Food Storage 101: Spreadsheets + Sources + Everything You Need to Make Food Storage Easy and Doable {Long Term and Short Term}
Food Storage 101! Spreadsheets, sources and tons of other tips to make planning and building up long term and short term food storage easy, affordable, and doable.
The words “food storage” can feel overwhelming, totally foreign, straight up boring, no-idea-where-to-start…or if you’re like me…totally fun. Haha. Yes, I’m a food storage nerd!
And today, I’m excited to (finally!) share with you all of the tips and resources and spreadsheets (!!) I’ve utilized over the last almost 20 years to create a food storage plan for my family that actually works. Plus, it’s easy, affordable, and totally doable.
Why food storage?
After this post a few months ago and hundreds and hundreds of comments and emails and questions later, it’s clear that a lot of us have food storage (and other preparedness principles on our minds, especially considering the circumstances we’ve all lived through the last few months).
Beth left this comment on that post: Not being of the Mormon faith, I always just assumed that the storage of extra food was a religious thing but a quick google search thing tells me it is just based on prudent living. I would be interested in the details of how you manage to keep stuff current, etc. Those of us with small basement pantries often find them out of date and useless. Any further info would be appreciated! Stay safe…..and healthy.
Beth is right! Building up a doable food storage in your home is exactly that: prudent living. It may be a pandemic, job loss, natural disaster, desire to simplify a grocery budget…or a variety of other reasons that would benefit from an intentionally built food supply.
5 foundational principles for building your food storage
- There is not a one size fits all approach to food storage.
- Don’t store (or even think about storing) food that you or your family doesn’t like or doesn’t eat. Just don’t do it, even if 1,000 sources online tell you that you should. It’s a waste of time and money. (Lima beans, I’m looking at you.)
- Don’t go to extremes or go into debt to build a food supply or a Pinterest-worthy food storage (is there such a thing)?
- If you are starting from scratch, start with a one day supply (yes, one day!) and build up from there gradually. When you know how much you need for one day, build up to planning and buying a one week supply and so on.
- Abandon the idea of a stockpile of food hidden in the basement that can last 30 years untouched and move toward a LIVING food storage. Sounds weird, but it works, and I’ll show you how a) this changed my life and b) how I implement it.
Let me reiterate
I can’t say this enough: what works for me MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU. The ideas and resources and spreadsheets I’m sharing in this post are tailored to my family and what works for us.
Take the ideas, or just bits and pieces of them, tweak them for YOU, and above all, please don’t get overwhelmed.
I’m sharing a lot of information. It might be easy to get stressed or even irritated – that’s the opposite of my purpose today! I really do just want to help.
What is a living food storage?
I grew up with parents who had a lot of food storage. In boxes. Cans. Buckets. It was all tucked away in the dark recesses of cellars and closets. And I literally never saw any of those boxes, cans or buckets get opened.
I legit think my mom threw it all away a couple years ago because it was long expired and never used (after it had been dutifully gathered and stored and moved from house to house – over 20 times and over 40 years!).
When I was first married 18 years ago, I figured I’d channel my parents and eventually start gathering wheat in buckets and powdered milk in cans and stuff it under the bed. Until I realized a) I didn’t have a wheat grinder, b) ew, powdered milk, and c) my husband was like, “heck no, we can’t afford any of that.”
So I did nothing. And quite honestly, I was fine with it. Until five or so years later (2007-ish) when I started getting these internal nudges that I needed to start thinking more about food storage. We were moving a lot. I was having a lot of babies. I had stopped working outside of the home. And I liked the idea of having food we could use in an emergency or if something happened.
After a lot of research and talking to people and starting to buy and build up our food storage, I realized I wanted a living food storage. Not necessarily a short term food supply and not a long term food supply.
Just an intentionally planned and built food storage that I could use every day and replenish as needed.
Diane left this comment on an earlier post: Food storage doesn’t have to be a huge initial investment like some people think! I’m constantly restocking my pantry. It’s never an all-at-once thing. I watch for sales and that’s when I stock up. Or buy 2-3 items instead of just one (for example, if I’m getting low on soy sauce, I buy a couple extras to store in the pantry). If you have the mentality that you’re saving some for later, you can stock up a little at a time and it doesn’t add a lot of expense. Like you, I’ve learned to store what we eat and eat what we store. I have powdered eggs and milk and there have been multiple times where I started making something assuming I had eggs (or milk) because I always have those things, but realized I was down to my last egg or ran out of milk. The powdered varieties might not be good by themselves, but they work great for cooking!
I couldn’t agree more!
How to start planning a food storage
Plan out your meals for one day (or even better, for one month) and take a good look at what your family eats.
Grains. Dairy. Sweets. Snacks. Fruits and veggies. All of it.
Make a list of the foods and quantities and then…multiply by three months. You can see where I’m going with this. Gradually start building up that 1-month or 3-month supply by picking up 1-2 extra things each time you go to the store. You don’t have to buy it all at once!
Most importantly, do not shove those foods to the back of your pantry or cupboards! Rotate through them so the foods stay fresh, and replenish as needed.
And do not, whatever you do, forget to include the chocolate chips. (Yes, that is an open package of Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips on top, because, hello, coping skills, and also, they are the best things in the history of ever.)
As you start small and then build as budget allows, you’ll be able to see what size packages you need to buy (based on how fast you eat through a box or can of something). Eventually as you build out more months of food storage, you may decide to enhance your pantry storage with a few larger buckets of staple ingredients (I’ll show you how I use those as part of my living food storage below).
Food Storage Tracking Sheet
This might seem overkill to some people, but I keep a food storage tracking sheet close to my pantry (I used to hang it on a clipboard with a pen inside the pantry until it got knocked down too many times by anxious hands sneakily grabbing Oreos without me noticing).
It’s not complicated. It’s a blank table. When I open up a new package or ingredient (anything from a bag of quinoa to a new bottle of BBQ sauce), I quickly write it down on the tracking list. I put a check when it’s gone (my mind is already used to knowing when an empty package or bottle of something gets thrown away, I go straight to my sheet for that check mark). And then I add it to my next grocery list.
It keeps the system running, and it keeps us in a well-stocked supply for at least three months.
My food storage spreadsheet
Ok, now for the nitty gritty of how I put all this into action.
Disclaimer: I am not a casual food storage lady. I’m a true blue through and through die hard food storage fan. I love it. I believe in it. I use it. And I have a testimony (no really, I do) about how important it is.
You don’t have to be like me. Haha. In fact, don’t be like me! Take all this with a couple grains of salt and make it work for you.
That was my way of gently easing us all toward The Great and Nerdy Food Storage Spreadsheet.
You guys, I admit, this spreadsheet is a little intense, especially for someone who wants a slow and easy approach. It has formulas. It’s taken me years and more hours than I care to admit to put it together (and even more hours to fine tune it to post here).
If you are looking to play around with numbers and amounts and pounds, this spreadsheet is for you.
But guess what?? It’s also a good starting place for someone who wants to take things slow and easy and work into food storage gradually! You don’t have to dive headfirst like a kid free falling into a vat of chocolate pudding. Don’t let the spreadsheet turn you off from food storage as a whole. 🙂
The main page of this spreadsheet is meant to detail foods that can be stored for a long amount of time – kind of food storage “staples” so to speak. I’ll show you some examples below.
The second sheet on the spreadsheet is for pantry goods. It’s a much simpler spreadsheet that tallies how many of each item you have in your pantry and how much you still might need (after you set a goal amount and what you currently have). If the main page/long term aspect of the spreadsheet stresses you out, START WITH THIS pantry storage checklist.
It’s simple and straightforward.
BOTH SPREADSHEETS are meant to be used on a computer or tablet or device that you can plug in numbers and calculate totals (they haven’t been formatted to print well).
On the main food storage spreadsheet, you can edit the # of months and # of family members in the green rows. When you do, all of the amounts in the following categories will change based on the information you enter:
- Goal amount for each food category in pounds
- Amount you still need to buy/acquire (in two formats: pounds and also in # of cans/buckets/bags or however else you store it)
Additionally, you can (and should!) go into the spreadsheet and tailor the Units and % columns to fit your needs
- Units: is how many of each item you have already – when you edit the number in the units column, it will automatically change the amount in pounds right next to it
- % of Total Weight: Stick with me here!! There are main categories on the spreadsheet like Grains, Legumes, Dairy, etc. Changing the # of months and # of family members changes the total goal amount for each of those main categories. The goal amounts are largely based on this food storage calculator (and you can totally change them!). Within each of the main categories, different food items make up the total. So for instance, in the Grains category, I store: wheat berries, white flour, corn meal, rolled oats, steel cut oats, white rice, brown rice, etc. And based on how much of each of those we use, I assign a % in that last column. We grind a lot of wheat and make a lot of bread, so wheat makes up 48% or so of our grains category. If your family doesn’t have a wheat grinder (or is gluten free!) you’ll want to change that % to zero, or better yet, plug in a food that you DO eat and that you DO want to store.
Did that make sense? Are you still here? Tap, tap, is this thing on????
Play around with it. Change up the numbers. And the foods. And just make it your own. There’s no copyrights or infringements. I’m providing it to you as a resource in case you love spreadsheets as much as I do.
Don’t get overwhelmed at what the spreadsheet screams you need to buy or what you might be lacking! Have fun with it. My advice is to start with a big fat THREE in the # of months box and go from there.
Mel’s Food Storage Spreadsheet – EXCEL (includes both the longterm food storage and the pantry food storage) – UPDATED 5/16/20 to correct the “goal” formula
Mel’s Food Storage Spreadsheet – NUMBERS (includes both the longterm food storage and the pantry food storage) – UPDATED 5/16/20 to correct the “goal” formula
How this looks in my real life
As I mentioned at the onset of this post, my food storage is living and breathing and being used all.the.time.
Yes, I have a several buckets of natural rolled oats and granulated sugar and hard white wheat stacked up in one of our Hobbit Holes, but they will all eventually be rotated into the Currently Being Used status.
I try to keep about a 6-9 month supply of these staples, and because I rotate them through when one bucket is empty, they are used up long before they expire.
When I’ve used up a bucket or can, I write it down on my food storage tracking sheet so I can replenish (I usually order or buy these larger staple items once or twice a year – I don’t buy a new bucket or can immediately).
I know it isn’t feasible for everyone to store 5 gallon buckets of food. If not, you can do the same thing with #10 cans or smaller packages.
Because my pantry shelves sit at just the right level, I keep those 5 gallon buckets at the ready by putting on handy twist lids.
My wheat berries, sugar, and oats are all stored in these buckets (and my white flour is in that huge rectangular container – sadly, I don’t know where to get one like it anymore – I picked it up at Sam’s Club probably eight years ago). When I need oats for a recipe, I go straight to the bucket. And many times, if I see a bag of wheat berries on sale (or like lately, I’ve been really into Einkhorn wheat berries), I’ll fill up the existing bucket with bags of wheat (or sugar or whatever) before opening up a new bucket since the bags expire before the sealed buckets do.
Along with the staple ingredients, I try to keep a 3-month supply of canned goods that we eat frequently.
I don’t always religiously track these items on the Pantry Spreadsheet (included with the large and in charge spreadsheet linked above), but you can if you want. I usually just eyeball the emptying spot on the pantry shelf and know that I probably better pick up some diced tomatoes at Costco the next time I’m there.
Again what canned and dry goods you store on your pantry shelves will be absolutely dependent on how you cook, what you eat, and how many people are living in your house.
Space for Food Storage
Finding space for food storage can be tricky! I’m sure many of you don’t even have pantries to speak of – while others may have a pantry + a cold storage + 5 1/2 closets dedicated to food storage.
This is exactly why the amount of food storage you build up and store is 100% completely dependent on your personal circumstances. Do what you can!
If food storage is a priority to you, get creative with where to store food even if it is outside of the kitchen! Over the years (before I hired someone last year to knock out the wall between our kitchen and garage and expand my minuscule pantry), we stored canned goods and other food storage items everywhere from under beds to bedroom closet shelves to under stairs (affectionately called our Hobbit Holes) to in the garage (yes, even though it isn’t always recommended because of the heat).
We have one rolling food storage shelf that sits smack dab in the corner of one of our bedrooms. It’s not classy, but it works.
Food storage Resources
First and foremost, if you’re storing practical, every day foods, your every day grocery store might be the best place to start. Especially if you’re building up a one to three month supply. Look at expiration dates and be thoughtful about how quickly you’ll eat through different foods (and how quickly they’ll expire).
*UPDATED with links included in the comments!*
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Online Store: a great, inexpensive option for the basics stored in #10 cans. Can be purchased online.
- Rainy Day Foods: this is probably my favorite place to stock up. They sell almost all their foods in bags, buckets, super pails, cans, you name it. They also have a great variety of gluten free, non-GMO and natural foods. If you put in group orders, you can get a huge discount on shipping. It kind of changed my life when I realized I could get a few sealed cans of brown sugar (I always run out of this and have opened more cans to save a recipe than I care to admit).
- Emergency Essentials: I’ve ordered a lot of food from here over the years. They have a really good variety of freeze-dried fruits and vegetables, but they also carry the basics.
- Azure Standard: I forgot about these guys when I originally posted this! I used to get a lot from them and then kind of forgot, so thanks for reminding me in the comments! GREAT resource!
- Country Life Natural Foods: this is a new one to me (thanks for mentioning it in the comments!), but it sounds like they offer a lot of quality health foods/natural ingredients at wholesale prices and in bulk, if you need it. Excited to check it out!
- Amazon: good ol’ Amazon. This is where I buy a few favorites like Honeyville Steel Cut Oats and a few other staple ingredients.
- Costco: don’t forget the power of a good bulk foods store, like Costco or Sam’s. This is where I usually stock up on baking soda and baking powder (I dip into the big bag of baking soda and fill a small container for my spice cupboard – we go through it pretty fast just with baking, but I also use baking soda for cleaning and other things, so a big bag makes sense for us – it may not for someone who won’t use it as quickly!)
- Thrive Life: I used to order a lot of freeze-dried fruits and veggies from here, but I have to be honest, I have hardly used them, and I regret some of those impulsive stock-up purchases. Don’t be like me! I think you either have a talent for using freeze dried food in recipes or you don’t. I don’t. We snack on the freeze-dried fruit a lot (and use it for school lunches), so we’re slowly using it up, but I’ve decided to try to store fruits other ways since freeze-dried isn’t really working for me in the long term. This company also used to package other cool ingredients like quinoa and whole wheat pasta, but unfortunately, I think they’ve stopped doing those basics and have gone exclusively to the freeze-dried sector.
- YOU: yes, you can be a great resource for your own food storage. Gardening and canning (or freezing fruits and veggies)! And not to get all becky-home-ecky on you, but canning simple things like peaches or jams and jellies is a great (and fun) way to include fruits and vegetables into your longer term food storage. Just like everything else (I know, I know, I sound like a broken record), we eat through our home canned goods all year and replenish during canning season. And if you think you can only can a gazillion jars at once, read this post on small batch canning.
- Local Resources: farmers, co-ops, and even grocery stores can be great resources for food storage or bulk items. For instance, my local Winco sells 25 pound bags of wheat berries (over by the coffee and peanut butter). I’ve found a few local farmers here in southwest Idaho that sell buckets and bags of wheat, oats, etc. When I lived in Minnesota, there was this amazing Amish granary about an hour away that would sell bags of just about anything you can imagine. Ask around and you might be surprised what you find!
Addressing a few questions + lingering thoughts
- Do I store powdered milk? Well, I have to be honest, other than using it in some pretty fabulous cookies, I kind of gag at the thought of mixing it up and drinking it (I’m sorry, every generation of grandmother I’ve ever had is rolling in their grave right now). Could we do it if we had to? I’m sure we could. But I prefer to store our longer term dairy needs in the form of shelf-stable almond milk (like everything else, we use and rotate through it so it doesn’t expire), freeze-dried yogurt bites (the one freeze-dried food we really, really love), evaporated milk, etc.
- Do I have a recipe book of exclusive “food storage recipes”? No. As I’ve mentioned several times, my life is my food storage and food storage is my life. I’m making all the recipes on my site every day with my food storage staples. That’s how I rotate through them. If we are ever “forced” to rely on our food storage, I don’t want to pull a random book off the shelf and hope the “food storage” recipes work. I’ll use the ingredients and recipes I’ve already been using for years (and tailor them as needed based on emergencies or finances or the current situation).
- Why do I store dry beans? Do I honestly cook with them? You betcha! Thanks to the electric pressure cooker, it is super easy to transition dry beans into cooked beans ready for use. I think I would be fine using them exclusively for these pressure cooker refried beans (soooooo goood – and delicious with pinto, black OR white beans).
- How do I store meat for food storage? This is a good question! We have a freezer full of beef from raising our cows that is kind of our main meat food storage plan; however, I actually don’t hate freeze-dried meat. It seems a little questionable, but it works great in casseroles or skillet recipes. So I also have a couple #10 cans of freeze-dried chicken hanging around, too. Thrive Life and Emergency Essentials sell freeze-dried meat.
- Storing water + other necessities: I won’t go into much detail about this (at least in this post), but storing water is an important component of food storage and emergency preparedness. Even just having a case of bottled water is better than nothing. We don’t have huge barrels of water stored, but I did invest in two amazing little water filters {aff. link} for drinking water. I also try to keep a reserve of medications, band aids, toilet paper (!!), flashlights, batteries, and other necessities outside of food. This could be a whole other post, but I wanted to at least mention the importance here for now.
A few extra resources and links
- Gamma Seal Lids: the twist/Gamma seal lids for 5 gallon buckets can be found online (Amazon – aff link); I’ve also seen them at Home Depot and Winco (a local grocery store)
- 5 gallon buckets: can also be found at places like Home Depot, sometimes Walmart (just double check to make sure they are food grade) or on Amazon (aff. link) or Rainy Day Foods – other people mentioning in the comments to look at places like Tractor Supply, farm implement stores, etc.
- Wheat grinder: I have a series of posts on wheat grinding at home. Here’s a post on different types of wheat grinders and another on different types of wheat. As a quick summary, I almost exclusively use hard white wheat (and lately I’ve started using more Kamut and Einkhorn wheat berries, although they are more expensive than traditional white wheat). Wheat that is less than 3-5 years old (and well sealed) will work a lot better than 30-40 year old wheat (even if it has stayed well sealed). Also, I’ve had this KoMo Fidibus grain mill for a decade; I use it every day and can’t say enough good about it. It’s amazing; I use it mostly to grind wheat, although occasionally I throw rice in there to clean it out.
We don’t know what the future holds. But it’s also exhausting and a waste of time to live in fear.
The antidote to not living in fear? Be prepared.
Food storage doesn’t have to look like #10 cans and big white pails like I have in my house. It doesn’t have to last a year or taste gross. It doesn’t have to be 100% organic. And it absolutely positively can include chocolate chips and fruit snacks.
Food storage is what YOU make it. It works for YOU.
I know this post is lengthy and a bit much, but all I really want is for there to be some tidbit that helps someone out in their food storage journey. And as always, I very much welcome YOUR ideas, thoughts, feedback on everything food storage related.
I LOVE learning from you!
Ok, bye now.
253 Comments on “Food Storage 101: Spreadsheets + Sources + Everything You Need to Make Food Storage Easy and Doable {Long Term and Short Term}”
You are awesome.
This is everything I was looking for. I’m a spreadsheet girl and I was hoping someone wonderful had crunched the numbers and published their findings.
❤ what you shared here. The details are fabulous.
Thank you!!
I scrolled through the comments & didn’t see anyone ask this question but maybe I missed it, sorry if I did! I’m wondering though: in the long term food storage you have both 5 gallon buckets & #10 cans. Is that so you can choose to store in cans or buckets? Or do you recommend having both?
Thank you so much for this post! You’ve made a very overwhelming task doable.
Hi Emily, some ingredients I like to store in 5 gallon buckets so I can open those and use them for my daily needs as I work through my food storage. Some of the time it’s simply a matter of what’s on sale or how the companies package the food.
Hi and thanks so much!
I’m not able to download your spread sheets! Can you help, please?
Thanks soooo much for sharing your knowledge and making resources available.
Rebecca in Tennessee
This is phenomenal information and one of the more helpful resources I have found- thank you!
Could you comment on the use of Mylar bags snd oxygen absorbers? I don’t believe I read anything in your very comprehensive and informative article about them. It looked like you just filled the 5 gallon buckets with your food. I wondered about dividing up large amounts of food like rice into portions sealed in Mylar bags and then placed in the buckets. Thoughts or comments?
Yes, you can definitely do that, Vicki – it preserves the food for longer if the mylar bags are sealed (and the air removed). Most of my 5 gallon buckets of rice and wheat are also mylar bag-lined.
This post was so helpful for someone who didn’t know how to begin- I love the idea of a “living” storage. That changed how I view food storage! Thank-you so much for sharing all of this information!!!!! Bless you!
How do the einkhorn berries and kamut berries store for long term? Do you use oxygen absorbers? An how long can they be stored?
I recently purchased a wheat grinder like yours. Do I need to run rice through it every time I use it? That may use up a lot of my stored rice.
Hi Lauren, no I only run rice through my wheat grinder about once a month, maybe less. As long as you aren’t changing the type of grain you are grinding and you are grinding wheat frequently, you don’t need to run rice through very often. If you want to store einkhorn or kamut for long term storage, yes, you’ll want to use mylar bag and oxygen absorbers or other long term storage solutions.
I love your point of view. Been storing for 30 years and dont know how to survive without a living pantry. I live far from stores so freeze dried veggies and such have saved dinner more than once. Thanks for sharing.
Mel,
I love this spreadsheet you’ve created! seriously, thank you! I have opened the file so many times, but it only opens as a download that is not editable, never an interactive excel sheet. Has any one else had this problem with the link?
I just emailed the spreadsheet directly to your email address, Elizabeth. Let me know if that works!
Hello, im having the same problem. Could you email it to me as well?
Do you have your long pantry food storage, the Mel’s Food Storage Spreadsheet – NUMBERS, available as an excel document. I would love to be able to use it in Google docs.
Do you have a favorite brand and flavor of shelf-stable almond milk?
Wow! Just the resource that I was looking for :). Did a google search for “tracking long- term food storage” and as soon as I saw the hit for melskitchencafe I knew my search was over. (I have been a Mel’s recipe fan forever – not sure how I have missed your food storage posts over the years). I do have a simple short-term (3 mo) food storage plan that might be helpful for some: I planned out 7 meals each for breakfast, lunch and dinner, leaning toward meals that have ingredients that are easy to store or that can be made with shelf stable substitutions. Timed those ingredients by 12 so I knew how much to store for 12 weeks. I call these my “food storage meals”, even though they really are just the things that we normally eat and enjoy. During my regular weekly meal planning I make sure to include 1 each of our food storage meals sometime during the month. So by the time a year has passed we have rotated through the ingredients for our food storage meals. Your spreadsheets will make keeping track of everything much easier and I’m very grateful to learn of some retail resources. Thank you!
Lynn, I love this idea, and it feels like a good place to start. Any chance you are willing to share some of your meal ideas?
I really enjoyed reading this post. We live in north central North Carolina and I’ve been working on food storage for a couple years now and love the idea of storing food for tough times. I try to store what we WILL eat, no sense in taking up room putting stuff up that will never be used.
I remember when we were kids and the whole family helped raise and put up cans of tomatoes, corn all kinds of beans and fruits in many ways, jelly, preserves, canned and raised our own hogs and chickens. We hardly ever went to the store for anything except salt and sugar. We even traded for homemade molasses, which I still love to this day. We had potatoes, sweet potatoes, When in season, Daddy would go to his favorite strawberry or blackberry patch and pick berries that mama canned and made cakes or pies with. It was a hard life but a great life. Now that we’re older we remember those times when we were able to work and save for the coming winter and beyond. Now we buy and put up most of what we eat but it’s something that won’t go to waste. I hope my children, grand children and great -grand children will follow these principles and do the same for their families.
My oldest great-grandson is fixing to turn eight years old and he has his own little garden and his own chickens here at my house. He loves working in his garden and tending his chickens. He can’t wait until they start laying eggs. Hopefully we’ve instilled in him the importance of being prepared.
Thank you for this post,
Dale Hagood
I am sitting here in my recliner with the brace off that holds and supports my right side since the removed my nonfunctioning prosthetic hip and i am crying. So much has changed for me and my family in the last 9mos. I will be grateful for happening across your sight. I am a retired widow with 4 out of 6 children still here. They look to me still for guidance. Since i am not able to bear any weight on my right (hipless) side it appeals to me to use the “footwork” you have done. What a blessing! As i can, i will update you on the progress. Thank you so much for your sharing. Sincerely & respectfully.
When my family were all still at home, I stored my flour in 5 gallon buckets. I numbered them from 1-10 ( I baked a lot of bread for my family). I would start with bucket ONE and when it was finished I went to number TWO. I would then look for sales for flour and fill number 1 again and “put it at the end of the row” so to speak. That way I was rotating the flour and it never went bad like it did before I started the numbering system. It worked for me. If you family isn’t as big as mine, then decide how much you will need for the year and number that many buckets. OR start with finding out how long it takes you to get through a 25# bag of flour and you can figure how much you will need for a year.
Thank you. This is great information. Love the spreadsheets!
I NEVER leave comments,….anywhere. BUT you talking about powdered milk left me thinking that you REALLY need to try NIDO. It’s a canned milk (I got it from Sam’s…near the baby food.) South American countries use it a lot for their kids as a shelf stable form of milk. It still has fat in it…unlike most powdered milks. Anyway, we tried it for the first time about a month or two ago, and it is actually REALLY good. So I wanted to suggest you give it a try. See what you think….and honestly, not sure how but I’d love to hear back and see what you think.
Oh, and can you do a regular old “how to go from dried beans to cooked beans” post someday….like what to do in the instant pot or on the stove or whatever. So many dried beans and I don’t know what to do with them!!
I have been logging in my food storage for 1 1/2 hours and saved it and then I went back to add some more on the excel spread sheet and it went back to the original sheet you posted and didn’t keep mine. What am I doing wrong? I don’t want this to happen again.
Please help.
Thanks
On no that’s the pits! Make sure you click “save as” and save your file under a new name. Also make sure you save to a folder you can find (i.e. “desktop”, or “documents”). Otherwise your file will be saved under “downloads” which Excel will not automatically look in in the future. Good luck!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and resources! Honestly, I’m intimidated by spreadsheets (ha ha!) but I may try it. One of the things I’ve definitely learned in the past decade or so that I’ve been dabbling in food storage is that it’s useless to store food that we don’t normally eat. Like you said, waste of money.
Love you. Love this blog. Love this post. Would also love to know what you’re keeping for food in your 72-hour kit?? Or what you used to keep for food when you had toddlers/preschoolers around? I’m finally getting organized on this front! Thank you again!
So… the pantry staples aren’t figured into the long term storage, right? Or are they? Like is your cooking oil counted on both…or do you have cooking oil packaged differently for longer term? Thanks. Trying not to get overwhelmed…but it’s been a few years since I’ve done an inventory and I’d love to use your system this time. However, I might need to take an Excel class (or ask my teenager for help!) to learn how to do the formulas since I want to add in some rows that aren’t there. Thank you for sharing.
Hey Kami! the pantry staples are separate from the long term storage BUT you could easily add them in to make one comprehensive list. I tend to think of the long term food storage with foods like grains (wheat/flour), etc and the pantry storage as canned/boxed goods.
Just wanted to thank you for the very approachable tutorial and the encouraging tone you used. I’ve been wanting to start a long-term pantry for our family of 5, but had no idea where to begin. It’s, uh, daunting. Your guidance on “one day/one week/one month x 3” is hugely helpful! I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with all of us — very kind of you to do — and quite the public service!
P.S……LUV gamma lids and have one for every type basic dry food I store. Then always have one bucket with each item easily accessible for daily use. For me, that is white wheat, red wheat, rye, pearled barley, white rice, quick oatmeal, dry corn, unbleached flour in tall buckets that hold up to 45 lb.. And black beans, red lentils, pinto beans, white beans, red beans, green lentils, baby lima beans, dark red kidney beans, garbanzos in smaller buckets that hold 25 lb.
And YES, I use them all in daily meals.
Here’s my formula for menu each day……
One meal based on grains
One meal based on dry beans/lentils
One meal based on vegetables
…..and in one of those meals per day I might add meat….
Interpreted, it’s easy, here’s example:
Grains:
oatmeal with fruit
blender wheat pancakes
golden wheat patties
wheat sausage patties
Dry beans/lentils:
chili and cornbread
red lentil tomato soup
lentil tacos
black beans n’ sausage over rice
Vegetables:
broccoli/chicken/pasta alfredo
veggie noodle stir fry
roast with extra sides of veggies and salads
mexican coleslaw and burritos
A great post, thank you, Mel….very informative and helpful. I like your spreadsheets. My food storage and storing it is similar to yours,
but I don’t have the #10 shelf. Where do you get that baby??
I have a double shelf that I keep opened #10 cans stacked 2 high…not very convenient but works ok. Been using/storing/rotating my food storage for years. And teaching classes, wrote a cookbook on how to use the basics (wheat, grains, dried beans, lentils, dry milk) in daily meals. Recently ordered a Komo hand grinder. But think I’ll also order their regular one after I sell the 2 grinders I have (40 year old stone grinder I love and it works great, plus a newer model grinder not stone). The Komo looks like it’d be easier to use than the ones I have.
The only tolerable way to use powdered milk, IMHO, is for yogurt. You don’t have to preheat/boil powdered milk. Just mix with warm water, add your starter yogurt, and off you go!
Do you pour your sugar, flour, etc directly into the food grade buckets? I tried that and it tasted so off…
I use the buckets that the food is sealed in (usually has a mylar liner).
Oh, My. Gosh. You’re a brilliant guardian angel, Mel! I used to be SO on the ball with our long and short term food storage. Then we had a billion children (OK, 9) in not too many years and all of a sudden I can’t seem to keep up on it since we go through everything so fast. This spreadsheet is heaven sent. THANK YOU for sharing it and doing all the hard work for us! I’m super excited to personalize it and put it in action.
Times and seasons, totally! You’re amazing, Bonnie – you’ll get a plan together in no time, I know it. 🙂
Thanks for the post! I am totally new to food storage and yes the pandemic has really brought food storage and emergency preparedness to th forefront. I may have missed it in your post but where did you getyour storage things for cans (looks like they roll down as you take one out)? Those look super handy.
Hi Kelly – I bought the rolling shelves from shelf reliance a long time ago – the company is now called thrivelife.com – I don’t know if they sell the rolling shelves anymore, but if you google “rolling food storage shelves” you can find some good options!
Do you have any recommendations for recipes that include canned chicken? My mom just panic-shopped at Costco and now she has tons and doesn’t like the taste. Help?
We like it best in things like chicken salad (with plenty of chopped veggies: celery, crisp lettuce or cabbage, pickles), gravies – like for Hawaiian haystacks & stuffed chicken rolls/chicken pillows… You can even make a good patty with it (my family made them most with tuna or salmon when I was little, but we’ve branched out!) – most any recipe with canned fish subs well with this chicken! Good luck!
Buffalo chicken dip!
I don’t use canned chicken very often, but it usually can be subbed pretty well for any recipe that calls for already cooked chicken. Here’s a few favorites:
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/crispy-southwest-chicken-wraps/
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/chicken-banh-mi-flatbread/
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/avocado-chicken-salad/
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/creamy-white-chili/
Your food storage sheets look very much like my budget spreadsheets and I am inspired to follow suit! Also, have you ever bought bulk from Honeyville? They have excellent food storage foods and typically cheaper than Amazon. Thank you, Mel!
I actually usually buy Honeyville ON Amazon but maybe I need to go straight to their website. Thanks for the recommendation!
Wow, I feel famous, haha! Great post!!!
🙂
You could help a lot of homeless, unemployed and disenfranchised people right now. Your bounty could really bring peace to so many.
I think you are right, Miranda! A blessing of having so much right now. We’ve been able to find local ways to help those in need. Thanks for that reminder. 🙂
Mel thank you so much! I am very excited for these spreadsheets! As I was looking over the calculations for the total amount of pounds needed for each food group on the excel spreadsheet, I think there may be a mistake in the formulas. In the formulas, it shows that you are only multiplying the adults by the number of months that the food storage is needed and not the kids [i.e. for the goal pounds of grain, the formula is B5*(B6*36)+(B7*24)]. I think there needs to be an extra set of parentheses so that the kids are included in being multiplied by the amount of months that the food storage is needed [i.e. B5*((B6*36)+(B7*24))].
You’re right, Jessica! I’m kicking myself for messing that up. So glad there are smarter people out there! I just uploaded updated files in the post. Thanks for the catch!
I totally giggled to myself when I read, “And not to get all becky-home-ecky on you, but…” I’ll take all the help I can get, especially if it’s coming from you. You’re a gem for sharing your enthusiasm, knowledge, tools, and resources. This truly has been an answer to my 3+ year dilemma, so thank you from the bottom of my heart! My husband and I have felt the need to track our food storage and we decided I should put together a system since I do the grocery shopping and the cooking, but I have had such a hard time visualizing what I want and making up a document. I saved your sheets to our laptop and showed them to my husband (who is naturally pretty skeptical-bless his heart ) and he was probably more impressed than I was, checking your excel formulas. Haha. I’ve already edited them to fit our family size and have started adding to them. Thank you again! I am really looking forward to working on organizing and growing our food storage.
Thanks, Nicole! Phew! Glad your husband didn’t think I was ridiculous! 🙂 FYI, apparently I did have an error in one of the formulas. I edited it and included an updated spreadsheet in the post. Sorry about that! Hope I didn’t lose your husband’s trust. Haha.
I am loving the spreadsheet!! I have one of my own, but this one makes so much more sense and I think I’m going to convert. Question, is there a reason you have totaled the goal a second time (column E, i.e. E32) on each area of food storage instead of totaling the actual. I feel like I’m missing something important here. Thank you for all you do, love everything that comes from you!
I don’t have the spreadsheet handy right now but I’ll take a look tomorrow!
Ok, sorry for the delay. So that column (E) isn’t totaling the goal amount again – it’s actually allowing you to set sub-category goals within the total goal. So for “Grains” you can go in column E and set a sub goal for “wheat” and “cornmeal” and “oats” and the total at the bottom of column E will help keep track of how close you’re getting to the total goal for that area (grains in this case). Does that make any sense at all?
I love this! Very doable. I am really good at keeping a stocked pantry, so I already feel like a superstar! LOL.
I do have a request because I have never tried one of your recipes that I didn’t love and move into my permanent meal rotation. Would you think about doing a serious of recipes that use what I consider to be necessary but not every day use food storage items? For example, I buy canned chicken because I often think of needing some kind of meat in an emergency but the only thing I use canned chicken for is sandwiches. Are there real dinner worthy ideas for canned chicken? I think maybe soup, but beyond that I am stumped and would love your magical touch for some recipes.
I’ll def add that to my list of posts to compile!
You made my geeky heart flutter and jump with this spreadsheet. I’ve been working on one but yours is better and further along and I can’t wait to put the kids in bed and play with it. I didn’t even finish reading the post first. I’ll finish in a minute, I just had to jump ahead tell you I’m in love with your spreadsheet. THANK YOU!
Haha, thank you! Turns out I had a mistake in one of the formulas (even after triple checking it), so be sure to download the updated spreadsheet in the formula (chances are you probably spotted and fixed the formula in the spreadsheet already!)
What rotators do you prefer for cans of typical pantry staples? 15 oz cans of beans and tomatoes, 8 oz cans of tomato sauce, 6 oz cans of tomato paste, and also larger 30 oz cans? Is there a product you use that can accommodate different sizes?
I know they have rotator-type shelves like that, but I don’t have any and haven’t used any to recommend – I just stack in my pantry.
Mel, you are best! Thank you so much for the time and energy you put into sharing all this great information! I’ve used some of this “extra” time to organize my food storage and take inventory. Your spreadsheets will be so helpful! Thank you! I’ve figured out a few of my holes. One of which is fruits and veggies. We mostly eat fresh or frozen. Love gardening and do some canning, but have felt maybe freeze dried was the way to fill those holes (especially if it wasn’t growing season and the power went out and freezer food got spoiled). However I haven’t really used freeze dried before and sounds like its not a favorite for you. I’d love to hear what you are doing to fill those longer term fruit/veggie needs. I’ve wanted to look into einkhorn. Do you have a good source for that? Again,, thanks a million times over and I’m totally with you on the necessity of LOTS of chocolate chips on hand at ALL times!
Hey Natalie – so far I’ve bought einkhorn flour from einkhorn.com…it’s pricey, and I’m trying to find a few other sources (I’ve heard there might be some other farms in Washington I’m looking into – I’ll keep you posted!). As for fruits/veggies, I’m mostly relying on canned, frozen and home canned. It’s not a perfect system, and I’m definitely identifying my own holes, too! Don’t discount freeze dried just by my account. I know a lot of people love them, and maybe buying a bag or can might help you decide if it’s something that would work for you? I’ve found my favorite way to use freeze dried is to pulverize to dust and add to frosting…which, yeah…isn’t exactly healthy, nutritious, prudent living food. 🙂
Lynn, I love this idea, and it feels like a good place to start. Any chance you are willing to share some of your meal ideas?
This is great information. My family sometimes makes fun of my “Y2K” closet of food items. The pandemic has been a real eye opener on changing how we shop and using what is on hand and will make the most out of a meal to include left overs. Your flour bin in your pantry reminds me of my dog food storage container. I got it at Tractor Supply. Thank you for all the great information and tips.
Who knew that all this time I was actually using a pet food container for flour?? 🙂
I use the pet food containers from The Container Store for flour, rice, and sugar. I love that they have wheels and can roll around the kitchen!
This was just awesome. Thank you very, very much!!!! You are truly a rock star!
Thank you, Jen!
Thanks for all of this. I am a big fan of preparedness too and have built a storage. You gave great tips and insights. I want to make one tip about powdered milk. I learned this from a wonderful catholic woman when I was at a bishops storehouse doing some canning. She taught me that powdered milk is a great way to stretch what milk you have. I ended up needing this tip a few years later when we were financially VERY tight. When my gallon of milk got 1/2 way down I would mix up the powdered milk and add it to the existing milk. It would chill overnight and the next day you couldn’t really tell a difference. We even got to the point of just using powdered milk a couple times. It is MUCH better cold. Also the Bishops storehouse milk is way better than the store ones I have tried. One other tip, my uncle did this when his kids were young. He would put a drop of food coloring in the container and then add the milk and stir it and it would change colors. The kids all thought it was magic and that made them drink it, even if they didn’t like it. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Thankfully, like you mentioned there are lots of options. Just wanted to throw this option out there too.
Appreciate these tips SO much, Elizabeth!
Great post!! Can you share the brand name of the freeze dried yogurt bites?
They are the ones from thrivelife.com 🙂
thanks so much for this post– I’ve been feeling this nudge since the begining of this year but really didn’t know where to start…I’ve just picked up a few things each time I shop but your spreadsheets are really going to help me be more organized with it all. I would love a post on storage of non food stuff– tp, cleaning stuff etc
Thanks, Rebecca!
Eek! You had me at “spreadsheet”, ha-ha. Thank you for taking the time to put this all together. I can’t wait to “plug and play” with my family’s information.
You’re the best – thanks, Sharon!
Thanks so much for sharing Mel! I had a lady in my ward share storing flour, sugar, rice etc in 5 gallon buckets with the gamma lids a few years ago when I had a run in with bugs getting into the bins I was using to store those in and I love these buckets SO much!!! I’m very much becoming a bit of a nerd about it all myself! But seeing those buckets full of the foods we use so often and knowing nothing can get in and ruin them just makes me so happy!! I love your spreadsheets and all your resource links, this post is a gold mine! Thanks for putting it together to help better our living storage! Especially in these crazy times, home/online schooling the kiddos is no walk in the park!
Ain’t that the truth – not a walk in the park at all! But we’re all in it together. 🙂
This is amazing! Thank you so so much!
🙂 Thanks, Chrissy!
My husband and I were just talking about expanding our food storage again since we added another kid. I know some people think it’s crazy, but especially if you have children it’s important to be at least somewhat prepared. Thanks for the resources and the spreadsheet! We were going to inventory and reorganize our food storage this weekend so it’s perfect timing!
Good for you for thinking ahead, Jennifer! 🙂
Very helpful post, thank you so much.
I would love to know where you purchased the rolling food storage shelf, that would be so handy!
Hi Mary – I bought it a long time ago from Shelf Reliance (which is now called Thrive Life). They are pretty pricey, but I think if you do a quick google search for “rolling food storage shelves” there’s a pretty good market of competitor products now.
Thank you so much for sharing these amazing ideas and for all the hard work you put in to create these! I really appreciate your thoughts, ideas, and resources! I will definitely be using them.
Thanks, Ashlee!
What exactly are you preparing for? This sounds like preppier madness. You might have lost me on this one….
Definitely ok to have a different opinion (this “system” isn’t for everyone), but in terms of preparedness, I don’t see it as prepper madness at all. If you look at the circumstances surrounding the world, it’s clear that natural disasters, pandemics, etc, happen everywhere. Not only that, job security isn’t a given. So I’m preparing for unknowns that could catch my family off guard. By doing so, it prevents me from living in a stress or fear cycle. I know not everyone feels the same, and that’s ok! But stocking up on a reasonable supply of food and essentials certainly helps us to live a provident, prudent, prepared lifestyle! (I’m not perfect at it, this post alone exposed some holes I need to fill in my own system, but I think it’s sensible to be prepared, so to speak, for a future “rainy day”). I would rather be prepared to help take care of my family (and help others) rather than drain someone else’s resources when hard times hit. 🙂
Gracious answer, as always, Mel. Kudos to you.
Sorry, I honestly don’t get this, either…
Scroll by, then?
I guess “living food storage” is an accurate description of what I do too. If any of my basics is getting low I add it to the list, or if I see one of our staples on sale I buy a few extra. It’s constantly cycling out (first in, first out or FIFO) and usually my only spreadsheet is for the freezer where things can get buried, so I update it occasionally with things that need to be used up sooner rather than later. I tend to be a spreadsheet person too, but as long as I add things to my grocery list as they’re used I find I can avoid maintaining a spreadsheet for food storage.
I *almost* bought a Komo grinder after you posted about it; I should’ve gone for it since it’s getting hard to find my usual whole-wheat flour! We bake a loaf daily so it would throw our routine to start buying loaves of bread.
We have a hall-closet-as-pantry beside our kitchen because there’s not much storage in the kitchen itself, and then I have a metal restaurant-style shelving unit from Costco in the laundry room that holds the extras (next bottle of ketchup, the bags of steel-cut oats, the ice cream maker ;), the flat of water bottles) that feels a bit like my personal grocery store.
We don’t use disposable water bottles generally, but I always have a few in the van. I know it’s bad for them to get hot, but in a pinch I’d much rather have plastic-leached water than no drinking water! I’d like to start having a 5L jug down there too. We live in earthquake country so water and power being cut off is something to consider, and having food that doesn’t require using much water/fuel before eating it is valuable as is an emergency kit in your car in case you’re not at home if a large one happens. My husband is a camel and laughs at me, but if I leave the house I have a water bottle and granola bar in my purse haha. That makes me sound paranoid, but I’m not a useful person on low blood sugar (and neither are my kids) so it comes in handy a lot.
I don’t think it makes you sound paranoid at all – just prepared! I don’t do well when I’m thirsty or hungry either! Loved your comment and the details of your “system” – I also love how the ice cream maker has a pretty prized spot on the shelves. 🙂
Love this post! Thank you so much for taking the time to compile all these resources! I love the spreadsheets – I have started with an app, but may switch back now.
Thanks, April!
For simple pantry items such as canned goods I’ve found the easiest way for me to stay on top of what I need to replace is to link my shopping list to our Google Home. When I use up a can of tuna or canned tomatoes from our store I simply ask Google to add it to my shopping list. I do this with a lot of groceries and it’s great because I am one to forget if I’m busy in the kitchen but it helps me keep our rotating pantry storage stocked up. Just an idea for anyone who may have a Google Home or Alexa.
Super advanced way of tracking – I love technology! Thanks for sharing!
Wow! You are incredible Mel. Thank you so much for sharing! This post and spreadsheets were a labor of love! I was just telling my daughter (who jokes about you being my “bestie you’ve never met”) that as if I couldn’t love you more, here you are posting about chickens (which I’m just learning about) and food storage (which I’m passionate about and trying to fill some holes). Love your insights and resources. Thank you! Now I want to look into Einkhorn (Do tell more!) and am trying to figure out what to do with fruits and veggies (which is a hole). We eat so many fresh, we can and freeze but felt like freeze dried may be the way to go… now I’m rethinking that. Excited to plug my food into your spreadsheet tomorrow! Thanks a million.
Thanks, Natalie! You are so sweet. 🙂 In doing this post, it totally exposed some holes for me, too, and I’m excited to dive into some of the resources other people have shared in these comments to figure out the best way forward! Einkhorn wheat is amazing. It’s hard to use “regular” white wheat after using Einkhorn because Einkhorn is so…different. It produces a softer, lighter bread that rises amazingly well (without any added gluten). It’s an ancient grain that hasn’t been modified over the years like conventional wheat. The drawback? It’s pretty expensive. I keep a bag or two on hand and have started mixing it half and half with my regular wheat.
You are amazing. This post is amazing. I love that your husband also commented. haha. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to provide this very valuable and informative read. While we have a bunch of food in our makeshift pantry, I couldn’t tell you how long it would last or how to even organize it properly. I’ve been wondering how to go about starting an organized food storage so this is an exciting starting point. Great tips and resources! Also, powdered milk. My very frugal parents only served us powdered milk in the 80s and 90s and my siblings and i still talk about the dreaded bottom milk (the dredges of the unmixed powder that sank to the bottom of the milk pitcher). My parents started getting store bought milk when I was 16 and the last kid in the house, what a miracle! haha. I will never drink powdered milk again, not even in an emergency, but i do have some in my storage for cooking purposes.
Isn’t it funny how those, sometimes scarring, experiences in childhood trickle into adulthood? There are a few things I won’t eat for the same reasons. 🙂
To the comment above about storing fat/oil: I have this wonderful book called Preparedness Principles by Barbara Salsbury, and in it she said that coconut oil stays good for 5 years.
That’s good to know – thanks for sharing, Jessica!
Thank you so much for this post. I am a food storage nerd. I love your spreadsheets.
You bless the lives of many.
Fellow food storage nerds unite! We should start a conference or something. 🙂
You rock! Food storage has been on my mind a lot lately. I think this post is going to help me out a lot! I looove that you included your blank spreadsheet for us to use. Thank you!!
I hope it is helpful, Trish! Thank you!
Oh Mel! You inspire me!
Love your guts, Cass.
Wow! I’m definitely not as passionate about food storage as you are, but I am thankful for my local grocery store and their bi-annual caselot sales (thank you, southeast Idaho!). You must have spent hours and hours preparing this post and you’re helping SO many people with your knowledge! Thanks for all you do! And I especially loved the picture of your wheat grinder showing how much you love it!
Yes, those caselot sales are pretty awesome! Thank you, Cara! (and yes, I do severely love that little wheat grinder!)
Mel, can I just say I love you. Thank you for spending hours and hours and HOURS putting this post together. And I’m with Joan – your tap tap Is this thing on made me smile too. You are amazing and I appreciate your tips and hints and recipes and pretty much everything you do. Keep up the good work!
I just love those of you who “get me” (ahem, and my weird sense of humor). And thanks for acknowledging the time spent on this. I was so desperate to get the info out to everyone…but the last weeks/months have been really difficult for me for so many reasons and I was struggling to find the time (but feeling anxiety because of it). The post isn’t perfect, but I felt such relief and peace when I finally got it posted!
Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into this post. It is a great resource for me as I get more organized and prepared. I think the flour bucket you mentioned can be purchased on Amazon (but it is found as a pet food storage container) There are different sizes and one with wheels. Also, Alison’s Pantry (alisonspantry.com) is another resource for purchasing pantry staples. You purchase through reps food is delivered once a month. There are a lot of shelf-stable items and freezer items you can buy in bulk. They service many states in the West.
Thanks for the tip on Alisons pantry AND on the flour bucket (mine has a severely cracked lid and I’ve been needing to find a replacement).
Yes…this is your husband commenting. I do read your blog!!
You said living food storage and I was immediately expecting to see pictures of our chickens, cows, and those little Kunekune pigs we are bringing home next month. Those are kinda food storage too, so I guess am not completely aloof…right?! Love you!
Um, hi, Brian. I’m glad you read my blog. Now get back to work. 🙂
I’ve always told my mom I was NOT stocking lentils because my family hates them but I will have a good supply of chocolate chips and the supplies to make cookies. If you are going thru a tough time, eating gross food does not help but a warm chocolate chip cookie can change your entire attitude. I’m so happy to see that other people have a working food storage similar to mine. Thank you!
Amen to the chocolate chip philosophy!
Thank you so much for your generosity. Your willingness to share resources and knowledge inspires me. I have recently started canning because of the information on your site and I am LOVING it! What a satisfying project! I’m not very craft-y, but I felt very accomplished When I canned my first natch of mango salsa last month. Thank you again! Question: I am not LDS. I have tried to order on the LDS food storage site and I can’t get it to work. It seems I have to be a church member to order? I have shopped at the food storage centers in person before and have always been welcomed. Is there a work-around for ordering online?
PS The spreadsheets get 5 starts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Ronnie! That’s odd about the food storage site not working. Let me check into that for you! That would be super weird (and I’d be disappointed) but I’m hoping it’s some kind of glitch.
Also, sorry, my comment made it sound like I have some sort of “in” to the LDS food storage site which I do not. Haha. But basically, I’ll do some digging to see if I can come up with a solution.
Mel, I would really appreciate you checking. Thank you!
Thanks so much for this post!
I’ve always tried to buy one for now and one to three for later- especially if it’s something on sale, that we actually eat, or if I only go to that store occasionally (looking at the asian market here). This helps me SLOWLY build my food storage and lets me spread the cost out wide. This has helped so much lately when my favorites are not in stock at the grocery store. .
One question though, do you have different food storage for your 72 hour kits or do you have other food ready to “bug out” with? I’ve been curious about how to feed my family if we have to leave our house for 72 hours. Especially since the recent Utah earthquake quite literally rocked my world. 🙂
I love that – buy one now and a couple for later! Gah, I have complicated feelings about 72 hour kits and it would take too long to go into it right now. I mostly have dehydrated and snacky food for our 72 hour kits, but I’m probably not the one to be trusted with 72 hour kit info because the last time we went through them my 10 year old still had diapers in his. Whoops!
This is great. Inspired by current events I’ve been working on improving our food storage. I’ve always had water, dry goods in 5 gal. buckets, and extra canned goods; right now I’m working on fruit. I also don’t believe in stuff I won’t use so I’m experimenting. So far I’ve found:
-Canned pineapple is good for straight eating and you can get low sugar varieties
-A big jar of grapefruit slices will last months in the fridge (although the last kind I bought had artificial sweeteners so I need to look around).
-Applesauce is good. I don’t like it for straight eating but my kids do, esp. when they’re sick. Also baking.
-Dried fruit is good for baking and homemade trail mix
-Freeze dried strawberries are great for snacking and homemade trail mix. I’d like to try other FD berries too so I’m going to head for your links after this.
-Frozen fruit has a bunch of uses and I’ve always used a lot of that, although it would be vulnerable to disruptions in the power supply.
Next I’m looking into a generator that would keep the freezers going, experimenting with dried eggs, and possibly wheat grinding. That feels like it’s only for the crazy people 😉 but I do bake a lot, so it could make sense.
Love, love, love these tips and ideas, Anna! Thank you so much for taking the time to type them out! I’m actually experimenting with drying our fresh eggs we get from our chickens. We invested in a generator over 10 years ago – haven’t had to use it (and I suppose we should check that it still works) but it has been good for peace of mind.
This is a lot, but you said it would be. This comment alone “Did that make sense? Are you still here? Tap, tap, is this thing on????” made me LOL and made it all worth it. Thanks, Mel. You are always good for a laugh or smile. Thanks for all you do to take care of us with so much humor, grace, and smarts!
Haha, thanks for understanding my weird sense of humor, Joan. 🙂 🙂
This is awesome, thank you! I actually love to can chicken and stew meat, it tastes wonderful (looks a little weird), but great in enchiladas tacos etc and I love that it’s ready to go without any prep!
Great idea, Lisa! I canned chicken once but didn’t use it within a year and then was worried it wasn’t good anymore. I should try again! My sister cans elk meat and uses it all through the year – it’s delicious!
I can meat and chicken, but I give it a 5 year plan for using. Since it pressure cooks for 90 minutes, I’ve not yet had a bottle that didn’t seal. Hope this helps!!!
This is amazing! I love this as a resource to track and organize my family’s food storage. Thanks so much!
Thanks, Rachel!
Thanks, Mel, for all of the great ideas. When my husband and I first got married we tried to start food storage by buying number 10 cans of a bunch of different things. I soon learned that I didn’t like potato pearls and one number 10 can of dried onions would last me three or four years. I learned just like you said that food storage should be something you use on a daily basis. I also have 10 or more bags of assorted chocolate chips! I totally relate with this post, except I don’t really have spreadsheets. I never drink powdered milk, but I do have some in my food storage and I love to use it in homemade pancake and waffle recipes. It is fine to use in some baking. Lastly, I do love the LDS storehouse but I do not like white flour in number 10 cans. It tastes awful after a year or more. Some other things taste bad in the number 10 cans, too. So now I buy my flour at Costco and store it in plastic snap wear bins and same with oats. Anyway, you are awesome and I appreciate all of your efforts!
I totally agree with the white flour comment! Thrive life used to sell unbleached all-purpose white flour in #10 cans. It was amazing but they’ve discontinued it, but I think Rainy Day foods and some of the other links in the post sell it now. Yay!
Thrive powdered milk is amazing for powdered milk. Try it! We taste tested it with real milk and it tastes like 1%. It is one I’m not afraid to use in a pinch!
Serious?? Looks like based on your comment and a couple below that I need to do a side by side comparison of dry milk so I can get back on board the dry milk bandwagon!
Thanks for the post Mel. We try to do a similar approach to food storage. I like planning to store thing that we will normally eat.
PS we have made your SW chicken crispy burritos a bunch over quarantine and have renamed them “Chickie Babies” for some reason and they are a total hit!!
Haha, why did that name make me giggle out loud??
When you live in SoCal, AKA “earthquake country”, we know the importance of being prepared; but, to be honest I don’t have a good system. Thank you for posting this!
We always have extra water that we rotate and flashlights but we’re lacking in the food department…Already asked my husband to empty one of the storage racks in the garage to start our food storage.
Again, Thank you!
Extra water is one of my “holes” – I need to work on that. Good luck getting a food storage plan in place, Carol!
I just want to say thank you for all of this helpful information!
Thank you, Sarah!
I love this SO much! I did really good with food storage early in our marriage, but have really let it slide so we were sure scrambling when this craziness started.
We’ve been buying a few extra cans each week and have quickly gotten ourselves a little bit of a storage started again. I can’t wait to use your spread sheet! It will make the planning SO much easier! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Baby steps, Jen! Sounds like you are doing great simply because you know how to move forward.
Thanks for this great post, Mel! I love food storage too and it’s something that I need to continue to improve upon. Thanks for this great info! I have to tell you that my favorite part was spying your Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips!! These are my favorite too and I eat them everyday with raw almonds to cope with the homeschool/pandemic stress. I eat them in non-stressful times, too, haha. I am eating them right now! They’re the best thing ever! Thanks again for your great blog.
Haha, I’m so glad someone else appreciates the divine properties of those chocolate chips! I eat them with almonds, too!! #soulsisters
Thank you, Mel! Love the spreadsheet ( I love spreadsheets!). I really appreciate you sharing yours!
Thanks, Erin!
Thank you for this post! You explained to me how I do food storage and didn’t even know it, haha. I thought I was failing because I didn’t have buckets of prepared food in my basement never seeing the light of day. I have always bought in bulk or extra of staples. This pandemic has showed me where my holes were and you have showed me that I don’t need things that last forty years. Thank you for taking the time to share your secrets. I may not be ready for the spread sheet, but I can evaluate what we have and make sure we have extra stock of what we use every day.
Sounds like you are doing amazing, Kaly! I totally agree with you. I’ve seen through a magnifying glass where the holes are in our food storage and I’m making a plan to fix them.
Thank you for this post. With only two of us in our house, I don’t have a need for lots of storage but I have always purchased ahead when sales are on and have rotated food and planned weekly meals. With your large family, I’m sure this is a must. I will use your pantry storage checklist. I never knew there were twist off tops for 5 gallon containers and so many internet companies that offered large food quantities.
Thanks, Laurie! Purchasing ahead is a simple, great way to view an every day food storage plan!
Mel, how do you store dry pasta?
Hey Katie – I’ve found some great online sources that sell it in #10 cans so I have a few of those that I work through – otherwise, I just keep it in the plastic storage bags or cardboard boxes I buy it in.
I want to hear about the “punishments on back” for eating “Mom’s chocolate!!!!”. 🙂
Same!!! That cracked me up and also I’m going to label my stash right now!
Alicia and Stephanie – hahaha. My son made that for my 40th birthday a couple years back and I love it so much. He filled it with dark chocolate and now I keep it full (and myself happy!). He wrote the punishments on the back and they’re actually kind of frightening. Like, put your nose in the corner for an hour, go to bed five hours early, things like that. Haha.
I bought some Callebaut chocolate chips in a 3 pound bag from King Arthur Flour and went to use it one day only to discover only a few measly chocolate chips at the bottom of the bag. The culprit was my now 16 year old daughter — needless to say she now knows what chocolate she can snack on 🙂
Haha. That’s hilarious. And EXPENSIVE! She has good taste in chocolate chips. 🙂
Great stuff, friend! Another way to begin is to think about storing the non-food consumables that we all need to buy regularly: deo, shampoo, laundry soap, etc. (And yes, toilet paper). A few advantages to beginning here are 1) these items often go on sale and since they do not expire, stocking up is easy (within REASON of course) 2) when money is tight, I get really annoyed that I have to spend on these things 3) we often have some wiggle room here brand-wise. My family likely won’t notice when I pull out off brand paper towels but if I mess with their peanut butter, there could be blood. 4) these can be stored in the dark recesses under sinks and other places where you might not store food.
Clearly these things won’t substitute for food in a pinch, however, they are essential, store-able (sp?) and having them on hand can free up budget money for other important things. Like unexpected car repairs. Or chocolate chips. Hey, what you consider to be an emergency is nobody’s business but yours!!
Thanks for the tips – great place to start, Teri! And basically a great reminder that food isn’t the be-all and end-all. Deodorant is important, too! 🙂 And I laughed at your name brand comment. So true!
I homeschooled my two until they graduated and recently started teaching at an elementary school. I was shocked at how many kids do not know Aesop’s Fables. They teach so much to littles. You sound like a true ant (compliment☺️) I am thankful for this post and for telling people that planning for the future is doable.
Haha, thanks, Toni! I was raised on Aesop’s Fables, so that really is a true compliment. Thank you!
I’ve been a fan of your site for 8+ years now Mel, and this is one of my all-time favorite posts! Everything was well said and really well explained. I’ve couponed for years and have a great 3 month supply, but I need to work on my long-term storage items. And your videos and recipes have taught me to not be afraid of yeast doughs, ha! So THANK YOU! Now I’m off to check out the links you mentioned and play with the spreadsheets!
Thank you so much, Kim!
Thank you Mel! I love this post!! My husband and I’ve been guilty, until recently, of moving our boxed, never-used food storage from state to state! No more!! We moved to the Boise area this past year and gave away all of that food storage to people who were so happy to get it! When we finally settled in it was the end of January! Talk about timing! We immediately got to work, before the pandemic really hit, and started to rebuild our new and improved food (and other) storage! We bought TP at Costco before everyone went crazy for it!! Tender mercies!! So, I’m grateful for this post so that we can begin to use our dehydrated food storage mixed with our everyday storage! Take care and stay safe!
Hi – welcome to the Boise area Sandy! We are in Meridian. I’m glad you found Tp before you couldn’t 🙂 Hope you love Idaho!
Hey there, Sandy! I love that you are reinventing food storage for you and your husband! And you’re right, storing other things besides food (like TP) is important, too!
Just one question please? Did I see that your honey is stored in a plastic bear? I was told by a local bee farm that honey should never be stored in plastic. Now I’m confused…?
Hi Sue – I guess I would need to look into that. I store my honey in plastic buckets (that’s how they come to me from my local apiary).
I can’t be the only one dying to hear the testimony you mentioned! Pretty please?
I wouldn’t say I’m a food storage newbie, I have a solid home-canned collection and we have a meat freezer- but I love the tips you’ve shared! Thanks for taking the time to write them up! Can’t wait to look through the spreadsheets
Agreed, I’d love to hear it!!
Thanks, Alissa (and Megan!)…:)
If you are short on space for storing food, try putting your beds up on bed risers. Lots of extra space almost instantly!
Yes, great idea!
This is great. I would love, love, love for you do do a post/tutorial on canning sometime this summer! It is something I have always wanted to learn. My grandmother had a canning pantry and canned just about everything. When I was old enough to learn though, she was too old to continue canning, and it is something my mom never wanted to learn.
You should search the site, she has several canning recipes/tutorials!
I’m planning on doing a few more canning recipes (although most of the ones I use are widely available online since I don’t think it’s a really smart idea to experiment with home canning and the food safety issues that go along with that). I do have a few canning posts if you use the search bar above!
For years I have been doing a “living food storage” – I didn’t know it had a name! I’ve also had so much guilt about not doing food storage the traditional or old way. (Was I breaking some kind of commandment by not storing #10 cans of stuffs we would never ever eat?) Thanks for making me feel better about doing it this way!
Right?? I had the same guilt. Then I let it go. And it felt amazing to figure out a way that worked for me.
Loved all this info, Mel. I, too, have a “living food storage” but have never used that phrase before. It explains it perfectly! I’ve also found that we aren’t big freeze-dried fruit/veggie fans, but felt like I was the only one who felt that way. Ha! Solidarity!
Also, I wanted to pass on that the new powdered milk the church sells is so good. They had a taste test at a RS meeting and I couldn’t even tell the difference between the fresh milk and the powdered! It was shocking. Unfortunately I already have so much of the old stuff I’m trying to work through, I haven’t bought any yet. I bake with the “inferior” stuff all the time with great success, and can’t wait to use it up so I can justify buying some of the better stuff.
One question…I’ve had a hard time using up powdered butter. It makes everything taste bad. Any other suggestions for oil storage? I always have a couple big bottles of canola oil on hand, but you can’t keep that stuff forever so I don’t have a good long-term oil solution.
Thanks for being kitchen go-to! Love your blog so much!
Serious?? The powdered milk info is news to me! Do you know why it’s different! I’m excited to try it! Long term oil or butter is tricky. My only solution is kind of how I do everything – I work my way through what I have and replenish as needed for a backfill supply so that everything is used before expiring but we have some waiting in the wings. I also don’t love powdered butter – although I do keep quite a stockpile of butter in my freezer. Assuming we would have power, it could get me through for a little while!
from my experience and not anything official…..except I read that cooking oil has a one year shelf life…..but don’t throw it away as I was thinking could it be used in an old fashioned oil lamp??
A good kind of real olive oil, like Costco brand extra virgin, can be stored up to 10 years if kept in a DARK cool dry place. Then if you actually got to the 10 year mark and opened it, I’d say store it in the fridge while using, though it does somewhat solidify when chilled.
Other oils MUST be rotated on a yearly basis, so again, if it isn’t used within the year time frame, I put it in fridge.
I have noticed the avocado oil I buy at Costco does well for me on a 2 year basis.
Although shortening can be stored 4 to 8 years from my experience Crisco stored best for the longer period.
Coconut oil can be stored 5+ years if kept in cool place.
Thanks, Mel!! We’ve been eagerly awaiting your docs & spreadsheets b/c I’ve never quite finished mine, lol… I’m glad for everyone’s additional comments, too!
One thing we’ve found super helpful for planning (especially as our family has grown & grocery costs have skyrocketed!) – is buying for specific meals or meal categories. For instance: having one week of breakfast foods on hand (eggs, cereals hot & cold, frozen & canned fruit, yogurts, mixes or scratch ingredients for baked goods, freezer muffins, burritos, etc) – then working up to a month, 3 mos, etc (as you mentioned!) – same thing with dinners… A variety of full meals on hand: one simple one (& easy to store long term, esp if you don’t have extra freezer space) – is a box/bag of pasta, jar/can readymade sauce, 2 cans of favorite veggies or fruit. That = one full dinner for a family of 4-6. Cost around $5, easy to scale up.
This is a very simple method to store what you use & use what you store – building on the “living food storage” principle & ensuring you have all the favorites on hand at any given time!
And to reinforce one more thing – as you become intentional in planning & preparing, your $1/$3/$5 each week makes a HUGE difference in your life & you’ll see results before you know it!
Thank you so much for your ideas and tips, Angie! I love hearing how other people “do” food storage. It inspires me and gives me a lot of great, new ways to think about it!
Can’t thank you enough for this post! I have some food storage, but never know at any given time how much or what I’m out of. These spreadsheets and your explanations are so straightforward and do-able. Can’t wait to get started organizing and keeping these close at hand so I always know what I have and what I need. You’re amazing and thanks for sharing with all of us.
Thank you, Jill! That was my main goal – I didn’t want to overwhelm anyone…just make it pretty straightforward.
This is so great! I was looking at Pleasant Hill Grain’s site today, and they have a square storage container similar to your flour container here: https://pleasanthillgrain.com/five-5-gallon-square-buckets
Thanks for all of the info and resources!
Oh cool – thanks for sharing!
I love you. So much.
My husband and I have been feeling the push to grow our food storage, but neither of us was sure how to go about it effectively. He tends to buy willy nilly (so much corn and wheat berries!) while I tend to overthink and thus become overwhelmed (how am I going to cook that so they will actually eat it rather than choose to starve???)
Thank you for sharing! This is a HUGE blessing.
As a fellow overthinker, I GET IT. Hang in there and take baby steps. XO
Wow! This is so informative. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and hard work with all of us. It is very encouraging and inspiring. I really appreciate you and your openness. You are a kind and loving lady. I have loved following you for many years now and have an abundance of “Mel’s” recipes. They are my go to recipes. Thanks again for all your effort and time. Much love to you and your family.
Your heartfelt comment was so, so kind and SO very appreciated. Thank you, Cindy!
You put so much heart, soul and effort into this post !! I love your passion and dedication !! I have had a similar system over the years that has ebbed and flowed with moves and children’s ages! … I don’t think I could have ever put mine Into words the way you have done so eloquently and your spreadsheets are incredible !! Thank you for sharing this and so much of yourself and your time to help others be prepared in uncertain times, it’s a lifesaving effort and shows how much you really care about and love serving people!! I hope you got to sleep in the next morning after staying up half the night !! Love you Mel.. you make the world a better place with every post you share
You are so sweet, Helen! I’m dragging today but I am SO glad to finally get this post out of my head and onto the blog!
Where in Minnesota is the Amish granary? We moved to the Minneapolis area a year ago and I would love to go and check it out
It’s in Middle River, MN – called Natural Ways Mill.
Thank you for this post, Mel. I am sending it to my daughters-in-law who have big families to feed. Excellent ideas in here for all of us, just tailor to one’s lifestyle. I have learned that having a well stocked food supply is a great stress reliever and in these times, almost a necessity. I was pleased you listed some of your sources for staples as most of them were unfamiliar to me but I intend to try them. I do very much enjoy your blog and have made many recipes you have posted. Thank you.
I totally agree – it just helps give me some peace of mind. Thank you so much!
Wonderful! I do have some powdered milk and eggs that I’ve used in baking, but wouldn’t use by themselves. I like how you call it Living Food Storage, that’s why I’ve been doing for the past 3-4 years. Thanks Mel, you are Amazing!!
Thanks, Jocy!
THANK YOU for addressing the where question.
You’re welcome, Rebecca!
Thank you x100!
I’ve been floundering trying to organize our food systems but feel a sense of urgency to get my act together. Preparedness in an emergency is the main motivation but I also see prices rising as food supplies have taken a hit.
My big challenge is space for storage. Tiny house, no room under the beds…hot, hot garage in the summer months.
We live in a duplex, no garage or extra storage. We do have a combined kitchen dining space. We bought some metal shelves from the hardware store (black or silver, various depths & heights) and lined the dining room wall with them. It stores food, pots & pans, etc. and actually looks ok.
Mimi – those are definite concerns and issues that make storing extra food hard!! Kathy’s suggestion is a great one. Do you have any extra space up high in closets?
Mimi, I don’t know if this would work for you, but I know lots of people put their beds up on risers to make them higher so they can fit more food storage under them. Also maybe some creativity such as under bedside tables with a tablecloth to hide things, adding a high shelf in a closet, etc. A little organizing of storage spaces could free up space as well (like little shelves inside a pantry or kitchen cabinet that double your space).
Mel, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this post. So, so helpful!!!!
Thanks, Shelley!
As a self-proclaimed spreadsheet nerd, I absolutely love this. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Stephanie! Spreadsheet nerds unite!
Thank you so much for this post! I’ve been getting the mental nudges to get my food storage looked at and organized to make it more usable (more LIVING, as you said). This is so timely! I’m wondering what wheat grinder you use, and if you love it. Mine makes this horrible high pitched noise (has been doing that from the beginning) that the second I turn it on the rest of the family flees the kitchen as fast as they can . And it sprays flour everywhere! Grinding the wheat has been quite a chore. I would love to know which one you use. Thank you!
Not answering for Mel, just sharing my own experience; I have a Komo Fidibus XL and love it! I’ve been using it more than weekly for six years and it’s still amazing. I do wheat, oats, corn, peppercorns, even beans for an Ezekiel type bread. I bought it after reading Mel’s review of her Komo (I think Classic).
I love my Komo Fidibus XL! Been going strong for six years now.
I also bought mine after Mel posted about it. It is pretty and people always ask,” what is that on your counter ?” I have had mine for 9 years.
Hi Diana – thanks for the question. I added details to the post! But I have the KoMo Fidibus Classic; I’ve had it for probably around 10 years, I use it every day and love it. I got it after my older wheat grinder was spraying flour in a 1-mile radius and I knew I needed a change.:)
Thank you so much for this post. It makes me fee better about some of the things I’ve done for years and gave me some ideas for other items.
Thanks, Bryn!
Okay we really are supposed to be best friends. My spreadsheet that I already had made is SUPER close to yours. I added on a page of toiletries to make sure we’ve got the deodorant and other necessities for 3 months too
Yay! Great idea to add on the toiletries and non-food items!
I love it! Food storage doesn’t have to be just for disasters. I’m a stay at home mom and we use it as insurance with financial savings in case of job loss. It’s nice to know that if my husband lost his job we wouldn’t lose the house and we could eat well.
Having a home store is incredibly convenient too. It’s really nice to grab an extra bottle of ketchup from our food storage to replace the one my kid just used up right before our hamburger dinner, without making a trip to the grocery store. I shop sales with coupons, when they are available for the brands we use, so it’s actually not much more out of pocket than it would be for the same foods. Ibotta is good if you prefer digital coupons. They have savings for produce too!
Also, I’d like to chime in with my favorite long term food storage resource. Azure Standard!
We’ve bought buckets and gamma lids (the screw on lids) along with harder to find organic grains from them for very reasonable prices.
They also sell organic apples for less than our grocery store. These make great applesauce, apple rings, etc.
Last of all, when we prepare ourselves, we prepare to help others.
Our family lived in the south during hurricanes. Having a store of food went a long way to making sure we were fed so we would have the strength to muck out houses. We also were able to share the food we had with friends and neighbors.
I’m picking up my first order from Azure this month! Very excited!
L – love everything you said! Thanks for reminding me, also, of Azure Standard. I used to order from them years ago in Wisconsin and somehow had forgotten! Super excited to look into their items again. Thank you! I loved your last paragraph!
This is an amazing post. The current situation did remind me that we should have a 6 month supply of anything we can live with out! Thanks so much for taking time to write it!
Thanks, Kate! I’ve been reminded of the same thing the last few months!
This is amazing Mel! Thank you.
Thank YOU!
This is a wonderfully written post. You could charge us for this but no. You have provided your readers with a fantastic spreadsheet that we can customize for free!
Wow. Thank you.
I would like to add that having a garden and freezing vegetables is another great way to store food. We live in the South and our weather allows us to have something growing year round. Corn gets pulled off the stalk and placed with Shucks in a plastic storage bag. Our blueberries get put into storage bags and frozen too. I don’t can but we do have a vacuum sealer for freezing blanched vegetables. These are things that I will have to work into my sheet. Thank you for this great springboard of a resource. Amazing.
Thanks, Sheila! And I agree, having a garden and freezing or canning the fruits and vegetables is a practical, inexpensive way to store food. Thanks for mentioning that!
Well, you have definitely inspired me to up my game a bit. I just wanted to add that Country Life Natural Foods is an excellent source of everyday (and often organic) foods in bulk. Thank you for inviting us into the cracks and crevices of your pantry!
I love CLNF! Great prices and shipping charges.
Thanks for this recommendation!!
Thanks Mel! Where do you get your Einkorn?
I’ve tried this before, but I have a hard time cooking with ingredients instead of recipes. I tried to make a list of 30 of our favorite recipes and repeated them, but got tired of them. I need a mindset shift!
Also I have some of the freeze dried food and it’s helped in a pinch before (things like onions or celery), but then I don’t want to keep using it until the can is empty (mainly because onions and celery are much cheaper fresh!). I think once they are opened, they have to be used within 2 weeks. But I love being able to have fruits and vegetables.
Hi Candace, I’ve mostly bought it from einkhorn.com but someone recently said there are a couple farms in Washington that sell it, and I’m going to look into that.
Candace, I keep my opened #10 can dried food for a year, and the dried onions longer. Hope this helps! As long as the plastic lid is on it, that seems to keep it fresh. But I did notice the #10 can of dried meat I bought said it had to be used within 2 weeks.
I apologize if I missed this in the post but where do you get your 5 gallon buckets with lids?
Home Depot actually sells food grade buckets and gamma seal lids very reasonably, or any of the grain sites (Country Life Natural Foods, Azure Standard, Honeyville, Pleasant Hill Grain). Amazon has them, but the sellers are price gouging on them right now. They shouldn’t be more than about $15 for a bucket/lid set.
We’ve found ours at army surplus, farm supply (IFA, Tractor Supply, Cal-Ranch, etc) wholesale stores (Costco, Sam’s, BJ’s) & more! Even at a regular grocery store – it’s worth asking! More & more places are carrying emergency essentials during the pandemic 🙂
If you have a WinCo Foods near you, they do as well.
Hi Tara – thanks for asking the question. I actually added some links for places to find some of the supplies (I was finishing the post at 2:30 a.m. and my brain misfired on including that info in the first place).
Thank you for this post! I am not LDS but I am a HUGE food storage nerd. We moved to a small town in WI from DC and, preparedness didn’t feel as critical. I had kind of fallen off the wagon, but in January felt that “nudge” and started getting organized and building things back up. I would love to see more posts on FS and preparedness! It helps keep motivated and inspired, plus it’s just PRACTICAL no matter what current situation we are in or where we live.
This is such a good resource! I love hearing where people are buying food storage at reasonable prices (plus, I need the deets on your SW Idaho sources 🙂 It’s so good of you to share.
Thanks, Emily! Sounds like lots of us have felt those nudges! I totally agree – it’s just practical and prudent!
How do you store the leftovers if you open a large can of something like beans but don’t use it all in one recipe?
This is amazing! Thanks Mel! Where do you buy your big bags of oats and wheat berries? I had a great local source, but we’ve since moved to a new state. Thanks!
Hi Haley, I mostly get them online (from Rainy Day Foods…and I also added some other resources in the post), but I found a local farm about 40 minutes from me that also sells wheat berries and oats, so I have gotten buckets there, too.
Not sure about Mel, but at my house we freeze them in smaller portions.
Hi Jennifer – if I open a #10 can and don’t use it all, I put a lid on it (I have a bunch of white lids that fit #10 cans – every food storage item I’ve bought in a #10 can has usually come with a flimsy but still durable white lid). And then I use those as my pantry go-tos for that ingredient. Like, right now, I have #10 cans of quinoa, steel cut oats, cornmeal and a few other things that I opened and I’m working through. Does that help?