Sunday, May 30, 2010

Food Storage Friday: no excuses #3

The last big excuse I hear is "we don't like (or don't eat) food storage."  I get it- you don't eat flour, tuna and dried beans.  I don't blame you- yuck!  Food storage needs to be about storing the foods you do eat!  You only eat fresh fruits and vegetables?   Good for you, learn to grow those fruits and vegetables yourself.  It could be a lifesaver someday.  Learn to dry, can, and freeze to preserve fresh foods, and then find ways to work them into your diet. We've been able to live confident that we can go out and buy whatever we want whenever we want, and hopefully it will always be so, but you can't rely on that.  My pathetic attemepts at gardening have made me realize just how delicate of a process growing food can be- it's hard work, and there are no guarantees.  Store 3 months of food that your family eats regularly- and rotate it.  Once you have that, start to store plenty of the long lasting save-you-from-starvation kind of food, maybe start with rice, beans, and wheat.  You don't have to eat a ton of those things on a regular basis to keep a good rotation because they can be stored for so long.  One reminder about grains, be sure you freeze them at least 24-36 hours before storing them because they almost certainly have tiny weevil eggs in them, and freezing kills them so they don't hatch and totally gross you out.  This includes pasta, baking mixes, flour, etc.
All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!

2 comments:

Tami Allred said...

You know you really are your moms kid. Good for you in this learning process.

Sara! said...

Thanks for the tip on freezing! I cleared out an entire freezer shelf and packed it with potential-weevil-egg junk. I did have a question for you, do the potato flakes from the cannery get weevil eggs too / should I freeze them?