So my ward RS is freaking out about food storage and ordering things from the Cannery. They've been talking about storing wheat... and beans and rice... There was also an article about food rationing, citing Costco running out of rice and rationing it in the Bay Area. This one I paid attention to because my last two trips to Costco for Jasmine Rice yielded only a sight of empty pallets. They only had Basmati rice... I think I still have that sitting in my pantry.
Anyway - my question is - have you ordered from the Cannery? If you have - what did you order and how do you use this stuff? I'm having a hard time trying to figure it all out because I like to eat fresh, whole food types of stuff. However, in an emergency situation - it's all about sustenance and to hell with health. So... I don't know exactly what to do. My hubby suggested we get some of those cup o'noodle ramen stuff...and I balked. But he's right, in an emergency we'll eat anything. What am I going to do with oats, wheat, dry milk? What about black beans? Other than... produce flatulence?
What do food snobs do when the economy or food supply goes south?
So... can't wait for your experience, advice... quirky comments. Thanks.
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We recently had an Enrichment night about food storage. I've made the mistake of buying stuff that I guess if I were desperate I would eat (pink beans, for example), but I can't see myself rotating because I won't eat them if I'm not desperate. They said a great thing to do is store 3 months of what you normally eat (that can store for at least that long). So when you go to the store, buy double of what you are getting. Obviously you can't buy fresh fruits and veggies, but get what you can. The cannery is good for things like flour, rice, dry milk (we don't drink milk, so I use it for cooking), and things you'd think you'd eat in "bad times" and could rotate - macaroni, pudding, whatever it is. The wet pack stuff at the cannery is great too - salsa, spaghetti sauce, pie filling, applesauce, etc. There is a website called shelfreliance.com that is supposed to be great, I still need to look into it. Other places besides the cannery have great things for food storage. The providentliving.org church site has a lot of info too. The lady who did our RS night said her handbook is "Making the Best of Basics" that you can get on Amazon for $15. Our ward borrows the cannery's sealer every other month so we can can whatever we want. (I heard of a lady that canned M&M's for comfort food). You could find out if your ward could do that and you can get stuff you like to eat canned. I'm still learning about this stuff and figuring out what we want...I think you have to look into it and find out what works best for your family. There are options out there. Hope that helps with something!
I posted some recipes for wheat on the SSS blog, and we use a lot of it--we LOVE cracked wheat for cereal and wheat berries in sauces instead of meat.
The cannery also has phenomenal refried beans. And the dried apples are killer for the kids to munch on. I use the pudding every now and then, and have some dried beans on hand because we eat a lot of beans and rice. We also have MREs from the Army that we use for our emergency 2 weeks.
I have been all cannery happy lately- got the last of the white wheat last weekend! I grind my wheat and bake my own bread. The cannery has a cookbook with some decent suggestions. We eat lots of oatmeal, so I bought a lot of oats too...and of course rice and beans. That's for my long-term storage. You should really focus on your 3 months of "foods you eat everyday". The church started that program about a year ago--3 months first, then do long term.
I have a food storage plan for the 3 months that has you buy one item a week along with your normal groceries. It's good because it's stuff you eat all the time, and tells you to buy what you like. I've been using it for 8 years, and I just rotate the items. I'll email it to yuo.
My mom had some book on how to use your wheat supply. I say invest in some literature. Beans can be doctored up very nicely. Chili, southwest black bean salad, etc. Like Cabesh said, get what you normally eat, and when the time comes to rotate it, spruce it up with your fresh veggies and fruits.
We stock up on beans, lentils, rice, pasta, flour, water, sugar and canned tomatoes, corn, peaches, etc. It won't be as wholesome as the fresh stuff, but it will be better than no fruits or veggies at all. Canned soups are good too, and you can make tomato soup into taco soup very quickly. Oh and some dried fruit too, we have like 2 or three bags of prunes, raisins, and something else in rotation most of the time.
Dunno, that is how we do it. Hope it is a bit helpful, and thanks for reminding me I need to get off of my butt and do some extra purchasing.
Thank you ladies. This is helpful.
Question about the wheat - do I need a wheat... um whatchamacallit...grinder doo-hickey? I'm so not a pioneer mormon house-wifery gal.
Cabesh - LOVE that list - exactly what I need to help me - a list to tell me what to do. ;-) I'm cleaning out my pantry this weekend and reorganizing.
How do you eat Asian with food storage?
Yes, you need a wheat grinder. I believe Kitchen Aid has an attachment if you have one of those Kitchen Aid mixer stands.
What is food storage like in Asian countries? Do they have different guidelines from the church? I wonder...
Oh, and I'd love a copy of that list from cabesh if you don't mind emailing it to me. Thanks!
We are currently in crisis right now because we have eaten our entire Y2K stock-up of potato pearls. Oy vey!
Seriously--I am stocked up on oats, flour and sugar because I intend to make cookies. Rice and beans so I can make soup. And a bit of hot chocolate and pudding (although that's been a disappointment). We inherited our neighbor's 20-year-old wheat which will do in a pinch (I need to check out La Yen's recipes). And in completely unrelated-to-the-cannery news, we can eat our pigeons and our rabbit as soon as all the venison in the freezer is gone or gone bad.
Oh, and I have a year's supply of Midnight Pomegranate body cream from Bath & Body Works. It smells good enough to eat, does that count?
Here they tell us to stock up on a ton more rice than suggested in the US, big things of soy sauce, sesame seed oil. I'll see if I can dig out that list that I got from RS when I first moved here.
Oh soy, red beans, etc. are in abundance on that list. tofu is actually pretty easy to make once you get to the soymilk stage. I'll poke around and see what I can find. I don't know where to find powdered milk here, so we're going to stock up big time on soy milk.
I'll hook you up!
Can't wait to get that Asian food list too. ;-)
We've been working on getting extra of whatever we eat all the time--which definitely doesnt include most of the stuff one finds at the cannery! If you can't stand the fact that all the canned fruit is loaded with sugar--go to your local grocery and find fruit-juice only sweetened fruit. Store 100% juices--stock up on the ingredients you would need to make your own gyoza wraps and freeze pork. You may want to invest in more freezer room if it will help. Store roots like ginger and switch them out as you go along. We buy lots of our favorite dried foods too such as mulberries and reeze-dried blueberries. Most brands have websites now, and you can order in bulk from them instead of doing it at the grocer.
We also eat a lot of fresh, so that is our main worry. Square-foot gardening has REALLY helped me to relax about that, since we can produce as much as we will need year round--almost guaranteed (minus truly catastrophic events) :). Grow your own asian produce. Huge amounts of food, with little to no labor is great! It's all in the set-up. And it's perfect for growing in a small area such as a patio or porch, or a small portion of a backyard. My kids have absolutely loved being a part of it, too. It's so easy and fun for everyone. For more info--visit www.squarefootgardening.com and read all the articles. It really has helped to alleviate some of the worry in that regard. Plus, it's all organic!
Hey, Queen. I don't know if you're checking your comments this far back, but I just bought a book that you might find helpful. "Emergency Food in a Nutshell." I got it at Deseret Book in the cookbook section. It's pretty low-budget (looks like it was printed at Kinko's), but lays out the basics in a way that made sense to me. Also, tons of recipes. (But have I tried them yet??? No.) I also like lurking around on beprepared.com (Emergency Essentials' website). They have a bunch of stuff that doesn't exist at the cannery---freeze dried strawberries, chicken, taco meat, etc. A group from our ward orders every month and gets free shipping. A friend in my ward emailed me a spreadsheet to keep track of everything and it's freaking AWESOME. Let me know if you want me to email it to you. And ditto on the gardening comments...I hope to somehow make that work in this inferno we call Phoenix.
C.Wilson - great ideas... I need to take a look at that gardening thing too... never been much of an outdoors gal - but I suppose I need to try.
silvergirl - good idea on the book...I'd love to see your chart too.
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