A Year Without the Grocery Store: A Step by Step Guide to Acquiring, Organizing, and Cooking Food Storage (Are You Prepared, Mama?)

Great book whether you are new to food storage or well versed. If new to this concept, the book is written in a straightforward way that won't overwhelm you. If you are experienced at food storage, as I am, you will find helpful bits and pieces to boost your skills. I especially liked the recipes using milk powder, tomato powder and the extracts. I've heard of Azure Standard from many homesteading YouTubers but had never tried them. After reading this book I placed my first order, including tomato powder I'd like to see the author publish an entire book dedicated to the exact meals and recipes that she uses to feed her family. I have a binder of such a thing but it's always nice to see what someone else is doing, even if it adds only a couple of recipes that your family will like. Quick, easy read, and a nice little book to keep accessible for frequent use.

I have always had prepper tendencies but until I read A Year Without The Grocery Store, I didn't realize how unprepared I really was. This book teaches you how to prepare but doesn't have the doom and gloom that most prepper books use. It was a clear and concise step by step way to make my family more prepared. Each chapter gives you a few easy action steps that do not overwhelm you. It also does more than just tell you to buy food. It gives practical information on what kinds of food to buy for both short term and long term use as well as recipes on how to store and prepare it. I would recommend this book to any individual but especially to anyone who has a family. It will give you great peace of mind.

This book is an introductory primer on food preparedness. Not only does the author go into how to do it, she also provides recipes and resources to help you on your way. There are exercises you can do at the end of each chapter to reinforce the lessons taught.

Being prepared is important to me so I was happy to be able to review this book. Karen starts out talking about why its important to have a food storage system explaining about her household story of food storage. The information weaved into her personal stories have been helpful and fascinating. Going through what supplies/equipment are needed, where to purchase the food, how to prepare and cook foods (including allergies and special situations), how you can save money, time and your sanity being prepared, and more. I have read up on preparing and even had bulk food storage but the information in the book had information even a seasoned preparer may not have thought of. At the end of each chapter she gives you assignments that help you prepare your household and they are pretty easy to implement. One thing I wish she went into more depth was food allergies and storage. There is info there but as allergies grow, more people will need to know how to prepare and store special foods. But it still has so much info and resources to learn how to prep. Recipes are included for foods her family loves eating from their food storage include seasoning mixes, dressings, meals, desserts, and extracts. This is an emergency prep book that everyone needs before they need it.

Spoiler Alert (I do talk about contents of the book)!! I bought this book in hopes of getting some ideas for storing up 1 year of food or longer, to make it stretch & spend less long term. It def helped with planting ideas, very fast read (not a lot to it), here I’ve written a list of pros & cons: The pro’s about this book: it really helps plant ideas in your head and where to start. The cons: the Author doesn’t explain things very well, doesn’t go into detail, nor shows examples/pictures. I kinda hate that. The author starts to tell you something but then doesn’t really explain it well into detail, which is kind of the point of a book IMO. For example: Mylar bags. I’ve never heard of them before reading this book. She doesn’t really explain what they are, nor how to store food in them (as far as measurements & how much she typically uses them with oxygen absorbers), she kind of leaves you hanging & you need to do a lot of research for yourself. But she did plant the seed of thought in my head about it, I did lots of research, here’s what I found out: 1 year of storage really isn’t considered long term, usually anything from 20-40 years is long term & 1 year & under is really short term. So, with that said, Mylar bags are really for things long term that you know you’ll have over 1 year, up to 20-40 years (I ordered Mylar bags & plan on storing things for up to 5 years in them). If you’re just storing for 1 year, don’t waste the extra money on Mylar bags, when freezer bags in food grade storage buckets is great for 1 year. Actually, just using food grade storage buckets is great (with or without ziplock bags), I just like to have mine broken up into sections (like 5 cups per ziplock bag, so if anything goes wrong with 1 or I continuously open the lid of the bucket it doesn’t cause the rest to spoil sooner - & I can have it ready for cake or pies, so I don’t have to go digging for 5 cups, I just grab my bag & go). Can you still use Mylar bags, yes.... but is it really needed for 1 year? Not really & Mylar bags can get pricey. But if going over 1 year, it’s recommended. You can reuse Mylar bags too. She also talks about storing sugar in Mylar bags, what she fails to mention: don’t ever use oxygen absorbers for sugar!! This will cause your sugar to turn into a brick. Sugar is better off in ziplock bags into the food grade bucket for storage, stores just as well, I’ve heard this can last up to 20-30 years just stored in the food grade bucket. She also talks about “allergies”, but not really, goes over “special” diets, but then not really at the same time. She kind of cherry picks these issues & really only scratches the surface. Another con: a huge no-no, don’t ever EVER suggest for any human consumption of essential oils, ever!! I hope this will be taken out, actually (will that ever happen, prob not). This doesn’t mean that I personally agree or disagree, but it’s not made for human consumption & to recommend this, if someone gets hurt or injured consuming this bc they read her book, she then could face lability issues. Please, do not consume EO, this is not what it’s made for & can cause internal damage. (This was actually my main issue with this entire book, why I mainly gave it 3 out of 5 stars, it doesn’t pay to play on the dangerous side.) I did end up buying a pressure canner & water bath canner bc of her book, I took in a lot of knowledgeable information (but like I said, she planted the seed, I had to do all the research elsewhere. I really wish she would have went into canning more too, I feel like it’s a whole section missing without it). I hope this helps other’s, it’s a good book to get the ball rolling.

At first glance I found myself diving into ideas that I thought were too much 'Prepper' for us two 68 year old. Then as I dove deeper thought there were many smart ideas for us to use on our tight social security budget. Plus....the recipes where I could make my own sauces and milk saved me shelf space and buying all those items separately because these simple ingredients made most items. I learned a lot and am thankful for her book opening my eyes.

Morris clearly has a passion for her specialty of wisely preparing our families for whatever life may bring us. I liked this book and found it very helpful. The author was able to walk the reader step-by-step through everything from how to prepare for a water supply emergency to how to store a year's worth of real, edible, even enjoyable food for even very large families... and how to do so on even a tight budget. The author didn't just mention broad, general "good ideas" for food and water supply preparedness, but got into the specifics of store recommendations (both online and local resources) and specific recipes, which I found helpful, and she did so without instilling great fear and panic that sometimes accompanies many "extreme prep" resources. I also appreciated that the book was not too lengthy. Morris gets to the point, and quickly covers what needs to be learned. I actually feel I could do this (organize long-term food storage), if I had the book in hand and set my mind to it. I'd ultimately like to see Morris tackle other "preppy" topics like shelter, defense, clothing, transportation, etc. in another book in the future. It's helpful for me as a housewife to read these things from another housewife's perspective, as opposed to the professional, extreme, extreme, TV-worthy preppers who seem a bit manic in their preparedness routines at times.

Almost no spelling or grammar mistakes! Which is a big deal to me for published works. I liked the content, it was given in a comprehensive and clear way. She made many accommodation suggestions to help it work for all families.

Buen contenido

You brought so many things I never thought I would need. Everything is in a format that is easy to read, easy to understand, how to impliment into every day life. Thank you. Ray

I got this book hoping it would give me a wider selection of recipe ideas and help planning for our off-grid property. While it is full of very useful information on dry food storage, it was lacking in other areas for me. Since the author is from the States, it's very much centred on Americans and their frequent catastrophes, blackouts and bad social security. I think I expected more recipes on how to preserve fresh food, not just buy everything freeze dried or go to a local Mormon cannery. That was a bit disappointing. What would make this book better is recipes and instructions on how to make tomato sauce (with actual fresh tomatoes...), sauerkraut, fruit preserve, etc. She frequently mentions how important having a garden is but then doesn't give adequate information on how to store any of that. With that being said, I did learn from this book and will probably find Karen's tips on dry food storage helpful in the future but most of the recipes provided were a bit uninteresting to me...

The ideal book for anyone wishing to learn about good housekeeping with a prepping slant. Especially useful for those just married, getting a home together. I didn't have that guidance when I started out some few decades ago -- so I've come to this through years of trial and expensive error -- this book should save you that pain..

This was a great read and you will learn things you never thought of or get answers to lots of questions you might have already thought about