wheat: an intro

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the time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat. - President Brigham Young


the wheat grain is a staple food, and very versatile! wheat is used to make all kinds of food, including flour for bread, cereal, cookies, cakes, pasta, and many many other items. and with a shelf life upwards of 25 years or more, it's an essential part of your food storage program.

Q: how much should i store?

A: the church guidelines recommend 300 pounds of grain, per adult, per year. of this, at least 150 pounds should be wheat.



Q: but my family won't eat wheat. my kids say "yuck" and i don't really know what to do with it. 300 pounds per person sounds like 300 pounds too much. why should i store it?

A: great question! here's a few tips to get you started:

• don't tell them it's wheat. they probably won't even notice. wheat flour is especially easy to disguise in recipes that already use "brown ingredients," such as brown sugar, molasses, bananas and so on.


• start small - replace 1/2 of the white flour with wheat flour. again, they probably won't notice.


• use it in your cookies and desserts

Q: how should i store my wheat?

A: in airtight containers, in a cool dry place. store it in a container that is free from any foreign materials -- a 5-gallon bucket that is food-safe will work great. or, you may also like to can your wheat - this can be done at the church cannery (family home storage center), and uses oxygen absorber packets. additionally, if you freeze your wheat at zero degrees farenheit for at least 48 hours, it will kill any and all bugs or eggs that could potentially be there.

Q: where can i buy this wheat?

A: you can buy and can it yourself at your local home storage center/cannery. or, you can order it straight from the cannery and it comes right to your door -- in a case, all canned and everything -- by clicking here. you can also purchase it from honeyville grains by clicking here or emergency essentials by clicking here.

and now for the teaser: you can learn tons more about wheat by coming to our enrichment activity on tuesday, june 30th at 7 pm. be there!

"the noah project" - june

alright now, new month, so new to-do's on your list if you're keeping up with the noah project. so here's what you should be gathering this month.

june:

1. peanut butter - add 5 (16 oz.) jars of peanut butter to your storage


2. ziploc bags - add a variety of sizes of ziploc bags to your storage


3. crackers - add 6 boxes of crackers


4. granola - add granola to your storage

so keep going - we're half-way through the year and you're doing great! if you're just jumping on with the noah project now, click the label on the side that says "the noah project" for past months and you can catch up.

what is freeze-dried fruit?

Q: what the heck is freeze-dried fruit? should i spend my precious food storage budget on it?

A: excellent question. here's the details:

Freeze dried fruit can be a nutritional boon to anyone who wants to maintain a healthy diet through all four seasons.

Convenience

In some situations, freeze dried fruit is the most convenient option for getting your vitamins. Fresh fruit is only available in season, whereas freeze dried fruit is easy to get all through the year. Freeze dried fruit is lightweight, doesn't need to be refrigerated, and takes up very little space. These are a few of the reasons why freeze dried fruit is often the preferred snack of hikers, campers, and other outdoor enthusiasts looking for a durable, portable energy and vitamin boost.

Budget

Fresh fruit is often quite affordable, but all too often the money you spend on it goes down the drain. Fresh fruits spoil very quickly, even in the refrigerator, and those wasted dollars and cents can really add up. Perhaps the greatest advantage that freeze dried fruit has over fresh produce is its shelf life, which can help you get more for your dollar. Some fresh fruits, like berries, last only a few days in the fridge, which can make them an inconvenient part of your diet. When stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place, freeze dried fruit can keep for up to a year. This makes freeze dried fruit a great way to keep an ample supply of fruit on hand for snacks at all times without having to worry about whether it has spoiled, and it means that you can be certain that the money you spend on fruit will be well spent.

Nutrition

Although the nutritional effect of drying food is minimal, when you have the choice between a fresh fruit in season and its dried counterpart, it is usually a smarter health choice to opt for the fresh produce. Some freeze dried fruits will not maintain their full amount of vitamin C through the drying process, but when a fruit is fresh, you can be certain that it contains the maximum possible nutritional value. In addition, fresh fruit contains a large quantity of water, which helps you feel full and satiated while it helps your system stay hydrated and efficient.

It's All Good

Although some freeze dried fruit is slightly lower in vitamin C, research suggests that the vitamin and nutrient content of freeze dried fruit remains roughly similar to that of fresh fruit. There are advantages to both fresh and freeze dried fruit, so whichever fits more conveniently into your lifestyle and dietary habits is the right choice for you. Whenever fresh fruit isn't practical or available, you can chow down on a piece n of freeze dried fruit and revel in the knowledge that you are doing right by your body.

Q: so where can i buy it?

A: shelf-reliance, emergency essentials, honeyville grains to name a few... and probably a whole bunch of other places too.

fruit cocktail

today, may 13th, is national fruit cocktail day.

this is a great item to add to your food storage -- it's in cans, so it's easy to stack and store, and it will last for quite awhile. it's also a bit of a crowd pleaser because it has a little something for everyone. you don't like the pineapple? just pick them out, enjoy the cherries and the peaches... even the pickiest kids should be able to pick out something that they like.

so go ahead, add some to your storage.

how long can i keep ____?

so i came across this great website and just had to share:

http://www.stilltasty.com/: "your ultimate shelf-life guide - save money, eat better, help the environment."

it has like every food you can think of or would want to store listed there and tells you the best way to store them safely and how to get the most out of your groceries. check it out!

how to: make your produce live longer

so if you're like me, you inevitably end up throwing some produce away every time you clean our your fridge. and it hurts my heart... it's like throwing money right into the trash and it makes me feel so wasteful. and i hate waste! there are always a few peaches that i forgot were back there, or a bag of spinach that was hiding underneath everything else. so here is a list of produce and its shelf-life, with tips on how to store it to make it live a little longer.

• apples (fresh): 6 months, store at 32 F, separated



• beans (dry): 12 months



• beets (fresh): 6 months, store at 32 F in mesh bag



• cabbage (fresh): 6 months, store at 32 F in mesh bag



• carrots (fresh): 6 months, store at 32 F in mesh bag



• canned fruits: 24 months



• dehydrated fruits: 6-12 months in airtight container



• fruit juice (frozen): 12 month in freezer



• fruit juice (canned): 24 months, keep cool



• fruit juice (dehydrated): 12 months in airtight container



• jam and jelly (unopened): 18-24 months



• jam and jelly (opened): 12 months in refrigerator



• lentils: 12 months in airtight container



• mustard (unopened): 12 months, refrigerate for longer life



• onions (fresh): 6 months, store at 32 F in mesh bag



• oranges (fresh): 2 months, store at 32 F in mesh bag



• pears (fresh): 4 months, store at 32 F in mesh bag



• peas (dried): 12 months in airtight container



• pickles (bottled): 12 months



• potatoes (canned white): 30 months



• potatoes (canned sweet): 30 months



• potatoes (dehydrated): 30 months



• potatoes (fresh white): 6 months, store at 40 F in mesh bag



• potatoes (fresh sweet): 6 months, store at 60 F in mesh bag



• potatoes (frozen): 8 months in freezer



• pumpkin (fresh): 6 months, store at 55 F in mesh bag



• spices (ground): 6 months, avoid sunlight



• spices (whole): 12-24 months in airtight container



• squash (fresh): 6 months, store at 55 F in mesh bag



• tomato products (canned): 24 months



• vegetables (canned): 24 months



• vegetables (dehydrated): 6-12 months in airtight container



• vegetables (frozen): 12 months in freezer



• vegetable juice (canned): 12 months

source: food storage for the clueless, by clark & kathryn kidd, p. 277-279

"i just need a simple list!"

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oddly enough, i've had like 3 or 4 people tell me this week that they are wanting to start their food storage, or have put it on hold for a little while and don't know how to get back into it. someone told me that if they just had a "simple list" to get it going, it would be way easier.

so... it's not really a simple answer, but i'll tell you my opinion, for whatever it's worth. the church guidelines at this point are:

(1) store water, 14 gallons per person,

(2) get 3-months of food,

(3) save a "reasonable" amount of money, and

(4) then work on your "longer-term" (year) supply.

so.... the one that's easy to check off your list is water. it's easy to buy the water, count it and know if you have the recommended about. remember babies, elderly and pets will need more.

and for your three-month supply, really the best thing is to store what your family eats. i know that sounds so broad, and this was overwhelming for me when i started, but here is a list of the regular things i stock up on and make sure to include in my 3-month supply (this is totally just to get you brainstorming and thinking of what you and your kids would eat, if it's not helpful for you, ignore it):

• cereal - i personally would be completely content to eat cereal for breakfast lunch and dinner every day, so this is easy to store and i'm always happy to have it


• side note: since we do eat a lot of cereal, i'm also going to stock up on morning moo powdered milk on the next order (probably june or july when we'll do it again)


• canned fruit - we don't normally eat canned fruit, b/c i always buy fresh, but i don't mind it, and i certainly would be happy to eat it if i couldn't get to the store for fresh.


• crackers, fruit snacks goldfish, granola bars, graham crackers, raisins, teddy grahams ("kid snacks") -- these often go on sale and then i stock up b/c my kid eats them every day


• spaghetti sauce


• tomato sauce and paste


• canned tuna


• certain kinds of canned soup that we like


• pasta


• bbq sauce, ketchup, salad dressing


• sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, chocolate chips (i buy at costco in 7 lb bags, it lasts forever, and you never know when you'll have a chocolate emergency!)


• cooking spray


• macaroni and cheese


• canned chicken (which is a total turn-off, but i have found like 3 or 4 recipes where i've tried subbing canned chicken for chicken breast and it's close enough, so i figure it's a good protein to have on hand just in case


• flour


• salsa


• peanut butter


• rice


• ramen noodlesand


• i'm positive there's tons more, but that's what i can think of off the top of my head...

i also recently got a deep freeze and have been able to stock up on bread, meats and frozen vegetables (as i find canned vegetables to be an abomination).

i also personally hate beans, so i don't store them. but i know that these are a good item to store as they are versatile, cheap, easy to store and a good source of protein. ditto for canned chili.

as for your long-term supply - like your grains and stuff (all the "cannery" type things), i don't really know what would be the most important yet. i'm pretty much at the beginning of my food storage learning, so i haven't gotten there yet (i figure it's step 4, so i'm not beating myself up that i haven't quite gotten there yet).

this is a really great and thorough blog and has a spreadsheet of items you would probably want to include in your long-term storage and a calculator of how much inventory you need. here is the link.

what items do you stock up on in your regular rotation?

"the noah project - april and may

sorry i'm a little late with april for those of you who are following along, so i'll go ahead and put up both april and may so you can be planning ahead. to stay on track with the noah project, here's what you should be working on these days (i'm going to just add them as bullet points to do over the whole month, instead of one week at a time):

april:

1. add $10 cash to your emergency fund
2. banana slices - these can be a sweet treat for the family and can also be rehydrated to put in jello, muffins, bread and other baked goods, so add them to your stock
3. baby wipes - add 2 containers of baby wipes to your storage. if you have a baby, and go through baby wipes like water (as we do), then get 2 separate containers of wipes that you're not using on your baby. these are handy in an emergency, if your water is off and many other situations
4. vienna sausage - add 12 cans of vienna sausage, or any other canned meat that doesn't need to be refrigerated to your storage
5. add $10 cash to your emergency fund

may:

1. fruits and vegetables - add 5 cans of fruit and 5 cans of vegetables, per person, to your storage
2. fruit juice - add 12 (96 oz. cans) of non-carbonated juice or more to your storage
3. matches - add 5 boxes of matches to your storage
4. add $10 cash to your emergency fund

hopefully you've been keeping up. if not, jump in now. to see past months, click on the side label that says "the noah project."

the lima bean

today is national lima bean respect day. random. but lima beans, also known as the butter bean, are a great staple to add into your long-term food storage. guidelines recommend storing 60 pounds of dry beans and legumes per person per year. a little background info on this little gem of a legume:

- lima beans supposedly originated from peru - hence the name "lima" beans from "lima, peru." clever.

- it's known for it's seed, which is eaten as a vegetable

- lima beans make a great side dish, delicious when flavored with butter and/or salt

- if stored correctly (in a cool, dry place), they will store for an
indefinite time (so if you don't know how to use them now, you've got quite awhile to figure it out)

- beans and legumes are the richest source of vegetable protein and a great source of fiber

- a word of caution: do not eat them raw -- like don't toss back a handful like it was popcorn, in case you're thinking about it --, they can make you violently ill as they contain linamarin, but are totally safe when cooked

what to do with them:

-lightly rinse and then soak your dry beans in plenty of water

- then place your pre-soaked beans in a pot and cover with fresh, cold water. bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for indicated length of time - see this chart for detailed instructions

- and they're not just for soups! for a list of more recipes than you ever thought of, click here for more ideas on using those lima beans

so by all means, respect the lima bean.

i looked out the window and what did i see?

today is national caramel popcorn day. weird, i know. but it's true. popcorn is a great staple to add to your food storage:

• it's easy to store and lasts for a long time - in a #10 can with an oxygen absorber, the shelf life is over 8 years!


• and just on the shelf, it will last 12-24 months


• plus, it counts towards your grains, and


• your kids will love it - and it's delicious.

and for more than you could ever want to know about popcorn, click here.