Create a Food Storage Plan

CREATE A FOOD STORAGE PLAN

“See that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.  And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent…” Mosiah 4:27.  Food storage is a commandment, but wisdom and order are also commandments. Make a food storage plan—see info below, multiply by number of persons in your family. Decide what you can spend/month and how long to take. Pray for confirmation. Systematically follow the plan. Make sacrifices. Succeed in food storage.

Sometimes we don’t start because we feel overwhelmed—this time you can succeed.

Minimal 1 year storage plan TOP PRIORITY:  Wheat, Beans, Salt, Water  because 1) stores 30+ yrs; 2) contains all needed nutrients; 3) most inexpensive. Once obtained, feel peace 30+ yrs! Famine insurance: $254.50/30+yrs = $8.48/yr

Wheat 300 lbs/person/year minimum, canned at cannery costs     $180/person      $15.00/mo.

Beans 60 lbs/person/year minimum, canned at cannery costs       $ 55/person       $ 4.58/mo

Salt 5 lbs/person/year                                                                $  2/person        $   .25/mo

Water (abt $1.25/gal to buy containers, or wash used ones free)     $17.50/person  $ 1.46/mo

            To acquire a yr supply for 1 person within 1 yr:                             $254.50/person  $21.21/mo

            Don’t go into debt, be systematic, prioritize, make sacrifices, save and buy. For cannery purchases see provident living specialist/RS sign up.

Protect investment: Store properly, sealed, dry & cool as possible. Need insect, rodent, & moisture protection. Cans protect best. (Compare prices: Wheat--cannery .60/lb; sacks .46/lb; online pre-packed cans .85/lb. Pinto Beans--cannery .90/lb; sacks .74/lb.; online pre-packed cans $1.30/lb. Cannery you can your own. Sacks from cannery you pack in containers or buckets, sometimes inferior seals. Online is already canned & shipped to you in cans/cases. Salt $1.70 4lbs at Cash & Carry, iodized best. Water containers: Walmart, Winco, or order barrels online (good to have a cheap siphon pump, order with barrels), hard plastic/glass wash and fill (don’t use milk type soft plastic containers—they leak in time). Wheat must be HARD white or red, other wheat has too much oil/moisture to store well. Wheat available in buckets at Walmart. Above food storage amounts provide only 1-2 cupcake size portions of food/day (alive but skinny and hungry—better than nothing.) Increase wheat to 400+ lbs and beans to 120+ lbs ASAP. Get any other storage items after the top priority wheat/beans/salt/water. Only 10% of our ward has a year supply. Let’s not all starve sharing. Let’s ALL be prepared through quiet, steady diligence. Start by increasing your supply by 3 mo.—set a goal and date. Start saving. 

(Also reference "Be Prepared" Post)

(Courtesy of Mom)

Provident Living Site

http://providentliving.org/self-reliance?lang=eng

The Provident Living page of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Includes tips on Home Food Storage, Finances, etc.

Be Prepared!

Check out our stake PL website that my cochair and I did. It has everything you'd ever need to help you for food storage to wills to 72 hr kits to gardening:

Www.twoyearpreparednessplan.blogspot.com

Little things are interesting and helpful like:
Wheat and beans together have every nutrient you need for survival. (The vitamins that come from perishable food can be obtained by sprouting the wheat). Also raw honey also has all needed nutrients.
If using the number 10 cans in their boxes from the cannery, you can fit 1 year of food storage for 1 person under a queen bed in one layer.
If you save $11 per person per month for 2 years you will have enough for 1 year supply of food for everyone.

--Sherie

Food Storage Made Easy

FOOD STORAGE MADE EASY

Two theories for food storage: 1) Store extra of what you eat. Tasty but hard to store, hard to inventory, more expensive. 2) Store what lasts 30+ years as much as possible. Not as tasty but when starving, tastes good. Costs less, easy to inventory, easy to store.

Easy/cheapest food storage: Wheat, sugar, honey, salt stored properly lasts forever. Do not rotate. Store out of the way, don’t touch.  Buy more for daily use, so no need to open or re-inventory. Beans/legumes/other grains/rice last 30+ years. Decide if rotate, or if just famine insurance—no rotate/replace when too old. Don’t throw away even after 30 years—often lasts much longer. If replace, give old food to someone for storage.  Milk, fats must be rotated. (Switch to powdered milk—can get used to it.) Put date on everything you buy. Use oldest first on rotated foods. Don’t touch non-rotated foods. Store all food in coolest place available, especially Milk and fats.

Age of Food:  Most food lasts years, even decades, longer than expiration dates. Nutrition value will decline in time. DO NOT use food in bulged cans, bulged lids on bottles, etc. Throw away cans unopened. Empty and wash home canning bottles, be careful about contamination, cover as open lids to prevent contents spraying out. Good way to rotate older canned goods: donate to Christmas food banks or as gifts to struggling families—benefit you and them.

Storage/inventory: Church cans in cases can be stacked floor to ceiling—tight on space, pull furniture from the wall and make a wall of food behind, (paint box side or cover with curtain/fabric for cute wall.) Put boxes/buckets under bed, mattress on top. If necessary stack higher and use a step stool to get into bed (like the plush, expensive beds). Layer of cans/boxes/buckets bottom of closets, etc. Use cases for end tables or benches and put cute cloth over. Make a “play house/fort” in a “play room” out of food cases—tape cases any where there may be danger of falling, especially on children. Layer of cases across the entire floor of a room with wood and area rug on top. Buckets can only be stored 2-3 high—in time weight cracks lids, put on shelves, keep out of sunlight. Church canned goods or commercial #10 cans store best, keep exterior of cans dry. Buckets sealed properly next best, sometimes don’t seal as well when refilled, but usually fine and easier for big families, cheaper as refilled. Easy inventory: non-rotated foods, don’t touch. Rotated foods, set aside a space big enough for amount needed. Get 1 ½ year supply. Inventory only 2x/year—don’t count lbs and oz. just fill the empty space. Develop a system so oldest used first. General conference is a good time to inventory. Save a little each month to replace food 2x/year.  Then don’t think about food storage the rest of the year—easy! Store water barrels outside on shaded side, or cover if in sun, don’t fill completely full if chance of freezing. Have little plastic pump or a siphon to remove water. Rotate water every 1-2 years if chlorinated—add bleach as needed, ½ t./5 gal clear water, 1 t./5 gal cloudy water. Easiest to rotate water if you can just dump water into the yard. Also store a gal. of water under household sinks. Don’t store water in cheap “gal. milk” type plastic—designed to deteriorate in landfill and will leak within a couple of years. Heavy juice plastic okay. Have a way to catch water from roof or other ways to gather in a long-time emergency. Rotate cans: 4’ shelf, length-wise slats, put cans/bottles in one side, take out the other—automatically rotates. When have food, consider TP, feminine supplies, diapers, toothpaste, soap….

Miscellaneous: Store the right type food the right way, for example: hard red/white wheat and white rice store well, other wheat and rice doesn’t store as long. Brands of powdered milk taste different-- buy 1 of available brands, compare price and taste before buying bulk—good RS activityJ. We are promised that if we are diligent we can get our storage within a year. We are also told that food storage is as important in our day as boarding the ark in Noah’s day.  Many things we spend money on will seem foolish if we are hungry. Give food storage and warm clothing for Christmas. Be diligent. Follow the Spirit. START!

(Courtesy of Mom)

Beans Greens Blog

I think most my favorite sites are linked to on
http://beansgreens.blogspot.com/

--Emilie

Black Bean Soup

Black Bean Soup

2 lb dried beans

Water to cover for soaking

4 tsp salt for bringing beans while soaking overnight

2 tsp salt

2 Tb chili powder

¼ tsp cinnamon (optional)

1 tsp smoke (optional)

¼ cup oil

4 medium onions

2 Tb minced garlic

8 cups water

4 tsp lime juice

Sour cream for garnish

Minced fresh cilantro for garnish (optional)

Soak dried beans overnight (optional). Drain and cover with fresh water. Bring to boil, then cook slowly for about 60 minutes, until soft, not crunchy. The time varies.

Saute onions in oil until soft—about five minutes. Stir in garlic, 2 tsp salt, and chili powder and cook, stirring, another minute.

Add beans with enough cooking water to cover. Save surplus cooking water. Turn heat to medium high and bring soup just about to a boil. Turn heat to medium low, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Turn off heat.

Remove the beans you don’t want to mash and puree the remainder in a food processor, food mill, or mash with potato masher. Mix in whole beans.

You can refrigerate or freeze soup at this stage.

Just before serving, stir in lime juice and adjust seasoning. Serve, garnished with sour cream and optional cilantro.

(Courtesy of Sherie)

Halloween Tricks...uh tips...

Halloween--find a dentist who will pay the kids for their candy (if you do it then its still in the house and you'll eat it). Or have the great pumpkin like the tooth fairy come and they can leave their candy out in exchange for a gift or something. Donate candy to a shelter or send to troops. Or just tell the kids that's why they are going trick or treating--to have fun and collect candy for a shelter. 

--Sherie