[caption id="attachment_1495" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Photo c/o gardengrowth.com"][/caption]

So, about that garden you’re growing… What it IS ideal for is to provide your family with quality produce now—during the comfortable times—teach you how to successfully garden before your life may depend on it, and to provide yourself with affordable, safe produce that you can bottle and store for a “rainy day.” But, relying on your garden for “during an emergency” is not a safe play. Here’s why.

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I’m sure I won’t earn any popularity points with this post today. But I do get asked my opinion on this issue regularly. So I’m going to post my OPINION on it today. Mind you, I will share with you why I have such an opinion, but obviously this is a decision that you’ll need to make for yourself.

As you all know, I’m big into using coupons to build up my food and other emergency preparedness supplies. With the coupon culture comes some unexpected consequences that one may not anticipate. The most obvious consequence is that I buy a lot of the smaller containers as opposed to the large, warehouse size. The good news is that smaller containers are actually a good way to store your food in preparation for an emergency. In an emergency survival situation, smaller is definitely better. Here’s why.

[caption id="attachment_1450" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Food Storage photo c/o westword.com"][/caption]

If you could only store four foods for you and your family, what would they be? Come on, take your best guess. The good news is you could indeed survive with some knowledge and creativity on just four foods for you and your family for an entire year, and you wouldn’t necessarily get bored either. The reason I share these four foods with you is in response to so many pleas to simplify food storage. Although I feel more strongly about storing what you eat and eating what you store using the “meal method”, some folks just simply won’t tackle their food storage needs unless it’s broken down to ultra simple. Well, here’s ultra simple, broken down to just four foods.

(Please note: This article is not for those who are repulsed by the use of puns. 🙂

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When it comes to long-term food storage, many feel that getting enough dairy is a significant challenge.  Well today, I’m going to show you how you can milk the most from your powdered milk to provide your family with the dairy products you love.

Check your local Smith’s Food & Drug. It looks like they are doubling ALL coupons up to $1.00 (for a max of $2.00 for each coupon). Also, remember that Smith’s will “stack” your printed coupons with your electronic ones.  If you’re not Read more…

The Agriculture Department is raising prices on your dairy products. (How they have the authority to do this is beyond me, but for now, it is what it is.)

Farmers claim that it costs more to make milk than they get to sell it. Guess what that means? Can you say milk shortage?? In June of this year, The National Milk Producers Federation said they would PAY farmers to slaughter diary cows in order to manipulate the prices higher based on “supply and demand.” (Despicable, I know.)

Update – September 1, 2009.  CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.

Ok, here it goes. I’m going to challenge you…nah—perhaps the better word is “DARE” you. In fact, I’m going to DOUBLE DOG DARE YA to take this Preparedness Pro Food Challenge.

Want to find out if you are really ready for an emergency? Here’s a genuine challenge for you. Your ability to implement it will say a LOT about your ability to truly survive a real emergency. The Preparedness Pro Food Challenge officially begins August 1st and goes throughout the month of August. During the month I challenge you to go an entire two weeks without

[caption id="attachment_1412" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Wheat Shortages. Photo c/o bloomberg.com"][/caption]

As of May, the U.S. just sold the very last of their wheat reserves. As of now the U.S. government wheat reserves are totally empty. The U.S. has no intention of replenishing these supplies until the prices have stabilized.

As a comparison, during the 80’s the U.S. had on hand about 358 million bushels of wheat. During the 90’s they decreased that to 133 million bushels.  Now they are at zero.