Posted on 01/24/2010 7:51:38 AM PST by Kartographer
Store or Starve A beginner’s guide to food storage
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
~ Proverbs 6:6
I want people to store food not only for their sake, but for mine as well. I don’t want to decide which of my kids have to go hungry when you and your unprepared kin come knocking on my door. Contrary to progressive-collectivist thinking, every individual who takes care of themselves and their families benefits society by not becoming a burden. So take responsibility now and start today. Don’t expect the Feds to come by to hand you your ration of government-rationed cheese. You could be in for a long wait. Wait too long, and you may end up with a green-stained mouth from eating grass, like the poor Irish during the potato famine in the mid 1800’s. Or seriously reevaluate your aversion to cannibalism. Compared to those desperate methods, dumpster diving comes off as luxury cuisine.
An adult needs a minimum 2500 calories a day. More if you are physically active. This translates to about two pounds of food, plus a gallon of potable ("drinkable") water. To get started, follow this cardinal rule; Store what you eat, and eat what you store. Do not expect to suddenly acquire a taste for powered eggs or a jalapeno-spiced chili MRE in a long-term disaster. If you have children, they will be even more reluctant to eat such stuff. The next rule is not go into debt by spending thousands of dollars for pre-packaged foodstuffs. It kinda defeats the purpose if you have to eat your food supply because you have no money left after buying it.
Begin building your food storage by buying 2–3 extra items every time you shop at the grocery store. A few cans here, some bags and boxes there, and it will begin to add up. Look for sales, two-for-one specials, and coupon items. Set aside some space, and put the oldest stuff in front, and the newest in back. Rotate from back to front as you use it. If you have food items that are going to expire soon that you don’t have time to eat, donate them to a local food pantry for Karma points. There. You now have established a simple but effective short-term food storage system. Everything from here on will expand upon it.
The next step is to create a larger, stable environment to preserve your food supply over the long haul. Regardless if you live in a country mansion or a studio apartment, you need the following conditions to preserve food:
* Keep it airtight * Keep it cool * Keep it dark * Keep it dry * Keep it protected
Exposure to oxygen degrades food. I’ll cover one method to deal with that later. Temperature is the next concern. The goal is to keep food at 70° or below. For every 10 degrees cooler, food life doubles. Every 10 degrees warmer, it halves it. But at the same time, you want to keep it from freezing. Maintaining a stable and consistent temperature environment is the key. Avoid temperature extremes, like storing food in an unheated, un-insulated garage in a four-season environment. Basements make good root cellars. Real root cellars are even better. For those in suburban homes and apartments, a closet designated as a food pantry will serve. Metal trash cans, plastic tub containers, or buckets all lined with a 4-mil black trash liners will help insulate food from temperature extremes. They will also protect food from sunlight, which destroys nutrients, from moisture, which creates mold, and rodents, who will grow in swarming numbers as modern society falls apart. Buckets can be obtained at bakeries and food delis for free or at little cost. Hard pressed for space in you domicile? Put a trash can full of food in your living room, throw a nice cloth over it, add a lamp, and it doubles as an end table. Make a media center of boards supported by food buckets. Who said food storage isn’t fashionable?
Now back to the oxygen problem. As long as the can does not have a tell-tale bulge, signaling spoiled contents, canned goods are viable for many years past their expiration dates, notwithstanding a loss in nutritional value. Dry food packed in paper, cardboard boxes, or plastic are subject to oxygen spoilage over time. One solution is to repackage dry food items using food grade Mylar bags. These bags are an inexpensive method for those on a budget to customize their food storage to their personal needs and taste. Mylar is an excellent air and moisture barrier. It is said one can jump on a filled sealed bag and it won’t pop. But they need protection against punctures and gnawing vermin—hence they need to be stored in a protective container, like those mentioned above. The recommended base foods for long-term storage are wheat, oats, legumes, pasta, honey/sugar, and salt. These will easily last 20–30 years if packed and stored properly. Flour and dry milk are more finicky, and have a shelf life of only 5–10 years. If you or members of your family suffer from Celiac disease, and cannot consume gluten type foods such as wheat, substitute white rice instead. I do not recommend brown rice for long-term storage, as it contains oils that break down over time that causes it to spoil. Supplement your long term food with canned goods, MRE’s and others sundries. The eventual goal is to build a diverse storage of food for health, variety, and if necessary, portability.
Items needed for packaging food:
Food grade Mylar bags. I recommend minimum 4.5mm thick bags in one-gallon size. These will hold about 4–6 lbs, depending on the bulk of the food products. Besides commercial vendors, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints also sells them online, along with other preparedness supplies. Their bags are 7mm thick. However, they only sell them in bulk, so 250 bags for $94 is probably more bags than you need. The Church also has food canneries throughout the US that sells these in smaller quality. One can purchase pre-packaged food or bring their own food to seal at cost at these centers.
500cc Oxygen absorber packets. It takes two of these for each one gallon, 11" x 13" or similar sized Mylar bags full of food. These packets come in a sealed bag with all the oxygen sucked out. If the bag is not flat, but puffy with air, the oxygen packets have been compromised. You will need a glass jar with a metal (not plastic) lid to store them after you open the bag. Or you can seal them in a Mylar bag. Ordinary plastic bags are no good for storing oxygen packets – they provide a poor air barrier. Oxygen packets will start to feel warm when activated by exposure to air. Take them out only when you have everything else all set to bag and seal. Make sure to close the lid to preserve the others.
5-gram silica gel desiccant. These absorb any residue moisture that may reside in your food, to prevent mold. I’ve talked to the people at our local LDS cannery, and they and others who have stored food for years have experienced no problems not using desiccant packets. Everything I’ve read online suggest you should put them in. Your call. I purchase mine on eBay for around 25 cents each.
Sealer. This is a very expensive piece of equipment. I like to use the one at our local church. Contact the local Bishop or a Mormon friend to arrange a time to use one. It comes with a foot pedal, making it easier to seal bags. An alternative is using a hot iron set on wool or cotton (Not the wife’s!) with a 2 x 4 piece of wood. Some find they can use conventional food sealers. But do your homework well, as it is for good reason that Mylar bags require industrial strength sealers compared to off-the-shelf food sealers.
Directions for sealing bags:
1. If using the LDS Church sealer, check that the settings are at Sealing: 3, Congealing: 6, Recycle: 2. Turn on the sealer and let it warm up for two minutes.
2. (Optional) Place two 5-gram silica gel packets at the bottom of the Mylar bag.
3. Pour flour, rice, grain, etc. in bag. This can be done single-handedly, but from experience, it is so much easier to have someone help holding the Mylar bag, as it is very slick and does not have a flat bottom to keep it upright. Flour and dry milk can be a pain because it "poofs" everywhere when pored in the bag. When it does, use a damp paper towel to clean up the inside of the top of the bags where it will be sealed together. Then apply a dry towel to remove any moisture. At this point, firmly bang the bag several times against the table to help settle the contents and reduce airspace between the food elements.
4. Place two 500cc oxygen packets on top of food. Be sure to keep the unused oxy packets sealed in an airtight container, so they will stay fresh.
5. Hold and pull tight both ends of the open bag, place in the sealer. Let the filled part of the bag drop down, to prevent food from coming up to opening and preventing a perfect seal. Hit the foot pedal. The seal bar will come down for 2–3 seconds to set the seal. I like to add a second seal to each bag for good measure. Check the seal by attempting to peel the opening apart. If the seal is secure, you won’t be able too. Also push on the bag and watch if any air leaks out. None should. For using an iron, place the Mylar bag opening on the 2 x 4, and press down. Some prefer to put a towel between the iron and the Mylar, but I’ve never scorched a bag yet.
6. Use a permanent marker to write the on bag the date, the weight, and the description on the bagged food. I like to include the brand name of the food, in case I have any problems with it, or is recalled by the FDA. For some things like powdered milk, I tape the mixing instructions on the bag.
Mylar bags may be cut in half or smaller to store smaller portions. Filled Mylar bags are very stiff and rigid. The bagged food will be a bit awkward to store in round containers like buckets and trashcans. Stack fragile food like pasta on top of the heavier, bulkier bagged foods. Large Mylar bags from vendors are available to store quantities up to 30 lbs in 5-gallon plastic buckets. Put one in, and fill up with the dry food product of your choice. Some recommend using dry ice on top of the food before sealing to displace oxygen in the bucket. I could not find any dry ice in my area, so put ten oxygen packets on top instead. Seal with a hot iron by pressing the Mylar against a 2 x 4 piece. Trim any excess from the sealed top edge of the bag with scissors to secure the Mylar bag into the bucket. This YouTube video gives excellent demonstration. Cover with a lid. I prefer Gamma screw-top lids on my buckets. They cost from $7–10 each, but are so much easier than popping and hammering lids off and on every time.
Other food storage methods include canning, both traditional glass jars and #10 metal cans. The latter can be done at a local LDS cannery center. Canning butter is very easy to do, without requiring a pressure cooker. DIY canned butter has a self-life up to five years. Dehydrating food is another valuable storage method.
A few more suggestions with building your food storage. Include fun foods to help break the monotony and uplift morale, such as hard candy, chocolate, powdered drinks, and dried fruit. Pick up some recipes on cooking the food you store, to add variety to your diet. When possible, supplement your food storage meals with garden vegetables, home grown sprouts, or ordinary dandelion leaves. Be careful of depending on a diet of MRE’s. While they are portable and convenient for traveling, they are short on fiber, and can be hard on the digestive system, especially with children and the elderly. They also negatively affect those who are gluten intolerant. On storing water, bottled water is okay if you are going to bug out, but for hunkering down, you need to think much bigger. For the cost of two cartons of bottled water, you can purchase a five-gallon water container. These are more practical if you need to go out and get your water replenished. Add half teaspoon of bleach per five gallons to keep it safe. Be sure to use only regular bleach, and not those with special or extra additives. If in doubt, boil it.
Whether a global disaster strikes or one becomes unemployed, food storage is the best insurance one can have in uncertain times. You will garner a better dividend on your food storage than any other investment. There’s more to improve upon than mentioned here, such as progressing to the next level from food storage to food production. But you have enough info to get started. So no more excuses. Get working on your food storage today. And don’t forget the can opener.
THX THX.
Thank you for the ping DelaWhere.
Thank you for the ping DelaWhere.
mr. mm saw the video and wants one. That battle is over....
Ahhh, coupons and sales......
It’s better than winning the lottery, especially when you get so much in savings that it locks the cash register up cause they took so much off, and they have to get the manager to come over with the key and reset it.
:)
That’s why I said most.
Like I said, I wouldn’t want to take that chance with something that was critical.
And one can never post a link to this site too often.
Lehman’s Non-Electric Catalog
Good advice. Thanks!
Lehman’s...couupons.....
Yup, we’re kindred spirits, alright.
I keep Clavamox, Cipro, and doxycycline. Do you suggest others? Most will keep way past their expiration date.
It’s important to store. But unless you’re in a rare rare situation, few can store for more than a few years or have a varied enough diet to keep themselves from being deficient, or from going crazy from simply eating the same stuff all the time.
If the collapse lasts for a long period, you are going to learn how to homestead and renew your food supply. You need to buy seed and lots of it and learn how to save it. I’ve been gardening that way for about 10 years, here’s what I’ve learned on buying seed:
1. Heirlooms/open pollinated. Forget hybrids, don’t buy anything that can’t breed true. Heirlooms taste better anyway. Saving seed is a must.
2. Buy & store enough seed for each variety for at least 4 years. Crop failures happen.
3. Keep more than one variety of each vegetable. I can say plant out 4 varieties of melons a year, but have 12 more in the freezer and rotate on a 4 year cycle. That way if you do lose a variety for some reason you aren’t denied that vegetable.
4. Calories AND nutrition are key. Calories are good but it’s the nutrients that help convert it to energy efficiently so you are up to doing the chores of surviving. It’s easy to do in the summertime when the garden is green and abundant. Where it gets critical is early spring where stocks are low but no food can be taken from the garden. I read years ago that many pioneers got sick and died in the spring and not the winter, during the in-between time of little, no, or very poor quality food.
5. Buy vegetables for storage. Freeze, can, dry, root cellar - make sure you have stuff that will hold up to those. Root cellar storage is huge, the freshest food has the most nutrition. There are many, many heirlooms that were bred to be put in a root cellar and if taken care of last for a long time. I have had carrots in my fridge that lasted over a year and were still good to eat.
6. Raise plenty of dry goods and things that can be ground to flour. Beans, corn, grains, rice are obvious. Other things like buckwheat, cowpeas, grain sorghum, sesame, soup peas and chufas that aren’t so obvious.
7. Grow things to flavor the food. Sorghum, sugarbeets, stevia for sweetener, herbs for seasoning, onions and garlic, apples for vinegar, etc.
8. Grow perennials and overwinter. Fruit especially. Also things like multiplier onions, horseradish, Good King Henry, jerusalem artichokes. Thing that can be put in a bed and left there and will come up year after year and provide food. Leeks, spinach, carrots, brassicas, etc will overwinter with cover, can be harvest during any winter warm spell.
9. Grow things with multiple uses. Pumpkins with good roasting seeds. Eggplant with edible leaves, topset onions that have a bulb and tops and green onions too. Strawberry spinach - fruit and berries, beets - roots and greens, etc. Things that can be eaten in various stages, like flint corn, beans or winter squash.
10. Extend the perennial idea to planting things in the wild, give yourself forage material.
11. Cut and come again things like spinach, lettuce, other greens, tomatoes, peppers, melons that will keep producing. Things like favas and certain varieties of beans that will go dormant in heat and drought and come back when conditions are better.
That’s just a fraction of it, but it’s a start. My favorite catalogs:
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/
http://www.gourmetseed.com/
http://www.rareseeds.com
http://www.landrethseeds.com/
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
http://www.southernexposure.com
http://www.seedsavers.org
That is where mylar and canning comes into play. Regardless of humidity or heat it will stay for 5-7 years. You can purchase huge quantities at Sam’s or even the dollar store. Then find out when your local LDS church will have the canner/mylar machine available and go and can/seal it.
They have all of the supplies that you need to use such as the oxygen removal packets.
I bought my supplies when I knew they would have the mylar sealer available. Depending on where you live, many times it is available as often as once a month.
The only thing I would do differently is to not use the oxygen removal packet on sugar. The sugar tends to become hard as a brick.
It is so nice when you are baking and cooking to not have to worry about whether you have the staples necessary to cook with.
We bought plastic storage bins on sale at walmart.
Remember that the food such as sugar and flour is very heavy so it is better to store items by mixing them. Part pasta, part flour and sugar. We put what we thought we would use in one month in one storage container. We found that we go through more sugar and less flour than we thought but if we had to make everything from scratch it would have been about right.
1. Do not spend money sealing anything your family would not ordinarily eat. I packaged the soup starter which had all the dry seasonings and macaroni shaped like alphabet letters. We just don’t use those things. I suppose if we were starving...... I also packaged powdered milk. Another thing we would have to really starve before we would use (except for cooking). We didn’t need nearly the amount we bought.
2. Do keep a small quantity of those things such as dehydrated eggs and milk on hand just in case. You could can those or put them in mylar and just replace them if you haven’t used them within 5-7 years. There are certain dry milk products that taste better than others. I keep dried buttermilk on hand. When I run across a recipe that calls for buttermilk, I don’t have to go to the store to get a quart to use a cup and throw the rest away.
3. Pasta products last much longer than the sealer has you put on the mylar sticker. The average “Use on or before date” recommended is 5-7 years.
4. Once you have your initial food storage - start rotating it. when your supplies get down to 3-4 months on an item start looking for sales and use the sealer when you buy the product.
5. Remember your family and neighbors. We have enough food storage to share with our two daughters and their families. They are young and do not see the perils of not having food storage. We are their insurance until then. We have helped neighbors who have financial emergencies by taking them a month of food storage. They are always grateful and it helps rotate our supply.
bump for a great post!
It looks like it varies between cities. I had to work hard to get sponsor and an invite and then it was a one time thing. Some don’t let any non-Mormon’s come at all and others seem open as long as you are willing to work. All you can do is try.
Two more!
12. Emphasize things that produce lots of food in little space. More space to them, less to less efficient things. Pick prolific varieties. Grow things that can do well on bad soil.
13. Use beans, peas, and legumes as cover crops. I plant them all in one plot, pick them, turn them under. That way I don’t need a cover crop plot for soil building that’s not producing anything to eat.
Jeez, Neoliberalnot, I strongly suggest that you reconsider using old antibiotics. For one thing, old tetracyclines (like doxycycline) and aminoglycosides (like gentamycin, for example), can cause Fanconi syndrome. Fanconi syndrome is a renal dysfunction that can cause metabolic abnormalities.
Just something to consider.
I can a lot of veggies—we have a pretty big garden. Have hens, so eggs are not a prob. My guys hunt and fish. Have tried the dried buttermilk and really like it, but it gets harder than a brick about 2 days after you open it. LOL
Not sure if we have any LDS churches around here. Mostly Southern Baptist, Pentacostal, and Methodist.
Thanks for the tips!
Bottom line is I've got a 7 day course of treatment for every member of the family.
L
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