Thursday, March 31, 2011

A Vision for the Future . . .

Okay, so I have been writing all these posts about getting started storing bulk foods, but I thought it might be nice to see where you want to be headed . . .

I have had the question asked, "What do you have stored in buckets in your kitchen?"  I am blessed with a fairly large kitchen and a small pantry.  I have a six foot table in my kitchen under which I store approximately 12 buckets.  Those buckets contain evaporated cane juice, sucanat, unbleached flour, popcorn, grits, elbow macaroni, veggie rotini, hard red wheat berries, spelt berries, powdered milk, brown rice, whole 7 grain mix, soft white wheat berries, and chocolate chips.  In the pantry I have hard white wheat berries, black beans, millet, and oh - I found an empty!

So what does a typical day look like at my house?  Really . . . is there such a thing as typical?  ;D  Well, let's see . . . this morning I made grits with eggs for breakfast.  That is my hubby's "usual!"  Then I made bread this morning, getting into the spelt, flour, and sucanat.  I do that at least twice a week.  For lunch we had chili and I made elbow macaroni to go with that.  This afternoon I found some overripe bananas in my fruit basket - which hardly ever happens at my house - so I made banana muffins.  With that recipe I ground my own soft white wheat berries and also got into the sucanat and flour buckets.  Plus, I had mixed a batch of powdered milk this morning and used it in the bread and muffins.

That, I suppose, is a typical day for me in and out of the buckets, grinding my own wheat, using the bulk foods I store and saving money.  Hope this helps!!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

How to Store - Part 2

So, we have been discussing storing items in bulk to save money and to be prepared in case of emergency - even if that emergency is your husband being laid off for a few months.  We have talked about starting with basic food stuffs that can stretch your grocery dollar.  We have covered the best way to store bulk, that being in food grade buckets with gasketed lids.

I would like to cover today long-term storage vs short-term storage and Gamma Seal lids.  Since we are in the getting started stage, probably most of the items you buy will be "in use."  These items can be stored in a bucket with a regular gasketed lid -OR- something called a Gamma lid.  A Gamma lid is a two part lid, one part fits down on the bucket and then the second part twists off for easy access.  I will admit that a Gamma lid is VERY convenient, BUT they are NOT necessary!  I have some buckets with Gammas and some without.  I keep a metal bucket opener and a rubber mallet handy as part of my kitchen utensils.  Kept close to where my buckets are stored they make it easy to get in and out of those buckets.
Rubber mallet
Now, if you are ready to start storing items for future use, we want to pack those for what we call long-term storage.  These items you are going to keep in a more temperature controlled place like your basement or root cellar.  Since these items are "in storage," you don't want them directly on a concrete floor.  Put the buckets up on a pallet or something where air can circulate around them.  When you are preparing buckets for long term storage they need to be "sealed" against varmints and air.  The easiest way to do this is to purchase oxygen absorbers (I will cover this in its own post soon)  to drop down in the bucket on top of its contents.
                                                                                                                         
Here is how this works:

     1)  Make sure your bucket is clean (whether new or used), free from dust, debris, etc.
     2)  Open your bag of flour, sugar, grain, whatever, and carefully pour into your bucket, shaking the bucket occasionally to allow the contents to settle.
     3)  You want to allow about an inch and a half headspace at the top of your bucket.
     4)  Next you want to drop the recommended number of oxygen absorbers in the 5 or 6 gallon bucket.  (Again more on this later - handling oxygen absorbers can be tricky if you have never used them before.)
     5)  Last, quickly set your lid on top and use your rubber mallet to hammer that lid in place, turning the bucket a quarter turn with each mallet swing.  You don't want the lid sticking up at all, but level and sealed completely.

Buckets sealed in this way can for the most part, be put aside until you need them.  There are certain items that we will later discuss in detail that DO NOT last as long.

Coming soon - a resource list of suppliers for buying your bulk food and/or co-oping!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

How to Store - Part I

We have discussed how to begin with the purchase of certain bulk items such as flour, sugar, baking powder/soda, salt and yeast.  The whole idea here is to buy these items in bulk - 50 pounds of flour, 50 lbs of sugar, salt, baking powder/soda, & yeast.  Okay, so I'm encouraging you to buy 50 lbs of certain items, but let's face it, 50 lb bags don't fit very well in the pantry.  Even if you have room in your pantry for them, a 50 lb bag of flour, grain, or sugar would advertise to certain critters (ants, weevils, roaches, & pantry moths) that you would probably not wish to attract.

The best way to store bulk items is in food grade buckets with tight-fitting, rubber gasketed lids.  The size of the bucket will depend on the the quantity you are storing which is directly related to the size of your crew.  As an example,
        A 5 or 6 gallon bucket each of flour and sugar
        A 3 gallon bucket of salt
        A 5 lb container of baking powder and/or soda
        A 2 lb package of yeast

Food grade buckets come in all sizes from 1 gallon to 7 gallons.  A 50 lb bag of flour or sugar will fit nicely in a 6 gallon bucket and you may have a little to spare.  If you are storing 50 lbs of salt it fits well in a 5 gallon bucket.  Now don't panic about storing 50 lbs of salt.  If salt is kept dry it will last a VERY, VERY long time.  You can go by the Biblical standard - if salt has lost its savour(saltiness) . . . it is good for nothing - except maybe a scrubbing agent.  I have personally used the same bucket of salt for years!

Now whether you are a coupon clipper or a store hopper, you know that in order to find the deals sometimes you have to do your research.  The same is true for buying in bulk.  There are places where you can buy your bulk items already in buckets and sometimes it is less expensive to buy them in bags and bucket them yourself.  For years I bought my whole grains, rice, etc. in pre-sealed buckets.  These buckets were sealed for long term storage (we will discuss this in detail in Part II).  So over the years as I have used the grain, etc., I have emptied many a bucket.  I never throw them away!  Needless to say I have accumulated many buckets.  Very often you can find used food grade buckets from a restaurant or bakery.  These are good for buckets that are "in use", but probably not so great for long term storage (again more on this later).  But you also have to keep in mind that sometimes by the time you have purchased the grains in bags and new buckets and add to that shipping costs, you would have been better off to have purchased them from someone already bucketed.  For me, it is cheaper to refill my used buckets than to purchase more.

 In Part II, we will discuss short term storage (what I call being "in use") vs. long term storage and introduce the Gamma lid. 

Coming soon - an extensive resource list!   Suppliers of bulk foods, bucketed items, co-op opportunities, gamma lids, and more!!!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Pumpkin Muffins

I know I am still straying here . . . but couldn't resist sharing this muffin recipe.  It is one that frequents our home.  Last week I made four batches.  Of course, last week I splurged and added chocolate chips to the recipe.  Maybe that is why they kept disappearing :D  !!!

As a side note, last fall after halloween our local grocery store put their pumpkins on sale for 99 cents.  Not per pound, mind you, any pumpkin, any size, 99 cents!!  Well, I couldn't resist.  I bought two of the biggest pumpkins I could find and for a couple of days, I canned and froze pumpkin.  If I remember correctly the smaller of the two pumpkins yielded 7 pints - and of course we had a quart jar almost full of yummy roasted & salted pumpkin seeds.  Anyway, all that said, my family is not crazy about pumpkin unless it is in a pie or in a muffin . . .


Pumpkin Muffins ~

1 cup freshly ground soft white wheat (may use all purpose)
3/4 cup unbleached flour (may use all purpose or more soft white)
1/2 cup Sucanat (may use sugar)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk (I used that powdered milk from the last post ;) )
1/3 cooking oil

1/2 cup pumpkin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup chopped nuts (my preference is pecans - also optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (OPTIONAL)

Grease muffin tin.  Preheat oven 350 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl stir together all dry ingredients, including cinnamon & nutmeg.  Add wet ingredients and pumpkin.  Stir until just moistened.  Add optional nuts or chocolate chips at this time.  Spoon mixture into greased tin.  Bake 20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Enjoy!!!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Stretching Milk

I know this is a bit of a departure from our beginning instructions but it is something I have been doing the past couple of weeks and it needed mentioning . . .

One of the things that we stored back before 2000 was powdered milk.  Believe it or not, I got into one of those stored containers just two weeks ago.  The powdered milk was stored in a mylar bag within a 5 gallon bucket.  There were oxygen absorbers in the mylar bag and this particular mylar bag was hand ironed shut by me - this would probably make for its own post sometime!!  Anyway, we don't drink a huge amount of milk at my house but enough.  Probably the biggest consumption of milk is what I cook with, so this was my plan . . .

My children DO NOT like powdered milk and they DO NOT drink powdered milk!  And thank the Lord up to this point they have not HAD to!!  But I figured I could stretch my gallon of milk twice over if I simply used powdered milk for my cooking.  So I got a quart jar and placed one cup of powdered milk into it.  I first added about a cup of cold water and stirred with my whisk.  Then I continued to add water periodically placing the lid on it and shaking it well, alternating stirring with the whisk.  This mixture can be lumpy, but eventually the lumps dissolve.

I have been using this mixture for ALL my cooking - pancakes, bread, soups, quiche, muffins, etc.  I am sure I have saved myself two gallons of milk in the last two weeks.  May not seem like much, but at $4.79 a gallon that is $19.16 savings per month and $229.92 per year.  Of course, I already had the milk on hand - I can't even remember how much we paid for it in 1999 - but currently powdered milk from my source is about $112.00 for a 55 pound bag.

I guess I will try to keep up with how long it takes me to go through this 5 gallon bucket and see how my savings measure out.  I'll try to remember to keep you posted . . .

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

What to Store

A good place to start is with a few basics.  The more you learn, the more you will add to your supplies.  You also need to consider your family's eating habits.  You need to start with items they will eat!  Eventually, you may add more nutritious foods to your menu.  By the way, this lifestyle is infectious!!!!  You have been duly warned! :D

There is nothing more nutritious and money saving than making things from scratch.  Processed boxed mixes that have questionable ingredients to give them longer shelf life are the things you first want to replace.

      Here's a rabbit trail . . . Did you know that in the event of a crises it would take only three days to empty the shelves of most supermarket chains!

So your basic starting blocks would be:
     Flour - preferably unbleached, can be bread flour or all purpose
     Sugar - if you haven't heard of it, now's a great time to replace your white sugar with evaporated cane juice
     Yeast
     Salt - try storing Celtic sea salt or some type of mineral salt like REAL salt

Now bear in mind that eventually - Lord willing - you will be storing whole grains that you will grind or mill yourself . . . this is just a starting point.

With your basic blocks you can create -
     homemade bread
     muffins
     pancakes
     pizza dough
     biscuits
     cakes
     brownies
     tortillas
     and much, much more!!!

These are items you can serve with almost every meal . . . muffins or pancakes with breakfast, sandwiches or wraps with lunch, biscuits or dinner rolls with supper.  I hope that you are catching the vision . . .

Coming up next . . . how to store and how much??




And so it begins . . .

ScatteredGrain is my personal blog about storing and using bulk foods.  Since before Y2K our family has kept a bulk food storage system.  When times are fat, it sits a lot!  When times are lean, it is a HUGE blessing!  Let's face it, here lately there are more lean times than fat.  And you can bet with gas prices on the rise again and much unrest in the Middle East, food costs will be next to go up!

It is fairly easy to begin to buy and store in bulk.  You can begin as your budget allows.  If you have a few neighbors or family members that also want to do the same -- all the better!  The more people that can co-op together, the greater your buying power.

My hope for this site is to share practical helps, books, recipes, and resources for you to begin your journey.

And so lets get started . . .