# Sometimes I Wonder If I Take This Too Far?



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

So while putting some more rice in my prepper room in the upper barn, I realized that was the 2nd batch of rice this month. I buy 150 lbs of rice from Sam's Club most times I visit it & repack in my four of my 6 gallon pails with sealed mylar bags & oxygen absorber. This made me realize this month I've put up:

300 lbs of rice 
160 lbs of Emergency Essentials hard red wheat
6 #10 cans Emergency Essentials tomato powder
6 #10 cans Emergency Essentials peanut powder
5 gallon pail of corn syrup
25 lbs cocoa powder

Granted this was a rather heavy ordering month but I think it is time for an intervention.


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## 7052 (Jul 1, 2014)

Naaaa. If you can afford it, it just means you'll be eating well if the SHTF!


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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

Egyas said:


> Naaaa. If you can afford it, it just means you'll be eating well if the SHTF!


I totally agree. If you can afford it, then do it. I know that I would increase what I store, but $ only goes so far.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Egyas said:


> Naaaa. If you can afford it, it just means you'll be eating well if the SHTF!


Well I'm a practical person too, so if there is no SHTF event by the time I get more elderly, I plan on eating all this good food, God willing and the creek don't rise.


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

******* said:


> So while putting some more rice in my prepper room in the upper barn, I realized that was the 2nd batch of rice this month. I buy 150 lbs of rice from Sam's Club most times I visit it & repack in my four of my 6 gallon pails with sealed mylar bags & oxygen absorber. This made me realize this month I've put up:
> 
> 300 lbs of rice
> 160 lbs of Emergency Essentials hard red wheat
> ...


how close to Hell's temps does that upper barn room get on a Mississippi August day?


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

I find if I am way heavy in one area to then concentrate on a different one.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Illini Warrior said:


> how close to Hell's temps does that upper barn room get on a Mississippi August day?


Stays in the 60s thanks to the wonder of AC, no windows & good insulation. I put an in-wall ac unit in the back exterior wall.


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## Joe (Nov 1, 2016)

you are doing fine @******* Your rice can also double as chicken feed in a pinch.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

OK, so I'm worse than I stated. I forgot this week I put up garden seed. I store the bulk seed just like the food, in the pails sealed in mylar. Put up 2 pails containing 50 lbs of Truckers Favorite field corn seed, 20 lbs of pole bean seed & a few lbs of squash seed. Might recognize these as the three sisters.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Joe said:


> you are doing fine @******* Your rice can also double as chicken feed in a pinch.


I had no idea that was an option.
Had to go look it up, and sure enough. Good info!


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Egyas said:


> Naaaa. If you can afford it, it just means you'll be eating well if the SHTF!


Perhaps you could share your recipes making things with just rice, red wheat, tomato powder, peanut powder, corn syrup and cocoa powder.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

No, you're not going too far. I wish I had your resources. Can you ever really have too much food?


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

No you are not going to far, been there done that.

Storing food is always correct, stay in budget that's all, I do.


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## ND_ponyexpress_ (Mar 20, 2016)

I would be concerned if they were a short shelf-life item.... but long term stuff??? nah!


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Perhaps you could share your recipes making things with just rice, red wheat, tomato powder, peanut powder, corn syrup and cocoa powder.


Won't be cooking with just that stuff... that is just what I ordered this month. I've about reached my intended storage point on the basics, such as wheat, beans & rice so lately I've been stocking up on the ingredients to make SHTF life a bit nicer. But just for example, I'd use tomato powder ( and I already had quite a few cans in my inventory) to enhance bean dishes & rice dishes. My daddy was raised in south Louisiana so I grew up eating many creole dishes, so the tomato powder would be used if my supply of fresh or canned tomatoes from the garden were to run low. Okra grows like a weed down here, so add that to some some onions & peppers from the garden & say catfish from the pond, & that would be a rather nice meal... catfish creole. But I prep for the worst case, so if fresh food was not available, I figure tomato powder would make plain old rice & plain old beans taste a bit better. I added it after reading of a prepper who went thru some hard money times & lived off his prepper stores for a year & he stated tomato powder was one of his best items to make the food taste better. I too like having ingredients that will store as long as the other bulk stores.

The corn syrup is just a stable, liquid sweetener, so it is nothing fancy and would act much like my granulated sugar in storage, With my very large stores of wheat, I plan on doing a lot of baking and will be doing more than bread. The corn syrup makes baked items, such as cakes, cookies & candy all the better. I figure chocolate cake & cookies, along with maybe chocolate milk or hot chocolate, used with my stores of powdered milk, would be rather nice. I understand the cocoa won't store as long as my other goods (kinda similar to storing cooking oil). The peanut powder was another suggestion from that prepper living on his stores. So would be fine on sandwiches obviously but also could be used in baking treats.

IMO, many preppers only think survival but maybe neglect variety & flavor. So I have many spices & seasonings in storage so that I can mostly cook recipes similar to what we eat today. Of course I understand calories & survival come first and that I have handled rather well I hope. Now I'm just attempting to make our survival a bit nicer.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

ND_ponyexpress_ said:


> I would be concerned if they were a short shelf-life item.... but long term stuff??? nah!


Agree. Only short term food stuff I keep in my prepper room would be my stores of cooking oil & the cocoa powder. But I can live with rotating out those items, even if I have to toss them in a few years & reload with fresh goods. Really no different than my hundreds of lbs of garden seed in that same room. They can only last so long so the pails are dated & labeled. Each year, I add more to ensure I'll always have plenty, with some very fresh & viable and some maybe not so.


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## 7052 (Jul 1, 2014)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Perhaps you could share your recipes making things with just rice, red wheat, tomato powder, peanut powder, corn syrup and cocoa powder.


Was that ... snark? tisk tisk


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

******* said:


> Agree. Only short term food stuff I keep in my prepper room would be my stores of cooking oil & the cocoa powder. .


I tossed a gallon of cooking oil in the chest freezer and it froze nicely. Now I keep all 3 gallons of cooking oil in the chest freezer.


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## Go2ndAmend (Apr 5, 2013)

Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing!


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

John Galt said:


> I tossed a gallon of cooking oil in the chest freezer and it froze nicely. Now I keep all 3 gallons of cooking oil in the chest freezer.


That's where I keep my coconut oil.


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## 7052 (Jul 1, 2014)

Honestly, I had never even thought about freezing cooking oil. That's genius!


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

Egyas said:


> Honestly, I had never even thought about freezing cooking oil. That's genius!


a bucket of lard or cans of shortening are forever when you freeze them - better than freezing water for freezer filling - after you defrost the lard, the months and months of open shelf time starts ...

the extra fat/oils in your diet could be important if your SHTF menu is going to be mainly small game ...


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## 7052 (Jul 1, 2014)

Illini Warrior said:


> a bucket of lard or cans of shortening are forever when you freeze them - better than freezing water for freezer filling - after you defrost the lard, the months and months of open shelf time starts ...
> 
> the extra fat/oils in your diet could be important if your SHTF menu is going to be mainly small game ...


We store cooking oil & Crisco, but we currently rotate it out and use it. I don't know why, but I just never made the mental connection that stuff like that could be frozen.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

I really am a fan of coconut oil as it is so healthy & it is one of the longest storing oils. Virgin or extra virgin coconut oil is best from what I understand. I get the 56 oz container at Sam's Club & as stated, freeze it. My 5 gallon containers of cooking oil just stay in the cool prepper room & will have to be changed out every few years.


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