Sales

I just wanted to pass on the information that Macey's and Dan's are having caselot sales.  They both have canned fruit for 58 cents and canned soup for 50 cents.  Also, Macey's has five gallon buckets on sale for $3.99.  This is a great deal.  I have seen them for $2.99, but that is rare, and they normally sell for about $8 so if you need buckets for food storage then this is a great opportunity.  

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com. I love this site! You can find just about any recipe you are looking for as well as reviews and ratings.

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups whole wheat bread flour
• 1/2 cup shortening (I used 1/2 cup oil and it worked great)
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• all-purpose flour for rolling

1. In a large bowl, stir together 1 cup all-purpose flour, the whole wheat flour, and salt. Rub in the shortening by hand until the mixture is the texture of oatmeal. Make a well in the center, and pour in the boiling water. Mix with a fork until all of the water is evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with a bit of additional flour, and knead until the dough does not stick to your fingers. The dough should be smooth.
2. Make balls the size of golf balls, about 2 ounces each. Place them on a tray, and cover with a cloth. Let stand for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.
3. Heat a griddle or large frying pan over high heat. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a tortilla to your preferred thinness. Fry one at a time. Place on the griddle for 10 seconds, as soon as you see a bubble on the top, flip the tortilla over. Let it cook for about 30 seconds, then flip and cook the other side for another 30 seconds. Roll out the next tortilla while you wait for that one to cook. Repeat until all of the balls have been cooked. Tortillas can be refrigerated or frozen.

Storing Food Continued

I received a question from my last post about using oxygen absorbers instead of dry ice in plastic buckets. Plastic buckets have the potential for oxygen leakage. When dry ice sublimates it releases carbon dioxide and it is the carbon dioxide that kills the weevil, not the lack of oxygen. I hope that clears up any confusion.

I want to address the storage of other foods. Many food storage items can be stored in their original packaging. These include: baking powder and soda, oil, spices, honey, and sugar. The main thing to be aware of when storing these items is keeping them free from moisture and rodents. For this reason we choose to store our sugar in a bucket. If you choose to dry-pack can sugar it is not necessary to use an oxygen absorber.

One of the food items I did not list on the spreadsheet is dehydrated fruits and vegetables. I left them off because they are not one of the life-sustaining basics. However, they do add a nice variety if one is relying on their food storage to eat. I would recommend purchasing these foods in #10 can or packing it yourself. It is important that they be very dry. Foods with a high moisture or oil content cannot be dry-packed.

Other items to avoid storing because of a limited shelf life include: barley, cereal, cornmeal, whole wheat flour, granola, nuts, brown rice, and yeast. These items usually have a shelf life of about six months, but they can be extended by storing them in the freezer. In the case of cornmeal and flour we store popcorn and wheat and then mill it ourselves. Finally, I have heard that if your brown rice goes rancid it can be rinsed in water until the rancid oil is washed off.

Storing Food

Now that you can easily determine how much food you need the next question is how to store it. There are several different approaches to storing food but the ultimate goal is to eliminate the threat of oxygen, which breeds insects, moisture, heat, and rodents. The methods below should be used for all grains, legumes, and powdered milk. However, pasta that is purchased in sealed plastic bags do not need to be treated but it is a good idea to seal them in buckets to prevent rodents from getting into them.

The easiest way to store food is to buy it prepackaged in buckets from the grocery store, warehouse stores, or granaries. This is also the most expensive, however, it is easy to prepare your own buckets. Food can be stored in any PETE, or food grade, plastic. DO NOT store food in milk jugs! They will break down over time and contaminate your food. I prefer to store my food in a five gallon bucket with an airtight lid. They can be purchased at many grocery stores or emergency preparedness stores such as Emergency Essentials. I've seen the price range from $2.99, at Macey's grocery store, up to $8 so I watch the weekly circulars and buy them in bulk when they go on sale. A friend told me that you can find them for free at your local grocery store bakery. They usually have them left over from frosting. If you do this you will still need to purchase a new lid to assure that it is airtight.

The next step is to treat the bucket with dry ice. This is the method I use. It is very simple and my kids have fun with any extra dry ice. The presence of carbon dioxide in concentrations above 3% is adequate to kill weevil. 1) Use approximately 1 oz. of dry ice/gallon. 2) Wipe frost from dry ice with a clean towel. 3) Place the dry ice in the center of the container bottom. 4) Pour food on top and fill container within 1/2" to 1" of the top. 5) Snap lid only about half way around the container to allow gas to escape. 6) Check to see in the dry ice is evaporated by feeling the bottom of the container. If it is still cold the dry ice is still present. 7) Seal the lid but monitor the container for a few minutes. If it bulges lift the lid slightly to relieve pressure. The lid may pull down slightly over time. This is normal.

Another effective way to store food is in #10 cans. The LDS cannery is a great place to pack your own food. At the cannery you will place an oxygen absorber in the top of the can before it is sealed to protect the food from weevil. Please note that oxygen absorbers are not effective in plastic containers.

After you have packaged your food in your desired container it is important to date it and then store it in a well ventilated, clean, dark, dry, and cool location. Do not store your food on or against cement or dirt floors. Place pieces of wood between the floor and the container to provide ventilation and to protect from moisture. This is especially important when using #10 cans as they will rust.

I hope this is not an overload of information. Next time I will address the storage requirements of other food storage items as well as what not to store. Good luck!

Whole Grain Pancakes

This is a pancake recipe that my dad came up with and I have changed a little to utilize my food storage. The batter also works great for waffles. I hope you enjoy them.

1 C Whole wheat flour (Fresh ground is the best. If you buy it in the grocery store it tends to be heavier.)
1 C Rolled oats
1/4 C Powdered milk
1/4 C Potato pearls (From the LDS dry pack cannery. I would assume that the potato flakes would work as well, but I have never tried them.)
1/4 C Cornmeal (This is optional. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for the crunch. Also, I grind my own cornmeal from popcorn with my mill on the coarsest setting.)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 T Baking powder
2 Eggs
2 tsp Lemon juice
2 C Water

Mix all ingredients in a blender or with an immersion blender. The batter is quite runny but it thickens up as it sits. Spray a pan (I use my cast iron) with non-stick spray and cook over medium-low to medium heat.

Out of Captivity

Part of the reason we are able to store food is because we don't have to stand in line to buy a roll of toilet paper or a bag of potatoes. We have so many freedoms that we take for granted or don't even think of as freedom. I just finished reading a wonderful book called Out of Captivity: Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle, by Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes, Keith Stansell, and Gary Brozek. The authors; Gonsalves, Howes, and Stansell; tell their story of surviving a plain crash only to be taken captive by the FARC in Colombia and held for five and a half years. They were deprived of their most basic freedoms and it really made me think about how blessed I am to be free. I realize this book doesn't really have anything to do with food storage, however, if we don't realize what we have we put ourselves at risk of losing it. Thus I begin my "If I was the King of the World This Would be Mandatory Reading" book list.

Yummy Granola

This is my favorite granola recipe. I took a recipe that I found on www.providentliving.org and adapted it for my family. Unfortunately the recipes I found are no longer on their website. We love it with yogurt or milk, but I leave the fruit out if I'm in a yogurt mood. Feel free to add anything your family likes like sunflower or sesame seeds. Enjoy!

6 C rolled oats
1/4 brown sugar
1 C coconut
1 C nuts (we like almonds the best)
1/2 C oil
1/3 C honey
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C dried fruit (optional)

Spray a mixing bowl with non-stick spray. Add all of the ingredients except the fruit and mix well. Spray a 9x13 baking dish or a jelly roll pan with non-stick spray and add mixture evenly to the dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes stirring twice to prevent the edges from burning. Add fruit.

More About the Spreadsheet

Did you notice that the spreadsheet has two tabs? The first tab is the spreadsheet and the second tab is a graph of your overall progress.


You can also manually override any field that fills in automatically. For example my son can't drink milk so we dropped our dry milk needs down to three instead of four people.

The amounts on the spreadsheet are for adults. If you have children in your family you can cut down on your needs as follows:

3 and under -- 50%
4 t0 6 -- 70%
7 to 10 -- 90%
11 and up -- 100%

However, we are storing food that we won't touch for 20+ years so we still figure our food storage for four adults even though we have two young children. It is nice to know that we have a buffer when we get to 100% and we also know that we would be fine next year if we only had 80%.

We have also found that it is a good idea to set goals along the way. Our goal is to have 50% of everything, and then work towards 75%, and then to 100%. You will probably get really sick of eating wheat and oats if that is all you have.

Introduction

Welcome to Board the Ark. We have been counseled to have a years supply of food on hand to take care of our families in trying times. But, where do we start? This is a question that I have spent a great deal of time researching and I would like to share what I have learned. What do I need in a years supply of food? What am I going to do with 400 pounds of wheat? How long will my food last? Where should I purchase my food? These are all questions I have asked myself and if you have thought about your food storage I'm sure you have asked yourself the same questions.

If your choose to follow this blog I will be updating it regularly with recipes, tips, and current sales. But, to get started it's important to know what and how much you need. It's also important to be able to track what you have and what your needs are. I created a spreadsheet to help my family do just this. It has been very useful for us so I wanted to share it with you. You can download it by clicking on this link. Or you may use Google Docs by clicking here.

I hope that this information will be helpful to you. As we have followed the prophets and built up our years supply we have be blessed with a feeling of peace and security, and we have had fun along the way. If you've never thought grinding your own wheat could be classified as fun stay tuned.