10 MORE THINGS

 10 Things to Know About Food Storage

Learn from others mistakes and others wisdom. That is always the best possible way. Why do we always think we know better? This article comes from www.preparednesspro.wordpress.com I am summarizing the article and also adding my own wisdom and learning curves. Don't make our mistakes, do better!!

1. Yeast does last indefinitely if stored in the freezer. On the shelf, it doesn't have much longer than a one year life, but in the freezer........forever!

2. Food storage is out there to get for really cheap or free even if you look around. Don't be afraid to ask people for those apples falling off the tree, or for excess produce in their garden. Most are more than willing to share. Be willing to work for food. I have had many opportunities to work for food. Offer to weed for a day at a market garden in exchange for produce. Offer to barter whatever services you have for food. You will be surprised how well this can work for you. Look for opportunities to glean food, they are out there always.

3. Learn to can with a pressure canner. I am always surprised how many people are afraid to use them. But once you get the knack of it, you will find that it is your best friend. Ask someone to show you how. You will love it. You can can meats, beans, and absolutely anything if you just cross this bridge and learn how. You can put up all of those free foods that you have worked so hard to gather. One of my favorite things that I have canned it potatoes and carrots together. They are so nice to just dump into a batch of cooked hamburger, or beans, or chicken or whatever, and you have an instant very tasty meal. And the potatoes and carrots can be free!

4. Learn to make your own things like cheese! There are so many things that can be made from your own basic food storage items, you just need to learn how. Food storage doesn't have to be yucky stuff, it can and should be delicious.

5. Learn how to use your food saver! If you don't have one, you might want to get one. It is a great investment. You can preserve all of the short term storage items, like chocolate, for many years, if you ahve them sealed in a jar or in a sealed bag. I have many ready made meals in jars and sealed bags, as well as spices, and things sealed in jars, that will have an 8 – 10 year shelf life instead of a one year life, simply because they are vaccum packed and sealed. Awesome invention!

6. I know they say – ONLY store what you eat – but my theory is this – definitely store what you eat – and learn to eat and use what you should be storing. Learn how to use the survival foods. Just learn it and do it – practise it and make it a way of life for you. Then when time comes to live off of it for survival – you will already be doing it. There is a real thing called appetite fatigue and it can kill people who are not used to eating certain foods and then are forced to eat them. JUST LEARN IT AND USE IT!  You may think that you would never eat wheat anyways, but reality is.....if that is all there is to eat, you will eat it, and you will get sick off it, because you didn't learn to eat it when you should have.

7. Make your preparations now for your easy meals, your easy recipes, and make things readily accessible so that you can rotate and use what you store.  Get a binder or  notebook and put your favorite food storage recipes in it, and make it readily accessible.  Also add to it, possible food storage substitutions, and other information.  The use it!!

8. Food storage tools like, solar ovens, wheat grinders, food savers, pressure canners and the like are worth every penny we invest in them. And in these situations, for these tools, cheaper is not always better. Buy quality, and you will never disappointed. Buy cheap things, thinking you are getting a great deal, and you will likely be frustrated and disappointed.

9. Your food storage containers are so important. If you can't keep out the bugs, rodents, and moisture, you will lose alot of your food. These are your worst enemies. Keep your food dry. Keep is sealed. Don't spend thousands of dollars on food storage and then not take the proper measures to store it. You can find free or cheap buckets at restaurants or ice cream shops or other places like this. People are often more than willing to give them away. Just do a little foot work and you can be assured your storage is safe.

10. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Ask friends and neighbors. Ask people who have knowledge. And most importantly ask Heavenly Father to help you. I have a firm testimony that if you ask HIM, you will see miracles happen that you would never have dreamed of. Are you brave enough to ask..........and then act?

10 Areas of Preparedness

 

Ten Areas of Emergency Preparedness

There are 10 basic areas of being prepared. It is much more than "food storage", so here is a list of some of the other ways we can be prepared. Take these ideas and see how you can implement them in the life of your family.

1. Spiritual – The very first area of preparedness that we should all focus on is our Spiritual Self Preparedness. We simply cannot ignore this area, thinking that if we have our food, then we will be okay. There is no chance of us making it through the tough times, unless we have a spiritual foundation to draw from. It is our spiritual strength that will help us, and others, have an understanding and strength to get through anything, whether it be natural disaster, famine, war, financial colapse, or what have you.

2. Mental / Emotional – This area carries with it a few different dimensions. We can actively be gaining education to strengthen our knowledge of emergency preparedness, survival skills, and whatever else is needed to prepare ourselves. This will help to give us a peace of mind that we have knowledge and skills for survival. It will emotionally strengthen us and others that depend on us. Read books, watch movies, take classes, involve yourself in study / prep groups, do whatever you need to do, to get the valuable information you need.

3. Physical – How is your physical ability to survive if you had to? Could you push or pull wagons, hike long distances, carry a pack on your back, camp out in the wilderness, and do whatever is necessary to keep you and your family alive? Do you know something about nutrition and diet, so that you can keep healthy now and then? Exercise is important for your physical preparedness. You just never know what will be required of you. Take the steps now, to be prepared for when you need.

4. Medical – First aid supplies and sanitation supplies are so vital to survival. Study up on alternative medicine options and procedures as well as the modern day ones. There are lots of options available. If you are actively working on your physical health as well, you might want to work on getting rid of any prescription meds that you have and could possibly do with out. Many of these meds, can be eliminated with healthy eating, physical exercise, and alternate herbs, vitamins, minerals, and others such things. For sanitation, think this one through and how you would help your family through a crisis situation with no sanitation facilities. There are alot of "what if's" to consider in this, so go through the scenarios and decide what will work best, and put the plan into action. Get prepared!

5. Shelter – clothing also goes along with this area. Shelter and proper clothing are what will keep you alive. You can have all the food you want, but if you freeze or cook, you will still die. There are many possible reasons as to why you may have to evacuate your home. Could you do it quickly? Do you have shelter that will be quick and easy to transport and put up? Will your clothing and shelter keep you alive if the weather is really cold? Make sure you have clothing for all ages that are in your family. Have them ready in your go bags, so you don't have to hunt for the survival clothing. Hats, gloves, for both warm and cold weather, sturdy shoes, or boots, all necessary for survival in different temperatures. Think of what you will need to reinforce your shelter, even if it is in your own home, things like: duct tape, nails, plastic sheeting, and so on.

6. Water – I want to stress the fact that I feel very strongly that a two week supply of water, is bare minimum, survival amount, and it is not enough! You will have no cleaning, washing, bathing, or any other water than just to drink and survive, if you only store your minimum two weeks amount. Water is the ONLY thing that will keep your organs functioning properly. You will need it whether it is cold or hot out. You just NEED water. I can't stress this one enough. You need water, NOT juice or milk or other fluids, it really needs to be WATER. And in addition to storing water, store a few really good quality water filters. Store paper eating products, because then you don't have to waste your water with washing dishes. Store Chlorox Bleach, unscented for water purification. Even stale water is better than no water, but stale water can be aerated by a simple process of pouring it back and forth in containers.

7. Food – Know how to use the food you store. Know how to cook it without power. Make sure the food you store has high nutritional value, because under stress you will need all of the strength and energy you can maintain. 90 days of food storage, is short term and is for emergency disaster survival. This has a totally different purpose than the one year supply of long term survival foods. That one year supply is a minimum, and don't stop there. Keep on going, the more you have the longer you and your loved ones around you will live. But I stress, know how to live off the food you have and the tools you have to cook it or use it. Don't wait until the crisis hits and then try to figure it out. You won't have the patience or energy to even care to figure it out at that point.

8. Fuel – Collect as much fuel for as many as the tools you have as possible. Make sure that every family member knows how to use these tools and their proper maintenance. Know the proper methods of storing the various fuels you will need. Also charcoal and wood are always a good thing to have on hand because they are so versatile with cooking and heating. Think of cooking, lighting, and heating. Make a plan and act on that plan of how you will do these three things for an extended period of time.

9. Financial – Being out of debt is important, but not always feasible for all of us. We should all be working as hard as possible for this, but there is even more to it. Pay your bills and taxes on time. Be honest in your dealings. Also have some goods that you would be willing to trade / barter, such as wheat, sugar and other staples of food. Have small amounts of cash on hand, but large amounts aren't going to be a lot of good, because soon money will have no value in certain long term situations. You will not be able to buy things because there will be nothing to buy.

10. Communication – Comminicating to others serves a couple of purposes. You should have a communication plan for your family in case you are ever seperated in a disaster. There should be a specific gathering point that all of your family knows. And they should all have the emergency contact numbers in our emergency kits. How will you communicate to make sure that your friends and family out of area are safe? Do you have an out of area contact that you will all call or reach as a home base? Think through the different scenarios and decide what will work for your family, and then make it happen.

Another 10 Things

10 Ways to Stretch Your Grocery Dollars

1. Buy produce in season and can or freeze your own for the year. Or even better yet, grow your own garden and put away your vegetables and fruits for the coming year. Local farmer's markets, and local growers are a great source to purchase fresh produce, if you don't have the space to grow your own.

2. Shop the sales. I can't stress this one enough. This is the best way to build up your food supply and actually save a whole lot of money. Look through your fliers each week, and when you find something that is a great deal, buy several of them. Don't just buy one or two cans, especially if you know that it is something that you use often, because two weeks from now you will just have to buy another one at full price. Buy a case of them or two, then you know you will make it without buying that item again until it is on sale again. After you do this for a few months, you will amazed at how quickly your shelves will fill at home, and then pretty soon you will find you only shop for things when they are on sale.

3. Buy and cook in bulk. Take advantage of bulk shopping. If you participate in bulk buying clubs, it can save you money. Buy items by the case lots. For example, don't spend $6 on a small bag of rice, when you can purchase a 25lb box for $8. It just makes sense to purchase food this way. Cooking in bulk and freezing or dehydrating meals, can also save money and make life easier as well.

4. Save on protein foods. There are a lot of meat substitutes that are way less expensive than always eating meat. Beans and legumes are the most common ones and are readily available almost anywhere. There are also things like eggs, tofu, textured vegetable protein, wheat meat, and grains. If you will substitute any of these for meat at least a few times a week, you will find that you will save money on your meat bill.

5. Go generic. Most often buying generic brand products will save you money too. Yes, there are certain things that the "brand" might make a difference in the taste, however for most things, a generic or store specific brand is just as good and over the long run, they will save you a ton of money. Often companies will purchase brand name products and simply put their own labels on it.

6. Make things from scratch. If an item is on a great sale, then by all means by a whole whack of them, but if you are buying a package of "Hamburger Helper" for example, when you could make it at home for 1/8 of the price, then it just makes sense to make it yourself. Another example is cake mixes or ready made cookies and things like this. They all cost far more to purchase them ready made than to make from scratch. Find your favorite scratch recipes and keep them in a binder where it is easy to find the recipes and then you will save both time and money, and nutrition – to avoid the preservatives and chemicals.

7. Waste Not. Before you are filling up your shopping cart with perishables, go through the process of knowing how you will use these things. Americans / Canadians generate approximately 30 million tons of food waste each year. Food wasted, is money wasted. Take note on these things and how you can stop the waste of money and food in your home. Also as you are making meals, learn how to be creative with leftovers. Make sandwiches, soups, casseroles, etc.

8. Plant a Garden. I mentioned this briefly in #1. There are so many benefits that go far beyond the fact of saving money, when you plant your own garden. There is nothing better than fresh produce from you own garden. There is nothing better than getting your hands and feet dirty and communicating with the Earth. I always feel this is my best therapy. If you don't have space for a garden, try growing things in containers. There is a whole lot of information you can find on this, out there on the internet. Plus don't forget the fact that you can freeze, can, or dehydrate your own preservative free, healthy foods.

9. Make a menu plan. Make a menu plan for the week or month, then go through your recipes and write out a grocery list. Stick to the list! Too often we go shopping and the biggest problem is our impulse buying. We walk down an isle and something looks good so in the cart it goes. We don't have a list or any idea of what we really need, so we just fill up the cart. This is the worst thing that we could do. We waste so much money this way, and often end up spending more than we had planned. And to top it off we have no idea why we have purchased half of the stuff in our cart.

10. Don't go shopping hungry. Never go grocery shopping when you are hungry or craving something. This is shopping suicide. You will impulse shop, spend way too much money, and get home to find that you have nothing of any nutritional value in your cart and nothing that will last for any length of time. You will then have to go shopping again too soon to get the things that you never got the first time around.

10 Things

 

Okay, so i got sidetracked temporarily from the water storage...........but only for a moment, because I have decided to write a few lists of 10 things each! A great friend of mine is good at lists, and so am I, but I tend to lose my lists, because I am not organized.......so if I share them with you, I won't loose them!! :)

So here goes..........

10 Food Storage Staples

1. Rice is the most versatile staple in your pantry! Rice can be used for hot or cold dishes, all flavors and varieties of ethnic dishes, and combined with another protein, it will make a complete protein. It will sustain life for a long time compared with a variety of other proteins or vegetables.

2. Pasta is definitely one of the cheapest meals you can make. Much like rice, the the options for mix and match are almost endless. It also offers the carbohydrates that we all need and crave to keep us going!

3. Beans are really a powerhouse of nutrition. And when combined with another protein such as rice or grains, they form a complete protein needed by the body. They are relatively inexpensive to purchase, and really easy to use, once one practises just a bit. They are a great substitute for meat if you have issues with eating meat. And they are really nutritious, especially if you learn to sprout them.

4. Rolled Oats is another grain that is so versatile. It can be used as cooked or cold cereal, mixed into cooking like meatloaf and hamburger, or used greatly in baking. It can be ground into flour and replace wheat flour in any recipe. It is very inexpensive and very nutritious, and has a long shelf life.

5. Canned meats are fairly inexpensive, especially if you buy them in bulk when they are on sale. The are a cheap source of protein and can be used in sandwiches, casseroles, salads, and a variety of other foods. They have a fairly good shelf life and a great variety, such as tuna, ham, chicken, turkey, salmon, and others. You can can your own meats, dehydrate meats, or use other meat substitutes as well.

6. Sugar is a must. I know some of us think we can get by without much sugar, however it is necessary in our diets, especially if we are doing our own baking and cooking from scratch. We need the calories, and we need the SWEET! It is an essential food for cooking and for comfort. Don't underestimate the power that a variety of sugars could have. White, browns, powdered, syrups, honeys, among others are the options available out there for sugars

7. Seasonings are important, because let's face it, rice and beans with no flavor are going to get pretty boring after awhile. They will keep you alive, but you won't be enjoying the journey. Dried or powdered garlic is probably one of the best and most versatile flavorings to have. Then remember some dried onions, oregano, salts, and peppers, and whatever your family's favorites are, have a supply of them so your family can stay happy!

8. Oil is another staple. We are always told to have this in our food storage supply. And until you do alot of baking and cooking yourself, and you all of a sudden run out, you don't realize the value of it. It doesn't have a really long shelf life, but is so important.  It also carries the valuable fats that your body will need when in survival mode.

9. Powdered Milk is another essential that will offer important viatmins and nutrition, especially if you have small children. It is something that can be used as a drink, but also in so much of your baking and cooking. It is easy to hide in recipes, because when combined with other foods, people can't "taste" it. But speaking from experience, when you use it often enough, you will get used to the taste, even the kids will drink it.

10. Wheat is my final, but not least important item. Wheat is vital to sustaining life for a long period of time if you are actually in that type of situation. It can be used in so many ways. We think that we can only grind it into flour, but it can be used as a great meat substitute in so many ways. Wheat when sprouted is a powerhouse full of nutrition and contains all of the essential vitamins and minerals needed to survive, including being packed with vitamin C! Wheat is definitely a grain that will sustain life for a long period of time.