Mylar Bags And Long Term Storage (farm, wheat, house, water)

[ylisa7]

Sorry if this is a repeat but I needed some answers. I hope you can help

I have a few questions regarding packing and storing food for long term.

1. Is there a site about quantities needed per person somewhere? A good recipe book for stored foods?

2. If I get the food grade 5 gallon buckets, can I do smaller mylar bags and oxygen absorbers in each one? I would like to store some food very long term..but once I open them there is no way I will be able to consume 5 gallons worth of food.

3. Do you have to have a "gama"(?) sealed top?

4. Where are the best places/prices for these items?

5. Does anyone know of a video I can watch for prepping? I retain much more by visual aid.


Thank you

[lollykoko]

I tell people to keep an accurate food diary for at least a month. That will tell you what your consumption is, both in type of food preferred and amount. Then start looking at what you need to stock for personal use.

It doesn't do any good to know that a half pound of hard red wheat per person per day will suffice to make bread if you don't eat bread, or bake your own.

[lifelongMOgal]

Have you already seached the "sticky" at the beginning of this forum?

I'd also suggest reading through the threads in this section dealing with food storage and such as there are, buried within, valuable links to websites, blogs, etc... .

The "gamma" lids are for ease of opening. They make sense if you plan to repeatedly open food storage buckets to remove individually sealed food portions in mylar bags, IMO. You might go 50/50 on gamma vs. the less easy to open lids and place the gamma on that which you are rotating through since those lids are the more expensive.

Since "prepping" has become more mainstream and there is more demand you really have to just shop around when it comes to finding the best prices on storage containers when they can be found at all for a reasonable price.

Check Amazon for recepie books on food storage items. There are a number of them. Better yet, think about what you eat regularly and prepare with relative ease. How can you adapt dehydrated foods to your normal diet and in which recipies as you plan to rotate through eating what you store on a regular basis?

[Jerseykat]

Have to agree with lifelongMOgal that's it's not just having food & preps stashed away, you have to know how to use them.
There are quite a few sites which show what to prep, how to prep and how to use preps everyday.
You might try some of these:
Everyday Food Storage Everyday Food Storage Recipes
Preparedness Pantry Preparedness Pantry - Food Storage, Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Kits, Water Storage: 12-can Baking Combo Giveaway (http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/2011/02/12-can-baking-combo-giveaway.html - broken link)
Food Storage Made Easy Food Storage Made Easy

[FreedomThroughAnarchism]

Many questions. I'll answer briefly at first, and then see if I can come back with some better answers in an update because I'd have to dig a lot of stuff up from my bookmarked links.

Originally Posted by younglisa7

1. Is there a site about quantities needed per person somewhere? A good recipe book for stored foods?

I'm not religious at all, but you might see numerous people here make reference to LDS related things. This has to do with the fact that Mormons are well known for their encouragement on the odea of preparedness, and its not an exaggeration to say that they sort of wrote the book on the subject. They even have facilities all over the country dedicated to supplying preparedness items:

http://www.abysmal.com/LDS/Preparedn...eparedness.pdf (222 pages)

If you are not religious, just skip over the obvious religious stuff and pretend it is not even there.

There is a more "to the point" manual they wrote, minus all that religious stuff... but the manual linked above is more comprehensive, so just skim through that. To my recollection, one of their manuals gives good guidelines on how much food to keep on-hand for each family member.


Not sure on the issue of good cookbooks. I have been meaning to get one for a while, but have not gotten around to it yet. The ones I had seen thusfar on amazon.com had mixed reviews, so I wasn't really in a hurry to buy them.

There are a few books on Ball Canning and Preserving (Ball is a major company that makes canning jars), which is pretty much the definitive book on that matter. Though canning is its whole other specialty that not all preparedness people are into, as it requires a whole other level of skill. People usually start with dry goods first.

Here are some books I had checked into before:

I Can't Believe It's Food Storage by Crystal Godfrey
Cookin' with Home Storage by Peggy Layton; Vicki Tate
Cooking with Food Storage Made Easy Debbie G. Harman
Dinner Is In The Jar: Quick and Easy Dinner Mixes in Mason Jars or Mylar Bags by Kathy Clark
It's in the Bag a New Approach to Food Storage by Michelle Snow
100-day Pantry: 100 Quick and Easy Gourmet Meals by Jan Jackon
Simple Recipes Using Food Storage by Cedar Fort


Cookin' With Beans and Rice by Peggy Layton
Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis by Peggy Layton
Food Storage 101 Where do I begin?

Another good thing to check into is there are magazines and little booklets on "Crock Pot cooking" that can often be very useful for preparedness meals. Many of the recipes are absolutely delicious and high class home cooked meals. I find these booklets very often at the supermarket check-out line in the rack where they often keep all the tabloids. There are a bunch of companies that produce and sell them widely. There's also whole magazines found in many magazine racks at the bookstore that have similar crock pot type recipes that they publish a few times a year.

Amazon.com: I Can't Believe It's Food Storage (9781935217176): Crystal Godfrey: Books

Amazon.com: Cooking with Food Storage Made Easy (9781598118551): Debbie G. Harman: Books

Amazon.com: Dinner Is In The Jar: Quick and Easy Dinner Mixes in Mason Jars or Mylar Bags (bw) (9781450550925): Kathy Clark: Books

Amazon.com: It's in the Bag a New Approach to Food Storage (9781599553856): Michelle Snow, Trent Sno: Books

Amazon.com: 100-day Pantry: 100 Quick and Easy Gourmet Meals (9780882909691): Jan Jackson: Books

Amazon.com: Simple Recipes Using Food Storage (9781599551074): Cedar Fort: Books

Amazon.com: Cookin' with Home Storage (9781893519015): Peggy Layton; Vicki Tate: Books

Amazon.com: Cookin' With Beans and Rice (9781893519046): Peggy Layton: Books

Amazon.com: Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis (9780761563679): Peggy Layton: Books

Amazon.com: Food Storage 101 Where do I begin? (Cookin' With Home Storage) (9781893519008): Peggy Dianne Layton: Books

Originally Posted by younglisa7

2. If I get the food grade 5 gallon buckets, can I do smaller mylar bags and oxygen absorbers in each one? I would like to store some food very long term..but once I open them there is no way I will be able to consume 5 gallons worth of food.

Breaking your food portions up in smaller sizes is the best method, in my opinion. I am surprised more people don't do it that way. It's quite a bit more work at the outset, but not really all that much in the grand scheme of things.

Consider vacuum sealing bags also, as the inner bags... instead of the mylar. They are transparent, making it a little easier to get an idea of what is inside it should your memory need refreshing (also lets you periodically check on the contents condition by observing the coloring, to make sure nothing is going wrong with it. Get a Food Saver manual (not automatic model - they suck royally) vacuum sealer from walmart for like $80.

It doesn't hurt to have a redundant secondary seal (many individual or family sized portion bags inside the larger bag) on the food to enhance longevity. The other bag is sealed, but then you have baglets within the larger bag, each having its own additional seal.

Originally Posted by younglisa7

3. Do you have to have a "gama"(?) sealed top?

Have to have them? No. But if one is going to go through all the effort to order stuff online anyway, it probably is worth it to get them, given their additional convenience. Not every bucket you ever have has to have them.... but if you can start your collection off with a few, you would probably find it more convenient, come opening time.

The emphasis should be on using the lids for things you are more likely to open more often, including food you intend to eat during a non-emergency. To point out the obvious, not everyone who stores food is really stashing it away for emergencies. Some of us actually eat food from our supply on a somewhat to regular basis for a variety of reasons. (For example, I regularly crack open my supplies because I am very much into hiking and camping, and my supplies make good camping food. But beyond that, I even eat many of the supplies regularly at home, just because I like what I buy).

In that latter case, it would help to have lids that come off easily (Gamma lids), if you are going to regularly dip into your food supply.

Originally Posted by younglisa7

4. Where are the best places/prices for these items?

Some of the least expensive food I have found to come from Walton Feed. They have some of the cheapest prices I have seen on assorted dry goods. Internet Grocer is another one that sells dried goods pretty cheap with prices that somewhat track Walton Feed.

Emergency Essentials is another company to check into. Emergency Essentials - Be Prepared Emergency Preparedness Food Storage
While Walton Feed and Internet grocer focus mainly of really inexpensive bulk dry goods (though they have other really nice stuff), Emergency Essentials is more of a comprehensive supplier of preparedness stuff, overall.... not just food.... but miscellaneous supplies.

Food Storage Containers - Emergency Essentials

Above is their link to the packaging products page... includes various size food storage buckets, gamma lids, mylar packaging, and oxygen absorbers. I don't know how competitive their prices are... but that link should give you a good way to comparison shop by comparing it to other companies prices.

Originally Posted by younglisa7

5. Does anyone know of a video I can watch for prepping? I retain much more by visual aid.

I'll have to check into that. I watch a lot of preparedness people on YouTube. They might not be your cup of tea. Might be slightly sexist, but I tend to watch mainly the men preparedness people. Though there are quite a few womens channels that I have stumbled across that I found interesting, I'd have to look those up again.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

FreedomThroughAnarchism pretty much answered it all

One thing that I have done is to make a bucket with a month's worth of smaller vac-bagged portions of all my foods, and then seal those in Mylar with an oxygen absorber and a desiccant pack. That way I can just grab a bucket a month and I don't have to worry about resealing buckets and bags. For high-use bulk stuff like flour/wheat, salt and sugar, I do make a bucket with just those items vac-bagged in 5 or 10 lb units since I can go through those a little faster than my monthly buckets (especially during baking and canning season!). Having a gamma lid on those buckets comes in really handy since I'm in and out of it frequently and snap lids are a PITA when it's really cold!

Of course, trying to make a monthly bucket means you have to know about how much of the different ingredients your family uses in a typical month... this takes practice and experimentation, but don't give up!! It's always better to err on the side of caution... it's preferable to run out of something in your bucket than to have too much that ends up going bad before you can use it.

But, if it works better for your organizational style to have a bunch of buckets with only a single thing in them, it works really well to vac-bag several of your average use units into one bucket. Oxygen absorbers and desiccant packs are pretty inexpensive, and you can get one of those nifty handheld bag sealers ("As Seen On TV" chip bag sealers) to reseal any mylar liners if you open a single item bucket to grab a portion pack out of it.

If you know you're going to use these within 1-3 years and you have dark-colored buckets with a good lid and/or store them in a dark place, then the mylar bags inside the buckets aren't critical since all you really want is to make sure that light doesn't degrade the food. However, for longer storage, lining your buckets with mylar also helps reduce oxidation because even vac-bags aren't perfect. They do make smaller mylar bags that have zip-closures, and I use those with a desiccant packet with highly perishable stuff like vegetable/dairy powders and fruit since they just seem to keep better that way.

[letsgobucks!]

Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons

you can get one of those nifty handheld bag sealers ("As Seen On TV" chip bag sealers) to reseal any mylar liners if you open a single item bucket to grab a portion pack out of it.

Do you mean one of these little inexpensive sealers will seal the mylar bags? I'm getting ready to do my first batch of long term storage in 5 gallon buckets and I thought I had to use an iron only because that's how I've seen them do it on a few web videos.

Amazon.com: EURO SEALER: Kitchen & Dining

Amazon.com: EURO SEALER: Kitchen & Dining

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Yes, you can re-seal a mylar bag with one of those little hand-held jobs. They don't last very long or get very hot, but they will seal up a corner of an already sealed bag. But for the initial sealing, either get one of the professional sealing irons (if you store A LOT of food) or just use your clothes iron.

[ylisa7]

Thank you all so much for taking the time out to give me some really good advice. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you. My DH and I just got back to TN and we have a list a mile long of things to do, at least it feels that way We are trying to make our Off Grid Home even better

Again thanks. I bought some buckets and lids from the local farm supply and I ordered my backs and oxygen absorbers. Now to find some good deals on food.

[ronandjayne81]

Also check out the LDS cannery in your area for the oxygen absorbers and Mylar bags. We've researched and found they give you more bang for your buck! Mylars--$.30 each Oxy. absorbers--$.10. You can also buy them in bulk--not that doing it this way gives you a price-cut, it's just easier to get it all in one shot. You can also buy ready-canned food they have sitting on the shelves in #10 cans, or even take the time to work as a team with others and can your own. We did this and had a lot of fun!! Either way you go--the way they do it is great!! Go to their website for a list of available items with a printable order/price-list form you can fill out and take with you. Oh BTW-- they take checks as well.

As far as sealing your Mylar bags--a plain old household iron works great. One of us holds the bag and the other "irons" it! Its a team effort but fun!

And for those of you who don't own a iron--or in today's day--don't know what one is (lol)---you can also use a hair straighter!! Again---it takes two to make it work EASIER--you can do it by yourself, just don't fill up your bags so that when you lay them down the food won't fall out--cuz those bags are SLIPPERY!!!!