If you missed the other posts in this series, you can find them here:
Food Storage Tip #2: Food Storage Will Allow You to Give
Food Storage Tip #3: Try White Wheat
One thing that kept me from starting a food storage program for quite a while was the excuse that I didn’t have a wheat grinder, and I didn’t know how to use wheat. I knew I was supposed to store X amount of grains for each person, and I just assumed (naively) that most of that would be in wheat. I had some rice too, but I thought all food storage consisted of buckets and buckets of wheat that could be ground and used in breads, sprouted and used in salads, or washed and used as a meat substitute. All that sounded very overwhelming to me, and I just couldn’t bring myself to get started for quite a while.
I have overcome some of that fear. I now use wheat all the time in bread, and I have sprouted it. I have still never created “wheat meat;” although, I likely will sometime. I’m interested just to see what it is like.
Since I’ve overcome my fears, I now highly recommend learning to use wheat. It truly is incredible! However, if you are like I was and aren’t sure you are ready to store a bunch of wheat and buy a grinder, then I have a suggestion. I wish I could have told myself this years ago:
Many grains have a very long shelf life, and are far easier to cook than wheat. What sort of grains does your family eat every day? Rice? Oats? Pasta? All three of these foods have a very long shelf life, especially when store correctly (vacuum sealed away from light and heat). Oats and white rice will store 30+ years. Pasta is closer to 5-10 years if stored as mentioned above or 2-3 years if you just store it in the box you get from the store.
What about flour or cornmeal? Many of you likely use those items often in baking. They have a shelf life of about five years when properly stored and are easy to use.
One of my favorite grains is quinoa. With its 20 year shelf life, it works very well as a replacement for brown rice (which has a very short shelf life) and is incredibly nutritious and as easy to cook as rice.
Or, maybe you are comfortable with wheat and are ready to branch out bit and increase the variety of grains you are storing. Have you tried amaranth (try popping it), barley, millet, oat groats? Branch out! You DO NOT want to store just one or two foods in your food storage. Not only would you get tired of those foods very quickly, eating just one or two foods for an extended period of time would make you ill.
Want to learn more? My friend Heather, over at Cooking with my Food Storage, talked all about this a while back. She has some fun charts and details that are helpful. Check it out!
I am an independent consultant for THRIVE Life (formerly Shelf Reliance); a company with a mission to empower others to become self reliant, prosperous and charitable. You can learn more about THRIVE Life (formerly Shelf Reliance), becoming a THRIVE Life (formerly Shelf Reliance) consultant ,buying their products, or earning free products, on my THRIVE Life (formerly Shelf Reliance) Consultant website.