What I am going to do differently to store food

[Cowboy]

2 months ago I moved from my home I lived for 30 years. I am sad to say that I took 3 trailer loads (yes your read that right) to the dump disposing of bad food storage. There were over 50 5 gal buckets where seals had failed and heaven knows how many cases of canned food that exploded in my shelf reliance racks that did not get rotated fast enough. Most of the bad explosions were of tomato products. I also had a 300 gal tank that was supposed to be sealed had very toxic slime in it. I sent that tank to the dump as well.

So what did I learn....

1. Canned food and 5 gal buckets are great in the short term: 1 to 2 years max. it is also the most expensive for the short shelf life it provides.
2. There are better ways to store water than in large tanks and 55 gal barrels.
3. I sold my large Shelf Reliance racks. They hold way more food than I can rotate.
4. I doubt I will ever grind wheat. No one will eat it.
5. Get rid of all the stuff you save "just in case" like old sleeping bags, old tents, tarps and the like. They just fill your garage with junk.

So what am I going to do differently

1. Make 90% of my storage freeze dried food
2. Store water in cases of bottled water. Enough for 3 to 4 months.They last forever and can't get broken. Barrels for long term.
3. Have several camping stoves and canned propane. Easy to store. Also make sure you have 5 big bottles of propane for your grill.
4. Have a couple good water filters. Rivers, streams and bad water barrels turn into freshwater.
5. I will limit my preps to food and water and firearms. There is no way I can prepare for every scenario.

I have also decided prepare spiritually to be inspired what exactly I need to focus on. I have also learned that I cannot rely on the arm of flesh. Preps do you no good without being worthy to attend the temple. Having the faith and being worthy to use the priesthood for protection is most important.

In short I am going to greatly simplify my physical preps to food, water and firearms and continue to work on obedience and faith by following the Prophet and the Twelve. There you have it.

Cowboy

[mirkwood]

Thanks for sharing!

75-80% of my storage is FD or dehydrated. I do have buckets of rice, wheat and popcorn. Most of my water is in the plastic water bottles, though I do have several barrels too. I also have water filters and purification to acquire more/clean water.

I do not buy a whole lot anymore, except in the non food areas. I follow the prompts when I receive them. I bought two cases of stew mix from Augason Farms today. 40% off.

[DMGNUT]

Thanks to the both of you for sharing.
Cowboy... I would suggest you need even more propane, it goes quick in a typical grill, as they are not very inefficient.
I have had great luck with my 5 gallon pails, but I filled each of them myself and lined everyone (regardless of what was going into it) with a mylar bag and 6 to 8 oxygen absorbers and then used a hot iron to seal the bag.
Plastic actually "breathes" so the pails (or most any plastic container for that matter) won't do the job on it's own.
I've also learned not to waste my efforts on tomato products... they're just too acidic and won't last.
Your Self Reliance racks would be fine, if they hold #10 cans... but only put cans of freeze dried food on them.
Also I'm guessing you're just simplifying things for your post (food, water, and firearms), but if not, at least consider including first aid items and communications gear (ie., HAM radio).
You are absolutely spot on with your comments about Temple worthiness and holding the priesthood.

[Earthling]

I am also running into the same problems as Cowboy with food getting old - not sure what is good anymore. I have an ideal spot to store it - cool, dry, & dark so it does well. I've just tossed canola oil from 2008 - it just went rancid this last year so that is amazing really. I know because I've been using it. I had bought a bunch of cases of fruit and one can went bad - made a mess in the stack and even finding it was a headache. I also can't rotate canned goods fast enough as we don't really consume canned fruit & vegetables on a normal basis. Gee - I hope my chocolate chip storage is good but it does have oil in the chips. LOL

I've wondered if I need to buy some fresh #10 can food items of the basics I thought I had covered from the church or something? It would be a massive job to find out what is good or bad of what I already own and a lot of stuff would get opened and then need to be used asap.

I recommend putting a note on your calendar every fall to refill propane tanks after summer BBQing season is over. I go to a local propane dealer where it is cheapest.

Keeping the garage cleaned out enough to actually park a car is a challenge. We put in overhead shelving for camping gear and tossed old sleeping bags & tents too. Love those gorilla shelving units from Home Depot or Costco!

The spirit has prompted me to get some more prep items once I had the main food & water covered i.e. Sun Oven, EcoZoom stove, Dutch ovens, medical supplies, reference books, etc.

[iggy]

Earthling, I highly recommend re-packaging all of your #10 can foods. Vacuum seal into meal sizes. Even the dry beans, rice, dry macaroni. After having to toss 22 boxes of Rice-A-Roni because of the bugs - when I bought new, I vacuum sealed them.

Do NOT vacuum seal until it stops sucking out the air when you do pasta. You can stop the machine at anytime by pushing the Cancel button, and then immediately pushing the Seal button. I ended up with spaghetti and lasagna dust when I opened the packages to use. What I did do, is resealed the dust, but not till it was a brick, and in one cup packages. This pasta dust I now use when I make gravy.

I also quit buying flour. Enriched, bleached flour is bad stuff, at least I feel it is for me and my loved ones. I grind my own wheat. what I use for gravies I put through a fine sieve and toss the large 'chaff'. When I make bread I include that chaff in the measurements and add it to the dough just before it rests, and then gets kneaded.

I also don't buy baking powder anymore. I mix my own: 2 parts tartar to 1 part baking soda. Once you open a container of baking powder, it starts to go flat. So, once I have used up my #10 can that I re-packaged into 1/4 cup packages of baking powder, then I will buy the small cans of tartar (and will vacuum seal those). Already have the baking soda in 3 or 4 pound boxes, that I use to make my laundry & automatic dish washing detergents.

[Cowboy]

Cowboy... I would suggest you need even more propane, it goes quick in a typical grill, as they are not very inefficient.
...
Also I'm guessing you're just simplifying things for your post (food, water, and firearms), but if not, at least consider including first aid items and communications gear (ie., HAM radio).
You are absolutely spot on with your comments about Temple worthiness and holding the priesthood.

I have many many cans of propane for my camp stoves. The 5 gal bottles would be to cook fresh meat and the like when available.
Also I have first aid and medicines storage as well. I guess that goes in the obvious category. In general simplify where you can.

[cHeroKee]

I made the change over to freeze dried food a while back. My thoughts were freeze dried food is more nutritious, I won't need to store extra fuel to cook as one would with dried foods, physical storage does not take nearly as much space as dried foods and shelf life is appealing.

[Burn]

Earthling you can use old oil for fuel for canning jar lamps.

[iggy]

Earthling you can use old oil for fuel for canning jar lamps.

Can you use the rancid oil in regular oil lamps? I bought a bunch of them (oil lanterns, not rancid olive oil) from Walmart and have yet to fill them with anything. Regular oil gives Hubby a head ache, and now I seem to get head aches from it too. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Silver-Hurricane-Kerosene-Oil-Lantern-Emergency-Hanging-Light-Lamp-8-Inches/787697943

[LoudmouthMormon]

I've been trying to get through our chicken/beef/pork chunks I canned at the wetpack cannery like 10 years ago. They still taste/look/smell just fine. My wife is augmenting her chicken/turkey feed with some of our 15 year old drypack staples like wheat and rice and whatnot. We never should have bought that jargle in the first place. Beans are fine, and the honey we bought over a decade ago before the price went up is as fresh as the day it was put in our basement. I go through the jams occasionally. But if I had it to do over again, I'd put more into larger storage of rotatable stuff, and less into a wall of #10 cans.

[JayE]

Wow, this site is still going! Great! I've been mostly absent the past few years, but I'm glad to still see old friends posting here.

And I do appreciate the good advice in this thread. We need to re-visit our storage and make some improvements.

I'll try to check in more often.