Food Storage: Not Just For Preppers

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[brentkreinop]

My grandmother raised six kids more-or-less on her own after my grandfather died in an industrial accident. She was born in the middle of the great depression, and lived in a very rural area of southern Indiana. She canned everything, and got that lesson ingrained in my dad. Dad hated the mess it made, so would plant enough tomatoes staggered out so that whenever he and mom had the weekend available to get it done, he could go out late one Friday evening, pick enough tomatoes to cover every flat surface that would see the sun rise in the morning, and once us kids were up and kicked out of the kitchen, they'd commence to juicing and canning tomatoes. At first, seven quarts at a time, then later fourteen once they remodeled the kitchen and got a slightly bigger range to hold two pressure canners simultaneously, they'd can a hundred quarts of tomato juice for our use, primarily in making chili. They'd also can another hundred to share around the extended family and trade for other things. All summer, we'd pick green beans and sweet corn and give them to the mail man, sell them to the grocery store, etc. Once Mom and Dad had divorced, and later Dad had lost his battle with cancer, I found some of their tax returns in a box. Their average annual income in the late 1980s combined was around $14k. On that, they raised three boys, all with hyperactive growth genes, largely by planting a garden that was 50'x150' at times, storing provisions from that garden, trading work for a local farmer during planting season and harvest for beef, etc.

[FrikInCasualMode]

Necessities: Flour, sugar, salt.
Products with long shelf life: Pastas. Dry beans and peas. Dried fruits and mushrooms. Cooking oil. Lard. Honey.
Canned foods.
Preserved fruits and vegetables.
Storable vegetables: Carrots, potatoes, beets.

Today we made 40 kilos of homemade sauerkraut for the winter.

Our grandfathers taught us to have a store of all of mentioned products before every winter. Just in case.

[adennis]

I think an episode on food storage in this century would be interesting, how did they keep things safe from critters or mold? Did they use root cellars or raised store houses?

[lDemonAngel]

Preparing for the worst while hoping for the best is a individual responsibility for each household.

[devilslamp]

Also: when something _does_ break, if you're the person who has 2 weeks worth of food in storage, you won't be buying up the limited quantities of food at the grocery store that other folks need.

[mamadragon]

"I like to make them a little different every time."

Bet the nutmeg is a constant, though, Jon. :)

[PaulTheadra]

My family was homeless when I was a kid, now I'm 40, well off, but I always remember to stock up and be prepared, no matter the abundance around me, just the basics, flour, yeast, garden, seeds. Brings reflection and gratitude toward any situation, but I understand not all people have this option. This video makes wholesome jealous of it

[stevenlarge]

Something very popular in England is the allotment. It’s a space of land with fertile soil that can be purchased for the purpose of growing whatever food one sees fit. I like growing carrots and onions as well as basil and thyme.

[PaleHorseShabuShabu]

My wife and I don't have a root cellar, so we do a lot of canning of the things we grow on our trees and in our garden. This year our peach tree produced so many peaches that we gave them away, both straight off the tree and canned. Same with our chili pepper and tomato plants. We gave away a lot of homemade salsa and kimchi. It's a good feeling to share what you have with those you love.

[moniquem]

I was having a big ole chat with my 90 year old grandmother a little while ago. We talked about all sorts of things. Somehow, preppers/prepping came up. She asked what that meant. I explained. She said, oh, so normal life. She went on to explain the things her parents did when she was young. They prepped. Even down to buying silver with their spare money at the end of each week as they didn’t trust the economy. Was rather mind blowing. This was in Australia too, so no snow and you can grow some veg right through winter, but still they stored food and prepped.

[jimkunkle]

Stocking necessities is a learned skill. There are ways to do it that aren’t going to break the bank and ways to maintain shelf stability. It’s something that takes time to do as well. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t have a years worth of food all at once. Build it up slowly. The important part is just getting started.

[mhmghb]

I learned from my grandmother. She always had a small garden and always canned the left overs. I don't can, but I do keep the pantry stocked. There's no reason not to have a months worth of food - beans rice and canned goods aren't that expensive.

[MissRedheadRapunzel]

I think it's really important that we focus more on food waste and how much we can save from preserving or getting the "ugly" produce and make it into food immediately to save it. We aren't treating fresh food as precious as it should be

[robynharris]

I got into the habit from reading and watching historian James Burke in the 1980’s.
He wrote the book and television series “Connections” about just how fragile our massively interdependent modern civilization truly is.
I keep enough food, water, energy, waste management, medicine, and other supplies to tide me over for a few months.
But I certainly don’t believe the nonsensical survivalist prepper fantasy, that I could live completely without modern society, or even survive beyond the two months I have planned for. People need to realize that we need to nurture and strengthen the bonds between ourselves, because we are never going to make it alone.

[mrdanforth]

The last 2 years taught a lot of people that you cannot always depend on being able to get whatever you want from the store. It pays to have some flour, corn meal, beans, and canned goods on hand just in case.

[kimfleury]

I'm only 60 years old, but just 40 years ago it was rare to have all the variety of fresh produce year-round as we see today. I remember as a child being overjoyed to see citrus fruits in the A&P produce aisle, because it meant Christmas was near. We always had an orange in our Christmas stockings. The only year-round fruit was apples, and the only year-round vegetables were potatoes and onions. All the others measured the seasons. I do think it's a good thing to have fresh berries any time of year, but the downside is that the luxury is lost on the young. People under 40 don't have the conservation mindset because they're so used to having anything they want at any time of year that they take it all for granted. Whereas I'm still tickled pink to have access to all the variety, younger people are less happy, less appreciative, and more demanding. It's not their fault, being that it's just human nature that when childhood is filled with luxury, children grow up to regard luxury as their right, and perhaps to look down on those who didn't always enjoy the luxury.

[stephikarolyi]

I started a garden 5 years ago and every year my knowledge grows and so does my garden. If I could offer any advice to someone overwhelmed with options of what to garden it would be to pick one thing and just plant it. Once you feel confident in your abilities try growing two things that accompany each other well and keep it going.

[sweaterdoll]

This channel has been instrumental in helping me choose a plan for putting by for the winter and developing a more homestead way of living. We took some ideas from the 18th century and some from more modern permaculture methods. We've taken advantage of our wooded yard to grow native shade plants that also provide food including lots of berries, ramps, wild ginger and more. The little sunny areas are now sites for a fall, winter, spring garden bed (summer is too brutal for me here) and a medicinal and edible and very bee-friendly wild flower garden. The simpler our responses to basic needs gets (heat, food, light, etc.) the more we find ourselves looking to the colonists ways of combining knowledge of the native edibles with some gardening, butchering, and non-electrically derived food preservation. Suddenly that "stockpiling" mentality turned into just a simpler and gentler lifestyle. More physical labor? Sure, but at 62, I find myself getting stronger and more healthy every day and the less we need to buy, the less I have to work away from home. Thank you for all your wonderful videos!

[bradlafferty]

Well done video. “For peace of mind” is a solid reason to put back provisions. Also liked your perspective that “something always breaks!” True words. A gentle reminder to look after oneself and the loved ones by having a store put aside. Thanks, Jon!

[marka]

I live on the Gulf Coast and, as a precaution, I keep what I call "Hurricane Buckets". Literally buckets with twist-off lids that I store shelf-stable food in. Canned food, dried pasta, spam, canned chicken, grits and/or oatmeal, molasses, honey, peanut butter, crackers, a rice and bean prepper soup I learned about and vac-packed; things like that. I also keep a bottle or three of hot sauce around to add a little heat to whatever I might make out of the buckets.

For full disclosure, I just moved from Houston further inland (and further north), but still Texas, so I don't actually have to worry overmuch about hurricanes anymore. Now my worry is tornadoes and ice storms. Guess I'll have to rename the buckets. 😉