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The Pantry Primer: Building Your Protein Stockpile

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One area in which many pantries are lacking is protein.  Because meat is so perishable (and also expensive) it is often the most neglected frontier of the one-year pantry.

This is a vital addition to your pantry, because without proper protein, hard-working muscles cannot heal and strengthen. Particularly in a disaster situation, you may be called upon to perform much harder physical labor than you are accustomed to.  It is a necessity to provide your body with the building blocks it needs to repair itself and become stronger.  Tess Pennington writes:

Being well-nourished during a disaster can mean the difference between powering through the event with strength, stamina and energy or plodding through the situation barely able to put one foot in front of the other.

One often overlooked component of the prepper’s pantry is protein.  This vital nutrient:

  • Helps with the repair and building of muscle tissue
  • Helps the body heal from injuries
  • Provides long-lasting stamina
  • Helps boost the immune system

Protein is stored throughout the body. It can be found in muscles, bones, hemoglobin, myoglobin, hormones, antibodies, and enzymes. In fact, protein makes up nearly 45% of the human body. Without a steady supply, body functions will cease to operate effectively. (source [2])

You don’t have to be relegated to those nasty cans of minced up chicken parts or tins of Fukushima-flavored fish.  There are several strategies you can use to stockpile protein and still feed your family healthy food during rough times.

Go vegetarian

You don’t have to go totally vegetarian to use this strategy, but you can enjoy some meatless meals to stretch your budget and extend your meat supply.  Add the following healthy vegetarian protein sources to your pantry:

 

Purchase in quantity

When purchasing meat in quantity, you want to treat it as an investment.  Take the time to locate a source that you can trust.  Consider small butcher shops or local farms, and find out how the animals were farmed, keeping the above tips in mind.

One of the best ways to lessen the price of good quality meat is to purchase it in quantity.  When you purchase a side or quarter of beef or pork, you can reduce the price per pound dramatically.  As well, the butcher will cut it up in the way that you prefer.  You can opt for stewing beef over ground beef, for example, with the lesser cuts of meat.

Making friends with your butcher or farmer could also put you at the front of the line for meats that they’d like to get rid of before they expire. I recently acquired 5 whole chickens at half price from a local farmer  because I was able to take them immediately.  Other ways to get in the loop on these good deals are through internet sources like Craigslist and private groups on Facebook or other social media networks.

Learn how to preserve meat

Before you stash that side of beef in the deep freeze, consider the vulnerability of the electrical grid.  We have recently heard many warnings telling us that our access to electrical power could disappear at the blink of an eye. [6]  You could sustain massive losses to your food supply if you are reliant on electricity to preserve such a large investment.

Consider the following ways to preserve meat for your pantry:

Make the investment

Use the strategies discussed in the Pantry Primer series to save up enough money to make a large investment in meat. Although it’s a lot of money initially, you will save substantially from the price of purchasing in small increments each week at the grocery store.

Want to learn more? My new book is now available!

Lots of us like to have hard copies of information that we’ve found helpful.  Because of this, I’ve expanded on the information included in this series and put it all in one handy primer, available on Amazon.

The Pantry Primer: How to Build a Whole Food Pantry on a Half Price Budget