Next need: Food

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kevin Zelhart on July 5, 2009 at 7:29pm

RE: Problems of bugs in flour, rice and beans
Would have to experiment with times, but should be able to minimize this by microwaving the grain/beans. An additional step, and this will apply to all foodstuffs, is to purchase a good vacuum packer. Oxidation is one of the big enemies to preservation, By vacuum packing, you remove much of the available oxygen available for this process. Some of the better units include attachments to vacuum pack jars. The ideal would be if food could be packed under a N2 blanket, but that is beyond most households. TTraditional canning lends some measure of vacuum packing in that the canned foodstuffs will have the lids applied while the jars and contents are hot. As the jars and contents cool, the air in the jar contracts producing a vacuum, causing the jar lid to seal with the distinctive 'pop'.

Permalink Reply by Vern Shotwell on July 6, 2009 at 8:46am

Store under nitrogen, no. But exhaust from internal combustion works just fine! Like a lawn mower; not vehicle with catalytic converter and air pump. Not one with blue oil smoke, of course. Oxygen much depleted!

Permalink Reply by Kevin Zelhart on July 5, 2009 at 8:23pm

Looking on-line, also saw a short blurb about brown rice will not store as long as white because of the fat/amino acid content turing it rancid after about a year

Permalink Reply by Kevin Zelhart on July 5, 2009 at 8:34pm

Oil extraction from grains and nuts - If anyone finds a method for extracting these oils, please post it. Am interested both from a food standpoint as well as a fuel standpoint

Permalink Reply by Walter T. Fitzgerald on July 6, 2009 at 7:52am

Guys you are doin great.
Vern I think you got the hotest topics on this Discussion.
This is what it takes. Keep up the good work.

Permalink Reply by Vern Shotwell on February 18, 2011 at 9:26am

Thanks Walter.

This one will probably really  heat up as the Middle East comes to a boil! The problem then likely will be that store shelves, Cosco, Sam's  supplies will become depleted. No time like the present to put some food on the shelf!

Permalink Reply by Jill Lester on July 23, 2009 at 9:47pm

one thing I was reading on another web site (sorry I cant remember which one) was that you need to store up and rotate the foods you would nomally eat. if you are in an emergancy situation and have to eat foods your body is not use to, you can show signs of depression and anger real fast. this is not something I would want to have to deal with when Im already in a bad situation. just compounding the bad .
Think in tearms of meals when storing foods, what does it take to make the meal you ate tonight? do you need butter? Milk? eggs?
do you need mayo, ect. when I go groc shopping I figure 2 extra meals a week. its all I can afford right now. but it is adding up fast. also what about toilet paper? paper towels, soap, tooth paste, asprin ect ect.... I started writting down everything (and I mean everything) that went in my mouth for a week...(eye opening experiance!!! LOL) and found lots of fthings that needed stocking I hadnt thought about.
If you have children, you also might want to think about things like extra crayons, coloring books, flashlight just for them, diapers, ect

Permalink Reply by Paula James on February 19, 2011 at 2:06am

Emergency Essentials has 5 & 6 gallon food quality buckets with lids. They also have recipes for dehydrated foods. While they are expensive for the food products, the shelf life is long. They have group rates and specials every month. I have used the freezed dried celery and bell peppers in my cooking and they are really great. Nice to have on the shelf. I have been canning and drying fruit & vegetables now for about a year. I have also bought flour, sugar, corn meal, beans & rice. I am storing them in the 6 gallon buckets with something that takes the oxygen out of the buckets. (from emergency essentials) It has become essential to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

I have been doing a lot of research on the internet about canning. Meat products must be canned with a pressure canner. Fruits can be canned with a water bath. It is a lot of work but it has been fun learning. And it is getting easier all time.

 

Permalink Reply by Linda Walters on February 20, 2011 at 11:09pm

Dried black beans are one of the most nutrition-dense foods you can have on hand. Store them in glass jars. All you have to be able to do is soak them and then boil them in water, so they can be cooked over a simple fire, with no special skills..  Another wonderful thing to have is dried fruit. Raisins can be bought in bulk, and will sit for 6 months with absolutely no problem, require no special storage, and taste great in rice or oatmeal. Salt is great to have on hand, since it can be used as a cleanser  and as a preservative. My family has an emergency bag, with flint, a flashlight, emergency radio, and a few days food rations, including water, aspirin, a first aid kit, etc. In the event of an emergency, this bag, which has a long shoulder strap,  can be grabbed as you head out the door . I felt compelled to start my "EMS" kit about 6 months ago, and have been gradually adding to it, each month, and rotating the stock (except for the flint!) We also have an emergency PLAN, which is just as important as the supplies!

Permalink Reply by DAVID CARTER on March 11, 2011 at 10:08pm

I've purchased several boxes of dehydrated food, that when stored properly have 15 to 25 year shelf-life! The food is quite tasty and can be sampled www.feastwell.myefoodsglobal.com One large suitcase (pullman size) can hold enough food for 4 people for a month. All you have to do is boil water and 10 to 20 minutes later, 4 to 5 cups of food are ready to eat. It's the greatest thing I've come across in my preparedness seaching.

Permalink Reply by Teddy Rex Patton II on March 13, 2011 at 2:04pm

I constantly monitor my own shelves for food use-by sates, and compile a list

of the food that is traveling from the back to the front of my pantry.   Many items

I arrange in totes, with a week's worth of my dietary requirements (Agent-Orange 

causal Diabetes, heart-specific needs, etc)  in a single tote.  I am finding many of

my preferred items are coming into the stores with 2015 expiry dates.   Those are

what I buy a lot of.  I have a  wholesale outlet one block from  ☭hi-☭omMart, making

it easier to check the real price of an item I may need.  Any set of items "on sale

NOW",  become the ingredients for the next several days' menus.   When my indoor

space gets close to full the easy to manage totes go to the garage.    When paper-

money in my bank accounts leans towards excess, I convert it to grub, gold / silver, 

guns-&-Ammo, and goodies that I will never use up, but are handy to use in barter.

I have two cases of ⅕-s of whiskey that I'll never drink, also a lot of feminine necessities

that are good for barter, as well as use for burn and wound management.  Better to

have, but not need, than to need and have to pay dearly because of not thinking ahead.

Permalink Reply by Leonie Alemann on March 13, 2011 at 2:28pm

re keeping dried beans, rice, flour, etc yet concerned about bugs infesting containers:

invest in 5 or 10-pound bags of Diatomaceous Earth, FOOD GRADE ONLY (it's also available intended for swimming pool filters; that form is NOT EDIBLE).  Sprinkle 1-3% of the amount of rice etc of DE into the container, and physically roll the container around a little to evenly distribute.

DE is fossilized shells of extinct diatoms, microscopic shelled things.  I'm not a scientist.  But food grade DE KILLS BUGS by mechanical action:  the shells are covered with razor sharp spikes and edges.  Contact with a hard shelled bug and it snags on and drills in, like porcupine quills do, and the bug bleeds to death pretty quick.  Contact with soft bugs, like larvae, same things happens, but quicker. 

DE is used in grain storage facilities to minimize loss to bugs that devour the stock. 

DE is a good source of digestible calcium, and it can also function, in mammals and birds like poultry, as a dewormer.  Fed to horses and cattle, the manure still contains some of the DE, which kills off most of the fly larvae, minimizing flies around your barns and pastures.  I know of at least one person I encountered on another list who ate a tablespoon of DE himself once a week, and swore he'd never been healthier in his life.

Source:

http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/defaq.html

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