Thursday, January 3, 2013

Self Sustaining Pantry week 5 and a Food Storage Challenge


I am adding something new to the self sufficient pantry for the new year. A food storage challenge are you prepared for an emergency ( a natural disaster, job layoff economic collapse or the rising cost of food) ? People have insurance for there homes cars, medical and life so why not have food insurance. There is a misconception that food storage has to an expensive thing to do. This is not true you do not have to buy all the freeze dried and foods specialty made for food storage these things are expensive and in a crises event you are not going to be wanting to introduce new foods you want food that your family are comfortable with.

I started to do this last year but was not happy with the list I had so I have done some more research and work on the list. I will try to hold the cost down to 20 dollars a week. For some this may even be difficult so I will add some hints to help with the cost. This list is for a family of four.

One thing to remember is to store what you eat and eat what you store. This way you are rotating your food storage and getting use to eating and cooking with some of the new food you may have in your storage.

To keep some of the cost down you need to learn to cook from scratch in hard times you will not be able to buy the easy foods. It really isn’t that hard to make most things from scratch and they are so much better for you.

There will be 2 weekly food items If money is real tight at least get the first item on the list it will be the bare bones of what you need the second item is needed as not absolutely necessary it will make for more of a variety

Then every month I will add an action item something that you should do to help in some emergency situations . These things I will also be doing I am no where near where I need to be on some of these things.

Then once a month there will be an item that if at all possible you should get because they will be very helpful in hard times.

I will post the entire list a littler latter on so if you find something on sale that week you can get it instead. I am going to try and brake this down in to three months if you do this for three months then you will have three months of food storage. As I said the first item is the bare bones and will be repeated every three months the second item will be different. I am trying to think of everything but if there is something not on the list that your family uses add it as you can.
Buy store brands they are a lot cheaper and most of the time just as good.

Week one is 6 pounds of salt / 10 pounds of dry beans.

I buy my salt at the farm store 50 pounds for about ten dollars it isn’t iodized but we take additional iodine pills. You can get this salt to use in preserving foods (canning ) and get the iodized salt for the table.

Get the beans that your family likes best we eat a lot of pinto beans so that is what we have the most of plus I can can them and make refried beans with them

The action item this two weeks is 72 hour kits as I said these are things I also need to do so I will be doing a post on putting these together in the next few days ( once I get it figured all out)

This months item to get is a wheat grinder. I have a hand grinder that I bought new for about 70 dollars. You might be able to find a used one for a little cheaper.




Now for this weeks self sufficient pantry

With the holidays I didn’t get much, I did get 2 boxes of oranges,2 boxes of lemons, ½ a box tangerines and ½ box of grapefruit’s ( I only got a ½ box because I still have some jars of grapefruit left from last year) the girls FFA class sells fruit every year as a fund raiser so I buy all my fruit then I will juice it , can it and dry some. I will not have to buy any of this for the rest of the year. I probably didn’t get these a the best price but it will mean coming up with less money when they get ready to go to the national stock show in Denver.

I did pick up some wrapping paper four half price I got three rolls and hopefully they will mark it down more a little latter then I will pick up a few more rolls. I try to get a few of them that are a solid color or not to Christmas looking then I can use it during the year on other gifts.

Don't forget to get things you will need for Christmas next year now while they are on clearance sale.

Found Corn Syrup for 1.99 for 32 oz I bought 6, I use it in cough drops, candy and carmel corn.

We ordered two hives of bees that will be delivered around march.

I didn’t get any canning done some I am getting a little behind. This next week I will try to get all the fruit taken care of ( they don’t keep to long)and if I have time I will work on the onions and potatoes.

So What did you do this past couple weeks toward a self sufficient pantry.

 

 

22 comments:

  1. I put tomatoes and kale (separately), that I dehydrated, into mylar bags with oxygen absorbers for long term storage. I also purchased a bunch of medicinal herbs in preparation for making tinctures and salves for this coming year. Thanks for your blog. I really enjoy it! Elle

    www.aviewfromthecottage.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elle, How do you like the mylar bags? I have not ever used any do you have to use the oxgen absorbers with them?
      Connie

      Delete
  2. Connie,

    Had a job layoff a couple of years before the planned retirement date, and I'm trying for a big budget slash instead of returning to cubicle life. So far, I've knocked off nearly 40%, and I keep thinking of new things to try. Lately though, food storage has been on my mind, so I've been blowing the food budget to build a little stockpile.

    Recently bought 4# bulk sea salt, 4# kosher salt, 3# canning/pickling salt. Dehydrated onions (inspired by you). Have stocked up some TP, canned items, and non-perishables when I catch them on sale. Have a little 10-day car survival pack about 70% ready. This contains way more convenience foods than I would normally eat, but I'm OK with that. Have just a couple of items for a 72-hour bag, so can't wait to see your list.

    brenda from ar

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brenda, So Sorry about the layoff. It is nice to beable to stay home though, if at all possible. There are so many things you can do to save.
      I am so glad you are thinking about food storage I think it is auch an important thing to have even if a small one, ever little bit helps.
      I think some convenience foods almost have to be used in the car kits and 72 hour kits just beacause of how they are packaged.
      Connie

      Delete
  3. I ground up 5 lbs of moose meat and made breakfast sausage. I have a quart of buffalo berry juice in the fridge and will be making jelly this weekend. I put up 6 bottles of wine. That is about all for December.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bonnie, How does moose meat taste? Have never had any there are not many moose here but have always wondered how it taste.
      Connie

      Delete
  4. I canned 5 qts of chicken breast and would like to do something with the remaining 20# of lemons I have. I will probably juice some, but was thinking of making candied lemon peels.

    Thank you so much for the challenge. I am new to your blog, so I will be looking back over the previous posts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So glad you stopped by. I can most of my lemon juice to use through out the year. And candied lemon peels to go with my candied orange peels.
      Connie

      Delete
    2. You could also dry some zest. And IT love to make Lemon Cello

      Delete
  5. This past week, I canned 16 pts of split pea soup, 18-1/2 pts pinto beans seasoned and ready to make refried beans and the week before I cooked the turkey bones from Christmas and canned 7 qts. of broth. I recently bought 6# real salt but need to increase my canning salt. I also purchased 25# of pinto beans two days ago. Thank you for reminding me about salt and I am looking forward to your list and increasing our food/non-food storage. Teri

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Teri, Sounds like you have been busy. So glad you are increasing your food storage I think it will come in handy in the future.
      Connie

      Delete
  6. I was gifted with 7 turkey carcasses from a church dinner and made and canned 21 quarts of good stock. Potatoes were on sale for $.99 for 10 lbs so I bought 50 lbs and canned them. Also used the leftovers from the turkeys and canned up 14 half pints of a turkey veggie mix that could be used to stretch the dry dog food.

    Yes we prep for our dogs as well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm impressed with the dog food stretcher. What vegetables go into it? My little Du dog has eaten potatoes and green beans before. Thanks.

      brenda from ar

      Delete
    2. It sounds like something you could feed your family in a pinch as well.

      Delete
    3. Kim, I would love to know how you do you veggie mix for the dogs I have been wanting to prep for the dogs also somthing to stretch the dog food.
      Connie

      Delete
  7. I just found you for the first time (from the Barn Hop I believe) and love your post and blog! I'm definitely subscribing.

    I love how you are breaking it up into weekly "assignments". Makes it seem so do-able.

    Also, awesome tip about getting bulk salt at the farm store. Would this store be like a feed store, or more like a "farm kitchen" store? We have feed stores but I don't know if they'd have it. What would this salt be called? Is it regular canning salt just in huge bags? Or something else? I'm in Canada and don't know if our Buckerfields would have whatever this is, but I'd love to try. THanks for any help with this!

    Sincerely
    Natalia
    http://preputilityvehicle.blogspot.ca/ (Where I post free prepping/DIY/homestead etc. e-books every day, if you're interested at all.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Natalia,
      Thanks for stopping by,
      I was hoping that doing it weekly would make it seem a little easier and not so daunting I know when you first start it looks a little overwhelming.
      I get my salt at the feed store it has the consistency of canning salt and I use it for everything
      I pour all mine up in buckets and don't Remember the name and brand I will check when I go to town tomorrow and let you know
      Can't wait to check out your blog.
      Connie

      Delete
    2. Natalia,
      I found the name of that salt it is Morton Kiln Dried Stock Salt 50 pounds for 5.59 thats 12 cents a pound We have been using this salt for several years now.
      Connie

      Delete
  8. Oops, it was at Clever Chicks I found you. But the Barn Hop would be perfect too if you don't already post there. (http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/01/homestead-barn-hop-93.html)

    Natalia

    ReplyDelete
  9. You go girl! Thanks for sharing this on Wildcrafting Wednesday! Can't wait to see what you link next week :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Every self storage facility has its own website. We can get good information from these. Which are your favorite storage facilities providers?
    self storage websites

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave a message or comment. Love to hear from you.