"Food Storage" by Featherstone, May 1976, Part 2

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Here is the second half of Bishop Featherstone's talk:

The Lord will make it possible, if we make a firm commitment, for every Latter-day Saint family to have a year’s supply of food reserves by April 1977. All we have to do is to decide, commit to do it, and then keep the commitment. Miracles will take place; the way will be opened, and next April we will have our storage areas filled. We will prove through our actions our willingness to follow our beloved prophet and the Brethren, which will bring security to us and our families.

Now regarding home production: Raise animals where means and local laws permit. Plant fruit trees, grapevines, berry bushes, and vegetables. You will provide food for your family, much of which can be eaten fresh. Other food you grow can be preserved and included as part of your home storage. Wherever possible, produce your nonfood necessities of life. Sew and mend your own clothing. Make or build needed items. I might also add, beautify, repair, and maintain all of your property.

Home production of food and nonfood items is a way to stretch your income and to increase your skills and talents. It is a way to teach your family to be self-sufficient. Our children are provided with much needed opportunities to learn the fundamentals of work, industry, and thrift. President Romney has said, “We will see the day when we will live on what we produce.” (Conference Reports, April 1975, p. 165.)

I should like to address a few remarks to those who ask, “Do I share with my neighbors who have not followed the counsel? And what about the nonmembers who do not have a year’s supply? Do we have to share with them?” No, we don’t have to share—we get to share! Let us not be concerned about silly thoughts of whether we would share or not. Of course we would share! What would Jesus do? I could not possibly eat food and see my neighbors starving. And if you starve to death after sharing, “greater love hath no man than this …” (John 15:13.)

Now what about those who would plunder and break in and take that which we have stored for our families’ needs? Don’t give this one more idle thought. There is a God in heaven whom we have obeyed. Do you suppose he would abandon those who have kept his commandments? He said, “If ye are prepared, ye need not fear.” (D&C 38:30.) Prepare, O men of Zion, and fear not. Let Zion put on her beautiful garments. Let us put on the full armor of God. Let us be pure in heart, love mercy, be just, and stand in holy places. Commit to have a year’s supply of food by April 1977.

Bishops and stake presidents, let us accept the challenge on behalf of the Saints in our wards and stakes. It will prove to be a very Christlike deed on your part. Follow through and check up one year from now and make certain we achieve results.

In his October 1973 conference address, President Ezra Taft Benson gave some excellent instructions about home storage:

“For the righteous the gospel provides a warning before a calamity, a program for the crises, a refuge for each disaster. …

“The Lord has warned us of famines, but the righteous will have listened to prophets and stored at least a year’s supply of survival food. …

“Brethren and sisters, I know that this welfare program is inspired of God. I have witnessed with my own eyes the ravages of hunger and destitution as, under the direction of the president of the Church, I spent a year in war-torn Europe at the close of World War II, without my family, distributing food, clothing, and bedding to our needy members. I have looked into the sunken eyes of Saints, in almost the last stages of starvation. I have seen faithful mothers carrying their children, three and four years of age, who were unable to walk because of malnutrition. I have seen a hungry woman turn down food for a spool of thread. I have seen grown men weep as they ran their hands through the wheat and beans sent to them from Zion—America.

“Thanks be to God for a prophet, for this inspired program, and for Saints who so managed their stewardship that they could provide for their own and still share with others.” (“Prepare Ye,” Ensign, Jan. 1974, pp. 69, 81–82.)

I bear my humble witness to you that the great God of heaven will open doors and means in a way we never would have supposed to help all those who truly want to get their year’s supply. I know we will have time and money if we will commit and keep the commitment. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

"Food Storage" by Featherstone, May 1976, Part 1

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This is one of the most quoted Conference talks about food storage. Here is the first half of Bishop Featherstone's talk:

I suggest that one year from today we ought to have a year’s supply of food... Now here are some suggestions how:

1. Follow the prophet. He has counseled us to plant a garden and fruit trees. This year don’t just think about it—do it. Grow all the food you possibly can. Also remember to buy a year’s supply of garden seeds so that, in case of a shortage, you will have them for the following spring. I’m going to tell you where to get the money for all the things I’m going to suggest.

2. Find someone who sells large bulk of grains, depending on your locale. Make arrangements to buy a ton or so of grain.

3. Find someone who sells honey in large containers and make arrangements to buy what you can afford on a regular basis or buy a little additional sugar each time you go to the store.

4. Purchase dry milk from the store or dairy, on a systematic basis.

5. Buy a case of salt the next time you go to the store. In most areas, 24 one-pound packages will cost you less than $5.

6. Store enough water for each member of your family to last for at least two weeks....



Now you ask, “Where do I get the money for these things?.....”

Here is how you do it.

1. Decide as a family this year that 25 or 50 percent of your Christmas will be spent on a year’s supply. Many families in the Church spend considerable sums of money for Christmas. Half or part of these Christmas monies will go a long way toward purchasing the basics. I recall the Scotsman who went to the doctor and had an X-ray taken of his chest. Then he had the X-ray gift-wrapped and gave it to his wife for their anniversary. He couldn’t afford a gift, but he wanted her to know his heart was in the right place. Brethren, give your wife a year’s supply of wheat for Christmas, and she’ll know your heart is in the right place.

2. When you desire new clothes, don’t buy them. Repair and mend and make your present wardrobe last a few months longer. Use that money for the food basics. Make all of your nonfood necessities that you feasibly can, such as furniture and clothing.

3. Cut the amount of money you spend on recreation by 50 percent. Do fun things that do not require money outlay but make more lasting impressions on your children.

4. Decide as a family that there will be no vacation or holiday next year unless you have your year’s supply. Many Church members could buy a full year’s supply of the basics from what they would save by not taking a vacation. Take the vacation time and work on a family garden. Be together, and it can be just as much fun.

5. If you haven’t a year’s supply yet and you do have boats, snowmobiles, campers, or other luxury possessions, sell or trade one or two or more of them and get your year’s supply.

6. Watch advertised specials in the grocery stores and pick up extra supplies of those items that are of exceptional value.

7. Change the mix in your family’s diet. Get your protein from sources less expensive than meat. The grocery bill is one bill that can be cut. Every time you enter the store and feel tempted by effective and honest merchandising to buy cookies, candy, ice cream, non-food items, or magazines—don’t! Think carefully; buy only the essentials. Then figure what you have saved and spend it on powdered milk, sugar, honey, salt, or grain.

First Time to Wax Cheese

I melted the cheese wax in the double boiler, and dipped the cheese in. I let it cool and then dipped the other side.

I had to dip each piece at least 4 times, then, in addition, I also painted the melted wax on with a special boar-bristle brush to make the wax thick enough.

After I thought it was thick enough, I wrote a label and stuck it on with melted wax. Then did one more coat over the label.

I had purchased the cheddar and parmesan cheese for half price at Harris Teeter. The swiss didn't work at all, I won't do swiss again. But the cheddar and parmesan was easy to do.

Here is all the cheese I did at one time.

Preserving Cheese with Wax

I am so happy to have found this blog post by Kellene Bishop telling how to preserve cheese using wax! After waxing, it will keep for up to 25 years!
http://preparednesspro.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/cheese-wax-will-save-us-all-2/

So I found this source for buying some red cheese wax, and a boar bristle brush.
http://www.cheesemaking.com/cheesemakingnecessities.html

The red cheese wax costs:

$5.50 for 1 pound, or
$20 for 5 pounds, or
$35 for 10 pounds.

Then I bought a used set of double boiler pan on Craigslist for cheap.

And I bought some cheese on half price. I'll show what I did with it on tomorrow's post.

More about waxing cheese to preserve it.

http://preparednesspro.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/settling-the-cheese-wax-controversy/

Flashlights with Alternative Power

I keep looking for flashlights that don't use batteries. Here are some I have found in local stores:



You squeeze the lever over and over on this one to charge it. $2 at Northern Tool at South Hills Mall, Cary.



$10.88, Walmart, Morrisville. You wind this crank around and around.



You shake this one to charge it. $6 at Northern Tool in South Hills Mall in Cary.

Self-reliance

(Just a reminder, the baby quilt service project is tonight at the stake center, 6:30 pm. Bring scissors. Then the Relief Society broadcast starts at 8:00 pm.)


Self-reliance is drawing upon our own resources to care for ourselves and our families before calling upon others for help. A person may be self-reliant and still not be fully self-sustaining. Having done all possible for self, he or she may still need additional resources. Many aged people and those with disabilities are self-reliant, but still need additional assistance. We are all children of our Heavenly Father and are dependent upon Him for all that we have. However, He will not do for us what we can do for ourselves, and He expects us to be self-reliant.

"Independence and self-reliance are critical keys to our spiritual growth. Whenever we get into a situation which threatens our self-reliance, we will find our freedom threatened as well. If we increase our dependence, we will find an immediate decrease in our freedom to act" (Marion G. Romney, Ensign, June 1984, 5).

"Can we see how critical self-reliance becomes when looked upon as the prerequisite to service, when we also know service is what godhood is all about? Without self-reliance one cannot exercise these innate desires to serve. How can we give if there is nothing there? Food for the hungry cannot come from empty shelves. Money to assist the needy cannot come from an empty purse. Support and understanding cannot come from the emotionally starved. Teaching cannot come from the unlearned. And most important of all, spiritual guidance cannot come from the spiritually weak" (Marion G. Romney, Ensign, June 1984, 6).

(From the Provident Living website)

Bottles of Water Per Day

(Each photo shows one day of water use.)

Last week, while I was doing the 7-Day Challenge, there were two different days where I had to pretend that I had no tap water.

There are three of us in our house. But two of them were mostly gone all day, so they used water elsewhere. I was very frugal with my bottles of water, so this is not too realistic (I did no laundry, washed very few dishes, didn't wash my hair, and hardly flushed the toilets.) But you can see how many bottles of water I used (for drinking, cooking, flushing toilets and washing hands) on each of the days.

This is THE VERY MINIMUM I would possibly plan on. There is no way I could have lived on less than this, and I could definitely have used a lot more.

Car Emergency Kits

CAR EMERGENCY KITS
Another part of the Day 6 Challenge was to stay stranded in your car for an hour while you are changing a tire, and see if you have what you need. I didn't do that (I changed the tire in my driveway) but I got prepared for having car trouble by making emergency kits for each of our vehicles. I painted "Emergency Kit" on several containers, and filled them with things like flashlights, first aid items, mylar emergency blankets, diapers for our grandkids, duct tape, umbrella, some cash, a magic marker, and heavy paper to make signs with. I also put some bottles of water in my trunk, and a box of Cheerios in case I am stranded with the grandkids. I'm hoping the heat won't ruin the Cheerios.



Then, for the 7th day of the challenge on Monday, we were supposed to:

" Organize your kitchen pantry, and food storage areas. Inventory your long term food storage and three-month storage items. Make a complete list of what you still need to buy." I had already done a lot of those over the past six months, so I was pretty much done.

I feel good about the things I learned on the 7-Day Challenge, and plan to do it again next September.

Day 6 Challenge: Change a Tire

Day 6 Challenge- Stranded with a Flat Tire.

I couldn't get this done on Sunday, so Monday morning I forced myself to change a tire on my car. Wayne stood by and gave directions, but the rules said that he couldn't do any of the work.

First, I had to find the spare tire and jack under the floor of the trunk. I got out the spare (it wasn't too heavy for me), also an outdoor blanket to sit on.

I tried to take off the hubcaps but they were really tricky. Wayne had to show me how to do that or I may not have figured it out.

Then I had to take off the lugnuts. They had been tightened by the auto shop using a torque wrench, so they were on much too tight. The regular wrench that came with the car was no good, I couldn't get any torque with it.

Luckily, we had a star wrench. Turning it by hand didn't work.



The only way I got the lugnuts to budge was by stepping on one handle while I pulled up on another handle with all my might, as you can see in the second photo. I nearly gave up, it was so difficult. But I finally succeeded in loosening them all.





Then we looked at the owner's manual to find out where to put the jack. I had to lay on the blanket on the ground to find where to attach it.

Then I raised the car up on the jack until I could see light under the tire.

I took the lugnuts off and put them inside the center cap of the hubcap. (See example in photo.) When you change a tire on the side of the road, you can easily lose the lugnuts in the grass if you don't put them inside the hubcap. Another thing you can see in this photo is the wrench that comes with the jack. That wrench was worthless to get the lugnuts off, remember ladies, you HAVE to buy a star wrench.




I knelt on the blanket while lifting off the very heavy tire.

I put on spare, and had to learn which way the lugnuts went on. I had to tighten them up in a star pattern.

Then when I went to put the old tire into the trunk, it was too heavy, so I had to wrap it in the blanket and lift it up against my body, to load it into the trunk. The whole thing took about 45 minutes. (Of course, then I had to do everything in reverse to put the tire back onto the car.)

THINGS I LEARNED:

Pay AAA to change your tires. But if you can't do that....

Keep an old blanket in your trunk. I used it throughout the whole ordeal, to sit on, kneel on, lay on, and wrap the tire for picking it up. At one point I even wrapped it around the star wrench handle for padding because the metal hurt my hand when I was pulling so hard.

Women aren't strong enough to use the wrench that comes with the car. Buy a star wrench, you can get better torque by stepping on one handle while you push up with your hands on the other handle. There is no way I could have loosened the lugnuts without this.

Day 5 Challenge- Extreme Weather Conditions

(Sorry, it has taken me a few days to load this post. I've been having internet trouble.)

Day 5- SATURDAY- NATURAL DISASTER- EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS

This was the challenge for Saturday. Depending on where you live, pick an extreme weather emergency common to your area and live it. (I chose conditions after a hurricane and during an ice storm. You will notice that I changed quite a few of the rules to make them fit the conditions for these two weather situations.) They said "you have water, but you don't have electricity or natural gas." I chose to say we have water, we don't have electricity, but WE DO have natural gas.

They said my fridge food is ruined, but I say my fridge food is fine, because right after a hurricane eating up your fridge food is the first thing you need to do. So today we are eating out of our fridge, and cooking in the solar oven and on the camp stove.

Note: We have not been able to buy anything from the store since Monday, Sept. 13. We ran out of real milk on Wednesday. So we have been living on powdered milk, powdered eggs, and all the food storage we have in our house.

My own personal goals for the day:

Cook more food in the solar oven.

About 11:00 am I mixed some banana bread batter, and put it into a bundt pan (the bundt pan was shiny aluminum and it should have been dark, but I don't own a dark one yet.) I put the pan into the preheated solar oven at 11:35. It baked for 1 hr and 25 min. and the temperature reached 325 degrees. I got it out at 1:00.

While it was in the solar oven, I put water and raw vegetables in a black pot, inside a clear oven-roasting bag, sitting on an aluminum pie pan to reflect the heat, and set it out in the sun to pre warm.

After I took the banana bread out of the solar oven, I immediately put the black pot into the solar oven at 1:00. When I opened the oven to switch the food, the temperature dropped from 325 to 250 degrees. Within 25 minutes it was back up to 320.

I cooked the vegetables for 40 minutes, the water wasn't boiling yet even though the thermometer said 320. But the carrots were a little softer than raw (I like them crunchy) so they were almost done.

Learn to use our camping stove.
I am afraid of fire so I don't like to use camp stoves or grills or matches. But our stove was surprisingly easy to light. I boiled some water in a coffeepot placed on the top.


Figure out how to hang blankets around our stairwell to trap the heat in the downstairs if we have to use our gas log to heat our living room.
We could put a board across and nail it into the wall, and fasten or nail a blanket to that. It will make holes in the wall, but they will be relatively easy to patch and paint later. It will be easier to stay warm in the one room with the gas log if we have the stairwell blocked off. Otherwise, all the heat will rise into the upstairs.

Things I learned:

After so many days without real milk, I finally drank some cold powdered milk (because I wanted milk with my banana bread.) I found that if I added a little vanilla to my glass of milk, it tasted a tiny bit like melted vanilla ice cream instead of that stale powdered milk flavor. It was actually good that way. I will never drink powdered milk plain again, I will always add vanilla from now on. (Note to self: Buy more vanilla for my food storage.)

Using my food storage in the past couple of years, I have learned that stocking up on Wheat Thins or mayonnaise or olives, etc. when they are on a really good sale is a great way to save money. I went to the grand opening of a grocery store near my home this week (yes, I was cheating on the Challenge because I wanted to see their Grand Opening prices, but I ended up not buying anything so technically I didn't actually cheat) and I couldn't find a single thing to buy for food storage. All of their loss leaders were things I had already stocked up on, and I didn't need any more. That tells me that most of my food has been purchased at the lowest prices I could find them during the year.

Evicted Family Moves In (Fake)

Yesterday (Friday) the challenge on http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/ was supposed to be having a family move in with you unexpectedly. I was supposed to make enough food all day for 6 extra people, who were vegetarians, and see if I had enough sleeping arrangements and hygiene items for everyone, and see if I had enough food for that many people.

Honestly, I was tired after spending almost full-time on Tues, Wed, and Thursday doing mock disasters, so I took Friday off.

But I did take stock of my supplies:

I know I have enough toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, towels, and blankets. I probably need to get some more sheets. I have a blowup mattress and three other foam mattresses, plus about 5 camping foam mattresses.

Here is a hint for storing extra blankets. They are very puffy and take up a lot of room in the linen closet. Instead of folding them and keeping them in the linen closet, I lay out a couple of blankets on each box springs or bed springs, and then lay the mattress on top of that. That enables each bed to have a couple of extra blankets stored right underneath.

Having extra blankets makes me feel good, because in this area we have ice storms where the power goes out, and the blankets will help us keep warm in a situation like that.

EMP Attack- No water, no power on Thursday

Written Sept. 16, 2010 Thursday

We have already had (Tues) a day without any water, and (Wed) cooking from scratch. On Wednesday I was relieved to have water, so I took a shower and washed my hair, and did all the laundry and cleaned the kitchen. I didn't expect to be without water again. And of course I didn't take a shower this morning, I should have done that before checking the computer. I looked at the email from http://FoodStorageMadeEasy.net/ , and DANG! I found out the challenge for today is a double whammy, no power and no water!

DAY THREE CHALLENGE: TERRORIST ATTACK, EMP: ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE

The EMP has rendered all electricity and electrical devices in your entire country to be useless (including municipal water pumps). Pretend the food in the fridge has already gone bad. Can't use any electronics, except the computer to report on this challenge. Can't drive. Can't communicate with your family. It is interesting, I learned a new word: TEOTWAYKI. That means "The End of the World as You Know It". Thats what we're supposed to be living today.

ASSIGNMENT: Cook and clean up all of your meals without power or water.
ASSIGNMENT: Grind wheat by hand and use it in a recipe today.

I stupidly left a half dishwasher of dirty dishes last night, I should have known better. But I'm just going to leave them in there, and run the dishwasher tomorrow.

We have lots and lots of paper plates and paper towels. I am so glad, because on a day like today we are really going through them.

I just ordered a solar oven, so now is the day to learn how to use it. I just hope it is sunny enough.

I opened the solar oven, set it all up. I had read that you should preheat all your ingredients, so while I was setting it up I put lasagna noodles (uncooked) in a black bottle and set that in the sun. Then I put a pot of water inside the solar oven. It took about an hour to heat to 300 degrees, so I opened the oven and added the warmed noodles to the water and closed the glass. The oven had dropped to 250 degrees. It took 40 minutes until I saw that the glass was all foggy and I heard boiling. I took out the noodles and they were cooked.



I had poured a can of spaghetti sauce into another black jar, it was warming in the sun for one hour. I am just going to pour that over the noodles when it is warm. It doesn't need to boil. (It heated the sauce to 110 degrees.)

The oven was empty, so I started my next item. I added preheated water from another black jar to a package of Zatarain's Black Beans and Rice. Cooked it for 45 minutes in a pot, and it was done. (The thermometer said 310 degrees.)

Then I had made cornbread batter (using a little wheat flour) and put it into two round cake pans, stacked on top of each other with a grill in between. Before I opened the oven, it was 300 degrees, but after I put the cornbread in, it had dropped to 250 degrees. I baked them in the solar oven for 50 minutes before it was done. It was good corn bread.





While I had all those bottles out in the sun, I thought of something else. I had some honey that had gone hard. I put the bottle inside an oven-roasting plastic bag, and sat that in an aluminum baking pan, to reflect the heat up onto the honey bottle. I left it in the sun for more than an hour, and most of the honey had turned back into liquid.

I know that wasn't a very good mixture of food items, but I wanted to boil something, prepare something from a box, and bake something.

(Note: I didn't use my hand wheat grinder today, but I had just used it two weeks ago and I knew how to use it. I didn't want to get it out and clean it up afterward so I didn't do that.)

ASSIGNMENT: No water.
Once again, I got a pop bottle full of frozen water out of my freezer and have been drinking from that all day. I love ice water!
I set bottles of water near every sink in the bathrooms and kitchen. Only flushed the toilets a few times. One flush takes 3 sodapop bottles full of water.

ASSIGNMENT: No electricity.

Well, I didn't flip my breakers. But I did put tape over all my light switches, because I found myself turning on lights without thinking. The garage was dark, had to use a flashlight. I just bought a bunch of Shaking powered flashlights for $6 at Northern Tools (you shake them to generate power) and a bunch of Squeeze powered flashlights for $2 at Northern Tools (you squeeze a little lever a bunch of times to generate power) so I am all set with flashlights everywhere. We'll see how we do tonight.

(Later) My husband taught me how to turn on his new lantern, it was easy. So we had a lantern sitting in the kitchen and we all stayed in there all evening. It was the only light in the house. Other than that, we used flashlights.

ASSIGNMENT: Walk or ride a bike anywhere you need to go today.
I stayed home all day.

ASSIGNMENT: Entertain yourself and your kids without electricity the entire day.

I had to get on the computer to get the challenge, so I checked my email and answered the things that were pressing. I didn't check the news or the weather or any other interesting websites that I usually check each day. THEN I PULLED THE PLUG ON THE COMPUTER. So I won't be getting back on the internet today.(Got back on at night to load this post.)

I got on my laptop, because I have been typing my 7-Day Challenge experiences each day. I decided to leave this laptop on and use it without plugging it in and without the internet. I will see how long the battery lasts.

I kept singing to myself, and my first thought would be, Oh, I need to turn on some music, but then I couldn't. Or, I'll just turn on the TV while I'm doing this, but I couldn't. Its amazing how I always have something on to entertain myself when I am alone in the house.

I kept meaning to read scriptures during the day but I read them after it was dark so I had to use a flashlight.

ASSIGNMENT: Turn off air conditioner.
Okay, I totally cheated on this one. We just spent a bunch of money to have our air conditioner fixed and I don't care about getting points for this one. I do not want to be hot, I will live through hotness when a real disaster comes.

ASSIGNMENT: At some point today (make it a surprise for your family) you see a pack of looters making their way through your neighborhood. You have 15 minutes to collect your grab list items and one meal worth of food. Evacuate on foot to a nearby park and stay away from home for 2 hours.

Never did that.

ASSIGNMENT: Jot down some ideas on how you would live and function in a sustained post-EMP environment.
I would learn to do more things during the daylight and less things after dark. I would rearrange my life so that I would be cooking most of every day.


ASSIGNMENT: (Optional) Stay away from home the entire day without your car, with all your grab list items, eating only out of your disaster kit, for 5 extra points.
Didn't do it today, but I did live out of my 72-hour kit on the day I went to Washington D.C. for a huge rally on 8-28. Had to carry my food and water for the day. It is really hard to lug everything around. I learned what I do and do not like to eat in a 72 hour kit.

Report on Cooking from Scratch Challenge

(Written yesterday, Sept. 15, 2010)

Today I woke up and took a shower and washed my hair. I was afraid to look at my email to see what the challenge was for today until AFTER I had taken a shower.

I looked at the email from http://FoodStorageMadeEasy.net/ , and it said the challenge is:

DAY TWO: Dietary Limitation: Cook all foods from scratch.

The rules were: Pretend you have an unknown allergy. Avoid ALL preservatives. Cook all your foods from scratch today, using ingredients you can pronounce. Do not use ANY pre-packaged or convenience-type foods.

I'm okay with this challenge, because I was afraid I would be told to evacuate or not use electricity today. I think this will be better.

For all seven days of the challenge, I can't go to the store or spend money or eat out. I am already out of milk, I made some powdered milk yesterday and it is in the fridge.

I was annoyed that I couldn't chew gum today. It has a list of unpronounceable ingredients a mile long.

Assignment: Cook breakfast from scratch.

I made Germade hot cereal (similar to Cream of Wheat). The ingredients list said "wheat farina, wheat bran, wheat germ". I boiled it with water, then added powdered milk and honey.

Then I did a ton of dishes from yesterday and watered my very dry garden.

Assignment: Cook lunch from scratch.

I had some cooked pasta in the fridge, was excited to make a pasta salad, but then looked at a similar pasta package and discovered a lot of unpronounceable ingredients. Had to skip the pasta.

So I cut up some mushrooms, and a cucumber (from my garden), added pine nuts and real parmesan cheese. Realized I have never made salad dressing before. So I decided to use vinegar and oil, but didn't know what kind of vinegar. I looked on the internet and found out I should not use white vinegar, they recommended red wine vinegar. Luckily we had some. It was a pretty good salad. And, I also ate some cooked carrots.

Assignment: Bake a loaf of homemade bread.
Baked 4 loaves of whole wheat bread.

Assignment: Make a delicious dessert from scratch.
Baked some Molasses Sugar Cookies.

Assignment: Cook dinner from scratch.
Ate canteloupe (my first canteloupe from my garden.) And homemade bread, and cookies. That wasn't a very well-balanced meal.

Assignment: Print out some of your favorite recipes to use in case the internet is down during an emergency.
All my recipes are printed out. Any time I use one from the internet, I print it. Plus, I have given all my favorite recipes in a book to my married kids, so if my copies ever gets destroyed I can get them back. I've heard that is one of the saddest things when your house gets destroyed, that no one can replace their favorite recipes.

Dietary Limitations Challenge Today

Today the challenge will be cooking everything from scratch, pretending I have a food allergy. Will report on that tomorrow.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/09/15/the-7-day-challenge-day-2-wednesday/

Report on Water Contamination Challenge

Written Sept. 14, 2010
I've been looking forward to the 7-Day Challenge, which I signed up for on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net. It is seven days in a row of mock disasters, which the participants try to live and then report on how they handled it. And Surprise! Today is the day it started! I got my email for the morning and discovered this:

Day One: Natural Disaster: Water Contamination

Assignment: Go and shut off the main water supply to your house immediately.
I got home and immediately turned off the water to the house. Then walked into the kitchen and saw how dirty it is. My dishwasher is mostly full of dirty dishes. I am choosing to let them sit in there until tomorrow, they will be stinky but I'm not going to handwash them all. I know that this "water outage" will only last one day. If it was truly broken, I would handwash them right now.

I got a frozen water jug out of the freezer, and sat it out for drinking as it thaws. I like to drink my icewater!
Then I got some water jugs out from behind the sofa and sat them around my kitchen sink.

When I got my hands dirty, I poured some water on my hands and washed them with handsoap and rinsed them. I noticed the water was going down the drain. I decided to put some clean paper towels on the counter and next time I will pour the water over that, then I can use the wet paper towels to clean up something, instead of wasting the water.

I would usually rinse out empty ketchup bottles to put into my recycling. Saw the empty dirty bottle, did not want to spare any of my water to rinse it out, so I put it in the recycling dirty.

Flushed the toilet very seldom, using jugs of water.

Wish I had a rainbarrel so I could water my garden. Decided to let it go one day without watering it.

I am amazed at how many times a day I wash my hands. I am using a lot of bottled water just for that.

Assignment: For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.

I saw that I was almost out of milk, so I made some powdered milk. Used a can from 1991. We will see if we ever drink it, or if we just use it for cooking. I have always disliked powdered milk for drinking.

After it was cold, I took a swig. It didn't taste very good. So I put some Nesquick in it and it was totally drinkable.

Later, my son made macaroni and cheese. He used the real milk instead of the powdered milk. I told him that was a very bad choice, since that was all the real milk we would have for a week.




Assignment: Go to nearest source of fresh water and fill up several water containers.
In the morning I took a little ice chest and a big empty cottage cheese container with me and headed for the neighborhood lake. (I didn't have any spare buckets. I need to buy some more.) I had to walk down to the shore of the lake,and the ground was all squishy and muddy. I had to lean way over to scoop up water where it was about 2 inches deep, being careful not to disturb the bottom and get the water all muddy. The water was green and unappetizing, but I was surprised to see how clear it was. I was expecting it to be filled with algae and big floating particles but it wasn't. It took me a while using the cottage cheese container to scoop up enough water to fill the ice chest half way. I can see how a deeper place would have made it easier to get the water out.






Assignment: Purify that water with either a water purifier or an alternate purification method.
In the evening, my husband taught me to use his backpacking water filter. He said it was smart of me to have let the water settle all day, so the big particles were all at the bottom. He wanted the least amount of particles to get into his filter. The main cost of a water filter is the filter cartridge, not the pump itself. (He has a Sweetwater brand, he thinks it cost about $70 for the whole thing when he first bought it. When the filter needs replacing, that will cost about $50). We pumped the dirty green water up through the backpacking filter, and it squirted out clear water into a cup. I was afraid to drink it, but he took a drink and then I had the courage to drink it. It tasted just like tap water.




Assignment: You must find a way for you to bathe or shower today.
I put a pot of water on the stove to heat. I brought in a bucket of water that I had filled with the hose yesterday (which I had planned to use for watering the garden today.) I decided to use that bucket of water for me instead of for my plants. Carried the pot of hot water and the bucket of cold water into the bathroom.

I poured a little hot water and a little cold water into my bathroom sink and took a washcloth bath. (I didn't wash my hair today.) It took less water than I thought it would. I drained the dirty water down the sink.

I should have had more buckets, then I would have had the dirty water in a bucket instead of in the sink, and could have used it to flush a toilet or to water the garden.

In the evening, my son had to go somewhere, and he insisted that he had to take a shower. I gave in, and turned on the water for him.

Assignment: Cook all your meals with only the water you have in storage.
I cooked some carrots using water from a bottle. Drained the cooking water into a bowl so we could use it for cooking later. I ate several things that were already made. Cooking wasn't a problem and we had plenty of water in bottles to wash our hands and the counters. I left all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher until the next day when I will have real water again.

Things I learned:
I was mostly alone all day at home, and then in the evening my husband was the only one home. We barely used 3 gallons of water, but of course we neglected doing any of the main tasks in a home (washing dishes, doing laundry, showers, shampooing hair, watering garden, or flushing toilets much.)

We knew the disaster was fake and that we would have water the next day, so we just put off everything that needed water. If the disaster was real, we would have been in real trouble after a day with all those dirty dishes attracting bugs.

My husband was home alone in the evening, and made stirfry with meat and vegetables, and left quite a mess. He said he wouldn't have cooked those things if he was in a disaster.

I learned I had plenty of water for a disaster. I was happy about that.

No Water Today

Remember I mentioned that I had signed up to do the 7-Day Challenge on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net? I have been looking forward to it for a couple of months, because I think I will really learn a lot from doing it.

Well, I found out it is beginning today. The Mock Disaster for Day 1 is "Water Contamination". So the assignment for the participants is that we can't use any water from the tap today.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/09/14/the-7-day-challenge-day-1-tuesday/


I had to immediately turn off the water to my house. Then I walked in and saw how messy my kitchen is. It looks like I am going to have to hand wash all these dishes using water I have stored in bottles. And I have to heat it on the stove. Plus I am going to have to figure out how to wash my hair and get clean, because I have a stake baby quilt worknight tonight at the Morrisville ward.

I will report more tomorrow. I can't wait to find out what tomorrow's challenge is.

(If anyone wants to participate, go to their website and sign up. Or if you just want to pay attention but not participate, watch their blog and their Facebook page every day.)

Narrow Rolling Can storage

Here is a great idea for storing cans only one can wide, filling the height and width of a wall.

http://www.kirkhams.org/Canned%20Food%20Rotator%20brochure%206-1-06.pdf

Prizes for Doing What You Committed to Do!

Last night at the Phyllis B. presentation in our ward I gave prizes of little loaves of homemade whole wheat bread to the women who achieved their goals from last month's "Hurricane Preparedness" lesson. (Those who were absent will get their prizes on Sunday.)

J.M.- Bought an inverter

K.B.- Ordered a wheat grinder.

K.A. Ordered food.

N.H. and H.C. and A.D. Stored more water.

L.D. Bought an inverter and copied her important documents and got phone numbers off her cell phone.

S.D. Got 72 hour kits and stored more water.

GOOD JOB! YOU ALL DID GREAT!

Now, here is your next opportunity to win a prize.

Phyllis B. taught us about the Red Cross's website for locating family members after a disaster. The SafeAndWell project will enable people in a disaster to list themselves, and will enable their family and friends to find them.

Phyllis is giving 3 presentations in the area this weekend, and wants her students to practice listing themselves on the site, and practice searching for people on the site. The Triangle Red Cross set up a special temporary test site for her students to practice using. It will be up ONLY THREE DAYS. It will be deleted after Monday Sept. 13. So you only have until then to use it and teach your family how to use it.

Here is how to win your prize (I'm only giving prizes to Relief Society members in my ward. Sorry to everyone else.)

Number One.
Pretend you are in a disaster. Find the redcross.org website. (You'll have to find it yourself, I'm not giving you the link.)

At the top of the page, find "Getting Assistance" then "contact family members" then "List yourself as safe and well" then "Read More".

Yes, that sounds like a lot. But thats how you can get to the SafeandWell website if you are in a disaster and don't have the link.

Number Two. Here is another way to find it. :

Find the redcross.org website.

At the bottom of the page, find "How to Get Help" then "Safe and Well" then "List Yourself or Search Registrations".

That is another way to get to the SafeAndWell website.

Now that you know you can find it even if you are in a disaster and don't have the link, I will give you the link:

http://www.redcross.org/safeandwell.

Go there, and search for me. (You'll need to get my home address or phone number off our ward list). If you find me, you will see my message. Email me and tell me what my message says, and I will bring you a delicious prize!

You will learn a lot more about the site if you go ahead and list yourself. No one can see your information unless they search for you with your accurate address or phone number (and it will all be deleted in three days anyway). When you start to list yourself, you have to fill out "About Me", and the first thing to choose is "Disaster Event". The "disaster" you can practice on is called "Triangle Area Exercise". After you list yourself, ask your husband, or your sister in California to see if they can find you on the site.

This is a great resource for large disasters like Katrina, because the displaced people in a situation like that are frantic to locate their families. If you practice doing it now (and tell your family members in other states about it now), then it will be a resource for you when you need it.

Phyllis said that when a big hurricane is coming our way, the site will open up for us to list ourselves for real. On an everyday basis, you can't list yourself. (Only when a disaster happens or is about to happen.) If you look at the disaster list for today, they only have "California Gas Fire", "Colorado Wildfires" and "Texas Floods", along with our little "Triangle Area Exercise".

"Canning Meat" on BYU-TV

Wendy Dewitt was a guest on BYU-TV "Living Essentials" demonstrating how to can meat.

http://www.byutv.org/watch/597-412

This video was much more descriptive of how she cans meat than the video she made at the Daniels Park Ward (but if you haven't watched the video at the Daniels Park ward, look at the link on my post of Aug. 15, 2010).

Questions and Answers Video from Wendy Dewitt

This video has a lot of odds and ends at the end of Sister Dewitt's presentation.


Video #9- Questions and Answers
http://www.danielsparkward.com/fsv9.aspx

(Wendy Dewitt has a blog, and on her Nov. 12, 2008 blog post she gives basically her whole presentation.
http://everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html .)

22 Year Old Applesauce

I recently opened a #10 can of applesauce which I purchased in 1988. I reconstituted the powdered applesauce, and made applesauce muffins. They tasted just fine! (I wasn't courageous enough to taste the applesauce, but Wayne did, and said it tasted just like applesauce.)

Of course you shouldn't wait 22 years to use your food storage, but that just shows you that sometimes it will still be good.

My Plan: Now that I know it keeps so long, I'm going to buy some more cans of dehydrated applesauce. Why?

Because I have been using regular grocery-store applesauce as a substitute for oil in a lot of my baking recipes. (Cutting out oil is a good way to lower the calories in a baked item. )

So, if Oil Equals Applesauce in a lot of my baking recipes, and

Oil has a short shelf life and dehydrated applesauce has a long shelf life,

Then, I'm going to store a bunch of applesauce to replace about half the oil I had planned to store.

Reminder: Remember to attend tomorrow night!
You are invited:

Family Communication Plan: Have One Before Disaster Strikes!,
Taught by Phyllis B.
In a disaster will you know how to contact your family? Will they know where you are? Will they know your plans? Will your cell phone work?...

Morrisville Relief Society evening meeting, Thursday Sept. 9, 2010, 7 pm. in the Morrisville building RS room. Guests, and members of the Green Level ward are also invited.

#9 Presentation at MV Ward-My Testimony

I do not want to fear whatever calamities come in the future, I want to be prepared so that I do not fear. I want to be able to have food for my family.

One evening I had to rush over to the Cary church building to babysit my two grandchildren while my daughter in law taught the Faith in God girls, because her husband was unexpectedly detained at work. I showed up and began to babysit, and the two little kids were crying because my daughter-in-law hadn’t had time to feed them (or more likely she had tried to feed them in a hurry and they just hadn't eaten enough then, and they got hungry later)

I could not bear to hear them crying and whining, so I scrounged in the Cary ward kitchen until I found some food somebody had left there. I felt a little guilty that I had taken that food. That experience told me that I would do anything to feed my little grandchildren if they were hungry, and I do not want to be the person who resorts to stealing to feed my family.

I have a testimony that we have a true prophet, and that he has asked us to have at least a year’s supply of food and necessities. I have a testimony that this is not just a temporal commandment, this is a spiritual commandment as well. When Nephi broke his bow, and Lehi’s family was suffering from lack of food, even Lehi, a prophet of God, murmured against the Lord. He faltered in his testimony because he was hungry. I do not want to falter in my testimony because I ignored this commandment.

(The End of my Aug. 29, 2010 presentation.)

#8 Presentation at MV Ward- More Long Term

Part 8- Presentation given by Amy at the Morrisville Ward, North Carolina, combined RS/Priesthood, Aug. 29, 2010. I will post the rest of the presentation in the next few days.

You need to think about these items for your long term storage.

MEAT
I guess the nutritionists tell us that if we have corn and beans, or wheat, we can obtain all the essential nutrients and we will stay alive. However, I still want to store some meat. I want to still have the foods that I am accustomed to eating now.

I store lots of cans of canned chicken, it is about $2.45 a pound now in cans at Sam's.
I store canned tuna.

And now I have learned to do pressure canning. Just a few weeks ago we bought a 16 quart pressure canner for $64 at Walmart. Jars were $8.50 for a dozen, including lids and rings. I have already canned ground beef, pork, and roast beef. We will have a class on it in RS sometime. It makes me feel very happy not to have to rely on electricity to keep my meat frozen.


DAIRY

Powdered milk: Best tasting instant: Provident Pantry brand, Emergency Essentials
Best tasting non-instant: Rainy Day brand, Walton Feed. (From April 26, 2010 FoodStorageMadeEasy)

Cheese: I’m going to be a very sad girl if I don’t have cheese in my diet. Here are ways to store cheese: Powdered cheese, grated frozen cheese, dehydrated shredded cheese, canned cheese. I might want to learn how to wax cheese, I heard it will last 25 years. We will have a class on that as soon as I figure out how to do it.

Butter: You can store butter-flavor Crisco to use for baking. I've seen dehydrated butter powder but I've never tried it.

Eggs: I love to use powdered eggs in all my baking.


WHERE TO STORE FOOD
I showed photos of my food storage table in living room, which is just buckets of food covered with a board and a tablecloth. I have water storage behind the clothes hanging in the closet, and behind the sofa. I need volunteers from the ward to please allow me to take pictures of your food storage, I won’t tell names. I would love to put together a powerpoint presentation of the ways you have stored your food.

How to get more food storage? Ask for food storage items for Christmas and birthdays.

#7 Presentation at MV Ward-Wheat Grinders, Cannery, Gardens

Part 7- Presentation given by Amy at the Morrisville Ward, North Carolina, combined RS/Priesthood, Aug. 29, 2010. I will post the rest of the presentation in the next few days.

We're still talking about Long Term Storage.

What is the point of having wheat if you have no way to grind it? YOU NEED TO BUY AN ELECTRIC WHEAT GRINDER. Save up for this, it is important. Some good wheat grinders can be around $240 and up.

ALSO, YOU NEED TO BUY A HAND WHEAT GRINDER. It is very likely that someday you won't have electricity, but you will still need to grind your wheat. Hand wheat grinders are around $60. If you have to buy only one, buy the hand wheat grinder, and save it for an emergency. Use your visiting teacher's electric wheat grinder until you can save up to get your own electric one.

My son and I did an experiment the other day. We used the electric wheat grinder, it made about 8 cups of wheat into 14 cups of flour in about 1-2 minutes.

Then we used our hand grinder. It made my arm very tired, it took 10 minutes of pushing the crank around and around for it to produce 1 cup of wheat flour. My 16-yr-old son said it didn't make his arm tired when he did it for 10 minutes, but I don't know if I believe him.

I bought a hand grinder like this in 2009 for my daughter-in-law from Emergency Essentials when it was on sale for $50. Now it is $67, but maybe they will have a sale again sometime.



Anyway, a hand wheat grinder is not worth using when you have electricity, it takes too long. BUT YOU STILL NEED ONE. This may be the difference between food and starvation someday. I feel very strongly about this, you can make it a point to save up $67 to get one of these.

QUESTION: Why can't I grind several months' worth of wheat flour at once?
ANSWER: Wheat flour goes rancid quickly. Only grind the amount you can use within or month or so.

Another thing to think of, is buying a bread machine. It is so easy to bake bread in one, and you will start incorporating wheat into your daily diet.

Even a college student can do it. I have a son in college, and his roommate at BYU bought a 50 lb. bag of flour, made bread with his bread machine almost every day and used the whole bag in one school year.


PRICES FOR LONG TERM FOOD
The very best prices for these bulk long term food storage items are from the "cannery" (the correct name is Family Home Storage Center.)
We want to form a cannery co-op, and babysit for each other while we have regular trips to cannery.

The price list is on ProvidentLiving.org for the Family Home Storage Center.

Wheat #10 can packed by customer= 5.8 lbs for $2.70.
For 3 months for 1 person: 75 lbs.
Cannery price: 13 cans = $35. Lasts 30 years.

Beans #10 can packed by customer =5.2 lbs for $4.65.
For 3 months for 1 person: 15 lbs.
Cannery price: 3 cans= $14. Lasts 30 years.

VEGETABLES
If you are wondering how to get vegetables and fruit into your food storage, most of us will probably buy canned vegetables and fruit. However, the prophets have repeatedly told us to learn to garden. This will be another way to supplement your food storage if there comes a time when you don't have access to grocery stores.

This was my second summer to have a garden. I never touched dirt in my life until last summer. If I can do it anyone can do it. Later, probably in Feb or March we will have a class in RS on gardening, and also sprouting.

“We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard.” (President Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, May 1976, p. 124).

#6 Presentation at MV Ward- Long Term Storage

Part 6- Presentation given by Amy at the Morrisville Ward, North Carolina, combined RS/Priesthood, Aug. 29, 2010. I will post the rest of the presentation in the next few days.

Long term food storage

“The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.”
Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, Nov 1980, 32

For your long term storage, you need to buy grains, legumes, and other staples that can be stored for long periods of time, like 20-30 years, and would sustain life if nothing else were available to eat. I am talking about shelf-stable foods here, none of it in the freezer or fridge. And make sure they are all in bug-proof and rodent-proof containers.

They are the most compact foods you can store, and they don't need rotating on a yearly or monthly basis like your three-month supply, so they are much easier to store. You can hide them under the beds or in the backs of closets and forget about them until you need them.

BYU has recently done studies of very old food storage, and got some very positive results. They found out that

“properly packaged and stored low-moisture food retains much of its sensory (taste) quality and nutritional value for 20 to 30 or more years after being placed in storage—much longer than previously supposed.
This means Church members can store certain foods long-term without the worry of regularly rotating the food. They can be confident that their supply will be there to keep them alive if they have nothing else to eat.”
“Family Home Storage: A New Message,” Ensign, Mar 2009, 56–60

The photo is from that same Ensign article.



Wheat, grains, and beans, last a very long time. So buy them and consider them like term life insurance. Maybe you are paying for something you will never use, but it gives you safety and security that if something bad happens, you are covered.

For your long term storage, you need some type of oil. However, oil only lasts 1-2 yrs (according to BYU-TV- Living Essentials). But Crisco lasts ten-plus years. So you may want to adapt some of your recipes to use Crisco instead of oil so you can store more Crisco.

I think it is smart to find a shelf-stable substitute for every ingredient. I LOVE to use Powdered eggs and Powdered milk in all my baking. I never have to wonder if I have it in the fridge when I am ready to bake. (In case you are wondering, I eat real eggs for scrambled eggs and devilled eggs, etc.)

I am still looking for ways to store cheese. I have purchased some canned cheese and some dehydrated freeze dried grated cheese, and some other cheese that doesn't require refrigeration. We'll have to learn more about that subject in the future.

#5 Presentation at MV Ward- Short term and 3-mos storage

Part 5- Presentation given by Amy at the Morrisville Ward, North Carolina, combined RS/Priesthood, Aug. 29, 2010. I will post the rest of the presentation in the next few days.


So, now that you know where to go to get this information, lets go on to talk about food and water storage. I will tell you some different categories of things you should be getting. What kinds of things should you store?
1- Water
2-72 hr kit food or 2 weeks of very easy to prepare food
3- Three months supply and
4- Long term food storage.


WATER
Your number one goal should be to get water. Water can be free. If you won't drink water from a bottle you filled yourself, at least fill juice bottles or a 55-gallon drum to use for washing. (Half of the water you need is for washing.) Then you only have to pay for bottled water for half your supply.

72 hour kit food, or 2 weeks of very easy to prepare food
We are very vulnerable to hurricanes and ice storms in this area. For the first 3 days or 4 days after a major disaster you will be totally on your own, and probably without electricity. Either evacuating to somewhere else, or sheltering in place.

Prepare to have every necessity of life, especially water. Plan to do no cooking or minimal cooking. These would be the same types of food my sons take on a backpacking or camping trip. These are convenience foods, so they will cost some money, but you don’t want to be messing with lots of ingredients and preparations when dealing with a disaster.

This is not necessarily a balanced diet, just to keep you alive. A lot of it is similar to food for a school sack lunch, and would keep for about 6 months. Lots of people rotate their 72-hour kit food every General Conference.

I have lots of lemonade and koolaid and chocolate milk to make the stored water or powdered milk taste better.


3 month shelf stable food. Everything for every meal for 13 weeks.

“We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week’s food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months.”
Gordon B. Hinckley, “To Men of the Priesthood,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2002, 58.October 2002

I will describe Wendy Dewitt’s method. She thought about food storage, and she decided she wanted good food, food that she already liked to eat. She wrote down 14 dinners that her family liked, wrote down all the ingredients right down to the teaspoon of salt, multiplied it by 26 times, and bought that amount of food, so she could eat that meal every other week. Then she knew she had all the ingredients to eat dinner for a whole year.

She also did the same with breakfasts, and ingredients for one loaf of bread a day. This plan is all described in her booklet.

But I don't want to overwhelm you, so consider doing her method and basing it on Three Months. Just plan out everything for 13 weeks or three months instead of a year like she did.

Store what you eat. Eat what you store. Rotate, rotate, rotate.

The ladies on FoodStorageMadeEasy feel that it is okay to keep meat in the freezer for their 3 month supply. Wendy Dewitt doesn’t keep her meat in the freezer, she cans it. She doesn't want to rely on the power grid.

Ask yourself, How often can I stand to eat this dish? If you can eat it every other week, buy 6 or 7 meals of it.

If you can eat it once a week, buy 13 meals of it.

Canned goods can easily last 1-3 years, no problem.

Boxes can get bugs in them, rotate them quickly.

My family's plan: Here are some of the things in my three-month supply.

Taco Soup. We can easily eat it twice a month. Twice a month for 3 months = 6 times. So I bought 6 bags of Fritos at Sam's, and all the cans of beans, corn, and tomato sauce, bought a big jar of Taco Seasoning Powder, and canned some ground beef. Now I have all the ingredients except lettuce, and we could eat it without lettuce if we had to. (If you don't want to can the beef, just keep it in your freezer.)

Spaghetti. Twice a month. Spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce, powdered Parmesan cheese, oil. Buy enough for 6 meals.

Canned Soup- I buy it on sale. We have lots and lots of this.

Hamburger Helper, Asian Helper. One can of chicken for 2 boxes. Oil. Powdered milk.

Snacks and desserts, not just main dishes. Cake mix, can of frosting, oil, powdered eggs.

Jellos and puddings- two per week for 3 months. Remember to store ALL the ingredients. Jello just needs water. I store evaporated milk or powdered milk to make the pudding.

Eat cold cereal half the days for 3 months-11 boxes for our family. I have the powdered milk stored just in case, but for now I'll buy the milk at the store.

(Remember to store food inside the temperature controlled house, not in attic or garage.)

WHEAT GRINDERS

I wanted to mention wheat grinders. If you don't have a wheat grinder, you could use your blender to make Blender pancakes. (I'll put that recipe up in a few days.)


No grinder? Why don't you ask your visiting teachers or the women you visit teach. If they have a wheat grinder, start bringing 8 cups of wheat with you every time you visit, and grind it for wheat flour and start using it throughout the month. Grinding 8 cups of wheat makes about 14 cups of wheat flour, and you can make 4 loaves of whole wheat bread with that.

Also, you need to store everything else you need for three months. Make a goal to be totally self-sufficient in your home, imagine you can't go to the store for three months. Start listing all the things you need on a daily basis and store the right amount. Remember: Baby formula, diapers, feminine hygiene, toilet paper (one person approximately 1 roll per week, 13 rolls for one person for 3 months), charcoal, propane, cleaning supplies.

Tomorrow' subject: Long term food storage

#4 Presentation at MV Ward- 3 Sources for Information

Part 4- Presentation given by Amy at the Morrisville Ward, North Carolina, combined RS/Priesthood, Aug. 29, 2010. I will post the rest of the presentation in the next few days.


We’re going to look at 3 internet sites about food storage and explain what is on each one.

www.providentliving.org

ProvidentLiving.org is the official church site about food storage and family preparedness.

It contains the bare bones instruction from the church today.

Contains word for word quotes from this brochure: “All is Safely Gathered In”

Describes the conditions for best storage of food

what foods go rancid during long term storage

List of products which can store for 30 years or longer.

Describes the safe way to store water.

It has the price list of the cannery. Actually, the name Cannery is incorrect- Family Home Storage Center is the correct name.



FoodStorageMadeEasy.net

FoodStoragMadeEasy.net is for those of you who want to have food storage, but you have no idea where to start.

Two years ago these two LDS women, Jodi and Julie, both young mothers, said, “We don’t know anything about food storage. We’re going to describe every step of our learning process on a blog.” And in two years they have become experts on food storage. They have great videos and how-to instructions. If you want all their information at once, you can pay to get a printed notebook. But you can get it for free just by reading their blog and printing out all their lists. And they have an excel spreadsheet that you can plug in all your food and find out how much more you need. Very detail oriented.


WENDY DEWITT

Wendy Dewitt is a member of the church who did a 2 hour food storage seminar at the Daniels Park Ward, and they put it on their website as 9 separate videos. (I'm sure she must be famous but I personally know nothing more about her.)
Here is the link to the first video:
http://www.danielsparkward.com/fsv1.aspx">http://www.danielsparkward.com/

(I have actually been linking to these videos one at a time on this blog, there is only one video left, her last video that contains questions from the audience and her answers, that I still need to post. I will post it at the end of this series of presentation posts.)


http://EverythingUnderTheSunBlog.blogspot.com/ the text of the video is on here
She is not in it for the money, she distributes all her information for free, and her blog doesn't have much on it.


She has a very indepth, very detailed way of planning out your food storage, and she has written a step-by-step instruction booklet, which she sends out for free.

I asked her for a copy, and to save her some time, if you want a copy, email me and I will email you the document. (I am speaking to members of my ward here. My email address is not listed on this blog.)

#3 Presentation at MV Ward- One Year's Supply Pictures

Part 3- Presentation given by Amy at the Morrisville Ward, North Carolina, combined RS/Priesthood, Aug. 29, 2010. I will post the rest of the presentation in the next few days.

Note from Amy: I showed these photos in my powerpoint presentation. I received the photos and the following text from my sister who got them from someone in a ward or stake somewhere that did a food storage display. I have no idea who to give the credit to.

My opinion, which I stated in my presentation, is that this photo IS NOT YOUR FIRST GOAL. This shows LONG TERM STORAGE. Only do this type storage AFTER you get the first three steps done (see yesterday's post for all four steps listed in the pamphlet "All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage".



Exactly What Does a Basic 1 Year Food Storage for 1 Person Look Like?
These are the MINIMUM Basic Amounts of Food Needed for Survival for ONE PERSON for ONE YEAR: (Click on photos to make them bigger.)




DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU'RE READY TO LIVE ON THESE SURVIVAL RATIONS?











BARE-MINIMUM LDS Church Food storage requirements for
1 adult male for 1 year Appx. 2,300 calories per day. (only 695lbs total)
This will keep you fed, but leave you hungry.
TOTAL FOOD PER DAY = 24.65 Ounces
It seems like we beg, plead, and even offer to help anyone that will listen in an attempt to get others to get their food storage. We try to explain why they need it, and it feels like we are beating a dead horse. Some people try to rationalize that we "really" don't need to store everything that we have been asked to store. As I'm sure most of you have experienced, we hear every excuse for reasons why we can't store. The regular excuses of no money, no room, no time, don't know how to use wheat, or don't eat wheat, etc. But lately, I've heard "that is so much to store", that "our family would never use 400 pounds of grains per person in an entire year". Also, "we don't use that much salt or oil", therefore they don't feel they need to store it.
As what felt like my last feeble attempt to try to help, the thought came to actually create a display to show 1) what does that one year basic survival food for one person look like (the amounts the First Presidency has recommended), and 2) how much does that really work out to be per day?

This display has been amazingly successful in our Stake.

We purposely bought food that they could get at a grocery store, rather than overwhelming them with seeing tons of dry-pack cans or buckets. We broke out each item and gave them the prices of what this would cost locally. We even gave them the price of a shelve to store it on.
When I measured out the amounts to show what you would get per day, per person it was impressive. We took all those ingredients and by adding yeast (which we know is not on the basic list – but hopefully we have stored), we were able to make one loaf of bread and 1/3 cup of beans. That would be your food for the entire day. Not much. You would survive, but it won't be pretty.
Grains (400lbs)
Unless your family already eats 100% whole wheat homemade bread, white flour should be used in the transition process to whole wheat.
Adding rye flour (10%) helps make wheat bread a more
complete protein. Dent corn is used to make tortillas.

Beans & Legumes (90lbs)
{minimum reduced to only 60lbs in 2002}
Black beans cook quickly, make a good salad complement with a vinaigrette dressing over them.
Soybeans can be used to make soy milk and tofu, a protein food you should be prepared to make.
Familiarize yourself with sprouting techniques.
Learn how to make wheat grass juice - the best vitamin supplement you can use.
Milk-Dair products (75lbs)
{minimum reduced to only 16lbs in 2002}
Milk powder can be used to make cottage cheese, cream cheese and hard cheeses.
Ideally your milk should be fortified with Vitamins A & D.
When reconstituting aerate to improve flavor (special mixing pitchers can accomplish this). Whole eggs are the best all-purpose egg product.
Powdered sour cream has a limited shelf life unless frozen.
Meats / Meat substitute (20lbs)
{minimum reduced to only 0lbs in 2002}
Use meat in soups, stews and beans for flavor. Freeze dried is the best option for real meat. Textured Vegetable protein is the main alternative to freeze dried meats.
Fats / Oils (20lbs)
This group can boost the calories one is getting from food storage products, and supply essential fatty acids.
Sugars (60lbs)
Store your honey in 5 gallon pails.
Candy and other sweets can help with appetite fatigue.

Fruits / Vegetables (90lbs)
{minimum reduced to only zero lbs in 2002}
Some fruits and vegetables are best dehydrated, others freeze dried (strawberries & blueberries).
Fruits are a nice addition to hot cereal, muffins, pancakes and breads.
Auxiliary foods (weight varies)
Vanilla extract improves the flavor of powdered milk. T
he production of tofu requires a precipitator such as nigari, epsom salt, calcium chloride or calcium sulfide (good calcium source).
Learn how to make and use wheat gluten (liquid smoke adds good flavor).

Chocolate syrup and powdered drink mixes help with appetite fatigue.
Vitamins and protein powders will boost the nutrition levels of foods that may have suffered losses during processing.


Note
For an average adult Female - multiply the weight by 0.75
For children ages 1-3 multiply by 0.3, 4-6 multiply by 0.5, 7-9 multiply by 0.75
For adults engaged in manual labor multiply by 1.25-1.50


(Note from Amy: My sister forwarded these photos and this text to me. I emailed a note back to the originating person to get her permission to post this. When I find out who that is, I will credit her or take this off my blog and direct you to hers, if she has one.)