What is the best long term storage food? Storing protein in case of emergency is an important part of your preparedness plan. We’ll cover meat storage, how to store meat in the freezer, and best beans for long-term storage. Plus, we’ll touch on storing oils and fats.
Many of the preparedness food storage solutions for meat are a far cry from a hamburger or a whole chicken simmering gently on the stovetop. They’re more likely to have no meat involved or be packed with additives and preservatives.
MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and Powdered TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) made from soy just aren’t going to cut it on the real food diet.
Storing Protein Long-term
What’s a real foodie to consume for protein if:
(a) you couldn’t leave the house for a while or ran out of money
(b) the grocery stores didn’t get restocked
(c) the power was out (we’d still have our gas stove)
OR
(d) you were totally cut off from everything and had no power, water, or heat for cooking
Think about what you naturally have in the house that would be edible. In order to have a healthy long-term storage plan for protein, try to stock up on foods you’re eating anyway.
Here are the best ways to store meats, proteins, and fats.
How to Store Shelf Stable Meat for Emergencies
You can rely on many types of food preservation and storage, including canned goods, home canning, dehydrating, and freezing.
The essential canned meats to have on hand are canned tuna, salmon, and chicken.
Yes, BPA linings in cans are a concern, so don’t eat canned meat often.
However, in case of an emergency, you can eat it right out of the can with no heat or electricity required.
Starvation would be the only circumstance in which my husband would eat canned salmon. Even then, he might rather die. 
The protein boost and omega-3s in fish would help keep our family healthy if the rest of our diet is fairly compromised.
How to Store Meat in the Freezer
Keep plenty of chicken and beef in the freezer. Metal shelf organizers can fit nicely so you don’t have an avalanche when your freezer is full.
How to use freezer meat when the power goes out
Obviously freezing all your meat would be a problem in the event of loss of electricity for more than a few days.
When the power does go out, keep your freezer closed as much as possible. If you need to get something grab it fast instead of digging around to see what you have. Food will stay safe for about 2 days if your freezer is full.
If you have a freezer full of meat and no generator to keep it running you don’t have many options to keep most of it from spoiling:
- Eat as much as you can
- Thaw, cook, and eat. Yum!
- Dehydrate
- As long as you have a gas/propane oven and cooking fuel, you can make beef jerky in the oven at 200F (recipe can be found HERE), and then that can last many days at room temperature (months if done properly and all the moisture is out).
- Make stock
- Keep a pot of bones boiling as long as you can and continue to use the stock to make soups. If you have a pressure canner, you can immediately can some stock, too.
How to Preserve Meat for Long-term Storage
Dehydrated meats (jerky)
You can easily dehydrate meat with an Excalibur. Mine only goes up to 155F, which in reality is about 145 on the food. I’ve had troubles with the jerky molding, though, so I’d have to be ultra-sure I got all the moisture out and would probably cook the meat in the oven for a bit first before dehydrating for long-term storage.
Here is my recipe for dehydrating jerky in Healthy Snacks To Go.
Jerky can also be purchased for storage. (We use it for a quick protein when we don’t have enough leftovers for school lunches!)
Paleovalley Meat Sticks
It can be hard to find healthy snacks that you can take with you on the go. When I want the convenience of a jerky stick, but want a healthy, protein packed snack option, I grab Paleovalley meat sticks. Paleovalley ingredients have these high standards that you can feel good about:
- 100% Grass Fed Beef & 100% Pasture Raised Turkey
- Never given antibiotics or hormones
- Gluten free, soy free, dairy free
- 0 grams of sugar*
- Contains no artificial nitrates or nitrites
- Non-GMO
- Naturally fermented and contain gut-friendly probiotics!
*With the exception of Teriyaki, which contains 2 grams of sugar from Organic Honey.
These beef sticks and turkey sticks taste delicious! My favorite is the Jalapeño but my kids love Summer Sausage.
Use this link to get 15% off your order at Paleovalley. Read my Paleovalley Review to learn more!
Pressure Canner and Home-can Meats
Check out this course on how to get the most out of your pressure cooker.
Freeze-dried Meats
Typically all you have to do is add water. However, it’s not very budget-friendly.
Corned Meats
I mean, it worked for generations before refrigeration came along. Here’s how to salt cure.
Where to Find High Quality Meat
Having trouble finding good quality meat locally? Would you like to fill your freezer with local and pastured options?
If you’re in Canada, check out TruLocal.ca.Â
If you’re in the US Midwest, Chicago to Milwaukee to Detroit to New York, and select cities across the country, check out TruLocalUsa.
If you’re west of the Mississippi, check out Wild Pastures.Â
If you live in any of the 48 contiguous states, I recommend US Wellness Meats and Butcher Box!Â
I’m grateful that there’s an online source of incredibly high quality meat that I can always count on. A subscription from Butcher Box includes grass fed, organic, pastured, and free range = all the labels important to your family’s health! And I’ve got a special deal for you!
They almost always have great deals for new customers. Claim your free gifts, and see what bonus they have going on right now. Don’t miss out!
(free shipping too!)
Best Beans for Long-term Storage
Beyond storing meats, we can get protein from beans, nuts, quinoa, and dairy, as well as small amounts in whole grains.
Storing dry beans
We eat a lot of beans around here, so buying in bulk and when they’re on sale is a good frugal strategy anyway.
It makes me doubly happy to know that if we were stuck at home, I could feed my family for a long time on the bags of beans in our basement.
Just be careful not to keep dry beans for more than 6 months to a year, so only stock up on what you might use in that time.
It’s also important, of course, to KNOW how to use beans! If you’re in an emergency situation, that’s no time to be learning a new skill. Your family also needs to be used to beans, both for their emotional comfort in a time of stress and the physical challenge for some of digesting beans. Need help? Check out The Everything Beans Book for cooking info and tons of recipes to use.
The Everything Beans Book has twenty pages of beany information, including all you could possibly want to know about legume nutrition, how to cook dry beans, and lots of time-saving tips for managing this frugal source of protein and fiber more often in your kitchen.
It also offers 30 bean recipes, for the bean lovers of the world and the bean haters.
Keeping seeds to sprout
You can have your own “living food” if you keep sprouting seeds on hand.
You can even sprout lentils and eat them raw.
RELATED: Read about How to sprout and The health benefits of sprouting.
Canned beans
Again, we meet up with BPA and other unhealthy substitutes in the lining of cans. You can can your own beans in glass to avoid that entirely.
It’s important to have some canned beans on hand, however, because if you don’t have enough water to rinse, soak, AND cook dry beans – that’s a LOT of water – you can just eat the already cooked beans out of the can.
Storing nuts
Full of healthy fats, protein, iron, and energy, nuts are the perfect preparedness food.
They can be eaten without any preparation, don’t need a ton of fancy storage techniques if in their original, unopened packaging, and are easy to grab and go if you need to evacuate. A small handful can really ease a hungry tummy.
Long-term storage of nuts is probably best in the freezer, especially walnuts (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) on account of their unstable omega-3s.
Once nuts are opened and soaked/dehydrated to become “crispy nuts” it is recommended that they be frozen. However, if you lose electricity or have to run, they can also be out of the freezer for quite some time before becoming problematic (days for walnuts, in my opinion, and up to a month or more for almonds).
I generally have a lot of nuts on hand because they’re my family’s favorite “grab it” snack ever since we got rid of most processed foods.
Quinoa
Quinoa is a high protein grain that is gluten-free. Some say it’s just a seed, not even a grain! Even if you can’t cook quinoa, you can sprout it and eat raw in case of an emergency.
Eggs
You can make eggs plenty of ways if electricity is out, but you have a fire.
If you have a working oven, use up whatever eggs you have in the house by making soaked baked oatmeal, grain-free pancakes, or other baked good-type dishes that could be stored at room temperature for a while.
Read more on how to preserve eggs.
Storing Oils and Fats
Olive oil
Only store 1 extra gallon of olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is more susceptible to going rancid, and 6 months is the recommended shelf life.
Coconut oil
As a saturated fat, coconut oil, on the other hand, has a shelf life of at least two years. You can use it in baking for any solid OR liquid fat, to saute, to fry, or even in your oatmeal. If you need a healthy fat for your real food stockpile, grab a few extra jugs of coconut oil. It’ll hold you through!
There are plenty of fats you should avoid completely. If you’re unsure where to draw the line between healthy and unhealthy fats, please see the Fat Full Fall series or the printable How to Use Fats chart.
Butter and ghee
Butter is another saturated fat that it’s great to stock up on, but it does need to be refrigerated or frozen for long-term storage.
Clarified butter, also called ghee, is a great option as well.
It’s available on Thrive Market if you prefer organic and here (but not organic).
(How to Make Your Own Ghee – although I admit mine didn’t last very well, so I wouldn’t count on it for long-term storage!)
Lard and tallow
Lard and tallow are also saturated, therefore more stable, but it’s still recommended that they be stored in the refrigerator or freezer, so they’re not a great option for disaster preparedness.
If you lose electricity for a long time, tallow could come out of the freezer while you use the foods that are going to be lost unless immediately thawed. Then, make french fries for about a week to use it all up. 🙂
Peanut Butter Long-term Storage
Peanut butter may be the best suited for real long-term storage.
Next time good peanut butter goes on a great sale, buy as much as you think your family could eat before the expiration date. Alternately, buy twice as much and make a note in your calendar of halfway to the expiry date. At that point, donate what you’ll never get through and watch for the sale again!
Be sure to look for “natural” peanut butter, and learn to read labels to avoid trans fat. You don’t want any “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” anything. The best peanut butter, in my opinion, looks like this:
Ingredients: Peanuts
It’s also possible to just buy peanuts and make one’s own peanut butter, but other than the chance of avoiding phytic acid, I can’t justify the time it would take for the pennies – maybe – that it might save.
Look for glass containers so that the fat in peanuts don’t leach in endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Some raise concerns about reports of carcinogenic mold in peanuts. Organic might help…might not. Perhaps sunbutter or almond butter would be better options. Almond butter only needs refrigeration after opening, and if you’re starving, I can’t imagine it would sit around long anyway.
For BPA free food storage options, check out this site: http://www.liveesp.com/storage/food-storage-view-all/
We can a lot of our own meat: beef, chicken, bacon, other pork. Also some stores carry salted hams around Christmas time. Those stay good for a while out at regular temps. We store dry beans but every year I can about 120 pints of beans, different varieties. Canning dry beans is super easy and will save you tons of money vs. buying canned beans.
How does ghee compare to butter, nutritionally? It’s a better keeper.
Rachel,
Should be more healthy, if anything – ghee is simply butter with the excess water and milk solids boiled off so that it has a more stable cooking temp and keeps longer. Basically butter minus the dairy. 🙂 Katie
What about live animals as provision, too much water? Rabbits seem space efficient and easy, maybe fish if you have a pond. Didn’t the dad raise fish in a tank in that silly movie “Blast from the past.”
You mentioned pressure cooked meats. My husband hunts and does his own butchering. I take the little pieces of less than tender meat and pack it into canning jars with a little salt, pepper and garlic and pressure cook it for about 90mins. It is delicious! Another great thing about making your own canned meat is if you have something in the freezer that is about to go bad then you can pressure cook it and it will be good at least another 6 months!
Pressure cooking Moose or Deer really seems to turn the stew meat into tender loin tips!
Give it a try!
The solution to the toxic mold in peanut butter is to buy only Valencia PB. Valencia peanuts are grown in an environment too dry for the mold to survive. Several brands (I get Arrowhead Mills or OANB) have organic Valencia PB.
Katie,
I have read about it on U.S. Wellness Meats website.
Here is what they say:
Beef Pemmican – Regular Bar
Looking for rocket fuel for performance athletics? This is your power bar! It is a combination of grass-fed beef jerky, grass-fed tallow, a touch of honey, dried cherries and sea salt. A tried and true historic Native American recipe. Bars weigh approximately 3.2 ounces each and on average contain 20 grams of protein, 380 calories each and 4 carbohydrates.
Ingredients: beef jerky, beef tallow, water, cherries, honey, sea salt
That’s all I know:)
Krissy
Thanks! That does sound a lot like the Tanka bars.
🙂 Katie
What about pemmican or Tanka Bites? Katie, perhaps some day you should try to do a series on how to make these? I have not even tried pemmican yet, but we really like Tanka Bites. Great series!!!
Krissy, I reviewed Tanka Bites in the fall…but what’s pemmican? Thanks! 🙂 Katie
Pemmican is awesome, it’s a delicious way to dry meat, though I’ve never made it myself. I did notice “Nourishing Traditions” has a recipe for it.
Ok, that’s even worse! Eating the spine! SHUDDER! digging the spine out of a can of something I would have to swallow without hitting my tongue SOLELY to survive, just might put me over the edge..but leaving it in for the sake of calcium is quite possibly more than my psyche could handle! .shannon’s husband & I can comisserate on this one!! :>D
The first time I opened a can of salmon I freaked out and threw it in the trash. Then I gave myself a stern talking to and said that sort of silliness wasn’t allowed. Now I just blindly dump the whole can in the food processor with some cream cheese, hit go, and voila, ignorance is bliss.
@cirelo,
I, too, have considered your question when I read blog posts on preparedness. And while I am a Protestant, not a Catholic, I think the important point is discerning where “worry” and “planning” intersect and when worry takes over. Which is individual in some cases. Scripture gives examples of the virtue in planning ahead (from the Proverbs or how God used Joseph to stockpile mass amounts of grain for the coming famine)…and there is wisdom in planning with the knowledge you have (if I live in a common hurricane area, itd be wise to have supplies on hand).
But when you start to try to prepare for “the unexpected” there essentially is no end to ALL the things you *could* prepare for…and that’s when the Matthew passage must be applied and we bend our knee in confidence that He who clothes the lilies of the field and feeds the sparrows WILL care for us if/when disastrous times come.
Just some thoughts. Balance is important, no? : )
SMILES from an older women:}, I think our Father in heaven is smiling as He hears you young Moms consider how to prepare to care for people and yet not worry but rely on God to provide all your needs….. might want to provide them via a well stocked pantry that you’ve trusted Him to help you build up but not lost sleep to accomplish. Stay in the Bible and in prayer He is guiding us:}
Katie,
I was curious your thoughts on how emergency preparedness lines up with New Testament comments like: “Don’t worry about tomorrow.” I’m really not being facetious, this is something I’m discerning and wondered whether you’d considered. Where does prudence end and “worrying” or not trusting God begin? What is a good and proper balance. Is it right to stockpile more than we need?
I don’t know the answer but I think that there is enough warning in the NT about the subject to pause and reflect. I actually have the same questions about retirement plans. 🙂
Mt 6:31 31″Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’
For a specific reference.
I’m not a religious expert of any sort, but I would file it under “The Lord helps those who help themselves”. More than once, we’ve had a full pantry and a full freezer go very far toward tiding over a period where money was tight, due to unemployment or whatever. When you’re so broke that you have to decide between buying toothpaste and toilet paper, well you probably have baking soda in your pantry somewhere–and you’re not missing any meals. And, remember, the brokest time in that scenario is often once you’ve gotten a new job, but haven’t yet gotten a paycheck, because you have to buy gas and whatnot to earn said paycheck–but you don’t have much of anything to buy it with.
Well, the problem I have with “the Lord helps those who helps themselves” take is that that verse is not in the Bible and is a very Protestant saying not a Catholic reading on things. I do appreciate your thoughts but I’m curious what would be a Catholic interpretation on the subject.
Cirelo, I really appreciate your civil attitude in questioning how to balance preparedness with trusting in God’s provision. The easy answer is that it is a matter of conscience. I cannot give you a Catholic interpretation on it, but you might want to consider the OT laws regarding the sabbath year, where God’s people were actually commanded to prepare for a year of rest every seventh year by storing up food. A previous commenter mentioned the prohibition from storing manna, but perhaps that is a very incomplete picture when taken in the context of all of scripture.
(A couple of thoughts: The Israelites were a nomadic people without ability to do any long term storage while they were in the wilderness. Also consider that they were allowed to save a portion of manna for the Sabbath day.)
Proverbs has multiple verses that praise ants for “storing it’s provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” Part of it seems to be referencing not being lazy and working hard, but it is also referring to having food for later. Also, the story of Joseph in Egypt was one where God specifically told them to save back grain during the years of bounty to save for the years of famine. God doesn’t always seem to tell people when the hard times are coming, but he does call on us to be prepared to help others when people go through difficult times.
I think Rachael (and Jennifer too) that you make an excellent point with your OT examples, but I think the question does need to be taken further.
First, I do agree that a lot does come down to individual conscience and also that things will be done according to needs and abilities.
Second, the story about Joseph I was thinking about too, but I see it in terms of government support. I do think the gov. has a responsibility to provide help in times of trial, I see that story as a good example.
So where I am still stuck is how do we read these Old Testament calls to prudence in the light of the New Testament, which warn against stockpiling goods. Take this verse from James 5: “Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. ”
Do verses like this make you nervous, as an American especially? We have so much, shouldn’t we be sweating a little bit more? Are we the rich James is referring to?
I am turning this subject around from varying angles I certainly have no qualms with preserving the harvest. I myself buy in bulk (for economical reasons) so I do have food on hand that would last some time. I think that, a)I’m uncomfortable with the idea of preparedness becoming an idol of sorts, a preoccupation rather. And b) I’m uncomfortable with preparedness being self-serving rather than being something that could help serve others, or something that even detracts from others in some way.
And my daughter just threw up on me. This could be an interesting night.
Cirelo,
My daughter did the same thing yesterday (although thankfully I wasn’t at the computer)!
I do feel similarly to you on the “preparedness could become an idol” issue, and I hope to encourage (and practice) more simple prepping, just a few steps I’ll take beyond regular old stocking up. I think there’s a balance to be found between not doing anything to be ready and doing too much.
Here’s a response on the faith question that I wrote Monday: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2011/05/13/lets-get-ready/#comment-93612
I’ll jump in on this conversation – an important one! – more later. Now it’s time for breakfast…
🙂 Katie
“The Lord helps those who help themselves” is no more a Protestant saying than a Catholic one. 😉 I think the reference actually comes from a Hercules myth, if I remember correctly.
Your question is a good one though, and one that I have wrestled with myself. I thought this post on Homestead Revival did a great job exploring that topic : http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2010/03/spiritual-aspect-of-prepping-biblically.html.
Personally it helped me clarify where the balance is between being wise and overly worried.
Not a protestant saying but in the vein of “protestant work ethic.” I see Catholic social teaching as being a bit more understanding of the un-self reliant.
an excellent question. If i had to describe the real food movement in one word, it would be worry. if i got a few more words, it would be lack of faith. treating everything from food to the dirt tracked in on shoes as suspect.
And it shouldn’t be! It should be about good eats. 🙂
cirelo,
I’m finally getting the thread of this great conversation in order (it often goes backward in my dashboard!). The balance is so important, but I don’t know what the “official” Catholic view on prepping is. Might not be one. Might be one!
However, I have to toss out my personal opinion on retirement funds – my first thought when you said that was that it’s not fair to those around you, whether your kids/family or the entire country/gov’t, b/c they would have to support you when you are older… I try not to be “scared” about retirement time…even though I am! …but I do think it’s important to save up something for that point. ??? Ah, if only I had all the answers. 😉
More on the food thing as I read down…
Katie
My kids could LIVE on tuna, dried fruit, almond butter (or almond anything), jerky, and eggs. The first four being completely shelf-stable. I have a lot of dried beans around, a freezer full of meat, usually plenty of eggs and milk (and butter), beef tallow. Soon I’m buying a whole pig, so I’ll have all that meat plus lard. I like to keep brown rice and/or wild rice around, spices, stock, sucanat, soaked/dried oats, sprouted wheat, etc. I think we could live weeks off what we have, if we needed to. If I had a pressure canner I’d can ready-made (homemade, obviously) soups, and LOTS of them. To me, that would be the ultimate in nutrition and variety. I don’t have a pressure canner though. For now we’ll stick to tuna and almond butter (plus my beans and such).
I could swear I commented the other night. Sigh. I hate when that happens. I have home-canned tuna, chicken, spiced/flavored chicken (so it’s not so blah), ground turkey, ground beef, butter, and I have some bacon I need to can up this week. Also want to try canning cheese as well – having the option of shelf-stable goodies is nice. 🙂
For BPA free jar lids try this site, http://mightynest.com/blog/canning-with-weck-glass-jars
For BPA-free lids that fit standard (cheap, sometimes free) jars, try http://www.reusablecanninglids.com/
I haven’t tried these yet, but I have seen good reviews from people I respect, and I will be buying them, rather than more disposable lids, as I use up my stash of disposables. (When canning, the food shouldn’t be touching the lid, anyway, so I haven’t worried about the BPA in lids issue that much, but lids that I don’t have to keep replacing are an idea that makes me happy–I don’t even want to think about how many little metal lids I’ve bought in 20 years!)
I think the Weck jars are beautiful, but, when regular jars are so much cheaper, and often free, the Weck jars are just awfully spendy.
The pressure canner is a useful thing to have around. I bought mine for $12 at an auction, 20 years ago, and learned how to use it by following the directions. When I have sufficient garden produce to make it useful, it gets used for that. More often, it gets used to keep us in preparedness/convenience foods. Beef or chicken bits in stock (this can be a base for lots of other meals). Taco meat made to our recipe. Spaghetti sauce. Ham and beans. Soups. Etc. We have one of those big electric “roaster” pots, and will make up a giant batch of something in it, and then can it up for when a quick meal comes in handy. I need to do a bunch of such canning in the next few months, before the new baby comes!
YAY!!!
You have just made my day, week, month!!!
Thank You 🙂
You can store water in jugs or pop bottles on the top shelf of your freezer. It turns it into a giant cooler. My friend lost electricity due to a hurricane and her food stayed frozen for 4 days until the electricity came back on.
One day, I’m going to learn to make biltong.
Thanks for reminding me about BPA in cans – almost bought canned fish a couple wks ago, but decided not to. Now I’m REALLY glad.
FYI in my and DH’s experience, sprouted raw quinoa just goes right on through.
Emily,
Someone else pointed out, and I think she is right, that the only cans with BPA are the white-lined cans, and often canned fish doesn’t have the lining. So we might be safe! I love canned salmon, which is the least expensive and definitely the easiest way to find “wild Alaskan salmon.” Thanks! 🙂 Katie
FYI – Info on dehydrating from Alton Brown, granted he doesn’t go into meats, but I thought the information was interesting…
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season11/dried_fruit/witheringbites.htm
Also, here’s some info on organic methods of purifying/preserving water: (granted they are advertising too, but I thought the info was important to keep searching…)
http://www.organicsurvivalistsite.com/water-purification-and-storage/5-methods-of-purifying-water
Maybe better suited on one of your older posts! But this one was great today too! 🙂
I saw the Alton Brown clip too and found it very entertaining. 🙂 And helpful, since I don’t own a dehydrator!
A few things… Both butter and beans can also be bottled in jars easily. Also another option is dehydrating whole meals in your dehydrator. They can then be sealed and stored in your freezer for an emergency; they would just need to be rehydrated. With any dehydrated/freeze dried foods it is super important to have enough water available to rehydrate otherwise the food is worthless.
I had never heard of this before, but my husband mentioned how he misses his grandmother’s canned beef.
So, I looked it up just now and found several recipes for home canning beef and http://www.homestead-acres.com/ has a blog that includes recipes for home canning your own soups.
Could be another thing to rotate into the stockpile.
I absolutely love that you’re doing this post. My husband and I are of the same mind-set and try to be as prepared as possible, but I”ve really struggled with how be prepared regarding food. If you store what you eat and eat what you store, I don’t eat the typical preparedness food! I appreciate all the insights and tips you have here.
FarmSchooler- I never heard of preserving your own eggs and am thrilled to follow your link. Thanks!
We have added chia seeds and sprouts to our diet and they store pretty good. I plan to do more pressure cooker canning from your beans book recipes Katie. Sites such as these from the extention offices suggests beans be canned “hot packed” so just o be sure thats how I do it.
Great info here http://extension.oregonstate.edu/community/food-preservation
“Starvation would be the only circumstance in which my husband would eat canned salmon. Even then, he might rather die. ”
ha ha, same here with me and my husband. I was mortified the first time I opened a can and had to dig out the spine! Eww.
You don’t have to dig out the spine, you know… extra calcium! 😉
I have never heard this about 6 -12 months on bean storage. Why not longer?
Jennifer,
Just something that I think is even on the bean packages – that said, I think it’s just a gradual loss of quality, and I’m certain I’ve used beans older than 12 months. It’s a matter of “best” practice vs. “possible” practice. 🙂 Katie
I pulled up this resource for length or product storage: http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,2251-1-1142-1,00.html. It shows bean storage at 6-8 years which I’ve noticed personally to be very accurate. This of course is under ideal conditions…not in a hot garage, for example.
Older beans, just like older seeds, dont sprout as easily. Older beans take longer to cook. A neighbor once told me that the beans shed stored for 5 years w/ O2 absorbers would NOT cook.
My personal take on the matter is sort of like the story of the manna in Scripture…we are given what we need until the next harvest. To try to keep more isnt always the best thing to do. According to Gen 3:17 (for our sake) work (planting & harvesting) is just as much of our health as is eating…..thats my opinion anyway :o)
Quinoa can be eaten raw – just soak it overnight and it will sprout little tails and is ready to eat.
Ive been told that peanuts are the absolute poorest choice in nuts. Apparently they are very high in mold issues. Ive read MANY cancers are actually mold related. Then you have the fact that MOST peanut butters are full of highly refined sugar (that feeds cancer) and while peanut butter may keep you from starving in the event of a “situation” but are still not the best nutritional choice.
I would add these resources to your list:
Do not depend on your freezer to hold your meats. Freezers fail. Consider corned meats. It worked for generations before refrigeration came along. http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-making/curing/methods
Eggs: Raise or buy the best quality eggs you can and preserve them yourself http://www.oldandsold.com/articles11/miscellaneous-recipes-13.shtml
Bean & Seed Sprouts (store whole beans & seeds and sprout them…you NEED the living foods for the enzymes they contain…to be able to digest other foods even): http://www.healthyeatingadvisor.com/sprouts.html
Hemp seeds & Chia seeds are excellent sources of nutrition and easily stored for extended periods.
Hope that helps :o)
I know that almond butter is supposed to be refrigerated; are there any other nut butters that are not as high with mold as peanut butter but do not have to be refrigerated like almond butter?
Maybe sunbutter? I’m pretty confident almond butter would be fine a few days out of the fridge as you consume it in an emergency, but don’t quote me on that. 🙂 Katie
Sunbutter seems to go rancid much faster than almond at room temp…
I always buy sunbutter, and it has always stayed fresh. I buy it from Swanson Vitamins, they have a private label organic sunbutter. Only ingredient is organic -sunflower seeds, it’s the best price I’ve found.
I make my own almond butter, adding a bit of raw honey and coconut oil, and I never refrigerate it! It has always kept for at least two weeks (which is about how long it’s around, before we eat it all). It would probably last longer.
I keep/store all my nuts as whole as possible. We gather pecans annually in season. I just planted almond trees a couple of years ago. I buy bulk raw almonds, walnuts & peanuts thru our buying club and just keep them in a cool pantry in glass canisters until I want to grind them. My family prefer a handful of raisins and whole nuts to the typical PBJ, so I dont grind too many of the really. I like the idea of adding raw honey & coconut oil to the nuts before blending them. I would think that would cover a multitude of sins :o)
I have a pressure canner and can meat esp tuna (as we live near the oregon coast). I also can soups, veggies, etc. Good for quick meals and emergency preparedness and no BPA as it is in glass jars. Just a thought.
do you real foodies ever delve into salting meats? watched a lot of salt pork being made as a kid & ate it as well.
Tonya,
They lived on salt pork in some of the Little House books. Seems like a good method of preservation to me – got any resource links? Thanks! 🙂 Katie
only what i recall from my childhood.
We had a large white crock that would be filled with water & salt to make a brine. The brine was “right” when a raw egg floated in it. The pork was added to the crock & a large plate or two overturned on the top. Then the top of the crock was covered with towels. The crock itself was stored in our “michigan” (unfinished) basement.
The cuts used were bellies & maybe chuck roasts, but my memory is fuzzy on the latter. i do recall that when you fried up the belly (like bacon, but not smoked) the skin would fry up very crunchy & i liked to chew on it. 😀