Your Survival Blog
Storing healthy foods
Disaster gurus like to talk about things you can keep in your pantry or basement (or wherever you store this stuff) for long-term sheltering in place. These usually involve, besides water, lots of (a) canned goods and (b) shelf-stable simple carbs — white rice, white flour, that sort of thing. Maybe I’m reading the wrong blogs, but I don’t see a lot of information on how to store things that are good for you and your family, should you need to eat from your grocery stash for an extended period of time!
So here are some foods to consider for your food-storage arsenal.
Whole grains
Now I’ll admit there’s a very good reason many folks don’t suggest that you stock up on whole grains: they can go rancid before you blink twice, and rancid oils are not good for you. (Various sources suggest safe storage times from one to six months.) The tricks are to store very carefully, not to rely on them in a catastrophe (you may wind up hitting that indestructible barrel of white rice instead), and to rotate them out of storage frequently. (Buying whole grains rather than ground ones can also help; exposing the oils inside the grain to air accelerates the process.)
The most common grains in North American shops are wheat, corn (maize), brown rice, oats, rye, and barley, and wild rice (technically not a grain, but containing similar nutrients). Thanks to the wonders of importation and small specialty farms, many others are available, some of which the average American or Canadian shopper never saw before the last decade. If you decide you’d like to store some of these rarer grains — in my area, those include amaranth, buckwheat, millet, teff, and quinoa — you should immediately head to a health-food store with decent traffic and a lot of turnover. (In the specialty section of a supermarket, these are much less likely to sell quickly, so they’d be a lot less fresh before they even went home with you.) Buying a well-sealed package, instead of from a bulk bin, is another way to increase your odds of freshness; if you must buy bulk, sniff first! Scan the area around the shelves for any sign of flying insects — they might indicate that your grains are already infested.
Once you get the grain(s) home, you want storage with tight lids, and as little air as possible. Some folks double-package: first in a zippered plastic bag or heavy-duty baggie with twist-tie, then in a glass jar; this both keeps the grain fresher, and (in a refrigerator or freezer) protects it from absorbing other food smells or moisture. Others try to vacuum-package, either with a home vacuum sealer or the low-tech suck-the-air-out-of-the-bag-with-a-straw method. Mark the date that you store the package.
If you have the space, it’s probably best to refrigerate or freeze grains, assuming you have power. Otherwise a cool, dry, dark place (root cellar, closet away from the furnace) is best; don’t store near any appliances that produce heat, like your dishwasher or stove!
Most grains, depending on how diligent you are about storage, will last a few weeks to half a year. (Popcorn — yes, a whole grain! — can last years.) When you’re ready to use the package, apply the sniff test again, to make sure it hasn’t gone rancid before use.
Reconstituting and cooking them, of course, requires water and fuel. But then so does white rice!
Produce
Now what could go off quicker, in long-term storage, than produce? Surely you have to survive on a diet of canned peaches and mushy canned peas, should you want any color in your diet?
Au contraire, my friends. Wander through the aisles of a big health-food conglomerate like Whole Foods (in the US, Canada, and the UK) and you’ll find dried produce you didn’t know could even be dried. Strawberries! Spiced mangoes! Carrot chips! Seven varieties of “sea vegetables”! There are a number of firms online selling dried vegetables and fruit for long-term storage, as well.
One word of warning: a good many dried fruits and vegetables (including all “golden raisins” I’ve found) are treated with sulfites to retain color and retard mold growth. Sulfite sensitivity is extremely common — and to some people, including many asthmatics, quite dangerous — so unless you know everyone in your family can consume significant quantities of sulfites without health issues, try to buy the less colorful untreated products and be more diligent about storing them in moistureproof containers.
Protein
Beans, beans, beans, beans, beans. If you’re thinking of stocking up on dried beans for long-term storage, though, make sure you have a camp stove with plenty of fuel, a decent-sized pot, and access to plenty of water. For your “go bag”, if you’re evacuating to a motel or shelter in an unaffected area, some packages of dried beans might make sense — they’re relatively lightweight and easy to pack. For short-term sheltering in place, though, you’ll probably want a stash of canned beans.
Meat storage may not be practical for you, unless you’re in the habit of drying your own jerky — the commercial stuff costs the earth. If you are, though, note that the US Department of Agriculture advises that home jerky can be stored only one to two months, instead of the year that commercially prepared jerky can last. They also add: “The danger in dehydrating meat and poultry without cooking it to a safe temperature first is that the appliance will not heat the meat to 160°F and poultry to 165°F — temperatures at which bacteria are destroyed — before it dries. After drying, bacteria become much more heat resistant.” (Those temps are 71 and 74 degrees Celsius.) So if you dry your own, rotate your stock monthly — and make sure you cook it sufficiently (in an oven or on a barbecue cooker or grill) before (or while) drying it!
Eggs, believe it or not, can now be stored long-term — various suppliers can sell you powdered dried whole eggs, which are easy to carry, present a low risk of bacterial contamination, are full of protein, vitamins (including D) and minerals, and can be stored a year or more depending on conditions. You can use them in baking or scrambling; heating after reconstitution is recommended, although they’re already pasteurized, but they can be consumed as part of a drink or other preparation if you’re in need of a protein boost. (Just take care before doing this for a child or elderly person.)
Here’s hoping you never have to use your stored food, but if you do — enjoy!
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