Pantries and Preparedness with Glenda. Making things last as long as possible.

This week Glenda is adding some information that will help with making stored food last much longer. I hope you find her tips as helpful as I do.  I note that many times it is a combination of things that work to maximise shelf life.  I am learning a lot in this area as it is my first year of really needing to rotate goods on a large scale.  Food is expensive and also a major asset so this is really important information.


Over to Glenda...

   There are a few more things, along the way, I would like to share with you about preparedness, so I hope you don't mind it coming in a little at a time :).

   Basic storage has always been a primary goal for us. If we needed three days, three months, or a year or more, we needed to consider what foods we could survive on and how to store them long term. Grains, Beans, Pasta, dehydrated vegetables and fruits, sugar, salt, and sourdough all have a lifespan of over thirty years, if properly stored. The biggest enemies of food are: light, heat, and air. 

   Some people put their food and emergency stores in a garage, but this is unwise, unless it is temperature controlled. Most garages, especially in the U.S., are hot in summer and cold in winter. The temperature extremes will affect the quality of the food, herbs, or medicines. It is best to keep a stable temperature year around. Dark, temperatures between 50 to 60 degree F, and lack of oxygen will keep foods fresh and usable for a very long time.

   I mentioned dehydrated foods as a long term storage item. This is true if the moisture has been thoroughly removed and the items are vacuum sealed once dehydrated. I have found that just putting them in jars will work for several years, but they do dry out more and some become too hard and tasteless to use. It's a learning process over the years. 

   When we started buying in bulk, eating healthy, grinding our own grains, and baking and cooking from scratch, almost four decades ago, we did not have the internet or all of the sources people have now to help them prevent mistakes. Having said all of that, I still believe each family has to see what works for them in their own environment and situation. We live in a dry climate that is not bothered by mold, bugs, or dampness. If we lived in S.C., where my mother was from, we would have another set of conditions to consider when storing food.

    Grains and a grain grinder will supply wheat (or similar grain) for baking all forms of muffins, breads, cakes, etc. Salt, sugar, water, powdered milk, and powdered eggs are all that are necessary for most breads. The spices add a lot of flavor, but again last a very long time if sealed properly. Everything I have mentioned here are very long term storage items; most thirty years or indefinitely. White Flour, at the most, stores one to two years with oxygen absorbers and stored properly. The bran and germ have been removed from white flour and unless it states unbleached it has been chemically bleached. The health issues with white flour can be found on a search on the internet.

   The LDS website is a good source to find shelf-life lists of foods. There are other sources also, but the LDS calculator is on the internet for anyone to use as a guideline for food storage.

    According to their list: Wheat, Corn, White rice, sugar, some beans, oats (I consider this under grains when I speak of grains), pasta, dehydrated potato flakes (easy to make at home), dehydrated apples slices, powdered milk, and some dehydrated vegetables will last 30 years or more. 

   To make dehydrated powdered potato flakes, we buy organic potatoes because potatoes are highly pesticide contaminated in the U.S. Peel, slice, and blanch the potatoes for about three minutes in boiling water. I like to use a steamer because it eliminates the potatoes from being submerged and it is easier to transfer them to the ice water. Immediately plunge them in ice water to stop the blanching process. We lay them out on either paper towels or dish towels  and dry the slices as much as possible without breaking them. Then we place them on the dehydrator trays and turn it on. After they are thoroughly dried, we leave them in a pan and once a day stir them gently to make sure they continue to air dry for two days. If we want slices we vacuum seal them in canning jars and put them in the food storage room. If we want powdered potato flakes, we grind them in the Cuisinart until they are like powder and then vacuum seal them in canning jars and store them in the food storage room. We always label the jars with item name and date we sealed it.

   There are some tips when sealing powders in canning jars in order to not plug up the tubing to the vacuum sealer. Make sure that the canning jar is only about 1/2 to 2/3 full, depending on how fine the powder. I usually shoot for 2/3 full, but have had that not work at times with powders. It's important to make sure the rim is really clean, just like in canning. 

   I vacuum seal spices, herbs, and medicinal herbs. I opened some basil I grew three years ago and dried, then sealed, and it smelled  and tasted as fresh as the day I dried it.

    Lavender for soaps, room fresheners, and other uses is wonderful and fresh smelling for years when vacuum sealed in canning jars. We try to grow a lot of lavender and culinary herbs during the summer. 

Next time we are going to cover my least favourite subject which is being prepared if you have to evacuate your home.

Glenda also mentioned that having seeds to sprout is a good idea as sprouts are power houses of nutrition and I really hope we will have a post on this subject coming up. 

Another consideration is getting the best value for money in the food we are storing. Glenda costs out how much things are in various sized packs. Here she showed me how she buys cheese in bulk and freezes it.

I mentioned above that often there are a combination of steps that maximise shelf life. Here Glenda is vacuum sealing butter to go into the freezer... (after being purchased on a big special.)

Knowing how to make things last also allows us to take advantage of good prices when we see them!  I note that butter has a long history of being greatly sought after and valued and hard to get at times. 

I will add that in Australia we have the same situation with most sheds being way to hot in the summer to use for food storage.  Over time I realised if I had the right type of cupboards outside or in the shed I can store toilet paper, cleaning products and many things out there and in turn free up lots of space in cooler places inside for food storage. It was a bit of a change around but made a lot of space I didn't know I had! 

When our bathroom is finished I will have room for a set of shelves in there. It will mean my linen cupboard will no longer have towels. I can see a heap of space coming my way!  I plan on having baskets in my shelves to store supplies like shampoos etc.  Each area that I organise ends up having much more storage space than I thought. 

How are you progressing with building up your pantry? If you have any tips for making things last, long term storage and making the most of great prices please share them! 
If you have any questions for Glenda she is a wealth of information! 

Have a wonderful week! xxx