food storage – Page 3 – Gracious Rain

March 21, 2009July 5, 2020

The Elusive Year Supply

Now, where were we before all the drama?

Ahhh yes…

Those pesky goals:

New Year’s Goal #3

“I will buy at least one food storage or emergency item every week even if it’s just a can of beans.”

Yeah, yeah. Big plans. But too boring to keep my interest very long. Then I checked in my files and found an old handout from Relief Society–years back. If you have already seen it–good. If not, this should help. It’s titled, “One Year Food Storage on $5.00 Per Week.”

The idea is to use roughly 5-10 dollars of your grocery money toward a storage item (suggested here) and in 1 year, you’ll have a decent, basic supply for 2 people. I’ll post the whole handout as a printable PDF (see below) and then give the prompts here each Friday.

Oh, and since the grocery prices are always fluctuating–AND this is an old handout–be a bit forgiving if the items cost a dollar or two more here and there. You’ll still be working on a great project for about the same amount as lunch at Wendy’s.

So—let’s get started!

This week’s food storage prompt is: Two cans tuna, 2 lbs. salt

“The revelation to store food may be as

important to our temporal salvation today

as boarding the Ark was to the people

in the days of Noah.”

Ezra Taft Benson

One Year Food Storage on $5-10 Per Week Handout

Speaking of Noah—have you seen this? See below…

March 21, 2009July 5, 2020

Modern Day Noah’s Ark

The massive central door in the side of Noah’s Ark was opened for the first crowd of curious townsfolk to behold the wonder.

Of course, it’s only a replica of the biblical Ark , built by Dutch Creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible. The ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide.

That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house. Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold. A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine.

Biblical scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been. Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son Roy.

Construction began in May 2005. On the uncovered top deck – not quite ready in time for the opening – will come a petting zoo, with baby lambs and chickens, and goats, and one camel. Visitors on the first day were stunned. ‘It’s past comprehension’, said Mary Louise Starosciak, who happened to be bicycling by with her husband while on vacation when they saw the ark looming over the local landscape. ‘I know the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big.’

There is enough space near the keel for a 50-seat film theater where kids can watch a video that tells the story of Noah and his ark.

Huibers, a Christian man, said he hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands, where church going has fallen dramatically in the past 50 years.

March 2, 2009July 5, 2020

Food Storage Folks

The Bare-bones year supply!

Ok, so I am fully aware that everyone on earth does NOT store food and have a wheat grinder.

I also know that most people don’t really worry about updating a 72 hour kit and rotating the canned goods.

AND I’m sure it’s quite likely that if you announced to a lot of folks that there was a big sale on 50 pound bags of rice and black beans–they’d look at you like you had a blue face.

But then, on the other hand, I know that in these parts, there are quite a few families that have organizing a year supply and 72 hour kits as a pretty hefty priority. Some of us do try. But the dilema has always been–how to make it interesting?

Yes, you’d survive–but you’d be so bored!

Our ward has a new program that I want to tell you about–it’s called Wheat Watchers. They send out a weekly newsletter–which is worth signing up for–and have a blog to share tips and information so that if an emergency does come–we’ll know what to do. It promises to help us get beyond the boring basics and learn ways to take care of everyone without making them all sick.

Oh, go on…check out the site. It’s pretty cool. And you know, as long as we are trying to do this storage thing–we may as well be creative about it!

February 26, 2009June 28, 2020

Freeze Dried Ice Cream

A million years ago, when my kids were littler, I was the refund queen.

No, really–I was. It took a full sized file cabinet to store my UPCs.

Ask around, I’m not lying.

Ok, it was nuts…or I was nuts. Not sure which.

Anyway…way back then, Kelloggs Raisin Bran had a special offer. For every 3 UPCs you sent them, they would send you a package of “Astronaut Ice Cream.”

Sounded intriguing.

So we gathered our codes, mailed them in and happily earned 38 packages of the stuff. I know, overkill. But luckily–it was “magically delicious.”

To say that we became addicted to crunchy ice cream would be putting it lightly. Oh, how we savored that very last package because after all, when it’s gone…

…where can you shop for Astronaut food?

I don’t know how we managed, but somehow we lived without it for many years. In fact, we lost touch completely. Yes, it was a meager existence–I must say.

The years went sadly by and one day, while dinking around in Emergency Essentials I came across this:

It said, “Freeze Dried Neapolitan Ice Cream.” Could it be? Did I dare hope?

I dared, and JOY of JOYS– it turned out to be the exact same stuff that Neil Armstrong took to the moon! WAHOO!

The Andersons and space food—reunited at last!

Just the other day, we tried to share this fabbo treat with some friends and the reception was less than positive. In fact, they looked at us like we’d fed them dried squid.

In a word…it tanked.

So, maybe some people just can’t appreciate wildly exotic childhood luxuries.

It could be that Freeze Dried Ice Cream is a particularly acquired taste.

Or perhaps, not everyone is suited for space travel.

I vote the latter.