Location: Building up a Food Stockpile

Discussion: Best UsageReported This is a featured thread

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White76Knight
White76Knight
Best Usage
Aug 15 2010, 1:49 PM EDT | Post edited: Aug 15 2010, 1:50 PM EDT
Okay, lets say you buy all this stuff, and the SHTF right after week 52. You've got a years food stockpiled so you should be good to go... except for one thing: How the heck do you use all this stuff?

Okay, the canned food and the Mac & Cheese are obvious, but what do I do with 700lbs of wheat, 240 lbs sugar, 40 lbs of powdered milk, 13 lbs of salt, 10 lbs of honey, 5 lbs of peanut butter, 6 lbs of dried yeast and 6 lbs of shortening?

I suppose the wheat is for making bread, but 700 lbs of it? That seems like a lot of bread, which, for me at least, doesn't fill the belly very well all by itself. Is there something else I'm supposed to be doing with all this wheat? What am I overlooking here?

I'm not mocking the idea. In fact, quite the opposite. I think this is a great plan, and I'd like to get started on a stockpile of my own. But before I spend good money on raw foodstuffs that I wouldn't have the first clue how to use, I'd like to know how to get the best value out of these things once I have them.
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Keyword tags: food storage
nate121
nate121
1. RE: Best Usage
Aug 15 2010, 2:06 PM EDT | Post edited: Aug 15 2010, 2:06 PM EDT
you could buy a food storage cook book which tells you how to cook a lot from scratch

https://beprepared.com/category.asp?c=26&sb=0&bhcd2=1281894940
some cook book ideas, you can probably look these up on amazon/ebay for a lower price
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nate121
nate121
2. RE: Best Usage
Aug 18 2010, 3:39 PM EDT | Post edited: Aug 18 2010, 3:39 PM EDT
i found a WWII cook book online that is similar to the one for sale

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15464/15464-h/15464-h.htm
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White76Knight
White76Knight
3. RE: Best Usage
Aug 18 2010, 6:42 PM EDT | Post edited: Aug 18 2010, 6:42 PM EDT
"i found a WWII cook book online that is similar to the one for sale

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15464/15464-h/15464-h.htm"
That link is fantastic. Thank you.
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oco54
4. RE: Best Usage
May 27 2011, 12:50 PM EDT | Post edited: May 27 2011, 12:50 PM EDT
If your hungry you will eat all that bread. This is to survive, not to be happy Do you find this valuable?    
DLOWTHEMAD
DLOWTHEMAD
5. RE: Best Usage
May 27 2011, 12:58 PM EDT | Post edited: May 27 2011, 12:58 PM EDT
"If your hungry you will eat all that bread. This is to survive, not to be happy"
Ummm his concern was that He was unsure how to make bread with just raw wheat grain

And this is a very old conversation, don't drag it up again, unless you have something genuine to add to it. Not just to ridicule the OP, who had a good question by the way.... Do you know how to make bread from scratch?
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timberrattler
timberrattler
6. RE: Best Usage
May 27 2011, 1:24 PM EDT | Post edited: May 27 2011, 1:25 PM EDT
http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/index.aspx#Nutrimill

Check out the hand-powered models of grain mills.

For that matter check out the entire Pleasant Hill site. Its full of awesome products and food stuff like canned butter and canned cheese. Seriously I haven't found a better site.

It blows a lot of the survival prep sites out of the water without really trying to IMO.
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White76Knight
White76Knight
7. RE: Best Usage
May 27 2011, 4:34 PM EDT | Post edited: May 27 2011, 4:36 PM EDT
"Ummm his concern was that He was unsure how to make bread with just raw wheat grain

And this is a very old conversation, don't drag it up again, unless you have something genuine to add to it. Not just to ridicule the OP, who had a good question by the way.... Do you know how to make bread from scratch?"
LOL - I appreciate your coming to my defense, DLOW, but in this case oco54 actually had the right of it. My primary concern was eating just the bread, which as I said in the original post, doesn't fill the belly very well.

Now oco54 is right in that if one was hungry enough, I'm sure one would be happy to have the bread, but even so, I doubt that the authors of the original article intended that 700 lbs of wheat was to be used just for making bread, which was why I asked my question in the first place. The link that nate121 provided answered the question handily.
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FrankLeeDeRainged
FrankLeeDeRainged
8. RE: Best Usage
May 27 2011, 4:38 PM EDT | Post edited: May 27 2011, 4:38 PM EDT
Wheat for bread, and biscuits, cake, pastry, pancakes, dumplings, sweetbreads, pasta and thickening. . . .

But no-one else think that's a hell of a lot of sugar!
_
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timberrattler
timberrattler
9. RE: Best Usage
May 27 2011, 4:45 PM EDT | Post edited: May 27 2011, 4:45 PM EDT
"

But no-one else think that's a hell of a lot of sugar!
_"
He needs to add toothpaste to the list. LOL.
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White76Knight
White76Knight
10. RE: Best Usage
May 27 2011, 5:55 PM EDT | Post edited: May 27 2011, 5:55 PM EDT
"He needs to add toothpaste to the list. LOL."
Nah, you're supposed to have that in your BoB anyway. LOL
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oco54
11. RE: Best Usage
May 28 2011, 3:40 PM EDT | Post edited: May 28 2011, 3:40 PM EDT
"LOL - I appreciate your coming to my defense, DLOW, but in this case oco54 actually had the right of it. My primary concern was eating just the bread, which as I said in the original post, doesn't fill the belly very well.

Now oco54 is right in that if one was hungry enough, I'm sure one would be happy to have the bread, but even so, I doubt that the authors of the original article intended that 700 lbs of wheat was to be used just for making bread, which was why I asked my question in the first place. The link that nate121 provided answered the question handily."
Fair enough , sorry if i offended you or anything
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White76Knight
White76Knight
12. RE: Best Usage
May 28 2011, 5:27 PM EDT | Post edited: May 28 2011, 5:27 PM EDT
"Fair enough , sorry if i offended you or anything"
Nothing to be sorry about, like I said, you actually had the right of it.
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Redrighthand
Redrighthand
13. RE: Best Usage
May 28 2011, 5:41 PM EDT | Post edited: May 28 2011, 5:41 PM EDT
A very good source to look at is Bill Mollison's "Ferment and Human Nutrition". (Tagari, 1993). It's designed to help farmers and gardeners be more self sufficient by adding value to their crops through preserving & fermenting etc. It covers everything from storage to manufacturing cheeses and breads and whatnot to nutrition loss due to cooking. Superb book, and Mollison is always easy to read. Do you find this valuable?    
White76Knight
White76Knight
14. RE: Best Usage
May 28 2011, 5:48 PM EDT | Post edited: May 28 2011, 5:48 PM EDT
"A very good source to look at is Bill Mollison's "Ferment and Human Nutrition". (Tagari, 1993). It's designed to help farmers and gardeners be more self sufficient by adding value to their crops through preserving & fermenting etc. It covers everything from storage to manufacturing cheeses and breads and whatnot to nutrition loss due to cooking. Superb book, and Mollison is always easy to read."
YIKES! According to Amazon, that's a $300 book.

Looks like a great resource though, just the same. BTW, for those interested, according to the commentary on Amazon this book is going to be reprinted sometime in May or June of 2011, with an expected retail price somewhere in the $50 range. Now THAT I'd be more likely to go looking for.
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Oakspar77777
15. RE: Best Usage
May 29 2011, 11:44 AM EDT | Post edited: May 29 2011, 11:44 AM EDT
Wheat + Mill = Flour.

From what you have, you could make biscuits, rolls, and breads with the yeast. I'm a flatbread man, myself, so I don't worry about the yeast (I just buy self-rising flour for my biscuits and dumplings).

1c flour (per serving)
3/4 tsp baking powder (NOT BAKING SODA)
1/2 tsp salt
2-3oz of any fat (oil, shortening, butter, etc)
1/2 cup hot water
2tsp sugar

Mix dry ingredients, add fat and hot water, mix until it forms a firm ball (adding flour as needed). Knead for 5+ minutes, adding flour to keep from sticking. Cover ball for 15+ minutes to set. Can be cooked as hard-tack biscuits (bake at 350), rolled into pizza crust or tortillas (cooked dry on a hot pan), or even eaten raw if necessary.

Oh, the sugar is there to make everything taste better (flat, stored water), because it has a lifespan of forever if kept dry and air tight, and because it is one of the most efficient ways to store calories.

I would increase the level of fats - a few gallon jugs of cooking oil will do, or some more shorting and more peanut butter - nothing is better on a flatbread than some peanut butter and canned meat (trust me).

Oh, and if you have eggs (any kind from any animal), at a ratio of one large chicken egg to 2/3cup flour (and 1/2tsp salt) you have pasta. Just mix until in a ball, cover for 30 min, then roll flat and cut into strips. They cook a little better if you hang the strips for an hour or so to semi-dry. It really is that easy.
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White76Knight
White76Knight
16. RE: Best Usage
May 29 2011, 11:58 AM EDT | Post edited: May 29 2011, 11:58 AM EDT
"Wheat + Mill = Flour.

From what you have, you could make biscuits, rolls, and breads with the yeast. I'm a flatbread man, myself, so I don't worry about the yeast (I just buy self-rising flour for my biscuits and dumplings).

1c flour (per serving)
3/4 tsp baking powder (NOT BAKING SODA)
1/2 tsp salt
2-3oz of any fat (oil, shortening, butter, etc)
1/2 cup hot water
2tsp sugar

Mix dry ingredients, add fat and hot water, mix until it forms a firm ball (adding flour as needed). Knead for 5+ minutes, adding flour to keep from sticking. Cover ball for 15+ minutes to set. Can be cooked as hard-tack biscuits (bake at 350), rolled into pizza crust or tortillas (cooked dry on a hot pan), or even eaten raw if necessary.

Oh, the sugar is there to make everything taste better (flat, stored water), because it has a lifespan of forever if kept dry and air tight, and because it is one of the most efficient ways to store calories.

I would increase the level of fats - a few gallon jugs of cooking oil will do, or some more shorting and more peanut butter - nothing is better on a flatbread than some peanut butter and canned meat (trust me).

Oh, and if you have eggs (any kind from any animal), at a ratio of one large chicken egg to 2/3cup flour (and 1/2tsp salt) you have pasta. Just mix until in a ball, cover for 30 min, then roll flat and cut into strips. They cook a little better if you hang the strips for an hour or so to semi-dry. It really is that easy."
Excellent info as always, Oakspar.

One question, though. You mentioned the addition of a few gallons of cooking oil, but I read somewhere that cooking oil has a shorter shelf life than most of these other foods. Do you know anything about this?
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White76Knight
White76Knight
17. RE: Best Usage
May 29 2011, 1:03 PM EDT | Post edited: May 29 2011, 1:03 PM EDT
And while I'm at it, a couple of other questions.

Where would one even go to get 100 lbs of wheat? And how much would 100 lbs of wheat actually cost? In Week Seven we're supposed to buy 100 lbs of wheat with $5.00 plus whatever change we've saved over the previous six weeks. Is this even feasible?
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