boxes or bags of dried food like pastas, white and brown rice, and beans. Buy non-perishable foods and water in bulk when they are on sale. Consider your food and water supplies as prepaid food and water rather than an expense. Rotate your stock as needed (eat and drink your older stock). Consider storing emergency fruit and vegetable seeds especially those guaranteed to germinate for up to five years. You will not be sorry later.

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Things you will need in a long-term power outage:

1. MREs ("Meals, Ready-to-Eat"), what the military eat, can have a 10-year shelf life if the packaging is not compromised and it is stored at the right temperature. It will stay fresh for years in a cool, dry cabinet. You may already store dried, dehydrated and canned foods like crackers, trail mix and other nuts, protein/breakfast bars, canned tuna, salmon, canned soups, vegetables, fruits, pastas, and a variety of rice. Basically, anything canned or dry that does not need refrigeration.

   Do hurry! Immediately after a real emergency, emergency food will not be available anywhere and the price of emergency food is rising fast. We have seen the prices more than triple over the past 2 to 3 years and the supply and availability is often unstable and expensive. Our preference for long term shelf stable emergency food is Augason Farms. The Augason Farms Emergency Food and others are surprisingly and luckily delicious and has a shelf life from 5 to 25 years.

   Tips: Valuable kitchen tools include a manual can opener and good pair of scissors. For those with gardening experience, fruit and vegetable seeds can be planted in the spring and grown for vitamins and nutrients during a long-term power outage.

   Our best choices for emergency food storage are Augason Farms | My Patriot Supply | Legacy Food Storage.

2. Water to drink, cook, and clean. You will need and use way more water than you think and it runs out fast. Conserve as much water as possible and know that whatever surplus you have after the emergency passes is still money well spent. A water well or nearby stream of water is always a bonus in a long-term power outage. If you are concerned or worried about a major outage, where fresh water may not be available for weeks or months, buy water purification tablets or a survival water filtering system at Amazon or a camping store. Also be prepared to boil your water before drinking. Always conserve water.

   Our best choice for water purification is Big Berkey.

3. For those lucky enough to have a well for water supply, we highly recommend the Flojak EarthStraw Hand Well Pumps over all other manual well pumps we reviewed and tested. This manual hand well pump is available in 50', 100', and 150' well depth lengths and very useful when the power grid is down for an extended period of time. Easy and quick to install, easy to remove and store, also reliable and affordable when you need a drinking water backup plan.

Our best choice for a manual well pump is Flojak EarthStraw Hand Well Pumps.

4. A wood cook stove can provide an excellent means to cook food, boil water and keep you warm during the cold or winter months. Plus, a wood stove is somewhat entertaining in any environment. The wood burning stove burns wood longer and hotter than a fireplace and will heat an area quicker and longer with less wood, many times more efficient. But, a fireplace is certainly better than no heat source at all. A pellet stove will eventually run out of pellets where the wood burning stove and fireplace can keep you warm and entertained longer during very difficult and lonely times. Anything gas or propane will eventually become worthless without fuel and electricity.

5. A sun oven or cooker is a solar appliance that can provide a means to dehydrate, cook, bake and boil food and water fueled by the sun. On days of sunshine, you can eat cooked food and drink boiled water, coffee or tea where gas and propane type grilles are useful only while the fuel is available.

   Our best choice for a sun oven is Sun Oven.

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