Original Article
There
have been many times in the past where we have had
more-month-than-money and having food storage made life much easier. It
also allows for a quick meal when company comes unexpectedly or a
helping hand when a friend is in need.
We have close friends who are going through a traumatic situation right now. It has effected
their
finances and one of the biggest issues was money for food. Even a
small amount of food storage would have amounted to one less thing to
worry about in the midst of crisis.
I see food storage as a multi-faceted or layered system.
I've
written about having a large pantry - just extra of what you normally
eat in the way of canned or boxed food right in your kitchen cupboards.
That's layer one.
In
my mind the next step or layer two is to begin purchasing items on
sale and keeping a supply of those items that exceeds what would fit
into your kitchen cupboards by developing a secondary pantry - in our
house it's called "Mom's Grocery Store". These stores include store
bought products, frozen items and all the items I have been canning over
the year. Most shelf stable items have a 1 to 3 year best-before date
and include things like peanut butter, canned soup and cereal. These are
items that need to be rotated regularly and be things you eat on a
regular basis. Grocery stores have a FIFO system - it stands for First
In - First Out. In other words you need to put the new items at the
back of the shelf and eat the older ones first. More on that in a later
post!
The
third layer is long term storage. There are some items that if
properly packaged (and some not even properly packaged)
have incredibly long storage lives.
Salt
Raw Honey
White Sugar
30 Year Items:
Hard Grains (Whole)
Corn
Flax Seeds
Kamut kernels
Millet
Wheat kernels
Spelt kernels
Oats (whole or rolled)
Rice
Beans and Lentils
and many more with differing storage life spans!
Maybe
the first question is WHY you would want to store food for 30+ years.
This goes back to food insurance. Any item you store should be
something you already eat on a regular basis or something that should be
introduced to your diet because you KNOW it's good for you. If you
can't eat wheat because you are allergic to gluten you will need to
store something else of course and that's why lists of what to store are
not always helpful - it will depend on your families needs.
By
preparing to store some of these foods you can essentially pack them
and forget about them for a long time - kind of like the insurance
policy on the house that you don't think about until you need it. It
could be used next year or 20 years from now with next to no nutrition
lost.
The
next question is HOW to store these items long term. I took advantage
of a great sale on rice and red lentils this summer and bought several
bags of each so I could store them away for the long term. Rice and
lentils will store for a very long time on the shelf or in your kitchen
cupboard so this method just extends the life span by protecting it from
three things. Bugs, Oxygen and Moisture.
If
you've ever had pantry moths - OH MY - you will know that some food
items come from the store with bugs included. You don't actually see the
bugs because they are more likely eggs at the point of purchase and
flourish into armies of creepy crawlies in your cupboards. To prevent
or rather circumvent the bugs life - freeze everything. This is a good
idea for small bags of dried goods that you use on a daily basis too.
Freeze for three days and allow to come to room temperature before
continuing.
The next step is to accumulate some food grade buckets. There are many articles written on which buckets are food grade and why this is important. I am using Home Depot buckets in the pictures above and there is some controversy about the food graded-ness (my word!) of the buckets so I wouldn't store food straight in the bucket. Recycled buckets from a restaurant or bakery are usually a safe bet and sometimes you can get them for free. The buckets main purpose is to protect the mylar bag from puncture and keep the product dry. The pail on it's own is not enough to prevent oxygen from slowly degrading the food so a pail liner made of mylar is required. The mylar bag used for this purpose is a thicker version of the mylar that those shiny birthday balloons are made of. The most commonly available thickness is 5 mil. They come in different sizes - a 5 gallon size that fits a 5 gallon pail is the most common but smaller sizes are available too which allows you to store multiple items in one bucket while keeping them separate.
The mylar bags are available from several online sources such as Briden Solutions.
While
filling the pail shake the bucket or bang it gently on the floor to
make sure all the nooks and crannies get filled. Lentils don't bother
me but some grains like wheat are dusty and aggravate my allergies so be
sure to do it in a well ventilated place and if you
are especially sensitive you might consider wearing a mask or at least
taking an allergy pill before you begin!
Once
the pail is filled close to the top - leave some room for the rest of
the bag to fill the pail - you need to add oxygen absorbers. These are
also available online from the Briden Solutions.
A 5 gallon pail generally requires approximately 1000cc. Something like
rice has less air space while pasta would obviously have more so more
O2 absorbers are needed. They are sold in different cc's but 500cc is
common - so 2 per bucket or three if you're like me and want a little
extra insurance. I also use the shop vac to suck out as much air in the
bag as I can before I close it up. I forgot to take a picture of that
step.
I
usually do several pails at one time so I fill them all with the grains
or beans or lentils and iron them (using a board to press the iron
against) most of the way shut - leaving a 4 inch gap. Once all the
buckets are at that point I go back and add oxygen absorbers as quickly
as I can - this is where my kids come in handy. The O2 absorbers begin
to work as soon as you have them out of the package so you want them to
be in the mylar bag and sealed up quickly as possible - in about 20
minutes. If you have extra absorbers and aren't going to use them all
at once place them in a canning jar with a tight fitting lid or in a
small mylar bag that has been sealed in the same manner as the large
bags. This will stop the absorbers from absorbing more oxygen than is
in the jar. A friend gave me a great idea - using a
hair straightener to seal the pails. I haven't been able to find one at
a thrift store yet but it's on my list!
When
I'm finished sealing the bags I let them sit for a day before I put the
lids on the buckets just to be sure the O2 absorbers have pulled a good
vacuum. Don't forget to label the pails - before you close them up -
or you may end up with mystery buckets that you'll have to open to
figure out what's in them - ask me how I know :) The great thing about
mylar is you can carefully cut the sealed portion and reseal if
necessary.
Now
you just need a place to store them. An area with a fairly stable
temperature like a basement or spare bedroom is ideal. Keeping them in a
garage or other outdoor area where the pails are exposed to high heat
in the summer and then cold in the winter is not as good and will result
in the contents not lasting the maximum amount of time and degrading
the nutrient content. The pails should also NOT be stored on a concrete
floor where they could wick up moisture - even through the plastic
pail. Care should also be taken NOT to store them near chemicals that
could eventually filter through the pail and compromise the air quality
possibly (over a very long period of time) crossing the mylar barrier.
Those are pretty common sense tips - I wouldn't store my cereal beside a
gasoline can either!
Although
food stored this way will last for a very long time it is far better to
store foods that you use and eat on a regular basis. Have some of
these grains or beans in your pantry so you don't have to open the pails
for your every day meal plans. If you're going to store wheat then use
wheat in your every day cooking and baking. Learn to bake bread from
scratch so if/when you DO need to use it you won't have the added stress
of trying to figure out what to do with it.
This is just one way to add to your families personal food insurance. What have you done to prep today?
You may want to make a few srouters to go with the lenils:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.instructables.com/id/Make-This-Sprouter-It-Works-Great/?allstep
Cost me less than a dlooar each for the small ones
If you're going to store wheat then use wheat in your every day cooking and baking.
ReplyDeleteInstead of using an iron to close your bags, use a hair straightener. It gets just as hot (or hotter) than the iron, you don't need the board, and you can make a smaller seal so you can reuse the bags more times. AND with the smaller 1 gallon size (which I store flour and other items in, there are only 2 of us after all) you don't have to worry about laying the edge over to seal, you can do it with it standing up so you can fill the bags fuller to begin with.
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