My Story ~ Why I Do Food Storage! :)

The beautiful sound of "ding dong" proceeded it's arrival. Even with the warning of the bell, I was still surprised at what my eyes beheld. Could it be?

Three beautiful brown boxes... right there at my front door! Just waiting to be taken inside and enjoyed!! It was beginning to feel like Christmas!!! :D Odie and I were both very excited; we couldn't wait to tell the rest of the family! :D

I have to admit though... Even though I was excited, and knew the rest of the family should be excited, too, I didn't expect them to know they should be; so I wasn't prepared for the excitement my teen boys would actually demonstrate over the goods. :D

At first the kids really didn't seem interested. But when I began opening the cans they quickly became curious..., so calmly and "cautiously," they began sampling the fruits and veggies. Within seconds, caution was thrown to the wind; the next thing I knew the whole family was gathered round the cans, opening them for me for themselves as quickly as they could... and greatly expanding their definitions of sampling! LOL :D ~ I actually had to hold them back from making a meal out of it, right then and there!

Do I really need to tell you... They LOVED the food! ... even the veggies! And no one bothered to reconstitute any of them.

I was "wowed!" I wouldn't be needing to cook with this stuff around. ;o Seriously though, had  I let them, they would have just fill up on dehydrated and freeze dried fruits and veggies and I wouldn't have had to make the next meal! It became very apparent, very quickly, that the goods in these cans were going to accomplish EXACTLY what I thought they would; when we find ourselves living off of our food storage again... we are going to be eating GOOD! :D

There is another person on each side...
both cut out of view, as well as a photographer,
all digging in! :D

Would you like to know what caused me to order this food? If you think the answer is "no" let me tell you right now, it is a good story, so you will want your answer to be "yes." ;)

OK then, I'll tell you. :)

I have always believed in being prepared. I have always done what I can to store a little food away for emergencies. The trouble was, every time my family ended up needing to eat the stored food, I discovered that half of what we had, didn't have the other half of what we needed to be able to prepare it! We couldn't store eggs, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, yogurt, butter, milk, or meat. We could store some of these items, in a freezer, or canned (YUCK!)... but not enough for long term like we needed it.

From our food storage, we always had a surplus of certain items, and not enough of the foods our mouths were salivating for. Namely, fruits and vegetables... Trust me, you don't realize how much you need them until they aren't there! With a new business in a financially struggling economy (and a seasonal business at that) our family has been through some very trying circumstances in which we have had to greatly depend upon what is in our cupboards for long periods of time... several times!

As a result of our circumstances, we have learned from experience that canned vegetables are gross... and that what I thought we could live off of in an emergency, and what we actually can, (or actually want to live off of) - are two totally different lists of foods!

These experiences were an incredible blessing to me, to help me to know what we truly need to have on hand to be prepared for financial emergencies.

Because of this, I am excited to announce, that in an effort to help provide my family with delicious and nutritious foods, even in the "off" seasons,  I have signed up to become a Shelf Reliance Distributor! :D This is really going to help our family A LOT!

I'm really excited about the food dehydrated and freeze dried food choices that are offered through Shelf Reliance that I could never get from the grocery stores to prepare adequately for the months when we needed to rely upon what we stored. In addition, Shelf Reliance has a huge inventory of a variety of emergency and camping supplies. I'm also excited about having better snacks to take with me while running and hiking, too! :D

Until now... we never had a way of adding to our storage, so many essentials, like butter, sour cream, vegetables, fruit, yogurt, cheese, meat... Maybe you can relate. Is your freezer big enough to store enough of these types of food items? Will it taste like the freezer by the time you eat it? And what if an emergency takes out your fridge and freezer? Our family doesn't care for corn too much; so it gets freezer burnt. Imagine my surprise when we discovered that freeze-dried corn is delicious! (We snacked on it dry! :D)

With Shelf Reliance, we have super good foods which require no refrigeration, no freezer, they taste totally delicious, and are packed with nutrients because they are either dehydrated or freeze dried the moment they are picked off the vine, garden or orchard when nutrients are at their peak. In addition, the nutrients, texture, colors, and flavors are retained better than can even be imagined; most lasting for many years.

I also love that these foods even have more nutrients than many of the fresh foods we eat, because the fresh foods we eat are stored in a ware house where they ripen, and then shipped about... then stored some more at the grocery stores, and then in our own homes before they are finally eaten. Did you know that the apples you eat from the store are usually last years crop?

I remember learning about the nutrient values of foods in Nutrition 101 in college, so eating foods which are preserved at peak just makes sense to me. Fresh is best, but when I say, "fresh" I am taking about food that is ACTUALLY FRESH - AND JUST PICKED (IE Home grown Garden foods...). Foods we get at the store are seldom fresh because as soon as foods are picked they begin loosing their nutrient value... and by the time you get grocery store foods in your stomach - hopefully there are some nutrients left.). Foods in our food storage are never fresh... SR offers the next best thing!

I love knowing that because the temperatures used for dehydrating and freeze drying are not too high, the Shelf Reliance foods retain their nutrients and enzymes. And my senses were totally delighted and shocked when I looked into those Shelf Reliance cans and saw the naturally bright colors, and smelled the strong, fresh aromas of the dried foods. I KID YOU NOT! I AM SERIOUSLY NOT EXAGGERATING! The quality of Shelf Reliance foods are amazing!

And so, I get to help my family financially in two ways. First, we will be purchasing a Q of foods each month (as part of our regular food budget) to store up a huge variety of delicious foods for those sparse winter months (as well as for now... because they are so yummy and quick to prepare). Oh, and by the way. We won't be using these foods just for sparce months. We will be purchasing food storage for now as well as to store for later, - because it will save so much time to have everything pre-cleaned, pre-chopped /ready to use... and may even save money on items which sometimes go to waste because we can hydrate the foods in small increments as we are ready to use them.

Second, we will be increasing our income while helping other people to have yummy, good foods! :D ~ Irronically, this is something I would be willing to do just to serve people... to help them learn about these things so they can be better prepared for lay-offs, price increases, and emergencies - and to think that it will actually get paid to do it and get discounts on food to bless my family, too - is simply AWESOME! :D

I think I'm going to feel like a millionaire working playing in my kitchen as I prepare meals each day. I also think I'm going to feel like a kid going to super fun parties, and will really find it an incredible bonus to actually get paid for doing it!

I really want to encourage others to think about what they really eat each day, and to plan their emergency and food storage accordingly; so others won't go through the learning curve of...

"oops... we have a year supply of this item... but nothing to go with it"

OR...

"Great, we have wheat and beans, canned goods and condiments - but where are the fruits and veggies? Where is the sour cream? Where is the cheese?" 

...like we did before Shelf Reliance.

By the way, did you know you can make your own yogurt and yogurt cheese, (like cream cheese) with powdered SR yogurt? And it is super easy to do! Seriously... I'm so excited about all of this!!! :D I will be sharing recipes on my blog as I learn them.

OK - you get the point ~ We're becoming healthier physically, and financially.. as well as more self reliant. And that feels REALLY GOOD.  :D

If any of you want to join our Self Reliance/Shelf Reliance team... please do! We would love to have you, and it doesn't matter where you live because I can help you out on line and by phone; I have an awesome sponsor (Sariah) who is helping me from far away, and I know it is going to work out great! I'm so thankful to have friends on my team so we can help each other out and cheer each other on. I would love it if you joined us, too!

Also, if you would like to learn more about Shelf Reliance, purchase some food on a monthly Q (or just when you want to); or host a party so you can try out the food and get a great discount on it... just say the word! :D I will be getting a Shelf Reliance blog or website up and running soon, and will let you know about it when I do. For now, you can check out my sponsor's website if you want to.

Wishing you Happy, Healthy, Self Reliant Living...

Corine :D

PS. If you are looking for an opportunity to do a little good today, here is a link to a place where you can help me with my goal to provide a few dollars towards forwarding research for Cistic Fibrosis. Here is the link, and THANK YOU! :D