Saving Our Food Storage From a Deep Freeze
I received this comment on an older post on Friday and decided it was such a great question I didn’t want you to miss it so I am posting my answer here:
I have a question, and wasn’t sure where to ask it…. My husband and I, with our 6 kids, have been trying to get more prepared. 2 years ago he built a huge outdoor shed for an office, storage, etc. and we included a very large food storage room. That is the good news. The bad news is he never finished it (nor can we afford to in the near future) so while it has lots of nice shelving, there is no electricity or heat. It stays very cool in the summer, but our winters up north here are very long and bitter cold. Now that we have a substantial food storage, I am worried about certain items freezing over the winter and going bad. I know I can leave some things out there, but what would you recommend I move inside? Will the canned goods freeze and be ruined if I leave them out there? Thank you for any advice you can give me! I’d prefer to leave a much as possible out there, as we built it because we don’t have the storage room inside the house!
My Answer:
In a word insulate. How?
1. Cover the floor. You have some time so if the floor is not already carpeted, carpet it. Don’t buy carpet. Do you know someone who installs carpet? If not, visit a local carpeting store. Ask them to either save you remnants or tell them you are looking for carpet that people are pulling out and replacing. You do not want carpet that has gone through a fire or flood or that has pet smells. Get as much as you can! Cover the floor with at least one layer and if you have extra staple it to the studs on the walls in place of sheet rock.
2. Newspaper is a great insulator. Use newspaper between the studs. You will want to roll the newspaper tightly are lay it flat. Crumpled paper will burn much more easily and will not insulate as well. If you are familiar with paper fire logs (rolling newspaper, soaking it and drying it to be used in place of firewood) these would work really well and would be like storing fuel at the same time.
3. Plastic. If you can afford to buy heavy weight plastic place this directly on the inside of the outside walls and then add newspaper.
4. Cardboard. This is also easy to come by. Ask the local grocery store if you can come by every day and pick up boxes. Cardboard can be used in place of carpet either on the floor or on the walls. It is also great to place on a window to cut down on drafts.
5. Caulk. I’m sure you have probably already done this but if not caulk is cheap. Caulk around doors and windows, then place cardboard in the window, duct tape it down further sealing the edge of the window.
6. Cover windows. Further cover your windows with blankets or plastic. Take a firring strip or 1/2 round or 1/4 round molding strip. Place the blanket or plastic over the window opening, place the wood strip on top and nail through the wood. You will have created an air pocket between the cardboard and the blanket. That air space is important. It will act as an additional barrier cutting down drafts.
7. Lower the ceiling. If you still have open beams in the ceiling staple blankets, plastic or even carpeting to the studs. Again the air above is ok. Treat the roof beams as well as the ceiling beams. If you have enough cardboard you can place it between the roof studs and then lower the ceiling.
Be sure to move portable shelving away from the walls and cover the walls behind them and the flooring beneath.
All of this may leave your room looking very funny. Take pictures and just enjoy the adventure. In fact, please share the picture with us. You will be amazed how much these free items will keep the cold and winds out and help to protect your food.
In answer to your canned food question. I would leave any cans that are dry packed, rice, pasta, oatmeal,even chocolate chips will be fine. Anything canned in a liquid should be moved inside. If these cans freeze they will expand and the seals could rust or break destroying the food. All cans that are frozen will not be unsafe. If something freezes place it in the fridge and let it defrost. If there is no leaking and no rust the food is probably good. If you have any doubts toss it.
If you are storing water in this building be sure to leave enough room in the container to accommodate the expansion of the water as it freezes.
I hope this gives you some ideas. Please let me know what you decide to do. Good Luck!
Any other tips out there? Please share.
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Maybe 3 or 4 outdoor thermometers could also be purchased so they could be positioned in different areas of the storage area of the shed. Place one up high, another down low, one inside on the coldest outside wall, and one more centralized in the storage area. Also purchase an atomic clock that has a remote thermometer. The atomic clock can be placed in your kitchen and the remote thermometer in your outside storage area. The atomic clock will tell you your inside kitchen temperature and your outside storage temperature. By monitoring the extra thermometers in the storage shed, you will be sure the remote themometer is gauged correctly. You will also know how safe the temperature of your food is. If the temperature dips too close to freezing, you will know it is time to bring all of the vulnerable food inside.
For years people have also known that a root cellar was a safe place to keep food. There is an excellent book on the subject by Mike and Nancy Bubel: Root Cellaring, The Simple No-Processing Way to Store Fruits and Vegetables. If your library doesn’t have it, they will probably be able to find a copy for you through the inter-library loan system. It might give you ideas that will help you in this situation.
Soil is also a great insulator–that is why root cellars are so good. You might be able to obtain sheets from Good Will or the Salvation Army stores and make sandbags out of them. Then fill them with soil and bank them along the coldest wall of your storage area–inside or out. You will have to use common sense so that you don’t create a dangerous situation where the soil could collapse on any of your children.
I was reading a blog on the web today. It is done by a woman “small farmer” in Eaton, Ohio. They just had a big storm yesterday with 4 hours of 50 m.p.h. winds and gusts up to 70 m.p.h. I believe this was the left over storm from Hurricane Ike. Anyway, she says this about their corn crop: “Note the corn lying beside the sign. That is our “lodged” popcorn crop which is not quite ready to harvest. The term “lodged” means corn that has been pushed down by wind, making it quite hard to harvest by hand and pretty much impossible to harvest with machines. There is a lot of lodged corn in western and central Ohio from the storm. By a lot I would estimate at least 60% of the corn is pretty much unharvestable. What started out as a pretty good corn crop in Ohio is quickly becoming a disaster for the corn farmers.”
Thought you would like to know about this.
Sincerely,
Lesli
Thank you both so much. What awesome readers we have here! Jeanette your ideas are wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing. I will definitely add that advice to any further posts or articles I write on the subject. Lesli, I have been concerned about the loss of the crops in Iowa and the surrounding areas since the flooding there. This is not good news. Just one more reason to pat ourselves on the back for beginning our food storage before it became an emergency. Be sure to check back tomorrow for a money saving tip related to food storage. And…thanks again
How about using the storage area for things such as soap, toilet paper, paper towels, feminine hygiene, things that you don’t need to worry about quite so much? I realize that products age and yellow, etc., with fluctuations in temperature, but I’d rather deal with that than frozen canned goods. If your stuff thawed and some of it broke open, you could have a HUGE mess to clean out of your storage area! Good luck with your storage.
Interesting site. Keep up the great work. Thanks again, Francis