Time to Think Food Storage
I haven’t received many recommendations for home businesses but I do have a few. I am reviewing those and will highlight businesses beginning next Thursday. Please keep them coming.
So, for today I thought it was a good time to get you all ready to tackle food storage. We will begin the process on January 26th and every Monday thereafter. I would love to get a feeling for what you need help with. Please send me your questions or suggestions. I know there is plenty of bad information out there. I know there are lots of calculators that still have you storing lots of oil and tons of wheat. I promise you I will not ask you to do that. We are going to store exactly what you eat and use every day.
A little bit about me since so many of you are new and just discovering us. I have been passionate about food all my life. I was raised with a grandfather who gardened and canned. He made the best…pickles! He was raised by a father who owned a bakery and so my poppop also loved to bake. I loved doing all these things with him. When it came time for me to go away to college I took that passion with me and majored in Home Economics education with an emphasis in foods and nutrition and a minor in science. Since that time I have taught children and adults in schools, community groups and at churches. When my husband and I became engaged the first thing I did was to put all our pocket change, each night, into a jar. At the end of the week I would purchase food I placed in a trunk so when we got married we would have food storage.
A natural progression was to become involved in the study of other ways in which our family could practice self reliance. I soon became obsessed with other aspects of preparedness, and, as they say, the rest is history.
I have been asked for years if I had a plan or a book that could be followed so this last year I did just that. I compiled a series of articles I have written into an ebook That Won’t Happen to Me. I also finished a food storage ebook Mother Hubbard: What She’s Doing Now…a simple approach to food storage in the 21st century.
Although you don’t need to own Mother Hubbard:What She’s Doing Now to follow our food storage plan it will help as it includes an interactive calculator designed to help you plan food storage from one week to one year. You choose your goal and it will calculate what you need. It also includes an interactive inventory system which contains food as well as cleaning and medical supplies. To be prepared to follow our food storage adventure please gather a binder with dividers and note paper. You will also need a permanent marker and a jar with a lid. Finally what I consider the most important thing you need is a food storage buddy. Find someone you can share this journey with. There will be days when you need someone to help you organize, stay motivated, learn a new skill, check sale prices, split bulk food purchases and just give you a high five when that food begins to fill your shelves.
Please pass the word. I have so many people who found our Seven Steps after we were weeks or months into the plan and it is hard to catch up.
This has now been declared the second driest winter in California history. Since we have been experiencing draught conditions for two years already this is not good news. Many farmers are saying they will not plant this year. There could not be a more critical time to get your food storage.
So..get ready and please send me questions and suggestions!
YAY Food Storage!
I love this story about your food storage plan during your engagement. That is a FANTASTIC idea!!!
The gals I recommended to you should be emailing soon – I think Nancy said she already did. I hope your readers enjoy their products & benefit from them as much as I do.
I scored a food storage “home run” yesterday – I’ll post a pic on Super Savings Saturday to share.
One jar or box of your favorite food at a time.
Before you know it you will be amazed at what you have. Someone said to count only your stored items and not what’s in your cupboards in your kitchen. I did that and was amazed that I inaccurately totaled! I had 7 months of basic items. This didn’t include my canned apple,crabapple, and pear sauce or any pickles we have. Nor does it include the regular sized cans.
This was during a medical crisis in our family last year when all this storage happened- so its so nice! What security!
I can’t wait to start the Seven Steps program to add to what I have, fill in the blanks and to help others with their adventures of storing. The ladies group I share with get excited at success stories. Thanks for sharing!
Laurie
I’m a late 20s single who lives on her own (with a rommate) and is in the middle of full-time grad school. This was a hard decision to make because it means living largely off of student loans, but after 2 years of praying I finally felt it was what I am supposed to do. Having said that, I am trying to stretch every penny absolutely as far as possible! I’d acquired some food storage when I was working full time but have since used it up due to limited space in a down-sized apartment. My big question is how/whether to invest in substantial food storage, since almost everything I spend now I’ll be paying interest on for a while. But at the same time, I’m in a place/stage where if something devastating were to happen, I can’t expect anyone else to take care of me! What insights do you have???
I am anxious to get started on our food storage so bought your ebook, Mother Hubbard and read it all and started to look at the calculator and the inventory in the excel files. I was able to start the calculator but would like to have a little more detail, breaking down the categories of grains, how many wheat, how many rice, etc. I can’t figure out the inventory page at all. There is a list of cleaning items but I can’t seem to figure out what I am supposed to do with it. Is there a missing instruction sheet? Please help! Thanks, Zella
Zella, Thanks for purchasing the ebook and thanks for the questions. I strongly believe that no one should tell you how much wheat, rice or anything else you should store. Only you can determine that, based on the foods you family eats, or you would like your family to eat. As we work through food storage you will see how easy it is for you to determine for yourself what those numbers should be. I guess you’ll just have to trust me about that for now…The same is true of the cleaning supplies and toiletries. You should begin by dating the items that are packaged for more than one use, such as toothpaste, deodorant, dish and laundry detergent, etc. This is explained in the ebook. When you empty that container you can calculate what you would need to store to have a 2 week, 3 month, or year’s supply by doing some simple math. Some of the items in the inventory you will not use. If you don’t use an item just leave it blank and move on to the ones you use. Again, we will go into more detail over the next few weeks and months. We start Monday! I hope that helps. Lert me know if you have any more questions as we go along.