Survival Grains - 5 Gallon Buckets

[Mark Ducati]

I just bought ten 5 gallon food grade buckets and Gamma Lids and some Oxygen Absorbers...

First off, save your money... you can use those hand warmers for O2 absorbers that do the same thing for about half cost!

Secondly, I used my wife's iron and one of those orange plastic 3ft levels from Home Depot to iron the mylar storage bags shut. The level has two ridges about 2 inches apart that made for a great 1/4" double seal :)

The meat of this thread is to discuss what grains you prefer to store....

Me, I already packed two 5 gallon buckets of white rice, one 5 gallon bucket of powdered milk, one 5 gallon bucket of black beans, and one 5 gallon bucket of pinto beans.... easy food, just add water and heat.

The other five 5 gallon buckets... I'm going to do:

1 bucket of Oats
2 buckets of Bisquick
2 buckets of Cornmeal

My reasoning for these types of "flour" is to simply add water and a little oil... Oats are great for oatmeal, Bisquick can make bread/rolls/pancakes/biscuits/etc... and Cornmeal can be used to make cornbread/tortillas/flatbread.

I guess this is my reasoning and tastes for grain... some folks are storing white or wheat flour. But to make bread, that requires yeast, eggs, and sugar. Oats/Bisquick/Cornmeal typically do not require yeast (I think its already in there, and Bisquick already has shortening in it, Bisquick already has sugar added, and cornmeal also has natural sugar).

What would you prefer to store for grains/Carbohydrates? I really can't see why one would really want to store your basic white flour in bulk when the other options offer so much more and ease of preparation?

What do you think?

[Mark Ducati]

I'm also thinking of packing a couple buckets full of elbow macaroni. Spaghetti is good, but elbow mac holds cheese and sauce better in the hollow tubes and can be eaten more easily with a spoon without wasting sauce/cheese as much, again, as the tubes hold the flavor medium.

[btcave]

Sound advice. I never wanted to store flour. I like your train of thought. Dried beans and rice are what I was going to do, but the items your storing are now going to be part of the plan. Thanks!

[Warlord]

I've got some canned meat, beans, veggies, long grain rice and about 40 gallons of water. Not a lot but it's better than nothing. I like the idea of using the 5 gallon buckets and the food stuff seems like real practical choices.

Mark where did you get the food grade buckets? I'm gonna go that rout also.

Thanks :)

[BISHOP]

So is the Bisquick and corn meal just from the supermarket and you spent the afternoon cutting open boxes and pouring it in the bucket?

How long will the bisquick last after being transferred to the buckets (and they are in Mylar bags too right?


BISHOP

[tonda]

Bisquick will go rancid in food storage per studies done by the mormon church. Somewhere on there food storage site they list a recipe for mixing from ingredients they recomend you have in storage.

We store using half gal canning jars for beans and mac. Five gal buckets for flour, wheat, popcorn, rice, powder milk, powder potatoes, and sugar. Dry ice for oxidiser. We have a manual and electric stone grinder for the wheat and popcorn (much higher grade cornmeal than can be bought)

For water we have 10,000 gal fish pound and plenty of clorine and koolade, tea, orange juice whatever if needed.

On the buckets be sure to get the tool that prys up the lid without damaging it. Otherwise it's a bitch.

[Schuetzenman]

I'm also thinking of packing a couple buckets full of elbow macaroni. Spaghetti is good, but elbow mac holds cheese and sauce better in the hollow tubes and can be eaten more easily with a spoon without wasting sauce/cheese as much, again, as the tubes hold the flavor medium.

The Macaroni idea is really a good one. I've used pastas that were 15 years old sitting on my pantry shelf all that time open but simply having the box flap closed with a rubber band around the package. You boil it and it's good to go. Mac may have an uncooked half life of 1000 years! ;)

OTOH, I'm not sure about a lot of the grains as I'm not sure they won't go rancid even with O2 absorbers in them. I think a Nitrogen purge system would help but that's going to require a pressure release to vent the air and one for the nitrogen line leading in.

[Mark Ducati]

I got the food grade buckets and gamma lids on amazon.com... same for the mylar bags and O2 absorbers.

The gamma lids require no tools, simply snap the outter ring (rubber seal in the ring too) on the bucket lip and then the top simply screws into the circular opening and has another rubber seal.

As for the bisquick and corn flour... I'm not expecting a 10-20yr shelf life. But with O2 absorbers, I would expect at least 3 years?

[MOP]

Anoher good source for 5 gal. buckets-----> Your local bakery/pastry shops

good news: they are cheap/free, and "food grade".

bad news: they have a thin plastic handle/strap, or none at all.

ETA

All of the buckets, that I have seen, have a triangular symbol of 3 arrows ...

... and the grade of plastic used under the 'triangle'.

i.e. "HDPE" ~ mostly for pastry filling .... "PETE" ~ mostly for liquid product

[tonda]

Bakery are a good source for buckets. If they don't have to recycle ice cream makers are a good source, they get there syrup flavors in them.

[L1A1Rocker]

Bisquick will go rancid in food storage per studies done by the mormon church. Somewhere on there food storage site they list a recipe for mixing from ingredients they recomend you have in storage.


Anyone know where this site is? I'd like to put up the ingredients for making my own Bisquick. I also suspect that there is lots of other good infor there.

[Goodman]

Anyone know where this site is? I'd like to put up the ingredients for making my own Bisquick. I also suspect that there is lots of other good infor there.

I don't know about the Bisquick recipe but I was sent to this site by an LDS (as they refer to themseves) friend:
http://www.providentliving.org/channel/0,11677,1706-1,00.html

There is more general sufficiency info on the homepage.
The site linked is intended for church member usage but, as I understand, they are happy to help non-members also.

[L1A1Rocker]

I don't know about the Bisquick recipe but I was sent to this site by an LDS (as they refer to themseves) friend:
http://www.providentliving.org/channel/0,11677,1706-1,00.html

There is more general sufficiency info on the homepage.
The site linked is intended for church member usage but, as I understand, they are happy to help non-members also.

Thanks for the link. I did find a few recipes for Bisquick on the interwebs. They all call for some sort of lard. I guess that's why it doesn't story very well. Anything with oil in it is problematic for long term storage. I wonder though, how well does unopened lard keep long term?

Thanks again