I have to give credit to New Survival Skills for asking me to do this article. They have been a great foundation for me and my family.
Food Storage,
Canning, and wild edibles.
Food Storage
In short, food storage is a necessary system that allows us
to prepare for the unexpected. Whether
it is a job loss, an illness in the family, or even catastrophe, food storage
gives us a way to survive. It makes us self-sufficient. With food storage we are able to stay away
from stores and off the streets during crisis.
When everyone else is at the stores trying to buy a few essentials with
the thousands of other people trying to do the same thing, you'll be comforted
to know, you already have that taken care of. You’ll also be comforted to know that you
will not be one of the many waiting for someone to come to your rescue. 72 hours is the minimum before you might be
rescued, not the time frame for someone to do something. Even if you are found to need help within 72
hours of the emergency, you might not be rescued right away because you aren’t
considered to be in serious danger, or in need of emergency help.
What it is? Food
storage is safety, security, comfort.
And even life or death.
How do you start food storage? This is a question that is best answered by
the amount of money you can put directly toward food storage. Can you put several hundred dollars in all at
once, thousands? Or can you only afford
to put aside a few dollars here and there?
Maybe it won’t be much of anything at all.
Because of its importance, food storage should be considered
supplemental to your regular groceries.
What does that mean? It means
that not only should you be regularly adding to your food storage, you should
be using it as well. There are a couple
of reasons to use it. 1) Using your
storage allows you to successfully rotate your storage so that you are using
oldest items first. 2) Using your food
storage allows your body to get used to the food in your food storage. You cannot expect to go from a white bread, fast-food
diet to a wheat and beans diet without some serious complications. Complications that can land you in a
hospital. (Ending up in a hospital is
not what you want if you’re already in a catastrophic situation. Hospitals will be full, or non-existent, or
may not be able to treat you even if you can get in.)
In my opinion, you’re going to need not only a variety of foods, but also a
variety of storage methods, and even a variety of producers. For example, 5 and 6 gallon buckets that
contain long term storage, i.e.; wheat, white rice, oats, various kinds of
beans, flour, sugar, and several others.
# 10 cans of dehydrated and freeze dried goods. These take up space, but
have that bang for the buck. Because
they need to be reconstituted, they hold more than the average canned
good. Even doing your own bottles will
not be able to pack as much as # 10 cans.
#10 cans come with a plastic lid.
This allows you to use the contents and then cover or seal the can until
the remaining contents can be used.
Regular commercially prepared items, i.e.; beans, asparagus, corn and
many other vegetables, fruits, juices, and even chili’s, and soups are a great
method of storage. With just the
addition of the name and the date purchased, listed on the can, you'll be able
to see what it is and how old it is even if the label manages to fall off. Finally, if you have the will to learn, there
is home canning, or bottling, and dehydrating.
This entire last group, takes time, and some supplies, but quickly
recoup the expense, once bottles and rings, and now even lids begin to be
reused. This last group also gives you a
way to preserve your garden.
All food storage should contain healthy items, plenty of vegetables, fruits,
meats, and grains. But don't forget
comfort foods too. For some families,
comfort foods are Cheetos, and chips, for others it might be cookies, and
cakes. For a few it might be trail
mix. Comfort foods are important for
their very definition. They can calm
children in overly dramatic and chaotic situations. They can take out the "boring" from
the fifteenth night of chili or soup.
They have the ability to change the pace, and bring smiles. In bad situations, they help
"normalize" the atmosphere, making it a little easier to cope. With children, this is especially important,
but even adults occasionally need help bringing down emotional stresses.
To properly prepare long term storage, there are a few questions you’re going
to need to ask yourself.
1) How many
people do I need to start planning for?
Is this going to be just the people in my household, or do I know
someone that will need the extra help, or whom I can expect to stay with us
when things get bad? Is it the little
old lady down the street, or the brother who didn't really believe it could
happen to them? When discussing food
storage, I always council people to start their food storage for the people in
their immediate household. Let’s face
it, if your family can't make it, how WILL you help anyone else?
2) Do you have pets?
Do you expect to keep your pets safe?
This is a question that will need a serious, non-flippant answer. It is easy enough to say yes, they can eat
what you eat, or they're dogs/ cats they can fend for themselves, but have you
really considered what that's going to mean?
If they are going to be eating what you eat, you'll need to do your homework
on what they can't have. If they're
going to be fending for themselves, how long do you think they will honestly
survive? Wouldn't it be easier to add
them to your storage schemes by putting storage up for them too?
3) Do you know how to cook with your food storage? Can you make bread, are you willing to
learn? Do you know how to cook
beans? How about mixing different
ingredients? I know, I know, this is
starting to sound daunting, but it can be done.
And it can be done with fairly minimal effort. The knowledge you have already about cooking
will help immensely.
This is something that I and many like me grew up with. We may not necessarily know how, for various
reasons, but probably remember the jars and bottles at grandma’s house full of vegetables,
fruits and various other goodies.
Canning is a way to preserve our own food stuffs. Whether it’s produce from our garden, or the
local farmer, canning allows us the opportunity to make that growing season
last as long as absolutely possible.
There is an initial expense with canning.
Bottles, lids, rings, processing equipment and then certain ingredients
can add up. But don’t panic, slow and
steady is often the best pace. A case here
and there may be all that you can do.
But it is still well worth it. Great
canning starts with excellent recipes.
Usually it starts with the produce, but let’s face it, in a world where
we may not be able to be picky about what we get, we’re going to need great
recipes to compensate. From relishes,
tomatoes, potatoes, and various other vegetables, to fruits, jams and jellies,
and even meats, canning is, overall, the most cost effective way to preserve
food. When done correctly the stocks of
food can last for several years. In fact
studies have been done on decades old bottled foods which proved the food lost
only slightly, a few key nutrients. This
speaks volumes to the tried and true tradition of home canning.
If you are like I was, and could only afford a little bit at
a time, I recommend the simplest canning to start. Jams, jellies, and tomatoes are my top three
choices. Tomatoes only need a little bit
of salt and lemon juice, and then processing.
Jams and jellies make use of sugar, fruit, occasionally a few extra
ingredients, and processing time.
Tomatoes are fairly versatile and can be used in a myriad of
recipes. Tomato sauces, spaghetti sauce,
salads, and other recipes. Jams and
jellies of course can be used with peanut butter, but also can be used instead
of syrup, or other store bought fruit dips.
It is easy to make enough of each to quickly fill your
storage. But the advantage to that is
you can switch to other foods more quickly while maintaining a good starter
food storage. It also gives you the
opportunity to have something for barter.
Tools
These are the tools I use for canning. They are well worth the cost when you look at
the amount of produce you can buy, without any of it going to waste.
Water bath canner. Generally
these run in the neighborhood of $25.00.
Steam canner. This
takes the place of the water bath canner, except for the advantage of using the
water bath canner as a stock pot. These
generally run about $40.00.
Pressure canner. Pressure
canners are necessary if you would like to store meats of any kind, and don’t
want every vegetable pickled. Because of
the nature of the processing of the pressure canner, you can bottle items at a
higher temperature than your stove top is capable of. This higher temperature is what prevents bacteria
from spoiling foods. Being able to heat
foods at higher temperatures removes the need to raise the acid levels in foods
to kill bacteria, rendering the need for pickling, unless you like that sort of
thing, un-necessary. Pressure canners
run anywhere from $85.00 clear up to $250.00.
This does depend on the size and brand of the canner. This is the largest expense out of all the
tools. However, that being said, the
ability to preserve meats, and vegetables without pickling, quickly recoups its
own cost.
Then there are the smaller tools. Magnet sticks, bottle grippers, funnels, scissor
tongs. These all make the task of
canning easier. You can buy all of these
tools separately or in one set. I
generally advise two sets if you can do it, because if you have helpers, 2 sets
just make the job easier. As a set these
run on average $19.00. Sometimes you can
find them on sale. But once again, their
cost is quickly recouped.
Now for the last of the items.
Jars. These come in
several different sizes, 4 oz, clear up to quart. You CAN find jars that are ½ gallon,
however, it is not recommended to use these for canning because of their size. These jars also come in regular mouth and
wide mouth styles. This refers to the
size of the opening of the jars. Prices
on all of the jars will range by size, case size, and even brand. We have been able to find quart sized jars
for as little as $5.00 a case, up to $9.50 a case. A case equaling 12 jars.
Lids and rings. Generally
when needing new rings, you will have to buy them in combination with the
lids. However, when you need new lids,
you can buy these separately.
Traditional lids are metal and are single use. (unless you make jams and seal them with wax) They come in regular and wide mouth
sizes. Their cost ranges anywhere from
$1.00 on sale up to $4.99. Rings and
lids, of course cost more than just lids.
There is a company that makes reusable lids. These tattler lids work wonderfully. They are made to be used with all methods of
canning. They are more expensive for initial
cost; however, by their second or maybe third use, they have recouped the
expense in both the short and long term.
In a world where we may not be able to acquire necessary equipment,
including lids, being able to reuse whatever we can is essential. Tattler lids, where I by them locally, are
about $9.99 per 12 regular lids, and $11.99 per wide mouth lids. The only part you need to have besides the
Tattler lids is the rings.
Now that you’re getting prepared and you’ve added bottles
and canning equipment to your list of to-do’s. You might want to also think
about what else you will be able to add to your food possibilities. We’re talking about wild edibles.
Wild Edibles.
Imagine being able to utilize what grows naturally, without
any effort on your part. From purslane
to common mallow, even dandelions, you have a valuable source of food should
you choose to access it. Every state has
a unique cornucopia of edibles. Many of
those edibles grow in several states.
Some can be eaten raw, others need to be cooked. All of them are nutritious.
With a little bit of effort, you will soon see all of the
different plants that grow naturally in your area. You’ll be able to locate the edibles, and anything
toxic. You’ll learn when to harvest
certain plants, and if they need to be processed in a particular way.
I recommend contacting your local “native plant society”. Some of them will have membership fees. But for the plethora of knowledge you will be
able to receive, the cost will be well worth it. You will also want to find someone locally
that can take the time to go out with you either one on one, or in a
group. This will give you the hands on
experience necessary to transition into being able to recognize useful plants
and forage on your own.
Foraging at one time was taught to each following
generation. It was a way of life. A litany
of reasons changed that way of thinking.
Now however, knowing your native plants, especially wild edibles, is
coming back into style. It is a skill
that takes time, but is worth it, if you use it wisely.
Imagine being short on a berry crop, but being able to turn
to dandelion flowers as an alternative.
Its sweet honey like flavor is perfect when added to a host of
dishes. How about on a peanut butter
sandwich, or even pancakes rather than syrup?
Or there is the purslane stem that is supposed to taste amazing
pickled. Need a boost of vitamin C or
just a shot of tart to flavor your drinking water? How about rose hips. The choices are almost endless.
Being able to tell the difference between stinging nettle,
and the mint that grows right next to it?
Helpful, since the mint is soothing to nettle stings. Maybe you need to know what kind of cactus
can be eaten and used as a source of water.
There is a lot of learning that needs to be done. But the advantages are numerous.
Labels can include recipes. You can hand write all of them, or use digital labels or even cut outs as labels. (When we make kits, we tape the recipes right to the buckets, ie; cornbread and cake.) You can also include serving sizes and amounts per package. (We did this recently with packets of taco and chili seasoning. This allowed us to pour the contents of each package into containers, which removed the bulk of what was originally being stored.)
