And In The Beginning...

How many times have we heard, or read, "Because of [insert recent events], I have decided to work really hard on getting my year's supply" ??


Or, how many times have you started "food storage" stuff and A.) Just bought "food storage" stuff (i.e. Wheat, beans, rice) from the store because you were told to, B.) Bought a few things here and there but then stopped because you didn't know how much you already had, let alone how much more you needed to buy, or C.) Didn't even know where to start?


Well, even as I was typing all of those questions, I was nodding my head.  I've been there!  Probably a thousand times! While the *recent events* HAVE pushed my urgency on preparing a food storage, I have also had a gut feeling for several months that this needs to get done.  And because I've learned from my past, I don't often like to push away those 'gut feelings', because it tends to come back and bite me in the butt.


So here it is, the beginning.  A guide to help you on your way to preparing a years supply of food, while I'm in the process of doing it myself.


Tip #1: We watched a fantastic DVD called "Sensible Food Storage -- Storing the Foods You Love to Eat" by Wendy Dewitt.It was an hour long and I gotta tell ya, it was phenomenal!! This woman was heaven sent! It completely changed my entire outlook and view on food storage.  It finally seemed do-able.  So, I decided to take her tips and *finally* get my Food Storage done.  I highly suggest you watch this DVD.  You can purchase it for around $13 from Seagull Book (just click the little clicky link above) or you can watch it in small segments on Youtube.


Tip #2: After watching the DVD, this is how Wendy Dewitt suggested starting out:  Make 14 note cards.  On these note cards write down recipes for 7 breakfasts and 7 dinners.  These will become your lifesavers and your guide to what you need to buy.  After you have your note cards done, take every single measurement (including water!) and multiply it by 52.  And there you have it.  You will have 7 breakfasts and 7 dinners that you will rotate once a week throughout the year.  Some people may ask, "Where's lunch??".  If you are living completely on your own self reliance, with no electricity or running water, it will be much like the "olden days" when they had a large breakfast in the morning, and then another large meal mid-day when the sun is still out.  2 large meals a day, and that's it.  You might add into your food storage enough to be able to make a loaf of bread a day, and that might become your "before bed" snack.  Remember, this is about surviving, not eating like Kings.


With this knowledge, I set to work.  Within a couple hours, this is what my "work area" looked like as I sifted through literally hundreds of recipes and dozens of recipe books, trying to find ones where every single ingredient had the potential to be properly stored for a year, and were meals I could live with eating for a whole year once a week.


It looks like a mess, but it's an organized mess. ; )

Here are my finished note cards -- Dinners on the right, breakfasts on the left: 

Here is an example of the front of one of my note cards:

You'll notice that I have a lot of number in parenthesis.  The number in the parenthesis indicates the amount of whatever it is (i.e. 2 cups of flour in this recipe) multiplied by 52, so I will need 104 cups of flour stored for this one recipe.  The same goes for the rest, I need 52 cups of sugar, 104 teaspoons of baking powder, and so forth.  When I'm ready to put a list together of everything I need, I will convert everything into how much I will need of a certain package of something.  For instance, I will take all of the teaspoons I need of baking powder from all of my recipes that need baking powder, and buy the correct amount of packages that I will need to take care of all of my baking powder needs.  Make sense?  


This is what I have included on the back of this card: 

 On this card, these ingredients are the ones that I happen to buy or package myself into #10 cans.  Since there are 13 cups that can fit into a #10 can, I will need 8 cans of flour to accommodate my needs of 104 cups of flour for this recipe.  I write "exact" by some because if there is an ingredient that comes to say, 8 1/2 cans, I will round up to 9 and put 9 cans on the back of that card.  It's better to have more than not enough right?  And because three of these ingredients happen to multiply equally into how many cans I need I didn't round anything up.

For the eggs, I buy "Whole Eggs" in #10 cans from the store.  I find mine at Wal Mart.  An equivalent of 56 eggs fits into one #10 can.  Also notice how I included the measurements of water I will need to rehydrate the powdered milk and eggs in this recipe.  Make sure that you do this!  It is important! 


Stay tuned for my  next post.  Let's get this done together!  Questions?  Contact me at Gatheringyourgrub@gmail.com


*Any information in this post or subsequent posts including information from Wendy Dewitt was used by permission via Wendy Dewitt.*