Emergency Preparedness and Self-Reliant Living: August 2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

Buying in Bulk and Food Storage Ideas:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that when I feel worried about the world, I feel better when I buy food. This has turned out to be a good idea, I think. I was reading my friend Gloria's blog, The Little Red House With The White Porch and she lives in the path of Hurricane Irene. (How are you, Gloria? Please let us know!) When she went to the store to pick up a few last items, many shelves were practically bare. And that is exactly what I fear will happen around here if some sort of disaster strikes. Except that our disaster will probably be wildfire and I don't know how much food I can put into the car with my dogs, computer, pictures, etc., but that is a different story. We have a pickup too, so that would help.

Anyway, back to the topic. Last week, Kylie and I went to one of my favorite stores to buy food, CASH AND CARRY in Bend. They used to only sell to restaurants, grocery stores and other food service outlets, but now they sell to anybody ... even me. Thank goodness.

We bought a lot of food and brought it home. Then I needed to figure out what to do with it all. The dry foods are the easiest to figure out, if you have a lot of canning jars or other good airtight containers that mice or bugs cannot get into. I have been planning on canning, but that is still a bit intimidating for some reason. Still, I am good at buying canning jars. Bi-Mart keeps them in stock year round now, so I try to pick up a boxful of one size or another every week or couple of weeks, especially when they are on sale. The average price is $8.99; sometimes less and sometimes more. I am partial to the quart jars because I like to use them for my cookie mixes, but have been buying other sizes too. If I do want to use all of these jars for canning, I'll just dump out the popcorn and rice and put them into something else. Even big Rubbermaid totes will do fine, if you have the room for those.

The food on this table (not counting the containers) was only $82.83. I was curious to see how much 25 and 50 pounds of stuff really was, so here we go:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Ahh! The harvest table.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Fifty pounds of popcorn. You may be asking me why I would want to buy so much. Well, the bag was only $20.89 (or .42 lb) at Cash and Carry, I love popcorn, and it will keep well. I am thinking of selling the smaller jars after decorating them with fabric and raffia with a matching gift bag in my little store.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Here is fifty pounds of rice ($17.99, or .36 lb) and fifty pounds of onions ($11.25, or .23 lb). There were really 17 more onions, but we used one and I dehydrated the other 16.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

These two jars contain 16 dehydrated good sized onions. Pretty cool, huh? Our house smelled like onions for a day, but there are worse smells.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I put the 25 pounds of quick oatmeal into Ziplock freezer bags, because I have room for them and will be using them in my cookie mixes. At Cash and Carry, it cost me $15.00 for 25 pounds (.72 lb).

The 25 pounds of sugar cost me $17.62 (.72 lb). I put most of it into old spaghetti sauce jars. I also bought 50 pounds of flour for 16.09 (.32), but I left it in a Rubbermaid tote in the garage for now.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I also bought 5 dozen eggs for $6.00 (.10 each). I boiled up 4 dozen, and we made egg salad and pickeled eggs. The pickled eggs will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge. I just put pickle juice over the eggs ... beet juice works well too.

I have a bunch more food in the fridge that I need to deal with, and my freezer is full so I have to figure out something else to do with it. I think that I will dehydrate some broccoli and green onions, and more of yellow onions. Though buying this way is less expensive, it does take a lot more time to make things convenient, but the work is easy.

Best of luck! I'd love to hear about how you guys do this sort of thing, so please leave me a comment or an email if you want to.

~ Kathy Matthews

Cash and Carry, Ziplock Bags, Ball Canning Jars, Rubbermaid ... none of them even know about me ... I only wish this were a paid advertisement!

Tips:

* When a wind or snow storm is on the way and you live in the country, fill up the bathtub with water. That way, you can fill up a bucket with water and use it to flush the toilet if the electricity goes out and the pump quits working. You can also use the water from your hot tub if you have one.

* Keep an old phone (with a cord) around the house to use in case the power goes out - for when your cordless phone will not work. For other reasons, your cell phone may not work either in case of a disaster. Make sure to have a list of phone numbers written down (in addition to having them stored on speed dials).

* Stock up! Some people strive for 3 days worth of food and water, others 3 months, others 2 years. Remember, you may be asked to share with others, so start preparing now.

* Have kerosene oil lamps and lamp oil on hand. They look pretty in the home, and give good lighting when the power goes out.

* Make cheap and easy lanterns by filling a canning jar halfway up with sand and placing an emergency candle in it. You can put a lid on it for easy storage in the cupboard until it is needed.

* Keep a couple of those long lighters (used for BBQ's) in your home for lighting candles and lanterns.

* Have the number of the electric company in an easy location. Call as soon as your power goes out (using your old phone or your cell phone)... don't assume that somebody else already has. I have been the first one to call several times, and after one really bad windstorm I had to call again the next day because they thought that everybody had been taken care of, but we were not.

* If you experience a "brown-out", where the lights dim, unplug your refrigerator and freezer! We had the motor burn out of our fridge one time due to a brown-out and had to buy a whole new fridge.

* Learn about cooking with cast iron dutch ovens and how to use charcoal as a heat sorce for them. There is a link on the bottom of this page with information about this.

* Buy boxed soy and rice milk to have with your extra food supplies. They stay good for quite a while and you are not stuck with only powdered milk.

* If you have a baby in diapers, have a several dozen cloth
diapers on hand, along with diaper pins, plastic pants or diaper wraps. If you can't go to the store to buy more disposables, you can always wash and reuse the cloth ones.

* Just think about what your grandparents or great-grandparents must have done or used when thinking about emergency preparedness ... make it fun when it is not an emergency. Get creative! Share your ideas with friends, and email them to me so that I can put them on here. Thanks!