Well, thanks for all the advice! I’ll check out Walton Feed, but honestly, the reason I haven’t seriously thought of buying 400 lbs. of beans, 400 lbs. of wheat berries, etc. (read those amounts over at survivalblog.com), is because I don’t know what the heck to do with that kind of stuff. My mom makes terrific beans in a pressure cooker, and I’m confident I could also make a decent batch of cooked beans, but 400 pounds of them?? I would need a cookbooks just with bean recipes! (And I’m sure there are several of those around!) I’m willing to learn how to use up massive amounts of things like wheat berries, etc., but right now, I’m just focusing on what I know.
One thing that will make “regular” food more affordable is the coupon system I’ve been using. (www.couponsense.com) Sometimes I save 75% and more on my groceries, and I’d be buying things my kids are familiar with, I know how to use, and can more easily figure out what I need. However, I think I’d like to combine store groceries with things from Walton Feed.
I don’t have much of a master plan right now, other than trying to buy things high in protein and things I know the kids (ages 9 and 7) would eat. I’d like to have a list of actual meals, what I need to make them, and then begin checking off the ingredients as I buy them.
I still have the “problem” of that spare bedroom. I really have no concept of what 6 months or a year’s worth of food looks like, but I want to use our space wisely. I’m thinking of nudging hubby into building the shelving to our own specs. Would be cheaper but maybe not as sturdy as the metal shelves. Once we’ve used up that space, I will absolutely start putting things anywhere I can. We’re going to put frosted window cling to the one window in the room and keep the door locked. We, too, want to keep this very low key and away from prying eyes.
After looking over just the beans at Walton Feed, what do I pick?? Are they dry beans in cans? Should I buy different varieties? Any suggestions on how to minimize the GAS this will cause, especially with my young son?? LOL Also, by buying things in such large amounts (35 lbs. of dried broccoli, for example), how do you keep from getting completely bored with it?
Also, how on earth do I judge the proportions when I buy in bulk? If I’m going to by 35 lbs. of broccoli, I’d better have a good plan of how I’m going to actually use it up. I don’t want to be one of those people who makes rash, ignorant purchases and then ends up throwing things away.
So, that’s where I am tonight with trying to do my very best to insure my family isn’t one of those going to the grocery store one of these days to find empty shelves.
The site is frequented by Mormon ladies, who are required by their church to keep a year's worth of food on hand. The forums might be of some value to you. Just ignore the theology if that's not your cup of tea.
Let us know what you find out! I need to go read the site too, come to think about it.
After looking over just the beans at Walton Feed, what do I pick?? Are they dry beans in cans? Should I buy different varieties? Any suggestions on how to minimize the GAS this will cause, especially with my young son?? LOL Also, by buying things in such large amounts (35 lbs. of dried broccoli, for example), how do you keep from getting completely bored with it?<<<
I am getting too tired, so will have to go to short answers now.
You do not need 400 pounds of beans.
First at waltons on the catalog page when you open it, you will find a link to “read my labels”, go and read them, all beans are not the same food values and do not have the same minerals in them....yes, I had to learn that too.
I can’t remember how many gallon containers I got out of 25 pounds, am guessing that there is about 2 cups of dry beans in a pound sack of beans.
I ordered several types of beans, based on food value, also lentils, that I was luke warm on liking and found out that I love them, LOL.
When I cook beans, I put all kinds of spices in them, lots of different kinds, bacon, or and a half teaspoon of soda.
Recently I read to put ginger in them for gas, to the pressure cooker, maybe a table spoon of dry ginger.
Better yet, grow some common peppermint, that is good for gas, iced peppermint tea is good and of course hot too.
You can get Angle Iron for the posts of the bookcase, maybe even from a salvage yard, if you ask, or? LOL, we always got it some place, drill holes in it and screw in wood shelves, long screws and solid wood.
Your wheat berries, flour of course, but better than that, use like rice or barley, takes longer to cook, but makes a good cereal/for breakfast, or an excellent salad, with your broccoli and other good things that might fall into it.
I learned from a Mormon friend with 5 small kids, to always put a pound of mixed vegetables in the pot of boiling water, then bring it to a boil, add macaroni and cook till done, then it is ready for macaroni salad or even to have a sauce.
The kids do not know that they are getting extra vegetables and LOL, after a while, non-vegetable macaroni salads, seem weak and not all there.
Yes, use the coupon plan for short term storage and work in the long term storage items.
You need a storage plan, I posted several from the Mormon sites through out the thread, but more towards the front of the thread. You will need to browse, as there is quite a lot of them over a period of time. There are recipes with them, from the storage lists.
To get an idea of where you are going, figure out what you are buying now, the important basics, that will give you an idea of what you will need each week.
For only a 6 month supply, I would buy the bags of beans, you will get many times more beans for the money and they will be so fresh, that you will get years more storage out of them, before they look like what you buy in the store.
Onions , celery, buttermilk, I did buy in cans and a few other things for long storage, such as soup bases, etc.
Buy the box of macaroni and noodles, far cheaper than the cans.
The first year that I had to quit driving, I had NO ONE to take me shopping and I lived out of Walton’s and ate better than ever before for less money.
All we had/still have were mini marts at the gas stations, that I could safely drive to and not much food there for living on.
When I told Walton’t that they were my daily food supply, I could mail my order and have it here in a week, before Y2K, on the big orders, they were months behind and may well be now, as I know some of the other companies were sold out of the big cans for several weeks a few months ago, during the rice shortage, they simply could not get the stock.
I read about it on one of the lists and signed up for the news letter, so I could stay up to date, I didn’t ask Walton when they were shipping, and I think Don got his just before the rice shortage.
Broccoli salad, creamed broccoli, broccoli stir-fry, and no soup will taste right to me, if it does not have a cabbage family and tomatoes in it.
but then I did not order the dried broccoli, it is not high on my list of foods, but it should be, as they are saying it is very good for you.
I have been to a grocery store with empty shelves, and you never forget the sight.
About 1978, there was a big trucker strike, we had only one large Safeway grocery and a couple mom and pop markets in the town, then 10 to 20 thousand people.
In a couple days Safeway [a huge store], was bare shelved and what the manager could haul from Las Vegas 115 mile one way, he would allow you to buy one of, so more people could be supplied.
No choice, just what he got, a case of this and that, he did his best and no one starved....and I am never completely going to be without foods.
Don’t get hyper, first work on the stuff you know you will use.
Then look at variety and filling other food needs.
Add in jars of spices, or for me it was by the pound, as they will help many tasteless meals.
Fennel is the other herb that I use in my beans, for gas and cause I have done it for so many years that I just do it without thinking.
If I missed a question, please send it again...tomorrow is another day.
You might want to read this from the Utah State Extension:
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_503.pdf
It’s called Use It or Lose It! and talks about storing and using your stockpile of food before any of it goes bad. Good luck!