My food stores aren't growing as fast as I'd like. I committed to storing up Chef's Banquet arks, which I find are way more cost effective than alot of the survival food out there. But it's a crap time of year for spending and I've only got a couple. Looks like I could score an equivalent calorie amount in #10 cans of rice for potentially alot less. But cans are kind of a pain in the ass and I've got limited space. A 6 gal bucket of the stuff would store nicely with my arks. Might also do kidney beans, but one thing at a time. What does it take to store bulk rice from a grocery store? Is that even a good place to start if I want decades of shelf life?
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
Capt,
Something you might consider is putting up multiple things in each bucket. You can buy 1-gal bags instead of 2.5 or 5 gal bags, seal each with O2 absorbers and a clothes iron, and pack your buckets. By doing so, you could also get a couple quart bags or stick with the gallon bags and put up beans and lentils at the same time to include at least some protein and fiber.
Also, wheat and oatmeal both have more calories by a full third than white rice and store for an equivalent amount of time. Raw white buckwheat stored in either canning jars or mylar bags lasts at least 10 years at 65-73 degrees F. Oatmeal takes no more time to cook than a lot of "instant" emergency meals. Buckwheat cooks in the same 20 minutes rice does, although it's more expensive than oatmeal, rice or wheat. Oatmeal also has more fiber, something significantly lacking in a lot of processed freeze-dried emergency foods and canned foods. Oatmeal, rice and wheat have decades of storage life in mylar with O2. Beans seem to start getting hard (especially red beans) about 8-10 years into their storage life here, and are ending up ground to add to baked goods because they just refuse to soften up now.
You might also look into ordering from an LDS cannery near you or LDS online. The price is the best in already-packaged emergency food you're going to find. Selection is wider at a cannery than online.
Personally, I'm just not a huge fan of the prepackaged Ark-type storage foods. I have some for the convenience, portion size, portability, and a little variety, but the cost per serving is so much higher than buying by the can, they are routinely full of filler/empty calories, the calories are regularly short anyway for the prescribed time they cover, and it's just not worth it to me anymore.
Also, when I compared the ones available here (Chef's Banquet, Wise, Augason Farms, Food for Health) I didn't see enough difference in ingredient quality, calorie count, nutritional count, or actual meat-meat content to merit buying the more expensive versions. I can make the budget go much farther getting the less expensive version of equivalent calories and servings and spending the savings on other items to increase calories or nutritional value.
I will continue to keep in 1, maybe 2 buckets, but I won't replace most of the ones I rotate to the Scouts. Just food for thought.
Great info, thanks. Does it matter what brand of rice you use? I read that brown rice doesn't keep as well, but besides that is there a difference between the $10 bag of rice and the $20 bag? At Walmart yesterday I was looking at these Nupak "Made In Usa" 8 kg units in sealed plastic bags, as opposed to more expensive ones that came in 8 kg sacks. Not going to be worried about how fancy my rice is when the time comes, I'll just want food in my mouth. Is the Nupak stuff as good as anything? Thanks.
Doesn't really matter if you don't care. I buy bargain basement Food Lion white rice and I buy it in giant bags from the bargain basement Mex grocer near me, not the trendy Mex grocer, the one with 3 types of beans and rice in big bins with scoops as soon as I walk in the door. I actually prefer the Mexican rice. I get a lot of our dry pinto beans from the dollar store, and black beans and red beans from the Mexican place. Sometimes a cultural India-Indian or Oriental market (not the trendy place, the place the old people with vehicles 10 yrs + shop) have really good deals. Wal-Mart is my go-to for barley, oddball beans, and their couscous goes back and forth with Food Lion for the best price.
Brown rice doesn't store as long, that is spot on. You've got 5-7-10 years with brown rice depending on the source. You've got 10-15-25-infinity with the white rice depending on the source.
If you're heading back to Wally World, seriously think about going ahead and grabbing even just a couple dollars worth of beans. You can prick a couple tiny pinholes in the bag of beans, then stick it right on top of the rice in either a 1-gal or 5-gal Mylar bag. I wouldn't get fancy with putting in any spices besides dried onions unless you're planning to rotate every 5-10 years. You could stick in a bag of the grains already discussed or the mentioned beans, but most spices will be a waste of space or worse if you're looking to seal for 15-20 years.
🙂
Oh you got my attention with the oats. I may well devote another bucket to those. Thanks for the pointers.
Ok so last night I finally went ahead and prepared a pair of 6 gallon buckets with 18 kg each of white rice. Threw 7 oxygen absorbers into each one (I wasn't going to use the rest of the 100 any time soon) and sealed the mylar bags with an iron on the highest setting. I used an angled ruler I had around as a backing, and was very thorough in sealing the bags. Was rather pleased with how they came out.
Now this morning, I didn't know precisely what I was expecting, but I guess I figured the bags would look imploded. One of them maybe kinda does, the other one I don't know. What sort of results do you normally get?
Just re-watched the video again, I may have left more air in the top of the bag than C5 did. Still not a lot mind you.
Ok so last night I finally went ahead and prepared a pair of 6 gallon buckets with 18 kg each of white rice. Threw 7 oxygen absorbers into each one (I wasn't going to use the rest of the 100 any time soon) and sealed the mylar bags with an iron on the highest setting. I used an angled ruler I had around as a backing, and was very thorough in sealing the bags. Was rather pleased with how they came out.
Now this morning, I didn't know precisely what I was expecting, but I guess I figured the bags would look imploded. One of them maybe kinda does, the other one I don't know. What sort of results do you normally get?
I just did notice this had the update. Sorry, brother.
My bags do not turn into the super-crazy tight-to-product things like vacuum sealing meats or how the old FD fruit in MREs came, or the way emergency ration bars still come in some brands. They do, however, suck down some usually.
One, it can sometimes take a while. When I use O2 and canning jars, you've got pops starting in just a few minutes and going for the next 2-8 hours in some cases. Same jars, same lids, roughly the same contents (sometimes identical contents but for color), same pack of O2 absorbers ... the magic sealing fairies just work at different paces sometimes.
So by now, maybe the bag sucked down on itself a little.
If the bag never sucked down at least a little, see if you can squish the air anywhere. If any air "bubble" just kind of moves around, your seal and bag are good. If you can press air out-out, you have a hole somewhere. Time to start over with a new bag, but the age of the rice shouldn't be an issue enough to change the expiration date.
Don't be jumping on it or anything, but the bags should be sturdy enough to squeeze pretty good.
Do you happen to know what the cc count was for the oxy absorbers you used? If it works out to be right on the verge of "just enough" you might have just had a dud or two in one bag, and can just slit it open and toss in a few more, then reseal the same bag.
Thought I updated this. Oh well. Yeah on closer examination I found I left a tiny shaft unsealed at the edge of the seam. So that's why that one didn't suck down. I re-did it; now I've got 3 homemade rice buckets and 3 Arks. My girl will have me committed if I get more than that lol.
Thanks for the help.
I want a proper mylar sealer. As I also need to get larger stores of rice, oats. etc. But I've been holding
back until I get a mylar sealer, as I don't want to be fiddling around with an iron.
I've been buying big bags of Tilda basmati white rice that are already in some sort of mylar ,but no O2 inside
been buying them at Walmart. When I buy them 5 at a time, people comment, and I usually say we're having a family
reunion. LOL
And i also have been buying the 6 gallon pails versus the 5 gallon, but it would be nice if
there were square 7 gallon buckets with a square gamma our rim with a circle inner gamma to turn.
I hate wasting space with round buckets.
I used an old hair straightener and it works awesome. it is easy to do, no mess, and the mylar doesn't melt onto the hair straightener. you get a good 2 inch or so wide seal depending on the model of straightener you use.
OK, I like the idea of storing in the 5 gallon pails as they are strong, waterproof,etc., and you can carry em or bury em if needed. I'd suggest mixing a variety of items in a bucket because:
1. So that you don't have to rip open 10 buckets to make a meal.
2. You could divide your supplies quickly if needed to backup locations without having to sort which goes with which
3. It's easier to plan your meals....mix beans to go with rice = protein and carbs, some cans of sardines,lipton onion soup mix,etc.
4. put a # on the pail, run inventory list elsewhere as to calories, # of meals, etc.
5. you could quickly sell/barter a pail without sorting again
Now for the questions:
Just buy the rice in sealed mylar type bags, (Costco I think). Then why seal? The rest keeps well without, yes?
- Why not stock up on various macaroni? They keep years, yes? And it's already formed and ready to throw in the pot.(I mean storing bucket fulls, no sealing)
- If one measured the food stores by calorie count, most likely only have months worth, not years worth...so why the 10-20 year plan? That would take alot of supplies?
- otherwise, why rotate items if you have such a long expiry date?
I figure that one should likely have enough food stores to provide sustenance for the time being as you plant, grow and harvest a years crop. Too many variables to consider years of stockpiling. Even a robber isn't going to trash your garden but they will steal all they can haul.
Prepping should likely be better defined as "preparing temporary measures to enable successful completion of permanent measures"! This means buying heritage seed and having a fenced(protected from critters) local of growing soil to produce a constant source of veggies. Having access to replenishable drinkable water. Having a plan to unite neighbors to a defensive community when the time comes.....and hopefully create a trade system until order is restored or reinvented.
Knuckle .. don't forget about doing sprouts
Knuckle .. don't forget about doing sprouts
I don't know stink about gardening 😆 and only dehydrate so far....I can't even keep biker plants alive and that's bad!
definition of Biker Plant: a plant that you starve, piss on,etc., and they still live!