Additional long term storage items????????

[12vman]

Ok Ive done the pasta/rice/beans long term storage in mylar and o2 along w/ some other things like salt,spices,etc(w/o the o2)

What other things like powdered potatoes, pancake mix or oatmeal etc can be mylared and o2?

Which stuff needs O2 and which doesnt?

ideas?

thanks!!!!!

[Liberty1]

For the southern girl in me-I do grits!

[kev]

coco mix
potato slices for hashbrowns
corn meal

With sugar and salt you do need to use 02 absorbers

[Bearack]

Originally Posted by kev

coco mix
potato slices for hashbrowns
corn meal

With sugar and salt you do need to use 02 absorbers

And some have much shorter shelf lives like coco.

And double the note on the sugar and salt. You create bricks and really don't even need to use mylar for these. Buckets work fine.

[Gypsymoonfarm]

Because I have kids I've made some food fatigue buckets. Inside are powdered jell-o mixes, hot cocoa mixes, powdered milk, popcorn, and chocolate. I stored them in the smaller mylar bags with a variety in each bucket.

One of my kids is very picky so these buckets are to keep her happy. I also store a lot of rice for a wheat free kid. He likes rice cooked with butter, milk, and sugar. I store the sugar, can the butter (ghee) and have the powdered milk stored.


I've only been storing LT this last year. I will open the buckets in 2 years to see how they are holding up.

[Bearack]

BTW, another great item for long term storage is powdered eggs.

[C_Heath]

Originally Posted by Bearack

BTW, another great item for long term storage is powdered eggs.

Do these need to be mylared and O2'ed?

[Bearack]

Originally Posted by C_Heath

Do these need to be mylared and O2'ed?

That's a great question and unfortunately, the ones I own are already canned and I've not opened one to see if they have O2's in them.

[Horned One]

I imagine you could do simple cereals like Cheerios and such, just empty them into the mylar and drop in an O2 absorber.

Hey Kev, I thought that you didn't want to use O2 absorbers with sugar and salt because it made them turn into bricks. Is that inaccurate?

[Monique]

I suspect Kev made a typo and meant "don't need"

[Madgie]

No 02's in sugar and salt. Believe me you will need a jack hammer. I went through 2 ice picks on one bucket. Live and learn!

[toktok]

Buckwheat-buckwheat-buckwheat
Stores extremely well, provides as much energy as beans or rice and is superior to rice nutrition wise.

Pretty much all grains are excellent. Do not require O2, can sit for 4-5 years and provide fiber and a lot nutrients.

My personal favorites are:
Buckwheat
Millet
Oatmeal

[Chey's Daddy]

i would use o2s on everything.
if package is a brick. you know its sealed, if it goes soft, you know something happened
if there happens to be a bug in there or something else, it cant live without oxygen
i packaged in mylar for first time, 1 gallon bags, vaccumsealed with 2 300cc o2s. i want to be sure my stuff is packaged up good. i dont mind spending the extra 2 minutes and 50 cents on packaging for the added food security

[Ellen]

Per the LDS cannery, EVERYTHING needs an O2 except for SUGAR, but that applies when packaged in #10 cans and Mylar bags. I put O2 in everything but the sugar. The sugar will turn into a block either way but it does not require the O2 pack. I leave my salt in the original containers.

If I plan on sprouting my whole grains later I don't put the O2 pack in it, but I have NO experience on this, it just seemed right. I do have stored grain form my parents' stash of 1977 with no O2 packs, I gt about 85% germination rate on the wheat.

[TxHills]

Originally Posted by Madgie

No 02's in sugar and salt. Believe me you will need a jack hammer. I went through 2 ice picks on one bucket. Live and learn!

Correct. No o2 in sugar or salt. Not needed. Sugar and salt will last forever and remain "soft" if kept away form moisture and insect/rodents.

When packaging other items, if you use mylar and o2 absorbers correctly, they will draw the mylar down tight as a brick. When placing food and o2 into a mylar bag...leave a small amout of headspace in the bag before sealing it. Absorbers do the rest. That's their job. Here's a pick of elbow mac, as an example. There is a lot of "void" space in mac, but you see how the absorbers still draw it down.

[MikeK]

Basically, salt and sugar are about the only things that don't need protection from O2. Everything else ages, breaks down or turns rancid because of exposure to O2. Just about any dried food that isn't high in fats will last a long time stored away from O2, heat and light. Fats go rancid so they make foods that contain them spoil sooner. This is why brown rice doesn't store well long term. Yet other whole grains like wheat, oats, barley, corn, etc., store fine.

Things like powdered potatoes, milk, eggs, etc are all prime candidates. If you want to get an idea what stores well, browse some of the long term storage foods companies that have a large variety. www.waltonfeed.com is a good example.

[PastTense]

You might just store a larger quantity of popcorn and use it both for popping and for grinding into cornmeal.