If you're prepping for Brexit..

[PenguinBlizzard]

In the event of empty shelves due to panic buying or no deal chaos how many days food are you aiming for?

I've got a load of pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, and then garlic and tomato purée in stock. Noodles, some sugar, and stocking up on flour and bread flour over the next week or two. However, I really don't use that much tinned stuff: I use frozen or fresh veg and meat generally and can't eat pulses/lentils.

This means I'm really struggling to know what to stock up on to keep my veg and protein consumption up. I guess some tinned fish, and maybe some corned beef? It's probably getting close enough that a big quantity of cheese would keep well enough unopened.

What do others find they are able to incorporate into their day to day cooking?

If I had the room I'd just buy a chest freezer, but I don't have outbuildings with power. Might get a sack of onions and one of potatoes for the shed though in a few weeks. Is there anything else that should keep well? I guess maybe some squashes, but I think 3 months would be pushing it!

@Nacreous you can freeze cheese. I grate it and freeze when I have too much.

When our village was snowed in last year the supermarket supply chain was hit locally. Bread and milk was non existent within 24 hours! We now keep some UHT milk in the cupboard and can make our own bread if required.

Ooh yes, UHT milk. Really not my favourite thing, but better than no milk! Cheese is a good plan for freezing coz it's quite flavour dense for the space it takes! That's a good plan :)

Soya or oat milk is better than uht

DP has always sneered at preppers.

He has now, on his own, got a couple of months worth of food, a generator, massive water butt, water purification tablets...

He doesn't worry about stuff at all, but he is worried about Brexit.

What are you all doing in terms of regular medicines?

If you can miss a few doses and make your own stockpile that’s one way. Other way is getting a private prescription from a private gp. Well worth it if you can afford it.

Bit more tricky with insulin . Might speak to my GP...

A little naive here...please do excuse.
We keep a stockpile any way as we never know what is round the corner.
I haven't read much into what may happen after brexit. Do we really believe shelves will be clear?
I am prepping anyway, Even down to buying the kids cheap activities to do...if food can suffer I assume so can toys etc.
But whilst I am prepping I am really unsure how bad it can get. Yes, I should read into it, but everything is so conflicting.
So opinions from real citizens rather than tabloids etc would be appreciated.

@Iputthescrewinthetuna - we operate food distribution (and many other things) on a Just in Time system. Stuff is delivered to supermarkets on a Just in Time programme. Bar codes etc etc help stores know exactly how much they need to order. There'll be a seasonal element to those calculations and weather related/day of week factors etc. And hiccup to that throws everything out of whack. It may go partially out of whack where only certain wanted items are missing or totally out of whack. That hiccup can take any number of forms, from bad weather at a crucial point to stuff just not getting into the country. There is only so much resilience that supermarkets have. And they certainly don't have massive warehouses and fridges to keep stuff fresh and in stock.
That's where the concern about empty shelves comes from.

@tubspreciousthings all I can say is that with TM herself having Type 1 diabetes, it should be considered at the highest level.
All the more reason, however for people to do some reasonable prepping and build in some resilience to their situation so we all keep out of the way to avoid clogging up the NHS with avoidable nonsense so it can focus on people who may need it.

I live in jersey and have seen what it is like in our shops when the boat can’t get in due to weather or breakdown. Our shelves go empty very very quickly

This is one of the reasons I intend to get a mini chest freezer and start stocking up

I have also been on amazon and bulk bought things like washing liquid, toilet roll etc.

We've got about a month's worth. We normally have a couple of weeks savoury things anyway so it's just been topping that up. But we've focused on deserts/sweet things to bring our stocks up, including sponge puddings, custard, Angel delight (makes uht milk more palatable) and lots of tinned fruit because I believe that fresh will be the first impacted. Over the next couple of weeks I'll get that up to 6 weeks worth. I'd forgotten tea, and will add hot chocolate.

We've also stocked up our medicine cabinet with painkillers, allergy meds and things for stomach bugs etc.

If nothing needs to be used then great, I'll just rotate it out/donate to footbank and I hope my friends who think I'm silly are right, but I don't want to risk it personally.

Thing is if you’ve got stock for 2 months food in April & May & lorries flow freely without blockages etc you can just eat the food stored to run it down.

I’m still eating Xmas food & therefore today went shopping purely to stock up on dry goods, loo roll, washing powder, tinned goods. I already have a pretty full freezer.

If things do go tits up for a couple of months at least those that aren’t prepared will have less people panick purchasing

What storage boxes are you all using? I need to order something because although I have shelves in my pantry I think I need boxes for easier access. DH is worries about me getting busy and missing UB dates so he’s offered to box and label it all according to when it needs using.

I'm just using the countless amazon boxes we acquired over christmas. Somethings however like bags of flour, porridge oats, boxed cereal, barley etc really need to be in plastic storage boxes with lids. So far ours are double bagged in carriers but I need to sort this.

Decant into large sterilised glass containers if I can. Or double bag with Mylar bags. Anything still in its original packaging gets placed as high off the floor of my garage as I can manage unless it's in a tin or in glass. That said, I have shoved a couple of nut milk boxes on the floor.
But I'm a prepper.

I suspect lots of people are using garage space. We certainly are. Fortunately the cats hang out there since its warm next to the furnace and so no issues with rodents. Bugs are the only potential concern.

Yes @cloudtree , my cat is finally earning her stay by mooching in
the garage. Bay leaves apparently keep bugs away. No idea if that actually works.

How long do people think disruption could last?

I'm trying to think what I would really struggle without (or would rather have a plentiful supply of) but it's things like frozen Quorn & soya products as we use a lot of them & there's only so much room in my 2 freezers & I really want plenty of frozen fruit & veg - hmmm!

I've got some dried soya sausage mix which the kids love but not sure how much to get & what else to prioritise?

I've got an 'in case of snow' list which comprises of 3 days of meals, snacks & essentials ready to order on payday but brexit wise I don't know!

If the sausage mix is dried and you have no freezer space left I would bulk buy the sausage mix. It might get boring but its food that the DC will eat without moaning.

Dried pasta and ready made sauces are an easy meal which can then be bulked out with anything else available. Both will also last for years and so if you bulk buy them you can then use them over time if they are not needed due to Brexit.

@JurassicGirl , it's impossible to say. Good idea to think about storing things that pep up a meal or ingredients that are flexible. Have a go at bread making.

Bay leaves apparently keep bugs away. No idea if that actually works.

I mentioned that below Bellini & can vouch for it working. We had a big problem with flour weevils some years back. Never had a problem again since adding bayleaves to my cupboards

I’ve got a motorhome and keep a few months of provisions in there. Win win

Excellent @RockinHippy - I grow bay and have dehydrated a load for cooking.
How do you deploy it?