Faith Farm

Food storage tips

There are many ways to store food and alot to consider when planing your storage area.  Here is a few tips to help you get started.

Temperature-As a rule the lower the temperature the longer the shelf life.  Your storage area should be kept above freezing and below 72 F.  This would be a good time to consider your current food storage area.  If storing in your house, will it maintain a stable teperature in the event of power outage?  I have found that my cellar stays about 62 F year round. 

Humidity-Food storage should have a really low humidity level-around 15%---Not practical in most parts of the world.  So for those of us that live in higher humidity we must package our goods in a way to keep them from retaining moisture.  I Ziplock all my drygoods in bags or vacu-seal individual packages then I place them in a rubbermaid container.  Keep your boxes from touching outer walls as this could cause condensation.

Light-When it comes to food storage sunlight is bad!  Make sure the area you are storing in does not have sunlight directly on the storage containers.  This can cause changes in temperature and and humidity levels in your containers.  It also degrades the foods nutritional content.  So admire your beautiful quarts of beans and peaches-then keep them in the dark!

Storage times of foods requires ones own research-you decide what is best.  My theory is rotate-use and replace.  That away you only have fresh food in your storage.  Another thing that I might mention is only store foods that you are going to use.  How can you rotate your stock if you are stocked up on goods no one wants to eat?  Take for example egg plant---I like egg plant--it grows so very good here-in abundance-unfortunately my family is not as fond of it as I am...so stocking up on that isn't the best plan.  Remember that as a general rule-glass containers keep food longer than metal cans as long as you store properly.  I hope this helped-Blessings to you.

Untitled Comment

{ 10:51, Wednesday, January 2, 2008 } { Posted by Anonymous }

I just picked a cabinet on the back porch for my pantry storage and hadn't thought of any of these precautions first. LOL But it sounds like it is the perfect place with no humidity, no windows, and good temperature so I am doing ok!! LOL Thanks for posting this!


God's Blessings,
Amy Jo