Provident Living-Store what you eat (Wendy DeWitt)

As I've been attending our food storage meetings, talking with friends about food storage, and surfing the web, I keep coming across people who are using Wendy's system for food storage. So I thought I'd go ahead and post a little segment on it, and then put a little note back on my 3 month supply post.

Wendy's philosophy is basically the same that I've been saying, "Store what you eat." So it's basically what I posted in the "Three month supply", but she's doing it for a year. So she doesn't have the "short term" and "long term". She tries not to store anything that doesn't have a shelf life of at least 3 years. At first when I heard her plan, she talked about 7 dinners and 7 breakfasts. I couldn't eat the same meal each week for 52 weeks! But like she said in her YouTube videos, she can't either! So she's doing 14 dinners and 7 breakfasts.

If you're interested in learning more about her method, She has a series of 9 short YouTube videos that talk about compiling your meal cards, shopping list, rotation, solar oven, canning meat, vacuum sealing, etc. I found them very informative and they are short so you can work them in to your schedule easily. She also has a blog http://everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/. During the seminars that she gives, she hands out booklets with all the information in them. You can find it on her blog, under the Nov 2008 post I believe. But I've copied it into a Word document and you can find it here (don't worry, she says we can post, copy, handout to whomever). Download EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN (click on this blue link).

For her videos, here is the first. Then you can access the next ones on the right hand bar on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGaTlwYs-s

There are a couple things that she points out that are great. First, she talks about how food storage costs about $1 a day, per person. She's quick to point out that we spend that much on our cell phones. So what's more important to you? A fancy phone/phone plan or food?

Second, she says that a year's supply for one person will store under a twin bed. So you really have no excuse for not storing it. Most people have one bed for each person in their home, or a larger bed for two. So clean out whatever is under beds, if you have no other space to store it, and do it!

Provident Living-Longer Term Storage-what is it and how to store it

We're moving on, from Short term storage, to Long term storage. Some of you might be asking, "What's the difference?" When I think about Long term storage, I think about the BARE MINIMUM food that you could eat to keep you alive. This isn't anything fancy, it's truely the bare basics. The church has been emphasizing this storage since the Great Depression. And it used to be that they said to store 2 years! They have even cut back on what is actually in this storage.

From "Safely Gathered In", we learn:

Longer-term Storage

 

Besides having a three-month supply of everyday food, you should also have a one-year supply of basics: oats, rice, wheat, and beans, for example.  Stored properly, each of these foods has a 20-30 year shelf life! (However, they will lose nutritional value of the years so you'll still want to rotate these, just not as frequently as your short term)

These basics can be stored in #10 cans, mylar bags, and/or 5 gallon buckets.  

Check out this food storage calculator

 

( http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7498-1-4070-1,00.html)

 

to determine how much food your family needs.
Besides these 4 basic foods, there are a few other things that the church suggests we  have a large supply of.  I'm not necessarily aiming for a year's worth (not until I have the basics done, anyway), but I certainly like to have more than three months' worth.  These "extras" include:

white sugar
yeast
powdered milk
bouillon cubes
pasta
white flour
honey
salt

Everything in the above list (except for the honey) can be stored in #10 cans, mylar bags, and/or buckets - the same way you store your basics. (Note: if you are canning up your own white sugar, donot include an oxygen packet.  If you do, your sugar will become rock hard!)  

How to store your Long Term Storage?

 

There are a couple different ways to store your Long Term Storage: #10 can, mylar bags and plastic buckets.

 

#10 cans are the very large cans that you can purchase from the cannery. They hold around 4-6 lbs. of food. Some of the pros to using these cans is that they are rodent proof, stack easily, and you can purchase a plastic lid so, once opened, you can keep the food in the can while you're using it, and just keep the plastic lid on it. The church sales boxes that fit these cans-6 cans to a box-makes it really easy to transport or stack and and store them. The cons to using the cans are: they are currently about $1 each (when you add in the metal lid), you cannot seal them more than once (unless you have a reflanger), and if you are canning at your home, it takes a lot of room to transport cans back to your home to can.

 

Mylar bags are relatively new to the cannery. They are made of a food grade foil and have a liner in them. They hold between 5-7 lbs of food. The pros to using these are: they are about 1/3 the cost of the cans, they are reusable (they will just be a little shorter each time you use them), they are easily transportable because they are flat, and they hold more food than the cans so you need less of them. The church also makes a box to fit these, though it's not too often that I can fit 5 pouches in a box (I fill my pouches quite a bit). I actually prefer to get the #10 can box, and use with my pouches. Because the #10 can box is shorter, I can store it easier under beds and such. The cons to the bags are that they are not rodent proof, so you need to store your bags off the ground on shelves, or in plastic buckets or bins to keep the mice out. Also, once you open a bag, you don't have an easy way to close the mylar bag so you need to transfer the food to another container, such as Tupperware or an equivalent. With that said, I still prefer Mylar over the cans.

 

Plastic buckets can also be used to store your long term food. You need to make sure that they are "food grade". They don't sell them out here, so I don't currently use any. I've been told that many bakeries sale their buckets for a couple bucks. You can also order them online. There are two different types of lids. One lid just snaps on, and the other is a gamma lid that has a seal and it twists for access. Once you have your buckets, it's easy to refill them, and they stack also. This is a great way to go, if you are constantly rotating your food. Many friends keep their rice, sugar, flour and wheat in buckets for easy access.

 

Next, I'll discuss ways to get rid of the oxygen, which is what spoils the food.

Gardening-Starting from Seed

I've had a couple people ask me how we start our garden. So I thought I'd do a little tutorial for you.
We started our garden, from seed, several weeks ago. You'll have to look on the back of the packages of seeds to see when you need to start yours.
One misconception is that you can start them indoors, under normal light, and then transplant outdoors when it's warm. Been there, done that, doesn't work. The plants won't be strong enough. You need to grow them under plant lights, and the light needs to be adjustable because you want it just a could inches higher than your plants. As your plants grow, you adjust the height of the light higher and higher.
I'm sure there are plenty of websites out there that can give you more information. But here are a couple pictures of ours, in case you're interested.
We purchase these little pods. You could use dixie cups and a bag of soil, but I like these because I can just pour the water in the tray that these sit in, and the soil will soak up whatever it needs. If you use the dixie cups, you have to guess at how much water to put in.

So the first step is to put these pods in a tray and get them wet. They will soak up the water and grow tall.

Once they have expanded, we put them in the tray and poked holes in the soil (the depth of our hole was depending on what was being planted-read the back of the seed packet for guidance) The sharp end of a pencil works great for going down 1/4" or deeper. The eraser end worked well for those that were suppose to be shallow (less than 1/4" deep).

Plant your seeds according the the directions on the package and use the eraser side of the pencil to cover them with dirt.
Once you have them planted, get them under the light. This is ours. It's 2' long. G ordered it online somewhere. If you want to know, email me and I'll get the info. You can find the bulbs at Lowe's or Home Depot and they have ballisters too. I think he ordered this one because it holds 4, 2' long bulbs and the ones in the store only held 2.

The important thing is to have something adjustable. You can make a stand out of wood or PVC pipe, and attach the light using chains. G decided that he could put these hooks under the cabinets in our food storage room, and adjust it this way.
These are our tomato plants. See how close the light is. That's key. You want it just a couple inches higher than your plants.

Don't forget to make yourself a "key" if you're planting more than one thing. They all look alike in the beginning and you don't want to find yourself planting "flowers" in your "vegetable garden" in the sun when they were suppose to be in your shade flower garden.

Usually we just grow veggies, but I thought I'd try some flowers for all my flower gardens this year, as flowers can be expensive if you have a large yard. So far, they are doing great.

I know, I can hear some of you saying-"Why go through the hassle when you can buy the plants already grown?" You're right. You can buy them and skip this process. But I think my rationale is that, in the past, I have always taken things for granted. I've always expected there to be tomatoes in the store, that tasted good, and were a decent price. Or that the nurseries would have plants for me to purchase. I've taken the easy road and leaned too much, in my opinion, on others. But I'm now seeing that tomatoes aren't always in my stores (yes, remember the scare and they didn't even sale them). In fact, I saw a sign at Wendy's that said that I had to ask for a tomato on my hamburger, otherwise they weren't going to do it because of the cost as Florida's tomato crop has been wiped out this year (2010). And, the tomatoes in the store are expensive, $2.99/lb, and have no taste! Now, we're probably going to start seeing the plants show up in stores, but who knows, there may come a time that some insect or something wipes them out. So I want the knowledge, and experience, of how to do it from seed.

I asked G when we started this, if you could grow a tomato plant indoors, and never transplant it outside. I was worried about pollination and such. He said that most are self pollinating and that, theoretically, you could. So that's on my list for this winter-to grow a tomato plant indoors! Doesn't it sound like fun? Fresh, home grown tomatoes in Dec-Jan. Yah, I know all of you New Mexico, California and Florida people probably have tomatoes in Dec outdoors, but in Ohio, not a chance! Wish me luck!!

UPDATE: The tomato didn't survive. He got over a foot tall, and then died. I'm not sure if he just didn't get enough light, or developed a disease. I'll stick to growing outdoors for now!

Provident Living...just a note

I've had a couple friends approach me and tell me that they are reading the blog, but they can't keep up. You don't have to!! And I'm not expecting you to! I'm trying to post as fast as I can because I have friends that are not working on a three month supply, or water supply. They want information on long term storage, and recipes on how to use their storage. But I believe that long term storage is for those that already have their water and short term, so that's why I've chosen to post these things first.

Don't get stressed out if you're way back! Believe me, I'm not even personally caught up to where my blog is!!! It's not something that you can rush out and do, nor should you. I'm really putting a lot of time and effort into my personal one because I want it to fit the needs of our family. And I'm working on it together with G and we are finding that we don't have a lot of time to sit down and discuss it. We're trying to use every minute we have, in the car, or at dinner (after the kids have eaten and left), to make the right decisions for our family. The object is to start, keep going, and growing. It doesn't matter how long it takes us to get to the end!

Got it?! I could blog once a week and give you an "assignment", but it would probably only work for one or two of you. Some have less time to spend, others want to get it all done today! Some are just learning about food storage, and others have it all stored and they just need to learn how to use it. It's going to be up to you, to set your goal, and your timeline. I firmly BELIEVE that you do need to set a goal and timeline.

G and I have a timeline for getting our short term storage done, and a goal/timeline for our long term. We sat down and figured out about how much it was going to cost, and what our budget was each month, and then figured out a realistic goal. I urge you to do the same!

I'm going to keep posting, as fast as my schedule will allow, so I can share as much as I can. Just know that I'm way back at the beginning, probably working on the same step as most of you!!!

Provident Living-Three Month Supply (Part 5)

Ok, this is the last post covering three month supply-at least for awhile.

I thought I'd share a couple more tips....

A three month supply is suppose to include more than just food. You will want to include all personal care products, cleaning products, paper products etc in your list. The easiest way to see how much you need to to write the date on a package that you open. For instance, if you pull out a new shampoo today, write today's date on that with a permanent marker. Then, when you go to throw it away in a month when it's empty, you'll know that your family uses about 1 shampoo each month. That means you need 3, for a 3 month supply.

For toilet paper, you can do it two ways. We have a cabinet above each toilet where I keep the extra rolls. I could either put "X" amount of rolls (6 rolls for example) in each cabinet, and then at the end of the month count how many I have left and subtract from 6. Or, you can save the cardboard rolls, every time you empty a roll, and total them up at the end of the month. This is the one I thought I would try because I figured if I did the first one, by the time I got to the end of the month, I would have forgotten how many we started with! ROFl Yes, my memory is THAT BAD! However, my husband was right when he told me that collecting a bunch of tubes wasn't the smartest way to do it. Let's just say that your bathroom begins to become a stock pile of cardboard tubes that seem to roll everywhere, or your kids think that they could recycle them and make something cool so they end up walking off with them. If I had to do it over again, I'll go for the first example, put a sticky note on the inside of the cabinet telling me how many I began with, and call it good!

Another thing, if you're working with TP. Maybe it's just me, but it totally bugs me that TP comes in at least 3 sizes-large, big, and mega, at least in my brand, Charmin. This is important to take note of if you just buy whatever size is on sale, ladies! For instance, if you purchased 6 mega rolls and stash them in your cabinet and track your consumption for the month, let's say you find that you use 4 a month. Well, that doesn't mean that you can then stock your food storage with 4 rolls of large, or big. You'd have to double that 4, for big rolls, and quadruple it for large. I think I'm going to eventually give up the battle and just purchase 1 size for the rest of my life because I don't have to have to double and quadruple rolls to figure out how many I need!

Last, I'll give one more tip if you're trying to save money. If you don't want to store the "good" TP (as it's not the cheapest thing out there), you can always stock up on the really cheap stuff, stash it away and don't worry about rotating it as it's not going to go bad (unless you get it wet). Then buy whatever brand you want for your daily use. Totally up to you!

Here's something for you to laugh about...Way back when, I having a conversation with my mom about this very thing, TP. We decided that in a time of crisis, we didn't want to be using the paper thin, sandpaper-esk toilet paper! We wanted something that brought a little comfort (seriously, was I really thinking that TP could be comforting!!!) Anyways, I decided to stock what I was used to using (and it's soft enough that it could double for kleenex!, or I could stuff my clothes with it, if I needed insulation, etc). Makes me wonder, could I use it as a strainer?!?! JUST KIDDING! If you go for the cheap stuff, stock some rash ointment too, in case you get a rug burn from it!!!

Provident Living-Three Month Supply (Part 4)

Yeah! This is it ladies! We're ready to complete our lists for our Three Month Supply. Then we'll be ready to shop.

You'll need all your papers that we've been working on so pull them out and grab a pencil.

Yesterday we figured out how much of each ingredient we needed, for each meal. Now we need to take those numbers and multiply them by the number of times we're having that meal. Here's an example:

Dinner Menu A (make 7 times)

1. Spaghetti with veggies

• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 lb. noodles (LTS)
• 2 cans green beans

This is what I figured out yesterday. So I need to transfer these items to my shopping list and multiple them by 7 because I'm going to serve this meal 7 times during the 3 months. So my shopping list says:

Shopping List

7 jar shaghetti sauce

14 cans green beans

Cannery List

7 lbs noodles

I made a shopping list, both for the grocery store, and one for my cannery, to help we start planning what I need in my long term storage.

Continuing on, my shopping list would be:

Dinner Menu B (Make 6 Times)

4. Bean Burritos and Spanish Rice

• 1 can refried beans (or use LTS)
• dehydrated cheese (LTS)
• 1 cup dehdrated onion (LTS)
• 1 1/2 cups rice (LTS)
• 1 can Mexican stewed tomatoes

Breakfasts

1. Cereal and milk (making 18 times)

• 4 cups Smart Start Oatmeal Cereal
• 3/8 cup nonfat milk, dry (reconstituted it makes 2 cups milk) (LTS)

2. Cinnamon Oatmeal with milk (making 18 times)

• 4 cups Oatmeal, Instant (LTS)
• 3/8 cup nonfat milk, dry (reconstituted it makes 2 cups milk) (LTS)
• Cinnamon (LTS)

3. Pancakes (making 18 times)

• 2 cups Krusteaz Pancake Mix
• 1/2 cup syrup
• butter, dehydrated
• Non-stick spray

Shopping List  

-7 jar shaghetti sauce

-14 cans green beans

-9 boxes Smart Start Oatmeal Cereal  

(there are about 8 cups in one box)

-6 cans refried beans   

-6 cans Mexican stewed tomatoes  

-1 Sam's Bag Krusteaz pancake mix

(I need 36 cups and 1 bag has 40 cups)

-1 Sam's Maple Syrup

(I need 9 cups and a bottle has 16 so

I can use it for some of my waffles too)

-1 can Non-Stick spray

-1 Sam's Cinnamon (lasts me a year)

Cannery

7 lbs noodles

9 cups rice

27 cups nonfat milk, dry (this would cover 36 breakfasts-

18 cereal and 18 oatmeal)

6 cups dehydrated onion

Emergency Essentials

Dehydrated cheese

Dehydrated butter

Is it making sense? After you're done with all your meals, you should have a list of exactly what you need to purchase/store for your three month supply. Now, I'm not saying to buy this all at once. That's too expensive. However, if you'll carry around this shopping list in your purse, you'll be able to pick up the products when they are on sale, or you can grab a couple extra items each time you shop. If your budget is super tight right now, start small. Over the next month, gather all the groceries you'd need for 1 week. Then expand to 2. Baby steps!

Now, how are you going to make sure that you don't eat it all up?!?!! Here's a great way to rotate and store it. It's perfect for those of you that don't have one large area to store your food in, but it's also great for those that do!

What you're going to do separate your food into the 13 weeks. So in my first pile, I'd have all my food to make each dinner for Menu A, then 7 lunches and 7 breakfasts. I'm going to place all of these in one container (I'd use plastic container with lid), and label "January". I'd also include a copy of the week's menu (and shopping list) so I know what I was suppose to be making!

My next pile would be a week's worth of food, including the 7 dinners on Menu B, 7 lunches and 7 breakfasts. I'd label this "February" and include a copy of the week's Menu (and shopping list).

I'd continue this on with the rest of the food until I had 13 containers (You'll have to use one month twice).

Here's how to rotate. It's March right now. So I'd go find my "March" container and empty all the food out, and put in my current pantry so I can use it sometime this month. I can either make the spaghetti that it was intended for, or I can make meatball subs with the spaghetti sauce, and an alfredo with the noodles. Get it? You can use it however you want. Then, on my "current" shopping list, I'd add everything that was in the box (which would be listed on the "shopping list" that I printed and included in the container). Once I purchased these from the store, I'd put the new ones back in the container and go store the container away for a year.

It sounds like a brilliant plan to me, and I can say that because it wasn't mine! ROFL Now, you might be asking, "what about the Mayo? I can't use a whole jar of Mayo each month". For my lunches, I will need Mayo but I don't want, nor need 13 jars. If I needed 4 jars (just making that up) for my three month supply, I'd space them out over the year. So I'd put one in January, and one in April, July, and Oct.

Now I know you're going to be writing me saying, "But Karisa, Mayo takes refrigeration and aren't we suppose to be preparing for power outages?"

Here's my opinion-and ONLY my opinion. You can decide for yourself what you're going to do. This applies to the use of a freezer too. I don't see my 3 month storage as the "end of the world so use it". When I think of the things that would cause me to use it, this is what comes to mind:

-earthquake, tornado, flood (If power was out for more than 2 weeks, I'd take my family to go stay with other family that has power)

-Hubby loses job, becomes ill, or temp. disabled (I have enough financial savings to pay for my electricity so I'd still have power-I'd be able to shift my "grocery budget" to help cover these other costs like electricity)

-Quarantine (I had no idea that some years ago there was a 3 month quarantine-you were confined to your home due to the bird flu. If this is the case, I would hope that we'd still have power, but I'd have to have all my food at home as that's where we'd have to stay)

-Had to take in family members who needed assistance (I'd have power here too)

-You have to fork out a large sum of money for an unexpected expense (car, medical etc). (I'd have electricity-I'd be using my grocery budget to pay off this expense)

If this is what my short term storage is going to be used for, and I have a gas generator and financial reserves to pay my electric bill, I should be able to run my fridge and/or freezer and I can have my MAYO! lol

If I end up without power, then I still have a couple options. I can have my sandwiches without Mayo, or I can invite all my ward members over (unless we're quarantined) and we'd open up my jar of Mayo and make 100 sandwiches and feed everyone. And then the next day we'd all get together and open Karen's jar of Mayo! Thanks, Karen, for storing some Mayo for me in case I don't have power! ROFL

That's my rambling thoughts on my three month storage. Feel free to form your own opinion and type me a comment and let me know what you think. If I see a peace treaty signed in the near future, with Israel, I may change my plan. But for now, this is it.

As far as my LONG TERM storage goes, that's different. That's food that doesn't need refrigeration, and lasts 30 years. We'll talk about that in another post.

There are other ideas out there on how to make and store a 3 month supply. You can purchase already canned/packed meals, or buy 100 boxes of macaroni and live off of it for awhile!! The plans I've seen are far to many to discuss. But the one thing that I like about the above plan is that it's what you already like, and eat, and is easy to rotate.

We're moving onto Long Term Storage, tomorrow, unless you need me to clarify or explain the 3 month in more detail. Just let me know...

PS-It would be wise to make a couple copies of the papers you're making right now (Menu, Shopping list, etc). We all know how we put the list in our purses and it disappears. And even better yet, put a copy of each in a binder, label the spine "Food Storage" and start including all your notes and tips in the binder, for easy access. A 3 ring binder and some sheet protectors will get you started.

PSS-Once you have your three month supply, you might want to expand your dinner, lunch, breakfast menu to include snacks and an occasional dessert. If we had to live off this food, we know our life would probably be stressful. That means we'll all be craving some dessert! So throw in a cake mix (you could cook it over a fire if you had to!!) and a tub of frosting! 

Provident Living-Three Month Supply (Part 3)

We should all have our menus, Dinner Menu A, Dinner Menu B, Breakfast and Lunch. Now, depending on how many meals you have will depend on how much you're going to need.

For now, start with a clean sheet of paper and take each Meal and list all the major ingredients in that meal. For instance, my spaghetti dinner with veggies would be:

Spaghetti with Veggies

1 jar Spaghetti sauce

1 lb. Spaghetti noodles (LTS)

2 cans green beans

The LTS stands for "Long Term Storage". This is an item that I purchase from the cannery. If I didn't, I'd need to write "1 box noodles" so I could grab them at the grocery store.

Here's another example:

4 cups Oatmeal Crunch Cereal

Milk (LTS)

I poured my cereal the other day to see how much I normally eat, and how much the hubby does, as I don't eat it every day. I eat 1 cup of my flakes and he eats 1 1/2 cups of Cheerios. So 4 cups is a rough estimate of how much our family of 4 would eat (1 cup for me, 1 1/2 cups for the hubby, 3/4 for each kid). When I store it, I'll plan on eating cereal twice in a week so it will probably total out to a box, but I still need to see how many cups are in a box.

This is going to take a little bit longer to do today, but it's going to give you a really good idea exactly how much food you'll need. Let's just say that when I was "ball parking" my figures, I was WAY UNDER!

Make sure not to throw out any of the papers you're writing on. We'll need them later so keep them altogether.

Ok, good luck. Shoot a comment if you have any problems. Otherwise I'll meet you back here tomorrow to compile the finished shopping list and to tell you a great way to store it all!