processing strategies

7/28/2019 Processing Strategies

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The Resilient Farm and Homestea

An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach

WITH PRACTICAL INFORMATION ON LANDSHAPING, WATER SECURITY ,

PERENNIAL CROPS, SOIL FERTILITY , NUTRIENTDENSE FOOD, AND MORE

BEN FALK



Food Crops 205

Storing ood or very long periods o time using Mylar

and ood-grade buckets is simple and involves achieving the optimal conditions by (1) drying the ood to be stored,

(2) placing ood and oxygen absorbers into a Mylar bag,

(3) sealing the top with an iron, and (4) placing the bag

into a tightly closing ve-gallon bucket with a strong lid

and storing it in a cool, dry, dark environment. I nd that

buying oods in bulk rom the local co-op is a good way

to nd resh, large-quantity dry oods at a good price.

I wait or a warm, very low humidity day on which

to do the Mylar bagging, using grains and beans I have

spread out in the sunshine during the middle part o

the day. It’s easy to get behind on the process and end

up attempting to bag oods as the sun gets low. Thisis dangerous because the dew oten starts to set well

beore sunset on such a day—rendering the whole drying

approach ineective and likely destroying any possibility

or such ood to last years in storage. I have not measured

moisture content with precision but nd that a couple o

hours in direct sunshine on very low humidity days (here,

Three modern technologies that have emerged in recent

years allow us to put up a baseline stock o ood orinsurance purposes—or particular use in an emergency

event that lasts awhile. These three tools are Mylar bags,

oxygen absorbers, and plastic ve-gallon buckets. Easily

available rom many emergency preparation suppliers,

the bags and absorbers can be used with certain stable

oods—dry beans, grains, salt, and sugar—to enable stor-

age or very long periods o time because o the securing

o the optimal ood-storage environment, which is dark,

dry, cool, oxygen-ree, and protected rom pests.

Ensuring these conditions can allow the viable

storage o beans, grains, salt, and sugar or at least ve

years and up to twenty years. Research is still being conducted on these approaches, but evidence shows

reliable storage o these oods or at least ten years

under ideal conditions. Salt, o course, can be stored

indenitely, and many salts are already millions o

years old at time o purchase (or example, Himalayan

or Andean salt).

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p o w d e r e d m i l k

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BEST USED BY

LONG-TERM FOOD SUPPLY

staple food/crop storage

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“LIFE SUSTAINING”

An overview of some of the most important long-term food stores sources: https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/storage_life_of_foods.htm;

Nutritional Adequacy and Shelf Life of Food Storage by Dean Eliason and Michelle Lloyd copyright © 2005 Brigham Young University

VERy LOG-TERM FOOD STORAGE: A ISURACE POLICy



The Resilient Farm and Homestead 206

Within one hour ater each bag is packed and sealed,

you should see the bag tightly crinkled around the con-

tents such that an outline o each bean, seed, or grain is

visible on the outside—it should look like it is vacuum

sealed. I it does not, you should consider that bag short-to midterm storage at best and eat it within a handul o

months to a year. Some have brought up the concern that

Mylar could be released rom the bag into the ood, as is

the case with many fexible materials, such as plastic ood

wrap. This could denitely be a health issue to be sure.

My take on the concern is simply that, while it’s a pos-

sibility—even a likely one—the need to store ood or very

long periods is important enough to warrant the risk. As

with most things, our exposure to articial contaminants

is high and continuous in the modern world—we must

counter that with equal consistency through daily ood-

medicine and other health-enhancing tools.

that’s 40 to 60 percent, which is relatively high or drier

climates) does the trick. The beans, grains, or sugar are

spread out thinly across screens or dry canvas so that sun

access is high. A light breeze can help but is not necessary.

I transer the ood quickly into Mylar with two tothree oxygen absorbers added into the bag as the ood

goes in. Holding the bag tightly so that as little air

is inside as possible, I use a hot iron to make the top

seal—mine is an electric model, but one could be ash-

ioned at home and heated via a woodstove i necessary.

Labeling each bag, o course, is very important. Though

Mylar bags are available in ull ve- and six-gallon sizes

to ll a bucket, I preer to store at least hal my long-

term insurance oods in smaller one-gallon bags so I can

open smaller quantities at a time, and in the event that

a seal was not properly perormed or the ood was not

adequately dried, less ood is spoiled.

The longest lasting storage options are o particular

value because they allow us to extend harvests across

years, not just months. This multiyear storability is cru-

cial when acute events happen—like the Year Without

a Summer. While such events are unlikely to happen

oten, they are inevitable, so a continuous backdrop

o preparation or them is oundational. The longest-

lasting storage approaches combine the right oods

and methods, which yield a stable calorie and nutrient

package that can be consumed more than one year

rom harvest. These ood/storage combinations should

be used as the baseline to one’s ood security. These

include, in general order o value, the ollowing:

• Live animals or milk, meat, ber, hide

• Hay

• Dried ruits, vegetables, mushrooms, certain

nuts and seeds in their shell

• Grains and dry beans (unhulled, ideally)

• Canned and rozen oods: long storage

but high initial and operational inputs limit

their useulness

a crop I turn to the arm journal. I nd an increasingly

long span o records that show me the average time the

same action was done in years past and the extremes on

both early and late ends o the season. I try to record all

migrations, new pests, lea-out dates, ice out, ripenings

and harvests, sowings, birthings o an animal, completiono projects, and dozens o other markers that can serve as

both seasonal guides and reerence points in the uture

about signicant events. It is always an enlightening expe-

rience to lea back through the years and see that whether

something on the arm seems productive, early, unhealthy,

or late, it all seems to even out by the end o the year.

Today the ice on our ponds is 6" thick, it’s 28°F out

and snowing sideways. A quick look at our arm journal

reveals that on this day last year the ponds had been ree

o ice or a week and the rst spring peepers were heard.

By checking the journal I also see that we had been eat-

ing arugula or weeks already last year while those samebeds are now rozen solid. The earliest perennials were

leang out at this time last year—a ar cry rom this year.

Our memories are poor and having a written record going

back now almost ve years has made me realize this to an

acute degree. When it’s nearing time to sow a specic veg-

gie seed, look or a certain pest, or think about harvesting

kEEPIG A HOMESTEAD/FARM JOURAL

processing strategies

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