Survival Food Storage

It’s not getting any Cheaper

Anyone who eats should know by now that the price of food is going up, even the basics like beans, rice, cornmeal and flour are demanding more from the wallet with every visit to the market. Even if you never use it for its intended purpose, it can be rotated into your everyday meals, letting you eat for last years prices.

The Basics

Stock up on as much wheat, beans and rice as you can get your hands on, you can’t have too much of these basic survival foods. My plan for stockpiling survival food consists primarily of four basic food items: wheat, sugar and or honey, powdered milk and salt. From these four basic ingredients, a wide variety of foods can be prepared. The advantages of this plan is that these four food items are relatively inexpensive, readily available, storage is simple and the wheat, sugar and salt will store indefinitely under proper conditions.

Adding Variety

After you get the basic four foods (wheat, sugar, powdered milk, and salt) in the needed proportions then it is a simple matter to add other foods as you get the extra money. Pinto beans, mixed beans, rice, split peas and canned meats, fruits and vegetables can be added with little expense and will add variety to your diet. And don’t forget to include pepper, baking powder, baking soda, canned yeast, dried eggs, cooking oil, multivitamin and mineral as well as extra vitamin C caplets.

SEALING MYLAR BAGS
Via: Survival unlimited

Please read “More Info” on the oxygen absorbers before attempting this job. Before placing your oxygen absorbers in the mylar bags on top of the food, manipulate the mylar bag so that it becomes flattened from the end down as close to the food as possible. The best way to do this is once your food is in the bucket pick up on the end of the bag and lift it with bucket and food slightly off the floor only holding on to the bag and shake it up and down a couple of times to get the food to the bottom of the bag giving you more mylar at the top.

Then, pick the bucket up off the floor and slam it down on the floor a couple of times to get the food all the way down in the buckets bottom – do about two to three times. Next, grab the mylar on both sides close to the bucket and pull both sides at the same time to get wrinkles out. Make sure the portion above is also flat and relatively free of wrinkles. Then fold the mylar to one side of the bucket (flat side of mylar) and push down on the top of the food to get the air out of the mylar, then fold the mylar back to the other side and push down again. May need one or two more times then move the opening of the mylar directly up vertically, then you will notice the mylar sitting almost flat on top of the food with a flat flap facing up (this minimizes air in bag before sealing).

Now push the flat flap down to one side to ready it for sealing. Get all of your buckets ready this way. Now, open your oxygen absorbers and place the adequate quantity in the mylar bag on top of the food making sure you limit the quantity of buckets you are sealing to a 10 to 20 minute job. Now place your 30 inch “Full Round Wood Closet Rod” molding (can be purchased at a hardware store or lumber yard) on the top of the bucket. Now pull the mylar tight from left and right at the same time and lay it flat on the rod so there are no wrinkles at the rod.

With your Teflon coated iron set at its highest heat setting, move it across the rod left and right till you have a sealed line (no wrinkles, none). Then move the iron up some to make the seal a little wider moving the iron side to side. Your done. Now put the lid on! Option: You may want to attach the closet rod to a 1×4 pc of wood to lay on the bucket to prevent it from rolling off or moving while sealing the bag. It is advised to do a few test seals before you try sealing your food so remember to get a couple extra bags to do this.

Using the commercial heat sealers we sell is much faster and the quality can be achieved much easier. The sealer will seal the whole bag within a few seconds and you don’t have to worry about wrinkles like with the iron. Get some friends together and pitch in for one of these, its well worth it.

(Also See Alan T. Hagan’s Food Storage FAQ.)

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