Week 18 Food Storage Challenge

 

6 Pounds Shortening / Cheese


6 Pounds shortening, oil or lard I use lard and olive oil to cook with since it is better for you then the hydrogenated shortenings. I do keep a little shortening and vegetable oil on hand. I use the oil in a spray bottle to spray the bottom of pans. The shortening I use in soap. As with everything be sure to rotate. If you plan to make your own soaps you might want to try and get a little extra.
Shortening does have a very long shelf life if keep unopened and in a cool place. I also have lard and tallow canned which extends the self-life. As with everything be sure to rotate.


Cheese we eat a lot of cheese, I try to buy on sale and keep in the freezer I get the shredded, because when you freeze block cheese it will fall apart when you thaw it out. You may want to get some cheese powder I have two different kinds and really don’t care for either one of them so I don’t know if I am just picky or if I just haven’t found a good one, the kids like them so maybe it is just me.

I make most of our soft cheese like, cream cheese, mozzarella, and cottage cheese.
You can also wax some cheese and store in a cool place. The only problem with this is if there is even a pin size hole it will get very moldy, and it does get sharper as it ages. I tried this and didn't care for it. I haven't using a food saver on block cheese plan to try this soon and see if it would work better than the wax.

The Action item this month is learning to cook from scratch if you don't already. It is so much cheaper and healthier.

The extra item this month is alterative lighting. Oil lamps are very affordable and you can use Kerosene which is less than ten dollars a gallon and keeps for a very long time. You will go through batteries in your flashlight pretty quickly so be sure to have lots of candles, oil lamps maybe even some solar powered lights and other light sources.

Put back some more water.

Add more money to your money stash.