Food Storage: What, How, Why

[Music] hello friends Heidi here from rain country god is good all the time and I'm here for yet another food storage related video and I hope you're not getting tired of this topic but it's one of my very favorite things to talk about because there's so much about it that it's just very very beneficial and we're not just talking about preparedness and putting up for hard times so that is a big one it's just having food storage is very convenient and if you have a garden that produces you know whatever it is that it produces you've got something coming out of there even if it's just one thing that it produces high quantities of then instead of wasting what you can't keep up on are just giving it away you can preserve it through various means whether it be freezing canning or dehydrating or even freeze drying if you have a freeze dryer so that you can put it up to last you for at least the rest of the year so there's just something really great about always having some kind of food storage on hand it makes life so much more convenient to when you go to prepare meals if you get a thought in your head maybe you already have your whole week planned out and then all of a sudden you think to yourself I'm not in the mood to make this dish I'm more in the mood to make that dish well guess what you don't have to run back to the store and get more ingredients because if you're properly prepared with your food storage and then all you have to do is go to your own private little grocery store and pick your ingredients out from there you're ready to go or if you have guests that suddenly show up and you realize you're not quite making enough for all of them go get some more out of your food storage and prepare some more so easy to do because I just recently canned up a bunch of carrots as you can see here on the counter it just kind of got me thinking even more even though I know the day that I'm shooting this video is actually March 8th so it's actually going to go out sooner than most of my videos I've been doing this a lot putting videos I'm having it published sooner than I normally would because I'm about three to four weeks ahead but because of certain things that are going on right now in the world when I when I decide to shoot a topic that I think is important to the right now I try to get it out as soon as possible and this particular topic on food storage I think is incredibly important especially now with everything that's going on so we see a whole bunch of panic buying going on out there but for some silly reason most people seem to be stocking up only on bottled water and toilet paper you should have a good storage of water you should have a good storage of toilet paper but how good is that toilet paper gonna be if by chance things that are happening out there get bad enough that you need to stay isolated in your own home and or maybe you simply just don't want to brave going out to the store that toilet paper is not going to be good for much if you don't have any food so you need to be putting food up as well now I realize that most of my followers right now are people that they're already doing this stuff so it's kind of like preaching to the choir but I do know there's a few out there that are just getting started into this I'm really starting to think about the importance of this or maybe they're entirely new altogether to the whole concept of food storage and so this is one of the other reasons why I keep putting these videos out and how important it is now let's just say you run out and you stock up on a whole bunch of food because you've been watching my videos and certain other people's videos and you think you know what I better go ahead and get started or maybe you're thinking about it but there's a part of you that's like put what if what if all this blows over and it's no big deal on now I have a year supply of beans rice and other things and for what you know was it a waste of money absolutely not because here's the deal one thing that's great about beans and rice is they have a very very long-term shelf life you don't have to freeze them you don't even have to vacuum seal them in jars like a lot of people do even just in the bags that came in they will stay good for a long time yes it's wise to put them in mylar bags in vacuum seal throw some oxygen absorbers first and then put a gamma seal lid on it that's going to make them last even longer but if it's just being there for a year to two years you're fine it's good okay just I still recommend at least putting that bag then it came in in a bucket of some sort but here's the deal so maybe this particular crisis quote-unquote isn't gonna make you have to fall back on your food storage but what if something else comes up that does you know let's just say I brought this up in another recent video I just put out let's just say something as simple as your freezer breaks down and you really need your freezer for your food storage or maybe it's your washing machine that breaks down or some other major appliance or maybe it's your car maybe a family member has some kind of accident and they need a emergency medical care and that's gonna be a big bill these are the kind of things that happen to people all over the world all the time so maybe it's not happening to you today but it's probably happening to somebody two houses down from you and maybe tomorrow it'll be your turn it's just your normal everyday crisis things so why would food storage help when those kind of things come up well because when you have some kind of big bill or maybe you're just really crunched for time you don't have time to go shopping for meals or you don't have time to really even prepare meals having some home canned goods is in your storage so not only do you have the food there to fall back on so you don't have to buy as much groceries that week you can even or that month you can even just say I don't need to buy groceries for a month I'm well stocked now I can focus the money that's coming in on to these other big bills you know replacing this appliance or paying off this medical bill or whatever it is and then when things are good again because you know things though it life is a roller coaster then you take the extra money whenever you have it and just rebuild your stocks but you know that but again coming back to this canned goods thing this is where like I mentioned in another video that just came out a couple days ago you know about freezing versus drying versus canning this is areas where having home canned goods is really beneficial one of my favorite things to can for those times where life just gets chaotic is chilly it's got everything we need in that one jar chili I can open that up heat it up on the wood stove and we're good to go and I do try to reserve that though for those times when life is just too crazy and we don't have time I don't have time to prepare a meal so it's convenient in that way and again so it's like maybe it's not even that you need to fall back on your food storage for monetary reasons but just because it's easy it's because life is chaotic right now you've got a whole bunch of extra things going on and now that you've got food put up in some form that's easy to prepare even dried foods are easy to prepare and quick you can make a pot of soup super easy super quick with your home dry goods or even your motherís products dried goods whatever it is because I do both I dry my things from my garden but I also buy freeze-dried and dehydrated foods that I can't grow or can't grow as well so those things are easy to do and quick and it doesn't require a lot of time and it certainly means I can save more time doing things here at the house instead of having to run to the store to buy all these ingredients because I've already got them let me come back to the whole idea of you know the gardening and the preserving so the reason I have carrots here even though it's way too early in the year to be canning carrots from the garden why do I have these then well because as I said in several other videos I carrots are just not one of the things that do great for us some years we can get a decent crop but usually they're smaller carrots and we just don't get in abundance not enough for me to can I've been waiting for years to be able to canned carrots out of my own garden but it's just not happening I'm just not getting enough at a time to make it worth it to run the canner so what I did this time is we had to go into town we had a recall on our little car that we bought this last son so of course you know we were able to get they paid for a rental car so we were able to do that and go get some shopping done where while we're in there we always make the most of our trips into town because we try not to go in there very often maybe once every three to four months so we went to the coastal we stocked up on some chicken feed we went to the Costco and stocked up Oden a few other things I thought you know what now would be the perfect time to just go ahead and buy two big bags of the fresh organic carrots that's 12 pounds total and can sum up why now well several reasons one because I don't know when we'll be able to get back into town especially with the way things are going I'm not sure we'll want to get back into town and the other thing is if I do this now and can these up now this is gonna save me more time in canning later instead of waiting until the time of the year that I do most of my canning and which usually starts late spring and through the summer and early fall because I like to do it all outside I decided I'm just gonna take a jump on it even if it's too rainy for me to count outside I can bring that the propane canner thing inside you know crack the door up and all that I can talk about that in another video but I didn't have to because I ended up having a beautiful day within two days of going to Costco so I can't those up so now what's happened is I've set aside I've got myself right here 16 pints of home canned carrots and now I don't have to worry about trying to dedicate some some of my precious garden space to something I knows not going to produce really well for me anyway though I still think it's wise to continue to keep trying this year I want my focus to be on the foods I know normally grow very well and are high producers such as beans zucchini and potatoes that's just a few examples and then of course I have all my medicinal herbs and and that kind of stuff so I want to conserve my garden space for that because it's easy enough for me to find organic carrots for a good price it's really hard for us to find fresh non-gmo corn for a good price so that's another reason why I like to buy Mother Earth products freeze dry organic non-gmo corn because because tastes just like fresh corn right off the cob except for it's crunchy I can throw it into soups and it's just wonderful but it would be great if I could still get my own and that's one of the things I want to focus on because I may not have access to some of this stuff so I'm working that into my garden and and then maybe next year once I feel like I understand I get a good corn maybe next year I'll go back in to trying out the carrots but for now not only do I know that I've got some dehydrated carrots that I get from Mother Earth products I've got some home canned carrots that I can use in other ways that I can't use the dehydrated carrots one question that came in recently on my that one video it did over a month ago that one in particular was called food storage beyond rice and beans where I was trying to focus on everything but rice and beans well not everything most everything and somebody asked why so much food there's only two of you right well yeah but that's the whole idea having these food storage is be to be able to put up for a long period of time so that we you know we're ready to shelter in place if we need to or if some major crisis comes up of any kind well even if it just hits us or whether it's just a local event or a global event we're ready we're set and it's a peace of mind that is very calming some people assume who aren't into preparing and food storage they make this really bad assumption that preparing means you're constantly scared well actually no it's the opposite it means once you've got yourself into this position and big things happen on it on a grander scale you're not scared anymore you're calm I mean it's just been such a good feeling to know that we're ready no matter what happens with this current scare that's happening out there we're ready we're set as best as we can be certainly a lot better than those people that like to scoff at people that like us and accuse us is be okay and fear mongers are living in fear we don't live in fear that's the thing maybe there was a little bit of fear it took to kind of motivate us to started but once you get started it's kind of fun and exciting and even a little bit of a challenge you know that challenge is part of what makes it fun figuring out the best ways to store your food and and how to rotate things and how to make things look nice and how many different types of things types of things that you can put up to prevent food fatigue but on top of that were also set even though there's only two of us here in this house not counting the dog and the ten chickens well they're not in the house they're outside but uh you know we do have other family locally that if a bigger crisis happens they you know and we end up having to bond together I'm a little more prepared to take care of them as well though I do encourage them and they are some of them are getting more into their own food storage and that's great because we should all be have something to bring to the table but I'm also preparing for them as well just in case and even if not I've got long-term food storage that can last us out for quite a number of years some things will last as long as 25 years some maybe 10 some five some just a year to two but the things that have the shorter shelf life those are the things that we work through faster it's that simple so one of the points of this videos I wanted to say if you're already gardening and you're already into food preservation one of the things I really recommend that you do right now while you can is the things that you know that you've been trying for years that you know don't aren't high producers for you and your own garden go ahead and plant that stuff you know to keep working on it but I recommend what you do is find a good source where you can get these things in an in a good healthy organic form if possible but even if not non-organic is better than none at all either getting canned up or get it dehydrated or something or at least frozen if nothing else but you do want to make sure that you just consider what you would do if you lost power or your freezer broke down you want to be prepared to take care of that food right away or you know at least have a back-up generator of some sort if you don't you know we're set because we have solar power we have a backup generator well and if all else fails I know I can can and dehydrate and I'm good but anyway I recommend just like I did here with the carrots now would be a really good time to go ahead and start putting up the stuff you know maybe you don't grow corn really well then start putting up some corn even if it's if it's just going to the Costco and Biden cases of corn I recommend doing that if it's something that you really like again let's go back to the fact don't put up a bunch of carrots some people don't like carrots don't put up canned carrots if nobody in your family eats them that would be silly but we like them we love them in fact and so that's why I did this so only stick to the things that you know you and your family will eat anyway the other thing that we'll do for you if you do that now is if you choose not to try to work on growing that item like for me with the carrots I'm just going to skip it this year then you can reserve you you can use that garden space to grow more of the things that you know do well and that you can either can or dehydrate or just put in cold storage you know like potatoes can go for a very long time we're still working through a hard last box of potatoes from last year but they're starting to get a little bit soft they're getting to that point that it's like I'm trying to hurry up and get through the rest of them or most of them because the rest will go on the ground so I can grow more potatoes this year it could you know use that space that you would have normally tried growing a slightly successful or even unsuccessful batch of carrots to grow something that you know does well the other thing is the reason why I say do it now is because if you do this now it will free up more of your time for canning the things that are coming and heavy and later in the year so don't wait until you're doing all that stuff to run in and buy your big two big bags of carrots or whatever it is that you don't grow as well in your area and then count it up do it now get it out of the way so now you're now you've got the time for that and then of course the other reason why I say now is I don't think anybody no matter who you are whether you think food storages are wise idea or not I don't think anybody should be putting this off any longer we're at a time right now we just things are really delicate we just don't know what's gonna happen down the road I'm just trying to encourage people to put themselves in the best situation they possibly can don't panic don't live in fear don't run out there and buy up everything on the shelves just get a little bit of stuff out of time get the things that really matter get the things you really enjoy even if it means stocking up on cacao powder and cacao butter just so you can have a way to make chocolate for yourself and your family that can add some kind of happiness and pleasure that will help prevent food fatigue which I talked about in another video and I talked about again in a video that I'm gonna have published later but somebody asked what food fatigue is well if all you've got is rice and beans I'm going to tell you that that might get you by that might keep you alive after a while you're gonna get so sick of it that you're just not gonna want to eat and also I you're gonna need more nutrients in your diet than that okay so you want to be able to put up things that are nutrient-dense like you've got carrots that are high in vitamin A you've got your greens that are high in many other types of vitamins such as vitamin K and magnesium and calcium a lot of your green vegetables are high in these things and so this is why these things are important and this is why I think people shouldn't put it off now I don't think everybody has to run out and spend a lot of money on freeze-dried and dehydrated foods if you have the money and you can do it that might be the option for you to just to quickly get something put up but you would be better off especially if you're new to this just and you're in you're really trying to build up your food storage or maybe you only got a week's worth or a month's worth and you feel like maybe it would be wise to have a longer period of time to store it up just every time you go to the grocery store buy a little bit more of this or that set aside to five maybe ten dollars of your your regular grocery money for buying extra things to put into your food stores maybe forego your Starbucks coffee or whatever it is that whatever your expensive fancy coffee is that you might buy every day if you stop doing that for at least a week you would have at least 49 extra dollars for putting into food stores and no and that's going off the assumption that a fancy cup of coffee is $7 a cup I know some is cheaper than that but every time I hear another price and like man that's higher than it was last year I don't buy that stuff so I don't know but you know maybe it's just $30 a week that you're gonna be saving but a week I mean a week 30 extra dollars a week for food stores that's really great when you look at the price of a 25 pound bag of rice being much cheaper than that you could get enough rice and beans in with that $30 to last you for at least a month maybe two or three or four months so just kind of take all these things into consideration just cut back in the areas that are excess that you really don't need start making your coffee at home and then you know and I'm just using that as an example whatever the splurge is that you like to spend your money on and that's okay I don't I mean we all have our little splurges that you know that we like to do and as long as you can afford to do it that's fine but if you're wanting to prepare and put some stuff up for whatever may come your way that you would you'd like to know that you've got that as a form of insurance and security and you don't have extra money to spend on it then it might mean you just need to cut back on some of your luxury items just for a time at least so you can get that stuff put away it doesn't have to be that hard but wouldn't you rather give up a few of your luxury items now and have some good yummy healthy food there when you need it down the road if something does happen and you have to fall back on it it's not again this isn't about living in fear it's about being ready so let me talk on about the insurance idea having a food storage is a form of insurance that you can't get denied because you already have it so it's not like with us when they're when a good chunk of our roof blew off in a storm last year and the house insurance that we've been into for 30 years denies us any kind of help at all I mean really that's ridiculous it was it's just insane so because though we are prepared we have food storage we had some money set aside we were able to go ahead and just pay for the new room and Patra do most of the work himself we didn't have to go into debt for it we were covered but it kind of makes you think what's the point of keeping this house insurance when they're not going to help you when you need it so coming back to the food storage it's a form of insurance that you cannot be in tonight so when you need it it will still be there for you so especially if you're carefully storing your food and not letting it go go bad and you're working through it you know you got to keep working through that food and then adding to it and once you've got it built up it's just a matter of when you use something next time you get a chance to go to the store or order something online restock super easy we actually do a lot of stuff online i order a lot of things through Costco comm and have it shipped here there's things that get through Amazon subscribe and save and then on those rare times we get into town we stock up then you know we have money set aside we go and that's what it's for is for restocking our food supplies but we can get by without having to buy anything for a long period of time because we're set but we do like to just keep those supplies built up alright so the whole idea of this video is to encourage people to keep you either doing what you're doing or start getting into it now I again I say don't delay but don't also go out there and panic buy and and do it because you're scared do it because it's the right thing to do that's gonna put you in a better situation no matter what happens so even if all this blows over and you have all this food now you're set and you're ready to go if something else down the road hits only you and your family you're ready and you don't have to depend on anyone else to take care of you okay hope you enjoyed this video and that may be and that it encourages you to do what's best for you and your family thanks for watching take care and God bless you

Channel: Rain Country

Views: 21,773

Rating: 4.9620595 out of 5

Keywords: traditional, old-ways, Health, Garden, Frugal, Homesteading, Self-Sustainability, Cooking, DIY, Homemade, natural-living, herbs, food storage, prepping, hard times, be ready

Id: fevPtp_f3eg

Length: 24min 33sec (1473 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 14 2020