Jun222010
Thoughtful Food Storage: Grains, Part 1
Guest post by Debbie Cee
The best thing about buying foods in the grain group is that they are rather inexpensive, for the most part. You can stock up in grocery stores easily without having to go to emergency supply stores if you want. When I expand my food stores from, for example, one month to two months, I start with getting in the grain food group first. Then I add the more expensive and time consuming storage foods in meats, veggies and fruits to that base of grains.
photo by FleurP
The grain food group includes starches, or carbohydrates. Wheat, rice, potatoes, corn and oats are the most common foods in this group. Wheat includes all products made with flour as well as the survivalist staple of storage, whole wheat berries. Grains will give you the energy you need for physical labor and battling cold or wet weather. On the other hand, too many grain food products when you are not physically active will put weight on you and your family in a hurry.
From a survivalist’s perspective, foods can be divided into short, medium and long term. My medium-term supplies are aimed at a 12-week time frame, since most any emergency can be covered by 12 weeks and because a 12-week time frame seems to guarantee I will find a good sale for any grocery or warehouse club food. Saving money every day with my food stores while being prepared for an emergency is a win-win situation for me.
My medium-term grain supplies include both ready-to-eat grains, such as crackers, cereals and snacks along with foods that need to be cooked, such as rice, pasta, oatmeal and instant potatoes. I have read accounts from people who store food who have had to deal with ice storms and hurricanes, and a common wish is that they had stored more prepared foods for the duration of the weather event and the clean up afterward.
The only problem with stocking ready-to-eat grains is that children (and adults) have a tendency to raid the supplies. I have a lock on my store room door – but unfortunately I have the key, as does my husband. My current challenge is to buy foods my children like but aren’t a constant temptations for me!
After my medium-length food storage was set up and working, I started focusing on long-term storage. This is food I buy and pack, or buy already packed, to put in the back of my cellar and forget about until and unless a long term emergency happens. I’m hoping to never use this supply. I chose long-term grain supplies for their flexibility and how easy they would be to use in a true SHTF long-term emergency.
Wheat is the traditional staple for long term storage and is the traditional starch for Europeans and Americans. You can cook un-ground wheat, called wheat berries, into a hot cereal. Cold, the cooked wheat berries can be added to salads. If you grind the wheat berries, you have flour. With flour you can make bread, pancakes, tortillas and cookies. My kids would work at grinding wheat by hand for pancakes or cookies. I’m sure of that. I also have a gadget to make pasta with, too, when life calms down following a crisis, or there’s a long term event, and I end up making my own pasta. You can buy a hand grinder for under $100 or for over $300. I currently have a lower end hand grinder and will buy a second when I see a good sale. For me, two cheaper ones are a better choice then one good quality expensive one.
Wheat can be stored for a year in a normal plastic container or for long-term in a bucket or can with an oxygen absorber. I am slowly transferring wheat from 50 lb. sacks into buckets for my long-term storage. Online sources for wheat include Shelf Reliance, the Blue Chip Group and Emergency Essentials who will send it to you already packed in buckets for long-term storage. I also have gallon jugs that used to hold pretzels full of wheat berries in my larder in order to have smaller amounts of wheat handy for everyday cooking.
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(9) Readers Comments
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Oh my goodness Soren you are hilarious! I guess we had better stock up
Barbara
Pre-test your family with several dishes of wheat to see if anyone has reactions. Wheat allergies are more common than we realize since we normally eat it in small amounts. A reaction could be- tummy troubles, aches and diarrhea, lethargy and general "Yucky feeling", hives and spots, or constipation. Asthmatics could present with increased breathing problems.
Other grains are easy to substitute, and several of the so-called Super Grains (because they are higher in proteins and nutrients) are becoming less expensive. Be sure to research how long these other grains keep. Wheat keeps the longest if properly stored, 30+ years. Corn, on the other hand, only 10- 15.
Dave
If you look at the ingredients of a tube of Quick oats, you will see that it is 100% rolled oats. You can buy them at tractor supply in a 50lb bag for about $15. Add water and a little honey, stir. No cooking necessary. Delicious!
Brenda
Wow! I had forgotten about tractor supply stores for food items. Having lived in Germany for the past 8 years, it's amazing how much I had forgotten about my growing-up years in New Mexico. Thanks for the reminder!
Jan
Great article!
Sue
Wheat berries are indeed awesome-I keep some in the fridge at all times. They make a great hot cereal but a great cold cereal as well. Yes, they are wonderful on a salad and also in chili. There are recipes using cracked wheat as a basis for mock burgers and sausage-tasty indeed. Saturday night is pizza night at our house and I use whole wheat flour for the crust-no complaints. Wheat berries have changed out lives-LOL! I would encourage everyone to test out wheat berries (yes start small because of allergies) .I never thought of tractor supply for oats Dave,-will check that out. My family is fond of oatmeal both as a cereal and in baked goods. Debbie-your posts are so practical and informative. Thank you so much for sharing.
Debbie_Cee
Thank you Sue! I am enjoying writing.
Dave I will remember the Tractor supply tip, thank you.
Bob
Long time food storage needs to be rotated on a regular time table,or you can build a storage unit that does the task for you. Folks with a lot of funds can buy already made ones. Also the LDS has a food supply center in all states. They will sell to all. All orders are placed online. They have cans to package long term foods, mylar bags and oxygen absorber for storage.
Garden Girl
I just found out I was allergic to wheat (and yeast), I waited until getting those results before buying any long term storage. So, now that I know, I plan on buying a 25 pound bag of white rice at my local warehouse club and the Wonder Mill junior so I'll be able to make rice flour out of it. I don't have room for more than four 5 gallon buckets, but I have ample space under my king size bed. My family is small (just me and my 4 year old), so I think I'd be better off storing things in small packages to keep them from going bad. With these things in mind, can someone give me an idea of how I should approach long term storage for the rice? Should I go ahead and grind some into flour to conserve space, or would it go bad faster if ground? Could I just buy canning jars and 02 absorbers, and store it that way? If so, I remember seeing a recommendation on where to find a good price for a small amount of 02 absorbers somewhere on this site, but now can't find where it was. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Liz Long
I got the mylar bags and O2 absorbers from the LDS's Bishop's Warehouse and used those for my rice. They're divided into much smaller bags that way. Also, if you use extra O2 absorbers, they seem to effectively create a vacuum inside the bag so they take up a smidge less space, although they can also get rock-hard that way.s Otherwise, I bought them on eBay.