My Food Storage Journey Pt. II

What does it take to feed a person for one year?  A year’s supply of food, enough to sustain life for one person, consists of 300 pounds of grains, 13 pounds of fats and oils, 60 pounds of legumes, 60 pounds of sugar, 75 pounds of dairy, and five pounds of salt.  Some other helpful items include baking soda, baking powder, yeast and vinegar.  But what quality of life will it sustain?  Yes, you may not be hungry, but will you feel satisfied?

 

My supportive husband and I decided if we were going to store food, that we would get a year’s supply for the two of us.  So we wanted 600 pounds of grains, etc.  We are both the type who jump feet first into projects.  We pulled the money out of savings, did some research and began to make our purchases. 

 

I decided I wanted to diversify what we were storing.  If we really had to live on this food, I wanted to have some variety.  So my 600 pounds of grains are comprised of wheat, flour, oats, rice, corn meal, and barley.  Legumes include four kinds of dried beans, lentils and split peas.  I have brown and white sugar, honey, and molasses.  My dairy isn’t diversified—mostly dried milk and my fats are in oils.  Isn’t variety the spice of life?  Oh yes, I added some spices to my storage, too.

 

Once we had the basics in place, I also spent some extra money for dried vegetables; cheddar cheese powder; chicken, beef, and tomato bouillon (that helps with my salt storage needs!); egg powder; butter and shortening powder.  I also added dried fruits and nuts.

 

Not being totally satisfied that we could survive for a year—or at least happily with what we had–we took another leap and bought a standing freezer.  Then we used our warehouse shopping membership to stock it with frozen pre-made dinners, juices, some meat and vegetables.  For good measure we stocked up the case good sales at the local grocery stores.  Now we could eat in style!

 

What about the non-edible necessities?  We purchased toilet paper, laundry, hand, and dish soap in bulk and stored them, too.

 

Hunkering down (and hunkering in!) and arming ourselves with the basics to live for a year took about two years and several hundred dollars to accomplish.  Some may say we went overboard.  Others may think we didn’t have enough.  I do know that the peace of mind that it has given us is worth both the time and the money that we spent.

 

Then I began to do some reading about food, its production, and healthy diets.  Hmmm, I thought, have we stored the best food to sustain life?

My Food Storage Journey, Part I

I grew up in a household where my parents canned/bottled fruit each summer. They worked in a storage room in the basement of our house, which was much cooler than the outdoor August sun–my parent’s house didn’t have air conditioning. They also had an old working stove in that room where the bottled fruit was put into a large canner and heat-sealed. My parents always asked us children to help with the canning. Most times I would, but I remember one afternoon when we were to help can cherries that my two older siblings and I hid in a tree hut to escape the fruit and bottle washing.

My favorite task was blanching then peeling the peaches. After I peeled them, my mother would slice them in half, then carefully place them sliced-side down in the bottle in tidy rows. The fruit looked beautiful that way. I especially liked to see the peaches with the slight pinkish blush layered in the jars. Whether I participated in the process or not, eating hand canned fruit out of a bottle was part of my childhood. As a child, I actually preferred store-bought canned peaches (I think they had a heavier syrup) and loved them when they were served as part of my school lunch, probably because is represented something purchased rather than homemade. Now I prefer the hand-bottled ones.

In addition to the home-canned fruit and juices, my parents had cases of soup (tomato and cream of mushroom), some canned vegetables, dried beans, and usually 25 pounds of flour and sugar on hand. They had six children to feed and tried to do it economically. From an early age, I was often sent to the “fruit room” to get a stored item that was to be used as part of our meal.

As an adult, I didn’t really store food the way my parents did, mostly because I wasn’t feeding a family and partially because I cooked differently than they did. But the urge to bottle produce began to assert itself. I sometimes canned jam, salsa or pickles. I found a farm where I could pick my own produce. After a morning of picking, I would spend the afternoon making blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, and mixed berry jam. It was very satisfying to journey from orchard, to kitchen, to storage in a single day. I picked apples at a local orchard and made a batch of applesauce which I then froze. Once thawed, I marveled at how delicious it tasted. The deliciousness came from the freshness of the flavor and the sense of satisfaction in taking care of myself. It reminded me of my childhood too.

The biggest reason I stopped canning food and never stored much of it was because, as an adult I moved eleven times in fourteen years—two across the country and one international. Hauling canned goods was heavy work, particularly when paying moving fees. I ended giving away food and canning jars rather than moving them. One move supplied friends with a year’s worth of jam. Another got grocery bags of spices. Canning lost its appeal and value. However, I always kept my canning pot and rack.

My life has stabilized and I’ve lived in my current home almost nine years. I don’t plan to move anytime soon. The canning and storing gene, latent from years of moving, kicked in about six years ago. It started when a friend graphically discussed how much space a year’s supply of food storage took for one person (about the size of the refrigerator) and how much it cost (roughly $250 at the time). Hmmm. I thought I could do this. Since my life had settled to where I wouldn’t be moving every year or so, I felt ready to take the plunge. And boy, did I ever!

Part II tomorrow. Stay tuned!!!

A Full Pantry is Satisfying

I’m starting this blog with a non-controversial statement:  having a pantry full of food is satisfying.  But if your pantry, like mine, is full of whole wheat kernels, dry milk, rice—basically bland food, how can that be satisfying?  Bland never satisfies, but having a stash of food set aside for lean times does make for easier sleeping at night.  It makes one feel satisfied, or at least peaceful, that the wolf isn’t at the door—yet.

 

Not too long ago I had a meal completely pulled from my pantry.  Pasta with a jarred Alfredo sauce (I bought a few because they were on sale and I wanted to know if they were good), and canned French green beans.  The pasta was fine, but the sauce tasted processed.  How else could they get cream and cheese to last in a jar for several months without over processing it?  The green beans tasted of the can and the texture was too soft.  Yes, I had eaten, but I wasn’t satisfied because the food didn’t leave me content.  Within twenty minutes of that meal I found myself searching for something to satisfy my palate.

 

For years I’ve searched and lamented that there wasn’t a good recipe book using food primarily from food storage that achieved satisfying results.  While I don’t claim to be an expert cook, I am willing to experiment.  This blog won’t dish out a series of tried-and-true recipes but will talk about the process of using food storage as part of a daily diet.  I hope to find success in some places and I will gladly share my failures as well.  In the process perhaps that elusive recipe book using food storage will be created.

 

I’m a foodie at heart.  I’m optimistic that good food can be created with what is at hand—or in the basement.  And I find that satisfying.