Best foodstuff to stockpile?

[Britesea]

and don't forget foraging! Even in the city. I know they say you shouldn't forage close to a road, but I'm tellin' ya-- if I and my family was starving....

 

[Hinotori]

Learn about native wild foods and how to prepare them. Some things have specific methods for a reason. Try eating them to see if you like them.

I encourage some of the wild edibles here.

 

[flowerbug]

thanks for bumping this thread!

for me it is the beans, peas and garden seeds that i would like to be able to replant from year to year.

as for sealing and stashing in the water, any canning lid i know of will rust unless it is completely kept dry. eventually the rust would break the seal or crack through the lid.

my own personal interest was what to do for canning if nobody is making lids any more. i thought that some sort of natural gum/resin and pieces of thick enough glass or smooth enough stone would allow for a seal.

eventually then it would be a process of figuring out how to make strong enough jars as even if we have so many eventually they break or get chipped or crack or get dropped or ...

all seeds if kept cool and dry will last longer than if they are stored in a hotter location.

unfortunately here we don't have a root cellar as i'd surely love to have more storage space for food. the crawl space that we have is not kept cool enough.

i do like the idea of turning an interior wall into more shelf space. i currently have book shelves in front of it, but for emergency and back up storage it would be better than nothing. i do have more storage space i'm currently not using because it wouldn't look that great, but eventually if i were stuck here and staying i could turn that into a more enclosed area that wouldn't look too bad.

 

[flowerbug]

i have no experience with reusable lids/gaskets at present other than the fact that i do reuse some lids and jar tops at times just because i'm willing to risk it for the contents i'm putting up (high acid stuff i don't worry as much).

since i have no experience i fired up youtube and looked and found out right away that there are a few things you do have to be wary of. if you are canning things with grease of any kind the lid, gasket and jar rim have to be very clean. the other tip was that the initial processing does not need as tight of a twist on the ring as what i would normally do but when done with the processing you can tighten it down when you first take it out.

since i only do high acid canning here i'm not nearly as worried about things being absolutely perfect, but i am pretty picky about how i do things anyways. over the years i've only lost a few quarts due to jars breaking or even failed seals. by far i've lost a lot more jars because Mom over filled things before putting them in the freezer. recently i've finally gotten her to leave more room and glad to say that has helped.

i do have things "go off" or not be exactly what i was expecting at times, but even then that isn't too often. this past year so far i've had a few jars of dill pickles that look like they fermented even after i put them up and the seal is still holding for them so the lid is pushed up. since they are high enough acid i did taste them and i would have eaten them, but i knew Mom wouldn't eat them so i fed them to the lilac tree out back. before that we'd lost a few quarts of tomatoes due to inclusions that weren't caught during processing. i think the total is still less than 10 quarts total for spoiling out of several thousand put up so i'm happy with our methods and results. we've probably lost 20-30 jars by dropping them, chipping them or having them break in the freezer. we have a lot of jars now so that's not too critical, but in a longer term trying to keep going after the apocalypse kind of way i don't like to lose a single one of them...

 

[Hinotori]

Over the years Ive only lost 2 jars of tuna after storage to seals failing. There is usually one or two that fail each year when I pull them from the canner. Those just get a new lid and reprocessed with the next batch.

I only use the Tattlers for jams and pickles. It's really rare for me to lose jam to a bad regular lid. I actually haven't tried the Tattlers in the steam canner.

 

[Hinotori]

The unfiltered beers used to be a major part of calories in working diets in some areas. Basically liquid bread.

 

[CrealCritter]

Brewer’s Bread Recipe

3	cups spent grain (wet, straight from the mash tun)
1.25	cups warm water
.25	cups sugar
4-5	cups all purpose flour
1	tspn. salt
1	egg beaten
.25	cups milk
1	packet dry active bakers yeast

Instructions:

• Mix yeast water and sugar in a bowl to activate yeast. Allow 30 min for yeast to activate.
• Add yeast starter, salt, egg, spent grain, and milk in a bowl and slowely add flour.
• Knead dough until it is smooth and no longer sticky.
• Place dough in a large greased bowl and cover it with a towel. Wait for dough to rise and double in size then punch down the dough.
• Split your dough into the desired amount of loaves and place on a cookie sheet over a thin layer of cornmeal.
• Allow loaves to rise again and then score the loaves with a knife.
• Bake at 375ºF for 35 minutes or until the bread is desired color and a knife comes out clean after being inserted into the center.

Reference --->

Bread From Beer Grains: How to Make Spent Grain Bread | American Homebrewers Association

Waste not want not! Here's how to make spent grain bread from your leftover beer ingredients.

www.homebrewersassociation.org

 

[Lazy Gardener]

@CrealCritter that bread looks, and sounds totally yummy. I wish that was a scratch and sniff photo.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I will buy a large box of instant milk powder, and vac seal it in "mix a quart" sized portions. Years ago, we bought an instant milk powder called "Sanalac". It was fantastic, and even tolerable without adding anything extra if drank when chilled. But, I mixed it 1:1 with regular milk. It cut the milk bill considerably. What does the average consumer run to the store for? Milk, bread, eggs. I got the eggs covered, and can make bread. Powdered milk will keep us covered, and I bet we could go at least 2 months w/o visiting a store.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

As for spent grains: When I was able to get them, what I didn't feed out to the flock immediately, I packed in gallon sized bags, and froze. If you have the freezer space, the spent grains could be packaged in what ever size would be a convenient use for you.