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.