Thread: Be Prepared
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Old 12-13-2006, 20:29   #345
The Reaper
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Monsoon65
"Frankly, I wish there was a way to get the 5 gallon buckets or Superpails of hard white wheat, beans, powdered milk, sugar, etc"

Would it be too expensive to make something like that yourself?

I was thinking about this over the weekend. How about vacuum bagging rice (for example). Several bags of a certain amount that you think you'll need. Place that all in a five gallon bucket and seal that.

When you have to open the bucket, it's all pre-packaged and ready to go. Maybe if you can't reseal the bags, you can have a small container to put the loose food into for use.

I've been looking into vacuum sealers for a while now. I think they'd be a nice addition for storing food.
I have a vacuum sealer and some five gallon buckets, and know where to get oxygen absorbers. I also understand that local LDS churches have canneries and let outsiders use them when they do not need them.

The problem is that you have to have the stuff that you are going to seal on hand.

Since I am not making powdered milk, or granulated sugar, or processed hard white wheat, or dried pintos, you still have to get them shipped to you, which might as well be in the final packed configuration. Shipping charges are horrendous. The alternative is that I understand if you buty a minimum amount, they periodically send trucks out on the circuit route for semi-local deliveries, but the chearges are only reduced somewhat, and am not able to fill half of my garage with bulk food.

Anything that you can get in bulk locally could be packed as you suggest fairly easily, packing materials (buckets, bags, absorbers, etc.) and instructions are available online.

I suppose that you could configure buckets with a variety of staples configured as you desire (making acquisition easier as well), but I have not seen that done before. For maximum shelf life, the products still need to be kept in a cool, climate controlled environment, like a basement.

Good thinking though.

TR
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