Local Food Storage Assistance Information

I have been storing and rotating a 6-month food supply for 1 1/2 years and most of it is organic. I took some online classes on food storage, cooking with grains and beans, growing herbs for cooking and health, and alternative methods for water, cooking, heat and light in an emergency.

Now that I am into this for over a year, I can see that my true grocery costs are going down because I am eating more whole foods and all I am doing is restocking and buying fresh vegetables (I am growing a lot of my own organic fruits and vegetables) and a few non-grocery items. I figure that I am saving about $200/ month with a much better diet. Also, I am saving at least $50/mo in gas, which I attribute to not needing to go into the market once or twice a week. I am also building a recipe file that is based on stored foods so it keeps my costs down even more.

The key seems to be to have a set of recipes that you really like that are made primarily from whole foods that are easily stored. I keep all of the ingredients listed by category (ie grains, beans etc) in a notebook with a column for how much of each item I want to store over 6 months (written in ink), and what I have on hand (written in pencil and revised whenever I use something from storage). Then, as I shop, I can just fill in based on what is on sale. It is a very simple process once you have it set up.

By using and replacing food as I go, I have learned that I stored way too much. My primary method of storage is 5 gallon food-grade buckets with gamma lids and oxygen tablets. I started out storing 12 different hard and soft grains (about 200 pounds), 11 different beans (about 12 pounds), about 15 pounds of pasta, 10 pounds of nuts, and 35 pounds of various sweeteners and honey (waaaay too much). I have industrial shelving where I also store about 20 cans each of various beans, soups, canned fruits and vegetables plus baking ingredients, oils, vineagars, etc., plus non-organic powdered milk/butter/eggs/cheese for an emergency. I have also learned that some organic items just don't store well or don't have a long shelf life (organic peanut butter and extra virgin olive oil) so I have to watch all of my expiration dates closely. I bought everything as it came on sale or through the Briarpatch bulk discount program and estimate that it cost me about $1000 to set it all up over time, including the buckets, gamma lids, large metal garbage cans for excess bags of grain etc. With the cost of food going up daily, this was a better investment than putting money in the market.