Today's post is the seventh in the prepping series. The first post outlined the five inexpensive and versatile foods to stock first, the second post gave some tips on how to ensure easy access to fresh fruits and veggies during a crisis, the third discussed how to navigate power interruptions, the fourth got you geared up for gardening and foraging with resilience, the fifth listed out the essential items to pack in a go bag, and the sixth posed some additional foods to consider layering into your long term pantry.
I had promised to go into more detail on long-term food storage, and today is that day!
As, I mentioned in the first post, the amount you decide to store of each type of food is a personal preference based on your needs and what types of things you are prepping for (and their severity). You may not even be "prepping" for anything at all. You may just desire to have on hand items you use regularly in daily life. And, want some tips on how to store them. All of those reasons are valid.
Listed below are the items I use when storing foods long-term:
- Food safe buckets - 2 gallon and 5 gallon
- Mason jars - pint, quart, and half gallon
- Oxygen absorbers - 300cc and 2,000cc
- Food Saver mason jar lids
- Brake bleeder
- Bay leaves
- Food grade diatomaceous earth
- Funnel
- Scoop
- Tape or labels
- Permanent marker
Oxygen is the main factor that will lead food to spoil more quickly. So, using storage containers that are a suitable size for what you are storing is important. Having multiple sizes of mason jars and food safe buckets allows you to pick the right size of what you're trying to store.
Food safe buckets are great for storing items that you've purchased in large quantities. A five gallon size is typically used for items that store for long periods of time and you use regularly, such as sugar, beans, and oats. Two gallon is another common size, which can be used for items that maybe you don't keep quite as much on hand of since they don't last as long, such as pasta. These buckets will typically run you about $7 each. And, many preppers suggest purchasing a gamma lid for each of your buckets, which would run you another $7. However....what if I told you instead of $14 for the bucket and lid, you could get both for $1?? It's true. Stop at the Walmart bakery counter and ask the team member if they have any frosting buckets. They get asked this a lot so I assure you they will not be confused by the question. Depending on how many cakes they have made, and how many other people have asked for buckets that day, will impact how many buckets they will be able to give you - sometimes they may have ten for you, other times only one. They have both two gallon and five gallon sizes, each being just $1 each for both the bucket and the lid. If they bring over any buckets with orange lids, refuse those as they do not have good seals. But, the typical white bucket and lid with a Brill frosting label are excellent quality and have amazing seals on the lids so no need to purchase a gamma lid. You can open and close these buckets over and over and the seal will remain strong. The buckets appear fairly clean. So, I assume Walmart washes them out. However, you'll still want to give them a good wash with a clean dishrag and dish soap when you get home, paying special attention to make sure no frosting has gotten stuck in the seal on the lid. If it has, use a butter knife draped with your dishrag to gently slide along the seal to dislodge and clean out any residual frosting. Make sure the buckets are fully dry before filling with food. You may also choose to do a quick wipe of the buckets with white vinegar to further disinfect them, if you so choose.
While you can open and close your buckets as needed to withdraw food. I like to also keep a mason jar in my kitchen cupboard with what I have in my buckets for easier access. When the mason jar is empty, I refill it from the bucket. There are many foods I don't keep in buckets at all. Instead, they are solely stored in mason jars. This is either because they are foods I keep in smaller quantities than is needed for a bucket. Or, they are foods that are severely impacted by oxygen, like dried mushrooms and dehydrated vegetable powders. So, I keep them in a mason jar, which I remove all the oxygen from.
As far as mason jars, three different sizes are handy to have - pint, quart, and half gallon. A half gallon size is typically what I use to hold what I also have in five gallon buckets. And, I also use a half gallon size for foods such as brown rice, specialty beans like French lentils, and milk powder, that I have higher quantities of yet I don't keep any in buckets. A quart size is great for foods I keep less of such as basmati rice and dehydrated vegetable powders. A pint size is great for spices and baking soda/powder.
Since what I have in mason jars is smaller quantities and/or I'll be using it quickly, in most cases I don't remove the oxygen from the jars or take any other actions to store them - I simple put the lid and band on that came with jar and place it inside the cupboard. However, there are some items where removing the oxygen can extend their life - dried/dehydrated foods, arrowroot powder, vital wheat gluten, peanut flour, etc. For these items, I remove the oxygen using a jar sealer and a brake bleeder pump. Jar sealers are sold in two sizes to fit regular mouth mason jars and wide mouth mason jars. The brand I have is Food Saver. The price is steep at $42.99 (at the time of this post) for one each of the regular and wide sizes. The Food Saver brand has been around for a long time, so you can find them plentiful on eBay. The ones I got were only about $10 on Ebay. If you have an electric vacuum sealer machine, you may be able to hook the hose up to these lids to remove the air. I do not have a vacuum sealer machine, so I ordered a hand held vacuum pump brake bleeder kit. These run about $25 and are exactly the type of tool a car mechanic would use to fix your brakes. Out of the kit, you just use the nozzle size that fits in the hole on top of your Food Saver lids, one of the hoses, and the hand held pump. I was lucky enough to get a hose with the Food Saver lids I got on eBay. If you do as well, don't throw it out as it will most likely work a tad better than the nozzle and hose you get with your brake bleeder kit (it allows for a stronger connection and you don't have to exert so much pressure with your hand to pump air through). I will do an in depth tutorial on this. In the meantime, there are many YouTube videos that can guide you as well. If you don't want to invest in these lids and hand held pump, you can use food safe oxygen absorbers instead. Oxygen absorbers are also great to use for powders as those do not seal as well as foods with volume to them when pulling the oxygen out.
For both buckets and mason jars, I write the type of food on a piece of washi tape with a permanent marker. You can write on masking tape or duct tape instead, or write directly on the bucket or the mason jar lid. Sometimes, I often also write additional notes such as the expiration date and how much a serving size is (this is particularly helpful for powders I add into my smoothies).
A funnel and a large scoop are helpful for transferring foods in and out of your buckets or mason jars.
I've reiterated in this prepping series that I do not utilize advanced storage methods such as mylar bags. However, certainly investigate those if you're interested in trying them out. Additionally, use this as a guide. It is what has worked for me. The amount of food you are storing, the types of food, the quality of food at the time you received it, the storage conditions you have, as well as many other factors will affect how well your food stores and for how long. So, do additional research on your own that align with your needs and storage conditions.
Be on the lookout in future posts for a list of common foods with how long they store and my preferred storage method for each, as well as more details on how to use the Food Saver lids and brake bleeder pump.
