Store What You Eat and Eat What
You Store
An emergency is not the time to experiment with different foods and
recipes you've never tried. If you are going to store wheat or any other unprocessed
food grains (I recommend that you do..), make it a part of your normal diet. This
will make it easy to rotate your food supply to eliminate waste and of course
minimize stress if food storage suddenly becomes critical. Most grains that are
unprocessed have a very long shelf life when properly stored. Once they've been
ground or otherwise processed, storage life decreases considerably.
Recipes, Home Canning and Bottling
There are great
recipe books that can help you take advantage of these unprocessed healthy food
storage items and you can save a small fortune in food costs in the process.
Home canning (or bottling) can also help reduce food costs and allow
you to build a healthy and tasty reserve of fruit and vegetables. It's alarming
to watch the cans grow smaller and the prices get higher when it come to canned
vegetables and fruits. Too many fruit trees have the fruit go to waste because
people don't know how or are not motivated to can the fruit. You may have a neighbor
that would be happy to give you the fruit so it doesn't go to waste and create
a mess in their yard!
Here you'll find the best ideas we can find for food storage or at
least it's a good information starter that we hope will help you as you start
out building your food storage. This is not a set of rules, but a set of guidelines
that you should tailor for your family and economic circumstances.
Storage Systems
An effective food storage system should be organized to make it easy
to see what food you have, check stock and rotate the food so it remains fresh. A
great way to store grains and other food is in #10 cans. These are a standard size
that makes a storage system easier to implement. Food storage items are readily
available in this size can.
If a can or container is too large, it becomes difficult to move and
hard to use up. Keep the size of your containers small enough to easily manage
yet large enough to be useful. Oatmeal is bulky and light weight for it's volume
so a larger container works out nicely.
Another important thing to consider is the oxidation of processed
food like flour, oatmeal, pasta, etc. If you use oxygen absorbing packets when you can the flour, the food can remain good for a longer time. If you don't eliminate
the oxygen, the flour gets to tasting bad after a couple of years. This problem may
not an issue if you are doing a good job of food rotation and your storage time
is limited to a year or so.
Creature Protection
Another storage consideration is insects and animals. Depending on
your climate, cans can provide a real benefit in keeping little creatures out of
your food.
We had a problem last year with squirrels. They would dig a tunnel
into our storage building, get what they wanted and refill their tunnel so there
was no sign of their entry! I was shocked at how clever they were. They're cute
and I like having them around, but we're a lot more conscientious now about the
need to make sure containers are properly sealed and that the building is as 'critter
proof' as we can make it.
Sometimes you can run into issues storing wheat. Make it
a point to be sure that the wheat is thoroughly cleaned. If you don't, you could
end up with limited shelf life if you are going to keep the wheat in bags. Most
commercial suppliers do a good job, but I have heard horror stories regarding really
cheap buys on wheat.
Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements
When you do research for your home storage, pay attention to considerations
of health. Not only do you want to be well fed, but you want to enjoy good health. There
are some really good ideas like sprouting that can provide a great boost
to your nutrition and health. Sprouts can add a significant amount of vitamins and minerals to your diet.
Food drying is a great way to store fruits and are very tasty as either
snacks or menu items. Take advantage of fruits and other foods that grow locally. Look
for sources that offer you the potential of saving money and increasing the health
of your family.
I like Dr. Christopher's herbal vitamins (vital herbs) that we buy
in bulk. We then put the powder in 00 capsules ourselves. This saves us money
and the dry powder has a good shelf life. I think this is a great
way to go. If you have other ideas on supplementation then try to get ahead on
the supplements you prefer so that you won't run out right away. Buy on a promotion
and save the rest of the year!
Store More Than Just Food
A years supply of toilet paper and other living essentials like soap, cleaners, oil,
cooking supplies, wax paper, aluminum foil, plastic wrap and all the other little
things that make life easier should also
be stored. The savings are considerable.
We've saved a lot of money by buying 3,000 sq ft rolls of plastic
wrap. The container is easier to use than the little ones you normally buy and
it seems to be a higher grade of wrap. We also like the big heavy duty rolls of
aluminum foil which has numerous uses and which lasts a long time. The savings
are real. We buy these from Sam's Club, but you might have a better local choice.
Bulk is really the way to buy these items.
We like to buy big boxes of toilet tissue for the same reasons.
Sites With More Information
The following is a list of links which can provide great information
on food storage:
A typical list of storage items recommended, per person:
STORAGE ITEM YOUR AMOUNT
- Wheat 321 lbs
- Enriched white flour 29 lbs
- Corn meal 71 lbs
- Oats, Rolled 71 lbs
- Rice 143 lbs
- Pearled barley 7 lbs
- Spaghetti & macaroni 71 lbs
TOTAL FOR GRAINS GROUP 714 lbs
- Beans (dry) 50 lbs
- Beans, Lima (dry) 2 lbs
- Beans, Soy (dry) 2 lbs
- Peas, Split (dry) 2 lbs
- Lentils (dry) 2 lbs
- Dry Soup Mix 10 lbs
TOTAL FOR LEGUMES GROUP 68 lbs
- Vegetable Oil 4 gal
- Shortening 10 lbs
- Mayonnaise 2 quarts
- Salad Dressing (mayonnaise type) 2 quarts
- Peanut Butter 8 lbs
TOTAL FOR FATS & OILS 51 lbs
- milk, Nonfat dry 28 lbs
- Evaporated milk 24 cans (12 oz net wt) (equivalent to 6 lbs dry milk)
TOTAL FOR MILK GROUP 32 lbs
- Sugar, Granulated 80 lbs
- Sugar, Brown 6 lbs
- Molasses 2 lbs
- Honey 6 lbs
- Corn syrup 6 lbs
- Jams and preserves 6 lbs
- Fruit drink, Powdered 12 lbs
- Flavored gelatin 2 lbs
TOTAL FOR SUGARS GROUP 120 lbs
- Dry yeast 1 lbs (You will want more yeast than this..)
- Soda 2 lbs
- Baking Powder 2 lbs
- Vinegar 2 lbs
- Chlorine bleach 1 gal
- Salt (iodized) 16 lbs (8 lb/person/year)
- Water 28 gal (14 gal/person/2 weeks)
When you look at a list like this, use it as a starting point. I don't
like rice, but my wife does, so we store less rice and more beans (there's a wide
variety of beans and flavor choices here), which I do like. Guidelines can help you
be sure you're on the right track, but you should tweak your storage to meet your
family needs.
Be sure to store fun foods as well. Some candy, popcorn and other things
that the family enjoys eating. You might like to store cinnamon, tvp bacon bits and
other spices and treats to make your food taste great. The idea is to have what you
need on hand to not only survive, but to thrive. |