Water Storage

A sister in the ward asked me a question about storing water. While answering her, I realized it's that time of year to start thinking about Hurricane season (June 1 - November something), and where is the best place to start thinking? WATER!!!!

First and foremost, how much water should you store?

Many sources recommend 1 gallon per person per day for 14 days, so how much water would a family of three need to store?
1 gallon x 3 people x 14 days = 42 gallons of water.

Where do you store all that water?

The best answer is wherever you can. I have boxes of cheap store bought water in the corner of my sons' room and used juice, soda pop, and Gatorade bottles in the boys' closet. I have a friend who's been storing hers in her laundry room/closet.

How do you store that water?

In the Water Storage Guidelines on providentliving.org, they say...

Containers

• Use only food-grade containers. Smaller containers made of PETE plastic or heavier plastic buckets or drums work well.
• Clean, sanitize, and thoroughly rinse all containers prior to use. A sanitizing solution can be prepared by adding 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of liquid household chlorine bleach (5 to 6% sodium hypochlorite) to one quart (1 liter) of water. Only household bleach without thickeners, scents, or additives should be used.
• Do not use plastic milk jugs, because they do not seal well and tend to become brittle over time.
• Do not use containers previously used to store non-food products.

Note: They suggest sanitizing all containers with that 1 teaspoon of bleach to one quart of water solution. I've actually never done that before, but I think I'll start...to be on the safe side.

Water Pretreatment

• Water from a chlorinated municipal water supply does not need further treatment when stored in clean, food-grade containers.
• Non-chlorinated water should be treated with bleach. Add 1/8 of a teaspoon (8 drops) of liquid household chlorine bleach (5 to 6% sodium hypochlorite) for every gallon (4 liters) of water. Only household bleach without thickeners, scents, or additives should be used.

Note: You should not only treat non-chlorinated water with bleach, but also all water that's questionable.

After Hurricane Ike, the mayor said not to use the water coming out of the tab. To disinfect the water, you could use this bleach method. Nate and I actually boiled it. Providentliving.org says, "bringing water to a rolling boil for 3 to 5 minutes will kill most water-borne microorganisms. However, prolonged boiling of small quantities of water may concentrate toxic contaminants if present." For Hurricane Ike, we used our water storage for cooking with and brushing teeth. We used boiled water for everything else.

Storage

• Containers should be emptied and refilled regularly.
• Store water only where potential leakage would not damage your home or apartment.
• Protect stored water from light and heat. Some containers may also require protection from freezing.
• The taste of stored water can be improved by pouring it back and forth between two containers before use.

Note: I've read on beprepared.com that "if water is: A) Free of Microorganisms. B) If the container is made of food grade materials. C) The container is clean and tightly closed. D) The container is kept from sunlight. Then it will remain safe indefinitely." Another source says to rotate your water storage at least once a year.

I personally have been rotating water every other year because most of the bottled water I've bought usually expires in two years, so I just go ahead and empty and refill my recycled bottles every other year as well.

Another Note: When ever I empty water bottles, I feel bad watching all that water go down the drain, and that's what I did until I realized I could be using that stored water to water my plants.

I kept potted plants last year, and I also had a lot of water that needed to be refilled. It was so easy to use a bottle or two of water storage to water my plants and then refill it, write on a new date, and put it back in storage. I didn't feel like I was wasting water any more, and I don't think my plants minded at all that the water had been sitting in my sons' closet for two years either.

I'd like to know if you have thought of ways to rotate your water. Have you?

Happy Water Storing!

Book Review

I'm currently reading I Dare You to Eat It, a book about food storage, by Liesa Card.

Liesa Card's a working mother who doesn't really like cooking, but has a testimony that food storage is important and the prophets wouldn't be telling 13 million plus members and the world to have a food storage for nothing if they didn't mean it.

She began her food storage by doing what a lot of people do, buying the basics...wheat, oats, beans, etc., but like most of us, she had no idea what to do with it.

Like her, when I bought our food storage basics, I figured I'd have it, store it and throw it out in thirty years unless (heaven forbid) we'd ever need it.

But that's a waste!! I got to a point where I felt like if somebody doesn't know what to do with wheat than they shouldn't have it in our food storage. Plus, there is no guarantee that you and/or your kids' bodies would react well to moving from having little or no wheat in your diet to having wheat every meal in a crisis.

Liesa Card pointed out that the Church does still recommend getting the basics, though. Maybe we do have to do some hunting to find wheat recipes our families will tolerate and grow accustom to, but luckily wheat isn't the only basic thing we can have in our food storage. Church Dry good Canneries provide oats, rice, pasta, potato flakes or pearls, etc. in addition to wheat (click here to see order form).

Surely, there are meals that your family eats with oats, rice, pasta, or mashed potatoes. When we're planning your food storage, why not "notice what your already eating." Card says, "One day I realized that instead of constantly struggling to hunt down food storage meals, the meals I normally cook--using foods my family already likes--could actually become part of our food storage plan."

She gives the example of spaghetti... "Using the pasta from the cannery already stored in the basement, all I really needed to buy for our everyday storage were three jars of our favorite marinara sauce. Done. With that little effort I had the storage ingredients for one meal, to be served once a month, for three months. And look, a food storage dinner of spaghetti isn't even scary or weird."

She went through the other food storage basics she had already and thought of a couple recipes that went with oats, rice and potato flakes much the same way as she thought of spaghetti. The recipes are simple, but what's important is her family was already eating them. Yes, some of the recipes have fresh ingredients, but everything that can be is substituted with the non-perishable equivalent.

She thought of recipes until she came up with thirty. Then she made a list of all the canned, bottled, etc. ingredients she needed to have three months worth of those thirty meals (basically multiplying each recipe by three).

A list of some of those recipes are in the book as well as on her website, http://www.idareyoutoeatit.com/. Take a look at her wheat recipes. Some of the recipes had called for Uncle Ben's wild rice, and she'd substitute wheat berries. The recipes work, and her family enjoys them.

Here's her method of food storage summed up (in her words)...

1. Gradually [build] a year's supply of basic dry goods suggested by the Church


2. [Design] thirty meals that use these dry goods


3. [Purchase] a three-month supply of the canned, dried, or bottled ingredients for these thirty meals, with fresh ingredients added as necessary and as available.

The plan does call for work on our part, but I believe it is an effective method.

What do you think?

For more info on our Regional Cannery, see How to get your food storage? post and Policy Change at the Cannery post.

For more info about three month supply, see Three Month Supply post

Great Sale at Kroger for Food Storage items

Looking at the Kroger ads for Wed, Jan 26 through Tues, Feb 1, I was blown away at some of the prices of great food storage items.

Kroger is having this sale where you get $5 off "when you buy any 10 participating products."

The first thing I saw was...

Del Monte Vegetables (11-15.25 oz Can) for 32 cents each!!!! (when you buy 10 participation items)

I've never seen a price that good for canned veggies. You can buy 30 cans for just $9.60! What a great way to start a food storage!

I'm not recommending it for everyone, but if you use canned veggies or don't mind canned veggies, this is a great time to buy extra for food storage.

Other participating items:

Pace Picante Sauce (16 oz jar)
Hunt's Tomatoes (10 - 15 oz Can)
Rotel Tomatoes (10 oz Can)
Ritz Crackers
Kraft Mayo and Miracle Whip
Planter's Roasted Peanuts
Some Progresso soups
Goldfish

I'm sure if you've been collecting coupons, the prices would be even better. For detailed information about what coupons would match up at Kroger see http://mylitter.com/kroger/kroger-deals-wed-26th/ and then click on "display all matchups."

Also, cheese is at a pretty good price and isn't a bad thing to stock up on for a three month supply if you have room in your fridge. Just double check the expiration date. I've bought cheese at Kroger that had expiration dates anywhere from five or six months out to ones that had already expired a month or two ago (I was ticked, let me tell you, but that's what you get when you don't check the date on the package).

Food Storage for those who love cooking

Do you love cooking?

Do you hunt online weekly or daily for a new recipe to try?

Do you gag at the thought of using cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup in your cooking?

I can honestly say "NO" to all of those questions, but I do know people who would say yes.

I've recently learned that these cookin' lovin' people don't like following the food storage advice given in literature or on the Internet.

Most "specialists" say to:

• Adapt favorite recipes for food storage
• Buy extra of what you normally buy (assuming it's not perishable)
• Make sure every meal uses a food storage item (pasta, rice, wheat, beans, oats, etc...or something canned) to get your family used to it.

But how does that work if you don't...excuse me...if you WILL NOT buy a canned food item and have 365 x 3 different meals a year if you could.

Good question!

Besides "Just suck it up!"...I've only heard of one other bit of food storage advice for cooking lovers and that's...

FREEZE-DRIED FOOD

Yes, it's more expensive, but I've heard the chicken actually tastes like normal chicken. The Green Bell Peppers tastes just like fresh peppers, etc, etc, etc.

For more options, see beprepared.com

How is Food Freeze-Dried (from Emergency Essentials)?

"To create freeze-dried food, the item is first flash frozen, then a low-level heat is applied inside a vacuum chamber this special process dehydrates the product without changing the cell structure of the food. Finally, the food is packed for long-term storage. This process retains much of the color, texture, shape, flavor, and nutrition."

If you have enough money budgeted for food/food storage, I'd give it a try.

But I do have a question for all those anti-cream of chicken soup cooks out there that have been holding up a food storage for the last x years...

What do you do for your food storage, especially your three month supply?

Food Storage Holiday Gift Ideas

I found this column in the Deseret News last week (Wed, Dec 15). It was called, "Treat neighbors to cheap gifts this Christmas."

I think the person who wrote that title should be fired...

...but the ideas are fun.

Here's the Food Storage gift ideas.

• Canned soups: Stack them pyramid-style into a Christmas tree. "Have a souper holiday!"
• Dried pasta: "Have a pasta-tively happy holiday!"
• Box of powdered milk: "This gift isn't fancy with satins and silk; But in times of need, you'll always have milk!"
• Jar of honey: "For yours of love and friendship, and the fact that you're so sweet, We remember you with honey; it's a Merry Christmas treat."
• Package of gelatin: "If times get hard, you'll never have to cry; If you have some Jell-O in your year's supply."

Kind of silly, kind of cheesy, but good ideas if you want to give food storage this Christmas.

Book Review: Not Your Mother's Food Storage

This book, Not Your Mother's Food Storage, is by no means life changing, eye opening, or...whatever, but it takes what is written in the Church's Family Home Storage pamphlet...

Namely,

"Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage."

...and walks you step by step (using examples) on how you'd actually put the Church issued suggestion into practice.

The book prompts you to list the meals you eat on a regular basis for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then it shows you through worksheets how to figure out what food you'd need in your food storage and how to calculate how much of that food you need to buy. Once you make a list of what to buy, the book gives suggestions on how to efficiently and frugally purchase the food for your storage. As a result, you'll have a food storage of meals and snacks you and your family actually eat.

Other topics included are Storing Staples and Condiments, Storing Nonfood Items, Adapting Your Favorite Recipes, How to Store It Now That You Have It, and Where to Store It Now That You Have It. Plus, it provides over 80 recipes easily adaptable to food storage.

Yes, this blog post sounds like a commercial for the book, but I must warn you that the book provides not a lot of new information or information that can't be found on the Internet.

However, if you want a concise source of information about starting/improving your food storage, this is a good book. I just recommend borrowing a copy from someone (like me) or buying one the next time you get a huge discount for Deseret Book or similar retailer.

Anyway, it's worth the read, but not necessarily worth the listed price.

Take a look at http://www.notyourmothersfoodstorage.com/

The 12 days of Christmas Food Storage

I know a lot of you already know what you're going to get everyone and/or might be to late to prepare the gift(s) I'm suggesting, but I thought this was a fun idea that my mom got last year in her ward.

The 12 days of Christmas Food Storage

On the first day of Christmas,
Because your are so sweet,
I hope this can of HONEY
Makes your day complete.

On the second day of Christmas,
Because you are so neat,
Santa's elves have brought you
Two large bags of WHEAT.

On the third day of Christmas,
If you're baking the kids a treat,
You'll need this bag of SUGAR
To make it oh-so-sweet.

Popcorn, chips, and french fries,
Would quickly have to halt,
For they would lose their savor,
Unless they had some SALT.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
According to Hoyle,
Everything you cook will stick,
If your pantry's out of OIL.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
This variety of MILK,
Will make your cooking easier,
With sauces smooth as silk.

Cooking, washing, brushing teeth,
Would certainly be awful,
If fresh pure WATER wasn't there.
Make sure you have a shelf full.

They have improved the quality,
Of T.P. through the ages--
But gosh, in time of crisis
This beats the Yellow Pages.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
Warm things will soothe the tummy,
This VEGETABLE SOUP mix,
Will sure taste quite yummy.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
Make your cooking turn out nice
A little shake, a little pinch
Of your favorite can of SPICE.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
Getting anxious, I am sure,
With your year's supply of IVORY
You're 99-44/100% Pure.

Now Christmastime is finally here,
Hope you've enjoyed the treats.
Your year's supply's in better shape
Make sure you don't deplete.

Have a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year!
I hope this plate of GOODIES
Brings you lots of joy and cheer!