I've decided to keep it really simple with my fat-storage prepping strategy.....
in addition to the ENORMOUS amount of Olive Oil I can store (thanks to my olive trees) I'm opting to buy some Organic, virgin/ raw coconut oil and some Organic Peanut Butter too.
So I'm kind of opting for a combination of premium expensive (fad?) oil (that's the Coconut Oil) and the bog-standard cheap option - the Peanut Butter, and I'll probably go for an 80-20 calorie ratio Coconut to Peanut Butter.
TBH I'm more or less sorted already for oil with the olive oil, but I just want a greater diversity of fats for both nutrition and flavour/ sanity purposes, and I also need to think about what I'm actually going to eat as I rotate through my stores....
Olive Oil - I can eat a LOT of that NO PROBLEM - standard - on salad, frying, roasting, drinking, with bread, EASY.
With Peanut Butter while I do REALLY LIKE it, I'm not that inclined to eat it straight out of the jar, I would rarely cook with it (although Satay sauce is GOOD!) and I want to avoid too much temptation to have it on toast with jam, which is my preferred option, so while it's cheap (ish if yer talking about organic) I don't want too much of it.
Coconut oil I've rarely used but I've heard so much good stuff about its utility and health benefits, and I do really like coconut, and I can see myself using it a lot when I get around to buying some, even though it's expensive I think a little bit can go a long way, AND it's apparently one of the longest-lived foods in terms of shelf-life.
So as I see it - Olive oil is my staple, Coconut Oil is going to be my main secondary supplement and then Peanut Butter is going to be more of a treat.
When it comes to how much of each I need to store, thanks to my ENORMOUS stocks of olive oil I don't need to worry too much about stocking HUGE quantities - I think a couple of litres of Coconut Oil per year would easily be sufficient, and I also think for me buying litre jars would work well for storage reasons - keeping them sealed means a massive shelf life.
As to peanut butter I think I might even just settle for buying regular small jars rather than in bulk... for me this really is just a treat!
I'm quite lucky with having the olive trees that I don't need to store too much fat, and in addition I really like just nuts and seeds on their own, so there's another decent storage solution there too, but I still want some extra fats in store just to keep my diet diversified.
Also, with coconut oil, it's the law to have it in yer survival-bag, right?!?
Storing is quite simple....
As Josh Centers points out in the Be Prepared Blog storing fats comes down to three things:
- Keep them cool
- Keep them dark
- Keep them dry
If I store in small containers it means I won't need to keep opening them and exposing them to light and oxygen when I 'draw down' on them, which should help optimise shelf life.
I think I'll start by building up a two year supply of supplementary fats - I'm quite into the idea of a FAT FIRST survival food strategy!
Now I just need to source my fats!