December Food Storage Monthly/Challenge

I passed out a paper copy at church

December Food Storage Monthly

Decide as a family this year that 25 or 50 percent of your Christmas will be spent on a year’s supply. Many families in the Church spend considerable sums of money for Christmas. Half or part of these Christmas monies will go a long way toward purchasing the basics. I recall the Scotsman who went to the doctor and had an X-ray taken of his chest. Then he had the X-ray gift-wrapped and gave it to his wife for their anniversary. He couldn’t afford a gift, but he wanted her to know his heart was in the right place. Brethren, give your wife a year’s supply of wheat for Christmas, and she’ll know your heart is in the right place. (Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric)

This month’s food storage challenge is to sit down and figure out where you are at and set a plan. My husband and I have been actively working on our food storage for about 5 years now. We even took out a chunk of money to purchase a 3 months’ supply of what we felt should be in our food storage. Through the years we have learned what things we would actually use and things that were on our list, because of old traditions and cooking.

Today we really do not have storage at all. What happened to our 3 month supply you ask? It got eaten with all the other pantry food. We use to stock our pantry. That was our food storage and we “rotated it out.” I was racking my brain trying to figure out how come I couldn’t keep things stocked up. Then it was finally brought to my attention that we needed to have a separate pantry and food storage. A storage that you don’t rotate for 1,3,5,30 years. However long the longevity of the food is. Then you rotate that into your pantry and restock the storage. Since you will have different shelf lives you won’t have to be repurchasing everything at once.

We have also learned that you don’t have to store things you don’t cook with, won’t cook with, or don’t like. You might think well duh, but tradition says you need to store wheat, rice, beans and powdered milk, and other ingredients that you may have never cooked with. If you desire here is part two of this month’s challenge.

Take 14 note cards and write down 7 breakfasts and 7 dinners that you would like to have once a week for one year. There are 52 weeks in the year, so you will be having these meals 52 times. Write on the left side of the card everything it takes to make the meal and on the right side everything multiplied by 52. Don’t forget to add the water you will need for cooking. My food storage has 14 dinners (x 26 weeks) 7 breakfasts (x 52 weeks) a daily loaf of bread (x 365 days) and a variety of desserts. This is a very simple system that saves time and money because you only store what you need and will eat. It can easily be adapted from a years’ supply to a 2 weeks’ supply or a 3 months’ supply.

After reading this from Wendy Dewitt’s book, my husband and I started to realize how much we were trying store, with really no plan. We just guessed how much we might need for a year. I’ve wondered how we would really have fared. This system is so exact that you know you will have exactly what you need, no more no less. It’s simple and I think it brings an ease to putting together you food storage.

Let me know if you would like a CD from the Food Storage Fair. It has almost all of the information covered, and also includes Wendy Dewitt’s Book Everything Under The Sun

A good place to shop

We learned about this store when we were in the Honeyville store in Brigham City. It's a huge store with probably anything you'd want to store including containers of all types. The pricelist is in Adobe Reader and is 14 pages long. I hope Honeyville succeeds here as they're our only option for most of these items. I have had to pick up things in SLC or Brigham City in the past, so we're grateful for this store. Feel free to share the Price list with others in your ward - especially your food storage specialists
Or canning specialists if they aren't aware of this store.
They have all kinds of grains, flours, baking supplies (including cupcake cups 500 for $4.19 - much cheaper than supermarkets. You might want to browse through the pricelist. They have lots of things in bulk and also In cans. They also have a gluten free section on bottom of p 11 and top of p 12. I don't know how those prices compare to other gluten free products since I > don't buy those.

Heidi

Storage Life of food

How long can that bottle of ketchup stay in your fridge before it goes bad? I'm thinking 5 or 10 years but if you want an expert opinion, go to the web site below. This site lists all kind of foods and how to keep them fresh longer as well as when to get rid of them. If you have a question click on the particular picture, and a whole list of stuff appears..............
WHAT A GREAT SITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CLICK ON LINK BELOW:

http://www.stilltasty.com/

(Shared by Heidi Larkin)

Food Storage Fair

I just wanted to tell eveyone who helped out and participated in the food storage fair thank you! It was a huge success. Also just incase you didn't hear on Sunday, I have some extra CD's with most of the information that was shared at the fair. Let me know if you want one.

Dipping cheese in wax to preserve it

Bobbi Cook wanted to share this as well.

Another food storage method that I recently heard about is dipping cheese in wax to preserve it. I'll let you know how that one goes, it could be an adventure. If you want to read about it, I think this is a great link Cheese Wax Will Save Us All « Preparedness Pro .

Storing dry goods in PETE plastic containers

Bobbi Cook has a need method she is trying and wanted to share. Ask her if you have questions.
Did you know that you can store dry goods in PETE plastic containers? I guess the church is doing this in third world countries where they need to store food, but don't have canneries. Here's a link that tells you how http://www.instructables.com/id/Storing_Bulk_Dry_Foods_in_PETE_Bottles_using_Oxyge/. The only other thing that I heard to do that this person didn't is to use packaging tape around the lid of the container.

November Food Storage Challenge

I hope everyone was able to find a good deal on their November food storage items. This month I was wondering if anyone might have a suggestion for the item to purchase. Maybe there is something that you really need and this would help you to stock up on it. Let me know and I will make a decision what the item will be by Sunday.

October Food storage Challenge

The challenge for October is to buy (3 months worth if possible) sugar or flour. My family uses a variety, white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar. I know lots of people who buy two kids of flours as well. Whatever your family uses buy. Don't store something that you don't use. Good luck. Post a comment if you find any good deals.

Ward Food Storage Fair

November 21, 9am-12pm

We are going to hold a food storage fair that will have different booths. It will be kind of like a job fair. You can come when you like and leave when you like. You can go to what ever booths interest you. Some booths will be a continuous video that will teach you something. Others will be demenstrations on how to prepare your use something. Please let mandi Allen or Whitney Wertz know if you are willing to help run a booth. Even if you don't know anything before we will educate you so that you know and can teach and assist others. You can also just leave a comment with this post if you are interested in helping out. It will be a ward event so you could have a husband wife team or do a booth with another sister. For this to be a success we really need volunteers to help us out.

Food Storage Challenge

Sister I just was wanting some feedback about the monthly food storage challenge. If you are would like me to continue doing it, or change it up or try something completly new. Please leave your comments.