Our adventures in micro-homesteading
Basics of Food Preservation:
Lets start with the basics of food preservation. How do you keep food long term? First, we must understand what causes food to spoil. Food generally goes bad due to one or more of the following conditions: moisture, air, insects/rodents, acidity of the food, natural rot, oxidation, and fats turning rancid. Some food types simply keep longer than others. Packed and stored properly, wheat and beans store for literally decades. They have actually found wheat berries in pyramids in Egypt that were perfectly edible after thousands of years! White rice also stores a long time. Sugar and salt store indefinitely, if kept dry. Powdered milk can also last a long time. Things like fats (except whole corn) and oils, however, have a relatively short life span.
According to the LDS.org (https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage/longer-term-food-supply?lang=eng#1), they list some long term foods as:
“NEW "LIFE-SUSTAINING" SHELF-LIFE ESTIMATES (IN YEARS)
<table not translating correctly>
Food Type
Years
Wheat
30
White rice
30
Corn
30
Sugar
30
Pinto beans
30
Rolled oats
30
Pasta
30
Potato flakes
30
Apple slices
30
Non-fat powdered milk
20
Dehydrated carrots
20
“
As you can see, some of the basics, when stored properly, are cheap insurance that last for years. You will also notice that there is no boxed meals, burger helpers, or anything else that is part of the typical American diet. Note that these times are “life sustaining...estimates”. There may be an off flavor, nutritional value may be below normal standards, and there may be issues with items being stale. However, they still provide calories and can be safe to eat.
Consider grinding your own flour from wheat berries. We do this ourselves for a few reasons, but honestly it is NOT cheaper than buying flour. This is one of the few things where doing it yourself is more expensive. So you may ask, why grind your own flour? It costs you more, so there may be some benefit? The answer to that is YES! There are benefits to grinding your flour fresh. Aside from the nestalgic value, we grind our flour fresh for 2 reasons.
The most important reason is nutritional value. Fresh ground flour has all the good stuff that store bought flour is stripped of. “Wait just a minute, I buy whole wheat flour!” you might say. Yes, you do buy a product labeled “whole wheat” flour. However, you still aren't getting real whole wheat. By federal law, all flour sold MUST (and there are NO exceptions) have certain components removed, namely the natural oils. This is where all the goodness of the wheat is. The problem is that oils are fats, and fats go rancid quickly. Fresh milled flour is only good for a few weeks before the fats in the flour go rancid. So it is for your benefit that this is removed, but you are loosing a lot nutrition wise. When you buy “whole wheat flour”, you are buying white flour with some bran (less beneficial oils and fats) put back in. Not really whole grain, is it?
Second reason is to rotate our supplies. Since we store wheat, we now consume it regularly. We aren't sitting on wheat for decades, but rotate wheat out as it is eaten.
Further hurting the financial aspect of milling your own, you must buy a flour mill. We purchased 2 mills, a hand powered mill and an electric model, both being Wonder Mills. The hand powered mill is the “Wondermill Jr.”, and the electric model is simply the “Wonder Mill”. They both produce quality flour, but obviously the electric model is far easier than cranking the hand unit. Both units are particularly robust, and will privide many years of service. I advise you start with the electric mill, and add a hand mill if you want a backup, or to make your own peanut butter or other items that the electric mill cannot grind.
Truth be told, we bought the hand mill first, as it is a bit cheaper (but not as much as you would think). We never had intentions of using our wheat berries daily, and early on figured since they keep for decades we would reserve the wheat for a long term SHTF scenario. We bought a couple hundred pounds of wheat berries and a hand mill. If things ever got that bad, we can hand mill the flour. When we decided start using our wheat, I ground some wheat berries by hand. Took me an hour and a half the first time to get just enough flour for a single loaf of bread! I think I burned as many calories making the flour as I got from the bread! It is a chore, for sure! We quickly decided that using fresh flour mandated an electric mill, and it has been money well spent! Cyndy will also touch up more with actually using home ground flour, as it is different than using store bought.
Storing food in Mylar bags:
A Mylar bag is a laminated pouch or bag that is comprised of a layer of food safe plastic, then a layer of thin aluminum foil, then another layer of food safe plastic. The bags arrive as pouches with 3 ends sealed. Actually, Mylar bags are used all over. They are commonly used for cereal bar wrappers, candy wrappers, potato chip bags, etc.. There are different thicknesses of Mylar bags, but if you see the inside of the bag is extremely shiny, almost chrome shiny, it is a Mylar container. The benefits of Mylar is that the food is completely sealed from moisture and air. Even though plastic is “water proof”, plastic is actually porous. Over time, air and molecules of moisture go through plastic. Some plastic is tighter than others, but plastic is NOT a solution for long term storage. That is where the aluminum layer comes into play. The aluminum is NOT permeable by air or moisture. Also, the aluminum blocks all light, another source of food deterioration. The aluminum layer is actually the key to long term storage with Mylar bags.
The process to fill the bags and seal Mylar bags vary based on who you talk to, but I will outline my methods. First thing is to acquire the proper supplies. To properly fill and seal Mylar bags, I recommended the following:
Heavy duty Mylar bags. I purchase mine from the lds.org store. They sell supplies to anyone, not just Church members.
Oxygen obsorbers. I also purchase them from the lds.org store. Conveniently, the oxygen obsorbers they sell are just the right size for the Mylar bags they sell!
Industrial impulse sealer of at least 14 inches. These can be sourced online on places like eBay or Amazon.com for around $65. They are incredibly useful, and I have found I use them for many different things. I find they are worth the investment.
Gallon sized plastic container. You can use almost anything food safe, such as a punch pitcher or food container. The Mylar bags from the lds.org store hold 1 gallon by volume, so you fill the plastic container first, then pour the contents into the Mylar bag before sealing. This is optional, but it provides for consistent, repeatable results.
OPTIONAL: A food vacuum storage system with hose vacuum attachment. Also, get yourself a turkey flavor injection needle. You will be modifying the hose attachment and flavor needle to suck air out of the sealed Mylar bag. This step isn't needed, but it provides a perfect, repeatable vacuum result every time, and gives that all-to-familiar rock hard result that everyone likes to see.
First step is to have a clean work area. Keep your hands clean. It is usually best to work with an assistant or two, and keep someone with clean hands. I like to go the extra mile and the clean person wears nitrile gloves. Can't hurt, anyway. For the sake of simplicity, lets call the clean person “person 1”, and the non-clean person “person 2”. Person 2 is responsible for everythign that isn't food touching related.
Have everythign laid out before you start working. Have your Mylar bags ready, your O2 absorbers ready, but in a quickly closable container. Have a nice prep area for the food, a filling area, and a sealing area. Also, don't forget an area to set your sealed bags of food. Do be sure your oxygen absorbers aren't just sitting out as they will be quickly used up and worthless. They need to remain sealed every possible second. I like to use mason jars to store them, and use the food vacuum system and appropriate attachment to pull a vacuum in the jar when I am not speedily using them.
OK, now that you are ready, you can get started.
Start by having person 2 hold open the Mylar bag as person 1 measures a gallon portion of food. Lets just say we are storing wheat. Fill your gallon plastic pitcher up with wheat from the bulk wheat sack.
Person 1 then dumps the wheat berries and an O2 absorber into the mylar bag.
Person 2 then seals the mylar in the impulse sealer and sets the bag aside. You will go back and use the turkey needle later.
Person 1 in the mean time should have filled the gallon container again and gotten another O2 absorber ready. You can even put the O2 absorber in the pitcher, but I recommend putting it on top (so it pours in first), just so you can confirm it is there. If you aren't sure if you added an O2 absorber, go ahead and add an extra. You cannot have too many, but food can/will spoil without them.
Repeat for about 10-15 bags, or about 15 minutes. I like to stop the batch at about 15 minutes.
Before you continue, pull a vacuum or otherwise seal your O2 absorbers so they stop working. If yo don't, your O2 absorbers will become depleted.
Now setup your food vacuum system and modified tukey needle at a work station.
Grab one of the sealed bags, and try to get all the food to the bottom, leaving a corner free of food.
Set that corner onto the impulse sealer, leaving enough extra to allow for the turkey needle.
Poke the needle into the bag, but ONLY THE FIRST LAYER. Activate the vacuum device.
Once you have pulled most of the air out of the Mylar bag, activate the impulse sealer and seal the bag. You should only be sealing the corner of the bag. See photo.
Place the finished Mylar bags in whatever storge method you use.
Repeat until you have vacuumed all the sealed Mylar bags.
Wash up and start a new batch of filling. Continue until you are done.
I find that 12”x12”x12” boxes fit filled Mylar bags nicely. More ideal would be 13”x13”x13”, but they can be harder to find. You can also use buckets, plastic storage totes (use heavy duty ones). It all depends on where they will be stored, and if mice are a concern. Keep in mind that mylar bags do NOT keep mice out at all. They keep most small bugs out, but larger bugs can defeat the Mylar bags too. The Mylar is designed to protect the food from the elements only. I store mine in boxes in a place mice cannot get to them. If you decide to use corrugated boxes, you may consider ordering them from a box supply company. Check out if any box companies are available in your area where you can pick up your order, as the price of shipping the boxes is usually just as much as the boxes themselves.
Once you have your foodstuff packed in Mylar, labeled, dated, lot numbers (in case of recalls) and packaged, store your food in that mythical cool, dry place. Stable, cool temps are best. Sometimes you just don't have that magic climate controlled spot available. If you don't, remember that anything less than perfect storage conditions start to decrease the time that foods will last in storage. Consider that if you have to keep your food in your garage. What used to be 30 years may now be only 5-10 years.
Some foods that we have packed in Mylar include, but are not limited to:
Wheat
Dry beans
Powdered milk
Rice
Flour
Salt of a few varieties
Sugar
Peppercorns (we do not use or store pre-ground pepper)
Cocoa powder
Pasta of multiple varieties
Oatmeal
Oat groats
Barley, pearled
Popcorn
Dent corn
A few notes on a packing salt and sugar: Do NOT add an oxygen absorber. Salt and sugar store indefinitely, provided they are kept sealed and dry. Salt is a mineral after all, and sugar is actually a preservative in itself. Since salt and sugar are actually very important, cheap, store indefinitely, and have multiple uses, not to mention salt is actually necessary in the human diet, I advise you store a large amount of salt and sugar. It will literally never go bad, and a lifetime supply is not actually that much. When storing salt, be careful to store only pickling salt or a natural salt. Table salt has anti-caking agents and other additives. While the additives may be un-healthy in themselves, it is unknown how they handle long term storage.
Another point I must make is that you should NOT pack brown sugar for long term storage. Brown sugar should be part of your normal pantry items, and be considered only for “short term” Tier 2 storage. Flour is also something that is only long-ish storage time. Flour should be used relatively quickly. You can bypass flour altogether by simply making your own flour on demand, which is much healthier for you anyway.
Another preservation method that works on the shorter term for whole grains is diatomacious earth, or DE for short. Diatomacious earth is the petrified mineral skeletal remains of pre-historic microscopic diatoms. Under a microscope, diatomacious earth looks like hollow tubes, with holes all throught the tube. Diatomacious earth is used to kill insects, larvae, eggs, and helps dry out the grain a bit more. Diatomacious earth has two important properties for grain preservation against insects. Since the particles are sharp, they can actually cut the insects on a microscopic level. Second is their ability to absorb massive amounts of moisture. This dries out the insects as well. It is a contact killer, so the insect has to actually come in contact with the DE.
It should be noted that DE is harmless to anything but insects, but you should still avoid breathing in DE, and avoid direct skin contact (or your skin will be extremely dried out. Ask me how I know). There are a few grades of DE. There is garden grade and food grade. Make sure you use food grade, which should be a nice white color. Garden grade contains contaminants, uses salt water diatoms (food grade uses fresh water sourced DE), and has a grey or light brown color. DE is actually used commercially for grain storage, so it is not unprecidented to use it in this way.
When adding DE to grain for storage, simply pick out sturdy storage containers, such as plastic buckets. My method is to add some grain, then add a bit of DE. You should strive for no more than 3% DE to grain by weight, but I just add DE until there is a uniform light coating, which typically works out to about 1.5%. Seal up the grain in the buckets/barrels and keep in a cool, dry place. We store our wheat this way, and use our sifter to get rid of most of the DE before we run it through the mill. We are able to get probably close to 90% of the DE off the grains simply by shaking in the sifter. DE has a remarkable ability to rid your gut of parasites, so the little bit we get can only help. Using DE to keep your grain insect free is also applicable in Mylar if you are so inclined, but the lack of oxygen inside the Mylar bag once sealed prevents life anyway. The grain treated with DE and put into simple containers will NOT have the shelf life of wheat in Mylar, so we mix it up a bit. We have a few hundred pounds of wheat in Mylar, and the rest in rotation; preserved with DE in 55 gallon barrels lined with food grade plastic bags. It is still reasonable to assume that in near perfect conditions to get a good decade out of DE treated wheat berries in sealed barrels.