Food Storage

Shopping Weekly added March 1st, 2013
Do you do your grocery shopping weekly? Do you make a list to shop from? Do you save your list? I have decided that the easiest way to determine what my family really eats is to create a list when I do my regular shopping and to save the list so that at the end of the year I can look at the list and see what my family really eats. Then those items will be the foods I will add to my food storage. My biggest obstacle is still having appropriate storage containers as I have a limited budget, but still working on it.
Perspective of the Hungry
I told my Mom once that when you are poor, like I was, people think quantity not quality when it comes to food. If only I knew then what I know now. I do not consider myself a great chef, in fact I really don't like cooking, so I look for ways to make food really easy. The reason the poor think of quantity of food is because there is always the fear of running out. When you do get to go shopping you get gluttonous, and eat as much as you can without making yourself sick. It's a psychological effect. As poor stock up on hundreds of Top Ramen Noodles, and snack foods that don't provide nutrition, people are literally stuffing their bodies with starvation of real nutrients. Quality food, used to mean time consuming, and not always easy to prepare. I use to think that it was more expensive too. I have been learning about the error of my ways, and I'll share with you what I've learned.
April 15, 2012 Storage Idea's
So I can't remember if I told you about my storage plans for my kitchen. In my eat in kitchen I have one wall that is particularly thick. There is a reason for this. It is actually a double wall. Originally my house was built using box framing. Well if you don't know about framing, that isn't the current way of doing it. The previous owner looked at the house and decided that instead of removing the "old" walls he would instead use stud framing next to the old box framed walls, so now almost all of my walls are "thick" or extra wide due to having both box and stud framing.
I'm going to take advantage of that in my dining room and build an actual built-in into that wide wall. In this built-in I would like to store home canned goods in Mason Jars. Eventually I'd like to have fruit trees and a vegetable garden for me and my family. So in my dream of the future, I'll be home canning fruits and vegetables.
I also have another storage space in my kitchen. The stairs in my house are just off my kitchen, and the space under the stairs is available to my kitchen. I am hoping to add a few rotation shelves for soup cans and broths (kinda like a homemade version of the shelf reliance shelves). I see so much space that I can use under there that I know I will have plenty of space for a good food storage.
So many idea's I keep reminding myself baby-steps, I can only do little steps at a time. I doubt you understand how frustrating that is for me. I'll try to be better about updating you, till next time!

January 28, 2012 My Food Storage Problems
I am currently receiving food stamps, this is both good and bad. I am able to get enough food for may family and a little extra in storage, but I don't have effective ways of storing it long term. For instance, I could get a 25 pound bag of Sugar but I know that I had mice (I did bait them and haven't seen/heard any lately- but still it's a concern) and I don't want to just store the food in the bag it comes in since it is not rodent proof, and I don't have money to buy food grade buckets to store it all in. It's a little frustrating. The other problem I've been having, is finding things like canned cheese and butter, they don't sell those at the grocery store or at Wal-mart where my food stamps are accepted. So I've been struggling with some issues in regards to storing food. I'll let you know how and if I overcome them. Maybe I'll talk to the store manager and see if they'd be willing to order it for me? So for now this is what I'm working on. Well that and on my meal planning so that I can have a realistic food storage, and store only things I will actually use.

January 16, 2012 Grains-RICE
A lot of this information came from the (not published by the church) "LDS Preparedness Manual" Compiled by Christopher M. Parrett, found at this link http://www.abysmal.com/LDS/Preparedness/Preparedness.pdf You can also order it from his website at this link http://www.abysmal.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RAVOW&Product_Code=LDSPREP
Of all the grains, rice is the grain I use most often. It's probably the grain you are most familiar with too. I am still learning how to use the others. So I believe the first grain I should talk about is the one I use most often. I always knew there were different kinds of rice like brown rice, white rice and then there were things like converted rice and instant rice. I also knew that long grain white rice was the rice for long term storage. I didn't always know what the differences meant or why long grain white rice was the best rice for long term storage.
So here are what some of the differences are and what they mean. Short and Medium rice is moister and more sticky than long grain rice. Short and Medium grain rice is also supposed to be sweeter than long grain rice.
Brown rice is a long grain rice with only the hull removed. It is the healthiest rice too, but not great for long term storage because it has an oil that compromises rice with oxidation. With out special packaging it will only be shelf stable for about six months which is about half the time that most people store food for. It is possible to find it in air tight containers that has had the oxygen removed. You can even do it yourself, but this is the reason that it is not typically used in long term storage. If packaged properly brown rice can be shelf stable for several years.
White rice has had it's outer layers milled off and so has lost some of it's nutrients. In the US the rice is enriched or given back some of those nutrients.
Converted rice is an interesting rice. It starts off as a whole rice and is partially cooked, forcing a lot of the nutrients into the inner white part of the rice. Then the outer layers are milled off. It is then shelf stable like white rice only with more nutrients left in. It is not like an instant rice, and you still use 1 part rice 2 parts water when you are cooking it.
Instant rice is cooked white rice that has been dehydrated again to make it shelf stable. This rice is enriched. Because you aren't cooking it, only re-hydrating it, it takes less time to be eatable.
It is recommended to store about 150 pounds of rice per person in your household. To get a better idea of how much that is; it would be about four (5 gallon) buckets per person. You should note that if you went by the minimum recommendations the amounts of food would be nutritional and adequate in calories, but you may not be feeling full. The 400 lbs of grains per person turns out to be about 2 cups of grain a day per person. 2 cups of grain total for your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The best way to find out how much you really need is to keep track of what you really use, and store that amount.

January 2, 2012 Starting food storage video
I found this really awesome video on youtube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvEbc_U1EVQ&feature=relatedI think it's awesome to see watuwaitn4's comparison of groceries to fast food budget. It doesn't take a big change to get started and that is the main idea. Just get started.

December 19, 2011: Wells
I have been curious about wells after discovering that the little concrete structure on my property is a well house. My house is connected to county water at the street, so the well house hasn't been used in a long time. I thought this is great having a well as a backup water supply. But I have to wonder why the well isn't still being used? Was it simply a matter of convenience? Or is there something wrong with the well?
So I will need to get my well tested and find out if I can use it in an emergency. If I can use it in an emergency, the next consideration would be how to collect the water. I don't believe there is a pump on my well so learning what kind of pump would best suit the purpose of the well. I am glad to have the well because of the potential it means, not being dependent on an agency (even a local one) for water.
Wherever you are it's important to think about water. If the power is out for an extended it can effect our water as I found out from the CDC webpage http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/poweroutage/needtoknow.asp. Remember Water is one of our most important resources.

December 17, 2011: Figuring out what works
Planning a long term food storage is not as easy to me as it might be to other people. I don't have the budget to say ta da, here it all is. I'm still new to this whole cooking real food thing too. I also am in the middle of a home remodel and am currently in a holding pattern till I get working for a wage again. So my "pantry" isn't quite built yet. I'm still trying to figure out how it is that I have power tools but not a simple adjustable wrench? Good thing I know that I don't have to be perfect yet. I can dream about where I am going to put my shelves, and how everything is going to work. I can try new menu's and find out what I like then record it and save it. I can set goals little and big till I get things figured out. Try something new and at the very least you will learn something. That is my plan.

December 16, 2011: Water
There is no way around it, if you are human you require water. Water is the very first long term storage item that you should make. You don't even have to buy an expensive barrel to do it, In fact I got two used 50 gallon cherry barrels to store water. Just remember whatever you use needs to be food grade to avoid unwanted chemicals in your water. Also while you can reuse anything that previously held food some bottles that contain polyethylene plastics are permeable so they make a poor choice to reuse (such as milk jugs).
It is recommended to store 1 gallon of water per person per day. So for my family of three I would need 9 gallons for our 72 hour kits. But really we need to have a much longer supply. Check out the homeland security page on water storage- I think it is telling that they recommend AT LEAST a 10 day supply and suggest that a 30 day supply is better. Here is the link: http://www.nationalterroralert.com/safewater/. Remember to rotate your water I like to do this in April and October. There is a joke that it takes the government twice as long to do something than what they say it will, and if they say it will take them at least 3 days to "get to you," I would bet that it could really take longer. In the end I'd rather not be waiting for someone else to help me, but you never know what help you might need when the time really comes.
One thing that I like about my used barrels is that they have a lid with a wide mouth so I can clean my barrels really easily. There are cleaning instructions on the previous link. Be creative when looking for a barrel or other water storage container. I have seen people go to their local grocery stores to see if they have any large food grade barrels that they are just going to get rid of, or Soda pop bottling companies. I got mine in CA from Duncan products in Modesto, they had a listing on Craigslist and I got them for $25/30 each (it's been awhile).

December 15, 2011: Planning food storage
Getting ready to go shopping was a big deal. I am of the firm belief that it's a waste of time and money to store foods that you are not going to eat. I also know I don't like to spend a lot of time preparing food. So I spent last week looking at recipes that had relatively few ingredients and that I could stick in the oven and set the timer and walk away.
I found 30 baking meals that would be appropriate for me and my family for this next month- (I like baking foods in winter because it helps warm the house). There are so many recipes online, and in cookbooks that anyone can try. Then I listed all of the ingredients for those meals and the quantities that I would need. Since I am starting from scratch, I needed everything including spices. I wish I could say that I could afford to get 2X what was on my list. I did pick up double on a few ingredients, but on this particular trip I knew I would be buying things like spices that are staples in other peoples pantries. I also didn't use all of my budget for the month though I did spend 4/5 of it. The rest I will use for fresh things as needed towards the end of the month, and towards replenishing my supply. Of course not getting double for each recipe means that we can try it first and decide if it is a keeper.
Planning menu's first is a great way to only get things you know you are going to use and not get unnecessary supplies. This was what was behind Chef Tess' 52 jar method which I might try. To look at her Method try the link: http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/2011/04/emergency-preparedness-and-everyday.html . I just used a notebook to plan my meals but if you want a worksheet you might try this one. http://www.theprojectgirl.com/2009/01/19/menu-planning-form-free-download/ . So now I have one month down 11 more to go!

December 13, 2011: Review of long term storage software
My education regarding food started from experience. Growing up Mom did all the cooking. When I moved out I quickly realized I no longer had a pantry of staples that I could draw from. So I did as any young person might. I went with convenience foods that were prepackaged and pre-seasoned. Well I am finding myself once again in the boat of starting a new pantry. I know that convenience foods are really that convenient. Since I'm at the beginning, I know it will be easier to start recording an inventory for my pantry for long term storage. An inventory is a great tool for long term food storage.
One of the tools my Mom introduced me to for long term storage is Food Storage Planner. http://foodstorageplanner.com/ they have a free demo online and you can try it out. I really like it, but there are a couple of issues that my mom had when she got it and how we dealt with it. The first issue was doing the initial inventory. She had originally downloaded her copy on to her desktop computer which was inconvenient as the pantry was located in another part of the house. She found herself wishing she had downloaded it to the laptop instead so she could count and enter the information in one location, which with the help of the customer service, I believe she was able to do that.
Soon another issue arose that we found inconvenient especially in a large household. Every time you use an item you need to indicate that to the software. It makes sense, I mean the computer will never know what you use unless you tell it. Being unaccustomed to the process we quickly realized at least in our household we were not going to be consistent enough to keep an accurate count daily. Instead we considered quarterly, or semi- annually checks that would ensure rotation and give us a picture that was fairly accurate.
Another issue that I had was with the items preloaded on the software. For instance instead of listing ketchup there would be ketchup 12.6oz and ketchup 10.4oz (I made up the numbers) the point being that there would be multiple listings for different size ketchup and other food items each with their recommended/needed quantities for the pantry so that you could reach your supply on hand goal. Luckily for me it was something that I could change so that I could just have a general ketchup listing and write the size in the notes if it was different. I also have noticed that the amounts recommended by the software are not always accurate for our family. Again this is something that can be changed, as well as the current prices for foods as some prices are no longer accurate. This really just adds up to a lot of time that needs to be invested to personalize the software to fit your circumstances.
I do like the software for a couple of reasons. First, this program can be personalized. It might take time to get it just the way you want, and to learn the tools well enough to feel comfortable with it, but you can personalize it.
Second, I like the features. I like that it will look at your "pantry" and then show you a shopping list of all the items you need. Or you can even focus on a category or "aisle" like grains, or a priority like survival.
I also think the recipe book feature is also clever. Though that also is time consuming because you need to impute, or import all of the recipes. However if used correctly then you can tell the program that you are cooking recipe fried chicken, and it will deduct all of the ingredients from your pantry (in that recipe) for you so that you don't have to do that for each ingredient individually. (note that the ingredients must be listed as they are in the aisles)
In all I would say that it is almost too precise, and time consuming to be user friendly. I haven't found a better software program and doing an inventory properly by hand would be just as time consuming, but without the instant shopping list, or the possible benefit of the recipe book.