Spelt, Wheat and Food Storage

Would you like to know a really interesting fact? Let me tell a story to illustrate it.

Once upon a time in the future, we had a major world food crisis. War was going on, and life was not pretty. We needed food to survive and could not grow it ourselves. So? We took the world wheat supply and rationed it out to everyone. (Those who had wheat allergies could share their ration with whomever they chose.) You only got a little over 2 pounds of wheat. WHAT??!?!?! TWO POUNDS!!?!?! How are you going to live on 2 pounds? The world wheat reserves are not what they should be, they won’t last us very long if we each had to live on just over 2 pounds of wheat. How do you feel about that?

I just read a news brief from a few days ago saying that we should have a larger wheat crop this year than last year, but don’t expect prices to drop too much. Prices will be moderated, probably. The article suggests that prices will  not collapse. That is good because costs of production has increased a lot. And a lot of countries most likely will be wanting to develop more of a strategic reserve than what they have, so should be considerable buying from them - particularly if prices moderate.

What is the moral of the story? Don’t count on your government to bail you out - they do not have the food reserves. Maybe you want to become better friends with neighbors and divide the food storage responsibilities. (I’ll get the grain, you get the fats, someone else get the…. and so on.) Or if you are able, get your food storage ready - you never know when you are going to need it.

More current events from Idaho. It rained today - a lot. Stopped us from finishing planting the grain. We enjoy the rain, but would really like to finish a “project”, if you know what I mean.

Speaking of grain, I checked and my friends are back in the business. They just received a new shipment of grain and will have it packaged and ready for Monday. Anyone want any?

Current prices are as follows for both red and white wheat:

• 45 lb buckets (ready for long term storage) $30.00
• 50 lb bags (ready for use) $25.00

Did anyone get milk or stock up on their current supply? I love the feedback.

Next week, we’ll focus on …. maybe I’ll surprise you. The element of surprise is always good! Looking forward to it.

What do you think? Would you rather have a forum where people can more easily input ideas, or just keep reading my input?

Did I give you the website for U.H.T. milk? You can do a search on it if you want, or you can check out my favorite milk from Gossners.

If you think UHT milk is a good idea, go here to learn more about how they process it and learn that this is great for trips, backpacking, hiking, school lunch, etc. They also list the flavors and sizes here.

http://www.gossner.com/home/gossner/admin.php?do=ipage&pageid=2&mid=2

Or you can follow this link to read more on their frequently asked questions:

http://www.gossner.com/home/gossner/admin.php?do=ipage&pageid=3&mid=4

It is really interesting and good reading. Happy learning.

I got to thinking… I’ll bet not very many people know much about farming in Idaho, so today, I thought I’d tell you what we are up to. The snow if FINALLY mostly gone and we have been planting spring wheat and actually, because we had such a hard, cold winter, we got to replant some of our winter wheat as well. We just got done planting the wheat, yesterday. We are a little behind compared to past years, but we aren’t too worried about planting right now. Today, we are in the middle of planting peas. Next will come the alfalfa and finally the Famous Idaho Potatoes.

Today was beautiful - warm, sunshiny. I planted my flowers that were feeling neglected. I hope the weather cooperates and that they will not die. One of my jobs right now is to be a gardener. I like to garden - flowers, vegetables. But somewhere in July, I forget that I like it, and my plants usually suffer. I have goals to do better at producing more beautiful flowers and gardens and vegetables than the previous year. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can… ”

p.s. Have you tried Dairy Maid Skin Cream? You know when your hands get super-dry after gardening or spring cleaning or just doing everyday stuff? This is the best hand cream (for men and women) to get your hands back to functioning normal - not cracked, dry, and bleeding from having all the moisture sucked out of your skin. It is also great for feet, heels, elbows, etc. You get the idea.

I hate powdered milk, to be more specific. Unless it is in a homemade hot cocoa mix (anyone need that yummy recipe?) I don’t want to drink it. I know we are supposed to have it in storage for “just in case”, but how could I bring myself to use it if I truly hate it?

I have pondered this question many times and think some of you may have as well.  Therefore, I decided it was worth writing about.

So, we have the dilemma, now what? I’ve decided I could possibly make it up and use it as an ingredient in cassaroles, mashed potatoes, or other dishes calling for milk, but I would NOT drink it plain. So, I can justify having a little bit in storage, for those emergency milk ingredients to combine with something else.

But what about my babies and milk for drinking?

WE FOUND A PALATABLE SOLUTION! It is called UHT Milk. UHT is Ultra Heat Treated milk. Just the way it is processed, it is sealed and stored on a shelf for a few years! (Recommended one year, but has been known to last up to three years!) It is real milk - tastes like real milk - and even comes in a variety of flavors. It is my newest favorite discovery. We found it at Gossner’s in Utah. I’m not sure how many other places do this, but if you need a great alternative to powdered milk - this is it. (By the way, I do not get commissions for recommending anybody’s products here… I just am happily sharing my discoveries.)

Got milk? I do - several drinkable gallons is a good start on my food storage.

(First, where have the days disappeared to? I can’t believe my lack of writing!)’

I finished eating a container of Planters Peanuts - Party Size - the other day. No, I didn’t eat them all in one sitting or even over the course of a week. It took a long time to empty that container. But, after I finished and wondered what to do with the container (throw it away, recycle, reuse it?) I figured out that they are really similar to those expensive food storage containers you buy empty at KMart or wherever. Eat lots of Planters Peanuts and get a free food storage container! What a deal! Unless, you happen to be allergic to peanuts, then you’ll probably want to go and buy your own unused containers.

What do you use them for, you ask? Well, this container I decided to devote to my dry bread collection. For making bread crumbs. I have children who do NOT eat the heel (ends of the loaf)of my homemade bread. So I cut the smallest, thinest slice I can possibly cut off of the end and make the next slice appear to be a middle slice. Tricky, eh? Then I usually leave that thin slice on the counter for a day to dry out, then I put it into my dry bread container for the next time I need bread crumbs.

I also have other containers that house rice, chow mein noodles, chocolate chips, and cereal.

Just make sure you get the party size peanuts that come in the clear plastic container with the cool hand grip on one end. They don’t just have those in Idaho, right?

Did you know you are supposed to prepare your wheat to be stored when storing long term?

Here are a few suggestions for storing your wheat, rice, noodles, legumes, and the like:

• You can “can” it or seal it in 10 pound tin cans using a dry pack canner.
• Use a nitrogen pack to create an oxygen free atmosphere
• You can use a 5 or 6 gallon bucket with those cool spin-on and off gamma lids. They claim to be air-tight.
• Use a 5 or 6 gallon bucket with a regular lid, sealed tight with a nitrogen packet.

Also, wheat has an incredibly long shelf life, so if you don’t rotate it for 20 years or so, it is still good to use after those 20 years have passed - so long as someone has taken the time to store it correctly.

Now, if you are only going to store it short term, you still want to make sure it is sealed in a bucket (you don’t really need a nitrogen pack for short term). But you do want to keep weevil and other pests out of your food storage, so make sure it is packaged nice and tight in some type of clean bucket or container.

Happy Storing!

I figured out that I have access to Food Paks for a decent price. The short definition is Food Paks are dehydrated foods in bulk. Here is an example of one food pak that would cost $599.00

If you are interested in this pak or more comprehensive ones, contact me at info@histakes-spelt.com and I will get more accurate shipping rates for getting it to you. Or if you just have questions about it, just ask - I am happy to talk to you about it. By the way, if you are anxious to get a good easy start to your food storage, I think this is an excellent way to go.

So, I’ve been thinking about building my grain storage and rotating it - how do I do it? I just do… I’ll try to put it into words and ideas, but I am totally open to more ideas and what works for other people. (So feel free to leave comments and give me ideas.)

I think that buying a 50 lb bag of grain - once a month might be more cost effective than buying several hundred pounds at one time - buy do what you can afford. To keep it rotated, you need to know how much grain you go through a month. I find that purchasing two of the same item and writing the date on them helps me with keeping track of how long it takes me to use and item as well as keeping track of rotation (using the oldest one first). Glad my mom taught me that trick.  =)

Also, if you buy one grain item per month, it also gets you in the habit of keeping up with your food storage and making sure you have enough in stock and not waiting until you run out of it to take action and buy a bunch of “whatever” to build your supply back up. Make sense?

So I was in Washington a few weeks ago and delivered some spelt to a bakery.  For fun, they gave me some of their product. They call their bakery the Live Bread Shoppe. Live because it uses FRESH ingredients that still have fresh nutrients. So, they gave me some of their Gourmet Healthy Cookies made of “uncompressed, wholesome, natural ingredients” and I was pleasantly surprised. I liked it. I was worried they would be just another heavy, wholesome piece of styrofoam (that is really what I think about a lot of “health” foods), but this was incredible. It tasted good and before I knew it, the entire (big) cookie was gone!

Go to their website http://www.livebreadshoppe.com for a picture and explanation of the anatomy of their gourmet cookies. It is kind of cool. They also have a great explanation about the “live” thing. And they use spelt!

They also gave us some of their apple pecan spelt live bread. That was better than I expected as well. I liked it toasted best.

To tell the truth, I’ve been meaning to write about that for a long time… I remembered again when I saw a stash of live cookies in my freezer this afternoon. Cookie anyone? It is healthy!

Don’t forget… here is the website:  http://www.livebreadshoppe.com/

Until later.