A Year Without the Grocery Store: A Step by Step Guide to Acquiring, Organizing, and Cooking Food Storage (Are You Prepared, Mama?)

Great book whether you are new to food storage or well versed. If new to this concept, the book is written in a straightforward way that won't overwhelm you. If you are experienced at food storage, as I am, you will find helpful bits and pieces to boost your skills. I especially liked the recipes using milk powder, tomato powder and the extracts. I've heard of Azure Standard from many homesteading YouTubers but had never tried them. After reading this book I placed my first order, including tomato powder I'd like to see the author publish an entire book dedicated to the exact meals and recipes that she uses to feed her family. I have a binder of such a thing but it's always nice to see what someone else is doing, even if it adds only a couple of recipes that your family will like. Quick, easy read, and a nice little book to keep accessible for frequent use.

Spoiler Alert (I do talk about contents of the book)!!I bought this book in hopes of getting some ideas for storing up 1 year of food or longer, to make it stretch & spend less long term. It def helped with planting ideas, very fast read (not a lot to it), here I’ve written a list of pros & cons:The pro’s about this book: it really helps plant ideas in your head and where to start.The cons: the Author doesn’t explain things very well, doesn’t go into detail, nor shows examples/pictures. I kinda hate that. The author starts to tell you something but then doesn’t really explain it well into detail, which is kind of the point of a book IMO. For example: Mylar bags. I’ve never heard of them before reading this book. She doesn’t really explain what they are, nor how to store food in them (as far as measurements & how much she typically uses them with oxygen absorbers), she kind of leaves you hanging & you need to do a lot of research for yourself. But she did plant the seed of thought in my head about it, I did lots of research, here’s what I found out: 1 year of storage really isn’t considered long term, usually anything from 20-40 years is long term & 1 year & under is really short term. So, with that said, Mylar bags are really for things long term that you know you’ll have over 1 year, up to 20-40 years (I ordered Mylar bags & plan on storing things for up to 5 years in them). If you’re just storing for 1 year, don’t waste the extra money on Mylar bags, when freezer bags in food grade storage buckets is great for 1 year. Actually, just using food grade storage buckets is great (with or without ziplock bags), I just like to have mine broken up into sections (like 5 cups per ziplock bag, so if anything goes wrong with 1 or I continuously open the lid of the bucket it doesn’t cause the rest to spoil sooner - & I can have it ready for cake or pies, so I don’t have to go digging for 5 cups, I just grab my bag & go). Can you still use Mylar bags, yes.... but is it really needed for 1 year? Not really & Mylar bags can get pricey. But if going over 1 year, it’s recommended. You can reuse Mylar bags too.She also talks about storing sugar in Mylar bags, what she fails to mention: don’t ever use oxygen absorbers for sugar!! This will cause your sugar to turn into a brick. Sugar is better off in ziplock bags into the food grade bucket for storage, stores just as well, I’ve heard this can last up to 20-30 years just stored in the food grade bucket.She also talks about “allergies”, but not really, goes over “special” diets, but then not really at the same time. She kind of cherry picks these issues & really only scratches the surface.Another con: a huge no-no, don’t ever EVER suggest for any human consumption of essential oils, ever!! I hope this will be taken out, actually (will that ever happen, prob not). This doesn’t mean that I personally agree or disagree, but it’s not made for human consumption & to recommend this, if someone gets hurt or injured consuming this bc they read her book, she then could face lability issues. Please, do not consume EO, this is not what it’s made for & can cause internal damage. (This was actually my main issue with this entire book, why I mainly gave it 3 out of 5 stars, it doesn’t pay to play on the dangerous side.)I did end up buying a pressure canner & water bath canner bc of her book, I took in a lot of knowledgeable information (but like I said, she planted the seed, I had to do all the research elsewhere. I really wish she would have went into canning more too, I feel like it’s a whole section missing without it).I hope this helps other’s, it’s a good book to get the ball rolling.

Everyone needs to be prepared for an emergency. Prepping doesn't just happen for war, but natural disasters, illness or job loss can happen at any time to any one! Definitely a great book to help you get started on your journey!

A Year Without the Grocery Store: A Step by Step Guide to Acquiring, Organizing, and Cooking Food StorageStarts out with the author discussing the items in her basement that will last them a whole year but mostly the piece of mind that she won't have to spend a lot of time planning meals, they are done and stored.There is a bit of trial and error when it comes to preparing the food that was stored...I like the concept but don't have the room for it as we have no basement at all. We do use food storage, food saver where you vacuum seal a meal or vegetables. I've kept some squash for over a year and it works out fine for making muffins.Green beans I can Blanche or just freeze them out of the garden, boil them in the bag when ready to use.Lots of resources of where to get bulk items, online or co ops delivered to a drop point. Cheaper the more you buy at one time.Love the section on couponing as we rarely buy boxed or canned items either.There are even sections on packing an emergency bag for the car and at home as you will need more than just food.There are assignments to do also to keep you going in the book.Love mix and dressings combination that you can make at home-no more buying them at the store.Substitutions for most everything, gravy mixes, etc. also how to make milk when you don't have any, substitutions for so many things.Real life events, tornado, riots, etc that the family had to use the storage.A KEEPER!

I really had high hopes for this book but was underwhelmed when I received it and looked through it. I thought it would be much more detailed in how to go a year without a grocery store instead of formulas…

I’ve been learning about and working towards long term food storage for about 3 years now. It’s been hard to achieve between tight budgets and military moves, and the pandemic. I have to say I was so glad to have whatever I’d had on hand between my last move and pandemic, we would have been short on a lot of things and price gouged on the rest. Would have been a lot of creative cooking as well. We were unbelievably blessed to be able to keep business as usual for the most part in our kitchen.I’ve been working on building back up since stores started getting back to normal and I’m on a pause while expecting new orders soon, but I can’t wait to implement more from this book. I’ve already made use of some of the newer tips.As you could expect, there’s a bit more of the same, for people new to this, it need to be comprehensive; however, I feel that there was more to learn for most everyone in this book. It was very practical and up to date.

This book give you the basics, how to start preparing from step one. Great information. Great quick recipes & substitutions given.

Love how there’s lots of plans, ideas for all the just incases, I’m only part way thru this book & I may never need to do any of it but I’m intrigued so I’ll keel reading lol

This book is helpful to know what to do if power outages,snowstorms or other disasters.To save on groceries and recipes to try .

Excellent coverage of how to organize short and long term storage. Mostly addresses the American situation, as we Canadians don’t always have the same options in rural places. However, overall, a very good read. I will be adjusting how I do my pantry inventories from now on.

Nicely written, but I was expecting more about how to stock for a year from a variety of sources rather than justifying the why. It's more for a person who is new to preparedness. A section on producing food from home would have been helpful, particularly since the picture on the front cover shows an array of home-canned goods. The book indicates that a year without a grocery store is achievable because we are advised to purchase everything needed for a year (as we can afford).................from the grocery store or other retail sources? Gardening, home preserving, or other ways of acquiring food would fill out the missing piece.

It’s a self-published book with one person’s experience feeding their family with food stores. Some good info but not enough of it.