Survival Food Supply

No matter what else you might put in your Bug OutBbag, the most important thing is to have enugh food to allow you to get to your Safe Area.

Without food eveything else is just weight.

The picture below shows a typical 7-Day food supply. It can actualy last a little longer if you ration the supplies, but generally speaking, this food kit will allow you to have three meals a day for one solid week.
The weight is minimal, and each day you will loose some of the weight because you are using the food.

As you can see from the picture, all of the food items are lightweight, and require minimal space in the Bug out bag itself.

My own Bug Uut bag contains a 30-Day food supply that weighs less than 15 pounds. I will eat very good from my kit. Not because I'm a glutton, but because humping around all that weight requires a high caloric intake to keep the body fueled during the rigorous trek to my safe area.

for a long term solution what would be able to be grown yourself the easiest with the least amount of effort in maintaining? gourds, beans, potatoes?
I know crops like wheat and corn would be very unlikely, you need just to much tilled land to get a good crop, what could I plant in a forest clearing and expect a good yield from?

Here is a good article about an Native American Indian practice of planting corn, beans and squash together.

http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html
This enhances the soil for good crops and deters some of the wildlife from helping themselves.

Remember to plan on using Heirloom seeds.
Hybrid seeds tend to revert back to unproductive, or low yield plants after 2 or 3 generations.
Heirloom seeds remain good.

I know I'm new here, but here's the scoop from my point of view...and I've been at this a while.

Emergency rations are one thing, but survival food is entirely something else altogether. In it's literal sense, survival food is what you are able to procure from the wild, most times either while in E&E mode or when simply stranded. It is an excellent plan to have emergency grub on hand, but that will only last so long. You run across someone meaner than you, and your food just went bye bye...along with kit, weaps...whatever. Not to mention should it come down to a SHTF deal...you may have some of your teammates in tow who could not get to their supply...then one mouth to feed became several.

It is, IMHO, vastly more important to learn what natural edibles are in your AO. Know the wildlife and the growth cycles and seasons of natural foodthings. All crops don't grow at same times obviously, so knowing what to look for at what time of the year is more than critical. Some plants that are normally edible in their fully ripened state are potentially toxic in a non-ripe state. One slip up, and you are toast.

When I think "survival food", I think everything I pass in the bush that I know I can eat should need arise. Best plan is to start a small "survival garden" in a place you normally train, can easily conceal and maintain....and take good care of it. Observe, care for, harvest and store when applicable. Building up caches of resources is a far better plan than relying on prepackaged goods that require energy to cook, may get you pinched, offer little more than starchy, empty calories and so on.

It has also been proven that the human body can live for weeks without food, days without water. It is thusly INSANELY more important to consider your water source first. Adding something as simple as 10-12 Emergen-C vitamin packs to your water kit or EDC pouch can give you an edge that you likely didn't expect. Knowing your trail nibbles will augment and fill the void to keep your mind off of your stomach's whining...

Also, to be quite honest, you'd be best to dump those useless MREs. They are simply NOT worth their weight in the salt and water weight they offer, it's basically empty calories, and even troops get LOGPAC'd to make sure that battle rations are not all they are eating. 7 MREs weighs in at about 12-14lbs, depending. The TRASH they generate leaves traces of your presence. The taste is less than desirable and the cost is overwhelming. Try using that money to make your own field rations. You will find that a simple trip to the grocery store will make a $100 case of MREs suddenly look pretty wasteful.

I am not trying to take credit away from what Franke has said here...but place 7 MREs in your ruck and see how much room is left over. You have to think dynamically about the potential SHTF ordeal. What can you realistically carry on your person over extended ranges? Must take all things into consideration when planning these things.

M

Very good opinion Hidden In PlainSight; but the fact is that the food in my rucksack is simply a way to keep noursihed while I am on the way to my safe area. That's where the real food supply is stashed away.

Water--I live in Alaska where getting a drink of water is never a problem. Our state has more ponds, lakes, streams, rivers that all of the lakes and streams down in the lower-48-states.

If only we were all so lucky...

Please make sure you never take anything I say personally...the guys I hang out and train with are used to my "straight to the point as there's no time to *F* around" way of doing things. It's just who I am. I expect hardened operators to have pretty thick skin...and my guys always do me proud. If I say something offputting, please point it out.

I got my "A-hole" ribbon a LONG time ago, but I have always driven my guys to be hard as coffin nails so that when that day comes - no matter where they are or what's happening - they WILL endure.

But I've also never lost a man, and the advice I give has gotten several people out of quite a few pinches. I am here to help make the already hard that much harder. I promise that I will not take the safety off the verb gun unless it's time to shoot...

M