Cross Loaded food bucket

[Aceman]

What should I load it with? I'd like to make a couple "short term" buckets. Something I can pop and use the whole bucket in 72 hours instead of busting open an entire 30 lbs of rice, oatmeal etc...

What do you suggest as a load? Rice, Beans, Oatmeal, sugar what??? I'd like to place multiple small bags in one large mylar in a 5 gal bucket. Thoughts/comments?

Something like this:
Oatmeal = breakfast
Beans = lunch
Rice + bean = dinner
Rice + sugar = snack/desert

And what is a good way to store dried fruit? Suggestions

[ForgeCorvus]

So, you talking about a Bug-in-Bucket or a bucket holding 3 days rations (for the household rather then just one body) ?

Is this aimed at personal use or to be gifted ?


Can you tell I've been thinking about this sort of thing myself, just interested if thee an' I are planning the same thing

[Aceman]

So, you talking about a Bug-in-Bucket or a bucket holding 3 days rations (for the household rather then just one body) ?

Is this aimed at personal use or to be gifted ?

Bug In Bucket? Food storage bucket with like 3 days for the family (or however long a 5 gal bucket would go when cross loaded.)
Personal Use

I don't want to have to crack a fully loaded long term bucket unless needed. So a multi-meal bucket makes a lot of sense for non-long term SHTF's. Example: Hurrican severly disrupts the food supply for a week - not a month. I'd end up opening perhaps three buckets, but only using 25% of contents.

I'd rather open one and use 100% of contents

[ForgeCorvus]

Gotcha
A Food Bucket rather then a Bug-in-Bucket (thats a self contained kit and as such also holds Water and Fire resources)?

You're aiming at Long Term Storage but in small quantities..... I'm not up on LTS myself so it looks like we'll both learn something.

[TacAir]

What should I load it with? I'd like to make a couple "short term" buckets. Something I can pop and use the whole bucket in 72 hours instead of busting open an entire 30 lbs of rice, oatmeal etc...

What do you suggest as a load? Rice, Beans, Oatmeal, sugar what??? I'd like to place multiple small bags in one large mylar in a 5 gal bucket. Thoughts/comments?

Something like this:
Oatmeal = breakfast
Beans = lunch
Rice + bean = dinner
Rice + sugar = snack/desert

And what is a good way to store dried fruit? Suggestions

Good start. You can't build what you haven't planned for - and a menu is the beginning for this.

Breakfast - oatmeal.
Oatmeal 2/3 cup oatmeal
Sugar 1 tsp/serving
Milk - 2 tablespoons Nido/serving. (You could use coffee creamer as it has a somewhat longer shelf life.)
Coffee or hot cocoa - 1 packet

I hate "72 hour kits" - lets call this one week, eh?

Needed for breakfast for one person for one week
4.62 cups oatmeal (15 cups is 1.2 Kg)
7 teaspoons sugar (or 7 sugar packets)
14 tablespoons - round up to one cup (16 tblsp) of Nido or equal amount of creamer or instant.
7 packets Swiss Miss

Now, how can you store this for "long term"?
This poses an interesting dilemma. Oatmeal has a longer shelf life than Nido (this milk has fat in it) or creamer. Non-instant, non-fat dry milk (DairyX brand) would be a better choice, but is only available in 50 pounds sacks. UHT milk in 4 oz containers is good for up 18 months.

Instant oatmeal packets last about 1 to 2 years. (shudder)
So called quick oats are good for 2 to 3 years.

So, if you want to go with COTS (contractor off the shelf) items, you would store the oatmeal in a gallon mylar bag (I think the 'quart' size might be a little small)
7 container of UHT milk - you can find these with 12 to 16 month good by dates
The sugar should be fine in a ziplock bag as should the Swiss Miss drink mix.
Shelf life, about one year to 16 months.
Drop the milk, you can go up to two years. With freeze dry coffee vice cocoa, 3 years.

There are a multitude of wet pack (retort pouch) items on the market which have shelf lives of over one year that would be easier to prepare and use less fuel for a hot meal - and could be packed as is.

Tasty Bite (From India)

add some parboiled dry rice and this can make a pretty good entree, add some fruit and a drink...

If you are looking for a "store and forget" - dry rice, beans and the like, just pack the amounts calculated in quart/gallon mylar bags and seal with an O2 scrubber. Lipton and Knorr make a wide choice of 'side dishes' for a pasta item, with a 1 to 2 year shelf life dated on the item and already in a packet ready to store.

There are canned products from chicken chunks to beef stew that offer 10+ year shelf life. There is no need to look at 'rice, beans and SPAM!' as an only choice. Alfalfa seeds for sprouting will help. Don't forget the spices that made an otherwise bland diet less oppressive have a shelf life of a year to two themselves.

Good luck.

[Illini Warrior]

there's absolutely no problem with spoilage, when you crack open a LTS food bucket, that you dedicated to a single type food product .... basically the "shelf life" starts when you cut the seal on the mylar bag ... almost everything in the LTS food category like rice, beans, grains, pasta ect ect have a minimum shelf life of 5 years .... with limited or no other foods available, you'll be able to finish off a 30 lb (average) of supplement food within 5 years ....

don't over think the simple stuff ......

[OTTB]

I like the premise. Seems more efficient to just stack a couple of buckets on top of each other and rotate the food stocks as needed. I know that you can survive for a while on rice, oatmeal and beans, but I would suggest simply adding multivitamins and your prefered spices/seasonings just to add a touch of variety.

[2now]

I agree, figure out your menu and other parameters, then the rest will flow easily.
This is not a hard problem.

Some threshold issues:
How many people are you feeding?
Do you expect to have refrigeration?
Do you expect to be able to cook?
Do you have a daily calorie goal?
Do you have a maximum weight goal per bucket?
Do you have a maximum cost goal per bucket?
What type of foods are you not willing to use? for example the milk problem could easily be solved with canned milk. Good for years and totally suitable for coffee, tea, and cereal. Is canned food OK?

[Aceman]

All great questions!

How many people are you feeding? - 5
Do you expect to have refrigeration? - assume no
Do you expect to be able to cook? - yes
Do you have a daily calorie goal? - 1.5k
Do you have a maximum weight goal per bucket? No weight, but basic 5 gal bucket.
Do you have a maximum cost goal per bucket? - no, but cheaper is better
What type of foods are you not willing to use? for example the milk problem could easily be solved with canned milk. Good for years and totally suitable for coffee, tea, and cereal. Is canned food OK? - Not planning on milk, I have canned on shelves. This is more staples.

[Aceman]

And by the way - what is your favoriote bean? As in easiest to store/cook overall.