Food Storage for the Rest of Us Schmucks: Non-food items

Pictured: Times Square during the North East blackout of 2003

Well, guys, I goofed. while taking a tour through food, I forgot one very important thing...peanut butter (that is, so long as you are not allergic to peanuts). Peanut butter smeared over crackers makes an excellent survival food....so long as that isn't the only thing you eat. My bad.

Now that we have discussed food, lets talk about some other basic needs that you would need to have on hand during any type of emergency, whether it be tornadoes or a job layoff. Now, I can't take a tour through your head or your house and poke through to discover what you need. After all, all of our needs are different. Even with food, I tried to make my suggestions as general as I could.

But there are two items that I do think all people need.

The first is, quite simply, water. Water to drink. Water to boil the pasta. Water to reconstitute our dried foods. Water to add to soup concentrate. Water to make our coffee with. And last, but certainly not least, water to clean with. A water main break is probably the most common water emergency you will face.

I do not suggest going out and purchasing gallons upon gallons of bottled water. After all, it has been discovered that most bottled water is tap water. Oh, it says spring water? Well, sure....I'm sure it came from a spring....at some point in time. Having a case or two of individually bottled water could be a good idea, particularly if your emergency is short lived. Still, you don't want to have to run out to the store and fight with everyone in ten neighborhoods for the last case of bottled water. However, bottled water is expensive, and water takes up a lot of a space.
What takes up far less space is a water filter, and plenty of extra filters on hand. Two of the best water filters I have heard of are the Katadyn and the Berkey (also known as the British Berkfield). I have heard tales of people putting tea or coffee in their Berkey sport bottle and having it come out pure water. The sad part is that their price reflects how good they are. We have a simple store brand with about 3 years worth of filters. Keep your spent filters, though...you can use the "spent" filters and two buckets to construct a pre-filter in the event that you are forced to use water collected from other sources...water that may have sediment, dust, bugs, and leaves in it.

You could bottle your own water. A word of caution, though...do not add bleach to this until after you have opened an intend to use it. Some people in the know are suggesting that storing a gallon of water with a drop or two of bleach added could turn the bleach into chlorine gas....not a good idea. Plastic milk jugs deteriorate too quickly to be used. Washed 2-liter bottles for soda for bottles for juice is a better idea, but don't last long either. Bleach bottles...well, just like adding bleach, not a good idea. What I have found to be decently sturdy are bottles of vinegar, and occasionally 1-gallon jugs of apple juice. After cleaning out your jugs, I suggest adding some baking soda to some water and swishing it around inside to remove any odor from the bottle's previous inhabitant.

The second major need will be toilette paper...or whatever it is that you culturally use for sanitation necessities. One peak-oil gal that I use to hang around with on the internet for a while couldn't stress enough having a store of toilette paper, and I agree. Sanitation supplies, whether it be women's needs, infant's needs, or something everybody uses should not be rationed. I remember the talk shows in the 90's with all of the penny pinchers...it always seemed to be the men who felt the need the regulate how many sanitary supplies the family used...even the women's sanitation supplies. Scrimping on sanitation can lead to infection, so matter what that sanitation item is. Saving a few pennies here and there is not worth the expense of going to the doctor or emergency room with an infection.

Which leads me other to other disposables. Women's needs, infant's needs, and other disposables. Many of you probably have cloth diapers for your little ones. Excellent! Some women out there have turned to "green" items that are healthier for the environment. Priceless. Unless, of course, you are stuck in a basement after a tornado knocks down part of your house. Having a few disposables on hand that you can stick in a plastic bag and tie up tight is certainly more sanitary than lugging around a bucket full of poopy cloth diapers and trying to figure out how you are going to clean them while you wait for help to show up...if it ever shows up.

Your medicine cabinet, including first aide supplies, should be well-stocked. I remember during the North East blackout of 2003, there was one family who had to borrow the power generator of the news crew interviewing them so that they could get their child's nebulizer working until an ambulance came to pick the child up and head to the hospital. I'm sure the family was probably destitute and received the electrical version through medicare...their doctor should have prescribed a non-electric or battary-run back up nublizer in the event of an emergency such as this, and the insurance should have made the jump to pay for it! Putting a child in the hospital is a much greater expense than purchasing a simple battery-run nebulizer. But then again, Insurance companies (particularly government-run ones) are wacked out of their minds.
But I put this forth as an example...if you have a life-saving medication or machine, you need to ensure that you have some kind of back up, and ensure that it is working, before you have an emergency. Explain to your doctor that you are putting together an emergency kit in the event of some disaster, such as a black out, ice storm, or other disaster common to your area and that you would like to have extra medication (or a battary-powered version) of these life saving items so that you are not a burden on the medical center in the event of a emergency. A smart doctor would take that into consideration, particularly for someone who is diabetic or asthmatic. (Please note...most narcotic medicines are NOT life saving, and doctors will NOT prescribe extra...so don't even try).

Looking through my First Aide kit, there are other items you may wish to have in the event of an emergency...things to clean wounds (such as rubbing alcohol), things to sterilize wounds (such as iodine or triple antibiotic), and things to cover wounds (such as band aids and gauze). During an emergency situation, even the tiniest of wounds can become a huge infection. The emergency medical kit we have also includes simple over-the-counter medicines, such as pain relievers, allergy medications, and insect sting relief, as well as a thermometer, sterile q-tips, tongue depressors (which could be used to immobile broken fingers) and hot and cold packs. Being parents, we also have a medicine cabinet full of every day over-the-counter medications and the like...after all, to a 10-year-old, every scratch and itch and sniffle is a National Emergency.
Now, don't forget your furred, finned, and feathered friends over there. They are going to have needs as well...food, water, comfort, medical, and sanation.

But now that you have your food and water...how are you going to cook it? How are you going to see? Will you need heat? Perhaps you'll need to be cool.

A little tour through a camping section of a store can give you some ideas of what you need. There are dozens of options for heat and fuel out there...I would have several on hand. We have firewood, charcoal, kerosene, candles, Sterno, and olive oil as our many choices of heat, fuel, and lighting. And, of course, we have the lamps, camp stoves, camp ovens, charcoal grills (never use charcoal inside), lighters, firestarters, and matches to use that fuel with. Keep flashlights and light sticks specifically for kids on hand...wind up flashlights are inexpensive, do not require you to have battaries, and are just one more thing to keep kids busy...from winding it, to playing with the light. If they have their own source of light, they will be less incline to act foolishly around dangerous forms of light that require fire. Be cautious also with animals and fire...even a small dog can knock over a candle.

On the other hand, an emergency that happens in the heat of summer can be just as health devestating...there are battary powered fans one could purchase to keep cool. During that same New York blackout, people took to the streets at night because their apartments were too hot. And if you have kids, having a small hand-held one that they invented for ball games could be fun as well as aiding health.

That camping isle tour might also give you and idea of some comfort items you might need or want. You are further going to have to decide what you cannot live without. Paper towels, paper plates, hard candies or chocolate (M&M's store better than most chocolate). Games of diversion and simple comfort items can keep everyone in a mental state that is beneficial. One has no idea how a simple game of UNO can refresh the mind, or a comfortable place to sit down can make all the difference.

I have already alluded to the final item, but I want to point it out now. Plastic bags for trash or other 'sanitation needs'. Lots and lots of them. If your emergency ends up being long-term, trash can be burned outside (like most rural individuals without sanitation pick up do) or buried. But whether short of long term, these plastic bags will provide a place to store unsanitary items until they can be properly disposed of.

Stan Deyo of the Millenium Ark has an excellent computer program that will not only help you inventory your food, but will also give you other ideas on what you may need or want to store for a long-term emergency.


People mentioned in this article are:
Stan Deyo of The Millennium Ark ( http://www.standeyo.com/index1.html )

Food storage for the rest of us Schmucks: All the rest

Food Storage: Fruits, vegetables, beans, meat, and dairy

Please note: I just read an article written by Red Cross volunteer KP on Survivalblog. He/She went into full detail of what it has been like helping people after a hurricane or ice storm, and suggests that we keep at least two weeks worth of supplies (on top of being a witness that FEMA has a tendency to do nothing during disaster recovery). I will link to J.W.R.'s blog at the bottom of the page.

Now that we have talked about the basics and about basic grains, lets get into other stuff.

Legumes

At one point in time, Legumes were a stable around the world. Beans and other dried legumes (this includes peas, believe it or not) are inexpensive to purchase, easy to store, but a little time-consuming to prepare. It could take all day in a crock pot to turn pinto beans into refried beans. Dry beans are said to stay good for about a year...after then, it may be difficult to get them to reconstitute. Pinto beans turn into the most staple American bean food, refried beans. Barbecued beans tends to be a simple white bean swimming in barbecue sauce. Soy beans can be purchased from an Asian Market, but frankly...I wouldn't know what the heck to do with it other than feed it to an animal. Sorry, but I've had fresh soybeans before and found it lacking. Having a mixture of beans, peas, and lentils can make things more interesting.

If you don't care for beans (many people don't), go ahead and purchase a few, or even just a soup mix of beans. Beans and a grain mixed together make a complete (or at least near complete) protein, and are more than essential if you are a vegetarian. Corn bread and barbecued beans, or Spanish rice and refried beans...just a couple of suggestions. One my personal favorites, though, is a mixed bean soup made with a meaty ham bone, with some pumpkin bread on the side. Mmmmmm....

Vegetables and Fruits

If there is one thing in your pantry that you want to have a mixture of storable types, its fruit and vegetables. Eating just dried items is considered to be nutritionally deficient and not good for your gastro-intestinal system. You will want a mixture of frozen, canned, pickled, dried, and fresh.

Frozen foodsFreezing is one of the better ways to preserve food...as long as you can keep the food free from freezer burn, and if you expect the power to stay on. There are many emergencies...tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, ice storms...where the power could easily go out. In that case, your frozen food will have a very short life. However, there are other emergencies where you may still have power...such as a flu pandemic and the government decides to quarantine an entire city, state, or region...or you perhaps have a power generator.

Canned foods

Quite simply, canned is canned. The same gook you find in the grocery store. Canned goods will stay good for about a year or so (longer if kept in a somewhat cool place, like the basement). After then, the vitamins and minerals will begin to deteriorate...but, and here's the key, they will STILL BE GOOD TO EAT. If you are stuck between starvation and a can of green beans that is three years old, the green beans will be mighty tastey.

You may wish to have a variety of tomatoes, from sauce, to paste, to chunks...and don't forget the ketchup. My favorite home-made vegetable beef soup absolutely requires beef bullion, onions, and tomatoes. Without them, the soup just tastes weird. We don't often realize how often we in North America use this fruit. However, it has been realized that anything made with tomatoes can actually help you if you are dehydrated or suffering from heat stroke. Of all the fruits, this may be the one that you want to keep the most in your pantry.

Fruits are found canned in a syrup. Jelly, jams, and the like are another method of preserving fruit, although they might have fewer calories and more nutrition if you can these yourself instead of relying on the grocery store's version. If you are going to start canning yourself, I find these fruit jellies and tomatoes to be the easiest to do.

Dried fruits and veggies

Dried foods take up less space, but take more water to prepare. As a precaution, they are also subject to meal moths, so take proper consideration when storing. If there was anything freeze dried that I would purchase from one of the online internet sources, it would be fruits and vegetables. Thankfully, there are some dealers who will sell the fruits and vegetables without forcing you to purchase them as a part of a total year's worth of food. If you are unsure about the quality or taste of these foods, here's a tip: many of the larger stores that sell backpacking and camping equipment will also sell these freeze dried foods in single or double servings. It may be well worth the trip to go there and check it out.

You can dry fruits and vegetables yourself, but they won't nearly have the shelf life of freeze-dried foods. But remember, we aren't making a food storage system that you pack away and forget about until you need it...we are making a food storage system that we will use daily. It doesn't take that much effort or any special equipment. I simply use an oven on its lowest setting with the door open and a cookie tray. Part way through the drying process, I give my little guys a stir to allow air to get to the underside. These are great to use in soups, stews, or anything "saucy".

Potatoes are what you will find most often freeze dried in your grocery store. Occasionally, you will be able to find dried items in the store...I have found that a decent-sized Asian market will have a lot of storable vegetables, both dried or mylar-packed. The Asian market I prefer to shop has seaweed, mushrooms, turnips, and other vegetables dried or mylar packed.

Dried vegetables aren't as easy to find in the typical grocery store (except peas and potatoes), but it increasingly easier to find dried fruits. Has anyone heard of raisins? There are also cranberries, strawberries, bananas, apples, pineapples, and dates. Usually these are sold as snacks to be included in some form of trail mix, but no one said you couldn't cut up a few of these and mix it in with your oatmeal in the morning.

Pickles

Pickled foods can help make things interesting. You can make your own pickles as well if you don't trust the grocery store version.

Fresh...

Huh? Fresh foods are storable????

Well, in a sense, they are. Or rather, their seeds are. The sale of storable seeds has become quite a popular business lately, and I have found some of these companies to CHEAPER than buying the same amount of seeds in tiny packets from your local hardware store, even if they lack the variety that I prefer. If kept in cold storage (the freezer) they will last for a long, long, LONG time, and you may end up with more than your family can use in a year. If you plan on a particular emergency lasting longer than a month, then seeds may be just the thing you will want, even if you live in an apartment. Many apartment complexes are surrounded by great swathes of glorified, unused golf courses that we call a lawn. If the entire complex is starving, I seriously doubt the complex owner is going to throw that much of a hissy fit if part of the lawn is torn up for a vegetable garden...or at least during the time that the emergency is lasting. He can fix it after the emergency is over...if the emergency is ever over.

Green, leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, and radishes are the fastest to get food out of in a short amount of time. Even when very small, you can pick a leaf or two off each plant. They sell these in the grocery store under the label of "baby greens".

If you are going to store seeds, you may want to store some other things. Tools you'll probably want are shovel (full size), fork, hand shovel/gardening trowel, hoe, and gardening rake. You'll also want something to feed the ground with. Survivalist gurus of mine suggest 10-10-10 fertilizer...don't worry, master gardeners consider that to be organic...or you could store a little powdered blood and bone meal, also considered organic. (Bone meal has the added bonus that it may prevent blossom-end rot on tomatoes). Herbicides are unnecessary as you can hand-weed. Bug sprays may be necessary if there is an extreme infestation, but I have found many garden pests can be handled by simply picking them off the plant.

Dairy Products:

Unless you are vegan, you are going to want some dairy products.

A decent store-bought dry milk is difficult to find. Out of those that I have tasted, only the Sanilac brand of premium dry milk does not have a burnt taste and greasy texture. And because of that, it is also more expensive. Even our pickiest of children have never turned their nose up at it, and thus I consider that a success. However, there is only one store locally that sells it, and I haven't found it for sale on the internet yet.

I have purchased dried buttermilk at the grocery store, but to this day...well, its never been opened. Its probably not good anymore, and thus has joined a few other old things that we won't eat (most given by a thoughtful grandmother) in our "charity" food store...you know, that stuff that you keep in case a gun-toting jack-booted thug comes knocking on your door demanding charity from you. Think it can't happen? Well, it happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

There is one cheese food that is easily storable...I know, some people are going to roll their eyes. Velveeta (or the store-versions). The old timers remember this under the name "government cheese". I don't actually know the shelf life of Velveeta, but it stays fairly well in our basement pantry until we get it out.

Powdered cheeses and "odd stuff" can be purchased through the internet. Through Amazon.com, I have purchased white cheddar, popcorn cheese, and sour cream powder, and I've been happy with all three. Sour cream powder is suppose to be used for adding to baked goods, but for a couple of years now we've turned it into sour cream for cooking and topping potatoes. Frankly, it has a much stronger, and better, taste than fresh sour cream purchased at the store. Adding just a little to your dried mashed potatoes can help the potatoes taste more real.
A little freaked out about the prospect of powdered cheese? Well, let me ask you this: have you ever purchased a dried rice-dish with cheese, or macaroni with cheese, a dried cheese soup, or hamburger helper? Yep....dried cheese. Its the same stuff. Occasionally, you will be able to find dried cheese sauces in your grocery store.

Canned butter can be purchased from overseas or from the occasional internet storable food company (I know "Survival Enterprises" carries it when they are able to). Or you could make it yourself...just remember to shake the jars as they are cooling to keep it from separating.

Eggs:

You can purchase dried eggs through the storable food companies. On the other hand, Cordi Howell of "Cordite Country" (weekend afternoons on Oracle Broadcasting) assures us that you can scramble your eggs, dry them in the oven(as you would anything else), and then zip them up in a blender to make your own powdered eggs. She also informs us that powdered eggs work just fine to use in baking. Another option is to use Ener-G egg replacer (which, due to a chicken egg allergy, we do use). So far, it has worked great for everything but brownies.

A good Asian Market does have preserved duck eggs...unfortunately, as they are either severely salted or preserved using lye, they wouldn't be a good option for baking. Still, the kids and I like the lye-preserved ones, even with the weird green color.

Another option, if you can get away with it, is to raise your own chickens and ducks.

Meat:

Ah, yes. Everyone knows about tuna and spam. I don't know about you, but I can do without spam...I only have two very, very small cans of Spam with bacon. But did you know there are more options than just those? Our grocery store has canned roast beef, chicken, turkey, and ham (real ham, not spam), and Vienna sausages. In the canned fish isle (where tuna fish is kept), we have come across canned oysters, mussels, salmon, sardines, herring, crab, and shrimp...er, I don't recommend the shrimp. Our favorite Asian market carries canned roasted eel (call me weird...I love eel) and freeze-dried shrimp (oddly enough, the freeze dried is better than the canned). Occasionally, you will find a storable-food company that sells canned bacon...looks to be pretty good, too!

Now, you could always just purchased flavored Textured Vegetable Protein, otherwise known as TVP. Excuse me while I puke. Why does TVP always remind me of Soy Lent Green? Anyway, if you are unsure about TVP, purchase some "bacon bits". Unless you are getting the one made out of real bacon, it is TVP. Did you like it? Yeah, that's what I thought. In no way is that crud a good substitute for real meat. However, some people still purchase it. Now, I have seen unflavored TVP for sale in our grocery store (from Red Mill, which usually sells baking products). I have been told its even worse than purchasing the flavored ones.

Most of my homesteading gurus preserve meat themselves using a pressure canner. Ms. Cordi Howell assures us that you can also dry meat yourself. I suggest going to her website (listed below) and reading through her very informative "show notes" to find out how. Trust me...visit her website. She has a LOT of information about food, herbalism, gardening, and "uthu stuff" those of us interested in survival are concerned about.

Complete meals:

Don't discount the easy-to-fix complete meals, either. Kurt Wilson of the Armchair Survivalist Radio Show (and Survival Enterprises) mentioned his own food storage contained Macaroni and Cheese and Spaghetti-O's. Stan Deyo from the Millennium Ark put "Bear Creek" soups within his food-storage program. We ourselves have a few, including rice and bean meals from "Viggo", and a wide range of dried and canned soups (although I much prefer to make soup from scratch). These are great for those times when you just can't, or don't want to, spend the time making your food from scratch, such as when you or the main cook in the house is ill.

Some people mentioned in this blog are:

http://corditecountry.com/ (no www. Cordi Howell of Cordite Country)

http://www.dehydrated-food.net/ (Kurt Wilson of Survival Enterprises and the Armchair Survivalist)

http://www.standeyo.com/index1.html (Stan Deyo, Millennium Ark)

www.survivalblog.com/ (James Wesley, Rawles, Survival Blog)

Food Storage for the Rest of Us Schmucks: Grains

Another article about food storage for those of us who simply can't afford to purcahse 1 year's worth of food from those sweet (but expensive) internet companies.

Blame carbs for being fat or not, bread is still the staff of life.

This is the one item that you do NOT want to purchase online...at all. Looking at online prices, I noticed that grains tended to be overpriced, even without the shipping charges. Just days after I bought simple, unadulterated white bleached flour for 35 cents a pound, I looked online and saw the average price for the exact same product was over $1.50/lb. Most grocery stores will have good, basic flours. Larger grocery stores will have other flours that we Americans rarely see today...rye flour, semolina, etc.

If you prefer to have unground whole wheat, which can last for 25 years under proper storage, then I suggest going to a grain mill itself and purchasing in bulk. Some people suggest a seed and feed...however, these may not be as clean as that for human consumption. However, I highly suggest that you purchase whole wheat flour in a five pound bag first. Test it for some time. You could find that you are allergic to wheat, or that you just plain old cannot eat it.

There is a myth going around that "white" flour has only been around for a short time. In actuality, a form of it has been around for centuries. It required several people to work to put the flour through ever-decreasing screens and clean out the parts which hold the nutrition, but are less appealing, and thus was more expensive...but as it lasted much longer than other flours, it was actually less expensive for pioneers, who couldn't bring a grain mill out west, to purchase the white flour from the trader. Laura Ingals Wilder makes great mention of the difference between white and brown bread in "The Long Winter". In medieval times, the upper classes ate white bread (all of that labor took more money, so you could tell one's wealth by how light or brown their bread was). And the Romans claimed that it was their soft, white loaves of bread that attracted the barbarians, who were forced to eat hard brown bread.

You will want to have a mixture of grains. There is, of course, the allergin reason. Many people who are mildly allergic to a particular grain can stand a certain amount if they eat other grains along with it. Secondly, a mix of grains will help provide a more complete protein. On top of that, a person can get extremely bored with eating a single grain food day after day. A person bored with their food would rather not eat than consume more of it. I mention again Laura Ingalls Wilder, during "The Long Winter"...she became severely frustrated with eating brown bread (bread made with whole wheat flour ground at home). And one certainly needs to eat to keep up their strength.

One nice thing, though, is that you can mix flours together in a single recipe. This is especially helpful for those who can't stand other grains. By replacing even 1/2 a cup of plain white flour with another flour or grain within a recipe, you are that much healthier. One of our family favorites is to replace some of the white flour with oatmeal.

ALL grain food should probably take a little stint in the freezer...two to four days. This will kill anything that has managed to sneak its way into your food store. Trust me...I have even seen meal moths flying around the grocery stores. Not good at all. A single meal moth can ruin thousands of dollars of dry foods...even dried fruits such as raisins...in the time span of a few weeks.

(You might want to purchase a few boxes of "pantry pest traps" for meal moths as well. They aren't perfect, but they are the best deterrent I know of to keep the moths out of your food.)
And now, onto the basics:

White, enriched flour, bleached: The least expensive of grains to purchase in Continental North America, and the basic grain for the average North American diet. Ground flour will last a year on the shelf. I've heard varying times to keep flour, but the number heard most often was a year at room temperature, two years in the refridgerator, and much longer than that in the freezer. The five and ten pound bags of flour fit nicely on refridgerator and freezer shelves.
Okay, now that you have your flour...what do you do with it? Add some milk and eat flour paste? Blech. As I mentioned under the first of these articles, you are better off learning first how to make quick breads. Quick breads are those made with quickly-rising leavenings instead of yeast (please read the first blog in this series for my notes on baking powder). Some, such as tortillas, do not use any leavening at all. If you are unsure of your baking from scratch skills, you can purchase mixes from the baking isle of the grocery store that you only need to add one or two ingredients to and learn with those.

Rice, white: Although not nearly as nutritious as brown rice, white rice on the shelf will keep as long as enriched white flour. If extra effort is put into storing it properly, it will last indefinately. Proper storage includes putting it in the freezer for at least 48 hours, then immedietly placing it in an air-tight, food-grade container with an oxygen absorber, then keep it in a cool place.
DO NOT purchase minute rice or any of the other quick-cooking rice. It is, truthfully, only part of the rice grain, not nutritionally complete, and frankly...it tastes like wet paper. Plain old long-grain rice is the least expensive. However, rice connosieurs will note that there is greater flavor, and possibly even better nutrition, in a variety of rices. Jasmine rice happens to be one of my favorites.

Cooking real rice is not the same as cooking minute rice. You need a pot with a tight-fitting lid, one dry cup of rice, and two liquid-cups of water. (There is a difference in the volume of a dry measure and a liquid measure...you cannot use the same measuring cup). You can rinse the rice if you wish. Put water and rice into the pot and put it over high heat. Wait until it reaches a vigorous boil, then turn the heat down to the lowest possible, and let it simmer for 20 to 40 minutes. If you do not bring it to a vigorous boil, then the liquid will not be absorbed by the rice. If you let it keep boiling, then the water will all boil out and the rice will burn on the bottom. However, once it has reached that good boil and it is removed to an extremely low heat, then you don't have worry about it longer, and in around a half an hour, you will have a fluffy, mildly sticky rice.

Cornmeal: Treat the same as white flour. You probably will not need to purchase as much cornmeal as other grains unless you eat a lot of cornbread and corn tortillas.

Oatmeal: Probably the healthiest of the grains listed here. Quick oats would be easier to use than traditional oats, and cost about the same. For convenience sake, you could easily purchase the individual packets of flavored oatmeal...or you could save money by adding your own maple and brown sugar, or your own cinnamon sugar and dried apples, or other flavors. I have seen recipes for making instant, flavored oatmeal...however, I have found them wanting in taste a bit. You'll want to experiment with what suits you best.

Wheat Gluten: The variety of wheat that we make today has very little gluten in it...and it is gluten that gives yeast breads its texture and structure. I have found that it is far less expensive to purchase all-purpose flour and wheat gluten than to try to fill your freezer with bread flour.
Other grains: As stated before, you might want to replace a small amount of your all-purpose flour with others to get better health even if you can't stand other grains. Keeping on hand a few of the healthier flours keeps things both interesting and healthier. One of my newest favorite bread recipes includes adding a semolina and duram flour mix, which is generally used for making pasta, to the white flour.

Other Grain-foods:

Pasta: Pasta is another of those foods that will store indefinately with just a little bit of common-sense precaution. If just sitting on your shelf, it has a 2-year storage life. So much can be done to pasta...add cheese, and you have macaroni and cheese. Add tomato sauce, and you have spaghetti. Add a can of condensed soup, some veggies, and maybe some canned meat, and you have a casserole. Stir fry the pasta with some fresh vegetables and a tiny amount of butter or olive oil, sprinkle it with cheese and you get....well, heck, I don't know what its called. We call it "everything but the kitchen sink pasta". I saw someone make it on HGTV (he didn't give it a name either), and we have loved it.

I have also seen on the internet recipes for beefing up Ramen noodles. Don't like the flavor packets that come with Ramen noodles? You could either toss them aside for your own flavorings, or you could simply purchase "Lo Mein" noodles...its the exact same thing. Just like pasta, there are so many things that can be done with lo mein noodles. I have been into an authentic far Eastern restaurant (forgive me, I don't remember if it was Korean or Vietnamese), and they had page after page after page of differing soups all made with a lo-mein base.
Still, as inexpensive as Ramen noodles are, by themselves they are not very nutritious, often full of MSG, and can create extreme boredom in eating. Don't get me wrong...we do keep Ramen noodles in our storage, and there is a lobster-flavored one that I have gotten particularly addicted to.... But if it came to someone knocking on our door, begging for food (or demanding it at gun point), the Ramen noodles will be amongst the first donated. Ramen noodles are slated to stay good for about a year.

Popcorn: I remember hearing a story about a man who got stuck in the mountains. They had a bear they had hunted, and popcorn. He said the popcorn, cooked in the bear grease, was a life saver. And with a teenage boy with a higher-than-normal-appetite-for-a-teen...trust me, it saves my life.

Microwave popcorn will stay good for about 18 months. Plain popcorn, which you pop in an air-popper or a pan, will stay good for 3 years. Best yet, in an emergency, popcorn can be ground into corn flour.

Ready-made mixes: Twice now I have mentioned ready-made mixes for learning how to bake. There are muffin mixes, quick bread mixes, brownie mixes, cookie mixes, pancake mixes...if you are more comfortable using these (and you have the money), then go ahead and purchase these in place of flours. I personally don't like being "stuck" with whatever mix I have in the pantry, but I do keep them on hand for when I don't feel like measuring everything out.

Also included in these are pasta and rice mixes. The drawback...sometimes, they don't always taste as good as home made. Many have chemicals in it that you may be sensitive to, such as MSG.

Bisquick will stay good for about a year. Muffin mix will stay good about 9 months, cake and brownie mix for about 18 months.

Ready-made foods: Yes! You can have ready-made grain foods in your pantry. One of the most common things my mom had the pantry, but didn't use very often, was soda crackers. A soda cracker smeared with peanut butter made a tasty and healthy snack, or perhaps even a meal. There are granola bars wrapped in foil pouches (my daughter's favorite). There are cereal bars wrapped in pouches...okay, who was the brilliant idiot that decided to make rice crispy treats a convenience food? I'd like to shake his hand. Such a simple thing to make, and yet I'm sure they're making billions off it.

Crackers will last, under common sense storage, about 18 months. Open crackers will turn "stale" quickly in humid areas. Unopened pretzels will last for about 6 months before going bad. Cereals and cereal bars will remain good for about 9 months until open.

I don't suggest bread for your food storage. It goes bad far too quickly, which is why you see very few packages of bread being sold by the food storage companies. Sometimes bread will stay for a while in the freezer, but like all else, it will get freezer burned and become useless. This is why learning to make your own breads, even if it just quick breads, is so essential to food storage. Hard tack, which I have seen recipes for, will last a long, long time...but it will break your teeth. You are far better off having the flour and making biscuits than eat hard tack.

Unopened pretzels will last for about 6 months before going bad. Cereals and cereal bars will remain good for about 9 months until open. Pop tarts should last about six months.

Next time I should get into some of the other kinds of food that we need to nutritionally round out our foods supply.

Food Storage for the Rest of Us Schmucks: The Basics

Okay, so I lied...I'm back already.

If you read survivalist blogs, or listen to patriot radio, one of the things that we hear most often is, "Get a store of food". Having stored food is not a stupid or paranoid idea...the Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security all suggest we keep some food on hand. The Red Cross and FEMA suggest we have three days worth. DHS suggests we keep about two weeks worth on hand...which means we should probably have a minimum of three months. (Did I warn you that I'm snarky?) And there are a myriad of companies out there willing to help us out with freeze dried foods and MRE's that will last decades...a (supposed) year's worth of food packaged in insect- and rodent-proof containers. Add to that buckets full of whole wheat, and you just might have a year's worth of food...well, depending upon how much you eat. A year for me would be a month for my teenage son.

For most of us, though, there is a major problem with this...most of us live paycheck to paycheck, particularly during this so-called recession (the rest of us prefer to call it a depression). We can't afford to purchase a year's worth of food, particularly all at once. Those of us who already live frugally look at the difference between the cost of this storable food and what they, in reality, spend at the grocery store see that the food offered actually costs much more, despite some dealer's claim that it costs less.

On top of that, there are other difficulties...food allergies, a dislike for the food, nutritional needs (yes, nutritional problems can arise from eating only freeze dried foods), and others.

So...what do the rest of us do? Thankfully, one of these dealers, on his radio show, use to say, "If you don't purchase your food from us, purchase it from somewhere."
The idea of food that will last 30 years or more would be great. However, most of us will probably break open the food as soon as we get home.


SUGGESTION #1: Learn to bake quick breads. I'm deadly serious. For those of us who are already excellent cooks (thank you, mom), this would seem so logical that it almost becomes non sequitur. However, I know many people today are simply unable to cook...and yes, I am pointing my finger at some of you ladies as well as you young guys.
So what are quick breads? Pancakes. Waffles. Corn bread. Flavored breads (i.e. banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread). Flat breads (such as tortillas or Indian Fry bread). Muffins. Cakes. Cookies. Biscuits.

Frightened by the prospect of cooking from scratch? The baking isle is, thankfully for you, stuffed with all kinds of mixes that require only the addition of one to three wet ingredients, such as milk or eggs. You simply read all of the directions first, then follow those directions. Nine times out of ten, it will turn out pefect. Once you have gained confidence in making pancakes, muffins, and cup cakes from mixes, you can make the foray into cooking from scratch.


SUGGESTION #2: Buy a good cook book. My two favorites are The New Cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens and Cookin' From Home Storage by Peggy Layton.

Basic Supplies
When I first set about putting together my own kitchen, my mother always stressed having "the basics" on hand. At first I didn't get it...as a young couple, the hubby and I tended to make simple boxed dinners, like Mac and Cheese, rice mixes, and the ever popular Ramen Noodles. Years later, add in several children and discovering food allergies, I now know exactly what mom was talking about.

Oils: Oils are those things which provide the basic fats that recipes, and your body, often need. You will need probably two liquid fats...a common corn oil for deep frying, and an olive oil for everything else. Out of all of the oils out on the market, olive oil is the least likely to be from a Genetically Modified Crop. However, when it comes to a high-heat application, such as frying, it is horrible! It smokes and scorches. This is where corn oil comes in.

The second you want is a solid fat, such as lard or vegetable shortening. Lard is, of course, rendered pig fat. It is what our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used in cooking. Unfortunately, you won't find in every grocery store. I myself have only seen it in a store that caters to the immigrant families. For those who cannot use pork products due to dietary restrictions, vegetable shortening is the substitute, and is found most often in United States grocers. It is most commonly sold under the brand name of "Crisco", but there are generics that work just as well. There are butter flavored forms of vegetable shortening; a few of my survivalist-guru ladies have stated often that when a recipe calls for butter (or shortening and butter), they use the butter-flavored shortening, saving the more-expensive butter for spreading on bread.

The third is, of course, butter and margarine. As mentioned above, you might want to save these exclusively for spreading on your bread, your pancakes, or drizzling over popcorn. I prefer real, natural butter to margarine...while more expensive, it tastes better, stores better (it may be canned), and, frankly, margarine doesn't work nearly as well for popcorn as real butter does.

Leavening: Leavening is that wonderful stuff that causes your baked goods to be good and fluffy. You can't make corn bread, pancakes, or yeast breads without it!

The most basic leavening for baked goods is a product called "baking powder". However, I caution that you DO NOT PURCHASE THIS. Baking powder is one part baking soda (we know this under the "Arm and Hammer" name) and two parts cream of tartar. These two products react together to make a gas which creates the lift. Unfortunately, they can react together, however slowly, when dry. And by the time you purchase it from the grocer store, it is mostly dead. Thankfully, the two ingredients alone will store indefinitely. You make up several tablespoons full of baking powder at home, put it in a small container, and it will do fine on your shelf for several weeks or months... and will still be better than the crud you purchase from the grocery store.

Now, baking soda can be purchased in large quantities directly from your grocery store. This is because it is used not only for baking, but for cleaning and deodorizing as well. Unfortunately, they tend to sell cream of tartar only in tiny little spice bottles (and often in the same display as the spices). Purchased that way, cream of tartar quickly becomes an unnecessary expense...you are paying primarily for that little bottle. Thankfully, one can find it in bulk. Check out the big-box stores, baking-specialty stores, or the internet. I purchased mine through Amazon.com, and I'm very happy with both the cost and the product.

The more difficult of the leavenings is yeast. For you nubes out there, I wouldn't suggest purchasing yeast until you are ready to start learning to bake yeast breads. Trust me...yeast breads are lot more complicated (and more of a headache) than quick breads. Yeast is a living organism in a dried state. When added to warm water, it begins to reproduce, thus producing the gas that causes the rise in breads. As it is a living organism, it will eventually die if you purchase it and just put it on the shelf for some time. This is one of those items that you sincerely want to keep an eye on the expiration date.

Yeast can be extended, or even grown, in a "sourdough starter"...a starter is simply sugar, flour, water, and the yeast itself...the rest of the ingredients provide a place perfect for the yeast to live and grow.

salt: salt is SO necessary to our lives (unless, of course, your doctor told you not use it..). It is a spice. It helps our bodies absorb the water we drink. And best yet, it preserves our food.
Table salt, iodized: Iodine is an essential ingredient for our thyroid. We can gain iodine from foods grown in iodine-rich soil...unfortunately, many of our soils are depleted. Thus the industry created iodized salt, and iodine deficiencies almost disappeared from those countries that used it. Unfortunately, the industries discovered MSG, which is cheaper than salt and addictive...and thus we are facing iodine deficiencies once again. You want to keep iodized salt for seasoning your food.

However, there is one unfortunate side-effect...iodized salt is not good for preserving food. Along with iodized salt, you want to keep some pickling and canning salt and some kosher salt on hand. Kosher salt is great for baked confections, such as pretzels.


Sugar: If you are avoiding Genetically Modified Foods (GMO's), then make sure that you purchase sugar made from sugar cane.

You could probably get away with simply purchasing plain, white sugar. You should be able to make the other types of sugar out there from plain white sugar alone. Other types of sugar are as follows:

Powdered sugar: Take 1 cup of plain white sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch , put in your blender. Blend until powdery.
Corn Syrup: Something which is very suspect (due to GMO corn and the possibility of mercury tainting), but avoidable...add 1 cup of sugar to 1/2 cup of water and stir over low heat until its of a syrupy consistency.
Brown Sugar: An absolute necessity in some cookies! The worst problem is that it often dries out when we attempt to store it, and it becomes a dried brick that is practically useless. Simply add maple syrup or molasses to plain white sugar. The more that you add, the darker the sugar will be. (Thank you, Miss Cordi).

Sugar Tip: Sugar needs to be kept dry. I keep my extra sugar in an air-tight cooler with a moisture absorber. However, humidity can still cause it to clump together. Small clumps are easily broken up by shaking the container. However, if your sugar has become a brick...break the brick apart the easiest and safest way possible (ice pick, hammer, butter knife)...some will automatically regranulate. Small chunks that do not regranulate easily can be put through a food mill. Hard, crystallized chunks (when it has actually gotten wet) are better thrown away, or kept for turning into fake corn syrup.


Other sugars: We're creatures of habit, and we love our sugary goods. Long before sugar was discovered, mankind had other options (yes, we had sweets long before sugar). Native Americans in the NW had discovered Maple Syrup, and even use to make a candy/sherbet out of it by dropping the Maple syrup into snow...both of these were taught to our European ancestors. The rest of the world got its sugar from honey. Be cautious when purchasing honey...make certain that it actually IS honey. A rather sneaky company out there is selling a honey-flavored substance made from corn syrup.

Pancake syrup use to be exclusively maple syrup. Unfortunately, the trees can only make so much, so the industry sells to us maple-flavored corn syrup as pancake syrup. Real maple syrup is much more expensive. You can take your fake corn syrup and add maple flavoring (found in the same place on the baking isle as other flavorings and spices) until you get that maple flavor. If you are a purist, stock up on maple syrup.

We have some molasses on hand...I just don't care for the taste nearly as much as maple syrup. Now that I have done the research for this article, I think I know why...my taste buds simply just didn't like the byproduct of sugar production (from either cane or beet sugar).


Flavoring: Variety is the spice of life...and spice is the variety of food. You can eat crap from here to judgment day if you just use the right spices. I wouldn't go nuts in the spice isle, though...I would look first at foods you like (this is where a good cook-book can come in) and then purchase those spices that you will more than likely use.

Some of the spices I find useless are those that end in "salt". Garlic salt, onion salt, etc. This is simply garlic powder, onion powder, et al mixed with salt.

Vanilla is the most common of the liquid seasonings used. If you are a purist, purchase real vanilla...it is more expensive, but you usually don't use that much.

Often overlooked are the bullion flavorings (usually found near the soup section of the grocery store). Chicken and Beef flavor are the most common, but larger grocery stores will also carry pork, vegetable, possibly even a seafood flavored one (although you may need to go to an Asian Market for this one). If you want to avoid MSG, you might look at your local health food store, organic market, or purchase a product called "Better than Bullion".

Flour: Flour is also considered a basic. However, for brevities sake, we will discuss flour along with other grains in the next article.

Until next time kiddies...catch ya'll later!

Good day to all!

This is the new site of the Smallacre Homestead blogger site. We're also on Myspace and Facebook. At the moment, things are a bit busy in the garden...summer harvest and fall planting, canning and preserving food...so don't expect much blogging until things begin to wind down.

My main hope with this site is to get everyone out there to start growing their own food, even it is simply a tomato in a bucket off your apartment balcony. Droughts in Texas and California, the destruction of farmland around the world by GMO crops, the world-wide depression, codex alimentarious, and agri-giants squeezing our small farmers are all attacking the one thing necessary for all of human survival...our food supply.

If you cannot start this fall, then start learning whatever you can this winter. There are plenty of places out there that sell heirloom, non-GMO seed ready for you to grow in your own garden...if I'm right, then you will probably start seeing ads for such in the sidebar...please, visit them and check them out.

Until then, have a great day.