Future Long Term Food Storage Plans In 2026

 

I think, after five full years of doing this now, I’ve got it dialed in as far as what I personally need and want to keep in my long term food storage (LTFS).  This past year I did not grow a garden  and I did not acquire and home can a bunch of food.  I used up a little more than I put back in as far as my home canned goods.  Over this past year I have emptied six flats of pint jars and two flats of half pint jars.  I added back five flats of pints and a flat and a half of half pints of newly home canned foods and that was A-OK.  I am good with that.

 

This year I expanded my LTFS by adding an emergency/camping foods shelf so I now have a nice selection of easy to prepare items to go with some of my pre-prepared home canned items to make complete meals with.  I have enjoyed having these options readily available for days when I am doing outdoor activities, camping or whenever we have a power outage which happens somewhat often here.  Our last outage was over four hours long, which isn't horrible, but it can sure put a damper on your supper plans.  In addition, I am adding items I find on sale for the sole purpose of donating to those in need.

 

I added more condiments, canned milk, tuna, green beans, pumpkin, diced tomatoes, mandarin oranges and jars of sliced peaches from the store to replace those I had used throughout the year.  My goal has been to pull the older dated items first and replace as I go.  This has been working rather successfully for me and I intend to continue on with this practice.  Likewise, I use this approach when it comes to my deep freezer.

 

In the deep freezer I made a point to use up everything that was in there with a date of 2023 and then move onto 2024 dated items.  In the process I was able to add back what I used with fresh meat and produce and I expanded the amount of frozen produce, doubling what I used to keep on hand.  Almost everything in the deep freezer right now is vacuum packaged and all dated either 2024 or 2025 so I don’t need to worry about waste due to items getting ruined by freezer burn.  My goal is not to have anything in the deep freezer older than two years.

 

In the freezer in my kitchen I was able to achieve my goal this year of having it set up mainly for holding only open packages of frozen items that I am currently using as well as a nice selection of homemade readymade meals and entrees.  It is so nice having meals I can quickly reheat and eat on a busy day or if I’m feeling a bit under the weather.  As a treat I also added a few frozen pizzas which I do enjoy from time to time.

 

Bread & Butter Pickles

Taco Soup

Homemade & canned cranberry sauce as well a bottle of pancake syrup

In November a second small freezer unexpectedly made its way into my LTFS.  Although I was initially hesitant about this it has opened up the expansion of my prepping immensely and surprisingly made things much nicer and easier for me. The small upright in the garage is perfect for one person, and not too bad for two, but the way I like to cook, eat and prepare it was a little tight.  The new freezer has allowed us to make the upright solely for storing frozen meat and fats while the little chest freezer holds all of the frozen produce, extra flour and yeast as well as our homemade breads and muffins.

Next year I plan to add more home canned goods to the shelves as well as to continue to pull and replace the other items I use on a regular basis.   I find I use my home canned soups and canned legumes, especially the black beans and the black and pinto bean combination, a lot so I’ll be adding more of those to the shelves.  I also plan to make more salsa next year and some pickles.  As I find good deals on meat I plan to also can some or make more pre-prepared meal options.  Sounds like a great plan to me! 😃