Food Storage

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put out this pamphlet on food storage a couple years ago:

http://www.providentliving.org/fhs/pdf/WE_FamilyResourcesGuide_International_04008_000.pdf

I think it has some really good info. Start somewhere. Build up your 3 month supply of food you eat regularly. Then get some longer storage items to just keep like wheat, white rice and beans. Those longer storage items will keep for 30 years. It's insurance. But if inflation keeps us and the economy keeps worsening, we may need that insurance sooner than we'd like.

For water we really like our Berkey-- we use it daily, but it's supposed to be good enough to clean water from a stream. www.berkeywater.com

Easy Vegan Soaked Wheat Blender Pancakes

I have made these several times-- they are super easy and nutritious:

3 cups of soft white and hard red wheat mixed soaked about 24 hrs. and drained-- if you don't make them in that time, still drain the wheat and let it start to sprout-- too much of a sprout doesn't make good pancakes, but it's perfect for manna bread or soaked crackers which is what I do with the sprouts I don't use for batter

1/2 T each of baking soda and baking powder ( AL free)
1/2 of a ripe banana
1 1/2 cups of water

Pre-heat your pan or griddle at a medium low heat-- between 4 and 5 works great for me. Too hot-- they'll stick and be very frustrating. Then combine all the ingredients in a heavy duty blender like the vita-mix and blend until nice and smooth about a full minute. If you don't have a heavy duty blender then halve the recipe so it doesn't take forever mixing, but most blenders should be able to handle pancake batter. Grease your pan with cococut oil or palm oil as they don't break down under high heat. Pour the batter on the pans in the desired pancake shapes. Once they bubble-- turn 'em over and pile them on a plate.

We eat ours with 100% maple syrup, fruit if we have it and some organic margarine from the health food store. It takes about 3-4 batches to feed my growing family of 9 (including 2 babies who don't eat them yet). The hardest part is remembering to soak the wheat!

YUMMY!

How to make Manna Bread

For those of you not familiar with Manna bread, you can buy it at your local health food store in the freezer section. It is about $3 per loaf and it is not a big loaf, but it is yummy. The only ingredients are sprouted grains and whatever fruit, nut or veggie type flavor you choose. Our favorite is by far carrot raisin. Anyway, it is a gooey sticky kind of bread and rather sweet. All my kids like it except for the one picky eater who now suddenly likes lentils-- anyway, my husband doesn't really like it either, but I love it!! It is so healthy I hate to refuse any to my kids and after my last purchase I determined that I needed to figure out how to make the stuff consistently--not being pregnant helps!! And you need the right tools.

So here it is for plain manna bread since I keep forgetting to buy raisins I haven't attempted the carrot raisin loaf yet:

Soak red wheat and white wheat berries overnight to sprout
Drain them in the morning and let them start to grow
They are ready to use as soon as you see the little sprouts grow
Remember to rinse them preferably twice a day-- I use a colander and leave them in it a lot of times
Don't wait too long to use them, try to use them before they get real big 1 1/2-2 days of growing after soaking overnight is ideal

Here is the secret: Run the sprouts through a champion type juicer with the blank plate, my brand is something green I bought at Good Earth, this makes a dough. Then with wet hands shape the dough into small loaves about the size and shape of the kind you can buy, put them on a cookie sheet and let them bake at 250 F for 2-3 hours. I have been doing it at 3 hours but the crust is rather dry and tastes like Grape-nuts so 2 hours may be long enough. That's it!! Healthy and Cheap!!

Food Storage

Given the current climate, I have had more questions on food storage than before, so here's some info for whoever is interested:

First of all, let me share the best advice I've heard on food storage:

Get your survival food first, the stuff that will keep you alive, then get the tomato sauce and dehydrated fruit and pop tarts to make the survival food go down easier. Variety is extremely important though, especially if you have kids, because "if your kid don't like it, your kid don't eat it", and try to incorporate the survival foods into your regular meal planning. It's a lot healthier for you anyway, especially if you start sprouting and growing miniature greens like wheatgrass.

How much food do you need?

If you go to www.providentliving.org you will find all sorts of info and a food storage calculator. The total recommended amount of food you need is 30lbs of food/ person/ day, that comes out to 1 lb. of food per person per day, that is a 1 lb. loaf of bread (1 lb. of wheat = 1 lb. of flour). I think I would be happier living on more than that. I've heard that 300 lbs. of grain per year is how much the Jews in concentration camps were fed during the Nazi regime so that gives you an idea, but at least you would be alive. That's where you start. Get 300 lbs. of grain and 60 lbs. of dry beans and other legumes and be sure to get some good oil (non-hydrogenated and non-GMO) and salt because they say you can't live long without salt and oil. I think seeds would be a good thing to have also, so you can grow more food, and sprouts are a must for the vitamins we need.

Here's some info on sprouting and some recipes for sourdough bread and pancakes that only require flour, salt, water and baking soda and they taste good. My kids love both.

That's it for the bare basics of food storage. It takes up a lot more space than you would think and it is a major effort, but the Lord will provide for any who seek his blessing and guidance and do their best to keep his commandments. So good luck!! I hope everyone gets their food storage, because I think we may need it desparately someday.... if only I knew when!!