If you have read my blog for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve realized by now that I am working hard to build up a good pantry and food storage. Remember last week when I posted this:
Look at all that grain!
I bought all those bags of different kinds of grain for two reasons. First, I wanted to experiment with different whole grains in baking, and this was the most economical way to buy them. Second, I wanted to repackage most of the grain for long term storage (meaning mylar bags with oxygen absorbers in food grade buckets). Last week, I started packing the food in mylar bags (see post about it here), and yesterday I finished. It really didn’t take me a couple of weeks, in fact, it took me about an hour total. However, with the insanity that accompanies the last couple weeks of school coupled with the general craziness of life, I just couldn’t find the time to finish up until yesterday. And here they are!
10 buckets (including the 2 done last week)! Repackaged as they are, these grains should last for at least 20 years (unopened and stored at an appropriate temperature). I’m not planning to have them sit around that long, because I plan to rotate the grains into our regular diet. But it is nice to know that this food will last a good long while.
And did you see these? Remember I said that I wanted to experiment with some of these grains? Here they are in mason jars ready for experimentation!
I don’t know if you can see it from the bucket picture above, but I have a few more things to repackage (oats and white winter wheat), but I may just throw those in a regular food grade bucket without a mylar bag, because I use those pretty regularly. I’ll let you know when I decide.
Why am I doing this? Growing up, my parents had food storage in our basement as well as a full pantry. I remember my mom grinding her own wheat and making her own bread in a time when processed food was all the rage. Because of her hard work and dedication, I have a great love for whole, natural foods, and I want to include those in my family’s diet. Having food storage on hand allows me the freedom to wait for a good sale on healthy food and stock up. I rarely have to run to the store for “one thing,” because I have extras of almost everything in the pantry or my food storage closet. It’s not a year supply of food as some recommend, but we would be just fine for a while if we experienced a job loss, extended illness, natural disaster, or any one of a number of regularly occurring “disasters” that people experience.
How about you? What do you think about this food storage craze?
Do you see any wisdom in keeping a well-stocked pantry? If so, what do you keep in yours?
My Foray Into Food Storage 
May 29, 2014 at 8:57 am
I am a home canner so we put up what ever there is an abundace of. If it is a good year for cherries we u-pick cherries and we have canned cherries, dried cherries, cherry jam and black forrest jam, also put a few in the freezer for smoothies. If our hens hatch out some chicks the roosters go into the freezer and jars. We also have buckets of wheat and rice which we don’t grow here. Not too many bean because they are easy to grow (if we can keep the deer away).
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May 29, 2014 at 9:49 am
I always have lots on hand in my pantry. I rather food shop than go to a department store and much more satisfaction as well. Love watching you at work. There is only me but still I like to be well stocked. 😀
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May 29, 2014 at 11:51 am
It is a wise woman (or man) who keeps their shelves well stocked!
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May 29, 2014 at 2:16 pm
As soon as I see snow on the horizon, I aim for the grocery store. ~(*_~)~~
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May 29, 2014 at 10:13 am
I’m so impressed with your dedication. I store all my flours, sugars, cocoa powder, cereals, beans, etc. in jars. I share your love. Regarding the buckets… my mother-in-law collects them for rain water, etc. The buckets are constantly washing up on the beach near her home. “That’s a good bucket” took on new meaning after one was used to catch the overflow from the composting toilet at the beach house. Several of us onlookers decided that it ceased to be a good bucket once it was full. However, the Deerslayer Matriarch stated emphatically that it was, in fact, still usable. “That’s a GOOD bucket” has become a phrase still worth a chuckle every time it is uttered at a Deerslayer gathering!
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May 29, 2014 at 11:48 am
Thanks!
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May 29, 2014 at 11:06 am
I’d love to get serious about storing, not just a few packets as I have done lately but I find it first quite expensive (the oxygen absorbers which I have only access by amazon) and second I don’t have enough space to store for the moment.
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May 29, 2014 at 11:46 am
Just keep doing what you’re doing. Remember my mantra, “Something is better than nothing.”
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May 29, 2014 at 11:53 am
That is so kind, just the encouragement I needed right now!
I always tend to be so demanding on myself and in perpetual frustration for not going to the end of things and keep reminding myself that one can achieve much more by having fun while at it…
Thanks! I appreciate your generous response 🙂
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May 29, 2014 at 11:25 am
I bought one of those food grade buckets… but I thought I got the right lid, but I can’t figure out how it goes on. Did I buy the wrong lid or is there some sort of trick to putting the lid on?
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May 29, 2014 at 11:46 am
I have two tips. First, make sure that your mylar bag (or food) does not interfere with the lid sealing. If your bag is too full, you will not be able to get the lid on. Second, get a rubber mallet and use it to put on your lid. It takes several good hits around the lid’s edge to get it on, but it will work if it’s the right lid and the barrel’s contents are not too high.
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May 29, 2014 at 11:48 am
Wow that’s so cool! You must have a huge pantry!
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May 29, 2014 at 11:50 am
Unfortunately, I do not have a huge pantry, but I do have a handy “Harry Potter” closet under my stairs. I use that for my long term storage. I am so grateful for that space!
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May 29, 2014 at 1:06 pm
My immediate goal is to never again eat food from a box or bag. Never again eat from a labeled container. No more processed foods. I will make flour and yogurt and butter and cheese,can my own veggies and meats, bottle my kombucha and ginger ale. It’s so easy. But storage is the challenge.
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June 3, 2014 at 3:55 am
I really enjoyed your series of post on food storage. Over the past two years we have filled up couple of closets of long-term and short-term food storage. We’ve been able to use that food storage on several occasions when money was tight, so it’s already saved us grief a couple of times. Now we’re in a new phase of our life were converting a school bus into a tiny home. As we plan out where everything is going to fit it’s difficult to carve out enough room for the amount of food storage we would like to have with us. We are just in the beginning phases of building so I’m sure we’ll figure something out. I know freeze-dried food is a shortcut and would allow us to maintain fairly small footprint for food storage. But for a family of five. You know how it can get very expensive quick.
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