Interesting prep item....

I've slowly been building up my short and long term food preps. I hit the LDS cannery as much as possible for #10 cans of sealed beans, rice, sugar, flour, etc. etc., but I'm always on the lookout for good deals on food that has some shelf life. I buy shit tons of canned tuna, chicken, and beef especially when it's on sale. I was in Big Lots today to pick up an HDMI cable and I noticed they had "buy 2 take 25% of a third beverage" so I mosied over to the beverage isle and found quart size shelf stable milk. The label says it's organic milk with no hormones. The green ones are 1% and the blue is 2%. The use by date is Jan 2013 on these. I bought a few and took them home, threw one in the freezer for a half hour then had a glass, I would put the taste somewhere between powdered milk and fresh. I went back and bought what they had on hand. They were $1 per 32 oz. container. After the discount they came to .92. I'm really curious as to what the original shelf life was and how long they will be good for after the listed date. If Big Lots has them now that means they may have been in a warehouse for a while until BL landed them in store. Not a long term prep item and I know these aren't available at this price regularly but nonetheless a good deal in my eyes. Good for camping or anytime you run out of fresh milk. Using this in cereal or cooking you would never notice the difference in taste.



I also picked up a couple cans of herring in tomatoe sauce for a few bucks. Use by date of 2016..... MMMMmmmm good......

Always good to get a deal on something you want.

For long term, what about MREs? I know beltfed still sells them.
(I've never had one; don't know much about them).

MRE's are great! There is nothing better if you are in a pinch or on the run. As far as planning out long term preps go, they are expensive. MRE's are running $5 per meal at a minimum, with five mouths to feed that makes it $75 per day to feed my family. That's over $2200 per month.

Using oats, rice, and beans as the staple food. I can store food away now at a price of roughly one third of MRE's. Eat the oats for breakfast, flavored with cinnamon and sugar. Use the rice and beans for lunch and dinner, flavored with canned meat and homemade gravy. Mix in some veggies and you have a nutritious meal. I can feed my family on the cheap, thus able to put more away now for the future.

My thinking is, once I reach a comfortable level, I can rotate them into our daily meals and I'll be fighting future inflation. If the SHTF, I'm ready. If not. I'm ready anyways.....

Better check your rem exposure levels 'cuz I'd bet that milk has been NUCULAR'd!!!

I've got a bunch of them in with my emergency prep supplies, and agree with your taste assessment. Not dairy-fresh, but quite a bit better than powdered milk. I was actually already familiar with this (UHT - Ultra High Temperature pasteurization - milk) when I found it locally... it was common when I was overseas in the early '80's. Seems to be getting more common in the US these days... I think I even saw some at Wallyworld a while back.

I drank the stuff in the desert a lot. It stays good even in high temps for a while. You get to craving real whole milk after a while.

If you find the chocolate that stuff is my absolute favorite desert treat. In Iraq it would come in by the pallet and nobody wanted to drink hot milk. So it sat there and they let anyone who wanted it take it. I took it by the case.

Horizon sells UHT milk in tetra pak's. I put them in my daughters lunches. I keep them cold but I don't have to worry if they warm up a bit.

Nice find! I'm gonna have to run to BL to see if they have any here.

My current focus is on gas cans for the Jeep, dang those old ones are hard to find for a decent price! Also, could use an Eotech or cheap Aimpoint to round out the collection.

ETA: I'm already good on food and water for 3months for 2 people, but if it is any worse I'm bugging out, hence the gas cans for the Jeep

I hate milk.....regular milk....only use I would have for those is gravy, which I'm sure any measurable difference in flavor would be covered up with the added flavor of ground beef or sausage.

Shelf life til Jan.'13 doesnt seem long enough to really store much unless you use alot of it. How long is the shelf life of powdered milk?

I have powdered milk sealed in #10 cans that have a shelf life of 20 years. If I didn't have fresh available I would drink it no problem.

The problem with powdered milk is that it's powdered milk. In your case you don't like milk so it's not a big deal. My wife is the same. Myself and my kids drink fresh milk and love it. The difference in taste between most powdered milk and fresh milk is stark. This milk gives you the ability to store for roughly a year and still keep a close to fresh milk taste. The price was $1 per quart, cheaper than fresh quarts. We go through at least 3 gallons of milk a week so the 7 gallons you see in the pic will be put to good use. While you can taste a difference between this and fresh if you drink a glass, you cannot tell the difference if you add chocolate, add to cereal, or cook with it.

Nah, not Nucular'd just boiled off into steam then recondensed into liquid.
I would love to pick up some of that.
I had that stuff in Europe a lot! Along with in the South Pacific.
Makes a right dandy milkshake along with locally made fresh ice cream!
I will swing by the big lots and see do they have any on the way home.

You mentioned the LDS cannery. W
How hard is it for non members to use and what is the process/procedures like there?

my mother brings me a few of those each time she comes to visit from Germany.

I like them and they come in handy when I was to lazy to get fresh milk. I hope I get new supply in a few month on her next visit

Open to the public every Monday and the 1st Saturday of the month. Just walk in the front door, the cannery is in the back. These folks have been nothing but nice to me every time I've been there.

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