A lot of the dead weight I’ve been carrying around for more then 15 years evaporated over the weekend. The 900+ pounds of hard winter wheat (nitrogen packed), the 200 pounds of beans and other legumes, and some powdered milk, etc all left for a new home via Craig’s List. The guilt and weirdness went with it too.

Gone is the fear my mother instilled in her children, “Not to let the neighbor children play in our basement anywhere near the food storage so that when chaos broke loose in the world they wouldn’t come and kill our family for it.” A good Mormon friend did think I should keep it around for bartering though-LOL

Having some food storage on hand is probably a good idea BUT it’s just too weird to me for now and getting rid of it was just one more way of saying, “See you later suckers”!

I think a fully stocked bar will be a better bartering tool.

agreed... "Vices" are what will bring the most return for your investment.

and a fully-stocked armory

I like to have backup foods and items, but that's a bit over the top. We never went that far, nor were we into fear-mongering.
It's just good reasoning and common sense to stay ahead.

I was really a Mollymo TBM (Relief Society Pres kind of girl) and after looking at suggested food supply charts by the Morg this quantity of wheat was enough for our household of seven.

I think I rather like my non-mo grandparents approach to better than my TBM moms approach - my grandfather watched the grocery sale inserts in the local paper and stocked up on the things they used. They had a very functioning pantry and freezer in addition to a lovey little garden. Forget the 1000 pounds of wheat that nobody eats! Just silliness there!

I suggest Ammo is all thats needed so you can take food from food storage hoarders if their urban myth calamity arrives as
prophesied by every generation..

I have been amazed at how far some people take food storage. I know one person that showed me their room for food storage - it blew me away. But it was more than just food. If you are using food storage, do you think you will have access to toilet paper? How about shampoo? Soap? Feminine hygiene? They had a year's supply of EVERYTHING.

we have to keep a stock of Ro-Tel.

that shit's worth gold. Esp. the new habanero variety.

Graduations sir, on being one of the few Mormons that actually kept that commandment. Personally, I always have 48 hours worth of canned food in my house, and that is without even trying.

Used to pay a full tithe, too. For years. Thinking about that now still pisses me off. Live and learn.

I think it's a good idea to keep some supplies on hand in case there's some sort of emergency - flood, earthquake, etc. I don't want to have to depend on the government until things get back to normal. Maybe several day's worth of water, simple foods to last a couple of weeks, batteries, candles, etc.

But a year's worth?!?!?!? I always told my TBM parents that if anything happened I'd much rather die in the first wave than have to live on cracked wheat for a whole damn year! Plus they refused to stockpile a year's worth of Frosted Flakes for me.

You can tell how old this so-called commandment is just by the food they tell you to store. Wheat, really? And no suggestion on how in the heck we bake this in times of calamity? What if it's a nuclear strike from N. Korea (touch wood), how in the world are people gonna lug all that wheat around and effin' FIND other ingredients, never mind an oven, with which to make bread?

What about members that live in flood prone areas, what good will all that stuff be when it's flushed away by raging waters? What of people like businessmen and engineers that need to constantly travel? People who own more than one home? The list goes on.

The people that are really into it have manual and electric wheat grinders and solar ovens, charcoal, or other ways of cooking.

As one of my heroes used to say, "Why do I need a years worth of food, when I got a years worth of money set aside for emergencies. You guys stay here and rough it out with your wheat, I'll be in the Marriott five towns over."

Do you consider Coke a canned food?

Just being silly.

T-Bone

Yes, beer and coke, both equally forbidden and equally harmful to the body both count as canned food. However, I keep neither in can form, instead keeping a 48 hour supply of beer and diet drink in neat bottle forms. The reason for this is simply, canning, while a great way to store stuff for really long times, ruins the taste.

I used to feel comforted being in supermarkets just looking at the food, knowing it was there. The church uses fear to control people.

Thanks to mormonism, I'd grown up with the threat that all the supermarkets could suddenly become empty, and that only mormons would survive.

I wonder if this is the reason why so many of our TBM relatives are obese - stressing about potential food scarcity and so scoffing it at every opportunity.

I remember being in my favourite restaurant when I was young and being determined to really enjoy and remember the food in case Jesus was going to come back and take all the food away!

In fact, I know two LDS families who moved together from California and Utah to central Idaho to be around "like-minded" people who store food and guns. They have thriving wards up there. Liberals like me dare not even enter towns like Kamiah or Salmon, apparently. God bless Bo Gritz.

I have about 10 5 gal buckets of wheat - but no grinder...oh wait - unless you count that matate and grindstone I have outside - actual Anasazi artifacts.

I have plenty of storage space so I don't plan to dump them, furthermore, they have basically unlimited shelf life - so I got that goin for me.

Funny how here on the east we were told how people in Utah and Idaho kept a gun or rifle as part of their food storage so that they could chase away those who would want to steal it when the bad times came. I thought it was odd, very odd and would also think, what if there were kids who lost they parents in whatever calamity, would they chase them with guns too. I always thought it was made up but you just confirmed to me that yes Utahans are worried about people stealing their food storage. hehehe. I cannot stop smiling, he he he

Personally, I am unlikely to shoot anyone over their attempts to scavenge food after a disaster, even if it is my own. Try to touch my HDTV set or my x-box though and you are getting a load of buckshot to your junk.

Jif Peanut Butter. Nectar of the Gods.

Ron

I think it's just basic common sense to keep a few month's worth of food and water handy in case one of the hundreds of not entirely unlikely scenarios occurs in which (especially in phoenix) the supermarkets would not be a safe place to go once city-wide panic set in.

But two year's worth of food? I'm no mad max. I'd rather get vaporized.

I've known people with huge storage rooms that were behind hidden doors. Plenty of guns and ammo to protect it. I thought it was funny that they thought someone would want to steal their barrel of old shoes and wheat. More likely someone would steal their guns.

I bought a house built by a Mormon. I had no idea what the big room with all the shelves in the basement was for. It seemed like they maybe had a really big rock collection or something (I'm in Moab where everyone has a rock collection). I also noted lots of mice down there, which my cats quickly dispatched, sad for the mice.

I turned it into a nice bedroom. I eventually sold it. To Mormons. Who turned the extra bedroom into food storage again.