Preparing food for long term storage

I've been busy in my evening hours (much too late recently) studying up on a few topics which I think are critical for long term disaster preparedness. Learning how to store food is one of the critical topics. My first goal is to stock pile a few months worth of food and then start adding to it.

As soon as I began looking into this it became clear that it could be a relatively cheap project or a very expensive one. It seems that there are all kinds of whiz bang food storage programs out there for the person with a few thousand dollars to spare. Like this place .

Now I'm not saying there is anything wrong the that company and they probably have great deals. I might even buy some smaller amounts for freeze dried food from them, but I can't go out and stock pile one year of food for all five people in my family all at once. That would be almost $4000. Ouch. I'm not saying that we don't eat that much in food, we do, but I need to buy cheaper and do more myself.

I've been looking for information about how to put up my own food. USA Emergency Supply is an excellent resource. This page explains in good detail how to use dry ice to preserve food in five gallon pails. This could save a lot of money.

Added to the fact that you can prepare and store the food yourself, some foods can be purchased much more economically on your own. I've even heard of some people getting bulk grains straight from mills. This is still new to me and I've got a lot to learn, but it is getting interesting.

When pricing dehydrated food you might think that they are awful expensive, I sure did. But this article explains that it is actually cheaper than buying canned goods right off the shelf. The whole article is very helpful in explaining dehydrated foods.

For an idea about what dehydrated fruits and veggies cost look here.
Or for buying grains look here.

Finally, here are a few other good links to food storage. Here, and here.