How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I have searched the internet and found many suppliers of 1 year food supply kits. Does anyone have any recommendations for one? or what I should be looking for? I have a family of 4 that I want this to take care of. I am new to this board, so I am sorry if this has already been answered. Also, any suggestions for preparation are appreciated!

Thank you!

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

can get a mountian house 3 month supply (for 2 adults) $1300

also this is a good deal

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/foodpak3.aspx

need a grain mill

grains are really good and inexpensive.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Costco has a 6 month supply bucket (for 2) for around $80.

Not sure of the contents but the shelf life is 20 years.




.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

http://beprepared.com/ Has some good deals on plans.
I prefer to go A'la Cart. Most of the plans have stuff I would not touch! Like powdered margin. Personally, I would go to www.honeyvillegrain.com and order individual items that I would acturally eat! cant beat the 4.49 shipping!

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Seems a few basic points need to be made here:

1. Many, if not even most food packages out there being marketed as 1-year supplies (or whatever the period of time) are outright frauds. The marketers are counting on folks not to understand what the definition of a serving is. (A serving size of any given food is defined by the FDA to mean the amount of that food that is consumed at one eating occasion. Remember that a typical meal consists of several different foods. Is one serving of chicken equivalent to one serving of pickles? Of course not.) Serving counts are pretty much irrelevant when calculating how long a food or foods will sustain a person. And that is what most of those 1-year packages are trying to sell you--one serving per meal--or three servings per day. If there is any fine print for some of those listings, you'll likely find something that says you need to supplement the package somehow--like maybe with a cow.

2. There are many aspects to a healthy and nutritional food package, but if you are looking for one quick and easy way to measure a package, calculate the total calories. Do the math, based on a minimum of 2000 calories a day for one person. Most Americans today are actually used to something more like 3000 calories a day.

3. Look for a food package that contains food that you actually eat today, not what you think you will settle for and figure out how to make when you are starving. This is far more important than some people face up to.

4. Money-wise, the average American today consumes something like $12 a day in food, at home and eating out. If you figure you can cut that amount significantly by buying food that not only is tasty and nutritional and AND is packaged to store for years, then you're not thinking clearly. Using the $12 a day figure, if you do not spend at least $4000 for your one-year supply of food, then what you did spend may very well be money down the drain, especially if it is not fit to be rotated into your everyday diet starting tomorrow (a telling test of its real value).

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Good selection but the prices are so high you'd save 1/3 at least on most things by just buying them elsewhere or at the grocery store.

Things I can't find at the grocery store are wheat, dried milk, cheese, eggs, onions, veggies, but the prices are so high for them I'd hate to buy them....

I've been thinking of ordering from LDS, but not being a church member, I feel awkward doing it. Look at the order form and compare the prices to the other places people are recommending...

http://www.providentliving.org/conte...4352-1,00.html

PS: Honeyville prices look better than other places for eggs and cheese, which LDS doesn't have

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

For wheat go to the farm supply

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

My thoughts:

I pick up an extra can of corn/green beans, etc. when I grocery shop. We primarily buy fresh fruit/veggies, so it's taken some practice to rotate in the canned foods.

I don't consider myself to be terribly mechanically inclined, so I haven't started to stock grains, etc. that would require alot of processing before use.

My 1 year supply plan is to buy freeze-dried/dehydrated foods that I think I would eat, and plenty of water to make those foods. Once I'm comfortable with having something I would eat on hand, that's easy to prepare, I'll buy some of the bulk grains and practice using them as part of my regular diet. I'm planning on getting the cookbooks/guides to learn how to use the raw ingredients. Of course I'll need a hand grinder and all that.

I think the first step is just to get something stored, even if it's the more expensive foods, and as funds/time allow expand into the individual ingredients and learn how to prepare everything.

Has anyone actually attempted to live on these foods alone for a year just for practice?

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

This must be a couple of buckets for only $80. LOL. $80 won't feed two people for a week!

These one year supplies always have a lot of junk, like sugar, refined flour, sweet drink mixes, etc.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Those 3 month supply buckets at costco are something like 200 servings at 150 calories per serving. They used to advertise them as a 3 month supply, but I think they have changed that now to just say emergency food supply. At 2000 calories a day they are about a 2 weeks supply, but they are full of filler foods like pancake mix. They are extremely expensive for what they are.

If you have an LDS cannery in your area, they will let you go and dry pack foods there in #10 cans or foil pouches. Their pricing is great, as they buy in bulk and produce stuff like wheat themselves. They do sometimes restrict the use to members of the church only when there is high demand. Right now the demand is not high in Utah, but i'm not sure about the other areas.

If you do not have this option, I would opt for regular dry grocery store goods that you already eat. It is much cheaper than the all in one kits, and you will not end up with a bunch of extra salt, pancake mix, and cheap fillers.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

When buying weekly groceries, I calculate cost/calorie when trying to determine the true value of my grocery purchases. In my mind, I think you should first determine how much an item costs per calorie. Calories are energy and keep you from wasting away. Even if it's pure junk, pure sugar and pure fat is going to keep you alive for a good little while. Secondly, you should look at nutritional value (its vit & min content, fiber, etc). Lastly, you consider things like taste and convenience. You have to decide, usually, "How much more am I willing to pay for things like nutritional value and taste?"

I am DEFINITELY not saying nutritional value is antithetical to cost. Dried beans are very nutritional AND very cheap!

I look at the TOTAL calorie content of a package. If it says 100 calories per serving and the package has 10 servings, then it's a 1,000 calorie purchase. My goal is to try and keep most stuff below $.20 / 100 calories. If 1,000 calories cost $.20/100calories, that's $2. You can figure it based on cost/1calorie, cost/10calories or cost/277calories. It's up to you, but I've found that calculating (in my head) cost per 100 calories is a good formula.

You may find meats are more like $.30/100calories and much, much higher.

Stay away from frozen dinners, for the most part. You can get some decent prices on cheap pizzas, but most tv dinners are a paltry 200-500 calories per box. It's not uncommon for a 300 calorie tv dinner to cost $2.50, which would be $.83/100calories!

Usually decent prices:
Non-instant Rice
Dried Beans
Store Brand Breads
Non-instant Grits (or at least not individually packaged)
Store brand milk (ok price when you consider protein and vit/min content)

Also, you can eat a lot more fat in your diet if you do just a little exercising. Sugar-filled, store brand items can be a good deal too, but I would limit those due to health concerns.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I have actually been looking into this quite seriously lately; someone in another thread here linked to LDS catalog I contacted the LDS Distribution center and they said that anyone can order the goods from them it is not limited to church members. Check the link, their prices are ALOT lower then the commercial sites.

I found out they have an LDS storehouse and cannery right here in my area. The prices are much lower without the shipping cost built in, for instance:

LDS Online - $30.50 per Case of (6) #10 cans of hard red winter wheat
Local Pickup (PREPACKAGED) - $18.30
Can yourself using their equipment (free) - $15.90

I emailed the guy at the local LDS storehouse, he emailed back very quickly and seemed eager to assist me with getting prepared.

Good luck, I think now more then ever we all need to take a good inventory of our food preps.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Mick , a person needs to be careful with this idea the grain from farm supply/feed store can be pretty dusty/dirty, the places I've checked around here have dirty grain not good at all compared to the nice grain I get from LDS , Waltons or Honneyville

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

TimC123, awesome info. Thanks a lot!!!

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

all this talk about grain got me thinking. It might be a good idea to stock up on anti-vermin goods. By vermin I mean rats and not people. ;)

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I guess that's simple to order, but it looks to me like I'd have very little of things I like and lots of things I'd never want to eat or be able to get the family to eat happily.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

With stuff like the Mountainhouse foods, if you calculate the calories, they don't last nearly
as long as the 3-month, 1 year etc. kits claim.

Also, you need to be careful because the sodium level will kill you.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

We have mostly beans and grains, freeze dried fruits, canned goods, and added a little Mt House to fill the Big Mac niche. To us it is barely food, but a change, and prepares easily.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Find what you eat for 1 week. Record everything

multiply the amounts by 52.

Personally I'd go for the cheap and easy stuff to stock away. In SHTF, you're not gonna be picky I can tell you that. Bags of rice, beans and pasta are a must. All of those are easy to cook.

You'll also want to start gardening and plant some fruit trees. Why bother spending thousands on food when you can grow your own. Seeing how shitty America's aggro business is you'll probably get better quality as well without all the industrial toxins they dump on the food.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

What is the calorie content/lb of unbleached wheat and typical wheat berries typically not noted on the packages?

S

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I've thought about that in my prep work also, but then I realize that if I end up needed it, I'll think I will just be happy that I have food.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Put together your own food supply from bulk distributors instead of paying out the nose for prepackaged #9 cans. You can fare quite well with Mason jars and Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. I'll post more info here a little later on what I've got in my stash, but I've saved a ton of money by buying everything individually from Walmart.

ALSO--VERY IMPORTANT--a lot of people are allergic to wheat and can't tolerate it in any amounts, and a lot of people have a wheat allergy but don't realize it. Go with different varieties of rice instead--nobody on the planet is known to have an allergy to rice.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I typed a pretty long post describing my 1-year supply of food but my browser went bonkers and lost it before I finished. To summarize, I figured I needed 5 6-gallon buckets of vacuum sealed (o2 absorber) rice/noodles (225 lbs) and also 225 lbs of canned vegies/meats for basic foods.

the canned foods can be rotated regularly to ensure freshness. They can last up to 15 years if stored away from the sun and extreme temperature changes.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese are absolutely essential.

Ramen noodles give you the cheapest cost per calorie of any food on this planet (except for that which you grow/hunt yourself).

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

If we've been eating whole wheat products for all our lives with no discernable ill affects, why in Heaven's name should I not store wheat berries, which last longer than nearly anything else? Just because "a lot of people are allergic to wheat?" If you're allergic to wheat, by all means don't eat it and don't store it. But if you're not allergic, why not have the variety in your food storage pantry?

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Here's a chart showing the recommended FEMA food storage guidelines, but as I stated above, since a lot of people have an allergy to wheat and don't know it, gluten-free grains such as rice would be much better to store. Nobody on Earth is known to be allergic to rice:

http://www.aaoobfoods.com/FEMAunits....0FEMA%20Family

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

There's plenty of variety available besides wheat, and since wheat allergies are so prevalent, even if YOU aren't allergic to wheat, what about other members of the family you might want to help? They'd be screwed if you had primarily wheat as your grain base. And what if you developed an allergy to wheat, which is certainly a possibility? It just makes sense to go with nonallergenic alternatives such as rice.

Food for thought: http://www.suvalblog.com/charity.html

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Well, I've personally voted to store both rice and wheat, as well as red beans, navy beans, black beans and pinto beans. I also have a more limited supply of rye, oats, amaranth, millet and barley. I don't currently have any recipes for baking a loaf of bread with rice, however. If you have any flat bread/cake recipes for rice, they'd be greatly appreciated. I'll check out your link.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I've checked out your link (and fixed it too.) I agree with its sentiment. I've always given generously to charitable causes and imagine that during a SHTF situation, I'd be no different. Most people who have food allergies are aware of them, at least if they're severe enough to be life threatening. I don't personally know anyone who is allergic to wheat, although I've known several people who are allergic to dairy products.

If I have food to share, I will share it; but I'm afraid I'll have to depend on recipients knowing about their own medical issues. I too much appreciate a good loaf of whole wheat bread to give it up just because TS has HTF and I can't buy a commercial loaf.

My real concern with famine situations is that, historically, they are not of short duration. When is the last time you heard of a 90-day famine or even one that lasted as short as one year. Biblically, famines lasted 5 or more years, yes? And whose food storage plans accommodate such an event? I doubt my ability to store enough food to survive an actual famine. The remedy must lie in community action, gardens and the like. It will take more than Christian charity to get us through the hard times that may be coming our way.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Good idea on the fruit trees. Also, consider a break-barrel pellet gun (Diana RWS Panther, Gamo Whisper, etc.) in .177 with a nice scope. Ammo is CHEAP and you can shoot squirrels, rabbits if needed to help supplement the protein. Plus the gun never needs a CO2 cartridge...you breaking the barrel powers the gun.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Check out this link for semi-dwarf fruit trees, about $25 for a 3-foot tree:

http://www.seedsofchange.com

Contact info:
Patti
Nature Hills Nursery
402-934-8116

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Lots lots good ideas here, I have been thinking today about how to quickly/cheaply get a years worth of preps or at least 6 moths.

After reading the LDS manual and various sights, it seems that (besides growing/hunting/canning you own) The local Shop & Save will just fine for bulk rice and pasta, dried and canned beans, canned fruits/vegies/meats etc.

$.50-$.60 a can for canned goods, pasta at most a $1 a pound, 10 pound bags of rice for $7, etc. Honeyville want's $65 + shipping for white rice , also screw the 1 year 3 moths or whatever emergency stuff, it is probably comparable to what prison inmates or school children are given.

I figure for 2 adults with our eating habits for year:

500lb Grains
200lb Legumes
200lb Fruits/Veggies Canned freeze dried whatever
100lb Meats

+ Whatever else Milk, Oil I think 10 quarts Oil, 16lb Milk/dairy, and some sugar would be a good start.

Basically the LDS manual modified a bit, i don't know why they are so heavy on grains, @400lb a person, but so low on meats @20lb or even none a person. But my numbers are basically arbitrary I'll keep track and play it by ear, I just feel that I would rather eat more beans/veggies/meats than grains, which @ 500lb for 2 there should be plenty of.

Make sure you like what your buying too, I pretty regularly eat some of my preps, but I am always accumulating more. It also gets you in the habit of naturally rotating your stock.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Is this something they have in the isles (if so which one) or is it something they must order?

Thanks,
RK

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Don't know if they keep it on the shelf, but you can order it online.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...se=&lang=en-US

Don't keep all your eggs in one basket...
 

My first step was freeze dried. But I wouldn't base your whole food stash on it.

After buying a fair bit of freeze dry I moved over to what I call bulk dry. The 5 gallon pail/mylar thing. My oxy absorbers came in 20 packs so I always did 7 pails at a time (well- 7,7,6). Rice, beans, potato dehy, you name it. I'm not even sure what I've got, but it's all labelled.

My next phase was cans. Ooodles of cans. Veggies, soups, pastas, fruits, anything you can think of. Sale comes up on an item- fill the cart with that item. Yeah, literally. ;)

I am still doing cans as the sales pop up, but am shifting my focus to dehydrating. Veggies, fruits, whatever fits in the machine. My dehydrator should arrive any minute now...

If I were forced to have a point: mix things up. Try it all. Have some fun along the way. A food storage with variety should add smiles.

All jmo.

http://www.kirkhams.org/Canned%20Foo...e%206-1-06.pdf

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

potato dehy .......... were a good place to order some

Re: Don't keep all your eggs in one basket...
 

In survival situations, when you're stressed-out, exhausted and beaten down, convenience food ala Mountain House, would be invaluable.

Yes, and you can actually cook from scratch with this stuff. Probably your best value. But you have to have time, energy and enthusiasm to turn these types of preps into meals.

What I like to think of as comfort food. A variation on the Mountain House freeze dried, but even better.

Light weight and takes up little space. If you combine your dehydrated fruits and veggie preps into your "bulk dry" meals, you can almost eat normally.

You got it absolutely right in this post, Hugo Chavez. Kudos!

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

If you have your own dehydrator, potatoes are absolutely the easiest things in the world to do. Dice 'em, slice 'em, blanch 'em and then dry them out. Vacuum seal them in jars (without O2 absorbers for use within a year or two or with O2 absorbers for long-term storage) and you have a product that is every bit as good as anything Betty Crocker ever sold on the grocery store shelf.

I have a bunch of last year's Yukon Golds in the basement that are trying to sprout right now. Some of them I'll save for garden potato seed for the end of March. The rest are going to be either pressure canned (comfort/convenience food) or diced and dehydrated--haven't made up my mind just yet.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I got a Huge bag (I think it was 50 lbs, but could have been 25#) at Honeyville. They had slices and chuncks. Not sure if its on the web site, I was in the store and saw them.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I get mine locally.

Dehy plant 1 hour away. 25 kilos for $35.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...cture006-1.jpg

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

can you buy by phone are off the internet

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I don't know. Website: http://www.agristarinc.com/whoisagristar.htm

If I can help let me know.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Whatever you decide to store, don't forget the condiments and spices to keep it interesting. With a good collection of spices, beans and rice can becooked in so many different ways that "food fatigue" never becomes an issue for your family.

Watch your exp. dates on soups, tomato products and other canned goods. Yes, the food will still be edible after the date, but if you are eating and rotating your food, you should never find yourself staring at cases of old food.

The one year packs aren't perfect, but they do cover a lot of bases all at once and give you a good foundation to build from.

When you see amazing sales on items you eat regularly, buy as much as you can possibly afford or carry. Chances are, you aren't going to find it cheaper and by the time you're almost out the item will go on sale again... it's an art to get it down to a science, but I can tell you that I very seldom ever buy anything at full retail price any more.

Do not buy a lot of food you are unfamiliar with eating or preparing or something that just seems like a good idea for convenience. I'd rather drink gasoline than have a never ending supply of something like Ramen noodles or Mountain House. Though the MH products are yummy every now and then, I sure wouldn't want my entire pantry to be only MH products. And before you buy a case of MH Beef Stroganoff or breakfast eggs, buy a pouch online or at REI and actually TRY IT. I love the Stroganoff, but the eggs suck to me.

The best food storage info on the internet: http://athagan.members.atlantic.net/Index.html

For large grain orders, www.waltonfeed.com is still the best. I think AAOOB.com ships from Walton's warehouse, too, and the AAOOB.com folks are good peeps. http://www.bobsredmill.com/home.php is da bomb for rice and bean variety in 25lb bags.

Bookmark all of the links in this thread and watch each site for their sales. When cases of milk are on sale, buy the milk.

Freeze dried fruits are GOOD right out of the can. We take them on trips as snacks and to make smoothies.

Want really healthy breakfast stuff: http://www.ama-ama-products.com/

Try to keep track of what you are buying so you know at any given time what you are still lacking. And don't forget to research how to store everything properly so you don't open up your food stores and find them full of bugs or mold. Put a vacuum sealer, grain mill, and dehydrator on your list.


Most of all, don't get overwhelmed. Take a deep breath and just find your starting place.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I am like paranoid about stored food supplies going bad. Have a couple 100 # rice in mylar, a few bags, I guess oxy absorbers were bad, only partial 'shrink up' so have to re-do. On a bag like that, I take it is not oxygen free, and can breath, can it get moldy, over time? Trying to figure out how to do most my storage in mylar. Can dry cerials, like cherrios etc, last long time in mylar? Is putting 5# bags of flour, already ground and ready to use, not going to last? Have 5 large boxes instant mash potatoes, have not mylared yet, will they last? In other words, my life is very busy and am trying to make preps, long term, mostly by buying bulk from local supermarket and storing.(just bought 96 cans campbells select, on sale 8 for $10.00) 1 full cart, girl at register was like , wtf? Can an item like bisquick go bad, in mylar with oxyabsorbers, due to some of its added ingrediants? If buying instant milk, in a can, is it good like that long term? If I got dried fruit packs at local store, that had 1 yr exp date, and mylared w/ oxy absorbers, will it last longer? Seems like most on this board are ordering online, vs going to local store and stocking up. Yes, I know some preps are better than none, but I would like to not make mistakes if it is a food supply that my family and I will need to use. (BTW, had some canned beef stew last night, to try out, not as good as home made, but good price on 1 1/2 # can and 3 yr shelf life to boot) I know yeast can go bad over short period of time, so are most learning to make bread w/o?:signs14:

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Also, could a manual coffee grinder be also used for wheat berries? I have found a few on fleabay at a descent price, and figure that coffee can be ground real fine, so would come down to seperating chafe from kernal and grinding that??

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Does this include the season mix that comes with? I thought that was loaded with MSG?

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Assuming that you may not have a large (years' worth) supply of meat should TSHTF (unless you have a lot of money for this!), you should plan on having plenty of beans and other non-meat sources of protein stored. Also, consider raising chickens for eggs and meat.

I would highly recommend that you read Barry Sears' book, "The Anti-Inflammation Zone". It was a huge eye-opener for me, and it reminded me how harmful eating flour, pasta, potatoes, rice & processed carbs is. Just cutting out those items from my diet has made a significant difference in my health, and I regret that I wasn't aware of this issue when I purchased large amounts of storage rice, pasta, freeze-dried potatoes, etc. Do yourself a favor and at least read that book before you make your final decisions about what you plan to store.

Don't forget to store plenty of garden seeds packed for long-term storage. Search the GIM threads for some useful discussions on that topic.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Wow...lots of questions!

Here's my answers, for what they're worth:
Paranoia re: food stores going bad is a good thing. You've got to make sure that you "do things right." By this, I mean package it properly, then store it properly after packaging.

About your rice in mylar bags that only partially shrunk up - NOTE that the oxy absorbers will only react with oxygen sealed in the pouches, NOT with the nitrogen (& a wee bit of argon) gas. Oxygen is 21% of air, nitrogen/argon is the remaining 79%. The mylar pouches should "suck in" somewhat, but not as much as pulling a hard vacuum on the pouch with a good vacuum sealer. When sealing mylar bags containing oxy absorbers, try to push out as much of the air as possible before sealing - that seems to help it "shrink up" more.

Dry cereals, packed in mylar + oxy absorbers, should last longer than boxes left sitting around in the original packaging. Rather than mylar packing everything (especially bulky, light weight things like cheerios), consider just buying a 6-12 month supply, then rotating through your preps as you use them on a routine basis.

Flour (all purpose, NOT WHOLE GRAIN) should last a year or so in the original paper bag. Rotate through your stores. Watch out for beetles/moths/bugs, though. Yes, stashing it in mylar with oxy absorbers should extend the shelf life. Whole wheat flour almost demands oxy absorbers/refrigeration to extend the shelf life.

Re: Mashed potatoes....I guess the shelf life depends on the oil content (butter flavoring...). I bought my dried mashed potato flakes at GFS (Gordon Food Services), then packed it in mylar with oxy absorbers. Couldn't hurt!

Repacking dried fruit in mylar with oxy absorbers should help shelf life.

PLEASE NOTE that anything packaged in mylar is best stashed in some sort of hard wall container (like a 5 gal pail). Otherwise, bugs & mice & such can easily chew through the mylar to get at the contents.

As to yeast, I've got a couple 1# bags stashed with the other preps, but keep a 1# bag in a ziploc bag in a freezer. I just finished off the bag of yeast that "expired" a few years ago. If all else fails, use sourdough.

As to Bisquick, if it contains baking powder as an ingredient (which it might), those ingredients could react with the oxy absorber. No biggie - you'd just need to add some baking powder when using it. I believe the LDS church has stopped recommending the use of oxy absorbers with mixes containing baking powder for this very reason. I'd still probably do it (to prevent oils going rancid), but would just plan on adding baking powder when the mix is used.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I sort of doubt it (but DO NOT know for sure). Coffee grinders usually generate coarser chunks, not fine particles (like flour). It would be better than nothing, but not as good as a real wheat grinder/mill. You could make wheat cakes from the stuff you have ground, but it would probably not rise as well as "real" flour.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I've never heard that before. I packed some quarts of baking soda last night with O2 absorbers. Are the O2 absorbers going to ruin the baking soda's ability to rise?

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

we had a big debate over this last year. From what I understand oxygen absorbers can still be doing their job even if the bag isnt sucked in..

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Just to make sure we're talking about the same stuff here...my post was about not using oxy absorbers with baking POWDER, not baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). I think I first saw mention of the problem of oxy absorbers reacting with baking powder on a LDS website somewhere. I think they used to pack pancake mix with oxy absorbers, but stopped doing this since things were apparently reacting.

Googling "oxygen absorber" "baking powder" gave this hit:

http://www.waltonfeed.com/old/grain/life.html

About 40% of the way down that document, it says :
Bulging cans: Some bulging cans have been returned to Waltons. In almost every case, these cans held mixes that contained baking powder or soda. It is believed that occasionally the extremely small amount of moisture found in the product interacts over time with the baking powder or soda and creates a small amount of carbon dioxide gas. Oxyten absorbers can also react with the baking powder causing the cans to buldge. These cans have been sent off for bacteria analysis and and in each case came back negative.

There's really no need to use oxy absorbers when storing baking soda, baking powder, sugar, or salt. Oxygen doesn't react with those things in storage.

I don't know if oxy absorbers will react with baking soda. Safest thing would probably be to remove the oxy absorbers & reseal your bags.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

So why not put the things that Might react to a Oxy Absorber in a canning jar and use the lid air sucker on it?

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

That would probably work. For now, I just seal moisture sensitive things in regular nylon/LDPE vacuum bags. I just ordered a lid sealer off Fleabay a couple days ago.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

We only buy what we eat, typically stockpile 3-6 months at a time, depends on what time you ask us as to how much we have, go 2x a year typically to resupply. We did the butcher, cheaper than store bought meat, and big freezer. We do lots of canned goods from Aldi's, discount, flour tortillos don't take up as much space in your freezer as bread does, and will work when you don't have the space to stockpile bread; canned fruit lasts a long time as well. We keep ours basic, meat, canned veggies, canned fruit, oils, spices, some herbs/vitamins, honey, oatmeal, cake mixes, pasta (mice don't like the plain pasta), jars of spagetti sauce, cans of beans (mice do like the romen noodles and cups of soup), cleaning supplies, again, keep it to the few basics, garbage bags, personal products, again, the only thing I stress, is to make a list of what you actually use, and will eat and just figure out how much per day and then buy accordingly only those things with a long shelf life (1-2 years). Peanut butter, jelly does good, anything canned or frozen, the dry goods last a long time too providing the bugs/mice don't get into them (we put them in plastic ziplock bags, so far that has deterred them for the MOST part, we always lose a few, but count on losing some of the food for one reason or another. Also, that don't eat frozen meat after 6 months is hogwash, we've eaten it, just spice it up a bit more :) Oh, also, velvetta cheese, you can freeze without losing flavor, the other stuff, uhhh depends. You can freeze scrambled eggs too in ziplock baggies. Ziplock baggies are your friend for the freezer and drygoods :) You don't have to go hogwild on the expensive equipment if you're only freezing for 6 months or so at a time, but we have one of those seal machines, the problem is, the bag replacements for it are expensive. If you have one, use it for the stuff you really need to use it for, don't waste the bags on stuff you can freeze with just ziplock bags, which is really a lot.
Freezer burn is overrated.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I agree about freezer burn being overrated! I *used* to have freezer burn problems in the past... not anymore. My *secret*???

This past Spring and early Summer, I bought a bunch of pork loins and tenderloins (the store was giving the away.. dirt cheap!!!) that I cut into 1-1/2 - 2 inch slabs. Stuck them in Ziplock freezer bags (one per bag), and MADE SURE TO SQUEEZE OUT AS MUCH AIR AS I COULD BEFORE I RAN MY FINGERS ALONG THE SEAL. THE RESULT?

These past couple of weeks, I've pulled out some pork-loin-chops, as well as a tenderloin-filet-mignon to eat... they were over 6 months old: broiled up perfectly!!!! No freezer burn! Soft as butter... savory... and after 6+ months in the freezer, no worries about trichinosis or any other bugs... :565: so I could prep/eat the pork chops PINK and the filet-mignon BLOOD RARE!!!

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

Pump n Seal pulls a 28+ inches of Hg vacuum and comes with an attachment that works with ordinary zip lock bags. Of course, the bags have to be in excellent condition. But if you can suck all the air out of an ordinary zip lock, bye bye freezer burn!

By the way, my only objection to Pump n Seal use on canning jars, is that there is still air remaining in the jar that is 20% O2; as good as it is, Pump n Seal does not create a perfect vacuum in jars. A perfect vacuum would be 30 inches Hg. The use of properly sized O2 absorbers is inherently superior to Pump n Seal alone.

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

or how about this one in the pretty colors..

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...746&lang=en-US

Re: How to pick a 1 year food supply?
 

I'm pretty new to this forum. So far I haven't seen anything in this thread about The Ready Store. Anybody have any comments or experience with their quality of freeze dried food?

http://www.thereadystore.com/