What should I know about buying and using emergency rations?

Do you remember the big deal made out of Y2K? That was when we turned to the year 2000. A lot of people started buying up emergency preparedness items. My brother was one of them. Really, who needs 5 bottles of Hershey’s syrup? No, he didn’t use up the rations. He ended up tossing a lot of the stuff when it expired.

@chyna Awesome thanks.

I have eaten some military rations. They can be okay, but nothing to go nuts about. I enjoyed the dehydrated strawberries. They were real, not imitation, but in a texture I would never associate with strawberries, like toast, but crispy all the way through, in a square chunk. The flavor was not diminished, however, and I was surprised by the blast of strawberry in my mouth.
They are not cheap, so economy would not be your reason to have them.
They are a good thing to have on hand in case of emergency, because they do store virtually anywhere.
If you did get some, I would not advise buying enough to stock a bomb shelter. Just maybe enough to last for three to five days.
If they get near the expiration date, and you have not had cause to use them yet, maybe you could have a little fantasy emergency. You could turn out all the lights, have a disaster movie marathon lined up, and make a sort of indoor camp out of it.
Shoot, being a grown up doesn’t mean never ever play again.

Have a way to heat them, and have lots of ketchup on hand.

Dehydrated meals are better, generally good for 25+ years

@ARE_you_kidding_me Can you suggest some tasty dehydrated meals that I can make or buy in Canada? Amazon is pricey for some meals.

We bought a huge container of emergency food once but I learned you still have to heat water to cook it. I’ve eaten MREs before, they were decent, better than starving. If you buy canned food, don’t forget the can opener. A lot of canned foods can be eaten straight from the can.

Canned goods and pasta and stuff. Buy shit you would normally eat but just more of it. Then rotate stuff out.

I have a good three months worth of food tucked away. But it is stuff I eat regularly so it doesn’t go bad since I eat it all the time and just put the replacements at the back of the line.

I am not prepping for Jesus coming back. But there is a very good chance we will have a major earthquake and I am pretty sure Trump doesn’t give a fuck about states he didn’t win.

And I have other stuff like a generator and a tool for siphoning gas out of cars. And lights and hand powered radio and fishing poles and water.

But I wouldn’t bother wasting money on the bullshit prepper buckets they sell at Costco.

Yeah thanks all. I have lots of peanut butter cups and water. I might stock up In beef jerky later.

Do you have place you could put a smoker? Making jerky is a hobby of mine and it is hell of a lot cheaper than buying it. And it super simple. Jerky is one my favorite foods.

@johnpowell What is a smoker? I live in a one bedroom apartment in downtown Red Deer. No green space. Stuff gets vandalized In my back yard. I don’t have a patio. Im not allowed open flames in my lease. I made beef jerky on home economic in grade school. It was wonderful. A little dry though. I would consider making my own beef jerky. Teriyaki flavored is my best. Thanks for the suggestion.

Then that is a negative. It needs to be outside on a porch or something. Having one inside would probably kill you.

It is basically a tall bbq that smokes the meat turning it into jerky.

People on the internet say you can do it in the oven but I have never tried. I have a feeling it wouldn’t be nearly as good.

@johnpowell I made beef jerky from flank steak over night in grade school on low heat. It shrivelled up but was good enough to pass the course. Never got caught using my junior high school oven over night. I’m glad that I didn’t burn down the school and expelled .

Just stock up on canned goods. Those rations are a waste of money for civilians. Just another trendy commodity, this one aimed at apocalypse fetishists.

@RedDeerGuy1 “I have lots of peanut butter cups and water.”

Sounds like you’re all set then.

I have to second @Darth_Algar , go with canned goods. Not that you’ll ever really need them, doomsday has been just around the corner since Caesar was knee high to a frog, and hasn’t happened yet. Suez Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cold War, Islamist terror attacks, yadda yadda yadda. What if they gave a crisis and nobody came?

Yeah, canned goods only are good for a few years which is ok if you rotate them. Dehydrated are good for a quarter century, that’s what I would stock.

Well the best reason to stock up on canned goods, bottled water, etc isn’t doomsday, but the much more realistic threat of a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tornado. Even at that you probably only really need a few days worth, tops.