Do It Yourself Food Storage

[Patti]

I found buckets and gamma lids here:

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/gamma_seal_lids_gamma_lid_products.aspx

I found oxygen absorbers and mylar bags here:

http://sorbentsystems.com/

Emergency Essentials is having a sale (through 3/31) on their super pails:

http://beprepared.com/category.asp?c=79

It might be cheaper to order stuff already pre-packed. If you do it yourself, you'll need to get a vacuum sealer for your mylar bags. Don't pack stuff in the buckets without using mylar and oxygen absorbers.

Remember - your wet packed stuff (canned soups, veggies, etc.) only has a shelf life of 2 years max.

Dry pack (dehydrated or freeze dried) has a shelf life of 20 to 30 years.

Don't forget buckets for cat food and dog food. Buy large bags of dry dog food, put it in mylar bags, add 3 oxygen absorbers, and vacuum seal it. The cat/dog food has oil in it and will only have a shelf life of about 2 years. It will turn rancid.

If you need a video on how to do this, let me know and I will post it.

You can get vacuum sealers at Wal-Mart, eBay, or check out Craigs List. It would be cheaper to share one with your friends. Other than your close circle of friends, I would not be advertising that you are prepping for when the SHTF.

[PointnClick]

Didn't I post a PDF on mylar bag food storage...? You don't need a vacuum packer...

[Bumper]

Emergency Essentials is where my wife has been buying all of our stuff. She bought six of the "Superpails" pails of wheat (3 red and 3 white). She still has a lot more to go for us to be truly ready. The rest of the stuff she bought, including the dry milk, is in large cans.

[Patti]

Emergency Essentials is where my wife has been buying all of our stuff. She bought six of the "Superpails" pails of wheat (3 red and 3 white). She still has a lot more to go for us to be truly ready. The rest of the stuff she bought, including the dry milk, is in large cans.

I prefer the #10 cans because once you open it up, it needs to be used. The 6 gallon buckets are huge quantities. If you had a really big family, or a lot of people banding together, the buckets would probably be the right ticket.

[Patti]

Didn't I post a PDF on mylar bag food storage...? You don't need a vacuum packer...

I've done a lot of research. From everything I've read, you need to get as much oxygen out of the bag as possible. The seal is important whether you are canning or storing food in buckets.

I'd be interested in reading your PDF, if you don't mind posting it again.

[PointnClick]

Yeah, you gotta get as much of the air out as possible... the mylar bags let you do that. Basically, it is a big potato chip bag... press the air out, toss in the oxygen absorbers, roll the top around a 2x4, and iron closed. When you open, only cut off the very top, and you can re-iron and re-seal if need be.

Here's that PDF (http://www.conservativestronghold.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1781)...

Oh... once you put the bags in the buckets, you still have air in the buckets surrounding the bags.... I had the idea of packing the bags in the buckets, then fill with salt... salt is a valuable commodity.

[Patti]

Thanks, PnC.

And, yes, salt will be invaluable. Everybody should have at least 50 lbs. per person in their store room. 100 lbs. would be even better.

It can be used for canning, preserving meat, attracting deer, and for bartering.

It will also be invaluable because we can't produce salt.

[ppkheat]

I think a good source for salt would be at a local livestock feed store. You can get it in 50 lb bags. It looks like any other salt to me.

[ppkheat]

I just transferred some more of my purchases to mylar/bucket today. I put a mylar bag in a bucket, drop in a dessicant to the bottom of the empty bag, put in the product, put another dessicant and 02 absorber on top of the product.

I manipulate as much of the air out of the bag as I can, fold the edges neatly, then heat seal one line across nearly all of the way. Then I take my suction hose on the foodsaver and put it down in the opening that I left by not sealing the bag completely. Turn on the foodsaver and sort of pinch where the tube goes through the opening to make a good seal, in about a minute it will remove more of the air that was remaining. Pull the tube and seal that opening, there is no real pressure involved so no significant air rushes back in when I remove the vacuum tube.

To finish I run an additional seal across the end of the bag....just in case. I let the buckets sit for about a week while the 02 does it's job, that way I can check on it before I put the lid on.

I know that the 02 absorbers by themselves will pull enough 02 out and tighten up the bag, but I like making it easier on the dessicant and 02 absorber by purging the bag by mechanical means first. It's not that much trouble.

I've enclosed a couple of pics.

[Bumper]

What are you using to heat seal the bags, your foodsaver?

[ppkheat]

What are you using to heat seal the bags, your foodsaver?

No sir. I have a hand-held from Sorbent Systems, I think it was $50-100. Plug it in, it gets hot and you squeeze the handles together and hold it in place for 1.....2.....3 and it seals very nicely. I'm guessing it seals about 5 inches on each heat-press, so it takes me 3+ presses to get a seam across the bag and 3+ more to make an extra trip across.

In a pinch I'd buy cheap clothes iron, because my wife would kill me if she found out I was melting bags together with her "good" iron.

[Bumper]

I was just wondering because we have two different food sealers and neither one of them are worth a crap at vacuuming or sealing....

[ppkheat]

Just got back from the feed store, here are some current prices.

50 lbs of "fine feed mix salt" $4.15
50 lbs of edible whole kernel corn $8.59
40 lbs of 8-8-8 fertilizer $10.59
50 lbs of powered sulfur was about $20 ish, though they were out.
I forgot to check on price of Sevin dust.

It's likely you could find some of this cheaper, but my point is this stuff is useful and inexpensive to begin with. Other than the corn, I don't plan to transfer any of the other stuff to mylar/buckets, I intend to keep it in the original packaging, unless I begin to see some packaging deteriorate. There is a de-humidifier with this stuff and it is kept dry, cool and dark.

[Bumper]

I'll have to check out our local feedstore and see what they have here. I would like to set a bit of all of that aside. My next thing to store up is fuel. I want at least a couple of 50 gallon drums of gas, mostly for my old tractor and garden equipment. I have been keeping all of the vehicles gased up all of time.....

[ppkheat]

And don't forget those animal antibiotics.

[Patti]

And don't forget those animal antibiotics.

Geesh. I almost forgot.

Thanks for the reminder.

I also need to print out information on what antibiotics work best for certain types of illnesses.