THE SYSTEM
By Wendi DeWitt
I’ve based this system on a "worst case scenario," meaning, if there were no stores, gardens, city water or electricity, I could still feed my family. This scenario also assumes that each family will be on their own, that we won’t be "banding together" at churches or schools. There are dozens of scenarios that would require isolation from other people, not banding together. Please don’t put your family at risk by assuming that you will be eating someone else’s food! No one else is storing food for your family. Your neighbors aren’t, the government isn’t and the church isn’t.
How much food is a year’s supply?
This system answers that question right down to the last teaspoon of salt. You choose 7 breakfasts and 7 dinners that you would want to have once a week for one year. There are 52 weeks in the year, you’re having this meal once a week, so you’ll have it 52 times. Make them meals that you eat all the time, things that you like! You are going to multiply everything (including the amount of water) in each of your recipes by 52. An example would be if you used 1 jar of Ragu and 1 pound of spaghetti to feed your family, you’d buy 52 jars of Ragu, 52 pounds of spaghetti and include the water to cook the noodles. My personal food storage has 14 dinners (multiplied by 26) 7 breakfasts (x 365) and a variety of breads and desserts. If we’re in a "worst case scenario" your big meal of the day is going to be in the afternoon before the sun goes down. So, you would have breakfast, a big dinner and maybe a sandwich or a snack in the evening. This is a very simple system that saves time and money because you only store what you really need and will eat. Another plus is the individuality your can give your food storage. I like Malt-o-meal, my husband likes oatmeal, so I store according to our likes.
Once you’ve made up your menus and have multiplied everything in them by 52 or 26 (or whatever you decide you want) make up a chart or table that alphabetically lists all the foods in your recipes....almonds to yeast... and keep this in a notebook. It might look like this: under "rice" you list all the meals that have rice in them and how many cups you need for each meal. Mine says "salmon & rice = 35 cups, Sweet & sour = 35 cups, rice pudding = 70 cups." A little further over on the page have a column for "Need" which is how much rice you’ll need for the year, 140 cups. The next column will say "Have" which is what you already have in your home and the last column is "Buy" which is what you need to buy. The item, the meals, need, have and buy. I also list on this page when the food was purchased and what room it’s in. Carry this folder whenever you go shopping and shop the sales.
The equivalencies page gives you most of the information you’ll need to do your own menus. Things like "a #10 can will hold 12 cups of rice, there are 59 tablespoons in one pound of baking powder and 1 cup of uncooked rice makes 3 cups cooked."
COST The cost of using this system depends on your menus. Using the least expensive menus, if you shop wisely and bottle your own meats, it can cost as little as $350 per person per year. This would include 2 cups of breakfast, 2 cups of dinner and ½ loaf of bread daily.
STORAGE
One person’s year supply will usually fit into 10 cannery boxes. (The kind that 6 #10 cans fit into.) This will fit under a regular twin size bed. In desert areas you must store your food in the house. Heat will destroy your food storage. Water can be stored in the garage or on the north side of the house.
ROTATION
Most people have a hard time with rotation because it’s difficult to keep track of all that food. I purchase my meals all at once, meaning within a reasonable amount of time. Everything is logged in my notebook; how much food I have, when it was purchased, what room it’s stored in. Since I’m all about long shelf life, the shortest shelf life I have is 3 years...the powdered milk. Once a year I check my notebook to see if anything is expiring that year. I check my vacuum sealed foods at the same time to make sure they’re still sealed. If anything is close to expiration, I take it out, put it in my kitchen pantry for daily use and immediately replace it with fresh food. With this system, food storage is a once a year event and I always have a full year’s supply on hand. Have a food storage slush fund. If you put even $10 a month away, after those 3 years you’ll have $360 to purchase your new food. And the food that goes into your pantry is going to cut your grocery bill because it’s food that you like and use.
BOTTLING MEATS
(Caution: If you have a glass-top stove, you MAY want to use a propane camp stove or other means to bottle meats. I have a glass top and have had no problems, but I still need to caution you.)
Bottling your own meats is so easy and it’s what makes this food storage system REAL food. It’s real chicken soup and real beef stew. The meat is tender, juicy, ready to eat and needs no freezing or refrigeration...just like your tuna fish in the store. But because it’s in a glass jar and not a metal can, the shelf life is extraordinary. (I’ve eaten bottled chicken that was 10 years old and it was delicious!) But this process is so easy, you may want to rotate your meats more often to be sure the nutritional quality is high. You can bottle any kind of meat; chicken, turkey, beef, fish, ham, moose...you name it.
Pressure Canners (canningpantry.com)
You will need a pressure canner. (Pressure cookers don’t generate enough pressure to safely can meats.) Canners come in quart sizes, meaning they hold a certain amount of liquid quarts. Model #921 is 15 ½" tall, holds 21.5 liquid qts. = 7 qts jars or 17-19 pint jars. ($148) The model #930 is 19" tall, holds 30 liquid qts. = 14 qts or 17-19 pints ($241) This is a very tall canner and won’t fit under most microwaves installed over the stove.
If you’re interested in a used canner, I’ve purchased 5 of them on E-Bay and they’ve all been great, costing between $50 and $70 including the shipping. Be sure to have the gauge tested. This will ensure that you are cooking at the right pressure and your food will be safe. Requirements for a good used canner are: metal to metal lid (no rubber gasket,) a pressure gauge, a pressure release valve, wing nuts to hold down the lid, a tray inside and at least a 15 quart capacity, which holds 7 quart jars. A canner is a great investment even if you’re not doing food storage because you will save time (no more defrosting chickens) money (you buy everything on sale) and a good canner will last forever. I have one that is 70 years old that still works.
Canning Meats
Most books will tell you to cook the meat before you bottle it, but, with the exception of ground meats, I prefer the raw pack. Make your own choice on this matter. A pint bottle will hold 1 pound of meat, a quart will hold 2. You can put spices in before cooking. Questionable jars (those from DI or yard sales) are ok for sealing dry foods and jar cakes, but don‘t use them for bottling meats. Old jars might crack under the pressure. Invest in some new jars when you first start and you can reuse them.
Pour water into your canner to 2" deep.. Put your meat and 1/4 to ½ tsp of salt in a clean jar (it does not need to be sterilized.) Fill jars up to ½" from rim. With the exception of ground meats, no water is added to the meats ...they make their own juices. In a small pan, boil the lids for about 2 minutes to soften the rubber seal. Make sure the rim of the jar is completely clean from grease or food before you put the heated lid and ring on. Tighten down the ring, but not too hard. Put your jars into the canner, screw down the canner lid, making sure the top is even, and turn your stove on to high. Don’t put the weight on the pressure valve until water has spouted out of it for about 3 minutes. This expresses the air out. Now put the weight on the pressure valve. In the desert, put it at the 10 pound mark. If you have an older canner, there may not be a weight but there will be some kind of pressure release mechanism. Keep this open until water spits out for 3 minutes and then close it up to begin your pressure. When the gauge gets to 10 pounds of pressure, begin timing...75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts.(Fish is 15 min longer!) This is the formula for all meats in the desert. When it hits 10#, you will need to immediately turn down the heat and keep turning it down over the allotted time, keeping the gauge at 10 pounds. (If the pressure drops or increases, a vacuum effect causes the liquid in the jar to be pulled out.) DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CANNER! At the end of the 75 or 90 minutes your heat should be at a very low level and you will then turn the heat completely off. Don’t touch the canner, just let the pressure go down on it’s own. When it’s back to zero, release the pressure valve (or remove the weight) take off the lid, put the jars on the counter (away from cool drafts) and wait for them to seal. You’ll hear a "plink" when the lids seal correctly. If a jar doesn’t seal, you can either refrigerate it for later use or re-bottle it using a new lid. After several hours, wipe the bottles clean, remove the ring and put them back in the box for storage. Use your own judgement as to how often to rotate your meats. Don’t waste the juices of your meats. Use them in your recipes whenever possible. Don’t worry if the juice doesn’t cover all the meat. Ground meats have a better texture if you brown them first, pack loosely in the jars, cover with water and process. If you’re canning pre-cooked meats, like left over turkey, add a soup broth before canning. Don’t bottle spiral cut hams, use a shank type cut. Ham makes very little juice. Don’t add salt to ham. Don’t bottle turkey ham or other processed meats like bologna or hot dogs....the texture is horrible.
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