wpaad834b0.gif

Traditional Food Storage 101 Part 2

 

Page 1  Page 3  NEXT

Discussion thread on this article at the CTF Forum

 

Why don't I recommend you rush out and buy 100 pounds of rice and 100 pounds of beans at one time?  I often hear people new to food storage say, "Well, if anything happens, at least we'll have beans and rice for a few months."  If you have a job loss in the household or another catastrophe such as a death in the family of the main income earner, going from your normal diet to nothing but beans and rice will be a very difficult and demoralizing problem for your family, and will likely be full of digestive complaints and lack of appetite.  That lack of appetite can be devastating on a child's growth and an adult's ability to work and think clearly.  It is better to have a little of everything your family considers normal (with plenty of spices for interest) with which to make varied meals instead of having the same meal repeatedly or with little variety for a long period of time.  Appetite fatigue often leads to weight loss, physical exhaustion, foggy thinking and low morale.  It strikes children and the elderly before adults.  However, if you have the extra funds available to buy in bulk without sacrificing having a variety of foods on hand, by all means buying in cases or 25 to 100-pound bags is a good way to save money. 
 

Tropical Traditions, Mountain Rose Herbs, Frontier, Bobs Red Mill and other online stores are a good way to obtain needed items.  Buying clubs, co-ops such as Azure Standard and UNFI, salvage houses, warehouses such as Sam's Club and Costco and ethnic food stores also offer buying opportunities that will save significantly over the prices of buying small amounts at one time.  Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box in obtaining needed items, such as ethnic markets, salvage houses and places you do not normally shop for food.  Our local Asian market sells tapioca flour for less than $1 a pound while the local health food store carries it for $2.49 a pound.  Their rice is also significantly cheaper than any other local source.  The wholesale area at the local Farmer’s Market can provide bulk buying opportunities for root cellar vegetables, apples and produce of all types to freeze or can.  Our local farmer’s market has 50-pound bags of potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, cabbage and more for a price that you can’t beat even with good sales at the grocery stores.

 

A sample list of what a traditional foods family might store includes:

· 1 gallon of water per person per day, plus extra for washing dishes, bathing and cleaning for 14 days.

· Fats: nut butters, ghee, butter, coconut oil, palm oil, tallow, lard, olive and sesame oil.  

· Grains: rice, amaranth, quinoa, oats, rice, corn, sorghum, wheat/spelt, teff and a way to grind them.  

· Flours: potato flour, coconut flour, nut meals.  

· Starches: cornstarch, arrowroot, tapioca starch, potato starch.  If you are not gluten-free, you will still want to keep some of these on hand or making gravies and thickening soups, making puddings and thickening other liquids.

· Baking supplies: guar or xanthan gum if gluten-free, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla or other extracts, salt, and coconut milk.  

· Spices: garlic granules, onion powder, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, paprika, cayenne, basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, bottled lemon juice, nutritional yeast and other often used spices.  Don’t forget to check for spices at ethnic markets.

· Sweeteners: honey, sucanat, rapadura, molasses, maple syrup, white sugar for making kombucha, stevia.

· Beans: pinto, kidney, black, garbanzo, lentils, navy, split peas, northern, lima, black-eyed peas, etc…

· Drinks: tea in bags or loose and SCOBYS for making kombucha.  

· Dairy: milk for short-term storage, cheese for long-term storage, calcium equivalent for 3-4 servings per day.  Freezing milk is possible but takes up a lot of space.  Having livestock is the best solution to long-term calcium needs.  If that is not possible, have some quality calcium supplements on hand for each member of the family to fill in the gaps if no other calcium source is available.  Things like coconut milk is counted in baking supplies instead of dairy, because it provides no calcium.  Powdered milk, while available, is not preferable to the other options.  If you wish to store some long-term powdered milk product, I recommend powdered rice milk because it does not have the rancidity and related issues of powdered dairy milk.  However, it not clearly not a nourishing food.

· Eggs: farm fresh eggs that have not been refrigerated can be stored for up to 6-months if you do not wash or refrigerate them.  Once eggs are placed in the refrigerator, they must remain there to stay fresh.  For winter storage, consider sodium silicate immersion or other storage methods.  Eggs can also be cracked, beaten and frozen with a little sugar or salt for long-term storage.  Having chickens and using the waterglass method to get through the winter’s lull in production is the best solution to long-term egg storage needs.

· Vegetables: root-cellared winter vegetables, home-canned and frozen vegetables from the summer garden, canned tomato products, &/or frozen vegetables plus sprouting seeds for fresh greens through winter.

· Meats: Home or commercial canned or frozen salmon, chicken, turkey, pork and beef.  Don’t forget things like pemmican and jerky, too.

· Stock: Home or commercial canned or frozen bone broths from chicken, beef, fish and others.  Also, have the bones on hand to make more as needed.

· Gardening needs: seeds, potting soil, seed starter trays and other supplies if you have the availability of gardening space.

· Comfort foods such as quality chocolate, baking supplies like dried fruit and chocolate chips and snack items.

· Needed food, supplements and supplies for any of your pets and livestock.
 

Page 1  Page 3  NEXT

Discussion thread on this article at the CTF Forum