Food How long will what I have last?
- Thread starter nomifyle
- Start date
1911user
Veteran Member
A link for Prep School Daily: Prep School Daily
She has books on food storage and in-depth home medical care. Both are at the link above on the upper right side.
She has books on food storage and in-depth home medical care. Both are at the link above on the upper right side.
1911user
Veteran Member
Use a spreadsheet to create an inventory of what you have stored.
Add the calories and maybe serving size, protein, fat, shelf life, etc.
Then calculate the total amount of calories worth of food that you have stored.
Divide the total calories by how many calories per day for one person. Be realistic about calories per day.
That will give a rough estimate of food duration for one person.
For 2 people, divide the rough duration estimate by 2.
Add the calories and maybe serving size, protein, fat, shelf life, etc.
Then calculate the total amount of calories worth of food that you have stored.
Divide the total calories by how many calories per day for one person. Be realistic about calories per day.
That will give a rough estimate of food duration for one person.
For 2 people, divide the rough duration estimate by 2.
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Meemur
Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
I'm laughing because some partners are like that. My last boyfriend used to give me crap about my pantry, until he was temporarily laid off and I was able to provide him with two bags of groceries without breaking a sweat. No more crap after that!
nomifyle
TB Fanatic
between the two of us we can get two meals from a pound of great northern beans. I cook the jiffy cornbread mix in a woopie pan and it makes 6 pieces. We each had two with our beans leaving 2 for DH for another bean meal.
The dried beans taste so much better than the canned beans.
The dried beans taste so much better than the canned beans.
helen
Panic Sex Lady
Two boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix makes two meals for both of you.
So get two cornbread mixes per pound of beans and it's two meals.
Plus, not meant to scare you, your appetite will go away under stress.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I am what I call a "nervous eater".
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
As for, "How long will it last?" I haven't ever sat down with a pen and paper to figure it out. From my best guess and what I have planned for all will last at least one good solid year without question but will more than likely last 2. That doesn't include the years' worth of long-term storage food that I have put aside.
It goes without saying that I'm continuing to build my stock as long as food and money are available.
It goes without saying that I'm continuing to build my stock as long as food and money are available.
One thing I've noticed, those estimators overestimate the amount of food per person. Maybe it's just us and the way I cook or the fact that we don't eat three full meals a day. I do a lot of scratch cooking and often turn left overs into a whole new meal...not so much to save money but to save work.
I bet you have more than enough but I understand. Ever so often I have a little panic attack but I refuse to stock more food than we can eat before it ruins. I use to do that but the waste was more than I could stand. Canning a lot of our food has helped. If y'all like dried beans, I bet you'd love them canned at home. They are nothing like what you buy at the store.
I bet you have more than enough but I understand. Ever so often I have a little panic attack but I refuse to stock more food than we can eat before it ruins. I use to do that but the waste was more than I could stand. Canning a lot of our food has helped. If y'all like dried beans, I bet you'd love them canned at home. They are nothing like what you buy at the store.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
We don't like dry beans of any king. I buy mine canned from the grocery store and don't pay much attention to the expiration dates. Home grown and canned are even better.
One thing people don't take into account is the sheer number of calories you will need to do everything by hand if the grid breaks down. Few people do physical labor these days, certainly not 40-100 hours a week. When I was first married, I was literally shocked at how much food hubby ate on a daily basis. He's not a big man... 5'6", and then about 150# of pure muscle, but if he didn't get 5,000 calories a day, he'd lose weight fast!
The best book for this is "Making the best of Basics" by James Talmage Stevens... it has myriad charts and worksheets, and gives the requirements by sex and age... the only one who needs more calories than a teenage boy is a nursing mother!
It's really difficult to stock up on everything... we could likely go at least 3 years on our staples (depending, of course, if the non-farming kids came here... we are no longer figuring on that, but if things get bad enough, they might. I had sufficient preps for 12 people for 2 years, but here we are only feeding 7, and 3 of them are under 5.
We're planning on getting set up to milk the cow soon... I'm so frustrated at buying dairy products that I always made. And with organic milk at $11 a gallon, it actually makes sense financially, since we're feeding her anyway.
I did give away all my #10 cans of stuff to my hired hand before we moved. It was mostly things like butter powder, dried sour cream, some biscuit and pancake mix, 6 grain cereal, etc. And lots of dehydrated vegetables. It mostly would have been "last resort" type stuff, and as long as we can keep a cow and gardens, we'd likely never have used most of it.
I sure hope I don't regret it!
Summerthyme
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SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Yep. After it's all said and done, I trust that what we have is what God has intended for us to have. He alone knows. That's why I've never sat down and tried to figure it all out and micromanage it.
DH and I still work like field hands every day...I couldn't physically do more than I do. I'm thankful every day that I'm still as able bodied as I am. If I consumed more calories, I'd gain a ton of weight but I do understand that most folks are more sedentary than we are.
I hear you on the dairy. I wish we had a few good dairy goats. I sure miss ours but DH feels like it would be one thing too many on our busy schedules and he's right. Hopefully, we can get a few when we get to a less hectic spot. I know where there are some I could barter for if TSHTF.
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
This^^^ We do have a well stocked pantry, and by that I mean lots of herbs, spices, etc., to make those beans and rice taste real good no matter what. Otherwise it ends up getting wasted before I can use it all even with regular rotating of the canned and dried goods.
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I keep my store bought canned stuff well past the exp dates too. If you like the store bought canned beans, you should give them a try in your canner. They are so much better and cheaper. There are a few different techniques. I soak mine overnight but not everyone does. They take the same processing times as meat so if I have an empty spot in the canner when I'm canning meat, I slip in a jar of beans. When that happens, I don't soak.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
So, you don't cook your dry beans before canning them? I didn't know you could do that.
John Deere Girl
Veteran Member
No idea, and I'm not going to stress about it. I've done what I can and will trust in the Lord for any of our needs.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Neither will I. We've done (still doing) what we feel the Lord has led us to do. Whatever is lacking (if anything), we'll trust Him for in the end. He's still capable of multiplying the loaves and fishes.
I have the books and have looked at the calculations. All seem high for older people.
I have noticed over the last couple of years that I don't use my foods as quickly as I expected.
Shortages in stores vs no food at all are very different. I could really stretch food.
In a true shtf situation , I have never imagined I would eat like today. Dried veggies and rice and oatmeal would play big part. Lots of stews and soups with whatever was on hand like pioneers. I keep a wide variety in frozen canned and dried so it wouldn't get dire for awhile.
I have noticed over the last couple of years that I don't use my foods as quickly as I expected.
Shortages in stores vs no food at all are very different. I could really stretch food.
In a true shtf situation , I have never imagined I would eat like today. Dried veggies and rice and oatmeal would play big part. Lots of stews and soups with whatever was on hand like pioneers. I keep a wide variety in frozen canned and dried so it wouldn't get dire for awhile.
nomifyle
TB Fanatic
SB I can't imagine not liking dried beans, I love them, although DH likes only a few varieties. I doubt I could get him to lentils, although not sure about split green peas.
I have the talmage book around here somewhere. Have to dig it out.
so two boxes of Jiffy mix per two pounds of beans, thats a lot of Jiffy mix.
I have the talmage book around here somewhere. Have to dig it out.
so two boxes of Jiffy mix per two pounds of beans, thats a lot of Jiffy mix.
school marm
Senior Member
The Cooperative Extension warns against doing this. They do not say why. Many, many years ago I pressure canned dry beans without pre-soaking. They cooked just fine. However, the seal failure rate was really high--like up to 1/3--and they didn't fail until after they'd been stored for a while. I finally decided the risks of failure or sickness just weren't worth it.
You would end up with mush if you cooked them first. A quart jar takes 90 minutes and a pint 75 minutes to pressure can and they are very tender when you are through. There are a ton of videos on youtube for canning beans and more than a few techniques. You can also follow the Ball Blue Book. You only put a cup of soaked beans in a quart jar. By the time they are done, you have a jar full. I prefer a mildly rounded cup myself because otherwise I end up with too much broth. Here is Kneady Homesteaders video canning soaked pintos. I trust her techniques and hse is just a precious person. She lost her husband about 18 months ago so her current videos are few and far between. She was almost killed in the wreck and is still recovering.
OOPS she must have it disabled for playing on other sites. Just do a youtube search for KneadyHomesteader canning soaked pinto beans.
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In my efforts to find SouthernBreeze a good pinto bean canning video, I discovered something strange. Many of the videos from the tried and true canners on YT are gone. Some have disclaimers and others won't allow their videos to be played on other sites. Strangely enough, the ones whose techniques I don't trust are still there...figures.
Rose Red has you cooking your beans for thirty minutes to make sure your beans are fully hydrated so you don't overfill your jars with too many beans. I get that for newbies but it only takes a few batches for you to realize exactly how many to put in your jar to hit the sweet spot. Those beans will be mushy...guaranteed.
My current advice...use the Ball Blue Book's directions.
Babs
Veteran Member
I have to soak and rinse my bean 3 times. The oligosaccharides in the beans are killer on my stomach. So, by the time they are done soaking, they are just about ready to sprout.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Since I'm using the digital electric pressure canner, I looked in my canning book. It says to soak, then cook the dry beans for 30 mins, then add hot beans and boiling cooking liquid to the jars, before canning. So, there is probably a difference in the canning methods depending on which type of canner one uses. I can still can the dry beans along with the meats, since both still takes 75 mins for pints. I can let my beans be cooking for the 30 mins while I'm cooking the ground beef to can. I don't raw pack the ground beef.
According to Rose Red, that's pretty much the new suggested technique across the board. I'd be anxious to see what the BBB suggests this coming year...probably the same. I'm going to stick with my current technique because if my beans were any softer, they'd be mush but that may well be because I'm canning at a slightly higher pressure than my current AO calls for.
The newer techniques are to make sure you don't put in too many beans for your jars. It's not a bad idea but I tend to end up with more juice and less beans anyway and have had to tweak my amount of beans. I've noticed in a lot of bean videos on YT that many canners end up with too much juice. It is better to err on the side of caution.
I'll be anxious to see how yours turn out. If you end up with a good consistency, that will be one more vote in favor of an electric canner. My mother's were perfect and I tried so hard to replicate that. Year before last, I finally got to an emotional spot that I could go through her stack of recipes. In the stack was a Kerr canning booklet from the seventies that she used a lot. Their directions were 75 minutes for a quart of beans...the same as their pints. It must have been a typo. It's a miracle we didn't end up with food poisoning lol. Her beans weren't overdone though.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I don't buy and store dry beans, so I don't have any to can right now. I was thinking of getting a few bags to try it with, though. If I do, I'll let you know how they turn out.
Thank you...I'll be anxious to hear your results.
The newer technique may be why so many youtubers have pulled their videos.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
The only kind of dried bean/pea that Cary will come close to eating are dried black-eyed peas. He can't stand lentils, and won't eat split peas, either. He will eat all kinds of canned peas/beans, just not the dried variety.