If you read my garden blog – Humble Garden – you would know that I am already planning the 2009 garden. I have already gotten the first batch of seeds and am gearing up to start seedlings soon.
I started gardening seriously as a foodie and a scientist who was worried about the toxic nature of industrial food. I would never claim to be able to grow enough food for this whole family and all the animals we feed, that’s a VERY advanced topic. It is a goal though but it takes planning and I need to find more arable land.
While I do not condone their religious dogmas and practices (not my place, all their own business), I admire the hard work that the Mormon church has done to make it easy for people to store away food for hard times. They have quite a lot of free information on how to determine how much food a certain sized family needs to have on hand for a year and also how to keep it in a safe and effective manner. Visit their site on Family Home Storage to start your journey.
Another resource is Sharon Astyk‘s blog posts and classes on food storage at her Casaubon’s Book blog. She is much more comprehensive than the Mormon site and she is more engaging, check it out.
I have started my food storage – though do not take my example 100% gospel, I am sure I am doing all sorts of things less than perfectly!
The photos here show some of what we are doing, storage wise.
Below you can see some of the things I canned last summer. Last spring the tomatoes came in late so I was only able to put up a few 8 or so jars of tomato sauce.
I also had to take down some badly behaved roosters and some past-their-prime broilers so I made a large batch of chicken stock with meat and canned that too. Let me tell you, this broth makes freakishly delicious soups.
In terms of staples that I do not grow and which I can buy in bulk, I figured I need about 100 pounds of dried beans for the year to feed our family in times of poor cash flow and possibly during food scarcities. Below you can see a 50 pound bag of pinto beans and then after I have put it into gallon sized bags.
Beans and rice make complete protein and they store VERY easily. Add a little bit of fat and some homegrown greens such as kale, collards, or lettuces or spinach and you need nothing else.
I am also stocking up on my favorite masa harina to make Colombian empanadas and arepas. I need this for mental health issues!
I have some less than nutritious meat products and mixes that would be REALLLLY easy to make happen should we lose power for long periods of time – better than making french toast!
I use this fabric remnant that I got as a photography background as a way of masking the grocery store look a bit.
This is just a small amount of food storage. I have a lot more rice you do not see here. That bulk rice and other grains will be stored in big plastic light tight tubs in a cool location.
These shelves you see above is right next to a very drafty window (AC unit there) so these foods will be kept cool. I plan on using those canned items soon, otherwise, they would stay in the dark cool pantry you see below.
What I would really love is a set up like you see below built in our basement. The issue with the basement is the fact that we have 5 cats and their litter box is down there.
Please share what you are doing to stock up on food or what you plan to do!
I love the canned food shots!
C: Thanks – been trying to not eat them all too soon, slowly using them for this and that recipe.
I love your photos of the jars of sauce and stock! Beautiful light. I’m impressed with what you’ve put in your pantry.
Shari: Gosh, thnx! It was pretty luminous light when I shot those – helped to lend interest to otherwise rather mundane jars!
Great work, Nika. Something that troubles me, altho I know it is not easy to come by (especially for Americans) is the lack of industrial hemp seed showing up in these sorts of lists. Hemp seed seems to be THE best grain for human dietary consumption. Plus, since it still flies so far under the radar it does not seem to be a grain seed that has been taken over by GMO activity like rice, soy and corn. I urge everyone to look into it and consider adding it to your stocks.
Will definitely look into it! I have seen various hemp products but have never really thought of buying it as a food. I dont know if this is because we have draconian War on Drug laws against this or what. I never underestimate the stupidity of the laws relating to hemp and MJ! I just assume the worst.
If you use hemp as a food source – care to share some recipes?
Wow, very impressed. I’ve started storing and have enough so far to last us three days. Oh well, it’s a start!
M: thats definitely a start!
I to am canning food, meats and veggies. But the better way to store dried beans is in canning jars. The way you show them the mice and bugs could get into them. I put a oxygen pack in the jars, fill with beans and use my seal a meal to seal the top on the jars. hope this helps a little