Food Storage

Getting Started - Vegetables

Example

So now's the fun part - picking out the vegetables we will store or grow. We are blessed to live in a time when such a wide variety of canned and frozen vegetables are available to us. Imagine yourself at the grocery store canned vegetable isle. What items will you choose? Here are vegetables I would choose. Please notice that I have cut the recommended allowance in half because I plan to also use fresh store-bought vegetables in normal everyday living. If we had to live off of our storage, half the recommendation would still provide some good nutrition.

Dark green vegetables - 572 cups/2 = 286 cups

I will most likely choose to store spinach in both canned and frozen varieties. Since I am not crazy about canned spinach, the majority of my storage will be frozen. I will also store some frozen brocolli. I don't have a very green thumb, but I will try to grow some dark green leafy vegetables.

 

Orange vegetables - 364 cups/2 = 182 cups

Approximately 35 14.5 oz. cans each of carrots, pumpkin and sweet potatoes.

 

Dry beans and peas - 468 cups/2 = 234 cups

Since we have a significant amount planned for storage under our meat and beans group, I am not going to focus on this subgroup at this time. Perhaps in the future I will add to my dry beans and peas supply.

 

Starchy vegetables - 884 cups

I plan to store 35 14.5 oz.cans each of corn, green peas and green lima beans. I will store 1 6 gallon bucket of dehydrated potatoes granules. This will provide 756 one cup servings. I kept this vegetable subgroup close to the weekly recommendation because these foods are high in carbohydrates and will help to provide energy for survival.

 

Other vegetables - 1690 cups/2 = 845 cups

I plan to store 35 14.5 oz. cans each of green beans, beets, and tomatoes. I will also store 35 46 oz cans of tomato juice and vegetable juice (V8). Vegetables such as peppers, zuccini, and eggplant I can try to store in my garden. Also according to how much space I have in my freezer I will store as many frozen vegetables as possible.

As you can see from the amount of vegetables you need to store to meet your family's minimum weekly recommendations for each vegetable subgroup, it would be of great benefit to have a home garden. Please note that these recommendations are for amounts of vegetables for your one year supply. In normal daily living, you should eat at least the USDA minimum recommendation.