FOOD STORAGE Tips

no one?? this is pretty important for preps I thought.

Real honey lasts pretty much forever.

sure does, yummy too.

Honey was found in the Pyramid tombs and found to be edible !!! When you are sealing stuff in plastic pails, you use Dry Ice inside the can to fill it with CO2.

I don't care for brown rice, myself. I tend to use white rice and then cook it with a broth, and throw in a can of beans at the end.

Doubling down on all of those items, right now. I really can eat rice and beans for a few meals in a row before I get tired of it, so it's a good option for me. When doing the left overs, I stir fry some fresh veggies first and then fry the rice on top of it to heat it, add some spices for variety. Reminds me, I need to get the garden ready for winter. ;)

Thanks for the tip on the flour! Getting ready to freeze up some dehydrated apples for pasteurizing, so that's another thing to remember.

Store in a 5 gallon bucket with dry ice and a gamma seal lid.... [link to www.usplastic.com]

Ways to keep the rice going!

Consider no power or running water when food prepping.
So forget storing in refrigerator, heating something on the stove and washing of the plate in the sink.
This is how I've prepped.

Found weevils in rice stored in a metal can with lid to keep the mice out.

Is there an easy way to get the weevils out of flour and grains?

You'll have to throw out what you have. After you've restocked, throw everything in the freezer for at least 24 hours to kill anything in there. Once you open it up, months or year later and you see bugs, it must be thrown out. Sorry.

Rice is not a good prep if there's no power. It takes to much alternative fuel and water to cook.

One thing I notice about prepping via food storage is the lack of information on actual storage.

Many dried goods like rice, whole wheat berries, beans and such can be stored for a very long time. The usual problem that people run into is weevils which was mentioned a few posts back.

These dried staples can last upwards of 30 years if sealed and stored properly. The best way to do this is by sealing the food in mylar bags with o2 absorbers. From what ive read the o2 absorbers remove the oxygen and leave the nitrogen which kills the bugs.

Anyone have any experience with this storage method?

Consider cooking your rice in a thermos

[link to www.livestrong.com]

I'll admit that this is the way I've stored my dry goods, but since I haven't opened any of them, I can't speak to the outcome. Maybe in a month or so I will be in a position to open the storage and can tell you. Make that three months...or that's what I'm hoping before we have to shelter in place.

Another bit of advice would be to use smaller mylar bags instead of the largest you can find. This would do several things. It would keep more of your stores safe should a bag get punctured thats only got 5 or 10 lbs of rice vs a sealed bag of 20 + lbs of it. Also, you wouldn't have a large portion of your food opened for use with the smaller bags as well.

The smaller bags wont mean you need more absorbers, just smaller sized ones. Most of the long term storage websites have charts on which size absorbers to use with the different sized bags.

Then for added protection some seal the mylar bags in 5 gal buckets.

Last Edited by Roobit on 10/16/2014 12:31 PM

Forget beans also. They also take to much alternative fuel and water to cook them

well instant rice

I hate instant rice though, who the hell likes that shit?

These dry goods are your staples. Store sauces, gravies, stews, soups, chili, and use the rice or beans as fillers.

Water needs to be something you can acquire and purify for use in cooking and washing. Another thing you can use instead of water is broths in the cans or cartons.

Rice, beans, wheat, and the like aren't something you want to live off of. Thats why you add other things as well.

Pasta is another item that can be stored long term in mylar. Dont use any egg noodles and it has to be dry or it will mold.

I've decided to stock up on some instant rice.

Easier to ration and you just boil the water and remove it from the heat and it's done in 5 mins.

It's a bit pricey but I think it will be good as a back up or for when you need to conserve water or energy.

[link to www.stilltasty.com]

handy reference to start

[link to foodstorageandsurvival.com]

quick reference

Just bookmarked this post - great information, keep it coming!

BAY LEAVES - anything we plan on stocking 4 months or more ( ie grains; legumes ; dehydrated veg/fruits, etc) we pack into a larger container with whole bay leaves, which help keep out most all bugs - they hate 'em.

This is just me, but at this point, I wouldn't throw away ANY preps. At the very least, said buggy rice could be cooked for dog food or fed to farm animals, right?

bumping to find this later nice work everyone !

Ill bump that one. Good info.

-store foods you use on a regular basis so you are less likely to have things go out of date. I keep several 5 gallon buckets of each staple with gamma lids and I have never had any of mine go bad because I use it on a regular basis.
-if you don't regularly cook, it's hard to keep flour and such things stocked up with out letting it go out of date. Therefore, when I began prepping, I went ahead and started cooking from scratch every day.
-store eggs by coating them with mineral oil before putting them in a cool place. Fridge or a root cellar. I've read they will keep this way 9months to a year. I have yet to have mine go that long tho. I usually keep around 8 dozen in my second fridge and I've used them as far out as 4/5 months. They seemed fresh as ever and no one got sick so I suppose the old timers knew how to do it. :)
-if you don't know how to cook from scratch and you're storing these sorts of things up, you should really consider learning to cook with them now so you won't have trouble when you need to use them. :)
-make it a lifestyle and it all gets used on a regular basis.
(Don't forget some yeast, so you can make fresh bread)

Happy prepping!

Yes. I've used them for oatmeal, beans, bags of instant potatoes, dry beans. I don't open them they're only for emergency.