Food Storage

First off, I believe in food storage. I know that had we had a year's worth of food, our recent experience with unemployment could have been much less painful (and humiliating).

Today in Church we heard from an older couple on the topic of "How food storage can bless us." This couple had been serving in the Church Cannery over the last two years and had some valuable insights into food, its storage, and why in the world the Church makes raw wheat available to its members.

We have made it a family goal to amass a viable supply of food that we can rely on should we delve back into unemployment. Neither I nor Jenny have a very good track record of storing food. We have made several attempts after similar talks in church and subsequent trips to the cannery. However, powdered milk, potato pearls, and dried beans never seemed to catch on at our house. So lieu of those things, we have a 6 month supply of fruit leather, toilet paper, and applesauce. Actually, I have to assume that we're not the only ones who don't favor the food selection that the cannery offers because the couple who spoke in church today related a story of a gentleman who buys bunches of food to give to widows. I kid you not that they said: and he has found ways to cook the food too.

As Jenny and I were talking about food storage during our trip home from OK, I had a epiphany. I realized that if we ever hoped to store food in a meaningful way, it would have to be food that we would actually eat (read: not from the cannery). So we decided to start buying extra rice, chicken broth, crackers, spaghetti sauce, etc. each time we go to the store. This way, we can rotate in the older stuff, replace it with fresher products, and never have suffer through another can of dried apple slices.

We actually acquired some chickens this week as part of our food storage effort. I'm thinking that it will be a way to teach the kids some responsibility, while having the added benefit of farm fresh food in our back yard. We'll see how it goes. I like the idea, and it doesn't seem too hard to care for them. Don't be suprised, though, if I start offering free chickens.