Some GREAT wheat recipes

There are lots of ways to use your wheat that you store.  Here are just a few.  I have posted some great bread recipes in past posts so be sure to check them out also.

Popped Wheat
We have done this before.  There are a couple of ways to begin.  You can soak your wheat berries overnight and then pop them the next morning or you can put your wheat berries in a pot and boil them for about 2 hours.  Either way you do it, be sure to drain them well on paper towels before popping them so you don't get oil splattering all over.
  
Using a cast iron skillet, put two tablespoons of oil into the skillet and heat it to about 350 degrees.  Put the well drained wheat berries into the skillet and either move the wheat around with a wooden spoon or shake the skillet like you were popping pop corn.  Don't let the berries burn.  After a few moments, the wheat will expand (they will not actually pop like pop corn) and get crispy.  Remove them from the skillet and season them with salt or your favorite seasoning.  Let cool before eating.  They should be crunchy.  

The other method is to deep fry the berries after you soak them.  Heat about a quart of oil in a heavy pot.  Put the well drained berries into a fine wire strainer and then put the strainer into the hot (350 degrees) oil and fry them until crisp.  Remove from the oil and spread onto some paper towels then season. Again, make sure there is no water on the berries when you put them into the hot oil.

Kim’s Rolls

This recipe comes from a great friend and are wonderful.

8 C hard white wheat flour

4 C warm milk

1 tsp Salt

¼ C oil

1/3 C Honey

1 Tbls Yeast

Combine warm milk, salt, oil, honey and Yeast.  Slowly add 4 cups of flour and mix well.  Slowly add in last 4 cups of flour to the right consistency where the mixture is pulling away from the side of the bowel.   Let rise until doubled and then punch down.  Oil hands and then pinch off dough and roll into balls and put into a glass or metal oiled pan.  Let rise again and bake in 350 degree oven until brown, about 30 minutes.  Brush butter over the top of the rolls and serve warm.

Well, there you have it.  A small sample of what you can do with whole wheat.  Check out my earlier blog post on whole wheat blender pancake dough.  You will love it.

Have fun with your food storage.

Bob and LouAnn Singer

Emergency Preparedness by Barbara Salsbury

I have had this BYU radio broadcast for about a year now and have listened to it several times.  LOVE this talk given by Barbara Salsbury.  She talks about the difference between Provident Living Preparedness and Disaster Preparedness.  She also talks about using your space to store food and how you are going to get your food storage on a budget or when you think you can't do it.  Copy this onto your hard drive, gather the family around on a Monday night and use it as a family home evening lesson.  I have listened to this four times now and will probably listen to it several more times.

Barbara Salsbury on Emergency Preparedness

We hope that after listening to her talk, you will be prompted by the Spirit to get going on your food storage, how and where to store it and how you are going to be able to afford it when you think you can't.  Heavenly Father does not give us a commandment with out making a way to accomplish it.  Have fun with your family doing this.  Make it a family affair.  You will be blessed beyond your imagination.

Have fun with your food storage.
Bob and LouAnn Singer

Are you prepared?

Ok, so I don't want to be Henny Penny crying the sky is falling but are you prepared?  These are the days talked about in the scriptures of the winding up scenes before the coming of the Lord.  Are you seeing the signs? Today in the South East.

These are the empty shelves in a Target store in Atlanta yesterday when the National Weather Service announced, "Be prepared for a catastrophic event" and to "be prepared to be without power for perhaps days and in some cases, as long as a week."  They got an ice storm that created up to 1/2" of ice in some places.  The shelves were emptied by panicked people in less than a day who were not prepared.

"More than 200,000 customers across Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and the Carolinas were without power early Wednesday. But Georgia was bearing the brunt of the wicked weather, with more than 100,000 customers in the dark Wednesday after frozen tree limbs slashed power lines, while emergency planners urged drivers across the state to stay off “deceptively dangerous” roads."

Are you prepared?   "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."  The Lord prepared Egypt through Joseph by warning them of the famine.  He prepared Elijah by commanding him to leave and go to a brook where he could drink and be fed by the ravens.  He prepared Noah telling him to build an Ark. He prepared Lehi by telling him to take his family and leave.   He has been telling us now for years to be prepared by having at least a one year supply of food storage and other essentials, getting out of debt and having a savings set aside.  Have we been listening and seeing the signs?  This is why we feel so strongly about the Stake challenge to have at least a one year supply of food storage by October General Conference. 

This months food storage items are Wheat and Yeast.  If you are expecting a tax refund, what better use could you put it to than buying food storage and paying off debts with it.  If you haven't started, start now.  If you have started, keep adding to your food storage.  You will NEVER regret it.

Have fun with your food storage.
Bob and LouAnn Singer

Emergency Preparedness Item

I thought I would throw this in for a great deal on an emergency preparedness item.  With out electricity, what are you going to do to prepare meals that need heat or flame?  One idea that I have been stocking up on is Dutch Ovens and Charcoal.  I have an earlier post on this so I wouldn't bore you with it again.  The other way is a propane stove.  I have found a GREAT deal on a propane stove.

 

This is the Camp Chef Expedition 3X propane stove.  In this package, it comes with the 3 burner stove, BIG two burner steel skillet, paper towel holder, utensil rack holder, wind shield, matchless ignition and removable legs.   Just got mine in today from Outdoor Cooking.Com.  Right now they are on sale for less than the cost of the two burner stove and half the original price.  Better yet, shipping is FREE.  Here is how I got an extra $10 off.  I created an account with Outdoor cooking.  I then went to the link above and added it to my shopping cart.  The on sale price right now is $199.99.  I then closed that page on my computer leaving the stove in the shopping cart.  Two days later, I got an email from Outdoor Cooking saying I had left the stove in my shopping cart and if I purchased it then, I would get an extra $10 off and again, the shipping is FREE.  If you go to Camp Chef's web site, they are selling them for $396.  Wowsers, that is a HUGH savings.

It you are getting a tax refund and are planning on using some if it for food storage, don't pass up this deal.

Enjoy your food storage.

Bob and LouAnn Singer

February is Wheat and Yeast month.

Here we are in February and I haven't posted anything in a while so I'd better get busy.  This month in our Stake challenge is wheat and yeast.  I will give the information in this post, then add some recipes in more posts this month.  If you have a favorite recipe using wheat, send it to me and I'll post it.

In the fourth year of my career with the Arizona Highway Patrol, I wanted to become an instructor so I was sent to instructor school which lasted a week.  We had to demonstrate our ability to research a subject, outline it and then present it as a 15 minute class to our instructor class.  I picked WHEAT.  I explained all about wheat, it's nutritional value and how it can be stored (got in a little food storage message that way) and then the last thing was taking two loaves of whole wheat bread I had baked early that morning, sliced it up and served it to the class.  Of course I got an A+ on my presentation and a couple of people even remembered it 17 years later when I retired.  The last job I had and just retired from has been working for Harrah's Ak Chin Casino in Promotions.  When I was there two years ago, I would make different kinds of bread and take it to work.  When I came back to work last October at Harrah's, I made a loaf of New Zealand Māori Bread on the second day of orientation.  Everyone loved it and kept asking when I was going to make more.  What an impression home made bread made.  There is almost nothing in the world that smells as good as fresh bread just coming out of the oven.  So here is what we are talking about for this months goal items.

Wheat: 400 lb. per person/one year if not storing any other grains. OR: 300 lb. per person/one year if storing other grains. Start using wheat slowly, allow the body time to adjust to the increase in fiber. What is the difference in hard red/hard white wheat? Similar in protein, moisture, vitamins, minerals.
Hard red wheat: a bit smaller grain with red/bronze hue, it is stronger in taste, will sometimes cost less and has a little nuttier flavor. 
Hard white wheat: blondish in color, has a lighter whole wheat taste. Bread made using hard white wheat only will naturally lift a bit higher, have a lighter color and taste.

My personal preference is hard white winter wheat.  That makes up the majority of our wheat storage.  

Let's talk about how to store it for long term storage for a minute.  There are several ways and methods you can use.  You can store it in food grade barrels, food grade buckets or  #10 cans (one gallon).  The way I store our wheat is in #10 cans.  When we first started storing wheat years ago, we put it in the five gallon food grade buckets.  It was easy and held about 45 pounds of wheat.  After several years with buckets stacked on top of buckets, we found that the lids on the bottom row (we stacked them three rows high) were cracking.  Our solution for this was to put a row of buckets side by side and then put a 1X12 board across the tops or the lids for the next row to sit on.  This would distribute the weight of the wheat across the strong edges/seals of the buckets.  All was good again.  After we started using the wheat, we found that the 5 gallon buckets were just to big to keep in the kitchen and it took several months to use it all so we re-thought our plan.

We took all of the wheat out of the buckets and repackaged it in #10 cans.  We had access to nitrogen at the time so we used that to evacuate the air out of the cans.  Six cans will fit in the box we get from the Cannery very nicely and only weigh about 30 pounds compared to 45+ pounds for the buckets and stack nicer and more compact.  You can get abut 30 box under a King Size Bed.  Wonder how I know that.  

Now on to keeping your wheat good for long term storage.  All grains will have weevils (bugs) in them.  They are in the grain as eggs and once the temperature gets up above 85, they hatch.  How do you keep this from happening.  There are several ways to do it.  The old way was to put Bay Leaves on top of the grain in the buckets.  That didn't prevent the eggs from hatching but when they did, the weevils would start munching on the Bay leaves and die.  When you opened the bucket, the Bay leaves would be gone and in their place would be a pile of dead Weevils.  Scoop then out, give them a decent burial and grind up your wheat.  Not to appetizing but it worked.

The next method is using CO2 gas or dry ice.  Using dry ice, you would put a chunk of it in the bottom of the bucket, add the wheat and close the lid.  The dry ice would turn into carbon dioxide and replace the oxygen.  The weevils can't live with out oxygen.  The point I didn't like about this is it also makes it so the wheat will not germinate so you can't grow more wheat from the seeds or sprout them.  

Next comes Nitrogen.  That is what we used in our buckets and in our #10 cans when we did it.  Same principle as CO2 but you can still plant/germinate the seeds.  

Now we use Oxy Packs.  They are easy to use, inexpensive and you can still germinate the seeds.  One 300cc Oxy pack in a #10 can removes the oxygen in the can and without any oxygen, no bugs.  An Oxy pack is a small bag that contains iron oxide which when it comes into contact with oxygen, it creates a chemical reaction with the iron oxide in the pack and uses up the oxygen.  If you are storing your grains in larger containers than the one gallon #10 can, increase the number of oxy packs to equal the number of gallons of your storage container.  You can tell if the oxy packs are working because they will start to heat up when they come into contact with air.
 
So what do you do with the left over oxy packs?  The Cannery has a very cool bag sealer that you can use, or what I do is put the left over oxy packs into a one quart canning bottle with a good lid tightened in place and put it in the freezer.  If you keep it in the original plastic bag and use the sealer from the cannery, squeeze all the air you can out of the bag before pushing the last part of the sealer together and then throw it into the freezer.  The freezer will stop the heating action but the container has to be sealed.

Yeast: 1 lb. per person/one year. Purchase in a one-pound vacuum sealed bag. Keep it in the fridge or freezer to prolong storage life (about 4 to 5 years unopened). After opening, put it in a glass jar with tight lid,  a zip-loc bag or my favorite, a Tupperware tub so it fits in the butter tray holder in the fridge door; keep refrigerated when not using. Once opened, dry yeast is viable for about one year when properly stored.
My preferred yeast is Saf Premium instant yeast.  It's easy to use (no proofing or pre-dissolving), fast-acting and long-lasting, continuing to work for hours longer than "rapid" yeast.
I purchase my yeast at Honeyville Farms in Chandler as that is where I can get the best price.  One pound vacuum packed bags are a little under $4 and a one pound bag can make 96 loaves of bread which equals almost two loaves of bread per week per person.

OK, so here is the first installment for this month on our 5th month of our Stake Food Storage Goal.  Stay with us on our quest and some great recipes and fun food using wheat and yeast.

Have fun with your food storage.  Bob and LouAnn Singer
 

Remember, January is Water and Salt storage month.  Do we need another reason to store water in HOT, ARID, it's a dry heat Arizona?  YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You never know when something will happen.  For instance, look what happened in West Virginia on January 9th.  West Virginia Water Contamination  Up to 300,000; that's THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND people were out of water because a river was contaminated. 

We are not talking about just drinking water, it included cooking and even bathing water.  But it can't happen here.....right?  It can.  Another reason to store water.  Why do bad things sometimes have to happen to good people?  Sometimes it just might be because we have been admonished and warned many times for years to prepare for the future, and don't listen.  " And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul"  (Book of Mormon | Helaman 5:30)

 Every time I see those commercials on TV of little tiny starving children in poverty and war torn countries, it makes me cry.  I may not be able to do anything about that but I can affect my family and it's outcome by having a food storage program.  If you haven't yet, please make it a new years resolution if that is what it takes and start or continue your Stake Challenge one year food storage by October General Conference NOW. 

Have fun with your food storage
Bob and LouAnn Singer

Happy New Year

We are now into the new year.  Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and made some great new years resolutions.  Hope one of them was to continue on or get started on our Stake challenge of having at least a one year storage of food supply by October 2014 General Conference.  This month, the goal is to get your water and salt storage going.  First we'll talk about how to store it, where to store it and how to treat it.
Water should be stored in food grade plastic storage containers.  Do not store water in used milk jugs or juice jugs as the plastic is to thin but mostly, dried milk or juice under the folded lid or anywhere else in the jug will cause your water to go bad.  Here are some pictures of good water storage containers.

This would be an idea of a large storage container.  It holds 1000 gallons.

The most common way is to store water in 55 gallon plastic drums.

15 gallon drums are another way and are more manageable for moving around.  Water weighs 8.33 pounds per gallon.

Another great method is to purchase water bricks and then stack them.  It makes it easy to line the bottom of your clothes closet two high then put a sheet of plywood over it to set your shoes or other things you store on the floor of your closet on.

Honeyville Farms also sells some very cool triangle shaped corner water storage containers in either 40 or 80 gallon.  How many of us use all the corners in our homes?

Any way you find to store water, you want to keep it off of bare concrete and dirt.

How much should you store?  It is recommended that you store 1 gallon of water per person per day.  That is the bare minimum but since we live in Arizona where it gets hot in the summers, you might consider storing twice that much.  Another thing to consider is that the minimum is only for drinking and does not take into consideration cooking, cleaning or sanitation.

As to where to store it, again, anywhere where it doesn't come into contact with bare concrete or dirt and out of direct sunlight.  Inside the house is always better than in a changing temperature location but in your garage or on the back porch out of direct sunlight will work.  Be careful storing water on the second floor of your house.  You don't want to overload the floor.

If you are using city water to store, you don't have to add anything to "treat" it.  Cities are required to treat the water so it is ready to go just like it is.  Use a white RV style hose to fill up your containers.  Make sure your containers are sanitized first.  If you use your garden hose, who knows what bacteria is in there.  The treated city water is good for about 10 years.  Over time you might notice a "flat" taste in the water just like when you leave your soda pop out and it looses it's fizzies.  What has happened is the oxygen has come out of the water.  To help, before drinking, shake the water up or pour it back and forth several times between two glasses before drinking it to put oxygen back in it.  After 10 years, you can either treat the water or use it on your garden and refill the containers.  If you feel that you need to treat the water, the CDC recommends adding 1/8 teaspoon of household bleach to every gallon of water.  Do not use perfumed or bleach that contains soaps or dyes.

Here is a great free set of plans to build a combination water storage and food storage rack.  Click on the link and then download the plans.  If that doesn't work, email me and I will send them back to you.  Water and Food Storage Rack

Here is a picture of it.

SALT
The next item on our list to get for our food storage plan is SALT.  We need salt in our diets.  Most table salt has iodine in it.  That is something that we get in other sources of food and isn't something that is necessary in salt.  One negative thing about having salt with iodine in it is that over time, it can cause the salt to get a yellow tint to it.  That is not something that will hurt you but will make it harder to barter with if you try to do that.  Most processed foods has salt in it as do the freeze dried meats but if at some point you have to process your own meat and grow your own food, salt will be back in demand for doing that.  Some sea salts have minerals added in it that can cause the salt to go rancid over time so do your research before buying.  I just get salt with out iodine and store that.

Salt is like sugar in that you don't have to do anything special to it and it will basically store forever.  You do need to take some care though.  Don't just go down to the cannery and purchase a bunch of #10 cans and pour the salt in and seal it.  The salt will corrode the cans and then it will be no good and could actually be poisonous from the corroded metal in it.  Pour the salt into either mylar bags or one gallon zip lock bags and then place them into the #10 cans to seal.  Another way is to buy 3.5 or 4 gallon food storage buckets and store it in them.  That is what I do.  It is easier to move them around that way.  Unless you are the Incredible Hulk, I wouldn't store it in 5 or 6 gallon buckets.  That would be VERY heavy.  The recommended amount of salt to store is 8 pounds per person per year.  Purchase a 50 pound bag, pour the salt into some food storage buckets and you have enough for six people plus a little left over for a year.  It is one of the least expensive items for your food storage for one year that you can purchase at one time.

I have an excel spread sheet with the recommended amounts of food storage that you should have broken down for families up to 6 persons.  If you would like a copy, send me an email requesting it.
That's all for now.  Watch for our next blog.

Have fun with your food storage.

Bob and LouAnn Singer