Too many people put a few bags of wheat in their home, and think
they will be fine if there is an emergency. They do not know how to use
it, nor have the rest of the ingredients they need to make bread. They can
boil it and eat it like rice, but they are not going to be very happy.
There are 3 basic levels of food storage.
- You can't get to the store, and you need backup food of
your normal menu.
- You want to continue your present diet if the power goes
out.
- You want to have enough extra food in your home in case
of a natural disaster or other emergency that may last several months.
All you have to do to be prepared on the first level is to
buy a little extra of the foods you are already eating when you go shopping.
Besides the money, your biggest challenge will be to find space to store it.
While you can put food under the bed, it is much easier to use and rotate if
you have a closet to use, as above, or shelves in the basement.
As you can see, the shelves in the picture above are not
very full. When money allows, there will be more food on them.
When there is more food on them, the the 1st level of food storage will be a
lot closer for our family.
However,
I also store wheat, but I use it all the time. I have a portable and
an electric wheat grinder. It is not hard to make bread with a bread
machine. I rotate my wheat, and should we lose power, we can use
the hand grinder for the wheat and use an alternative method to bake
it like a Dutch oven.
Whole wheat is nutritious, and when it is being rotated
and eaten it is a wonderful storage food. Keep it cool and dry, and it
will last for years.
The last level of storage is long term storage. This is
where you want to store a few buckets of things that store for a long time and
that fill you up. Rice is a good example. It lasts for years, and it
is easy to divide it up and share it with others.
Dehydrated
foods would also fall into this category. They last many years, and are
easily shared and cooked by all. Stores like Costco are now selling
dehydrated foods. The food in the picture to the left was just purchased
at Costco.The freeze dried food lasts longer than the dehydrated food.
Have a variety of foods, use them, rotate them, and you will
not waste your money.
There is one basic rule for smart food
mini prepper storage. STORE WHAT YOU EAT, AND
EAT WHAT YOU STORE. To do less is to waste food and money.
