Cans

Growing up in Utah, I have a tendency to veer toward the survivalist mode.  My high school buddies had family food supplies down the basement.  It was a normal and accepted part of the culture.

But now I am up in the Northwest, and food supplies up here are the mark of the survivalist culture that sprouted up in the seventies.  You know....the types the ones that lock themselves in the bathroom with a copy of "Patriots" and a bottle of lube.  Heavy on guns and machismo, these folks are rapidly getting older.  My sons now refer to them as "Lard Ninja's" as for the most part they are middle-aged men who have taken a hard turn toward the portly and still insist on wearing camouflage as a fashion statement.  Actually, Cabela's has created an entire market segment out of this demographic.

Anyway, back to the subject.  I have around thirty #10 cans of dried food in the basement.  Now, taken alone, these would last the family for around a month maybe two.  I see them as extenders, a way to round out the food that we are able to get hold of in our daily existence.  My choices tend toward the dried vegetables and other items that can add flavor and consistency to a bland menu.  Beans and rice and flour are pretty damn boring on their own.  Spiced up with veggies and some spices and then you get into "ethnic" food that tastes pretty damn good, thank you very much.

I think that we will be moving back from the just-in-time delivery of prepared food that we have developed during the last twenty years to a system where raw ingredients are purchased and food preparation will take up more of our lives.   Food preparation will necessarily become the bailiwick of whichever family member is unemployed in the general economy.  Since there have been around seven million people drop out of the job market in the past four years, if these folks have a lick of sense, they will be buying more and more raw foods and cooking at home.