Friday Food Storage Quickie
Sharon October 23rd, 2009
Hi Folks – Here we go again in my attempt to give all of us (me too) a gentle kick in the pants with our food storage - a few things to go on the shopping list this week, and one for the food pantry. Also one non-food item to improve your preparedness.
Today we’re going to purchase some very basic things – wheat (or if you can’t eat wheat, whatever grain or mix you use to make bready things with), yeast (or make sourdough starter) and salt. Most of us come, at least to some extent, from a bread culture – from a population of people who are accustomed to eating things on bread-like things. So without bready things, most of us will be a little lost about what to eat.
What form should you buy your wheat or other grains in? Well, it depends on you. If you own a grain grinder, the best solution is whole wheat – the flavor of home ground is so wonderful, it keeps forever, etc… If you don’t have a grinder, you have a choice. You can buy ground whole-grain flours or mixes and use them within 6 months, or you can buy white flour, and keep it forever, but get food that has a lot of empty calories and minimal nutritional value. Me, I’d choose the former, but everyone has their own way of doing things. But because whole grains go rancid, don’t buy more than 6 months worth at a time if you are buying ground whole grains. Wasting food is not good.
You should, obviously, just buy as much as you can afford, and as you can handle and deal with – 1 five lb bag of flour still gives you a lot of meals.
If you want traditional risen bread, you either need to learn to make sourdough starter, or store some yeast. Yeast keeps about a year on the shelf, or several years in the freezer, so don’t buy more than you can use in that period. Yeast is much, much, much cheaper in bulk than in those little packages – it is well worth asking someone to order you bulk yeast than buying a whole lot of overpriced small packages or jars.
Finally, buy some salt. I’d recommend iodized salt – no, it doesn’t taste as good as sea salt, and if you already have a solid store of kelp or sea vegetables then you can go ahead and buy sea-salt, but your body does need iodine, so some iodized salt is good for storage. If you can afford to buy more, you might want to buy a non-iodized salt as well for pickling and because they often have better flavor. How much? A 5lb box of salt is well within the price range of most people and available at any supermarket.
What about your food pantry? If you can at all afford it, please pick up a few cans (or more) of canned soup – low salt is better. A lot of low income folk have very minimal cooking facilities – or families have parents working long hours and the kids are doing the cooking. Easy, fairly nutritious, simple to prepare food is the name of the game.
Finally, how’s your flashlight situation? Do you have working flashlights? The rechargeable batteries to make use of them (or ones that operate without batteries). Can you find them in the dark? Check them today – if you need more, now is a good time to pick some up, or replace batteries. While you are at it, you could consider ordering long life smoke detector batteries for your home smoke detectors – that way, you never have to worry about your safety if the power goes off.
Sharon
- food storage quickie
- Comments(11)
The funny thing about this post is that I just received my order from King Arthur flour’s Baker’s Shop this week, which included, ironically enough, flour and yeast
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Thanks for reviving this series, Sharon. I really enjoyed it before, and you actually made some suggestions for things I hadn’t considered, but are important items.
Good on the food items already. I’ll have to check the bag on the salt to see if it’s iodized.
After dealing with flashlights that crap out after little use, we finally bit the bullet and invested in very good quality ones. We’ve tried ones that were not inexpensive but they still didn’t last. These are police quality, heavy duty flashlights with three settings including strobe. Strobe is supposed to be good to blind an intruder, although I hope to never have to test that theory.
The reason this came up as an issue was that we heard a noise outside the house about a month ago. We couldn’t come up with a working flashlight for several minutes. By then, there was no noise and we saw no sign of anyone. (We didn’t let the dogs out in case it was a coyote in the yard.) The next morning, we discovered someone had hopped over our fence, landed on a metal cart I use to set the wet laundry by the clothesline, and then tipped over a cart of compost scrambling over the wall behind us. We need to be able to react to such situations a whole lot faster than we did, hence the flashlight investment.
We’re about to have a major grocery store strike and lockout here in Colorado. It may start as early as this weekend, so chalk up another reason to have a well stocked pantry. All I needed to do was pick up cabbages and apples to be set.
We bought a wind up flashlight/radio. This one was from the red cross and cost about $30.00 I find it’s worth it to pay more for better quality, because last year I bought a couple of cheap wind up lanterns on sale and they both broke within a month.
A hand grinder is a great idea. Where can I get one?
Hi Aimee,
I bought a “Kornkraft Farina” as Handgrinder a few month ago and I’m absolutely satisfied with it:
http://www.getreidemuehlen.de/Handgetreidemuehlen/Handgetreidemuehle-Kornkraft-Farina/6004.html?gclid=CNjOgufR1Z0CFYOOzAodh0SsFg
A collegue, who is chef in a big kindergarden used this handgrinder with the children since some years – no problem.
If I have to grind more than say 400 gr. of wheat into fine flour, I find it a bit hard to do – but it’s good for the muscles -:)))
I used it too for my morning “Muesli” (about 50-100 gr.) and that was very easy.
Best greetings from Germany
Regina
I have two questions on the general subject –
First, what supplier/suppliers do people like for organic whole grains? I am looking at Millers Grain House but would love to hear other recommendations.
Then, which brand of electric grain grinder to people like? — I have rheumatoid arthritis and cannot easily grind by hand. I am currently looking at a Tribest, although (yow) it’s expensive — and am considering a WonderMill.
Then, Sharon, “Independence Days” is great — you are taking my thinking in new directions. Thanks! Emily
I fired up my sourdough a couple weeks ago and plan on making bread all winter when the heat from the stove is appreciated in the house. Yeast I buy by the pound and store it in the fridge–my current batch is at least a year old and still proofs fine. It doesnt have to be refridgererated tho in summer I’d put it in a cool place.
My CSA is thinking of growing grains next year as an experiment–I get to be the test bunny which means I have to get hold of a grain mill over the winter!
I’m slowly building up my supply of candles–local beeswax I get cheap because they arent perfect–and batteries for the flashlights. Living in the country, we’ve always had flashlights in strategic places in the house in case the power goes off in the middle of the night and a little one has to go potty.
And I keep 3 or 4 lbs of coarse salt on hand plus a lb of iodized. It comes in handy for cleaning animal wounds, salting vegies from the garden, gargling sore throats etc. I use it to clean also and it works almost as well as harsh Bon Ami. We also store witch hazel, epsom salts and baking soda for their cleaning and medicinal value.
Deb
Thanks Sharon!
I just discovered your blog yesterday. It is the kind of helpful message I have been looking.
These food storage quickies are great, very simple, start-where-you-are messages. I need all the help I can get. Sometimes it is so overwhelming to know what to work on next. I’ve got some of it down ok (candles, clothing, chickens, fire wood & some food), but have been feeling that there is so much more I could be doing.
The bread/flour area is one area I need to work on.
With the weather getting cooler it seems like a good time to get into making breads.
Thanks for the motivation & breaking things down into simple steps. The comments others have left have been great too!
[...] not. Following Sharon’s lastest food quickies, I bought a large box of yeast and 10 lbs of (unpopped) popcorn, all of which went into the [...]
If you don’t have a grinder, would soaking non-ground grains in water and then mashing them and making them into bread be an option?
Jenny, soaking grains works as an add in to a loaf. I make a 4 grain bread with oatmeal, cornmeal, rye and wheat flour, (plus soy meal, dried milk and anything else I can find to pack the nutrition into it) that has soaked grains in it but as a base for a loaf, I really prefer a grain grinder and flour. I personally could get along without bread at all but I live with people who like it, expect it and eat my failures so what can I say….
I also want a hand crank one rather than motorized since I live with a very handy guy who could make a treadle for it–sort of like a spinning wheel treadle. We actually have a wood lathe that’s a treadle lathe rather than a power one that is the basis of that thought. The really sturdy ones are expensive tho.
Deb in WI