4 Must-Have Items for Serious Home Food Storage
The “Harvest 72 Food Rotation System”
The Harvest 72 is a 72 inch tall and 36 and a half inch wide shelving system which allows you to store up to 600 cans of various sizes. The shelves are designed with slanted racks that allow cans to roll forward each time one is taken. The shelf system comes with 58 magnetic food labels that can be used to keep track of your inventory.
New canned food can be added at anytime because the system is “front loading,” and new cans will stack up behind the older cans, allowing the oldest food to be eaten first and the newer cans to roll down as older ones are taken out.
The Harvest 72 costs $449.99 and is available on line through shelfreliance.com.
Water Barrel and Water Filtration
Water can be one of the most difficult things to store in your food storage. Since water is so important to our diet. It would be nearly impossible to store a year’s supply of water. Emergency preparedness websites suggest a 2 week supply of water, which comes out to about 14 gallons per person. For a family of 5, this means 70 gallons of water.
One of the easiest ways to store water is in 50 gallon food grade quality drums. The drums can be filled and kept outside or in the garage. Since water stores best when kept out of the light, the opaque, blue drums make perfect water storage containers.
Water barrels can be found locally through container companies for around $55 each. They are also available on-line.
A water filter provides additional security that you will be able to get clean water in case of an emergency. The Katadyn Pocket Filter is made of heavy duty materials and works well under extreme circumstances and when used continuously. It’s able to process up to 100 times more water than standard water filters and can filter up to 0.2 micron. It comes with a lifetime warranty and sells for $219.95 at beprepared.com.
Wheat Grinder
Wheat makes a perfect food storage item because when stored correctly in it’s whole form, it can last for 25 years or more. However, there are just a few things you can do with whole wheat, culinarily speaking. A wheat grinder will allow you much more versatility with your whole wheat storage.
Good wheat grinders are not cheap, but they will be able to turn your whole wheat in to cracked wheat or flour quickly and efficiently.
The Nutrimill sells for $249.99 and will grind wheat as well as any oats, rice, triticale, kamut, spelt, dried pinto beans, popcorn, split peas, buckwheat, barley, rye, millet, sorghum, dried mung beans, chopped chestnuts and soybeans. It is an “impact” grinder, and does not create high heat like stone grinders. High temperatures cause your wheat to lose some of it’s nutritive value, but on stone grinders, it also causes “glazing” on the stones which reduces the grinders effectiveness. Nutrimill’s grinder is the coolest running impact mill. It is also one of the quietest grain mills, with a decibel level about the same as a vacuum cleaner.
Impulse Heat Sealer
One of the best ways to store dry goods such as pasta, flour, sugar, grains and legumes is in Mylar bags. Mylar is great for food storage because it keeps light, moisture and pests out of your food. The bags are reusable, lightweight and easy to store.
Mylar bags are sealed using a heat sealing process. This can be done using a household iron and a wooden dowel. However, if you’re serious about food storage, you will want an impulse heat sealer which will easily and uniformly create an air and watertight seal. When you place an oxygen absorption packet in your Mylar bag before sealing, the bag will even self vacuum pack, giving your food an even longer life.
Impulse heat sealers come in different widths and sell for around $135.
