I think it is rather ironic that I’m being asked to teach a cooking class about anything at all. 20 years ago I didn’t know how to make mashed potatoes or corn on the cob!
So why should I talk to anyone about cooking with food storage? Well, I’ll tell you that my only qualifications here are because I have a food storage and I use it. Every day. And as I have read, learned and experienced cooking with food storage over the past several years I have learned to love it as I have unraveled some of its mysteries.
Even though I couldn’t cook much, Home Storage or Food Storage is basic to living providently and has been close to my heart ever since I can remember. There are so many facets to Food Storage, or Family Home Storage as it is called in the pamphlet “All Is Safely Gathered In” put out by The First Presidency, one hardly knows where to start. There are so many things to consider and we all have different circumstances, abilities and knowledge concerning the topic. Sometimes you just have to jump in and start swimming though.
I have had an interest in Food Production and Food Storage for a long time and it really began as a little girl facing financial hardship in a family looking unemployment and staring a deep recession in the face. Living in Detroit during the Arab Oil Embargo of the early 1970’s, things were pretty bleak. My parents had barely gotten a footing in life when the rug was swept out from under them, so to speak, and from a very early age I remember fearing that a can of cat food might be the next meal I shared with my family. I thought cat food would be fine for a cat but I was pretty sure at my very tender age that I’d rather be eating a can of tuna. My Dad was too proud to ask for help as my mother worried how or when we’d be able to buy the next loaf of bread. Things turned up for a while and I watched as my Mom and my grandma canned various fruits and tomatoes a couple of times. I was interested, but I was young. Several years passed and after my father faced several more job losses eventually the only thing standing between my family and a cardboard box to live in was my college savings from my after school job which, I know, hurt my Dad to ask me for. I was the oldest of six children by that point. My father further humbled himself to accept some food assistance temporarily from the church while my mother was, I’m pretty sure, embarrassed. But the first time my Dad came home with a car load of canned goods and so much food for the refrigerator I rushed out to help him with it. It was staggering to me how much peace I felt putting that food on the shelves. I knew for that one month we would be OK and I was astonished at the generosity shown. I may have been just a teenager at the time and I can’t speak for my parents but I felt so much thankfulness. My heart was full of peace and thankfulness and I wanted to keep that feeling. I also knew it was best to do what you could to put that food on the shelf yourself. I worked hard. Sometimes I felt like I wasn’t really a teenager. When I declined going on a trip to a conference with the other teens from church my Bishop called me into his office and told me the bill had been paid and that I would be going with the other kids. He wasn’t asking me, either. I really didn’t understand the whole thing at the time but I’m grateful that the Bishop gave me a piece of “normal” for one weekend and I now understand why he gave me that financial relief. You never get those years back or those opportunities again. And things continued on a financial rollercoaster. I am convinced that everything happens for a reason though.
All this was pretty good preparation for what else was coming my way. I always wanted to have peace and thankfulness in my heart for what I did have but it became even more important as I married and started bringing children into our home. Shortly after Rick and I had announced our engagement my mother said to me that it would take all of my talents to make supporting a family on a teacher’s salary work. She knew I intended on staying home once we had children. And for then not only was I a teacher… so was my husband. The downside, as she pointed out, would be that we would never make a lot of money. I decided to look for the silver lining… job stability. We would never be let go from a job 2 weeks before Christmas. We would always have several “free” months to look for a job if it ever came to that. I use this to my advantage. We might only get paid 9 months of the year but having a stable and dependable income would be a huge blessing overall. And if we made more on the side it would be “unexpected money”. All this would just take a little creativity thinking outside the box to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table but it was certainly doable with some discipline. I was debt free with the exception of a small car payment each month. My husband, on the other hand, was saddled with debt. It doesn’t make much financial sense to attend such an expensive University for a career that won’t ever pay much but I hadn’t helped him make that choice. Furthermore, we may never have met if he hadn’t attended school in that area at that time. It took us YEARS to pay off that debt even while attending summer school and figuring out how to pay for that at the same time. Because my husband kept his job and attended school only during the summer, we qualified for no financial aid and yet he needed his Master’s Degree in order to keep a job. Having that debt from the age of 22 on made affording anything hard and so more debt accumulated for a few years. We are still affected by the overshadowing effect of that debt today, 20 years later!
Food storage was at the top of my list when I got married and we started out with just three plastic stacking bins which we kept in our bedroom closet and we attempted to keep them filled with canned foods as much as possible. I didn’t know much about the kitchen when we were married. As I stated earlier, I didn’t know how to make corn on the cob or mashed potatoes and I was working full time. We’d been married about 2 1/2 months when our car broke down and my husband’s student loans came due for the first time since our recent graduation. After paying our bills we realized that if we paid our tithing we’d be left with $14 for two weeks worth of groceries. It was a scary cliff to stand on and I was looking right out over its edge. I felt like I’d been there before. I knew we had to pay our tithing and I told my husband so. When I told Rick there was no choice to be made when it came to tithing, suddenly I felt at peace. I was scared but filled with faith I didn’t know I had as I assured my husband that I could make it work. I went to the store, made some careful choices, got change even and with a few cans I had set aside at home we had food for those two weeks somehow and even a dessert as I recall! Someone called me during that two week period and asked me to bring a meal to someone. We were living in a very wealthy ward at the time and though I wanted to help I guess I hemmed and hawed on the phone so much as I glanced through my nearly bare cupboards wondering what I could possibly make for someone else’s entire family that the person on the other end of the phone finally told me that it was OK. Someone else could certainly fill the need and there’d been a time in her early marriage where they couldn’t afford to feed anyone else either. I was not embarrassed but felt hopeful rather. And looking back, I see that my lack of skill was partially to blame as well. Learning takes time.
Several years later we had a couple of little children and a modest home (which we still live in) with a small food storage which I added to whenever I could. By then I had learned about food storage once again as a means of survival. I could count on having no income during the summer months except for the income my husband was receiving by working at a pizza place at night to help pay for graduate school which he attended during the day. I made sure we had saved enough money for our mortgage and other monthly bills but with no other income it was up to me to lay in store for those summer months while the pay check came in during the regular school year. Whatever we had on the shelves at the beginning of June I rationed out on a clipboard; its schedule covering a twelve week period and it ensured that we wouldn’t be eating the same thing for two weeks solid and that we didn’t eat too much too quickly. Mice, bugs, and dampness threatened my only food sources so I had to learn early to protect what we had. Some of those lessons were learned the hard way and today we laugh remembering some of those last meals of summer. A few were really bad!
Now my food storage is better kept because I’ve learned from experiences. I know what to do with it too. And it is still as necessary to my peace as ever. Cooking from it has become a way of life for me. I’m feeding seven from what I have and while we get paid year round now it serves to protect us against times of financial distress, of which we’ve experienced on several occasions. If you need to eat from your food storage because you have no money for groceries at the moment don’t feel bad. That is what the food storage is there for in the first place! Also, using shelf items keeps costs down and tummies full in spite of an ever shrinking pay check and ever rising food costs as well.
One of the BEST reasons to have a food storage is that you never have to run to the store to make dinner again!!! by frugally building up a $ saving food storage. Having a food storage means you just go shopping in your pantry and this can save you time.
But the number one reason to have a food storage is because the prophets have given us the council for years to “prepare every needful thing” (D&C 109:8 ) so that, should adversity come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops as they care for others. (See Message from The First Presidency in All Is Safely Gathered In). This pamphlet is meant to eliminate the perceived perplexity of food storage.
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So now I get to The Five “W’s” of Food Storage Basics:
Who: Everyone who wants to follow the prophets council and help themselves against hard times that lie ahead should have a food storage. Whether your family or home are big or small we should all be striving to follow this council. We can all come up with excuses for why we cannot accomplish this. I’m sure I’ve heard most of those excuses already from people I know but in the end we still have the responsibility to have a food storage to help take care of ourselves and families. I live in a modest home with with 7 people in approximately 1,000 square feet of living space. It has an unfinished basement which is very damp, just 3 closets and few cupboards in an eat-in kitchen that is about 8x15. But we have a food storage as we did when living in a small apartment in years past using closet space and under the bed space.
What: A three MONTH supply seems a lot more doable to most people than a one YEAR supply of goods. I can wrap my brain around that a lot easier. “Store what you eat/Eat what you store” is the saying I follow for the short term supply of foods. You might start like this; if pasta goes on sale for $1 and it usually costs $1.50 and you would usually buy 2 of them for $3 then try buying 3 pasta boxes for $3. When it goes on sale for .49 which it does usually once a year then see how much you can stock up on using these Three Rules; *How much can I afford? *How much can I use? *How much space do I have? There are some really creative ways to come upon food, too. I talk more about those in my entry “The Smart Shopper Getting Started”.
For a three month supply, choose foods that you normally eat in amounts you normally eat. Included canned and commercially packaged foods which will be used and thus continually rotated and replenished.
A long term supply of life sustaining foods should be rotated into your three month supply and include wheat/flour, oats, sugar, beans, powdered milk, pasta.
When: Get started on it now if you haven’t already and if you have then keep going with it. The most important thing is to get started and keep going. It doesn’t matter how fast you get there as long as you continue according to your abilities.
Don’t let the idea that you need to inventory your food storage immediately to know how much you need to buy or store get in your way of starting. You probably can’t afford it all at once anyway and it would be very difficult for you to surpass your needs anytime soon. Inventorying my food storage is a goal that I have. I’ve been working on food storage basics for years and don’t have a year’s supply. But while I don’t know exactly how long my food would last I know that I’ve done the best I can and if push came to shove I feel confident that we could sustain life for at least 3 months. Inventorying can come later… just get started now!
Where: Most things do best in a cool, dry place. I do my best with this keeping things away from the damp floor, in plastic barrels, plastic containers or glass jars. I use barrels and utilitarian shelving units in my basement space. I use space under the bench my younger children sit on at the table to store barrels of flour and sugar. Obtain a chest freezer and use it for storing meats, butter, cheeses, and such as they go on sale and store extra casseroles, soups and sauces for quick meals. Get creative and store under the bed, in closet spaces, even under the couch if space is truly at a premium. Be careful with attic spaces as they are usually dry but do get hot in the summer months. Be careful with garage space as heat and cold are issues with food storage. I don’t recommend the garage or attic for food storage because of these temperature extremes.
Why: President Brigham Young once said “The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of Wheat.” President Harold B. Lee stated “There is no person who knows the real purpose for which this welfare program is being instituted but hardly before sufficient preparation has been made the real purpose will be revealed and when that time comes it will challenge every resource of the church to meet it.” And we’ve all heard that it wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.
Food storage will bring you peace of mind and you can’t put a price tag on that.
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