You can’t eat it, but…
April 24th, 2008 by KimYou can’t count laundry soap as food storage but I think you can call it a storage essential. My sister-in-law, Kim, has been experimenting with homemade laundry detergent recipes from the web and has posted her success on her blog. I love hearing someone else’s trial and error story before I endeavor to try something new, so I think her post is great. It provides the recipe for the detergent that she has liked best, and the step-by-step process she took to create and use it. Homemade detergent is certainly cheaper than buying store brands, and it can be helpful if you have family members with sensitive skin. I can’t wait to try it myself!
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If it’s not one thing…
April 24th, 2008 by KimIn the wake of wheat shortages, it appears rice is the next product to send us scurrying to stock up before potential price increases. Our local new station had this report on Costco stores limiting the number of bags of rice that customers could purchase.
Rice stores well in buckets, #10 cans or vacuum-sealed bags. I vacuum-seal or freeze pouches of brown rice to extend the shelf life.
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Simplify your calculations
April 24th, 2008 by KimIf you are still struggling to calculate just how many pounds of everything it will take to prepare your family’s food storage supply, the calculator from Simply Living Smart may be a great resource for you. Simply Living Smart offers a spreadsheet that can be used interactively on your own computer with Excel. Per their website, it was developed with the tables and charts from the book Making the Best of Basics by James Talmage Stevens (by permission) which their site will also have available for purchase.
I like this spreadsheet because it is simple, and can be customized to your family’s preferences. Some calculators are very extensive. This one just gives you a total number of pounds needed for your family in the basic categories of essential and supplementary items. You decide for your family how many cans of meats, fruit, soups or vegetables that equates to. You can click here to download the spreadsheet: Food Storage Master Plan
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Cooperative Wheat Purchase
April 11th, 2008 by KimLike many in our area, I have been actively researching the best prices for hard white wheat to complete my family’s storage supply before prices potentially increase. This week the highest price in the area is $31.99 per 45 lb. bucket at Your Family Matters, and the lowest is $26 per bucket through Joseph’s Storehouse. The Church Storehouse may receive more red wheat, but the hard white wheat will be unavailable until the fall harvest. However, I have made a good contact and plan to purchase 360 buckets (each is approx. 45 lbs.) that should be available by the middle to the end of May. If the prices hold (wheat prices per bushel have actually been coming down slowly), these buckets will be $25 each (this includes shipping and tax). This wheat is triple cleaned and will be checked for moisture and nutrient content before packaging. When I know that data, I will post it as well. If you are interested in purchasing any of these buckets, please e-mail me and I will keep a list of names to inform when the wheat is available.
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Speedy Raspberry Jam
March 6th, 2008 by KimI have to pass on a simple, but great time-saving find. Our family LOVES raspberry jam, especially on homemade bread. I purchased frozen Dole Raspberry Crumbles from Alison’s Pantry to save money (because they are flavorful and a great savings over fresh berries in my area), but I ended up saving a lot of time as well. Since these raspberries are already “crumbles,” I was able to skip the entire step of crushing the berries. They cook down to perfection and make delicious jam in almost half the time.
These raspberries are also handy for sauces, or are a less-expensive way to add berries to fruit smoothies (no need for the glamour of whole berries if they are just going to be blended!).
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Spiff-E-Whip…Truly Spiffy!
February 29th, 2008 by KimIf you haven’t tried Spiff-E-Whip, the powdered instant whipped topping, the beautiful strawberries gracing produce shelves should convince you. Spiff-E-Whip is a fun food storage item. It is a fine powder similar to powdered sugar in texture, and mixed with ice water will whip into beautiful and delicious whipped cream. It has a great consistency for fruit salads so you can keep it rotated in your pantry, or in an emergency it would be a fun addition to the oodles of dry pudding mixes or cocoa that is likely in your storage. It works like Dream Whip, so you can also make a chocolate mousse or cream pie with the mix (There is a recipe on the side of the can to make it from scratch or you can use the Dream Whip recipe that uses a pudding mix.), and you can even turn it into frosting (again, the recipe is on the side of the can). It holds is consistency nicely in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks and can even be whipped back into shape if it falls by adding a little more ice water. I love this product! For more information or to purchase, visit www.waltonfeed.com. They also have a photo of the prepared product.
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Strength in Numbers
February 29th, 2008 by KimSome have said that it takes a village to raise a child. Can it take a village to secure your food storage? It can certainly help you acquire items at the lowest prices. Last year, Charlotte, a woman in my area, began negotiating with several food storage manufacturers in Northern Utah. She spoke with her local friends and inquired if anyone else would like to order #10 cans of food storage staples, or bulk items with her so they could place a larger order and get a reduced price. Many people were interested. The woman collected the orders and money, and once a month her husband or another man would drive a trailer to Salt Lake and pick up the order. A year, and several thousand #10 cans later (literally), the companies Charlotte was using offered to bring the orders to her (which would save on gas and time) if the orders were large enough. The group needed to order 8 pallets worth of items. So Charlotte opened the opportunity up to our women’s organization and others in the area to use the strength of our numbers to get the lowest possible prices.
This system is working great for us. Each month, Charlotte selects a few items that will be offered to the group to order. Last month, we could choose from 4 kinds of soup mixes packed in enameled #10 cans, and a 25# bag of dehydrated hashbrown potatoes. Limiting the number of items for the group to purchase each month allows us to focus our buying power for the lowest prices on these select items (we’re buying hundreds of each one, rather than 10 or so of multiple items). Each group of women has a designated person to announce the items, gather the orders and payments and then deliver the orders to Charlotte. We place the orders at the beginning of a month and then they are delivered by freight toward the end of the month. The other benefit of offering a few items each month is families don’t feel overwhelmed and anxious about spending a bunch to build their food storage supplies. They can just buy something each month.
Charlotte is also using our bulk buying power to negotiate the best prices on preparedness items like water filtration bottles (these can be as much as $49 online, we’ll be ordering them for under $20) and emergency blankets. Charlotte isn’t making any profit. All of us are benefiting from the use of organization and ingenuity to provide the manufacturer with a very large order, who in turn provides us with a nice price reduction. It’s a great arrangement.
Cooperative buying groups for food storage are being organized by some web sites, but you can do this yourself easily. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at kim@allaboutfoodstorage.com.
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Sweet Stock-Up
December 10th, 2007 by KimThe holidays are a great time to stock your pantry with baking ingredients. These items go on sale from about the middle of October through Christmas. Buy evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, canned pumpkin, chocolate chips, nuts, and spices. To extend the life of some of these things, I use my vacuum sealer and my freezer. You can store nuts and chocolate chips in vacuum-packed portions that work for your most-used recipes, and then store the packs in a white plastic bucket or your freezer.
Canned broth and gravy, canned vegetables and boxed stuffing are other great pantry buys this time of year. This week, at my local Albertson’s, Mrs. Cubbison’s whole grain stuffing mixes are $1 each, and Swanson’s natural chicken broth is 50 cents per can. Often, these healthier choices cost even more than their standard counterparts, so it’s nice to find them at a bargain. Juices are also typically discounted for the holidays, so stock up for the year, especially if you have kids.
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Alison’s Pantry
November 8th, 2007 by KimAbout a year ago, when I was searching for places to buy grains in bulk at the best price, I discovered a company called Alison’s Pantry. They publish a monthly catalog with a large assortment of products, from easy freezer items to baking and food storage products. I place my monthly order with my local distributor and then pick it up from her home the first week of the next month. My payment is not due until I pick up the order, which makes it convenient to work these items into my budget.
Alison’s Pantry carries a wide range of products, most of which are not available at grocery stores or Costco, and I like having these options. For example, my family has weaned off of white rice and pasta but I can’t buy these items at bulk prices anywhere in my town. So, I purchase 10 lb. cases of whole wheat spaghetti or rotelle for $8.99, 25 lb. bags of brown rice for $12.69, and 25 lb. bags of unbleached white flour for $7.09 from Alison’s Pantry. Other favorite products I buy from Alison’s Pantry include 1 lb. bags of various spices, Sweet Vanilla Powder (If you haven’t tried this, you must–it’s a powdered vanilla that is sans alcohol so all of the delicious vanilla flavor stays in your recipes, instead of baking out. It’s great in frosting too!), jumbo bags of peanut butter chips and nuts for baking, and chicken bouillion granules that do not have MSG.
I love Alison’s Pantry products, and the convenience of buying food storage items from home. If you live in Southern Utah and would like to place an order, you can e-mail Brandy Doty at bdotydoty@yahoo.com for a catalog, or you can view the catalog online here: http://www.alisonspantry.com/p_details.asp?PaID=4 and then just e-mail Brandy your order.
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Smells Like…?
October 31st, 2007 by KimHave you ever wondered how long eggs are still safe to use? Or how long other items can be stored on your pantry shelves? Click here for a comprehensive list of products and shelf-life lengths. Recent research from Brigham Young University suggests that some of the items on the list (like rice, oats or dry milk) will actually last far longer than this list suggests if stored properly. However, it is a good resource to use as you inventory your current food storage and I hope you find it useful.
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