The Hard Times Cafe

Now that we've done a hypothetical 4 week pantry plan lets move on to a larger scale, 1 or 2 years.  With that size of a stockpile there are some major things that you must consider that aren't necessary in a 4 week plan.  Two major things are storage containers and storage space.

Store bought or home canned items aside, one of the most important things you will store will be your dried goods. I. E wheat, flour, sugar, honey, corn or corn meal, rice, noodles, cocoa, beans etc.  All these items are a necessity of the stockpilers pantry and  all these things are loved by pest, especially the pantry moth.  I get chills of terror even thinking about that little thing.  Quick note, sugar and honey are not usually a food of choice for pest, except ants and mice.  Anyways, pantry items are only as safe as your container is good.  If you've never had experience with the pantry moth, one you've been extremely blessed and two, pray you never do. 

 

Obviously when you are storing a small amount of food for a short period of time, even 3, 4 or 5 months, time is on your side and you will most likely use up any dry good product before bugs can do any harm.  If you are going for a long term pantry plan, 6 months to a year or longer, you are now in the high risk category of any type of infestation.  If you cover your tracks at the beginning of your adventure you are much less likely to be over taken by such woes as the panty moth can bring on.  But if your guard is down you will regret it.  The pantry moth is known for its patients.  It can, without being detected, work its way through a thick plastic bag.  If you store stuff in glass jars, like pickle jars, even with the rubber ring, over a period of time a pantry moth can work its way under the lid and into the jar working its stringy web and laying it larvae.  If you store stuff in jars and don't use it for a several months its long enough for a pantry moth to do its thing. 

 

So with being limited on your storage choices what can you do?  One thing you and do is freeze all your dried goods.  Keeping them in your deep freeze protects them and does extend the shelf life.  However you can only fit so much wheat or flour in a deep freeze before you run out of room  If your storing on the scale of 2000-4000 lbs of dried goods, your going to have to have an awful lot of freezers.  I know some of you are reeling at the mere thought of 2000-4000 lbs of wheat and/or flour but as we continue on this you'll see that for a family of 5 that barely covers the recommended requirement.    But we'll deal with that later.  So what are some  other options.  What I consider to be the best option is 5 gallon food grade buckets.  These buckets are reusable, they are sturdy and the gasket sealed lid makes it impossible for bugs to work their way into the bucket.  Quick note: if you already have bugs in your dried goods (refer to what to avoid in purchasing in Part 2 of PFYPS) they very well can breed in the bucket.  There are ways to take care of those and we will go over those later.  Buckets with their gasket lined lid also help keep out the oxygen which is what bugs need to live in food.  There is a couple of draw backs to the buckets, first is the initial investment.  They currently are running around $7 for a bucket with lid.  That is the best price I have found on the net lately.  I have seen them much high.  They are big and heavy once filled. They take up an enormous amount of room.  You have to learn to be creative with your storage.  Again though, with any long term storage plan you have to be willing to deal with the space it takes.

I say with all conviction, if you choose to store in buckets, please, please do not use used buckets from bakeries or dried good stores even if they are a great deal.  I know some people have had no trouble with them but I also know other people that have regretted not buying new buckets.  One of the main problems is plastic holds smells and if you use bucket that had lard, pickles or bullion powder stored in it, even after thorough cleaning, hot soapy water, bleach water and vinegar, you run a high chance of your stored product absorbing the smell deep within the pores of the plastic. 

People can be  funny, and unfortunately I fall into that funny people category.  I have stockpiled for years.  I have been using buckets sense 1998.  I've always bought new despite hearing others rave about what deals they got on buckets from the bakery with lard or pickles in them.  I also knew they didn't store for the amount of time I did so it was just best I felt for new buckets.  But.........yes but, as time passes our minds become lacks with lessons from the past and I was out of empty buckets but wanted to up my stockpile.  I had grocery money for the items I wanted but not a lot of extra money for new buckets.  Now I had two choice: decrease the amount of food I was going to get and get some new buckets with some of that money or get some of those used buckets.  Someone had convinced me that they too had used them and they had no problem at all with them.  So off my husband and I went to check out the used buckets.  We looked them over up and down, stood outside the store smelling them, people weren't sure what to think of us.  For 99 cents each with lid we both came to the conclusion that some bleach water and hot soapy water afterwards would take care of the faint smell.    We bought 30 of them.  I spent a couple of days really washing and airing them out and letting them dry and was pleased that they were fine.  We went and got our food goods, unbleached flour, rice, oatmeal, cornmeal, noodles and beans.  We filled 20 of those buckets.  Something in the back of my head kept bugging me though so I decided I would let them set for about 3-4 weeks then I would crack one open to put my mind at ease that I had gotten all of the smell out from the previously stored food item. 

Words can not describe how bummed (I know, that word dates me but it fits well the way I felt at the moment) when I opened up a bucket and it smelled of the previous food item which happened to be chicken bullion powder.  Now I might have been able to over look my food seeping up that flavor in the flour but I couldn't get beyond it in the oatmeal.  The buckets had smelt fine after washing while the lids were  off but once closed up it seeped from the pours of the plastic. What bugged me most was I knew better, my husband knew better but even with a great conviction from the past concerning it, we still decided to gamble with our food storage. Never again!  So please, think clearly before you store. 

 

Once I break open a 5 gallon bucket, I then transport it into a smaller container or containers.  If you have the shelf space you can use five 1 gallon containers that way you empty the bucket out and have it to reuse on something  else.  The smaller containers are also easier to use for daily use and if you use them regularly you still don't have to worry about pantry moths or other pest.

I also use whole bay leaves on the top of my product in my bucket before I seal it up.  It helps detour bugs.  As stated I have been using buckets sense 1998 and I have never had any trouble with bugs in my food.  I have in bags or other containers but never in my buckets. 

Room being another factor for long time storage you just kind of have to play around with it.  Temps are a big thing and never store food directly on concrete.  I'll give more detailed there at a later date.

I'll try to post a couple photos of some creative storage that we've done here at our home. 

Until next time at The Hard Time Cafe

The Intentional Peasant