Get Started, Packing Food Long-Term is EZ!

[wheretheheckami]

Just curious....Do you do that to all your rice before you eat it? Do you bring it home from the store and put in the freezer, in order to eat it in three weeks?

A tip for you on the rice. All rice comes with eggs of little critters that come to life in about six months. So long term 6+ month storage of rice is a nice thought, but there will be little mites and tiny beetle things sharing your meal most likely. Some can be seen with the naked eye, some with a 2x-3x magnifier, by the thousands.

The trick is to take all the rice you buy in 5lb bags and rotate them through your freezer for 3+ weeks. In this amount of time the eggs will be neutralized. Then, and only then, are you set to store rice long term as in 5-10 years.

Even if you buy rice in sealed buckets the eggs are still there 98% of the time.

That may not 'bug' some people since you would be in a survival situation and you eat bugs in normal food all day long. If you have kids, etc, you might be concerned though.

On a side note, storing WATER is just as important as storing food, if not more. Untreated municipal tap water will store fine for a year (already has chlorine in it). Treat it with Purodene or another additive and it will good for 3-5 years. You can get free 5-gallon sealable buckets from Grocery Chain stores bakery managers if you ask. Don't go with over 20 gallon plastic food grade barrels, because they weigh a ton. Label each bucket/barrel with a fill date.

Get yourself a quality water filter. They will be worth their weight in gold some day. Some, like this one, allows you to get drinkable water from just about anywhere - Lifesaver Bottle 6000 Ultra Filtration Water Bottle NEW - eBay (item 130415106051 end time Mar-25-11 10:45:35 PDT)

 

[UrbanMan]

I think buying and storing bulk food for long term is necessary and one of the quickest ways to get some food stored. I think I have around 90 lbs each of rice, and beans, and lesser amounts of dried noodles.

I also have cases of dehydrated food (in #10 cans) mainly from Honeyville Grain. Probably 40% of that is fruit since it is hard to grow or find in the winter months.

I also have twelve stand alone buckets with vacuum packed mixed items: rice, beans, bullion cubes, mac & cheese, peanut butter, honey, garlic powder, salt, pepper, chick peas, split pea soup, packets of soup mixes. This is so I can open just one bucket and eat for a week and/or if I have to execute a hasty bug out each bucket stands alone. Would hate to only have a large bucket of rice.

I have two cases of mainstay bars. Which aren't so bad with a dab of peanute butter or honey. These are also in my Bug Out Bags, which we just call "go" bags since they are always with us when we travel.

Last but not least have short term pantry items,..four cases of Progresso soup, more rice, beans, canned spaghetti sauces, ten cases of Ramen, and the intolerable spam as well as many other items.

I have about 80 gallons of municipal water stored in military 5 gallon cans in the garage. My water services brings two 5 gallon jugs every two weeks for the water cooler. I did a one time order of ten additional 5 gallon jugs, so I'll always have 50 gallons there. In reserve I have two 60 gallon bath tub water blivets. Built a wooden box for one and when the time is near will locate outside on the back porch and fill from the spigot.

Being in a urban/suburban environ, I don't have a lot of land but have grown quite a bit of squash, egg plant, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc in the ground and in container boxes. In fact, don't have any lawn grass anymore. And just order a green house kit (from Northern Tool) so I can grow, to supplement existing foods stocks, in the winter. Actually got a couple of my neighbors to start growing some items as well.

regards all and be safe,
UrbanMan
Urban Survival Skills, Survival Equipment, Survival Planning and Preparation

 

[Ought Six]

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Or, just download the entire thing as a .PDF file:

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[smurf hunter]

lose the extra "f":


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[Burt Gummer]

Just curious....Do you do that to all your rice before you eat it? Do you bring it home from the store and put in the freezer, in order to eat it in three weeks?

I don't think you understood the process. Mites, and critters don't start hatching for many weeks, or 6m to 1.5 years depending on the storage enviroment. Freezing for three weeks BEFORE storage kills the eggs and larvae so rice, if properly sealed, can be stored indefinitely. I hope that helps.

Many people storing rice, no matter how well sealed will be sharing their meal with little roving critters when they open their buckets 2-3 years down the line.

Again, the eggs must be frozen for a bare minimum of three weeks, preferably in a deep freeze to kill them. They are very tough and resilient.

From YouTube comment:

Why it works...

Freezing bursts the cells of the eggs and the live bugs or weevils die from the freezing.

If you freeze the grains prior to storing you will have better luck. Remember, in MOST cases, the bugs/eggs are in the rice and grains when you buy it. They ARE NOT crawling into the grains afterwards.

They were able to kill bugs in the rice by freezing after the fact, but the smart thing to do is freeze the eggs first.

For the gentlemen with the rice in the Mason jars - yes you can still freeze those, not like freezing water in glass that will expand and break.

 

[wheretheheckami]

It seems to me, that the bugs and eggs will remain as they are when you first purchaced them if they are placed in an oxygen free environment. I don't think they can grow, hatch or anything else untill you open it up. Then you would be back to the conditions that existed before you packaged it. Yes, with oxygen they can now do their thing. But, no more so, than when they were first bought. That is why I asked if you freeze your (not for storage) rice before you eat it.

I don't think you understood the process. Mites, and critters don't start hatching for many weeks, or 6m to 1.5 years depending on the storage enviroment. Freezing for three weeks BEFORE storage kills the eggs and larvae so rice, if properly sealed, can be stored indefinitely. I hope that helps.

Many people storing rice, no matter how well sealed will be sharing their meal with little roving critters when they open their buckets 2-3 years down the line.

Again, the eggs must be frozen for a bare minimum of three weeks, preferably in a deep freeze to kill them. They are very tough and resilient.

From YouTube comment:

Why it works...

Freezing bursts the cells of the eggs and the live bugs or weevils die from the freezing.

If you freeze the grains prior to storing you will have better luck. Remember, in MOST cases, the bugs/eggs are in the rice and grains when you buy it. They ARE NOT crawling into the grains afterwards.

They were able to kill bugs in the rice by freezing after the fact, but the smart thing to do is freeze the eggs first.

For the gentlemen with the rice in the Mason jars - yes you can still freeze those, not like freezing water in glass that will expand and break.

 

[Decker]

For the gentlemen with the rice in the Mason jars - yes you can still freeze those, not like freezing water in glass that will expand and break.

I tip my hat to you, good sir.

-d

 

[Ought Six]

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Thanks!

 

[Fuzzbling]

Our local Walmart started carring products from these guys; Food storage and gluten-free food products - Augason Farms
Good prices, can be purchased via their website, sold individually or can bulk order. I've been happy so far with their products and quality.

 

[Decker]

Our local Walmart started carring products from these guys; Food storage and gluten-free food products - Augason Farms
Good prices, can be purchased via their website, sold individually or can bulk order. I've been happy so far with their products and quality.

Did you find these in the food section or camping section? I took a run through the Wally World in Mac and didn't see any...

-d

 

[Fuzzbling]

Food - Bakery section. Not sure if all WalMarts are carrying these.

 

[Roxy2711]

Okay so I have a question, I read somewhere (online of course) that you don't need to use food grade buckets as long as you are using they mylar bags and they do not rupture. Does anyone know more about this? I want to go and buy some buckets (the white ones, not the orange homer ones) at Home Depot, but I dont want to waste my money if they arent going to work...

 

[mxitman]

Food grade is of course recommended but if your using mylar you will be fine, just don't use anything that has had chemicals in it and you will fine. I've been using allot of used buckets for years that aren't food grade and I'm still here...