Me again.  Hey, my wife and I have bought a half a share of our local CSA in New Hampshire and it is absolutely awesome!!!  We love it and I can not recommend doing this enough for your family yourself.

Let me break it down for you because I am sure a lot of people out there don’t have a clue of what I am talking about here.  Well, a CSA stands for community supported agriculture and we have these local CSA groups in practically every state so I am sure there is one near you.  If you would like to find one near you then you should check this link to see where one is located near you.

You see, you can buy shares of this CSA (local farm) and you will have fresh organic veggies delivered (or picked up) to your door once per week.  At the beginning of the season, you get a list of the many vegetables that the farm grows and you check off what your likes and dislikes are so you will never be stuck with something you don’t like.  The prices are very reasonable and you don’t get anything fresher than going from farm to your door.

So far, we have been delivered the most awesome vegetables every week like clockwork and you can tell that the quality is much higher than anything you get in the supermarket.  Also, while you are getting wholesome foods that are healthy for your family you are also supporting your local farmers which is healthy for your community.  Talk about a win-win situation!!!

However, if you live in New Hampshire (like me) then you must check out the CSA we use because they are fantastic and I highly recommend them.  They have been great and the quality of the foods are outstanding.  We look forward to our new delivery every week which just so happens to be today : )  So, if you do live in NH then go to www.nhcsa.com.  I never knew that it would feel so good to support my local farmer!

Your Victory Garden Man

Howdy everyone!

I know we have gone over some basic instructions on how to can and preserve certain foods over the past couple of months, however, I stumbled on an awesome e-book which outlines how to can and preserve foods with multiple methods.

this e-book details how to do the water bath method, pressure canning method as well as the dehydrator method of preserving your fresh fruits and veggies!  This book is great for all those who would like more information on the proper methods to do this as well as to learn some great recipes in canning food for your long term food storage.

The book is called the Ultimate Guide to Canning and Preserving and it not only gives great advice on how to do all of the various methods of canning but also tells you where to begin regarding what kind of canning equipment you will need in detail.

I thought it was great and I highly recommend picking this book up if you are serious about learning these tools.  Click here to download your own copy of this excellent e-book now!

Your most humble survival canning guy/victory garden man!

Your Victory Garden Man

OK, now we are going to focus on the next stage in the preparation of our survival food storage plan.  However, lets get a little corny right off the bat and remember the five P’s before preparing any type of food…Here goes…Ready!?  Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.  Ta Daaa!  Of course, what I mean here is to make sure you have all of the food storage supplies and equipment at hand before you start canning food.  For example, you don’t want to find out that you don’t have any oxygen absorbers just as you are pouring the dry bulk food into your food storage container.

Now, lets get started with all of the canning tools you are going to need in order to store rice, for example.  Keep in mind that whatever we are going to be storing, for our long term food supply, in bulk needs to have a moisture level of 10% or lower in order to stay fresh for years.  Most dry bulk foods store well for 5-20 years, if done properly, and you don’t need expensive canning machines to do it.  I will post a chart in the near future that shows shelf life for each individual food.  For now we will just be focusing on how to dry can rice (10 year shelf life with this process) but here is a list of other things that we could easily be using today as well.

Grains : Oats, White Rice, Wheat, and Corn
Milled Grain Products : White Flour, Degermed Corn Meal, and Rice Flour.
Legumes : Beans, Split Peas, and Lentils
Nonfat Dry Milk: Regular and Instant
Dehydrated Fruits and Vegetables : Apples, Carrots, Onions, and Potatoes (Must be dry enough, both inside and out to snap when bent)

Got rice? check!  OK, we have a huge bag of rice that we want to store for looong time on the shelf.  The food storage container should be dense enough to keep little critters from getting into it thus stealing your emergency food supplies as well as causing early spoilage.

We can use up to a five gallon bucket or a food storage container as small as a pint mason jar in order to do this and it just depends on the amount of food we feel comfortable storing in one food container.  For example, a family of two might not want to store flour in a five gallon bucket because it might spoil before they get to use it all…Well, duh!!!

The important thing here is the fact that whatever container we use, it must be able to block air (oxygen) from getting inside thus creating spoilage so if you are going to recycle an old plastic container then the seal must still be able to work.  Mason jars with a new lid are ideal for smaller amounts of dry bulk food storage because these lids have a great seal.

For this demonstration, we will be using the big boy!  I am going to get crazy and use the 5 gallon bucket for our example lined with a Mylar bag.  The Mylar bag should easily fill the bucket when placed inside.  There are various sizes of these bags and the proper size should be fitted before using a 5 gallon bucket.

Five gallon bucket and Mylar bags?  Check!  Once the Mylar bag is placed in the bucket you want to place an oxygen absorber at the bottom then you are ready to pour your rice into the bag and you want to fill the bag half way.  Put an oxygen absorber in with the rice at the half way mark and then again when the Mylar bag is full.  We really want to make sure that our food storage is going to be safe to eat in the event that we will need it.  However, the size of the food container determines how many oxygen absorber we need to use and 3 is good for a 5 gallon bucket.  Remember to leave enough room at the top of the bag for sealing!

Note:  Oxygen absorbers come in varying sizes and the proper size should be used given the size of the container used.  For our 5 gallon bucket example, three 500 cc size oxygen absorbers are used.

Note:  The 5 gallon bucket is only to keep pests out and is not the main barrier of oxygen.  The food storage bags (Mylar bags) are metallic and keep oxygen out while the oxygen absorbers reduce the oxygen to 1% or less inside the bag.

OK, Food is in the Mylar bag, Mylar bag is in bucket and oxygen absorbers are in place? Check!  Now it is time to seal the Mylar bag using a heat sealer.  I highly suggest physically squeezing out any additional air that may be trapped in the bag before using the heat sealer.  This will ensure that the number of oxygen absorbers we use are able to do the job.

Note:  You want to make sure you seal the bag as quickly as you can because oxygen absorbers start activating quickly once they come in contact with air.

Alright, push Mylar bag down into bucket, snap the plastic lid into place and you are ready to add to your survival food storage.  Give yourself a hand!!  That was pretty painless and now you have a food source that will stay good for a very long time on the shelf.

Keep in mind that the Mylar bags do not have to be used if using smaller containers with air tight lids such as Kerr Jars or Mason Jars (with new lids) but the oxygen absorbers are always going to be used for dry food storage if you want to maximize the shelf life.

Please remember to store your emergency food supply in the coolest and driest place in the house.  You never want to store your survival food in an attic due to the extreme temperatures which can dramatically shorten the shelf life of the food and deplete the nutritional content quickly.  Also, a very damp basement will not be good either due to the fact that you want to keep moisture levels very low in order to keep molds from growing on or near your preserved foods.

Next assignment

On our next shopping trip, lets buy some canning equipment and supplies.  I say we start with quart sized Mason Jars to keep the process a little more simple so we don’t really need Mylar bags or a heat sealer this time around.  However, if you feel more adventurous then give it a go!  Let’s have some fun!!!

Using mason jars is so easy a caveman can do it.  Remember…no Mylar bags or 5 gallon buckets are needed for this homework assignment.

So, let’s pick up some quart sized Mason Jars (comes with the lids and rings), 1 large bag of rice and pick up some oxygen absorbers here.  Keep in mind that we will only need to use one oxygen absorber at the bottom (or top) of a quart sized Mason Jar instead of three due to the much smaller size and the size of the oxygen absorber should be 50 cc.

Note:  make sure you thoroughly wash and dry the mason jars before filling them with goodies

Ok, fill mason jar with rice and leave enough room at the top for your oxygen absorber.  Place oxygen absorber on top, put lid on and tighten the jar lid into place.  Holy cannoli, was that simple or what!?

Note:  you will notice that the lid will depress down just like any jar of food that you buy in the supermarket due to the oxygen being pulled out of the air thus creating a vacuum.  If this does not happen then the seal is not good and should not be trusted.

There you have it!  Fill as many jars as you like but feel free to use a different size that will fit your family needs.

Let’s go!

Your Victory Garden Man

Tips about long term emergency food storage

Some people get overwhelmed with the thought of starting their long-term food storage supply.  Let’s face it, the thought of storing food for emergencies, such as natural disasters or the loss of a job, can be quite a downer.

The thought of having to get a year or two of food storage together, all at once, is enough to cause even the wealthiest of individuals to procrastinate.  However, starting small and working your way up is really the best way to go and as your stockpile gets larger, the size of the task will start to get smaller.

Before you start stockpiling food, however, you must first find a place in a cool, dry area of the house (best place would be a basement) to make your long-term food pantry.  This area should be fitted with shelving or at least some type of palates to keep your food off of the floor.  Keeping your food supply off of the ground is imperative to the prevention of damage (eg. flooding, molds etc…).

Note:  Keeping a long-term food storage supply in an attic is not recommended because the last thing you want is for your food to spoil due to excessive heat.

I suggest beginning with the basics and stocking up on the kinds of food you and your family truly like to eat.  There is no sense in stocking items you don’t eat in your everyday life because eating things that you don’t really care for on a long-term basis will create food fatigue.

Obviously, you want to stick to items that have a long shelf-life.  When items you like go on sale, buy as many as you can at that point in time to put away into your long-term food pantry.  Designating a certain amount of money every week to your shopping trip for the sole purpose of buying the goods you plan on storing for the long-term is a good idea.

Another trick I use is to cut coupons.  I know this might sound a little hokey to some, but if you can combine coupons with items that are already on sale, your dollars will go a lot further.  There are whole entire websites dedicated to the topic of maximizing coupon usage, which are extremely helpful (ex. Slickdeals.net).  I can’t tell you how many times that we have been able to stockpile foods we enjoy for practically nothing by using this one technique.

You will be amazed how fast your supplies will grow once you start, but you must start sometime soon.  Set a short-term goal, such as getting a one-month food supply for one person in your family, then for two people and so on.  You will develop a mindset and an eye for the kinds of foods you will need to accumulate in order to create balanced meals for your long-term plan.

These are very simple food storage tips, but they are very effective for stockpiling your food even if you are on a tight budget.  These tips are only the beginning, however, and focusing on the distant future is the goal.

Starting at the local supermarket is a good idea, but there are different types of foods that you can buy in bulk to jar (mason jars) or preserve in order to maintain your emergency food supplies.  Various food storage containers (other than mason jars) can also be used for this purpose as well.

However, these techniques require some canning equipment and supplies in order to do it right.  Using these techniques will also come in handy when preserving the foods you have grown yourself.

I will be getting into this in more detail in my next blog, but I don’t want to get too far ahead.  My goal is to educate and help you prepare your home food storage, while creating as little anxiety as possible.  Our tendency is to ignore what has been presented to us if the task seems too great.

However, time is of the essence, in this day and age, and a long winter is quickly approaching.  If you have had your eyes open these past few years, then you know what I am talking about, so we do need to act as swiftly as we can.

Homework

On your next shopping trip, designate $5…$10…$15 (as much as you can) or so dollars to buying some type of food you like that has a long shelf-life, such as canned soups or vegetables, pasta, rice and beans. It does not take a whole lot of money to get started, so even those who have to operate on a limited budget should be able to get this done.

Just remember to focus on the stuff that is on sale and check for coupons before going to the supermarket, especially if funds are tight.  Heck, you might even start to have a little fun in the process.  Sounds pretty painless if you ask me!

Plan this year to make food storage a priority for your family. Make it a goal to see how much you can accomplish by the end of 2010.

Your Victory Garden Man

Food is wealth

The basic sustenance of life. Without this, we can not go very far before our bodies and minds break down. Without food, nothing else matters yet throughout our journey in life we feel the need to hoard “stuff” that collects dust in our basements (and throughout our whole house for that matter).

That treadmill you bought 7 years ago that never gets used, a box full of old dishes that are perfectly fine but for some reason needed to be replaced and tons of nick knacks that revolved throughout homes as new and improved nick knacks came to market.

As a society, we have fallen into the “more is better” mentality and that the neighbor with the bigger house with all of the toys (ATV’s, snowmobiles, fancy cars, etc…) is rich. However, that same neighbor has probably no more than a week or two worth of food in the house.

We have come to be way too comfortable in this country and we have no clue how most of the food we acquire even makes it to our local grocery stores. Most of us take for granted that practically every time we go to the grocery store, the shelves are packed with everything from apples to ice cream.

What if I was to tell you that our food supply chain were actually holding on by a very thin thread and that at any time in our near future you could wake up and virtually find that no food were to be found in the grocery stores? Does this sound ridiculous to you? Would you call me crazy?

Well, you can call me crazy all you want but that is exactly what could be coming to a local grocery store near you at any moment especially in the current economic situation America is finding itself in right now.

You see, in America we have what is called “just in time” inventory in which our grocery stores (as well as non-grocery stores) get deliveries just as the shelves empty of any given product. So, just as the last box of Frosted Flakes is being sold a new shipment is just arriving. That is quite magical isn’t it!?

However, most of us don’t think about what would happen if there were some type of disruption to this “just in time” delivery process to our grocery stores. I can tell you that this type of thing does happen quite frequently throughout the country all the time on relatively small scales.

I can tell you from experience (living in New England) that that is just what happened here last year when we were hit by a bad ice storm in which large portions of the state went without electricity for about two weeks.

Food evaporated from supermarket shelves overnight and trucks with new deliveries sat idle waiting for the power to kick back on. People scrambled to local hardware stores to buy electric generators only to find that they too evaporated from shelves. Food spoils very quickly when electricity turns off.

Now, this was from only two weeks of no electricity. What if it were longer next time? What if next time the supply chain is halted from some other type of event such as another terrorist attack? How do you think the prices of food would react if gasoline were to spike to $5…$7…or even $10?

Do you think about what the devastating effect of a hyperinflationary environment would have on the price of food? What if the power shut down for two months? How about six months? What do you think America would look like if this were to happen?

These are the questions we need to ask ourselves America! We need to wake up to the multitude of possible disruptions to our “just-in-time” inventory system we have backed ourselves into a corner with.

We are screaming toward a new depression style era and self sufficiency will be the key to avoiding a lot of pain in the not too distant future. We will need to learn to grow more of our own foods and preserve them so they will last longer on the shelves at home.

Buying foods in bulk now and canning them will help us avoid paying much higher prices later when inflation runs out of control and will keep us from going hungry in the case of a national emergency.

Any one of these scenarios is not only possible but probable due to the economic and political position we find ourselves in today. God always helps those who help themselves.

A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. Proverbs 22:3