Baking Soda: The Smart Prepper's Secret Problem Solver

there are a few basic staple items that you can't produce a home baking soda is one of those and it's something that every prepper should have in stock all the time hi I'm Katie and I'm Jonathan and we are the Provident Preppers why should you have baking soda we're going to go into exactly why you should and all the things that it can do in this video we're going to explore exactly what baking soda is and what makes it a valuable resource we'll look at the actual shelf life of baking soda and how to store it correctly there are a wide variety of basic problems that can be solved by just using a little bit of baking soda stay with us there are a few staple items that are nearly impossible for us to produce on our own and baking soda is one of those every smart prepper should have this problem solver in their arsenal baking soda is a crystalline white salt and it's sold in a powder form it is an alkaline compound that is known as bicarbonate of soda or sodium bicarbonate baking soda reacts with heat or when it's combined with acidic substances and it releases carbon dioxide it is important to note that baking soda and baking powder are different and cannot be used interchangeably baking soda will react with acidic compounds and vinegar is one of those you can see in the photo how immediately when you combine baking soda and vinegar you get a reaction this is what gives it power to leaven or to clean when baking soda is combined with lemon juice you see an even greater reaction when you consider storing baking soda you need to decide how long you're going to store that and that will determine what kind of container you're going to use you can see the cardboard boxes in the front they are going to work great for short-term storage but for long-term storage you're going to want something like the heavier plastic bucket or bag or the number-10 can especially that has a true moisture and air barrier what you see in this picture is a mess that we found when we went to our storage room the other day this is washing soda which is not the same as baking soda but very similar the moisture had absorbed through the box and had absorbed into the washing soda which made it expand and clump what a mess what a mess it was or it's a great lesson if you're going to store baking soda for any length of time you need to make sure that it is protected from moisture in a container for longer-term storage plastic buckets are a great way to protect baking soda from absorbing moisture if you are going to store bags or boxes of baking soda it would be a really good idea to put them in a plastic bucket and seal that to provide an additional layer of protection against moisture absorption ideal storage conditions for baking soda would be in a cool dry dark place with a constant temperature we did some research on the shelf-life of baking soda Armand Hammer is one of the largest manufacturers of baking soda and on their site their official recommendation for the shelf-life of baking soda is three years and they note that the expiration date is located on the bottom of the box and pouch however in our practice we have found that baking soda shelf life is actually indefinite when stored correctly it can remain viable for a very long period of time to find out if your baking soda is still viable there's a few very simple tests that you can perform one is to take some boiling water put a little bit of vinegar in it and add just a little bit of baking soda immediately you should see a chemical reaction and you should see bubbles demonstrating that the baking soda is viable another test is to take either lemon juice or vinegar put in an addition just sprinkle a little bit of baking soda on it if the reaction occurs it still is potent and viable baking soda doesn't actually go bad we are testing is to see if it will still react with the acidic substances which gives it that power to do the jobs that we need it to do just how much baking soda should I store for my family the answer is it depends I wish I could give you an exact answer but the amount of baking soda that your family may use depends greatly upon the ways that you use it and what you're intending to do with it so we've established some of these guidelines and hopefully it will be able to help you if you are storing baking soda for food preparation and cooking only and you are storing another leavening agent like baking powder you only need one pound per person per year however if you are not storing baking powder or any other leavening ingredient you would really need to store 3 pounds per person per year to make sure that you have enough to meet your baking needs and considering the fact that baking soda pretty much stores forever it's inexpensive and there's no real good substitute for it I would tend to lean toward storing more than less for personal hygiene creating toothpaste dry shampoos deodorant things like that I'd lean toward two pounds of person however if you are regularly using baking soda in your bath you're gonna need a whole lot more than two pounds per person for using baking soda in medicine and first aid probably about one pound per person per year should cover it now cleaning and deodorizing is a bit different we make a lot of our own cleaners using baking soda and vinegar and other natural substances and I would say that we probably use about five pounds per year in our household so that number might not really be per person per year it could be per household but it also depends on whether or not you're using it for those purposes and the miscellaneous needs like cleaning your battery terminal one pound per person per year should cover that to sum up all those very vague numbers I'd say somewhere between 7 and 10 pounds per year per person should adequately cover your needs in an emergency situation and if you have more than that you can probably use it for barter or for a variety of other things so what exactly does that look like well the big bag that you buy at Costco is thirteen and a half pounds you can also purchase it in one pound boxes you can get baking soda in one gallon buckets or five gallon buckets but typically we like to go with the smaller buckets just because then you can open one at a time they aren't getting contaminated and once you open them their shelf life starts to diminish somewhat and then there's always the number ten cans which are fantastic and they're about seven and a quarter pounds each why does a prepper need to store so much baking soda let's talk about it because this is a video and we want to keep it nice and short we're not gonna go into all of the recipes behind each of these ways to use baking soda but if you click on the card in the upper right hand corner you it'll take you to our post and you'll be able to get all the recipes that you ever wanted and more about baking soda for food preparation and cooking one of the best things that picking soda does for a prepper is to soften those old hard beans when you add a teaspoon of baking soda in the water when you soak your beans it will help to reduce the cooking time it'll help reduce gas and improve your digestion another secret to using baking soda is just to put a half a teaspoon in with three eggs and whip it up and you'll have lighter fluffier eggs for omelettes or scrambled eggs whatever you want to do with them but it works really well baking soda can caramelize onions quickly it can turn spaghetti noodles into ramen style noodles it's great for tenderizing tough meats and it actually makes much better breading on fried foods baking soda is used as a quick-acting leavening agent in baking it helps food rise as it releases carbon dioxide bubbles mixing baking soda with acidic foods such as buttermilk brown sugar vinegar or lemon juice creates the release of that carbon dioxide municipal uses for baking soda include heartburn treatment canker sore remedies a cheese skin relief bug bites beasting skin rashes heat rashes sunburns minor burns athlete's foot it really can help remove splinters too we often think when it comes to personal hygiene we remember that it can make toothpaste well there's a whole lot more than toothpaste that baking soda can be used for we can use it as a dry shampoo a mouth wash to clean retainers or dentures a facial mask actually you can even make a deodorant simply by mixing baking soda and cornstarch together and it can be used to deodorize your hands all these recipes again are in the original post so go back and check them out cleaning is one of my favorite ways to use baking soda you can be used as an air freshener a laundry additive a kitchen cleanser baking soda can deodorize carpets and surfaces a bathroom cleaner a floor cleaner it can even be a miracle cleaner when it comes to cleaning scorched pots Dutch oven cookware or cleaning your fireplace and then there's random uses for baking soda you may not have ever thought of I frequently use baking soda and a little bit of water just to clean battery terminals really does a great job you can also use it as a fire extinguisher because again when that gets warm it's going to produce carbon dioxide which will smother the flames it can be used on clogged drains as a skunk spray deodorizer as a Anton Roach killer and also as a weed killer and this is only touching the surface of all the things that you can do with baking soda to sum this all up baking soda is something that you want to have it has a long shelf life it is useful for so many things and it's something that you can't produce on your own that means that you and your family should stock up today here are some great resources we hope you'll take a look at the Provident prepper baking soda the smart Preppers secret problem-solver also oats a must-have pantry staple and prepper pantry 25 shelf stable egg substitutes for baking these and a massive amount of other topics are available for your learning at the Provident prepper org and also on our youtube channel the Provident prepper thanks for joining us do you understand some of the great things that baking soda can do it's time for your family to evaluate what your need is and stock up and now for the question of the day what fantastic ways have you found to solve problems using baking soda comment below and thanks for being part of the solution

Channel: The Provident Prepper

Views: 11,186

Rating: 4.9445405 out of 5

Keywords: The Provident Prepper, Emergency Preparedness, Self-Reliance, Baking Soda, Uses for Baking Soda, Natural Cleaners and Deodorizers, SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, Prepper, Provident Living, Inexpensive Cleaning Products

Id: YU25jF69nnQ

Length: 11min 39sec (699 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 30 2019