10:14 – We’re having a few days of beautiful weather around here. Highs in the 70’s (low 20’s C), sunny, and little wind. Barbara left this morning on a trip down to Winston to visit the dentist and run some errands. It’s supposed to be in 86F (30C) there today. As usual when Barbara’s away, Colin is lying at the front door barking at everything and nothing.
Here’s another book you might want to grab a copy of: The LDS Basic Food Storage Recipe Book. It’s available in PDF, Word, and RTF formats and includes 70 recipes that use ONLY the following items, which are included in the LDS one-month basic supply kit.
|
Product |
#10 cans |
best if used by |
|
Wheat |
3 cans |
20+ years |
|
White Flour |
1 can |
3-5 years |
|
White Rice |
2 cans |
3-4 years |
|
Quick Oats |
1 can |
4-5 years |
|
Macaroni |
1 can |
6-8 years |
|
Pinto Beans |
1 can |
6-8 years |
|
White Sugar |
1 can |
20+ years |
|
Powdered Milk |
1 can |
2-3 years |
|
Cooking Oil – or – |
1-24 oz bottle |
2 years |
|
Shortening* |
1-3# can |
8-10 years |
|
Salt |
2-8 oz shakers |
20+ years |
I’m sure these recipes do the best possible job of turning basic staples into edible meals, but wow. Why cook with only those ingredients when it’s easy and inexpensive to add spices, a few cans of vegetables and meats, and a few cans of powdered butter, cheese, and eggs to turn those edible meals into appealing meals? Appetite fatigue is a very real issue, particularly among children and (in my experience) women.
Also, I’d drop those cans of wheat berries and replace them with white flour, macaroni, spaghetti, rice, other other bulk carbohydrates. Wheat berries must be ground unless you intend to boil them down to mush, and grinding is time-consuming and takes a lot of effort. And a good manual grinder isn’t cheap. Better to store bulk staples that don’t require processing. And, unless you and your family already eat a diet heavy in whole wheat, the effects of suddenly changing to heavy consumption of whole wheat are likely to be unpleasant. For those reasons, I don’t store wheat berries, period.