Food Storage Methods

Below are links to a variety of methods for starting and building your food storage.  Don't be afraid to adapt these methods to something that will work for you.

• Food Storage Made Easy and its sister sites have a ton of easy to access information and offer step-by-step help on planning and gathering food storage http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/start-here/

• What I call the "Family Favorites Method"---Still one of my favorite methods sites- lots of helpful direction- http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_500.pdf 

• Wendy Dewitt's "Everything Under the Sun"--the first link here is for a You Tube video of  part 1 of her 9 video series, the other videos can be found on the right side of the page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGaTlwYs-s.      The second link is for her Class Booklet- http://www.theideadoor.com/PDF%20Files/RS/EverythingUnderTheSun.pdf

• Track my foodstorage.com's blog, "Food Storage Girl,"  has this method on how to organize a short term food supply in individual meal bags---http://foodstoragegirl.trackmyfoodstorage.com/post/2010/01/15/Short-Term-Food-Storage-Tips.aspx

Tracking System for Food Storage

For years I struggled with keeping track of my year’s supply of basic foods. I tried keeping lists of what I had, but the lists changed weekly. I was taking inventory much too often.

Then, while a friend was visiting a bicycle shop, she noticed their system for inventory control. Inspiration struck! We each adapted the idea to our own food storage system with wonderful results. Here’s what we did:

1. On a poster board, tape or glue pockets made of index cards cut in half, one for each kind of food in your basic year’s supply. Each pocket is labeled by the type of food, number of packages or units, amount in each package, and the total amount needed for a year’s supply of that item. For example, one pocket might be labeled “spaghetti—48 boxes x 2 lbs. = 96 lbs.”

2. We make an inventory card for each package or unit. Spaghetti, for example, would need forty-eight cards, each with “spaghetti—2 lbs.” written on it. Those forty-eight cards are placed in the labeled pocket. Do the same with each food item.

3. Whenever someone takes an item from storage, that person also pulls a card from the pocket and brings both items to the kitchen. We place the card in an envelope taped behind a cupboard door in the kitchen.

We color-coded the cards to represent the source for obtaining each food item. Foods obtained from the cannery are kept on red cards, grocery store items on green ones, warehouse items on blue, and home-canned items are on pink cards.

It’s a simple matter before shopping to pull all the green cards from the envelope when planning a trip to the store, or all the red cards when I plan for a trip to the cannery. I know exactly what needs to be replaced. As items are restocked, I replace the cards in the poster board pockets.

We hang our poster board in our storage area. Now we are able to keep our year’s supply of food fully stocked.—Leslie O. Andersen

One Can at a Time

It would take an elephant to feed my family for a year, I thought as I tried to make a plan for our food storage. And how could I afford it or store it all? Just then an old saying about elephants popped into my mind: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” The question for me was, “How do you store an elephant?” The answer was—one can at a time!

1. Save all the change that comes home. It is amazing how much money five people can contribute in just a week. With only $1 per week per person, we could dry pack one can of potato pearls, or three cans of flour, or one can of delicious apple slices.

2. Use the money from our tax return for quantity purchases. A case of six cans of basic items of milk, flour, sugar, and wheat was affordable and helped us be much more prepared. When we added pasta and beans, we felt that in an emergency we could actually create family meals for a month.

3. Buy one extra item when at the store. Oils, salt, and spices are necessary for a complete storage plan. The cost of one item was seldom noticed in our grocery bill, but our storage room benefited greatly.

An article in the Ensign about debt reduction states, “Your most important savings is food storage” (Jack M. Lyon, “ ‘How Many Loaves Have Ye?’ ” Ensign, Dec. 1989, 41). We have tried to balance this with monetary savings. Each time we purchase an item on sale for food storage, we try to save the extra amount we would normally have spent and add it to our food storage fund.

Our food storage is growing day by day, can by can, case by case. We are better prepared and no longer afraid of being trampled by the enormity of the food-storage elephant.—Mary L. Wilson,

3 Lessons Learned

Confession... I am not a food storage expert! As a matter of fact, I started this blog to force myself to try to become at least proficient in food storage skills. It is my hope that as I take this journey to educate myself that others who read this blog will be educated and helped too.

There are 3 things I have discovered that have changed my thinking about what food storage is and how to go about it. I hope the following will be helpful to you too.

1. My Food Storage will not look like your food storage (and it's ok!)
I have heard "store what you eat" forever, but not really understood it until now. I kept thinking things like, "Everyone is buying #10 cans, and 50 lb sacks of everything, but my family would never eat all of that in time, it will just waste." This thinking created a mental block for me and kept me from getting started until now.

Finally, the light bulb has come on and I understand what everyone was trying to say and for me I wish people had said "Store What you Eat, the WAY you will eat it." Meaning, for my family, I can buy regular 15 oz cans. I had to keep telling myself, "Really, it is ok, you are not breaking any food storage rules!" I realize this is more costly now, but in the long run I figure it will even out because I will not waste my food storage by opening #10 cans of food that we will not eat before they spoil. I also know this works for me, because I have overcome my mental block about food storage and am now starting to "Store What we Eat, The Way we will Eat It." Of course I have bought bulk in the long term basics, but for my 1 year supply, smaller is better for our family! I know people who store a lot of freeze-dried food and that is what feels right for their needs. Whatever feels right for your family, just do it!

2. Family Favorites method
The other eye-opening discovery I have made about food storage is what I call the "Family Favorites Method." Research shows that families eat the same 10 main dish meals 80% of the time. This is not a revelation to me, it is definitely a fact. We rotate our favorite meals every few weeks. This method is how I am setting up my 3 month and then 1 year supply. Check out these two sites and see if this method makes sense for your family!


http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_500.pdf

http://www.theideadoor.com/PDF%20Files/RS/EverythingUnderTheSun.pdf

3. Make sure you have a plan
I have always heard the advice, "Even if you can't afford a lot for food storage you can start. Just pick up a few extra things each time you shop and put it away for food storage." I agree with this philosophy, I just think once again a little addition is needed, "...just make sure you have a plan." I have fallen into the trap of buying whatever is on sale or what is offered by a group purchase thinking that "hey, it's food storage, I need to buy it." Actually, too often it ends up being a bigger quantity than my family will use. I have also met people who say they have a lot of odds and ends in their food storage area, but have no idea if they have anything that will go together to make a meal. Thus, the advice to make sure you have a plan. Whether you use the Family Favorites method or another one, make sure you know what you need to buy so you are not wasting time and money.