52 Pick-up! 5 Gallon Food Storage plan

Here at Wicked Raven Farm, we are always looking to be self sufficient, and one of the best ways to do that is to preserve our own food!  Because we live in Alaska, we aren't always able to grow all of the items that we need to preserve.  So we have a food storage plan that we use so that in case of any emergency or catastrophe we will survive and thrive!

Why, you may ask, would someone know how to do this? What for? Well, I do it because my mother did it!  And her grandmother before her I'm pretty sure! We always had a cold storage room that housed our canned vegetables, meat and potatoes, but also housed an array of buckets and food storage containers.  It was our normal, but I often had friends over who thought it was weird that my mom would ask for products for the kitchen and we would go to the store room and produce a package of what ever it was that she needed.  But one time in about 1976-77 I discovered the reason why I will always be weird this way too!  It snowed, and it snowed, and it snowed.  We got about 4 feet of snow at one time and there was no going anywhere!  We had no power, we were using the wood stove to cook and heat the house, and we were enjoying great meals because of all those 5 gallon buckets full of goodness!  It was more than a week before we could get to the store, and when we did those shelves were bare!  The road crew had to use blasting to carve a snow tunnel on one of the corners and we drove through that until spring came!

I think this is actually a process that the Mormon Church started, this might even be their form.  It is not exactly the one that I use but it is very close and the one I use wont scan well enough to show up on here.

I have added the link below to the form that will help you to make a food storage plan without getting overwhelmed.  Or you can google a 52 week purchasing plan online - there are a whole bunch out there and even some facebook groups dedicated to it.  

http://allaboutfoodstorage.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/weeklypurchasingplan.pdf

The website for the pgward.org also has recipes on it for using your stores up as well.  Don't forget to rotate your stock.  When you buy new items put them on the bottom of the buckets.

One of the things we add to this list is popcorn. Its easy to cook on a wood stove and most everyone likes it.  You can flavor it easily and for us it is comfort food.  Normal in the storm so to speak!

I don't do the water part because we have an alternate water system that enables us to not have to store bottled water, but we do almost all of the rest of it.  I also don't do the flavored gelatin - I use tapioca and plain gelatin for those items.  I also always keep Pectin on hand.  If the power is out for a week or more you may have to make some jelly out of your frozen berries!

The above photo shows the 5 gallon bucket system in my office, part of which is being used as a storage area.  Mostly due to both my hubby and I having some leg issues over the past year, it was way easier then going down to the garage to get certain things, and everything in the garage ends up really dusty which drives me crazy!  In the house is much easier!

Most of the buckets I use are from either purchased food safe buckets or ones that I have reused that we ate all of the peanut butter out of!  We eat about 5 gallons of peanut butter every 6-8 months.  Our local Three Bears store has food safe buckets and I'm sure some of the other box stores will have these too.

We don't stock things that my people won't eat.  We tried quinoa, but none of the boys liked that flavor so it is out.  We do stock a lot of beans and pasta, as well as powder milk, and yes, the protein powder jug in the photo above does have protein powder in it.  Reed has been put on a high protein program due to his rapid growth habit over the past 2 years so we have to supplement for that.  I can't cook that much protein in a day!  We also stock extra buckets of sugar and flour so we never run out, and you might be able to read the one that says "bake mix regular".  Stay tuned for the recipe to make that mix and how easy it is to use.  It says regular because we also keep rice flour on hand for out gluten free guys who are here often enough that we have to be able to feed them easily so I make the mix with rice flour as well.

Don't be afraid to plan for the worst and then you will be happy when you are well prepared when a giant snowstorm, or other disaster happens!