Tag Archives: food storage

How to Store Food Safely part 2

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Of course milk does not last very long and when frozen the water content starts separating, so powdered milk becomes the food storage of choice.  When you have refrigeration if you mix the powdered milk with warm water, mix well and refrigerate by the next morning it will taste better than just made.  Our children also liked it if we used chocolate or strawberry powder mix to add to the milk, it makes it taste better than just plain. Depending on where you get it, milk usually comes in a box which is not safe to leave in very long as it reacts with air and can attract insects and mice. We are a firm believer in 2 liter plastic bottles, especially if you like to drink pop or ready-made juices.  You can store milk safely in 2 liter plastic bottles for quite a while, we have had some that have been stored for up to 10 years and the milk is still okay to drink. You can also put up in #2.5 or #10 cans if you have a canner available.  Masson or ball jars work well too.

It is nice when you have only water to drink if you have some powdered Kool-Aid, lemonade or tea (black, green or herbal) to go along with it for the children as well as adults. Don’t think that you won’t need it too add variety. These can be purchased on sale for a reasonable price and should last for quite some time.  If you get the kind that is already in the small plastic bottle with a measuring cup as the lid, they will store safely that way for quite a while.

Okay, now let’s talk about pasta.  On dried products they last a long time, we have some that have been in 2 liter pop bottles for 10+ years and when we moved to a lower altitude they crunched in some.  But that was fine, it means the seal is good and that was just a 2 liter pop bottle that we drank out of, washed and let dry for a few days and then put the pasta in and tightened the cap back on as tight as we could by hand.  Even spaghetti can go into 2 liter pop bottles. Make sure that you have a variety of kinds of pasta, of course spaghetti & macaroni and cheese are favorite comfort foods and are good to have lots on hand.  But there is also a twist kind of pasta that is made out of veggies that adds to your healthy eating.

Rice is a big one for us, we love it and eat rice probably 3 to 4 times a week.  Rice can be put up in 2 liter pop bottles or cans or Mylar bags which are the foil type bags that you heat seal. Another way you can put up rice is by putting it in zip lock bags and then placing them into a clean bucket.  We have bought buckets at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc and have successfully used them for years and have not had any problem with spoilage, also it helps keep the mice out.

How to Store Food Safely part 1

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Okay now as you start purchasing the food that you are going to keep for years how do you store it.  For the #2.5 cans for the most part can just be placed into your food storage as they are. You do need to date them with a permanent marker with at least the year on them. We like to put the year and month that we purchase them. But you need to remember the cans went through being packaged and shipped to the warehouse, then probably shipped again to the store. How long did that take before you purchased the can? There are a few products that are canned that do not last very long one being green beans, and the other is anything with tomato sauce in it. Tomatoes are very acidy and will destroy the can if left in too long. Once you mark the date on the can, make sure that you rotate them so that you use the oldest first.

Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, barbeque or cocktail sauce and salad dressings don’t last very long. Look at the expiration date, this is what by law the manufactures have to say the earliest possible spoilage. The other things that make a difference is the  1)temperature at which it is stored, 2)light from outside or fluorescent lighting and 3)humidity. If the color starts changing, if the odor is different, if the ingredients start separating, these are all things to watch for. It would be best to put those products into active use and maybe consider reducing the stock level of that particular item because you are not using it fast enough. This is where you will need to look for powdered replacements for the long run.  All of these have fats in them that will turn rancid and there is nothing worse than to have lots stored up and you open one up to find it bad and the rest are the same way.  There is some money down the drain. [There IS a use for spoiled food that we can talk about later] Mayonnaise and salad dressings are made with powdered eggs and or powdered milk and ketchup, barbeque or cocktail sauce are made with powdered tomato sauce. You might want to get some powdered eggs, milk and tomato sauce to try some before you have to make it or have none.

On to A-1, Soy Sauce, Worchester Sauce and such unopened according to manufacturer has an expiration date of 2-3 years, if stored in cool, dry, dark place. However, it can change color or have an odor to it. So use your own best judgment. These can add flavor to dishes.  When you cook the same things over and over spices began to become very important in changing the taste of food and making it different, which is good.

Rodents chew

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A while back a friend, Cindy, discovered the mice / rats had chewed through several of her plastic and cardboard food containers. The rats had even chewed up her stash of bar soap! ‘Why would they eat soap?’

Rodents chew… it does not have to be food that they chew on, wood or soap, they just crew on anything regardless, even if they can not smell food on or in the object.

The best thing to do, is store your provisions and supplies in metal containers. Metal trash cans and wall lockers work well. Number 10 cans stack well and are hard for rats to chew through. The next best would be expanded metal lined walls configured such that the rat would have to chew through the mesh before they got to the wood structure of your stage closet. Yes, I know that is not practical. Another design is to have a room made of concrete or cement blocks and a well fitting metal door. While that would be nice on several levels, but most homes are just not made that way.

The most practical thing to do is keep the pantry area clean and tidy without hiding spots. Outside keep the grass cut and the hedge trimmed to limit hiding spots. Have a couple of cats around. Keep them well enough fed so they are tame and friendly with you, yet hungry enough so if one of those little varmints comes around that the cat will eat them.  If for whatever reason you don’t have pets [or if they will not hunt] you will have to rely on traps baited with peanut butter or poisons.   I don’t like poisons because pets, kids or adults may get a hold of some and that is just not a good idea. If you go the trap or poison route, I would wait to deploy it until you see sign of rats in the area.

So what system do we use? In our long term, dry pack, area we use #10 cans because they stack and travel well. Of course we have standard wet pack cans and jars too. In the semi active area we do make use of Mylar, 2 L coke bottles, other plastic and the store package it came in. All of it is either in cabinets or on metal shelves. So far we have not had any issues with varmints.

A side issue along these lines is to keep several rat sized traps on hand to supplement your food supply.  In many areas of the world rat meat is a staple in the diet. ;] As far as placement goes, place the traps near the wall as mice and rats travel along it. The traps do need a small modification that you have to make is to add either an eye or a hole to secure the trap to a heavy object so that if the rat, squirrel or prairie dog can not drag it off if the trap does not kill it outright OR so that another animal can not drag your trap off so you lose it. NOTE: while the system of  LAWS that we live under are still in effect fish and game enforcement officers, AKA game wardens, can arrest you if you trap anything other than mice and rats – YOU are responsible for staying within the laws of your land.

How to Start a Food Storage Program

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Most preparedness people say to start with an inventory of what provisions you already have. For some people this first step is so overwhelming that they stop right there and will not go any further. So I’m going to say if you want to start with an inventory great, however, if that is too overwhelming to you then just go on to the next step and start your inventory from what you buy from this point on. Now, on the topic of an inventory the best three ways I have heard of are:

1)      Index cards so you can write on them when you purchase and use the items

2)      A three ring binder with dividers for different categories of food, paper products, hygiene, etc.  and

3)      An excel spreadsheet.

Which ever way you are more comfortable with use that one, but remember if we loose the grid you won’t be able to use a computer so you would need to print out the spreadsheet on occasion. Unless you already have a large amount of food stored up most people will use what you already have within a month or two. So if you don’t want to start inventorying what you already have that is okay. The main thing to remember is to not let that stop you from starting on your food storage.

To start off, you will need to be able to get the grocery store sales flyers each week whether that be by going to their website and signing up for their email or buying the usually Wednesday paper. Also keep in mind that Sam’s Club, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Wal-Mart, K-mart and Walgreens have ads too. Sometimes even your local gas station store will have, say, milk on sale to get you in and purchase their gas. So look around, it is worth the time. It is best if you can shop around at the different shores to find the cheapest prices. Some people say to make a 3 ring binder and keep all the prices of what you buy in it from all the different stores. Go to www.betterbudgeting.com  and sign up for her newsletters. Michelle Jones is one of the best that I have found on this subject and has been doing this frugal thing for quite a while.  This is from one of her webpage’s “Our grocery saving and grocery coupon tips are all free. We also feature them in our newsletter each month, along with printable menu planners and a price log to help you save as much money as possible!”  If you think you don’t have that kind of time then it’s not that important to you to have food storage.  I have discussed this with many people that said they did not have room for food storage. At the time our family was living in a 2 bedroom trailer we had 2 pre-teens and we had at least an 18 month supply of food.  The old saying if there is a will, there is a way.

What price do you put on being able to take care of your family?  There is help out there for you, but you have to do your part. Check the store ads and figure out the best savings on what you buy the most of that is on sale that week and purchase 5 or 10 or whatever extra you can while you are purchasing the rest of your groceries for that week, bi-week or month. This is where having a daily consumption log helps out. Also you can print out coupons from your own computer. The next time you buy groceries you do the same check the ads and whatever is the best savings buy 5 or 10 or whatever you can extra.  When you buy the best savings the next time you need to get that item you will already have it in your storage so get one out and then take the price of that item  you would have spent when it was NOT on sale and buy something else extra.  If there is not anything on sale that you normally use the first time, then buy salt.  Salt is something that is very cheap and is a necessary item for our bodies and it has over 14,000 uses according to www.saltinstitute.org.   You can use salt to preserve meat, brush teeth and clean kitchen items.  So, when you think you have enough, get some more. The next time there is not anything on sale, buy baking soda, it has many uses. Go to http://lifehackery.com for 75 uses of baking soda.  Also when you purchase all of the salt or baking soda you need for a year it is motivating to have something done, and will encourage you to do more. There is also bleach www.clorox.com  and vinegar (1001 uses) www.vinegartip.com  these are some of the cheaper items that you can mark off quickly, encouraging you to keep going. You will get to where you only have to purchase short term items such as milk, bread and produce and then you can spend the rest of your budgeted money on sale items, or if no sale items are on, purchase the cheaper items, especially ones that have multiple uses.  Flour, biscuit mix or pancake mixes do not last as long as, say, whole wheat berries, even when it is canned. It has fatty acid from the germ that reacts when exposed to oxygen www.wikapedia.org  in it that will go rancid unless you keep it in the freezer, but then you can’t store other things in the freezer. And what if the electricity goes out?

There is a mental attitude to food storage that needs to be learned. It is not just to store up all this food and put it into the basement and never touch it unless for the big one. It is a way of life to eat what you store and store what you eat.  It can also be a fun family time to see who can find an item cheaper than anyone else.   It is also a savings plan, just like money in the bank except for when the time comes that you can’t even buy food and you can not eat money.