Ramping Up Our Food Storage

[Music] hello friends heidi here from rain country god is good all the time and i thought i'd shoot this video on how i'm currently ramping up our food storage so we've been doing food storage for many years i mean i don't even know when i first started really getting into it it really started off with initially just when i would see something on sale thinking why am i not stocking up on this stuff when it's on sale so then i have it there when i need it so when i decide something like gee i want to make this for dinner but i don't have any on hand and it's not on sale at the store or i just don't feel like running to the store so i started out mostly to save money and for the sake of the convenience and then the more i did that the more i love the convenience and money saving of stocking up on food and then of course seeing things going on in the world made me start really ramping it up anyway but now that we're in a situation where we've been able to expand a little bit so that we have more places for storing food and kind of watching what's going on out there i've decided to really start ramping some things up some of it is storing more of what i've already been doing for years and some of it is adding some new things so i'll be talking about both of those now i recently did a video that you should have seen by now depending on when i decide to publish this video about some of my favorite places to shop online now one story didn't mention in there was the mother earth products that's where i specifically like to go for freeze-dried fruits and vegetables and that link is always in the description box down below it's just been my favorite place for a few years now because of price and the fact that i can buy the things in mylar bag and at least buy smaller sizes and time to try out because i still haven't got to the point where i'm ready to dedicate myself to buying my own freeze dryer so i like to buy from a company that i trust great people located here in the us and i i just really like working with them but anyway the other thing i mentioned in that video was vitacost so getting back into vitacost again has been a real blessing because i've been able to go in there and get not only get a good price on things and get a discount on things and by the way i'll link to that video down below because i'm going to be i talk more about that in there and how you can save even more through vitacost and they do also have like a they call it a set and save program for different things you can set and save have things delivered on a regular basis and save even more on it that way so many ways you can save through vitacost so one of the things i've been doing is trying a few different things where i can get it at a decent price having it shipped making sure i order enough to get free shipping and then seeing what i think about it and if it's something i i like enough that even though it's not a necessary item to add to our food stores by adding those they can be something that will also add more flavor and variety to our food storage so one of the things i've been stocking up on is juice now yes we grow our own grapes but our grapes tend to be very tart they really are best as a wine grape unless you want to add a lot of sugar to it which you gotta add a lot of sugar when you're making wine anyway but the fermentation process eats through all that sugar or most of it anyway finding some tasty organic juices that i can stock up on for various things whether it be for making homemade gummies for my grandson or just serving to my grandson knowing that it's something that's healthy and organic so i've been trying a few different ones now this is one of my favorites it's the simple truth organic tropical passion fruit and i'm really happy with this it has such a nice flavor now typically i'm not one that sits around and drinks a lot of juice i'm more one to sit around and drink a lot of homemade herbal teas but i've been doing drinking a lot of juice lately because i keep sampling different ones and once i open it it's like man this is good and of course i drink it but one of the things i did do back here and this isn't another video coming out i don't again don't know which we'll publish first i'll put a picture right here of my current meads and wines i have going i have a raspberry meat and orange spiced mead but the one clear in the back is the newest one i just started and that one was i had a couple more jars of my grape juice from our own grapes from 2020 that i wasn't enough to make a whole gallon of wine so i just froze it up into jars and decided what i do was pull my thumb out and then add this to it to make a complete gallon of wine with so we'll see how that turns out so anyway stocking up on juice that can also be something too if you're not growing enough fruit like apples we get plenty of apples for making an apple wine or apple sauce or apple butters but other things you know to add more variety like passion fruit i've tried growing passion fruit doesn't grow here even in the greenhouse i could not get it to grow well i got it to grow but then it died it died and it never got any fruit santa cruz also has some good juices organic juices that you can look into also on vitacost again i've been trying some of those out i've tried the strawberry lemonade the peach lemonade is really good a little more expensive but it also does come in a glass jars so you're paying for the glass jars on those and that's something they're going to actually last longer in the glass and you can recycle those glass bottles and they are they're going to have a lot of use that's something you could also store your homemade wines in as well those preferable to store those in dark bottles then one thing that i happen to stumble upon i don't know what made me think of it is i'm one of those crazy people that just loves anchovies and i hadn't had anchovies in years and so i found a couple of different brands of anchovies on vitacost and bought one of each to try them first and decided i like these ones better the other ones are the seasons brown like seasons brand is actually a great brand they make good sardines i stock up on those through costco but i like these better because of these small jars are good for a lot of things but also the i like the flavor of this brand better this is the bellino brand right here there's more in there it's actually better value buying in these jars than buying in the little cans so i'm stocking up on those just to have something that's one of those enjoyable things that i really like i can add to my pizza i wouldn't put it when i make homemade pizza i wouldn't put it all over the whole pizza i would only have it be something on the side that people can add to their pizza on their own because i know a lot of people hate anchovies but things like anchovy sardines and so on is also a good source of omega-3 so any of your fatty fish you can also find vitamin d3 and other great things in there so i say why not something that i love that's also a natural source of these great nutrients that we need now this isn't really new but i've really been getting back into stocking up again on the honey now that i'm working through that that old bucket i bought many years ago was a larger bucket and that's what i'm using to make the meat and that's why my meat is so dark is because once you open a bucket of honey as it ages it gets darker and darker over time and i don't really particularly like the color it makes my mead it still tastes good it just doesn't have that nice color that bright color that the meads have when they're made from a clear honey so i costco is where i've been getting the buckets of honey and even though i could still buy bigger buckets like the 60 pounds and the 40 pounds i decided to stick with the one gallon size buckets which is about 12 pounds of honey because that way i can just open up a single bucket at a time you can get this honey also on costco the raw pacific blackberry honey is excellent but they also have a good clover honey i'm getting some of that as well which is twenty dollars a bucket cheaper than this because it's still expensive but it's a good raw honey i trust glory be honey quite a bit so i recommend stocking up on honey because of its many uses you can make your honey infused garlic you can make mead you can use it to help with your allergies you can use it in making extracts because it's my new favorite way now to make extracts be it medicinal or flavored is using raw honey and whatever finished wine or mead that i have that i'm going to use in making extracts it's going to be a lot more nutritious and better for you than organic blonde cane sugar but that organic cane sugar does have its place in food storage as well and i have a pretty good stock of that so i haven't really been ramping up on that but if you're into fermenting and making wines and various other things you're going to need that sugar and by the way those people who are keto that's fine in all but when times get hard you're going to need those carbs so if if food is scarce and you're having to work harder because there's going to be a lot more work to do because of you're having to get out in the garden more and work on growing your own goods you're going to need more carbs be it in the form of grains or sugars so just don't feel guilty about stocking up on wheat berries and flowers and honey and sugar even if you're keto you're probably not going to be keto in a serious grid down situation okay so moving on again this is one i mentioned in that other video was the finding some good unbleached organic all-purpose white flour yes i stock up on a lot of grains especially wheat berries i did talk about this i think more recently in the one i did on storing in buckets so i'm going to link to that video down below because i'm going to be talking more about the storing in buckets but anyway uh costco is my favorite place actually to find the organic unbleached white flour they have the best price but we don't get into town that much and i'm really wanting to stock up so i was glad to find this brand here on vitacost and so what i've been doing was buying like four bags five pound bags at a time which still ends up being a pretty good deal waiting to get that coupon for the 10 percent off and then getting 10 off my whole order and saving any even more it takes six bags for me to fill up a five gallon bucket using the mylar bag inside that so i get the ziploc mylar bag put that inside the bucket just like i explained in that video and so these are things that i'm putting up for long-term storage and then i always will have things more handy for the working through now yes i do rotate my food storage but there are certain things that i know can last for a very long time when properly stored so i'm not as worried about those and those will be those are the things are a little bit harder to get to so anyway the flower is the other thing so even though i grind my own flower it is nice having some white flour on hand unbleached white flour for various other things because there are certain things i like to make where i prefer using the white flour usually do it in a blend with my home milled whole wheat flour and then adding this sometimes it's a half and half blend sometimes it's three parts to one it just depends on what it is i'm making so and also just having a flower on hanna's ready to go that i know is shelf stable because when you're talking shelf stable flower yes if it's a flower it really needs to be a white flower for it to be completely shelf stable and then another thing i've really been doing more of since i did a video which i'll also link down below about the real butter powder and how i've been using it experimenting with and becoming more and more happy with it over time i recommend you watch that video and i just basically give a whole review of the different ways that i use it but since i'm really happy with this and i just can't be certain of being able to get real butter down the road i decided why not go ahead and stock up even more on this and since i don't want to keep using up my jars by putting this into jars i'd rather not keep it in these plastic containers though it's not bad especially if you're keeping them stored in a cool place because they're tightly sealed you know they come with they cut this well this one's already open so they have the little foil top they're tightly sealed but and if you're keeping them in a cool dark place they should be fine even in the plastic what i've decided to do is since i did buy more buckets i am using one of the yellow ones for storing the butter and i decided to just open up each one all the jars i already had packed up all of the containers when they come in like this every month i order a couple more on my subscribe and save through amazon and then once i get that bucket bucket filled up i'm going to seal up that mylar real good and then seal up the bucket and that will be for long-term storage that's in that just in case situation i can have a backup supply of butter even if it's in a powdered form it still is really good for many other things even if it's not as good for using as a spread as real butter it does do well in baking and so on i also have a video that's fairly recent on the different types of milk that i stock up on i have three types of powdered milk that i like and no i don't buy the nestle brand and i explain why in that video that a lot of people love i recommend you check that out before you stock up on any more of that that's just my personal recommendation you got to do what's best for you and your family but i explain why i wouldn't stock up on that one the hoosier hills the judy's and the mayanburg goat milk these are all good milks to stock up on all in whole form and so i've been really ramping that one up too because this dairy is one of the things i'm most concerned about not being able to get my hands on and we're not vegans we love cheese and milk around here stocking up on the butter stocking up on the powdered milk i'm doing the same thing there where i have a bucket every time i get more of powdered milk in one of these containers i pour it into that bucket and once it's full i'm going to seal it up and then put it into long-term storage now i still have the juties judy's is great be and and the meyenberg goat milk because of the way they're packaged up is excellent just to leave them in the containers they come in and they will have a very long shelf life just like that because the hoosier hill farms makes an excellent whole milk powder but they have it in the clear plastic containers i decided well since i'm stocking up let me conserve my jars and just go ahead and put it in something that's going to keep it dark and sealed up and cool and dry i do have a recipe or two out there on how to make your own homemade crackers my our favorite one is the cracker bread because it's real crispy and it's so good and i'll link to that one down below so i do make my own crackers but it's still nice having boxes of crackers on hand for oh man crackers would have been good with this soup or whatever that you can pull out so what i'm doing is again through vitacost is trying uh buying a box at a time of some different organic brands more like a saltine cracker or a ritz cracker those kind of things but in the organic brands so don't forget to check out vitacosta at least if nothing else is a good place where you can try different things they have all kinds of stuff at vitacost not just food you know they have mostly they have a lot of vitamins and they have personal care products they have the mrs meyers brand soaps of various kinds though those are usually cheaper to get on amazon but if you don't want to shop at amazon and you like that stuff and you can get it on vitacost but anyway so i'm trying a few different crackers so i can put those into stores just to have them on hand for whatever comes up and we just want some crackers handy because you know making the homemade crackers does take a while and it is nice to have some things conveniently ready to go for when you forget i'm not really doing a lot more of these things but i wanted to bring them up again just to remind people that even though it's pretty easy to make your own pasta i still like to stock up on pasta i really like the italian brand organic pasta you can get from costco and you can order it online so every so often i order a little another package of spaghetti noodles and another package of the mixed noodles basically what i'm doing is just keeping my stock supplied i don't let there be any holes in there and same thing goes with any of the other things i'm going to show so nuts costco has the organic cashews and the organic almonds and sometimes you can also find the organic pecans on there especially if you're vegan this is a great idea because you can make your own cheeses and milks using the different types of nuts whether it be coconut cashews almonds pecans walnuts whatever hemp seeds so on so i might consider getting more really getting more of the different nuts and making buckets for each of those and doing the same thing like i'm doing with the flowers and sticking them away for a long term so you know i have my pistachios jarred up and vacuum sealed into some old some recycled olive jars and some walnuts and almonds and cashews but again i just don't want that many jars if i decide to really put away a lot more so i might resort to doing buckets for at least some of those and then don't forget to stock up on your salt again costco has the best price i've seen on the himalayan pink salt i also like to get the big bucket of of redmond real salt amazon has a pretty good price i haven't seen what vitacost the only downfall to vitacost is they don't carry a lot of stuff in bigger bulk type items just like a flower usually the biggest bag you can find is five pounds but if the price remember to do your price per pound and figure that out it might be cheaper to buy smaller bags in some cases than buying larger but costco does have the best price and you can order the himalayan pink salt on their online store as well as the yeast so best price on yeast it's i think five dollars for the two pound brick and i just leave it in the mylar bag until i open it i have a video just on this and how i store my yeast for long term but it will last in these in these vacuum sealed bags for years as long as you keep them in a cool area and not a place that gets really hot so there's just a few examples now if you want more examples of all different kinds of ideas that are beyond rice and beans i have a video i did about a year or so ago i'll link to down below it's kind of a long video but that should give you some more ideas on top of what i've mentioned here now obviously i'm talking mostly here about things that i've had to buy but one of the reasons i'm doing this with the buckets like with the butter and the milk is to free up more space and more jars for canning more of my own homegrown items which i'm really hoping to pick up the pace on the gardening and the growing here this year and next uh my homegrown green beans and my zucchini which i prefer now this is my favorite ways to chop it up and dehydrate it up and i use this in a lot of things it's a good way to add nutrition to just about any dish because cut up like this and dehydrated it goes well in soups and in sauces of just about any kind and of course you know even though we're still working on the best carrots to grow and the best we found i think we found the best way to grow them here but now it's figuring out the best carrots to grow these are not the ones we've grown but if we ever get to a point where we're growing a lot of carrots i'll be canning those two but either way even if not just like with the carrots when i find them at a good deal either the organic ones at costco or like the ones i bought in that big bag down here at our local store cannon a bunch of those up so they're ready in handy i love having just simple canned goods like this i can blend them however i want or leave them plain if i want a side of green beans or a side of carrots or i can put them together into stew that's why i like to keep it simple but yes i want to free up more shelf space and jars for just doing that kind of stuff and so that's the other reason why i decided well let's pick up the pace on the milk and the butter then i can get all those things off the shelf put it in a bucket and then just kind of forget about it for a while so usually when i'm stocking up on certain things i'm usually it's usually a few things i'm picking that i'm focusing on at a time until i get to a certain point once i'm to a point where i feel comfortable with that then i might focus on some other things oh yes and one more thing i was going to mention earlier because i don't have it in front of me is costco also does carry some freeze-dried foods in number 10 cans if you go to their online store and they have a really good price on the freeze-dried cheddar cheese i do have a lot of honeyville cheddar cheese stored up but i'm thinking about buying a case of it through costco because they have the best price i've seen on the freeze-dried cheese in a long time just to have it put up for whatever again just in case we can't get our dairy products like cheese milk and butter or because the prices skyrocket so that they're so far out of reach that nobody can afford them so those are the other reasons why i'm stocking up on these things all right well i hope you enjoyed this video gave you a few more ideas i'll probably do some more updates as i try more things and decide to add more different things to my food storage and don't forget please remember to check out those videos i'll be linking to down below because i believe you'll find a lot more very helpful information in there if you haven't already watched them yet and please share with us what are some new things you've decided to start adding to your food storage to really give it variety as well as preventing food fatigue alright well thanks for watching take care and god bless [Music]

Channel: Rain Country

Views: 24,410

Rating: 4.9484978 out of 5

Keywords: traditional, old-ways, Health, Garden, Frugal, Homesteading, Self-Sustainability, Cooking, DIY, Homemade, natural-living, herbs, prepping, preparedness, food storage, preserving

Id: 4uE6SbL-Uyw

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021